#3
Posted: 12/18/08 at 1:14am
i agree...this thread was started a bit too early...
#4
Posted: 12/18/08 at 1:15am
lol way too early. but they sure will be a fun read.
#5
Posted: 12/18/08 at 1:21am
I'm sure the critics will be up all night finding just the right adjectives to describe this Pal Joey.
#6
Posted: 12/18/08 at 1:21am
I'm sure the critics will be up all night finding just the right adjectives to describe this Pal Joey.
#7
Posted: 12/18/08 at 2:22am
Sorry for the early start - notwithstanding, these reviews are going to be extremely interesting to read. Seeing it on the 30th and looking forward to it.
#8
Posted: 12/18/08 at 4:52pm
Newsday is Mixed-to-Negative:
'Broadway has been waiting a long time for a major revival of "Pal Joey," the most sophisticated musical to ever get lost in mid-century Americana. But despite a smart creative team and game performances from Stockard Channing and the ever-more-surprising Martha Plimpton, the Roundabout Theatre Company production that opened last night at Studio 54 seems more like grown-ups playing dress-up than gritty and cynically delicious pulp fiction.
There is no nice way of saying this. Matthew Risch, the understudy who stepped into the starring role when Christian Hoff reportedly was injured, is a slick and stylish hoofer, and a competent singer. But he doesn't have the wattage to make us care about Joey Evans, the song-and-dance cad and gigolo played by Gene Kelly in the 1940 original, Frank Sinatra in the 1957 movie and Bob Fosse in a 1963 revival.'
http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/friday/partii/ny-etent5968940dec19,0,5729172.story
'Broadway has been waiting a long time for a major revival of "Pal Joey," the most sophisticated musical to ever get lost in mid-century Americana. But despite a smart creative team and game performances from Stockard Channing and the ever-more-surprising Martha Plimpton, the Roundabout Theatre Company production that opened last night at Studio 54 seems more like grown-ups playing dress-up than gritty and cynically delicious pulp fiction.
There is no nice way of saying this. Matthew Risch, the understudy who stepped into the starring role when Christian Hoff reportedly was injured, is a slick and stylish hoofer, and a competent singer. But he doesn't have the wattage to make us care about Joey Evans, the song-and-dance cad and gigolo played by Gene Kelly in the 1940 original, Frank Sinatra in the 1957 movie and Bob Fosse in a 1963 revival.'
http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/friday/partii/ny-etent5968940dec19,0,5729172.story
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#12
Posted: 12/18/08 at 5:20pm
They are coming.
Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.
--Cartman: South Park
ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."
#13
Posted: 12/18/08 at 5:26pm
Is it just me or do pans for shows with troubled preview periods show up sooner?
#14
Posted: 12/18/08 at 5:43pm
AM New York gives the show 1 1/2 Stars out of 4:
'The blame for this revisal should lie with playwright Richard Greenberg, whose overhaul of John O’Hara’s original script with new character motives is uninvolving and awkward, and director Joe Mantello for making so many poor artistic choices. Graciela Daniele’s serviceable choreography works best when it parodies bad nightclub staging.
The production is visually attractive thanks to Scott Pask’s seedy underworld set and William Ivey Long’s Depression-era costumes. Don Sebesky’s new orchestrations, conducted by Paul Gemignani, sound great. So perhaps someday “Pal Joey” will receive the Broadway revival it so rightly deserves.'
http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/stage/blog/2008/12/theater_review_of_pal_joey.html
'The blame for this revisal should lie with playwright Richard Greenberg, whose overhaul of John O’Hara’s original script with new character motives is uninvolving and awkward, and director Joe Mantello for making so many poor artistic choices. Graciela Daniele’s serviceable choreography works best when it parodies bad nightclub staging.
The production is visually attractive thanks to Scott Pask’s seedy underworld set and William Ivey Long’s Depression-era costumes. Don Sebesky’s new orchestrations, conducted by Paul Gemignani, sound great. So perhaps someday “Pal Joey” will receive the Broadway revival it so rightly deserves.'
http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/stage/blog/2008/12/theater_review_of_pal_joey.html
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#15
Posted: 12/18/08 at 5:47pm
to quote the producers: "The reviews come out faster when the critics leave at intermission"
"Grease," the fourth revival of the season, is the worst show in the history of theater and represents an unparalleled assault on Western civilization and its values. - Michael Reidel
#17
Posted: 12/18/08 at 5:52pm
"He also appears too effeminate to play such a manipulative conman."
Haven't seen homophobia in a review in a long time. Fun!
Haven't seen homophobia in a review in a long time. Fun!
#18
Posted: 12/18/08 at 5:56pm
that's not homophobia. "Effeminate" is a characteristic. If it's a characteristic in a leading man playing opposite a woman, it's a problematic one.
Other than that, did you enjoy the play Mrs Lincoln?
#19
Posted: 12/18/08 at 6:02pm
For all my reservations about this revival -- and they are many -- I didn't feel that Risch projected as being "effeminate" -- and I had the sense that he was working his a__ off (maybe not to successful effect but still working hard).
I TOTALLY agree about Greenberg's revisions and Channing's singing.
I TOTALLY agree about Greenberg's revisions and Channing's singing.
BroadwayEd
#20
Posted: 12/18/08 at 6:06pm
Oh please! The exact same thing could have been said in a more tactful way.
#21
Posted: 12/18/08 at 6:31pm
Like how?
Other than that, did you enjoy the play Mrs Lincoln?
#22
Posted: 12/18/08 at 6:44pm
The Roundabout Theatre Company gets a lot right with its handsome revival of the jazzy classic - just not the guy on the marquee.
http://www.ny1.com/content/ny1_living/90930/time-out-theater-review---pal-joey-/Default.aspx
http://www.ny1.com/content/ny1_living/90930/time-out-theater-review---pal-joey-/Default.aspx
#23
Posted: 12/18/08 at 6:49pm
NY1 (with video) is Positive:
'If “Pal Joey” has a weak center, the glitter at the fringes is plenty engaging. Richard Greenberg's rewrite of the John O'Hara book flashes with keen wit and shadows of melancholy, raises the emotional stakes for each character and avoids O'Hara's more formulaic plot devices.
Choreographer Graciela Daniele keeps the cast bumping and high stepping with jazzy dances. Martha Plimpton makes a sizzling musical theater debut as the jaded singer Gladys Bumps, dryly unzipping Lorenz Hart's perfectly packaged rhymes.
Stockard Channing is classy and poised, and while she may not be a great singer, she lends worldly humor and stylish charisma to classic tunes such as "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered." If only she could have lent some of that star presence to her leading man.'
'If “Pal Joey” has a weak center, the glitter at the fringes is plenty engaging. Richard Greenberg's rewrite of the John O'Hara book flashes with keen wit and shadows of melancholy, raises the emotional stakes for each character and avoids O'Hara's more formulaic plot devices.
Choreographer Graciela Daniele keeps the cast bumping and high stepping with jazzy dances. Martha Plimpton makes a sizzling musical theater debut as the jaded singer Gladys Bumps, dryly unzipping Lorenz Hart's perfectly packaged rhymes.
Stockard Channing is classy and poised, and while she may not be a great singer, she lends worldly humor and stylish charisma to classic tunes such as "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered." If only she could have lent some of that star presence to her leading man.'
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#24
Posted: 12/18/08 at 6:54pm
Too bad it was pretty harsh to Matthew Risch! I feel sorry for him, based on the clip it looks like he gave 110% ! 
J*
J*
#25
Posted: 12/18/08 at 6:57pm
The NY1 review got it right - amNY was just being bitchy.
Updated On: 12/18/08 at 06:57 PM
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