Saw the show tonight.
I can see why some people love this, and I can see why some people hate it. I fell somewhere in between.
The book feels really bloated and stodgy; too many characters being juggled over too many plot-lines. Some other musicals have pulled it off, but I don’t think this one does. It’s not very well-paced, the character based plot lines felt forced and half-formed, while the characters themselves were pretty bland. Quite honestly I had trouble investing in any one of them. And it makes the show SO long, and I really felt the length.
I thought the show was at its best when it had a broad focus; the ensemble numbers, the community scenes, the historical stuff, dealing with the war, the social tensions, the cultural appropriation, the significance of the dance contest, etc. It was very good at bringing to life a specific time and place.
I found the music kind of bland from a compositional standpoint, but I appreciated the musical storytelling; the deliberate mixing of different styles, the way it was used to heighten the drama, and the emotion of particular moments, to bring the communities together, or show them apart, etc.
And the choreography is ridiculously good!! Bill T. Jones is doing wonders to keep this show afloat. Whatever he’s being paid, it should be more (god I hope these people are getting paid at all).
The chorus is also really strong; they’re doing a lot to fill out the world, bring it to life, make it feel populated by living, breathing people. Again, they’re a huge part of what makes this show work.
I thought the principal ensemble was…fine. Some of the acting was too cartoonish, and the rest of it ranged from decent to solid.
I really don’t want to diminish Joaquina Kulakango’s work, because she’s genuinely quite good. But from the way people on this board talk about her performance, I thought I was about to witness a next-level-brilliant, powerhouse performance for the ages. And I just didn’t see that here. It was the sort of performance I can imagine being just as good from a replacement or understudy - and that’s not a dig at her, or the understudies. I just didn’t see that unmissable, irreplaceable X factor that other people see. I don't understand the mid-show standing O, or the people claiming she has a shot at the Tony over Clarke, Lenk, Winningham, Cusack, etc. None of this is her fault, it’s just that my expectations were sky high. A good performance, just way overhyped IMO.
Incidentally - if I had been in charge of developing/conceiving this show, I would’ve made it more of a song-cycle - or rather, a kind of hybrid song-cycle + loosely structured, sung-through musical. It would’ve been 90-minutes, and taken place all in one night in the saloon; we get a sense of the time and place, the significance of the community, etc.. The themes could be communicated through music and dance, as we watch the different communities interact with each other with the war looming outside. We could even get a sense of the different figures in the community, their backgrounds and relationships to each other, but it would be more like loose vignettes that flow from one to the next. You could even keep many of the same plot points, while keeping it more centralized and compact.
