PASS OVER Previews

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 8/3/21 at 12:00am

Tomorrow night, for the first time in 511 days, a play will be running on Broadway. Pass Over begins performances at the August Wilson Theatre on Wednesday, prior to a September 12 official opening. Pass Over - written by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu and directed by Danya Taymor - will play a limited engagement, currently set to conclude on October 10. It is a three-man show, led by Tony winner Gabriel Ebert (Matilda), Tony nominee Jon Michael Hill (Superior Donuts), and Namir Smallwood.

As previously announced, the first preview will be followed by a block party outside the theater, as 52nd Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue will be closed to traffic until 11 PM.

"In Pass Over, Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu's 'powerful and provocative' (Arifa Akbar, The Guardian) new play, Moses and Kitch talk smack, pass the time, and hope that maybe today will be different. As they dream of their promised land, a stranger wanders into their space and disrupts their plans. Evoking heartbreak, hope, and joy over its 85 minutes, Pass Over crafts everyday profanities into poetic and humorous riffs, illuminating the unquestionable human spirit of men looking for a way out."

Who's going?

 

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 8/3/21 at 12:03am

I will be at first preview but wondering if they will be having an invited dress rehearsal?

 

[Alexander Lamar]

Posted: 8/3/21 at 3:38am

I will be there as well

[ggersten]

Posted: 8/3/21 at 11:19am

Very curious to learn of the changes to the prior script (the version I saw in Denver was modified from the version filmed in Chicago).  I don't know whether all of the changes need to be in a spoiler tag. But, I will request that the changes to the ending should be in a spoiler tag.

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 8/3/21 at 3:44pm

I'll be there. Saw that they're closing the street and having a block party after. Looking forward to welcoming theater back to Broadway!

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 8/3/21 at 3:54pm

Enjoy it, guys! 

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 8/3/21 at 8:54pm

Love to know how the design/production has been “beefed” up for Broadway. It came from LcT3? Pretty big jump! Excited to hear the reports!

[BCfitasafiddle]

Posted: 8/3/21 at 9:02pm

Have a wonderful time everyone! Live theatre is here and we are lucky for it.

[Alexander Lamar]

Posted: 8/3/21 at 9:26pm

There was an Invited Dress tonight! I have butterflies just seeing people standing outside a theater.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CSIaLJJr2Y0/?utm_medium=share_sheet

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 8/3/21 at 9:45pm

Guess my friend was there! Was thinking it was the first preview.

[KingOfTheMine]

Posted: 8/4/21 at 9:21am

I'll also be there tonight!  Very much looking forward to being in a theater again after this long hiatus.  Was there supposed to be a health survey within SeatGeek in order to view your tickets?  I can see mine without answering any questions.  Did they scrap this part of the process?

[Gypsy_Mamma<3]

Posted: 8/4/21 at 9:54am

Any idea if there will be a rush or lottery option for this? 

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 8/4/21 at 10:09am

Gypsy_Mamma said: "Any idea if there will be a rush or lottery option for this?"

I think that rush lines are going to be put on hold for awhile. But, this is a Lincoln Center Theater production. As such, they are doing LincTix. Which, as far as I know, is the cheapest option for this show. Specially seeing how no other rush or lottery info has been announced as far as I can tell. 

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 8/4/21 at 10:30am

https://www.luckyseat.com/shows/passover-newyork

First Lottery drawing is on Thursday for performances beginning Friday

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 8/4/21 at 10:18pm

Any reports from first preview? Looked like a packed house from the Instagram posts… I saw Nwandu received a pre-show ovation.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 8/4/21 at 10:58pm

Was there at the first preview, they did check vaccination cards before security and everyone was masked. As far as I could tell, it was a sold out house, and there was a standing ovation before the show and at the end and Nwandu and Taymor went up on stage afterwards too. VERY receptive crowd and great audience reaction. There seemed to be camera crews filming portions of the line to get into the theater and also the block party afterwards.

I thought the performances were stellar and the set/lighting added to the show in a super interesting way. I'm not familiar with any other iteration of the show so can't speak to any changes, but I'll definitely be thinking about this for a while.

I wasn't able to stay for the block party so curious to hear reports from that as well.

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 8/5/21 at 12:04am

so much applause, was like a rock concert. When Nwandu and Taymor took their seats (APPLAUSE) when the voice came on to ask cell phones to be turned off (applause) when the curtain came up (applause) when Ebert made his entrance (applause) the curtain call peopple appaluded so long the three actors came out THREE times and they turned the house lights back down

No spoilers but the end is VERY different from when it was at LCT3 and WILDLY different from the recording at this point, it is MUCH more theatrical but it could use a bit of smoothing out (it plays into the moses/passover thing much more then other versions) and still leaves you with a bit of dread

 

high recommend people see this and I hope it is remembered at TONY time.

No merch, no concessions. 

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 8/5/21 at 12:24am

Lots to say and that in itself is something to be excited about! There were many news outlets outside the theatre to include Broadway's return in their news cycle. Once inside pretty much everyone was good about their mask wearing, but there were two people not wearing their masks and standing directly in front of two women who seemed to be an usher and a house manager. The younger of the two was reminded by someone he was with to keep the mask up, but the older man kept his down and not a word was said to him. I wish some words were said, but I understand not wanting things to get confrontational.

 

The house was mostly sold out, but I was in the mezzanine and the entire row in front of me was empty. The rest of the house seemed well-sold, and yes, they were a lively audience. The staff at the August Wilson received a standing ovation prompted by someone seemingly involved in the production. The orchestra responded enthusiastically when the playwright and director entered. When that curtain rose, I was reminded of how much I'd missed that experience. It was genuinely emotional.

 

Onto the play...all three actors were excellent. I, like the person who posted above, am not familiar with previous version of the script, but I really enjoyed this. It was so funny, so raw, and so moving. I had a hard time with the n-word being thrown out so much in the first ten minutes, but that's addressed in the play and one of the points. For me, things picked up after those first ten minutes when Gabriel Ebert's white character entered and we got the juxtaposition between the characters. So many cringeworthy and hilarious moments. I have questions about the end, so **SPOILERS** if you don't want to know. At the end of the play, Moses asks Kitch to kill him. Kitch hits him as the cop enters, but Moses is seemingly alive and summons his power and become the leader that his name implies he is in order to stop the cop from hurting him and his friend. The cop repeats, "You're a man" while looking at one of the men and seeing him as a human instead of the stereotype that formed his previous view. Moses and Kitch dance and declares that they've transcended race. The cop then strips naked and walks off. Moses then does the same. It seemed to me that that was supposed to symbolize their recognition of humanity over separate races, but Kitch stays clothed and is tempted to take the gold chains offered to him by Ebert's first character who returns. Are we supposed to take from this that he has not fully been able to escape the hold that race has over us? Or because earlier he said that in his heaven, he would be wearing gold chains are we supposed to believe that he (and maybe all three of them) have died and gone to their own ideas of heaven? Can't wait to hear what others think of the ending. 

 

After the play, audiences exited onto 52nd street where a DJ was playing music and entertaining the crowd. It was very crowded and hard to move, so I didn't last long. This was already a night surrounded by a lot of people, so I didn't need much more. I also thought that Victor's and a couple of other restaurants were going to have kiosks of food for sale, but I didn't see anything. Seemed just to be the DJ. Still a nice gesture to end the night with a bang. So happy to have Broadway back!

Updated On: 8/5/21 at 12:24 AM

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 8/5/21 at 1:18am

To the above posters point, the ending is very magical and theatrical but story wise it needs a bit more clarity of what exactly is going on (or possibly the writer wants the audience to interpret if it is a dream or really happened) 

[Gypsy_Mamma<3]

Posted: 8/5/21 at 8:34am

Delighted to see a female u/s (Andrea Syglowski) covering Gabriel Ebert's track: Mister/Ossifer 

Hope to have the opportunity to see her take on these roles! 

[Det95]

Posted: 8/5/21 at 8:44am

I bought tickets to this show just to fill a slot while in town the week of Sep. 14th. Now I'm getting excited about seeing it reading these reviews.

[Jakeevan942]

Posted: 8/5/21 at 9:29am

I was at the show last night. For a change, other than the basic concept, I went in cold, and was really impressed by the piece. This is one I will be thinking about for a long time. 

A few procedural things: The show started 20 minutes late-At one point, the line to get in wrapped around to eighth avenue, almost up to 53rd street, so they need to work on the process of getting people into the building.

I know these are strange times, and I'm sure they accounted for a pretty large contingency given the circumstances, but peeking at sales for a bunch of dates, sales are not great. I hope sales will build, and a rave from the Times might help, and I'm sure it will run its 9 weeks, but this worries me for the sustainability of the smaller pieces over the course of the next few months. Time will tell.

[52889j]

Posted: 8/5/21 at 10:21am

Was also at first preview last night. Overall the production seems well rehearsed and polished. 

I did see the LCT3 production and the ending was indeed, wildly different. I actually ran home to stream the ending of the Prime Video pro-shot to refresh my memory and that ending also seemed to be slightly different from the LCT3 ending (or maybe I'm mis-remembering?). And I believe I heard that the Chicago run had a different ending as well.

I'd be really interested to hear from anyone that can track the history of the play's endings (with spoiler tags, of course).

Updated On: 8/5/21 at 10:21 AM

[Wick3]

Posted: 8/5/21 at 11:15am

Jakeevan942 said: "I know these are strange times, and I'm sure they accounted for a pretty large contingency given the circumstances, but peeking at sales for a bunch of dates, sales are not great. I hope sales will build, and a rave from the Times might help, and I'm sure it will run its 9 weeks, but this worries me for the sustainability of the smaller piecesover the course of the next few months. Time will tell."

The August Wilson theatre is relatively large for a play (seating capacity is over 1200 people). I forget the last time it housed a play.

 

 

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 8/5/21 at 11:27am

Wick3 said: "Jakeevan942 said: "I know these are strange times, and I'm sure they accounted for a pretty large contingency given the circumstances, but peeking at sales for a bunch of dates, sales are not great. I hope sales will build, and a rave from the Times might help, and I'm sure it will run its 9 weeks, but this worries me for the sustainability of the smaller piecesover the course of the next few months. Time will tell."

The August Wilson theatre is relatively large for a play (seating capacity is over 1200 people). I forget the last time it housed a play.

A revival of The Crucible in 2002.


"