Question: Were There Major Changes Made to IN MY LIFE (2005) During Previews?

I've been looking for any detailed information I can find about the plot of IN MY LIFE (2005), an original musical with music, lyrics and book by Joseph Brooks, and also a spectacularly weird trainwreck that flopped quickly. 

I was wondering, for those who might know: Were there major changes made to IN MY LIFE during previews, particularly to its plot? I looked up the Broadwayworld thread from 2005 with reviews from posters, but it basically seems to just be reviews of the first few previews (the Broadway Abridged parody is pretty detailed, but it was also posted after only a few previews). Given the history of spectacular flops, it seems like the kind of show where the creator might be making changes to in order to keep it from being laughed out of town (spoiler: it was anyway). 

Updated On: 6/30/21 at 04:20 PM

A new book and or a new score wouldn't have saved this musical.

The show was enjoyable because it was so darned BAD.

At the performance we caught, the poorly designed sets were still unfinished and wobbly. Obviously they'd just been added to the show, so that element of change was taking place.

Updated On: 7/1/21 at 10:46 AM

Wasn't there a conversation about grape slushies between the little girl and the guy who ran her over? 

Funny story. I saw this both on its first preview and on opening night (comps!). I remember stage dooring the first preview, with Christopher Hanke apologizing to everyone there and saying "there will be lots of changes made! don't worry!". Other than tiny bits of cut dialogue, nothing was really changed.

musikman said: "I saw the show after it had opened. I think some of the more utterly ridiculous campy moments had been scrubbed (based off of earlier preview reports) to the point that it was mostly just boringly absurd treacle. Sure it had its campy moments of “omg wtf am I witnessing?!?” But it was also a slog to sit through.

Will never forget the kick line of dancing skeletons, the massive lemon that came down at the end, the random Italian aria that came out of nowhere, and the scooter. "

That's too bad. Yes it was bizarre, but I never found it boring.

Ah, memories. The singing dead girl that opens the show with a depressing song. The huge piece of cardboard lemon that covers the stage for the finale. The Operatic song in the middle that was completely disconnected from the rest of the score. I wish we had such juicy flops nowadays.

It played a bit like a fever dream. The finale...

Smaxie said: "I think it's impossible to talk about In My Life, without discussing Joseph Brooks. The show's book, music, lyrics and direction were by Brooks, whohad an enormously successful career writing advertising jingles and also won the Academy Award for "You Light Up My Life." Brooks had also written and directed the film of the same name, but the song outlived the film and was trulya phenomenon. Brooks wrote the music for the unsuccessfulLondon stage musical Metropolis, but In My Life was truly the work of one crazedmind, and is why I think it was so memorable for everyone who experienced it. It also was quite fully realized, with anelaborate physical production.

For most of the 20th century, Broadway would have theoccasional head scratcherlike In My Life. But by2005, when In My Life opened, it was quite rare for such a Frankenstein's monster to escape the lab and end up in a prime house onW. 45th Street.

An unhappy coda to the story of In My Life - in 2009, Joseph Brooks was accused of sexual assault of 11 women. In failing health, he killed himself in 2011 before he could be tried. His son, Nicholas, rumored to be the basisof the main character in In My Life,is also in prison for killing his girlfriend."

I didn't know about their tragic ending!  😔   In My Life is the only passion project by an individual artist that I know, which made it so fascinating to me.

blaxx said: "musikman said: "I saw the show after it had opened. I think some of the more utterly ridiculous campy moments had been scrubbed (based off of earlier preview reports) to the point that it was mostly just boringly absurd treacle. Sure it had its campy moments of “omg wtf am I witnessing?!?” But it was also a slog to sit through.

Will never forget the kick line of dancing skeletons, the massive lemon that came down at the end, the random Italian aria that came out of nowhere, and the scooter. "

That's too bad. Yes it was bizarre, but I never found it boring."


When it came to the extraordinarily generic and cheesy score, it was a chore to sit through each of those songs (minus the dancing skeleton number and Italian aria, where I had uncontrollable fits of laughter).  Anything that wasn’t campy was just look-at-my-watch-to-see-the-time-again worthy. I saw it over thanksgiving weekend and the audience was maybe 1/3 full. Some of them genuinely seemed to enjoy it (?!?!?). I was sitting in the front row and it was hard not to show the actors how I was feeling about the whole ordeal. 
 

Anyway, here’s that absurd Italian aria. https://youtu.be/iZbWOGNONKA