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

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 6/30/21 at 4:20pm

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

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/30/21 at 4:37pm

I saw this one a couple of times because it was so spectacularly awful. If memory serves after 16 years, I don’t believe there we’re any significant changes made. But even significant changes wouldn’t have been enough to save this - it was truly 2+ hours of W. T. F.

[Huss417]

Posted: 6/30/21 at 5:08pm

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

[blaxx]

Posted: 6/30/21 at 6:58pm

The In My Life preview thread was one of my favorites back then, did BWW just delete those posts?

I found the show, as Jordan, to be so bizarre and strange that it was hard not to be utterly entertained by it. You really can't make up something like that ever again.

I would sit through this show again before BKLYN, Good Vibrations, Footloose, and the list goes on and on..

Updated On: 6/30/21 at 06:58 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 7/1/21 at 10:46am

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

[musikman]

Posted: 7/1/21 at 12:24pm

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.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 7/1/21 at 1:00pm

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

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/2/21 at 12:43pm

We saw it. Nothing would have helped. Made Legs Diamond look like My Fair Lady.

[phantom39]

Posted: 7/2/21 at 7:45pm

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.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 7/3/21 at 12:44am

Margo Channing’s review of the first preview is still one of my favorite reviews that has ever been posted to this board. The opening line “ Margo is tired”!

[blaxx]

Posted: 7/3/21 at 1:23am

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.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 7/3/21 at 4:45am

There was so much off about this show that no amount of changes in previews could've saved it. Let's say they overhauled the book: the music wasn't great. Let's say they rewrote all the songs: the story was still awful. Rewrite both and you have a completely different show. The cast was fine, but it's hard to judge what they were doing with something so poorly conceived from the ground up.

A couple lines were changed here and there, but it didn't really change much. The miserable story of God wanting to watch a real life soap opera so an angel gets to destroy two lives for his entertainment was never going to sing if treated with any sincerity. Any camp came from the performers doing whatever they could to sell the material. It was, without a doubt, the single worse show I've seen on Broadway.

[phantom39]

Posted: 7/3/21 at 6:16am

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.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 7/3/21 at 12:14pm

For those who feel this was the worst musical they've ever seen:

You obviously haven't seen THOU SHALT NOT, MOLLY, HOME SWEET HOMER, HER FIRST ROMAN and Mary Tyler Moore's BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY's (where the audience was talking back to the cast!)

[Eastwickian]

Posted: 7/3/21 at 1:31pm

I have only ever paid one visit to New York - and this was one of the shows I saw! I also saw The Light in the Piazza - it was very much a trip of extremes…

I don’t know about changes, but I do recall being handed a questionnaire on the way out asking if I had any suggestions for improvements. The space allocated for my response was far too small.

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 7/3/21 at 4:47pm

Why did this show even exist? Like who had the money to put it up? Just a passion project?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 7/4/21 at 4:29pm

It was more like a passion-less project.

Let's not forget that the protagonist had tourette's syndrome

[Musical Master]

Posted: 7/4/21 at 5:39pm

Are we sure this musical existed and not just some fever dream Charlie Kelly came up with?

[Smaxie]

Posted: 7/4/21 at 6:53pm

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

[chewy5000]

Posted: 7/4/21 at 8:22pm

I've heard so much about this lemon, but I think this is the first time I've seen it. Wow.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/5/21 at 10:04am

Isn’t there a complete album of this that never got released? It’s listed on the CastAlbums.org page.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 7/5/21 at 11:19am

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, who had 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 truly a phenomenon. Brooks wrote the music for the unsuccessful London stage musical Metropolis, but In My Life was truly the work of one crazed mind, and is why I think it was so memorable for everyone who experienced it. It also was quite fully realized, with an elaborate physical production. 

For most of the 20th century, Broadway would have the occasional head scratcher like In My Life. But by 2005, 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 on W. 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 basis of the main character in In My Life, is also in prison for killing his girlfriend. 

[blaxx]

Posted: 7/5/21 at 4:39pm

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.

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 7/5/21 at 5:51pm

That is tragic! And honestly this would all make for a fascinating documentary.

[musikman]

Posted: 7/5/21 at 6:13pm

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