I finally saw it again last night. I was in the mezzanine, and it was probably 80% full (I didn't look downstairs). The only noticeable emptiness was in a block of seats in the mid-section of the rear, but it looked like maybe a group hadn't shown up. There were seats filled behind and to the sides of it, so it seemed odd that the 30 or so seats would have been the unsold leftovers. Enthusiastic response, and most of the audience seemed NYC-based instead of tourists. And I know, yes, American audiences are horrible ingrates who give standing ovations to everything- but rarely do people who just "stand for everything" jump up before the curtain has gone down completely on the finale.
There was one reaction that caught me off guard last night. At the start of Coalhouse Demands, when the newsboys announce that the "Negro gunman shoots 3 dead", a group of people applauded. It was really strange. I saw the show- god, 6? 7? times in DC and never had anyone react to that. I wouldn't even consider having an appreciative reaction to that. There was also cheering after Mother's Younger Brother tells off Father, but that I can understand and relate to. Killing people in retaliation, no.
On the current topic- I think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who loathed the original and did a complete 180 and loved this. When people say they love the changes made in this production, it's not always meant as a slight against the original, it's just being able to appreciate different aspects of the show when seeing it in a new light. No, Marcia Milgrim Dodge didn't reinvent the wheel. She doesn't have the cast playing instruments onstage or performing in Spanish. That doesn't mean she didn't do anything different to be appreciated, and writing it off as completely derivative when you haven't even seen this production is kind of ridiculous.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never
knowing how
