ROB LAKE MAGIC WITH SPECIAL GUESTS THE MUPPETS Previews- Page 2

[tacotheatrelover]

Posted: 10/29/25 at 2:49pm

JSquared2 said: "tacotheatrelover said: "The muppets getting less than 10 minutes in their Broadway debut is another reason why I hate The Disney Corporation. Eat **** Bob Iger I hope you step on legos"



Did you forget to take your meds today?

"

I think I left them on my Xbox before I left today, but thanks for the reminder kind human!

[Phillytheatreguy10]

Posted: 10/29/25 at 3:01pm

I was there and also got picked for a trick. I’d say this is going to run closer to 80min when it tightens. It started at 7:01 and curtain call was at 8:30 on the nose even after 2/3 tech stops and and a 5 min thank you speech from Rob. I’d also say The Muppets is probably 20 min total- Gonzos bits alone were at least 10 min, but it was cool to see them live. 

[JSquared2]

Posted: 10/29/25 at 3:04pm

tacotheatrelover said: "JSquared2 said: "tacotheatrelover said: "The muppets getting less than 10 minutes in their Broadway debut is another reason why I hate The Disney Corporation. Eat **** Bob Iger I hope you step on legos"



Did you forget to take your meds today?

"

I think I left them on my Xbox before I left today, butthanks for the reminder kind human!"

 

De nada.  But seriously -- there are a LOT of reasons to hate Disney and Bob Iger -- but I wouldn't even list this in the top 100 list of their offenses towards humanity!  

[sinister teashop]

Posted: 10/29/25 at 3:05pm

ACL2006 said: "People are going to be disappointed to only see the Muppets for less than ten minutes."

On the positive side, it sounds like they might be available for weddings and Bar Mitzvahs. 

Updated On: 11/3/25 at 03:05 PM

[tacotheatrelover]

Posted: 10/29/25 at 3:40pm

JSquared2 said: "tacotheatrelover said: "JSquared2 said: "tacotheatrelover said: "The muppets getting less than 10 minutes in their Broadway debut is another reason why I hate The Disney Corporation. Eat **** Bob Iger I hope you step on legos"



Did you forget to take your meds today?

"

I think I left them on my Xbox before I left today, but thanks for the reminder kind human!"



De nada. But seriously -- there are a LOT of reasons to hate Disney and Bob Iger -- but I wouldn't even list this in the top 100 list of their offenses towards humanity!"

Yea, there's a thousand reasons to hate the company like the atrocities they've committed against human life in the past two years. I hate them to shreds, I pirate their media and don't take in any of their new properties. It's gonna suck giving them the smallest bit of money when I go to my local theatre next month for frozen, I love them but hate I giving even a penny to that evil corporation that values money over human life.

The Muppets are the least of my concerns, they'll be fine. The company needs to change their ways, but money speaks more than human life to those people.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 2:39pm

First production photos released, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly:

[WldKingdomHM]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 2:59pm

I’m saying it again they would make so much money for Broadway Cares with a photo op with the Muppets

[Wick3]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 3:29pm

WldKingdomHM said: "I’m saying it again they would make so much money for Broadway Cares with a photo op with the Muppets"

Before pandemic Avenue Q always did a photo-op with one of the puppets (alongside their puppeteer) after the show during BroadwayCares. It’s one of my favorite photos! I think it cost $10 donation back then.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 3:33pm

Wick3 said: "WldKingdomHM said: "I’m saying it again they would make so much money for Broadway Cares with a photo op with the Muppets"

Before pandemic Avenue Q always did a photo-op with one of the puppets (alongside their puppeteer)after the show during BroadwayCares. It’s one of my favorite photos! I think it cost $10 donation back then."

On that topic, it's nice to see AVENUE Q long-timer Ben Durocher is involved in this show as one of the puppeteers!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 3:52pm

WldKingdomHM said: "I’m saying it again they would make so much money for Broadway Cares with a photo op with the Muppets"

I actually asked someone with the show about this exact same thing and was told that (at least now) Disney would never allow it. Oddly they don’t even have the muppets on the Windowcard for the show. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 3:55pm

Maybe I'm wrong, but are the Muppets ever seen with their puppeteers? Seems very Disney to want to keep the magic hidden. 

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 10/30/25 at 7:19pm

RippedMan said: "Maybe I'm wrong, but are the Muppets ever seen with their puppeteers? Seems very Disney to want to keep the magic hidden."

That's not a just Disney thing - that's a Muppet thing. Jim Henson had the same rule.

I believe one of the only times the reality of the Muppers was broken was on the unsold pilot for The Orson Welles Show which featured segments with the Muppets in addition to interviews with Jim Henson & Frank Oz.

Updated On: 10/30/25 at 07:19 PM

[macbeth]

Posted: 11/2/25 at 2:02pm

Generic magic show and maybe 10 minutes of the Muppets. I was disappointed, but not as much as the family I sat next to. 

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 11/2/25 at 3:33pm

I think people are forgetting they aren’t looking for high brow patrons, but rather long islanders and tourists who want to take their kids to something. I saw it; thought it was cute and Laura Benanti was our special guest. Always loved the muppets and got myself a cute sweatshirt with Kermit’s face too 

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 11/2/25 at 9:13pm

Saw it tonight, the show ran exactly 80 mins, no tech stops. Started 7:02 and ended 8:22.

It was… fine. A basic magic show with some brief appearances by the muppets (who all got huge applause from the audience.) The tricks (illusions!) were impressive to see live and up close but nothing new that hasn’t already been done before in umpteen tv magic shows. I was in 3rd row center which was cool, but there was nothing that made me go “Wow, how’d he do that!?” like I get from sometimes watching Fool Us. 

And tbh the obvious use of an audience plant in one trick (the rings) really took away from the magic-ness of it and just made it unimpressive. 

Is there supposed to be a “special guest” at each show? Because the person we had tonight was so nothing that I didn’t even realize it was a guest. At one point Rob invited a young woman up to the stage and said something about her being from TikTok and Instagram. Oh wow. 

It’s really more a show for kids and families. The Muppets are such a non-entity here. I really have no idea why they are even in the show. They wheel them on a few times throughout the show, they say some jokes and then leave.

I was more impressed with the illusions in Stranger Things to be perfectly honest.

Updated On: 11/2/25 at 09:13 PM

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 11/2/25 at 9:17pm

Who have been the "special" guests?

1st preview - Thomas Schumacher 

[JSquared2]

Posted: 11/2/25 at 10:09pm

CoffeeBreak said: "Who have been the "special" guests?

1st preview - Thomas Schumacher"


Sorry but I think you may have misunderstood the question…? 

[Wick3]

Posted: 11/2/25 at 11:53pm

I heard Laura Benanti was a guest.

[quizking101]

Posted: 11/5/25 at 4:48pm

Went this afternoon on a comp. It went exactly 80 minutes and it was just mind-mumblingly basic. There were maybe one or two magic tricks that mildly impressed me, but mostly I was exchanging glances of mutual boredom with my friend. One very ornately designed water levitations illusion was extremely easy to figure out if you know the dimensions of the stage, particularly the depth. Also, there was only one trick in the entire show that allowed a child to participate, which led to a sea of disappointed children when they thought they would be picked only to have Rob say “okay, pass (object) to the nearest grown-up”.

Additionally, I found it almost fraudulent how they hype up the Muppets and they are really only VERY brief cameos - even use of the term “Featuring” feels like a gross overstatement. They were onstage for roughly under 10 minutes. (I counted 9:26 today) and were basically just talking props.

Maybe I’m just being curmudgeonly about it, but I don’t think this is worth money at all, for adults or children, since I think anyone there is going to leave this otherwise pedestrian Vegas act feeling like the only thing that disappeared was their  ticket money.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 11/5/25 at 10:15pm

curious what the Playbill looks like in terms of who is credited as what? Also, appears there are swings and covers as well for this?

[forgetmenotnyc]

Posted: 11/6/25 at 1:31pm

I hardly enjoyed myself. This needs a director. Rob Lake & the prod. doesn't connect. Audience doesn't know when to applaud. A Bethany Pettigrew is listed as 'creative consultant' & a Kevin J. Zak 'additional material by' - but ROB LAKE needs to have hired a better performer to take over & possibly make this better than it currently is. The 'role' of pedestrian individual who transforms into showman is not fleshed out & the simple act of changing into a jacket onstage isn't cutting it, esp. when the 'transformation' is just a simple ungarnished piece that couldn't even be called a costume. Rob Lakes patter is not delivered well (worse than Doug Henning, mind you) & his physical comportment is mincing. He is just not a strong showman & the Muppets are not even given a number. Too much goingout into the audience to pick people - it's just so boring the 'me me ooh pick me' routine. A forced standing ovation by asking audience members to stand up in groups that add up to 100% of the house is just CHEESY & unsophisticated. The marquee pics are generic, not the current show & look at the merchandising - worse than the old touring circuses. A playbill feature "A Frog + An Illusionist=Broadway Magic" by Jeffrey Vizcaino unfortunately needs to trim it's title to exclude 'Broadway' because the mere fact that Holiday or Special Events rent a Bwy house does not make it Broadway Magic.

[hicaesar]

Posted: 11/6/25 at 2:44pm

KevinKlawitter said: "RippedMan said: "Maybe I'm wrong, but are the Muppets ever seen with their puppeteers? Seems very Disney to want to keep the magic hidden."

That's not a just Disney thing - that's a Muppet thing. Jim Henson had the same rule.

 

That's not true at all. I've been at Disney fan events where they brought out the Muppet performers and they all performed the characters with no hiding anything at all.  

Jim Henson performed muppet characters on multiple talk shows with the characters sitting right next to him as he operated them. 

So Disney doesn't care, and Jim Henson himself didn't care either. Now that doesn't mean Rob Lake and company can make it happen - I'm sure there are lots of specifics with this contract. I'm still trying to figure out how and why this happned. 

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 11/6/25 at 2:55pm

I saw this yesterday, and I ended up thinking a lot about Mischief Theatre's Mind Mangler which I saw off-Broadway a couple of years ago. It was way funnier and had more interesting character work, which was the main point, but also I think the magic was at the same level as Rob Lake, who does this for a living. 

If everyone is doing variations on the same tricks, and there's a lot of Lake saying here's my take on a routine someone did over 100 years ago, enjoying it is very personality dependent. I thought Lake was very inoffensive, but ridged. 

For example, whenever there was an audience participation segment, he clarifies kids can't participate. If you don't want to work with kids, why get into magic? He did have one dedicated section where he brought a 5 year old on stage, and of course that got a bigger audience reaction than even The Muppets. 

In terms of integrating The Muppets into the show, they're the most exciting part but there's no "wow, how did they do that with a Muppet?" moment such as Jim Henson getting Muppets to ride bikes in a movie. Like there's a levitating woman illusion in the show. Why not just figure out how to do that with a Muppet?    

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 11/6/25 at 3:15pm

I'm not entirely sure yet if the press opening for this is tonight or on Tuesday. Multiple websites, including the Broadway League, cite the 11th. Red carpet and celebration this evening, regardless.

And it looks like they've integrated the Muppets to the curtain call - Fozzie and Gonzo appear to be in the right box as Kermit and Piggy reappear on the motorcycle seen in the released production photo. 

 

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 11/6/25 at 4:32pm

Animal I think also gets an audio moment at the curtain call.

Updated On: 11/6/25 at 04:32 PM