Romantic Poetry Reviews!

Can't wait to read these tonight!

I love the way Playbill.com describes the show in an article today. "A new and somewhat abstract musical comedy"

haha, nothing like a good old "abstract" musical comedy...

AM New York gives the show 1/2 a Star out of 4:

'There must be some mistake. John Patrick Shanley, the author of “Doubt,” and Henry Krieger, the composer of “Dreamgirls,” could not have written this train wreck of a new musical. Was this a cruel joke? Did we walk into the wrong theater?

Whatever the case, “Romantic Poetry,” a farcical musical comedy about crazed lovers, though seemingly well meant, is a total misfire in every way.'

http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/stage/blog/2008/10/review_of_romantic_poetry.html

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Talkin' Broadway is a Pan:

'What happens to love after doubt creeps into it? An excellent question, and one of the more notable ones addressed in Romantic Poetry at Manhattan Theatre Club. But a better one is: What happened to John Patrick Shanley after Doubt crept out of him?

First Defiance savagely mocked the previous work's success by recasting it in hollower, more pedestrian terms. Now this largely hopeless musical has sputtered open to further encourage us to reevaluate whether the taut Doubt was really as good as it seemed at the time, or whether it was an engrossing late-career fluke. Romantic Poetry - which Shanley also directed - is really that bad.'

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/ob/10_28_08.html

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Looks like this is one show which will not be around for long.

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Let the papering...well I was going to say begin but the real word is continue, isn't it? I haven't had time to catch this one yet.

I must say I'm a big fan of really bad musicals. I don't to like laugh at other people's misfortune/failure, I just find it comforting to think that if (insert horrible show title here) made it to Broadway/Off-Broadway, then something I write/act in definitely has a chance.

Ooh, Wickedmuzzy, I totally feel for you. Sitting through the first act of this was like getting teeth pulled.

These reviews are totally on point. Especially the "Variety" one.

What were they thinking?

The Newark Star-Ledger is Very Negative:

'A cheerfully disorderly musical, "Romantic Poetry" is a sketchy affair regarding passion, both artistic and amorous.

"Doubt" author John Patrick Shanley and "Dreamgirls" composer Henry Krieger are the notable collaborators for this new tuner that opened Tuesday, but regardless whether one's taste is for conventional or bizarre musical theater, their unorthodox romp doesn't satisfy.'

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2008/10/romantic_poetry_has_heart_in_t.html

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The New York Times (Ben Brantley) is Very Negative:

'...There’s a lot of tedious plot hung on these six wayward souls. But really all you need to know is that none of them can resist a rim-shot joke, and that they share a penchant for spouting silly metaphors at length and in song. ( “I am a sailor. You are the sail./I am the Pequod. You are the whale.”)

The very talented Mr. Krieger has whipped up a confectionary batch of melodies that evoke an entire catalog of romantic standards, summoning Victor Herbert, Hoagy Carmichael and Rodgers and Hart, among others. The able cast sings these numbers with the mixture of goofiness and sincerity that is asked of them.

The same sensibility — of kitsch delivered with both a wink and a hug — is embodied in David Korins’s glittery nightclub-in-purgatory set.

You certainly can’t say that the show isn’t of a piece. But that piece is made of ingredients that were meant to be consumed in small amounts. Only people who can make a meal out of marshmallows and marzipan are likely to find “Romantic Poetry” digestible.'

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/theater/reviews/29roma.html

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These might be the worst reviews for a show I've ever read. Not one positive, or even moderate review.

However, I think MTC will come back strong. Everyone's entitled to a few mistakes. They just happened to occur at the same time. This production was only made because of Shanley.

This could be the Moose Murders of musicals. It could make Lestat look like South Pacific.

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Updated On: 10/29/08 at 05:59 PM

barcelona: MTC just fired Muzzy for posting on this thread. what do you think about MTC now?

I think MTC needs to worry less about firing ushers and do some house cleaning in their artistic department. Why not start with the geniuses who felt that To Be Or Not To Be and Romanitic Poetry were brilliant ways to begin their season?

I think if you're dumb enough to post that you work there and then that "people take bets" as to how many people will leave at intermission, you deserve to be fired.