SILENCE! Is A Scream

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:39am

Caught the first performance of the much hyped sold out musical take on Silence Of The Lambs this afternoon. It's an absolute riot from start to finish. If there were tickets available, I would probably go again but something tells me this is one show that will definitely have a life beyond the Fringe.

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:51am

2 Questions:

This show is a comedy/spoof, right?

And is this show considered "Off-Broadway"?

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:55am

It's a loving parody. And it's currently part of the NYC Fringe Festival, so I think at the very most, it would be Off-Off.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:59am

A huge success--I loved every minute of it. Just brilliant!

[bonna]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:29pm

I had a completely different response. While I thought there were a few amusing moments, the humor wasn't fresh or very funny. The jokes sounded like they were written by a bunch of 7th graders who thought they were much more amusing than they actually were.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:37pm

Some of the lines irked me, for sure and there was one song I didn't like, but overall, I absolutely loved it.

The lines that irked me were the unnecessarily post modern ones that made reference to knowing they were in a movie. Aside from that, I thought the script was very funny and in taking moments from the film and overplaying/lovingly parodying them, they showed a smart knowledge of both their source material and their audience. But if you have to be above it all, then so be it.

Updated On: 8/20/05 at 12:37 PM

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 8/21/05 at 9:41am

And there should be special mention for Deidre Goodwin who gets the 11 o'clock number and all but steals the show while delivering it.

I was SO thrilled when the generous nature of a BWW member allowed me to see both this and Fleet Week again last night. Silence! really is one of the funniest shows around and to get the parody/love letter balance to the movie as right as they did takes a lot more intelligence and effort than your average 7th grader is capable of.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 8/21/05 at 9:53am

Really? I totally didn't notice that. Which song in Spamalot?

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 8/21/05 at 11:28am

SILENCE! is a show I thought might have trouble living up to its hype. I thought maybe the tracks I'd downloaded a couple of years ago might be the best of it and the rest would all be downhill.

Nope. It was brilliant. Most of the dialogue was straight from the movie and the humor came from the delivery of those lines. Very, very well done...and often very subtle. I agree that the weakest parts were those that "broke the spell" by taking you away from the moment by throwing in post-modern references. I won't go as far as to say that "sequal jokes", for instance, irked me...but I could have done without them.

All in all, I was blown away by SILENCE! and would see it again in a heartbeat. There wasn't a weak link in the cast.

[JakeB]

Posted: 8/21/05 at 11:34am

I am still confident in my prediction that Silence! will become the next Urinetown.
Thread: Silence! to become the next Urinetown?

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 8/21/05 at 11:48am

Def an Off-Broadway show--and I could see it being done on Bway. I just hope it stays fairly low scale--the design was quite fantastic as is for the most part.

[bbroadwaybb]

Posted: 8/21/05 at 12:17pm

I saw this last night. The is is the funniest show I have seen in years. I have never laughed this hard at the theatre - from beginning to end.

I have to admit, I didn't think I was going to like it. The concept isn't my thing. But I was blown away and would see it over and over again.

The entire cast was really fantastic, but I have to say Jenn Harris is one of the best performers I have ever seen on a stage. I didn't realize until afterwards that she was the girl from Modern Orthodox who completely stole that show. She should be on SNL. Brilliant.

After Alter Boys and now this, I'm beginning to believe Christopher Gatelli is the second coming. I predict him to be the next Michael Bennett or Bob Fosse a few years down the road.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 8/21/05 at 12:26pm

I think you are right. I haven't had a chance to see Altar Boyz, but Gatelli's work felt fresh. And, what an excellent freaking ensemble. I hope that most, if not all, of this cast is intact when it moves.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 8/21/05 at 2:28pm

I also hope that SILENCE! has life beyond the Fringe, but I also hope that in the process it doesn't lose what made it special. The set design is perfect, as is. A show like SILENCE! needs to retain a funkiness factor, and that is easily lost if one overshoots and has to suddenly justify Broadway prices.

I adored Urinetown, but it was so much more special before it went big venue/big budget.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 8/21/05 at 11:52pm

Got to see it again tonite--fantastic!

Only, right now I have "If I Could Smell Her ****" stuck in my head!!

[Pinguin]

Posted: 8/22/05 at 12:42am

Thanks for the review -I hope it has a life beyond the Fringe so I can see it!

(p.s. LOVE the subject line, popcultureboy)

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 8/22/05 at 10:14am

Thank you Pinguin, I'm quite proud of it myself .

I see there's a sniffy review in the Times today. Ugh.

[Bway=happy]

Posted: 8/22/05 at 6:33pm

So do you think that there is ANY way to get tickets to this show still? I've been a fan of the show online for the past year and didn't realize when making plans to see the show that it was gonna be sold out! Would showing up before hand and waiting get me anywhere? I'm planning on going to the Thursday 10:45 PM showing... would the late night have more cancellations then regular showings? OOOOO I hope I can go...oops that I asked a bunch of people to see it with me hehe!

[Plum]

Posted: 8/22/05 at 6:59pm

The demand for the opening performance was such that I waited in line for an hour after I got my tickets from Will Call, just so I'd get a good seat.

Anyway, where's the love for Lisa Howard? Her big solo got a gigantic round of applause, and deservedly so- she was far and away the best singer in the cast. That said, everyone there had good comic chops, and the direction and choreography were really polished, witty, and well-done, so kudos to Christopher Gattelli.

Some of the songs outlasted their jokes, and some of the jokes weren't that great at all, but I liked the show as a whole.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 8/23/05 at 12:46am

I heard that Lisa Howard all but stole the show with the "Catherine's Her Name" number. And Jenn stopped the show with the "the victim is.....fat" scene.

[Bway=happy]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 11:56pm

:SPOILER ALERT: Saw the show last night and adored it. I think that the humor of the show came moe from the type of event that it was. The fact that it was spoofing a movie that in retrospect takes itself very seriously is always funny...from the first moments that Clarice crosses the stage in her FBI sweatsuit to not not seeing in the dark basement of Buffalo Bill (who won my award for being the most real but still funny at the same time). Plus the fact that it was a fringe show definetly was made fun of...passing the paper on the side of the window rather than through the drawer and also when the sergeant/father actor had three major parts in a row The Doo Wop Wig and gloves he didn't have time to take off for the Sergeant and then he ran out on stage two seconds later in the lonely dead father outfit.

The atmosphere at the show was great too from the audience. I guess because I went the late night showing all of the broadway performers were able to make it there after their shows ended. Everyone was there! I think I saw Molly Ringwald in line and Martin Short snuck in last minute and sat down. I was flipping out that Juan and Matthew and Abraham of Altar Boyz (how nice that they came to support Christopher's newest show!) were standing in line behind me! I also saw Pigtails girl and Jose Llama (who was whooping up the house of course especially for Lisa) of Spelling Bee, and the childcatcher... I felt that I really experienced something special last night and def suggest it to anyone in whatever happens in the future with this show...(which I was told is in the works...) Thank heavens to the senior group that sold me one of their extra tickets for a steal at 10 bucks 45 minutes before the show!

[noahrp3]

Posted: 8/27/05 at 4:10pm

Is the music able to be downloaded online anywhere?

[Kicks8567]

Posted: 8/27/05 at 5:31pm

I can't wait to see this show......I'm going tomorrow to the final performance and am so excited due to the positive feedback.