SING STREET begins previews tonight in Boston

[jms2880]

Posted: 8/26/22 at 11:16am

Sing Street start previews tonight at The Huntington's Calderwood pavilion... looking forward to what folks have to say!?  

https://www.instagram.com/huntingtontheatre/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D  

www.singstreet.com

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 8/26/22 at 11:26am

Absolutely adored this at NYTW. Excited it is getting a future life after its Broadway run was nixed due to the pandemic.

[incomesabby]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 12:33am

I was here tonight front and center! It was a great audience and environment. Got a $20 student ticket so I decided to go into this first preview without watching the movie or listening to the album at all before, and I'll probably go again later in the run. I overall enjoyed it but definitely have some thoughts and will be curious to hear what others say as well. I believe it was Rebecca Taichman (director) and Sonya Hashem Tayeh (choreographer) who gave a quick speech before it started, talking about all the hard work and sacrifices that have been made to get to this night. The cast was all great and I was happy that each character got to have their own moment(s), even if just a small one. Adam Bregman as Connor really kept me attached to and engaged with the story throughout. A huge talent! I can't wait to see where the show goes from here. Happy to try to remember things / answer questions for anyone who wished they could've been here!

[RippedMan]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 3:24am

Curious to hear about production value/ staging and if anything has changed since off-Broadway. (I know you didn't see the show off Broadway, but I more so mean like by Googling pics, etc, has the production changed or just been tweaked). 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 8:04am

Will be there Friday night!

[Moreski93]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 9:22am

Glad to hear you had a good time. Seeing the show the last weekend myself. We’re they selling any merch last night?

[JBroadway]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 9:43am

Can someone say which songs are in the show, compared to the cast album? Are there are any songs added or cut?

Note also that they wrote a song called "Love and Stars" for Raphina to sing, which was going to be in the Broadway transfer, but isn't on the cast album.

Updated On: 8/27/22 at 09:43 AM

[willep]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 10:42am

Add me to the list of people curious to hear what changes were made. I enjoyed it at NYTW but didn’t love it, hopefully they’ve been working on it!

[Kad]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 11:18am

I really hope they made good use of the last few years to really give the show the overhaul it needed, because what it was at NYTW was definitely not ready for Broadway. 

[HenryTDobson]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 11:41am

Excited to see this later in September! Would this be considered a jukebox musical?

[willep]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 12:21pm

Not in any way.

[incomesabby]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 1:02pm

RippedMan said: "Curious to hear about production value/ staging and if anything has changed since off-Broadway. (I know you didn't see the show off Broadway, but I more so mean like by Googling pics, etc, has the production changed or just been tweaked)."

So unfortunately I couldn't find many wide shots of the off Broadway production (or many shots at all for that matter), so I'll just share some of my impressions...

Heavy use of projections in the show. Starts off with like tv static over the whole stage. All the band performances had the live version of what was being recorded on the camera up on the screen, with some mix of other visuals being projected. Obviously Duran Duran, etc. was shown on screen as Brendan watched and talked about them.

The stage/set otherwise was pretty bare except for essentially like bleachers facing in on each side of the stage, with racks of guitars hung up on each side too. From one pic I found it looks like this is the same as before. Often, the rest of the cast would be standing on the sides as a scene was happening center stage, sometimes playing instruments, sometimes doing little choreographed movements (forgive my lackluster description lol, but I wasn't the biggest fan of this choice).

All the set pieces (couch, other furniture, phone booth, instruments, etc.) were essentially rolled on/off and around the stage from scene to scene. This worked for me sometimes and others not so much. Sometimes I felt like there was not enough distinction between scenes so I got confused as someone who wasn't familiar with the story at all... I'll be curious to see how I feel when I go back.

Sitting up close, the lighting was a highlight for me. I especially loved how it worked with the phone booth for Raphina's entrance (and other scenes) and helped you to really be introduced to her from Connor's perspective seeing her for the first time.

From what I'm seeing in the few existing off Broadway pictures, I have to say I'm a much bigger fan of the costumes I saw last night. In terms of production value, I do feel like they're a big improvement, especially for Raphina but really for all the kids too. In the band performances and even the school uniforms.

One last note... I saw the picture in this article that stood out to me because this was not in the production now (the t-shirts or the hanging sheet in the back)

[incomesabby]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 1:05pm

Moreski93 said: "Glad to hear you had a good time. Seeing the show the last weekend myself. Were they selling any merch last night?"

Didn't see any merch last night upstairs or downstairs but they were giving out posters by the bar downstairs. Bit smaller than window card size, but free is always nice!

[RippedMan]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 1:09pm

Thanks for taking to review this. 

[incomesabby]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 1:16pm

JBroadway said: "Can someone say which songs are in the show, compared to the cast album? Are there are any songs added or cut?

Note also that they wrote a song called "Love and Stars" for Raphina to sing, which was going to be in the Broadway transfer, but isn't on the cast album."

 

Can't speak on this yet obviously but I'll try my best to update once I've listened to the album. All I'll say is that if Raphina had a song in the second act it was not at all memorable enough for me personally to recall now lol. Genuinely cannot decide if I think she sang after the stars scene or not 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 2:17pm

Glad you enjoyed the show. What was the running time and did you see any cool merch? Thank you! 

[incomesabby]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 2:36pm

Sutton Ross said: "Glad you enjoyed the show. What was the running time and did you see any cool merch? Thank you!"

8pm show and ended right at 10:30. I believe they were telling everyone it was 2hr20min with 15 min intermission as we walked in, and they started 5-10 min after 8 so that pretty much checks out.

No merch sadly ):

[JBroadway]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 2:44pm

incomesabby said: "One last note... I saw the picture in this articlethat stood out to me because this was not in the production now (the t-shirts or the hanging sheet in the back)"

 

Oh! This reminds me of the biggest question I had!

What did they do during the song "Drive it Like You Stole it"? In the movie, it's a huge dream sequence production number - very theatrical in nature. So when I saw it at Off-Broadway, I was really disappointed that they didn't do ANYTHING for that number. They literally just sang it. Did they re-imagine that number at all?

Also, to the person who asked if this was a jukebox musical - no it's not. Assuming the song breakdown is roughly similar to the NYTW production, then a majority of the songs originated in the movie, with a couple of new songs, and only 2 or 3 real-life popular songs from the era. So while it wouldn't be eligible for Score at the Tonys (unless they added more new songs), it's also not a jukebox musical. Basically the same situation as the Once musical (fittingly, as they're both based on films by the same filmmaker).

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 2:47pm

Rehearsal of "Drive It Like You Stole It"

https://www.instagram.com/p/Chk8Cy8Iux-/

[incomesabby]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 3:10pm

JBroadway said: "What did they do during the song "Drive it Like You Stole it"? In the movie, it's a huge dream sequence production number - very theatrical in nature. So when I saw it at Off-Broadway, I was really disappointed that they didn't do ANYTHING for that number. They literally just sang it. Did they re-imagine that number at all?"

Haha funny you ask! My brother is a HUGE fan of the movie and the album and this was his biggest question for me last night too.

Ultimately I liked how it was done in the show (like I REALLY enjoyed the song, maybe my favorite of the band performances) but when I talked to him about it afterwards I did end up feeling like I had been cheated out of what could’ve been a much more exciting scene overall.

Short answer: Yes, they pretty much just sang it :/

Long answer:

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Don’t know how the scene was set up off broadway, but here the context for the song was that they were filming it in the school, against the rules, as a sort of way to spite Brother Baxter (the idea originates with Conor and Darren after the washing off makeup / head in the sink scene). Conor/Darren tell the rest of the band that they have permission to do so even though they don’t. They do it, have an amazing energetic performance, and you see Barry sort of lurking on the side.

When the song finishes, Brother Baxter catches them, makes Darren give him the tape & smashes it, takes the video camera and says it’s going to the junkyard, tells Eamon he’s going to call his dad, etc. Hard moment for everyone. All the boys who thought they had permission are obviously pissed at Conor/Darren and the band essentially breaks up. Barry interrupts and sort of distracts (?) Brother Baxter in the moment to get him away. To Conor, this is seen as Barry’s redeeming moment and referenced by him later. I didn’t get the point though because they still all got in trouble. Maybe I missed something

Not sure if this is all known to everyone on this thread already but since it’s different than the movie I thought I would mention

You can see a bit of the song & costumes on the @huntingtontheatre instagram (as Taffy linked - thanks!). I must admit that in the moment I did wonder where the kids got the money for these nice coordinated outfits lol. So that didn’t really make sense without the dream sequence but I just let it go.

Based on what my brother told me, I think the dream sequence nature of it all was instead sort of utilized in “Dream for you”, where they briefly showed the family all happy and getting along before going back to reality. But I was kind of meh on the execution there

Updated On: 8/27/22 at 03:10 PM

[incomesabby]

Posted: 8/27/22 at 3:50pm

here's my notes and over analysis after first listen of the cast album lol

ACT 1

• CUT - Just Can't Get Enough -- They opened with a recording of a real-life popular song I think (so MAYBE this was it? but much shorter if so). It was played as Conor/Brendan listening to it, not performed by the cast. I think there were a couple other moments like this throughout the show but nothing big stands out, so the focus seems to be more on the original (whether for movie or musical - I don't know the difference) music

• Riddle of the Model - first full song performed

• Up

• ADDED? - the mom had a short little song while Brendan talked about her sitting outside in the sun (this was odd to me as one of the only non-diagetic songs), was maybe 60 seconds

• ADDED? - Raphina has a very short "Up" reprise alone, maybe 30 seconds

• A Beautiful Sea - act 1 closer

 

ACT 2 - I'm iffy on the order of all these songs and may be missing new additions that weren't on the album, but this is my best guess

• Girls - led by Anne in the family house as a sort of “rebelling against her parents” song (I’m curious if it was always like this? Based on the album I’m assuming not... and I’ve been told that it was a band performance song in the movie. Assuming this was a new change for this production, I’m not a fan. Good for Anne to get her shining moment and a great song, but it really interrupted the story flow and didn’t fit IMO. My brother explained that maybe this was supposed to be the sibling bonding moment but I really did not get that from it. It felt like the story just stopped for 3 min at a pivotal point for them all to sing this)

• Dream for You - had a bit of a dream sequence like I mentioned in last post

• Drive It Like You Stole It

• To Find You - this was moved to much earlier in the Conor/Raphina storyline from what I can remember and what I can infer from the album

• maybe changed? - Up (Down Version) - I genuinely cannot remember this, it might have been cut or altered. My friend is saying she remembers an Up reprise in act 2 but only with Conor singing, no Raphina

• Faith of our Fathers - this is moved to right before Brown Shoes

• Brown Shoes

• Go Now

Side thought, but this is also reminding me that I was really wishing for an encore performance type of curtain call moment when I was there. Maybe this is too nitpicky but I didn’t like how they did the curtain call, going straight into it from “Go Now” by having Conor and Raphina run back on stage and bow with Brendan. And then it was over super quickly. Also felt like barely any time to applaud/appreciate especially for a first preview

Updated On: 8/27/22 at 03:50 PM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 8/28/22 at 1:47pm

Thanks for those breakdowns!

Regarding the video of "Drive it Like You Stole it" - I don't know if it's just this number, or the whole show, but the use of projections seems REALLY different, and WAY more prominent. The lighting also seems more colorful and more warm. Seems like it might have lost a bit of the "grit" (such as it was) that it had at NYTW. But again, maybe it's just this number.

Regarding "Girls" - at NYTW, they sang the song as a band performance, but in the background, the sister had a whole movement/dance solo; she sort of had an angry breakdown, started throwing her books, and dancing aggressively. I thought it was quite beautiful, and arguably more potent and more powerful than just having her sing about her frustrations. But many people felt like it wasn't enough for the character, who otherwise didn't have much to do.

[RUkiddingme]

Posted: 8/28/22 at 2:16pm

I find myself laughing at some of these comments comparing the NYTW production.

Its shocking anyone remembers anything at all!  The show is so forgettable.  

[JBroadway]

Posted: 8/28/22 at 2:24pm

RUkiddingme said: "I find myself laughing at some of these comments comparing the NYTW production.

Its shocking anyone remembers anything at all! The show is so forgettable.” 
 

You’re laughing at me for enjoying the show more than you, and having a better memory than you? Cool…go off I guess…

Updated On: 8/28/22 at 02:24 PM

[JasonC3]

Posted: 8/28/22 at 9:18pm

Tickets are half-off on Goldstar.

https://www.goldstar.com/events/boston-ma/sing-street-tickets