SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE: The Next FIRST WIVES CLUB??- Page 2

[ABB2357]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 9:56am

Thanks for the very informative review. Just from looking at the song list it seems like there are too many numbers with generic titles that probably don't move the plot forward or inform our knowledge of the characters. I'm out of town at the moment but may check it out when I return.

[regnad kcin]

Posted: 6/3/13 at 12:26pm

ABB -- to answer your question, yes, the original songwriting team included Josh Nelson and Michelle Citrin. They are terrific young songwriters and performers, although this would have been their first foray into writing for Broadway. It sounds like their replacements have hardly written memorable music.

[bk]

Posted: 6/3/13 at 8:12pm

Whatever talent the songwriting team that was replaced had was certainly nowhere in evidence in the first reading of their version of the show - the new score cannot be worse. As to the Playhouse, they do musicals that have money attached to them.

[someone.else's.story2]

Posted: 6/4/13 at 2:43pm

THis looks pretty bad. I really wish they would stop adapting movies like this anyway. Ugh.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 6/4/13 at 5:46pm

Very sad reviews...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-0604-sleepless-in-seattle-review-20130604,0,3163481.story

http://variety.com/2013/legit/reviews/theater-review-sleepless-in-seattle-1200491216/

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 6/4/13 at 6:19pm

Sad is one way to describe them

[Wicked Fanatic]

Posted: 6/4/13 at 6:59pm

I'm seeing this on June 12th. I'll be going in with very low expectations; maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised--maybe not!

[Wildcard]

Posted: 6/4/13 at 7:09pm

I now wish I can return my tickets and get a refund

[jbm2]

Posted: 6/7/13 at 1:26am

What is the running time?

[Wildcard]

Posted: 6/17/13 at 3:24pm

I saw the musical this past weekend and was quite bored with it. I watched the 4pm matinee and felt bad for the performers since many of the seniors in the audience were visibly asleep, some snoring audibly. The cast was very good but the material didn't merit the quality of their performances. Chandra Lee Schwartz (Annie) was the standout. She was very charming and likable. While Tim Martin Gleason (Sam) was a good performer, he just wasn't engaging enough. When Tom Hanks nagged on his son in the film, it seemed sweet. On stage, Tim was more annoying. Chandra did make me think of Meg Ryan but Tim made me think of Colin Firth. So imagine "Sleepless in Seattle with that combination. I saw Carter Thomas as Jonah and felt he was too old for the role. His Jonah felt more like a rebellious teen than an eager young boy. Having him as people on "Are you my mom?" on top of the Empire State Building just seemed creepy.

Sabrina Sloan as Becky was very good. Nevertheless, it made me wish that she was the sassy black friend or more of the Rosie O'Donnell type. Having the best friend played straight made her interchangeable with Annie. She might as well have pursued Sam herself and the outcome would have been the same.

It was hard to root for the leads to come together since they both appear on stage at the same time but due to their "geographical distance," they play off their scenes separately from one another. There's no connection. There's no longing for the missing part of themselves. They should have ended the first act with Sam seeing Annie at the airport and making that connection. Instead, the first act ended with not much going on. The second act was better than the first mostly because they have become aware of each other at this point. Still, the music was forgettable and nothing stood out. I tried to remember any of the songs from Act 1 and I came up blank. The production would perk up whenever there were ensemble numbers but songs were given to characters just so they would have something to do. For instance, Annie's fiancé sings a song after she has left him to go to the Empire State building. I don't really need to know how he's feeling at that point since he wasn't the focus of the story anyway.

The sets were pretty much what I expected at this stage in the show's life. It wasn't anything exciting or something I would consider artistic. The projections didn't always work properly. The words "Adult Movies" from the scene where Jonah arrives in NY never turned off and were constantly present in the scene after, during Annie and her fiancé's romantic Valentine's Day dinner. Overall, I think this show would have worked better as a play. If they want to pursue it to Broadway, then they should write better songs for it and tinker with how the story flows on stage rather than trying to be a duplicate of the movie.