SOME LIKE IT HOT On Broadway - Reviews & News Thread — Page 35

inception said: "Saw a comment on Reddit this morning that they were closing off the balcony for mid-week performances this past week.

You might get better seats rushing this week."

Looks like they are still selling balcony on Telecharge.

I won the lottery for last Saturday, and I was a little nervous about my seat based off the comment here. I was in the last row of the mezzanine. I asked at the box office if there was any availability closer, but he said the show was sold out! Good for them! The seat ended up being really great. I was able to see 98% of the action. The only area blocked was the top of the stairs, and they only go up there twice. I highly recommend it. It’s a bit cheesy, but the door scene at the end is AMAZING and worth it.

EDSOSLO858 said: "Christian Borle, J. Harrison Ghee, and the company performed "You Can't Have Me (If You Don't Have Him) " on Late Night with Seth Meyers last night:

"

I'm so underwhelmed by this song. Is this really the best song in the show?? Why do they keep showcasing it on tv shows?

Can I say this without getting canceled?

Christian Borle is great in this show, but does not look great in this show (or its photos). A mix of his body shape paired with poor hair & costume styling makes for a funny look. I wonder if Gregg Barnes has lost his touch, as I don't think Adrianna Hicks (a radiant and beautiful person) is flatteringly costumed either.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I believe that they are purposefully hiding Christian Borle in his Josephine look to avoid man-in-a-dress accusations. But they think he's a ticket draw, so they REALLY want to feature him in the marketing. Then you combine that with there not really being so many songs that showcase both leads and you end up with a reliance on this song.

Company ran into a similar problem. They clearly felt awkward about the prospect of not including Katrina in their live performances, but also knew that so much of their strength lied with their supporting cast. So, they ended up landing in the meh middle with the song Company being the thing they always performed. Company is great, but it is nowhere the heights of the show as-written or the heights of that production. Later in the run they had Patti and Katrina do Ladies Who Lunch and Being Alive on late night shows and they released the b-roll of Ladies Who lunch and a bit of Marry Me a Little, but most of their run they just used Company.

GiantsInTheSky2 said: "I adore Borle and Ghee, but there are better songs to use in promo performances that have a better chance of grabbing people’s attention. No performances with Hicks or Williams? Come on."

It's tricky to find the exact song that represents the whole show and fits within the strict parameters of a TV appearance. My favorite song changes from time to time and short of doing a medley, which would never work if the object is to engage viewers and sell tickets, it will always be a tough call for this show.

My favorite songs are "Poor Little Millionaire" and "Fly Mariposa Fly," but both are sung by "Osgood" (Kevin Del Aguila), who isn't in the first hour of the show, and would need all kinds of explanation up front. Without knowing all that Daphne has experienced, "Feather" is also not a good choice.

"You Can't Have Me (If You Don't Have Him)" gets the plot moving, gives the backstory of the two leads, is simply fun and needs no explanation. All things considered, it's the best choice -- and the way they did it on Seth Meyers' show, changing up the choreography to give ensemble members a greater part in the song, shows that they are riffing, making adjustments to do what they can to get the word out about this show.

And yes, Christian Borle's character "Josephine" is a bit of a hot mess,looks-wise, but I love how he embraces his inner goofy-looking woman and takes in stride being the butt of jokes.

There's so much to love about this show -- the ensemble is a collection of firecrackers who give it their all every night, as the leads find new ways to deepen their characters and turn laughs into guffaws. The dancing is out of this world. I was there last night and watched the crowd go berserk during the curtain call.

What makes this show difficult to promote is what makes it great -- it slowly unspools before your eyes, gently drawing you in, each song taking you in a new direction. Every night it makes audiences so happy, and that's what we all need right now.

Please don’t cancel me….

what other songs can they showcase? None of the songs are memorable. 5 mins after leaving the so-so show, I couldn’t hum 1 song. The score is the shows downfall. Stop showcasing it. Maybe somehow showcase the door scene at the end of the show on some obscure morning tv show?

chrishuyen said: "I had wondered if in the costumes where Christian Borle is dressed as a woman whether the unflattering look was intentional, kind of a meta commentary as to how him dressing up as a woman doesn't "fit" him (especially compared with J Harrison Ghee's character), and there are a few jokes made at his expense too. The hair is rather unfortunate for his head shape imo but I think it's necessary so he can quickly get in and out of the wig he wears when dressing as a woman"

I meant when he is dressed as a man. I think he's supposed to look "frumpy" as a woman.

I enjoyed the show while sitting in the theater, but I couldn't hum one song at intermission or after the final curtain.

Nothing about this score is memorable.

When the actor/character playing Osgood is the best thing in your show - your lifeline is not gonna be long.

In response to RUkidding me….

Exactly! Hope you don’t get attacked like I did

Updated On: 1/19/23 at 01:21 PM

Can we PLEASE dispel with this theory that if something is hummable and memorable it makes it good? Mary had a little lamb is hummable and memorable, but no one is singing its praises. All it means is that the composer decided to Repeat a certain line or melody a whole bunch of times so that the audience WOULD walk out humming it (see: The best of times / Jellice Cats).

I don’t think anyone came out of the Winter Garden in 1957 humming “a boy like that / I have a love” and saying “damn, that Leonard Bernstein score is terrible!”

Anyway, I think the score for SLIH is mostly fine, and tuneful, but it unfortunately all kind of blends in to one another and sounds too similar at the end of the day. It’s sort of how I felt about the show. It’s fun, entertaining, but it just gets an “it was nice” reaction from me.

I caught the matinee yesterday. I found the show mostly pleasant with a repetitive score and a thin book. I wonder if those who are saying it's not hummable maybe mean that so many of the songs blend together that it's hard to recall anything specific?

The book seems... not to exist? There's such a rush to get from one song to the next that so little time is spent on characterization and relationship building. So many of the songs are, like, anecdotal: about general groups of people or people we don't know (ex. "Some like a cool, pastorale scene...", "My folks were small time grifters...," that whole "Zeep Bop" song) that they feel inconsequential the plot; so few are truly character driven. Which all amounts to a show that feels like it's relying more on our familiarity with the source material and archetypes in general than actually communicating a story.

Speaking of familiarity, a lot of this feels familiar. Very strong Dirty Rotten Scoundrels vibes in Act II with Joe pretending to be Kip, and the whole gangster shootout/slamming doors/dance number, while expertly done, is something we've seen in shows like Sister Act and Bullets Over Broadway. Ghee is the star of the show ("You Coulda Knocked Me Over With a Feather" is a moment that really works because it's shows the character's journey and Ghee sings the hell out of it), with Williams shining through as well. I'm pretty over Art Deco inspired sets, they always end up looking cheap to me.

That's all the say, I didn't have a bad time but I understand why it's not setting the box office on fire.

ACL2006 said: "The show does appear to be selling better now, which is odd since it's the Winter. Could people be buying tickets during the Broadway week deal more than in previous years. Or is it due to fewer options currently?"

I think it also has helped that the weather has been very mild so far.