Saw tonight's preview. Caissie Levy is still out from her positive COVID test, but Lauren Marcus (who's been covering all week) was a strong understudy. The show is...fine. Nothing earthshaking, not nearly as strong as Kimberly Akimbo, and not something for which I see a future transfer, at least in its current form. The book is pretty solidly comic for the first act, then tries to tackle some far more serious mental health and family relationship issues in the second, but ends up doing so only in a mostly surface way (the word that came to my mind as I was leaving the theater was "slight" ). The set is functional and fairly lackluster (a couple of walls on turntables, a trap door lift used for one entrance, and stage hands moving various set pieces on and off in scene transitions. And while I obviously don't attribute this to the show, the audience tonight was particularly terrible...incessant talking, cell phone use, crinkling of bags, etc.
And yet, despite all of the above, I admit I enjoyed the evening a great deal. This is principally due to (1) the catchy music of the late Adam Schlesinger and strong lyrics of Schlesinger and Sarah Silverman, and (2) some great performances by a talented cast. Chief among the latter I would call out the delightful 14-year-old Zoe Glick as Sarah and the funny and moving Darren Goldstein as Sarah's dad (who has by far the show's best, raunchiest, and most hilarious song). Bebe of course is wonderful, with some great comic lines and a sweet and funny song in Act One, but really doesn't have a whole lot to do in Act Two. I can say that I laughed a lot and left the theater with a smile on my face, so if you go for that and without higher expectations, you'll have a fun evening.
Running time was a little under two hours, including intermission.
Updated On: 5/8/22 at 11:05 PM
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