Saved! 5/10/08

I will just start off by saying, I have loved the movie since it premiered in theaters.
The show was absolutely hilarious. I really enjoyed myself. Not much of a review writer, but the performances were great. I loved much of the score and thought the new spin on the story was nice. I mean, being a fan of the movie I did know that they would not replicate the entire thing line for line. Which I hate when shows do that. Julia Murney was marvelous from the moment she stepped onto that stage. The climax however, does need a little bit of some picking up. Will not give away spoilers.

Granted this was the first preview...I thought it rocked.


Anyone else have thoughts?

Thanks for the review. I was wondering when someone would post. Glad to hear it went well and that you enjoyed it... I'm still trying to figure out if I can afford to see this show.

How was Mary Faber?

Does anyone know if they are offering the HotTix tickets for $20 to under 30s for Saved?

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What was the set like?

No, they have a thing on the Playwrights website about HotTix, but I wasn't sure if it was for all shows, including Saved

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Playwrights Horizons has a rush policy for people 30 and under called HotTix. It's a $20 ticket - one per person (each person much show proof of age) - starting an hour before showtime based on availability. Same goes with student rush - $15 per person with a valid student ID an hour before showtime, based on availability.

The Ticket Central box office is open 12pm-8pm every day. I recommend calling them the day before or the day of a show you might want to rush - just to find out if it's sold out or close to it. 212-279-4200.

HOW WAS THE SCORE? THE BOOK?

Do we have a good original musical? Or is this one of those horrible film-to-stage adaptations for the sake of doing a show that will sell well?

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Here are my thoughts....

I thought it was good, but not great.

Act 2 is MUCH better than act 1. It's a lot tighter, and the emotions get kicked up a notch in the second act. Act 1 feels very cartoony, where as in act 2, it feels much more "real," if that makes sense. However, as the original poster mentioned, the climax needs some re-working. It doesn't have the payoff that it should at this point. I'm sure they'll get it straightened out, though.

I was a little disappointed that my two favorite performers in the show- Aaron Tveit and Julia Murney are given so little to do. Murney has an awful song in Act 1 called "Orlando" (like the city) that needs to go. She does get a really good song in Act 2, however, and does a fantastic job with it. I also have to point out that she does not look at all like she could be Celia Keenan-Bolger's mother. That was kind of laughable.

Tveit does get one good song, but again, I was hoping for a little more. His acting, again, with not much to do, was very good.

The rest of the cast is all pretty good. The standout for me was Van Hughes as Patrick. I thought his acting was fantastic, and he brought a real vulnerability to the character.

Another pleasant surprise was Mary Faber as Hilary Faye. As someone mentioned, they've toned down the character some from the movie. Faber acts it very well, particularly in Act 2, where you get to see a bit of the character's humanity.

There are some nice moments in both the book and score, but neither one really blew away.

It was nice to see Jesse Vargas right back at work, conducting the band, after the Glory Days fiasco.

Overall, with some work, they'll have a nice little off-Broadway show. They shouldn't even be entertaining ideas of moving to Broadway, because the show is in the perfect venue right now.

The audience seemed to enjoy it a great deal, but there was no standing ovation.

Lights came up at 10:33, but the show started about 10 minutes after 8, so the run-time (at the moment) is about 2 hours, 20 minutes.

Updated On: 5/11/08 at 11:27 AM

My bad. I always use rush, since it's cheaper, so I wasn't aware that they had an under 30 policy, as well. That's good to know :)

I'm going to try to see this show in a few weeks.

I can't wait to hear more. I'm already very excited. I would love to hear more!

I liked it. Still needs some tightening and some work, but I enjoyed the show.

I'm pleased to hear that the first impressions indicate that it's not going to be a big fat bomb.

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