my first exposure to this play, and i am underwhelmed by the story (could be told in 20 minutes) but impressed by the score, which is way more than the two numbers ive heard performed a billion times before.
and oh how this cast sings it! im struggling to remember the last time i was this impressed with the sheer vocal power of a cast, not a weak link amongst Nicole and Tom and David and Grace in the voice department. I hope the mushy-sounding ensemble is a bug of early previews and that the mics/sound will be adjusted going fwd because i could not understand them half the time.
but i dont think this production cares much about whether i understood the lyrics or not. once again, jamie lloyds egomania has overtaken his interest in actually conveying a story, and like the Tommy revival, I got the sense i was expected to already know the plot before i sat down. lloyd is the king of shtick, and that doesnt meant its all bad: the stroll down 44th street, and the run up to it, is alot of fun, and kudos to Tom Francis for somehow pulling it off so smoothly. i do not know how this production will continue to literally shut down a NYC street for 5 minutes every night going fwd but if there was ever a thrilling use of video in theater, this was it. And yet: if that song had ANY plot details in it, i missed them. if there was any character development intended, oops, they had better things to do.
this was a theme. yall can fangirl yourselves to death (lke the audience did, in pure elation start to finish) but Scherzinger is directed nonsensically. The sudden slow speaking was preposterous. Shes gorgeous, and dressed to seduce, which seems totally off from the aging mess shes supposed to be? Shes mugging, and diva-ing, and doing very modern poses like a Kardashian into the camera- and thats all well and good but it completely clashes with the over-the-top seriousness with which she takes the role in the rest of the show. I have never seen a curtain call where the actors refuse to smile (Grace Hodgett Young was struggling, really struggling, not to show her enjoyment at the rapturous reception they were receiving).
I dont fault Scherzinger one bit- shes as friggin glorious as advertised, stopping the show to standing ovations more than a few times. I have never heard either Mandy Gonzalez of Caroline Bowman ever sing a single note with the power/richness that Scherzinger does, and I do not want to undersell the impact there. Shes worth the price of admission. Musical theater heaven, and she gives it her all on stage, as invested and manic and hysterical as one could ask. Her Tony nomination will be well deserved and the way she immerses herself with total abandon is a sight to behold.
But did she create an interesting character? Make a fragile lunatic make any sense? I'm afraid not, but again, this production doesnt seem to care much about any of that. And so the stage is--from start to finish--pumped with smoke for reasons unknown (though the lighting overall is crazy impressive). Betty Schaeffer is in combat boots because? Again, its Lloyd's shtick to do a bare set with no color/props/background, but that really undercuts a story that seems to describe swimming pools and cars and mansions, and turns on an eccentric woman living in the past. And while I understand turning the play into a movie--the opening credits, kinda cute--the dark theater while the credits rolled was silly and added nothing but time.
Packed house, and they loved it, guess im happy to be in the minority again, wondering why everyone else is so easily impressed by productions that cheat us out of the storytelling part. but as a strangely staged concert production, by all means, A+.
Updated On: 10/6/24 at 01:02 AM
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