Scotland PA Previews — Page 2

MILD SPOILERS ****************************************



There are a couple of F-bombs and a song about being gay (the best number in the show, I may add). The main romance is between a husband and wife, so that's not off-color. But one character has sex for money with another character. There is a horrendous murder scene that's pretty graphic and gruesome and one instance of self-mutilation. (You don't see everything that's happening, but it's pretty clear what the character is doing.)

Updated On: 9/27/19 at 05:22 PM

Saw it last night, and this is definitely a quirky one. Not sure how most theater-going audiences will react to it. It's a dark comedy but some of the comedy is stale. I wanted the comedy to feel fresher than it did, and it's not the 70s setting that makes it feel that way. Some of the jokes/bits are just predictable. There were moments of surprise and weirdness that I enjoyed, but it was a very mixed bag. The set was also a fun component.

I enjoyed the songs overall, but Alysha Umphress was out and I think her vocal strength was missing from the stoners. I don't know if I'm correct, but I'd guess it was the understudy's first performance. Her voice was a bit shaky, her dance moves weren't as fierce as the others (she's the dance captain of the production too), and she forgot a line and got flustered. All understandable since it's still so early in their performances. My favorite songs were the one where Mac is describing a drive-thru to his boss and the one in Act II where he's on the local news. There were a few too many slower ones in the second act, and it started to lose me.

The performances were fine but there was nothing that stood out. In fact, when some songs started, I thought to myself, "This doesn't suit this person's voice." That may have been the arrangement behind it because as the song progressed, I changed my mind. Jay Armstrong Johnson was my favorite, but his character is a drunk goofball, so the drunk "surfer dude" speak got old and while his song highlights his dance moves, it did not show off his voice. Roundabout keeps giving Megan Lawrence these kooky older lady characters, and I'm not a fan of it. I'd like to see her in a drama instead.

I feel like this is shooting for the same audience as Heathers or Be More Chill, which will be a tough sell for the over-65 Roundabout theater-goers. The place was probably only 60% full. The creative team was sitting at the back of the house taking notes, so it's definitely still a work in progress. Hope they make some adjustments because there is a lot of darkly humorous potential there.

saw it tonight and it still trips me up that Roundabout is doing this show.

Jay Armstrong Johnson, wow, where did that performance come from, surprising in all the right ways.

dug all of it, loved the lobby stuff during the intermission, love little details like that.

also whatever the post bow scene was has been cut, they clearly have used a rather long preview period to actually work on the show.

this was a blast and i highly recommend checking it out.

I saw this last night and really enjoyed it. Is it perfect? No. Can I remember any of the songs? No. But it's fun and entertaining and the cast (especially Ryan, Jay, Taylor, and Megan) is great.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/theater/scotland-pa-review.html

It's a Critic's Pick with NYT

Here's a link to some:

http://www.playbill.com/article/did-critics-flip-over-new-musical-scotland-pa