Sheridan Smith Staring in new Rufus Wainwright/Ivo Van Hove Musical OPENING NIGHT in London- Page 2

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 3/26/24 at 10:20pm

Why people are really hating on it. It sounds like it would be right up my alley.  It sounds like a choose your own adventure psycho melodrama. Perfect!!

[Dylan Smith4]

Posted: 3/26/24 at 10:47pm

Broadway Flash said: "Why people are really hating on it. It sounds like it would be right up my alley. It sounds like a choose your own adventure psycho melodrama. Perfect!!"

Of course, this would be up your alley. Bad Cinderella was "up your alley" too. Remember that complete flop?

[binau]

Posted: 3/27/24 at 3:16am

I think Bad Cinderella, or at least Cinderella when I saw it lol, was so much better than this flop. Opening Night feels like a kind of Carrie-level flop without any of the redeeming qualities. In some ways it’s a must see because these don’t come around often. It’s not merely mediocre, it’s a disaster. 

[Dolly80]

Posted: 3/27/24 at 4:27am

It’s truly the worst show I’ve ever seen. Even worse than Bad Cinderella.

[tomwsjr]

Posted: 3/27/24 at 4:47am

I remember a regular here RAVING about New York New York, which was just as bad if not worse than Bad Cinderella. 

Updated On: 3/27/24 at 04:47 AM

[JasonC3]

Posted: 3/27/24 at 10:35am

I thought it needed a lot of work, but it did pull some pretty decent reviews (several 3 and 4 stars) when the online chatter suggested it would be uniformly massacred.  It will be interesting to see how tickets sales and audiences respond moving forward.

[ggersten]

Posted: 3/27/24 at 11:08am

JasonC3 said: "I thought it needed a lot of work, but it did pull some pretty decent reviews (several 3 and 4 stars) when the online chatter suggested it would be uniformly massacred. It will be interesting to see how tickets sales and audiences respond moving forward."

I had the sense that even the positive reviews were for Sheridan's performance - and not the play/musical itself - which is consistent with the message board postings I had seen. 

 

[Owen22]

Posted: 3/27/24 at 3:05pm

BoringBoredBoard40 said: "Boy that Times review is a show killer"

This European critic the Times has in just a pretentious a-hole.  He can't write and his opinions are ludicrous.  With all the critics of color out there (and yes, the Times needed a diversity hire in this role) he is the worst!

[Owen22]

Posted: 3/27/24 at 3:15pm

I have an English friend who attends most London and UK theatre with me when I'm there. He's very sophisticated and knowledgeable about such things and was the first indication to me that the show wasn't the disaster the Brit boards were saying (he loved it). He called the show "marmite" as people feel extremes one way or the other about it and feels West End audiences do not like serious musicals as they do in the states. Producers know this, that is why it took fifteen years to get Next to Normal at only a subscription house!  They love a musical comedy but unless its Les Miz, a musical has to be partially farcical.

[binau]

Posted: 3/27/24 at 4:06pm

Of course they can have that opinion, and I agree with the general sentiment that west end audiences are not as open to 'serious' musicals as they are in New York - And I LOVE a good serious New York musical. In fact, given everyone involved I was hoping it would be something complex and serious. But I just don't think this is it. This is not next to normal, Caroline, or change, Fun Home, A Strange Loop, Sunday in the Park with George or another 'serious' complex New York musical. The writing just isn't there in my opinion. The direction and acting does make it feel like it's meant to be taken seriously, but the words and notes on the page just don't in my opinion support this vision. I don't think this is just a case of west end people rejecting avant garde. Something was/is seriously wrong. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/11/24 at 8:25am

In a very unsurprising move, the show will now close May 18th. 

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/11/24 at 9:07am

Ah damn. I was hoping to catch this during my July trip to see if it really was a campy trashfire (and also Benjamin Walker)

[BETTY22]

Posted: 4/11/24 at 5:54pm

OUCH!

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 4/12/24 at 5:54am

Does anyone think this will come to New York?

[Dylan Smith4]

Posted: 4/12/24 at 9:36am

Broadway Flash said: "Does anyone think this will come to New York?"

Uh…Unless they’re just asking for more people to walk out halfway through the show and then be LAMBASTED by American Critics, I’d say HELL NO! 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/12/24 at 9:42am

Did they have a tryout anywhere or did it open cold in the west end? Seems like this could’ve benefited with a few extra steps in its development process.

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 4/12/24 at 10:09am

I think it was the world premier. I’d love to see something like this come to broadway with Angelina Jolie 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/12/24 at 10:11am

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 4/12/24 at 10:47am

I have no space on my trip to see this before it closes, but I am so curious about it: is it really a train wreck and, if so, in the soo bad it’s good way of just really f’ing bad?

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 4/12/24 at 10:47am

The smooth brains are smoothing today 

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 4/12/24 at 12:46pm

This musical was a world premiere but Van Hove had adapted/director a very successful version of Opening Night several years ago (I believe it also played at BAM) that wasn't a musical. I'm surprised that this is such a horrible failure given how lovely I thought that version was. To be fair, the film Opening Night is somewhat incoherent itself.

[binau]

Posted: 4/12/24 at 3:19pm

Jordan Catalano said: "In a very unsurprising move, the show will now close May 18th."

Have you/will you see this show?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/12/24 at 4:48pm

Yes, I saw it last month. 

[inception]

Posted: 5/7/24 at 9:16am

King of the f-boys Rufus Wainwright blames Brexit for his show's failure:

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/may/07/rufus-wainwright-blames-uk-narrow-outlook-after-brexit-for-opening-nights-flop

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 5/11/24 at 3:53pm

Wasn't able to see this but I did get a chance to hear it. I'm a big fan of Cassavetes, and this adaptation follows the original film very closely. Obviously I wasn't privy to Van Hove's staging so I'm sure there were many things I missed out on, but I was surprised by how much I liked it. Cassavetes's film is gripping but dense and often slippery, and they've done a great job at paring it down to the essentials, which gives the repeated rehearsal sequences a sense of terrific urgency and the Night-Music-esque pairing off of characters very cleanly highlights all of the ways the characters cross wires.

The music itself is fantastic. Wainwright is an impossibly deft composer and the way his melodies gallop freely is really, really refreshing to hear. It's the kind of relaxed, unlabored tunesmithing that seems to come too rarely. The upbeat numbers are infectiously rhythmic, and the ballads have a watery, swimmable quality that make the music of shows like Lempicka feel constipated in retrospect.

Unfortunately, the lyrics are often just awful. Like, oh my god some of these lyrics are terrible. Maurice's number in the first act when Myrtle is lying on the floor after being slapped made me want to crawl into a hole. It sounds like the actor is making up the lyrics on the spot, which, given the subject matter, maybe he was. But my god. I think I understand the intent, because we've had many musicals with discursive, conversational lyrics, but these lyrics do not work, which sucks, because the music they're awkwardly stapled to is glorious.

Wainwright blaming the show's failure on British people for being closed-minded after Brexit is laughable, and also a shame because it seems to indicate that he has no interest in really putting work in on his lyrics. I can imagine a version of this show that's taut, incisive, and accessible, but that's not what this show is right now.