Shows That Implemented Substantial Changes Between First Preview and Opening Night

Just a thought I've been having as I read through a lot of the Previews threads these days. I'm thinking about Mean Girls down in D.C. right now, and it seems like they're working on big changes based on feedback they're receiving during previews.

What are shows you remember that made genuinely noticeable changes between its first preview and opening night? I don't mean like a line tweak here or there—but like, cutting or adding an intermission, changing an ending, eliminating/adding songs...

Titanic was a mess at the first preview and although it didn’t end up being a perfect show, it vastly improved. Major, major changes - I was actually quite amazed.

13 was two acts at the first preview and only one act by opening. Both the act one finale and the act two opener were cut; many, many lines of dialogue were rewritten too.

Cry-Baby replaced the song "Class Dismissed" in act one with "A Whole Lot Worse" during previews, but a small reprise of "Class Dismissed" during the finale remained.

Impressionism was two acts at the first preview, but one act and (reportedly) massiviely cut down by opening.

Shuffle Along went through extensive rewrites. An actress was let go when her character was written out of the show.

Spider-man went through massive upheavals.

Honestly though, in the last decade very, very few shows go through substantial changes during previews. A few cosmetic fixes might occur, but usually I've found what you get at the first preview is essentially what you get by opening.

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Currently, Spongebob is making changes everyday for the Broadway production, when in Chicago the show stayed the same throughout the entire tryout.

"The Wild Party" had major changes stylistically in the first section, and virtually every song was drastically altered or replaced from the first preview.

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Back in the winter of 1992 at the 6-week Chicago tryout of The Goodbye Girl at the Shubert, the show opened in a burger restaurant with a song by the 3 young girls of the cast and housekeeper Mrs Crosby - played by Carol Woods.

The number and scene was entirely cut after one week.

Going forward, Bernadette Peters "No More" scene 2 number started the show.

The Mrs. Crosby character was then left with only one number - the crowd pleasing, showstopping "2 Good 2 B Bad" in Act 2.

Many years later, Martin Short paid loving tribute to the circumstance in Fame Becomes Me with the wonderful number "Stop the Show".

Updated On: 12/2/17 at 08:52 PM

If/Then, specifically the opening number.

Circus acts were sort out during Pippin between their first preview and opening if that counts. Rachel Bay Jones also had a little bit more to do as the clown in act 1 if I remember correctly.

check out Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway's Big Musical Bombs by Steven Suskin.

They changed the 2nd song in Finding Neverland 4 times. The original ART one, a new one for 1st Preview, a completely re-composed version for opening. Then they reworked the entire show for tour.

I don’t know if it made it to previews, but The Book of Mormon originally had a truly dark twist ending that was cut but can be heard on the composer demo.

darquegk said: "I don’t know if it made it to previews, but The Book of Mormon originally had a truly dark twist ending that was cut but can be heard on the composer demo."

What exactly was different that made it so dark?

Wicked previewed in San Francisco and then took a hiatus to accommodate the changes before starting performances on Broadway.

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darquegk said: "The original twist was that the Africans took Arnold Cunningham's messianic statements to their logical extreme. Conflating him with Christ, and their hunger with the Last Supper, they convert to both Mormonism and cannibalism, "taking and eating" Arnold and the other Mormon missionaries sent to save them. Instead of the final implication being that Arnold inadvertently started a new religion, the ending implies that the Africans will continue to practice their version of Mormonism by eating every missionary sent to them."