Shows That Implemented Substantial Changes Between First Preview and Opening Night- Page 2

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 12/3/17 at 3:58pm

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."

[gleek4114]

Posted: 12/3/17 at 4:10pm

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."

FVCK that's messed up...

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/3/17 at 5:48pm

You can hear the original version of the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0AvnOoHrPk

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 12/3/17 at 8:52pm

@MusicAndPassion How did DEH change from Off-Broadway?

[raddersons]

Posted: 12/3/17 at 8:52pm

haterobics said: "Nearly all of them?"

I’d argue “not nearly enough of them”.

Common knowledge, but the song Positive from Legally Blonde went thru a few iterations during previews before it became what it was.

It started as...

Beacon of Positivity: https://youtu.be/yGYQsHrVsX

...which was deemed a needing more edge, which turned into...

Love and War: https://youtu.be/uf6gppytG6Q

...Which was demeed to grim, so it eventually became

Positive.

[MusicAndPassion]

Posted: 12/3/17 at 9:20pm

If I remember correctly, the first time I saw the show every character knew what Evan did, were not happy, and he took a year off from going to college to sort out his life. When I saw it on Broadway, his actions were only known to his and Connor's family members.

The off-broadway ending, at least in previews, was much more depressing. 

[haterobics]

Posted: 12/3/17 at 9:58pm

raddersons said: "haterobics said: "Nearly all of them?"

I’d argue “not nearly enough of them”."

The question was whether shows institute a lot of changes. Not whether they were necessarily successful.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 12/3/17 at 10:02pm

I heard about that version of DEH before. Having read or seen all of Steven Levenson's plays, I totally believe he'd write that ending.

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 12/3/17 at 10:39pm

Well in one of the most famous cases in Merrily We Roll Along the original Frank (James Weissenbach) was fired and replaced with Jim Walton.

 

[Dfgtoronto]

Posted: 12/3/17 at 11:22pm

A new show by Rodgers and Hammerstein called Away We Go! received mixed reviews in New Haven and Boston. R & H spent half an hour writing a new song to insert toward the end of the show. In the next performance the new number proved a show stopper and the name of the show was changed to the name of the song - Oklahoma!

[haterobics]

Posted: 12/4/17 at 2:16am

Alex Kulak2 said: "I heard about that version of DEH before. Having read or seen all of Steven Levenson's plays, I totally believe he'd write that ending."

You believe he would write something you know he wrote? Quite a stretch there...

[MWShapiro]

Posted: 12/4/17 at 11:25am

Drat. Someone beat me to the punch on "The Goodbye Girl". I saw it in Chicago with the "burger joint" scene with my mom and dad, and when that scene got cut, my mom was glad. :)

Luckily, I have another 'substantial overhaul' story....."Little Shop of Horrors". I have both the off-Broadway and Broadway cast albums, the movie soundtrack, and two different scripts in book form. "Mushnik and Son" was changed quite considerably. Also, Mrs. Luce's solo in "The Meek Shall Inherit" is not on the off-Broadway cast album. There were other tweaks here and there (as heard on the off-Broadway cast album). It's always cool to hear how things evolve over time!

[newintown]

Posted: 12/4/17 at 11:42am

"Also, Mrs. Luce's solo in "The Meek Shall Inherit" is not on the off-Broadway cast album."

That's true, but the solo was in the show. They also didn't record "Call Back in the Morning," but it, too, was in the show.

[MWShapiro]

Posted: 12/4/17 at 11:58am

I forgot about that! Thanks!

Also, on the off-Broadway cast album, the song order is a little bit out of whack as well ("Closed For Renovation" put in after "Now (It's Just The Gas)".

As for other shows with substantial changes...."Starlight Express" is always getting tweaked!

[promisespromises2]

Posted: 12/4/17 at 1:27pm

ethan231h said: "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.

"

Was gonna say If/Then as well.  I saw the first preview and the second to last preview and it was a massive change, but can't speak to the changes between then and Broadway!

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 12/9/17 at 11:42am

WhizzerMarvin said: "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. "

Like the 2016 version? Or the original version? Who was let go?

[FosseTharp]

Posted: 12/9/17 at 12:54pm

GREASE went through extensive changes between the original Chicago production at the Kingston Mines Nightclub before transferring to New York— with a complete overhaul of the score; elimination of the Chicago references; and opting for a completely toned down musical, going from an “R-rated” profane play with Music illiciting shock-value— to the tame, family friendly musical we’ve come to know.

Updated On: 12/9/17 at 12:54 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/9/17 at 2:22pm

SEESAW had many, many changes--and a new leading lady by the time it opened.

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/9/17 at 3:32pm

I could be wrong, but I believe I heard that the opening joke that the Burger Boys were too tardy to show up even for their own reunion, had originally been that they had all been killed in Vietnam and are being remembered by their classmates as perfect students, the spirit of Rydell...

Cue their loud, profane entrance.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 7/20/18 at 1:57pm

Thought this would be a good time to bump this thread, since there's a lot of chatter happening on the Gettin' the Band Back Together 

[therosenpants]

Posted: 7/20/18 at 5:25pm

I just joined this board, been lurking for a while. Howdy!

I saw American Psycho about five performances before it closed. I've seen video of a preview performance and confirmed with the cast member who played Detective Kimball at the stage door that a major plot point was completely changed before opening.

A spoiler for a closed/flopped show? I guess? Under the cut because it got kind of long.

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Right after Killing Time (the BW version), Patrick and his co-worker Tim Price leave whatever club their currently snorting cocaine off of toilets and find themselves on a train track (the club I think was built on or around the tracks, which was in the book). Tim has a meltdown and disappears. A few scenes later (or perhaps directly after, not certain), Patrick is seen killing a homeless man in a large overcoat. 

This is where the preview and freezed show differ. In the version that closed, this was just a random homeless man also played by the Kimball actor in a double casting (like Alice Ripley's three roles). In the previews, it was closer to the book in both what actually happened and what is implied: the homeless man IS Tim Price. Not just played by the same actor. 

But it's not as simple as that either, which is where it gets complicated and significantly alters the course of the plot (or at least Patrick Bateman's overall sanity). Patrick recognizes the homeless man as Tim Price, stabs him anyway. Act One passes by, and "December slips into January, which mutates into February," and Tim Price is still missing (though his friends other than Patrick are only vaguely aware and mention it in passing), but then Tim apparently invites Patrick and Evelyn, his girlfriend, to his house in the Hamptons (or maybe Evelyn has the key because they're having an affair, which is intentionally unclear). He doesn't show up during this Hamptons sequence, but the audience is supposed to be thinking "Patrick killed this guy and they don't know it". 

But then when he gets back and eventually makes his phone call to his lawyer, he is in his office and in walks Tim Price himself! He's been off gallivanting, and Patrick is flabbergasted. Did he dream killing Price, or did Price survive and knows Patrick is killing people? If it was really Price, why was he homeless? Is it an indictment of the lecherous capitalist system that pauperizes those brave enough to leave it? Or is there something else going on? 

This whole subplot ends with Tim Price singing the harrowing "Don't You Want Me" amongst a pack of aggressive NY dancers and some of his victims, in another nameless club to Patrick's mental breakdown, as if in a taunt. This comes directly after it is revealed by Detective Kimball that he DEFINITELY saw Paul Owen (who Patrick brutally murdered to Huey Lewis and the News in his apartment) in London alive and well. 

Personally I think that the change to a random homeless man eliminates an entire layer of existential meaning from the work, and it also deviates further from the novel. In the novel you're actually not quite sure if, since the book opens with Tim Price staring up at the "ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE" sign, that it's not an elaborate daydream and Tim is his alter ego, or perhaps Tim is going through the EXACT same mental breakdown Patrick is because the book spends so much time making sure we know EVERYONE is exactly alike in all things even though they try to be different, or if Tim got out of the cyclical rut and he rejoins the main characters only after he has been metaphorically "killed" by Patrick and... 

There's just a lot of meaning that is totally erased there and I'm disappointed they didn't keep it in, as it would have made the book of the musical that much tighter and its themes more... pronounced, if not totally clear since the whole show is an existential fever dream to begin with. 

Man I really miss this show. :/

Updated On: 7/20/18 at 05:25 PM

[Loopin’theloop]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 7:24am

haterobics said: "Nearly all of them?"

Unfortunately, not true anymore.

[mamaleh]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 8:47am

If I remember correctly, WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN  originally began with a song sung by Sherie Rene Scott's character in a recording studio.  You had no idea who she was.  After previews, when I returned for a second look, they wisely began the show with Danny Burstein's savvy cabbie singing "Madrid is my mama," effectively establishing place and tone.  I thought it a great improvement, even though I loved the show (an unpopular opinion) in both iterations.  

[j.t15]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 6:17pm

Hamilton was changed very many times.