Shows for Days Previews @ LCT

Saw the show tonight from the sides, front row. Not a bad seat, but not a great seat. A lot of it is directed very proscenium. I'm not sure if Zaks is use to a thrust, but it all felt very front and center with the cast trying to cheat out a little bit. I thought the space could have be used better, and better direction all around.

First off, the set is really beautiful. It's basically the back wall of a theatre, but it's got some great details. I just wish the designers had been given more room to show off their skills. The lights rarely change into anything different and the set is beautiful, but barely used. The sound effects were great though.

The show is written in a kind of Our Town-esque mode. Urie acts as our Stage Manager. Setting the scenes, explaining what the tape on the floor represents, moving the tables/chairs around. I don't think that idea totally worked. Most of the time he was giving us random facts about the place - what the decor looked like, that obviously wasn't there - and between lines would move tables and chairs into place. It got a little tedious after awhile. There's no dramatic tension or resolve to these monologues, so it just felt like filler.

The story is basically that of a small town community theatre and their evolution. And it's Beane's personal story, which is why it felt very masterbatory. Where as Act One last season really had a driving plot and interesting characters, this felt very slow. There was little to no momentum. We weren't sure what each scene was building upon. The characters are all fairly one note: The dumb actress, the lesbian standhand, the aging actress, the over-the-top queen actor. Only Lupone's character was really given any sort of context. There might be a really engaging story in there somewhere, and Beane writes some really hilarious quips, but Lupone has a little passage near the end where she talks about Beane's first play that he wrote for their theatre company. She said it was laugh after laugh without any heart. And I suppose this was his attempt at giving it some heart, but the "dramatic" moments felt forced and awkward. You'd be laughing at some insidery theatre joke and then the next breath he tells you how his mother died. It was very rocky, and maybe it'll take some shape during previews.

Urie is fine. He's very likeable, but he's not so great at the more dramatic moments. Lupone is given the best material and hits it out of the park. She's truly great to watch act on stage. Maybe due to her star power, but the show felt more like her story than Beane's. The rest of the cast is fine with Soules being the highlight of the rest.

I'm glad I saw it, but I keep waiting to see a Beane play where I'm really, truly laughing. There were some giggles here and there, but the real gut punchers were few and far between. There were a good bit of empty seats left after intermission.

Dave, I think I may have been misleading. I too found the play to be quite funny and laughing a good bit, but what I was trying to say was that there was just a bit too much drama/darker moments or moments of trying to teach the audience something. I think there can be quite profound things said in comedies, but here it felt like he was hitting us over the head with THIS IS A MEANINGFUL LINE or something. But that said, I laugh quite a bit, and agree that Urie was selling the interludes. I just wish the direction had helped him out a little bit. Maybe some different lighting/music? Just something.

Are the monologues part of an overall paean to community theater? It sounds like the show is an attempt to get at the art form anew, from the standpoint that amateurs are as impassioned and invested as professionals, that the art created is still art. That was how someone described it to me. I'm wondering if the digressive material (and I'm certainly not defending it, having not seen the play) is designed to illustrate and illuminate that passion among amateurs, the impetus to work as diligently as pros. That doesn't mean it should take up valuable stage time. I'm reminded that Beane was discursive at times in THE NANCE, seeing the play as a teachable moment about that era and its repressive tactics and joys. Sometimes, it was all explained a bit too much. Maybe that's one of his issues as a dramatist, that need to explicate as much as dramatize. Just an open question.

Updated On: 6/7/15 at 08:25 AM

So true, Someone. The ending felt much like the Nance Part 2. The play also had a few different endings. The ending needs to be tightened or reworked. I think having him say thank to everyone is... I don't know, not needed.

I think my real issue is that I just was expecting another show. It's called "Shows for Days" and stars Patti Luponed has a community theatre diva. I just was expecting a zany comedy on par with Little Dog Laughed, but it's more of a drama than outright comedy. There's definite humor, but the last 30mins was just all drama.

And Smaxie, I was on the front row on the side, and we had an extended scene where all 5 are at a dinner table

and facing away. It was hard to hear and we couldn't see faces. Then in Act 2 Irene and Sid are giving a speech at a gala and are standing side by side and turned into each other therefore the people on the sides couldn't see facial expressions. So while the rest of the audience is laughing at some deadpan Lupone just gave, the people on the sides are just trying to figure out what's happening. Again, all this can be easily fixed. Was just surprised at how much of it felt front and center.

Updated On: 6/7/15 at 10:03 AM

Really interesting reviews from you guys, please keep them coming! I bought linctix for the end of July

I was front row on the side and while I had my qualms with the view, it wasn't bad by any means. The whole set is basically just a big wall and they play most all of the action in the thrust. I'd say the closer you the better though.

@whizzer-

Haven't seen the show so can't comment on it but I just wanted to mention that Urie was a fine stage actor before anyone knew who he was. I saw him twice at Juilliard, and he blew everyone else off the stage (and he was in pretty fine company).

Whizzer, where were you sitting? I was there last night as well, and definitely overheard some people talking about The Grand Manner. Perhaps you were in my section.

That must have been you then! I was in the same area. How funny.

Saw this last night. It's a fine summer diversion, with some very funny one-liners and a great performance from Patti (in some wonderfully tacky 70s outfits). But, unfortunately, it just feels like a ball of one-liners. The larger themes of the show- the development and collapse of manufacturing towns seems to take the focus, inexplicably- don't cohere and the issues of town politics don't really make sense. The play should be a paean to, or at least examination of!, community theatre, but aside from some early knowing nods, it doesn't really follow that track sufficiently until the last beats of the story.

The supporting charcters of the show really are woefully undeveloped- the leading lady character especially has nothing to play but needy actress hysteria. Dale Soules is able to elevate her tired stock lesbian character above that truly dated trope (she's in work clothes! she has so many cats!), but the three other ensemble actors cannot really make it work. Whenever the focus shifts away from Patti, the seams truly show.

Urie is extremely charming and charismatic, but is mostly an observer. His role as stage manager is not very well-conceived and, honestly, keeping track of the colored marking tape indicating locations is more confusing than theatrical. Unfortunately, Douglas Carter Beane isn't a terribly interesting character to play, especially not in the shadow of LuPone's ruthless theatre owner.

The climactic final scene veers into some preachy stuff from LuPone's character, leading to a shockingly easy resolution in which some grievous sins are easily forgiven by... well, everyone. There's also a monologue from LuPone to Urie about how his writing needs heartbreak and if he settles for laughs, he'd fail. But that's so much of what this play does: settles for one liners. The dialogue is often like comic strips: two panels of setup, a third panel for the punchline- often detached entirely from what's going on.

Updated On: 6/26/15 at 09:58 AM

*potential spoiler alert*

There's some language and a sexual encounter (heard, but not seen) involving an underage character.

I agree Whizzer! I think Beane needs to stop the Beane references and it would make it more compelling and engaging. Which is maybe why Soules and Lupone's characters became more engaging as character.

I saw this last week and, overall enjoyed it, although it could absolutely use some rewrites.

My main qualm with the show is the tonal difference between the first and second acts. The first act felt like light comedy, definitely relying on stereotypes. However, the second act felt much more rooted in reality. The characters that felt somewhat two dimensional in the first act became complex humans in the second. I think the second act landed much better. I only wish the deeper character development had started blooming from the beginning. How the sequence of events unfold throughout the show feels spot on, but if we were allowed to begin to understand these characters on a deeper emotional level from the beginning, the second act would feel much more supported. I would have liked to have a better clue into why some of the characters acted (and reacted) in the way they did.

As stated by others, LuPone is absolutely the star in this. Her performance is wonderful. It’s one of those performances that you feel safe as audience member in; you know she is in control of what she is doing onstage and you can sit back and happily enjoy the ride. Urie was very endearing as well (although I thought his turn in “Buyer and Cellar” was so fantastic that, with that performance in mind. this character was a bit of a letdown knowing what Urie is capable of).

I was quite moved leaving the theatre. In fact, I left feeling a bit melancholy and somber, despite there being many funny moments throughout.

I’d love Beane to rework the show. It certainly is a little masturbatory, but I do think there is something special in there. His ability to relay the passion, education, tension, understanding, and everything else that comes along with a group of artists trying to do what they love rings true and is certainly relatable.