Shows that REALLY Took Advatage of Their NYC Previews?/Shows that Didn't?

[gleek4114]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 1:33pm

I've been wanting to make this thread for awhile, but have lately been a bit busy. What shows do you think took great advantage of their preview period and which shows didn't. A lot of people feel that shows don't really use their in-town preview periods to fix book/lyric/story problems, and I was curious as to what shows DID fix or try to fix things in the time allotted. Also vice versa, what shows were doomed from the start and never tried to change? As for the former, I recall Women on the Verge making a TON of changes during previews. Any others? What did they change exactly?

[Pootie2]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 2:07pm

Funny, I was thinking about posting a thread just like this (useful/useless preview periods). Someone posted in the Allegiance preview thread that they've never been explicitly asked for their opinion via questionnaire, so I take it the vast majority of creatives exercise only passive observation at their previews. That seems a waste, though getting the "right kind" of feedback is obviously a gamble too. Which also makes me wonder, has anyone seen a show that they felt got WORSE after the preview period?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 2:11pm

Going back awhile, Legs Diamond was basically rewritten. It did not help.

 

More recently, Spiderman made vast improvements. Problem was the show was doomed to failure no matter what they did.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 2:12pm

I thought Spider-Man got worse after previews, but there were a lot of previews...

[jen_in_toronto]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 2:17pm

I saw a Spider-man preview when the Geek Chorus was still included...the rest of the show was still crap but at least they got rid of those characters.

Saw a preview of Fool for Love a couple of weeks ago and Sam Shepard and Patti Smith were sitting at the back with the creative team.

[Broadway Bob*]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 3:19pm

TITANIC was a show that used their preview period perfectly! I saw the second preview and the show was an almost complete mess. Major book problems, a set that didn't work right, music not fully orchestrated. By the time the show opened they had made such immense improvements the show went from being the town joke to a Tony winning Best Musical! It was a truly amazing thing to observe throughout the process.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 3:24pm

Not to mention that Casey Nicholaw has proven to take very good advantage of his shows during previews. Like how he kept re-working Aladdin every single day until opening night on Broadway. Even how he was able to use the limited time he had during previews for Something Rotten!

[ARTc3]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 3:25pm

I too thought that Spider-man was on track to improve during its extensive preview period. Then they fired Ms. Taymor and the reboot was absolutely dreadful. The show went from confusing > to becoming clearer and more in focus > to an utter bore.

[mikem]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 3:28pm

The Motherf----r with the Hat started out the preview period with generally negative word of mouth, but ended up getting very strong reviews and lots of Tony noms.  That was a world premiere opening cold on Broadway.  Women on the Verge (also a world premiere) made a lot of changes, but the early word of mouth was horrible.  

 

Spider-Man 2.0 was "better" than Spider-Man 1.0 in terms of being more coherent, but Spider-Man 1.0 was much more interesting to watch.  Spider-Man 2.0 was very bland.

 

Not exactly the same, but I think Fun Home was better at the Public than on Broadway (I know I am in a very small minority about that one).

[phan24]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 4:39pm

Apart from the in-the-round aspect, Fun Home did not change dramatically, only one song 'Al for Short' was replaced with 'Party Dress', but its book is pretty much identical. And put me in the group of people that much prefer it in the round!

[darquegk]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 4:57pm

The original Spider-Man 1.0 was a fascinating mess, while the revised one was just a dull one. But the Geek Chorus, from what I've heard, left the show not because they didn't work, but because the characters and their subplot were lifted pretty closely, bordering on plagiarism, from a famous set of recurring DC Comics characters who discuss the varying mythologies of Batman, Superman etc. 

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 6:16pm

Broadway Bob mentioned Titanic

 

We were to see an early preview. Got a call from Ticketmaster the show was cancelled for that performance. Problem was it really was unsinkable as they could not get it to sink. 

[Kwong3]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 9:07pm

Bullets on Broadway was always awful

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 9:10pm

Disagree

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 9:17pm

Kwong3 said: "Bullets on Broadway was always awful"

 

I completely disagree. I saw the first preview and absolutely adored the show.

 

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 9:19pm

Mr. Roxy, how kind of you to recall LEGS DIAMOND, since I remember fondly those endless days backstage at the Mark Hellinger in the service of a show that could never get very good no matter how many scenes were thrown out, or how many ways we reworked the movement of the scenery. At the time, we had convinced ourselves that we were making a latter-day GUYS AND DOLLS, but Peter Allen was clearly no Frank Loesser. If any show should have had an out-of-town tryout, God knows that show was it.

[ozjust4]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 9:34pm

I am convinced that during previews for the show "Wonderland", they eventually ran out of time before opening, so they just left the show as is. It's a shame, the music was so wonderful, but the second act felt like a rough draft.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 9:43pm

Free

 

Could an infinite amount of time  have helped Legs or was it just a misconceived idea from the beginning?

Updated On: 10/9/15 at 09:43 PM

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 9:56pm

Not to threadjack, but the death knell sounded on LEGS DIAMOND the day they fired lovely Christine Andreas and cut her whole girlfriend subplot, leaving the only love story between Peter Allen and the glorious but elderly Julie Wilson. No love story-- no show. And without a strong leader like a Mike Nichols/Arthur Laurents/ Tommy Tune, there was no-one to steer the foundering ship, not Harvey Fierstein, not the ineffectual director of record, Robert Alan Ackerman, and certainly not poor Peter Allen who was still performing the damn show 8 times a week.

 

One day, someone might do well to look at the original script and score from BEFORE the draconian preview cuts began-- I think there's actually a decent show there.

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 10:03pm

If/Then redesigned the entire start of the show to clarify the bifurcated narrative (I would say potentially too far), but they really spent a lot of cycles trying to make sure as many people were on the same journey with them as possible.

 

Although, from what I understand, that isn't new for them and N2N was also very fluid throughout previews as well? But that is for someone else to unpack. I wasn't living here then and saw it well into its run.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 10/9/15 at 10:31pm

Next to Normal made the majority of their changes between Second Stage and Arena. There were a few small changes between Arena and Broadway and during Broadway previews. The ones I remember are changing Natalie's verse in "Just Another Day" and changing Gabe's age when he died from 18 months to 8 months, both of which happened between Arena and Broadway. There was also originally an unnecessary crib that descended from the ceiling somewhere in the music box scene that was cut very early in Broadway previews.