"Side Show" Preview Thread- Page 4

[PookieThrowaway]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 12:34pm

Went to the show last night. Very underwhelming with a lot of one-dimensional characters.

What saved the show was the sheer talent of the Davie and Padgett. Louis does an incredible job of providing a strong masculine role.

There's little to no character development.

Come for the costumes and novelty, stay for the voices, go home somewhat disappointed.

[Diva_Dom]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 2:10pm

"I'm going to be that guy.. Was there a window card available?"

Yes there was! The picture is the one of them facing backwards with the lights etc. this is also the marquee and playbill! There are shirts too

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 2:25pm

I was there last night and it was a bit of an odd experience. I'm very familiar with the original cast recording but I have never seen the show. I enjoyed myself, but I also felt that after waiting to see the show for so long I wasn't really watching what I had fallen in love with years ago. The thing that makes the evening even remotely exciting are the performances of Erin Davie and Emily Padgett, who are both lovely and sound gorgeous together. The new material that's been inserted into the score is, for the most part, inferior to what it replaced; at best it's a lateral move. I was particularly disappointed that they excised "We Share Everything"; the juxtaposition of that song with "Leave Me Alone" works incredibly well on the recording (and I'm imagining it worked well in the theater as well), and it's a much more exciting song than the one that's replaced it.

"More Than We Bargained For" was also sorely missed, for the reasons already stated. It felt like they tried to refocus the show around the twins' backstory, but the flashback sequence felt very long and very at odds with the rest of the first act. Their relationships with the men aren't really fleshed out at all until the second act, and I think by then it's too little, too late. It also doesn't help that the stage is mostly empty and the lighting is very dark. The space is too big for the show they want to have. Matthew Hydzik and Ryan Silverman sing incredibly well, and I thought "Private Conversation" was very powerful but it comes so late in the show that it doesn't have the effect it should.

The second act felt much stronger and more solid. There was a lot less new material there (though I wish they had kept "Tunnel of Love" as it was because the new lyrics are not particularly great...I can't even really remember what they were about, to be honest, but at least that melody is still there), and the pace is much quicker and there isn't as much dwelling on what the twins were doing before they got to the side show.

All of that said, I did enjoy myself. The pieces of the score that remain intact are thrilling, and I wish the new material equaled it (or that they just hadn't edited so much). I definitely want to revisit it, but I can't imagine this lasting long. The marketing has been really poor, and I don't think they'll get the kind of glowing reviews they'll need to survive in that big house for long. It's a shame because I think it deserves better.

[gleek4114]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 2:26pm

Now I'm gonna be that guy:

Dad anyone go to the stage door?

[gleek4114]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 2:35pm

Can someone tell me when they separate? I did not see it.
Side Show "We Share Everything" Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

[goldenboy]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 3:58pm

I loathed the original and am very hesitant to try again.
A TDF ticket however is enticing me.

Thoughts?

[ggersten]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 4:28pm

They separate at 2:44 of the Macy's video.
But even in these OBC clips, they don't always "stick" together - when they are sitting down.


OBC clips Updated On: 10/29/14 at 04:28 PM

[macnyc]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 4:47pm

I cribbed this from the other bulletin board. Incredible photos! I love that the photographer just posed the actors in the back alley.





Wall Street Journal: Curiosities Shine in Updated On: 10/29/14 at 04:47 PM

[HSky]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 5:00pm

gleek4114, It was a very appreciative but not too crazy crowd at the stage door - although a few people deep, the barricades set up weren't very long, although I've never waited at the St. James before to know if that's the usual setup. Erin Davie and Emily Padgett were happy to pose for joint photos and even apologetic about standing on the "wrong" side.

I'll have to wait to type something up in full until I get home tonight after an NT Live showing, but I generally concur with what's been written re: Terry and Buddy losing character development in the current staging.

[brucebossa]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 5:56pm

goldenboy: your use of the word LOATHE makes me think you should pass. Someone who loathes something and goes back may be a bit masochistic. But if you can keep an open mind to a new interpretation, take the ticket. I just think you may loathe the idea of the show and that will not change.

Updated On: 10/29/14 at 05:56 PM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 8:01pm

Worth noting, after but one preview: those who didn't see the original had a significantly different, and almost entirely positive, experience of the show. That's the trend to track in the weeks ahead. For all my personal obsessions with comparisons, I do see the commercial reality: most people showing up at the St. James will be going on the SIDE SHOW journey for the very first time, even those who may have heard two of the numbers.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 9:36pm

From the sounds of it they're doing a lot of work to make us care about the two girls. I think we're inherently interested and want to know their story, but I think cutting the boy's backstory just lessens the overall story because now we just don't care? And the flashbacks sound silly.

[RaisedOnMusicals]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 9:47pm

Auggie27 is exactly right. Two posts up.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 9:56pm

I was in the front row last night and I pretty much loved it. Getting to the rush line at 8:30 put me in seat 109, which was perfect. The freaks are genuinely scary up that close.

The first act is by far the stronger half of the show. The new songs mostly serve to give backstory, but there has been a lot of work done to give us a stronger, more complicated sense of the characters we already know. It's most notable with Terry. He comes off more strongly as a villain in this version, which I thought was weakened by keeping Private Conversation. (I'm biased since I've always hated the song. It got one of the strongest ovations of the night.) I'd forgotten how sad the show is - I've never particularly liked Say Goodbye to the Freak/Side Show but it had me in tears last night. Daisy and Violet's new "performance" songs - Typical Girls Next Door and Ready to Play - are lots of fun. I was happy to see that a lot of the lyrics that bother me on the cast recording have been blessedly changed.

I'm also selfishly happy that Leave Me Alone isn't gone, even if We Share Everything got the axe. Act two is pretty love-ballad heavy but it doesn't become too monotonous thanks to One Plus One Equals Three. Good Lord, this song is doing a hell of a lot more work in this incarnation. Rather than being just an olio for Buddy it's been turned into a really horrifying exploitation of Violet's wedding night. It makes the humiliation Daisy feels a lot more palpable.

I don't care too much that Tunnel of Love is gone, at least partially. The melody has been given to a chorus of Texans anticipating the wedding. I'm not too sure it needs to stay, but I know it will. I know I'm being cynical but I just see it as a the composer keeping a fan favorite even if it doesn't work too well in this new (far superior) version.

Side note: As a "Freaks" fan I was absolutely delighted to see the entire cast of characters appear in the show's final moments. :)

And I didn't think the flashback was silly at all.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 10:09pm

^^There's a fresh and compelling take on the revisal. Thank you. I still want to know how well "Ready to Play" lands. It's survived La Jolla and DC, and replaces one of the established showstoppers, "We Share Everything." (Not apocryphal. It did. Every single time I saw the show, it was one of the highlights, house ovations, and applause -- I swear -- in the middle. Now it's gone, even the melody, and as Whizzer noted it has some of the gifted Mr. Russell's most inspired lyrics. Baffled.) For it to be in the show, it must be catchy and clever in ways I haven't read about. Anyone care to say more about this number? It's still my big question mark, again, because it replaced a number that worked like gangbusters. Mystifying, but it must have some inherent benefit and rewards.

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 10/30/14 at 2:20am

I was there tonight and loved it too. While the original had wonderful moments, I think this version is a vast improvement in just about every area. The storytelling is much stronger and I think allows for a greater emotional impact, especially at "I Will Never Leave You."

Re: "Ready to Play," the number accomplishes something important that "We Share Everything" did not -- it signals the twins' sexual liberation. With the new flashback and the trial scene, a lot more is made of their near-imprisonment by Sir, the side show owner, and their efforts to win their freedom. As in Cabaret and other concept musicals, the song serves a dual purpose as a performance number and a key character moment, a kind of re-branding of themselves as women in control of their sexuality. In general I thought their sexuality was handled in a more sophisticated way (and along those lines I'm happy to see "Tunnel of Love" gone).

I also think Terry and Buddy are far more compelling characters than they were originally. Terry is now an outcast from the NY vaudeville scene, and is covering up how desperately he needs a break under a lot of bravado. His feelings for Daisy develop more gradually, and the new plot development (SPOILERISH) -- Terry tells the twins he can have them separated by doctors, which creates a big conflict between Daisy and Violet -- makes him much more active in his desire to hold on to his status as "normal." There's some nice tension between Terry and Buddy over Buddy's homosexuality, which is treated as an open secret by many of the characters, and then a great moment in the final group scene when Terry's fears finally get the better of him. I don't think he's portrayed as a villain, more as someone sitting on a lot of insecurity, and Ryan Silverman does a lovely job.

Buddy's struggle here is also moving, because in spite of the obvious obstacle to his and Violet's happiness in this version, his love for her is authentic, and Matthew Hydzik conveys that well in Act 2. With all of that in there, I don't miss "More Than We Bargained For," which had Buddy reporting events happening off-stage; the revisions allow us to spend more time watching the budding relationships develop among the four of them rather than hearing about it (one good example is a really charming brief sequence with the men getting the twins ready for their trial). Bland might have described Buddy and Terry in the original, but I think the characters really come into sharp focus here.

[Kavana]

Posted: 10/30/14 at 2:53am

This is going to be an interesting run. You're either going to love it or hate it, no in between. I just wish Bill Condon had stayed away from it. This current show should have been tried off-Bway first.

[mikem]

Posted: 10/30/14 at 7:10am

In terms of Tony eligiblity, it's a little unwise to rely too much on precedent because Tony history is extremely inconsistent, but in the past for Best Score, the percentage of new material (defined as "newly written for this Production") was done by time (ie, using a stopwatch), and a new lyric over old music counted as "new." So, I'm expecting Side Show will be eligible.

Last year, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice were Tony nominees for Best Score, although I don't think either of them wrote anything specifically for the stage musical of Aladdin. So, either the entire score of Aladdin was nominated once it passed the 50% mark, or they counted trunk songs and whatnot as "newly written for this Production."

I don't think Side Show will end up being nominated for Best Score, though, unless the competition in that category ends up being extremely weak. I think its prior nomination in that category will hurt it. I don't think any show has ended up getting nominated for Best Score or Best Book in 2 different years.

[After Eight]

Posted: 10/30/14 at 7:17am

"The storytelling is much stronger and I think allows for a greater emotional impact, especially at "I Will Never Leave You." "

Just the opposite.

The flashback was a big mistake. It stops the show's narrative flow dead in its tracks, and it never fully recovers thereafter. In fact, all of the changes amounted to one giant mistake.The overall emotional impact is far less than in the original.

The new songs are nondescript, and far inferior to the ones that were cut.

Too bad, really.

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 10/30/14 at 7:38am

I am so looking forward to seeing this tomorrow night. I'm going to do my best to watch it with an open mind and do my best not to compare it to the original. Which others have mentioned can be very difficult.
I am not sure how many of you know, but the same day as the first preview of Side Show they released the documentary of the sisters called "Bound by Flesh". I watched it last night. I highly recommend it. Watching this documentary my heart truly broke for these sisters. There was so much about their lives they could not possibly put into the musical. Some facts I did not know...if you're looking at the sisters Violet is actually on the left and Daisy the right. Not sure in this production, but the original had them opposite. Violet at one point married, but it was a publicity stunt. The guy was gay, but of course at that time it was all closeted. Daisy had a baby out of wedlock. It was a boy which she immediately put up for adoption. She eventually was the one who married Buddy who they met in vaudeville. They never consummated the marriage as he was gay too. Their goddaughter is interviewed in the documentary and she jokes that they seemed to be attracted to gay men. In the end they died penniless. The Hong Kong flu took their lives. They believe Daisy died 2 to 4 days before Violet when they found them on the floor in their room.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 10/30/14 at 7:59am

Thank you, Governor, for that solid, clear explication of "Ready to Play." I finally get it. In act one, the show previously offered a series of numbers that all more or less expressed the same sentiments, various spins on side/double/sharing. Clever twinning wordplay without movement, without building a portrait. Nothing new was accomplished by "We Share Everything" other than presenting a solid, catchy (brilliantly staged) number. In other words, what was there was, say, "The Act," and what's there now is (as you opine), "Cabaret." The lyrics and presentational aspects of numbers must illuminate and annotate as much as merely replicate vaudeville or any other show biz milieu. Got it, thank you.

Updated On: 10/30/14 at 07:59 AM

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 10/30/14 at 12:13pm

I would have liked to have seen this .. but since the rush tickets are only for people under 30, I guess I won't.

[macnyc]

Posted: 10/30/14 at 12:34pm

I wish it was a general rush. Maybe producers will move to that as time goes by.
Updated On: 10/30/14 at 12:34 PM

[RippedMan]

Posted: 10/30/14 at 1:16pm

The flashback sounds like a horrible idea.

And yeah they needed a new director. Someone with an outside eye.

[Patash]

Posted: 10/30/14 at 1:47pm

Can't wait to see it in a few weeks. I've never seen the show. I've never listened to the album. I know almost nothing about it. Nearly all the posts here are people comparing the old to the new. I'm SO glad I won't be doing that, but observing what to me will be a NEW musical and simply assessing how it stands on its own.