Saw the second preview and it was nice to see the show with the changes for Broadway after seeing this show in London 6 times...
The show is now tighter and runs smoother. The characters are more like in the movie now, which is nice especially when it comes to the character of Sister Mary Lazarus - the role was awful in London!
Some of the biggest changes are (a possible spoiler alert!!):
* Mother Superior's short opening monologue is gone
* "Take me to heaven" is now the song Deloris sings in AUDITION to perform in Shank's club instead of singing it in the club to an audience. The song itself hasn't been changed really, though.
* "Fabulous baby" has been trimmed and tightened with all/most of Deloris's back-up singers' comments ("There she goes, "Baby, what ever you're sniffing, I want me some!" etc.) are gone, the song's more Deloris's solo now
* "How I got the calling" is now "It's good to be a nun", only Sister Mary Robert's part has remained the same
* "Here within these walls" has now a section with Deloris singing in counterpoint
* "Do the sacred mass" is gone, the bar scene is shorter and tighter and better
* Act II begins with a new spoken scene instead of "Sunday morning fever" opening the Act
* "Sunday morning fever" has the dialogue sections re-written, unfortunately they're more horrible now!!
* Mother Superior has a new solo song, "Haven't got a prayer"
* a lot of the dialogue before the song in "Bless our show" scene has been cut
* "Here within these walls" reprise is gone
* the chase/fight scene in the abbey has been re-staged and works now better
There's been also a lot of changes to the dialogue throughout the show, but the basic ideas of the scenes have remained intact. They've also made some changes to the sets, costumes and choreography.
"The life I never led" has a higher ending than in London, now it ends with a big, high note, though it isn't as high as on OLCR's reprise's last note, that one you won't hear in the Broadway score - at least at the moment... The reprise of the song is cut/interrupted before Mary Robert can hit the last big note.
"Raise your voice" has been kept pretty much intact, the idea of showing passing of time wasn't Zack's idea, it was already there in the original London production which was directed by Peter Schneider.
"Take me to heaven" reprise hasn't been changed much, it's pretty much the same you hear on the OLCR.
They've made so many changes (big or small) to the score that my guess is that we will have an OBC recording.
Updated On: 3/27/11 at 06:53 AM
