So if/ then never recouped?- Page 2

[green waver]

Posted: 5/19/17 at 2:09pm

 Beautiful 's book, in addition to being simpleminded and repetitive, was riddled with historical inaccuracies. very bothersome to anyone who knows even an iota about that era in pop music. Just one example-in the second act, she gets up to sing in a club in the Village and announces she's going to play a song she just wrote-"It's Too Late". She cowrote it with Toni Stern, who's unmentioned. No reason to distort facts just to entertain.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/19/17 at 3:34pm

in the second act, she gets up to sing in a club in the Village and announces she's going to play a song she just wrote-"It's Too Late". She cowrote it with Toni Stern, who's unmentioned. No reason to distort facts just to entertain.

If I remember correctly, her friend in the band asks her to come up and join them and in doing so, asks her to sing "her new song" (or something to that effect).  I'm not sure making the distinction is completely necessary for the scene as it would require adding more backstory that really isn't that relevant.  And in the scene, it's not really distorting facts.  It sounds like something someone would say when addressing the composer regarding a song she composed, even when the lyricist isn't present, especially in such an atmosphere.  Such editing is necessary when constructing any musical biography.  There is not one musical based on true events that includes all the details.  And for the purposes of Beautiful and its story, It's Too Late is a massive hit that should be in the show, but the mention of Toni Stern would either be a passive reference with no explanation or start a tangential backstory that would start to derail the plot.  Did Toni Stern sue?  Was there a previous lawsuit that prevented mentioning Stern in the show?  How would mentioning Stern for that moment benefit the story?

At any rate, I don't think Beautiful's book is a solid piece of writing nor did I find the show remarkable outside the performance of the lead (I saw Abby Mueller on tour).  But I could understand why it may have been nominated for the Tony over If/Then.  Neither held a candle to Gentleman's Guide, anyway, so the point is moot.

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/19/17 at 3:47pm

If/Then was my favorite score of the shows nominated. I don't judge by "hummable" songs but I was humming it at intermission and at the end of the show. I listened to it a lot for about 6 months after the recording was released and this thread is making me put it back into rotation!

[RippedMan]

Posted: 5/19/17 at 5:02pm

These are all moot points. One is a massive, worldwide hit. The other is not. I'm not sure if If/Then will even do well regionally. It's a rough show. I was bored out of my mind when I saw it. I wouldn't mind seeing a different staging. I don't think the staging helped it by any means.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 5/19/17 at 6:36pm

If/Then is one of the rare shows that people on BWW seems to dislike or even hate but one that I truly enjoyed. It did not have the best score ever but I thought the score was serviceable to decent and with some strong songs. I saw it with a bunch of other people in mid twenties and early 30s from law school/starting their career we all really enjoyed the book and characters. We thought some of the lines were hilarious like how Liz went to a protest of a construction that she was going to be the head of. Some of us activist types who were considering firm jobs found that incredibly funny as the line about the protestors being represented by law students as many of us were in law school clinics representing clients. We also didn't find it confusing either. I mean I can see how people would be confused by it but I thought the execution made it pretty clear what was going on.

In other words, the show might have had a specific audience and I'm sure the creators didn't mean for the show to have that limited of an appeal.

Updated On: 5/19/17 at 06:36 PM

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 11:04pm

LYLS3637 said: "I think the show can work. I hope Brian Yorkey continues to tinker with it going forward. Give me an ambitious, imperfect musical over stale movie adaptions and cliched jukebox musicals any day. 

 

I still think it's a travesty BEAUTIFUL was nominated for Best Musical (And Best Book?!? Ugh) over IF/THEN. 

 

"

I don't think Brian Yorkey's book was the problem; it was the bland unmemorAble score.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 11:40pm

No, IF/THEN was not a perfect show, or even a half-brilliant near-miss. But it had one thrilling element that all those other popular adaptions from page or screen filling Broadway theaters today lack: it had a plot that could surprise me all night long, a sensation that happens so rarely in theater anymore. I've come to enjoy the score as accompaniment to my half-hour daily jog on a fairly regular basis. And, yes, I thought the show worked just as well with Jackie Burns when I saw her on the tour in Atlanta, as it had when I first saw Idina in NY. I give the show a solid B-- countless shows still running deserve much worse.