Posted: 4/3/15 at 11:52am
Im happy you enjoyed it Mr. Roxy! Looking forward to seeing this one. Do you mean Corey from Gigi?
Posted: 4/3/15 at 12:00pm
Yes. I did not know the correct spelling as I am not familiar with him so I took a guess.
Posted: 4/3/15 at 2:42pm
The SR marketing team is on the case! Pretty funny! Don't miss the Playbill article about the musical Rats.
Updated On: 4/3/15 at 02:42 PM
Posted: 4/3/15 at 3:16pm
It makes sense to start to market heavily before you open. Honeymoon's was piss poor from day 1. By the time they changed marketing team, it was to little to late. In addition, the marketing here is some of the best I have ever seen.
Posted: 4/3/15 at 5:45pm
Has anyone seen the show during the first week and returned since that could comment on any changes being made?
Hoping that they iron out some of the kinks, and I believe that they could!
Posted: 4/4/15 at 12:18am
The theater experts on this board have already said it all, so I'll just add....
WOW!!!!
Magical. Perfect. Buying another ticket right now before it becomes impossible.
Updated On: 4/4/15 at 12:18 AM
Posted: 4/4/15 at 11:54am
Saw it last night. It's not Something Rotten...It's Something Clever. And that's not always good.
First off Casey Nicolaw is a master director-choreographer-stager. I think he can take any property and make it campy theatrical tongue in cheek fun. It's what he does best. I don't think this musical would have a chance of success without his sharp eye, guidance, choreography and innate humor. I see his hand strongly in the success of Book of Mormon, Alladin, Spamalot, Drowsy Chaperone and even Elf!!!
I thought the parts of Something Rotten were better than the whole. The show didn't come to life until Brad Oscar came out and sang "A musical." This is one of the best showstopping numbers I've ever seen. The best show stopper since Bonnie Franklin wowed us with Applause in Applause. The song is a love letter to the Musical.The problem? The rest of the musical pails by comparison. And I kept wanting Brad Oscar/ Nostradamus to come back. (I predict a Tony win for him)
The show is tongue in cheek to theatre people. People are loving it on here because they are theatre people. Theatre people love it because it has references to Falstaff, Toby Belch from Twelfth Night, Shylock, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. It also references every hit musical every produced. And the references are very clever. But will the average theatre goer get it? I'm not sure. We theatre people are in on the joke. Will the average theatregoer be?
While I admired it, I was not ever involved in the story. I was always distant from it thinking "isn't that clever" and at certain point wishing the Saturday Night Live type plot was over. I didn't find it involving
The show's purpose is to entertain, be clever and it succeeds to an extent but I kept thinking why am I watching this? What is the point? That Shakespeare was a crook? That Shakespeare was a rock star? To be true to yourself which didn't even pan out for the Bottom brothers?
The cast was first rate but I think the show a mixed bag of Shakespeare and Musical Theatre tricks. The critics will either love it for is cleverness or see it as overly clever. I fall in the latter category.
As for the marketing team, I for once agree with Mr. Roxy. They are doing an amazing job. Giving seats away at reasonable prices for the previews was genius. The marketing material made me laugh out loud and want to see it. The Honeymoon In Vegas Producers should learn how to market a show from the Something Rotten producers and marketers. I enjoyed Honeymoon more than this but the marketing sank Honeymoon. This marketing is new and fresh and is a hell of a lot better than Honeymoons and they can sell the show on Brad Oscar's show stopping number alone on the Tony's.
A friend of mine in the cast said they are adding and tweaking on a daily basis. He told me that they just put in the finale yesterday (Friday April 3) The second act, I suspect is much tighter than the early poster's reviews. It's nice to know that they are working on Something Rotten on a daily basis.
Updated On: 4/4/15 at 11:54 AM
Posted: 4/4/15 at 11:13pm
Tweaking is not going to do it. It needs some major cutting and rewrites to get the show where it needs to be. Tweaking!? A month of previews and they tweak? Sorry, but that says a lot about the director's abilities. The show is fun, but it could be a special, funny musical along the lines of Forum, but it's not -- at least not in its present state.
Posted: 4/4/15 at 11:48pm
Saw it tonight! I've been in LOVE with the advertising (so funny!), and honestly I was expecting the show to be completely that kind of humor. So when it was not, I was a little let down. It's like when the trailers are better than the movie. However, I still enjoyed myself. Christian Borle is a god.
I think this will be a hit. But I have no desire to go back and see it again. I agree with goldenboy that it seeks to entertain, and it does that well. But beyond that, there's not much there. It's similar to Spamalot yes, but I liked Spamalot much more. Plus when Spamalot made fun of musicals, it was relatively original. This is just copying the formula of self referential musicals that Urinetown, Spamalot, Xanadu, Drowsy and Book of Mormon created/refined, without adding anything particularly new.
I expected the second act to drag, but I thought it was about as tight as the first? Maybe they have been making improvements.
Serious question though- is "Lovely Love" supposed to be earnest? Or a joke? Because the lyrics are so bad, I thought it had to be a joke- the la la la DO DO DO? So I was laughing? But the audience was not at all? Either they need to make it full on earnest (which doesn't seem to fit the show at all), or they need to make it clearer that it is a parody.
Posted: 4/5/15 at 12:01am
I have not laughed that hard in some time. Brilliant.
Posted: 4/5/15 at 12:39am
Saw this and Fun Home within 24 hours of each other this weekend. I really enjoyed Rotten, and thought the beginning was genuinely funny. Then it just gets stupid funny - which is fine none the less, but it was not Book Of Mormon level comedy the whole time. I would compare this to Kinky Boots, except I believe Kinky Boots to have a lot more heart at its core. However, I do think this score may actually be better then Kinky.
Unless the Tony voters feel like the owe a debt, Fun Home is the true best musical out of the two...you simply can't argue it.
Posted: 4/5/15 at 1:41am
I've been following BWW threads for a while and finally decided to make an account, so hello world.
I saw the show last Friday (as in the 27th) and the audience ate everything up. It was almost too much, like an incessant laugh track - I got some good, real laughs out of this, but others seemed a tad overenthusiastic. Overall an incredibly enjoyable night. Best part was watching the cast take in all the applause.
I found act one to be memorable and spot on. My only complaint is that some scenes seemed to go on too long, like Will Power. A Musical was fine being as long as it was because it was wonderful, but I also felt Bottom's Gonna Be On Top seemed long-winded, though I appreciated the tap battle. The Black Death number was another highlight.
As for act two, the Puritan number should be the first thing to go. It does nothing to advance the plot and the same sentiments could have been expressed in a few lines of dialogue, or a smaller musical number. Act two felt muddled. I believe someone in a previous post mentioned that you never feel that there are any real stakes. I absolutely felt that way - Without a sense of any real conflict, there's no payoff, Omelette just happens. I wanted to have some investment in what would happen, but there's no sense of conflict. But what frustrates me is, there are stakes - *SPOILERS* the Bottoms aren't doing so hot financially, they can't even pay their rent, let alone raise a child; it's frustrating to always live in someone else's shadow and never get recognition for your work; and then there's the general conflict between Nick and Nigel's differing ambitions - I got excited when they fought at the prospect of real conflict, but then what, Nigel just goes back to working on Omelette like it's no big deal? Brothers fight, they could have made up and hugged at the end, that could have been developed more. And couldn't Bea have found out her husband spend their entire life savings before the show, rather than after and having the whole thing get resolved in 5 minutes? Heck, Omelette is Nick's show through and through, and he doesn't even seem to believe in it much. *END SPOILERS*
Sorry, this post is so long. Cast was fabulous, especially Brian d'Arcy James and Brad Oscar. I look forward to seeing, or at least reading about, any changes that are made prior to opening. Could anyone speak to the changes that have been made since the first week, in particular the new finale?
Posted: 4/5/15 at 9:21am
I saw it last weekend, and I have to agree with Goldenboy's evaluation above. It was clever, first act much better than the second act, and I'm not sure the Shakespeare and musical references will get through to a more general audience. At least when I attended the show, there was a boatload of what looked like high school theatre/drama students, because they got all the references and gave the production a lot of energy.
I also loved Christian Borle, and I thought the energy dropped a little when he left the stage.
But at least it's original, and not a jukebox musical.
Posted: 4/5/15 at 12:54pm
The jokes will go over just fine. They're being delivered with a wink, a nod, a big point and a giant lit "THIS IS A THEATRE JOKE!" sign.
Posted: 4/5/15 at 2:31pm
Does anyone know if the full rehersal videos are still online anywhere? I'd love to be able to watch/listen to them again!!!
Posted: 4/6/15 at 6:25am
"you simply can't argue it."
YOU can't. Others most certainly can.
Posted: 4/6/15 at 11:37am
I have to agree with some of what's been said so far. The marketing for this has been genius.....to the point I laughed out loud. I didn't laugh out loud once in the show, so when the show itself can't live up to the marketing, I'm bound to be disappointed. I was entertained. There was some good moments, some great ensemble numbers, but on the whole it was just ok.
There was a standing ovation after A Musical. It was probably the most enjoyable number of the show, but certainly not worthy of a standing ovation IMO.
I might enjoy the show more a second time......if I decide to give it another shot.
Posted: 4/6/15 at 11:43am
There was no standing O for A Musical when I went, and I was really turned off when the cast was trying to egg the audience on, either to keep cheering or to stand up.
Posted: 4/6/15 at 11:59am
I did have a feeling that the standing ovation was a bit orchestrated/planned. I see A LOT of theater and can probably count on one hand how many standing ovations I've seen mid show. It's got to be truly phenomenal to stop a show like that, and this wasn't.
Posted: 4/6/15 at 12:57pm
I felt similarly after A Musical- the cast stands there a looong time, as if they're just waiting until the audience decides to stand. It felt unnecessary, especially since there's a little encore afterwards.
Posted: 4/6/15 at 12:59pm
There's no question "It's a Musical" begs for excessive ovation- it even asks for the inevitable kickline applause that it would get regardless.
Posted: 4/6/15 at 1:31pm
Saw this Friday evening. Wasn't overly thrilled by the whole thing.
The show is entertaining, for sure. But I mostly felt as though I was being screamed at to have fun for 2.5 hours. Every dance break seems to be pleading "ARE YOU HAVING FUN YET? ISN'T THIS CLEVER AND FUNNY AND ENTERTAINING?" By the second tap number in the first act alone, I was sort of over the begging for applause that each number seemed to turn into. The songs themselves are fine, a bit too on the nose for my taste, but sweet, with a few genuine laughs.
The cast is overall very strong, nice to see Brian d'Arcy James still flexing his comedy muscles, and he does a really nice job carrying the show. I was thoroughly charmed by John Cariani, despite his less than stellar voice I thought he was one of the people trying to add layers to the show and not just rely on the surface level humor. Borle is the real standout for me, when he's onstage he really has the audience in the palm of his hands. Brad Oscar milks every second he's onstage, and while I really didn't get the hype of the musical number, he sold it well.
Someone said earlier in the thread that this show feels very "into itself" and I think that hits the nail on the head. Every joke seems to be patting itself on the back with how clever and smart it is, when really none of them appear to be the original to me. The show is trying very hard to be Book of Mormon, but I think it lacks the overall heart that Mormon has. For all its potty humor and foul language, Mormon his on something very heartwarming by the end of the show, Something Rotten glides on the humor the whole way.
If they're truly making changes--which it seems like they are--I'll be interested to go back after opening and see the final product, but overall, I wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped to be.
Sidenote: They need to fix the sound mixing for the opening song, couldn't understand a single word anyone was saying aside from "SHAKESPEARE!"
Posted: 4/6/15 at 2:02pm
Besides final shows and opening nights (like I know Lena Hall got a few this past Saturday and that "Seize the Day" received one when Newsies opened), the only time I've ever heard of a mid show standing ovation (and got to be a part of) during a "regular" performance was Andrea Martin in "Pippin".
Posted: 4/6/15 at 2:04pm
In previews of Aladdin, "Friend Like Me" got a standing ovation. Not sure if that continues today, but to me it seemed a little staged.
Posted: 4/6/15 at 2:07pm
This is one of my nightmare shows. It was a "pre-laugh" show.
One of those where the audience feels like they need to laugh right before it happens.
There is audience protagonism as to who can laugh harder and in a more insincere manner at the jokes. Perfect for those who do in the audience what they couldn't do onstage.
I need an aspirin.
