Saw this tonight from the last row of the Mezz. Not a bad seat, but everyone was leaning forward, and I'm 6'2", and I was on the edge of my seat with great posture just to see the edge of the stage. My back was hurting at intermission.
That said, I thought the show was good, but not great. I think it could have benefitted from an out-of-town tryout or a longer preview period. The first 30mins of the show are brilliant. The songs are fun and catchy and the big "this is a musical" moment is brilliant and hilarious. Then the show sort of retreads on itself. The story is a little muddled, so not sure how this is a shoo-in for Best Book. Most of the jokes are in the music, not the book. And the 2nd is a doozy. There are no good songs, and not really any jokes. There's a few chuckles, but it's all stuff we've already seen. I like Nicholaw as a director, but this all feels like a retread. We get it, there's tapping. And it's your big showstopper moment. But instead of getting it once, we get it like 3 times. And every time it's basically the same costume and basic setup. A show shouldn't have that many "showstopper" moments. And all of the Bard's songs are awful. That "It's hard" song in Act 2 was just plain terrible. They sort of abandoned singing all together in Act 2 and just did this speak-sing-rap type thing.
James as Nick Bottom was good. I thought he held his own and was in beautiful voice. I wish they had given him more moments to sing. He didn't really have a big "I Want" song or a big 11 o'clock number, which is what I was hoping for. He was good, but I can't imagine he's a shoo-in for a Tony. Ceveris in Fun Home is just remarkable.
John Cariani as Nigel was the stand-out for me. I thought he was hilarious and honest. It didn't feel forced, and his voice is really quite beautiful and fragile. I just thought he was the heart of the show, and really ran with his character. He was "too cute" I'd say.
Borle was fine, but I don't think he was given the best material. None of his stuff really made me laugh. His big songs just got mild applauses like "we appreciate your effort, but eh." I think the idea for the character is quite funny, but I would have liked something more. Maybe a flashback to them when they were first starting out? I don't know. I just didn't care about his character or anything.
Blickenstaff is AWEOSME. I mean, she doesn't get much to do. Her and Reinders are kind of given crap material, but her big song is awesome. And she just kills it. Her voice soars and she just makes it all seem so easy. Again, her material felt very like THIS IS SUPPOSE TO BE FUNNY, but something was missing. But that said if she recorded the entire score with just her voice I'd buy it. I love her voice.
Ashmanskas was another highlight for me. His actual lines were pretty tired and boring, but his characterization was hilarious. Just the sly little bits he did had me cackling.
The direction felt flat to me. There wasn't any inventive staging. Everything is pretty much down center. There's not a great use of the set or anything. The jokes just felt very .... tired. Like, I feel like we've had the referential Broadway show before. When they brought out the Avenue Q puppets... it felt forced? I don't know. I just feel like he staged essentially every number to be a production number to be performed on a television broadcast. I would have liked a few more numbers of just two people talking or songs that furthered the plot along instead of stopping and doing this big tap routine. Eh. And the choreography felt like just an old bag of tricks.
The book was weakest to me. I feel like if I just sat down and read it, none of it would pop off the page. It's what the actors brought to their roles and the songs that really help the show. That said, I also feel like for whatever reason none of the actors really define their roles. I could this being done with any number of actors in their places.
The music is catchy. The opening song, Hedi's big solo, Brian's "I hate Shakespeare" are all highlights. But after about the first 45mins it all kind of felt less inspired. And Act 2 just felt abandoned completely.
The design was fine. Looked like Spamalot.
The audience ate it up, but I just wasn't overall that impressed. Granted I was around a lot of younger people, but they were laughing at literally every line.
I'm still on camp Fun Home. I've never seen a show that really made me feel that way or feel so inspired. The writing, the music, the design. It's just a slamdunk, and I hope it gets recognized.
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