Something Rotten Previews- Page 8

[Robbie2]

Posted: 3/25/15 at 3:27pm

KathyNYC2
See Something Rotten & The Visit w/ your friends!

[Taryn]

Posted: 3/25/15 at 5:46pm

I thought that Borle's accent made total sense and sounded like he was aiming for one of the 60s British rockers.

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 3/25/15 at 5:49pm

"It was absolutely the wrong accent, both in terms of region and class, to make me think of Mr. Darling. I actually liked that Borle went with an accent even though no one else did."

Does he at least stick to the same accent. I love good accents but if it's just going to detract from the performance, I'd rather the actor just retire that trick. His accents can be a little sloppy. The recent Sweeney Todd with Emma Thompson comes to mind.

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 3/25/15 at 6:27pm

I was there last night and I had a great time. The first half of the show is pretty amazing - I was totally enthralled. The crowd went crazy after the musical theatre tribute number, and I was smiling from ear to ear.

HOWEVER...

The second act pretty much falls apart...

*****SPOILER ALERT... the ending basically copies the ending of PRODUCERS... and it's highly enjoyable so that is okay by me, but Heidi Blickenstaff's character (can't remember her name and my playbill is in the other room) is not flushed out at all. She goes against her own wants and it doesn't really make sense to me... She spends all of act 1 telling her husband not to spend their savings, but she she finds out he spends their savings she totally okay with it? END OF SPOILER*****


I agree that if it had gone out of town the second act could have been fixed and we actually could be looking at the next BOM... unfortunately it doesn't look like they're planning on any changes.

That being said, I still had a great time at the theatre, I laughed quite a bit... though there were MAJOR sound problems and I couldn't understand many of the words.

I hope that the laughs and inside jokes (that I admit I loved) don't give this the upper hand against FUN HOME.

Updated On: 3/25/15 at 06:27 PM

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 3/25/15 at 11:49pm

I guess I'm in the minority on this, but I was really underwhelmed with tonight's performance. It's such a clever concept, but none of the writing here works very well at all. The script is decent in Act One, but goes off the rails after intermission- there's about three too many plots trying to happen in this show. The score had a few cute numbers, but nothing really stood out to me. Yes, A Musical is a big splashy number, but there's nothing actually funny about the song. The company sings the words "A Musical" over and over and then reference a bunch of musicals. I guess it's impressive they fit in so many references, but there was nothing clever about how they were used- the big joke seems to be "Hey, remember this musical? How about this one? And this one!". It'll be a shame if this beats Fun Home for Best Score.

To the show's credit, it is staged and choreographed well, if it feels at times like Spamalot-lite. The design is perfectly serviceable, and kudos should be given to whoever decided to dress Borle and many of the men in the tightest pants they could find. The sound design needs some serious work, as most of the ensemble numbers become a loud, jumbled mess. I must have missed at least half the lyrics because I couldn't understand what was being sung. And the cast certainly gives it their all. Brian D'arcy James is working his ass off, John Cariani is adorable, and the supporting players are generally very funny. The two women are both wasted in the most boring roles in the show.

I wish the show the best, as it's a gamble to bring a brand new musical straight to Broadway, but I just don't get the appeal.

Updated On: 3/26/15 at 11:49 PM

[Robbie2]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 12:23am

Haven't seen it yet but the consensus from this board and friends of mine that saw it recently are saying that Act 1 is terribly funny and pretty much perfect but Act 2 is a mess and needs a lot of work and that the 2 ladies have nothing to do and are wasted. Do you think it can be fixed by rewriting, adding or cutting scene(s) or song(s)?

Updated On: 3/26/15 at 12:23 AM

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 12:40am

I was there tonight as well and I also don't really get the effusive praise. I didn't think it was bad, necessarily, it just isn't very good. The concept is clever and it should be much funnier than it is, but either the writers aren't skilled enough or didn't have enough time to carry it off. I thought Brian d'Arcy James, John Cariani, and Christian Borle were all excellent, but the female roles were incredibly boring and the actresses completely underused (particularly Heidi Blickenstaff, who I adore and who I wish would get better roles). "A Musical" is well-choreographed and seems exciting but I think it's kind of a case of Casey Nicholaw spinning sh*t into gold. The number really isn't funny or clever, and is actually sort of grating if you get past all the cutesy musical references. He's an adept director to be sure but the show is really beneath him and the incredibly talented cast. If this overtakes Fun Home for...basically anything at the Tonys I will be very, very disappointed.

[finebydesign]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 1:17am

The good:

-The choreography is like Mormon and Aladdin on acid and we LOVED it. Casey knows how to fill a stage and work the room.

-The supporting cast is just freaking awesome.

-The set is beautiful.

-The concept of the show isn't fresh but it is fun. I think they really need to push suspension of disbelief.

-I like a lot of the anachronisms, but there needs to be defined rules setup for these. I feel like there are so many it is hard to understand the language of the piece. It is a tonal thing really. There are songs that are unintentionally funny because of earlier jokes. There are subtle Shakespeare references that really work. Also either be self-referential or don't be. The show makes jokes about breaking into songs, but then has weird love ballads that seem like jokes.


The bad (well not so bad, it just needs work):

-They need to jettison the two ladies. Sorry! Especially Heidi Blickenstaff, I couldn't tell if it was her acting or the contrived dialogue. At the very least, all her songs need to go. Her first number about being a man feels so out of place. Everything she does feels forced and deliberate. SPOILERISH: She also breaks the theme of play and it is ironic because it solves the whole thing. The other actress is better, but her character is cartoony and unintentionally bipolar. Not complex at all.

-Here's the deal kids, those two don't even need to be there. Their arcs are limited and get in the way of the brothers (the real love story we don't get). Mormon does this very well, I wonder if Casey is try to get away from that? Anyway there is a terrible love song at some point and its very clear these emotional moments need to be tied to the brother relationship. Nobody cares at all for the husband and wife as a couple. They are already in love and that is just boring.


-There aren't really any stakes. The show meanders from production number to production. I feel like this show should be about brothers, not their love interests or fake poverty. I think a lot of tension could come from their rivalry and involvement with Shakespeare. Its so obvious where the love stories are going and it should be. The money for the show and the Jewish producer just don't add up and seem distracting.

-A lot of the ballads need to be made funny and serve actual purposes. I think there is an opportunity here to use a ballad for writing or revealing more about the insecurities of the two brothers. I don't feel like we have any.

-Axe the narrator (who is lovely btw) and start the show where it ends or the climatic cliff hanger. In general the show works too much like a predictable musical.

-Personality. This show needs to stop reminding us of things like Spamalot, Producers, Mormon. There has to be a way to give this show its own voice. Right now it is tonally off and plays like something we've all seen before.

- Theme. Ok, the theme of this show is "Be Yourself." I think the first act ignores this and the second act beats us over the head with it in not so subtle ways. The lead brother sings a song "I hate Shakespeare" fine. Hate is a wasted emotion, the song is funny, but we never explore why someone hates. Hate is fear. Fear comes from being afraid of who you are. As the famous quote goes, it is our light that scares us not the dark. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? .... There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. "

I think there is a nuanced way to better weave what "Be Yourself" means into this story and give it great meaning. The two brothers should struggle with their fears, let them get in the way, recognize and utilize their light and reunite for the ending. This should work great against the oppressive puritan leader and ego-manic Shakespeare. I think incorporating this battle of light/dark into every part of their characters will give the show a heart it is lacking. We just don't love anyone in this show at all. Well I did feel for the Jewish guy, he seemed to be really rooting for everyone pretty inexplicably. None of what I'm suggesting should be heavy handed (like the ballads are).

This show feels like a tryout. I think they really need to work on the structure, tone and theme of this show. I think rewriting and restructuring are really needed. The ballads should all just go away or be transformed into action songs. There are a lot of musical theatre conventions being abused here song-wise.





Updated On: 3/26/15 at 01:17 AM

[ramblingwreck97]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 2:05am

I saw the show tonight, the third official preview.
The show is really, really good. It's just not fantastic, at least yet.
Act 1 is really strong and Oscar and the other supporting men are also strong. The two females leads need a bit more interesting dialogue, I was bored by both plot lines. With the work that previews will give it, it will be a strong Best Musical contender in a year which I feel is very weak outside of this and Fun Home.
I would recommend taking a trip down to the St. james to buy tickets for after-opening night. This will be a hit.

Updated On: 3/26/15 at 02:05 AM

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 9:00am

Is it great? No. Will it probably win Best Musical? Yes.

The audience seemed to be rolling with laughter the entire time, but I only laughed out loud a few times.

The Kate Reinders character is completely unnecessary. I guess it's too late to cut her, but the song she has with Nigel under the bridge about how their love will overcome everything is one of the dead spots in the show and needs to be trimmed or cut completely.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 10:51am

The lead brother sings a song "I hate Shakespeare" fine. Hate is a wasted emotion, the song is funny, but we never explore why someone hates. Hate is fear. Fear comes from being afraid of who you are.

I thought we did explore that. In the next scene in his house, after his brother is asleep and his wife is gone, Nick softly reprises a line or two of "I Hate Shakespeare" where he admits that he hates Shakespeare because he is jealous of his success and talent. I forget the exact lyric, but it was something like "I hate him because I'm not him."

[little_sally]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 10:51am

I saw it last night and loved it. It's very, very funny, and the production numbers are fantastic. The plot is very thin, the second act dragged a bit, and the ending felt rushed but it was a very fun night at the theater. I do wonder how it will play to someone not familiar with musicals or Shakespeare's work.

Brian d'Arcy James is doing fantastic work, and I hope he'll get a Tony out of this. Christian Borle is also great but it's Brad Oscar who stole the show for me. Hope he's remembered come Tony nominations time.

I do agree that the women bring nothing to the show, and I think both Heidi Blickenstaff's act one number and the second act quartet should be cut (especially the quartet; it brought the show to a halt.) Otherwise I enjoyed the score. It is very catchy.

The show reminded me a lot of Spamalot (which I really enjoyed). The crowd seemed to really love it, and I think it'll be a big hit.

[forgetmenotnyc]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:38am

So interesting to see something so obviously in a true work-in-progress state. Hats were flying, chorus members could be seen standing in dark spots & in the first interior scene, a flat platform carrying a dinner table & chairs came crashing into the side of the cooking fireplace causing the supportive audience to hoop & holler at Brian d'Arcy's successfully handling of it.

On one hand you can really sense "a love letter to theatre & it's English history" yet on another hand you can see where the whole thing could sink...the fine line between success & failure, funny & rotten.

(The pessimistic part of me felt that this could be Casey Nicholaw's 'Young Frankenstein!':-o)

Sound is LOUD, tempos are fast, lyrics are lost. The stage sure seems CROWDED & I'm not sure all the distracting fog pouring out of the top of the proscenium really makes much sense with the settings but just more of a lighting enhancer. (Several times it was enough to take my focus away from discerning all that was going on.)

Just like the Bottom Brothers are searching for their ideal artistic expression, this show seems to still be doing the same. Are hoping for inspired nuggets in a show already packed w/a soothsayers lunatic bits & pieces gonna help bring more emotional heart & payoff to the book? I think I'll just STFU until I have something more positive to add.

I def. wish for the luxury to see this one again several months from now.

I certainly have hope that things will shape up nicely.

Updated On: 3/26/15 at 11:38 AM

[MegInManhattan]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:56am

I saw it last night and absolutely loved it! The dancing, the comedy, the theatre refrences, etc. Yes there were possibly too many theatre jokes, but this show is not exactly going for subtlety so it fits with the tone.

Reading comments on this board, I was expecting act 2 to be awful which it wasn't. Act 1 is better, but there's still several great showy numbers in act 2 (the one with the puritans, the finale, the dancing egg number). Some were more mellow/lovey, but if they wanted to include the love stories these were necessary and there were only 2 love songs if I remember correctly.

Yes the women aren't the strongest characters, but they probably felt that they needed to include at least a few women. We'd probably be complaining about the lack of women if they weren't there. This is the men's story though.

The cast was great, some stronger than others. I agree that John Cariani was the weakest of the men, but still serviceable in his role. Loved Brian D'Arcy James and Christian Borle! I had forgotten how sexual he is :)

One technical difficulty last night: in the first scene at Bottom'm house, the table and chairs sliding in from stage left didn't make it all the way out so the actors had to pick up the furniture and bring it to center stage. They didn't try to cover it, but eased the technical blow with some funny improvised lines.

Overall, I had a smile on my face the whole time, and it's been awhile since a musical made me feel that way. I can't wait to get this cast recording! "A Musical" and "Welcome to the Renaissance" with it's reprises were probably by favorite numbers. I think it will get a lot of nominations and maybe even a best musical win.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:56am

The most intriguing repeated comment (and there are now a handful) is about the relative weight and effectiveness of the women characters, either bringing nothing to the show or needing to be trimmed. An unusual element in a musical, weak female characters/low romantic stakes. But not unprecedented by any means.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 12:14pm

I just wonder how much they're able/willing to change the show. Given that they decided to open cold on Broadway, it's clear the creative team though the show didn't need much work, and at this point how much could they realistically change it even if they wanted to?

I think a tryout would have been beneficial- there's some decent stuff there, but it's still sort of a jumbled mess.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 12:19pm

^Well, please keep in mind that Casey Nicholaw kept working with the creative team on Aladdin every single day until opening night on Broadway.

[HSky]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 12:30pm

I've veen thinking about the second act a bit and wonder if something along the lines of a reprise of "Bottom's Gonna Be On Top" would help, since it's the big character statement for Nick in the first act.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 12:37pm

I don't mean tweaking the show- obviously there's time to do that, and I have no doubt they are. What I mean is rewrite- if they were to change some of the material for the women, for example, do they realistically have the time to do that at this stage?

[indytallguy]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 12:39pm

"Yes the women aren't the strongest characters, but they probably felt that they needed to include at least a few women."

I'm not inferring that you meant it this way, but if this was anywhere close the creative team's line of thinking for those characters it is misguided tokenism at its best (worst). Makes me think of George and Jerry writing the Seinfeld pilot for NBC and discovering they hadn't put the Elaine character into the script yet.

[finebydesign]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 12:54pm

"I just wonder how much they're able/willing to change the show. "

If they are not willing to retool this show they are betraying the material and the producers. They would also be extremely foolish. I can see how some of the story and plotting issues were overlooked in a reading.

This show can be saved and made great. Casey is the director and creative type to lead this charge. The suggestions I've made are thematic in all these reviews and must be clear to the producers. He really needs to edit this piece, it feels like a very early draft with a high production value.

[MegInManhattan]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 1:25pm

Indy, I can see your point. I may have been reaching too much. It's just a common grumbling about a lot of shows about not having enough good roles for females, or like one posted pointed out it may have drawn too many comparisons to the male relationships in "Mormon"

[Up In One]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 4:48pm

The show has to be frozen for a few performances if not a week before the critics come in and they are four weeks away from opening. Take away the critics previews and some time to be frozen and they may have only two and half weeks left to make any major changes. Broadway musicals that are already put in are almost impossible to make wholesale changes to so any corrections are going to have to be made within the structure already up on stage.

Funny that a show like this took their cue from a strictly theater crowd's reaction in workshop to skip the out of town try out. They were preaching to the converted, singing to the choir, gazing at each others navels. Its a sin because it sounds like they really have something that could be great with some more work.

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 7:05pm

I was there last night also..and I don't agree that John C was a weak link. I thought he was just adorable and perfect in the part. Brian can do no wrong for me here, Christian was fine..Brad was hysterical.

Yes act 1 is better, the show needs some tweaking and while an out of town tryout would probably have helped, it is what it is..and I look forward to seeing the set show again down the road. "A Musical" is just so much fun....

...although I will miss the moving platform crashing into the set and all that followed. That was pretty fantastic..

[bstoll1]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 10:35pm

I was also there last night. I walked up to the box office window at around 1pm and asked if they had any $15.65 tickets left and I was lucky enough to get one for the front side orchestra. If anyone can tell me how to post a picture from my computer to the discussion board I can show you what the view looked like.

I really enjoyed the show, especially the first act. My favorite part was one not in the script. It was when the house malfunctioned and Brian d'Arcy James (and the cast) improved with some fantastic one liners! The audience was falling out of their seats laughing.