Sousatzka S'Awful

Actually opening night is March 23rd. It opened in previews last night.

yes we know when the show says its opening - however, all of the marketing promoted the opening as being this past Saturday. The old preview trick for 7 weeks is to avoid negative reviews of which this show will receive a truck load. Sorry, but it was a painful overload of bad clichés about diversity.

Thanks for clarifying. I do agree - Maltby is pure juke box writer who sadly did the same damage to Fosse, a good idea without any book or backstory

I actually loved Maltby and Shire's original score for Big. I thought the Broadway production was quite good.

absolutely agree on Aint Misbehavin - wonderful - I believe the problem on Sousatzka is that Drabinsky dictates his own vision and ruins the show - did the same on Ragtime - the show was sensational in Toronto and he killed it by the time he got to NYC - and sadly disembowelled the great Frank Galati

I was there .....the audience was papered to death, they would stand for a stiff breeze

I saw Ragtime in Toronto and then here. There were definitely changes (the top of Act 2 comes to mind as does a song about Stanford White perhaps and I think some stuff for Audra in Act 2-surely some folks know precisely), but in general it was very much the same show and the changes were at the margins and certainly not anything that "killed" anything materially. The major faults (two-dimensional book, repetitive anthems, etc) were in both versions. I liked the show despite its faults. The general sense in New York at the time was that the over-enthusiastic reception in Toronto was heavily influenced by cheer-leading for the hometown project.

Mister Matt said: "I actually loved Maltby and Shire's original score for Big. I thought the Broadway production was quite good.

...And I loved Baby. Maltby was not the librettist, although I'm sure he had a ton of input. IMO very unfair to pigeonhole them as mere revue songwriters.

"

green waver said: "Mister Matt said: "I actually loved Maltby and Shire's original score for Big. I thought the Broadway production was quite good.

...And I loved Baby. Maltby was not the librettist, although I'm sure he had a ton of input. IMO very unfair to pigeonhole them as mere revue songwriters.

"





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Unfair? They've had major off-Broadway hits with two original revues and Maltby created a Broadway smash with AIN'T MISBEHAVIN'.

The runs of their book shows are measured in weeks. (Exception: Maltby did the lyrics for MISS SAIGON.)

Now I don't think commercial success is the only criterion and I'm glad you enjoyed BABY, but do the math.

^^^^^ Maltby and Shire are highly respected by ME! Haven't I made that clear?

But I just spent four weeks with BABY and the problems with that material become clearer the more you watch it. Yes, the score is catchy, but it would work better in a revue about parenthood. Too often, characters are either given songs that don't fit the plot but are nice meditations on some aspect of conception OR characters stop singing almost entirely because they are childless and no longer participate musically in the theme of the show.

Put more bluntly, if you have three central couples and only one of them manages to bring a baby to term, then, mathematically speaking, you ought to call your show NO BABY! (Yes, I am being partially flippant, and, yes, I know they had collaborators on both BABY and BIG.)

That said, I've worn out and replaced CDs of CLOSER THAN EVER and STARTING HERE... (I have NYC and London versions of the latter.) I'm sure I'll continue to play BIG and BABY as well, while I wait for a "greatest hits of" revue.

If anyone is planning on going, I'd love an extra playbill if you could ship to the states (more than happy to pay shipping). I love Victoria, Montego, and Judy!

Clark looks like Tony Sheldon in drag in that photo. Poor thing - she's a full-figured gal by nature, who has been starving herself to fit an unrealistic female expectation.