Stick Fly - First Preview — Page 2

Ha, exactly. This is the equivalent of going to see "Johnny Guitar" at Film Forum with a packed theater of Crawford loving gays. Of course you don't sit quietly on your hands- in fact you would only go to "Johnny Guitar" wanting to share in the that communal experience of vocalizing your love for the campy film together.

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what kind of things are audience members saying exactly?

Maybe my problem with the play is there wasn't enough audience reaction when I saw it :) (besides the aforementioned biddies behind me, which was on an entirely different wavelength). There was a bit of the talkback, but it was more of the typical Saturday matinee crowd when I was there, at least in my immediate area.

I did get a nice bonus when the lady in front of me said in medium voice "He sucks" about three times when one character made his final exit. And then the next line of the play was a character saying "Well, that sucks," which led the lady to whoop and say, "I called it!"

Ha! Calvin that's funny and my friends and I overheard something similar:

There was a particularly bad joke where Mekhi Phifer asked, "Can I be frank?" and Thoms answered, "I thought you wanted me to call you Flip?" Phifer then went on to chew out Thoms and the woman behind us said to her friend, "Mmhmm. Well he told her he was gonna be frank!"

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I think the only lock for a Best Play nomination so far this season is "Other Desert Cities."

Man, I'd kill for a 2 piece and a biscuit right now.

What's the original music like? Is it just piano?

The incidental music really adds nothing to the play at all, and I agree, should be axed.

As for the "interaction," I don't mind the occasional gasp or "oh my god!" (like you had in August...where there were truly shocking moments), but it's way beyond that here. Every time a character defends him or herself, or tells someone off, there was a chorus of "That's it!", "Amen, brother!", "You tell him, girl!" from the audience. That was what was disruptive.

But the fact that there were 8 (!!!) cell phone disruptions on Sunday evening was worst of all. This despite the fact that the ushers (a friendly house staff, by the way) repeatedly walked up and down the aisles before the show telling people to turn them off. AND there was a pre-show announcement.

I'm in agreement with Michael Bennett about the audience reactions. The play is the equivalent to a Ricki Lake Show episode, so why not react the same way. Ricki Lake wouldn't have been as fun as it was to watch without the audience cheering when someone burst through a picture of his or her old self during a make over show or the audience booing a dead beat dad when confronted by his baby mama!

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Well anyone making the comments is clearly reacting in an honest way, meaning I don't think they're mocking the piece. I don't think it's a joke to be "in" on per se.

It's more that Michael Bennett and I both enjoyed the experience of the play more than the play itself, and that's ok. I would enjoy the experience of being in the audience of Ricki Lake or Jenny Jones more than the programming itself too. There might be people who actually love the play, which is fine and valid.

I personally just don't have a problem with the vocal reactions because the play is such frothy stuff. I think it was written, directed and acted to elicit these reactions so why not go for it. Hell I even started to chime in because I got so caught up in it all! Why I probably came out of the theater loving it.

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I guess it would be folly to ask if the play or production is "good," critically speaking. I'm honestly very glad you guys enjoyed your experience, but it sounds downright infuriating to me... which probably means I'm not the audience for the piece, anyway!

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I find some of the comments people have made a bit disturbing, and frankly, a little racist.

Are people really suggesting that part of the "experience" of seeing this play is to laugh mockingly at the silly black folks who think this is high art? How communal!

I also don't see how the experience of any Broadway show should be equated to watching Ricki Lake.