Ravenclaw said: "Anna Shapiro is one of our great directors, but her work has been almost exclusively in new plays. But the same could be said of her colleague and friend David Cromer, who absolutely hit it out of the park on his first major musical. Cromer brought a fresh voice to the table and pushed the piece to play in a style that was unusual and fresh for the musical theatre. Right now, Shapiro's work lacks the specificity you expect from her and belies a lack of understanding of the musical theatre craft.But Cromer was surrounded by skilled Broadway regulars, whereas Shapiro has a first-time book writer, a first-time musical theatre choreographer, and a composer reachable only by phone as he finishes his farewell tour.
Near the end of the first act, Andy's friends sing a (not very good) trio about missing their old friend. All three stand on a basically bare stage. Then a big red curtain comes down and we're on the red carpet awaiting Miranda's arrival. Andy and Emily deliver filler dialogue as guests arrive and pose for pictures. The whole scene goes on way too long until Miranda finally shows up, strikes a pose, and the curtain lifts to reveal a giant red staircase and you realize that scene must have been written to cover the set change. Why didn't the previous song take place downstage of the curtain? Then you wouldn't need the filler dialogue and could lift the curtain to reveal the new set, putting us on the red carpet. There are so many frustrating little things like this that should be no-brainers, but a director who does one-room realistic dramas doesn't normally have to think about.
But I don't think Anna Shapiro needs to be replaced--I think she has a strong point of view on the piece, and she's shepherded new work through a rocky preview period to great success before. Anyone remember the complete turnaround she pulled off onMotherf****er with the Hat? We all thought that was dead in the water and then it transformed into a complete knockout during a four week preview period. She's a good enough director to understand what's not working about the story and the central relationships, and that's what the focus needs to be focusing on right now. A Susan Stroman or a Jerry Zaks or a Kathleen Marshall could come in and give attention to the pieces of craft that are eluding the team right now.
The same thing goes for the book. Weatherhead is a talented writer, she clearly understands the characters well and writes some good lines--many of her jokes stand up well next to the bits that are verbatim from the screenplay. She transitions in and out of songs smoothly, and she conveys the beats of the story and character motivations clearly. Most first-time book writers of musicals don't accomplish all of that very well. But, as others have pointed out, many major crises and moments of transformation happen offstage or are rushed through, and we spend far too much time with the friends and too little time is devoted to Miranda and the demands she puts on Andy. What should be a story about a woman who hardens herself in order to survive a cold and unfeeling world and in doing so realizes she is making herself cold and unfeeling instead is just a simple story about a smart girl who learns not to look down upon the world of fashion. But this can be fixed and re-tooled so that the focus is in the right place, so that we invest in the right relationships and the stakes are made clear.
What's going to be harder to fix is the score. It's the weakest score of the five musicals Elton John has written (evenLestathad a couple good tunes!), and the lyrics don't salvage much it. The songs all sound like, well, second-rate Elton John. There's little effort to differentiate the sounds of the different characters (other than the harpsichord sounds underneath Miranda's songs). As another poster mentioned, the lyrics rarely delve beneath the surface of a character bluntly stating what they're feeling and then repeating that idea for three minutes. I don't know that these problems can be fixed, short of throwing out all the songs and starting over.
But the fact that the songs never move the story forward--that can be fixed more easily. Early on (and forgive me if I'm not getting the details perfectly correct, as I have only seen the show once), Miranda interviews Andy, she answers a few questions, then Miranda goes into a song about Andy's life plan. The song concludes, we clap, the dialogue resumes, Miranda implies that Andy isn't the right girl for the job, Andy makes her pitch and leaves, defeated, only to quickly be offered the job. We are at the same place at the end of the song as we were at the beginning, the song just wastes our time. They could give Andy a verse to pitch herself through song, or Miranda could sing an extra verse after Andy leaves giving us insight into why she chooses to hire Andy, or the song could end with Andy being offered the job, or the song could end with Miranda saying that Andy will not have the job, or some combination of these things, just anything that leaves us in a different place story-wise and emotion-wise than where we started the song. Take the above and apply it to every song in the show, ask "what is different between the beginning of the song and the end of the song?" and then we'll have a real musical. Right now, Andy makes the decision to quit at the beginning of her 11-o'clock number and then sings to us about how she's changed for three minutes instead of contemplating what to do and making her choice at the climax of the song. These are the things that are weighing the show down at this moment.
That was all a little rambly, and I hope no one takes this as my unsolicited show-doctoring, but rather a personal take on what I saw last night, and where I hope the show will go from here. Others may interpret these moments and the problems with the show differently than I do, and I look forward to hearing what others think and how the show evolves. There are a lot of smart, talented people working on this show, and I do believe there is potential to turn it around, if the team really takes the opportunity to learn from this tryout.
And to those who are saying "bring in Jerry Mitchell," while I think he's very talented, much of what is wrong with this show right now is what was wrong withPretty Woman, and that show sure didn't get fixed in time for Broadway."
I do agree that Pretty Woman is the worst show I’ve seen on Broadway.
Id argue though that A Band’s Visit is/was basically a small play so it’s up his wheelhouse. This is def a big splashy new musical. Different territories.
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