Posted: 2/7/17 at 1:29pm
Count me among those who didn't like Tiffany's version. Hopefully this will be an improvement, though the play loses a lot when performed to an audience of more than 100 people.
Posted: 2/7/17 at 2:00pm
I watched the show from the mezzanine . Stage seemed completely flat and low. Of course, some of the lighting effects are better from the back orch . There are zero sightline problems
Updated On: 2/7/17 at 02:00 PM
Posted: 2/7/17 at 2:23pm
does anyone who rushed today know how many seats you can buy? The rush announcement didn't specify. Thanks.
Posted: 2/7/17 at 2:41pm
Thank you so much for your feedback on the dress rehearsal! Quick question about seating -- if you were to pick between LincTix seats (mezz, row E) and rush seats (orch, front row), which ones would you recommend for this production? Thank you!
bunnie3 said: "I watched the show from the mezzanine . Stage seemed completely flat and low. Of course, some of the lighting effects are better from the back orch . There are zero sightline problems
"
Posted: 2/7/17 at 9:35pm
Can't wait to hear from those at the first preview tonight!
Posted: 2/7/17 at 9:40pm
I enjoyed the Tiffany production mostly due to Quinto who I thought was excellent. Jones was a bit too much but I did like the production. I found Keenan-Bolger unmemorable in what should be a heartbreaking role.
I look forward to Field. She's good at pathos and quiet desperation.
Posted: 2/7/17 at 9:49pm
Can't seem to find any quality feedback on "View From My Seat" ... How's the view from front row of the Mezzanine in the center at the Belasco?
Posted: 2/7/17 at 10:20pm
To Limelight and Petewk: Hard to say which view is better. First row mezzanine or any mezzanine, I don t see a problem....orch, perhaps way better due to actor entrances at the very beginning of the play. Depends on what your general preferences are. I 've never sat in a first row orch for anything, because I always feel I don t get a "dimensional view". Because of the Belasco s orch intamacy, I would say that mid to back orch is best.
Posted: 2/7/17 at 10:26pm
It out-Ivos Ivo.
More (or less!) later.
Posted: 2/7/17 at 10:28pm
Many more thoughts to come when I get home but what I will say...
This didn't feel like a first preview. This felt like an opening night.
Posted: 2/7/17 at 10:35pm
Yes, Sally, I felt that way last nite at the dress. Interesting tidbit: Only for the 2nd time in Bway history has an actor in a wheelchair been cast, here, being Ms. Madison Ferris, who plays Laura. Btw, I am just crazy about Finn Wittrock, ever since All My Children, and Death of a Salesman. Nuff said!
Updated On: 2/7/17 at 10:35 PM
Posted: 2/7/17 at 10:41pm
I will try to write later but this was by far the most moving production of The Glass Menagerie I've ever seen. I thought the entire cast was extraordinary. The John Tiffany production (which I enjoyed very much) seems phony in hindsight by comparison.
Posted: 2/7/17 at 10:43pm
bunnie3 said: "Only for the 2nd time in Bway history has an actor in a wheelchair been cast, here, being Ms. Madison Ferris, who plays Laura. "
I know! I'm so so happy for her! I have cerebral palsy and I auditioned for Laura for this production, so I'm dying to hear how she is!
Posted: 2/7/17 at 10:46pm
This sounds very promising!
Posted: 2/7/17 at 10:58pm
Sorry if this is a stupid question but are you allowed to buy 2 rush tickets per person or only 1?!
Was thinking about rushing tomorrow...
Posted: 2/7/17 at 11:05pm
Is it the Theatre of the Ridiculous?
The Theatre of Cruelty?
The Theatre of Walmart?
What the hell is going on at The Glass Menagerie?
Gold seems to think going for post-minimalist setting/characterization is somehow illuminating. In the case of the Laura character, it's insulting, defeating and majorly deficient. Madison Ferris's delivery is on the slow side of high school performances.
Field gives a very muscular performance. Not a lot of Southern Belle accents. But her "coup de theatre" is ludicrous and it's all downhill from there. Sure, it's a different take on Wingfield, but not one that serves the piece very well. And her take on Amanda's relationship with the Gentleman Caller is downright scandalous.
Mantello, while a bit "modern", DOES illuminate Tom's character. I saw colors in the character that I've never seen before. Bravo. And Wittrock is darn near perfect.
Maybe Field will grow into the part. But I have a feeling no. And Ferris really needs to be replaced.
Updated On: 2/7/17 at 11:05 PM
Posted: 2/7/17 at 11:05pm
I might caution posters here to perhaps not tell too much regarding the production, aka "spoilers". Just saying, but kinda glad the last 2 posters saw in it what I saw in it. However, w/o gangbuster reviews and 139.00 tix, it s a hard sell for any "tourist type" looking for "plush". On the other had, if you 're a diehard theatre fan and LIVE for GREAT writing, this one s for you.
Posted: 2/7/17 at 11:12pm
What was wrong with Ferris exactly?
Posted: 2/7/17 at 11:16pm
It s the FIRST perf. She s not up to snuff yet. Give a few wks. Anyway, I found the dissident review here, nevertheless interesting. Always room for disagreement. This production is VERY different.
Posted: 2/7/17 at 11:19pm
The performance style for this production has been taken to the level of the ultra conversational. Yes it's true a great deal of the pathos of this production has to do with Ferris's real life disability but I found her work heartbreaking. She doesn't need to act the role of Laura - she is it.
Posted: 2/7/17 at 11:24pm
I was there tonight. Before I mention anything about the show I want to mention the blatant disregard this creative team seems to have taken for the Balcony. There are cheap seats and then there are seats that need to be marked partial view. It is as if no one went up there to see how the show might look from there. Much of the show is staged downstage, (the "fire escape" is a set of stairs leading up from the orchestra) which means that there are large chunks of the show that are either impossible to see or hard to see without leaning far forward. More importantly, from the Balcony the sound was downright atrocious. For the first 15 minutes I think I heard every other word. This continued throughout the play and I watched 4 people walk out as a result of a combination of these two things. I'm not expecting to have the same experience as an orchestra ticket, but I think it should be a basic right to at least hear the show!
As for the show, I was a huge fan of the John Tiffany Glass Menagerie. I saw it once in Boston, and 4 times on Broadway. I thought it was truly a perfect production and fit the booth so nicely. Sam Gold's production seems to be swallowed up in the Belasco. I think the first mistake is not putting this in a smaller venue like The Booth or Golden.
I did not like Gold's approach from the first scene. It seemed like a huge waste of space to have a massive stage like that empty with a chair and table and little else. "This is a memory play, it is dimly lit." Not in this production. The house lights are on a stay on for the first 40 minutes or so. From the beginning to me the direction seemed at odds with the play.
Parts of it were modernized, and then other costumes and characters seemed to be stuck in other time periods which I found jarring. As for the cast I agree with the other poster, Madison Ferris is giving a very poor Laura that seems devoid of any emotion. Joe Mantello seemed to still be finding his part, but honestly I had a great deal of trouble hearing him so maybe he was better than I thought? I thought Sally came out ok. It's a meaty role and she sinks her teeth into it, but I didn't think she commanded the stage like Cherry Jones did in the last revival. Finn Wintrock was nice as the gentlemen caller and may have come out the best of anyone.
Overall I just didn't appreciate much about this. I'm a production that focuses on acting and the text of a play, but between the direction, uneven cast, and my sound issues this is one of my worst theater experiences in probably two years.
Posted: 2/7/17 at 11:34pm
This sounds super disappointing. I love production design, and I'm all for minimal. But not when I'm paying $100+ to see something. What's with the big metal shape thing that's on stage in the promo pictures?
Posted: 2/7/17 at 11:34pm
dave:
I sympathize with you.
I was in rear orchestra and I had a hard time with volume for the first about 1/2 hr, but they seemed to get their bearings, or I got used to it, and I had no problem for the rest of the show.
And for the poster who says that Ferris IS Laura - NO she's not. The character on the page is not what we see onstage.
Updated On: 2/8/17 at 11:34 PM
Posted: 2/7/17 at 11:35pm
I can't say I was particularly thrilled either. Gold definitely saw Ivo's A View From the Bridge and borrowed some ideas. I thought Field fared best out of the four actors and played the role as someone said previously with "a quiet desperation." Mantello didn't work for me. I understand Menagerie is a memory play so Tom can be any age, but I think the play works better with a younger Tom. I sympathize with his character because he's young and wants to have his dream career and experience new things. When Mantello delivered some of the lines I thought "Grow up, you're fifty something, take care of your family. Oh wait, you're only supposed to be 23." Audience response was tepid. There were people audibly sobbing in the last row of the mezzanine during the Tiffany production when I saw it. The first two rows here (and the rest of the audience) kind of politely applauded for ten seconds and that was it.
Posted: 2/7/17 at 11:38pm
Sorry to hear about some of these experiences. You can see in a number of shots on the Belasco's Instagram page tonight that the production is indeed, as dave wrote, staged quite downstage:
https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/212994464/belasco-theatre/
