THE GRINCH Begins Previews - Bring on the Reviews! — Page 2

How is Kate Hopkins?

****SPOILER****
(I think)





The show opens with The Grinch's dog Max, who is older. He is telling the story of when "The Grinch stole Christmas". Old Max and some of Young Max sing "You're a mean one...."
Quite a chunk of the dialogue is in rhyme.

Just got home from the third preview...Patrick Page was definitely the best thing in the show. Very convincing as the grinch. The rest of the show was a disaster. Definitely not for the average theatergoer. The kids in the audience seemed to enjoy it though. If you have young kids, take them. They will definitely enjoy it (but you as the parent probably won't).

John Cullum has the potential to be very good as Old Max, but he has to learn his lines first. Someone from the orchestra pit and the stage manager had to feed him a few lines. It was the first time I had ever seen that happen on a Broadway stage.

Sets were ugly and very cartoonish. Songs were awful, except for "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."

My advice: save your money...leave this one for the children.

Oh poor John Cullum ended up on the wrong side of the stage for one of his entrances and was all discombobulated. Cut him some slack- it's the first week of previews, he's worn out from tech, and he's very old. The lines are tricky too, because the original Suess wording is so strange and if you don't say the lines exactly they don't rhyme.


And withoutatrace, how can you not like the set? The set looks exactly like the original drawings from the book. Have you never read it?

The wrong side of the stage for an entrance?

Last night, I attended the 8pm preview performance of "How the Grinch.." I thought the show was absolutely adorable - the costumes were wonderfully done (especially the Grinch's) and as many of you have said the set is like a book of pop-up images out of the original Seuss book. I actually thought the set was very well utilized - my only problem was the little "turntable" sets that came from the left and right sides of the stage - for whoever has seen this I'm sure you know. I was sitting on the right side of the theatre and whenever anything happened in the right "turntable" (for example - the Who's home) I could barely see anything for it was angled a weird way. I don't know, maybe I'm being a little too picky, that's just my two cents. I have to agree with those who didn't care for the music. It wasn't very memorable and I felt it dragged sometimes because it was just reprise after reprise of the same 2 or 3 songs (I must say though, I thought Cindy's song at the house, I believe it was called "Santa for a Day" was nicely written). As for the cast:

Patrick Page - the Grinch - He was exceptional. He truly embodied the character and I can think of no one who could have done a better job with it. His voice was perfectly low and gritty and his song "One of a Kind" was very funny.

John Cullum - Old Max - I thought he was fine. He did flub up a few lines in which I saw him staring down into the orchestra pit for sort of an "SOS" call.

Rusty Ross - Young Max - He was adorable although I must say that the character voice he used really started to get on my nerves by the end of the show.

Nicole Bocchi - Cindy Lou Who - She was the cutest little thing I've ever seen however she couldn't really sing too well. I mean I understand she's only what - eight or nine years old - but it is a Broadway show and I think they could have gotten someone a little bit stronger.

The Whos - I thought they were good with what they had to work with. There were only 4 or 5 ensemble members besides the parents and grandparents and they were rarely on stage - it was more about the children's ensemble than anything.

The Little Whos - I believe I saw the Red Cast and I thought they were all extremely talented. Their song "WhatchamaWho" was fantastically staged. Very cute. There was one boy in the Little Who ensemble who I found a tad bit scary though - he was soooo over the top at times you wanted to go up there and just calm him down or something.

Overall, I thought the show was pretty good. It's very quick - the show started at about 5 after eight and by nine thirty I was back to my car. I found some parts of the show aimed towards a very young crowd which sort of turned me off and I didn't care for the whole sing-along "Mean One Mr. Grinch" thing. I thought that was just way too cheesy, even for a kids show. Once the holidays start rolling in, I'm sure this show will be a sell-out holiday hit for kids and their families.

The entire show is in rhyme! And Mr. Cullum sings "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch!
It's a great show, and the kids are amazingly talented. Look for their big number "Whatchama Who"!

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I thought it was quite adorable.

Very short, I liked it that way. Patrick Page was absolutely wonderful. I can definitely imagine him as Scar.

I thought that Max (both of them) were pretty good too. But my favorite part was when Max and the Grinch were coming down Mt. Crumpit to steal everything from Whoville. :)

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Anyone know if the cast comes out of the stage door after shows? I know the schedule is pretty hectic, but I'm just curious.

I saw it last weekend and here's what I think:

The show is fun, not great. It wasn't supposed to be great, just a good time for kids. I think it was perfect being 70 minutes because a lot of kids were starting to get rowdy by the end of the show. Also, John Cullum, although great, forgot a bunch of his lines. Maybe this is because when I saw it, it was the third preview and they were still changing things, but I don't know. He actually whispered "goddammit" on stage, which was quite funny. The sets were beautiful and the costumes were great. Patrick Page was fantastic and so was Rusty Ross. Jan Neuberger (Grandma Who) brought us backstage so that was pretty awesome. On the way onto the stage we saw Paige Davis, who is married to Patrick Page.

The bottom line is:

It is a fun show, but nothing great.

Why stop the recycling of child actors? We don't stop the recycling of adult Broadway actors? If they're talented, what do you want to do? Say "hey you already did a Broadway show that's enough for you?"
Directors like to work with actors that they know can do it!! That's why you see chorus actors and principal actors move from show to show! GOOD FOR THEM!

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This show cost $100 for tickets?

Wow.