THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE Reviews

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 1:13am

And so, dear friends, today is April 28, marking the final day of Tony Award eligibility, and the opening night performance of Roundabout's THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE!

Please, post all reviews here!

Best,
- M

[rougeduck]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 11:56am

I really enjoyed this musical, but can definitely see areas where people might have problems with it. I really hope it gets raves...so we aren't left with a season that only produces 3 unanimous critical darlings.

[rougeduck]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 6:40pm

Shouldn't there be at least 1 review out by now?

[rougeduck]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 7:10pm

sorry to triple post but here is Backstage's review. Mixed to negative with most heat placed on the book.
http://www.backstage.com/bso/content_display/reviews/ny-theatre-reviews/e3ie38262039b8e6e8646888b94ce1d0e9a
Updated On: 4/28/11 at 07:10 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 7:18pm

The show did not move me to tears.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 7:54pm

Donna Murphy will get favorable reviews, the show will be both liked and disliked enough, and it'll find some very friendly pull-quotes to use.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 7:56pm

The show is basically the equivalent of a chick flick, but I have to say I was surprisingly moved by it.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 8:53pm

My mom cried when we saw it... it was actually the first time I've ever seen her cry during a show.
Anyway, I loved it and hope it gets raves!

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 9:11pm

I'm curious to see the kind of reviews this will get. I personally found it really disappointing...I thought Murphy was very good and the physical transformations she was doing were truly remarkable, but other than that the show didn't leave much of an impression. It's a shame, I thought some of the music was really lovely and the concept had so much potential to be interesting and touching, but instead it was just a melodramatic and contrived show. I'll admit I got a little choked up at the ending, but there was no real emotional buildup and it felt incredibly forced.

[bwaycrazy24]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 9:16pm

I saw this show and felt it was one of the worst shows I've seen in a long, long time... That said, I haven't seen Baby, it's you or Wonderland.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 9:23pm

I'm writing a show called BABY, IT'S WONDERLAND IN THE PICTURE. It's about Alice Rosenthal, a 60's record producer who travels to Wonderland to find a Yiddish singing group for record label only to realize she didn't need to leave home at all. She just had to go to her temple to find Jews.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 9:26pm

Jordan, couldn't she just try J-Date?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 9:27pm

Well it takes place in the 60's, so she had to go to Wonderland.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 9:32pm

I'm surprised the title for this show doesn't somehow incorporate "Baby, It's Jew!". Meanwhile, I'd probably see this, and it might even be better than all three of the other shows...

[rougeduck]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 9:33pm

Rosenthal sounds like shes going to have quite the arduous adventure. Is she on the verge?
Updated On: 4/28/11 at 09:33 PM

[rougeduck]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 9:49pm

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/people-picture-theater-review-183295
Another mix but a lil more on the positive side.
Updated On: 4/28/11 at 09:49 PM

[trentsketch]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 9:57pm

Jordan, what's your show curtain like? Is Patti Lupone playing Alice Rosenthal? Does she sign after the show? And what's the lotto like?

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 10:12pm

Brantley is up.

Completely dismissive of the show, but respectful of Murphy:

As it is, even Ms. Murphy (who also gets to portray the various characters that Raisel plays onstage and on screen) has trouble generating the kind of energy that makes an audience sit up and smile, or sit up, period.


What Bubbie Did During the War

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 10:42pm

Brantley pretty much summed up how I felt about the show...Murphy and the rest of the cast did their best with what they were given, which wasn't much.

[ahhrealmonsters]

Posted: 4/28/11 at 11:45pm

I feel like one of the few who loved it. Maybe it's my personal relation to the material, but I haven't cried that much at a show since Next to Normal.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 12:16am

The Faster Times is mostly negative.

The ambition in “The People in the Picture” is admirable, but the complexity and sprawl seem more appropriate for a novel (Perhaps not coincidentally, Iris Rainer Dart is primarily a novelist; one of her novels, “Beaches,” was made into a Bette Midler movie.) The art of mixing tragedy and comedy is a delicate one for any theatrical enterprise, and Dart, who was also a writer for such TV Variety fare as “The Sonny and Cher Show,” veers into too-familiar schmaltz and shtick.



Elvis Meets Sholom Aleichem?

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 12:20am

AP is mixed overall. Loved Murphy, didn't the book and most of the lyrics.

A hammy quality continues to sneak into the script — enough with "plotz" and "toochas," oy vey! — and an overly sentimental vision overtakes the plot. The songs, rooted in Eastern European melodies, are delicate things but they often fail to stick in one's head. Too many are fragmentary, like mere outlines of unfinished songs.
Donna Murphy Shines in 'The People in the Picture'

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 12:23am

Variety is mostly negative, though they give credit to Murphy for trying.

The 2010-2011 Broadway season wisps to a close with "The People in the Picture." Holocaust-themed song-and-dancer is a thoroughly earnest endeavor, but earnestness doesn't necessarily ensure entertainment. Donna Murphy works extra hard as a glamorous Polish actress-turned-doddering Jewish grandmother, but to little avail.
The People in the Picture

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 12:27am

Bloomberg is mixed.

There are groaners galore in “Picture” -- I hope it’s the only time I’ll ever hear “Jerusalem” rhymed with “bamboozle ’em” -- but I’m going to assume they’re intended.
Shimmering Donna Murphy Fights Nasty Daughter in ‘People’

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 12:27am

So it seems like Murphy will (as is not a surprise) get a Tony nom, but not much else...