TOOTSIE the Musical: PREVIEWS START — Page 8

Since there seems to be majorly diverging views on this show, I wanted to add a strong "pro" opinion. We saw it last night, and we liked it a LOT. I've read the complaints about the score, about the book, about the actors.... and none of that matches our experience and reactions. We seriously liked the music (but thought that the lyrics were a bit iffy sometimes), thought the book was good to great (there were excellent one-liners all over, and there was a sequence in the second act that could easily have been written by Neil Simon or Mel Brooks at their prime; the scene had everyone around us in hysterical laughter), and the acting was good to very, very good.



If you're looking for perfection, this is not it. But we thought it was a funny, tuneful, well-acted show, and enjoyed it a lot.



We both did have one quibble... we felt that the ending should have been re-thought and updated at least a bit. I'm not talking about staging, but that in 2019, it is not outrageous to have gender switches, and it wouldn't have been the Major, Major Bad, as it was presented. We thought that a much tighter focus somehow on the lying to Julie would have been more in tune with 2019.



But it's a quibble. We definitely think it's an enjoyable show well worth seeing.

Went tonight.

All I kept thinking the entire time was, "Why isn't this a play instead?"

I much prefer musicals to plays but in this instance every time there was a song I internally groaned because I wanted them to get back to the dialogue and jokes that were making me laugh and it made for a long evening for me.

Oh, also, unrelated to the quality of the show! I showed up at 7:40 to pick up my will call tickets and the box office line was literally the ENTIRE length of the breezeway. It's like half the theatre had will call! I got to my seat at 8:04 (they hadn't begun yet of course) and I think they held as long as they could (I didn't have my phone on to see the time) but after the opening number at LEAST 50 people were brought in to be seated in the orchestra. Everyone outside in the will call line was saying they've never experienced anything like that with regard to the line (nor have I) and it made a lot of people late for the show.

Is that the norm for the Marquis? Or this show? Or are they just comping/third party-ing heavily so there are way more will call tickets than usual?

Updated On: 4/6/19 at 12:42 AM

Lately, I find myself walking out of shows a little sad that there is so much unrealized potential that otherwise very talented people don't take advantage of

Absolutely!

asoftplacetoland said: "Twitter is in an uproar over Tootsie merchandise

https://twitter.com/robbedsettos/status/1114335591481651201?s=21"

It's a line from the show. And I admit the line jumped out at me as sounding horrible out of context. It happens to also be in a show where there's a whole line about trans people should be free to use whatever bathroom they want and not have to explain themselves.

To throw my two cents in, I happen to think the show was pretty damn good. I went in with low expectations but found the book to be HILARIOUS and the score has some definite Yazbeck highs. There are a curiously large number of more derivative songs in the score - maybe only a handful, but that's high for Yazbeck. The "opening night" number being chiefly one of them.

But this surprised me. Some seriously funny industry/theatre/acting humor and a genuine heart.

Act 2 definite needs about 10 minutes cut (I'd argue some of the stand alone ballads in Act 2 should be short reprises).

I'd also say there is plenty of 2019 woke language that feels a bit tacked on right now, that needs to be better integrated into the journey and discoveries of the characters. The story and this treatment both allow it, yet they somehow feel tacked on, or perhaps simply overstated.

yikessssss

DoTheDood said: "asoftplacetoland said: "Twitter is in an uproar over Tootsie merchandise

https://twitter.com/robbedsettos/status/1114335591481651201?s=21"

I can see this line working in the show, in context, but man it was a bad idea to just slap that on a bag and pin. Merch should work (more or less) out of the context if the show and those items really give the wrong idea of what the show wants to be. Hope they change/at least stop selling those items before opening."



It's a line in the movie-show...Go watch the movie! No they don't need to stop selling. Move on...chill

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10000% agree with the notion that this would have worked so much better as a play... the truly hilarious bits were the farce scenes, particularly when the agent and dorothy and the roommate were all hanging out in the apartment. That felt like Neil Simon.

and while i tend to agree that Tootsie the Play would not sell well, and producers would therefore never even consider it, look at To Kill a Mockingbird. Adapting movies into straight plays can work if done right...

bunnie3 said: "Terrible in many sad ways, except the Overture, Entr'acte and Sandy s very funny Act 1 song."

John Behlmann.

Not looking for further discussion, not disagreeing with you (well... I could quibble a bit, but generally, I've already expressed my disappointments with the show). Just throwing him out there as another "exception"...

John Behlmann.

DoTheDood said: "I have nothing against the line, in the context of the movie/show, but it just seems like these could easily be misused by TERFs and transphobes when there seems to be other material from the show/movie that would both work better and not seem tone deaf."

I hear 'ya, but...

In its original context, we both can agree that it works. When the TERFs and transphobes twist the meaning, and then we (meaning the people who understand the original context) STOP using it, out of fear of what TERfs and transphobes will do, then we've aquiesed to fear mongering.

As for me, I wouldn't buy the merchandise with that message because I think it's blatant pandering.

For me, the Michael in this musical version (especially since it's been "updated" to take place in the present) makes a choice to masquerade as a woman, for his own selfish reasons. When he becomes successful at it, he makes a choice (again, rather self-centeredly) that he'd rather throw it all away than spend any more of his future acting career as a woman.

Unlike the movie, I didn't see any demonstration that this version of Michael learns anything about women that makes him a better man in his interactions with women. Instead, he only learns something about himself: that he would rather throw away what he has rather than extend his career as a woman.

...and then, the merch uses that slogan? Why? ...other than to pander to folks who understand its original (movie) context.

Updated On: 4/7/19 at 08:49 AM

I totally called the merch debate. I just don't know what the marketing team was thinking. Even if you don't think the line is offensive out of context who on earth would want a bag that says that? A man? A woman? Of all the quotable lines in this show they chose that...

I THINK I've also seen posts about people having an issue with their advertisement: something about him holding a razor because something like that could be triggering to people.

magictodo123 said: "I THINK I've also seen posts about people having an issue with their advertisement: something about him holding a razor because something like that could be triggering to people."

Now that’s a little bit of a stretch there, because it’s painfully obvious he is shaving...

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Wait... when you say "triggering" are you saying someone shaving makes someone want to KILL themself because it's a razor blade??