TUCK EVERLASTING Previews — Page 2

BroadwayConcierge said: "The tree looks gorgeous, but it looks to me in that video like a huge swath of house right is going to have a blocked view for a good chunk of the show.



I sat house left so I can't say from experience but friends who sat on the right today didn't say they had any obstructed views.

Read the book today (a very quick children's read) and found it charming. But it's charms are in small, simple but eloquent strokes. I am curious and excited to see how they turn this into a musical; I hope they don't make it something bloated and overwrought. It definitely doesn't feel like typical Casey Nicholaw material.

Passed by the theatre tonight and saw quite a lot of people waiting at the stage door...did anyone see this tonight? I have tickets in a couple of weeks.

Hard to say considering their first performance begins tonight.

Just looked at ticket availability for tonight's 8 p.m. first preview, and looks pretty much sold out, with the exception of 4 or 5 assorted seats. Can't wait to hear what people think!

I was at the first preview tonight and Queen Alice was already able to guess what the biggest problem would be before even seeing it. The story is a small, intimate tale that really gets crushed under Nicholaw's ever present, over choreographed ensemble of balletic acrobats. Right from the opening number, when young Sarah Charles Lewis (dressed and wigged more like Anne of Green Gables than what I imagine Winnie to look like) comes out to sing her opening verses, instead of just allowing her to be alone on stage the entire ensemble is leaping and jeté-ing madly, pulling focus from our star and swallowing her whole.



Because every peppy song (85% of the score) must turn into a production number there is plenty of bloat to go around. There is almost no plot or conflict in the entire first act. The story picks up a little in act two, but really there's no need for an act break- it should just be 100 minutes because all this small little story can support.



I normally wouldn't complain about the sound at a first preview because I know those adjustments need to be made once bodies are in the seats, but I fear the problem of over amplification may have been intentional tonight. The sound was so loud that I couldn't hear it coming from the pit or the singer's mouths, but only from the speakers. I mean Carolee has a pretty powerful voice. When I can see her belting from the stage and can only hear the sound a split second later out of the speakers there's a problem.



Fred Applegate is stuck with the clunker song of the evening, having to rhyme porpoise with habeas corpus, which I don't think his slow-witted cop character would ever think to rhyme in the first place.



At least Carolee was given a decent amount of musical material, even if none of it was all too memorable. Still, it's never a completed wasted evening when you get to hear her gorgeous voice. Michael Park has very little to do. He is saddled with the big ballad of the evening, which is placed at a very odd moment in the show. The villain (the Man in the Yellow Suit) has discovered the Tuck's secret and the family decides in the previous scene that they need to quickly separate and leave town. Yet, in the very next scene Papa Tuck has time to take Winnie out fishing in a boat on a pond and sing her a ballad.



Terrence Mann plays the Man in the Yellow Suit and he brings some life to the role, but the character's motives are ill-defined for a good portion of the play and he is ultimately dispatched of abruptly, in an unsatisfying manner.

Updated On: 3/31/16 at 11:24 PM

I apologize for replying to myself, but I was kicked out of my previous response and can't seem to edit it...



I think Tuck Everlasting should make for a good musical, but I'm just not sure this is that musical. I mostly blame Nicholaw, whose instincts seemed to say GO BIG every time they should have said go small and intimate.



I do think that if you're a 10 year old girl you may find this to be fine entertainment, but if you're looking for more than some expensive looking children's theater then Tuck won't cut it.

The design is colorful and pretty, but also somewhat problematic. I was in the rear orchestra and the mezz overhang cut off the top of the set and I completely missed a good chunk of a number performed on a tree branch at the top of the proscenium.



There is a large tree in front of the stage left proscenium arch and because I was in the right orchestra the entire stage left wall and back corner were obstructed as well. I think the mezz would be a better place from which to see the show and I'm happy that my next set of tickets in late previews will be up there.

Thanks for the report, Whizzer. That's disappointing to hear that this lovely simple story has become overblown as a musical. When I read the book a couple of nights ago, I imagined a musical along the lines of "Violet" or even "The Grass Harp" with a simple farm heroine dressed in a plain faded cotton dress. It sounds like Winnie was kidnapped and whisked away to Branson. A shame. Still I look forward to going next week. How was the adorable Andrew Keenan and the actress playing Winnie?

I was there tonight as well. I was left with the impression of mediocrity. It's ok but nothing spectacular. The cast is doing well wit what is in front of them I just don't think whats in front of them is all that great. I could watch Carolee carmello.in pretty much anything and enjoy seeing her.

I agree mostly with what the great and powerful Whizzer said. The sound didn't both me as much but know exactly what he was dating about the system. Score wise nothing really stuck with me and I personally felt a few if the numbers did nothing at all they just felt like dragging this small story out.

I read the book when I was a kid and have seen the movie. I don't remember what happened on stage going down lime that in the source material but I could be wrong.

The set is alright with the every present tree there the entire time I think. I agree direction wise about the dancing to be a distraction at times. I think a smaller director like John Doyle would have been better suited and trimming the show to a 90-100 min no intermission affair as Whizzer suggested to be a very good idea.

Overall it was just ok glad I saw it but don't need to return to this one unless extensive work is done.

You said it should have been 100 minutes, but you didn't say how long it actually was tonight. When did you get out?

Overture started 8:08, was out by 10:20. I enjoyed it, but while it was a Casey Nicholaw production, the choreography was markedly not Casey, much more Finding Neverland than Something Rotten, with an ensemble of fantastic dancers, who create an unessecary ensemble, mostly present for no real reason. Would love to see this piece at Circle in the Square, it's a small story about a core group of characters. Is it perfect? Of course not. Does almost every kid in America read the book? Yes. Will families see this when School of Rock is sold out? Yes. Will write more once I'm back at my computer.

Updated On: 4/1/16 at 12:29 AM

Seems like a show that will be revived/revised in 20 years off-Broadway and finally be what it should have been all along.