Saw the show last night and I went in with extremely low expectations except for a friend who loved it, and was pleasantly suprised. Is it a groundbreaking musical? No, but it is a well staged beautiful production of a classically written American Musical.
After reading through the thread and bumping into Casey Nicholaw in the rear of the orchestra who was actually asking people what they though, you can tell that he really wants to fix this. From seeing the show last night, the show has clearly come a long way, and is almost at the finish line.
I have some updates on point of contention people have had below:
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The Music Box although not central to the plot is seen and explained throughout. We first hear it when the fair passes the Foster House, and Nana remarks "Oh there it is again, I have heard that song off and on since I was young," The Man in The Yellow Suit over hears her and immediatly grabs and questions her thinking she is a Tuck, when she says "No I have just heard the music comong from our wood". The next time it is seen is Mae Tuck opens it just before she meets Miles in the Wood, where he grabs it and immediatly scolds her for not being careful. She says something about special occasions implying that she only opens it every 10 years when she sees her sons. It is next opened in front of Winnie, causing Winnie to bring up her Nana and help put her at ease. Mae then gives it to Winnie before they part. It is last seen at the end of the Ballet, right before Winnie dies. She opens it and all of her loved ones besides the Tuck surround her, as she passes, solidifying that she lived the life that Mae and the rest of the Tucks couldn't.
Regarding the ending:
When we see the Tucks at at the send they appear to be visiting Winnie's grave just after she passed, so it is about 1960ish. Although their costumes do not scream "late 50's early 60s" they are more modern then their costumes seen earlier.
Regarding the background Dancers:
I don't know how heavily they were featured before, but they seem to be toned down, and I thought they actually gave energy to the production. I think Casey's decision to use them is 3 fold. As I said they give a lot of energy to the productions allowing the show to maintain its mommentum especially in the first Act. Also I think they are supposed to be representation of everyone the Tucks have lost along the way. Third is they bring the ending Ballet full circle, as without them the ballet really just comes out of left field.
I think the there are 2 problems the show has in order take take the show from being ok/good to good/great.
The first is is focus. The book is about a Winnie, who has never been able to see the world outside her gate, going on an adventure and loosing her innocence, through her interaction with the Tuck family and not the other way around. The seem to be working on that of ensuring the Tucks are never onstage without Winnie once they meet. I think the problem is that so much time is spent on introudcing the Tucks and their plight, that Winnie's problems become secondary instead of the central focus. The way to fix this in my opinion is have Mother and Nana have a larger presense in the first act. They need a song after "Hugo" to explore why Mother raised Winnie so strictly to keep the plots focus on Winnie running away instead of the Tucks. The second Act although much more uneven uneven does a much better job of this.
The other problem is Andrew Keenan-Bolger, not that he isn't great in the part. but its his chemistry with Sarah Charles Lewis is great to the point of it causing the audience to become distracted. Having read the book back in the day and seen the movie, the greatest critisism of the movie is they made Winnie 15 instead of 11. This created a romance between Winnie and Jesse that is not supposed to exist. The fact that Andrew reads really young and Sarah actually reads older then she is despite actualy being 11, causes the audience to see their relationship as a romance instead of a friendship. This is why Mae is so angry when Winnie says he told her to wait till she is 17, as he is 105 years old creeping on an 11 year old, along with the torturous existence they live. Although Jesse's desire to "marry" Winnie existed in the book, there isn't the explicit sexual reference and easy joke Andrew says regarding why she has to wait. Then again Hugo is also another creeper, so I think they need to get rid of the whole pedofilic element of the plot. But in truth they need to make Winnie and Jesse's relation ship scream friendship and not read as a romance.
Overall though I thought the show was in great shape. Yes the the conflict it quite small to the point of being a deus ex machina with the Man in the Yellow suit, but I think that is addressed in my comments on the focus.. The first Act was almost perfect, and the second act is 80% there. The tree is marvoulous and everyone around me was saying how they wished they could play on it. Everyone gives strong performances and outside of Mother and Nana, each gets their own moment to shine. I do wish "Everlasting" ending on strong big note instead of tappering of into the ballet, but it worked well in showing her internal conflict.
Is the show perfect no, but is is good for what it is yes.
Updated On: 4/13/16 at 02:08 PM
