Posted: 10/10/16 at 1:56pm
I expected to see a discussion here already since it's opening last night in New York, but apparently I'm the first! A couple reviews have come out; anybody find others?
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/best-worst-thing-ever-could-happened-936597
https://www.peoplemagazines.net/best-worst-thing-that-ever-could-have-happened-film-review-nyff-2016/
It was a buzzy, fun evening. The original cast was there, and got a huge ovation as they were asked to stand and then another one when their names went by in the credits at the end. Sondheim came out afterwards and talked with Jesse Green, and he seemed unusually animated, apparently buoyed up by the success of the movie. In great spirits, full of funny and perceptive stories as always, he suddenly choked up when he spoke of his enormous regret at having failed his very youthful cast, with all their starry-eyed Broadway dreams.
Which is what the movie, very entertainingly and very touchingly, is about. Having heard about the difficult birth pangs of this documentary, I didn't know what to expect. Well, it's terrific. Lonny Price is a wonderful narrator, funny, self-deprecating, and great as an interviewer at getting the other actors talking about their experiences. Switching back and forth between fantastic old footage and new video of the actors today (the editing and intercutting is superb, by the way), the movie can't help but show the parallels between real life and the theme and even the backwards structure of the show itself, but Price is smart enough not to flog it, and so by the end the alternation between the actors then and the actors today becomes really poignant, even piercing, I would say. (Just like in the show!) Many people around me were sobbing. Which is not to say it's ultimately a sad movie, exactly, just a bittersweet one. But I don't want to say too much more--just go, everybody, and let it be a lovely surprise. Above all, it reminded me of just how much I love theater and theater people.
Price announced that the movie gets it's national release on November 18.
