The Extraordinary Ordinary - A New Off-Broadway Musical

[rorschach37]

Posted: 11/30/10 at 1:38pm

Has anyone seen it? The book and lyrics are by Scott Burkell with music by Paul Loesel. I really like the premise. It just began performances yesterday and I was wondering if anyone had thoughts? Comments? Reviews?
Updated On: 11/30/10 at 01:38 PM

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 12/2/10 at 7:28am

I saw it. It was wonderful - great performances, beautiful music. What more could you ask for!

[rmusic11322]

Posted: 12/2/10 at 10:25pm

Kathy, do you mind giving a better explanation of what the show is about? Reading "a group of friends as they face the challenges of life in Manhattan..." over and over again tends to lose it's meaning.

[steven22]

Posted: 12/2/10 at 11:33pm

Marin Mazzie is promoting the heck out of this show on her fb!

[newintown]

Posted: 12/3/10 at 9:31am

Another banal piece of witlessness like Happiness and the musical version of Vanities. Nothing new is said , nothing old is said in a new way. You've seen it all before (and not stretched out over 2 1/2 hours).

The cast is a stunningly generic group of actors. All very clean, rather pretty - Barbie & Ken-like, but that suits the flatline material.

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 12/3/10 at 11:24am

Yeah, it's not exactly the freshest of material, and the lyrics are far better than the rather monotonous music, but I was unexpectedly taken by it. There was a bittersweetness to the proceedings I found rather beguiling and moving.

I liked the cast a lot, and thought they really fleshed out their sketchily-drawn characters. I knew of Courtney Balan from her days understudying both Susan Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff at [tos] (She never went on for either), so it was a treat to finally hear her, and I knew Christopher Cusick had been in WICKED but didn't know his work - ditto Pamela Bob, Patrick Oliver Jones (beautiful voice...he reminded me of Stephen Bogardus), Kelly McCormick, and Jonathan Parkey (whom I would have liked to have seen a bit more of).
I plan on seeing it again.

[NYCTheatreFan]

Posted: 12/3/10 at 11:25am

My friends and I really enjoyed it. We recognized parts of ourselves, each other and our other friends in each of the characters. We loved the music and found the performers to great - great singers and great actors. This was a lot more interesting to watch than most of what we have recently seen on Broadway and Off-Broadway.

[rmusic11322]

Posted: 12/3/10 at 2:54pm

"(She never went on for either)"

Courtney went on for Heidi atleast once. I saw her in The Marvelous Wonderettes and she was great.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 12/3/10 at 3:42pm

Yeah, I saw an ad for this. Was thinking about checking it out.