The Last Ship previews

[Keiichi2]

Posted: 9/28/14 at 5:59pm

So, previews for The Last Ship start tomorrow night.

Is anyone going either tomorrow or later in the week?

Seeing this in November, so hoping the word is good.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 9/29/14 at 9:29am

Have tickets for Friday. Very excited.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 9/29/14 at 9:59am

Seeing it next week. Very excited.

[Famebroadway2]

Posted: 9/29/14 at 12:00pm

Seeing it Friday.

[dave1606]

Posted: 9/29/14 at 12:02pm

I will be there tonight! Looking forward to it!

[Keiichi2]

Posted: 9/29/14 at 2:18pm

Hope you report back on what you thought, Dave.

And I wish everyone involved with the production a wonderful first preview night. Hopefully the problems they had with the script in Chicago have been ironed out. I remember hearing they've been doing a lot of work on it.

[KnewItWhenIWasInFron]

Posted: 9/29/14 at 2:53pm

There certainly was a lot of work to be done (and not just on the script -- the choreography was a mess).

[SayitSomehow]

Posted: 9/29/14 at 9:27pm

At intermission things seem to be in pretty great shape so far. Tis a bit dreary but that makes it tonally striking and unique. Music is engaging without being too schmaltzy. The songs and the laughs are landing. No hiccups so far. Has a "genuine" ethos running through it.

More to come later tonight.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/29/14 at 11:27pm

Just got home and have a few thoughts. I think dreary is an excellent word for it. The first act is quite dull, but act two improves with the actual advancement of the plot. The songs sound similar and often have a monotonous quality to them, although there a few numbers that rise about the rest.

The strongest thing about the show is easily the cast, all of whom are committed and giving good to excellent performances. Even when there's not much to make of the material they'll all go down trying.

The set is massive, the lighting moody and dark, the costumes much the same. Very reminiscent of Rocky, except there aren't as many moving pieces to the set and the central space is kept more open.

The plot (what there is of it) and milieu is extremely derivative of several shows we've just seen, including Kinky Boots and especially Billy Elliot and Fanny. In fact act one is basically Billy Elliot without the dancing. Imagine the miners singing song after song about how they can't mine anymore and you've got it. Instead of a young boy who just wants to pirouette we know have Gideon (Michael Esper) who just wants to brood and scowl. He pulled a Marius 15 years ago and left Fanny when the sea called him away. Now he's back Fanny (Meg in this story) has a 15 year child that she's been raising with a much hunkier Panisse (Arthur- Aaron Lazar). A love triangle worthy of General Hospital ensues.

Back on the Billy Elliot side of things, the shipyard has been closed and some corporate guy wants to hire everyone in the town as salvage yard workers, but they won't be building ships anymore so the townspeople will have nothing of it. They decide (for some reason) that they're going to build one last ship and sail it around the area (world?). Plotholes abound with how exactly they're going to build this ship, but just like Noah's ark it will find a way to be built I guess.

I think Michael Esper did some nice work, and he shares the best song in the show with Collin Kelly-Sordelet called "The Night the Pugilist Learned How To Dance." Awful song title, ha, but it really was a wonderful song and beautifully staged. The other great song went to Aaron Lazar in act one called, "What Say You, Meg?" Sally Ann Triplett led the ensemble in a big act two number that was kind of weird, kind of cool. The rest of the score sadly didn't make much of an impression. Sort of a Rocky situation for me.

It hardly felt like a first preview. Everything was polished, professional and ran smoothly.

I wish I had liked it more, but I just couldn't warm to the characters and care about their plight. I was a big fan of Billy Elliot and shed many a tear at the Imperial, but these people left me cold.

[dave1606]

Posted: 9/29/14 at 11:43pm

I was there tonight, and while I can find a few things to praise, I think dreary is again a great word. At intermission, dull, and pointless were the words that came to mind.

We have a central story line that makes little sense. There is no real reason for them to be building that ship, and even less of a reason to then sail said ship around the world.

Couple that with Michael Esper's character who is extremely unlikable (despite a committed and very strong performance from Michael) and also has no reason for hanging around.

Overall, I agree with Whizzer that the cast is strong. I quite liked Rachel Tucker, and thought Fred Applegate made the most of the shows (very few) comedic moments. (Though I thought Aaron Lazar, was quite underwhelming.) That said, this play left me empty. With no real justification for building the ship, I simply couldn't care whether they built it or not, and a relationship that could never work, I couldn't deal with the constant will they won't they of the central couple.

All of this said, there was something about a large chunk of the score that got under my skin. I will be singing the title song for days whether I like it or not. The choral harmonies are gorgeous as well. There are still several songs that desperately need melodies (the wake song in act 2 I thought was particularly awful), but this is a much stronger score than something like U2's Spider-man.

It is a great looking show (the set is gorgeous, and the final scene of the show is quite thrilling), but I wish there was a heart and a brain to back it up.

[RUkiddingme]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 12:00am

2 words - Michael Esper

And not to disagree with others but the set is not massive. There is one big effect at the end but it's generally a national tour portable set with the actors rolling out chairs and a bar.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 12:00am

I completely agree that nothing about the ship building makes sense. Hard to discuss it without SPOILERS though:

***********************


How exactly were they sneaking into the shipyard to build this ship all the time? After they were arrested at the end of act one, don't you think the new owners would hire a few security guards to watch the yard? And even if they were slipping in with the cover of darkness don't you think they would notice some big ship suddenly assembled during the daylight hours? I mean this wasn't The Last Rowboat- they were building a huge ship! Maybe some dialogue needs to be added that Lazar was in charge of the security and he was allowing them to build it and not reporting back to the new owners. Makes his character more interesting too.

How were they financing all this? I know Fred Applegate was dipping into some of the church funds, but surely that wasn't going to be enough to build (and design) this whole ship, not to mention all the food and supplies they would need to stock the ship for the duration of the journey. Perhaps it could be suggested that Esper's father had set aside a stash of money and he had requested they use it to build a boat.

Speaking of design- who designed the thing? These men, as far as we were told, were laborers and builders. There's a big difference between building the physical pieces of the ship and actually being the architect of the vessel.

The motivation to build the ship in the first place just felt very weak. Applegate suggests it and everyone's just like, ok, well I guess we don't have anything else to do. I know this would greatly cut down on Applegate's role, but what if he died at the end of the first act instead of during the second, and it was his dying wish that they build one last ship. That would certainly give the town a more emotional and personal reason to do this for him.

The book just needs to explain these issues more or the plot doesn't make sense.

END SPOILER****************************


Edit
I agree that the set isn't massive in terms of having a turn table a huge moving set pieces, but that it filled the Neil Simon well.

Updated On: 9/30/14 at 12:00 AM

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 12:14am

Based on your review Whizzer, I can only imagine what a certain poster here will say. Something like: "Monotonous. Dull. It's good to know every composer will now be using the Sondheim method to ensure that a good time is had by no one. Throughout the show and during intermission numerous audience members left. I wish I was one of them. Why can't anyone with charm and wit write a show these days? Why are children not singing of jam and bread? I'm sure it will be deemed a masterpiece - it might even give Fun Home a run for the Tony!"

Updated On: 9/30/14 at 12:14 AM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 12:21am

HA!

Well, you certainly just saved him the time to write his review!

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 12:58am

A dirgical, in the inglorious tradition of such dismal items as Floyd Collins, Passion, Parade, Marie Christine, Bridges of Madison County, et al. This one comes complete with on-stage casket. The show is less irritating/insufferable than its dirgical forebears, but it's none too engaging either.

The plot, stock and clichéd, travels an unhurried road to nowhere, all the while turning around in circles. The music is endurable though unmemorable. Its greatest merit is not being deadly, aggravating and pretentious like the aforementioned ordeals. The songs alternated between bombastic chorales with a lot of foot stomping, and ruminative pieces which were fairly humdrum. The lyrics were flat and obvious. Some numbers could be cut with no great loss, among them a priest's song in a hospital bed, and a father teaching his son to dance in the charming confines of a jail cell. (Where's Hello Dolly's "Dancing" when you need it ---like now? Hell, where's Hello Dolly when you need it-- like every night we go to the theatre?!)

To the show's credit, it allows the heroine to make the right choice at the end.

Cast, direction and design were all good.

Once upon a time, there were delightful, happy-go-lucky, musicals like Leave It to Jane, Very Good Eddie, Good News, No, No, Nanette, Where's Charley?, High Button Shoes, The Boy Friend, etc, etc. Now, in their stead we get dirgicals.

Why, oh why, must we constantly be subjected to dirgicals?



Updated On: 9/30/14 at 12:58 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 1:00am

How are you still alive?

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 1:03am

I think I was on the money.

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 1:11am

"it might even give Fun Home a run for the Tony!" "

Uh, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, will give that thing a run for the Tony.

You're out of the money.

Oh, and just one bit of friendly counsel that might serve you in good stead after you graduate:

Speak not with forked tongue.

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 1:14am

Eugh. This makes me nervous for when I go. If there is one thing that I hate, it is a boring musical. Considering both ends of the first preview spectrum (Whizzer to After Eight) called it dull and flat, I am at the very least expecting to be bored out of my skull for this piece. It sounds like ONCE (which was the most boring nap I've ever taken in the theatre) on steroids.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 1:15am

Bridges? Passion? Oh, please. The Last Ship didn't resemble these shows in the least.

I know one of your posts wouldn't be complete with denouncing Sondheim, LaChiusa, JRB and the like, but the comparisons don't fit this time around. I suppose it's impossible for you dislike a show without bringing up Passion and Marie Christine!

Why don't you just put a list of shows you love and a list you hate in your signature and be down with it!

The thing is, I agree with several of your critiques, although the Dancing song was easily the best in the score and the only one worth of some of the shows you did list above.

Updated On: 9/30/14 at 01:15 AM

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 1:16am

Cast, direction and design were all good.

That made me laugh. I love when he does that in the middle of his rant.

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 1:19am

ljay, that is often true, though. Undeniably the writers of musical theatre are going downhill quickly, whereas the designers and cast members usually maintain an image of quality.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 1:29am

After Eight,

Did you at least liked Audra's performance in Marie Christine? Although the story, score, and execution were dreadful and atrocious? Surely you could at least take solace in knowing that you were watching a prime actress take on such dreadful material?

I mean, I may have detested Sunset Boulevard, but I at least understood what a gift it was to be able to see Patti LuPone take on the unfortunate material.

[broadwaymarty]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 2:04am

Saw the show tonight.....LOVED IT, one other thing, I saw no one walking out, and the patter in the theater as well as the people around me was very favorable, to absolute raves!

[mpd4165]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 2:09am

Honestly, it sounds like not a whole lot changed from the Chicago run, where I thought it dragged, and Gideon was a completely unlikable character who joined the workers for incredibly selfish reasons. Aaron Lazar walked away with the best song in the score (What Say You, Meg?) and glad to know that continues.