The Nance... Could have been better.- Page 2
The Nance... Could have been better.
#25The Nance... Could have been better.
Posted: 3/22/13 at 1:35pmWhizzer definitely dislikes quite a few shows. He tries to be nice and sometimes emphasizes the positives (and maybe doesn't write at length about the meh shows or shows he doesn't like), but there are a healthy proportion of shows that he doesn't like (and a healthy proportion that he likes). One of the reasons I enjoy reading his posts myself is that his overall viewpoint towards theatergoing is not overly positive or overly negative. He also writes really well and uses a lot of vivid analogies and metaphors that help the reader to understand what he's thinking.
April Saul
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/17/06
#26The Nance... Could have been better.
Posted: 3/22/13 at 2:34pmWhizzer tends to be more generous, say, than After Eight, but he was not crazy about Kinky Boots!
#27The Nance... Could have been better.
Posted: 3/22/13 at 2:51pm
Ha, thank you all for some kind words. Honestly I feel like I dislike more than I like, but maybe it seems like there's more to rave about in the spring because producers have saved their best stuff until now to show off.
Even taking the new musicals this year I disliked Scandalous, Bring It On, A Christmas Story, Chaplin (except for the BRILLIANT camp turn Jenn Coella pulled off in her act two number) and Kinky Boots. Motown was just ok, but the songs were sung well so I didn't mind it. I liked Hardbody and truly loved Matilda.
Sometimes it's hard to put a lot of effort into sharing thoughts about bad stuff that nobody seems to care about. The Lying Lesson was pure torture (so is most of the stuff at Theatre Row on any given day), but shows like that don't get much traction here and it seems pointless to share my thoughts about Modotti when there were only 10 people in the audience anyway! (BTW Modotti, which played at Theatre Row, is one of the worst things I've ever seen in New York and I still laugh about it with my best friend. About halfway through act two these two older gentlemen loudly said, "I can't hear anything this actress is saying," to which the other replied, "Well the thing is so damn bad anyway let's just go home." Upon which they left and to the mortification of the poor, poor actors onstage the remaining victims in the audience started laughing.)
When I see the next "Modotti" I'll be sure to share my thoughts now though!
#28The Nance... Could have been better.
Posted: 3/22/13 at 3:19pmIt will extend if Nathan decides to.
spike3
Leading Actor Joined: 5/17/11
#29The Nance... Could have been better.
Posted: 3/22/13 at 5:08pm
sounds like 15-20 min need to be cut. Lets hope its done and soon! Meaning at the beginning of next week, as I know they will want to see how this plays as is all weekend.
But please, if cuts need to be made DO IT
#30The Nance... Could have been better.
Posted: 3/22/13 at 5:19pm
Didn't we just have a thread that turned into it defence of Whizzer's reviews? 
Oh well, it's warranted to repeat--one thing that I don't think was mentioned is, unlike certain other posters, he never pretends that his reviews are anything more, or less, than his own opinions, and when people don't agree with him he seems interested in seeing why, and not turning it into a "Well you aren't correct" post.
#31The Nance... Could have been better.
Posted: 3/22/13 at 5:39pm
I think this is also a show that would be much worse without Nathan Lane. He may have a mixed backstage reputation, but his comic timing is unmatched. And the burlesque scenes are played directly to the audience, which is his forte. And there are also very few actors who can go back and forth so adeptly between farce and heavy dramatic scenes the way he does. As WithoutATrace said, the man is insanely talented.
And he knows how to sell it, which this part needs. I thought towards the end in the burlesque scenes, he was pushing on "selling it" a little too much, but perhaps he sensed the flagging audience energy and was trying to goose it up a bit.
In short, if you are a Nathan Lane fan, you will not be disappointed in him here. But maybe wait a bit for the show to settle in.
On the cynical side
Swing Joined: 3/23/13
#32The Nance... Could have been better.
Posted: 3/23/13 at 9:26pmSaw this show last night (second preview) and have to agree with the original poster. Lane is terrific and holds the show together...just barely. I think the book needs a lot of work. Don't want to be a spoiler, but (just my opinion, now) in the (looong) second act the show takes a hard turn into an area I don't think most mainstream audiences want to go. They're looking for "Birdcage"-and this is NOT it. Anyone else share my view?
April Saul
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/17/06
#33The Nance... Could have been better.
Posted: 3/25/13 at 11:19am
Okay, I'm going to resurrect THIS Nance thread, since the other Nance thread has lately taken a turn and gone off into odd places!
Although I would love to say I agree with Whizzer and Trace--and I wanted to really like this show--I'm more in the MikeM and After Eight camp on this one, liking it but wishing it'd been stronger. And perhaps seeing this one smack in between the pleasures of Pippin and Superman, I was apt to be especially critical.
The Nance rests on Nathan Lane's shoulders, and thank God he is a theater treasure and can handle the weight of it. For me, SO many vaudeville/burlesque bits slowed the piece down, although others around me laughed more than I did. I kept looking for character development and motivation...and the moments that were poignant and resonated with me were when Lane wrestles with the pain of his situation. The inherent ridiculousness of his persecution, his unwillingness to give in to it, the self-loathing and hopelessness that makes him sabotage his relationship with Orsini...
Like Hit the Wall, it gives its audience more insight into what it was like to be gay in a certain place and moment in time. But as it stands, and as watchable as Nathan Lane is, I agree with the posters that think it needs some work.
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#34The Nance... Could have been better.
Posted: 3/26/13 at 4:34pm
April Saul,
It seems like you "Like" everything that has gay agenda. We all know 'these' stories. You have to distinguish the artistic interpretation of it, though. Not just because a story represents 'that' era, means it is acceptable. This is my problem with 'Hit the Wall' as well. It's just staged poorly. The actors pushed to shine individually as suppose to be a collective group. I blame the director. And some producers for lacking skillful eyes.
Bottom line, these plays COULD have been better, as what we deserve.
April Saul
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/17/06
#35The Nance... Could have been better.
Posted: 3/26/13 at 6:53pm
Well, I'd rather be accused of that than of a lot of other thinks I can think of! But take another look at my post...I said that I wished The Nance had been stronger, that I was bored by so many burlesque bits, and that I thought it needed work. I actually preferred Hit the Wall to Nance, and I thought it was a riveting piece of theater, as did some other posters here and on ATC.
It's one thing to "know" about Stonewall, which of course I did, and another to have a group of actors evoke that experience for me. You didn't happen to like it, but I did. That doesn't make one of us right and the other wrong.
And--at the risk of appearing ignorant--I knew nothing about the nance character in burlesque, or what LaGuardia did in that era. So yeah, I did learn something I didn't know; but still that didn't make me wild for Nance.
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