The Official Ace Musical Thread — Page 6

I liked The Happy Time also. Peter Marks gave raves to Carrie Fisher's show and The Road to Mecca at Studio Theatre in the last two days, so he does give rave reviews when a show really deserves it.

Here is City Paper's Trey Graham's review of Ace. It's like all the other ACE reviews-the performances are good-the score OK but the songs start sounding the same-and a book that has too many subplots:

"Signature Theatre opened an expensive-looking new musical last week, with New York theater notables onstage and visions of Broadway dancing in its handsomely coiffed head.

And as you may have heard, the paper of record has turned up its nose in a big way: “With some judicious trims,” wrote The Washington Post’s lead critic, “the aviation-themed Ace might be a candidate for long-term showcasing at a venue such as the Air and Space Museum.”

Meeeow.

But don’t despair, if you’ve already plunked down your nonrefundable $86 for that Friday-night seat: It’s not quite that lame.

Not that it’s ready for prime time, exactly. What it is: overstuffed, and largely nonsensical, if stylishly packaged.

Surly, 10-year-old Danny (Dalton Harrod) winds up in a foster home after his mother (Jill Paice) attempts suicide. For reasons that remain stubbornly unclear, Mom’s effort to win the kid back revolves—in the face of urgent entreaties from Florence Lacey’s worried social worker—around a kind of historical scavenger hunt in which model airplanes, old diary entries, and sundry newspaper clippings reveal, piece by tidily chronological piece, the stories of the boy’s long-missing fighter-pilot father (Matthew Scott), the courtship that brought Mom and Dad first bliss and then heartbreak, and the grandparents (Christiane Noll, Jim Stanek) whose influence set the crash-and-burn course for everything that would follow.

As if the hide-a-clue device—and the two generations of territory it covers—weren’t enough, Ace is also concerned with charting the history of U.S. military aviation and with honoring its heroes, both men and machine. (Thus, you see, the title. And the Air and Space Museum crack. And the “overstuffed.”)

Still, the tunes are agreeable (if a bit same-same), and the performers largely first-rate. Paice, whose wan grief in Act 1 gives way to a winning vivaciousness after intermission, summons a scorching rage later still, when the plot (somehow convoluted and predictable all at once) demands it.

And Angelina Kelly, as a pigtailed playground detective who helps Danny parse the riddles Mom keeps parceling up and shipping over to the foster home, hooks the audience in the early going—and reels ‘em in, gasping with delight, with a saucy showstopper of a solo called “Now I’m on Your Case.”

Robert Perdziola’s costumes upholster the show’s three major eras—the two World Wars, plus the early 1950s—in an easy-to-decode visual vocabulary, while Walt Spangler’s efficient steel set, with a substantial assist from Michael Clark’s precisely calibrated projections, suggests cockpits and barrooms, classrooms and bedrooms and leafy campuses with surprising grace.

All that style, all that skill, and mostly for naught: Ace keeps trying to soar, but all the ground clutter keeps it firmly earthbound."

Brandy_Breath, you have got to be kidding when you say that it is hard to find a show that Peter Marks likes coming from Signature. For many years, Peter Marks lavished praise on the theater, even where most other critics did not. I used to be a subscriber before moving from that area. I was often surprised at the good review given the theater shows when the work was so often not good. Most of the good work there was done by directors other than Eric. Eric has contributed a lot to the DC theater scene and Signature is obviously where it is because of him (and others), but a solid consistent director, he is not.

I also agree with you that nobody should be ashamed of a show they believe in. However, you should also take account of when you make errors. And, you should acknowledge when you did not do the necessary work to get where you wanted to go. It appears that the Signature folks thought Glory Days was going to be a walk in the park to get to Broadway. Underestimating the difficulty is something everyone associated with that show should take stock of -- especially Eric and producers.

Fortunately, the young authors seem to have come out of it not too tarnished.

Kec, it was great to meet you too! And I'll see you at the closing performance on the 28th!! :)

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the "stage door" where most performers come out is the area just to the left of the bar, between the two theaters.

So far it's just the Signature info on there. But it'll be interesting to see, that's for sure.

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Definitely. I hadn't explored it before (Signature has great stuff on their site as-is), so I don't know if it has been there. But it definitely looks great.

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A new review from BBW
Four Aces For Signature Theatre's Musical 'Ace'

https://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=32727

Has anyone here done rush for this? How have the houses been and do you think getting a rush ticket for the matinee this Sunday would be a problem? I really want to see this before it closes and am completely strapped until the beginning of the month, so rush is the only way I will get to see it. I also figure that if I can't get a ticket to Ace, then there is always Inishmore...I would hate to make the two hour drive for nothing.

Any advice would be great! Thanks!

Rush is realllly easy. I have only rushed Ace(three times now, going on four this weekend)and gotten front row, E and G all in the center of the aisles. For this show, visually I prefer up higher but sound quality wise, front row was better.

You should have no problem at all. Saturday the matinée was pretty empty, though sold better than other Saturday matinée's I've been to there.

Oh and the policy has changed and is now an hour before show time (used to be a half hour) and costgs $30 (up $10 from before).

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Thanks for everyone's responses...and the advice on seating. Now that my plans are firm, I am getting more and more excited. Although I do want to see Inishmore at some point during its run, I would be mightily upset if I missed the chance to see Ace.

We went again on Friday night and it was even better this time. Dalton's 'solo' at the end had me in tears. If this doesn't go to Bway, it'll be such a shame. I wish there was some way to have a recording of this show :-/

Having seen Ace 4 times now, I can say that I feel fortunate to have had the experience. The story is simply beautiful and brings me to tears. So many of the performances are praise-worthy.

Having said that...last night was "Technical Difficulty Night" at Ace. In Act 1, the set pieces didn't fully move,then, not at all, the centerpiece didn't budge, the planes didn't drop... at least the swings came down! They worked on it and we cheered for them when, at intermission, they tested it out and they worked. In Act 2, the set pieces didn't turn and the stairs didn't come down, but they worked through it and the cast did a great job with it. We asked one of the cast members who told us that they knew about the issues only at the top of the show. Given that, you have to admire the professionalism of the cast and crew. Brava!