The Public Theater - Ethan Lipton’s “The Seat of Our Pants” — Page 2

chrishuyen said: "I'm curious why you don't think it would fit a traditional space, since I didn't really think there was anything to be gained by having audience on both sides of the stage. A smaller venue might benefit it, and CITS would provide the intimacy, but it's a large cast and it would hard to justify the Broadway costs in a small venue. I suppose the main question would be what to do with the band, but I think they could still have a similar set up in a proscenium house."

It’s a large cast and an epic story, but it’s ultimately a pretty small show. Even the band doesn’t sound big; it sounds varied. If anything, the musical adaptation shrinks the play down and brings us closer to the family at its center. I think it comes down to intimacy and the ability to really look at the actors on stage.

The recent revival at the Beaumont felt appropriately big - the performances were huge and so everything was huge. By comparison, Lipton’s adaptation feels like a chamber piece exploding at the seams with other people trying to break through, and so the smaller scale and closeness feels right.

To be fair, I don’t think the audience on stage was played to enough, and therefore wondered about the effectiveness of it (I sat on the main side). So maybe there would be something gained by having more space to work with - who knows. I found Fun Home kind of meh in the Newman and revelatory at Circle in the Square, so perhaps I’m also just associating that memory.

Updated On: 10/27/25 at 12:25 PM

inception said: "It's sort of Our Town on poppers."

Can see this quote on a sign hanging below the marquee!

Quite a few walkouts after Act 1. I liked it, but definetely didn't love it. Way too long, and it feels long. There needs to be some serious cuts made and tightening up. Some great music, but there were at least two songs that could have been cut.

quizking101 said: "inception said: "I think that basing predictions on the third preview of the first tyout of anything wouldn't exactly be fair.

In the meantime I would suggest that people unfamiliar with the original play read it. It's an important work in the American theater/Broadway canon."

Two things I disagree with here:

1) I know the Public Theatre is a great incubation space for new and potentially canon-altering shows. However, if you are charging $129 for all seats (which seems heinous for an untestedshow at the Public), then I find it to be fair game to judge as it seems fit. They are only scheduled to run until November 30th, so I’m not betting any money that there would be meaningful change made by opening. Even then, there are more preview performances (4 weeks) versus “frozen” performances (2 weeks). Are we not to pass judgment until more than 2 weeks from now?

2) While I agree that the play is important to the canon, I don’t like the concept of having to do homework before I go in to a show. I think it defeats the purpose of discovering, through fresh eyes,if the material can stand on its own two feet. (This is the same beef I have with STRANGER THINGS)"

Why do your ticket price determine whether or not you can judge previews?

I think those are valid points, and was prepared to receive this rebuttal. I don't have an answer. I hope they can fix it. But I'll be prepared if they can't.

See I don't just post crappy jokes all day. I even did a bit of work today. I wrote two serious emails. And made a couple important phone calls. And even left the office for about an hour to pick up some vital equipment.

Updated On: 10/29/25 at 06:21 PM

I saw this tonight and loved it. I agree with the comments about the pacing being tough. I hope this gets to run somewhere else so it can continue to be developed. I really think they have something here

im glad I saw this, and i suspect it was a faithful, quirky. clever adaptation of the absurd Wilder play. But without much familiarity with the original work, its just absurd, and at times painfully unfunny, and even more painfully slow.

the pacing issues aside, it springs to life thanks to its fun score and stacked cast. its overstuffed with ideas-- Andy Groteleuschen is excellent opening up the first and second acts, and then closing the show, but Micaela Diamond is also playing a meta-narrator role, stopping the show once in each act to break the 4th wall. This seemed totally unnecessary, and undercut the serious (glacially paced) speeches and odes to the text, particularly from Shuler Hensley at the end. Just very uneven, I guess.

But but but. Ruthie Ann Miles is ageless and timeless-- shes a ray of light, a bell clap of moral clarity throughout. Diamond is bizarre in the best way, and easily the most successful with the humor. They walk away with the show- though Damon Daunno springs to life in the last act, and Ally Bonino does have that great number (but still has to fight the music that drowns her out a bunch). I found myself delighted by so many of their moments, and then missing them when the show ground to a halt more than a few times. To its credit, the ending sequence was an almost perfect amalgamation of a great ensemble number with sheer absurdity all at the same time, so its ends on a high note (though I do have a question about the ending--if any one wants to DM me that thinks they have a handle on the show?)

the audience was not full, and i dont know why they sat 5 rows of us behind the stage, forcing the actors to rotate awkwardly at times. Michael Greif was there; I saw Amber Grey in the lobby. alot of older people in the audience (that i was staring at across the stage) were sound asleep. id be shocked if this transferred uptown but i would love to hear that someone is working on it still, and trimming it down, to better preserve the score.

Didn’t see a review thread for this show but here is 100WordReview (disclaimer, I contribute to the account and wrote this one):

https://www.instagram.com/p/DRC2LyikeBO/

dont see any coverage from Vulture, the NYT, or any NY-based papers, odd.

Thornton Wilder Retailored: ‘The Seat of Our Pants’

https://www.vulture.com/article/thornton-wilder-retailored-the-seat-of-our-pants.html

I'm on the side of liking this. It could be tightened up. It feels like something that in an earlier era could have had a long life off-Bwy like the Fantastiks or Threepenny Opera in the 50's.

I'm glad I changed my schedule so I could see it. My hesitancy months ago due to the snippets of Lipton songs I had heard at that time was unfounded. I enjoyed most of the numbers in this quite a lot.

And that's it for me. 10 shows in 5 days done and I fly home tomorrow. This was the second year in a row visiting late November instead of X-mas, and it works much better for the show selection for off-Bwy performances. Right now not sure if I'll get to New York next year. I'm tempted by some Summer offerings like at the 2026 Bard Summerscape, but not sure if I can make that work .

As someone with no experience with the play that this is based on, I absolutely loved this. I thought it was wonderfully off-kilter with fantastic off-beat performers to perfectly match its insane tone. Diamond especially is doing fantastic work here, and I want to shout out Shuler Hensley who I thought was doing particularly great work and seems to be going unnoticed. The score is excellent, the performances are top-notch, and I found the show to overall just be completely visceral in a way I haven't seen from many shows recently. I highly recommend!