The Public's THE VISITOR - Previews- Page 5

[binau]

Posted: 10/28/21 at 6:03pm

I don’t really know anything about the show or movie but the way this is marketed to me suggests what they might be or should be going for is that the immigrants are the saviour by bringing meaning to a lonely sad old guy. I could be wrong of course as I said I don’t know the property at all.

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 10/28/21 at 10:04pm

im seeing this when im back in NYC this weekend, and will try to go in with an open mind: the Public, David Hyde Pierce and Alysha Deslorieux's voice have never let me totally down in the past. They could be working kinks out as they go. Optimism. 

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/29/21 at 12:09am

binau said: "I don’t really know anything about the show or movie but the way this is marketed to me suggests what they might be or should be going for is that the immigrants are the saviour by bringing meaning to a lonely sad old guy. I could be wrong of course as I said I don’t know the property at all. "

Yet, the story is the other way around. It is the white man who "saves" the immigrants, which is totally tone deaf. 

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/29/21 at 12:09am

binau said: "I don’t really know anything about the show or movie but the way this is marketed to me suggests what they might be or should be going for is that the immigrants are the saviour by bringing meaning to a lonely sad old guy. I could be wrong of course as I said I don’t know the property at all. "

Yet, the story is the other way around. It is the white man who "saves" the immigrants, which is totally tone deaf. 

[Tom5]

Posted: 10/29/21 at 2:51am

Binau's suggestion is a fantastically good idea. If I were adapting I hope I'd have been wise enough to conceive it that way. Not because it's 'woke' but because it's new and better. 

[Harriet Craig]

Posted: 10/29/21 at 8:30am

I have seen both the movie and the musical, and what I took away from both of them was exactly what binau suggests. Obviously different people can have different interpretations, but I don’t think binau’s suggestion (and my interpretation) can be dismissed as completely invalid. For anyone who hasn’t seen the show yet, going into it with an open mind and at least considering the possibility that the show can be seen in that way might be a helpful way of experiencing it.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/29/21 at 11:43am

I've seen it and was really taken with it. It's an interesting companion piece to the brilliant SANCTUARY CITY at NYTW. It's about 100 mins, one act. If you like serious, adult musical theatre, you would be a fool not to see it at the Public. There seems to be a lot of finger-pointing from people who haven't actually seen the show!!!

The score is lovely. There are a few killer songs that feel "classic" Tom Kitt, while the rest is more similar to LaChiusa or later Sondheim. Alysha Deslorieux and Jacqueline Antaramian get the best song. Dramaturgically, it's pretty sound.

I didn't find it tonedeaf at all, nor do I think it's a "white savior" story. Maybe the movie is, but on stage this illustrates the rotten core of the American Dream. I'll tag thoughts on the plot with a spoiler just in case people want to be surprised:

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Walter (David Hyde Pierce) is a widowed college professor. He returns to NYC and finds a pair of undocumented immigrants (Tarek and Zainab) "squatting" in his apartment. Instead of calling the cops, Walter says they can stay temporarily, though they're reluctant because they don't trust him. Tarek teaches him to play the djembe and they develop a friendship; Zainab is reluctant to get close to Walter. When Tarek is arrested by ICE and Walter witnesses it, Walter uses his inherent privilege to attempt to help his new friend and ends up falling in love with Tarek's mother.

Someone of lesser character might have tried to push these people out of his life and ignore the situation. Zainab (probably the most interesting character) even questions Walter's motives for helping them. (Walter demonstrates subtle racism in a few instances at the start of the show and he evolves as the evening progresses.) It's, above all, a story of an "everyman," unsatisfied with work and mourning his wife, who gets roped into a complicated situation that shows him how broken this system is for immigrants trying to start a new life in America.

In the end, Walter doesn't save anyone, and no character has a happy ending. Bleak, but anything happier might have been too "musical theatre quaint" considering the realities of life for immigrants in America.

The cast is uniformly strong. DHP's acting is excellent, though vocally the role might have benefited from someone else. The direction is a little stiff, though the movement (it's not really choreography) was nice. The design is functional. There are a few sequences in which multiple actors come together and play djembe, and that is hair-stands-up-on-back-of-neck thrilling.

It's a solid 7.5 out of 10 for me! Very much worth your time because I doubt we'll see it on Broadway.

Updated On: 10/29/21 at 11:43 AM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/29/21 at 11:53am

In a world where this gets promising reviews at the Public, the minor "problems" would be fixable if they really wanted to make a go for it on Broadway, though I don't know if it would ever be a financial hit without a Best Musical win.

Above all, if they wanted to make people shut up about a perceived "white savior" narrative, replace David Hyde Pierce with Brian Stokes Mitchell (the story might work even better with a lighter-skinned Black man being reminded of the racism against immigrants in America). The director Daniel Sullivan could possibly be replaced along with the design team, but the team probably just needs to take another look at the visual identity and staging of the show now that it's been tested out at the Public.

Updated On: 10/29/21 at 11:53 AM

[Kad]

Posted: 10/29/21 at 12:15pm

Daniel Sullivan is an odd choice of director for this. He's certainly prolific, but I've never found his work to be anything more than workman-like.

[JaggedLittlePal]

Posted: 10/29/21 at 2:10pm

Thank you for this! We’ve loved everything Kitt has done and got tickets to this ASAP. So glad they shifted the story and that there are classic Kitt songs.

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 10/29/21 at 2:16pm

JaggedLittlePal said: "So glad they shifted the story and that there are classic Kitt songs."

No one said they shifted the story. For some reason people want to live in a make believe world where the takeaway is that the immigrants gave his life meaning which isn't the case. If you look at the Playbill which hasn't been updated to reflect any of the changes, you'll see that a lot of the songs cut were those of Tarek and Zainab. I think that illustrates how they're continuing to drive home the white savior point as well as spelling it out in DHP's 11 o'clock number where he says that white men need to do better. 

And re: Kitt songs, there is a song that reminds me of Better Than Before so...I guess?

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/29/21 at 3:41pm

Simply because DHP's character's narrative drives the story doesn't make it a white savior story, nor does the sentiment that white men need to do better (they do!). Nobody "wins" at the end of this show.

Don't let Clyde's negativity –– or my positivity, for that matter –– sway your opinion until you've actually seen the musical on stage...we're each one isolated opinion.

This is the story that the authors set out to adapt. Nobody's saying you're required to like it. There are bigger wastes of time playing on larger stages right now.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/29/21 at 4:16pm

One kind of funny thing –– David Hyde Pierce has had facial hair in so many recent roles and in all his pandemic videos, so it was kind of startling to see him clean-shaven here looking very much like Niles Crane!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/29/21 at 9:11pm

Just got out of this and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m gonna make sure to get back to this one again before it closes.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/30/21 at 6:49am

I’m very confused by people saying it’s a “white savior” story. Who did he save? Literally nobody is better off at the end than they were at the beginning. I suppose you could say DHP is better off because he now can play an instrument that he couldn’t a few months before but besides that, he’s in an even worse place.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/30/21 at 10:51am

Jordan Catalano said: "I’m very confused by people saying it’s a “white savior” story. Who did he save? Literally nobody is better off at the end than they were at the beginning. I suppose you could say DHP is better off because he now can play an instrument that he couldn’t a few months before but besides that, he’s in an even worse place. "

This. It’s one refreshingly kind person trying to help people in need, and in the end it doesn’t work out. A really lovely story. 

[akhoya87]

Posted: 10/30/21 at 3:40pm

I saw this show last Friday, and my review is a bit middle-of-the-road-y.  I went into it blind, having bought tickets fairly last minute (but before Ari Stachel pulled out).  I vaguely recalled the movie but couldn't remember much of the plot.

I thought it was well acted/performed.  David Hyde Pierce did well with the material that he had, and I thought Alysha Deslorieux was terrific as Zainab.  Ahmad Maksoud was generally good -- not a standout performance, but he did well given that he had all of two minutes to take the lead role.  

I also thought the book and lyrics were bland and forgettable.  (The score is lovely.)  Lady Liberty was a nice number, but other than that, nothing really sticks out.  And whatever refrain the ensemble says throughout the show (which I can't remember now) is just bad.  

From a plot perspective, not enough buildup between Walter and Mouna to make that connection believable.  Too much time spent on Walter's ennui.  But I get it - they had a lot of ground to cover, and it's a balance.

My main issue is that I felt the musical had only a surface-level understanding of the immigrant experience in America (documented or undocumented).  I know one of the book-writers is British BIPOC and the son of immigrants, but the immigrant experience in the UK and the immigrant experience in the US are starkly different (though both obviously have their problems).  I felt like the show very much had the flavor of "look how horrible the system is" while not really conveying why it's so horrible (or doing it in a "tell, not show" way that made it harder to connect).  

There are parts of the show that feel a little white-saviory, although I don't think that's a fair characterization of the entire show.  Rather, I think the show is trying to comment on the American dream and a very important dimension of the immigrant experience, and falls a bit flat in doing so.

Updated On: 10/30/21 at 03:40 PM

[jbm2]

Posted: 10/31/21 at 4:59pm

Sorry if I missed this
What is the running time?

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/31/21 at 5:33pm

jbm2 said: "Sorry if I missed this
What is the running time?"

Probably varies a bit as they're tweaking, but 90 min, no intermission.

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 10/31/21 at 10:29pm

this show is not a mess. its not a great musical, don't get me wrong, but its a mostly enjoyable quick moving show with some fine performances. if anything, it suffers from expectations: David Hyde Pierce! At the Public! KItt! Yorkey! Sullivan! It feels like it should be an Event, and it isn't. But a mess of a show? Not in the slightest. 

Some of the songs are great, though I think the score is not especially strong overall. The finest numbers go to Zainab, and the bigger ensemble numbers were pretty forgettable. But its a touching story, told well and to devastating effect. The central role is a sad wet noodle- so its critical that someone like DHP with so much Celebrity Capital handles it. Right off the bat, we recognize and like him, and can forgive the relatively little explanation we are given for why he's such a sad sack. What he lacks in vocals, he makes up for in passionate, committed singing- it almost fits the character that his singing is not much more than passable. 

While I missed Stachel's voice here and there, Ahmad Maksoud is stepping up to the plate quite nicely.  His character speaks with no accent, and I find it somewhat outrageous that his character ever did. What a fundamental and ugly misunderstanding of DACA eligible Americans, and I find it hard to stomach that Stachel was the first/only person to point out such lunacy. His character is somewhat underwritten but I thought his relationship with both Walter and Zainab felt genuine. Alysha Deslorieux probably has the most layered character and most traditionally Musical Theater in that Zainab is tough and protective but then uses her musical numbers to let us in her head a bit. Girl sings gorgeously throughout. 

Is this a White Savior story? Yeah, on some level. Immigrants of color are in trouble and without resources; saintly White man gives of his time and resources to help as much as he could. If that tale as old as time bothers people, I get it. But ultimately the White Savior here is financially comfortable and securely at home in America, but hes a broken mess. Zainab and Tarek are living in fear of ICE and struggling to get by, but are happily in love, and whole. Walter is jealous of them, explicitly. And when he tries to get himself a piece of their happiness with Mouna, he's essentially rebuffed because the comfort he offers is nothing next to the familial bonds he is excluded from. Walter's big number in Act 2--which DHP delivered full of fury-- is a White man scolding himself/White America for it has become. So, yes, a White Savior, but one with a message of rebuke for his own apathy and society.  I'd like to see more stories about immigrants that don't revolve around a White protagonist, so I get the criticism, but it hardly strikes me as a same ole predictable White Savior story that doesnt deserve its moment now. 

running time was closer to 1 hr 45 min, fwiw.

[normadesmond2]

Posted: 11/4/21 at 9:14pm

Maya Phillips' NY Times review:

 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/theater/the-visitor-review.html

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 11/4/21 at 10:42pm

I saw this last night and it was honestly the longest 90 minutes I can recall enduring in a theater. I just though the entire thing was underdeveloped, undercooked, shallow, and trite. I mostly just felt for the creative team—all of whom I’m fans of. They’ve been working on this for so long, and would really need to just throw the whole thing out and start over, in my opinion.

Updated On: 11/4/21 at 10:42 PM

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 11/4/21 at 11:25pm

The reviews posted so far are pans.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/4/21 at 11:32pm

I’m surprised but also not at all surprised by the reviews.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 11/5/21 at 12:40am

Bettyboy72 said: "The reviews posted so far are pans."

I don't know what you're talking about, "nauseatingly cheesy –NYT" is a money review.

I still maintain this is worth seeing at the Public, especially since there's no chance in the world it makes it to Broadway.

Updated On: 11/5/21 at 12:40 AM