Posted: 8/7/16 at 2:24pm
Saw it this past weekend. Sat in a mezzanine box and I can’t recommend those seats more to those on a budget. The only thing of any importance we missed was about thirty seconds of Ebersole standing extreme left while she was singing. One gets the sense of the stage picture as from from the mezzanine but the intimacy as from front row orchestra.
LuPone and Ebersole were both absolutely terrific, and the crowd loved them – although, quite awkwardly, LuPone’s second entrance received applause while Ebersole’s did not. Terrific zingers, some truly touching moments in the final scene, and of course showstopping vocals. I read some complaints about LuPone’s accent work, and in a few songs the lyrics are obscured, but she seems to have at least gotten it down.
The score is amiable enough as one’s hearing it, but the only really memorable number is “Pink”. I do not think Frankel and Korie’s work stacks up to Grey Gardens. And yes, “Dinosaurs” is truly an awful and misguided song that should be scrapped immediately.
The real problem’s the book. These two ladies don’t really interact enough (dramatically, I mean, not physically) for the narrative to be really compelling as more than biographical montage. But Wright doesn’t want to eschew narrative and go for something artier, either. Additionally, the men truly aren’t fleshed out at all. But I didn’t mind the finale at all, despite what other posters have written; it’s fiction, and it’s dramatically satisfying to see them finally meet.
All in all, the evening mainly glides along on the strength of the splendid design work, flashy but not overdone, and on LuPone and Ebersole’s terrific performances. So a rather wonderful night – but one wonders how the musical would fare without two legendary divas.
