WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! — Page 25

I liked Sherie's Pepa, she was a woman scorned who was trying to keep her head amidst her brief encounters. And she was very funny, too.

" I am a proud Hispanic happy to see a show on Broadway repping my people, and I feel like people are tearing it down because they have a problem with seeing middle class Hispanics portrayed on stage."

I have no opinion on the show having not seen it, but claiming that negative opinions are due to racism is kind of a new low for this board. Racism is a very serious real world issue. This is a silly chat board. The theatrical community is incredibly inclusive and you have no basis to infer that people's negative reactions to this show are race related. Get a grip on what's important.

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"...claiming that negative opinions are due to racism is kind of a new low for this board."

No it isn't. In fact, that was a running joke on this board for quite a while.

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i didn't SUGGEST it, i READ it...

it is reprehensible, awful and unacceptable!

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This thread is beyond out of control. No one has even mentioned the show in a couple pages. Can we please start a new thread that actually discusses the musical? These personal attacks and claims of racism are just ridiculous.

Are you a 12 Y.O, Kyle4? What's your job/profession? We're all curious. You're truly hilarious! Everyone on BWW KNOWS that the WOTV production team is breathlessly awaiting your daily diatribes and "helpful" suggestions bacause YOU are the professor of Bway! Mr. Sher uses every waking hour to peruse this board. Hal Prince, take note! Kyle4 is waiting to critique the 1st preview of your new show. Mr. Prince can't LIVE w/o Kyle4"s input. The show will fail w/o KYLE4's input.

Member Name: kyle4
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* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 19, 05:29:56 PM
homophobia too!
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 19, 09:52:39 AM
i didn't SUGGEST it, i READ it...

it is reprehensible, awful and unacceptable!
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 18, 08:11:26 PM
donthate...

that was a pretty homophobic comment... you have been pretty awful in some of your comments... but going THERE is not smart, kind or sensible. just LOW and SAD.

i am happy to deal with anyone's vitriol... i can give it, so i will take it. but, homophobic comments are UNACCEPTABLE. do NOT try that again with me! and i assume i speak for EVERY other gay person here!!!! actually, i hope i am speaking for ANY decent person!!!!!

that was one sad and self HATIN
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 18, 03:15:36 PM
i am on an ipad and in a rush... i will clean my previous post when i am on my home computer... still have a hard time editing on this thing...

until then, i am off to the gym...

i need to make my muscles bigger and stronger for POOKS!!!

i am dancing on air.... i found love on the WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT forum... i am the luckiest guy in the world!!!!!!!!!!!
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 18, 03:00:08 PM
i love you, mimijudith...

i love you... just want you to know that i want to kiss you and hug you and win a stuffed animal for you at the next carnival...

i LOVE that people think that my opinion is not worthy because i did not see the whole show...

first, i did NOT leave at intermission... i saw the nonsense/piragua guy/narrator/taxi guy sing that weird song under the dangling women... next thing i knew... patti (who i love) was in a boring and inane court
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 18, 12:30:13 AM
hey nemo!

i was just a mild-mannered broadway lover... minding my own business for the past 31 years... i've seen legendary shows, wonderful shows, decent shows and some flops...

i have never seen ANYTHING as horrendous, embarrassing and insulting as this...

it MOVED me to join this forum and to write! i think that is fair.

i don't want to be a reviewer for broadwayworld.com. i wanted to vent. i wanted to warn some people who were as excited to see the show a
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 17, 10:55:56 PM
i LOOOOOOVE in the heights. a fantastic show. i actually saw it again today!

um and, no, i am not a failed actor... by any means!

finally, carlos... you see, you have to SUPPORT and LOVE the show around here... or at least say ITS A WORK IN PROGRESS... otherwise, you are attacked... accused of the oddest things and subjected to profanity!!!

i appreciate that you love musical theater and have strong opinions.... i'm just hanging around until the inevitable takes place..
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 17, 09:03:47 PM
when the paparazzi descend... let them know i can be contacted through here! thanks everyone!!!
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 17, 07:51:38 PM
how often do threads reach over 100,000 views? just curious!!
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 17, 07:49:31 PM
someone upthread said... "Considering the fact that I would see this cast read the phone book..."

i SWEAR this was one of my prayers during ACT I --

"dear lord, can someone please pass out phone books

AND stop the conveyor belts

AND open some windows (i can't breathe, lord! there are propane-oriented fumes entering my lungs! i am frightened, lord!)

AND save these talented people

AND grant them rest (they are tired, lord! the director came ou
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 16, 10:20:13 AM
is the bedraggled director still coming out and apologizimg for the show? nobody has mentioned this for a while...

oh... and is the lollipop still in the show?

please advise.
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 16, 12:31:11 AM
the church of the EMPEROR's NEW CLOTHES!
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 16, 12:21:15 AM
i'm glad you guys enjoyed it!
* Patti LuPone discusses Women on the Verge.... Oct 15, 06:33:37 PM

"If you’re coming to the theater to see Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, you will not be seeing anything you’ve ever seen before.”


i am in TOTAL agreement!!!!
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 14, 10:22:28 AM
suddenly got VERY quiet around here..... interesting....

drama -- no caps, never even had a cavity!!!
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 13, 11:16:11 PM
i have the time... so i will respond to you, mr. nemo...

read my posts... i never complained about the money and i made a point of saying so... i said "art is meant to challenge, not to please"... i KNOW when i attended and knew it might be rough... so, no, i am cool with the 127.00... i chose to see it, i OWN that... no one owes me cash... cut and paste something that has me saying that i was upset about paying.... i was not...

next, i KNOW the fate of the show... and it's f
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 13, 07:21:07 PM
dave1606 --

i think i sorta have a crush on you! you saw the same show i did!

mikem --

that is a great question... and brings up a good point... the ONLY good number in the show "appears" to be split in half... i really had no idea what was going on... i was so happy to see a good number... i just ASSUMED that the momentum-killing benanti break was a tech issue...

is that break ALWAYS there?

these people are nuts!!!!

and i really have to
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 12, 05:25:45 PM
i'm new to the board... will yazbeck, lane and sher be contacting me directly? please advise!
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 12, 12:52:00 AM
i saw wicked in san francisco... as it warmed up for new york... it was great... kristin was in a neck brace, some numbers were involved that never got to broadway, but it had great energy, wonderful moments, cohesion, excitement, creativity, etc...

yes, it was still being "worked on"... but it was a SHOW... and one that made you want to see it again...

wicked is quite popular and deservedly so, but some people are not fans.... that does not make it a bad show... they just don'
* WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN begins previews TONIGHT! Oct 11, 06:39:12 PM
i feel bad for patti



Read more: https://forum.broadwayworld.com/CurrentSearch_Detail.cfm?ID=109531#ixzz12qbqmuEj

Updated On: 10/19/10 at 06:56 PM

Spain is NOT Latin America. Spain is (until recently) a fairly rich country of white Europeans. The women in the cast are all European enough looking to do justice to the play's national landscape.

As Gordon Ramsay says to Jean Philippe on Hell's Kitchen.


SHUT IT DOWN!

...What the hell is going on?

Updated On: 10/19/10 at 07:57 PM

LJAY.

Okay, so I attended the Saturday evening (October 16) performance, and I had an excellent seat, fourth row center--close enough to see fear in the eyes of the performers, had there been any. Having seen this performance, I am a bit disappointed in my beloved board, which had led me to believe that I was about see a real gobbler of a show. Obviously there's a little bit of most of us that secretly, or not so secretly, wants our theatre either to be truly magical, or truly tragical. Between those extremes lies disappointment, mediocrity, and Memphis.
When I went into the (gorgeous) Belasco (now with a balcony stair *inside* the theatre!), I steeled myself to see a total trainwreck whose highlight was my beloved Patti reduced to singing in some hammock while licking a lollipop. However, I was misled: This was an absolutely fine performance (not least since Patti was singing in some hammock while licking a lollipop). The performance was fun and lighthearted, yet professional and relatively successful. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I think of myself as a discerning theatregoer. So far as I can tell, it succeeds at what it tries to do: it's a contemporary, lighthearted musical comedy.

Yes, there are songs that are painfully bad. Brian Stokes Mitchell's song, in particular, is an embarrassment. (It's the musical equivalent of handing Marian Seldes a script to _Deuce_.) Danny Burstein's song is lackluster, but it is serviceable as far as a second-act opener, by musical comedy standards, is concerned. Otherwise, the score ranges from perfectly acceptable to inspired, as in the case of Laura Benanti's truly wonderful number. And even when they're wrapped around the facile notes of a bad song, these performers' voices are extraordinary and can almost transcend even the worst of material.

The plot was simple but not confusing. From all the chatter about non-linearity, I was expecting something kooky, but the narrative logic seemed pretty basic to me. (This, like many other things, has no doubt been improved over the course of previews.) The courtroom scene isn't particularly clever, and the writing is lame, but Patti delivers it with panache. Sure, she deserves better material, but it's not offensively bad by any stretch of the imagination. The design of the musical, too, seemed adequate and suitable.

I thought that all the performers gave fine performances. Patti LuPone has a real sense of the tone of the production, and to see her slink around that stage 'suspiciously' was a treat. SRS is wonderful, projecting an endearing anxiety, and so is BSM. I didn't particularly care for Danny's character, and I kinda found the taxi obnoxious, but it's hard not to like DB onstage. Laura Benanti, in addition to being extraordinarily funny, is so gorgeous; her abs and skin are stunning to see. Likewise, wish I had had a heads-up on the dude who jumped out of bed. Nice butt, and great pecs too.

I do wish the ending wasn't so flaccid; we definitely need at the very least an encore of something during the curtain call, if not a song somewhere nearer the end.

Otherwise, though, this was fun! Who would go and think that it was a turkey? If I had to make a recommendation for someone to see something fun, musical, and smart, I'd still recommend _Brief Encounter_ first, but this would be up there. I would certainly go back. As a concluding note, I have to say that if the original posters are to be believed, then Bart Sher and the cast should be applauded for having whipped this into shape so swiftly. It seems almost impossible that the show I saw could've been birthed from such a travesty of only a week ago. (But if so, that, I guess, is what previews are for.) Either way, let the circling vultures fly on to the "Foxwoods"!

Updated On: 10/19/10 at 09:04 PM

I don't understand why people who do not like the show are somehow viewed as unreasonable or inaccurate. I think all of my statements were fair. I also saw the second preview and did not feel the show was fine.

If someone disliked all or most of the show they are viewed as "unfair" or "not to be believed."

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Lord, can we please return to talking about _Women on the Verge_? Of *course* anybody can post their opinion of a show. Most of us who love theatre love to talk about it. It's fun to agree with people, and it's also fun to disagree with people. However, those disagreements only become meaningful once you begin to talk about *why* you liked something or *why* you didn't, and to back up your claims of enjoyment with 'evidence.'

The problem with many of these posts is that they express *profound* horror at what's transpiring onstage, yet they rarely if ever give any deep sense of exactly why, and how, it's that bad. So yes, anybody can post their opinion -- but when opinions are expressed in extreme terms, *we* have a right to question their judgments and motives. I don't see anything wrong with that, THOUGH I think that such snivelling should go on behind closed doors (and not taking up space that should be devoted to discussing the show). (Not only that, but many of these posts go well beyond "opinion" to something much more intense: claims that the show won't open, etc. )

The only thing worse than bad reviews on here are the endless meta-postings that act as though theatre queenery was in the Bill of Rights. The self-righteousness about how anybody can say how they "feel" is weak. Yeah, people can say whatever they want, but I dare anybody who goes to Women on the Verge not to begin to wonder about how steady is the judgment of the original posters. It's no masterpiece, but whence the hyperbole?

At any rate, can we please focus on the show, and the changes that are being made? Please? This thread is being viewed endlessly, and I fear that if we don't get back onto the topic, we will all seem petty, pathetic, and irrelevant.

Updated On: 10/19/10 at 10:41 PM