Ljay, thank you for disagreeing in a classy way, and also for being such a classy troll exterminator. : )
bk, it's interesting you say that. I've heard stories of how super major changes were made consistently in musicals during previews, and how even promising ones would put in new songs overnight (one that comes to mind is "The Company Way" in HOW TO SUCCEED...)
I wonder why this has become such a less common practice - more expensive, perhaps? Or are writers just more confident in their work (one could even say they're more smug about their work these days).
i have always read these boards, but was NEVER moved to write or join... i was SO horrified by this show that i was MOVED to write...
instantly... because i really did not like the show.... i was reviled, defiled and denounced by many.... that is cool...
had my (in this case) negative opinion been "heard"... i would have branched out and shared my thoughts on other shows and other forums... i do NOT like the tone and behavior of the people on these boards... but, i made a promise to myself to see this THREAD through until WOTV opens and then CLOSES....
it has become somewhat of a sport.... yet, EVERYTHING i say i heartily believe and will, ultimately, reveal itself to be accurate!!!
i have always read these boards, but was NEVER moved to write or join... i was SO horrified by this show that i was MOVED to write... i made a promise to myself to see this THREAD through until WOTV opens and then CLOSES
Seriously, give him a Tony. Quite the performance. Did Miller write your soliloquy?
Re changes today vs. the older days: Yes, I do think there is a certain smugness as shows come out of workshop - in fact, I find what the workshop process has devolved into specious and very bad for theater. I'm sure most here are too young to even remember the not so long ago "can't miss" buzz that accompanied two workshops that came out of Livent - the best buzz I've EVER heard for any new musicals. The shows? Seussical and Sweet Smell of Success. But when both those shows opened out of town, the creators found the buzz did not carry over to real audiences, who were having none of either show. Then panic set in and changes began.
But since then it's even worse with workshops - creators get clapped on the back by their friends and family and pros who want to be positive, and they come out feeling cocky (NOT saying this is the case with Women On The Verge) and don't necessarily do the work that should and could easily be done before beginning rehearsals, or even during rehearsals (which these days are longer than most of the classic shows ever had - I mean, Leap of Faith has been in workshops for EIGHT years - and what one saw would makes that fact a little curious and even a little shocking - and that show had SIX weeks of rehearsal and a longer preview period than the actual run).
The other thing that's happened with making HUGE changes is that the show are now somewhat slaves to technology, which never used to be the case. Now, everything is on a computer and it's very complex to make wholesale changes - in the old days, they didn't care what it took or what had to be redone - they did what was necessary to FIX THE SHOW. Sugar went through humungous changes right up to its debut in New York - not the greatest show ever written but what opened managed to turn a profit and run 500+ performances - during the tryout the sets were completely redone, songs came and went with shocking regularity, characters changed, actors were replaced - and on and on. Hello, Dolly was not in good shape out of town - Bob Merrill came in and wrote two numbers, Strouse and Adams were called in and wrote a number called Before The Parade Passes By - it never made the show, but Jerry Herman, truly under the gun and under siege, used the title and wrote his great act one closer.
Moving the opening number of act two and making it the opening number of act one is not, to me, a huge change. It may work splendidly, but a huge change would have been an entirely new number. Huge changes would be entire new scenes and songs. And lest anyone comes up with "they're under the gun and moving as fast as they can) I remind only that most of the legendary changes for classic musicals happened under the gun - Send In The Clowns happened under the gun. I'll Never Fall In Love Again, was not in Promises, Promises until late in the tryout period.
Again, I'm speaking in general terms because I don't know what they're doing with this particular show, having not seen it - it may well be they are doing exactly what needs to be done - or not - depending on which obsessive fan or non-fan camp you fall into.
thanks for the insight, bk. I guess it's easy to forget that it's industry professionals, who are all close-knit and friendly, that watch, comment on, and develop new musicals in the workshop process, and when all a show has is the workshop process, it's easy to brush over the fact that an audience is still incredibly important.
It's pretty mind-blowing that LEAP OF FAITH has had so much prep time and still isn't/wasn't perfect.
I guess what WOMEN ON THE VERGE is allowing us to realize though, even in this information age, where boards like this can build negative word so quickly, an out-of-town tryout can't, and doesn't hurt. Pitfalls like shows being slave to their technology (like this one is) are given time between productions to come up with changes like new numbers, etc - similar to what SHREK went through, and although that show wasn't perfect, it certainly wasn't terrible and probably far stronger than it was out-of-town.
I thought De'adre Aziza was awful. Her singing and acting both. I couldn't believe it when I saw that she was Sherie Rene Scott's understudy. Really? Ugh, can't imagine that.
So when are the critics seeing this show? I've seen posts saying that it would be this Saturday and posts saying that it would be this Sunday. Is it either? I always thought they saw the show on opening night.
After seeing this show, I've really scaled back on my theatergoing. It's a shame, but I felt that I wasted my hard-earned money, time, energy, etc. on this utter mess. The same thing happened to me after I saw the play "Is He Dead?" with Norbert Leo Butz. It was so bad that I vowed I'd never see another play after that. I did go back to seeing plays, but very cautiously. "Is He Dead" has even become a verb in my house (as in "I hope the show doesn't Is He Dead me again." Well, what "Is He Dead?" did for me with plays is what "Women on the Verge" has done for me with musicals. I will tread lightly next time before buying tickets to any musical.
After seeing this yesterday, I'm in a real funk and will only say that I'm deeply disappointed. A real missed opportunity here. I wish them well, and of course the Times may be nice (they've been nice to other messes before), but my heart was in my shoes by final curtain.
She sang a little more than just one solo line. And I didn't like her singing voice -- it sounded very weak to me. I don't need her to sing a full song to be able to have an opinion about her voice. And I thought it was awful. Her acting was really poor as well. Sorry, didn't like it.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
