What shows did you go in with low expectations but ended up really enjoying? — Page 3

Most recently, The SpongeBob Musical. Was surprised by how entertaining the show was.

Play On (1997) - "another Twelfth night musical?" Luther Henderson's arrangements were, as always, the best, and the performances of Tonya Pinkins, Andre DeShields, Larry Marshall, and Lawrence Hamilton were a delight.

Jackie (1997) - a comedy about Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis? Her life wasn't at all funny - but the play was (thanks mostly to Kristine Nielsen and Bill Camp).

Death of a Salesman (1999) - I thought of Brian Dennehy as a reliable TV supporting actor of limited range, but his Willy Loman was very moving.

A Catered Affair (2008 -) - I had been underwhelmed by John Bucchino's work until this quiet, subtle, effective show.

Matilda (2013) - I was unfamiliar with Tim Minchin before this show, and was expecting treacly kiddie crap. Imagine my delight at the invention, the imagination, and the skill and heart of this show.

Updated On: 6/21/16 at 09:58 AM

I LOVED King Charles III, but went in thinking not so highly of it. I was totally wrong.

and Mamma Mia too, a few months before it closed last year.

I just took a quick look at Brantley. He's such a Kelli-phile that, even in a show he doesn't like, he'll devote half his review to praising her. I can see where I got my idea from:

The script by Ms. Norman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “ ’Night, Mother,” is obviously aiming for a sense of broader social context. But the scenes outside the central love story can come across as glib space fillers....I would have been happier if “Bridges” had been a two-person show, with Mr. Pasquale provoking Ms. O’Hara into ever greater, exploratory heights of song.

This is the real problem he had with the show:

Though neither of them actually says, “I never knew it could be like this,” they might as well, since they say a lot worse. (Him to her: “This is why I’m here on this planet, at this time, Francesca. Not to travel or make pictures, but to love you.&rdquo I earnestly tried to get through Mr. Waller’s “Bridges.” But though it’s short, and I have I fairly high tolerance for romantic swill, I had to stop halfway through.

"Romantic Swill" Any musical based on a book full of "romantic swill" is going to have a tough time of being accepted. I might have felt the same way. But there are all those uploaded vocals on YouTube and all those views and all that praise. Should be enough to sustain a musical.

Something Rotten...I don't normally like over-the-top, zany humor, but I loved it!

I liked Tuck Everlasting more than I thought I would. And I actually had problems with the way the ballet was staged, a bit opposite of others' thoughts.

FUN HOME: I had read the graphic novel years earlier and remembered it only enough to think it was too depressing to be source material for a musical. But TDF had tickets, and I thought, what the heck. I ended up loving it, and it is my favorite musical.

HAMILTON: Like many people, I couldn't see how a hip-hop treatment of a Hamilton biography could possibly work. The idea sounded nonsensical to me. But some posters on BWW had seen workshops at Vassar or the American Songbook concert, and they were saying, Don't miss this one.

OlBlueEyes said: "I just took a quick look at Brantley. He's such a Kelli-phile that, even in a show he doesn't like, he'll devote half his review to praising her. I can see where I got my idea from:

The script by Ms. Norman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “ ’Night, Mother,” is obviously aiming for a sense of broader social context. But the scenes outside the central love story can come across as glib space fillers....I would have been happier if “Bridges” had been a two-person show, with Mr. Pasquale provoking Ms. O’Hara into ever greater, exploratory heights of song.

This is the real problem he had with the show:

Though neither of them actually says, “I never knew it could be like this,” they might as well, since they say a lot worse. (Him to her: “This is why I’m here on this planet, at this time, Francesca. Not to travel or make pictures, but to love you.&rdquo I earnestly tried to get through Mr. Waller’s “Bridges.” But though it’s short, and I have I fairly high tolerance for romantic swill, I had to stop halfway through.

"Romantic Swill" Any musical based on a book full of "romantic swill" is going to have a tough time of being accepted. I might have felt the same way. But there are all those uploaded vocals on YouTube and all those views and all that praise. Should be enough to sustain a musical.



"

Thank you for looking that up, BlueEyes. Based on the excerpts, it seems to me Brantley entirely contradicts himself. On the one hand, he dismisses "romantic swill"; on the other, he wants the show to cut everything else! Personally, I can't imagine what more Robert and Francesca could say to each other, so unless the show is to be 30 minutes long, something else is required.

I promise you the show spends plenty of time on the central couple. The other characters appear mostly in musical numbers which give the show its variety (country music, radio pop) and humor. Some of these are quite touching, too, as when Francesca's husband, alone in a bar, sings a short song admitting she has never loved him the way he loves her: "And to me she's still like something from a dream/And to her I'm like the guy who keeps the lights turned on..."

As I said at the time, the show has so many levels I couldn't really talk about it for several days afterward. (And we'll all agree that very little leaves me speechless!)

Updated On: 6/23/16 at 05:43 PM

Gigi, Finding Neverland, and Beautiful.