Why Is Leap On Broadway??? — Page 2

Back in the 80's and 90's there were less shows opening on Broadway but the ones that did for the most part were at least good. It's a case of quality vs quantity if you get my drift. Shows like Leap and Lysistrata would have never seen the light of day on a Broadway stage during that period.

Back in the 80's and 90's there were less shows opening on Broadway but the ones that did for the most part were at least good. It's a case of quality vs quantity if you get my drift. Shows like Leap and Lysistrata would have never seen the light of day on a Broadway stage during that period.

You must be one of those Starmites fans I've heard about. I thought it was just a myth. So what did you think of Metro, Mail and Roza?

Remember in the 80s and 90s when people complained that none of the shows were as good as the previous decades? And how every decade is always worse than the ones before? Selective memory is never actually true, but I'm sure it makes a person feel wise.

---

AND IT WAS BETTER THAN ANYTHING THAT GETS PRODUCED ON BROADWAY THESE DAYS!

---

I saw it first preview and usually love Menken shows but was also not impressed with the story. I think they should have stuck a little more to the movie. The songs were also very energetic which got exhausting after awhile. I did like the song the sheriff and Raul sang together at the Motel 6. It was the only heartfelt moment in the whole show.

I too don't know how long this will last, but am thankful for my color Playbill nonetheless. :)

There were and there will always be flops but even the flops back then were better than the flops today.

I guess there were flops you may have seen then that you enjoyed more than some flops you've seen now, but that's hardly any sort of factual declaration or a "sign of the times". You may have loved One Night Stand or Onward Victoria, but so what? It doesn't make them better shows than Lysistrata Jones or Leap of Faith nor does it have anything to do with the "quality" of Broadway from one decade to the next or what deserves to get produced on Broadway. They are just different shows that opened at different times. Any time I hear someone bemoaning the current state of Broadway and longing for the old days (the real old days, not the 80s and 90s), I wonder why they continue to see new shows if it makes them SO unhappy.

---

There are, I think, two things at play here: One, the people who always say "the audience I saw it with LOVED it and cheered and gave it a standing ovation." This type of comment, especially during previews, must always be ignored - the house is stacked frequently during previews, and when there are hundreds of young teens in attendance whose only idea of how to behave and react in a theatre is based on how the audience behaves on American Idol, etc. of course you're going to get whooping and hollering, all of it completely meaningless and off-putting - it starts before one note of music has been played - as soon as the lights begin to dim. In other words, they LOVED it before hearing one word.

I think one of the reasons folks are taking such swipes at this is because of the VERY public developmental process, most especially the last workshop, where its creators were tweeting how amazing it was and how they'd fixed all the problems. Only apparently they haven't - and this is after, what, eight years? But when they put that kind of thing out there in the ether well then they'd better damn well deliver. Whether they ultimately do or not remains to be seen (after the GREAT workshop, they seem to have more work to do, although these days that kind of work never results in more than minor cosmetics, due to the technical aspects to which the show is tied).

I agree bk -

You can always tell who is filling a show's house... theater goers or tourists who bought their TKTS tickets (not that there is anything wrong with cheap tickets - I saw this show on the $29 discount). Clapping after every song and screaming is usually a sign of an out-of-towner. This happened recently when I saw How to Succeed again and when I saw Newsies. I felt it was like this when I saw Lion King too.

Plus I was not excited about the use of cast members in the audience before the show, talking to us, messing with us, trying to get us to pretend we were actually at a revival.

While I haven't seen this latest incarnation (I saw it in LA), the idea of this pre-show thing makes me want to vomit on the ground. I should think dispensing with that aspect immediately would be a first course of action. How can you take ANYTHING seriously after such a thing? Just stop trying to be "clever" and do your show - no framing device needed if the storytelling is solid.

Agreed tmbyru. I hate when they resort to the audience participation gimicks unless it's a show like Hair that actually lends itself to that sort of thing. In this case it was clearly used as a ploy to get audience members into a boaring show.

Back to the OP and the list of producers someone posted. After seeing it, I can't for the life of me figure it out. I've been to better first workshops. It looks very expensive. The whole thing is very curious.

"Remember in the 80s and 90s when people complained that none of the shows were as good as the previous decades? And how every decade is always worse than the ones before? Selective memory is never actually true, but I'm sure it makes a person feel wise."

Exactly. I read so many books written a while back on Broadway that went on about how the 70s were the death of the Broadway musical. Funny, as it's probably the decade with my favorite shows. Sure, some talk about problems with Broadway (huge ticket prices, etc) have weight, but...

While I assume there's some validity to this--and God knows I'm no longer a teenager, I think it's not giving teens enough credit to complain that people who whoop during a show, or give it an automatic standing ovation are all teenagers... That's not been my experience (in fact, the times I've had the most trouble with audience members they've been middle aged women--but I suppose that's me being middle-aged-women-ist).

Oh yeah, another thread with lupone76!

Side note: I keep confusing Leap of Faith with Faith Prince's solo album.