Will Avenue Q suffer the fate of URinetown?- Page 2

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 12/9/03 at 5:45pm

I very much regret not seeing Kind and BOUNCE. Everyone I know who saw him thought he was quite wonderful and heartbreaking.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/10/03 at 10:33am

I did see Bounce in Chicago and many people left at intermission. The applause was small and forced. I honestly don't know anyone who liked it. The title song sounded like something cut from Assassins. It was a cute song but extremely repetetive. Best Thing That Ever Happened was the one good song in the show, but in Chicago, it was misplaced in the first act surrounded by all these Vaudeville antics that completely masked the music you wanted to hear. The only other song of note was the one Kind's lover sang in act two (I forget the title). Michelle Pawk's song was most likely the most tuneless boring ballad Sondheim has written to date. Even with better staging, I just think the story isn't engaging enough for a musical. From start to finish, I didn't care what happenened to either brother.

[tpdc]

Posted: 12/10/03 at 2:15pm

I think there is a good musical in BOUNCE. I agree that the vaudeville stuff in the first act was not effective. But the audience, particularly at the last performance, was really invested in the second act. I think Weidman and Sondheim have at the core of the show an involving story of two brothers who represent what opportunities there were for people at that time and their story explores opportunity vs. opptunism. Their story shows how people hit it big and squandered everything. All this was better explored in the second act. I thought it needed to be developed more. You need someone well cast as Wilson to tell if his character is even interesting. McGillin was woefully miscast. I think the audience is meant to have a love/hate relationship with his character like Addison and Nellie. I do think another production of this will happen and everyone will wonder why it was misunderstood the first time. I think the problems with the first production were the direction and McGillin. I know people who saw it in both cities and liked it more in Washington. Several people here liked it very much. The people sitting around me at the performance I saw early in the run all were wondering why such an entertaining show got bad reviews.