Women on the Verge LAST Show (Sunday 7 p.m.)

[billyboyA]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 10:28pm

What an AMAZING vibe tonight at the last show!! Laura brought down the house several times. At the end of her big 1st act number, she seemed to get hit by a wave of emotion as she left stage. The audience wouldn't STOP applauding. Talk about stopping the show!!

Patti waved a kiss of thanks to the audience after the lights went down after her 2nd act showstopper. Was very sweet and heartfelt.

The taxi driver made a couple of great jokes, including one directed to what was supposedly David Yazbek in the back of the theater at the very beginning. The whole place ERUPTED.

No actors in any show could have hoped for a more warm and excited audience. We were with them from the second they cheered prior to the 1st act curtain.

I didn't get the feeling that Sherie was overly emotional about it as she went through the show - she was just having a ball with it. Whereas, after Laura was finished with each section, you could tell she was trying to hold it together. It was SO HUMAN and SO beautiful...

Same with Patti at moments.

One thing that sort of surprised me - and that's an UNDERSTATEMENT - is that there wasn't SOME sort of curtain speech. Some acknowledgment that the show was closing. Some sort of thanks to the production team.

I'm not criticizing - and I've never been to a Broadway closing, so maybe it's just not done. But as we neared the curtain calls, I thought to myself "here we go - this is going to be emotional!"

But nothing. The audience went NUTS for a good minute or so after the curtain closed, but there was no re-opening. No second round of bows. The lights just went up and it was over. No different than it feels at a random Wed matinee of a long running show.

That was my only disappointment of the night. The people involved in the show, and the audience were ALL feeling pangs of emotion with it being the last one... I wish that someone - a producer or a director... or SOMEONE had stopped with some acknowledgments.

And some flowers for Sherie, Patti and Laura.

After all, even though it's not going out as a hit - there's a level of achievement with this show. Everyone I know HATED it in previews - and these are people I TRUST and RESPECT - and I saw it a couple of months later and LOVED it... therefore, it only stands to reason, that these performers and creative team did, in the end, pull out a wonderful show....

Updated On: 1/3/11 at 10:28 PM

[Wishing Only Wounds]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 10:44pm

Sherie*

Not all shows have a closing speech, for the most part only long-running musicals do. That said, I'm very sad to see this one close... I absolutely adored the show.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 10:57pm

My god. These enthusiastic last show reports are all from the same template. They read like Mad Libs with a new set of nouns.

Blah blah blah, love on stage, blah blah blah, stopped the show, blah blah blah, tears onstage and in the audience too, blah blah blah, having the time of their lives, blah blah blah, really funny in-joke that's actually an out-joke if everybody in the audience is in on it, blah blah blah, NO CURTAIN SPEECH, blah blah blah at least we have to cast recording coming and maybe a lot of regional productions. In conclusion, I was there you were not and therefore you will never know how special a thing you missed.

The end.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 11:13pm

BillyBoyA: Welcome to Broadway World. What a lovely description of your experience at WOTV. Others will appreciate your comments, even if FindingNamo does not. from RC in Austin, Texas

[billyboyA]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 11:18pm

Finding Namo either has a small dick or lopsided breasts and hates the world. I just consider the source... and then feel sorry for it.

I know that, for ME, when I was a teenager or when I was living in L.A. and couldn't be seeing the shows in NYC, getting firsthand accounts of openings and closings and anything special was like lifeblood to me. Couldn't care less what a loser limp dicked Nano has to say...

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 11:20pm

Oh I think you could care a lot less.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 11:24pm

Sheesh. It didn't take long for this thread to get derailed, did it?

[singtopher]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 11:28pm

I attended the final performance of August: Osage County, and besides maybe an extra bow and one of the actresses taking a picture of the crowd, there was nothing special at the curtain call.

And, Namo's post wasn't directly for you, Billy, just more of a general commentary.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 11:32pm

Weren't people mad that there was no curtain speech at August? I mean, there was no curtain anyway.

[singtopher]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 11:37pm

And no cast recording. I really wanted "I'm Running Things Now" and "Eat your fish Bitch" for my work out mix.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 1/2/11 at 11:57pm

I'm really not being negative but I am sure the cast is thrilled to be out of this clunker and onto bigger and better things-most notably Sherie. This has been a demoralizing process for many involved what with online ravaging during previews and scathing reviews.

Onward and upward for the very talented cast.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 12:00am

They looked anything but thrilled at this afternoon's curtain call. LuPone doesn't hold back her emotions. I believe she truly cares about this piece. And Sherie's performance had only gotten better and better throughout the short run.
Now the news of a cast recording is what's thrilling.

Updated On: 1/3/11 at 12:00 AM

[Holbee]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 12:02am

Bettyboy

A lot of the cast does NOT think its a clunker, they are mystified at the bad word of mouth and reviews and would have loved to have extended. And less we forget, two of the best theatre critics (Time and New Yorker) gave it fair and very positive reviews.

Ass.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 12:17am

Holbee, most casts, writers, compoers, are "mystified" that people don't love something that they put their blood sweat and tears into. The show, by a majority of opinions-personal and professional-was a total dud. The cast was privy to something in the creative process that was never translated to the audience-that is very true.

There are cast members that are glad to be released from the show. I never said ALL.

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 1:12am

I didn't want to see this show at all.... but I met someone in the cast this week and they gave me a ticket... saw it on Wednesday... and was mystified at how much I liked it. Everyone I know said they hated it... and I ended up loving it.... so I went again tonight for the final show... sure enough it was a huge hit tonight. Benanti stopped the show for 41 seconds...... and Lupone stopped the show for 27..... CRAZY..... Sherie made the woman next to me cry twice... wonderful performances all around. Not at all the clunker show that I kept hearing about. This is why we probably should hold back our opinions of preview shows..... and definitely why shows need to keep doing out of town tryouts to work out the kinds. I think if this show had opened out of town it would have been a bigger hit. oh well. Great last show... can't wait for the cast album.

[Holbee]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 1:30am

No, you said "the cast" which implies ALL.

Ass
Updated On: 1/3/11 at 01:30 AM

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 10:53am

Patti, I mean Holbee, can't we put this behind us and be friends?

[Holbee]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 10:55am

That's the best you can do, Betty? Imply that I am Patti Lupone? Really? Really? But you could go back and change your original post to read "some" of the cast so I can't call you out on it and own you on a later thread.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 11:45am

The taxi driver made a couple of great jokes, including one directed to what was supposedly David Yazbek in the back of the theater at the very beginning. The whole place ERUPTED.

Tony-Award nominee Danny Burstein's comment of "Someone's excited! You're only excited because we're closing and you got a cheap seat" was not limited to the final performance. The earliest I heard of it happening was Wednesday night.

[EyeWin]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 11:50am

now now children.........

[AndersonTours]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 11:55am

Eris, that's not what Danny said at the last performance. He didn't mention the closing. He said something about David Yazbeck which made the place erupt with laughter. I second the fact that the last show was wonderful. I loved being there.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 12:02pm

"now now children........."

Huh?

[ahhrealmonsters]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 12:06pm

Danny said (and I paraphrase), "Someone's excited. Is that you, David Yazbek? You better be excited because you wrote it."

[Wishing Only Wounds]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 4:19pm

At the Wednesday matinee he said,

"(To balcony) How are you guys up in the cheap seats? Oh wait! They're all cheap seats, cause we're closing."

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 4:53pm

>>>"My god. These enthusiastic last show reports are all from the same template. They read like Mad Libs with a new set of nouns."<<<

How very apt, Namo. Reading postings here have become incredibly predictable.

This time there were no references to "multi-layered" performances.