Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
#1Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/12/15 at 11:49pm
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown opened tonight in London, after the failure of the overblown US version, the UK production was vastly reworked and stripped down and critics seem to be enjoying it.
Independent - Positive http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown-playhouse-theatre-london-9973188.html
#2Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/12/15 at 11:51pmDaily Mail - Positive http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2907587/Brilliant-sardonic-QUENTIN-LETTS-reviews-Women-Verge-Nervous-Breakdown.html
#2Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/12/15 at 11:54pm
Guardian - mixed to positive
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jan/12/women-on-verge-of-nervous-breakdown-review
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#4Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 12:43amGlad to hear it.
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#5Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 1:09amFrom the pictures it doesn't look that "stripped down," but I like the design.
#6Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 2:24amThe Times- 4 stars but you have to have subscription to access the review
Eurotrash
Featured Actor Joined: 8/28/13
#7Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 5:06am
Times is pretty ravey.
Headline is "It will lift you up and melt your heart".
Concludes "this show will send you out of the theatre feeling repaired."
Telegraph is similar, also 4 stars; "this is an absolute joy of an evening"
With a limited run, getting tickets just got trickier...
#8Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 9:48amFinancial Times - 4 stars, very positive http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/26d65fca-9b1b-11e4-b651-00144feabdc0.html
#9Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 9:54amDigital Spy - 4 Stars http://m.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/review/a621197/women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown-review-heart-spirit-and-guts.html#~p1g9i445qEdW3G
#10Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 9:58am
What's on Stage - 3 Stars
http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/reviews/women-on-the-verge-west-end_36896.html
ErinDillyFan
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/06
#11Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 10:03am
But, can you trust someone who likes mushy peas? 
I enjoy the show, hope it gets produced here more regionally.
Will the new rewrite be licensed?
#12Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 10:19amWhy you gotta bring mushy peas into this? Those are delicious!
mamaleh
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/04
#13Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 10:28amSo glad this show is finding an audience. I loved the Broadway production, flaws and all. It deserves another shot stateside. Hope Encores! is amenable.
jacobsnchz14
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/13/06
#14Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 3:42pmApparently "Time Stood Still" from the original Broadway production was cut... any word on what the replacement was?
#15Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 5:18pm
Listening to Haydn Gwynne's Invisible now. It was undoubtedly the highlight of the Broadway production. It's weird to hear it with an English accent, and the orchestrations sound a little deadened. All in all I think the song is just better suited to Patti's voice, which makes sense since it was written for her. I didn't hate the show as much as many others did.
Edit: I didn't know Time Stood Still had been cut! Along with Invisible it's the only song from the recording that lingers on my iPod.
#16Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/13/15 at 5:28pmInvisible was definitely the better of the two songs Patti got. I'm not heartbroken about losing Time Stood Still.
jacobsnchz14
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/13/06
#17Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/14/15 at 12:48pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ErX8-XrOE6E
Here's the full opening of the show with a "reimagined staging" of MADRID (IS MY MAMA).
#18Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/14/15 at 1:59pm
I loved Time Stood Still, but hopefully the replacement song will carry the same message. The brilliance behind that song was that it perfectly captured the essence of the character based on a more static and listless scene in the film. I believe Microphone was also cut, but it's understandable as Ivan never has a scene with his son in the film and the scene the number is based on, which is the opening scene of the film, really only exists as a preface for his character rather than enhancing the plot.
I'm thrilled with the reviews and looking forward to seeing it in April!
#19Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/24/15 at 1:12am
Finally found audio of ON THE VERGE (act 1 finale) with slightly revised lyrics. I do miss the full orchestration, but I LOVE how it now ends with Candela "jumping" and not the pregnancy announcement.
http://viewfromthecheapseat.tumblr.com/post/107039304765/on-the-verge-tamsin-greig-haydn-gwynne-anna
#20Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 1/24/15 at 5:59pm
^
Thanks!
#21Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 3/27/15 at 2:21pm
On the whole, I think the whole added up to less than the sum of its parts. So I'll review on a piecemeal basis:
Good things:
Tamsin - she can do no wrong. The show gets off to a slow start but once the valium goes in the gazpacho, Tamsin gets to do her stuff and she does it, as always, brilliantly. Her voice is, if not beautiful, there, on-the-note and projected with power when necessary.
Haydn - totally commanding, particularly in her solo number during which I almost forgot Tamsin was in the same building.
The score - definitely in keeping with the title.
Not-so-good things:
Trying to put a car/moped chase on stage - it doesn't matter whether the car is in the full-scale treatment it got on Broadway or the two-chairs-and-steering-wheel treatment it got in the West End, it just doesn't work. Particularly when you're trying to erase memories of a great film.
The score, the book and the direction - one of my party came out saying: "It doesn't know whether it wants to be a comedy or a drama." Correct. The folks on stage may be suffering but we, the audience are supposed to be having a fun time.
Use of English accents to define social demographics - it's no good starting with an opening number emphasising the Spanish culture and location and then reverting to this. We're Europeans now (well, at least until 2017), we can cope.
That said, I was disappointed when the Olivier noms came out and this had been overlooked for Best Musical in favour of jukebox shows that I shall never see. But, now that I've seen it, I'm beginning to maybe, just, kinda, you-know, think they made the right decision.
Updated On: 3/27/15 at 02:21 PM
#22Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 3/27/15 at 2:36pm
I'm seeing it in 3 weeks. While I doubt I will have as much fun as I did seeing the Broadway production, I'm really looking forward to it. My purpose really was to hear the score again and to see Tamsin. Haydn and Jerome are definitely bonuses (I've had a crazy crush on Jerome Pradon ever since I saw him perform Crime of Passion at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest in 1999).
Personally, I never thought the musical suffered an identity crisis any more than the film did (or so many decades of "musical comedies"). The film was not a knee-slapping farce. It's a comedy with poignant elements. The ending of the film was certainly darker than the altered ending of the Broadway production.
#23Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 3/27/15 at 2:49pm
Part of the problem we had is that the understudy was on in place of Jerome. We actually had two understudies on a Saturday evening (second time this has happened to me within a year - theatregoer on the verge of a nervous breakdown). The taxi-driver understudy was great but the Ivan understudy was someone normally given to comedy-sidekick roles (at which he's great). He just didn't have the charisma to convince us that the alpha-female, that was Tamsin's Pepa, could fall for him and be so despondent about losing him.
I think you'll have a better time with Jerome, Mister M.
Updated On: 3/27/15 at 02:49 PM
#24Women on the Verge is finally a hit with the critics
Posted: 3/27/15 at 3:13pm
^
That sentence makes me quiver.
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