re: HIGH FIDELITY 11/25 2pm — Page 2

I saw it today and enjoyed it. I had pretty low expectations going in. From what I've read, and being a big Nick Hornby fan who loved the book, I was skeptical. It was nothing profound or earth shattering, but I can certainly think of much worse ways to spend a few light hours at the theater (starting with Mamma Mia). I'm sure Nick Hornby wouldn't be too impressed, but considering the fact that he's a major music geek, I doubt if he's a huge fan of the Broadway musical genre anyway. And I'm also sure he doesn't mind the check he got for the rights to make a musical out of his book. Anyway, I don't get all the hatred of this show. It's light and fun and has a couple of laugh out loud scenes. I thought the Springsteen scene was totally cringy, mostly because it's soooooo far from what it was originally meant to be (and in case anyone didn't notice, Bruce Springsteen hasn't dressed like that in 22 years), so that was pretty bad. And suprisingly, I found the language a bit heavy on the F word. I'm no prude, but the audience they are going for might be offended. I found it a bit strange to be so heavy on it in such a mainstream musical, even if they were trying to be "edgy". I really like Will Chase, and thought he did a good job, and I thought Christian Anderson was very funny. The Jack Black character didn't do much for me in the movie or musical. There definitely should have been some more fine tuning of this before it hit Broadway, but overall I enjoyed it. I wouldn't want to pay $111 for it, but the only thing I've seen in the past year that I would pay that price for was Sweeney. But I certainly think it's worth the $65 that the discount offer is asking, and would recommend it to someone looking for something fun to see.

I think Laura being underwritten is excusable considering the entire show is told from the perspective of Rob. It's not a Last 5 Years situation where Cathy is underwritten because JRB f*cked up; I think Laura being as complex as Rob would almost invalidate the "breaking the fourth wall" concept.

I actually found the opening number an immediate attention-getter, but I do agree that the finale could use some work. I'm not sure the audience really cares about the send-off song considering Rob's goal has been accomplished by that point, but nevertheless, the show could benefit from a better closing - both the song and extending the reunion a bit.

Although there are some very valid points against the show here, I have to say I did enjoy it. The major flaw is indeed that Rob is not a terribly sympathetic character, but because of Will's charm, you do end up pulling for him and hoping he stops falling all over himself, and hope he eventually will do the right thing.

It's a very different musical and expects a little something from their audience...a tredn I wish more musicals could successfully pull off nowadays.

Overall, any show that gets crap reviews out of town will find it hard to succeed when they get to NYC. As we all know, shows are reviewed FAR before the reviewer even picks up his tickets at the box office.