re: High Fidelity Reviews- Page 2

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 10:51pm

I think it will be gone by 2007.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 10:52pm

Yeah...I don't disagree.

[Mistress_Spouzic]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 10:56pm

I think Brantley is hysterical when he rips into a show, I just think its sad people make their ticket buying decisions solely based on his opinion. Im still gonna make an effort to see it.

[B3TA07]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 10:59pm

Well hurry up, dear. With a review like that the lotto will be swamped tomorrow.

I'm not shocked.

It's cause they cut "Let Me Touch Your Breast."

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 11:02pm

Just so everyone doesn't think I disappeared with the release of the reviews - read them and totally expected the negativity. Like I've said various times before, and unlike some of the other fans here, I totally understand why someone wouldn't care for this musical, especially critics, even though I personally loved it.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 11:02pm

I think that's really too bad, though. I don't disagree with some of the criticisms, but some of the reviews seem to have missed (ignored?) some of the cleverer or self-satirical aspects of the show. I had a lot of fun seeing it, but I think that -- unfortunately -- its appeal is too narrow for it to find an audience. Fans of the novel and movie, as Brantley pretty much pointed out, probably aren't going to think that it's faithful enough to the spirit of the source material, and a lot of other people are just not going to connect with it.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 11:06pm

Oh, I agree, Ash. Its humor is largely lost because so many people just don't connect with it, especially, as I mentioned, the critics. Not to slap the "big bad critic" label on them, but let's face it, I can't imagine Brantley enjoying the type of humor High Fidelity presents. For example, I know that I was literally in tears from the "Conflict Resolution" sequence - something he labeled simply "mildly funny."

Again, I think this show would have done a lot better Off-Broadway.
Updated On: 12/7/06 at 11:06 PM

[EverythingIsRENT]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 11:08pm

the show was not forgettable at all!! what an absolutely moroic review, all he did was talk about other shows!! What an ass he is. I wish High Fidelity well, although i'm ot deluding myself into thinking it'll be a record breaker, it deserves a healthy run. Why do some people get such pleasure out of tearing apart shows?

[roquat]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 11:10pm

This sounds like an example of what Ken Mandelbaum in "Not Since 'Carrie'" classifies as "not bad"--a reasonably enjoyable show that could have played out a season back in the 50's or 60's but doesn't have the firepower to lure in enough of an audience to get by today. Today a show (or a movie) has to be an immediate smash hit with unanimous rave reviews and/or a tremendous advance sale (Disney) to make it. Off-Broadway seems to be the only home left for the quirky, the off-beat, and the unspectacular.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 11:14pm

HIGH FIDELITY is neither quirky or off-beat...it's just plain bad.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 11:23pm

i guess i'm just a terrible person..brantley's review made me laugh!

[Tchi4Lif188]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 11:26pm

my friend saw the show last night and LOVED it. its her new obsession now. and she told me that i MIGHT even like it better than wedding singer, which i doubt. but she really loved it.

[justme2]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 11:38pm

These reviews are disappointing, but not unexpected.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 11:52pm

Theatremania is Mixed:

"While hurtling from number to number, the tuner, which has been directed by Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, certainly doesn't build any noticeable suspense. As Rob dallies with songstress Marie LaSalle (Emily Swallow) and recalls his desert island top five break-ups (he's big on top-five lists), there's no doubt that he'll eventually reunite with Laura. The reconciliation would be less predictable had Lindsay-Abaire not written Ian as a long-haired, guru-influenced cliché. He isn't like that in Hornby's novel. Nor, incidentally, is Hornby's Rob-Laura reconciliation as tidy as the musical has it.

Chase, who scored last year as the main John Lennon in Lennon, is affable and believable as an Everyjerk --- and he gets the required rock grit into his numbers. But he encounters the same problem John Cusack had splitting the screen with Jack Black in the 2000 film version. Cynical-tongued Barry steals his scenes, and Klaitz does Black one better by tossing in a cartwheel. Colella looks good but doesn't have much outstanding to sing, Anderson is nerdily adorable, Kristen Wyatt as Dick's crush, Anna, is button-cute, Stern is a bundle of welcome dynamite, and Brown, looking like Donny Osmond's 8x10 superimposed on George Michael, does commendably in a thankless role.

The top five reasons to see High Fidelity? There are maybe only three, but they could be reasons enough for many eager and less-discerning fun-seekers."


http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/9605

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 12:31am

John Simon is Mostly Negative:

"The scenery is splendidly designed by Anna Louizos, and what could be more fun -- in a show not much fun otherwise -- than watching walls blithely morphing into other walls and a double bed sink into and rise from the floor? Especially so if you can't be sure of the occupants.

The book is by David Lindsay-Abaire, one of my less favored playwrights. Here, he is more trendy than true.

The lyrics by Amanda Green are not without savvy but are wasted on Tom Kitt's rock music, of the kind that barely enters one ear before departing the other. It seems to come not so much from the muses as from Muzak.

Christopher Gattelli's choreography thrives overmuch on hops and skips, and Walter Bobbie's direction is professional without being distinctive. Will Chase and Jenn Colella in the leads are thoroughly competent but less appealing than they were in other, equally undistinguished shows. Among the supporting cast, Emily Swallow stands out as a folk singer transiently sharing Rob's bed."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=azTX89ZJfBKM&refer=muse

[ashley0139]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 12:42am

wasted on Tom Kitt's rock music, of the kind that barely enters one ear before departing the other.

I don't know how it's only me, but I thouht the music was the best thing about the show. Everyone keeps saying that the music was so forgettable, but it was one of the few shows that I came out of humming the songs.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 1:14am

NY Sun is Mixed-to-Negative:

"Might some shows actually work better as jukebox musicals?

This heretical idea popped up while I was watching "High Fidelity," the sporadically worthwhile, strangely misguided musicalization of the beloved Nick Hornby novel and subsequent film. While I am extremely hesitant to advocate the displacement of yet another composer and lyricist from an increasingly hostile Broadway climate, director Walter Bobbie could fix the vast majority of what's wrong with this stillborn enterprise with the right songs, preferably ones chosen by the story's hipper-than-thou protagonist, Rob Gordon.

________________________________________________________________

His plodding, foursquare score throws eclecticism to the wind, working within a dismayingly narrow window of styles. Except for a nod to Neil Young here and a mention of Belle and Sebastian there, the references don't go much broader than those in the 1980s-obsessed "Wedding Singer."

Talking Heads, Guns 'N' Roses, Bruce Springsteen — this list has nothing to do with music geeks and everything to do with marketing demographics. And when the otherwise winning Mr. Chase punctuates his first song with a thunderous move on air guitar, any hopes of establishing hipster credibility are pretty much shot.
______________________________________________________________

The killer is that "High Fidelity" had a chance of being much better. It boasts an unusually promising bookwriter in David Lindsay-Abaire ("Rabbit Hole," "Fuddy Meers"), who has kept plenty from the film and deviated only when it made sense to deviate — i.e., when the paucity of time for exposition between songs required tightening. Anna Louizos's set features an array of enjoyable quick-change gags. And Mr. Chase and Ms. Colella, each of whom have stood out in bad musicals ("Lennon"and "Urban Cowboy,"respectively),have talent to burn and will eventually get material worthy of their abilities.

Lyricist Amanda Green's efforts, while spotty and at times a bit crass, show flashes of the brassy, cosmopolitan verve exemplified by her father, Broadway legend Adolph Green."

http://www.nysun.com/article/44881

[bjh2114]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 2:27am

NY Post is Mixed-to Negative, with Clive Barnes giving it 2 out of 4 stars:

"COULD Nick Hornby's laddish English novel "High Fidelity" - or even the Stephen Frears movie based on it - be successfully transmogrified into a Broadway musical?
The brave, if foolhardy, attempt opened last night at the Imperial Theatre, and the answer is no - though, unlike the train wreck that was last season's "The Wedding Singer," it has a few redeeming features.

A mix of the novel and the movie, the musical is set in Brooklyn - a long way, physically and culturally, from Hornby's London. David Lindsay-Abaire's book at least gets close to the heart of the novel with the character of its antihero, Rob, played by a languidly agreeable Will Chase.

Rob, a cool maestro of slacker noncommitment, is the owner of a hip/cult/nerd record store called Championship Vinyl, and is a devotee of Top Five lists, his fantasies of girlfriends past and even his hero, Bruce Springsteen.
Lindsay-Abaire's book hews more closely to the novel than the movie, even in its so-so happy ending.

Amanda Green's lyrics are even better. Daughter of legendary Broadway lyricist Adolph Green, this is one green apple that hasn't fallen far from the tree.
Her razzle-dazzle lyrics have a style and grace that zing in the ear - just listen to her name-dropping verbal variations on the themes of Lyle Lovett, Kurt Cobain and Kevin Bacon and those degrees of separation.

But if "High Fidelity" was to have had any real chance as a musical, it
depended on the music that molds its rock-possessed hero. The movie soundtrack traded on '60s rock royalty, from Bob Dylan to the Kinks.

Here composer Tom Kitt emerges with a copycat, reverential, referential pastiche. It might have worked had it had the spectral vitality of Jonathan Larson's "Rent." But Kitt's music offers the fatal combination of sounding familiar yet unmemorable.
Director Walter Bobbie - much helped by Anna Louizos' wildly ingenious (if not particularly attractive) settings and Theresa Squire's spot-on costumes - has done as well as he could handling material that hits a Top Five list of what should never have been used for a musical.

The performers have to outface those often fierce audience memories surrounding any cult movie. How do you top John Cusack as Rob, or Jack Black in his boisterous breakout role as that magnificently obsessed music nut, the obstreperous Barry, given here onstage with careful abandon by Jay Klaitz?

Actually, the whole cast negotiates the show's pitfalls with amazing, if funereal, grace.

Chase (the best of the various Lennons in Broadway's ill-fated "Lennon") sings with the right rock fever and fervor, and, while no Cusack in the charm department, has more of the laid-back self-absorption and self-pity proper to the novel's Rob.
As Laura, Rob's latest breakup, the spunky Jenn Colella makes the most of her chances, as do Jon Patrick Walker as the hand-clapping fantasy-Springsteen, Christian Anderson as the ultimate record nerd Dick and Kirsten Wyatt as Anna, the meek kid with an unfortunate penchant for John Tesh.

But performances do not a musical make. For that, you need music."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12082006/entertainment/theater/high_energy__low_fidelity_theater_clive_barnes.htm

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 2:45am

Newark Star-Ledger is Mixed-to-Negative:

"Taking a cue from Conrad Birdie, the Elvis-type idol of "Bye Bye Birdie," the main ingredient for success is "you gotta be sincere."

That's the significant and probably fatal flaw to the new Broadway musical "High Fidelity." There's nary an inch of sincerity or genuine emotion to the whole darned enterprise.

Bowing yesterday at the Imperial Theatre, "High Fidelity" isn't a terrible show. Expect a neatly written, professionally packaged attraction buzzing with energy.

The problem here is that you don't ever care anything about its slacker story or cartoon-ish characters.
________________________________________________________________


Some of these songs are undeniably clever. Yet their mildly tongue-in-cheek attitude causes an emotional disconnect with the key characters' troubles as well as to the audience's potential sympathy for them. Interestingly, the '80s parodies of "The Wedding Singer" -- which this musical resembles in certain ways -- were usually able to avoid such a disaffecting quality.

Boosted by bits of humorous choreography from Christopher Gattelli, director Walter Bobbie stages these proceedings quickly and confidently. Drab urban locations like the shabby record shop and Rob's cluttered apartment easily come and go in Anna Louizos' efficient design. Inventive, dynamic lighting by Ken Billington provides much-needed visual excitement."


http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/116556086829650.xml&coll=1

[PARISinNYC]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 2:55am

I kind of expected this to be bad, but I still would like to see the show. I'm not gonna judge until I see more. For now all i've seen is about 5 seconds of footage from Broadway.com's WORD OF MOUTH, and all the pictures on the website, so there's not much to base my opinion on. I have heard the score is pretty good, though. I'm still wondering what label the cast recording is gonna be on. It mentions on their web site that a cast recording is coming soon, but that's all.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 4:20am

NY Daily News is Mixed:

"A story set in a record shop. It's such a natural for a musical, it could all but write itself. Not quite.
"High Fidelity," a modestly entertaining, rock-inflected romp, took the combined creative juice of David Lindsay-Abaire (book), Tom Kitt (music) and Amanda Green (lyrics) to turn Nick Hornby's popular 1995 book and a followup film starring John Cusack into a Broadway show.

_______________________________________________________________

Small stories work in books and films because of nuances. On the stage, "High Fidelity," which sticks pretty close to its sources, comes off as rather slight. "Will Rob grow up and get Laura back?" is the question that drives the story, but Laura is so sketchily drawn, you may not care. And though Lindsay-Abaire strives to add depth to Laura by keeping a reference to her abortion in the story, it feels out of place in the otherwise fluffy show.

The score by Kitt and Green (daughter of legendary lyricist Adolph Green) is primarily pop-rock and Broadway, with sounds of soul, blues, folk and rap mixed in. The music doesn't lift the show off the stage, but there are some witty and tuneful standouts."
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/theater/story/478085p-402213c.html

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 4:49am

I feel a bit bad for Amanda Green, how do you live up to the reputation of the lyricist of shows like On The Town and Wonderful Town, and the screenwriter of one of the best movie musicals to date (Singin' in the Rain). Every single review has mentioned her connection to Green.

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 6:12am

Why do none of these reviews point out that Walter Bobbie is partially, if not mostly, to blame for this shows lack of personality, character, and any sense of drama?

[folkyboy]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 8:46am

n69n, i'm a terrible person too :) i was rolling on the floor when they busted on the show.

i hope it at least gets a cast recording before it disappears

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 9:13am

Well, to Amanda's credit, she's quite capable of producing some absolutely flooring material (A number written for Christine Ebersole called, "Knockin' 'em Back" as an actress' number in a Betty Ford Musical has to be experienced to grasp Green's sheer genius) so her father's legacy isn't going to forever be a stumbling block for her.

I have to say I'm shocked to admit it, but Clive Barnes gave the review I'd have given were I a theatre critic. My problem with reviews like Brantley is that they're just that: reviews, not real theatrical criticisms. Brantley just relishes his role as THE premiere critic for Broadway and I think that glee is almost always a little too evident when he chooses to pan a show. Also, I wish I had bet you, Munkustrap, that Brantley was going to skew so heavily towards the pan that he wouldn't give much of anything a nod in a positive way!