The Last Ship previews- Page 10

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 12:25am

Pipe Dreams? How did my copyeditor let that through. When you reach deep middle age, and were always scrupulous, the ways your brain starts to betray you....

Perhaps the description "Big Five" is not as common today. Originally only theater was included. Flower Drum Song was a 'tweener. A hit show without a hit score. The best known song would never have been written ten years later.

But thanks for all the little corrections and criticisms in lieu of a discussion of the substance of the post.

[After Eight]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 1:21am

Mjohnson,

If you're referring to that tweet, no.

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 1:23am

Aww, bummer! I totally would follow you if you had a twitter.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 11:24am

I agree that Bonnie and Clyde had a fantastic score.

Unfortunately, the critics bashed it to shreds in an I hate Frank Wildhorne moment. This was Wildhorne's best score but the Wildhorne bashing prevailed. Bonnie and Clyde has success in Korea and other countries but not here.

I also agree Bridges of Madison County has a gorgeous score but
it was saddled with that dull book. As gorgeous as that score was, (and i play it all the time) it is alas not very theatrical; more like gorgeous backround mood music. I play it to mediate and relax.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 12:15pm

Totally agree re Bonnie. It was not a Wildhorn bashing moment. This is the normal M.O. for critics with Wildhorn

Disagree re Bridges. Thought the show was mesmerizing and deserved a better fate. A Best Musical nod for a Tony would have helped along with a nod for Pasquale (a head scratcher )but the Tonys have gotten like the Oscars re being a popularity contest and what will tour best not what is the best show.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 10/24/14 at 2:00am

Finally saw the preview, just two days away from the opening. It exceeded my expectations, which weren't that high since they mostly came from reading reviews here.

In response to the Chicago Tribune review, as well as many reviewers here, they seemed to succeed at making Gideon a character for whom the audience cared about. They were fully absorbed in the first two scenes of the second act: Gideon with his son and Gideon with Meg.

Not so successful in making the "let's build a ship" story line plausible. But if every theater, film, and television production was rejected for having an implausible plot, half of the actors and actresses in this country would be out of work. The love triangle I thought was handled well.

Surprised that the theater seemed full on a Thursday night and that the audience was so attentive. They had a good laugh at every funny line. I was with a group, and the woman next to me told me that she routinely left shows that she didn't care for at intermission and thought that this show seemed like a good candidate for that treatment. She stayed and applauded heartily.

The audience rose to its feet during the curtain call. So I have upped my Sunday review speculation from 'poor to mixed' to 'mixed to good'. I don't see a long run for the show, but neither do I see a bum's rush out to the street. It deserves better than that.

[Outoftowner2]

Posted: 10/24/14 at 11:02am

Saw this and really liked it. My expectations werent all that high because of what some people have posted here. Great cast, more laughs than I expected A few songs stuck with me. It's not in my top five musicals ever, but it's worth seeing. I really enjoyed it

[dave1606]

Posted: 10/24/14 at 4:20pm

I don't think saying that the audience rose to their feet during the curtain call should be taken as a sign of anything. Pretty much every show on Broadway get's a standing ovation, in fact I remember a standing ovation in the same theater a preview of Scandalous....As we near the opening, have their been that many changes since the first preview?

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 10/25/14 at 12:59am

Yes, you're right about the standing ovation, but, you know, sometimes it's a reluctant standing ovation. A few people get up right away, then some more, and finally the last hold-outs get up kind of rolling their eyes. "Oh, hell, I guess I have to get up too or stick out as the only person not standing."

About changes, this is the only preview I saw, but I read that they followed one of the Chicago Tribune's suggestions and gave Gideon a song at the beginning of the show. If true, I guess it would be "All This Time," a song I can't find on the album.

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/25/14 at 1:07am

I think in the TimesTalk on the show, they said they added more backstory about Gideon and his father, which is why they used older Sting songs from his album, The Soul Cages, including All This Time, which was about the relationship with his father. Although, they did alter the lyrics to fit the show.

[JayG 2]

Posted: 10/25/14 at 9:29am

If you want a truly perceptive review of this musical, read Jesse21 on ATC site. He nails it in every respect. The brickbats hurled at this show on these gossip sites are really uncalled for. I doubt will will see a better new musical this season. Unfortunately it be a case of that old, true cliche, pearls before swine.

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/25/14 at 11:16am

"I doubt will will see a better new musical this season."

I didn't dislike The Last Ship, but what a sad prediction....

EDIT: Read that review, and he just glossed over the weak book too easily. The cast and the music being good haven't been the main points of contention with people I've talked to, but the book/plot. The whole concept of a bunch of people building a boat no one asked for, on a dock they get jailed for trespassing once, but then just keep building thereafter, with money taken from a seemingly large church renovation fund, to build a ship no one designed, while the workers dismissed the other company offering them all jobs because they were shipbuilders. That was the weak part of the show to me. To say the cast and Sting music is good focuses solely on the positive. Updated On: 10/25/14 at 11:16 AM

[JayG 2]

Posted: 10/25/14 at 12:07pm

John Logan with a lobotomy could write a better script for a musical than anyone writing a musical libretto today.
By the way, in interviews with Sting the composer says that many of the "improbabilities" that you point out in the script are fact based. Anyway, too bad you couldn't latch on to the personal story - the core of the musical - and not the ship building background.

I'll take this libretto to Aladdin, If/Then, Kinky Boots, and Beautiful ANY day of the week. Talk about dismal.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/25/14 at 12:40pm

This is a thinking mans show and do not think it will take hold with the masses especially tourists

I think if it can make it thru the first 3 months of next year it might have a long run. How much Stings name will help is a question mark. This show needs the reviews. Whether it will get them is another story. The theater is hard luck recently for musicals.

Recent casualties

Catch Me If You Can
Scandalous
Big Fish

I am just a casual observer these days re Broadway seeing an occasional show On & mostly Off Broadway

Updated On: 10/25/14 at 12:40 PM

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/25/14 at 12:48pm

"Anyway, too bad you couldn't latch on to the personal story - the core of the musical - and not the ship building background."

It's not one or the other. I liked the personal story AND thought the shipbuilding stuff didn't work. Those two ideas are not in conflict.

I also don't think it matters if these events really happened, if they are presented in a way that make many of us in attendance question their validity based on the way they are presented. And people have mentioned the story issues from the first preview on here. Updated On: 10/25/14 at 12:48 PM

[newintown]

Posted: 10/25/14 at 5:01pm

"This is a thinking mans show..."

After seeing it finally, I would have to agree, but only if the "thinking man" in question is 5 years old. It's merely a string of the same old sentimental clichés, drabbed down in moody North Country trappings, accompanied by Sting's vaguely attractive moody maundering ditties.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/25/14 at 7:23pm

This is a thinking mans show

If by "thinking", you mean simply "watching". It's not a complex story or difficult to follow. The "metaphorical" aspect is slight and simple.

I'll take this libretto to Aladdin, If/Then, Kinky Boots, and Beautiful ANY day of the week.

Okay. Please take it. Take it far away.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 10/25/14 at 11:49pm

Too much complaint over the plot. That's not something that I saw criticized in the Chicago reviews. Do you want that scene where the scruffy workers are ushered into the office of Mr. Boss and remove their hats and try to convey a simple and sincere message to him. And he reacts with arrogance and threats.

Instead the men go build that proud ship on their own, defy the bosses, and sail off to a better world. It's an allegory! It's theatrical!

Was the plot of My Fair Lady plausible? No, but it was based on a play by great social critic George Bernard Shaw, and could not be dismissed as a ridiculous idea. It could be thought of as an allegory that expressed the British problems with class and gender in an entertaining and theatrical way.

Anything I wrote above not withstanding, yeah, the book could have been better.

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/26/14 at 12:15am

"Too much complaint over the plot. That's not something that I saw criticized in the Chicago reviews."

Most reviews made some references to it, but the Gideon story had way more problems in Chicago, so that seemed to be more of the focus of the reviews and the retuning for Broadway.

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 10/26/14 at 10:24am

To me, Gideon's story is riddled with just as many holes as the shipbuilding storyline. Where has he been? What exactly does he want from his life? Where is he going? He's really just been sitting on a boat pining after this woman for 15 years?
And in a musical, it is also the score's job to flesh out these motivations and draw us deeper into the characters. However the music, while pretty, does not make any of this easier to swallow.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 10/26/14 at 3:58pm

Interesting. The men to whom the book is credited have a good pedigree.

John Logan, won the Tony in 2010 for Red.

Brian Yorkey, won Pulitzer for Next to Normal.

Yorkey also wrote the book for If/Then, so maybe he hit his head hard on something after winning the Pulitzer.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 10/26/14 at 4:17pm

Does anyone think this will be a long term show for Broadway? Like, will it run for years?

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/26/14 at 5:01pm

One Chicago critic (I think it was) had an interesting dilemma with the Gideon story, in that he was so against building ships, and wanted to do anything else but that, and all he did was work on ships. So, did he really go that far off the reservation after all?

"Yorkey also wrote the book for If/Then, so maybe he hit his head hard on something after winning the Pulitzer."

I don't know what the Yorkey/Logan timeline is. It seems like they didn't work on it together, but that Yorkey started the project and left, and Logan finished it?

"Does anyone think this will be a long term show for Broadway? Like, will it run for years?"

I enjoyed it, and think the cast and music are great, but I don't know if there's enough of a hook to keep the seats filled. I'd say no?

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 10/27/14 at 9:41am

^ Yes. Yorkey started the project and then left to do If/Then and Logan picked up from Yorkey's draft.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/27/14 at 10:15am

Nope.