Well, I'm not sure what the expectation would be for a reviews thread 3 hours before the the opening night performance is meant to begin, really... if one is looking for reviews (seeing as EW leaking is an anomaly and typically no reviews come out in advance).
Listen, I couldn't care less what anyone thinks of me. I understand backlash towards many other posters here who are downright rude and offensive. Maybe I missed the posts where you were rude and/or obnoxious to people. anyway, take care.
Yeah, theoretically, they aren't supposed to review until the last 3 shows before opening, and that's fair, because the show is already if not almost frozen. If they review it much earlier, they may be missing some positive changes.
Nope. It's up to the show to designate certain previews as press previews. Apparently, the show was frozen last week by Saturday, and press were invited. They don't exactly sneak in, they ask for their ticket for the press performance they want to attend. I was actually surprised yesterday when the house manager told me that there were no critics in the house, they all seen the show before yesterday.
CZJ at opening night party for A Little Night Music, Dec 13, 2009.
thanks for the info. I'm a little out of the loop because it's been several years since I was managing a theater, and I'm always commenting on what I learned back then.
wait a minute, I was working at NWS up until a year ago, and that was the rule we understood to be true.
"wait a minute, I was working at NWS up until a year ago, and that was the rule we understood to be true."
Well, as I said, the RULE is that critics don't review a show until they've been invited to do so. Once the show designates its press previews, a critic is free to choose which of those performances he or she would like to attend. Makes sense, no?
CZJ at opening night party for A Little Night Music, Dec 13, 2009.
Of course it makes sense. I thought it was a general rule that they were invited to attend the show any of three performances before opening. You informed me that wasn't true. Not knowing you, I'm taking your word for it. thank you again for the info.
Financial Times is mixed (3 out of 5 stars) and really took the bait about the all-white cast:
"Sinclair, portrayed by the wonderfully self-assured Marin Mazzie, is one of the reasons to see Bullets Over Broadway, the new musical birthed by Woody Allen from his 1994 movie of the same title. The Broadway show makes a Sinclair-sized effort to persuade us of the value of early-20th-century songs shoehorned into a 1929 setting. The attempt is intermittently enjoyable, extremely well crafted by the director/choreographer Susan Stroman, and progressively unthrilling.
...
Some of the classic and little-known songs chosen by Allen, which have been given expert musical adaptation and additional lyrics by Glen Kelly, signify another kind of larceny: they were popularised by black entertainers but here are delivered by a large ensemble more lily-white than Lapland. Apparently, Allen doesn’t realise that, in a cartoonish Broadway musical these days, African-Americans are allowed to be gangster as well as gangsta."
But if considerable care has been given to crafting each of these outings individually, with Santo Loquasto's sets, William Ivey Long's costumes, and Donald Holder's lights all making the proper contributions to the effort, one firm force hasn't bothered to ensure that they all work well together. Whatever else it may be, Bullets Over Broadway certainly isn't cohesive.