News on BARE?

[MJAlex2]

Posted: 6/25/15 at 10:09pm

Hey, all!
A few years back, a friend got me hooked on the rock opera, BARE. I listened to it non-stop and I grew to love the characters, though there were ways to improve the piece.

Then, much to my pleasure, I heard that it was making a comeback as a musical with rewritten characters and scores! I believe it was going to play in an Off-Broadway theatre, but that's the last I heard of it... Does anyone have any news or thoughts to share on the musical?
Thanks!

[Sondheimite]

Posted: 6/25/15 at 10:18pm

it did play off-Broadway at New World Stages a few years ago.  It was heavily revised and flopped terribly.  

[helvizz]

Posted: 6/25/15 at 10:18pm

It played Off-Broadway in 2012, opened in December and closed in the beginning of February 2013.

It was rewritten, many songs were added, some were cut, some had major lyric changes. If memory serves me right, they either recorded a cast recording or were going to record one, but they decided not to sell the cd for some reason (I definitely remember there was an in-studio-recorded version of Role of a Lifetime in their website, which was sung by Jason in the revival, by the way).

It even got a new name 'bare: the musical' instead of 'bare: a pop opera'.

Updated On: 6/25/15 at 10:18 PM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 6/25/15 at 10:29pm

Oh and the set design was god aweful ugly!

 

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 6/25/15 at 10:52pm

The revised show took all the charm out of the original, which is, despite some heavyhandedness and many questionable lyrics, still a good listen on recording. The director has a way of taking interesting source material (Ragtime, Carrie, Bare) and making it dull. And this production was incredibly heavyhandedness in its "importance" and such. 

 

Also, the actor playing Peter was terrible - he would never have passed for straight at a catholic school.