Therese Raquin Previews

[Jshan05]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 4:55pm

Anybody going to the first preview tomorrow? I'm coming up to the city in a few weeks so curious if I should add this show to my itinerary! Really anxious to hear how the production turns out!

 

 

Updated On: 10/1/15 at 04:55 PM

[PianoMann]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 6:07pm

I'll be there on Saturday evening and I'm very excited!  I'm a fan of Knightley and looking forward to seeing her in her Broadway debut, but I'm most interested in seeing Judith Light.  All three of her recent Broadway appearances have been terrific, and I'm so glad that she is back on the stage so soon.

[Jshan05]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 6:21pm

Knightley isn't my favorite actors, though she has had some fine work (in Pride and Prejudice and Atonement most notably...) Really excited for Judith Light though! Please post some feedback once you catch it Saturday...looking forward to hearing about it!

[Erica2]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 6:40pm

I'll be there Saturday evening as well.  So excited for Judith Light!

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 11:05pm

I will be there tomorrow night.

[skies]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 4:34am

I'll be there a week from Friday...so sue me, I like Keira.

[sing_dance_love]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 11:30am

I'll be there tomorrow night as well, 2nd previews somehow seem to be my thing recently. Can't wait, though! Big Keira fan and excited for the rest of the cast as well.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 5:06pm

Seeing it tonight & The Humans Saturday afternoon

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 6:32pm

I'm most curious about the production. I feel like if I know going in that there won't be period costumes then I'll less disappointed when I see it.

[vintagebatman]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 7:15pm

I will be going tomorrow night as well. I am pretty excited!

[LightsOut90]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 8:14pm

apparently almost the entire stage has been replaced with a deep pool of water.....

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 9:35pm

Intermission, and I have experienced a first:

Some crazy guy in the audience started yelling at Keira Knightley during the second scene. Once the ushers finally found him and started removing him from the mezzanine he threw a large bouquet of flowers at the stage while yelling (a wonderful throw, landed on the stage).

After a very awkward silence Gabriel Ebert motioned to Knightley, they walked over to the bouquet and kicked it into the wings (which got applause). After trying to resume the show a voice came over the speakers announcing there would be a short break. 

The interuption definitely hurt the pace of the show, but they have recovered for the most part. 

[Jshan05]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 10:18pm

That is nuts! Maybe they should start doing background checks before people are allowed to buy tickets...anyways, I'll be interested to hear how the rest of the play is! I'm going next Sunday and can't wait!

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 10:23pm

Wow.

https://twitter.com/TaraGiancaspro/status/649757584627470336

https://twitter.com/kaceybange/status/649739481243910144

https://twitter.com/polaspilates/status/649759464787152897

[LightsOut90]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 10:58pm

great now she's certainly not going to be signing after for folks, thats super unfortunate that her first ever preview of her broadway debut will always be remembered for some asshole doing that, hope he got sent to lock up for the night.

 

apart from the crazy, how was the show? 

Updated On: 10/1/15 at 10:58 PM

[ArtMan]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 11:10pm

LightsOut90, She may not have signed regardless.  When I saw her in London, she ignored our small crowd of 10, flashed a quick smile for the professional photographers and got into her vehicle.  Damian Lewis (Homeland), on the otherhand,  was a sweetheart.

[Cupid Boy2]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 11:24pm

LightsOut90 said: "great now she's certainly not going to be signing after for folks"

 

Really? That's your first concern? That incident could've thrown off her entire performance. The stage door is the least of her worries.

 

Updated On: 10/1/15 at 11:24 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 11:52pm

A friend wrote on FB:

"She did not kick the flowers, her less shocked costar did, in character. But the audience breaking into cheers completely undid what was supposed to be a gloomy scene (we had only 116 more of those to follow), so they stopped for a bit.

He also yelled, "is that all I get, five seconds of heaven?"

[dave1606]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 11:58pm

Wow.  All I can say is give this a few weeks before seeing it. It certainly can't get any worse. 

 

The business at the beginning with the stalker wound up being the most dramatically interesting event of the evening. 

I think the real fault is the director. Everyone seems to have different accents, and the pacing is truly deadly. The set is MASSIVE, and some of the scene changes are taking extra time right now because it is just that big. (One scene has Kiera sitting on rock looking up for what seemed to be an eternity as the set came down).

I would describe Kiera Knightley as totally professional. She handled everything tonight extremely well, and I enjoyed some of her acting in the second act, but I think again, the direction lets us down. I think right now she is an actress in need of a better director. That said, even vets like Judith Light can't rise above this. Matt Ryan has no chemistry with Kiera Knightley, and they both look bored onstage together. 

The Roundabout Hedda Gabler from a few years ago comes to mind. In addition to emotionless actions and reactions, everyone seems to have been told to stretch out scenes for as long as possible. Several scenes were just Kiera or another character wandering around the stage, and then the scene would end. 

I saw the movie of this earlier this year with Jessica Lange and am starting to think that it is just the material that doesn't work. Neither of these were satisfying adaptations. 

Updated On: 10/1/15 at 11:58 PM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 12:03am

It looked like the usher led the guy back to his seat. The guy than got back up and then threw  bouquet , on the fly, onto the stage. The Yankees should sign him up. Than and only after the toss did they throw him out. He should have been thrown out immediately and not given a second chance to disrupt the show.Hope there was extra security tonight at the stage door as this nut probably was waiting there.

 

Very good revival. I wish, with straight plays, the volume would be turned up higher as most of these shows seem to be undermiked.

[thedrybandit]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 12:13am

Mr Roxy said: "It looked like the usher led the guy back to his seat. The guy than got back up and then threw  bouquet , on the fly, onto the stage. The Yankees should sign him up. Than and only after the toss did they throw him out. He should have been thrown out immediately and not given a second chance to disrupt the show.Hope there was extra security tonight at the stage door as this nut probably was waiting there. "
 

Loved when he shouted something about Looney Toons as well. I could see almost the whole thing from my seat in the rear mezz, and they were actually in the process of removing him when he threw the bouquet. I'll say this for him, he had a damn good arm.

I also was talking to one of the ushers (who actually happened to be the one who called the incident in with security) and they managed to get him to a seat in the last row of that section to wait for security to actually help remove him, and the flower throwing took place once security arrived to deal with him. The second the flowers left his hand they basically each grabbed a limb and carried him out. The show hold was to allow the actors to recover momentarily. I thought they handled it great though. Totally professional, and I loved that they got the audience to laugh at what could have been a very awkward moment that hurt the show. I think the laughing helped get everyone over it and back to the performance.

 

Other than him, I thought it was a very enjoyable night. Hugely stressful and tense, and the set design was wonderful. I'll definitely admit to the pacing being a bit slow at first, but it was a first preview, so I'm sure it will be sorted out by opening.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 12:19am

That outburst was crazy. I've never witnessed anything like it at the theater. At first I thought he was part of the play because he was projecting and enunciating so well; despite using her name it still felt like lines of dialogue. Then it became clear that he was a crazy stalker, but the first usher who approached him wasn't able to remove him from the mezz (he got up from his seat, but then plopped down in the aisle and wouldn't move). Personally, I don't blame the usher because certainly seemed unstable and could have been a danger to all those around him.

 

When he threw the flowers he was practically tackled and carried out by several people. Ebert did kick the flowers into the wing, but hardly in character. He scowled out into the audience and seemed rather pissed off. It was an absolutely horrible way for the actors to begin the run of their show and I feel for them. Unfortunately for the audience the rest of the performance paled in comparison to the excitement disturbance, as the play limped along to it's tepid conclusion.

 

I'd like to just give everyone a pass for being thrown off their games, but this adaptation of the novel was not the greatest. All the tension and examination of human nature from the original story was diluted and the entire second act felt like we were watching the same scene over and over again.

 

Accents were all over the place (one of these productions where, despite being set in France, everyone must speak in some sort of British accent whether they be American, English or Welsh born). I didn't really care for Ebert's performance here, and I'm one of the apparently few people who enjoyed Preludes! Maybe it was the way Camille was written, but the comedy was so broad and he certainly didn't come off as sickly and nebbish.

 

Knightley was fine, but her character barely speaks in the first 45 minutes of the play (and Light's character doesn't speak for the last 45 minutes), so I think the story might be better suited for film or an intimate space where the actors can solely rely on their facial expressions to convey emotion and meaning.

 

Madame Raquin has been written in a softer manner than I normally think of the character. She's not at all overpowering or selfish. Therese isn't treated like the indentured servant she sometimes appears to be, and as a result her longing for freedom doesn't feel as strongly motivated.

 

The pacing was so sluggish and the direction so uninspired that it was hard to care about the proceedings at all. Flawed as it was, I think the most recent Jessica Lange film version was far better than what Roundabout is putting on.

[Fantod]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 12:26am

Did you change your name somehow Whizzer? It's only showing up as WhizzerMarvin for me

[RippedMan]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 12:27am

What's the design like? Is it worth seeing? Sounds rather boring.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 12:28am

dave1606 said: "

I saw the movie of this earlier this year with Jessica Lange and am starting to think that it is just the material that doesn't work. Neither of these were satisfying adaptations. 

 

"

I had to study the novel in a French lit class and came away thinking the novel was amazing.  In Secret (the film with Lange,) was a plodding, horrible adaptation.  It sounds like this is similar...  I assume this is a brand new adaptation of the book and not a translation of Zola's own play (which admittedly I don't know, but has had success...)  So I wouldn't blame the material, though I guess it's proving to be hard to adapt...

Updated On: 10/2/15 at 12:28 AM