NOISES OFF! Previews

[gleek4114]

Posted: 12/14/15 at 11:55pm

I'm really pumped for this revival. I have been anticipating this ever since they announced Andrea was playing Dotty. First preview is this Thursday night! I really can't wait to hear first reports!

[Crazy NooNooHead]

Posted: 12/15/15 at 12:16am

I'm excited too! My mom and I saw Rob McClure in Chaplin and Tracee Chimo in Bad Jews, and we've been fans of theirs ever since. We also both love the play as a whole. I think it'll be a great production.

[Mr Roxy]

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

Saw Mc Clure in Chaplin & Honeymoon. This guy needs to be in a hit.Hated Bad News with a passion so cannot judge her fairly.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/15/15 at 10:37am

I'm very much looking forward to this- excellent cast and hilarious play- but damn if the artwork isn't some of the most amateurish caricature work I've ever seen.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 12/15/15 at 11:24am

Anxiously looking forward to hearing about this.  I hope it's good. I love this play, and when it's done well, it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. When it's done poorly, though...it's bad. If the pacing isn't right, you're in for a long evening.  I have high hopes- Andrea Martin seems like ideal casting. 

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 12/15/15 at 11:29am

Andrea Martin, Megan Hilty, Rob McClure (who I wholeheartedly agree that he needs to be in/deserves a hit)... this is one of my most anticipated shows of the season. Can't wait!

[gleek4114]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 10:07am

Bump for first preview!

[Kad]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 10:20am

I was at the final dress and have to say, for a first run in front of an audience, it was a surprisingly tight performance- and very, very funny with some great surprises. It's a production I'd love to revisit.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 10:57am

Glad to hear that, Kad.  I won't get to see this until after opening night. 

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 11:21am

Hoping we'll get a Whizzer review tonight or tomorrow!!

[starcatchers]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 4:00pm

I'll be there tonight. Can't wait! 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 4:13pm

Any word on the set? This play's set is a character in itself. The set for the 2001 Broadway revival was fantastic and is the only thing worrying me about this new revival as the cast is strong on its own but that set needs to equal them.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 4:28pm

I can't speak toward the last revival, having not seen it, but the set does what it needs to do effectively. It yields a couple of surprises and provides a playground for the actors (moreso the backstage set, with its myriad of hazards and tighter spaces).

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 5:30pm

 

I have a bootleg of the 2001 revival, and it's... pretty dire.  Poor Patti and Faith seem totally lost and push too hard to make up for it, and everyone else, except for Katie Finneran, who puts forth a Sisyphean effort, is boring.  Maybe it was different live.  IDK.  But since seeing that, I've been hoping for a knockout revival because I've never seen a really great production of it.  (And I'm pretty forgiving; I love the movie, which, from what I understand, most people don't think much of.  I can appreciate qualms about such an inherently theatrical piece being put on film in the first place, but the cast is pitch-perfect.)

[E.Davis]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 9:27pm

...........I forgot tonight was first preview. I had tickets, I am an idiot.

[macnyc]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 11:20pm

What a shame!

 

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 11:51pm

I was there tonight and I think things are running pretty smoothly given the demands of the show and the fact that it was the first preview. The thing is, I just don't think Noises Off is really truly hysterical until the third act. Act one basically gives "Nothing On" to us straight (or at least as straight as this troupe of actors is capable of delivering the text!), and of course this is all in service of allowing the audience to see how off course things deviate from the fictional play. Still, the most tightening could probably done in this beginning section so we can get on to the good stuff. 

 

The cast is great, without a weak link in the bunch. Andrea Martin is a gift to the theater and we should all be thankful that she comes back to the stage as often as she does. Megan Hilty as the part with the biggest surefire laughs, but she delivers and is a complete doozy in the third act. It's always a pleasure since Daniel Davis; Kate Jennings Grant and Jeremy Shamos both deliver very strong performances too. For some reason I assumed McClure would be playing Frederick, but he's playing Tim and is charming and less hyper than some of his previous performances. (I enjoyed him immensely in Honeymoon and Where's Charley; wasn't a fan of Chaplin, but he did the best he could with the part.)

 

I swear this set is the basic house as Don't Dress For Dinner. It does the trick though, and as Belinda says at the end, the play really is all about doors and sardines, and no one can say there aren't enough doors.

 

 

 

 

[Kad]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 11:59pm

Whizzer, I had the exact same thought about the set! It's appropriate though- a set from a generic and insipid farce being used for a generic and insipid farce (...within a farce).

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/18/15 at 12:11am

Glad to hear early positive as I adore this play.  I was going to come to town next weekend to see it, but Andrea Martin is out when I'm available...and I'm dying to see her in this.

 

Maybe next month.

Updated On: 12/18/15 at 12:11 AM

[After Eight]

Posted: 12/18/15 at 12:20am

I never found the play very amusing in its previous incarnations, and tonight it felt flatter than ever. The cast strained mightily to no avail.

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 12/18/15 at 12:28am

The set is EXACTLY the same as it is was in the last revival, the recent Old Vic revival in London, the movie, etc etc. I mean the set is essentially scripted so it's not like they can deviate that much.

For a first preview it was VERY tight and everyone seemed to have the timing down flat. I'm looking forward to going back after opening to see what new bits they discover. Everyone was sensational and was delighted by Hilty's approach to the part, especially since I've never been a huge fan of her general bag of tricks and still have Katie Finneran's absurdity in my mind. My weird crush on Rob McClure continues as well. Tim is never the showy laugh riot part, but watching him react to catching a cactus delighted me. I was most surprised and pleased with David Furr--I've never seen a Garry as funny, they always come across as the dull straight man, but he really impressed me.

[mamaleh]

Posted: 12/18/15 at 9:07am

Having seen only the movie version, I didn't realize NOISES OFF is presented in three acts.  Does anyone who went last night remember the running time?

 

 

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 12/18/15 at 9:09am

I believe we got out at 10:40. (Act Three is fairly brief and there is only a pause between the second and third acts.)

[newintown]

Posted: 12/18/15 at 9:22am

Whizzer, you wrote: "The thing is, I just don't think Noises Off is really truly hysterical until the third act."

 

Did you see the original Broadway production? I think that, if you did, you might feel otherwise. I saw it twice - once with the amazing original cast, led by Dorothy Loudon, and again with the equally amazing replacement cast, led by Carole Shelley. Both time, I laughed painfully from Dottie Otley's first entrance in Act 1 through until the end. Since the replacement cast nailed it as well as the originals, I though that play must be actor-proof, but sadly, I've never seen near as funny a production again - the bizarrely Americanized film and the LuPone revival are difficult to erase from memory as probably the worst versions of all, including several community theatre productions that were funnier.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/18/15 at 9:33am

Its funniness needs to snowball- the show builds on what's come previously until it's absolutely out of control.