INDECENT Previews
INDECENT Previews
BroadwayConcierge
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/24/15
#1INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/2/17 at 10:05am
Previews for the Broadway premiere of Paula Vogel's Indecent begin in two days (Tuesday, April 4, 2017) at the Cort Theatre! Moving to Broadway after a well-received run off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre last spring, Indecent is set to officially open on April 18, 2017 for an open run.
Who's going?!
#3INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/2/17 at 11:19am
Loved this play at the Vineyard. I have my doubt about its commercial success, but I wish them nothing but the best. Here's hoping for a nice Broadway run!
#4INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:15am
There's no press release, but Telecharge says rush is $30, up to two tickets, and subject to availability.
EDIT: I asked at the box office, and they are offering front row center as rush.
My avatar = A screencap from Avatar, arguably the greatest animated show of all
Updated On: 4/4/17 at 10:15 AM
BroadwayConcierge
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/24/15
#5INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 2:07pm
As I've been doing for other preview threads, some Instagram geopages:
Indecent: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/1696340270683253/indecent-on-broadway/
Cort Theatre: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/212927418/cort-theatre/
#6INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 2:29pm
I am going tonight, and I am very much looking forward to it.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
#7INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 2:31pm
I have friends involved in this show, so I'd like to see it do well. Plus it's kind of uplifting to hear Paula Vogel's attesting to finally making it to Broadway after years of hard work.
http://puccinischronicles.wordpress.com
JustAnotherNewYorker
Broadway Star Joined: 12/20/16
#9INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 4:06pm
Should I read The God of Vengeance before seeing the play?
#10INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 4:13pm
I don't think there's any need to do that. Of course, if you want to, go ahead!
BroadwayRox3588
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/5/16
#12INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 6:55pm
I do wonder if the stage is high for this production? Hard to tell by the Instagram posts.
#13INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 9:05pm
Is there anyone at the first preview who'd like to give some reports?
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#14INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:29pm
Might try and rush this tomorrow. I love Vogel and I think I'm going to enjoy this.
#15INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:31pm
What a completely frustrating and ultimately miserable experience I had this evening. I had seats through TDF in the last row of the orchestra. I warn anyone NOT to sit in or purchase tickets for these seats unless you are prepared for partial view that will great impede your enjoyment of Indecent. The play, which (I think) was very good is partly in English, Yiddish and German. There are supertitles projected on the back wall set; announcements of time, place and various other fact are also shown when necessary. The overhang from the mezz cut them off, so I had so slink down and contort my body in an attempt to get between the two people in front of me to read the supertitles. (The woman in front of me happened to be tall- which obviously she couldn't help!- and also had somewhat big hair. This happens sometimes, so what are you going to do, but it only exacerbated the fact that my view of the stage was cut off from both the bottom and top.
The final straw was that three rows from the back sat, I assume, the director and an assistant with a legal pad taking notes. The director whispered constantly throughout. At first I didn't realize the assistant writing and I thought it was just two bored patrons whispering. After about 15 minutes I was ready to yell, "be quiet!" but then noticed they pad and put together that they must have been part of the creative team. I know some creative teams block off the last couple rows so they can be on iPads taking notes without disturbing patrons, but to actually sit in front of two rows of people and distract throughout was unacceptable. The funny thing is, if that was indeed Rebecca Taichman talking away, I thought she did really excellent work! I would easily nominate her direction of a play, but I still want my money back.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
#16INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:46pm
Wow, so sorry to read this! Try contacting TDF to complain. They will probably say that seating is done by the box office, but you have a genuine beef, especially considering the other distractions. You couldn't move at intermission?
i have TDF tickets for Saturday, so I'm not looking forward to that.
#17INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:53pm
Sadly there is no intermission or I would have. Two women next to me moved within five minutes, but the orchestra was pretty full and there was no where else to go without causing a commotion. I know there's standing room up in the mezz, and if I thought I could quickly get up there without a problem I would have gone to stand. I hoped the supertitles wouldn't play as large a role as they did (there's a song in German and another sung in Yiddish that you will completely miss without the titles).
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
#18INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 11:03pm
Sadly, I can not say I was too taken with this one. The entire evening felt pretty long. i was very intrigued to see this after reading the reviews from Off Broadway, but this just fell kind of flat for me.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#19INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/5/17 at 12:13am
I suppose the "partial view" aspect isn't a huge deal as the majority of people could probably see them, but it does seem rather weird. I mean the orchestra is where the main $$ are.
#20INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/5/17 at 6:30am
Partial view is a huge deal for this show because parts of it are performed in Yiddish, as Whizzer noted, and the projections provide the translation. Also, the story jumps around in time and place, and the projections supply that information too. Otherwise, you'd be lost.
No audience member should have to see this show without the projections, even if you're paying TDF prices.
Doesn't the production test out the view and the sound from different spots in the theater?
I thought i remembered an intermission at the VIneyard, but I was wrong. No intermission there either. I just looked at my program.
#21INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/5/17 at 6:58am
Whizzer - so sorry to hear about your seating bad luck and all the other distractions.
Mac- would you mind reporting back on where your TDF seats are on Saturday? I have TDF seats for Sunday. Fingers are crossed for Mezzanine.
#22INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/5/17 at 7:43am
Yeah, I'm very bummed out about it still this morning. The thing is I actually really liked the play- it would have been much easier if I thought it was crummy so I wouldn't have been trying so hard to take it in.
The play itself made me think of three recent of musicals: Shuffle Along, Passing Strange and The People in the Picture.
Like Shuffle Along, Indecent is a play (with music) about the creation and subsequent productions of the play "The God of Vengeance." Snippets of the play are performed throughout; no prior knowledge of Vengeance is needed to understand and appreciate the proceedings. Unlike Shuffle Along, which was forced to focus on four creator, plus a leading lady, Indecent only had to worry about one playwright. I believe only one actor, Richard Topol, who played Lemml, only played one character throughout the evening. All of the other actors played countless roles.
Passing Strange is maybe the most interesting comparison because Vogel uses her troupe of Jewish actors much in the same way Stew used his ensemble of black actors. Remember, in Passing Strange the black ensemble spent a good deal of the musical playing white characters in Amsterdam in Berlin. Here our Jewish acting troupe members, introduced at the top of the play by name, take on characters of multiple nationalities, religions, languages, etc. Vogel employs a neat trick too: sometimes the actors are speaking in English (though a projection denotes that it's in Yiddish) and when this happens the actors speak without any trace of an accent, much like the cast of Les Miserables have no need to use French accents during a production. But, when the characters begin to actually speak in English an accent suddenly appears to let us know it's not their mother tongue. Same thing when they are given German scenes (in English). Of course there are also scenes/songs completely in German and Yiddish too! It's a very cool system they have worked out.
The People in the Picture comparison is perhaps the most obvious one, heightened even more by the fact that Riccardo Hernandez designed both sets and they are both giant picture frames encapsulating the action on stage! (This one doesn't break apart the way Donna Murphy's did.) Of course, The People in the Picture also dealt with Yiddish theater groups performing during the 1920's and 30's, but Indecent has much better music.
The acting is all very good, but Katrina Lenk is outstanding and should be nominated for her work. This is her first Broadway credit not as an understudy or replacement and it won't be her last.
As long as you're not sitting in the last row of the orchestra, I recommend it! Ha
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
#24INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/8/17 at 9:34am
Bump - has anyone else seen this and have any thoughts??
BroadwayBeebe
Featured Actor Joined: 2/10/16
#25INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/8/17 at 9:52am
Going this afternoon through TDF. I will try to report back.
