I watched She Loves Me tonight and, for a personal reason that I'm not going to go into -- nothing about the production, which was great! -- it's not a show that I want in my life. I bought the cast recording a while ago -- the 2016 one, Benanti/Krakowski/Levi -- and hadn't listened to it yet. Anyone want it? First person to message me your name and mailing addie, I'll send you the CD.
Depending how important the time-tracking is to you, you could try a cheap, old-fashioned watch -- not one with a light, but one with a face that's big enough and numbers that are bold/clear/offset enough that you might be able to read it in the darkened house.
It bothers me very much. It nabs my focus from the stage even if the person is in the row in front of me or not next to me. Please, please keep it off. I have sympathy for you enjoying tracking the time in terms of the show's structure -- I do that sometimes with tv shows -- but in the theater it's not fair because you're interrupting other people's experience.
Jarethan, I absolutely adored FN at ART and saw it repeatedly here. (I live in Cambridge and those early tickets were cheap before it caught fire and sold out.) I had never heard any of the rumors about HW (I have no personal connections to pro theater) yet during the event when HW came to the ART for that fake ha-ha match with the reporter, I found his vibe to be disturbing and domineering. He walked around ART like he was king. It never influenced my love for the show, but nor did
Brantley: "For the first time in my experience, Frank is the beating, shattered heart of the show. That’s partly a matter of how Ms. Friedman has ingeniously framed her production. But it’s also a consequence Mr. Umbers’s startlingly sympathetic performance of a (usually unsympathetic) man to whom fame happens."
I saw it again. Even though, as somebody said here, it doesn't have a difficult plot, I realized tonight that the first time I saw it, I was spending a bunch of brain energy following the causations, just because of the reverse chronology. This time, I was able to watch in an "all-heart" way. It was SO GOOD. This cast -- wow, wow, wow. The singing level is fantastic. I feel so lucky that this came to Boston. Mark Umbers' acting job in terms of ch
If you were thinking of going but don't have tix yet, there's currently a discount code. From Huntington email: "Use code ROLLBACK and save 25% on tickets."
Owen 22 said: this revival's heart was all about Mary.
That's fascinating -- that would never have occured to me from seeing it in Boston. In Boston, I felt the heart was all about Franklin, and secondarily Charley, and thirdly the two men in relationship to each other, and fourthly Mary. But I say this having loved Eden Espinosa in it! I found her marvelous -- I just didn't think it was as much about her. Because of what i said upthread abo
Jarethan: Re Mary, I don't want to infer too much...are you also saying that Mary's arc could have been a little clearer or more fleshed out?
I think I mean that once in a while there's an updatey detail about her work -- for example, that she started a book, or some other quick detail about her writing -- but that while there were a number of those updatey details throughout the show, none of them had substance. I didn't know how she felt about any of
Jarethan, I thought the sound was great, but I was sitting in the front row, so even the projection was off, I might have heard everything fine coming just from their mouths.
I did think the entire cast did an excellent job with enunciation. Often at the theater I miss words that I can "hear" fine -- I hear the general sound of them, plenty loudly enough, but I can't discern the actual words -- but in this show, I heard everything. But because of my location
poisonivy2: I can see why they now end the song with "Our Time" because it's one of the most beautiful anthems Stephen Sondheim wrote but the original structure of the musical IMO is more chilling.
MORE chilling? I'm not sure I could handle any more! I already pretty much had to be muttering to myself about multiverses with this ending in or
It was excellent. I'm SO glad I got to go. If you're in Boston or can make it to this production from elsewhere, grab a ticket now. You won't regret it.
Hey y'all, thanks for the advice on this thread. It was perfect. I followed the plot with no problem. I wouldn't have realized the backwards time flow right away so it was great that you told me. And I was glad I had heard FSI extra times in advance. BWW boards FTW.
poisonivy2, I just listened to Franklin Shephard Inc. a few times in a row. Thank you. I've also listened to the whole thing a few times. I have some sense of the score.
What might help to know in advance is that Sondheim's score also goes in "reverse", i.e., you will hear a shortened version of a song--what would be "reprise" in any other show--first and then hear the entire song later in the evening (which is earlier in the plot).
Thank you, GavestonPS! That's fascinating and I bet it would have taken me a while to figure it out -- maybe not until thinking about the show afterwards. I'm glad to know it in adva
