GeorgeandDot said: "it's not a very good play. It's just 3+ hours of cliche and then a sudden burst of bizarre shock value at the very end. The ending, is atrocious. The audience around me burst into laughter at the ending. Frankly, this is junk food theatre, which I guess is fine, but I was expecting a really great new play and that's not what this is.
I’m not one given to hyperbole and amazing is now my least favorite word in the English language, but what Elaine May did on stage tonight is nothing short of amazing. What she did, was also extremely difficult to watch, having just lost my Mom a few weeks ago, after 15+ years of Parkinson’s and dementia.
Ordinarily, I’d critique the writing, and I have my quibbles, but substantively, I’ve never seen dementia and the reactions to it, so accurately portr
I became oddly invested in this thread and once I saw Terrence McNally's name, all I could envision is a Ragtime revival with Audra, made all-the-more poignant by losing our beloved Marin Mazzie, this week.
So young and so talented. So many memorable performances. I was fortunate to see her with Jason at NJPAC in May, which may have been one of her last performances, if not her last. You could tell she wasn't herself, but she was still incredible and you could just see their love for each other which was really heartwarming and sweet. Such grace and class. Rest In Peace.
wonkit said: "I seem to have this problem with all of Rebeck's work: she has ideas but is not good at dramatizing them. There should be a competition to see if anyone can come up with a good log line for any of her work.
Rebeck provides her own log line. "So many words for such a small idea."
When I heard that line, tonight, I kept coming back to it, as the play meandered on with no point and a perpetual reminder why Shakespeare is produced 400 ye
haterobics said: "JBroadway said: "Another said it made her cry."
To be fair, it sounds like it almost made wolfwriter cry, too."
Ha. Very close, Haterobics.
I grabbed tickets for this as soon as I read the description. I was intrigued that it was opening theater to those who don't often get the opportunity to participate on stage or in the audience.
Maybe Craig Lucas' work is just not my thing. Still, I'm glad
I've been trying to remember the last time I hated something as much as I hated this amateurish new play by Craig Lucas. Even Lois Smith, who is wasted (like the rest of the cast) can't help this.
This is not a play. It's an idea that hasn't yet become a first draft, let alone something worthy of a full production.
It's as though Mr. Lucas thought about going to a therapist and decided not to bother. Instead, he put this interminable load o
Full disclosure. I had a death in the family this week so maybe I was looking for a two hour escape, but I kinda liked this.
After seeing Rock Of Ages, I said to my friend, "That was a lot of fun, but my IQ just dropped 20 points." I feel the same about this.
Is it great? No. Will it run? No. It's fine for a local who paid very little, but I can't imagine anyone paying full price for this or a tourist dying to see this.
Saw this tonight and it's like a first or second draft with no reason to exist. I was really looking forward to it, but the writing is lazy, the set design is odd, the acting is wildly uneven & it looks like the director didn't show up for work.
Some scenes work okay, but many are just excuses for exposition and there is a lot of exposition made to look like it's not.
I didn't care about anyone onstage except the son who wasn't on
Caught this, this week and have mixed feelings. Most of the cast is very good. Much of the music is good. All of the book is a stupefyingly bad summation of a Wikipedia entry.
Since it calls itself "A Rock Opera" the lack of disco is understandable (but I did miss it, a little bit).
The book is a superficial first draft with no focus, plot holes galore, no point of view and no idea what story it wants to tell. Maybe its biggest flaw, of many, is that it
We saw this last night and enjoyed it. Beautiful score stripped down made me appreciate it far more than the Harry Connick revival.
It's a cute show with a dumb story and great music, like so many other musicals I've seen. Audience seemed to like it. I've noticed that some comments criticized this production on what it isn't, not what it is (ie. what songs were cut etc.). My only exposure to this was the Connick revival, so I don't know it very well.
Caught Betty Buckley's show tonight and I should say, at the outset, that I've seen her so many times over the years, I'm not sure why she hasn't gotten a restraining order. I've been a huge fan for a very long time.
Tonight was the first of 4 concerts to celebrate the release of her new CD called Hope, which was recorded live, last year, at Joe's Pub. I was there, last year, as well, and it's ostensibly the same show, with a fe
Caught this tonight, not really knowing much about it, except that it is inspired by Yuval Harari's bestseller, 'Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.'
This was exceptional and my favorite show since Yerma.
Runs about 85 minutes and for the first 20, I had no idea where we were going, but I was willing to go. Once it became evident what this was about, it was totally engrossing and flew by.
A professor goes on a Tinder date with a guy who turns
If you have an opportunity to see these two, live, do yourself a favor and go. Both are fantastic and play off each other like they've been married 20 years :)
One minor quibble is that there isn't enough patter between songs. Only occasionally do they mention what they're singing and why. An entire Sondheim section of the show is done as though everyone is familiar with the songs and/or the shows. I went with someone who had no clue what songs like Move On
I wonder if Tyler Glenn slipped in on Sunday to take some of the pressure off. Saw this tonight and the good news, is that for a show running this long, it's in surprisingly good shape.
The better news is that J. Harrison Ghee is a star in every sense of the word. I've said before that I think he's better than Billy Porter (whom I love). I've seen him 3 times in Kinky Boots and once at PaperMill in The Sting and he is an exceptional talent.
