Does anyone have any experience with student tickets for this? I’m trying to plan a trip up but the $25 side seats just sold out for the date I need.
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I’m visiting Boston with friends in June and our “host” friend got us tickets for this. She said the only seats she could get were close to the stage, so now I’m worried, since none of us are even close to 6 ft tall! I hate sitting too close to a tall stage & getting a stiff neck. Oh well. We’ll just make the best of it. I’m interested in seeing it as it’s always exciting to see a new show, and I do like the music.
karen24 said: "I’m visiting Boston with friends in June and our “host” friend got us tickets for this. She said the only seats she could get were close to the stage, so now I’m worried, since none of us are even close to 6 ft tall! I hate sitting too close to a tall stage & getting a stiff neck. Oh well. We’ll just make the best of it. I’m interested in seeing it as it’s always exciting to see a new show, and I do like the music."
I sat front row when Waitress was there and the stage is high but not super high. I'm 5'9" and I could see everything happening.
Wee Thomas2 said: "They rebuild the staging from scratch for pretty much every show at the ART, so what you saw 2 months or 2 years ago is likely very different now."
I didn't know that since I never saw anything there but Waitress.
I caught the show on Tuesday. The stage is indeed quite high but a lot of the actual action is downstage and there's really nothing happening on the floor apart from highly repetitive group choreography and one small scene (which is pivotal but you don't need to see what's happening to know it's happening unless you're a pervert).
The book is quite strong plot wise. Dialogue is fantastic too, imo. Humor flowed pretty smoothly and it really did not feel like a jukebox musical. Agree with other posters that they need to work on a few other side characters to make them more compelling, or at least give them more dimension. Steve Healy/Dad in particular was one of the painfully under-developer character who need a better arc than "he was an absent father" (which, btw, is near impossible to internalize since he's ALWAYS on stage). Minor changes could really make the show perfect.
Celia Gooding was out again. Her understudy was really good in act I, she sort of disappeared for me in the second act. Partly because of how the character is written, but mostly because of how underwhelming the performer was in act II. The story was too intense for her to be playing the character in the exact same way in both acts.
Lauren Patten - HOLY COW that voice! I wanted to give her a standing ovation after her big number in act II. The audience gave it a well deserved sustained applause which probably lasted at least a solid minute if not two. Rest of the performers were good but no one was really mind-blowing. Some singers were pitchy but I am more forgiving of that because the songs are damn hard and a little bit of vocal coaching can fix it. They definitely need to recast a couple of actors up there if they won't change the book - their stage presence is not strong enough for them to make up for a weak character.
Now the staging and direction. Sigh. Full disclaimer - I don't like Diane Paulus' work. She makes the stage too busy with a lot of crap happening which distracts you from meat of the show. But oh my, she has held back in this show a lot. Some scenes like the rape and overdose scenes are truly genius. There's a few numbers which warrant the concert like feel to it and she's done them justice, but the band coming on stage in every 2nd song loses its power. I hope she reduces the noise in some of the other critical scenes, especially with the flickering background. Speaking of which, I was not a fan of the set design. Personally don't think the show needs to rely on projections and panels this heavily. I know it takes a lot of choreography and tech precision, but that scenery feels lazy to me. It stopped feeling fresh 7 years ago.
The Next To Normal comparisons are inevitable, but I personally thought that music in this show is better. I wouldn't mind seeing what Robert Spencer or Brian D'arcy James could do with Steve Healy's role.
joined:3/22/14
joined:
3/22/14
Posted: 5/9/18 at 12:14pm