HEAD OVER HEELS Reviews

[Famebroadway2]

All remaining performances were just pulled from tdf.  Not a good sign. 

[Mister Matt]

The biggest problem I have with the idea of this show is the extremely limited dynamic range of the Go-Gos catalog of music, especially their hits.  You could set a metronome to We Got the Beat, Vacation, Mad About You and Head Over Heels alone and barely register the change from one tune to the next, which is why, love their songs as much as I do, I can only take them in small doses.  Even in the 80s, I could rarely sit through an entire album in one sitting.  The score would need MASSIVE amounts of artistic license in the arrangements and orchestrations to create some interesting theatrical variations and based on what I've heard, it's not happening nearly enough.

Arcadia itself is a fun romp and the idea to adapt it for a musical isn't a bad one.  Not even with a (mostly) Go-Gos jukebox score.  Mimicking the era smacks of an attempt to ride the coattails of Something Rotten, but it doesn't really work when you layer on contrived faux Tudorian-era language on top of a story 99.9% of audiences aren't familiar with.  If you're not going to attempt much change in the arrangements of the songs, then set it in the 80s and use that vernacular.  Otherwise, make it current-day and focus on the arrangements and writing.  This thing was just muddied with too many conceptual ideas and lack of artistic objectivity.  I don't know how anyone can listen to that pretend stylized dialogue and find it cute (much less funny) for that long.  It reminds me of a 7 year-old that accidentally says something the adults laugh at, so they just repeat it, thinking they'll surely get the same reaction every single time, until they are either yelled at or just ignored.  This thing reminds me of his attempt to reinvent On a Clear Day.  An interesting idea that fails in execution so spectacularly, you have to wonder how he never saw its glaring flaws.

[VotePeron]

Famebroadway2 said: "All remaining performances were just pulled fromtdf. Not a good sign."

Whoopi’s endorsement must’ve worked!!! ??????

[Jordan Catalano]

Tickets are still on sale on the website, though.

I saw the show again today to see what (if anything changed from the first preview). I accepted the ticket before Whizzer posted saying nothing was different /‘d he was pretty much right. The show tightened up some and I noticed a few little differences but really it’s just a tighter version of what they began with. And that’s such a shame. It went from me probably giving it a D- to now a solid D.

[EllieRose2]

"All remaining performances were just pulled from tdf.  Not a good sign."

What does this mean?

[BroadwayConcierge]

EllieRose2 said: "What does this mean?"

Suddenly pulling all availability from TDF usually means that producers have begun to alert discount distributors and ticketing services that a closing notice is about to be posted. 

[Theater3232]

I don't think there's much overlap between Go-go's fans and Arcadia theater scholars.  That's like asking boxing fans to go to a ballet.  Should have been a Go-go's show, nothing to do with Arcadia.

[EllieRose2]

Thanks, BC.

[BwayJudd]

It’s so interesting to read the different reactions to the show from here to other places online (where many love it). I’m hoping to go next weekend to see it and see which side I fall on lol.

[bear88]

bear88 said: "Jeff Whitty, who wrote the original Head Over Heels before parting ways with the production under murky circumstances, is decidedly unhappy with Sara Holdren's rave reviewof the show in Vulture for what he says are "ugly sneers" in her portrayal of his hypothetical pitch (clearly written as a joke), an allegedly inaccurate characterization of the original show's lackof iambic pentameter (Whitty says his opening night script of the show was written in iambic pentameter; Holdren relies on an interview with Bonnie Milligan, who has played Pamela since the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, who says it originally wasn't). He also commented on Holdren's Twitter account, expressing annoyance with what he views as a disrespectful description of Avenue Q.

https://twitter.com/jeffwhitty/status/1023376342836903937

Whitty has been silent about the show, presumably for contractual reasons, but he's made it clear that he has nothing to do with the itscurrent incarnation.

None of this probably matters now. I just haven't read much from Whitty, who spit venom tonight at a critic who liked the revised version of the show."

For what it's worth, I noticed today that Whitty deleted his attack on Holdren's review of Head Over Heels, as well as his sharply two sharply critical responses to her tweet linking to the review. Whitty may have thought better of his remarks, which seemed a bit over the top, or he may have been told that he's not supposed to comment on the show - much less one of the musical's few rave reviews. I have no idea.  

 

[HunterK]

Tickets are back for sale on TDF. Not too many dates available like last time. Not sure if it is selling well at the box office or TKTS (which I hope it is), but TDF has a lot less than the last time they were up.