If you've seen 'Leap' how would you improve it?

[finebydesign]

Posted: 4/19/12 at 5:37pm

It seems the discount tickets have finally given our little community the opportunity to collectively see a new show. We've heard some interesting opinions on here about the show, would love to hear ideas for improvement. How about pipe-dream stuff and realistic changes/tweaks given their 4/26 opening?

[kdogg36]

Posted: 4/19/12 at 5:49pm

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW.




Rather than having a pat ending that endorses faith in miracles and smacks down the cynics, I'd want a more balanced show. When that kid got up from the wheelchair, it felt like a huge cop-out to me. Wouldn't it be so much more fulfilling for him to find real happiness with a new stepdad and a newly rejuvenated mom? (I had never seen the movie, which I imagine has a similar plot.)

I read somewhere that the writers wanted to create a dialogue about faith, which to me implies an even approach, but what I saw was more like a lecture. A handicapped child challenges audience members as to their belief in god. The main character asks for inspiration from above, and he gets it. I'm not sure how to create more balance, but perhaps Jessica Phillips' character could be the standard-bearer for a different point of view. As it stands, there was a lot I enjoyed about the show, but the facile and one-sided ending left me cold.

[binau]

Posted: 4/19/12 at 6:00pm

[binau]

Posted: 4/19/12 at 6:00pm

[finebydesign]

Posted: 4/19/12 at 6:04pm

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW.




Kdogg36 - I think your observation is terrific. I got the same feeling when he walked. It made me wonder what handicapped kids would think while watching the show. It's a pretty cruel irony being tricked by about a show about trickery, by that I mean the actor is not really handi-capped and him walking in the end is so unbelievable it hurts. The audience clapped as if we were witnessing a miracle but we weren't. The idea of the character accepting it and getting a father is much bigger. Also broaching the subject of a god that would allow this to happen to a child is also thought provoking. It would also provide a great role for a handicapped child.



Updated On: 4/19/12 at 06:04 PM

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 4/19/12 at 6:16pm

I'd mount 2 excellent productions of 110 in the Shade and Music Man instead. Because if you combined them, the story would be exactly the same as LOF.

[kdogg36]

Posted: 4/19/12 at 6:24pm

(Still spoilers, perhaps.)




finebydesign - exactly. I felt like the creators were saying "you should believe in miracles, because we wrote this work of fiction with a miracle in it!" That's just not very persuasive.

[Josh Freilich]

Posted: 4/19/12 at 6:24pm

So what you're saying is, the only way to improve the show is to drive it out entirely...

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 4/19/12 at 11:29pm

I don't agree they should take out the "miraculous" ending. The musical is based on a movie in which the kid walks at the end, and I'm sure that ending is part of what drew them to this project. The show is about someone who has totally lost his faith and is unwillingly confronted with a miracle. In the final scene, the kid's on crutches, so it's not like he's completely healed.

It would also provide a great role for a handicapped child.

Except that the character walks at the end. You could argue that the role of Nessa in WICKED could go to a handicapped actress if Elphaba didn't magically heal her legs. If you're complaining that a healthy kid got the role of a mostly disabled character, why aren't you angry about Andrew Keenan-Bolger cast as Crutchy in NEWSIES? He isn't even suddenly healed.

Anyway, the show has flaws. But whether or not you think the ending is one of them, it's also not, and never was, going to change.

[Nick Murphy]

Posted: 4/19/12 at 11:39pm

Only way to improve this show is to close it.

[Nick Murphy]

Posted: 4/19/12 at 11:39pm

Only way to improve this show is to close it.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 8:17am

Yero is right. The story, including its ending, is what it is. And perhaps it shouldn't be a musical. But it is.

I wouldn't make it into a musical. Instead of offering real heart this story is 100% manipulation. And as SondheimFan said, it pales next to the two musicals to which it bears striking similarities, 110 and Music Man, both of which, imperfect as they are, have a great deal of heart.

As for improving the show as it is, the cast is very good, the lyrics above average, the production elements satisfactory.

The one thing that could use great improvement is Menken's music which I found repetitive and for all its screaming at the audience to find it rousing (which works - another manipulation, with the help of a good cast), actually a bore.

Updated On: 4/20/12 at 08:17 AM

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 3:26pm

I haven't seen the stage musical, but I had exactly kdogg's reaction when I saw the film. To me, the film asserts a confidence in the power of faith that the narrative never really earns.

THE MUSIC MAN gets it exactly right. It isn't often mentioned that its ending is as brilliant as its opening number. But the "Think System" isn't magic and the boys' band can't play the Minuet in G perfectly: they play a barely recognizable facsimile. So faith has value (evidenced not only by the band, but by Winthrop's transformation and even the love between Harold and Marian), but it doesn't cure the lame, the halt and the blind.

Yes, I realize that the boys being able to play anything is just as improbable as a crippled child suddenly walking. But THE MUSIC MAN keeps its depiction of faith within bounds and is all the more moving for doing so.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 4:01pm

Honestly, I've always felt The Music Man is about as close to perfect a musical can get.

[jv92]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 4:23pm

Get a new bookwriter, shut it down for a while and retool, get rid of the show-within-a-show concept. Clarity, clarity, clarity.

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 4:26pm

This just feels like CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, only possibly more sloppy.
Great performers, though.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 4:30pm

I'm with jv92 - this needs a complete start-over; but as has been pointed out, the whole story is so similar to The Music Man and 110 in the Shade, it feels more like plagiarism than a riff on universal themes, mostly because it's so leadenly humorless and solemn. The show's heart is a piece of plastic.

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 4:40pm

Cut some songs, character and story development suffers when the show is glutted with songs that appear every five minutes.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 4:48pm

A lot of people were surprised when this was suddenly announced as coming to Broadway. I know some feel (in the other thread especially) that they've worked on it already too much, but I understand the feeling they had that there was something there to work with. Still, the LA production was just over a year back, and was not highly regarded--if they still wanted to go through with it I expected trying it out at least somewhere else before moving it to NY.

[bk]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 6:34pm

Yes, I, like Mister Matt, wasn't aware that The Music Man was imperfect. I think it is a textbook example of just how perfect a musical can be. And while The Music Man did take several years to birth, all the birthing work was done with nary a workshop in sight. Mr. Willson just kept plugging away at it, would do backer's auditions, producers would come and go, but when it was right, its producer knew it and immediately put it into production. It, too, would undergo changes out of town, all done without audience surveys or focus groups. Songs were changed, re-written, cut, and added. And when it came in it was ready, played, what, two previews and opened.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 8:26pm

Honestly, I've always felt The Music Man is about as close to perfect a musical can get.

Obviously, I agree.