KINKY BOOTS Reviews- Page 5

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 8:41pm

Besides making a buck, which I have no qualm with, ask yourselves what is the fundamental reason why these shows/ pop tune slingers are coming to the stage.

I imagine some of them actually enjoy theatre. If they want to do it, why shouldn't they be allowed to try? Are you saying Burt Bacharach shouldn't have attempted Promises, Promises? That only "certain" songwriters should have access to Broadway? Sounds like high-falootin' elitist nonsense based on assumptions. Broadway is not a sacred club for members only. Never has been and never should be. It's an entertainment business where ultimately, the audience decides what stays and what goes.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 9:07pm

But there's a larger issue, Matt. I mean, kudos to these folk like Lauper for coming to the theatre district and writing some nice little songs. But where are the writers and composers that we should be nuturing? I"m sorry, but I dont see where we're going to find the next Sondheim or the next R&H or the next Cole Porter: people whose career choice was composing for the theatre, not using it as a busman's holiday.

And I'm gonna state that I love pop music. I think Adele and Will.i.am and even the "Call Me Maybe" just-add-water-instant-"star" are all great. But is this Broadway musical theatre stuff? It may sound elitist, but then again I prefer to think of it as comparing a bicycle with a sedan. Both get you where you want to go, but they do it in very different ways. And when most of these songwriters have trouble writing endings, let alone sufficient lyrics so they dont have to resort to 24 bars of "ooo oooo oooo"... well, it just compounds the problem.

And let's face it: there's a lot of very talented people out there getting passed over because they're not Cyndi Lauper, who's sufficiently a name that this score, as nice as it is (based on the extended clips I've seen on YouTube), can get produced despite its slight leanings towards mediocrity. This is a score no one will care about inside of five years. OKLAHOMA was written by a couple of then relatively unknowns, and it's still produced seventy years later. Are we encouraging anything with that kind of staying power? At current ticket prices, I damn sure hope so, because if anything, ticket prices are not gonna go down, and it'd be nice to feel we're giving the audience its money's worth.

Just my 0.02.

Updated On: 4/5/13 at 09:07 PM

[PitPro2004]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 9:14pm

"That only "certain" songwriters should have access to Broadway? Sounds like high-falootin' elitist nonsense based on assumptions. Broadway is not a sacred club for members only."

True, Broadway should be open for everyone, if everyone was writing "for" Broadway and not giving me the feeling that in certain cases they are doing these shows just to be on it. As I recall it, at least one Green Day tune was already written and released as a single before it showed up in the show. And I highly doubt they were pulling the ol' ALW/Rice maneuver of releasing a song "from" the show in the beginning to see how it would fare amongst mainstream and not entirely theater going audiences. Maybe I'm wrong on that.

As someone said, audiences decide what comes and goes, but I find the quality of material sorely lacking. I don't enjoy U2 and won't be going to see Spiderman because that's not music I care to hear in the theater. Same for American Idiot. Hopefully I won't feel that way once I see KB, but judging from what the majority of opinions are here on this thread, it sounds like it.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 9:16pm

Off the topic, sort of, but I'm having a hell of a time getting a Lucky Guy ticket at the full published box office price ($152.00), not considering premium, which I can't afford. Do you think I might have some luck by chancing it at the last moment? Anyone? Oh, I'm limited to weekends, making the problem even worse. Thanks for any suggestions.

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 9:23pm

How is that not totally off topic, Ed?

[PitPro2004]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 9:52pm

"Just my 0.02."

My sentiments as well.

[15minutecall]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 10:48pm

SeanMartin, Oklahoma was written by 2 people who were very well known. They may have been at the beginning of their collaboration but separately each had written a string of major hits that had brought them wide renown.

When was the last time a Broadway or off-Broadway score got as
nice notices as Lauper's? The argument over a pop inflected score vs a more classic Broadway sound is valid, but I don't think Lauper took a job away from a laundry list of brilliant songwriters ready and able to write a big Broadway musical, if only producers would stop giving jobs to better known pop artists. Duncan Sheik was a pop artist before writing Spring Awakening.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 11:04pm

Hi, Clyde. The reason I said "off topic" was because it didn't pertain to Kinky Boots, per se. But I realize a lot of the posters here have a lot more experience re: ticket availability than I, so I just threw it in. Mea culpa.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 11:04pm

I guess this raises the larger question of does Broadway need to produce "standards" anymore and it seems like the answer is no. The music industry is no longer working like that. The stage used to generate the popular hits. Now "hits" make their way to the stage.

It seems that most classical singers and stage vocalists are often covering mainstream pop, which people know, and making it more jazzy or classical-putting their own stamp on it. So beautiful songwriters are still getting their dues, they just aren't always originating on stage.

I don't feel there is much memorable music on stage anymore and I rarely buy cast recordings and lean more towards solo albums of performers which offer much more richness and depth.

Sister Act, Ghost, Matilda and a host of recent stage musicals will never wield a song that is sung outside of its own productions. Sad, but times have changed.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 11:15pm

Bunch of snobs. Many standards were "pop tunes" at one time.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 11:15pm

True, Bettyboy, but *why* have the times changed? For the same reason that pop music has devolved into pre-packaged products that have been assembled, not written. Shows like GHOST get made in the same way that package publishers create children's books or a romance novel gets written: they follow a formula designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Honestly, when was the last time any of us left a theatre and felt creatively challenged by what we had seen or heard?

>> I don't think Lauper took a job away from a laundry list of brilliant songwriters ready and able to write a big Broadway musical

Sorry, but I do. All one has to do is go to the annual festival of musicals held in NY to see the very people we should be encouraging. Yes, I"m sure her score is nice. But at 150 a pop, I'd like something slightly better than "nice". WEe like to think that Broadway is the very best the world can see in the way of professional theatre, that it captures the best of the genre. And what do we get? GHOST. SISTER ACT. God help us, BRING IT ON. Millions were poured into these shows, and what did we get as a result? An evening of "nice" theatre. Not even a glimmer of brilliance in the writing. Everything riding on brand recognition of popular movies without giving much thought to what could be amplified. There is a world of difference between OKLAHOMA and GREEN GROW THE LILACS and between CAROUSEL and LILIOM. But now? Let's just take the screenplay, add a few mindlessly forgettable songs, and sell that puppy.

How... nice.

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 11:52pm

OT-Re, Lucky Guy

Ed,

Lucky Guy does sell standing room tickets, if you're interested. They go on sale at 6:00 for eves. Don't know what time for mats. You'd probably have to get there way in advance to stand on line for them, as the number of tickets is limited.

[15minutecall]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 12:16am

SeanMartin, I do go to the anual festivals of new musicals and once again ask, who specifically are these songwriters that are so much better than Lauper, Sheik, or, in your example, Menken? And which of the shows recently featured there do you think would make more viable Broadway ventures?

I don't disagree that few new shows are all that good, but I don't think the main problem is the hiring of pop composers over more deserving writers working in a more classic Broadway style. I like a lot of the Grey Gardens score but find the subsequent Korie-Frankel scores largely colorless.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 12:51am

I havent been to one of the festivals in probably seven or eight years, so I doubt I could recall the specific names. But I do remember some really excellent pieces of work that are now probably shoved off in a drawer somewhere. And that's pretty sad.

And I havent heard anything from Korie and Frankel since GREY GARDENS, so I cant really comment on them. Their listings on Wikipedia and IBDB brought up shows I've never heard of.

And I agree that hiring pop composers isnt the main problem, but it's certainly a contributing one.

[bobs3]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 12:53am

"OKLAHOMA was written by a couple of then relatively unknowns, and it's still produced seventy years later."

A couple of relative unknowns? Really???!!! You need to read some books on the history of the American Musical Theatre.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 7:54am

Dude, please. No, they werent utter unknowns (yes, I"m aware of those little things written with Lorenz Hart), but they were unknowns as a team. And what they walked into the Theatre Guild with was very much untied material that went pretty far afield from what was then standard Broadway fare.

My point is that these two raised the creative bar, and raised it pretty high. Anyone these days doing that?

[Theater'sBestFriend]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 7:56am

"I'm sure her score is nice."

You mean you haven't actually heard it? Cyndi Lauper's score has gotten across the board critical raves. Perhaps you might consider listening to it yourself before railing against it further, since giving composers opportunity to write for the theater is important to you.

Oh, and by the way - a healthy theater industry creates more opportunity for young talent, not less.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 8:21am

I've seen the extended clips on YouTube, which producers place there as a sample of the best of the score's moments.

Sorry, but it's nice. It's not a classic, but it's okay. To be honest I expected something a bit more from Lauper, and the thin orchestrations arent helping her much. Sorry if that bothers you in the face of all the raves she's receiving from critics who, this season, havent seen or heard a lot of good scores... let alone original ones.

>> a healthy theater industry creates more opportunity for young talent

Then there's another issue, isnt it. Broadway may be going gangbusters financially, but this has been a borderline meh season creatively. Is this how you define healthy? Canned goods as theatre?

Updated On: 4/6/13 at 08:21 AM

[Theater'sBestFriend]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 8:34am

I think it's foolish to criticize a show one hasn't even seen and opine about how it's destroying the theater. Maybe I'll try telling my Drama professor I don't need to see a production I've been assigned to critique, because I saw the prodducer's clip of it on You Tube. Oops - no, I'll get an F.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 9:02am

Dude, let's make it simple, since obviously that's what it takes.

What the producers put up there is a commercial, ostensibly designed to feature the best aspects of the product in question. If the commercial aint selling me, I aint gonna see it. And what this commercial is tell me is that it's a nice, acceptable, not terribly challenging show... for which I am expected to shell out about a hundred bucks to see.

Now, maybe you see nothing wrong with that, but I do. KB is the kind of show that, two decades ago, would have found a nice little home off-Broadway and probably would have enjoyed a healthy run. The fact that something that appears so mediocre the way the producers are showcasing it on social media tells me that the Great White Way has been reduced to just a bunch of theatrical theme park rides.

That's not for your drama professor. It's for your marketing professor.

And in case you're missing the message here: it's marketing that's doing its game level best to ruin Broadway.

[Theater'sBestFriend]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 9:34am

"Dude," you're criticizing a show you haven't even seen!

Unlike you, people who have seen it, both critics and crowds, are loving it. Word of mouth is great, and the box office numbers on this board have been going way up each week since previews started.

I'll make it simple: It's a hit.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 9:45am

Time will tell.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 10:51am

But where are the writers and composers that we should be nuturing? I"m sorry, but I dont see where we're going to find the next Sondheim or the next R&H or the next Cole Porter: people whose career choice was composing for the theatre, not using it as a busman's holiday.

They're out there writing and getting produced: LaChiusa, Guettel, Menken, Lippa, Brown, Finn, Yeston, Kitt, Miranda, Pasik & Paul, Flaherty, Hollman, Frankel, Benjamin & O'Keefe. And what's erally remarkable is the number of new composers being honored with critical praise and awards for their Broadway debuts. I think the industry has been exceptionally encouraging to new composers.

The fact that something that appears so mediocre the way the producers are showcasing it on social media tells me that the Great White Way has been reduced to just a bunch of theatrical theme park rides.

Nah. Mediocre musicals have been a part of Broadway forever as well as marketing them. Broadway hasn't been reduced at all. This is more indicative that it is staying quite the same. The only difference is in the technology and media.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 11:44am

Let's be fair

There have been pop writers who have done well on Broadway:
Bachrach and David to name a pair. The Promises score is wonderful. Elton John is hit or miss on his scores.
Can you name some other successful popovers?


There have been pop writers who should be banished from Broadway:
Bono for Spiderman; whoever wrote that insipid score to Ghost;

There is an art to write for the Broadway musical which usually (not always) these pop writers do not have. I don't think Lauper's score is that good; its kind of repetitive actually and
relies on the repetition of the work "Yea, Yea, Yea." Kind of like the Beatles. Not exactly inspired lyrics but catchy in a "Shout" kind of way.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 4/6/13 at 12:08pm

"When is the last time you heard a tune from Anything Goes on top forty radio?"

Are you forgetting the song that used 'If I Were A Rich Man' from Fiddler, or the rap version of 'Hard Knock Life'?


Man, some people have noses so far in the air, they could drown if it rains.