Act One Previews

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/20/14 at 10:47pm

Would love to hear about this, any BWWers going tonight?

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/20/14 at 11:48pm

I hope the lack of response is all because it ran late and not because nobody went.

[dave1606]

Posted: 3/20/14 at 11:59pm

The good: This play has the best set of any play this season. Jaw-droppingly massive, on a giant turntable, and very serviceable for the story. Unfortunately this adaption seems to have decided the only way to put this onstage was to just have characters take turns reading the book. Not quite, but Tony Shaloub and Stantino Fontana stand and narrate much of the show. The storytelling is just plain lazy, and as a result, the play just simply has very little dramatic tension.

The cast almost all double up roles which I was grateful that Andrea Martin a few more roles t play. She is rather miscast in an unsympathetic role as Moss's aunt. Unfortunately none of the roles quite give her the right way to show off her comedic talents here.

The show is WAY too long. It ran till almost 11:10pm tonight and you could feel the audience getting restless. In fact much of the second act deals with how you fix a play that isn't connecting with an audience. If only they had listened!

Overall the production looks great, the acting is fine, but it is all very mediocre and just plain dull.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 12:00am

Sitting through Act One was very, very trying, but it also provided me with one of the most meta experiences I've had in the theater.

The play ran 3 hours and 10 minutes, which I believe makes it the longest show of the season so far, surpassing both All the Way and Les Miserables.

Now stick with me here, but act one of Act One reminded me of A Free Man of Color. The writing style wasn't similar, but they were each overstuffed with too many characters and plotlines and basically were too ambitious for their own good. Both were lovely to look at, and the MASSIVE turntable set is a stunner here.

Three actors play Moss Hart, and Tony Shalhoub is takes with playing Moss, his father Bernard AND Kaufman!!

Act one meanders and rambles while telling the story of the early years of Hart's life. You could honestly condense the entire first 90 minutes into a 15 minute prologue and get all the information you needed. There's a ton of narration right to the audience that reminded me of lazy voiceover in a film. Act one ends with Hart finally meeting Kaufman, and trust me I couldn't have cared less about what was going to happen in act two.

Act two began more promisingly because Kaufman was 100% more interesting of a character than Hart ever was going to be. Shalhoub played him very well and it was fun (at first) to see the two of them try to fix the first draft of Once In a Lifetime. But here's where the meta crept in...during one scene Kaufman took a pen and began crossing out entire pages of the play claiming this character didn't need a backstory and this joke goes on for too long AFTER WE HAD JUST PUT UP WITH UNNECESSARY BACKSTORY AND JOKES THAT WENT ON TOO LONG!!!

Then we went from out of town tryout to out of town tryout with the characters yammering on and on about how troubled the play was and how it was falling about in the second half of the show, just as Lapine was unraveling this play as each line was spoken.

The evil trick was as Once In a Lifetime got better with revisions and changes, Act One only proceeded to get worse. After four scenes belaboring the third act trouble that was all too ironic to handle, we were treated to false ending after false ending after false ending.

I've got to hand it to the actors for sticking with it and get us to the end, but just as the actors in Once In a Lifetime kept complaining about having to learn new lines every night, I suspect this group will be doing the same thing.

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 12:01am

Well, that sounds disappointing.

[oncemorewithfeeling2]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 12:09am

Thanks for the honest rundown, Whizzer. Truthfully, this was one of the shows I was most excited about seeing this spring, but this was one preview. Hopefully they can tighten up the length...3 hours is a long show. Happy to hear Shalhoub is solid.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 12:23am

I was very excited for this because the casting is great. Golden Boy was my favorite show all last season and I was thrilled that Shalhoub was returing so quickly to the stage.

Andrea Martin seemed to play more characters than Uncle Jocko in Baby It's You, and she has some funny one-liners, but there's a lot of her material that could be cut. Lapine needs to take the advice Hart gives Kaufman when he tells him that they have to cut this big expensive set piece in the third act. Kaufman replies that they spent too much money on it to cut it now, and it gets a big laugh to boot. Hart tells him all of that doesn't matter, and painful as it may be they need to junk the set- plus, he adds, the future audiences will never know what they missed.

Lapine did write and direct, so it's all up to him with how much he wants or is able to fix this.

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 12:31am

I had really high hopes for this one, I hope he can fix it. Three hours is way too long.

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 12:34am

Rylance's Twelfth Night was 3 hours long and it flew by in an exhilarating rush. A 75-minute show without a point is too long...

[brdway411]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 12:34am

Ouch, seeing Act One on Wednesday, Holy cow, 3 hours. Looking forward to seeing Andrea Martin again.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 12:57am

I hope Lapine is able to tighten this up through previews...this was one of the things I was most excited about seeing this spring.

For those who went, how is Santino Fontana? I'm a fan of his and he's one of the main reasons I was excited about this.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 1:49am

Hm.... I kind of want to see it before they cut the expensive set piece though... ha.

[Fan123]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 5:38am

Veering off-topic, has anybody seen 'One In A Lifetime' itself performed? How was it? I read it ages ago after reading 'Act One' (the book, which I enjoyed); can't remember much except being mystified as to why OIAL was a success. I found very little of it funny. In fact, I think I recall not even comprehending why certain parts of it were (presumably) intended to be funny. Maybe its style is too much of its time for my taste. Maybe it needs to be seen performed, not just read.

[JayG 2]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 7:25am

Good God! If sitting through a show that is three hours is so torturous, stay the hell home!

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 7:28am

RippedMan, They can't cut any part of the set. It is all one massive unit, with some sections being three stories tall. Most of the rooms don't have back walls so you can see the entire set the whole show. It's very impressive.

PM, Santino was good. He ends up playing the straight man to Shalhoub's wacky Kaufman, so despite his ample stage time it is a less showy role than some of the others. I like that he has a nice, easy presence and he doesn't try to force charisma or affability. It's simply there.

OJ, Yes, a short show can feel longer than an epic; The Anarchist stretched 75 minutes into oblivion and back again! I'm not opposed to three hour shows on principle, but they need justify their run times. Act One was so exasperating because the characters are discussing overlong and problematic plays. They are so adept at show doctoring, but the man writing this play desperately needed his characters to start fixing the dialogue in the play they were appearing, not the one they were writing.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 8:06am

Whizzer, where were your seats? Because the set is so massive, do you think you can see the entire thing from the side sections of the the theatre, or is everything set forward enough on the thrust that it's visible from everywhere?

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 8:10am

"The Anarchist stretched 75 minutes into oblivion and back again! "

I agree. I think I saw the second preview of Anarchist, and had Mamet sign a book afterwards for me. I thought it was a train wreck and he said "Wow! Didn't they do a great job tonight!" I knew it was doomed at that point, since he seemed to have no sense what we were experiencing, hehe.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 8:33am

bjh, I was in the mezz and it was a perfect view. The center orchestra would work too, but I think you would miss the full effect sitting in the far side orchestra sections.

Many of the scenes are played downstage on the thrust, but you get to see the entire world all at once when looking dead on.

OJ, I wish I hadn't brought up The Anarchist because the memories are triggering a PTSD like reaction. Both Patti and the audience got to play the role of incarcerated prisoner with that one!

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 8:42am

"since [Mame] seemed to have no sense what we were experiencing,"

Like his politics.

[macnyc]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 8:57am

I'm getting the feeling I should turn in my Act One tickets and try to see Aladdin instead!

[newintown]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 9:08am

Maybe a case of "stay home and read the book?" (I love the book.)

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 9:16am

I admit I've never read the book so I can't say. It did make me want to find out more about Kaufman, who was portrayed as a truly fascinating man.

How much of Hart's life does the book cover? The play stops at opening night of Once In a Lifetime so we don't get to see Hart's later triumphs with Kaufman nor his successes as a director.

Did the two of them remain friends? (Were they ever "friends" or merely collaborators? Was Kaufman friends with anyone?)

[newintown]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 9:29am

Lord, it's been years since I read it, and I don't have it near at hand at the moment, but my recollection is that it only goes up to the success of Once In A Lifetime.

I suppose that explains the title - I imagine that he must have considered writing sequels, like Coward did to his first book of memoirs.

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 4:22pm

Saw Once in a Lifetime at ACT in SF a couple of years ago. There were some funny bits and I got an idea of what must've been fresh back then, but mostly it was long and just didn't work for me.

[BroadwayBaby2012]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 8:21pm

I can't argue with the work that needs to be done on the play. But I disagree about some of the posts about Andrea Martin. What I loved about her was actually her non-comedic characters - the aunt and Kaufman's wife. I thought it was a huge departure for her from her previous shows and that she had very touching scenes in both roles. I don't think it is miscasting because she isn't playing big comedy stuff. I found her a refreshing casting choice and a strong asset to the production.