ECLIPSED Previews

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Previews begin tonight for the Broadway premiere of Danai Gurira's Eclipsed, starring Academy Award Winner Lupita Nyong'o and directed by Liesl Tommy!

 

So who's going tonight?

[bwayphreak234]

I will be there Thursday.

[JBroadway]

My biggest question for anyone going is how they've adapted the set. At the Public, most of the play took place in and around a single set piece which served as the small hut (house? shack?). I'm wondering they've made the hut bigger to fill the stage, or whether they've kept it the same size and just added more space around it. Either way there seems to be drawbacks. 

[GreasedLightning]

[BroadwayConcierge]

It's almost Gentleman's Guide-y, with the smaller set/stage on/within the larger stage.

[RippedMan]

Seems an odd design, but ill wait till I see it. 

[JBroadway]

Interesting. It actually looks pretty similar to the set at the Public. I feel like they must have changed some aspect of the dimensions though. The stage at the Public felt very small to me. I like the design for the show, personally.

[Scarywarhol]

[Scarywarhol]

It is, to be fair, about as small a space as you could hope for on Broadway. 

[WhizzerMarvin]

I'm just getting home from the first preview and the production appears to be in very good shape. The acting is uniformly strong and although the text is interesting I think the performances are more of the draw here than the actual play. 

 

Surely many people will make comparisons to Ruined, which I found to be a superior play to Eclipsed. I felt more emotionally connected to Ruined's characters and there was a greater momentum to the plotting. The two acts of Eclipsed almost felt like two separate plays with things coming together at the end. I do think it was smart to leave the men off-stage (along with the horrors the women had to endure). 

 

Saycon Sengbloh, who is always wonderful, gave the best performance of the night, with Pascale Armand's Bessie a close second. All five women are given some great moments though. 

 

Given the buzz on this one I went in with very high expectations and expected to be wowed. Perhaps this worked against me tonight as it never quite reached exhilarating heights, but being very, very good ain't bad either. 

[QueenAlice]

I went to look up the play this week and had completely forgotten I saw a production of it a few years ago at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in California.  I remember nothing about the play other than the dialects were difficult to understand.

[WhizzerMarvin]

My ear did have to take a minute or two to adjust to the accents and syntax of the dialogue. There were times when it took all of my concentration to make what was being said, but mostly I got used to it. 

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Aw, I was hoping you would love this show as much as I did, Whizzer. Interesting to hear what you thought about the different acts. I suppose there's more "comedy" in act one (although that's really not an appropriate word) but the tone seemed pretty even. 

 

The two major moments I remember being destroyed by were The Girl's act two monologue with Wife #2 and Bessie's "you can go" speech. Are these moments still gut-punching.

 

How was the intimacy - it was quite a small production at The Public and I wonder how it feels in a larger theatre with virtually the same set. Someone brought up the moment where Lupita basically pointed a gun at the audience's face - about 5 feet away at the Public and thought it would get lost in a larger house. However, I was in the last row when I saw it and was floored.

Good the hear the performances are still incredible.  I look forward to hearing more thoughts. Hope stories like this will continue to come to Broadway. Really powerful stuff.

[LightsOut90]

did they end up keeping on Stacey Sargent as an understudy? loved her when I saw her at The Public.

[MX888]

LightsOut90 said: "did they end up keeping on Stacey Sargent as an understudy? loved her when I saw her at The Public."

 

Unfortunately not! I liked Ms. Sargent as well.

The understudy for Helena/Rita: Adeola Role;

understudy for The Girl: Ayesha Jordan;

understudy for Maima: Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Ayesha Jordan;

understudy for Bessie: Joniece Abbott-Pratt

[WhizzerMarvin]

Sally, although the first act had more humor and the second act focused on more intense situations the bigger difference for me was in which characters each act focused on. Act one was about the ways #1 and #3 integrated #4 into the fold; it was like Big Love: Liberia. I assumed the other two roles were going to be very small and this would essentially wind up being a three person play. Helena and Bessie are warm and have good senses of humor, despite their situation. Act two shifts the focus onto the two minor characters from act one, sidelining Helena and Bessie for a good deal of the action. Rita and Maima bring more conflict and tension to The Girl, and she herself has become wholly unrecognizable. Each situation really could have been its own play: sister wives attempting to survive together and women joining the warlord's army in order to survive and at what grave cost.

 

I was in the mezz so I think some of the intimacy may have been lost, but the performances were definitely big enough to fill the theater.

[tazber]

I can't wait to see this!

 

Gurira is having an amazing season as a playwright. Isn't the Atlantic also doing one of her shows?

 

All this and still she has time to be a total bad-ass and end up

 

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making out with Rick

 

[phan24]

Does anyone know if they have rush tickets for Eclipsed? If so, how much are they?

[Esther]

Isn't the Atlantic also doing one of her shows?

 

Not Atlantic.  Playwrights Horizons is doing Familiar

[Jshan05]

phan24 said: "Does anyone know if they have rush tickets for Eclipsed? If so, how much are they?

 

"

$39 student rush!

[jpiedrafite]

How high is the stage? Front row tickets are available at a discount for a performance I'm looking at.

[LightsOut90]

Jshan05 said: "phan24 said: "Does anyone know if they have rush tickets for Eclipsed? If so, how much are they?

 

 

 

"

 

$39 student rush!

 

"

jesus, the average rush ticket was like $25 when i moved here 5 years ago, the inflation is absurd.

 

[LimelightMike]

jpiedrafite said: "How high is the stage? Front row tickets are available at a discount for a performance I'm looking at."

 

I SECOND THIS QUESTION.

 

[@z5]

Anyone know if LN has been signing at all afterwards?

[bwayphreak234]

I saw this last night. The five actresses in this are simply incredible. I found the play itself to be in very solid shape, however, I think act two is much stronger than act one. Act one seemed to meander a bit, and it wasn't really clear what direction the story was going in. Act two was probably one of the most intense hours I have spent in a theatre - it was harrowing. I think the play could use some trimming, but overall this is a very good play.