Rocktopia First Preview

[WhizzerMarvin]

When a show makes you long for the blissful ineptitude of Home for the Holidays, you know it’s bad, and boy is Rocktopia a real stinker. It’s 100 times more polished and professional than this season’s holiday special event, and yet I greatly preferred that disaster to this uninspired slog of an evening. (The nearly 2 hour and 45 minute runtime was simply too much for many patrons, and there was a steady stream of walkouts around the 2:15 mark through the end.)

At one point Rob Evans came out and asked the audience if Beethoven and Mozart had been alive in the 20th Century, don’t you think they would have collaborated with Queen and other rockers? Well, the answer is actually probably not. It’s not like classical music stopped being composed with Beethoven. It’s also not like Sondheim and Jerry Herman we’re collaborating with The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin either.

But fine, if you want to mash up classical pieces with rock anthems then go right ahead, but other than a few exceptions the two genres weren’t “mashed up” at all. The two styles weren’t integrated together. Usually a combo would start out with a 45 second classical music introduction followed by the full rock song. Repeat. A few times a Puccini or Handel aria would be overlaid atop a rock song, but I don’t think this worked as well as they thought it did. It’s purely bad timing, but one of the singers attempted an overblown “Lascia Ch’io Pianga” which is currently being sung so brilliantly and expressively at Farinelli and the King right now that I was embarrassed to even hear this version. Puccini rolled over in his grave so many times that he probably burrowed a hole to the other side of the world by now.

The lighting is garish and often the spotlights were shown directly into the audience, blinding the viewer- perhaps in an effort to make sure were still awake. (Rarely has a show been so loud and still so sleep-inducing.)

And speaking of the sound- rock concerts are supposed to be loud, and Rocktopia is appropriately so, but the sound design is so poor that the orchestra just sounds like mush and the much discussed underpaid chorus can rarely be heard so I don’t understand the point of even having them there.

The classical song choices are of the “This is the only classical CD you’ll ever need to own,” variety and the rock songs and the same. There wasn’t much care taken to curating an interesting or surprising songlist- not like I was expecting otherwise, but still.

Lastly, the projections were from the same clip art file as Baby, It’s You; the two low points were a montage of Dust Bowl photos (a real pepper upper!) and the We Are The Champions montage which featured Anne Frank, Mother Teresa and Princess Diana. Didn’t Anne Frank suffer enough already?

[dramamama611]

Oh, WhizzerMarvin, how I love you.

 

Thanks for you time, as always, in keeping us informed!  Someday, I'd like to buy you a drink!

[markypoo]

If the other reviews are anything remotely like yours, they might succeed in killing the show off right away.
Otherwise, the weather might do the trick.

[newintown]

"At one point Rob Evans came out and asked the audience if Beethoven and Mozart had been alive in the 20th Century, don’t you think they would have collaborated with Queen and other rockers?"

Gorgeously idiotic.

[songanddanceman2]

Yikes,so you loved it then?

[newintown]

Now we need only wait for the first poster to write "give them time, they could fix it in previews!"

[songanddanceman2]

Give them time, they could fix it in previews.

[Marianne2]

Thanks for the laugh. This definitely is not something I am planning to see, but was hoping to at least get some opinions from those who have. They made it look like it was going to be similar to the Trans-siberian Orchestra, but I'm guessing that's better than this.

[BroadwayConcierge]

“Didn’t Anne Frank suffer enough already?”

Sobbing.

Thanks for confirming my belief that I should avoid this at all costs, Whizzer.

[ACL2006]

YIKES! I thought it couldn't get worse than HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS. I wonder how this is selling, especially since they have pat Monahan from Train through April 8? They're playing in the barn that is the Broadway Theater whereas HFTH played in the August Wilson (1,718 seats vs. 1,228). Can't imagine playing in that theater with only a few hundred people in attendance.

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Even though everything Whizzer says is accurate, I still enjoyed it! I didn’t have any expectations that it would be any kind of great theatre, I was just hoping to be entertained and I will say I liked it. I had the opposite feeling from the audience, those around where I was appeared to be having a great time.

[markypoo]

So, between Margaritaville and this:

Which do you suggest I sit through when I'm hopelessly wallowing IN THE BAG?

[MayAudraBlessYou2]

God bless you Whizzer. This is a gem. 

[Marianne2]

Is this show the same as this video?

https://youtu.be/nECYBxOfmUU

I remember seeing this advertised for PBS and was wondering why it was being brought to Broadway if they were airing it there. It does look bad from this video.

[Broadway Joe]

ACL2006 said: "YIKES! I thought it couldn't get worse than HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS. I wonder how this is selling, especially since they have pat Monahan from Train through April 8?They're playing in the barn that is the Broadway Theater whereas HFTH played in the August Wilson (1,718 seats vs. 1,228). Can't imagine playing in that theater with only a few hundred people in attendance."

 

He's the only reason I'm even debating going to this cause my mom likes him so I was debating taking her, was in this first preview? Sounds like I'm better off just waiting and taking her to see Train instead lol

[Lot666]

WhizzerMarvin, just curious - what were your expectations going into this? Did you expect to like it? If not, why did you go?

[mar6411]

He goes to early previews of all Broadway shows and provides us his thoughts.  He has developed quite the fan base for his well thought out, well written comments.  It's his thing and we love him for it.  

I assume you just never noticed and that's why you asked why he went.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Lot666,

I have to admit that my expectations weren’t high going into this, but I do love a good mash up of genres/songs (who doesn’t love Dorothy Loudon’s You Could Drive a Person Crazy/Losing My Mind mash up?), but what could have been a cool concept was wasted on the banal.

Why not combine something like The Bell Song from Lakmé with The Beatles’ Blackbird for example. There are a million more interesting combinations that could have been chosen and more successfully integrated together. I feel like it was false advertising- this was really just a Long Island cover band with a few bars of Ode to Joy and Eine kleine Nachtmusik thrown in.

As far as expecting to like something- though completely impossible, I try to be as neutral as possible when approaching a show. I’m seeing Iceman Cometh tomorrow. Am I expecting to like it? No. I’m also not expecting NOT to like. I like the play and adored the last revival at BAM with Nathan Lane. I like George C Wolfe and have enjoyed Denzel’s last two stage performances. Still, if the revival is poor conceived or paced it could be a four hour+ nightmare. So I’m going because I’m curious and I certainly hope it’s good. I hope everything is good, but I never try to have too many expectations either way.

If I never went to shows that I thought were outside of my normal tastes I would have missed out on many shows that surprised me. I’m always willing to expand my theater comfort zone and see something different.

[lightguy06222]

^^^ THIS IS EVERYTHING.

get out of your comfort zone! Don’t see wicked for the 19th time!

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

I've never seen so many people just blatantly holding up phones to record the performance as I did in the front orchestra last night! Not even trying to be covert about it, literally just holding them up in the air, especially the guy in row D seat 101.

[Golenboybway]

How many people were there?

[Scott19]

WhizzerMarvin

 

Thank you for this. :)

As a long-time admirer of your posts, thank you for the time and care put into your very generous reviews. Very much appreciated.

[Call_me_jorge]

Hey whizzer, how was Máiréad Nesbitt on the fiddle? Did she get any moments to shine or was she left hanging to side? I’ve loved her since her Celtic Woman days.

[10086sunset]

This looked DOA from the minute it was announced.

Whizzer, appreciate you taking the hit here for the team.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Whizzer, I’ve considered you MVP of the board for years based on your brilliantly written reviews. But I didn’t realize how brave you were—bless your heart for putting yourself through this, and we are so lucky you did, this might be one of my all-time favorite threads.