Which Musical Numbers Helped

[Jarethan]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:09am

Ranking:

1.  TBV number, although I would not have chosen Omar Sharif and a band performance.  I would have included the ensemble more...someone on this board suggested the a splicing of the opening number and the closing number...that would have worked better to me as entertainment, although Katrina Lenk's performance showed why she won.

2.  The Spongebob number.  I thought it was very cleverly staged and Gavin Lee was terrific.  Ethan Slater's intro was cute, a way of including him since he wasn't in the actual number, a la Jefferson Mays a few years ago.

3. The MFL performance until Get Me to the Church on Time, which I am simply sick of.  I saw MFL and enjoyed it very much; but, even though I enjoyed it, there was nothing last night that would have convinced me that this isn't just another MFL performance, no better or worse than what I saw at the Cape Playhouse a couple of years ago or at the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota about 5 years ago; and that is a shame, especially considering that it did not win Best Revival.  I wonder if that will hurt its chances of a long run.

4. The  Carousel number, but I would have preferred to hear one or two of their great songs, a la the MFL number.  I can't help thinking they made a mistake.

5.  I enjoyed the Frozen number more than I enjoyed the show; not that I thought the number was great, it wasn't; but the show sucked.

6.  I was disappointed in OOTI.  The staging was clearly trying to capture the Circle in the Square feeling, which was clever; however, when the number ended, my wife and I both had the same reaction...that would not convince me to purchase a ticket.  The song itself made no impression and the heavy woman (who I assume is Alex Newell) just seemed like a screecher to me.  

7.  I thought the Mean Girls number was terrible...I could not get any melody out of the songs.  It definitely made me conclude that I would not waste a valuable slot seeing it in NY, although I will probably see it when it is touring and stops in Tampa (I generally see everything that I have not already seen on Broadway, as well as productions that I enjoyed on Broadway).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[springwillcome]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:22am

I think frozen and spongebob defintely helped themselves with their numbers and were the best of the night. The Band’s Visit was stunning but their awards will do much more for them than their performance, and while I absolutely loved mean girls as a show and that they wanted to highlight all of their stars in their number, it was definitely the wrong choice. spongebob knew that I’m not a loser would be the perfect vibe for the tonys and worked around it not being Slater’s song - Mean girls should have followed similarly and gone for best performance rather than a little bit of everyone, mixing up songs/changing lyrics/etc didn’t flow well either

[Wick3]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:28am

Given the recent celebrity suicides, I was really hoping Renee Fleming from Carousel would perform "You'll never walk alone"

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:32am

Wick3 said: "Given the recent celebrity suicides, I was really hoping Renee Fleming from Carousel would perform "You'll never walk alone""

That whole Carousel performance was one missed opportunity. Between this and Hello Dolly! I'm questioning Rudin's judgment in selecting musical numbers for the telecast. It'd be one thing if he simply did not care and just didn't provide one, but he was providing one anyway and those are what he decides to give.

[kmissa]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:33am

Jarethan said: "Ranking:


7. I thought the Mean Girls number was terrible...I could not get any melody out of the songs. It definitely made me conclude that I would not waste a valuable slot seeing it in NY, although I will probably see it when it is touring and stops in Tampa (I generally see everything that I have not already seen on Broadway, as well as productions that I enjoyed on Broadway).

I was surprised at how bad Mean Girls was. It was never on my list, but I gave it a chance just in case ( a bunch of friends are buying into the hype), but sheesh. Maybe this will make the lottery easier for others.










"

 

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:33am

The camera work kept cutting the dancers off at the knees. It worked well however for The Bands Visit and, oddly, for the Donna Summer show.

Mean Girls will sell more tickets with their performances of "I'd Rather Be Me" and "Apex Predator" on the talk show circuit. 

The revival numbers did them no favors

[Oak2]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:42am

For me personally, Once on This Island, My Fair Lady, and SpongeBob had the best looking performances that made me absolutely want to see the show. Summer, Carousel and Frozen were alright but had flaws and not enough to make me want to see it. Mean Girls was a mess and definitely convinced me I do not want to see that. And unlike the impression most seemed to get, for me The Band's Visit was a complete turn-off. I zoned out about midway through it. Emotion and thought-provoking and all that is meaningless if you can't keep my attention to hit me with it in the first place. Many other shows are able to hit that balance of being thought-provoking and emotional while not also being boring (such as almost everything by Kander and Ebb), but for me this performance completely failed to do for me. Based on its performance I now have zero desire to ever see The Band's Visit as I'm convinced if the rest of the show is like that performance I would just end up falling asleep in the audience, and nobody wants that. But now I'm more hyped than ever to see OOTI, SpongeBob, and MFL! 

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 11:42 AM

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 12:01pm

I liked "Carousel" the best mainly for the dancing which was very good. I thought "SpongeBob" was fun and the performance last night made me want to see it. I agree with others, "Mean Girls" was not very good.

[Phillytheatreguy10]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 12:01pm

Once on this Island, Frozen, and honorable mention to Summer. Spongebob, while clever, isn't going to fill seats. Carousel was a huge miss, Mean Girls was just OK, My Fair Lady was overly produced and showed nothing new, The Band's Visit showcased Katrina brilliantly, I think the show will get a bump from their win, but not necessarily that performance.

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 12:01 PM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 12:14pm

I thought Once on This Island came off the best. Their performance was the most entertaining to me. The rest I didn't care for.

[bdn223]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 12:31pm

Once On this Island wins the for meme of the ensemble member trying to convince Nathan Lane to feed the goat. When I was originally watching the performance I kept thinking "Why would you bring the Goats to Radio City?" And the answer is simple a viral meme which they should get out of Nathan Lane. 

In terms of my favorites I would say Frozen and Once on this Island. 

Frozen- Did what it needed to and showed the lavish production. The only qualm is not showcasing the dress transformation, but I am sure Disney tried and failed at convincing producers to allow them to build the trap door into the set to pull off the transformation. I honestly think if the camera man hadn't cut away after the performance and went straight to commercial after the white out, it would of been even more powerful. 

As someone who doesn't like normally like dancicals as I find them boring and hated An American in Paris for its over-reliance on ballet, Carousel's performance honestly made me think twice about buying a ticket, despite loving Lindsay Mendez and Jessie Mueller. 

My Fair Lady the Performance was fun, but honestly didn't wow me. For a show that is done to death by every regional theater and high school across the country, they needed to show why this production deserved a $167 price of admission, and they didn't. If anything Lincoln Center should have found the money to build a replica or true facade of the set, instead of using the LCD projection. 

Spongebob- Had the best introduction, and now that I realize the self referential "We Aren't Loosers" i think it was cute, but would of rather seen the opening number again,  but with all of the actual set pieces for once.

Summer- was meh? It was fun but I don't think it swayed people wither way to buy tickets

The Band Visit- Honestly I am torn because I haven't seen the show and liked the song, but I kept wondering why the entire ensemble was on stage if only she was going to sing. I just kept waiting for it to build into a full number, not realizing it was just a ballad. It won 10 awards so its not like its performance mattered anyway.

Mean Girls- It just came off as amateur hour to me. I would of thought they'd do an upbeat pop number, and not a classic musical theater number. I really only enjoyed the "Meet the Plastics" portion of the performance as all of the jokes during "Where do you belong?" fell flat, and looked cheap. 

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 12:31 PM

[a-mad]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 1:26pm

I thought Frozen's performance was surprisingly strong and should help the show.  The crowd seemed to really respond to Caissie's performance.

I wasn't really interested in Mean Girls before, and I'm definitely not interested in it after with this performance.  I'm sure Tina Fey's book is great, but I couldn't stand either of the songs I heard.  No wonder it got mixed reviews.  I think it's strong nomination tally was truly due to it's success, not it's merits.

[Bwayfan292]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 1:28pm

Frozen totally sold some tickets last night. But I thought the best performance from last night was Once on this island. The others should have just focused on one song. Although, DAMN Lauren ambrose can sing.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 1:31pm

I love Mean Girls, the movie. I would totally see the musical reguardless of what they did last night. But, I will say that all of those posters say that the jokes landed flat, I say to you..."there were jokes in that number?!"

Posted: 6/11/18 at 1:38pm

That Mean Girls segment was awful  The male was pitchy throughout the whole number!  Turned me right off.  Summer looked cheap and the "Donna's", while all wonderful singers, sound nothing like Donna Summer

[benwilsonn.xo]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 1:50pm

What did Once On This Island perform?

[benwilsonn.xo]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 1:50pm

What did Once On This Island perform?

[ShowToonz]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 1:56pm

The Mean Girls performance helped to convince me not to see the show. 

[Jmuep2]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 2:24pm

I'll say for me, CAROUSEL and SPONGEBOB had the best numbers of the night.  And truly, SUMMER was so much fun, it almost made me consider going to see it again until I remembered what an absolute train wreck the show is.  

 

Though everything paled in comparison to the Parkland kids.  

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 2:37pm

Once On This Island for somehow capturing the intimate feel of the show at Circle in the Square to the barn at Radio City. It felt like a full blown party atmosphere, and that huge Tony win definitely helps.

The Band’s Visit with all the Tony love and the beautifully intriguing number will boost sales too.

Frozen was smart to parade all of the recognizable characters and featuring beloved songs from the film.

Summer was also smart to feature Donna’s megahit and some energetic dancing.

All the others are a mixed bag, I think. Mean Girls should have focused on the titular characters. Carousel should have done a well known number, or at least feature Renée Fleming (they could have done June Is Busting Out All Over to feature both Renée and the dancing). My Fair Lady felt rushed and didn’t come off well on camera. SpongeBob, while I love the number in the show, also had a hard time filling that stage and had some unfortunate camera angles.

[JudyDenmark]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 2:46pm

bdn223 said: "My Fair Ladythe Performance was fun, but honestly didn't wow me. For a show that is done to death by every regional theater and high school across the country, they needed to show why this production deserved a $167 price of admission, and they didn't. If anything Lincoln Center should of found the money to build a replica or true facade of the set, instead of using the LCD projection.

There’s really no way they could’ve done that. Higgins’ study is MASSIVE, and fills most of the stage of the Vivian Beaumont, which is exceptionally deep. Not that the Radio City stage isn’t big, but it would be like building an entire new house for two minutes of singing, especially because they transitioned to Get Me to the Church, which uses a much less elaborate set. (Deliberately, per Michael Yeargan. He wanted to contrast the lavishness of the upper class with the minimalism of the lower class.)

For me, OOTI gave the overall best performance, though it was such a tease to do the tiniest bit of One Small Girl (my favorite song) into Mama Will Provide (my least favorite). Though that’s clearly just my own beef, haha.

I thought SpongeBob had the next best showing - that was a smart choice for them. Same with Frozen, though I personally liked Let It Go way more than FTFTIF.

Really disappointed that Mean Girls came off so poorly. I didn’t think it was, like, a Pulitzer-worthy show, but I really enjoyed it. And it just didn’t translate here. It felt so, so rushed.

Otherwise I think some of my favorite moments were all Bareilles & Groban! I loved their opening and closing, as well as the Chandelier/eight shows a week bit. (Honestly, if Sara Bareilles could just sing the hell out of Chandelier... I want a recording of that, please.) Oh, and DEH’s In Memoriam. Subtle and beautiful. Still kind of shocked that they didn’t have Renée Fleming singing You’ll Never Walk Alone for that, but I loved it.

All of that said, my favorite performance of the night by far was the Stoneman Douglas kids. I’m not a particularly big Rent fan, but it felt like I was hearing those words for the first time, and I was weeping. It was a beautiful, powerful performance.

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 2:51pm

Jmuep2 said: "I'll say for me, CAROUSEL and SPONGEBOB had the best numbers of the night. And truly, SUMMER was so much fun, it almost made me consider going to see it again until I remembered what an absolute train wreck the show is.



Though everything paled in comparison to the Parkland kids."

My grades of the performances: 


Opening number: A+
Mean Girls: C-
My Fair Lady: A+
Spongebob Squarepants: A
Josh/Sara’s second number: A+
Carousel: B-
Seasons of Love - Parkland: A
Frozen: B-
You Will Be Found (In Memoriam): A
Summer: B
Once on This Island: A+
The Band’s Visit: A
Bruce Springsteen: B-

Having said that, I think that the performances alone won’t create a huge uptick or plummet in ticket sales. The shows that were selling well beforehand will continue to even if the performances were disappointing. The shows that were struggling still struggle even if their performances were strong. Only exceptions are the winners for Original Musical and Musical Revival. TBV should go from respectable box office to much higher grosses. I expected it’s trajectory to be similar to Gentleman’s Guide or Fun Home. I think OOTI will go from disappointing box office to respectable receipts, but not sure it can last as long as the King & I or Pippin. 

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 2:53pm

 If anything Lincoln Center should of found the money to build a replica or true facade of the set, instead of using the LCD projection.

"have" not "of".  "should of" is not a thing.  Never has been.

[dianamorales]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 3:09pm

Carousel fell flat for me. Blow High Blow Low is the best number in the show and is INCREDIBLE live, but didn't come across as well on tv.

On the other hand, I am not a fan of either Frozen or My Fair Lady (and honestly, I was rooting against them), but those performances made me want to see both shows. Lauren Ambrose has a gorgeous voice.

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 03:09 PM

[green waver]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 3:46pm

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "Wick3 said: "Given the recent celebrity suicides, I was really hoping Renee Fleming from Carousel would perform "You'll never walk alone""

That whole Carousel performance was one missed opportunity. Between this and Hello Dolly! I'm questioning Rudin's judgment in selecting musical numbers for the telecast. It'd be one thing if he simply did not care and just didn't provide one, but he was providing one anyway and those are what he decides to give."

Rudin clearly has a strategy-if you want to see the highlights of a classic show, buy a freakin ticket. while its irrelevant to a runaway hit like Dolly, its questionable with a production that can't quite Walk Alone.