GETTIN (G) THE BAND BACK TOGETHER Previews

[(Insert Clever Name)]

Don’t wanna get this thread back off topic, but can someone explain the whole drama with Davenport?

[Kad]

Wait, can we circle back to this is apparently "semi-autobiographical" for Ken Davenport?

[HBBrock]

Can anyone post the running time and the song list?

The cast recording has 8 songs on it from 2013, which seems....very low.

[SomethingPeculiar]

Kad said: "Wait, can we circle back to this is apparently "semi-autobiographical" for Ken Davenport?"


Does the main character also work for Garth Drabinsky right out of college

[WhizzerMarvin]

I don’t know enough about Ken’s life to know how this exactly was semi-autobiographical, but he did mention that was the case in his curtain speech. 

Song List

Overture (Maybe this lasted three notes, or has since been cut)

Jersey

How Does Your Mouthfeel? (This is a commercial jingle- lasts 15 seconds)

One of Those Guys

Jersey (reprise)

Gettin’ the Band Back Together

Find the One

Best Day of My Life

WWJPD

Act Two

Entr’acte (again, didn’t really exist)

Hava Nagila 

Second Chances

I Just Want Real (This is listed as a song for all the women, but was sung as a solo by Barrett)

Life Without Parole

Battle of Your Life

Bart’s Confession

Best Band in the World

One of Those Guys (reprise)

Do Over

Jersey (reprise- brief)

Finale

There aren’t THAT many songs. And yet it still feels so long and is so padded without anything developing or happening! Quite a feat, Mr. Davenport!

[barcelona20]

Whizzer. You are a treasure. Honestly. The best poster on this board hands down.  I thank you for your informative and helpful first preview reviews.

[haterobics]

Damn, was sad to hear "How Does Your Mouth Feel?" was so short. With a title like that, I was hoping for a good power ballad.

[WhizzerMarvin]

I was hoping for a “Girl Can I Kiss You With Tongue” from Cry-Baby, but it wasn’t that at all. Mouthfeel is one word (I think it was the name of the rival’s band and became a toothpaste/mouthwash jingle).

It’s one of the few song titles that sounds like it will be in the Wedding Singer/ROA vein, but alas, it’s a throwaway tune.

I listened to the Wedding Singer this morning after Gettin’ the Band last night and good god, what a better score. Underrated I would even go so far to say. The tone is perfect and the tunes are genuinely catchy. Great 80s feel. It’s what this score should have been closer to.

[JBroadway]

I was at the first preview as night as well, and I agree with Whizzer.

I'd be lying if I said I never laughed the whole time. There were some funny bits, which made me laugh intermittently, sometimes out loud. I found the throw-away jokes and the visual gags funnier than the big punchline jokes. I found the first act moderately enjoyable, but the second act really went off the rails, and I was desperate for the show to end about 45 minutes before it finally did. I will say - I liked it more than some other, more successful musical comedies from recent years.

But really that's all I can say in defense of it. It pandered exhaustively to its target audience. It was derivative, predictable, amateurish - and (dare I say) somewhat sexist and racist. 

The audience seemed to be really enjoying it though. It was a very enthusiastic house, and I image if word of mouth can spread among tourists and the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, it could be a sleeper hit like Bronx Tale has been (especially since Bronx Tale is closing). 

[dramamama611]

So, if we go with Whizzer's review (whom I often agree) this IS as bad as we suspected.   

Question for Whizzer: do you think there is any way they can make it work before it opens?

[newintown]

Shows that have been developed and workshopped for years don't undergo significant improvements in a few short weeks, merely through "the magic of Broadway" (I know, ancient BWW conversation).

That said, there obviously will be some audiences (like Jordan) who like this piece; I think the real question is "will enough people like it to help it turn a profit?"

[Kad]

I can't even remember the last time a show cut a number during previews.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Dramamama, I think there are plenty of easy rewrites to the book that can make the story move along with fewer plot holes and more character development, but unless they have time to write a new score in a week, I don’t think there’s anything that can be done to completely turn it around.

Even simply expanding the timeframe from the unrealistic one week to something like three months would allow the story to make so much more sense.

If it has been gestating for so long though, I doubt they’re willing (or able) to make the necessary changes now.

I always wonder why some changes take so long to implement when they are so obvious. I just read in the Head Over Heels thread that the show is down to 2 hours 5 minutes with an intermission. Well duh! Anyone could have seen that show need to be severely trimmed and ideally be 100 intermissionless minutes. Why wasn’t this done after the out of town? Isn’t that what out of towns are for? Why bring it in as is for New York audiences to groan at the padded length and make the needed changes the last week of previews?

Why isn’t Pretty Woman having a second try-out in Boston after swapping out a leading man and several songs. It sounds like the book and score needed some serious work after Chicago, which is fine. Take the time to fix it, have a second try-out and then bring it in.

In the Golden Age, I would say it was the norm to have a multiple city try-out period. I know it’s more expensive to do that now, but get it right on the road before coming to New York.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Kad said: "I can't even remember the last time a show cut a number during previews."

The last numbers I can remember being cut in previews:

The Gravediggers’ song in A Tale of Two Cities 

Here I Come and Opportunity from 13

A softshoe duet for Jean Michel and one of the Step-Sisters in Cinderella 

Class Dismissed was replaced by A Whole Lot Worse during Cry-Baby previews, though the Class Dismissed reprise remained in the act two finale mega mix!! (I Did Something Wrong Once was also unorchestrated at the first preview and only played on the piano.)

There may have been a few others, but it has been rare in the past 10 years to see a song cut or replaced in previews.  

[teresa2]

I am seeing this on Sunday. Can anyone tell me the running time? Thanks.

[newintown]

"There may have been a few others, but it has been rare in the past 10 years to see a song cut or replaced in previews."

And on those rare occasions, the new song basically says the same thing, and just in a different (not significantly better) way.

For instance, the 2 song changes in Grey Gardens (which happened between the move from Off Broadway to Broadway, but is roughly the same as a preview change): "Marry Well" for "Being Bouvier," and "Goin' Places" for "Better Fall Out of Love."

When you compare these to changes like "Comedy Tonight" for "Love Is In The Air," "Before the Parade Passes By" for "Penny In My Pocket," or the myriad changes Funny Girl made on the road, there's just no comparison.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Oh, and I liked Better Fall Out of Love so much better!

I'm impassioned by good old-fashioned ideals!

[haterobics]

teresa2 said: "I am seeing this on Sunday. Can anyone tell me the running time? Thanks."

Depends if you stay for both acts...

[Sally Durant Plummer]

"Body Beautiful Beale" was also cut, and "The Girl Who Has Everything" replaced "Toyland" and a reprise of "Peas In a Pod".

"He Forgave Me" was cut from Bridges.

The out-of-town tryouts for Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly! are legendary. Look here re:Funny Girl. There is, as newintown says, no comparison.

Funny Girl Tryouts

[Kad]

Dozens of millions of dollars and workshop after reading after workshop for invite-only industry audiences don't leave much space for people willing to make big changes.

[IdinaBellFoster]

There was that quartet cut from the second act of SOMETHING ROTTEN during previews.

[GlindatheGood22]

The Comet cut "Natasha Lost" in previews.

[KFC1991]

Wait... "Penny in my Pocket" originally ended act one of Dolly!?

[newintown]

According to a Gower Champion bio and other reports, "Penny In My Pocket" took place at an auction; as Horace roamed the room singing the song about his life (not all of which makes perfect sense for his character), behind his back, Dolly kept buying things in his name - a grandfather clock, rowboats, the red dress she later wore to the Harmonia Gardens - all of which were assembled into an enormous mound that Horace scaled for the end of the song. The number was said to cost $100,000.

[KFC1991]

Had David Hyde Pierce done all that at the Tonys, no one would have complained.

But srsly, it's amazing how much old shows were changed in previews.