It has 4 “reviews” on show-score, although one of them thanks Tina Fey so I think that one was a mistake. Anyway, it has a 73 average score, which is one of the lowest I’ve seen there... 2 reviews are negative and call it disappointing...
It is mostly sold out, some random dates have 1 or 2 seats left...
I saw the show last night, and honestly, I actually enjoyed myself. Is it the next Hamilton? Absolutely not. But did I laugh a bunch and have a good time? Surely.
It is clearly in the same vein as Rock of Ages and Margaritaville, and nearly the entire ensemble has spent time in one or both of those show. I could definitely see this settling in for an off-Broadway run somewhere-the film has enough fans to sell the show, regardless of the content of the musical.
I am not going to comment too much on actual content-I have a friend working on the show who said that 18 pages of changes went into the show last night, and a song was cut, on their first day of changes-Enough that the director came out before the show and gave the fair warning of a potential show stop, but they made it through without stopping.
It seemed half the room were creatives, and there were quite a number of young kids there to see Dove Cameron live-The title sold the show, she's the reason it's nearly completely sold out.
The cast is uniformly strong, but I think Dove Cameron is a name to watch-what a voice. If she likes the theater thing, I could see her being a mainstay in New York, and she has the young fanbase to introduce to theater, but who will likely get their parents to pay to see her in anything.
The actual show is at just about 2 hours of content, plus an intermission. I could see them getting it down to a 100-minute one-act at some point.
Bwayfan292 said: "It’s only sold out because of Dove, not the actual show"
I have to object to that one. Tickets went on sale way before any cast information was announced and it was it nearly sold out the first few days tickets went on sale. I am totally going to out my 36 year old ass here, because I don't look it but before "Hairspray Live!" I never heard of Dove. I bought tickets the minute they went on sale, along with many other theatergoers in my age range. "Clueless" was the movie we went to in 7th grade multiple times and still watch today.
I am going on the 29th and am scared to death what they might have done to my Cher and Dionne, but hoping it is just a fun time and go home, cry a bit, have a glass of wine and sleep it away!
We saw the Saturday matinee from down front. Joined the New Group for this and one other show that looks good (it had better be). Didn't know Dove but I'm sure our nieces know this emotionless Barbie Doll.
I bet a good high school for the Performing Arts could have done a better job adapting this cute film and done a better job of rewriting contemporary songs to fit the script.
The cast works hard, and the actors who play Dionne's boyfriend and the dad/teacher/driving instructor were both head and shoulders above the rest of the cast. I think they need to go full Xanadu if they want to make this any good . . . if that's a goal beyond selling tix in a small space, of course.
This show is hands down one of the worst shows I have ever seen in my long 20+ years of theatre. I would rather sit through Wonderland again then sit through the mess that is Clueless. After stepping into the theatre, its clear the people there are for Dove. While dove has a great voice, she lacks in acting. The stage showed more emotion than Dove.
The entire cast is trying, but the material is just so so so weak. Why did we need a clueless musical???? With so many workshops and readings, Im suprised they thought this was a great idea.
Like mentioned above, this is a jukebox musical, but in mutiple songs they changed the lyrics, (which if you do that, JUST WRITE A DAMN SCORE, don’t make it a jukebox musical) this show is like if mean girls was produced by a middle school and they had to be careful on what they said so they didn't get copyrighted.
I felt bad for the cast, they truly looked like they were having fun, but barley any jokes worked and most of the audience had a pitty laugh. It was just so forgettable. Overall, I am just questioning why this was a thing and why someone would invest in it.
If the show didn’t have Dove Cameron, it would sink.
I was at yesterday’s matinee and Dove was replaced midperformance! Her understudy, Katie Goffman took over and I have to say, I think I peferred her performance more! Dove looks younger than everyone else and it’s kind of distracting.
The rest of cast is fine. Nobody is really given a great opportunity to shine but everyone is serviceable.
As for the show itself, it’s fun but feels slapped together. It follows about 95% of the movie but I wish they had just written a new score. Changing the lyrics to preexisting songs is just lazy. I stk enjoyed it but it’s not great.
Also, Paul Rudd was in the audience!
A little swash, a bit of buckle - you'll love it more than bread.
It was cute and amiable, with a likable cast. There were laughs and chuckles, but on the whole, it was fairly mild fare.
Still, I enjoyed it far more than such other teen musicals as Mean Girls, Be More Chill, Bring It On, and the rest of that ilk, and a zillion times more than such dire critics' darlings as Hamilton, Come From Away, Dear Evan Hanson, The Band's Visit, Fun Home, etc.
I thought the show was pretty awful for a lot of reasons, but here's the thing:
I actually think the idea to do the music like that is very smart - in theory at least. The big problem with jukebox musicals is that the writers have to struggle to make the lyrics fit the situation by manufacturing the plot around the songs, and/or picking songs that have very generalized lyrics. So to re-write the lyrics to existing songs sort of solves that problem. I think if you're going to do a jukebox musical, it's a smart approach to take. Also, there's a sense of authenticity of having actual music from the 90s, when odds are the alternative would have been some young composer "trying their best" to replicate that style
Problem is, the replacement lyrics were horrendously bad. But while the execution was a complete failure, I actually think the idea is sound. If someone more talented had taken on the challenge, I think it could have worked well.
Dove Cameron was off tonight. I’m kinda glad I saw the understudy, even though I didn’t see Dove in the role, I would have to agree with what was said above about her looking younger than everyone else. Katie Goffman was great. It’s just a shame that the musical isn’t...
I went in with no expectations and I still left kinda dissatisfied. I didn’t really have a problem with some of the changes they made to the story, and the set design was serviceable. They even had some nice numbers in there, but the whole changing lyrics of 90’s for me didn’t work at all. In fact, it worked against it and it kinda killed it for me, it just made the whole thing look cheaper and amateur-ish. “What if God was one of us” becomes “What if Cher had no trust fund”. All the changes are so cringe worthy to the point it becomes a distraction, stealing the attention from other moments that could have been funnier otherwise.
It reminded me of Cruel Intentions in a way, but if I’m not mistaken, Cruel Intentions kept most of the lyrics intact, with an occasional change here and there, if any... and it was a much more enjoyable evening.
I'm clueless about Clueless (Once through High School was enough) but many times to get a play on it's more important who you know than what you've got.