Out Of Town Tryouts/Pre-Broadway Runs Question

[magictodo123]

What out of town/pre-Broadway tryouts have you seen, and which one has been your favorite? 

 

I saw Anastasia in Hartford, as well as Jagged Little Pill (a total impulse buy, I'm so glad I did!). Between the two of them I think I preferred JLP but I also had a soft spot for Anastasia since I grew up with the animated movie. 

 

[LizzieCurry]

I saw Wicked, La Boheme, Beautiful, Lestat, Lennon, Dear Evan Hansen, Come From Away, and Millie all pre-Broadway. La Boheme remains one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen on stage.

[mailhandler777]

Jagged Little Pill and Waitress at ART. Dear Evan Hansen at Arena in DC. JLP is my favorite.

[carolinaguy]

If/Then and Mean Girls, both at the National. It was great to be able to see Idina, and she was in fantastic voice the night I saw it. Both shows had issues, but I think MG was in slightly better shape at the time. 

 

I didn't see either production in its Broadway run, but I saw If/Then on tour after Broadway and I'll be seeing Mean Girls on tour this spring. Judging from the cast recordings (and seeing the If/Then tour), I think MG did a better job of addressing the issues it had on tryout.

[gleek4114]

I’ve seen:

- First Wives Club (Chicago)
- Spongebob
- War Paint
- Pretty Woman
- The Cher Show
- Tootsie
- Six

I’d say out of these Spongebob, War Paint, and Six were the most exciting. First Wives was cool just because of how infamous the show is, and the fact after a second failure it will never see the light of day again.

[CATSNYrevival]

I saw the try outs of Dracula and Bonnie & Clyde at the La Jolla Playhouse. It took me a while to come around to the new material that was ultimately written for each show when they premiered on Broadway. It was difficult for me to understand why they cut some songs because I thought the original songs were better. Looking back I think each show actually did get better between the try out and Broadway except for the song "Modern World" in Dracula which was truly terrible and in Bonnie & Clyde I thought the scene where Bonnie and Clyde first meet was better written in La Jolla. Clyde was far more charming and I got a better sense of why Bonnie fell for him. It also didn't hurt that Stark Sands was so damn charming in the role. I still don't understand why that scene was rewritten though. But Bonnie & Clyde was as good on Broadway as it was ever going to get and it's a shame audiences didn't come around to it because I thought it was one of Frank Wildhorn's better written shows. 

I also saw Jesus Christ Superstar at the La Jolla Playhouse before it transferred to Broadway and that experience was so disheartening, when the show failed to find an audience on Broadway and didn't get a cast album, I pretty much swore off seeing shows out of town. I can't take the heartbreak.

I was equally disappointed when we didn't get an original Broadway cast recording of Dracula as well. The studio highlights album we did eventually get just isn't the same and the orchestrations were far better on Broadway than the later more pop oriented orchestrations Frank Wildhorn seems to favor for the piece.

[dramamama611]

Most things that have come from the ART IN Boston including:

Comet
JLP
Waitress
Porgy and Bess
Pippin
Finding Neverland



And not from ART, Moulin Rouge

[markypoo]

I've seen a lot of these, but I think my 1st was the Chicago run of the 1972 revival of Forum with Phil Silvers; which played the long-gone McVicker's Theatre.

[OKBroadwayFan]

Waitress & Finding Neverland at ART in Boston

Beetlejuice at National in DC

Was able to see all three on Broadway as well.

Jungle Book in Boston, which may or may not ever make it to Broadway.

If you ever get the chance to see a Pre-Broadway run, I highly recommend it.   Cool to see the journey and changes they make in the shows.

[magictodo123]

dramamama611 said: "Most things that have come from the ART IN Boston including:

Comet
JLP
Waitress
Porgy and Bess
Pippin
Finding Neverland



And not from ART, Moulin Rouge"

Oooo I'm so jealous that you saw Waitress! I know there were significant changes to scenes and songs between ART and Broadway. I would've been interested in seeing that. I got into the show after its run there.  Seems like ART is the place to see shows before they go to Broadway. 

[ggersten]

Off the top of my head:

Frozen - Denver

Bring it On - Los Angeles

Side Show (Revisal) - La Jolla

Big Fish - Chicago

Damn Yankees - Revival - ictor Garber/Bebe Neuwirth - La Jolla

Sweet Charity - Debbie Allen revival in San Francisco

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf - Tracey Letts version at Steppenwolf

Unsinkable Molly Brown (Revisal) - St. Louis Muny (not sure this counts as it hasn't yet made it to Broadway)

Curious Incident and The Play that Goes Wrong - if we count transfers from London - because London certainly is out of town!

[persephone88]

We saw Come From Away at Ford's, which was wonderful and such a great cast. They have a very generous program of discounts for seniors, military, young people, etc as well as for first previews etc. Seeing the marvelous CFA for $18 a piece made it all the more enjoyable!

[boylikethat]

I saw Shrek the Musical, Catch Me If You Can, Aladdin and Scandalous (when it was still Saving Aimee) in Seattle. That last one was so bad I'm surprised they moved it to New York. Catch Me was better in Seattle. I also saw Big Fish in Chicago and Moulin Rouge in Boston. 

[BalconyClub]

As a Chicago resident, many shows.

First Wives Club
War Paint
The Goodbye Girl
Aida
Victor, Victoria
Tootsie
The Pirate Queen
Spamalot
Kinky Boots
Half Time

I skipped Last Ship and Amazing Grace - did not appeal to me.

Lyric, book, and scene changes are fascinating. The cast album for The Goodbye Girl refers to Shirley Temple on a bender. During the 6-weeks in Chicago, the lyric was always Carol Channing on a bender.

[Ceej]

The world premiere of BEAUTY & THE BEAST here in Houston, circa 1993. The night I saw it Tom Bosley forgot some of his lines but was still quite charming. I remember being awed by the entire show and especially the transformation at the end.

[markypoo]

I was also at the 1st preview of the Chicago tryout of The Producers: 2/1/01.
Mel Brooks made an onstage cameo!

[mxfish1313]

Ceej said: "The world premiere of BEAUTY & THE BEAST here in Houston, circa 1993. The night I saw it Tom Bosley forgot some of his lines but was still quite charming. I remember being awed by the entire show and especially the transformation at the end."

I saw this one, too! Don't remember too much of it as I was really young and we had just moved to Houston, but I remember enjoying it a lot, as did my mom.

[bdboston]

Seussical

Fosse

Sweet Charity (revival, starring Charlotte D’amboise stepping in for Christina Applegate)

Moon Over Buffalo

Grease (revival, starring Rosie O’Donnell, Sam Harris and Megan Mullally)

The Diary of Anne Frank (starring Natalie Portman, Linda Lavin and George Hearn)

Porgy & Bess (ART)

Finding Neverland (ART)

Pippin (ART)

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (starring Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin)

High Fidelity

Moulin Rouge

The 39 Steps (Huntington)

Wait Until Dark (starring Marisa Tomei and Quentin Tarantino)

Annie (revival, starring Nell Carter)

Medea (starring Fiona Shaw)

Taller Than a Dwarf (starring Matthew Broderick and Parker Posey)

Jekyll & Hyde (starring Robert Cuccioli and Linda Eder, Shubert New Haven)

Jekyll & Hyde (revival, starring Constantine Maroulis, Providence)

My Fair Lady (starring Richard Chamberlain)

Hello, Dolly! (revival, starring Carol Channing)

The ones that got away (announced/advertised, then cancelled):

The Visit (starring Angela Lansbury and Philip Bosco)

Little Women

Tuck Everlasting

Nice Work if You Can Get It (starring Harry Connick Jr)

Brigadoon (revival)

Big: The Musical

Victor/Victoria (starring Julie Andrews)

Magic Mike: The Musical

[markypoo]

I saw Victor/Victoria in Chicago 7/22/95 matinee.
One of the most eagerly anticipated - and fondly remembered - afternoons of my theatergoing life.