Company Previews Thread- Page 4

[ljay889]

qolbinau said: ""For those who saw it in London, were smart phones also a major part ofthat production? They’re basically another character here."

I don't remember them being a major part of the production. There were some references to swiping in Apps but I don't remember a physical phone just the swiping motion.

"“Marry Me A Little”/act one ends with Bobbie watching herparty with a Bobbie double. I’m assuming this wasn’t in the London production? Chris Harper said there was a new moment at the end of act one, and I’m thinking this is it."

It was definitely in the London production, it's not new.

"Also, was Tock Tock the same in London with all of the women playing various versions of Married Bobbie? Patti was particularly hilarious in this number. "

In London, yes all the women played versions of Bobbie with wigs on - showing them suffering either baby or domestic abuse. It actually wasn't particularly funny in London and I don't think Patti was part of the scene - so it sounds like something has changed.

"

“Tick Tock” is still a nightmare but what they had Patti do during it was so shocking it had myself and others around me laughing. There’s a lot going on during the number, so Patti could be easy to miss for some. 
 

Thank you for answering about the smart phones. The usage is endless in this production. It feels very “millennial.”

[qolbinau]

If I recall in London ‘have I got a guy for you’ might have had smartphones. Can anyone that has seen both London and NYC confirm that Patti is new to Tick Tock? I’m sure I would have remembered her in the scene but yes I guess there is a lot going on there.

Is the staging of Someone is Waiting and Being Alive still basically an empty stage? (If I recall correctly).

Also, do they still have the subway car in Another Hundred People?

[ljay889]

Yes, both numbers are still sung on an empty stage.

 

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“Another Hundred People” depicts Bobbie and the “New Yorkers” swiping through apps and finding dates. The number is completely staged with and on the new letters. It’s the only time the letters are used. I thought the letters might look nice during “Being Alive” but Lenk’s rendition is very emotional and I now think it would distract from her acting. 

 

[hearthemsing22]

ljay889 said: "Yes, both numbers are still sung on an empty stage.

 

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“Another Hundred People” depicts Bobbie and the “New Yorkers” swiping through apps and finding dates. The number is completely staged with and on the new letters. It’s the only time the letters are used. I thought the letters might look nice during “Being Alive” but Lenk’s rendition is very emotional andI now think it woulddistractfrom her acting.

"

 

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They could have the letters in the background during Being Alive, but dark. She sings the last note of Being Alive, spotlight dims on her, letters light up. Blackout.

 

Just my thought--this is why I'm not a director haha

 

[Theatrefanboy1]

What was the stage door like was it ridiculous or pretty chill. Who came out

[hearthemsing22]

Just remembered: 

Right before she sang a single note, Patti LuPone made the house erupt in cheers and applause when she said "I'd like to propose a toast" before "Ladies Who Lunch". The energy from the audience was UNREAL. So thankful I was there! 

[kennin]

Theatrefanboy1 said: "What was the stage door like was it ridiculous or pretty chill. Who came out"

It was a little crazy.  Tons for people.  They handed out balloons as people left the theater so that added a different element with people reaching through balloons.  Everyone came out.  Katrina was next to last and Patti was last.  The crowd was crazy for Patti and she gave a little speech and cried.  She was her funny, charming self.  

[MrsSallyAdams]

Have they rewritten Patti’s book scene after Ladies who Lunch? I’d read that this was confusing in London.

[BenElliott]

I am DYING to see this.

[hearthemsing22]

MrsSallyAdams said: "Have they rewritten Patti’s book scene after Ladies who Lunch? I’d read that this was confusing in London."

 

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I wasn't confused. I think what she was implying after the song was that Bobbie could sleep with her husband? There was interaction between Joanne and Larry, he went offstage. Joanne told Bobbie about her idea of an arrangement, but Bobbie turned her down. He came back, they had a few more lines of dialogue and then exited(I think. I'm so tired they may have stayed onstage, I can't remember. But I wasn't confused). 

 

[Det95]

Any reports on the stage height?

[steven22]

Was everyone that was there last night in love with it? I just felt it was missing something. Maybe the pacing was off for me? I absolutely loved the production in London last year...

[hearthemsing22]

steven22 said: "Was everyone that was there last night in love with it? I just felt it was missing something. Maybe the pacing was off for me? I absolutely loved the production in London last year..."

To an extent, I agree with you. Some of the book parts were slow to me. The musical numbers, I was a big fan of, but I felt like there were some parts that were slow.

[steven22]

hearthemsing22 said: "steven22 said: "Was everyone that was there last night in love with it? I just felt it was missing something. Maybe the pacing was off for me? I absolutely loved the production in London last year..."

To an extent, I agree with you. Some of the book parts were slow to me. The musical numbers, I was a big fan of, but I felt like there were some parts that were slow."

Yes, thank you for perfectly explaining my thought! Exactly that. I assume the pacing and wonky-ness will be tightened up after the cast is more comfortable. I definitely plan to make a return visit post opening. 

[hearthemsing22]

steven22 said: "hearthemsing22 said: "steven22 said: "Was everyone that was there last night in love with it? I just felt it was missing something. Maybe the pacing was off for me? I absolutely loved the production in London last year..."

To an extent, I agree with you. Some of the book parts were slow to me. The musical numbers, I was a big fan of, but I felt like there were some parts that were slow."

Yes, thank you for perfectly explaining my thought! Exactly that. I assume the pacing and wonky-ness will be tightened up after the cast is more comfortable. I definitely plan to make a return visit post opening."

I'm not usually critical, and I like to focus on being positive and seeing the good in everything, but I did notice this about the production so I wanted to make sure people were aware. I definitely plan to return as well!, however. Most likely after opening.  

[BroadwayFan12]

Coming out of lurkdom to share my thoughts. I loved everything about it. It’ll be a crime if Patti doesn’t win a Tony for this. Her Joanne has enormous depth and her voice is better than ever. She’s the definition of a star.

I loved Katrina as Bobbie and I don’t understand some of the criticisms in this thread. Her Bobbie may not be everyone’s cup of tea and that’s fine, but her voice was beautiful and I thought her acting was phenomenal. It was great to see her in a role that’s so different from Dina.

I love what Marianne Elliott has done with this show and I wish it a long and successful run.

[Mister Matt]

I know Sondheim prefers actors but it's going to be really hard to erase the power of Raul when it comes to Being Alive.

Thankfully, when I saw it in London, it completely erased my memory of Raul's brooding and barking throughout the show.

Has the awful Another Hundred People number been restated? In London it was on the subway with terrible choreography and it was awful.

I absolutely LOVED that choreography and the way it was staged.  This Tindr thing it sounds like their doing seems much more contrived.  It's a device currently being used in Six as well.  I've never used those sorts of apps, so the "swipe right" and "swipe left" references are sort of lost on me.  

[YvanEhtNioj]

I think some of the dialogue needs to be cut. Some jokes just feel like they’re being dragged on forever.

[ACL2006]

So the show ran 3 hours+ last night? I know people said the intermission was long, but that's still way too long if people weren't getting out of the theater until after 11pm. Did the show start close to on time?

[hearthemsing22]

ACL2006 said: "So the show ran 3 hours+ last night? I know people said the intermission was long, but that's still way too long if people weren't getting out of the theater until after 11pm. Did the show start close to on time?"

I didn't look at the time before the show started, but let's see if we can do some math.

It was an 8 o'clock curtain for a 2 hour and 35 minute (according to the playbill) show. The first act was over around 9:50? close to 10:00. The second act started at 10pm. There was definitely an extended intermission-not sure how long that was. Got out a little before 11? But I think this is because it was only the first preview! Those tend to run long. I'm betting there will be trimming, cuts made, and it won't be like this. But what do I know... 

[Michael Bennett]

Having seen the production in London, and again at the first Broadway preview last night, I suspect I will rather be in the minority opinion that notwithstanding some fun performances  and some clever (and insightful) staging flourishes by Marianne Elliott - and despite the whole fascinating laboratory exercise of the entire project - that, for me, this gender swapped modern day COMPANY still doesn’t ultimately work, at least not with so much of George Furth’s original book in tact.  

While more of the original book has been tinkered with since London, this concept for the musical's reinvention still relies too strongly on merely the changing of pronouns and genders to be fully persuasive - and while, like an acting class experiment, or playing THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON while watching THE WIZARD OF OZ, some fascinating things inevitably come out as a result, there is simply no denying the truth that if Sondheim and Furth had written this musical today with a female lead in mind, they would have largely written very different material and likely a very different musical.

Most of the changes are simply he/she swaps or awkwardly scanned lyric updates (‘Bobby really ought to have...a fella?’ Really, Steve?)

For me this continues to most be evident in the gender swapping of Bobby’s girlfriends - here to three rather unconvincing male relationships and, just as they did in London, with no real in-depth dialogue and lyric supposition, the male characters come across as rather effete archetypes. And while we’re at it, count me among those that think it would have been more interesting to have Bobbi here be overtly bisexual and to have made one of the ‘beaus’ a ‘belle.’

But  in truth, every time I see a production of COMPANY (no matter the gender of the lead) I’m increasingly reminded how problematic - at least through a contemporary lens - Furth’s book really is.  The protagonist of Bobby (Bobbie) literally has nothing to do for much of the show but watch a series of rather hamfisted sketches, leaving the poor actor with essentially a half scene and a song to make some kind of soul bearing epiphany. 

Katrina Lenk, for me, even in a preview marked by the uneven pacing of a show which had (as Marianne Elliott told us before hand) but a single dress run before facing an audience makes about as convincing a case as possible for this rather thankless character - she is what Rosalie Craig in London was not: a nuanced and intuitively insightful actress. Lenk is not a vocal powerhouse (actually neither was Craig) and though I found her “Being Alive” revelatory (and one of the few times I’ve seen the song performed where the dramatic arch of the song’s narrative has really been convincing) I suspect her performance will continue to be polarizing for audiences who, no matter who plays the part, will find something lacking in the satisfaction of the character’s journey (see again George Furth) and simply want the thrill of Broadway belting as compensation.

The rest of the production is, I think, largely improved from London. For the most part, the casting is stronger and more authentic, and bits of staging, especially “Another Hundred People” are given a much better conception.

It being a first preview, the audience naturally went unrealistically nuts for much of it -- best in show, at least last night, likely still goes to LuPone, who to be fair, has had a year developing this character; and if Jennifer Simard and Chris Fitzgerald do everything but hump the stage (actually I think they even do that) to get a laugh, I’m sure some of that will settle as the show finds its bearings over the coming weeks.

I must confess, I was disappointed in Matt Doyle’s Jamie. Sure, Jonathan Bailey was better in London, but it’s also hard for me to imagine there aren’t better singing comedic actors they could have cast in the role for New York; I felt like, last night at least, the prolonged ovation after “Not Getting Married” was largely in recognition for the song itself and for the staging, rather than the performer.

All this makes me sound like I didn’t have fun last night - and I did. Any opportunity to see Sondheim on Broadway is a journey well worth taking. And I’m a big believer that there should be an opportunity for revivals to completely break the mold of what's come before -- But I do hope the creative team will continue to mine for new depths as the preview process unfolds. Putting this show back in its home city - the stakes, inevitably, are going to be higher...

 **For those asking about the $59 'partial view' orchestra seats - I was sitting in row H on the far side (second seat from the end) and didn't have problems seeing anything.  The set is made up of a series of box units and occasionally the beams of the squares block cut off bits of staging, but that's going to likely be true anywhere you sit downstairs.


 

[ACL2006]

I'm grabbing one of those $59 tickets for next Monday. I'm someone that adored the Esparza revival, instruments and all. My worry about this revival is the updating for 2020 and whether the book adapts to it.

[YvanEhtNioj]

Just came back to say that Bobby Conte looks very sexy with a man-bun. That is all. 

[copathetiic]

Anybody have a complete standby/understudy list?

[ljay889]

“ Lenk is not a vocal powerhouse (actually neither was Craig) and though I found her “Being Alive” revelatory (and one of the few times I’ve seen the song performed where the dramatic arch of the song’s narrative has really been convincing)”

Exactly. I’m not sure why some are expecting powerhouse vocals. Raul is literally the only major Bobby that was a powerhouse singer. Sure, Dean Jones had a powerful voice but wasn’t a particularly skilled singer. Boyd Gaines had a tough time signing the score, and is the weakest Bobby on record. Rosalie Craig has a pleasant voice but almost too pleasant and not enough depth. As I’ve mentioned earlier, Lenk’s vocals and interpretation remind me most of Adrian Lester. It’s all about the acting. His performance was also polarizing for some.

I guess being Raul was the most recent Broadway Bobby before this production, and many were introduced to the score through him, they must be expecting powerhouse vocals.
I was in the third row, and her acting during “Being Alive” was indeed revelatory, and I think she’ll only get better. But I agree, when you have a serious actress who takes risks like Lenk does, it’s bound to polarize some audience members. Lenk will never play it safe, and that was very clear last night.