PRELUDE TO A KISS musical

[Fan123]

Posted: 4/6/20 at 4:05am

South Coast Repertory in California have (optimistically maybe) announced their 2020-2021 season. Interestingly, it'll include the premiere of this musical in May-June 2021, with music by Dan Messé, lyrics by Sean Hartley and Messé, and book by Craig Lucas, who of course wrote the original play.

Admittedly I don't actually know much about the play, but I liked the score for 'Amelie' and this is reuniting much of the same team. Could be promising.

(It feels a little weird posting things like this at present, but we all need a few positive thoughts.)

https://www.scr.org/plays/2020-21-season

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/7/20 at 11:59am

No, it's not inappropriate to post something like this. We have to be optimistic in these trying times and making plans for the future is part of that.

I think I mentioned that I'm working on the Christmas display for my front lawn right now. My neighbors are fascinated by the 8'lighted snowflakes that I'm making while playing my various recordings of HELLO, DOLLY! on my outdoor sound system. (Can you think of music that is more life-affirming?) They're eager for the "dress rehearsal" when I light them up and hit them with special spotlights so they "glisten" in different colors while the white lights maintain the shapes of the snowflakes.

Fingers crossed, but it's a diversion from what is a grim time in our lives.

Posted: 4/8/20 at 11:00am

I applaud the optimism yet I found PRELUDE TO A KISS to be bizarre beyond belief.  I can't imagine it being transformed into a musical. 

 

[ggersten]

Posted: 5/19/22 at 10:14pm

So, I don't think this happened last year. The google doesn't give me any information either on whether this will ever happen.

(This was prompted by discussion of Mary Louise Parker in the thread about Jesse Green's article. We saw her in Prelude to A Kiss at Berkeley Rep pre-Broadway)

[RippedMan]

Posted: 5/19/22 at 10:54pm

I LOVE the score to Ameilie so I'd be interested in this.

[bigbelterbaby]

Posted: 4/3/24 at 4:22pm

They just announced previews have been pushed back two days and lead male role has been recast. The new lead is Chris McCarrell with Hannah Corneau as Rita Boyle. Karen Ziemba plays Rita’s Mom. 
 

…

[bigbelterbaby]

Posted: 4/13/24 at 12:03am

This show had its first performance for an audience yesterday. Anyone planning on seeing it ? 

[henrike]

Posted: 4/20/24 at 4:22am

Oh boy. This season (23-24), I've seen quite a bit of duds. Redwoods at La Jolla wasn't that good. Hunter Thompson was bad. Many of the new shows I saw last month on Broadway weren't that good. I had a bad feeling when they initially postponed the production due to it requiring more work. But I'm afraid to say that Prelude to a Kiss is not salvageable.

I saw it this week, and I can confidently say that this is the worst musical I have seen in the past few years of avid theater-going. There are some stage veterans on stage and I do not fault any of the actors at all. The writing/direction is absolute dog sh*t. 

I haven't seen the film, and I genuinely didn't know anything about the plot. The first 30 minutes (of 2 hours) meanders through Rita's emo vibes. With the way her role is written, it is impossible for anybody to genuinely care for Peter's relationship with her. There's also a cringe number where the ensemble aimlessly walks around the stage as they sorrowfully sing about how they all live in a world filled with anxiety. (I could hear an audience member behind me trying so hard to contain his laughter.) I won't bother writing about the rest of the show, but tonally, it got weird in the second act. Was it a comedy? Are we supposed to laugh? Idk. 

In an industry where so many upcoming playwrights and songwriters would kill for an opportunity to put up a fully-produced work on stage, what I saw this week was an insult to the potential talent still waiting for that opportunity. 

Not even a partial standing ovation during the curtain call, which tells you how the audience enjoyed the show.

[Mitch101]

Posted: 4/21/24 at 5:46pm

LOTS OF SPOILERS!!!!

I will try to contribute a little bit more to your worthy pan. In its current state, the show is such a huge misfire. Where you righty lay the blame is on the director. What a monumental disaster of direction. Every wrong choice from set design to lighting to casting that could be made to sabotage a new work has been made. How this man (the artistic director) was approved to direct this, after Craig Lucas has worked with such greats, is the real mystery here.

Can the source material work as a musical? When the jaunty Drink Up song turns into the wedding and then Julius finally appears (we are about 40 minutes into the show at this point) finally a hint of what could be appears. Daniel Messe who wrote so beautifully for Amelie (listen to the original London recording) seems a very good match for this whimsical and wild musical premise. In the wedding scene, things seem to really land.

In Act Two, a character we have never met, Julius' daughter, is given an absolute showstopper called "The Man He Used to Be." This is another moment when I found myself believing this premise could work as a musical.

But then everything else...wow...from the sheer ineptitude of what is chosen to be musicalized (i.e.. Entropy at the top of Act Two Rita's Mom- who doesn't even have a name- poor Karen Ziemba). The extraordinarily awful "Beautiful" in Act One when we are supposed to believe Rita has become Julius. "A Map of Us" when a barely secondary character (the lesbian who is supposed to be Rita's best friend) seems to take over the plot with Peter lamenting what happened to the Rita they knew. On and on and on, the wrong people are given the wrong things to do.

What would Stephen Sondheim do?

In Act One, a Dutch phrase is introduced. This is very important to the plot. In addition, a couple of clever things are pointed out that will prove important when they are called back in Act Two during Peter's discovery phase. These things are where the musical lies. Not the angst ridden subtext that the writing team keep mining for musical justification. It's clear right from the opening number, "A Little Light," that nobody involved in the show believes this is a fun and fantastical fairy tale set in New York City. By the way, this is supposed to be a fun and fantastical fairy tale set in New York City. So, if the authors have decided that isn't what the show is, well, congratulations. You have made it clear this isn't about that. But by making this choice, and it can certainly be assumed this was decided by Craig Lucas himself since he adapted his own play, then someone needs to pull him aside and tell him that he wrote a fun and fantastical fairy tale set in New York City. Tell us that in the opening number. Tell us where we are and what the rules are. Otherwise, we are lost for at least 30 minutes while we're trying to understand why we are being asked to care about two very unlikable people in some city we know nothing about.

I won't say anything about the cast except to say I suspect we will never see any of them ever again associated with this musical. They are all so poorly cast and when a better, more talented and intelligent director comes along, it is likely they will bring more appropriate casting choices to the piece. Even the actor playing Julius is confused what he's doing up there and how he's supposed to do it. Why is he asked to sit down in the middle of "The Man He Used to Be" unable to continue to listen to his daughter? The entire story pivots on this moment!

Finally, when we get to the penultimate scene with Julius and Rita, I was reminded what a great play Prelude to a Kiss is...was...and perhaps there is a musical in it. But this is not it. What I recall from the original play is that it is a fun and fantastical fairy tale set in New York City. I look forward to seeing that musical.

 

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 4/22/24 at 2:10pm

So is this like...First Wives Club level of bad, or...?

[GlitterandBeGay2]

Posted: 4/23/24 at 4:53pm

I adored this production both times I saw it.  To be fair, I'm also a fan of Lucas' play and film adaptation and of fairy tales.  I caught the pre-pandemic staged reading at SCR and was on my feet with other attendees.  We couldn't wait for a full production!  Then COVID happened.  The current Costa Mesa production has a different opening number ("A Little Light") than what I remember, with a "be the light to others" message that I think is a response to the dark times we've been/still are going through.  The lyrics are thoughtful and the music good interesting but not the funny, peppy opening from five years ago.  Because of the new opening number, "A Little Light" gets reprised several times throughout the show.

If you love Amelie the musical like me, you'll be charmed by Dan and Sean's songs for the production.  They are the kind of songs you leave the theatre singing and humming and asking yourself why more new musicals can't be as tuneful.  The lyrics are intelligent and, for me, the perfect marriage to the music. The song that follows the opener, "The Room Where She Doesn't Sleep" is a real stunner and just puts your ears and heart in a happy place.  Most of the music remains unchanged from 2019 except for the addition of a song for Angie, Rita's BFF, in Act 2 and the opening number that's hard to get into.  Angie's character still feels underdeveloped for me compared to Peter's friend, Taylor, although they probably both have about the same amount of stage time.

Like henrike, I felt the first 30 minutes were slow and would have directed the actors to quicken the line delivery to rom-com snappiness.  I thought "The Age of Anxiety" to be a highlight.  The song is a response to the fears that keep Rita an insomniac and not want to bring kids into the world.  It's a beautiful melody, with the couple's love fighting against the bleakness.

I agree with Mitch101 about "The Man He Used to Be" being a showstopper.  I don't get the question about why Julius is standing.  He's not privy to the phone call--the song is sung by the daughter Leah through the phone--with only Peter able to hear Julius' prognosis.  She's not on speaker-phone.  After the call, Julius asks Peter what he found out.

Regarding other shortcomings in the plot/character development, I feel it's because the musical is a faithful adaptation of the stage play and even with songs doesn't add much new to the proceedings.  I can't remember if Mrs. Boyle has a name in the stage play either, for example.  That said, I don't understand why the Dutch phrase is not revisited.  It's translated at the end of the play and the film versions and feels like a loose end here.

I really did love the show and wish it and all those involved a bright future.  If you're in the area, please consider checking it out.  Next stop for it is Milwaukee Rep in the fall!