Saved! 5/10/08

[DidYouReallyHearMe]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 1:54am

I will just start off by saying, I have loved the movie since it premiered in theaters.
The show was absolutely hilarious. I really enjoyed myself. Not much of a review writer, but the performances were great. I loved much of the score and thought the new spin on the story was nice. I mean, being a fan of the movie I did know that they would not replicate the entire thing line for line. Which I hate when shows do that. Julia Murney was marvelous from the moment she stepped onto that stage. The climax however, does need a little bit of some picking up. Will not give away spoilers.

Granted this was the first preview...I thought it rocked.


Anyone else have thoughts?

[B3TA07]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 2:07am

If you don't want to post you can PM me, but what was the "new spin?"

[aliciag]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 2:33am

Thanks for the review. I was wondering when someone would post. Glad to hear it went well and that you enjoyed it... I'm still trying to figure out if I can afford to see this show.

[DidYouReallyHearMe]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 2:55am

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and will be seeing the show again.

There are discount codes out there for cheap tickets. And the theatre also offers student rush at $15 1 hour before curtain.

I'm not sure how it's been selling but the 1st preview was completely sold out.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 2:56am

How was Mary Faber?

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 3:04am

...and Curtis Holbrook

[nztheatreluva]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 3:21am

Does anyone know if they are offering the HotTix tickets for $20 to under 30s for Saved?

[DidYouReallyHearMe]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 4:45am

Mary Faber was very cute as Hilary Faye. Her character isn't as snarky as the character we see in the film, this is due to good reason. The show captures a better emotional connection of the some of the characters. Which I loved.


Curtis Holbrook as Roland was certainly hilarious. I'd pay to watch him do wheelies in his wheelchair any day.

[musicalfan07]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 5:15am

What was the set like?

[BroadwayChica]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 5:21am

nztheatreluva, do you mean HipTix? Cause if so, that's for Roundabout productions, and Saved is Playwrights Horizons. I don't think Playwrights has a $20 for under 30 ticket policy. As someone else mentioned, they do have student rush for Saved, though.

[nztheatreluva]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 5:50am

No, they have a thing on the Playwrights website about HotTix, but I wasn't sure if it was for all shows, including Saved

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 8:03am

Thanks for posting. I've been dying to hear how it went! When they had to cancel first preview, they had difficulty finding dates to switch the tix for so I'm guessing it's selling well.

How was Aaron Tveit? I loved him in N2N.

Thanks for not posting spoilers...I am excited to see this on Saturday!

[caquino]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 8:13am

Playwrights Horizons has a rush policy for people 30 and under called HotTix. It's a $20 ticket - one per person (each person much show proof of age) - starting an hour before showtime based on availability. Same goes with student rush - $15 per person with a valid student ID an hour before showtime, based on availability.

The Ticket Central box office is open 12pm-8pm every day. I recommend calling them the day before or the day of a show you might want to rush - just to find out if it's sold out or close to it. 212-279-4200.

[fishergirl819]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 9:05am

While I enjoyed myself, this was clearly a first preview, and the show needs a bit of work. Some songs need serious trimming (at least a verse each can be cut out of three songs), and like the OP said, the climax needs some reworking. I'm going to try to go back in a few weeks...things should be tightened and sharper by then. Playwrights has a long preview period, so everything should be worked on by then.

Performance wise, I thought everyone was fantastic. Went in having seen Mary, Celia, Julia, and Aaron before, and they were all expectedly great...big surprise of the ones I hadn't seen before though was Morgan Creed as Cassandra! The girl is FABULOUS - gorgeous voice that she doesn't get to use enough, FUNNY, really portrays Cassandra perfectly. LOVE this girl. Wish I could've seen her as Natalie in Next to Normal...

[CapnHook]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 10:26am

HOW WAS THE SCORE? THE BOOK?

Do we have a good original musical? Or is this one of those horrible film-to-stage adaptations for the sake of doing a show that will sell well?

[Kelly2]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 10:56am

I thought the score was okay. Some of the songs were catchy, and some of them were really bland. As Fishergirl said, a lot of them definitely need tweaking. I think it's much longer than it needs to be too, I was expecting it to be about 2 hours, and it didn't end until after 10:30. I feel like a good 15 minutes could be cut. The performances were great across the board, Celia was very endearing, Mary Faber, who I've never seen in anything before this, was very funny, I really liked her. Curtis and Morgan Weed were perfect, and I too wish I'd seen her as Natalie in N2N. Julia Murney was good, she didn't have a HUGE part, but she was good. I am having a lot of difficulty picturing her as Eva Peron though, I kept trying, lol. Overall, the show was good...it needs A LOT of work though. I might go see it again once previews are over, hopefully it'll be much tighter then.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 11:27am

Here are my thoughts....

I thought it was good, but not great.

Act 2 is MUCH better than act 1. It's a lot tighter, and the emotions get kicked up a notch in the second act. Act 1 feels very cartoony, where as in act 2, it feels much more "real," if that makes sense. However, as the original poster mentioned, the climax needs some re-working. It doesn't have the payoff that it should at this point. I'm sure they'll get it straightened out, though.

I was a little disappointed that my two favorite performers in the show- Aaron Tveit and Julia Murney are given so little to do. Murney has an awful song in Act 1 called "Orlando" (like the city) that needs to go. She does get a really good song in Act 2, however, and does a fantastic job with it. I also have to point out that she does not look at all like she could be Celia Keenan-Bolger's mother. That was kind of laughable.

Tveit does get one good song, but again, I was hoping for a little more. His acting, again, with not much to do, was very good.

The rest of the cast is all pretty good. The standout for me was Van Hughes as Patrick. I thought his acting was fantastic, and he brought a real vulnerability to the character.

Another pleasant surprise was Mary Faber as Hilary Faye. As someone mentioned, they've toned down the character some from the movie. Faber acts it very well, particularly in Act 2, where you get to see a bit of the character's humanity.

There are some nice moments in both the book and score, but neither one really blew away.

It was nice to see Jesse Vargas right back at work, conducting the band, after the Glory Days fiasco.

Overall, with some work, they'll have a nice little off-Broadway show. They shouldn't even be entertaining ideas of moving to Broadway, because the show is in the perfect venue right now.

The audience seemed to enjoy it a great deal, but there was no standing ovation.

Lights came up at 10:33, but the show started about 10 minutes after 8, so the run-time (at the moment) is about 2 hours, 20 minutes.


Updated On: 5/11/08 at 11:27 AM

[lightguy06222]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 12:35pm

2:20. not bad! Updated On: 5/11/08 at 12:35 PM

[BroadwayChica]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 12:48pm

My bad. I always use rush, since it's cheaper, so I wasn't aware that they had an under 30 policy, as well. That's good to know :)

I'm going to try to see this show in a few weeks.

[DidYouReallyHearMe]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 2:56pm

The set was very interesting.

It was gym floor style wood with blue lighting built into the sides, plexi glass covering the lights, the upstage area has a steep slope from wall to wall with a raised walkway. There's a circular platform that rises at specific parts for actors to stand on and such. Benches come in through traps. And the sides of the stage were large school hallway walls with multiple doorways. The backdrop of the stage was a sort of stained glass mural that light up in specific ways.


*edit: it's sold out for tuesday, wednesday, and thursday and for most performances this coming weekend*
Updated On: 5/11/08 at 02:56 PM

[alliez92092]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 4:23pm

I can't wait to hear more. I'm already very excited. I would love to hear more!

[DidYouReallyHearMe]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 4:27pm

Seeing it again tonight and Thursday.

[liotte]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 5:27pm

I liked it. Still needs some tightening and some work, but I enjoyed the show.

[elphabelle07]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 5:44pm

I've been dying to hear about this show! thanks so much for posting!

[CapnHook]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 7:09pm

I'm pleased to hear that the first impressions indicate that it's not going to be a big fat bomb.