Like others, I was there on Saturday when Michael came down the aisle to tell the audience that Idina was given new lyrics to the opening number. It's not a new song. It's just new lyrics. It was interesting to listen to the lyrics when she would look down at the cue cards, because I couldn't help think, "My God, if those are the new lyrics, what the hell were the old ones?" Talk about much ado about nothing.
I commend all involved for taking the risk to bring an original, new musical to Broadway. But should we forgive the endless flaws just because of the risk they are taking?
The design reminded me of The Prince of Central Park- this romantic version of what New York City is like, with all these crispy, clean people surrounded by colorful lights (red and blue being the main motifs here) and the Disney-fied trees of Central Park (in this case, the urban planning inside Liz/Beth's mind). Regardless of how important it is what David Stone is trying to do as a producer here, you can't ignore what a misfire this whole outing is.
Two story lines that have no relationship to each other, other than the main questions, "What if?" But I challenge all involved to answer, "WHY????" Why am I sitting there watching this woman? Why do I care what path she takes? Why do I care about any of the secondary characters, whose stories come and go so quickly I have no time to invest? Why does Anthony Rapp seem to take over the first half of Act Two- what happened to our leading lady? Why, why, why? There is zero reason to care. If they are trying to be a modern day "Company," there is simply no central theme to carry us through. And the book, lyrics and music lack anything close to the sophistication and truly contemporary skill of that 1970's hit. Kitt's music here is pretty, at best. Monotonous is more the order of the day. For two supposedly unique paths, the music sounded completely generic with lots of American Idol/Idina belting on the final notes. One duet in Act Two for La Chanze and Jen just has them belting and riffing for no reason- and they were all tired, even Idina, so notes were often missed. Ouch. It was only Saturday!
Throw out the opening song and write a new one that tells us why we are going on this journey. I don't want to know why SHE is going on the journey, I want to know why WE are being asked to sit there for almost three hours and piece together a totally random sampling of two paths of one woman's life. WHY???
And did anyone else notice they pretty much got rid of the set in Act Two. All of those moving picture frames in Act One (annoying as hell) were pretty much gone in Act Two, for no reason! Why?
I recommend seeing this show for no other reason to learn what NOT to do. By the way, I would love to see Leslie Kritzer in this role. Or even La Chanze. Someone who has a more innate sense of humor about the hard knocks of life. Idina is brittle and sarcastic- WHY???
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