I saw the show in DC and the end of the second week of previews her in NYC. They had written Idina a different opening song which sets up the dual identities premise much more clearly, not made her a statistics jock anymore, and cut Jerry (the boss) out of the Liz section entirely--no more heart attack scene or whatever happened in the hospital in the first act. Having him only in one storyline helps clarity, I think. Also, the set sort of obviously revolves, after the first Liz scene in a way that telegraphs that it is going back and starting over and telling a different story, Beth's. In addition, they gave LaChanze a different, shorter kindergarten song and moved the (SPOILER ALERT!) plane crash to much later in the second act-those are the main things I noticed. Oh, and after the plane crash, in week 2 of previews NYC they put in a voicemail Beth leaves for Lucas (Rapp) to make it clear Beth hasn't died. My own opinion is that because the show has to work so hard to keep the story followable (is that a word?) they sort of telegraph things with lines of dialog and broad moments that undercut the deeper, subtler moments a bit. But on a repeated viewing (I know, most people won't see it a second time) I really enjoyed the show's ambition and richness a lot more. I thought the modern New York City stuff, like when the ensemble has a short song about places in Manhattan where significant things in their life happened, is pretty wonderful. One thing I did feel both times is that James Snyder was so natural and appealing in Menzel's "Liz" life that the "Beth" life was hard to dramatize in a way that was particularly interesting--how do you make careerism dramatically compelling in a short period of time? And i wonder if that's one of the reasons the plane crash is there.
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