This is one of the most disgraceful pieces of garbage that I have ever seen. It is a vanity production given the imprimatur of the Public Theatre. If Ted Shen were not a philanthropist, it would never be at the Public.
Second Chance is the most awful, talentless spawn of a Sondheim imitator imaginable. There are no melodies, only rip offs of Sondheim signatures. Shen thanks Sondheim in the program, probably for not suing for plagiarism. Over and over, as each bland, boring and repetitive Sondheim imitating non melody (if Shen hadn't heard Evening Primrose, he might have sent us home in ten minutes) was struck up by the orchestra, my body cringed. Shen couldn't find a melody to save his soul. Idiotic lyrics clearly designed only to find rhymes completed the disaster.
(Ms. Sutherland's voice failed her in the first act. It seemed to me that she had failed to warm it up properly. Mr. Sutherland's voice thinned out and faltered late in the second act when he had to make a strong impression.)
There are one moving observation in the second act and it wasn't even set to music. There were two boring songs about the weather.
I don't mind professional effort that fails to work for me (in fact, I was disappointed by S-L Park's lab the same day I saw this, but it is the honest effort of a professional writer, and, hopefully, will find its footing). However, I felt that the Public Theater abused and betrayed me and its audience in producing this clearly woefully amateur effort.
Charles Isherwood has told it as it is. He is to be commended for not pulling his punches as others will in this uncomfortable situation.
P.S. This is a rehash of the comments which I sent to the Public Theatre when I received a survey from them last week.
(Seen Saturday evening, March 22)
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