| "Diner" last night | |
| Posted by: | broadwaybacker 02:29 pm EST 01/18/15 |
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| I saw Diner last night, and would rate the show in the good to very good category. I just don't think it's quite good enough for a successful Broadway run, at least at this stage, but perhaps it could make it with some work, though I have my doubts. First and foremost, I thought that the music was terrific. As dramedy said, Sheryl Crow wrote 50's tunes that sounded, to those who are old enough to remember, like hit tunes blaring from our favorite jukebox or record player in someone's basement at a junior high school party. The music, and there was a lot of it, was first rate. Some of these songs ("Gotta Lotta Woman" comes immediately to mind) WOULD have been hits in the 50's, and others would have made it onto the "flip side", an inside joke for those who have seen the show. But as dramedy also said, the show it too long. Perhaps way too long. (Perhaps this post is way too long also.) The sign as you walk in says that it runs 2:30 with a 15 minute intermission, but in the Playbill it says it runs "approximately two hours with one 15 minute intermission." What does that tell you? It tells me that there are a lot of cuts that have to be made. And for those of you who are counting, the show last night ran 2:37 and change. The biggest drawback to me with respect to the show's future is that it suffers from the "what's it about" problem. What's Diner about? Well, it's about this group of young guys in Baltimore at the end of 1959 who seem to spend all of there spare time at a local diner. (Great set, by the way.) One of them is a bit OCD with a marital problem, one has a gambling problem, one has a drinking problem and one has a commitment problem. Oh, and there's also a Mommy problem and an "independent woman" problem. OK then, that's quite a mouthful, but is it a story? And most people who go to the theater, I think, want to be told a story. The cast was excellent, top to bottom. I did not see or hear a weak link. My biggest problem was with the sound, and I know nothing about sound design. I had as good a seat as you could have, fifth row, dead center. And all of the sound (and it was a bit over amplified) came from one huge speaker set above the stage, dead center. So no matter where the actor on stage was standing, the sound always came from the exact same location. So you experts, is that something that can be corrected? The problem was that on occasion, there were close to 20 actors on stage at the same time, and it wasn't always possible to quickly identify who was speaking because you had no directional cue. Does that make sense? The cast was really large, 23 in all. | |
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| re: "Diner" last night | |
| Posted by: | Greg_M 02:20 pm EST 01/19/15 |
| In reply to: | "Diner" last night - broadwaybacker 02:29 pm EST 01/18/15 |
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| If the score is as good as you say the show can be improved. It already is based on a very good film. Sounds like the book just needs a stronger focus and cutting some of the fat. Sometimes a main theme which ties everything together comes at the last minute ("Tradition" in "Fiddler on the Roof") and then the show starts to work Hopefully the show will get to that point | |
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| re: "Diner" last night | |
| Posted by: | tpdc 06:15 pm EST 01/18/15 |
| In reply to: | "Diner" last night - broadwaybacker 02:29 pm EST 01/18/15 |
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| I was there last night as well. I think it would be better as a ont act 1:45 minute show. Boil act one down to the essentials and stick with most of the far stronger second act. I think the main problem is the score. The music is nice but only two songs in act one really serve the story or are theatrical in any way. The songs in the second act are better integrated with story and character. I loved the cast. Everyone was superb. | |
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| re: "Diner" last night - maybe a spoiler | |
| Posted by: | Ann 05:25 pm EST 01/18/15 |
| In reply to: | "Diner" last night - broadwaybacker 02:29 pm EST 01/18/15 |
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| The narrator was used in an odd way (I see by the TalkinBroadway review, a narrator wasn't used in the film - I also see that Billy is Eddie's brother. I didn't pick that up.). He gave some of "what happened to them later" about the characters - but some of that was doled out during the show, not at the end. And the way they did it for Fen was really odd - they say he dies in an accident a few days after what you know will be the last scene. And they guy still has a big song in the show. Also, the actor playing the narrator also plays a part in the show (unnecessarily). At one point, he is the character, talking to the narrator's younger self, then he whips off the hat and glasses and turns back into the narrator - the actor playing his younger self is still standing there. I agree about the sound - during the song for Stevie's wife, she repeatedly belted what I knew was the title of the song, but I couldn't understand one word of it and had to look in the program. That actress has quite a voice (Erika Henningsen). I really wish Crow had let a theater writer write the lyrics. | |
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| re: "Diner" last night | |
| Posted by: | portenopete 04:54 pm EST 01/18/15 |
| In reply to: | "Diner" last night - broadwaybacker 02:29 pm EST 01/18/15 |
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| You and I were on the same page! The sound was horrible, cast great and story a bit vague. | |
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| re: "Diner" last night | |
| Posted by: | Lroay 02:56 pm EST 01/18/15 |
| In reply to: | "Diner" last night - broadwaybacker 02:29 pm EST 01/18/15 |
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| I think rearranging the show would do far more for it than cutting it. Much of the second act material would have been perfect in the first act, when you want to get to know the characters but get a lot if mood setting. Almost nothing happens for the entire first act. Then the second act comes alive when it really should be wrapping up. I thought the material was mostly great. It just seemed they were following the movie's structure much too closely. Oh, and the creepy narrator needs to go. | |
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| re: creepy narrators | |
| Posted by: | Guillaume 04:21 pm EST 01/18/15 |
| In reply to: | re: "Diner" last night - Lroay 02:56 pm EST 01/18/15 |
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| I'm trying to think of shows wherein the use of a narrator was effective and more important, necessary. Whenever the curtain goes up and I see a narrator I immediately get a sinking feeling that the writers were unable to find a compelling reason and fresh way to tell their story and we're going to have an evening of the same old same old. On the other hand, I thought the narrator in Stoppard's Travesties worked extremely well, as an example of a show that needs the narrator in order to tick. | |
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| re: creepy narrators | |
| Posted by: | perfectlyfrank 07:31 pm EST 01/18/15 |
| In reply to: | re: creepy narrators - Guillaume 04:21 pm EST 01/18/15 |
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| Narrators can be extremely effective. What would Our Town or The Fantasticks be without them? | |
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| re: creepy narrators | |
| Posted by: | BruceinIthaca 11:55 pm EST 01/18/15 |
| In reply to: | re: creepy narrators - perfectlyfrank 07:31 pm EST 01/18/15 |
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| Not to mention "Into the Woods." I missed him in the film, though I understand the choice they made--having an on-screen narrator would have broken any sense of the "filmic" as they conceived of it. And the solution seemed to me a good and touching choice. | |
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| re: creepy narrators | |
| Posted by: | BruceinIthaca 06:17 pm EST 01/18/15 |
| In reply to: | re: creepy narrators - Guillaume 04:21 pm EST 01/18/15 |
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| I think the narrative in The Grapes of Wrath was very effective, and, in a very different way, the use of the Stage Manager and Sabina in Wilder's plays. Also, in A View from the Bridge. I don't think it's lazy at all, but I think it shifts the mode of the performance from dramatic to epic--it makes it more like hearing a novel, where we are aware of the presence of different points in time. | |
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| re: "Diner" last night | |
| Posted by: | lowwriter 02:33 pm EST 01/18/15 |
| In reply to: | "Diner" last night - broadwaybacker 02:29 pm EST 01/18/15 |
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| If the music is terrific I think it's worth it for them to develop this show. Isn't the point of this tryouts to figure out what works and what doesn't? How many shows have tried out on the road and been perfect there? Though I don't know why these shows such as Kinky Boots don't do even more work before they move to New York. | |
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| re: "Diner" last night | |
| Posted by: | owk 04:45 pm EST 01/18/15 |
| In reply to: | re: "Diner" last night - lowwriter 02:33 pm EST 01/18/15 |
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| I'm puzzled by people thinking this is a good score. It's an adequate bunch of knock-offs of early rock songs, but almost none of them have anything to do with plot or character. Nor do they function as ironic commentary like the soundtrack of American Graffiti. They basically just stop the action and deliver a very mild dose of entertainment in what is otherwise a downbeat portrait of some really unlikable people. Hard to imagine this one getting much further than it's gotten. | |
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