Exactly. And you mentioned major changes... the vast majority of shows preview periods don't have changes anywhere near as notable as a dropped or replaced song or a cut role or replaced performer. The show is largely the same... in middle cases, dialogue and lyrics will change, scenes may be moved around or cut, the design elements and cues will change or improv, some staging may change, buttons of songs or scenes might change or come to being... timing of acting and performance depth will change.
But most shows, especially in the last 20 years, don't really change THAT notably during previews. Most shows have 3 weeks of previews, if i recall, and 1 whole week of that is after the show is frozen.
Certainly some new shows have a lot of growing pains and will make big changes or make changes often during previews... and of course, how previews work in the last 20 years isn't that relevant to how they worked in the decades prior when Sondheim's show premiered. But I still really think especially for his shows in the 80s and 90s, the previews counted 100% as a performance of the musical on Broadway that audiences paid full or near-full prices for, and especially doing 30-55 previews... I mean that's almost half the run of most Roundabout shows! Come on. |
