Post by shep94 on Dec 28, 2019 19:11:24 GMT
I saw today’s matinee. I have listened to the Original Broadway Cast Album constantly since it came out, and really do enjoy the music, so I had high hopes for this. Well, ultimately it didn’t really meet my expectations. Don’t get me wrong I liked it, but didn’t love it.
My main problem, as I see others have cited from a quick glance through the thread, is the book. I just couldn’t get on board with the story, and ultimately I think that is why I failed to emotionally connect. To say I seem to cry at anything nowadays, I didn’t even well-up at most of this. The only exception was the Act 1 Finale, “You Will Be Found”, which is genuinely the best moment in the entire show and worth the price of admission alone. I was in bits, and practically shaking in my seat. It particularly got me at the moment when Connor’s Dad sees some of the posts and finally lets go of his emotions to cry about his son’s death. However, the second act is a massive let-down and highly implausible. The whole show builds towards the revelation of Evan’s lies, but doesn’t really go anywhere with it once all has been revealed, and I can’t believe this is what would happen if it was to happen in real life. The characters don’t behave as people in this situation would, and it leads to a massive disconnect.
One of the other reasons I believe I failed to emotionally connect to the material was the character of Evan. To be frank, he began to grate after a while and I found him rather irritating, so I ultimately didn’t care about him. I do not know whether this was how he was being played though, even though the little ticks and hyperventilating did get extremely annoying, or whether it was how the role is written, as I did enjoy Marcus’ acting in what is quite a difficult role to get across. Evan is just extremely unlikeable. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as I don’t have the same feeling about Frank in MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG for example, but I just didn’t get Evan at all.
Vocally, I didn’t think it was very strong either. Like I said above, I saw Marcus, the alternate Evan, and don’t know whether he was having an off performance, but I felt he really struggled with the songs, and don’t think any of the others faired much better. Now, this might not be all his fault, because as much as I love them, I think the songs are poorly written for the voice. They jump all over the place, and often have closed vowels on higher notes. However, I would have liked the songs to have been a little stronger.
Finally, I would like to mention the direction. I just don’t think it is very good. Yes, the staging is fluid, and the lighting and design are highly effective, but the detailed character work isn’t there. They resort to either stock gestures - such as pointing to their jeans when singing about drawing on them - or just plain overacting, which again took me out of the moment somewhat. This fault lies with the director and not the actors though.
So, to sum up, a highly flawed piece, but with moments to enjoy, and it was great to finally see the songs played out in context. However, I may just stick to listening to the Cast Album in future.
I was saved at the end of Act 1 with you will be found. That was extremely good. I did then wonder how the show was going to progress (not read the synopsis or any spoilers) and 10 minutes into Act 2 I could predict most of what was going to happen. When Evan and Zoe sang their duet together I had completely checked out and started to just focus my attention on the strings section of he orchestra (they sounded blooming marvelous) and then wondered whether that is where the orchestra were for half a six pence.
I do think as well that not having a chorus did kinda make it suffer. I don’t feel you got the hype of Connor’s death or Evan’s loneliness with only the principal players. I do think it would have given songs like ‘you will be found’ even more energy. It was not staged how I had it in my head either.
So yea all in all I too found it to be all hype and no wow product