No spark. I don't know how to better to put it. The show is very "professional" but it has no spark. The audience seemed to follow suit and sat quietly throughout. As with many sung-through shows we often did not know when to applause. Later, when there was a time that was a clear applause break, we did not avail ourselves of it. The entire audience just sat hands-in- lap. There was so little character development that it became hard to care about these individuals. As I was sitting in the same theatre I saw "Ragtime" in (twice), watching a show directed, choreographed, and designed by the same creative team, I had to draw the conclusion that the real problem rests with the work and not the production. Some shows, like some movies, are bad enough to be good- this show is not. It is just bad enough to be bad.
Saw it in NY 3/28, evening performance
No spark. I don't know how to better to put it. The show is very "professional" but it has no spark. The audience seemed to follow suit and sat quietly throughout. As with many sung-through shows we often did not know when to applause. Later, when there was a time that was a clear applause break, we did not avail ourselves of it. The entire audience just sat hands-in- lap. There was so little character development that it became hard to care about these individuals. As I was sitting in the same theatre I saw "Ragtime" in (twice), watching a show directed, choreographed, and designed by the same creative team, I had to draw the conclusion that the real problem rests with the work and not the production. Some shows, like some movies, are bad enough to be good- this show is not. It is just bad enough to be bad.