re: Tammy Faye - a total flop
Posted by: theaterisok 07:03 pm EDT 10/22/24
In reply to: re: Tammy Faye - a total flop - bway1430 12:40 pm EDT 10/22/24

And now I'm ready to respond...to begin, I agree with chromolume that I should have said things in a more tactful way, "I predict this won't have a long life." So, sincere apology for my late night post being rather tactless. I often have that problem on here. I want to assure you, I love the theater, as can be verified by the many, many rave reviews I've written of shows. Ann is right, I'm often all in or all out.
Now, why I have felt it appropriate to respond now is because you have taken the approach, by inference, not overtly, that anyone with an opinion during previews is ill-informed of the process and therefore should be more respectful of the work assumed to be planned.
Let me teach you something...no significant work is going to be done. None. How do I know this? Because I've been going to the theater for a very long time. I've seen shows evolve during previews. The challenge is the technical requirements these days to make the necessary changes to improve things. This show has so many script problems, to fix them, they would need to also change entire set pieces. They can't. They won't.
Firing Christian Borle is the first thing they need to do. If they do that, I will eat my hat. They won't fire him. It will be a PR disaster.
They need to remove the framing device entirely. It does nothing but attempt to force us to feel sorry for Tammy. It's the worst kind of short hand. It's lazy, even if its factual. But also cutting this means they have to figure out why they are telling us this story and why we should care. They never figured it out in London, despite strong reviews, and they certainly haven't figured it out now. They will not figure it out during previews.
They need to cut Jerry Falwells song in Act One (though Michael does a nice job). If they cut his song, Act One will move much more swiftly through the plot. It is the equivalent of the Judge's Song from Sweeney that they cut in early previews. It needs to go. They won't cut it.
They need new songs. Elton won't write new songs.
They need better lyrics. I'll just leave that dead horse alone. Worse lyrics of the season, I predict.
Those are just a few things that are essential to make this show better...and they will not do it.
So everything else is lipstick on a pig, as the cliche goes.
I am entitled to my opinions, which I will continue to share. I will continue to try to be more sensitive to the many people employed on shows I predict will very soon be out of work. It's heartless of me and anyone to approach this with what seems to be coming off as giddiness. Trust me, I get no joy in saying something is a flop. It meant I had to pay and sit through it. That is not how I want to spend my evening. But when someone shovels me shit... I hope it's okay to use that term... my instinct is to throw it back. I'll work on that.
I predict this show will not get strong reviews and certainly not strong word of mouth. Perhaps they have enough money in the till to keep it running through to the Tony nominations. Its not a crowded season, though two shows are quite wonderful (Vista Social Club and Death Becomes Her).
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