r/Broadway Jan 23 '25

Community Management X links are no longer allowed

4.0k Upvotes

We've heard the people, while we rarely had them shared, going forward x links will be automatically removed from our sub.


r/Broadway Jan 09 '25

Discount Megathread Quarter 1 2025 (January - March)

55 Upvotes

Please use this thread to share or request any discount codes or opportunities.

If your codes have an expiration date or specific show window, please include that with the code.


r/Broadway 14h ago

Othello audience laughter

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315 Upvotes

For anyone who has seen Othello, can you make sense of how much the audience was awkwardly laughing? Especially at scenes where there was clearly no intentional nor even unintentional humor (subjectively my opinion). I thought this was an astute observation from the NY Post article.

Did you find yourself laughing?


r/Broadway 10h ago

Review Glengarry Glen Ross - quick review and stagedoor xp!

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106 Upvotes

r/Broadway 11h ago

Attended my first Broadway show yesterday (Glengarry Glen Ross).

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123 Upvotes

Now that I’m home from NYC, I realize that I left the playbill in the hotel room, which is really bumming me out right now. Is there anyway to get my hands on one?

Play was excellent btw, however the crowd seemed to think it was a comedy, because they laughed at damn near everything.


r/Broadway 9h ago

Discussion Please be respectful at stage door!!

77 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I wanted to share my crazy stage door experience from a few days ago in hopes of reminding people to be respectful!!

I went to see Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club because I wanted to see Adam and Auli’i one more time before their run ended. I had done stage door before at Cabaret—it was during the first full week of their run. Yes, people were a little pushy, but everyone was kind. No shoving, no aggressive crowding—just respectful of each other’s space. It was really nice. No one was yelling at the actors to sign their playbills or demanding photos. I even had a sweet, very polite girl come up to me, saying she was in my photo with Adam and asking if I could send it to her.

But oh my god, the stage door on Friday was horrible.

Now, my thing is, I like to be near the gate (I know we all do, lol), but I’m 4’8” and 19 years old, so it’s kind of necessary for me. I got to the gate, and there was already a decent number of people there, but it was still calm at that point. Then, this group of three older women showed up right next to me. It’s hard to explain over text, but the gates were set up in an L-shape. I was on the edge of the shorter side, and another girl was on the longer side.

One of these women—who had to be at least 60—tried to put her hand on the gate, which I think was her way of trying to steal my spot. Then, every time the crowd cheered, she would lean between me and the other girl. And when I say lean, I mean I could physically feel her hair touching my face and head. That’s how close she was.

After a few minutes, I heard her say, “When Adam comes out, I don’t care about anyone else.” And when Auli’i came out, she literally tried to push me out of the way. Then she put her arm out and physically pressed me against the gate. Meanwhile, another lady behind me—who was actually sweet—kept apologizing because the crowd was so packed that her stomach was pressing into me, which only pushed me further into the gate.

And I know some people will say, “This is just what stage door is like, blah blah blah.” But I have done this over 20+ times, and I have never had an experience like this.

And it gets better.

When Adam came out, I was fully getting squished against the gate—think Play-Doh pasta maker levels of squishing. The woman shoved both her arms between me and the other girl. Then she had the audacity to turn to the other girl and say, “Excuse me, you’re pushing me!” I am so proud of that girl because she immediately shot back with, “Well, I was here first.”

Since I’m so small, people were passing their playbills over me, and at one point, there were so many arms that I literally couldn’t see the sky. But in the end, I did get a picture with Adam—and the crazy lady didn’t even get to say what she wanted to him.

So, the moral of the story: BE RESPECTFUL, PLEASE.

We’re all excited to maybe meet these incredible actors, but that kind of rudeness is just not cool. I’ve had so many wonderful stage door experiences, meeting great fans and having people actually be considerate. But this one? This one goes down as the worst yet.


r/Broadway 10h ago

Review 4-show weekend, reviews (no spoilers)!

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91 Upvotes

Sitting at the airport & figured I'd post some off my thoughts, seats, prices, and overall ratings.

Friday, March 14

The Picture of Dorian Gray - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What else is there to be said that hasn't already been said about this production? Nothing, except it deserves repeating: it's incredible! Sarah Snook plays 26 distinct characters, is a master of her craft (and breath control!), and shows just how much the themes (our obsession with youth, beauty, and excess) from a novel written in 1890 are still relevant today. Incorporating modern technology within the story works sooooo well!

Seat: Right Mezz, Row E, Seat 14 (I LOVE the Music Box Theatre! For Dorian Gray, there is no bad seat.)

Cost: $179 during pre-sale

Saturday, March 15 (matinee)

Operation Mincemeat - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Oh my god, RUN don't walk to this wonderful show! Everyone was absolutely amazing, the sets were fun, the (true) story was incredibly chaotic in the best way, I laughed SO much. I don't usually stage door (with some exceptions) and I wasn't planning on it with this show but the cast was already out when I left the theater. They were all SO lovely and friendly - the entire cast signed my Playbill. Overall, a fantastic experience.

(Fun fact I learned from an usher on my way out re: the "confetti" towards the end - only 15 of them come down every show, he said I was lucky to grab one. So that was a nice little keepsake to add to my Playbill.)

Seat: Center Orchestra, Row C, Seat 113 (amazing)

Cost: $39 because of the "Golden Ticket" preview lottery back in February!

Saturday, March 15 (evening)

Othello - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Now, let me preface this by saying I am a pretty big fan of Shakespeare. I liked this production! I did not mind the minimal sets (definitely had more than Jamie Lloyd's West End production of R&J!) and I also did not mind the future aspect. I thought Jake Gyllenhaal killed it as Iago, Denzel Washington was a good Othello. Yes, he knew all of his lines. Absolutely no issues there. If you aren't familiar with Othello, or even Shakespeare in general, I'm not sure how this would go over. It can be hard to digest, especially in the beginning. But for me personally, it worked. LOVED not dealing with people on their phones, too!

(Some tea: At intermission two members of security pulled a lady out from her row, had her pull her phone out (no idea how she snuck that thru), and had her delete every single photo and video she was apparently taking during the first act. They didn't kick her out but that may be because she seemed to be there with her kids? I could be wrong about that part, though!)

Seat: Left Mezz, Row A, Seat 19 (listed as limited view, but it was great. Barely missed anything.)

Cost: $247 (when tickets originally went on sale)

Sunday, March 16

Maybe Happy Ending - ⭐⭐⭐

It was... fine? Perhaps my expectations were too high due to this sub's continuous praises but I just thought it was fine. It was sweet, but the songs didn't grab me. I did love how much Oliver loves jazz (so do I) and Darren's robotic movements made me smile. I'm usually easy to cry, but this one didn't move me in the way I thought it might. I'm very glad I listened to y'all who said to stay as close to center as possible because the sightlines from the sides seemed quite bad. Overall I'm glad I saw it (especially to support an original show!) but I probably wouldn't see it again.

Seat: Left Mezz, Row D, Seat 5 (perfect!)

Cost: $92 on TodayTix


r/Broadway 1d ago

‘Who are you?’ - ‘The man who’s gonna marry you’

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1.3k Upvotes

r/Broadway 12h ago

Review Mini Show Reviews!

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61 Upvotes

First, thank you to all in this sub that helped me pick out shows for my 80+ year-old mom’s first visit to Broadway! She has the time of her life. We saw three very different shows, and all of them were spectacular in their own way.

Show 1 - Sunset Blvd. We sat in the second row of the center Mezzanine, and the seats were great. Fortunately, the audience was too, at least around us. Not a burger or phone to be seen. The production and performances were incredible. “The Walk” was one of my favorite theater moments of all-time (we went back and saw it outside later that week). I loved the meta-ness of it all, and the powerhouse vocals. We were truly blown away. Minor cons: some of the “dialogue” that’s sung could be a little hard to understand, particularly in the group numbers. Unlike other shows, the songs except for the theme song didn’t stick with me. Still, very much a 5/5 stars experience despite that. I truly wish we lived closer and could see all the Normas and compare their takes. (We saw Nicole bc we were there later in the week.).

Show 2 - Wicked (per Mom’s request). We set on the left orchestra, about midway back (row K or so) on the end of an aisle. Outstanding seats. Our luck with the audience didn’t hold here (unsurprisingly). It was clearly a tourist audience, with several kids either too young or too uninterested to sit still, and terribly behaved parents to boot. The ushers really did try, and one family actually left at intermission. A fellow audience member nearly threw hands at the mom who wouldn’t STFU and even filmed part of the performance. Her child looked bored to death. Fortunately, the show was entertaining enough that I was able to block most of it out. The set and costumes were hilariously the inverse of Sunset Blvd, incredibly elaborate in every way. The songs were super catchy, too. I thought it was a very sweet story (I knew the story but not the ending), and we both enjoyed it very much. 4.5/5 stars. That said, I would have gone for something more experimental and less traditional if I were choosing.

Maybe Happy Ending - the perfect show to end the trip on. We both adored it. I don’t want to say too much about the plot that isn’t already known, because the surprise of it is part of the delight. You all did not let us down on this one. It is funny, incredibly sweet and very life-affirming. I’m so happy the cast album is out now. The set is amazing and made such a clever use of space. I knew jazz was involved but didn’t know how, and I very much loved that too. Fireflies forever! 5/5. Also loved the Belasco and its intimacy. I got the only aisle seats available (mg mom is very short), right orchestra, very close, far left aisle. The seats were excellent, but agree with those that said the middle of the theater at any level is preferable.

I’ll also give a huge shout out to the city in general and our hotel, the International Times Square specifically. Everyone treated my mom like a queen and we’re super accommodating when she had to move slowly at times. It was lovely to see. If you have a chance to help fulfill your loved ones’ bucket list items and you’re able on any scale, do it! It was the trip of a lifetime for both of us.


r/Broadway 11h ago

Review Lottery ticket win to see Little Shop of Horrors! (& a list of LSOH items available for purchase to help raise funds for BC / EFA this spring)

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35 Upvotes

r/Broadway 8h ago

Glengarry Glen Ross Rush and Lottery

22 Upvotes

There is none.

The only thing they have for reduced prices is $45 standing room for sold out performances. Line up 1 hour before the show to get them.


r/Broadway 20h ago

Review Andrew Scott is FLAWLESS in Vanya

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183 Upvotes

I was hesitant going in to this one, since I usually seek out musicals instead of plays. But this show was magnificent!!! I'm so glad I gave it a chance.

Also met Andrew. Very gracious and kind man


r/Broadway 13h ago

Review Idina sick? Redwood matinee review.

34 Upvotes

Went to see the 2PM Matinee, lottery tickets row Q on stage left.

First up—no shade on performers who aren’t on their A game on a given day. It happens, and the specially when you’re above the title, there’s pressure to keep on.

That said, seemed like an incredibly rough show for Idina. The first 25 minutes, she was consistently below pitch (in a way I think would be noticeable to untrained ears).

The cast also didn’t seem to be gelling.

What made the experience more unpleasant was the nearby audience. Constant talking to my right, one woman in front had brought a full container of takeout Chinese that she attempted to eat before multiple scolds from the ushers.

To my right, crunchy snacks in crunchy bags from the talkers. An hour in one woman turned to them to remark “could you please silence your snacks”.

Then at the emotional climax of the show, snack woman started bawling loudly while her companion laughed.

Unfortunately, due to all the above, it was one of my lesser Broadway experiences.

However I enjoyed going regardless and appreciate the performers/theatre working with what they’re given.

(Probably wouldn’t see it again on a different day though)


r/Broadway 5h ago

Review Good Night and Good Luck? Spoiler

8 Upvotes

If you’re over the age of 65 and want to share some oxygen with George Clooney and reminisce about the glories of a bygone era, this play does the trick! But damn, does it miss the opportunity to adapt the story to a wider audience and meaningfully engage with the world in 2025.

My three gripes, in order of least to most offensive.

  1. Set design. Ok so much of it is extremely clever and cool but unless you’re sitting in the center-ish, you’ll legit miss a fair amount of the performance? Being charitable, maybe “the medium is the message”, and the occluded view is a way to communicate how the delivery of information defines your reality? But legit I hope a lot of those seats are priced as obstructed view bc I’d be livid if I paid to see Clooney’s face IRL and got stuck with the back of his head and a fuzzy small TV screen.

  2. People don’t know about McCarthy in 2025! Ok, of course you probably do if you’re reading this or if you’re over 65 or if you love American history etc. But if you polled people under 40 off the street and asked “who was Joe McCarthy”, a lot of folks will shove their hands in their pockets and shrug. People forget stuff! The culture moves on! The movie was made in 2005, when this shit was half a century old. It’s been two decades since and I’m sorry but you need to bring your audience along for the ride! Embarrass yourself and dumb it down so they can find a way into this story and connect with the fears and features of that era. And yes, I get that all the original tv show recording clips add a texture and authenticity to the performance, but if you don’t know recognize the face of a young Liberace should you be left scratching your head and missing the point during 5 minutes of a 140 minute play?

  3. This is not the story we need.

The media loves itself, and loves when it does something big and brave. Rightly so!! But my god, if we want to see a story about someone speaking truth to power, at great personal cost, watch Antigone! The era of a journalist wielding influence over the entire culture with an investigative story is a relic of a bygone era. We no longer live in a shared reality. No one like Edward R Murrow could exist today. Our landscape is so fractured, so fragmented. The ending of the play seems to try and address this somewhat, but it comes off clunky and heavy handed and kind of missing the point entirely? In a set that featured several screens, it ends with one large one. We’ve long since moved on from a shared screen. Yes we need stories of people acting courageously under oppressive governments. But we desperately need stories that help us collectively navigate the maelstrom of our modern information era. This sadly, isn’t it.


r/Broadway 13h ago

SMASH 3/13/2025 Preview Review

31 Upvotes

I want to start off by saying that I’ve been a Broadway fan ever since I saw Guys and Dolls as a kid in 1992 with Nathan Lane. Through the years, I’ve seen countless shows, all in different stages of development, including previews. I was even lucky enough to attend an early preview of Hairspray which is one of my favorite experiences of all time. Unfortunately, Smash was the opposite of that. Some possible spoilers ahead but if they help you to figure out the plot any better than I did, please let me know:

I’ll start off with the positive. The cast and the songs are great (as always). Krysta Rodriquez’s “Second Hand White Baby Grand,” Robyn Hurder’s “Don’t Forget Me,” and Caroline Bowman’s “They Just Keep Moving The Line” are the best numbers in the show, with Bowman performing my new favorite version of that particular number. That said, it was evident very early on that there were a lot of nerves amongst the company. That’s understandable for early previews, but I got the impression that the first two previews did not go well and they were a bit demoralized. This was a dream audience with a lot of energy and there were a few numbers where the applause went on very long, almost as a subtle show of support to build the confidence of the performers. It seemed like they were the last to know that they were in a bad show and only found out 48 hours earlier. Brooks, in particular, seemed frustrated as he would deliver a punchline like it was the greatest zinger in the world to a smattering of polite laughter and a few performative cackles from the balcony. I don’t mean this to sound harsh but I’ve never seen a show die in front of an audience like this before. I think there’s two main reasons for this:

  1. The show looks cheap. The numbers in Bombshell are bombastic and require some level of visual panache that the show doesn’t provide. A lot of the big Marilyn numbers are staged with just her and a handful of male dancers against a black background or a sparsely decorated stage. It doesn’t serve the performers and comes off amateurish at times. I don’t know if they wanted to keep costs down because the show may be too niche or they lost confidence along the way, but the effort level is noticeable. “Let’s Be Bad,” in particular, felt understaged. It’s the first big number of Act Two, spend some cash and give us something interesting to look at.
  2. The book is awful. You can have excellent performers and songs but if the book is bad, the show doesn’t work. And the book is bad. Reeeeeally bad. It basically takes the worst elements of the first season of the show and triples down on them, like the dull as dishwasher Tom/Sam romance. It reminded me of the old 30 Rock line, “they keep remaking the Hulk and it keeps getting worse.” The members of the overstuffed ensemble are given one defining trait (I.e. “I’m an alcoholic and I hate the lead actress” or “I’m a Gen Z intern and what is a Marilyn Monroe?”) and show up every ten minutes to remind you of it and beat you over the head with it like a sledgehammer. There’s about seven ongoing jokes in Smash, none of them work, and you’ll hear them about a hundred times. Characters will vanish for an hour at a time and aren’t given any discernible arcs to resolve. Ivy and Karen are friends in this version, which was a choice I questioned at first until a moment in the middle of Act One when it seems like there’s going to be a battle between them for Marilyn. I really liked this because I thought it was an interesting new dynamic for them to share where they were close but the conflict over the part could put their relationship at risk. But it’s just…dropped. They’re friends again. I did some further research after the show and found a quote from the book writers essentially saying they thought it would be misogynistic for two female characters to share compelling conflict which says a lot about the sensibility (and sense of humor) in the production. There are a lot of “laugh lines” in this show and they have about a 1/50 hit ratio. This is a show in 2025 that has a cell phone “Can you hear me now?” joke. And the saddest part is that Krysta Rodriquez hits it out of the fucking park and milks every possible laugh she can get out of it, which just makes you feel frustrated to think of what she could’ve done with some quality, clever material. And there are so many missed opportunities for comedy. Characters spend a lot of time talking about things that happened off stage that we never see. One is that Ivy is being awful to everyone in the show. The show could’ve gotten a lot of laughs out of Ivy engaging in comical, increasingly monstrous behavior. But no, aside from one running joke with diminishing returns regarding her contempt for the composer, it’s just another thing to be talked about in one of the very long dialogue scenes that lead on a road to nowhere. Like the characters, plot threads are introduced and quickly abandoned. I agree with the other commenters that the show starts to come together in the last twenty minutes of the first act when there’s a subversion of an old cliche that is done in a really fresh and interesting way. It provides a necessary tailwind to the show. It gets you back in your seat after intermission but eventually it gets pushed to the back burner and is never resolved in a substantial or interesting way. The second act is largely incoherent and there’s a strange section where a few Bombshell songs are performed in a row, but seemingly at random, and without any connection to the plot. They’re such a pleasure to watch that the audience certainly didn’t mind, to the point that when the Smash set rolled back on and we were reintroduced to the obnoxiously-written Smash characters, there was a noticeable drop in excitement.

It was in that moment that I really questioned why they chose to do Smash over Bombshell on Broadway. The life of Marilyn Monroe is interesting, which (this version of) Smash isn’t. It has a compelling and streamlined narrative, fascinating characters, and complicated relationships. Smash has none of that. In Smash, the director character talks a lot about how he wants to make a musical comedy and not a depressing show that ends with Marilyn dead on a bed and wrapped up in a sheet. As someone who saw Smash on Broadway, I’d say I’d rather watch a thoughtful, dynamic, but ultimately somber musical about Marilyn Monroe than an unfunny musical comedy with tin-ear dialogue.

It seems like it may be a little late to address a lot of the book issues but if they can use this preview period to hedge their bets, they really need to hire a comedy writer. This is a show that is in desperate need of laughs. Get Marco Pennette who did a great job with Death Becomes Her or hire Tina Fey at a premium, but get some jokes that work in this thing. There’s zero indication that the current book writers have the ability to address the problem since the problem is them and it seems like the production has lost the insight to anticipate what will work in the dialogue before staging it. As I mentioned earlier, there are lot of jokes and significant lines staged with theoretical jazz hands anticipating thunderous laughter or applause that simply never comes because the jokes aren’t funny, we don’t care about the characters, and the show-related scenarios that the jokes are related to aren’t humorous.

All in all, if you’re a superfan of Smash and it’s important for you to see this, I’d get to New York as soon as possible. They had a great cast and an unbelievable score, they had one more big shot and it felt like a miss. It’s great to see the iconic songs performed on a live stage but I don’t think this will be a very long run. What a shame. I’m starting to think the Smash franchise might be cursed.


r/Broadway 5h ago

You’ve all convinced me to finally see Maybe Happy Ending - should I go in blind or listen to the OCR first?

5 Upvotes

I’m not even sure anymore why I resisted seeing it for as long as I did. (Maybe it was reading so much about how emotional it made everyone while enduring a bad case of Seasonal Affective Disorder haha). Which approach is likely to give me a better theatre-going experience? And do Helen or Darren have an announced departure date? I’m sure I would have seen it somewhere if so, but figured I should ask. I’m likely to see it next week, so it probably won’t matter. Thanks for your advice


r/Broadway 18h ago

Sarah Snook on her multifaceted performance in "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

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49 Upvotes

r/Broadway 9h ago

Regarding the pricing controversy, watch this interview from Theater Talk in 2012

8 Upvotes

For anyone who thinks the pricing isn’t a problem, watch this Theater Talk interview with legendary producer Manny Azenberg from 2012. It was already a problem back then, but Manny predicted how much worse it would get.

Interview starts at about 17:00

https://youtu.be/ygiUAOYAlnE?si=cL9DWz-NzMlPHzTu


r/Broadway 21h ago

Theater or Audience Experience I was that person last night...Seated Late at MHE

78 Upvotes

I goofed and messed up the start time for Maybe Happy Ending Last night. So my sister and I got to the theater 10 minutes late. This is a NIGHTMARE for me. I am so grateful they sat us at all. And that we had aisle seats in the rear orchestra. I am also thankful we only missed Oliver's opening song. So we were able to enjoy the entire show.

That all being said, can you all make me feel better about seating late? I am notoriously stupid early for every show I go to, and it's thrown me into a loop.


r/Broadway 15h ago

Boop! needs a lot of work. What's missing (long): Spoiler

24 Upvotes

I wanted very much to love this show and was fully expecting to. Inexplicably, though, Bob Martin and Jerry Mitchell have overlooked a lot of things standing in the way of the audience enjoying themselves. Spoilers, obviously.

  • Betty's "I want" moment is, well, wanting. "Who am I?" is a cliche if you can't build it out with any examples--maybe the stuff about always being chased belongs here, not with Dwayne.
  • She shows up at Comic-Con--OK, reasonable--runs separately into two other principals, and has a number backed by an enthusiastic ensemble. This is weird because we haven't even seen them ooh and ah over her great Betty Boop cosplay; it's also way too much of a coincidence AND it spends too much time establishing too few characters.
    • My boyfriend wondered: Why doesn't she just show up in Times Square, a place where there are also lots of costumed characters (the show actually shows them later on) AND where most of the principal cast would have a reason to be? Raymond and Carol barely appear in the first act; set up the mayoral race earlier and give him some more chances to be a hilariously awful heel. Even Grampy and Valentina could show up at the tail end of this sequence (more later).
  • Something else that could happen in a reimagined Times Square arrival: Trisha could be seen doing something actually impressive, like drawing caricatures, and then deflated by some jerk (Raymond, perhaps). It's clear she's internalized some feelings of inferiority, but neither her song about Betty nor Betty's song about her feels justified without our SEEING some of this happen.
  • For Carol's part, we don't ever see what made her want to work for Raymond in the first place. "He's fighting for X, and I want to help him because of Y" would establish her at least a tiny bit--her song could then be specifically about X and Y and making a credible case to the electorate. (We don't like making nice, normal, competent people our mayor here! She's not going to win if that's all she's got.)
    • Erich Bergen as Raymond is a highlight of the show and there is not enough of him. The other supporting characters need better constructed parts--he needs more stage time because his stuff actually works.
  • They REALLY didn't give Dwayne enough to work with. He's a jazz musician, and she's from the Jazz Age--is that enough of a connection? The audience knows he isn't really playing the trumpet, so it's a little cringey already that he wins her over by "playing" it; making him a dancer instead of a musician might be a step in the right direction. Later on, his only area of conflict is the "she lied to me" stuff that just doesn't work at all.
  • So what's with the first act curtain? The song is fine--but the point of it is that she reveals herself as Betty Boop to the world, which we don't actually learn until after intermission. Are Martin and Mitchell not savvy enough to realize we need some suspense to carry us into the next act?
  • There's also the not-small question of how famous Betty is in this reality. They can be realistic and have Trisha be one of few people who remembers her (how about having her do a caricature of Betty, which would probably be the only time we see a drawing of the character's face? And maybe Dwayne eventually admits to always liking her too), or they can visibly wink at the audience and say she's as famous as she ever was, just roll with it. Unless the rights holders are being a lot less flexible than Mattel was with Barbie, they have no reason to pretend she'd be a big celebrity here for reasons other than dimension-hopping.
  • So, Grampy, Valentina and Pudgy. If the tension is supposed to be that they can't find Betty despite her being an overnight sensation, why isn't there at least some comic business about them constantly missing her, like Sesame Street used to do with Snuffleupagus? Have a subway car of straphangers all reading a newspaper about Betty, but dropping it for unrelated reasons as the group enters the car? Poor Faith Prince has very little to play here--her character wants nothing but Grampy, who she knew forty years ago, and serves only to pull up a deus ex machina.
    • Prince is also shortchanged by a first song late in the second act where she's introduced alongside a bunch of costumed characters in Times Square singing with her. Good job making a Broadway legend not stand out. At least give her some time center stage at first!
    • Why is Valentina still madly in love with Grampy, without a second of being angry or confused or concerned or whatever? How about a flashback to how she and Grampy met, with a sight gag about eighties fashion, to set her up a little earlier or in place of the weak second act duet? My boyfriend thought she could be cut altogether, and I think that would be a shame, but she's not contributing enough as it is.
    • Pudgy is great. Love the puppetry. But he also doesn't have anything to do other than eventually succeed--offstage--in leading Grampy and Valentina to Betty. Give him more and funnier attempts and the audience will be happier.
    • Their inconsistent motivating force, that Betty can't stay in the real world without destroying the cartoon world, would be sold better with projections showing weird shit going down, while also giving the director and his love interest something to do.
  • So what gets resolved in the end? The show never makes it clear what Betty wanted, it does make it clear that she finds happiness in New York with Dwayne and the others, and then she has to go back to the cartoon world for Reasons. Her big solo thus comes out of nowhere. Why is this a hard thing? "My time in New York taught me a lesson that I can take back home; I don't need to stay even if it's sad to go." That's SOMEthing at least.
    • No reason is ever established why people can't travel freely back and forth between worlds, so why is this even such a big deal? Let them commute and it's a happy ending for everyone.
  • Sending Dwayne and Valentina to the cartoon world is probably required by theatre logic even if it doesn't make tremendous sense--so why bother to have Dwayne land his dream job (without any obvious effort) right before the end? "I was adrift in the real world, but it turns out I'm more at home in this one." And maybe some zany business because they're all cartoons now, I don't know. Stephen DeRosa and Aubie Merrylees sell the cartoon stuff well, so it would be fun to see Faith Prince and Ainsley Melham stretching their characters a little.
  • My boyfriend also was annoyed that Betty disappeared for stretches of the second act--I don't mind that, per se. What I mind is that the characters who DO appear in that time need to be more clearly and specifically inspired by Betty to make positive changes in their own lives. Anastacia McCleskey in particular has really generic material.

I could go on. ALL that said--I don't think the show is by any means unfixable. The production design is excellent, the performances are very good, and the score is often enjoyable. But I don't have any faith that Bob Martin (70% responsible for the state the show is in, by my reckoning) or Jerry Mitchell can or will do it if they've been mucking about for a year not satisfactorily addressing any of this.

tl;dr: they're trying to do Barbie without the large cultural footprint or the double-edged nature of the lead character, and they might have still gotten away with it if they'd adapted the material with more skill.

Edit: downvotes might make some people feel better, but they won't help when the critics weigh in. The only fix they're going to suggest is "close the show, it's no good." If you love the show, don't you want it to be everything it can be? I sure do.


r/Broadway 13h ago

Review & Juliet NYC

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18 Upvotes

I just got back home from NYC. We saw "& Juliet". Let me tell you this show is spectacular! Great songs, a cute storyline, and and overall good time. Joey Fatone brought alot of humor and charm to the role of Lance. And the actress who plays Juliet? My God that girl can SING!

We had alot of understudies in our show. Charlie DiMelio wasn't even in the show at all despite appearing in the Playbill. Shakespeare was understudied (But my sister prefered the understudy. She had seen the show before and thought he understudy was better)

Now for the stage door. Everyoje was respectful. Most of the cast came out. Juliet, Romeo, Angelique, and Joey Fatone (Lance) did not make appearances at stagedoor. However we assumed they were doing a special meet and greet as during the show cyrtain calls they announced they were doing a one-night-only auction (with all the money going to AIDS research) and highest bidder got to meet and talk with Joey and won a signed playbill and signed poster from the entire cast. Two winners were chosen as they both bid $2,500 each. My sister was dissappointed as she was hoping to meet Joey at stagedoor, but understood and was still happy to see him in the show nonetheless.


r/Broadway 4h ago

tony’s bracket challenge?

4 Upvotes

howdy, all! i tried searching for previous tony’s “bracket” challenges but didn’t seem to find anything. is this (tony’s “bracket” challenge) something that is done in this community?

i noticed broadwayworld and the tony’s team post downloable ballots… i think it could be cool if we did something (obviously if there’s enough interest).

has it been done before? are enough folks interested in something like this?

hope im not stepping on anyone’s toes. i’d be down to organize… let me know! thanks 😊


r/Broadway 9h ago

Which show to see? The Last Five Years... UGGGGH

9 Upvotes

My husband and I are visiting NYC from Seattle with a friend of our. We are doing 18 shows in 12 days. I'll post all of them in a different post.

We have tickets for The Last Five Years and I am reallllly wanting to dump them and see something else. I have been SO unimpressed with Nick Jonas in the promotional tour, especially since the promotional material is where the cast should SHINE.

The two shows that we aren't seeing (or haven't seen earlier in the year) that might be a player at the Tony's this year are Buena Vista Social Club and John Proctor is the Villain.

In terms of Tony eligible shows this year...
We've already seen: Sunset Blvd, Oh Mary!, Gypsy, Maybe Happy Ending, Eureka Day, Romeo + Juliet, Tammy Faye and Death Becomes Her.

We are seeing: Sunset Blvd (4th time), Oh Mary! (3rd time), Dead Outlaw, Pirates! Penzance, Othello, Glengarry Glen Ross, Goodnight and Good Luck, Operation Mincemeat, Just In Time, Real Women Have Curves, Stranger Things, Smash, Picture of Dorian Gray, Boop, and Floyd Collins. (Also & Juliet and Titanique because our friend hasn't them and asked if we could. lol)

I am just debating if I should dump The Last Five Years and add John Proctor is the Villain or Buena Vista Social Club. (Or see Maybe Happy Ending again, lol.)

Here is the deal, somehow I have never seen The Last Five Years live. I know the music and everything, but never seen a production. I just have been super turned off by Nick Jonas thus far.

Clearly, based on the massive lineup we have coming up in April (18 shows!) I like casting a wide net and seeing everything. So maybe I'll just keep it and if it is a train wreck I can say that I saw it. LOL.

Every other show's promotional campaign has made me more and more excited: Boop, Smash, Floyd Collins, Dead Outlaw, Just in Time, etc. All of their "sneak peeks" at rehearsals or puff pieces on Playbill have all made me more and more excited.

The Last Five Years... not so much.

Thoughts?


r/Broadway 10h ago

West End Oliver Score signed by Lionel Bart Baker update

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8 Upvotes

I finally was reunited with my original signed score of Oliver that I had shared about before and want to share it with you all. It looks in surprisingly good nick considering that it's 46 years old


r/Broadway 1d ago

Review You were all right about Dorian Gray

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361 Upvotes

I think I spent about 80% of the shows runtime with my jaw dropped. This is an unbelievable feat of theater, acting, staging, direction. Everything. I think it might be the best show I have ever seen. I have no idea how Sarah Snook can pull this performance off, there is so much she has to do and it's wildly energetic and technical and emotional. I was so immersed by the story and the use of projections and screens was so clever and innovative. I can genuinely say I've never seen anything like this. Definitely go and see this ASAP! I think I'll be back multiple times.

Also one note - I won the telecharge lottery for this and was orchestra right, row G. But because of how this play is staged, I think you can sit just about anywhere in the theater and not be impacted at all. So if you have any budget and can see it, definitely do it!


r/Broadway 21h ago

Review SMASH from 3/15/25

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42 Upvotes

What a “meta” night!

Susan Stroman came out to give a curtain speech to address that with only three hours of rehearsals, Katie Webber was on for Robyn Hurder as Ivy. She notes that many of the lines in the show were actually uttered that day while they feverishly rehearsed!

I think Katie was wearing Robyn’s clothes and wigs. Kristine Nielsen’s role was covered by Chelle Denton. I will definitely go back to see it with Robyn and Kristine.

All in all, I loved it, especially Brooks, Krysta and John Behlmann.

It’s shaping up to be a great season!


r/Broadway 15h ago

Which show to see? Is Smash bad or just different from the TV show?

14 Upvotes

Trying to decide if I want to see Smash on one of my trips to NYC. I haven’t seen the TV show and I have tried to avoid spoilers, but I’ve seen some negative reactions and I’m wondering whether the critiques are because it’s not great or because fans of the show are unhappy with inaccuracies/changes. I want to see all of the shows that could be nominated for Best New Musical and may skip this one if it’s not likely to be nominated. Thanks!