Finding Neverland

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michaelJ
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Finding Neverland

Post by michaelJ »

I saw Finding Neverland at the American Repertory Theater -three thumbs up (I'll need to borrow a thumb from someone). The mixture of fantasy and reality in the story was done to perfection and it was filled with excellent performances, direction, sets, lighting, effects - in other words, I think they got this one right. The emotion and meaning of the story was not lost. Each memorable ballad and rousing choreographed number served the purpose of telling and driving the story forward. The audience was buzzing at intermission and after the show. Some of the words I heard drifting about the crowd were "amazing, fantastic, and incredible". For an indication of the talent assembled here, I counted 21 different cast members with Broadway or West End credits listed. Definitely not your typical regional musical.

Some thoughts on the cast:

Jeremy Jordan - This show needs an outstanding performance from the actor playing J.M. Barrie and Jordan delivers it. He is the star of this show, hands down. He captures the complexities of shifting from seriousness to playfulness and back again effortlessly, and he has a fantastic singing voice.

Laura Michelle Kelly - Excellent as Sylvia Davies, beautiful voice.

Michael McGrath - Charles Frohman/Hook. He commanded the stage with his presence in both roles. There is a short part where he is on stage in front of the curtain by himself interacting with the audience a bit, a la George at the start of Act 2 in Billy Elliot. He rivals Joel Blum in this regard. (this is a good thing!)

Carolee Carmello - Mrs. du Maurier - Fine performance full of upper class staunchness and the right amount of softening as the story unfolds.

Aidan Gemme - As Peter Davies, Aidan gets the biggest and most demanding role of any of the Davies boys. Peter, like Barrie, has to shift from being playful to serious to guarded at the drop of a hat and Aidan flowed through it all with flying colors. He has a very good voice and sings with emotion. Well done.

Sawyer Nunes, Alex Dreier, Hayden Signoretti - The other three Davies boys. All three were wonderful. Completely natural and comfortable on stage and they all sing very well. I really should not have listed them all together as that gives the impression they act as one unit. They do not. Although they are usually together, each boy shows a different personality on stage which makes their interactions with each other and with the adults realistic and believable.

other thoughts:

There is a one liner that is guaranteed to get laughter and continued giggles night after night. When I heard the line I immediately thought of William Elliot is...
When Peter is debuting his first play he describes the emotion of it as "nervewracking". I beg your pardon? :lol:
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michaelJ
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Re: Finding Neverland

Post by michaelJ »

A few show clips and audience reaction to Finding Neverland on Broadwayworld:

http://www.broadwayworld.com/videoplay. ... -WNQPldWSo

From my experience at the show, they did not have to search for people to heap praise. They pretty much could have picked anyone out of the crowd and they would have all said the same types of things. If this doesn't have a successful run on Broadway I'll be shocked, particularly if Jeremy Jordan is cast as J.M. Barrie.
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StevenKing
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Re: Finding Neverland

Post by StevenKing »

How good is the music now? The clips of the first attempt at it totally underwhelmed(and I'm being generous there) me music wise, I near they have all new music now.
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michaelJ
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Re: Finding Neverland

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StevenKing wrote:How good is the music now? The clips of the first attempt at it totally underwhelmed(and I'm being generous there) me music wise, I near they have all new music now.
I was completely unfamiliar with the first attempt at Finding Neverland in the UK, or the story in general for that matter, having never seen the movie either. I have now watched a few clips from that musical and I too am underwhelmed.
Overall, I found the new music and lyrics to be outstanding. I believe that there are zero carry over songs from the UK version. There are a couple of new songs that were forgettable in my opinion but I found the vast majority of the music is memorable and moving.
If you watched the clip of the audience reaction you heard someone say that it was the best musical they had ever seen. I heard the exact same words from more than one audience member on the way out of the show that I saw. It will be interesting to see how this show is received in New York.
kport
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Re: Finding Neverland

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Rather late posting this - a story about FN in The Boston Globe:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2014/07 ... story.html
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CJ-Rochester
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Re: Finding Neverland

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It is now official that "Finding Neverland" will come to Broadway this season!

http://playbill.com/news/article/194504 ... This-March

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/ ... blogs&_r=0
:/
kport
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Re: Finding Neverland

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michaelJ
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Re: Finding Neverland

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Links to several reviews below. One article says that to date 3 million dollars have been spent on this production and by the time it hits Broadway another 11 million will have been spent.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/19 ... -Neverland
http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Re ... -145fldWSo

Quite mixed, ranging from "I don't have enough thumbs to raise" to "It will need to be toned down considerably if any Broadway audience members above the age of five can be expected to sit through it all (let alone buy tickets)." Songs described as being "either highly perky...or soaringly inspirational" to "a mostly bland and forgettable score". Meanwhile, every show appears to be selling out. Time will tell...
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CJ-Rochester
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Re: Finding Neverland

Post by CJ-Rochester »

Here is a review from the New York Times, somewhat mixed:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/theat ... .html?_r=0
:/
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michaelJ
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Re: Finding Neverland

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Two more reviews, one bad, one predicting Tony Awards. Can't get much more mixed than that.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4bdd5078-245e ... z3AnravzHj

http://chelmsford.wickedlocal.com/artic ... E/?Start=1
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