The Chinese restaurant scene in the film is hysterical, and a classic. The pretentious "high and mighty" crowd will cry foul about anything these days.
I am looking forward to seeing this one. I don't think the film cries musicalization, but it might be a fun Christmas entertainment with a little intelligence.
First of all, the movie is wonderful. One of the best Christmas movies, and one of the best 80's movies ever made; as the film nears its 30th birthday it's become clear that it deserves the label of "classic."
The Chinese restaurant scene is indeed hilarious in the film, and make no mistake, this humor is not of the 40's, but of the 80's. Don't forget the mom's red hair is done in a Meg Ryan loose perm style!
Now onto the musical. Other than Dan Lauria, who really does a nice job, the show is complete dreck. Where, o where to begin. The whole thing looks like it was produced for $5.95. Cheap sets, cheap (and ugly) costumes. The santa slide set is the worst offender as the slide doesn't even face the audience and isn't big enough, which defeats the whole joke.
The book and score don't get much better. They give us the movie scene for scene, word for word. Plus they pause the action for all the songs. It makes for a very long 2.5 hours. Of all the recent movie to musical adaptations this one screams, "Why didn't I just stay home and watch the movie?!" loudest.
Before After Eight admitted to never having seen this movie I would have thought everyone was familiar with it, if for no other reason than it's rerun ad nauseum every year on tv. I can watch the movie every Christmas and laugh, but somehow on stage it's all too obvious and all the humor is lost.
Not only do the songs halt the action, they aren't any good. Bland, generic- you know the drill. It really makes crap like Chaplin smell pretty sweet.
It looks like Ralphie is played by alternating actors, so I don't know if I saw the same actor Jordan and After Eight saw, and I feel a little guilty about attacking a child, but he was not good. I mean Gina found more notes in "An English Teacher" than this kid did tonight. The actor who played his brother was weak too, and the eat like a little piggy bit fell flat.
The whole thing was just stupid. The film is just too good to be shat on in this fashion.
Does AfterEight just monitor the boards 24/7 just to wait for Whizzer to post??? Good lord.
Anyway, I didn't care for the show either. It really dragged and aside from Lauria, all the performances fell flat. Looking forward to ELF (which I saw last year and loved) on Thursday.
As Jordan mentioned, the scene in the Chinese restaurant is definitely one of the most famous (and hysterical) scenes in the movie. I'm glad they weren't afraid enough to sanitize the material and cut the joke.
Part of what makes the scene work so well is that it's filmed in a stationary long shot, Woody Allen style. McGavin is expert in his delivery of, "I think it's smiling at me," and the singing isn't presented in a cruel manner. In fact Melinda Dillon is laughing in spite of know it's wrong throughout.
If they had to turn the movie into a show it should have just been a play, with perhaps some traditional carols thrown in.
Erin Dilly was good. She is saddled with two of the sappiest ballads on Broadway right now though, and I guess it's a testament to her talent that she pulled them off as well as she did.
One minor thing they did drop from the movie was after she makes Ralphie eat the soap she puts the soap in her own mouth and takes a bite. It was the little details like that that this production missed. They weren't able to capture the mood or style of the film despite retaining the plot and dialogue.
John Bolton particularly missed the boat on his character, IMO. McGavin was a terrifying force. The scene where he changed the tire used to scare the crap out of me as a child. When Ralphie was scared that his dad was going to kill you actually believed that he really might. Bolton was too goofy and devoid of any menace.
O'Connor tries her best, but for her big fantasy sequence she is in a cheap and ill-fitting dress that looks like Jan Maxwell's "Lucy and Jessie" dress.
And the adult chorus' Wild West outfits looked the Mormon pioneer outfits from "All-American Prophet." The three young girls in the "Saloon" fantasy costumes looked like Melissa Errico during the courtroom scene of Amour (and they did the cartwheel Errico performed too).
Eddie Korbich also is making his return to the Lunt. Shockingly "Positoovity" is looking pretty good right now.
Ha, to be clear I meant you'd go mental in a bad way! I don't know if this show will be reigniting anything for you...
Jordan, yeah it's better than Scandalous, at least in so much that the main house set actually moves on and off the stage and doesn't encumber the action. Still everything looks VERY cheap and actors are forced to push around chairs, desks, PINE TREES ON WHEELS and a car that gives Good Vibrations a run for its money. (Ok so the car from Good Vibrations may have been fashioned out of folding chairs, and this isn't so bad, but it's not good either!)
I really find it offensive when actors have to move the set on Broadway. It's different when it's suppose to be a low-budget show like the recent Sweeney. That makes sense and that's a style. But shows like Chaplin and this, c'mon. You're paying $120 for a ticket.
RippedMan- I agree. If the cast is moving the set for stylistic reasons I'm all for it. Tonight it was cheap and tacky. Poor O'Connor had to push her teacher's desk on an upstage cross for what seemed like 20 seconds. She stayed in character, but it was like, come on!
Are investors stupid??? I just don't get it. I mean, people invested in Scandalous and Flashdance? Etc? I mean c'mon. Why aren't shows like The Whale brought to Broadway? I know everyone says "Oh, it wouldn't last," but I'd rather see a good show struggle and try to make it, then some crap like Scandalous.
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joined:11/4/05
Posted: 11/9/12 at 09:39pm