Official Blurb: A Hilarious New Musical About An Unintentionally Hilarious New Musical!Need we say more? Okay we will! Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells—who became pretty famous on Broadway and then extremely super famous out in Hollywood—are coming back to their musical theater roots, putting on a show together because they just love each other so damn much. And what did they pick? A hilarious new musical from the guys who wrote Beetlejuice and the guy who directed Beetlejuice and Moulin Rouge. It’s the story of two best pals named Bud and Doug who put on a show together because they just love each other so damn much. It’s art imitating life imitating art! And it’s the funniest thing to come to Broadway since 1448! (Which is the year the printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg, who is the subject of the musical that Bud and Doug write, but that’s not important right now.)
My take: This was different than what I expected but not in a bad way, in a surprising, very cool way. Seriously, there is no way you will have a bad time with 2 hours of Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad performing for you. Also the stamina they have, I was tired for them, two men shows are a feat! Them playing all the towns characters with named baseball caps is hilarious and fed amazingly to their comedic chops. Is the music itself great – maybe not, but I don’t think its about that. The price of admission is them not the rest. You will be laughing off your seat! I was dying during their “choreography”. My Audience rewards free ticket came through for the win with the amazing second row seat!
Official Blurb: Directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello, Here We Are will feature Francois Battiste, Tracie Bennett, Bobby Cannavale, Micaela Diamond, Amber Gray, Jin Ha, Rachel Bay Jones, Denis O’Hare, Steven Pasquale, David Hyde Pierce, and Jeremy Shamos. The understudies for Here We Are are Bradley Dean, Adam Harrington, Bligh Voth, Adante Carter, Mehry Eslaminia, and Lindsay Nicole Chambers. The musical features a book by Tony Award nominee David Ives, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and is inspired by two films, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel, by Luis Buñuel. Here We Are will include choreography by Sam Pinkleton, set design and costume design by David Zinn, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by Tom Gibbons, orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, musical direction and supervision by Alexander Gemignani, hair design by Wigmakers Associates, and casting by The Telsey Office.
My take: Ok this got me very confused. These articles I’m linking here that helped post the show, to really understand what was going on. Especially since I had not seen the Luis Bunuel movies.
This is definitely weird, and I don’t mind the weird. I kind of was totally digging the weirdness. The problem for me is that I just think its not a fully formed musical. Having such amazing singing talent onstage and having them sing absolutely nothing the second act was a disappointment. For me it does feel somewhat incomplete. I understand the need to see it, but I think Sondheim would have thought of a better musical theme to represent the craziness of the second act better than just not having music. Also I’m used to Sondheim not being about memorable melodies when I leave but the whole craftmanship of it all, but I have to say a few days out I cannot remember anything of the music. The stages were gorgeous!
The cast however is perfect, they are amazing. Seeing them onstage was a masterclass in acting and I would say you need to just go to this for them Go for the cast, but lower your expectations and think of this a workshop and not a fully formed Sondheim show and it might be a better experience.
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