An American fail in Paris! I was shocked at how disappointing this musical is. It won so many awards: BEST MUSICAL of the year (2015) by both the Drama League and the Outer Critics Circle, and it received four Tony Awards®.
Maybe I was having a bad night—I WAS! I was watching this boring musical.
Slow-moving, boiler-plate plot. They took a tired idea, typed in new names, and chose mostly the most obscure tunes from the Gershwin songbook they could find. Very disappointing.
On the nicer side, the 5 main characters had great voices, and the two male/female leads danced very well. We saw it at the Orange County Performing arts center. And maybe that’s the problem. I have to say that I’ve been mostly disappointed with the productions I’ve seen there. The room seems to swallow the sound and the intensity of the music.
That’s the main point. There was no intensity, no real drive to the show. It could have been the room, but no. The play is depressing, the energy is lacking, the songs are dated and uninteresting. I would have done better to by a DVD of the original movie and stay home.
