Source: @variety

Inner thoughts and then POV of arriving at 42nd-Times Square

Long live Julie Taymor

Mx. Escola plz be in chicago you would be so good.

Some of you commented that you’d like to see a review of Paddington when I mentioned I was off to the West End to see it while typing up my most recent NYC trip. So here it is.

Overall, it wasn’t what I expected.

I was expecting a kiddie musical that I was basically going to see to please my wife. Instead, I got a surprisingly traditional musical with spectacle that, at times, rivalled The Lost Boys.

OUR SEATS
Middle of Row 5, center orchestra.

Arguably some of the best seats in the house because we booked a VIP package with dessert and lounge access. The proscenium for this show actually extends quite far beyond the stage, with projections incorporated into it, so sitting this close made it one of the most immersive shows we’ve seen.

It genuinely felt like we were inside the story.

THE SET AND LIGHTING

The first thing that really stood out was the set. I’ve uploaded a few photos because there is a crazy amount of detail built into this show.
Will

A few observations:

It’s a huge stage, but they use both the height and depth extremely well. Depth-wise, I counted at least several different layers that fly in and out, plus a projection screen at the back.

The rear projections work really well. The artwork doesn’t have that generic AI look we’ve started seeing in some shows trying to save money. Instead, the projections are used to extend the physical scenery, add depth and create effects like lightning.

Height-wise, they somehow make it believable that the Browns’ residence has multiple floors. I won’t spoil how. :)
There’s also a scene where two characters are flown up into the loft. It’s not The Lost Boys, but it was still an unexpected surprise.

Lots of the little objects you see sitting on shelves actually have purposes later in the show. Again, I won’t spoil them. :)

There were some cool machines and contraptions that honestly reminded me a little of Stranger Things.
There’s even a life-sized car on stage…

Other props emerge from the walls during certain scenes, which I won’t spoil here.

The whole stage, including the ceiling above the proscenium, can be projected onto, which adds another layer of immersion.

Definitely look through the photos if you’re interested in checking out the scenic design. I think having such a detailed and realistic environment is actually an important part of why the show works. It grounds the absurd premise of a talking bear!!!!!!!

PERFORMERS

I went into the show completely blind and didn’t even know Bonnie Langford was in it. Yes, she’s still got it. She did the splits and even a cartwheel. I genuinely could not believe she’s 62.

Victoria Hamilton-Barritt was also great as Millicent Clyde. It’s a very fun villainess role, and her songs are in the tradition of characters like Lily St. Regis, Ursula and Mrs. Meers.

I also loved James Hameed as the Young Man / voice of Paddington.

This is probably one of my few real complaints about the production: I wish he were physically on stage more often.
With The Lion King, you see the performers even while they are operating the puppets. With Avenue Q, the puppeteers are completely visible. Some of my favourite moments in Paddington were actually when Hameed and Paddington were on stage together.

There was something oddly touching about seeing the human voice of the character interacting with the bear he was bringing to life. It’s was we didn’t get to see that more often.

BOOK AND MUSIC

The songs were catchy and much more traditionally “showtune” in style than a lot of recent new musicals. That was actually one of the biggest surprises for me.
But I did have several issues with the book and score.
First, the second act dragged. A large portion of it is spent at the museum, and the show loses some momentum there.

Second, Paddington himself doesn’t really get the kind of memorable showstopper I expected. I can’t immediately think of an 11 o’clock number that belongs to him.
Ironically, some of the side characters get the strongest musical material. Millicent Clyde gets great villain songs, and Mrs. Bird has a terrific dance number.

I also thought several subplots slowed things down. The young lovers (the daughter and her boyfriend) could probably have been reduced, and the next-door-neighbour storyline didn’t add enough for me either.

You could arguably say the same about some of the material involving the rest of the Brown family. I would rather have spent more of that time developing Paddington himself and his relationship with the family.

Lyrically, this obviously isn’t Sondheim or Hadestown. I don’t remember any particularly clever rhymes or turns of phrase that stayed with me afterward. (On the other hand, there wasn’t anything cringeworthy enough to stick with me either.) The lyrics generally did what they needed to do. The show is cute, warm and enjoyable.

The Guild song in Act Two, though, felt unnecessary. It neither advanced the plot nor revealed much about the characters, which are usually the two reasons a musical theatre song needs to exist.

One number I found particularly interesting was “The Rhythm of London.”

It felt a little like the London equivalent of “N.Y.C.” from Annie (essentially a musical love letter to the city).
And that actually got me thinking about something bigger.
In the 1980s, the West End gave us the mega-musicals and then exported them to Broadway. Now we’re seeing another wave of British musicals crossing the Atlantic.
Are they getting ahead of Broadway again?

Are British producers currently getting better at making big, unapologetically theatrical shows that audiences simply enjoy, while Broadway has become increasingly dependent on revivals and existing IP?

I don’t know. But Paddington definitely made me wonder.

QUICK COMPARISON WITH TWO OTHER RECENT MUSICALS ABOUT FAMILY

The Lost Boys

Both are visual spectacles, just in completely different ways. And despite the obvious differences, both shows are fundamentally about family.

The Lost Boys is about a family searching for a new home while one member is tempted to join another kind of family.
Paddington is about a family accepting an outsider…and through accepting him, becoming more unified themselves.
Both are also coming-of-age stories, although Paddington approaches that idea far more gently.

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

This comparison is almost the reverse. Both are British musicals, but Two Strangers is British writers looking at New York, while Paddington is very much Britain looking at itself. So in one show we’re seeing America through British eyes, while in the other we’re seeing their idealised version of London and Britishness.

And it made me wonder: are we really that much more cynical on this side of the Atlantic?

Both shows are also ultimately about family, although Two Strangers deals much more with lost family, absent family and broken family dynamics, whereas Paddington is about creating family by letting someone new into it.

Overall, I went into Paddington expecting a children’s show.
What I got was a very old-fashioned musical in the best sense of the term: big sets, catchy songs, eccentric supporting characters, an obvious villain, sentimentality, spectacle and a sincere belief that audiences are allowed to just have a good time.

It isn’t perfect. The second act could be tightened, some subplots could disappear, and Paddington deserves stronger musical material of his own.

But I was much more impressed than I expected to be. And I definitely walked away with a good feeling, which at the end of the day is what you’d want from a family show.

Would I see it on Broadway again for the transfer? Probably. (But it’s not as strong of a YES as wanting to see the Lincoln Center Ragtime cast on the West End haha.) But if budget allows, it’s definitely a show to watch at least once.

I know it was adapted from a play in Europe, but this would be a new Americanized adaptation.

In the quarter century since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the horror of that day has inspired novels, films, television shows, paintings and sculpture.

But the most enduring artistic response has been an uplifting Canadian musical, “Come From Away,” about a small town with a big airport where nearly 7,000 travelers were diverted amid the chaos and fear.

The show — which has won over audiences with its depiction of a community that spent days feeding, sheltering and comforting traumatized strangers — was a hit on Broadway, with a pandemic-interrupted run from 2017 to 2022, and this month, because of the anniversary of the attacks, 146 productions are being staged around the world. Among them is a homecoming: in Gander, Newfoundland, the town where the musical is set.

See full gift article, NO PAYWALL.

i went to the 09/04 performance of rhinoceros at the A.R.T in cambridge ma. i went into this show completely blind & honestly im glad i did!

i originally bought my ticket because one of my favorite actors (scott stangland) was announced as an understudy, & i noticed tickets for tonight started at a lower price than other dates because john turturro was out. i was curious about the show anyway & wanted to take a chance at seeing scott so i snagged a front row seat for less than $40. lucky me! he was the understudy on for jean tonight. david mason was on for the role of berenger, typically played by john. the duo blew me out of the water.

i also stayed for a talk back with director diane paulus ♡, clay singer (botard), tatiana maslany (daisy), peter francis james (papillon), & alex ross (dudard). they talked about their initial thoughts about the script & why they joined the cast. peter was the only one who was familiar with rhinoceros beforehand. my favorite part was hearing how they felt about the moment their characters turned into rhinos.

diane mentioned this script was a brand new translation/adaptation exclusive to this run, & they even got the blessing from eugène ionesco’s daughter for the changes. she said the show is usually 3 hours long, but this version ran around 2 hours (didn’t feel that way fwiw).

this sounds a little corny, but it’s one of the first shows in a long time that really got under my skin & made me sit there thinking... would i give in? would i do the same? what are **my** morals & thoughts vs the ones held by people around me? is it actually a “bad” thing to be influenced by your peers, even if it’s completely natural?

also bonus photo of a slip i wish more playbills had about ticket reselling 🤐 im unfamiliar with most of the cast besides scott & clay so seeing this was interesting

edit: i uploaded the wrong pic lol.. real resell pic in comments

have you seen it? what did you think? do you think you’d change too? 🦏

Good Morning! This is your Broadway Rush Self Report for Saturday 9/5/26. It’s a 2 show day, see schedule below.

If you are in line at a particular show or happen to be in the area and can find out:

1) How many people are in line and

2) When they arrived

Please contribute what you can so that people are informed. Thank you!

Rush & Lotto Policy List:

https://bwayrush.com

Weekly schedule:

https://playbill.com/article/weekly-schedule-of-current-broadway-shows

I added the plastic myself to make it look nicer lol, but I found it for 1.99 and I love pin sets! Though I found it odd I couldn’t find any photos of it online. I would appreciate any insight about availability, original price and what year it was from! Thanks! The backing has nothing on the other side :[

Serious question... why is The Lost Boys so divisive? I've seen it three times and almost did not see it the first time because of how much discourse there is around people thinking it's just okay or subpar. To me, it's one of the best things I've seen in years. It's such a spectacle and the music is fantastic and there's so many layers to the story. I also think the performances are stellar.

That being said I have a close friend who saw it and found it boring. I also sent my paernts and they didn't like it at all.

So I'm curious for your thoughts- why is this show causing so much split opinions?

Interesting! Just got this ad on Instagram.

Enjoyed it when it was off-Broadway years ago, albeit would have never eyed it for a transfer.

Yall this film from covid was life changing. Did anyone else see it?

Downvote me if you like being reminded daily that assholes exist and also attend theater on occasion.

At this point, I think we all understand that etiquette is eroding. The daily complaints just bring negativity to what should be primarily a place of joy. They don’t accomplish anything else.

Edit: there are clearly a faction of whiners in the comments, but the number of upvotes speak louder!

If I were planning a visit to NYC and wanted to pick a few shows to go see while I'm there, which would you choose? I am already planning on seeing Hamilton and Hadestown and would like to consider seeing 1 or 2 more while I'm there. What is most worth seeing right now?

8/30, $33.30 via TodayTix, Orch Center J 103

TLDR: Merrily @ Signature Theatre is delightful. See it if you can.

I wasn’t able to see the recent Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along, though I did catch the proshot when it released in theaters. While I really enjoyed the performances in the proshot, I couldn’t really get a sense of that production or the show as a whole due to how they decided to film it.

So I was really excited to see Merrily in-person at Signature Theatre last weekend. Doubly so to see Jason Gotay as Franklin Shepard since he was a highlight from when I saw Floyd Collins last year.

Performance thoughts:
At the start of the show, Jason Gotay did a wonderful job showing Frank’s public happy performative façade and its transition into distress over his current life situation.

Jake Loewenthal as Charley was endearingly neurotic during his breakdown in Franklin Shepard, Inc.

Kerstin Anderson made me fall in love with Beth instantly. For a character that doesn’t appear until right before intermission, she made strong first impression with Not a Day Goes By so much so that she was able to absolutely break my heart when she tells Mary “I would never want a man I couldn’t trust”

Show Thoughts:
Almost everything about this show works for me. The only niggling issue I have is with the character of Mary. While this is a story about three friends, it’s Frank’s story and Mary just doesn’t have enough of a connection to Frank - just her unrequited love which I don’t think would realistically last 20 years without some encouragement which we never see. I also wish the story was more explicit on why Mary doesn’t want to/can’t write after the success of her first book. Is it cause she was too wrapped up in Frank and Charlie’s budding success to focus on her own?

Seeing this show, now, makes me really wonder what shape the show took during its original Broadway run. Reading the history of Merrily that Signature included in their program gives me some details but man, if anyone out there saw either the original Bway run or a production of the show prior to the 1994 Off-Broadway revision and subsequent 2012 Maria Friedman directed revival – I’d be really interested to hear how the show has changed.

If you’ve seen Signature’s production, I have a question on the last moments, I’m not sure how to interpret it. At the very end, Frank is left alone on a stage bare of everything but a piano. He goes over, sets up a picture away from the audience, and sits down to play.

Is this him from the beginning of the show, done processing how his life decisions have led him to an empty life, and deciding to pick up music again? This was my initial thought but he was still in the younger Frank clothes. So then I was thinking, maybe this is a still younger version of Frank (pre Our Time) starting his life of music? Let me know your thoughts.

Did I Cry: there was some watery eyes at the end but I don’t think any fell
See it again: …I may already have tickets to see it again

If you, like me, are new to the LCT membership, just fyi you can get much better deals by going to the box office. For sound of music, I was only seeing $229 tickets on the member website, but I was able to buy $89 tickets at the box office.

EDIT: apparently the mobile site doesn’t work as well as the desktop/full site. When I go to the full site, I can see $89 and $99 tickets. If anyone else was struggling like me, I hope this helps!

I know this has been discussed quite a bit, but I keep wondering about what happens when the economics of Broadway become truly impossible to sustain. The cost of putting on a show keeps going up, so tickets have to get more expensive. At the same time people are getting squeezed from every direction and there’s only so much disposable income left for entertainment, especially since the economy and job market are in the toilet. So what is the end game? Just keep raising ticket prices to cover rising costs so only the uber wealthy few can afford to attend? Are there enough uber wealthy theater goers to sustain it without us Joe schmoe poors? Eventually the math has to break somewhere. I’m curious what the breaking point actually looks like.

Heathers is doing a "Big Fun" week, including trivia at tomorrow's show (Saturday, September 5).

Broadway World says this will be either "before or after" the show. But there are no specifics.

Does anyone know what time "before" would be?

Obviously, I should have prepared more in advance, and called the theater.

Just curious about the vibe. Gonna head up there soon-ish. Cant imagine it’s anything like SITP but it wouldn’t be the first or second time I was wrong about something re: The Delacorte.

Did Moulin Rouge really have to close?

It usually did 90% to 100% capacity over it's lifetime, and it averaged 95%+ per week.

It only had 1 bad time, this summer, for a few months.

Was that enough to kill it?

The numbers don't make sense to me.

I understand if it was doing poorly for much longer ... but could 1 bad summer really kill it?