Quite a day at the theater seeing THREEPENNY OPERA in the afternoon and LESTAT in the evening. But the true highlight of the day had to be seeing DR Jose in a real Broadway orchestra pit, to which he came down to say hi to Skip and me at intermission. (Just happened that one of Jose's colleagues, to whom Jose introduced us, had played for Skip's TIME AND AGAIN in San Diego, so that was fun as well.)
OK, I said I won't say anything from a "quality" perspective about LESTAT, but I will say that i just looked back at some of LESTAT's San Francisco reviews, and from what's on the stage at the Palace now, you'd never believe that this show (2 hours and 35 minutes, but which breezed along like a show under 2 hours) was the same basic piece as the one that got the San Franscisco reviews - in fact, they seem to have taken some of the major reviews to heart and used the tryout reviews the way MOVIN' OUT had apparently used their out-of-town reviews, as a constructive springboard to create a show that could well be a success. My only concerns are (a) that Bernie Taupin's totally intentional (and not even remotely lazy) use of pop near-rhymes might come under criticism, as ear-tickling as they are and (b) well, how can I put this delicately - the show's content is extremely gay-friendly, and some people in our vicinity were heard to go "ewww" at the sight of two men kissing - I had to check my Playbill to asusure myself that this was New York and this was 2006. As to clarity of the show, there were only two plot points I didn't follow, and I had them explained to me, but otherwise not knowing the novels was not a detriment. A lovely evening, and both of us can't wait to see it again in a few weeks!