Total Bent - Saw it 3/10

[barcelona20]

Did anyone go to Total Bent last night?

[Dollypop]

Yes, there definitely were people in the audience.

[Kad]

Dollypop, however, was asleep on his couch by 5pm.

I was there. The show is... long. Too long. It needs a great deal of work, and nothing save perhaps the last twenty minutes reaches the best of Passing Strange. The first act feels like a repetitive play with music, with perhaps one good, fully realized number. The first half of the second act is much the same way, only instead of one good number, we get snippets of good songs.

It's a mess. There's something there, I think. But it needs a lot of cleaning up. It's buoyed significantly by the incredibly talented cast.

[Dollypop]

That's a terribly rude thing for you to say about me, Kad. It shows that you're immature and unkind, especially in light of the fact that I'm new medications and stay up later than I ever have.

Thank you very much!

[Lavieboheme3090]

I was there tonight, and I can say hands down this has been the most exciting musical of the season. Stew and Heidi have created a brilliant companion piece to Passing Strange. All of the actors are pitch perfect in their roles, the score is electrifing, and the book is both touching and funny.
The first act was a little unfocused, but it can certainly be tightened up, but the 2nd act is absolutely incredible, with a fantastic gospel score that explores the difference between the sacred and profane. And with every ticket in the house priced at $15 what do you have to loose?

[barcelona20]

Thanks for the info, it sounds promising. What is the running time now?

[Kad]

They got it down to about 2:30 tonight, including intermission

[jansalrose2]

.

[James2]

I saw it last night, and I mostly agree with Kad. The first act was dull, save a song Vondie Curtis Hall sings called "Praise for the Boy Preacher", which I think reaches "Passing Strange" level of quality. The second act is boosted considerably by David Cole's funny performance. The whole cast is talented, but Cole and Curtis were my favorites.

Mainly, the show has too little music, or perhaps too little character-based music. The songs are mostly fragments of songs the protagonist is unable to finish. Aside from "Boy Preacher", I can't really recall any songs that were particularly introspective.

I really hope Stew and Heidi turn this show around.

[Ejm105989]

I'm probably going to see it next week. The director is a family friend so I really want to go out and support the show. The story sounds very interesting :)

[PlayItAgain]

Saw it last night, I really enjoyed it, William Jackson Harper is fantastic as the lead and the energy in the room is amazing, it obviously needs a little work (thus it being a Lab performance) but there is something really great happening

[Vespertine1228]

Chances are good The Public will put this in their regular season next year, right? So maybe I should wait?

[Kad]

It's... possible. This hasn't been selling particularly well. I'm sure the work will emerge again somewhere, but I don't know if it'll be next season. I'd be surprised.

[YoungSally]

I am seeing this tomorrow night...my sister and I are jokingly calling it "not-Stew" because we had some odd notion that he would be performing in it....not as a role...but at least as a musician.

That catty point aside, I am less worried about the sales and some of the "it's not ready" criticisms. They are showing this in the Anspacher....which seats 275....the only larger space at the Public is the Newman (at 300)....Lab productions are usually in much smaller spaces, but the usual Lab space is currently home to the box office trailer. In addition, as far as I know, this is the first time the work has been produced. By the time PS got to the Public it had completed a run at Berkeley and I think several other workshop-like settings.

A recent LAB production (Andrew Jackson) also had some practice behind it before it got to LAB....so, for now, I am going with Oskar's instincts and will give this play some space to grow. My guess is that it goes to Berkeley before it comes back to the Public....but who knows.

[YoungSally]

There's a lot to like here....just needs more work on clarity. Although the book for PS was much more straightforward than the book for Total Bent....I had the same reaction to both shows....I need to see it again because there is really something there.

The music and lyrics are undeniably written by Stew and Heidi...and there is a psychedelic thread running through the music and lyrics along with the spiritual songs.

I agree the first act needs work. To me it seemed that the book and the characters are still trying to find the right balance between drama and comedy....not the performances...they are pretty spot on....but how the characters are written. Part of what made PS so effective was how the book was both funny and serious....this book hasn't found it yet...Unfortunately, I spent most of the first act trying to figure out the central conflict..is it a commentary on race a la "passing for ghetto" in PS...is it the father/son conflict....a comment on race and Alabama in the 60s....or something about Good/Evil and religion....I thought I had the conflict figured out in the second act.....but then everything changed....so who knows?

Audience members looking for similarities to PS will find them -- musicians on the stage and as part of the action -- songs of parody, songs of introspection...and at least one character spending time on a psychedelic journey.

I'm going again before it closes...just like I did with PS....the second viewing of PS is when I got hooked...and I think this could happen again here.