April 22, 2005
Lennon is not your typical musical, nor is it your typical dramatization of an ex-Beatle. It is the story of a man and his search for his authentic self. The show uses John's solo material to help the narrative, which follows him from childhood and adolescence, through pop stardom, romance, politics, spirituality and fatherhood, to his life's untimely end. Since John came to see the world's population as one, a one-world cast has been assembled, with people of varied ages, races and genders, and nearly all of them take on the identity of John Lennon at some point, or at least a certain facet of his personality. This is an unorthodox (some say risky) method of portraying one of the most recognized and cherished icons in pop culture history. But the show's creators have always viewed this as a healthy alternative to seeking out lookalikes and soundalikes and coming up short. So while the players don't necessarily look, sound or behave like John, they attempt to tell his story in his own words, lyrics and melodies.
Heading into opening night, things looked like they were falling nicely into place. But once the reviews came out, harsh realities set in. Some critics were downright nasty to us, and even the kindest critics, who genuinely enjoyed the show, still came away a bit unsatisfied. That's bad news for a show just getting off the ground, especially when there are assassins in New York wishing to bury this piece alive before it even gets there. So after the self-congratulatory euphoria of opening night fades away, everyone rolls up their sleeves and gets back to work.
Big changes have taken place already. On Thursday, "Crippled Inside", an elaborate production number featuring Terrence, was cut completely and the dialogue leading into it was changed as well. The new scene was worked up in the afternoon and performed immediately that night. Other bits of text have been trimmed or reassigned, and we'll run the show like this for a couple of weeks and see how it works.
Meanwhile, Don is going back to New York to do some rewriting. Since the new pages will require more than a just a couple of days of rehearsal, the producers have opted to skip the four-week run in Boston and head straight for New York, with an extra week of previews added. Many in the cast were happy to hear this news, but I wasn't. I was looking forward to the one-week layoff between Boston and New York, which would've bought me a free trip home. Now that's gone.
Oh yeah, and it's going to rain again. What a cruel week.