So the ten week journey has led us here. America has chosen the opening day leads for the next run of Grease on Broadway. The only question at the end of last week was whether the voting process would choose the correct pair. There were two very obvious pairs after watching the duets last week. My original picks, Austin and Ashley, was one pair, and Laura and Max was the other. Laura and Max essentially won the competition last week. Either of these two combinations would be acceptable. A mix/match of the two won’t work as well. Last week, Laura and Max won me over as the pair that would work best together, knocking off weeks and weeks of me dubbing Ashley and Austin the heir-apparents.
And the results? Max and Laura, which was the correct choice all told. They displayed a chemistry last week that the other two didn’t show together and the mixed-up groups didn’t show at all. For a Broadway show, they did the best they could with what they had. That sounds horribly like a backhanded compliment, but it isn’t. They started the show with a mess of amateurs and not-ready-for-broadway players and wound up with the best of the group. Whether that was really controlled by people’s votes or truly controlled by the judges, chalk it up to the magic of television.
At the end of it all, some final thoughts: I’m not sure this would work with any other show or whether any other producer/director would be insane enough to try it. I mean, the audience that watches these shows aren’t exactly the same crowd that frequents Broadway shows. The other problem is that I foresee Broadway critics smashing the show right out of the gate. Reality TV is the anti-thesis of Broadway and they will likely be quick to point that out. After all, most of them are self-important and won’t be thrilled with the idea of the “anyone can do it” status of Reality Television.
If they do manage a second season of this show, I’d really like to see them fix their production issues. Primarily making the singers sound better and getting the hosts to hit their cues more consistently. A production truck that manages to put up the Ticketmaster number when the hosts are talking about dialing the Ticketmaster number might not be too much to ask either.
In the end, the show kept me watching for the full run, minus one week I missed due to a delayed bus, so it did it’s job. I enjoyed it, even watching it with a person who couldn’t bust on it enough didn’t faze me.
All said, I’m looking forward to the chance to review the show when preview week starts. Let’s hope that Murtz can hook it up.
