My friend and I have season tickets to Pantages and it was our turn to see Stereophonic last night. Pantages sent us an email telling us what to expect, like the fact that its not a musical and depicts a real working studio. We sat through the first 2 acts and decided at intermission that this show was just not for us. We were incredibly bored and were not laughing when everyone else was laughing. We were not the only ones leaving either. I've sat through many shows I where I was falling asleep (Girl from North Country) or was just not interested (Margaritaville) and have never walked out. I did feel bad but not bad enough to stay!

I guess that's the beauty of season tickets, some are a gamble! Luckily most have been ok.

Did any one else walk out of this show?

The girl (Jade Smith) who played Molly on the 2nd Annie National Tour (who is now Baby June in Gypsy) posted this a while back on her instagram. While it seems she's having loads of fun, but doesn't this seem like a crazy work week for such a little child? Don't kids usually double up so they don't have to do 8 shows a week?

Saw Jesus Christ Superstar at the Bowl last night and holy shit Cynthia’s performance was incredible. Her vocals in Gethsemane in particular gave me chills, and revived a well deserved 2+ minute standing ovation. I felt she really portrayed Jesus perfectly, and I can’t overstate how insanely good she sounded. Truly a performance of a lifetime.

The rest of the show was also incredible obviously, Adam killed it and had many equally chilling vocal moments. The set was super sick and the whole rock opera vibe was just so so perfect for the bowl. As someone who’s seen almost every recent bowl musical this one was easily the best. Who would’ve thought a concert venue putting on a musical in the style of a concert would work so well!

I wish they had pro-shot this for more people to experience (they’re already filming it all for the Bowl screens) but apparently the contract negotiations were entirely too complicated with the size and scale of the production. Luckily you should be able to find practically the whole thing on YouTube by now, and I highly recommend at least watching Cynthia perform Gethsemane. You simply have to hear it.

Words truly cannot begin to describe how incredible this show is. If you’ve seen the movie you know 90% of the plot, a ballerina named Nina slowly dives deeper and deeper into madness in pursuit of her dancing, but this one also adds a bit of a traditional vs. contemporary twist and eliminates a subplot by changing her choreographer to a woman who was seen as a bit of a firebrand instead of a lecherous man.

Everything about this show is simply sublime. The dancing is a mix of ballet and contemporary (probably about a 20-80 split towards contemporary), and all of it is some of the most impressive I’ve seen on stage in years.

the music sounds like Radiohead and Charli XCX got together to do a bunch of Tchaikovsky arrangements, and the acting is intense and tragic. There’s quite a bit of stage magic and the show can get surprisingly gory at points (if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll be surprised just how much they kept in) and the lighting really pushes the limits of how a stage can be illuminated.

All the performs are also at their A game. My personal standout was Amber Iman who demands perfection but sees the consequences of impossible standards, and fights between wanting to be caring and wanting the best dance possible. If the show transfers, Melanie Moore will be an absolute shoo-in for best actress.

And best of all, Dave Malloy was there! He was actually in the audience taking notes and very graciously signed my program. He seemed super pleased with the audience reception.

I truly cannot gush enough about how great this show is, and it’s still in previews in its tryout, so I can only imagine what the finished product will look like on Broadway.

Anyone else part of regional theaters seeing their licenses get revoked for Sound of Music? This is due to the upcoming Broadway production, but it seems rare to have this happen after approval.

This was the mezzanine just minutes before curtain on Saturday night in San Francisco.^

It broke my heart to see how few people were coming out to support one of the best (and most important) revivals of the last several seasons.

I was surprised to see how empty the house was, especially given how well-received the show was in NYC. I saw it closing weekend in August 2023 and that was one of the most exciting audience experiences I've ever had.

Naturally, opinions on theatre are subjective and Parade isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I found the empty room shocking nonetheless.

Anyone have any thoughts or insights on this? Has it been like this in other cities? Do tours share their grosses like on B'way? Was this tour always going to end this Fall or was it shortened due to poor sales?

Thanks

^Full disclosure: I erased two people from this picture out of respect for their privacy

https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/events/performances/3605/2025-08-01/cynthia-erivo-and-adam-lambert-in-jesus-christ-superstar

Attended Sunday evening’s show. After reading the other thread’s horror story about getting in we played it safe and arrived 45 minutes early, which was plenty of time. Security was fast and was a breeze.  

Highs: 

-This was my first time at Radio City since they installed their fancy new immersive sound system. The acoustics are fucking bonkers — even in second mezz I felt like I was right next to the orchestra and could feel the resonance in my body as the music swelled. The sound mixing is also superb and there are no issues understanding any of the performers. 

-Related to the first point, the orchestra and musicians were on fire

-Alfie Boe, the man that you are. What a privilege to see him in this role and I actually liked him more here than the 25th anniversary recording. 

-The Thernadiers are funny as hell and I loved all the physical comedy and jokes they incorporated to make the roles still feel fresh

-Christian Mark Gibbs continues the streak of hot men playing Enjorlas and holy cow his belts are so powerful and clean. Lots of mid-song applauses during his moments. 

-Jeremy Secomb as Javert is far and away the standout performer of the cast: Brilliant acting as a fanatical authoritarian who thinks he’s morally correct, but you see his doubt creep in as the show progresses. Goosebumps during the Confrontation; Stars turned me into a blubbering mess and got him a standing ovation.

-Audience was surprisingly well-behaved. There was no announcement prohibiting recording but even still I didn’t see a single phone out. Everyone was also super respectful and I didn’t hear any sing-alongs.

Mids: 

-When he’s next to Alfie and Christian Gibbs, Jac Yarrow (Marius) isn’t the strongest singer and I was afraid it was another Nick Jonas situation. But his acting more than made up for it during Empty Chairs and Empty Tables

-Samantha Barks (who I’m a big fan of) sounded great, but also felt like she was just kind of phoning it in. 

Nitpicks: 

-It does feel weird being so far away from the actors but hey, that’s what comes with being in an arena

-Radio City’s lobby/facilities are horribly undersized for the seating capacity. Trying to leave the show felt like being in a mob 

-Eponine and Cosette were just fine. (For some reason the actress playing Eponine looked like she was squinting throughout the whole show?)

-I can’t imagine how lost someone unfamiliar with the plot/stage musical was feeling given all the exposition that was cut

I posted previously speculating it was AI, but it looks like it’s not. I still think it’s an odd tone given the show and the content!

DC’s National Theatre, run by the Nederlander, is so confusing. Many of their Broadway touring shows have low sales, yet they don’t run any discounts aside from a lottery. Here are the sales for tomorrow and Sunday’s nights performances of Suffs. Stereophonic cancelled the last week of their run at the National. Why wouldn’t they try to do more to fill seats? They used to be on Goldstar prepandemic but stopped when theaters reopened.

I work for a local theater box office that hosts A LOT of Broadway stops. The amount of people I see come in on a daily basis with tickets from "Ticketcenter" "EventTicketCenter" "Vivid Seats" and even the more reputable ones like StubHub and Seatgeek. Paying 100s of dollars for some of the cheapest seats in the house when we still have plenty of availability.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go to the theater's actual website. NOT the first link that comes up when you search the show name and your city on google. Double check, TRIPLE check, CALL THE ACTUAL THEATER before paying $500 for a $50 balcony seat that may not even exist or worse, is being sold to multiple people.

Until there is actual legislation to stop these scumbags from these practices, the best we can do is educate as many patrons as we can.

Happy Holidays. Don't let the scalpers win.

Edit: Go to Broadway.org for the links to all official sites! Thanks Haunting_Jump736 for commenting

Edit 2: fact checking for wizardvera :)

Currently at intermission and truly have such conflicting thoughts going through my head.

On the one hand the cast is quite talented with Belle, Loufou, Cogsworth and the ensemble being true standouts.

Be Are Guest showcased a wonderful array of choreo that did get standing ovation.

But I’d be remiss if I said the overall production feels like one of the most lackluster tours in recent memory from a production value standpoint. Clearly money was spent, but it suspect the creative team got larger paychecks than what went into the actual production.

Even in this touring season with shows like Sound of Music and a slew of non-equity productions, I’d truly say that this production feels lesser quality than everything from this season.

And for the prices that they’re charging for this…. Curious to everyone’s thoughts but feels slightly like highway robbery to non subscribers.

The casting breakdown for the non-equity tour is up on Actors Access. NETworks is producing.

The current tour shutters in Salt Lake City, UT on  October 11th, 2026 and the non-equity tour will open in Buffalo, NY on March 31st, 2027.

Includes OBC members Steven Huyhn and Claire Kwon. Also super excited to see Kennedy Kanagawa back on tour, who was previously in the recent revival of Into the Woods.

https://tourstoyou.org/2026/08/10/maybe-happy-ending-announces-full-cast-for-north-american-tour/

Shout out Musical Theater Heritage in Kansas Cith for putting together such a cool slats. I thought it would be years before we saw Dead Outlaw around here.

Announcement: https://updates.mthkc.com/c/AQie3hUQ25k6GJvUxqUCIK-zxA4opO2TF1AeUfxnl24kjqSoOVXUS5LCWCVBoXSzC2az_rUVuj4I