The reviews are in: “Finding Neverland,” Harvey Weinstein’s new Broadway-bound musical, is “evolving,” “determined,” “twee” and “the kind of show that kids drag their parents to.”
In other words, dead in the water. There. I said it.
Too bad Ben Brantley of the New York Times and Jeremy Gerard of Deadline.com couldn’t come out and say it quite so boldly. They pulled their punches, going gentle on a show that’s in tryouts at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass.
I take that back.
“Twee,” to quote Gerard, is a killer. When was the last time you saw an ad on the side of a bus proudly trumpeting a musical as “twee”?
Weinstein has been working on this $11 million show, about “Peter Pan” and his creator J.M. Barrie, for years. It was done in England once upon a time, but Harvey wasn’t happy. He fired the creative team and started from scratch. His big hire was Diane Paulus, the director of “Hair” and “Pippin.” She wanted to stage the show at A.R.T. before bringing it to Broadway.
Years ago, New York critics never reviewed a show out of town. They waited for it to work out its kinks and then delivered their verdict when it opened here. Those days are gone.
Brantley and Gerard hopped on the Acela to Boston, caught a preview and filed their reviews.
Gerard has no qualms about breaking the tradition: “My job is to cover the news, and important artists like Diane Paulus doing important shows is news. I’m very upfront about saying that the show is a work in progress and that it will undergo many changes” before it comes to New York.
I asked Brantley’s editor, Scott Heller, why the Times reviewed “Finding Neverland” in Boston and not Sting’s new musical, “The Last Ship,” in Chicago.
Heller said that, as with all news stories, the Times decides what is worth covering and what is not.
Sorry, Sting: The Times believes Harvey Weinstein is more important than you are.
Brantley’s review of “Finding Neverland” was a namby-pamby bit of writing: “As long suffering authorities like the Wright brothers and Icarus could have told you, becoming airborne is never easy.”
It’s a pan, but with its punches pulled.
Come on, Ben.
If you’re going to review the baby in the cradle, strangle it.