Find out what we thought about First Date, a hilarious musical that just premiered on Broadway.
First dates are daunting. Blind dates can be even worse. But when you have your sister nagging you to settle down, and your ex-fiance constantly in the back of your mind, meeting someone seems unlikely and a shot in the dark at best. Turns out, a crazy and fateful blind date lays the groundwork for First Date, a funny, heartwarming and original new musical comedy that premiered on Broadway last night.
Starring Zachary Levi, most notably of Chuck fame and will next be seen as Fandral in Thor: The Dark World, and Krysta Rodriguez, last seen as the talented sidekick on the recently canceled Smash, the two – Aaron and Casey in the show, respectively – along with five other cast members entertain for a solid 90 minutes. Each actor portrays many personas – patrons in the restaurant, a mother, grandmother, sister, best friend, fiancé, father, the list goes on.
All of the cast members are on stage for the entire show, save for the bartender, played by Blake Hammond, who pops in and out when the timing’s right. Kate Loprest momentarily plays, among many characters, Google, personified in a sparkly bra and obnoxious I-know-everything-about-you getup. When this outfit is displayed, you realize she’s been wearing that the entire show. Bryce Ryness rarely, if ever, slips into too-obnoxious territory as Gabe, Aaron’s best friend and serial hook-upper, he’s more often funny rather than cringe-worthy.
First Date goes through every tribulation that comes with the first date and starting a relationship. Should a man order the “manly” hamburger even though he really wants the salad, and vice versa for the woman? What about talking about ex’s and past hookups? They get into a heated argument about religion not an hour into their dinner but realize as much and pull back, talking about lighter topics like the quintessential ‘whats your favorite color?’ questions. By and large, the message seems to be don’t judge somebody just because he seems like a workaholic, because he’s may just be planning for the future. And if she seems cold and distant, maybe it’s because she’s scared to let people in and has a fear of commitment.
The numbers were mostly upbeat and were fantastically written and preformed. Two particular numbers had the entire audience in uproarious laughter, one about the potential issue of Jewish Aaron marrying Protestant Casey (funnier than it sounds), and Aaron pulling the veil off his seemingly-perfect ex-girlfriend, Allison, which includes Zach Levi doing all kinds of incredible dance moves, including a butt shake.
Since this was the first preview – the first time performing in front of a public audience – there were some misses and mistakes. Some jokes didn’t land right, a banner at one point was backwards, and water splashed up too far out of a cup, and left me worrying if one of the actors was going to slip. During some numbers, the music seemed too loud or fast, and the actors, props to them, were able to get their lines out, but at some points fell on the audience’s deaf ears – we couldn’t understand them. But by and large, the show had us laughing from start to finish.
Technically in real time, save for the breaks in reality that give way to inner monologues, it makes sense that the date and show should be under two hours. As the show ends, the question that lingers is will they or won’t they kiss at the end of the night. After a whirlwind date of getting to know each other and learning about themselves as well, the finale to First Date is poignant and satisfying. However, we don’t want to spoil it for you, and recommend you see for yourself.
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