My daughter and I were so excited for this show. We are both big fans of AM and her music. In fact I was in a musical with her when she was just 13 and her future stardom was apparent even then. Unfortunately, we felt let down by both big and little aspects of the show. I would have given only two stars, but wanted to recognize the efforts of the performers who mainly gave it their all. Voices were pretty outstanding. I would call JLP a show that tried to do too much and failed to hang together cohesively. Although they contributed to smooth scene transitions, I did not love the projections. The night we attended (opening night) the music was unbalanced between vocalists and musicians and both were mic'd waaaaaay too loud, even for a rock musical. It was virtually impossible to make out lyrics. The choreography had some brilliant moments but was, generally, linear and repetitive. The "going backwards in time" scene was impressive as was the couch scene of Mary Jane and her shadow or younger self (?). Otherwise, we were ready to go before it was over. I guess my most significant observation would be the way the show lifted so many moments from the iconic and untouchable, Pulitzer Prize-winning "Next to Normal." JLP does not hold a candle to N2N in terms of highlighting mental health issues, partly because it is unfocused and feels dated, even though it appears to be set in present day. The performance we attended had 3 or 4 swings in major parts and, while usually that makes little difference in a strong musical, they seemed unequal to the task, or maybe those roles were just not well-developed. Expensive tickets for a disappointing experience.
