Doctor Rothman, The Play Doctor.

I'm aware that many of you were expecting more battle-axes today, and perhaps there will be disappointment that there won't be.
I'm sure that THEY will be miffed, considering that they are battle-axes and all.
We will most-likely return to them on our next outing.
That oughta' shut 'em up.
But something more pressing time-wise has come up, and I need to address it.
Chicago has become somewhat of a Broadway tryout town.
As they charge full Broadway prices, I feel like I have every right to review "The First Wives Club---The Musical", which I saw last Saturday.
This is for the creative forces in charge of this incoming musical, who still have time to do something about it.
I am going to try to approach this surgically.
So I get to take out the scalpel.
This is generally a very entertaining show, along the lines of "9 to 5---the Musical", and Menopause--the Musical".
The second act "The First Wives Club" is very clever, funny, zips along, and has very good songs.
The whole show should be that way.
The problem is the first act.
It is leaden, predictable, and doesn't set up the premise quickly enough.
These are virtually two separate shows.
We all know, based on having seen the movie on which it was based on, that a First Wives Club will be established, to exact revenge on the husbands who divorced them.
Yet the establishment of the First Wives Club is the revelation of the first act, and how it ends it.
Everybody knows it's coming.
It's got to come sooner, with perhaps one of the three wives not being faced with getting divorced yet.
The other two women consider her a vital cog in getting the plan to work, and perhaps their misgivings about her marital status can be played to comic effect.
Then, when her husband serves her with papers, you have a legitimate act break, as she climbs on board.
The first act is way too top-heavy.
It's a two-hour and forty minute show, and all the length is in the first act.
Specifically the three soliloquies that each of the women have after being dumped.
They are all of the "Woe is me, my man dumped me" variety.
And they are all dreary.
They should have been more on the lines of comic songs like "Just you wait, 'Enry 'Iggins, Just You Wait".
This is a musical comedy, and should never stray from that.
But they were just dirge-like, and commented after the fact on something we had just seen.
That's where the time should come out.
Eliminate those three songs.
One for each of the principals.
It's very democratic.
There are plenty of songs left over.
Keep it light.
And move up the Act Break.
Let the first successful, funny "sting" happen.
Formulate that as the Act Break.
This show has every chance of being successful, whether my advice is taken or not.
Hell, the New York Times critic just moronically took a crap on Larry David's new play, so what the hell do they know?
I know that they don't know how to make an incoming show any better than it is.
That's why I've hung up my shingle.

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My books ,"Show Runner" and it's sequel, "Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store.
Along with the newer ones, "The Man Is Dead", and "Report Cards".
They are all compilations of blog entries that have since been removed from the blog.
So this is the only way you can find them.
You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne and Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
Check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperbacks, "Mark Rothman's Essays" and my new novel, "I'm Not Garbo" are not
e-books. But they are available for people without Kindle.
I have many readings and signings lined up for those, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one. If you'd like one of the paperbacks, personally autographed, contact me at macchus999@aol.com.

And now, we've got my reading of my "Laverne and Shirley Movie" screenplay on YouTube.

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