Flying Over Sunset: The Real Drug Was The Friends We Made Along The Way
I saw Flying Over Sunset -- the new musical by James Lapine ( Sunday In The Park With George ), Michael Korie ( Grey Gardens ), and Tom Kitt ( Next To Normal ) -- once at the very beginning of previews, and a second time at the very end, two days before opening. It is interesting to watch a new work in development, to see how it changes as its creators try to clarify their intent. And while Flying Over Sunset did not fix all of its problems in its preview period, I can say with no hesitation that they did make strong steps toward rendering the show considerably more coherent. Things which seemed random the first time around clicked into place, things which seemed redundant better justified their retreading of trodden ground, and things which seemed aimlessly didactic were still fairly didactic, but less aimlessly so. And the whole thing became tighter with the cutting of about fifteen minutes of run time. Flying Over Sunset opened on December 13th, 2021, to mostly negative reviews.