First Wives Club (Chicago) Tickets

Sorry to say the preview we attended was slow and too long. It took 90 minutes of the first act to set up a confusing second act. The actors are very talented, but the show is one to skip. Most of the music was not memorable. The publicity of the Motown music was overstated. Those songs weren't key parts of the show.

I'm so tired of Broadway trying to remake successful movies into musicals because of a lack of creativity in the industry. Instead of trying to make a few extra bucks off something that was already wildly successful in another medium, invest the money into coming up with more blockbuster shows such as Book of Mormon, or Cats......etc, etc.

I saw the play in previews, so it is still changing. i was lucky enough to hear the producers and the script writer discussing changes that they were going to make before the next performance, and I'm sure it's still getting better every night. Cast was truly extraordinary. And the H-D-H music is wonderful. Lots of old favorites, and just enough new music. Nicely positioned between the light humor of the movie and the much darker comedy of the original novel. This is funny but not frothy, dark in places but not black.

No memorable songs. Hard to stay awake. Although the actors were good the play was not.

Great voices but the show as a whole needs work. Perhaps it lacks docus and thus the warmth of characters needed to connect with the audience. Is ot a story of lasting friendship? Well then connect your wonderful ladies. I feel they are depending on the movie experience to make the audience really care.

It was a great musical full of laughs and tender moments. It's basically the First Wives Club movie set to music at times, I wish it told another type of story all together. But, the re-telling of the story was still fun. This show is definitely not for children under 18, especially due to content and language in the show.

Go see something else, your money will be much better spent. Not much substance here.

Linda Bloodworth Thomason needs to tweek this play before it hits broadway

the show followed the movie script pretty close. Great set; great performers. Finale was awesome!

yes, there were a few good lines, but nothing in this show was memorable. The music was mediocre, no tunes that I even want to hear again. Annie had a decent voice, but sometimes Brenda hit strange notes, maybe she had a cold? The acting was ok, my husband thought the husbands did a good job. I absolutely hated the silver rubbery looking pants in the last number. Every one of those women in the chorus looked plump in those unflattering pants. Get rid of them before you go to Broadway. What was the point of the confetti being shot at the audience. Seems cheap and did nothing to engage the audience.

Totally enjoyed this show, never was bored and was sad to see the end come! Great actors/actresses!

One of the things to do in Chicago. It's funny and I enjoed all of it. Music is very good. Wonderfull performance.

I had the highest of hopes walking into the theatre. Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's finely-honed razor-sharp tongue from writing/creating Designing Women (a show full of well-drawn, individually driven women characters) was at the helm of the book. The music was by tried-and-true hit machines Holland-Dozier-Holland. An experienced director, Simon Phillips, fresh from the Broadway spectacle "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", in charge of the show. How could it miss? Disastrously, as it turns out. The immensely talented cast turns up and does their best, but they have nothing to work with. Clumsy scenes, generic, forgettable songs and cardboard characters are all this show has to offer. First, Linda's wrought a cumbersome, meandering mess of a book, lifting all the best dialogue from the movie and offering very little new material, which never seems to settle into a narrative that lets us get to know and like the lead characters. Each of the lead actresses is really just doing an impression of the respective stars of the movie. What else CAN they do? There's no real character to play. The show us utterly reliant on the movie to give you the gist of what's happening. The composing team start the evening off with a LONG prologue using their entire catalog of oldie hits (3), and they toss some recurring verses in throughout the show; a curious choice, since they really lend nothing to the story. Otherwise, the original music consists entirely of generic, identical and forgettable songs that connect neither with the story or the characters. Each of the three scorned wives is given a ballad with a BIG MOMENT in it, begging for spontaneous applause, but ultimately coming to nothing because the song is about nothing. One example: Early in the prologue, the ladies as college graduates vow to shoot "beyond the moon" with their lives' goals. Annie (Diane Keaton in the film) has written a children's book about a little girl's fascination with the moon. Then, when it comes time for Annie's BIG NUMBER, it's not about the moon, or her dreams. It's about "my mind is a whirl of confusion" that could have been sung by any of the Wives. Nothing personal about any of the songs that connect the audience with the character with the music with the show. Lazy. This show might have been better served using ONLY songs from the period. And how Phillips' direction is likewise lazy and uninspired. Every setting, whether a cozy kitchen or a department store, is stretched to take up the entire stage. This makes every scene an endurance test as actors have to struggle to inhabit each expanse to us the space. A trip to the bar for a refill on a martini might require a day's provisions. Scene changes are awkward as well. An intimate two-character scene becomes a song and, halfway through the chorus, the set, furniture and other characters are swept off into the wings, leaving the singer in a spotlight center stage. What? The whole show culminates it a text-book perfunctory finale with sequins and glitz just because apparently, someone heard that's how you end a Broadway show. The company should have been less concerned with how to END a show and focused more on how to START one. This show needs to go back to the beginning with a New Director, a new score and give the book back to Rupert Holmes (the original book-writer before LBT stepped in). If it survives it's Chicago try-out, I'd be embarrassed to say I lived in Chicago.

Its a shame.. the three lead actresses are wonderful, but the script, score, orchestrations, set, and overall production was very poorly constructed. I love the movie, but this is another example of musical theatre composers and book writers, stealing a great screenplay, not knowing how to tell the story on the stage, and throwing lackluster songs, and additional material to it. I think this will need major MAJOR overhauls before NYC for it to survive even a couple of months... Start with the score. Write songs that matter and move the story.... use your ensemble...almost the entire score is solos, and reprises of solos, where are the production numbers? These three ladies and the film deserve better treatment.