Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Has Opened

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the Broadway musical adaptation of the Oscar-nominated film by Pedro Almodovar, opened on Thursday night to some pretty harsh reviews.  The show was universally cited as having attention deficit disorder -- of lacking a focus.  The reviews in both The New York Times and Variety have said that the show never fully develops anything before moving on (too quickly) to the next.  The show has a number of Tony winning stars, including Patti LuPone, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Laura Benanti, as well as the 3-time Tony-nominee Sherie Renee Scott, as well as a much lauded design team headed up by Tony-winning Director Bartlett Sher.  However, it would seem that not even this talented group of people could reign in this mess of a show, even though Variety did call the show "visually fascinating".

That being said, however, Laura Benanti and Patti LuPone did get some pretty strong reviews, so they seem the show's best shot at Tony nominations this season.  The writing and direction seem to frenetic to go anywhere, but with the critics taken out of the voting pool, anything is really game, I suppose.  There is also some chance that at least one or two design departments (or maybe the choreography) will be nominated, but it's too soon to tell simply based on the lack of information about the competition.