Profile for Schmergo2

I saw the show on 11/8 and was fortunate to see Sayo Oni as Orpheus and Malcom Armwood as Hermes.

I was a little disappointed at first to not get to see Lilias White as Hermes, but I heard a security person outside the theatre say, "Malcolm is on for Hermes. His voice is like BUTTER" and that encouraged me. She was right! He was great! Really smooth voice, super personable and energetic, clearly having fun with the role. Having never seen the show before, just listened to

 When I used to work at a preschool, we all  kept getting this gnarly virus that essentially caused the same symptoms as strep throat but we all tested negative for strep and therefore couldn't be treated by antibiotics, so we were each out sick for a good long time.

So if she is making up an illness, viral tonsillitis would be convenient because it can cause lengthy absences, whereas regular strep, you're usually back after 2 days of antibiotics.

But i

Man, I know tonsillitis might just be partially an excuse, but there's a part of me that feels like the current culture of pushing performers back onto the stage as soon as their mandatory COVID absence is over is going to start showing some cracks pretty soon.

In my dinky little community theatre, about 1/3 of the actors got COVID in early June. A month and a half later, most of them still have lingering coughs or fatigue now they keep getting knocked out by colds and sinus infect

The thing with Sheridan Smith is that she's considered a major star on the West End in both stage and screen, musicals and straight plays. She's played vocally demanding powerhouse roles including originating Elle in the West End production of Legally Blonde (winning the Olivier Award) and playing the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, so I think she's considered more of a 'singer' than Beanie was, but the West End also seems to welcome vocalists wi

This is going to sound way overly nitpicky, but the one thing that always made me skeptical about Lea in the role, ever since the GLEE days, is that Fanny's is supposed to kind of be an underdog story. Lea is pretty conventionally gorgeous. Barbra Streisand is super glamorous, of course, but in kind of an unconventional way. Beanie in the role fits with current body positivity movements and has a cute 'girl next door' vibe without necessarily looking like a traditional 'star.&

Having Julie Benko officially take over for Thursdays makes me wonder even more if this was part of Beanie's wanting to leave earlier-- some people speculated that Beanie was leaving early because Lea was available to start in August (despite having her tour), but the one-month gap in between makes me wonder if the production was planning to have Beanie and Julie officially share the role until Lea came on board. I know Beanie has been absent a lot and would probably prefer not to have to