Profile for Auggie27

How is Garnett Williams? Would love to know how she navigates the second act "Memory." It's the only staging in the show that for me doesn't quite come up to the reinvention. Maybe because - no spoilers - the first act "Memory" genuinely wrecked me. I go way back to Cats - I saw the original-original in the West End in November 1981 (took my parents) - but this was the first time the first act "Memory" pulled unexpected but fully earned

I'm an old die-hard fan of the score - I damn near memorized the concept album when it first came out - but it predates any inclusion of this still bafflingly generic ballad. The number's third reassignment and movement to the 11 o'clockish spot for Florence makes zero sense. It was Judy Kuhn's I Want in the first Broadway production, a point of access for the character to explain how she arrived at such emotional stasis. It slowed the show early on, with its reflect

I saw it in the house right on TDF as well, and had no complaints. You really only miss a couple of entrances in the very last scene (and the window in the house up left). 

I'm surprised the show isn't 100% capacity. It dropped to 88% The reviews, the hot TV stars, the small house. I can't figure out why it isn't SRO. Plays seem a harder sell, in general since the shutdown, but in particular this season. I suppose another young star as Susie would've been h

I finally listened to the demo sessions on Spotify and found the 6 songs more successful than I expected. The power ballads-heavy selections do focus on emotional content, and the earnestness has a whiff of Rent (One Song, Glory-ish), a bit of Ghost, and - and not a criticism - a bit of Carrie. In fact, the Pitchford-Gore-ness of the 6 songs struck me as very Broadway friendly (I can already hear someone decry this last observation, but my ear has bee

I'm thinking of Marsha Norman's edict to playwriting students at Juilliard (and members of the Dramatists Guild): "Don't write unnecessary plays." She characterizes them with nuance and detail, zeroing in on stories that aren't inherently theatrical, better told in other mediums and/or without sufficient personal passion from the storyteller. Perhaps this review makes the case; my two friends who went over the weekend made it rather simply: "why did this actor p

Days later, I continue to mull why it's so impressive.

I went in not skeptical, but not terribly invested in another Salesman. Within seconds, Mantello's scheme to place the play down center - so bold, pulling 1500+ eyes to one spot for almost 3 hours - made the Winter Garden a place of revelatory re-exploration. By stripping away the gossamer Mielziner world-building, relighting the story's double time frame via a single garage window with almost cathedral-lik

Becky's manifestation of BPD is refreshing, if that word can be used, in that she's not a cliched rabbit-boiler who stalks. She's far closer to the people I've known who control through passive aggression. I appreciated the nuance in both writing and Brewer's subtle performance, that she's as likely to implode as explode - to fold inward and assert herself in unguarded moments. Without spoiling the play, Gionfriddo makes a case that even BPD people can be yin to s

I'd only read the play, but several times, my DPS copy much enjoyed over the last 12 years. And so I had high expectations for this (arguably overdue) Broadway iteration. It delivers, in every way. The company is just perfection. With a star-making performance by Alden Ehrenreich. The cynically seething Max is deservedly one of the more coveted young male roles in regionals in the last 15 years, and this Broadway debut feels like a damn near definitive take. But everyone is on fire here w

Morrison always reminds me of the studly Dennis Morgan in Christmas in Connecticut, and I say it every year when the film shows on TCM for the holidays. (Google it if you don't believe me.) A seemingly random observation that has relevance here because he has genuine movie star-like charisma, if of the slick Dennis Morgan variety. Oddly enough, that flavor of caddish insouciance is closer to the real Darin than the boyish, wide-eyed Groff. So instead of a man unlike

I take Kad's point here. It was unfairly reductive to lay this at Arden's feet, with most posts cataloging the ways the narrative doesn't hold for an evening, or sustain a cohesive tone. I listened to a podcast interview - the Stephanie J. Block theater content pod - and Arden is enamored with this piece, particularly its score. He promises something so special, uniquely in the world of the show. Music's "success" in musical theater is decidedly subjective (I lo