Profile for mee.who

I did wonder, during the first 15 minutes or so, if I would enjoy this show more if it wasn't a musical, but they won me over on the musical aspect by the time they hit the children's Fun Home commercial scene, and I was entirely on board after that. I wasn't familiar with the novel going in, and I thought that it actually was a bit ambiguous as to whether or not Bruce intended to commit suicide. Alison spoke of him as though he did, definitely, but the scene with Bruce's big number at the ho...

The only thing I'd seen Diaz in prior to this was Jacques Brel. I enjoyed her in that, but didn't remember specifics of her performance all that well. I was also really impressed with her Florence, and with her voice in general. Despite Sarich's issues with some of the high notes (I agree it must have just been an off night for him), he sounded great on the rest of it and I really liked where he was going with Freddie. I'm generally a fan of Robert Cuccioli and I thought he sang it well, but ...

I was there. Wasn't that familiar with Chess going in (though it turned out I was familiar with more of the score than I thought I was) and overall I really enjoyed it. That said, they definitely could have used more rehearsal time. The ensemble was more often than not a bit of a mess, came in late a lot and sounded uneven and were sometimes hard to hear (that was more of a microphone issue, I think). Sarich had a hard time hitting some of his highest notes last night, which surprised me, but...

I don't have any issues with the style of Chilina's dress (and I like that the general style of the skirt is repeated in ensemble member Melissa O'Neil's costume), but don't understand why they chose to go with that wig for the Broadway run. I think this mostly bothers me because Chilina has such nice wavy hair, which makes the wig seem a big downgrade. Regarding the color of the dress, I recently read a book that mentioned that many times in art Judas is depicted wearing yellow robes. The bo...

Agree, PapaGe. The shifting Judas/Jesus/Mary dynamic was what had me going back a second time (and then a third).

I've seen both Josh Young and Jeremy Kushnier as Judas. I think they're both pretty equally good, but I'd rather listen to Young. I really enjoy Kushnier's characterizaion though (he plays it a bit differently than Young) and he has great chemistry with Paul Nolan.

I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority here, but I really love Nolan's shut down and generally resigned take on Jesus, and vocally I think he's great as well. I like Chilina Kennedy and I like the harder edges she's trying to give Mary, but I'm not sure this is a great role for her. Vocally she's fine.

On the one hand I'm not that upset to hear that that's the case as it means I won't have to go see Rocky. On the other hand, I'd really love to have Drew Sarich back in NY for a while, regardless of the show. Ah well!

I don't have a source for that, Yankeefan, just remember reading/hearing it once somewhere years ago. I've been to several of her concerts, but never saw her in J&H. And that would be great if Cuccioli had something aiming for Broadway in the works!

Bob Cuccioli seems to be working quite a lot, just not on Broadway. I saw him a few years ago in 1776 at Papermill, and in the off-broadway production of Jacques Brel is Alive etc etc back in 2007, I think? I really enjoyed him in both. He's currently in a production of 1776 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. I wonder if perhaps Linda Eder just didn't pursue a career in theatre post-Jekyll & Hyde. I seem to recall her saying at one point that she never considered herself an actress.

Nothing confirmed, but word on the street is that he'll be back in by this weekend.

Opening night was the week before last, which at least explains the increase in the gross for JCS despite the capacity drop. In addition, wasn't their top ticket $99 during previews? It would have switched to the normal price last week.

Josh Young was still out tonight...and though I really loved a lot of Kushnier's acting choices, he really wasn't sounding so hot. I definitely prefer Young in the role. Even though he was clearly not 100% the last time I saw him, Young still sounded stronger than Kushnier did tonight. Fingers crossed that he's recovering and can return soon.

Young's been playing the role since last summer. Kushnier's been with the show for a long time and went on as Judas at least a few times in La Jolla that have been reported, probably more. I kinda doubt Des McAnuff is sitting there having some kind of revelation NOW as to who he wants playing the part. I mean, maybe it's possible, but he had a LOT of time prior to Josh Young coming down with bronchitis to decide whether a casting change was in order.

re: JCS - It might have been a 7 show week because of a change in their schedule? They were dark yesterday and are dark again today, however, next Sunday they have a performance at 3. The grosses reported at Playbill's site have the correct capacity %'s for Wicked, War Horse, and Venus in Fur, but are still reporting over 110% capacity for JCS so if it's an error, it doesn't appear to be a Broadwayworld error.

I don't know when the last ticket got there last Saturday, but based on the line I'd say sometime after 9 am. I got there at 8:30 and there were two people ahead of me (and yeah, they sell them when the box office opens, though in the previews thread it sounded like they were releasing more tickets to student rushers closer to showtime as well).

My vote goes to Paul. The dude almost quit acting to jump out of helicopters and fight forest fires. I mean, come on.

I don't think the reviews are THAT inaccurate because many of the reviewers saw Kushnier. The reviewers who did see Young seemed as 'madly in love' with him as the others were with Kushnier. *shrug* I've seen Young in the role twice, a week or so ago and then again last night. He was clearly not 100% last night and was struggling with/missed many (well, most) of the higher notes, but I still found him wonderful and heartbreaking in the role. Haven't seen Kushnier yet though.

While I do like a lot of the cast and the score, I found myself cringing A LOT while watching Godspell. Saw JCS for the first time this afternoon and really loved it.

Ooh, thanks for the link to the video. I really love the finished product!