Finally saw Bailey in LB tonight- Page 2

[JohnnyJon]

Posted: 8/8/08 at 3:26pm

I couldn't agree with you more finney2. I saw the posts about Ven and was a little suspicious as well. I saw the show last Friday and after the things some people said on this board about him (really only a few people) I was bracing myself for the worst. THEY WERE WRONG! He was absolutely wonderful. He actually stood out as one of the best on the stage! His Dewey didn't do a bad belly joke which made the scene better. And his Kyle was so sexy and funny. It looked like he was a real irish step dancer which cracked me and the audience up!I wish the UPS guy was in the first act too!!! I'm going to see the show again cause it was awesome, but this time I'm going to wait at the stage door to meet Ven Daniel! He is talented and HOT!

[JP2]

Posted: 8/8/08 at 3:30pm

I thought Ven was awful, and my audience seemed to agree.

[winter_sky]

Posted: 8/8/08 at 3:47pm

I love that people are discounting other's reactions to him. People obviously have different opinions or maybe they saw him on a day when the audience didn't love him. OR maybe the audience loved him but the poster didn't?

I saw his first show and I honestly hope he has gotten better since then because I thought he was awful. It's not really even about Andy since I also enjoyed Matthew and Jason's work in that track. Ven's Dewey was the only decent part he played. He sounded so aggressive and angry as Grandmaster Chad and I thought the loss of the shirt was a bit cheap. I HATED his Kyle. He used a lot of upspeak that was annoying and he put odd emphasis on certain words. I also found him to not have any chemistry with Orfeh and I didn't find him funny at all.

Different strokes. Glad you liked him though.

[Kelly2]

Posted: 8/8/08 at 3:57pm

JohnnyJon/Finney2,

Ruprecht is hardly the only one with bad things to say about Ven. I've had a lot of friends who've seen the show in the past few weeks, and literally not a single one of them have anything good to say about him, except in regards to his body.

As I said, I haven't seen him yet, so I can't speak from personal experience, but I've heard A LOT of bad things.

I'll stay optimistic though...hope for the best, when I do eventually get around to checking him out.

[mywonderwa11]

Posted: 8/8/08 at 5:16pm

I agree..."Ireland" is just an awful number! Actually...most of the score and lyrics is awful. But don't worry! I still like Legally Blonde...for what it is. But I can enjoy it and still think the score and lyrics is pretty bad...Legally Blonde is my guilty musical theatre pleasure.

When I get into the city September 2nd I plan on seeing Bailey's performance. I'm really curious to see her myself...

[philly03]

Posted: 8/8/08 at 5:53pm

Sorry to not have too much experience about all the new people/understudies/etc. in Legally BLonde, but to this:

"As bad as the description of Christian "Phoning it in" (I'm assuming he was having an off night) is, it could have been far worse, need i remind you all of Steve Blanchard as the beast near the end of his very very long run "

SOOOOOOO True! Steve Blanchard in the last years was pretty awful...He simply was just not worth even watching and plain old boring or it was too over-animated; his singing was not nearly as good as his understudies (most notably for me William Michals if memory serves right).

[broadwayboy522]

Posted: 8/8/08 at 7:05pm

Well I actually saw Steve Blanchard's performance the final weekend and the year before and he was doing the exact opposite of phoning in. I'm sure he did phone in during his run but the nights I saw it he didn't

[ruprecht]

Posted: 8/8/08 at 8:02pm

Ven er I mean Johnny, I'm only responding because you chose to single me out of all the literally dozens of posters who think "ven" is not that great in LB. I was actually a bit nicer about him than most but it's almost a unanimous feeling. Maybe less time reverse shilling would be a good idea.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/8/08 at 8:35pm

"Ireland" is an okay song, but the way they tie it into the show is just terrible.

[je veux te voir2]

Posted: 8/8/08 at 8:57pm

Orfeh is simply fantastic. I've seen the show only three times; the first two times when the show first came out, and again a few weeks ago. She was just as fantastic a few weeks ago as she was in the beginning of the show. I really REALLY respect an actor that knows that there are audience members traveling from all over the country to see the show, and they make sure to give it their all. Thats what I loved about LBB, and thats what I love about Orfeh. I'm going to have to agree about the Christian Borle comment. A few weeks ago when I saw him...he didn't have nearly as much fire as I remember in the beginning of his run. I mean...I can't say I was horribly insulted since I had seen the show twice already, but what about the people the young kids seeing it for the first time? Using all their allowance money just to see him perform! (lol..i exaggerate) But whatever. Who knows, maybe he was depressed or sick or something...I won't judge too harshly!

Oh yeah, and I too was shocked at how fantastic Bailey was. I always scoffed when watching the show and heard he say that the role of Elle Woods was MEANT for her. but....maybe she was right. lol. She really was somewhat sensational.

And I have fantastic relative pitch and my sister best friend has perfect pitch, so when we saw the show it was somewhat jarring hearing So Much Better in the different key, I must say. But alas, she was great.

[artsed123]

Posted: 8/8/08 at 11:41pm

The way you made the LB playbill is really cool! How did you do it?

[verynewyorkcurious]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 12:30am

I saw LB tonight. I was kinda expecting Bailey to suck, but she really impressed me. She is the perfect replacement for Laura Bell, although certain parts, I thought I was watching Laura Bell.

During Whipped into Shape, one of the dancers messed up, and I couldn't see her face, but I have a feeling it was Autumn because of her size.

[srittan]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 12:43am

I LOVE VEN DANIEL!!!!!

[carymetorent2]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 2:39am

If CHristian Borle is phoning it in, just because Laura is gone, that is completely unprofessional and I hope that's not the reason . An actor should never let personal issues interfere with his performance.

The UPS guy is essentially scripted to receive large cheers. He gets his own entrance music and struts across the stage to it...any audience would cheer for that. That being said, I haven't heard anything good about Ven, but I'll reserve judgment for when I finally see him. I will say that i don't think anyone will ever come close to Andy Karl, but I'm biased.

As far as Matthew Risch as Warner, I was impressed by him. Vocally, he sounds a lot like Richard which isn't something I expected and I enjoyed his take on Warner, but I don't think he has enough arrogance in places and of course, RIchard looks the part more so. Once again, I'm biased :-P

[winston89]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 3:18am

I saw Bailey in the show on her opening night. The reason I went then was because if she was bad then I could blame it on the fact that it was her opening night. Instead she amazed me very much. I do think that she was a good choice as a replacement for Bundy.

I do think that it was wrong for Christian to be upset because he wasn't in the reality show. I thought that he wasn't in it because he decided that he didn't want to. It sounds like a very unprofessional move in my mind. When I saw him in the show I didn't get that sense at all.

As for the playbill. The picture that someone made of the color play bill of Hanks instead of Bundy is a good idea but it won't work. This is because they can't afford to do color playbills anymore.

I did find it funny that when I went for Hanks's opening night. In the playbill wherever they would have the name of the actress playing Elle. They replaced it with "MTV reality show winner." And had the bio be about how there were many girls who tried out etc etc and told us to look in the insert for more information. They should have done what every other show does when they get new cast members. Use an insert and leave the playbill the way it is until they get the new ones in.

I don't think that they are going to change the playbill.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 9:56am

They no longer use the "MTV Winner" thing, thank goodness. It looks just like it used to (and should look) with Bailey's name. I also like that Autumn is given no special recognition in the Playbill, and is listed with the other ensemble members.

The color picture that person made could very easily be done in black and white, by the way. Alternatively, they could just stick Bailey's head on the existing logo.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 10:24am

"Strangely enough the "Elle" is apparently not Laura Bell but rather a graphic. I forgot where I read that but I promise it was credible!"

The graphic is indeed Bundy. Because of graphic design, it looks like a more computerized/electronic version of her.

"'Ireland' is an okay song, but the way they tie it into the show is just terrible."

This is probably a stretch, but I think this song may be a subtle reference to the Irish life in Boston. Even though other than Harvard, there aren't many Boston references. The song also lets listeners know Paulette's background. So I guess in a way, those two things combined help make it tie into the show better than some people think. But I agree somewhat.

[ruprecht]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 10:52am

It really doesn't matter, it just matters that Orfeh makes the song a million times better than it could be and like another poster said, get's laughs where there really shouldn't be any. I've heard this past weekend has been understudy central. I was thinking of going to the matinee but I'm worried it will be a repeat of yesterday.

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 11:45am

So the Playbill I made would be good if it didn't have the "MTV Winner" thing and if the picture was black and white? What happened to the color Playbills?