The "LIGHT" goes out!- Page 7

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 10:43am

I'm sorry to hear that L4C. All 5 times I had seen this show, the people around me were extremely attentive and respectful to those around them.

[singingshowgirl]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 1:02pm

yeah i'm sad that it's closed too!!!

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 1:22pm

I was just thinking about the final performance during my lunchbreak. Everytime I have either seen the show or listen to the CD, I get something new out of it. There were musical passages I heard for the first time on Sunday, it was also the first time I saw Katie (Clara) immitate the hand positions of the people in the paintings. Just thinking about the applause when Vicki exclaimed "Love" during Fable, gave me chills.

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 1:25pm

I was moved so many times, but during "Fable," when Victoria turned at the very end to look at the light, and put her hands to her face as she said "Clara, the light in the piazza..."

My heart broke.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 1:31pm

L4C, you just gave me chills with that!!

[topher]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 1:36pm

Dottie, speaking of the hand gestures you may find it interesting that Katie does a lot of gesturing and unconscious movements with her left hand in the show, even though Katie is right-handed. Somewhere along the way she decided Clara was a leftie, but doesn't exactly remember when. So manyof those little things, such as imitating the paintings, she doesn't realize until someone tells her.

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 1:38pm

Dottie- that moment felt so completely authentic, it gave me goosebumps!

I also love Katie's hand gestures during "The Beauty Is." I don't recall Kelli O'Hara doing that.

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 1:41pm

This is being super-picky, but when Katie's shoe came off during "Clara's Interlude" I really wanted her to take the other one off like a child might do and run around in just her stockings.

[kissmycookie]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 1:43pm

Vicky's entire scene during Dividing Day. It grows richer with each performance. So many nuances come out that you never thought you saw before.

Katie's face as she overhears the phone conversation between her parents,... First in the "look how pretty my wedding dress is!" then the face falls. And the veil gets dropped.

[topher]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 1:52pm

L4C, she didn't want to pull off the other one, and then have to put both back on while trying to do other stuff. She figured that one coming off she could slip back into, whereas if she took the other off she would have to slow the show down to get back into them. As it was, the conductor, Kim, did a fantastic job waiting for her to run back and pick it up. The orchestra was awesome on the final show, working with and through both the shoe incident and the long audience clapping.

[WholeLottaShakin]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 3:21pm

L4C, I just wanted to say that I actually saw Kelli imitate the hand positions in the Annunciation painting every time I saw her perform. *But* I didn't notice "Clara" imitating the Madonna prayer-like position, too, until Katie did it. Either way, both actresses are wonderful.

[kissmycookie]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 3:43pm

It was a wonderful way for Katie to have put her stamp on the role.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 3:51pm

It had quite an extraordinary run (it was extended something like 3 or 4 times...which is nearly unheard of nowadays) but I will miss it greatly nonetheless as it's one of the best shows of the last 10-15 years.

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 5:34pm

Like Dottie said earlier, each time I saw it, I discovered a new piece of music, and how it tied pieces of the show together.

I love when Clara introduces erself to Fabriozio on that musical line, and how it's repeated in the title song, as well as "Fable."

[flaemmchen]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 6:37pm

You know, I never consciously realized Clara repeats "Fabrizio" on the same introductory line in the title song until the last time I saw the show. It was so beautiful.

*sigh* I miss it so.

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 6:54pm

I think it's time to light up the TIVO (again) and watch Piazza tonight.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 7:32pm

I've said this before, but EVERY time I saw the show, I saw another layer, or discovered a new lyric, or experienced a different emotion.

And the final performance continued to deliver new and overwhelming moments of love and light.


I feel so blessed to have this in my life. And to have special people who feel the same way I do to share it with.

Updated On: 7/5/06 at 07:32 PM

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 7:39pm

I agree, Addy. I feel blessed to have seen this show as many times as I did and to have attended the final performance. Definitely the best show I've seen in years. I'm going to miss PIAZZA so much. Thank goodness I recorded the TV broadcast.

[musicnmath]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 7:46pm

thank you all for your detailed recountings of this last performance. I have tears just THINKING about the applause that Vicki got in Fable.

I saw it once with the OBC and once with the recent cast. The only Broadway show I've seen twice. In this day of crazy expensive tickets, I was more than happy to pay for every moment in that theatre...

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 7:47pm

A further testament to the niceness of Katie Clarke...

I wrote Katie a letter the day after the PBS telecast telling her how much I enjoyed her performance. A friend of mine was at the final performance Sunday, and I had her ask Katie if she got my letter. My friend told me that Katie wanted her to pass along a thank you to me for writing and that she hadn't checked her mail in forever but would just for me to find my letter. I figured I would probably not hear from her, but whatdya know, today I recieved a signed headshot and handwritten note from Katie!

What a sweet girl. I hope she comes back to Broadway soon! (She said she had no immediate plans yet, except for getting her thigns together in Houston and permanently moving to New York.)

Posted: 7/6/06 at 12:19am

One of the many things I loved about Piazza was the subtley in a lot of the acting. It was just a joy to watch, and everyone seemed really realistic to me. Especially at the Beaumont, it was easy to see facial expressions on every actor's face and many of the faces were just priceless.

[WholeLottaShakin]

Posted: 7/6/06 at 1:29am

I'm totally with you, Kor. I loved watching David Burnham when he was the waiter at the beginning of "Passeggiata," him checking out Clara. So cute. And the look of confused expectancy on Kelli's face when Margaret said, "Tomorrow is the ring," during the dress rehearsal scene. What I loved most about this production, in addition to the music and story, was how real the world felt to me. I used to say to friends (in trying to get them to see the show with me) that I felt as if I could go to Italy and *actually* meet these people, that they didn't seem like just characters. The cast was truly successful in creating a world you believed in.

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/6/06 at 8:00am

So lucky to have seen the show live twice and now several times on TIVO. I'll miss it when I leave NYC.

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 7/6/06 at 10:46am

This is the only reason I wish that I had Tivo.

I don't think they plan on releasing it on DVD (I am praying they do).

So sad.

[kissmycookie]

Posted: 7/6/06 at 11:04am

The beauty is also in so much of the ensemble acting. Depending on where you're sitting, you get different views of the ensemble on stage. WholeLottaShakin' mentioned Burnham as the waiter eyeing Clara and giving the thumbs-up approval to Fabrizio. The initial geniality of the old gentleman who Clara first meets. And then the slight annoyance he has when she repositions his hat while trying to draw him. The priest during Octet, who fumbles for that gulp of wine to calm his nerves, having watched the confrontation. And the guide who leads the tourists through the Uffizi describing the paintings by Fra Lippi, never fails to crack me up the way she walks, and the way she says, "Madonna. With Angels."