City Center Encores! 2023-24 season: PAL JOEY • ONCE UPON A MATTRESS • JELLY'S LAST JAM • TITANIC- Page 10

[HenryTDobson]

Posted: 1/24/24 at 7:41pm

I'm really disappointed by the costumes. The sketches they've been showing have looked gorgeous and these are........not. Also what in the world is on Sutton's head? I feel like she's always cursed with a terrible wig. I'm excited to hear reports from tonight.

[FANtomFollies]

Posted: 1/24/24 at 7:50pm

Jordan Catalano said: "I really thought Sutton would have had a LOT more power in her voice hitting that “Shy”."

I had the same thought. The entire joke of the song really doesn't work unless it's a a huge vocal 'blast'. 

[OceansJenny]

Posted: 1/24/24 at 9:06pm

At intermission - maybe I am easy to please but this is a lot of fun! Sutton shines!

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 1/24/24 at 9:16pm

Here’s Carol doing Shy on a TV performance. She sounds about a billion times better than the Encores B-roll does

https://youtu.be/a6_CDvd-BFU?si=hHfzh1kksGySnGQV

[theatergoer3]

Posted: 1/24/24 at 10:14pm

For those curious about runtime - with a pre-show curtain speech, it ended at 9:55pm. 

I had a lot of fun and the cast make it work. It's dated at times. 

It didn't sound like Sutton was belting as much as may have beenexpected but she had the audience eating it up where I was. Reception seemed positive overall. 

Besides new jokes, didn't seem like that much of an overhaul. 

 

The wig for Shy is different than what I would guess is one for the rest of the show. 

Updated On: 1/24/24 at 10:14 PM

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 1/24/24 at 10:21pm

Saw it. The show itself is just not good, or, maybe it’s okay and does not hold up in 2024. The actors save it. They elevate third rate material. The Encores orchestra is as good as they always are but there isn’t much to work with here. Barely any physical production and the costumes are serviceable at best. I should have spent my money on something else. 

[KitKatBoy24]

Posted: 1/24/24 at 10:48pm

This was all just okay. Sutton really let me down with “Shy”. I’m not saying everything needs to be belted all the time, but volume is literally the joke in this song. We literally have the ensemble leaning away from her on each high note cuz she’s supposed to be loud. It didn’t work. Felt like she was holding back. Where’s the girl that gave us Gimme Gimme?! I will give her credit in her comedy chops and she seemed to be having a blast. The evening has is funny moments. Harris was hilarious. Urie had his moments too, but was very predictable in how he played the role. I think maybe this show is just dated. It was my first time ever seeing it, and I didn’t care for it. It should’ve been a one act. 

[UWS10023]

Posted: 1/24/24 at 11:26pm

KitKatBoy24 said: "This was all just okay. Sutton really let me down with “Shy”. I’m not saying everything needs to be belted all the time, but volume is literally the joke in this song. We literally have the ensemble leaning away from her on each high note cuz she’s supposed to be loud. It didn’t work. Felt like she was holding back. Where’s the girl that gave us Gimme Gimme?! I will give her credit in her comedy chops and she seemed to be having a blast. The evening has is funny moments. Harris was hilarious. Urie had his moments too, but was very predictable in how he played the role. I think maybe this show is just dated. It was my first time ever seeing it, and I didn’t care for it. It should’ve been a one act."

I expected the same joke as well. I guess I thought she was trying not to imitate Carol. But it was kind of disappointing. The male characters seemed to all be somewhat daft where the women were the smartest  people in the room. It was a choice but it made Urie and Jackson’s characters somewhat similar. Urie is a very playful actor but I would have liked to have heard the music with a stronger singer. Although his songs are not at all memorable.

It opened to mixed reviews on Broadway back in the day. I am sure it had more to do with the book and music and not the performances.

It is interesting how long it takes Sutton’s character to make her initial entrance. I kept thinking….where is she?

Updated On: 1/25/24 at 11:26 PM

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/24/24 at 11:40pm

I thought it was awful, she's so miscast. Never seen a performer hold back so much as to fit a character that is not her style, was she off-key on purpose?  

She's not the comedian she wishes she could be, the Burnett-type roles are not for her.

Also, people, please stop the hysterical fake laugh before the joke is even said. The show is not about you, so annoying.

 

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 7:58am

Maybe shes getting over a cold?

[OhHiii]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 8:25am

Sutton hasn’t really shined in a role since the days of Anything Goes and Violet. Though I’m not entirely sure I’d want to hear her sing Anything Goes these days…

I saw the Encores production of Wild Party and, again, she was entirely miscast. Marian, miscast. Winnifred, miscast. I just because an actor WANTS to play a role doesn’t mean they should. (I feel the same way about the rumored Audra Gypsy).

[OceansJenny]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 8:41am

Pretty sure there were similar complaints here that Sutton was miscast and “no Patti LuPone” for Anything Goes. 

[binau]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 8:57am

Sutton sounded just fine to me in the recent west end anything goes, and I saw her do it on Broadway! But yes when I say ‘just fine’ in my opinion she was never a vocal powerhouse the same way that Patti, Bernadette (in prime), Betty Buckley were etc. it’s one of the reasons I never really understood why she has been so successful. I’ve warmed up to her a little but someone here once described her as the luckiest chorus girl in the world and it feels like that to me for many of her roles. 

[LuckyDipster]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 9:31am

UWS10023 said: "Stylistically it mirrored children’s theatre"

As a Brit enjoying my first visit to Broadway, my very thought was that it felt like a pantomime, but a very good one.  Maybe I'm easily pleased or maybe it's just the novelty of being on Broadway, but I had a fun time with this show and thought Sutton was fabulous.  As for the costumes, I was sat in the gods and they looked really good from there.  I don't need songs to be memorable as long as I enjoy them in the moment and I enjoyed these songs which were mostly sung very well.  All in all I'm glad that I've had a chance to see Sutton Foster, Michael Urie, Cheyenne Jackson and J. Harrison Ghee in this silly romp. Knowing that the production only had ten days of rehearsal is very impressive to me.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 9:55am

OhHiii said: "Sutton hasn’t really shined in a role since the days of Anything Goes and Violet. Though I’m not entirely sure I’d want to hear her sing Anything Goes these days…"

While I will admit that her performance in The Music Man left a lot to be desired, her performance in the Off-Broadway revival of Sweet Charity back in 2016 was absolute perfection. As for not wanting to hear her sing Anything Goes these days... she recently played Reno in the UK to critical and audience acclaim, and she sounded and looked great on the pro shot that was released. Looking forward to seeing her in Mattress on Tuesday night.

 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 10:25am

Sutton is totally playing that “I’m SHYYYY!” moment wrong, telegraphing the joke with her face and body like “see? I’m telling you I’m shy but my behavior shows the opposite!”

I guess she can’t help herself and has to make the writer’s work “better” with her expertise.

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 11:46am

Review: Sutton Foster and Michael Urie in an Exuberant Once Upon a Mattress

https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-sutton-foster-and-michael-urie-in-an-exuberant-once-upon-a-mattress_1727109/

[KitKatBoy24]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 1:51pm

I don’t think Foster is miscast here. In fact, I was so excited to see her because I thought it is finally a role she’s right for. I just think that vocally she was holding back, and the material calls for stronger volume. Her comedy really is great. There’s a moment that is very “Show Off” and she’s clearly having a blast. 

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 4:50pm

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS: A ROYAL SUCCESS, AT ENCORES

★★★★☆ Sutton Foster, Michael Urie, Harriet Harris and more lead the cast in a happy revival of the Mary Rodgers—Marshall Barer musical

https://nystagereview.com/2024/01/25/once-upon-a-mattress-a-royal-success-at-encores/

 

In a Role Sutton Foster Was Born To Play, the Broadway Star Carries the New ‘Once Upon A Mattress’

The original Broadway production of this witty and charming takeoff on Hans Christian Anderson’s ‘The Princess and the Pea’ opened in 1959, starring Carol Burnett. The new concert production is high-spirited and frequently hilarious.

https://www.nysun.com/article/in-a-role-sutton-foster-was-born-to-play-the-broadway-star-carries-the-new-once-upon-a-mattress

Updated On: 1/25/24 at 04:50 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 6:51pm

Vulture: The Encores! Once Upon a Mattress Is the Biggest Summer-Camp Show Ever

https://www.vulture.com/2024/01/theater-review-encores-once-upon-mattress-city-center.html

"Lear DeBessonet, who also directed Encores!’s storybook version of Into the Woods, encourages the feeling of a pantomime, putting the cast in primary colors like Medieval Times waitstaff and encouraging them to gnaw at whatever scenery they please. Foster makes her grand entrance during “Shy” in an immense wig and tattered outfit, resembling one of those desperate cartoon women in pop-up app ads you get on your phone, after which she pulls a raccoon out of the wig and chucks leeches from her back into the audience. Foster doesn’t match the gale force of Burnett’s belt, which powered a lot of the show’s comedy, but she so commits to the physicality of her lovelorn swamp woman that it rights the ship. Again and again, she’ll go to whatever lengths it takes for a laugh. She makes a set piece out of writhing atop her pile of mattresses at center stage, always an inch away from falling off, part of the joke being that Foster herself appears willing to risk limb for material this broad."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 8:39pm

NYT Critic's Pick from Vincentelli

‘Once Upon a Mattress’ Review: Sutton Foster as a Perfectly Goofy Princess

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/theater/once-upon-mattress-review-sutton-foster.html

"This pair are just as obvious for their roles as Foster is, and also exactly right — the three of them chew the scenery with an infectious gusto that reminds us that they are big; it’s the musicals that got small. Harris can wring laughs with just her hands flying about in an Expressionist ballet, while Urie throws himself into idiosyncratic line readings and physical comedy — at one point, he rolls up and down the tiers of David Zinn’s set when he could have easily clambered.

The supporting cast is stuffed to the gills with game talent, including the recent Tony Award winner J. Harrison Ghee as the narrating jester. But let’s single out the presence of Cheyenne Jackson, too rare on our stages, as Sir Harry."

 

[ACL2006]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 9:22pm

as with any Encores productions, is there a chance this transfers to Broadway?

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 9:39pm

ACL2006 said: "as with any Encores productions, is there a chance this transfers to Broadway?"

Oh, darling...

Updated On: 1/25/24 at 09:39 PM

[Jarethan]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 10:00pm

I did not see this,  it I did see the godawful revival with SJP 20 or so years ago.  The question I have for you folks: is the basic material good enough to sustain a Broadway run, vs a novelty 10 performance Encores run?  It ain’t exactly Chicago or ITW.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 1/25/24 at 10:28pm

I’m also shocked by the lack of true belting on “Shy”. It feels a role tailor-made for Sutton. I did see her with a mask on during some of the rehearsal footage, so I do wonder if she’s not 100%. She’s also working on the SWEENEY score simultaneously.