Featured Actor Joined: 12/26/05
YES! I love to read reviews and I'm curious to see what you thought of Jonathan.
Okay, I will in a little bit. Guess I could edit it a bit; don't need to talk about Greg at the stage door or stuff like that..
Featured Actor Joined: 12/26/05
No I'd love to hear about that! Greg is awesome. I'm still kicking myself because I didn't meet him when I stage doored DRS. I was too busy being happy that I met Norbert.
Okay, so as I mentioned, I was thinking about lottoing DRS but figured not to try on the chance Norbert would be out. Eventually I made plans with a friend but at the last minute decided if as of the lotto Norbert was in, we'd do that and take our chances. There were only a couple more people than seats available, but my friend came after the names started to be called. My name was called when there was one ticket left. Since I was gonna loan my friend money for the ticket and she wasn't there in time anyway, she told me to take the one. Box office said Norbert was in as far as they knew so I crossed my fingers.
Got my usual box...back one in the right. Went to dinner with my friend where I was wearing my "theater dork" T-shirt and between that and the fact that my friend and I were heavily talking about theatre, like 3 different pairs of people started asking me/us theatre-related questions. 2 were actually seeing Lestat that night...random. We actually got into a big convo w/ these 2 girls from Calif, that was fun. Then I got anxious at 7 so I checked the posting, and full cast was in! I was thrilled.
Before I get into the show, I'll also note it was an odd crowd seated-wise. The entire rear mezz was sold out but most of the furthest right side of front mezz wasn't.
Anyway, right around Oklahoma I realized b/c it was so empty, I could def move there so I did. I sat in the aisle, second row, then first when ppl wanted to switch b/c of lack of leg room. So yay for that.
Okay, so the show. Let's see...
Things didn't really pick up until "Great Big Stuff"-with both the audience and the cast. The dialogue between Lawrence & Freddy is back in with the dentist and such, as others have noted.
Anyway, from GBS on, something felt different w/ Norbert. Not to say that he lacked energy or anything the last couple of times I've seen him, but he seemed to reach a whole other level last night. Greg said with him especially when the audience really gets into it, he just...starts going crazy in the part, and the result is wonderful. His singing was the best it's been since he started having vocal problems.
Okay, now the fun starts. When Norbert said his "underwear" line and lifted his butt cheek, the audience hooted, but to my surprise, he began admiring/gazing at his butt cheek in the mirror!! I lost it, it was so funny!
Oh, I *think* I finally figured out who Mylinda as Jolene reminds me of. I have the DVD, I'll double check, but I think it's one of the band-aids in Almost Famous...the one that stays with what's his face and talks about his aura. I'll double check on that.
And...Ruprecht. Oh boy, where to begin? Okay everything was the same up till "we lose more cats that way." Norbert was doing louder, more hysterical crying, but when Jonathan came over to hug him, he skipped the kiss/lick and went straight to the humping. Now I've noted it's been a bit different lately but this time...wow. He got on top of Jonathan, who was forced to lie down on his stomach, and was humping him there...funny enough, but then...he reaches into the toilet...grabs his fish, puts it back into his mouth, and starts...riding Jonathan like a cowboy. He bounces on him as if he were on a toy horse or a bull, and waved his hand in the air as if he was swinging a lasso--you know stuff cowboys would do. I hope you guys got the image. If not, I'm sure I'll think of a movie or something that demonstrates. Anyway, that was HILARIOUS.
So finally Jonathan stops him--the two of them cracking up a little. While Norbert's sucking his thumb in Jonathan, then he kisses him. I was waiting for the lick then, but to no avail. Finally Jonathan gets his "he's very affectionate" out. Norbert did more with the "mother" sequence, repeated "sister?" like he was very disturbed by that idea.
Then when Jonathan mentioned the genital cuff, Norbert went outta control, acting every aspect of that out--throwing it away and stuff. Oh boy. It took more effort for Jonathan to get Norbert to sleep. Finally he did, but I could see Norbert smiling and laughing. And poor Jonathan kept trying to begin the song, but he couldn't stop laughing. He tried 3 times and just burst out. Finally the entire audience applauded, and he got out his giggles, and did the song.
When he said the Bush line, there was delayed reaction by the audience (that too has been happening lately). Someone in the rear mezz on the left side screamed and applauded and then the whole audience did. Jonathan mouthed "thank you" to that person, causing more laughter. Then he finally finished it. He went to sit Mylinda down on the toilet, but she screamed...he didn't put the seat down. Hahaha.
Then when the song started, I'm not positive I feel like Norbert said "okay" in regular, non-Ruprecht voice, I had a delayed reaction. I'm not sure, I think me along with the audience was laughing too hard to notice one way or the other.
I think the rest of it was the same, with some added movements/acting outs by Norbert that cracked me up. He went back to his regular Ruprecht voice for "makes two..." for a little while he changed to a deep funny voice...last night it seemed extra lispy.
And the audience was gone after that--they were really energetic after GBS but the rest of the night they were insane with laugher, cheering, and applause. It was fantastic.
Ooh, I could swear when Jolene was exiting the hotel, Greg, Norbert, and Jonathan kept laughing about something and were trying to hide it. Forgot to ask about that. Oh well.
Rachel keeps getting better and better. Her "Am" was fantastic, and she seems generally more comfortable with the character. Once again, Nothing is too wonderful=eargasmic. Ooh! Someone in the audience obviously got the midget w/ crazy glue joke because they burst out laughing sooo hard, I never heard that reaction before. I guess it's really, really funny if you're familiar with it.
Now for Shiffhausen...wow. The bit with the feather...Jonathan started doing all these movements with it--I think he did it last time but it was so much funnier with it being Norbert. Kept moving from side to side being suspenseful till finally Norbert motioned w/ his hands to move it along and then he giggled it a bit. And it was funnier when Jonathan started tickling. He made that go long too...kept asking tickle tickle? in a REALLY high voice and more so...at one point consecutively they went...tickle? No. tickle? No. tickle? No! Norbert lost it at that point, which I found hysterical b/c he's being tickled and not supposed to be laughing.
Then the song started. Umm, can't think of anything out of the ordinary the first verse. Ooh, the second hit, when Norbert yodels, instead of saying "that's lovely" Jonathan looked at him strangely and exaggeratedly(is that a word) imitated his yodel? Again little laughs here and there.
Oh and ..."are you psychosomaticome? to be.." Again, long moment by Jonathan...something he does every night, but just funnier with Norbert. He took the stick, kneeled down to Norbert, and started playing it against him like a bow on a violin. Again, very exaggerated and long, causing Norbert to move him along again and again crack up. Finally when he left, before Norbert said "I guess that's that" he waved his finger through his hair, indicating Jonathan was crazy. It was great.
Oh yeah, one more thing, Jonathan also stepped/walked on him at one point.
Let's see...Like Zis/Like Zat fantastic as always.
The More We Dance keeps getting better--Jonathan's dancing skills are really beginning to shine through--he now dances with Rachel from the very beginning of the song, and when he's leading everyone, he's clearly one of the best dancers on the floor.
Love Is Your Legs was great as usual, and Rachel did this crazy riff on the really high "Love Is Your Legs." God I love her.
"Love Sneaks In" was once again gorgeous.
Norbert put a little more fun, interesting movements into "Son Of Great Big Stuff."
Rachel can now jump over the orchestra bar. Good for her.
Finally Dirty Rotten Number. Wow. Wow. Wow. All I can say is Wow. Woo-WOOW! The two of them sounded amazing together and that final note-"us"--now they're singing the same note. I assume voices are the same as instruments--when you're playing the same thing, you want to sound like one instrument. I imagine that's harder to do in voices. But they're "us"--was PERFECT. Sounded like one person. It was just an amazing sound, it wasn't possible for them to be more identical. You could hear their strong voices and OMG.
Finally, Jonathan developed his own spanish voice. It's pretty slow and dragged out.
Other things to mention...everytime they spun the wheel, or during the Navy scene, the bike at the curtain call, and the married couple...I really missed Joe. From what I could tell, the new guy has a similar face and I'm sure he's great...but oh well. *le sigh*
so after curtain call, Mylinda gave the BCEFA speech. Sally is the new "spokesmodel," I guess Rachelle retired. I think they've had better things in the past...they have a new DRS T-shirt, it's black and says Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in pretty blue...I held myself back, I was proud. They have autographed playbills and posters, Mylinda made a joke that sure you could wait for us to come out to get these signs, but...you better buy these...b/c we never leave! Heh, I already have mine.
They did have some cool autographed production photos. Jonathan was showing those--there was one of him and Mylinda and he started staring at it, and asked her if he always made that face. Mylinda stared at it and finally said she doesn't think so, he stared at it more, made a face, was about to say something, then changed his mind and said "no actually, it's quite excellent."
Ooh, that reminds me! He does a huge butt dance in front of the mirror while admiring it.
Umm, then Jonathan asked for the house lights to go up and explained they were doing an auction. The winner would get champagne with the cast--well he said him, Norbert, Rachel, and Mylinda--Joanna prob left, and Greg was collecting money. He said he has an important question, and asked if there was a doctor in the house. That sounded alarming, but someone in the orch below me said yes, and Jonathan said great, $100 bid from you sir, thank you. HAHAHA!
The next bid of $150 came from the rear mezz! They were impressed, then Jonathan and Norbert taunted the front rows and said c'mon guys, the poor people are bidding!
And then, a girl all the way in the back screamed "$50,000! If I could see his butt cheek again!" Everyone laughed, especially Norbert then he motioned to her to come here with his finger, like Patrick Swayze does in Dirty Dancing? More laughter and then doing a dance to accompany it, he screamed, "Show me the money!" HAHA.
Anyway, the winning bid was $600. It was cute b/c Jonathan was being British, err, Walesish about it, saying we have an "advonce of..." Anyway, I'm pretty sure I've spent more money than that on DRS tickets alone, so I think I should get some...err, virgin champagne backstage at one point...
And of course, we resumed standing and began our mass exodus. I tried to avoid the cast members, particularly Greg, b/c while I have a perfectly good reason to not give money, I'm not sure it's appropriate for everyone else who doesn't know me to hear me say "c'mon, you don't think I spend ENOUGH on this show?" I think I was pretty successful--being short comes in handy. Looked at some of the production photos--some cool ones, but was a good girl and didn't buy anything. Good will power from me.
By that point, they wouldn't let me go out the 46th street entrance. So I got stuck on 45th Street, where 3 days of Rain is playing right across the street. OY. My advice...through June if you are seeing DRS, do NOT go out the 45th STreet entrance. Not only was across the street packed, but so was our side! As if Julia was gonna cross the street to sign autographs. And then a frenzy just ensured, people would be like, what Julia Roberts? and stop dead in their tracks. It was an adventure finally getting out of that mess. Plus, there were a lot of people at the Tarzan stage door I had to get through. Ulgh. Finally, I arrived at my 5-ppl DRS stage door. Felt much better.
I was thinking last night that I'm not sure where the picture rule comes into effect now. Jonathan took pics with the few people waiting, and I realized I don't remember him ever saying no to a picture. I think Rachel's done the same. It could also be b/c it hasn't been too crowded. Oh well.
Greg of course came out last, and was shocked that this family was waiting for him...of course the daughter told me she wanted a pic w/ him where I started saying oh yaay, he's the nicest guy ever, etc. and...boy did he prove it last night. He stood and talked with them at the stage door for nearly half an hour! (See Malki, don't need to feel guilty anymore). They were just...amazed I guess. The daughter is an aspiring actress, so he gave her advice, told her to finish college, then contact him and he'll help her with agents...someone else, I wasn't sure quite what the relation was but another guy I think was going into scenic design and Greg started suggesting companies and such for him...now he mentioned he's gonna be an announcer on...a talk show? I didn't want to but in for the most part b/c I realized how much this meant to them (I'm becoming such a good girl!...ooh I did take the picture for them though, I think now not only are there a few pics of me on Greg's site, but a few pics I myself have taken...I really am there a lot...), anyway...Barb, do you know anything more about this announcer/talk show thing?
And the family was from California, so that was the topic of most of the conversation. They talked about towns and stuff I had no clue about so I just smiled and nodded. They asked him how he feels about LA vs NY and he said if he could make the money here and the family not be a factor, he'd stay here in a heartbeat, but explained the situation and how he's going back and his kids and stuff. I think I heard him say he doesn't think he'll be back for at least 15 years. We'll miss him.
Umm...oh then one point Greg mentioned how great the audience was, and I knew I could but it there and I was like oh yeah it def was, and Greg laughed and said yeah, so how many times have you seen the show now? Hrmph, made me admit it...I went *cough18cough* He asked me how much money I think I've spent I said I'm too scared to count (I did later but I'm not revealing it) but I did tell him about how I prob won that auction. So then the family was like how could I afford it and I was like oh, I won the lotto and such, and they were like lottos? And aww, Greg tried to explain about them...he said yeah 3 hours before...I gave him a face, and he said is that right Amanda? And I took over and said no 2 hours, 2 1/2 hours you can put names in, and explained all the shows that did it and how some have different times, how easy most are to win, etc. The whole time everyone including Greg was shaking their head at me, as if to say wow...she knows...a lot. Guess my "theater dork" shirt was appropriate last night.
Umm...oh I mentioned shows, Greg mentioned he never saw Ave Q. Too bad, I know he'd love it. Then they started talking about restaurants, Greg mentioned Victor's (me: cam!), and other places, and the best I was thinking was when they asked about cool, hip joints? At that point Kevin came out as if to say he's still here and I mouthed to him that he's telling them about cool, hip joints, and we both giggled. Unfortunately, I didn't get what I hoped to hear. They mentioned swing dancing, I wouldn't call that "hip joints" and I don't think Greg could think of much anyway. Too bad, I was really excited to hear his answer to that.
I *think* that's it...oh yeah, Kevin left and told Greg his family called wondering where he is, Greg freaked out, and Kevin laughed and said he was joking. Heh. But seriously he stood and talked to them for like half an hour...he just...amazes me. I just...wow. My first thank you e-mail I sent him, I wrote "I never knew people like you existed." I have the same feeling right now.
New York is going to suffer a big loss to the community in late July
Featured Actor Joined: 12/26/05
Oh Norbert. I really need to see him *coughlivecough* in this show. I'm sure my stomach would hurt from laughter because your review was killing me.
And Greg is the nicest actor in the Broadway community and one of the nicest people on this earth.
Norbert and Sherie are friends right?
So yeah. Go to her thread.
Not that this is a whoring post or anything.
SHERIE THREAD.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/18/06
that is THE funniest show review/expierence iv'e ever read/heard in my LIFE.
i wish i was there soo badly!! ahh
Bad, Mary! Bad! I have been trying for weeks to revive this thread. No help for you! Just kidding lol Send some people from there over here and alls well.
I must admit that I am getting increasingly jealous of Norbert's ability to steal all the girls' hearts. Guess all I can do is learn from the master.
Though I may inadvertingly kill a kitten, I am planning a NLB Online Chat on an upcoming Monday (probably around 7-8ish). Is anyone here interested in coming? I am trying to gauge the interest level.
will try.
ok, i have to ask the question. i really don;t get the joke about how, in his name, he has Norbert and Butz and everyone finds it hilarious. Am I just stupid? can someone explain it to me? I know Butz = Butts funny, but what does the name 'Norbert' have to do with it?
Yeah pretty thread! (strokes thread). I don't get the joke either Dre...
Anyway I'm sure this is answered somewhere but what date is Norbert leaving? I know it's in July but can't remember the day. Thanks
Thats a good question. I suppose Norbert is a name that always seems to be associated with geeks and wierdos. Its an uncommon name (in the US anyway) and therefore odd to hear. I see nothing wrong with it but you all know how cruel kids can be.
Okay Ryan this may be a really stupid question, but I've been working on my journal for hours and hours so forgive me...
Is Norbert gonna be at this chat? If so, then I'd def be interested!
My first question: Hi Norbert. Umm, did you ever wonder who the f*ck that girl is who's at the stage door a lot and has bumped smack into you a couple of times but said nothing?
Thanks Wiicked For all the sometimes sh*t, mostly jokes I get about my long posts, I mainly do it for people who want that much details--to feel like they were there
Featured Actor Joined: 12/26/05
Ryan, I could def. do a chat on a Monday. Just tell me when and I'm there.
Found an answer to my own question. Norbert and Greg are leaving July 23rd, just in case someone else was wondering.
Featured Actor Joined: 12/26/05
That is going to be a horrible day for the show. Ugh.
where did it say that Norbert was leaving the 23rd? has that been confirmed?
Well, Amanda, I am still waiting for Norbert to email me back about site stuff but I will of course mention it to him and if by chance I forget, I can leave a note at the stage door about the chat. I rather he be there in secret so people wont barrage him with ridiculous questions. I do not want a repeat of the Shoshana chat
Featured Actor Joined: 12/26/05
If he does want to do it, just PM or email us people who won't ask too many questions because that would be awesome. I doubt that would happen though.
Anyway, I really want to do a chat because I'm always bored and would love to chat with other Norbert fans.
Featured Actor Joined: 12/26/05
BUMP. Because it's really very sad that this thread is dying again.
that would be cool. and an exciting chat. But I would definately keep it on the downlow. cause you don't want it to crowded.
True, Dre, but word would spread like wildfire if he agrees to come.
only if he tells you.
I found the July 23rd leaving date on an old thread about Norbert's leaving. I saw it several times and assumed it was true but I could easily be wrong.
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