The Official Greg Jbara Love Thread! PART 4. CELEBRATING 1 YEAR OF LOVIN'!!- Page 186

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 9:03pm

Umm...you did UIL? Oops. Obviously we met but I didn't know you were UIL. So umm...who were you? lol.

I honestly thought I was gonna take this one easy, I figured Ryan would have been stringent(haha) with the details, and I'd just add a bit. What's the dilly yo Ryan? You wanna just handle the speech you transcribed and me write about the rest, do my usual, take the lead on this one?

[Up In Lost]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 9:09pm

Weren't you the one in the red in the first row? Heh....

[SirLiir]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 9:18pm

I need to copy it all verbatim Amanda I will have it done in a little bit.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 9:18pm

Umm...I was in the front row of the mezz...in black with a teeny bit of pink on...

[Up In Lost]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 9:22pm

It was a different Amanda then. Hehe. This one won the Joanna pencil.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 9:25pm

Wow, most people think I'm too...unique...to be mistaken for anyone else.

Besides, I don't wear red

[SirLiir]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 9:25pm

Actually, Amanda, I do not think I am going to go into detail on the show itself as I need to get this speech done and then update the site (I have big updates planned for it this week and I need to get started asap). You are a much better writer when it comes to this. Go ahead and write the Amanda-brand summary. I'll handle the actual speech summary.

[Up In Lost]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 9:49pm

Aw. I checked with my horse trainer, and I have to go to a horseshow this coming weekend. No Greg's last for me. ;_;

[SirLiir]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 9:54pm

Norbert's last speech coming in a few minutes.

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 9:55pm

I love Greg Jbara . He's so nice. After I took my picture he goes "you have to e-mail this to me on my site, okay?" and i'm like "sure" and he goes "no, seriously..e-mail it to me", it was funny.

<--Our picture. I look..interesting. My mom took it before I was ready.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 10:08pm

kk. Though I was going through it in my head and realized that...a lot of the differences are hard to describe...just involving exaggerated stuff and some different movements, but I'll do the best I can for those.

So let's see. With my stupid car still being repaired, took the bus in. Got to lotto at like 12:57, perfect timing. I put my name in for Ali and saw Mamie, Starletta, Kerrie, Ryan, others. Kerrie's friend won for them and Ali won so we were all settled.

Ali wanted to see Greg as he went in to tell him she got a lotto seat; and we got there as people were picking up some auction items, which was cool. We saw the umlout poster and Mamie again. We chatted a bit with him and other people who knew Greg. They said they've seen the show way too much--6 times. I of course had to explain that's nothing, and Greg said something like you've seen the show quite a bit right? And one of them said yeah, 6, but apparently that's nothing compared to this one(pointing at me). So Greg makes a sighing, he-can't-believe-I-go-so-much face to make fun of me, and I was like Hey! Be nice, I pay your salary! He said...eh, you pay my rent. It was really funny.

Okie, so then we head in. Soo hot, yaay for it being such a big lobby. It was funny how we were all spread out. Kerrie was on one side in the box, Ali on the other side, me dead center mezz, Starletta a bit to my right, Mamie and Ryan in the first couple of rows, etc. We were being dorky for a while, all waving at each other. It ended up working out great though, our noise/cheers was spread out throughout the theatre.

We gave Greg a wonderful entrance applause. Others definitely joined in, but we started it from our "corners." I felt bad b/c we were cheering over Rachel's line but...well, it's not our fault they gave Greg an entrance that means applause willcover lines.

I guess for certain aspects of this, it makes more sense not to go chronologically. It was hysterical because throughout the whole show Greg kept looking at different ones of us. We kind of saw him find all of us during Give Them What They Want, and he pretty much got to all of us for Chimp In A Suit. It was amusing.

Okay, back to chronological order. Give Them What They Want...I dunno it was never Jonathan's biggest number and just...it wasn't quite hitting me yet that it was his and Norbert's last.

OMFG. I was all the way up to after Shiffhausen and it all just deleted! ahhhh! noooo. Don't make me write it again. Ulgh!

[SirLiir]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 10:10pm

Extremely rough draft of the speech before I edit it and fix the names. Enjoy!

"What a ride, yes. I would like to say something. You know, when I won the Tony, it was CBS so they cut you off so quickly. Once again, I am crying that I have gone this far in my career without changing my name. I never thought I would be in this position. There are a couple of people I need to acknowledge with whom me, this show, wouldn’t be here. These two (points to DRS producer and Jonathan Pryce), you are so incredible. You do all this and you kind of create a family, and like the best of families, it’s a dysfunctional family and things get done due to circumstances that you normally wouldn’t do. I ask all of you for forgiveness for back stage shenanigans and one man in particular, is Jack Scott back there? (Jack enters stage right) This is my dresser and I couldn’t thank him at the Tony Awards. There is no one in the building who works harder for me that gets my butt out here on the stage every night, in the right clothes. This is the third show I have done with this guy and it’s the third time he has saved my butt. I love you so much (hugs Jack). I want to say that Brian D’Arcy is coming in and he’s an amazing actor. He’s like me, only better talented with better hair. (Audience member says, “Impossible!) He’s really great and I want to say thanks to Jack O’Brian who is a prince of the American theater. (Jack O’Brian enters and Norbert mentions shows he has done - the audience claps enthusiastically) The range and commitment of this man to American theater and he is a treasure. It’s been an honor to have been directed by him. I love you Jack. And for our writers, Jeffrey Lane and David Yasbeck for creating this group of neurotics in the south of France and giving me the part of a lifetime and I will never take it for granted. For those of you who kept coming back again, time after time, thank you for coming day in day out. An for Fred Larsen our conductor. I could go on and on but I will stop there. I am going on tour , I am going to do three months., spreading vulgar all across America. Thank you very much!"

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 10:12pm

I said this on the main board Ryan that I thought it was Jonathan and Sherie who were the "two."

I'm still really really pissed about that post.

[SirLiir]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 10:16pm

Thanks for the correction, Amanda. I was unsure about who he was talking about and I figured it was Sherie. Well, work in progress.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 10:17pm

Don't worry about it. I need a break. Maybe after a while, I'll be able to write everything I just wrote again.

[Traci]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 10:22pm

I had no idea that Jack Scott was Norberts dresser too. And Norberts 'thanks' to him was so cute. Loved it. Thanks for writing it up Ryan.

[Up In Lost]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 10:39pm

It was cool to see Jack live!

THink Norbert realized we were carrying on because we "know" Jack form the cam?

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 10:52pm

No clue UIL.

Yeah, Jack is mainly Norbert's dresser, and was brought over to DRS with/for Norbert. He was with him on Wicked. Really, what he does should not be overlooked, and I'm soo glad Norbert acknowledged him. I can't imagine dressing Norbert is the easiest of tasks...

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 11:23pm

Whew. Done.

Continued from first post...


Norbert, as expected, got a huuuuge entrance applause. It definitely lasted from him walking in to at least him sitting down on the other side of the stage. It was great.

Let's see...like usual, I mean it was great, but things didn't really take the new energy of their last show until Great Big Stuff. Again, it's hard to explain but Norbert just totally exaggerated the choreography, throwing in new things, and it was just really funny. Umm, you guys know the ¡§butler walk¡¨ he does behind Tom for the first chorus? Well like he did that throughout the first verse. Just added a lot more movement, butt-shaking, funny imitations¡ it's hard to explain but he filled that number with soo much energy¡ what a great way to see him do it for the last time. He also said and actually quite a bit during the show said sh*t. Hmm.

Ooh, one thing I'm not sure really happened or I just took it to that level, but I swear it seemed as though in the end when he's "conducting"(this too was humorously exaggerated), they played with the lights enough for a bit of the conducting the lights kind of turned Fantasia-y, with the lights imitating the conducting. I don't know if I was seeing things that weren't there b/c I was the only one laughing. Oh well, it seemed funny.

Such a huge cheer after GBS. Quite a few people laughed at the My Fair Lady reference. Yay.

Norbert showed us even more of his butt today during Chimp in a Suit.

I started clapping for Sara which resulted in a huge entrance applause. It was soo great being in an audience with such enthusiastic, big fans of the show. Anyway, she's so great. She's totally perfected the art of screaming.

Again, something I just may never have noticed, I felt like in the past when she sang don't ya love it when the kigh-oats(pronunciation spelling) call, Jonathan's said no like he did to the first line. Today he said what are kigh-oats. I could have just not noticed it in the past.

Jonathan was extra dizzy/scared after Oklahoma. And he really got into his butt dance at the mirror. He kept going down further and was really grinding it.

Ruprecht. Oy gavolt. Just...wow. You guys know how far they take that some times and to just take it further. The cuddly/licking/humping all went as usual but Norbert started doing little dances on top of Jonathan was just pushing really really hard and Jonathan couldn't escape him, despite trying. Norbert also proceeded to fully act out what would happen if Jonathan has to get the genital cuff. Hehe. He started putting up his arms as if he was gonna box Jonathan when Jonathan tried to put him to sleep.

After the Bushes/Tex, etc, when the music started, Jonathan just went "Oh Ruprecht, music is starting". Heh.

Norbert tried to kiss...or do more to Sara, but she backed away. Jonathan and Norbert were really pushing Sara hard on the bed, and Ali said she saw Sara grab Norbert's ass. And Sara had to try so hard to not crack up today. I mean, major props to her for never cracking up during this scene, I don't know how she does it. It was cute to see her almost lose it today.

At the end, instead of shaking hands, Jonathan and Norbert gave each other a big hug. Aww.

Umm, the rest of the first act...Sherie is as fantastic as she was when she left. It's great to have her back.

Again, more exaggeration, the part when Norbert mentions dance usa and sherie goes I love that show, he totally exaggerated the OMG me too, and said more and stuff. Cried harder too. Acted out a bit of the brass section. Heh.

So...Shiffhausen. Jonathan jumped on like I've seen him do. But to all of our surprise, including Norbert's, he pulls out...a bigger, orange feather. You can tell Norbert wasn't expecting that one. Ooh before this, as Jonathan said no feeling what-so-ever, he tapped/hit Norbert's leg so his leg reflected and moved. So Norbert tried to keep a straight face, but smirked and cracked up as he said "nope."¨

Anyway, he made sure to tickle him with the feather, going between the toes and stuff.

Yodels were exaggerated too.

And when Jonathan "plays the violin" on Norbert, he started playing it vertically and then proceeded to hum the beginning of "In The Mood."

For the next scene, there was something going on when Greg was carrying Norbert. He seemed...extra close and had a mischievous face on. Norbert looked like he was gonna start making out with Greg's face or something, which I was waiting for, but nothing. He was grasping him really tightly and eh, disappointing.

Like Zis Like Zat was adorable as ever.

Again, more enthusiastic dancing from Jonathan in The More We Dance. And OMG, the one point where Jonathan and Sherie are supposed to come out dancing under everyone....instead the two of them jumped the way Jonathan does when he enters as Shiffhausen.

Love Is My Legs...hilahrious. Norbert was just emphasizing everything, making it sound more powerful and emotional, which just made it more hysterical...especially at the end with Sherie "Love...is...my...legs." He really quieted his "once again." Haha. Love that song.

Great to see John beautifully sing Love Sneaks In one last time.

Norbert was just going all out in Great Big Stuff reprise...a lot of more errr dancing and grabbing indicating what he was going to do...

And umm yeah...all the same until Dirty Rotten Number. Norbert was already tearing up at this point, you can hear it as he talked. It was funny, like he was crying and then was like in his head oh wait I have to laugh at this Detroit line and did so, still with tears. Man, just emotional. I really wish they could have pointed to each other during the "working with the best" line. You could see them emphasizing it was fun, I mean...every line. We agreed with Norbert that they deserved a hand. Huge cheer then, and when it was over, right away all of us in our corners stood and eventually it was a full standing ovation. Norbert and Jonathan hugged and came forward and bowed. As others posted, then Norbert said and they think they're going home now...then when they talked and said "it was fun. Yeah¡ they were talking about them obviously. The good-bye was sad, but then they came back together and yeah..the show ended.

Greg oddly enough got a huge, huge cheer at curtain call. Weird...course everyone did.

Again something else...Norbert really deserved the last bow today. Oh well.

Marty Bell came in as usual with plaques. But first he welcomed back Sherie who was taken by surprise and kind of like you-don't-have-to-do-this, and wished Lucie a happy birthday. Then came speeches. At least rightfully they acknowledged Jonathan first, Marty said something about except he didn't win the replacement Tony...but he is the first person to b/c of him, they cancelled an award! Haha. Umm the plaque said something like for being a great guy and a great fraud...something like that.

And yeah, Ryan took care of Norb's speech. Though the weirdest thing...quite a few people looked at me when Norbert thanked those who saw the show multiple times, day in and day out. Why would people be staring at me? (No Mamie, I have NOT seen the show 142 times :-P )

It was sooo awesome that he brought Jack out on stage! Of course we gave him a huge cheer. (When Norbert said the part about taking care of his butt or busting his butt or something Jack looked at him and went "Butz." Ha-ha.)

And uhh, yeah then the curtain went down.

And as others have said the stage door was crazzzzzy. Norbert's semi-limo was waiting outside for him and the crowd went all the way around the back of the limo. And I mean props to Norbert, he signed and took pictures with a lot of people. Ali really wanted a picture with him but didn't get one We were nowhere near close enough.

And with so many people, quite a few ensemble members were signing; it was exciting! Poor them, there was like no where to get through. Someone even asked for Fred's autograph(and dresser Tom, who had to clarify he's not in cast. Aww.)

And yeah to our surprise, Laura walked out with Jacqueline and Rachel! Yaaay! It was so great to see her. Apparently she wasn't at the show, came to celebrate after. People asked her to sign as well, where the ensemble page is, and she was like well I was in the show, I'm not anymore, so she had to sign the side away from the pictures. I really miss her. But yeah, they're in rehearsals for the tour; she's excited.

Then Greg came out and Ali and I were like OMG if Greg does his usual, talking with and taking pictures with everyone, he's gonna be here an hour! Well, I don't think it was that bad, but of course Greg did the usual. We said we'd see him next week(soo sad.) He told us not to throw tomatoes at him. (Dammit Mamie, there goes our plan

I guess that's pretty much it. So glad I went, and got that great seat. Horrible intermission story about this woman who refused to believe that we were all cheering Norbert just b/c he's been on Broadway and not anything more recognizable. Oy gavolt; I wanted to smack her.

I feel like I should write a profound ending, conclusion, thought to leave you with...but I guess I'll leave that for next week.

Updated On: 7/16/06 at 11:23 PM

[SirLiir]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 11:53pm

Wow at that woman Amanda. What an idiot. I would have asked her to just leave. Just a few more things to add:

Everything Amanda mentioned, I saw Thursday. Except for the feather, I did not see anything extra special today. More energy for sure but nothing that wasn't there this week. In fact, I think the entire week they gave their 'final performance' and didnt just save it all for today, a very nice move. I actually liked Thursday's Ruprecht a little better (there was a part where Jonathan sat on Norbert's lap and Norbert put his arms under Jonathan's airpits and proceeded to wave them around like they were indeed Jonathan's. It was so funny!) That was why I said it wasn't a surprising show. John's last was such a different feel and I was hoping for a little repeat. Its fine it turned out the same. I will treasure this performance.

I also want to add that I found it extremely classy that Jonathan Pryce let Norbert take center stage for his goodbyes.

...I just hope DRS can survive now.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 11:56pm

That's why even with DRS, I've never seen the show twice in a week :-P I still think it would be more special today, just...I mean it's their last, you know?

And I doubt Dirty Rotten Number was anything like this on Thursday.

Though I'm probably going against my motto of not seeing a show twice in a week and seeing Sweeney twice but it's so cool seeing my friend go on, I can't resist.

[WesternSky2]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 11:57pm

BRIAN WILL BE INCREDIBLE.

Ehem.

Thats all.

Tee hee.

[ilovedrsandNLB]

Posted: 7/16/06 at 11:58pm

hey guys!
i was at the show today and met everyone that was there...got many comments on me not being on the thread anymore..so i decided to make an amazing return! lol
actually i have a favor to ask..i know a lot of us are going to be at the show next week for Greg...i don't know who has tickets and who doesn't, but if anyone would be so awesome as to help me out with the lottery...just PM me or whatever...cuz i will have to do lottery and if i dont' get it i'll go to TKTS...but yeah..just let me know. if anyone can help..we can meet there around 12:30 and put our names in? that would be awesome.

and yes..the show today was amazing...i laughed (a ton) and i cried (yes thats right..i cried for my man leaving) thats all i have to say.

have a nice night everyone!

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 7/17/06 at 12:03am

Remember Ali. Breakdowns are bad.

[SirLiir]

Posted: 7/17/06 at 12:05am

Oh yes. Very true, Amanda. DRN was certainly spectacular and unique today. I was amazed they both kept it together. John Lithgow chocked up on his last but those two keep it together and delivered one heck of a finale. Gosh...I can't believe it was 6 months ago that we said goodbye to John. Now, we have lost Norbert and the other John. I feel like I am in Rent. I can't believe this is goodbye.