The Official Greg Jbara Love Thread! PART 4. CELEBRATING 1 YEAR OF LOVIN'!! — Page 195

2/3 of my apartment is now packed. It was a pleasure seeing all of you, and I'll truly remember this day for a long time. I'll post a real review later, but this was the most emotional day of theatre I've ever been to.

Thanks for the memories...

Once again, I need to throw a shout-out to Harpo. This review is for her. :)

There were what, eight or nine of us? I finally made it right after lotto, which was lucky considering my transportation luck.

I had a feeling this was going to be an emotional day- and it truly was. I move Tuesday, so this was my last Broadway show for the forseeable future. That made it tremendously emotional. And yes, Greg set me off with his emotional speech.

Dre did an AMAZING job with the scrapbook! Greg really loved it, and his reactions were priceless to her (awesome) captions. We also were treated to a random Andrew story (which was doubly hysterical when we saw him later at the stagedoor).

I can't even think enough to put together a coherent review right now, but I promise there will be one later.

All-right...I've gotten quite a few PMs begging for details...I hope I do it justice. There should be lots of pics/videos from others.

Oy...where to start? Well, like I said, I was next to Dre, which worked out wonderfully. In the front center row starting from the left was Mamie, Dre, me, Sarah. Starletta was a little furhter down the right and Ryan and Kat were in the aisle of the side next to Mamie. So we certainly had a congregation.

Dre and Ryan saw Greg before the show(I'll let them talk about that), but Dre assured me Greg said the ensemble is prepared for our noise, so bring it on. Heh.

Indeed we did. Such a roar when he walked out...it was really loud but I think we kept it short, and Rachel got her line out.

Umm...I'll talk about all the Greg stuff, then briefly talk about new people, then get to the emotional curtain call I guess.

Okay, so...he exaggerated his little "shake" in Give Them What They Want. Umm...in typical Greg fashion, kept everything extremely professional, kept his Andre face, didn't break or do unnecessary things. Chimp in a Suit got to me, just...the last time.

Umm...lots of cheers and noise or him throughout the show. We gave his pencil line a big applause, and laughed really hard and...stuff like that.

Like Zis Like Zat was soo adorable...I had tears in my eyes.

When he and Lucie came on for the tango cross, we gave a big cheer, kind of a you-go-Greg cheer. Heh, he enjoyed it.

Huuge applause/laughter after the first robe appearance. He exaggerated here too, acting a little more off-balance and put in more of a mischevious laugh.

Balcony scene...as classic as ever. Again, huge applause at the end of "flows from.." Lucie had big tears in her eyes during this scene. When they rolled off the stage, I could see Greg grab her and embrace her and the two of them hugged really tightly. It was adorable.

And..his last scene. We looked at each other, kind of acknowledging it. After his "Neck Pillow" line, Dre and I did our typical in sync/in tune "aww" that it seemed to be a bit more than us. It was definitely heard, and the audience started laughing after. They just kinda stood there; Lucie was laughing a little. Had a little bit of tears with his "I'll miss you." He seemed to have a bit of tears in his eyes, and as he carried off Lucie, I screamed to him that we'll miss you.

Okay, quickly about the rest of the show...

I don't want to say that much about Keith and Brian, as it's really early in their run and I want to give them a chance to grow into the characters before passing judgement. Brian was more impressive of the two. He was pretty funny, and he definitely is gonna be great. He brought some of his own stuff to the part that had me cracking up, and he certainly has a great voice.

Keith plays the role much more like Lithgow than like Pryce, and I think it would be easier to adjust to him if he came to the show after Lithgow. As others have said, the keys of his songs have been lowered. Mamie brought to my attention that not even that he had a great voice, but the physical and emotions he was putting into Love Sneaks In was very good. Otherwise, I'm gonna wait a while, see him again when he's had more time to work with the role.

There were a few amusing bloopers though. For Brian's first scene on the train, you know where he takes out the toilet paper to use as a napkin? Well the toilet paper fell out of the bag, rolling out everywhere. He kept pulling more out, but there was more and he was just pulling up the toilet paper during the scene until he finally got it back in his bag.

And at the very end of Ruprecht, when he's kicking and stuff...his shoe flies off! Keith picked up the shoe and Brian took it and just...kissed it at the end of the song.

But okay...the big...oy gavolt, I'm crying again. Curtain call. I stood up for the ensemble as usual...but then so many ppl stood up and cheered for Greg. It hit me then that...it was the end. Tears started. Then when the company bowed together, Sara was right above me and I could see huge tears in her eyes and then I just lost it. The cast push Greg forward and within an instant...we all were crying obviously (and Dre and I are not big public cryers), and across the whole line on the stage...if everyone wasn't crying, an immense majority were. And I don't mean little tears, I mean their eyes were red from crying really really hard.

I think it was Lucie who pushed Greg forward. Then Marty Bell came on the stage with a poster, like he does for everyone who leaves but he had a special guest...Zach, Greg's oldest son! Right behind him was Greg's younger son Aidan, being carried by ex-Gregcam extraordinate, Andrew Asnes! Great surprise.

Greg held each son in each arm as Marty began his speech. It was so beautiful, god. My friend helped so I believe this is the exact quote: "Thank you all for coming out today. Uhh, we lose Greg Jbara today, and we can't imagine the show without Greg Jbara. You know, Wednesday this week is two years that we all gathered in San Diego to put this together, and even a week before we started performances, we didn't have Like Zis Like Zat in the show, we didn't have the balcony scene in the show...those scenes were really inspired by the work of Joanna Gleason, who's here today and Greg Jbara. Greg has been the anchor of this show...I don't know if there's anyone in the company that's been more beloved by all of us."

then he presented him with a poster that said...perhaps not exactly, but pretty much "you will always be a prance to our dirty rotten family"(maybe from the dirty rotten family?)

So then with a kid in each arm still, Greg stepped forward, put Zach down on the stage, and still held Aidan. He said:

"I take my microphone off for my quick change, and I don't have my make-up on...so I'll pretend I'm still a student at Julliard and try to project to the back wall. This is the first time my boys have seen why Daddy does this for a living. It's because of all of you *points to audience* and all of you *points to people on stage*. Umm...*completely breaks down crying through the rest of the speech*...we made our home in Los Angeles for the last 10 years. I spent 15 years here doing theatre. It's where I started. And I missed it. Everyday that I was in LA. And my wie, my boys were *cries harder* generous enough to see how much my heart missed this, which is really the essence of why I'm an actor. The interaction between you and us. And they gave me this gift for 2 years, and I had all these expectations of what I thought coming back to New York City would be like...and now as a dad, it's there first time in the city, and I just want to thank all of you(everyone on stage). This has truly been the greatest experience of my life. And I want to thank New York for being better than anything I ever remembered...and I'll miss it. Till the next time ..." *applause*

Okay, way too emotional after writing that up. Will finish story with stage door in a little while.

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First, a word about the new actors. Keith Carradine has a lot of room to grow in the role (he had a few lyric flubs, etc), but I can see him becoming a very good Lawrence. I'd be interested to see the show in 3-4 months, once everyone has settled in. It was a little odd hearing the songs a bit lower. (I would be interested to hear Brian D'arcy James sing "Dirty Rotten Number" in the original key though).

Brian D'arcy James is doing EXACTLY what he needed to do coming in right after Norbert- he plays the role in a completely different way. He's very good, and I enjoyed his performance. There's enough of the character that we all know, but interpreted in a totally different manner. Again, I'd love to revisit his performance in a few months. He kept cracking Sherie up the entire afternoon. He rolled very well with his various bloopers (the shoe, toilet paper- which the conductor had to scoop up), and it'll be interesting to see where he goes with the performance.

BTW, apparently Richard Kind is not starting the 3rd like originally planned. I heard this mentioned from several people, including Lucie Arnaz. Just an FYI for anyone planning to visit the show in the next couple of weeks.

The performance itself was something I won't forget. The ensemble (and orchestra) had been warned that since it was Greg's last, just about anything might happen. I think our small but vocal contingent was loud. I know Greg heard us. (Actually, people were asking what was going on at intermission, LOL). Greg added a few little things throughout the performance, exaggerated a few things- but was professional the whole show. (Oh, and the "Oklahoma" shout-out was funny)

We did, however, make a bunch of noise for his entrance, "Chimp in a Suit", "Like Zis/Like Zat", the tango, and the balcony scene. "Like Zis/Like Zat" was especially adorable today, and you could just see the emotion onstage. Greg got a ton of reaction from stumbling across the stage in his robe, and you could tell that he was enjoying it. The balcony got a lot of cheering and laughter- and a couple of applause breaks. The embrace at the end was very real- and bittersweet.

As was mentioned, there was a huge "AWWWWW" for the neck-pillow line, and the rest of the theater started laughing at the "AWWW." Lucie had to pause for the audience to settle down.

But the emotional part of the performance was the speeches. The whole cast was very emotional, and that had most of us choked up as well. Greg's speech was just so touching that it was perfect from him. If there was anybody who left the theatre without at least a lump in his/her throat, that person didn't feel the emotion in the house.

I'd love to add more, but I'm not sure what I can say right now. I'm hoping that people are starting to get a feel for what an emotional day it was.

Well, I wasn't there today, but just reading these reviews is making me emotional!

I just want to say that I completely, utterly believe that Greg is this much of a wonderful person to everyone he meets. It's not him trying to get fans, it's not him putting on a facade, it's just him. He is so genuine, it's really moving. What a good human being.

We need more people like Greg in this world.

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I'm very emotional and can't relive the Greg stuff. But. BUT.

Andrew is my favorite drunk. That's all I have to say.

HAHA Liz. I think it was the ay he said something like well I'm sure I'll see you guys at my next show...his voice and I think he almost lost his balance. I think that's what he said that I couldn't rememebr when I realized.

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Did we ever see this Gregcam parody? If not, share!

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Ahem. This is what Andrew looked like:



Except me. But you get the idea. Photo credit to Dreeee.

heh. "Andrew" was such a diva at the stage door.

ETA: great parody

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Updated On: 7/24/06 at 11:57 PM

*sniffle*

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Ah. Thanks hun.

Nah, you're not a very fun drunk. You were getting testy with me when I talked to you when you were drunk.

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