5 Shows in 4 Days: My Reviews. With Pics!

[BroadwayEnthusiast2]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 3:19pm

I arrived in NYC via Greyhound at 5:30 on Tuesday. Some construction idiot blocked the road right at the entrance of port authority. So, throughout about half an hour, about 50 buses were lined up coming from 3 ways trying to get into Port Auth, while the construction worker sits there and eats his sandwich.
We stayed at The Pod hotel, which was a great place. We had a quick dinner at a French restaurant next door and then ran to the subway to get to Mary Poppins. By the time we arrived at the theatre, it was already 7:50, which turned out to be fine. I quickly looked at the understudy list and was not dissapointed at all. The understudies were as follows:
Bird Woman will be played by: Ann Arvia
Miss Lark will be played by: Sarah Solie
The roles of Jack-in-the-box and Von Hussler will be played by: Rommy Sandhu.
The roles of Jane and Michael Banks will be played by Nicole Bocchi and Henry Hodges.
We sat in box 10. Box 10 is fantastic. You can see about 90% of the stage and only miss some action upstage left- which is really just backdrops. I took a video of The New Amsterdam. Another thing about box 10 is that when there are supposed to be sillhouettes, you can see faces and little details, but those were the only issues.
Now onto the actors...

Ashley Brown does a wonderful job as Mary. I may be alone in thinking this, but I thought she was very funny, light-hearted, very brisk, and a wonderful singer. I know it was a challenge for her to do her own thing, but I think she almost tried to be 2 dimmensional. Again, IMHO.

Gavin Lee was a treat. He was insanely funny and got a ton of laughs. He is a big ball of talent and I hope he stays on Broadway and does more Broadway in the future. I actually liked his character better than Dick Van Dyke's.

I was so glad I got to see Henry Hodges on as Michael. I had heard he was the best and he really was great! He was very easy to understand and had phenomenal enunciation. He was a great singer and also had great comedic timing. This kid is going places.

Nicole Bocchi was also superb. She has so much talent and she is also going far. I would've loved to see Katherine Leigh, but I knew she had left. Henry and Nicole were both amazing and I can't wait to see what they do next.

Rebecca Luker was phenomanal in her role. Wasn't she originally going to play Mary? I loved her as Mrs. Banks, but I would LOVE to see her take on Mary. Her character is quite different from the movie. In the musical, she used to be an actress and Mr. Banks uses that against her. "Well it's not really something to be proud of." he said once. I was the only one who laughed. I don't know why anyone wouldn't laugh at that, seeing as they are both actors. Anyway, she was phenomenal.

Daniel Jenkins was great as Mr. Banks, although he was often very hard to understand. It must be very hard for him to be mean to those kids everyday.

The actors can either save a show or kill a show, and these actors saved this show.

Down to the little actors-
Ay and Mrs. Brill were quite delightful characters. I believe they were only there to entertain the little kids in the theatre, which is needed in a show like this. Jane Carr, again, was quite hard to understand at times. Some of these actors really need to work on their enunciation.
Ruth Gottcshall was really great in all her roles. I don't really think Brimstone and Treacle was a neccessary song, although it gave her a place to show off her great vocals.
I think I covered most of the actors.

The highlights of the show were Jolly Holiday, Practically Perfect, Supercal, A Spoon Full Of Sugar (I just loved how it was played onstage), Step In Time, Temper Temper, and Chim Chim (first reprise).

After seeing Mary Poppins and doing some research, Bob Crowley is now one of my favorite costume and set designers.
His costumes were too good to be true. Even though WIlliam Ivey Long is my favorite costume designerr, I think Bob should've won the 2007 Tony. I loved the statues, the goats, the toys, the..... well I liked pretty much all of the costumes. The exception would be Mary's black coat and skirt. There were a couple distracting things during Jolly Holiday and Supercal, though. There was a woman wearing a dress almost identical to Mrs. Corry, which was kind of distracting.... Also, during J.H., there was a couple that were wearing the same costumes Mary and bert wear in the movie, which was also a bit distracting, especially since they gave Bert the ugly purple suit instead of the pink and white striped jacket with the white pants.

The set design was also incredible- it was the most visually pleasing and most elaborate sets I have ever seen.

The night I went, there was a problem with those "lighters" that Bert and the "stars" use. First, Bert couldn't light the street lamp. It was pretty funny. He kept trying to put it back in and "light" it, but nothing happened.

Step In Time was one of the best dance numbers I have ever witnessed onstage.

****SPOILER****

When Bert tap dances around the proscenium....



Oh

My

God.

That was incredible! I also loved when Mary flew right past me. The giant umbrella was really neat, too. I still don't know how all those tricks are done during Practically Perfect. There were some really neat things that happen around the set in this show.

I really wish there was a redording. I have Supercal and Anything can happen, but I'm missing the other 8 tracks from the Tony voters' cd.

I htink that's pretty much it. I would really like some feedback and there are more reviews coming soon!

Updated On: 8/23/07 at 03:19 PM

[Lm4dham05]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 3:30pm

awesome review....can't wait to read more

[purpleprince101]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 4:05pm

Wasn't Nicole Bocchi one of the girls who played Cindy Lou Who in the Grinch?

[BroadwayEnthusiast2]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 4:08pm

Yup.

[purpleprince101]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 4:10pm

Thanks :)

[little_sally]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 4:15pm

Great review! I agree with your assessment of Mary Poppins. I look forward to your other reviews.

[BroadwayEnthusiast2]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 5:32pm

tobiass, I forgot to comment on her autograph! I wish I had a scanner....

[BroadwayBound062]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 5:33pm

great review!

[tinkerscanne]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 7:11pm

That picture is so cute! Is that you on the left? If it is, you are very well-spoken for a kid (I mean that as a compliment). I thoroughly enjoyed your review of Mary Poppins and agree with all you said. I saw the show in December of last year and would love to see it again. Hmmmm, box 10 sounds good to me.

Can't wait to read about Curtains!!!

[gypsy4]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 7:14pm

i'm glad you enjoye it

[StageFan2]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 9:18pm

Thanks for an excellent review BroadwayE!! I'm glad you enjoyed Poppins.

I look forward to hearing more about your trip and your opinion of the shows you saw.

[yankees1253]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 10:22pm

thanks for the review. nicole and henry look cute together as jane and michael banks.

[Stewpot]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 10:28pm

So I haven't seen M.P. yet, but I did see a credit card advertisement with a picture. Does she really fly around the theater with her umbrella?

[BroadwayEnthusiast2]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 10:46pm

She doesn't exactly "fly around". She goes from the stage straight up to the catwalk. She does come down and up in either direction of the stage (stage left and stage right) at different times in the show, but doesn't go further than the stage until the end (the part in the visa ad). Sorry if that doesn't make sense.

Updated On: 8/23/07 at 10:46 PM

[Stewpot]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 10:51pm

So you are saying at the end she does fly over the audience (like in the ad)?

[zooxanthellae]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 10:54pm

Yes she does! She flies over the audience, but I think what she meant was it's one straight track, from the stage directly to the cat walks, its not as if she's going all over.

[BroadwayEnthusiast2]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 10:56pm

*he. Yeah, that's what I meant. From where I was sitting, you could totally see the big bolts and wires on her.

[zooxanthellae]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 10:58pm

oh and by the way, you wrote an excellent review! I can't wait to read you're next one on curtains! (You are indeed very well written/spoken for a young person! As everyone has already pointed out!)

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 8/23/07 at 11:02pm

Very good! I am so glad you enjoyed Mary Poppins!