Posted: 10/12/08 at 2:55pm
I had the great pleasure of catching this stunning new production yesterday afternoon at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.
The production is simply brilliant and by the time it opens on Broadway it will have been made so tight it will be perfect.
The staging is by far the cleverest I have seen in years and works so slickly that you just sit in amazement at the speed of some of the changes- a couple actually had a round of applause on completion!
The three women are the most perfect casting and I certainly hope they all get to Broadway with the show. Allison Janney steals the show with a performance that is complete comic heaven. She may not have the best voice on that stage but boy does she know how to try- her 11 o'clock number is stunning and she looks like she is having so much fun!
Her thunder is almost stolen by a great performance from Stephanie J Block who starts off as a timid and shy, battered wife and ends up with the best strong woman number to hit the musical stage in years!
Megan Hilty 'IS' Dolly Parton and puts in a sunblime performnce as the misunderstood floozy who isn't!
All three work together on such a high level you can feel the audience rooting for them every inch of the way through the most hilarious scenes when they get their own back on the boss from hell.
Marc Kudish does a great job as the misogynistic, egotistical boss and finds himself for most of act two suspended above the stage in a harness!
The set is stunning and well worth any problems they had with it at the beginning of the run.
A great supporting cast are great and work very hard in a show that keeps them very busy being almost all the time on stage.
A Broadway bound hit thats gonna kick the ass off 'Legally Blonde', 'Footloose' and all those other movie to stage shows of the last few years.
I cant wait to see it a again!
Updated On: 10/12/08 at 02:55 PM
