'A Chorus Line' at Ogunquit Playhouse

[Perfectly Marvelous]

Posted: 6/1/09 at 8:50pm

I'm curious if anyone here has seen the production yet. It's the first show of the season...so hopefully it's doing well (outside of a few negative reactions, I haven't heard much about it).

The Bushes seemed to enjoy it, though:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090601-ENTERTAIN-90601035

[morosco]

Posted: 6/1/09 at 9:07pm

Lorenzo Lamas. It's that good!

[jmnpublications]

Posted: 6/1/09 at 9:39pm

It was actually quite good. I saw the press opening and then interviewed Lorenzo Lamas the next day.

I enjoyed it much more than the recent national tour of the Broadway revival. The cast had an exuberance and freshness that made you feel that there was nothing else in the world that mattered to them but this audition. Each and every one of them was a fine actor/dancer. They found their own truths in the characters and didn't just mimic the originals the way the touring company did. The vocals in some cases were spotty, but Nadine Isenegger was without exaggeration the best Cassie I have seen since Donna McKechnie. Her "Music and the Mirror" was exquisite. It produced chills from the moment she struck her first pose. And yes, I did see the original.

Lorenzo Lamas is turning out to be quite a fine stage actor. He takes his job very seriously and works very hard to earn the star billing that he gets. I saw things in his Zach that gave the character much more depth than usual. After Paul's injury, you could see how it threw him for a moment. It was as if the wind had been knocked out of him. Then he straightened his posture and made a clear decision to snap the other dancers out of their shock and mourning by asking the question: "What do you do if you can't dance anymore?" He was also very commanding as the voice of god from the back of the house, and when he was giving instructions to the dancers, his timing was impeccable.

This is an excellent production. If you are in the area, by all means go see it.

Jan
Lamas Interview

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 6/1/09 at 10:45pm

Just curious, did they do the original Michael Bennett choreography? That being said, did Lorenzo dance?

[jmnpublications]

Posted: 6/1/09 at 10:54pm

Dottie,

Yes, the choreography was the original. They danced it very, very well. As I said, their Cassie was breathtaking. So fluid, crisp, sexy, passionate and with fantastic technique. Truly reminded me of McKechnie.

Lamas didn't dance. They reverted back to the original in which Larry did all of the instruction. Lamas did show a few steps here and there (and he was okay), and he joined in the bows of One, of couse. But he didn't do the finale with the ensemble.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 6/2/09 at 1:00am

How was Megan Sikora as Val? I would love to see it. Wish I could get up there from NYC.

[jmnpublications]

Posted: 6/2/09 at 1:18am

It's funny. Megan was very good in her own way, but she seemed to be "acting" more than the rest of the cast. I never got the sense that she was a real person under the T&A. She was doing her own little routine. It seemed to me that she brought over her B'way revival sensibility and it didn't fit with the youthful, fresh-faced "innocence" of the other actors. Her take was a bit too "Kristin Chenoweth" for my taste. "Oh, look at me, aren't I precious."

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 6/2/09 at 10:24am

Thanks, JMN!

[manaboutown]

Posted: 6/2/09 at 2:47pm

oh pleeeeeaase! This production was better than the Current National tour? The tour is amazing! I saw it twice in the last 6 months and it has an amazing cast and has been getting wonderful reviews. I just watched the video of the Ogunquit playhouse and it looks like just another regional production. Lorenzo Lamas looks RIDICULOUS in this and with his long hair and moustache he is a "doug henning" look alike. I am sure there are some nice performances by Nadine Isenegger and others but it looked very amateur to me.

[jmnpublications]

Posted: 6/2/09 at 4:38pm

The problem with videos is that you don't feel the emotion in the theater. You get brief clips of production numbers from a distance. The impact is also affected by the quality of the editing, which in the case of the Ogunquit videos is rather poor. In performance this cast was alive, endearing and wonderfully honest, qualities that were sadly missing from the tour when I saw it in Boston last season. I'll take emotional availability over slick production any day. And Lamas was fine. The video clip shows him onstage all of two seconds. Pretty tough to judge an entire performance with a glimpse that's gone in the blink of an eye.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 6/9/09 at 8:53pm

"Every dancer in the show honors the struggle, symbolizes the dauntless hours of hard work and shares gleefully, the joy of giving everything for your passion. All of that is even more impressive in light of the flat performance of the show's Headliner, Lorenzo Lamas.

That's not say Lamas was lame. He wasn't. He's just not the right fit for the role of Zach, the fictional show's director.

It's as if Lamas is O.P.'s paramour. Fantastically striking. Maybe even intriguing. But, definitely married to someone other than the stage. The small screen perhaps.

There was no sense of struggle, intolerance or need for power in his presence. And, given most of his lines are delivered from the lighting booth, it's even more important Lamas deliver with range and unscripted fire."

Full Review

[DAME]

Posted: 6/9/09 at 8:56pm