I'll give some scattered thoughts too. I definitely wasn't as impressed as some people were.
Angela is the only one who truly nailed her character, despite going up on a few lines. Liasons was delivered with absolute perfection and every line garnered loud laughter. You could sense how engaged the audience was when she was on stage.
Catherine Zeta-Jones was actually pretty good. Not amazingly brilliant, but fairly solid in the role. Over the preview period I think she'll grow into her character and find more of the laughs, etc. Her act two was much stronger than act 1. The scenes before and after "You Must Meet My Wife" were badly paced, and need some guidance.
I must I didn't like Alexander Hanson, at least when he was singing. First of all the tempos of his songs were WAY too slow. His acting was fine, but as someone else mentioned he really doesn't have any chemistry with Zeta-Jones.
Aaron Lazar simply was not very good. "In Praise of Women" was not captivating, and the final note failed to wow. He comes off as a very angry performer to me...not at all what I think of with Carl-Magnus.
Erin Davie is another somewhat weak link. Her acting improved as the evening went on, but I think she's missing all the dry, dead-pan humor in the role. Where is the acerbic Charlotte we all know and love? "Every Day a Little Death" was fine but forgettable.
Leigh Ann was a bright spot, minus the somewhat weird accent. I thought Miller's Son was a highlight of the evening. It was another moment when I could feel the audience really paying attention and in sync with the production.
Ramona Mallory has a beautiful soprano, but she was WAY too annoying in the role. I was ready to strangle Anne before "Now" even started. I always thought of her as young, girlish and naive. Not obnoxious and bratty.
The worst of the night was by far Herdlicka. I thought "Later" was a mess! I mean it sounded like he couldn't find the pitches when the line jumped around, and his high note was yelled, not sung. The whole performance was so melodramatic and overwrought. I felt like he was in a different show.
I enjoyed the direction for the most part. I liked the scaled-down production. I just wish some of the performances would have been stronger to hold it all together. The problem with doing a scaled-down version is that everything is very exposed. A wrong note or poorly delivered line and there's nothing to distract us from the mistake.
I do sense there will be much improvement over the preview period, but I think I would recommend Ragtime and Finian's over this to anyone. (I think ALNM is a better show than either of those, but those two nailed their revivals.)
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
