BRANDI CHAVONNE MASSEY AS ELPHABA!!!

[covergurl211]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 9:46pm

Did anyone see WICKED this weekend??? Brandi Chavonne Massey went on as Elphaba & SHE WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!! HOLY COW- she did the best Defying Gravity I have ever heard. Just comes to show how talented these understudies & everyone is when they get their chance to go on! I hope she goes on more often!!! They are all great, but I just wanted to see if anyone else saw Brandi.

[JamesMacon]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 9:49pm

I am glad to hear that she was awesome. I wonder who will replace Eden...

[whatyouown223]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 9:53pm

I saw her on Wicked day and I loved her.

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 9:57pm

New blood? AWESOME! I wish her all the best.

[covergurl211]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 9:59pm

she has a great website where all her pop/r& b music is at too. It's chavonnemusic.com . She is fierce & writes all her own stuff. I saw her at another show at The Cutting Room. She sang "Home" from The Wiz & encored with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." It was beautiful

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 10:02pm

It's nice to see that people are enjoying her performance. When she was first going on she received some cold reviews, I guess she grew in the role.

[JamesMacon]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 10:20pm

Yeah I was under that impression too, that she had gotten some mixed reviews. It seems like she has really improved, which is awesome.

[myManCape]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 10:23pm

Shes been with the show a long time, so I wouldnt call her new blood. But if she ever did get the role, Im sure she would do it on tour first.

[parker russel]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 10:24pm

Saw the Sat. matinee...SHE SAAAAAAAAAAANG. It was the best (and most acurately on pitch) Defying Gravity I've ever heard. Her riffs were killer and she really tore into each number. Her and Kate did a great "For Good" as well.

Kate was also fantastic. Her Act II is beautiful and her more sincere moments are really stunning (my favorite being when Elphaba showed up at the dance...Kates realization of what she had done was awesome). And her voice is beautiful...

Also thinking...Kate would be BRILLIANT as Ariel in The Little Mermaid. She's a great comedian, sounds the part, we know she looks good in a swim suit...I think she'd be adorable :)

[.LittleWing. 0224]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 10:29pm

well they haven't put her on in 9 months. 9 months folks. she sure sang the crap outta those sangs, i'm sure to give the producers a big "f*ck you"!

[atlsuperstar]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 10:37pm

I saw her and she was amazing, she has really grown from the beginning, but she has had plenty of time to get it in her bones. You can see a recent video of her singing it on youtube on a Rosie cruise, she pretty much did Defying Gravity the same way. I am really liking her and Saycon now, but Brandi ripped it, she even went up higher at the end. It was amazing!

[broadway_show_fan]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 10:40pm

9 months. more than twice the run of Kate's Good Vibrations run! :-x

[admanrich]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 11:22pm

Glad to hear she was good! I hope to see her one day.

[admanrich]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 11:22pm

Glad to hear she was good! I hope to see her one day.

[LouieLovesTheater]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 12:29am

She also brought No Good Deed to a total new level vocally. Hit riffs no other Elphie has ever done.

Yeah, when she first started it was a rough few performances but she sure seems more at home in the role now.

Do you think all the positive write-ups from Rosie's cruise helped her get another crack at Elphie?

[LI Larry]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 12:37am

I was on Rosie's cruise and she deserved all the good notices she got. It was incredible. She was equally great in the piano bar late at night

[HatBoy]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 12:51am

I think she was already scheduled to go on for this weekends performances before she had performed on Rosie's cruise.

She was absolutely amazing, and I'm thinking she was thrown on with very little (if any) rehearsing back in October. She was a wreck, vocally.. and she had goofed many lines. A huuuuge improvement since then.

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 8:38am

It is doing my heart good to hear these comments Idina is was and always will be Elphie, followed by Eden, Sho and then Julia (IMO, anyway)

But...They need another, "fresh faced" new actress to step up and fly Not only *play* Elphie, but play her well.

Here is a lovely picture of her in costume with Ben Vereen as The Wizard and Rue McClanahan as Mmme Morrible:




This is on her MySpace page.

Updated On: 8/7/06 at 08:38 AM

[Unmasked05]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 11:54am

I've had the pleasure of hearing her sing "DEFYING GRAVITY" and I thought she was GREAT she SAAAAAAANG that song.

Hopefully she will take over in the role because she much deserves it. She's on the Jekyll and Hyde DVD.

[HatBoy]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 11:55am

Curtosy of Myspace, of course.

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 12:05pm

There are clips floating around of Saturday's DG. She's definitely not on pitch. I like her, but let's not get crazy here. The excessive riffing takes away from the character. The show is supposed to be about the journey of two women. It's not American Idol.

Don't get me wrong, I love the riffing. Have tons of it on my iPod. But it's not right for Wicked. That was my gripe with Shoshana. I'll listen to her tear through "Home" or any of her Ars Nova concert, or even "Ready To Be Loved" from the Uncharted performance. And I love it. But in Wicked, it's not appropriate because it detracts from the show.

[gustof777]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 12:09pm

what?? It's Wicked not Sondheim or anything. As long as it's in the right hands riffing works fine and Brandi knows what she's doing and sounds incredible

[NYC4Life]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 12:30pm

I also got to see her. I was shocked! She was perfect in the role and I have not been as pleased with show since I saw it with Idina and Kristin. She was my second favorite elphaba. She was spot on. You say you saw video from her but true musical theatre fans should know that people sound very diffrent when you are sitting in a house like the Gershwin. If you want to talk about pitchy dont get me started about the current elphaba. if you want to talk about riffing i can go into S. Bean. Though I did not care for her, the only Elphaba I have seen that had a flawless voice from start to finish was Ms. Block.
Updated On: 8/7/06 at 12:30 PM

[49th Street]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 12:33pm

Apparently the last time she went on was mid-way thru the show about 5 months ago...before that it was about a year ago...seems like a tough way to get comfortable with a part

Good for her for doing so well!

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 12:45pm

Yes, Maniac. I agree that the riffing does take away from the acting a bit. I remember feeling that I enjoyed Shoshana's performance more for her voice than the story.

And this was most likely long scheduled because Saycon didn't go on.