Tonya acted the role of Caroline brilliantly, but vocally, she couldn't handle the score. The day I saw the show, she cracked horribly on the opening line, which really sets the tone for the entire show when the audience is wincing from the beginning. And it didn't help that the character was written with such a tiny emotional range. Caroline is angry and bitter for 95% of the show. I'm not saying she should have been written any differently, but if your character doesn't have much emotional range in a musical, the vocal performance will have to help pull it over the top. Unfortunately, Tonya couldn't do it. I love her and I love the show, but it just wasn't the best performance of the season, in my opinion.
I don't think Idina's win had anything to do with the success of Wicked. The show was selling over capacity every performance before the Tonys. The bitty boobie club were already the overly-obsessed fan base before the Tonys. The show didn't win Best Musical, Idina's been long gone, and nothing about the ticket sales nor the show's fan base has changed in any way. And Idina is nowhere near a household name. She is a broadway performer very popular with young female fans of musical theatre and old-school Rentheads. Her husband is more famous, actually and I don't think "Taye Diggs's Wife" is really a household name, either. Idina's a wonderful performer and gave a Tony-winning performance (as did Kristin Chenoweth, in my opinion), but no more a household name than Kerry Butler or Laura Bell Bundy.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Updated On: 10/26/07 at 03:41 PM