#1
Posted: 1/6/07 at 11:52am
Carmen Cusack was on as Elphaba last night in Chicago.
I was most impressed with her acting, but her singing left a lot to be desired. She has a nice belt, but her soprano is, well, strange. I'm not sure how I would describe it to except to say that when she went into her upper register I couldn;t understand a word of what she was saying and she sounded strained and airy. Definitely the weakest of the Elphaba's I have seen, although her No Good Deed was somewhat redeeming after a very hesitant, stiff Defying Gravity and Wizard and I.
Seems like this might have been her first time on, though. Does anyone know? If so, maybe the timidness was opening night jitters?
At any rate, having not seen the Chicago company in over a year, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Rondi Reed, Heidi Kettering, and Gene Wygant are still fresh, the ensemble is still excellent and the new Fiyero (sorry I forgot his name, Brad Bass, maybe?) is the best I have seen, aside from Derrick Williams.
Erin Mackey is obviously enjoying being the full-time Glinda, so much so that she seems to almost slow down the pace to milk her laughs. It is a little bit irritating, but she is very capable in the role and has done some nice things to differentiate herself from previous Glinda's that I have seen.
Having seen the show four times now (and I think this is probably it for me as this ticket was a Christmas gift, and I think I have seen the show two too many times at this point!) I still think the best part of Wicked are Susan Hilferty's costumes. I think that they are just incredible and watching them for three hours is just breathtaking and thrilling even the fourth time around.
I was most impressed with her acting, but her singing left a lot to be desired. She has a nice belt, but her soprano is, well, strange. I'm not sure how I would describe it to except to say that when she went into her upper register I couldn;t understand a word of what she was saying and she sounded strained and airy. Definitely the weakest of the Elphaba's I have seen, although her No Good Deed was somewhat redeeming after a very hesitant, stiff Defying Gravity and Wizard and I.
Seems like this might have been her first time on, though. Does anyone know? If so, maybe the timidness was opening night jitters?
At any rate, having not seen the Chicago company in over a year, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Rondi Reed, Heidi Kettering, and Gene Wygant are still fresh, the ensemble is still excellent and the new Fiyero (sorry I forgot his name, Brad Bass, maybe?) is the best I have seen, aside from Derrick Williams.
Erin Mackey is obviously enjoying being the full-time Glinda, so much so that she seems to almost slow down the pace to milk her laughs. It is a little bit irritating, but she is very capable in the role and has done some nice things to differentiate herself from previous Glinda's that I have seen.
Having seen the show four times now (and I think this is probably it for me as this ticket was a Christmas gift, and I think I have seen the show two too many times at this point!) I still think the best part of Wicked are Susan Hilferty's costumes. I think that they are just incredible and watching them for three hours is just breathtaking and thrilling even the fourth time around.
