Excited to see John Bell conduct last night! And it look like there were a few new faces with the trombones too.
Now I don't know how Ariana Madix is or what show she's on, but she makes one hell of a dynamite Roxie Hart. She sung the part well, acted the part VERY well, and was overall a joy to see. The only thing I could criticize was she couldn't/didn't do the kicks across the stage at the end of Me and My Baby. I would be thrilled to see her again as Roxie.
Yes I quite disappointed to see that Amra was back as Velma, as I have seen her dozens of times in the role. But, she got a new hair-do and a new costume and apparently a lot of rest, because she was excellent last night.
The audience was so fun last night too. Wasn't quite a sold out crowd. When Mary Claire King came out to welcome us to the show, she could barely get through the lines because people were hooting and hollering so much. And the cheering never realy stopped, although most of the audience was well-behaved. The woman in front of me had a small child with her and they talked nonstop through the show, but somenhow it was so quiet I couldn't hear a thing. Still distracting though. And then the man next ot me had to comment on plot point. He was speaking another langage and I finally asked him during the Entre Act to please stop talking and he looked at me like I was the rudest individual on earth, and kept right on talking. OTHERWISE the audience was so supportive. Even the woman who took a huge iPad to take a picture of the song "Class"--it almost made sense because it was like see? This is who we're singing about lol.
Spoilet alert (lol) By the way, the last few times I saw the show, I noticed that when Mary Sunshine is revealed, she now takes her own wig off, when it used to be Billy Flynn taking it off. It's always awkward now with Billy kind of half holding the wig once it's off. The first time I saw it I assumed it was a mistake and R. Lowe was forced to remove it because Billy forgot, but now it's been three times I've seen it that way, and each time it was still very awkwardly blocked.
Won't be seeing the show again until December.