Dear Evan Hansen - Ben Platt Attendance — Page 8

As another poster mentioned, we were also at Friday night's show and he was unbelievable. Granted it was our first time seeing the show but he was incredible; his voice was strong and clear, no problem hitting any notes, and my husband and I remarked several times how rested and fresh he sounded having just returned from vacation. Like listening to the cast recording (only better, of course)! Poor guy. I hope they give him a regular day off through the end of his contract.

For goodness sake, he clearly needs an alternate. His attendance since the Tonys has been outright bad and I'm not blaming him for this.

Bibliot said: "While it certainly is a challenging vocal performance, I don't think this one is a matter of his voice giving out. I saw him on Saturday matinee. He was spectacular as always, but compared to when I saw him in March, he was not in full voice, in my opinion. Hit the big notes and drastic octave changes, but some sounded grainy. During the bows at the end, he definitely looked spent and blotchy, and he did not stage door. I think the poor guy is sick. It seemed to me that another cast member might be coming down with the same thing."

Who?

For goodness sake, he clearly needs an alternate. His attendance since the Tonys has been outright bad and I'm not blaming him for this.

Sadly, I agree. In the last 2.5 months, he has been out for 3 full weeks (including this coming week). Plus many random performances. Maybe he will leave early but damnit, get him an alternate so he is only performing 6 times a week max.

I saw the show Saturday night (8/19) and his voice sounded great, it was the first time I saw the show though so I don't have anything to compare it to.

I do agree that he could be sick. As I mentioned earlier, we saw the show on Friday night and when we were leaving my husband went back inside to ask for a plastic bag to put our Playbills in (it was raining) and Ben happened to walk right by him through the lobby out to his car instead of stage dooring. My husband said he looked absolutely wrecked and was staring down at the ground (probably to avoid being recognized), but he looked rough. At the time I said he is probably like that every night after the performance he puts on, because again we thought he sounded great in that night's performance, but after hearing he had to leave at intermission 2 days later we wondered if he might have been coming down with something.

Rachel Bay Jones called out tonight, and she was the one who seemed to me like she was looking a little peaked. She also did not stage door. She had a car waiting outside and hurried away between shows, but she was very gracious to the crowd there. Seems like there's just a bug going around.

Bibliot said: "Rachel Bay Jones called out tonight, and she was the one who seemed to me like she was looking a little peaked. She also did not stage door. She had a car waiting outside and hurried away between shows, but she was very gracious to the crowd there. Seems like there's just a bug going around.



"

She didn't stage door Saturday night either -- the only ones who did were Jennifer Laura Thompson and Michael Park. She had a car waiting and hurried away and apologized she couldn't stay.

This is Alice Ripley in n2n all over again.

I'm assuming Rachel is on vacation, since she tweeted this yesterday:

https://twitter.com/rachelbayjones/status/900487923040231424

Love it! I was at Sweeney 9 days ago. Why, Ben, why?! ha ha

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your post, but Norm Lewis had his last show in Sweeney Todd August 13th. I did get to see him and Carolee, and they were incredible, I agree.

The role needs an alternate. I'm getting nervous that the part is going to create long term vocal health issues. Think about some of the first women to play Elphaba. Their voices are not quite the same. Yes, the role has had a stand by from the beginning, but it's basically an alternate.