Does anyone have any reviews from first night back perfomrances?

Yes, I was at THE LITTLE MERMAID this evening (my second time seeing it) and it was even better than I remember it. Thomas Schumacher came out to address the audience before the show started to tell us that it was only the sixth preview, the first performance post strike, and that tonight we would be a part of theatrical history. Well, he was right. The audience cheered for every single line they recognized, every song, every actor...it was thrilling. The actors were just so happy to be back to work and they gave it their all. Sierra, Sherie and Titus were fabulous...and I must say, I enjoyed Sean Palmer's performance A LOT MORE tonight. The sets were gorgeous, the lighting fabulous and most of the costumes were breathtaking to see. The staging and choreography were great as well. I got chills a bunch of times and had tears in my eyes at the end. A truly spectaular show that will definitely be an enormous hit. I bought a poster and got it signed afterwards and the actors were all in the best moods...go see this show! I can't recommend it enough.

After curtain call at Grease tonight, there was this extended moment of pure joy on stage.

The entire cast beamed into the audience, and a few even waved offstage (presumably to stagehands). Jenny Powers reached her arms up to the sky (which reminded me of Judy Turner at the end of A Chorus Line) and jumped around yelling, "We're back! We're back!" Kristen Wyatt scanned the audience with tears in her eyes. Matt Saldivar looked grateful and humbled, as he shook his head back and forth. Someone shouted across the stage, "We're doing our show!" and another person mouthed "Thank you so much" to the audience.

Or perhaps they said it out loud. I couldn't hear it over the cheering.

BROADWAY IS BACK!!!!

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WithoutATrace, thanks so much for your great recap of the show tonight. I'll be seeing it at the end of December. But, I'm sure the energy and joy of tonight's performance, will never be duplicated. You're right, you were part of theatre history tonight!

Yes he did. I was there for that too. It was a similar speech.

...and nealb1, I know you will LOVE the show too!

Updated On: 11/30/07 at 11:57 PM

I too was at Hairspray...great night and when Shannon screamed Broadway Is Back, it was such an awesome moment.

Only weird thing was there was no BC/EFA speech or money collection. Wonder why?

^^ I think you meant Ego = Brooks....

No thanks needed.

Only weird thing was there was no BC/EFA speech or money collection. Wonder why?

Hmm, interesting. There was a BC/EFA speech tonight @ Blonde, which specifically referenced how much BC/EFA gives to The Actors Fund, and how much actors depended on The Actors Fund during the past three weeks, and replenishing The Actors Fund, etc. I can't do verbatim what LBB covered in the speech, but I was struck by the fact that there was a lot more mention of The Actors Fund than in any other BC/EFA speech I've heard.

Tonight's performance of The Color Purple was fantastic. It was clear that the cast was ecstatic to be back; their energy was absolutely astounding. And as usual, Fantasia's performance was unbelievable.

Oh, please. Schumacher is a joke.

I saw THE SEAFARER last night and the cast was on fire. They received cheers and an immediate standing ovation at curtain call.

No BC/EFA speech, though.

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Updated On: 11/30/07 at 08:52 AM

"Schumacher has class."

LOL. Disney has not now nor ever created "Broadway History." And that's his catch phrase. He's the worst kind of corporate hack.

"And for Brook's so called "Talent" have you seen the reviews for YF? They are painful to read."

That may be, but at least he can somewhat compose songs, write scripts, direct movies, etc. Schumacher only seems to know how to miscast and mis-hire creative teams for ill-conceived musicals that have no life in them.

"Do you still work at the Lunt? If you do, I don't understand why you work at a stage in which the shows produced there are from a company in which you hate. Its kind of sad."

Clearly you don't understand how Broadway works.

I did! As soon as I heard the strike was over (I was at work in midtown) I called friend and told him to buy two tickets to anything for last night. He knew how long I'd been waiting to see ACL (I only recenl moved to NYC) which has to be one of my fave shows of all time, and found 2 cheap tix on TDF. We ended up sitting in the very front row.

Because it was my first time seeing it, I can't tell you if the performance seemed any different, but i can tell you there was a definite electricity to the performance and even in the audience. Everyone was just so thrilled to be back. There was of course a plea for BC/EFA at the end made by Michael Beresse.

It was a wonderful, emotional night. And the perfect show to see in my opinion :)

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Fosse76, please tell all of us here on the board how Broadway should be run since you seem to think that Thomas S doesn't know what he's doing.