#1
Posted: 1/30/05 at 8:50pm
Andyf and I decided to meet up in the city today, and we had a lovely time. 
When you read this - hope you had a blast at Q tonight! I had a great time; thanks for forcing me to come, giving me good luck and bringing me to meet Johnny. 
Fourth time today, FINALLY won the lottery myself, and not by association... actually andy and I both won, so BIG yay. First row, almost dead center = very happy Emcee. Every time I go back, I realize that I'd totally forgotten how amazing this show is, how much I love it, and what it does to me. But, the thing that I'm always surprised by, without fail, is how incredible the music sounds live in comparison to the CD. I think I love the show more and more every time.
Anyway, I'll just talk about the things that were new for me today, to try to keep this short.
Drew - Drew, Drew Drew... Well, he wasn't the trainwreck that I'd expected, and he was better than Joey Fatone, I thought. He wasn't awful, and I guess I'm kind of on the fence as to what to say my overall opinion of him is. His negatives outweigh his positives, but I didn't hate him. He has a nice voice, but it's very... boy band-ish, obviously. When he's not too whiny, he's actually very pleasant to listen to, but that's kind of a sporadic occurence. It seems like he's almost trying too hard to be nasally, because that's the Mark stereotype. His speech and singing were a little bit robotic sometimes, but not others, and his enunciation and articulation were really poor, to the point that had I not been very familiar with his lines, I may have found myself pulling a "wait, what'd he say?" a couple of times. His acting wasn't too bad; he plays a pretty sweet, goofy, clumsy, slightly lovable Mark, but it's not gone overboard. He was distant when the time came, but he has a decent amount of presence when he needed to show it. I'm not cursing myself that I actually caved and went to see him, so I guess that's a good thing.
Karmine - I'd seen her once before, and liked her then so I was excited to have her back. She's a fiesty Mimi, but that wasn't her Mimi's most obvious, outstanding quality. She was much sweeter than Krystal's. I like her voice, though it's kind of low. Her Out Tonight was good, except for the actual words "out tonight." They were *really* strange... something like "Ooouuuuuu *long pause* hoooooooooooo ut tonight..." very bizarre.
Cary - Whoa. What a set of pipes. I'm partial and picky when it comes to Rogers, and I happily say that I approve... A LOT. He kind of reminded me of Manley (though I think I'm the only person in the universe who likes Manley) but better. His Roger has anger, but it's not nearly as forward as Jeremy's was. Cary had me at Glory: full of pain, frustration and regret. He had great chemistry with Karmine, and is just adorable. Boy does a MEAN handcuff dance, and when Mimi says "big, like my father's" he looked down, and pulled his shirt down over the... crotch... area. It was cute. I wanted to meet him after, but he had some real nutjob fans in the audience, and I definitely didn't feel like dealing with that, knowing they'd be waiting to meet him afterwards.
Justin Johnson's Angel is wonderful - I may have even liked him this time better than I liked Jai. He's just exceedingly spunky and full of life. I usually have tears in my eyes when he dies, but this time I actually cried.
There seemed to be several new faces in the ensemble as well as a few familiar old ones, and it looked like they'd been doing some rotations lately. That's definitely helping to inject some of the energy back into the show. I was very glad to see it.
One sad thing, though... this really broke my heart. No standing ovation. That, in theory doesn't bother me all that much, but it shatters my heart that Brooklyn can get standing ovations, and that RENT can't anymore.
Okay, that's the end of the review, but someone asked me to include a full cast list, so...
Roger Davis - Cary Shields
Mark Cohen - Drew Lachey
Tom Collins - Mark Richard Ford
Benjamin Coffin III - D'Monroe
Joanne Jefferson - Merle Dandridge
Angel Schunard - Justin Johnson
Mimi Marquez - Karmine Alers
Maureen Johnson - Kelly Karbacz
Mark's mom, etc - Caren Lyn Manuel
Christmas caroler, etc - Destan Owens
Mrs. Jefferson, etc - Catrice Joseph
Gordon, etc - Colin Hanlon
Steve, etc - Enrico Rodriguez
Paul, etc - Nick Sanchez
Alexi Darling, etc - Mayumi Ando
Thanks for reading!
A work of art is an invitation to love.
When you read this - hope you had a blast at Q tonight! I had a great time; thanks for forcing me to come, giving me good luck and bringing me to meet Johnny. Fourth time today, FINALLY won the lottery myself, and not by association... actually andy and I both won, so BIG yay. First row, almost dead center = very happy Emcee. Every time I go back, I realize that I'd totally forgotten how amazing this show is, how much I love it, and what it does to me. But, the thing that I'm always surprised by, without fail, is how incredible the music sounds live in comparison to the CD. I think I love the show more and more every time.
Anyway, I'll just talk about the things that were new for me today, to try to keep this short.
Drew - Drew, Drew Drew... Well, he wasn't the trainwreck that I'd expected, and he was better than Joey Fatone, I thought. He wasn't awful, and I guess I'm kind of on the fence as to what to say my overall opinion of him is. His negatives outweigh his positives, but I didn't hate him. He has a nice voice, but it's very... boy band-ish, obviously. When he's not too whiny, he's actually very pleasant to listen to, but that's kind of a sporadic occurence. It seems like he's almost trying too hard to be nasally, because that's the Mark stereotype. His speech and singing were a little bit robotic sometimes, but not others, and his enunciation and articulation were really poor, to the point that had I not been very familiar with his lines, I may have found myself pulling a "wait, what'd he say?" a couple of times. His acting wasn't too bad; he plays a pretty sweet, goofy, clumsy, slightly lovable Mark, but it's not gone overboard. He was distant when the time came, but he has a decent amount of presence when he needed to show it. I'm not cursing myself that I actually caved and went to see him, so I guess that's a good thing.
Karmine - I'd seen her once before, and liked her then so I was excited to have her back. She's a fiesty Mimi, but that wasn't her Mimi's most obvious, outstanding quality. She was much sweeter than Krystal's. I like her voice, though it's kind of low. Her Out Tonight was good, except for the actual words "out tonight." They were *really* strange... something like "Ooouuuuuu *long pause* hoooooooooooo ut tonight..." very bizarre.
Cary - Whoa. What a set of pipes. I'm partial and picky when it comes to Rogers, and I happily say that I approve... A LOT. He kind of reminded me of Manley (though I think I'm the only person in the universe who likes Manley) but better. His Roger has anger, but it's not nearly as forward as Jeremy's was. Cary had me at Glory: full of pain, frustration and regret. He had great chemistry with Karmine, and is just adorable. Boy does a MEAN handcuff dance, and when Mimi says "big, like my father's" he looked down, and pulled his shirt down over the... crotch... area. It was cute. I wanted to meet him after, but he had some real nutjob fans in the audience, and I definitely didn't feel like dealing with that, knowing they'd be waiting to meet him afterwards.
Justin Johnson's Angel is wonderful - I may have even liked him this time better than I liked Jai. He's just exceedingly spunky and full of life. I usually have tears in my eyes when he dies, but this time I actually cried.
There seemed to be several new faces in the ensemble as well as a few familiar old ones, and it looked like they'd been doing some rotations lately. That's definitely helping to inject some of the energy back into the show. I was very glad to see it.
One sad thing, though... this really broke my heart. No standing ovation. That, in theory doesn't bother me all that much, but it shatters my heart that Brooklyn can get standing ovations, and that RENT can't anymore.
Okay, that's the end of the review, but someone asked me to include a full cast list, so...
Roger Davis - Cary Shields
Mark Cohen - Drew Lachey
Tom Collins - Mark Richard Ford
Benjamin Coffin III - D'Monroe
Joanne Jefferson - Merle Dandridge
Angel Schunard - Justin Johnson
Mimi Marquez - Karmine Alers
Maureen Johnson - Kelly Karbacz
Mark's mom, etc - Caren Lyn Manuel
Christmas caroler, etc - Destan Owens
Mrs. Jefferson, etc - Catrice Joseph
Gordon, etc - Colin Hanlon
Steve, etc - Enrico Rodriguez
Paul, etc - Nick Sanchez
Alexi Darling, etc - Mayumi Ando
Thanks for reading!
Updated On: 1/31/05 at 08:50 PM
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