General Opinions for Aida

i loved "aida" i have seen it 4 times...my favorite aida was toni braxton.....and by the way...who is billy?

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i liked the show... enough to see the tour four or five times about... i love the music (but i've said it before, i despise the Zoser songs)... the script is a bit weak and the dancing was horrible (in the Zoser numbers, that is because i loved Dance of the Robe)... so yeah... that's it

i. love. aida. end of story.

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I wish I had gone back another time, but I only saw it when my school had a field trip to see it. We had tickets in the last row of the balcony, we snuck down to the first row, but it was still pretty bad. Aida's understudy was in, too bad, but thank god Adam was still there and in. I really liked it, wish I could have been down more. Some songs are really great, and the story is nice. I proceeded to copy my music teacher's CD and listen to it all the time(before I had too many Broadway CDs). But I really liked it.

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Poor casting decisions were the death of that show. Mickey Dolenz? I still don't understand why anyone thought that was okay. Adam got bored toward the end of his first run, and it showed.

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Updated On: 3/7/05 at 09:54 AM

I saw it 4x with 3 different actresses in the titular role and 2 different actors as Radames. Yes the book had its problem spots and Zoser's songs were not particulary noteworthy, but 'Aida' was one of the most entertaining musicals staged on Broadway in recent memory. To the show's credit, it wasn't too busy with bodies flailing all over the place,a cacophony of voices, or circus acts passing for Broadway performers. It tells a story, albeit not the best constructed, that is "gettable" by the tourist set that keeps BWay afloat. Though I missed Heather Headley in that title role, I was blown away by the performances of Will Chase, Lisa Brescia, Cheyenne Jackson, Adam Pascal, and Deborah Cox towards the end of its run. In fact, before 'Aida', I had never attended a closing performance on BWay. To this day I can barely get through the OBCR track "Easy As Life" without welling up.

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Updated On: 3/7/05 at 11:20 AM

I flew from Tucson, AZ on a Saturday morning to get to see Aida before it closed. Saw it the night before and balled once they were put in the tomb. Adam and Deborah Cox's chemistry was wonderful and Lisa Brescia was outstanding. I'll agree with everyone that the Zoser songs are "blah" and the script needed work but all in all the musical is my favorite b'way show I've seen.

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If you're going to make such a specific reference Ancient Egypt in the beginning and ending of a show, shouldn't something about the main body of the story be Ancient Egyptian?

Maybe it wasn't generally picked up because it's not common knowledge when people think of things that are distinctly Ancient Egyptian, but the war with Nubia was based on truth.

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What made AIDA highly enjoyable for me was Heather Headley, who delivered a remarkable, powerhouse performance and was in every way deserving of her Best Actress Tony and the heaps of praise she received.

The show itself, however, was problematic for me. There was a jarring inconsistency to the tone -- the show couldn't decide if it was a campy, colourful Disney romp or a serious and beautiful musical about slavery. Had it focused more on the latter, I believe it would have been a real gem of a show.

Except for a few glorious numbers, I found Elton John's score largely pedestrian, and I don't understand the appeal of Tim Rice. The production design was pretty, but ridiculously over-the-top and rather inappropriate for this rather somber story. The entire show was certainly an enjoyable night at the theatre, but it wasn't the most well-crafted musical, IMO. When the show focused on the real drama and pain of its characters, it really flew.

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As an Elton John album, I liked it. As a Broadway show, not so much.

EXACTLY, Wizard. Aida involves some serious topics like interracial relationships, slavery and a dysfunctional government, but it blew those things off in favor of creating a little love story. As a 'chick flick' musical, it's enjoyable but I wish it had realized its full potential. I feel like it could have been a great realistic, gritty show but it just wasn't. The historical inaccuracies also annoyed me to no end. I think I wrote a rather long post on Aida a while back that covered those things.

The music didn't quite do it for me, I like a lot of it, love a few songs and cringe at the thought of a few numbers. I feel like it needed several more drafts in order to really be effective.

I don't think it so much blew them off as glossed over them, because it wasn't the show's purpose to address them in an ultra-serious manner. The central love story was interracial, and yes, if the show's goal was to be very heavy (which I'd not really expect from Disney) there may have been more included about slavery and the more serious matters that were lightly addressed in the show. In that case, it'd have made sense to replaced the camp with that kind of stuff, but that just wasn't the purpose of the show. I'm too biased to really say whether that's a good or a bad thing, but I don't think it completely blew them off.

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