Now that I have seen both ladies in the role, I'd have to go with Kristin. Jennifer, although a great performer, was essentially doing an imitation of Kristin for a lot of the performace. She has a great voice, but lacks Chenoweth's natural ease with the audience. She has to work harder, and on the night I saw it, she got about half of the laughs that Kristin got. Again, she has an attractive voice, but it doesn't soar as gracefully as Kristin's. Thompson is a servicable performer, but I feel she lacks the charisma, charm, humour, and ease that Chenoweth brought to the role. Alot of the performance seemed to be a copy of the original, and while I am fully aware that replacements are often asked to copy the original performance, I felt Thompson pushed a bit hard, and could have infused a bit more originality into the role.
Updated On: 1/18/05 at 11:54 AM