#1
Posted: 4/23/05 at 12:03am
Well, folks, I caught the Wednesday evening performance of HAIRSPRAY. Not surprisingly, Carly Jibson was out and her understudy, Shannon Durig, was in. (Does anyone know why Carly is out so often??)
A few highlights...
The show was the cutest little thing. I had a great time. The performances were fantastic. Shannon Durig (Tracy Turnblad) has such a clear and powerful voice... I had to compliment her after the show that she was the only actor that I never had trouble understanding what she was saying. Her overall performance was incredibly energetic and polished.
Mary Bond Davis (Motormouth Maybelle) tore the roof off of the Neil Simon Theatre. What an incredible powerhouse performer this woman is!
Chestor Gregory II's (Seaweed J. Stubbs) voice is superb and his high-energy performance (complete with a few impressive splits) made his scenes and his song incredibly enjoyable.
Bruce Vilanch (Edna Turnblad) was adorable in his role! He was hilarious, especially in his ad-libs! I don't know if he's done this one before, but at the end of "(You're) Timeless To Me", he said to Wilbur: "In six months, Britney Spears will look just like me!" The icing on a wonderful performance.
Tracy Miller had me rolling in the aisles with her portrayal of Penny Pingleton. The hunchbacked running alone was hysterical, but her performance reminded me a lot of the character Stuart on "Mad TV". And her transformation into a full-blown checkerboard chick was phenomenal.
All in all, it was an excellent show. One recommendation to the entire cast (minus Shannon Durig): Please take a refresher course in diction and enunciation. Your microphone might amplify your voice, but you still need to enunciate. I could barely understand some of the dialogue because of the poor diction, and the only reason I could understand all the lyrics was because I went in knowing the songs already.
A few highlights...
The show was the cutest little thing. I had a great time. The performances were fantastic. Shannon Durig (Tracy Turnblad) has such a clear and powerful voice... I had to compliment her after the show that she was the only actor that I never had trouble understanding what she was saying. Her overall performance was incredibly energetic and polished.
Mary Bond Davis (Motormouth Maybelle) tore the roof off of the Neil Simon Theatre. What an incredible powerhouse performer this woman is!
Chestor Gregory II's (Seaweed J. Stubbs) voice is superb and his high-energy performance (complete with a few impressive splits) made his scenes and his song incredibly enjoyable.
Bruce Vilanch (Edna Turnblad) was adorable in his role! He was hilarious, especially in his ad-libs! I don't know if he's done this one before, but at the end of "(You're) Timeless To Me", he said to Wilbur: "In six months, Britney Spears will look just like me!" The icing on a wonderful performance.
Tracy Miller had me rolling in the aisles with her portrayal of Penny Pingleton. The hunchbacked running alone was hysterical, but her performance reminded me a lot of the character Stuart on "Mad TV". And her transformation into a full-blown checkerboard chick was phenomenal.
All in all, it was an excellent show. One recommendation to the entire cast (minus Shannon Durig): Please take a refresher course in diction and enunciation. Your microphone might amplify your voice, but you still need to enunciate. I could barely understand some of the dialogue because of the poor diction, and the only reason I could understand all the lyrics was because I went in knowing the songs already.
