Hairspray 3/23/07

So tonight a few friends and I decided to try our luck at the Hairspray lottery. They were in town for Spring Break and the lottery is usually empty. However, There were quite a few people more at the lottery. Much more than usual, luckily they called three of us and all 5 of us were able to see the show.
The show was fantastic tonight. There was a large student group from Mississippi at the show tonight and they were all very psyched to see the show. Though some of their cheers and screams were a little much and somewhat inappropriate at times they really added a Rock concert feeling to the show. Every number was followed by thunderous applause. The mere sight of Ashley parker angel caused screams usually reserved for Zootopia or TRL, However, it was nice to see the actors play off of all the energy flowing form the audience. The real star of tonight's performance was seaweed. His "run and tell that " was amazing tonight. Darlene love as usual brought the house down with her singing. I have seen Diana Degarmo twice as penny. I thought she was amazing. Unfortunately, Alexa Vega did not live up to her predecessor. However, i thought her performance was good and I was surprised to find out that she had a very nice singing voice and she could really belt out a few lines.

Tonight three understudies went on and there were no slips in the playbill. The normal prudy pingleton went on as Velma. Corny colins u/s was on. also Michelle dowdy was on for tracy and and the u/s was on for Prudy,gym teacher, matron. There was also no mention of understudies on the board in the lobby.

ooo and another reason the audience went wild was because 5 minutes before the curtain went up ARETHA FRANKLIN walked to her seat. She was a true dive with her entourage. This Really added to the energy in the audience. At intermission there was frenzy of people taking pictures of her. Definitely Very cool to see her at the theater.

I think one day if she ever decided to do Broadway, Motormouth Maybelle would be an amazing character for her to play.

Why didn't you go on the trip?

I posted a reply to the review on the twilight zone version of it found in an off-topic thread about Wasting Time on the internet

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How was Michelle? She has an amazing voice.

Michelle Dowdy has an amazing voice.. and in other news... Effie White is a skinny, humble white woman.

Michelle Dowdy reminds me of "Pickles" from Trailer Park.

Well, Dowdy is amixed bag. She certainly has the baby face and age appropriateness in her favor. Her voice can sing the score.. It can hit the pitches. She, as you said, is just nasaly, and after a few performances, her voice gets noticeably weaker. For some reason, no one has ever worked with her to tone down her twang as Tracy... her North Florida accent is VERY Obvious onstage. Tracy should be from Balmtimore. NOT Amadillo Acres. Her acting is so - so. She doesn't land many of the jokes (but I can lay fault to that in her not going on much and a lack luster Production Stage Manager who seems to miss the mark when putting in and reheasing most new cover and understudies and in giving notes. It was VERY obvious that the creative team came back and gave notes recently because the jokes started landing again with everyone.). Her dancing is so-so. She is alright, just very run of the mill.. Nothing stands out about Dowdy that makes you HAVE to watch her.. like when you see Shannon Durig, Carly Jibson, Keala Settle, or Brooklynn Pulver for example.

I really think that any fault in Dowdy's performance can easily be fixed by a vocal coach, a dialect coach, work with the creative team, and time on stage for the most part. You can just tell that she is very green.. almost Slimer green.

Clumsy, I do not mean this an insult to you, but that makes it obvious that you haven't seen many Tracys. LOL.
She always has tons of her friends inn the audience when she goes on.... she goes out of her way to make sure that they come.. after all, someone needs to coax the audience into applauding for her more. And of course they are proud of her. Not because she is the best Tracy.. or a great Tracy.. or even a good Tracy. They react wildly simply because they know her. Nothing more or less.
I also think many people, and we ALL know this, have a leap to their feet attitude, thinking "It's Broadway.. it's great. This person is on Broadway.. they are great. Not true. I do hate to be the cynic, but many a time it does come down to "will you work for cheaper than the next person? Do you fit this costume?"..

Weel, you've seen one Tony Winner, one of the best Tracys to grace the show, and one who pads the audience.

there are three possible ways to identify understudies. Equity requires th show to use two of those to notify the audience.

1.) an insert in the playbill.
2.) board listings in the lobby
3.) an announcement over the PA before the show (this is the least used fashion, but used more on tour)

Ushers have to stuff inserts into the Playbill before the show. Occasionally they may stuff more Playbills than will be used and those inserts may be accidentally left behind when they stuff inserts for the next performance. Sometimes when stuffing Playbills, they might miss a Playbill or two. I have been at a show or two where a Playbill had the wrong insert. It happens. You try stuffing multiple inserts into hundreds of Playbills in 15 minutes...

I saw the matinee today and I saw it last week (I'm not crazy... just 2 different sets of friends visiting and they wanted to do the lotto). The same people were absent and Jere Burns(wilbur) left in intermission. Not a fan of Tracy.... her jokes were COMPLETELY off.... energy seemed low and not the best performance.... I also didn't like Susan as Velma.... she's too funny to be believably mean....

However, I loved the performance last week. Shannon is my favorite Tracy. And I could even tolerate that Angel guy with his preteen fans....

And Alexa as Penny is fab too....

"Weel, you've seen one Tony Winner, one of the best Tracys to grace the show, and one who pads the audience. "

I loved loved Shannon
I loved loved Marissa
I liked Michelle.

Overall, my favorite is tied: Shannon/Marissa.

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Had to pipe in because I too was there on Friday. For the record, I did have all proper slips in my Playbill. Also, I really enjoyed Susan Mosher's performance as Velma (FYI I love Isabel Keating). I actually thought she was meaner than most Velmas and added some nice dramatic tension with Corny. True, she got laughs on lines that usually fall flat... I guess I don't mind a hilarious Velma!

"She always has tons of her friends inn the audience when she goes on.... she goes out of her way to make sure that they come.. after all, someone needs to coax the audience into applauding for her more. "

Michelle doesn't go out of her way to make people do anything for her. People come to support her because she is an incredibly genuine, kind, and talented person. If she's not what you're looking for in a Tracy then leave it at that.. there's no need to ignorantly speculate the situation, because in the end you're the only one coming out of this looking bad, no one else.

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Alright, it just seemed a little ill-spirited at first...

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