Is she though ljay889? And even if she is, do any of us really know either of them? I understand respect and admiration, but actions are actions and people are people. I'm always reluctant to assume that anyone, especially someone that I don't know, is above or for that matter below anything that is a part of the human experience.
Orfeh allowing Gaelen Gililland to go on for her as Paulette (which I do remember happening) is quite a different thing than Idina Menzel allowing Jen Colella to go on for her.
Orfeh is known to no one beyond the Broadway community and the people showing up to Legally Blonde couldn't have cared less if they saw her, Gaelen, or Amber Efe.
Idina Menzel's name is plastered above the title, her name and face occupy a huge billboard in Times Square, and she's the sole reason the show is even still running. To compare the two is quite irresponsible.
What if Hugh Jackman was good friends with Michael Halling or Kevin Spirtas when they did Boy from Oz? Should he have stepped aside to allow them to go on one night?
I don't doubt that it happens in the Broadway community. I know of several times that it did, in fact. Blake Bashoff let Brian Charles Johnson go on for him for his last performance in Spring Awakening since he had never gotten to go on in the role. But again, no one knows or cares whether they see Blake Bashoff or Brian Charles Johnson or Gerard Canonico in that role.
The situations are not comparable. This whole discussion is so silly. There's not a snowball's chance that this happened, and even if they suggested it, that the producers would allow it. They undoubtedly lost a good deal of money this afternoon.
She sounds amazing! I was worried she'd be the same mildly grating personality that she carries for Ann, but she didn't, and her singing is smoother as well.
Okay, I see what you guys are getting at. I often forget how popular Menzel is sometimes because I'm not a huge fan of hers so I was taking in the circumstance more than the person. When I think of her, I only think of broadway, and I forgot that she has this other commercial fan base. That makes sense. I'm still not convinced that she, or even Hugh, or anyone would just never, ever do something like that because like I said there's no way to ever truly know, but I now see why Menzel doing such a thing would be highly unlikely.
Idina seemed to have a bit of a cold yesterday on The View, and I just saw where she's going to be on The Chew tomorrow....so I wonder if they taped that today. Jackie was off dealing with her husband.
The only way Jenn would ever be able to do the show was if this situation occurred. It may have been that Idina COULD have done the show today but leaned a little bit in the direction that allowed Jenn to have the chance. With Idina there, would the show have sold out anyway? Probably not.
So happy Jenn did the role but sad I didn't get to see it.
"Idina seemed to have a bit of a cold yesterday on The View, and I just saw where she's going to be on The Chew tomorrow....so I wonder if they taped that today. Jackie was off dealing with her husband.
The only way Jenn would ever be able to do the show was if this situation occurred. It may have been that Idina COULD have done the show today but leaned a little bit in the direction that allowed Jenn to have the chance. With Idina there, would the show have sold out anyway? Probably not.
So happy Jenn did the role but sad I didn't get to see it."
Yes, I don't think we'll be seeing Jenn anytime soon again since Burns tweeted that she's flying back in tonight. This really was a perfect storm. On a two-show weekday, especially since there isn't a break on Monday as well, maybe the producers mind less that Menzel skip one today to conserve and recover for the coming days than to burn out completely after both shows. She's had this bug since last week, certainly, and missed three shows because of it. Tenacious thing.
My favorite part of the audios I've hear of Jenn is that she is taking advantage of only having to performing some crazy riffs and also singing the end of 'What If?' the way Idina used to sing it, but if Idina sang it like that every night she would die. Wish I could've seen this.
From what I see on tumblr. Nobody got full audio. One person has everything but "What If" and another has all of act 1 so I guess you could piece them all together and, boom! Full audio!