Jon Patrick Walker in YF- Page 2

[delucad15]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 6:50am

have we found out when shuler's vacation is yet?

[Elke]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 6:58am

According to BroadwayUnderstudies.com: Tuesday, April 22 - Wednesday, April 30: Justin Patterson will be playing the role of the Monster in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.

[Marway44]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 7:28am

I'm going tomorrow night just to see JPW on for Roger. I can't wait to see another interpretation of the part. By the way, I was surprised at how GREAT Heather Ayers was for Megan. It's just a shame that the audience refused to support her. We had a great audience and they did not laugh at her jokes, nor give her decent applause after her songs. And curtain call was an embarrassment. The cheering stopped when she came up on the elevator. I hope it's not like that tomorrow night. And on a side note, I hope I am lucky enough to see someone else out. I could not make it when Andrea was out, so that would be great, or better yet, I would love to see Renee Feder on for Sutton. I will post a review of JPW and the show afterwards, and know my 12th visit to the show will be great.

[shesamarshmallow]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 8:07am

Oh man, that's ridiculous. Honestly, from watching Megan last night, I was really wishing that Heather was on - she was INSANELY funny singing "Deep Love" at At This Performance. Audiences can be such jerks. In the lotto line, everyone else was asking all the poor ushers if Megan and Sutton were going to be in the show that night.

[popular_elphie]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 11:07am

have we found out when shuler's vacation is yet?
Besides Justin, I think Jim Borstelmann is going on for the role as well, though I'm not sure when.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 3:34pm

That must've changed, because the last I heard, Jim was supposed to cover Shuler's vacation in April. I guess they went with Patterson instead.

[delucad15]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 3:39pm

Yeah I thought Jim was supposed to go on for Shuler and this getting a little off topic but do you know who covers all of jim's roles when he goes on for the monster? because i doubt anyone could play all of those parts like he can

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 3:44pm

Jim took a vacation about a month ago, but I have no idea who covered his track. My guess would be one of the swings, either James Gray or Craig Waletzko.

[Marway44]

Posted: 4/12/08 at 3:14pm

As promised here is my review of last night's YF. I will keep it short. The show is still in tip-top shape. It still makes you laugh and is fresh and fun. However, JPW was in my opinion just awful. I couldn't stand this fake accent he was putting on. While he is not as loud as Roger, he was lacking the "umph" needed to make the role funny. His singing was adequate but he could barely be heard in "Life, Life". The entire cast was in last night and at least they made up for the lackluster performance. I will say though, the people behind me who did not know he was an understudy, though he was terrific. So it's not really fair to compare him and Roger, but seeing Roger 11 times, I had no choice. I did go in with an open mind and did not decide before going in I would like Roger better. We have all seen understudies that were just as good, if not better than the original.

If anyone else has seen him, I would love to hear your thoughts on him.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 4/12/08 at 3:22pm

I'm surprised that Matthew LaBanca wasn't given the chance to cover Bart's vacation. I saw him during previews when Roger was injured and thought he was fantastic.

[Marway44]

Posted: 4/12/08 at 3:32pm

Frogs, Can you elaborate on Matthew's interpretation on the role please?

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 4/12/08 at 3:40pm

I think "less manic" would sum it up nicely. It seemed like he was carrying himself with a higher air of dignity, especially during the beginning of the show while Frederick is refusing to resume his grandfather's work. LaBanca played it like he was "above" the other characters... at least until the scene where he's reading his grandfather's book. I guess overall he acted like a person who was uncomfortable in a situation rife with insane and odd ball characters. Although who knows if that was indeed acting or just his personality. Either way I thought it fit the role more appropriately and it allowed for a lot of the humor to actually play off of a straight man of sorts.

[Marway44]

Posted: 4/12/08 at 3:58pm

Thanks Frogs, that review makes perfect sense. Even when I see him in the ensemble, he seems to carry himself with a certain sense of pride and dignity.

[kylestefanie]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 2:05am

I saw the show Tuesday.
Here is my review of his performance.

I am used to Roger's Dr.Frankenstein so it was tough for me to get used to at first. While Jon was singing The Brain I was thinking...great this is going to be a looong night. But then by intermission I had almost forgotten that Roger wasn't in the show. It was obvious he was trying and I respect him for that. All in all I was happy with the performance, I still would have rather seen Roger but thats ok. My only issues with JPW was he didn't have great chemistry with Sutton or Chris, at times he sounded very scripted and durring Life Life it was very hard for me to hear him over all the other sounds and I was in row BB. Maybe it just seemed this way to me because I'm so used to Roger's Dr.Frankenstein but thats my review on the show.

[Marway44]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 3:14pm

kylestefanie,

I couldn't agree more myself. He lacked the chemistry with Sutton and Chris. You can always see Sutton falling more and more in love with Roger. Also during Life, Life he was barely audible and I was in CC. I do wonder though, how his interpretation of Igor would be like.

[Marway44]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 3:18pm

I did neglect to mention to JPW's credit is he did not try to immitate Roger. He played the role in his own unique way.

[musicalmaster703]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 3:22pm

Really I thought Matthew was too serious... There was hardly any laughs for him when I saw it. Though that was his first time covering roger. I still haven't seen it with roger though.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 3:23pm

He was too serious. That's why I liked his performance.

[musicalmaster703]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 3:26pm

Oh, when I walked in I was like this is Mel Brooks, this is gonna funny and a wild show! I thought Matthew was kind of not in the mood, and just not energetic.

[delucad15]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 3:30pm

Has anyone seen Renee in for Sutton yet? I heard she was on Saturday night and wondering how she was, i heard disappointing but that was from someone who went to the show to see Sutton

[SirNotAppearing]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 6:00pm

Well, Christina Norrup went in for Sutton today, and a couple days ago too. I hope she isn't sick when I see it a week from Wednesday...
(crosses fingers)
So is she any good?

[popular_elphie]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 6:40pm

kylestefanie and marway44, I have to completely disagree with you both. One of the things I loved about Jon Patrick's performances this week was that he didn't lose any of the chemistry with Chris or Sutton. They seemed just as comfortable with him as they do when Roger's in the show. He had great chemistry with Renee on Saturday as well, but not so much with Christina today, though he tried. I though Jon was fantastic - he was a lot less zany than Roger, but was so hilarious when need be. He did a lot of things differently than Roger that I still thought were great. And having seen Roger 4 bzillion times, it was so nice to see someone take the role and shake it up a little.

delucad and SirNotAppearing, Christina and Renee are both wonderful as Inga. They've both improved a lot since first going on.

[Marway44]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 10:40pm

Popular, That's what great about live theatre. Each person is entitled to their own opinion. I'm glad you enjoyed his performance. Maybe had I not seen Roger so any times I would have felt differently. One thing I noticed about JPW was without the zaniness that Roger has it made him more believable to have such a high IQ. I was just surprised at how I felt he lacked the chemistry and the fact that he didn't make me laugh like Roger does. It's funny, how when the critics compared this to "The Producers" and I was mad and now I'm comparing JPW to Roger. How Ironic!

[Marway44]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 7:13am

So JPW's week in YF is over. It was intersting to hear your opinions on his performance. Thanks to everyone who commented on him. I enjoyed reading your takes.

By the way is anyone planning to attend when Justin is on for the monster next week? I would love to hear your thoughts about his performance.

[SirNotAppearing]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 9:20pm

I am. I'll tell you what I think, though I've never seen Shuler.