Josh Groban out sick tonight — Page 2

I'd be pissed if I paid $300-$400 to hear Groban halfway sing this score. If his reviews aren't good, does he look to back out? Haven't heard good reviews about him.

ACL2006 said: "I'd be pissed if I paid $300-$400 to hear Groban halfway sing this score. If his reviews aren't good, does he look to back out? Haven't heard good reviews about him."

Replace Groban? Wait. What?

The comments in this thread have generally said he sings beautifully, but his acting leaves some underwhelmed at best and extremely disappointed at worst.

The night I attended I sat between two couples, each of whom had flown a long distance specifically to see Groban. You don't get rid of a star who is pulling in people paying premium prices just for him.

Updated On: 3/17/23 at 06:18 PM

As someone whose partner is a HUGE fan of Sweeney Todd, and absolutely detests Josh Groban, PLEASE let me know if you are looking to seek any tickets for tomorrow.

ACL2006 said: "I'd be pissed if I paid $300-$400 to hear Groban halfway sing this score. If his reviews aren't good, does he look to back out? Haven't heard good reviews about him."

Please tell me that’s not a serious question.

Ruthie is also out tonight. They appear to be filming with 3 cameras.

binau said: "Ruthie is also out tonight. They appear to be filming with 3 cameras."

Did Jeanna De Waal go on for Beggar Woman? I bet she is excellent!

The show was at 8pm tonight. How were you posting that at 10:40? The show clocks in at 3 hours.

Though I bought presale tickets to see Josh Groban, I still went Thursday night. I was definitely not disappointed with Nicholas Christopher! He was amazing and the audience was audibly on his side all night. Unless I missed it from my 6th row center orchestra seat, I noticed that his entrance was as expected, but his exit with Annaleigh was not as described in earlier posts. Just a stop and blackout. I would guess it was for safety reasons if they did not have adequate time to rehearse that aspect. ??

RUkiddingme said: "Nicholas Christopher is giving a star is born performance."

I agree... I was there tonight and I thought he was exceptional. His acting and singing of "Epiphany" was one of the greatest I've ever experienced.

A few other thoughts/questions for this group:

• I had heard there is blood in some but not all killings, and that's still the case. What is the rationale for this? I can't think of one and it makes no sense to me.
• I really missed the factory whistle, but what I missed even more is the washboard or thunder-crash type sound towards the end of the scene change intro to "The Worst Pies in London". That has always been one of my favorite musical interludes of any show and I was really disappointed in the tympani roll they use in this production. Since they made a big deal of using Tunick's original orchestrations, why would they switch to a tympani roll here?
• I love Annaleigh. But I couldn't help thinking a few times that while humor is very fitting in this show, I'm not sure slapstick is. I'm probably overthinking it, but I couldn't help wondering if her pratfalls were not well suited to this show.
• Which leads to another observation tonight. In "A Little Priest", Nicholas sang "and she always arrives overdone" regarding an actor... I can't imagine this would be a swipe at Annaleigh, but I couldn't help wondering.
• I don't want to risk any spoilers, but I thought the staging just leading to Mrs. Lovett's death was different in an important way from any production I've seen before. I wish I could think of how to describe what I'm talking about specifically without risking a spoiler. Maybe it's not a spoiler... I mean she still dies and in the usual way.
• I thought Jordan Fisher was very good. I don't understand the complaints. But if they lowered his keys as another poster commented, maybe there's a big difference now.

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts!

(Sorry, for some reason the bullet points and indents aren't showing after the message is posted)

Updated On: 3/18/23 at 01:54 AM

tjfeldman1116 said: "

• I love Annaleigh. But I couldn't help thinking a few times that while humor is very fitting in this show, I'm not sure slapstick is. I'm probably overthinking it, but I couldn't help wondering if her pratfalls were not well suited to this show."

I said something similar after seeing an early preview. She has moments where it no longer seems like Lovett in character, but more like Ashford going for an easy laugh. It is just too broad.

“I don't want to risk any spoilers, but I thought the staging just leading to Mrs. Lovett's death was different in an important way from any production I've seen before. I wish I could think of how to describe what I'm talking about specifically without risking a spoiler. Maybe it's not a spoiler... I mean she still dies and in the usual way.”

Could you post it under the spoiler drop down? I’m intrigued.

It is interesting how word of mouth was seemingly great (outside of Jordan - lowering keys? When we could have cast someone who can actually sing the six songs that character is in?) and now the tide is turning. Groban is perfect for the role but now isn’t realistic, Annaleigh is the strongest principle but now she’s too broad and slapstick. Just an observation.

I’m not convinced Jordan’s keys were lowered. Someone said this a couple weeks ago, and this past Sunday when I saw the show, Fisher was 100% singing in the original keys.