I saw her last night (with the code Box10 for a discount on front mezz on Weds) and I was really impressed.
First of all, her wigs look much better than the pics from her opening night, which made me extemepy happy. I’ve seen Jessie and Stephanie, and I would say Kat is less “chipper” than the others. Her portrayal is nice and believable, just different. She did even better in act two, and the audience ate her up.
Her singing blew me away. I always assumed her vocals on albums or SMASH were half the work of audio tech magic, but I dare say she sings the role better than anyone. Her belting and riffs (here and there, not a Shoshana Bean in Wicked situation) has my mouth agape.
I was so pleased that the audience showed their love for her. She really is doing a great job for being so early in her run.
The rest of the cast felt...off for the first act. It was as though they hadn’t found their chemistry yet - act two was much better, and Christopher is still the biggest joy in the whole thing. Husband performance is always fresh and hilarious. I miss the first two actors who played Earl, they made him much more menacing than our current guy who is more just angry at the world.
I plan on going again, near the end of her run, to see what changes.
I am big. It’s the REVIVALS that got small.