Kathy Voytko is Grace Tnite---

Has anyone seen her yet?

Waiting for report from wife on her performance.

Updated On: 4/4/07 at 07:41 PM

Wife just home. Loved show (and, once again, cried !!)

Said Kathy was good, but doesnt have the vocal chops that Stephanie has.

Said her acting was very good.

Audience very into show- (good to hear!!!)

wasn't tonight a press night?

I thought today was a press night as well, including the Times. Stephanie must be really sick.

Anyway, I was there and I thought Kathy did a fantastic job especially acting wise. The songs just don't seem to sit in her voice as easily as they do with Stephanie. Obviously doing the show more will help but I felt Stephanie was just able to effortlessly belt a lot of the material more often.

My main problem with the show is that it is hard to care about any of the characters. There are far too many and everything seems like you are reading a book. The songs simply don't advance the plot. Well, we'll see what happens when the reviews come out.

The dancing is spectacular and the performers are working very hard. I just wish it was in a better show.

I believe the press has come and Stephanie was off so that Thursday will be all the more special. It needs to be. The show is not very good. Alot of talent in an unfocused, misguided mess. Be it Gallati, or Daniele, the show is in trouble ,and hopefully it won't be creamed by the critics, so that many a familiar face will have jobs for a while. Dempsy and Maltby's lyrics are pedestrian, laughingly so...Boublil and Schonberg prove that the sung through musical belongs back in the 80's, as it seems horribly dated now, with repetive musical (derivative) themes and rediculously clunky lyrics. The show was staged unimaginatively with extremely lateral,presentational staging,and worse so, seemingly canned Irish step sound effect. The choreography was usually exciting. Albeit concert/recital -like but still exciting. The staging is POOR. The talent is evidient.extremely....but sadly misused in my opinion.

Updated On: 4/4/07 at 03:28 AM

My mistake, Richard Maltby Jr, and Jonathan Dempsey are co-lyricists and responsible for the book. I get my Maltby and Shire's mixed up...my bad.

friedrichVT, I thought that was who you meant. I don't know if John Dempsey has had much to do with the show since it left Chicago. I haven't heard his name mentioned. Boublil is also somewhat responsible for the book, although I suspect most of his original English lyrics have been rewritten by now.

I suspect that Boublil also gets a lot of the credit, such as it may be, for the structure of the show's story.

I agree with your observations about many of the lyrics, but these have improved a great deal since Pirate Queen was in Chicago.

To be fair some of the songs, such as "If I Said I Loved You" have always had lovely
poetic lyrics, which makes the more pedestrian ones that much more frustrating.

I also don't agree that Pirate Queen's problems indicate that the sung through musical is a thing of the past. I believe a well written sung through musical could be a great success today, and I'm not certain that Pirate Queen itself won't be a great success in spite of the complaints of critics and theatre afficianados.

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Do you know if she's on for the mat today?
I have a friend going, who really never sees shows, and was hoping she'd get full cast.

queenbee - I think you will see this after the matinee but it's not that it's too hard to figure out who the characters are. It's that they are trying to squeeze so much in back story-wise. Funny because the love relationship is already solidified from the get go.

****SPOLER ALERT****

...and everything in the end is solved with a simple agreement?!?! I dunno, I just wish I had been able to feel for Grace and her journey more as an audience member.

Would love to hear your review of the matinee. Maybe we can start a new thread if Stephanie is back in! haha.