She did sing the last note in "Thank Goodness" today. I made sure to pay special attention, and actually for a second I thought she might not do it. I'm not sure how it would even work if she didn't sing it, but she did. I was actually pretty impressed with her. My only real complaint was her annunciation at the top of the show during the operatic section. I felt like anyone who didn't already know the lyrics probably had a very hard time understanding what she was singing. My other vocal complaint was "Popular" as I thought she did SO much jumping and running around that it made the song sound very light and breathy which is a sacrifice, I suppose, for the comedic elements of the song, but I wish she would have chose to go the other way and sing it full out and maybe sacrifice some of the bouncing around.
I loved Donna Vivino. It was obvious from the beginning that she was not there to blow your hair back with her riffing and instead she chose to sing the songs as written taking liberty only on occasion with a riff or two which was a nice change compared to some of the other girls I've seen. Because of that I feel like she focused more on character and the meaning behind some of the lyrics -- although it would be nice if she had some better lyrics to work with.
I still have some issues with the book, but I think this cast did the best I've seen to try and cover some of those flaws. I was most impressed with Richard H. Blake. I'd only seen him previously in Legally Blonde and I was very worried prior to the performance that I wouldn't be able to get his Warner out of my head, but he was probably the highlight of the day for me. He's actually cut his hair shorter than it is in the production photos I've seen and I think that helped a lot to disassociate him from the Warner haircut he's still sporting in the pictures. It also made him read a little younger which worked well. I thought he sounded great and he hit some notes that I just didn't realize he had in him. I guess Warner really wasn't the best showcase for his voice because I really had no idea prior that he could sing this role so thrillingly. It still sounds like he sings "ice" whenever he says "eyes" just like he does in "Serious" and it bugs the crap outta me. Today during "As Long as Your Mine" it sounded like he sang "You've got me seeing through different ice". I wish he would enunciate, but I guess it's just a little Richard Blake quirk that will always bother me.
There were some sound issues at the very beginning. I don't know if it's just something that takes me a little getting used to, but each time I've seen the show now the ensemble always sounds very muffled for the first few minutes and again I worry that people not familiar with the songs will have no clue what they're saying. It seems to get better as the show goes on, but it could very well not be a technical issue and rather just an issue I have adjusting to the live sound in a theatre and not being able to rely so heavily on the more directly focused sound on a CD.
I'd say the production is still top notch. The sets and costumes still look just as expensive as ever and it's still a big spectacle of a show, but I think this cast did a very good job of grounding the production and just getting back to the basics of telling the story and telling it well. I still think the material needs all the glitz and glam as I don't think it would stand so strong on it's own, but at the end of the day I understand the desire to see some of your money on the stage when you go to see a Big Broadway show and Wicked certainly does not disappoint on that front.
Updated On: 8/9/09 at 08:36 PM
