Keke Palmer and Sherri Shepherd start CINDERELLA tonight- Page 4

[Hex3]

Posted: 9/13/14 at 12:48am

I agree. I much preferred Victoria's dress as shown on the parade broadcast. I always thought that the pink bunny eared final product we got was a bit boring. Especially since four principal characters are already in pinks and fuchsias. I don't have instagram so I can't see these photos of Judy Kaye's new look. Can anyone post them or links to them?

Updated On: 9/13/14 at 12:48 AM

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 9/13/14 at 2:06am

I don't think William cheapened the dress at all. Victoria and Judy have two completely different body types, and he designed a new dress that works for her.






Updated On: 9/13/14 at 02:06 AM

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 9/13/14 at 7:31am

Well that was marvelous. She is a wonderful Cinderella. Much better than what Beauty and the Beast tried to do with Toni Braxton. Yuck!

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 9/13/14 at 7:53am

Wondeful! How was Sherri and Judy?

[wickedfan11]

Posted: 9/13/14 at 11:46am

Kristin Carbone is playing Madame all weekend.

[Littleshopofcarrie]

Posted: 9/13/14 at 12:25pm

^I think that was announced a while ago, wasn't it? If it wasn't, it's weird that Sherri is only two performances in and her understudy is already on...

[pmensky]

Posted: 9/13/14 at 3:34pm

I love how all the talk is about Keke and not the other new cast member. Maybe if we just ignore the other one, she'll go away. Like Freddy Krueger.

[bdn223]

Posted: 9/14/14 at 9:16pm

Just got back and I have to say Keke was great. Her Cinderella was not so much pure innocence and kindness as Osnes, but more of a kindness that came from the struggle of dealing with Madame after her father's death. She was more "kill them with kindness" rather than innocent. It worked well for her though. Her voice struggled a little with "In my Own Little Corner" as it seemed like she couldn't decide to use a breathy voice or a supported one. After that though her vocals were great. You can tell she is not yet completely comfortable with the lifts, or in her case jumps as you could see she did not completely trust Joe Carroll to lift her in "Ten Minutes Ago" but thats to be expected early in the run. What makes her great though are her facial expressions. She has such an emotive face, that you could be deaf and still follow along with her. Now I am not say that she had crazy overblown facial expressions and was over acting, but rather you could feel and understand her simply by looking at her. If you ever say her Tru Jackson VP, you understand what I am saying. You could also tell how much fun she is having in the role. She is loving every second of being on stage, and I hope to see back on Broadway soon originating a role.
As for anyone who wants to know about the stage door. She takes pictures and signs for everyone and I mean everyone. She also couldn't be sweeter. When given a compliment she genuinely seemed like she took it to hear. Her parents raised them right.

On a side note about, SHE WHO APPARENTLY SHANT BE NAMED, as was previously reported, she was not there today. No one in the audience seemed to care in the slightest. The audience seemed to be there just for Keke. I feel like this is the exact opposite of Fran and Carly, where the producers thought Carly would bring in the money from the kids, and the parents would be appease by Fran, when in actuality everyone was seeing it just for Fran. Instead I think they thought the parents would want to see the show for SHE WHO APPARENTLY SHANT BE NAMED, and would bring their kids for Keke, but in actuality everyone just wants to see Keke.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 9/14/14 at 9:30pm

Thanks for the report! It did sound like in her IMOLC audio, she was straining her voice sometimes. How was Judy?

[bdn223]

Posted: 9/14/14 at 10:12pm

I regret to tell you that Judy was....tired. Her vibrato has seen much better days. She is also terrified of her first flight sequence The Crazy Marie/Fairy God Mother transformation costume does not fit her and is to tight pre-transformation. You can clearly see the dress underneath when she raises her arms, as well as with her body type the costume made her look morbidly obese. She will likely get better, but their was no spark between Judy and Keke, like you saw with Laura and Victoria. I think the fact that it is both a very technical and vocal role, is tough for Judy at her age, she is 65 after all. She is 12 years older than Victoria and Rebecca. Give her a week or two and I think she will get the hang of it. She is not bad in the role, but she just needs time to get comfortable.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 9/14/14 at 10:15pm

How disappointing! She'll get used to it though

[madamenotgood]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 2:47pm

Sherri announced on Twitter that she had lost her voice...........

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 2:50pm

Already??

[darreyl102]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 3:07pm

Must be Cold related- it certainly isn't due to vocal strain from singing.

[bdn223]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 3:13pm

The role requires essentially no singing and Madame speaks less than SHE WHO APPARENTLY SHANT BE NAMED did on a typical hour of the View....

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 3:53pm

Didn't Fran say that Madame has the most spoken lines in the entire show ?

[darreyl102]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 5:52pm

Yes she joked about it at the Tonys saying that Madame had the most speaking lines but the fewest singing lines.

[madamenotgood]

Posted: 9/15/14 at 6:12pm

If SHE WHO APPARENTLY SHANT BE NAMED yells & shouts all the time the way she did on the View, it's easy to see her losing her voice...

Updated On: 9/15/14 at 06:12 PM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/16/14 at 10:55pm

I have been very critical of Cinderella ever since it started previews; the new book was and always will be a total bastardization of the material, but I have to admit that I had a great time tonight, and this was easily the most I've enjoyed the show.

Keke Palmer is simply wonderful in the role. There's no comparison to the shoddy vocal performance from Carly Rae Jepsen, and although Laura sang the part beautifully, there was something about Palmer's charisma that had me wrapped around her little finger. There's real star quality there. (I happened to be listening to "My Own Morning" walking over to the theater and I told my friend at intermission that someone needs to put her in an Encores production of Hallelujah Baby ASAP!!)

I enjoyed Judy Kaye's performance too. She brought an earthy quality to the role that made the Crazy Marie scenes more real than comic and her chemistry with Palmer during Impossible was lovely.

The one hitch in the night was Sherri Shepherd. Not since Ashlee Simpson has there been a performance like this on Broadway! Shouting, unfunny- that big monologue where she throws out Ella and Gabrielle was awkward and painful. With Harriet Harris and especially Fran the role felt so large and dominating. Sherri just faded into the background most of the time.

Of note- the tree monster at the beginning was cut. The last time I saw the show was near the beginning of Jepsen's run and it was still in. Has this been permanently removed, or did something just happen tonight?

I really, really hope Palmer comes back to Broadway and tries her hand at originating a role. She definitely has the talent and I'm thrilled to have seen her performance this evening.

[RW3]

Posted: 9/16/14 at 11:07pm

I'm really jealous that I won't be able to see.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 12:23pm

Whizzer, someone mentioned in a Cinderella post from a few months ago that the tree monster had been cut.

Posted: 9/17/14 at 12:28pm

How has rush for the show been lately? Where are the seats?

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 12:45pm

Dottie, Ok thanks! I wonder why they finally decided to cut it...frankly I always disliked it, but was surprised to not see it there at the beginning.

They need to change a line of Ella's dialogue then in the second act. She is trying to tell him he can do anything because he brings down giants and dragons. The slingshot killing the dragon is still in, but the giant is not. I suppose the line is generic enough, but it made more sense before.

[RaisedOnMusicals]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 12:59pm

Whizzer, I believe the scene was cut months ago for safety reasons. I'm pretty sure I posted about it, but I can't find my post or the source, but my recollection is that the stilts broke, perhaps more than once, someone was injured and the scene was cut as a result.

[madamenotgood]

Posted: 9/21/14 at 7:33am

How is Sherri Shepherd's performance being received,wondering why she is pushing cheap seats??