I'll just go ahead and post a somewhat more detailed review. I saw Chandra and Donna in the show a few weeks ago, so I can compare/contrast a bit with Lauren and Mariand.
Lauren Zakrin (Glinda)- Out of the gate her high notes in No One Mourns the Wicked were far less forced than Chandra's, which was nice to hear. She played for laughs WAY more than she should have; a few lines that were pretty serious she played for laughs (I can't remember them specifically), which seriously detracted from Glinda's characterization. This is just a pet peeve of mine, but she belted a lot of her notes and, to me, Glinda's notes should be more lyrical and pretty as opposed to Elphaba's belty and powerful tone. It almost seemed like she'd be a better Elphaba than Glinda.
Mariand Torres (Elphaba)- She literally could not hit a note perfectly on the first try; I don't know why, but for every note she sang she had to either be sharp or flat for a millisecond before she could finally find the right pitch. I would think it was just an off night, but one of my friends who saw her a few weeks ago complained of the same thing. She held the final note in Defying Gravity for a more extended period of time than I expected, which would have been impressive...if it wasn't flat; the same for the end of No Good Deed. She also could not say a single line without moving her arms in some form or fashion, which was incredibly distracting; she didn't seem to know what to do with them. And there was absolutely no character growth between act 1 and act 2.
Richard Blake (Fiyero)- To preface, everyone else in the cast was move-for-move and inflection-for-inflection exactly the same as they were at the performance I saw a few weeks ago, so this could essentially be a review for two shows. This wasn't an issue last time but, next to Lauren and Mariand (who both came off VERY young onstage), he seemed a little on the older side but like I said, it wasn't an issue at all with Chandra and Donna. He was an ok Fiyero but he can't seem to back off on his vibrato, which got somewhat annoying at times (especially in Dancing Through Life). Great dancer, though!
Jayne Houdyshell (Madame Morrible)- She was a great singer compared to one or two of the other Morribles I've seen, but she wasn't evil enough for me. Don't have much else to say about her.
Richard Kline (Wizard)- He actually impressed me as the Wizard; he was probably the best singer/dancer out of the few Wizards I've seen, though his acting could be better.
Brynn O'Malley (Nessarose)- As far as I can tell, no one will be able to beat Kristine Reese, who I saw last year, but Brynn wasn't bad by any means. Not much else to say about her, either.
For what it's worth, the audience responded a lot more last night than they did a few weeks ago with the full cast intact. They seemed to especially love Mariand and Lauren. I don't know if this was part of the Music Hall's notorious sound issues or what but during Defying Gravity when Elphaba first went up in the lift, it sounded like someone literally flipped a switch to turn the volume up twice as loud. I don't know if I've just never noticed that before or if there was an issue last night.
Updated On: 6/27/10 at 07:23 PM
