Light in the Piazza Pre-BroadwayOut of Town

What happened to all the replys on this thread that were here this morning?

give me like a half an hour and I'll re hash my seattle thoughts and kyle and I I'm guessing are always willing to go on about how much we loved Celia.

---

It was a great production with great cast.. but the design was much better on Broadway.

Ok, so basically we all know that the casts were different in the other cities (Seattle had Steven Pasquale as Fabrizio who in my opinion was easily the best Fabrizio and as others have said he WOULD have won the Tony and Wayne Wilcox (sp?) played Fabrizio in the Chicago run b/c Pasquale left to do Rescue Me have only heard wonderful reports on Wilcox in the role, Celia Keenan Bolger as Clara also amazing and beautiful and could go on for hours about her, and Kelli O'Hara was playing Franca at the time and was a hoot) The show was directed by Craig Lucas in Seattle and some things that I noticed were changed were Celia played the role younger and very innocently (think Katie Clarke) Il Mondo was not in the Seattle run and as we learned today it was not in the Chicago run either and that Adam wrote it last (he wrote the title song first) and it is Fabrizio's version of Light in the Piazza.*got that from this mornings posters I do remember what almostxfamous is talking about and thought that worked. The orchestra was smaller and had less string players which gave it a more intimate like feel which worked very well for the venue it was in. the sets were different and smaller and let you use more imagination but to me the NYC sets were the best i've seen in my life.
There were obviously little lyrical differences (I do remember that Fable was not in it's final form at all)and scenes were not in finished forms. There was no Clara's interlude. I think the most breathtaking moment in seattle (and trust me there were many)was Steven Pasquale's Love to Me...he took a very tiny pause that I have never seen or heard any other Fabrizio do in the same way there have been others that take the pause i'm sure they all do b/c of the rythym but the way he sang "This is how i know, This is what I see...this...is love...to me" his emphasizing this and then the pauses following were sooo effective and I'm crying just thinking about it. You could just feel the love between him and celia...best chemistry in my opinion. I probably am missing some other differences but those were the main ones.

---

Updated On: 7/12/06 at 01:33 AM

OMG were they effective! Seriously, it was such a perfect moment and the power of pauses b/c you're heart just broke in that pause. Pasquale is amazing and I wish more people could have seen him in the role. I had a hard time putting into words what i meant about the pauses but seriously if you were there you know what i'm talking about

---

Wait, Kelli as Franca? Scary!

---

First off, never knew that Steven Pasquale was Fabrizio - kind of came on as a fan of Light in the Piazza recently (when I saw the PBS Live from Lincoln Center- and now I cannot get that music out of my head!)

At any rate- I was stunned to read that Pasquale originated the role and enjoyed the brief clip from above. I watch "Rescue Me" every week and could never have imagined the same guy playing Sean Garrity played Fabrizio.

Too bad he didn't get to originate the role on Broadway. It's been interesting to read how the show changed and developed.

Jim

chernjam yeah I was extremely dissapointed that not many people got to see his take on the role...although I think Matt and Aaron were excellent as well. Yeah Steven Pasquale is by far one of my favorite actors and without a doubt one of my favorite singers. If you haven't heard the "A Man of No Importance" w/ him you should go pick it up. His "Streets of Dublin" is stunning. I really hope that he keeps coming back to the theater although he's great on Rescue Me. Oh trust me AshleyBrownFan123 Kelli was a wonderful Franca and she has even said that she loved playing the part and that she wasn't even sure if she wanted to switch to Clara. She had a very similar take on it as Sarah did and was very very funny and sounded beautiful as usual. Jim, I hope you get to see the tour because nothing compares to seeing the show live. and David Burnham is doing the tour and I've heard he's amazing as Fabrizio

---

hey just thought I'd share a review of the Seattle run

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/seattle/se136.html

maybe that would give a little better idea at the production

---

gustof777 - I'd definitely go to see it if it comes around - hopefully it will stop in Newark at the NJ Performing Arts Center (they just had Chicago there a few weeks ago, even though Chicago is still playing in NY only 25 miles away) If not, I might take the trip to Philly.

I can't tell you how when I watched it on PBS how I was kicking myself that it only had two more weeks to it's run, and I knew I couldn't get in there to see it. Would love to see it live, but am happy to have it on Video (although, I'm hoping for a DVD release with better sound/picture quality than my staticy cable version)

Never knew Pasquale was such a singing talent either... Interesting to read the articles on the show's development.

Wonder if they'll bring it to London...
Jim

It'll be nice if it comes to NJPAC. It wil be coming to Philly.

Anyway NJPAC has such a terrible Broadway line-up for 06-07. I'm so dissapointed.

And regarding Chicago.. it's very rare producers would bring a tour so close to Broadway where the same show is playing. But the Weisslers did it as a marketing ploy. If the people who saw it at NJPAC liked it so much, they could always go 12-15 miles to NYC and see it again, or they could reccomend their friends to see it on Broadway.

Great marketing idea in my opinion.

I'm not sure if she took Spelling Bee instead, but I had heard that she was replaced on good terms by Kelli O'Hara partially because Kelli had the natural soprano to tackle the role, where as it didn't come as naturally to Celia. I saw Celia here in Seattle and thought she was brilliant. I was so sad when I had heard she wasn't going to Broadway, but was so happy when she got a nom for Spelling Bee. So deserving of everything she gets. So talented.

And Steven Pasquale was great as well.

There also was no ensemble in Seattle, the set was much more simple and intimate.

---