Hello. I saw it this past Tuesday. I had only previously seen the telecast on PBS, which I loved - Victoria Clark's performance and her chemistry with Katie Clarke were breath-taking. While I thought all the performances in the touring production were fine, I sensed a certain depth missing from the relationships on stage. All the performers had their merits. Christine Andreas had an interesting singing voice, and you could tell that she was a competent actor. But I felt she missed a lot of the warmth and humor of the character. On the other hand, she handled all of the heavier dramatic moments with tasteful restraint and dignity. Elena Shaddow has a lovely voice, but it sounded like she was conserving it for some reason. Her acting was appropriate and effective, if somewhat generic. She didn't try to put her own stamp on the role. I still think that Katie Clarke is my favorite, not because she has the best singing voice (clearly Kelli O'Hara and Elena Shaddow blow her out of the water in this area), but her presence and her vibrant take on the character managed to steal my heart. I know there are a lot of David Burnham fans on this board, but I really didn't care for his take on the role. I found him kind of spastic and distracting. As a singer, you could tell that he was doing everything correctly, but the voice was too thin and limited to fully capture the power of his songs. I really wanted to like him, but I found him the most disappointing. The rest of the cast was just fine, particularly the actors playing Giusseppe and Franca. Overall, it was nice to see TLITP live on stage. The music is so enchanting, and I could really appreciate how fluid and lovely the staging was. I hope I have the chance to see more of Bartlett Sher's work in the future. I really love what he did with this piece.
Updated On: 9/15/06 at 10:15 AM
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