Michael Berry on for Dan in NtN tonight (6/16)- Page 2

[alightinthedark23]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 12:12am

Yes I'm referring to 'How Could I Ever Forget?'. I also noticed what your talking about for 'A Promise'. It seemed like once he was late on 'Just Another Day' he was doomed.

[heo1128]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 12:21am

Haha so true. Poor Michael.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 12:23am

Wow...the understudies in the YouTube clips are indeed pretty disappointing. Timothy Young would probably be a good Henry, but he doesn't have the voice or even the look for Gabe. And Michael Berry just...isn't very good. Not to poo-poo on other actors, but seriously...I thought Meghan Fahy was all right though, if somewhat generic.

[Sondheim_Geek]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 1:11am

The YouTube clip doesn't do justice to anyone, really. The accompaniment on piano is terrible and everything is just so...off.

Jessica's character in the video is much more of a cartoon than her performance in the show. In the show she is ANYTHING BUT, and plays the role much more subdued. If she plays the role more subtle than Ripley, how can she be cartoon-y? If anything, I wish Phillips gave me MORE. And as far as her voice, it is a bit different, but still effective. I saw Amy Spanger's portrayl and NYMF in 05 and if anything she was too pop-y for the score.

Tim Young's Gabe is alright. Not the worst, not the best. I saw him toward the end of the Arena run. His downfall, in my opinion, was that he was too much trying to imitate Tveit's performance, rather than interpret the role in a way that was more suitable to him both physically and emotionally.

Michael's Dan is bad, but not as bad as the YouTube video.

Meghann's Natalie looks promising. Her first performance next week will be reviewed by someone, I'm sure.

[gustof777]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 1:18am

Not to pick a fight or anything but having seen Phillips perform last Tuesday and with a friend who had never seen the show, I must say I thought she was wonderful. Not Ripley but still great. I wouldn't call her performance anything near a nightmare or a disaster and everyone around me in the mezz thought she was wonderful. My friend who had never seen the show was blown away by her. My only complaint would be that her voice lacked the sheer power and force that Ripley's has and so some of the louder parts of the show didn't quite have the punch I felt they needed. I loved her I Miss the Mountains and unless I misinterpreted, the audience I remember responded very strongly. I remember walking out of the theater that night ready to read on the boards how much people liked her performance and was quite surprised to find how strongly some disliked her performance. I appreciated her effort to in no way try to emulate Ripley's performance, it was something personal to her and I felt that as the night went on she grew in her confidence to make the choices she made to make the part her own. I got to look at the show in a whole new way.

Again, to each his own but I thought she did a fine job and was very surprised to find myself not missing Ripley. I honestly thought the show would not hold up without her and was very happy to be proven wrong. It was the best out of the 5 times i've seen the show. I also for the record LOVED Kyle's Gabe.

[cmwx122]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 2:16am

you guys are probably right that he wasn't that great, but cut the guy a break. imagine having the pressure of stepping in to bobby spencer's shoes at a moments notice and give it all you've got playing opposite alice ripley. thats insaneee. not to mention the role.

[heo1128]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 2:26am

^I completely agree, it's an incredibly challenging role and an incredibly difficult position to be in...I think my criticism is more with the producers/casting directors for the show. They should have higher caliber understudies, now that they're in the big leagues.

Updated On: 6/17/09 at 02:26 AM

[BwayTday]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 3:28am

I really hope I get no understudies when I go **fingers crossed**
I'm sure the show would be great either way, but I want it to be AMAZING, and the people who aren't understudies and have studied the roles more will, in my opinion, probably give a better perormance in these complex roles then the understudies

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 3:44am

Yes, its difficult...but that's his JOB. MOST of the people there will never see it again, that he's nervous is a terrible excuse. He's been READY to play this part since DECEMBER.


I haven't seen his performance so I am not talking about him but the attitude that the audience should expect less from him.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 5:24am

gustof, I think you're the first person I've heard who had seen the show before who thought Phillips was good. All the "She was amazing" comments though, have been coming from people like your friend who had never seen the show. And I'd wager a bet that a lot of them (your friend aside as they were with you) don't really know enough about theatre to realize that they were in fact seeing an understudy.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 6:41am

you guys are probably right that he wasn't that great, but cut the guy a break. imagine having the pressure of stepping in to bobby spencer's shoes at a moments notice and give it all you've got playing opposite alice ripley. thats insaneee. not to mention the role.

Why should he be cut a "break"? They didn't cut ticket prices the night any of these understudies were on, because of the pressure of having to go on for Bobby, or Alice, or whomever. Their JOB is to deliver the same high quality performance as the regulars do, at a moment's notice.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 6:48am

First of all, I thought Michael Berry looked too old for the part. I was in the Mezz but it looked like he had gray hair.

And I just have to comment on this. People go gray at different points in their lives. Guess what, a lot is genetic, but it can also be related to other things ~ extreme stress, medication, etc. I went to college with a girl who was totally gray when we started freshman year ~ she was a genetic case. Gray hair does not necessarily equal old. Deal with it.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 7:46am

I've always envisioned Dan as someone in his 40's, since he has a teenaged daughter (and would have had a teenaged son), which is about when a lot of men start growing grey, so that's not unbelievable at all.

Couple that with the fact that he's lived with a wife that has mental illness all these years, and it might seem totally logical that he looks older than he actually is.

Mind you, I haven't seen Michael Berry, just commenting on his appearance.
Updated On: 6/17/09 at 07:46 AM

[alightinthedark23]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 7:53am

While I understand what you mean with gray hair being linked with genetics and stress, it looked in Michaels case to be a direct relation to age.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 8:08am

But it wouldn't be at all unusual for someone Dan's age to have gray hair.

[heo1128]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 10:50am

^Yeah I completely agree that it's very possible for someone Dan's age to have greying hair, in fact I think Bobby Spencer has some grey. But Michael's hair just looked out of place and really aged him next to Alice. Haha this is kind of a silly argument...

[alightinthedark23]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 10:59am

I agree, it is very possible for Dan to have gray hair. If it is THAT visible in the Mezz though, it makes it very hard to believe they went to college together. Alice Ripley looked much younger. I would of honestly guessed a 5-10 year difference in age.

[Testing1232]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 11:59am

He did look a bit too old (especially during the "let's get married" sequence)- It just looked weird----

That, and Kyle/Gabe stating that he was 18- (heard at least 5 people mutter .. "he is?"- )

Aaron just has that baby face that allows him to get away with it--

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 12:04pm

Jessica's character in the video is much more of a cartoon than her performance in the show. In the show she is ANYTHING BUT, and plays the role much more subdued. If she plays the role more subtle than Ripley, how can she be cartoon-y? If anything, I wish Phillips gave me MORE.

I have to totally disagree with this. I didn't find her performance to be subtle at all. When Gabe and Dan were singing to her in "I Am The One," her acting was laughably bad. She kept whipping her head back and forth and making these strange facial expressions. I didn't find her to be subtle at all; I thought she was way too over the top. She even let out a guttural "UGHHHHHH!!" before she screamed the second "WHAT WAS HIS NAME?!" and it ruined the entire moment.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 12:06pm

[jordangirl]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 12:11pm

I agree, it is very possible for Dan to have gray hair. If it is THAT visible in the Mezz though, it makes it very hard to believe they went to college together.

Again, it is possible to be a traditional-age college student and still have gray hair while in school. Gray hair is not always a sign of aging.

[alightinthedark23]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 12:25pm

I understand that, but I think most people are not going to be thinking about genetics while they see the show.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 12:39pm

But also not everyone is ageist and assumes gray hair means old.

[obsessedjb]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 12:41pm

"gustof, I think you're the first person I've heard who had seen the show before who thought Phillips was good. All the "She was amazing" comments though, have been coming from people like your friend who had never seen the show. And I'd wager a bet that a lot of them (your friend aside as they were with you) don't really know enough about theatre to realize that they were in fact seeing an understudy."

FWIW, I know people who saw her and thought that she was good too and they have seen the show multiple times.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 12:45pm

All the "She was amazing" comments though, have been coming from people like your friend who had never seen the show. And I'd wager a bet that a lot of them (your friend aside as they were with you) don't really know enough about theatre to realize that they were in fact seeing an understudy.

Wow. That wasn't an ignorant statement or anything.

Making the assumption that people who don't share your point of view (even though you yourself didn't even see Phillips) must have some inferior knowledge of theater is a little narrow-minded, don't you think?

I find it pretty feasible for someone to get a good handle on the strength of a performance without having seen the show thirty times previously.

Updated On: 6/17/09 at 12:45 PM