I saw the show last Friday night, and for the most part, I agree with some people in this thread's assessment of the show.
First off, I will say that reguardless, I enjoyed the production immensely - I thought that the three urichins were the highlight of the production. They were sexy, talented, and genuinely seemed hip, and acted like the teenagers they were supposed to be playing. It didn't seem as if they were trying hard to be cool and sassy, they just knew how to be.
Rob Bartlett as Mushnik was incredible. I have never laughed so hard at a Mushnik. I hope he maintains this wonderful performance and that he will get some recognition for it, somewhere down the line, maybe a Tony nomination or win.
Doug Sills was funny, although a lot of the people I saw the show with hated him in the role of the Dentist and others. I thought that he was very cartoony and over the top, which made his character more likeable, and he sang the role very well, which is always appreciated in my book.
Micheal-Leon Wooley was great in his singing and acting of the plant. I enjoyed his characterization of Audrey II. The plant and the puppeteers manipulating it was incredible as well...Wooley and the puppeteers really seemed to be in synch which created a great Audrey II all together. Just seeing that incredible plant was worth the ticket price alone, and the ending was fantastic. I especially loved the dripping blood effect. That got a lot of cheers from the audience, as well as Audrey II's attack at the end of the Finale.
Now on to the leads.....
I love Hunter Foster, and thought that he was great in Urinetown, but something about his performance as Seymour overall irked me...And I think it all boils down to his interpretation of Seymour being too confident and knowing, as someone else had mentioned, but I definitely noticed this in his interpretation, and therefore, it makes it harder for the audience to relate to him, and feel sorry for him in his situation. I always saw Seymour as a pitiable and pathetic person, with no self-esteem who finally gets a little break when the plant's publicity starts changing his life seemingly for the better. I don't think the audience sees enough of a pathetic Seymour. It was so bad for me, that when the plant eats Seymour at the end, I didn't even feel sorry for him. That's not good. Sure, Hunter is trying to show that he's a lowly character, but it still isn't working well enough. I think he might have been miscast. Not to say that the actor playing Seymour has to be overly nerdy, Hunter just doesn't seem like an outcast of society, that no one wants to be associated with. If anything, he comes across more as some guy being bullied by Mr. Mushnik at best. However, despite all this, Hunter does give a good performance, has excellent comedic timing, and sings the role extremely well.
As for Kerry Butler, here's where I disagree with most people - I think that she fits her role better than Hunter actually. People are giving her a lot of crap for not hardly doing anything with her role, but I think she is. She just needs to make it more obvious, somehow. Anyone who is watching her closely and has gotten over the fact that she is not Ellen Greene, will see that she is doing something different with the role, making different acting choices, being committed to them, and making them work. And I appreciate that. If I wanted to see an Ellen Greene impersonation, I would go see any summer-stock, or community theatre production of this show and watch their Audrey.
You see, the thing about Ellen Greene is that she created this character so well, that it's hard to get out of her shadow. If you look at the script, it says NOTHING about Audrey having to have a squeaky, lispy, voice, which Ellen chose to give her Audrey.
So I got over that, after Kerry's first scene. However, I do feel that Kerry and Hunter BOTH need to make the characters more "real". There were plenty of times while watching their performances that it almost seemed as if they played a certain line a certain way, because they knew it's a line that usually gets a laugh. That shouldn't be. What makes certain lines funny is how the characters relate to them in their own world. For example, During the scene that preceeds "Somewhere That's Green" the lines about Audrey being "tied up", followed by her oblivious response, "No, just handcuffed a little" was too schticky....Audrey should not be aware of the irony in that line - yet Kerry borderline interpreted it in a fecicious/sarcastic way. Also, lyrics in the songs should be played out more and taken more for what they are worth...they are very clever lyrics...the audience should realize that. There were a few lyric interpretations in "Somewhere That's Green" that was totally missed, too. Again, both of the leads need to not be so aware of their situations - Audrey should not be THAT aware that she has low self-esteem and that is the reason why she is with Orin. At least, not in the very beginning of Act I. It should sort of be a revelation somewhere down the line, during the evolution of her character. Seymour needs to have more self-esteem issues -and what I mean by that is, Hunter needs to incorporate that more into his character/body inflictions and some of his line interpretations.
Ok, now that I have had time to think about what I wanted to say, remember, this is just my opinion. And I am not bashing Hunter and Kerry, because I am a big fan of both, and I think they are doing a fantastic job so far, and I hope that they will get even better and find their "Seymour" and "Audrey" and go down in the record books for their revelationary turns as their respective characters. I think the show is definitely worth seeing, and I know I will be back to see them again real soon.
Cheers,
The Balladeer
"Someone tell the story...Someone sing the song...."
Updated On: 9/9/03 at 10:34 AM
