Nick Jonas & Michael Urie in HOW TO SUCCEED... Thoughts?- Page 9

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 8:48pm

I'm hoping that the late JoJoBroadway sees Jonas in the show. His/her comments are always so trenchant.

[showchoirguy]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 8:52pm

Oooh! What diction, Dolly!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 9:39pm

Thank you for the alliteration.

[jsg03jd]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 9:53pm

I'll have to amend my comment and agree with CATSNYrevival: based only on these BWW clips, yes, Nick Jonas does sound better than Daniel Radcliffe too. I really am surprised.

ETA: It sounds like "I Believe In You" was lowered for Nick Jonas but perhaps they should have done that for Darren Criss too.

Updated On: 1/25/12 at 09:53 PM

[Emmaloucbway]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 10:11pm

So wait.. was anybody there? Very curious to hear about Michael Urie as Bud Frump!

[Ejm105989]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 10:47pm

So somebody tweeted:

Dear teenage girls who love Nick Jonas: You are at the theatre, not at a concert. Stop shouting his name in the middle of scenes. Thanks.

Oh, the woes of being in a boy band. That's so freaking annoying.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 11:25pm

Dear somebody who tweeted:

You are at the theatre, not a football game. Put your phone away and stop tweeting. Thanks.

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 11:27pm

Nick Jonas is fantastic as Finch, way better than I expected. Way better than Daniel, and way way way way way way way better than Darren who was just wretched.

I was very surprised at how entertaining, and charming Nick was, and a wonderful singing voice...... it'll be hard to forgive him for Les Mis.... but he sure did win me over here.

[michellek45]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:05am

Was his acting a lot better than clips they have up here, MadonnaMusical? He still has that constipated, pantomime look to him in them

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 8:19pm

Are his fans quieter than Crisstians? I can't stand that!

[Kalimba]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 8:27pm

Wouldn't it be nice if management kicked the unruly sluts out.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 9:05pm

I too want to know if there is still a lot of inappropriate screaming during the show. That would definitely keep me away.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:13pm

Ok, so Jonas is FANTASTIC! This is the most fun I've ever had at this revival. I liked Radcliffe in the role, but Jonas outshines him, and as mentioned above, he's so much better than Criss it's not even worth comparing the two.

I don't know if Jonas had like 3 months of rehearsal or what, but he was acting like he had three months worth of performances behind him. So much confidence. Such a great voice. His looks to the audience were very different than Radcliffe's, but equally as effective. He was smarmy, smug, aware of his attractiveness and power over him. For the first time I felt like Finch was actually pulling the strings and not just succeeding by dumb luck.

Now that Beau Bridges has learned his lines he's really quite good. Urie is funny and playing it like a combo of Mark and Charles Nelson Reilly. A vast improvement over the sleepwalking and sleep-inducing performance by Hanke.

In fact the whole cast seems to have perked up with addition of these new cast members. It's a shame that the mezz was completely empty. I hope some good word of mouth can keep the show running. I will definitely be back to see Jonas again.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:35pm

Thank goodness for tonight's performance. Now that awful painful Darren Criss will be replaced from my memory with the brilliance of Nick Jonas.

I do not know the Jonas Brothers at all, so I really did not know what to expect. Nick was outstanding tonight. Excellent voice, and more importantly his comfort level on stage was so apparent. He has incredible stage presence and carried the show so well.

As stated above, the mezz was completely empty, which made me sad because more people need to see Nick's performance in this show. A nice surprise and a very satisfying evening at the theater.

[quizking101]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:45pm

" As stated above, the mezz was completely empty, which made me sad because more people need to see Nick's performance in this show. A nice surprise and a very satisfying evening at the theater."

The mezzo is only empty because the poor teenage girls are stalking the stage door outside..

Probably a dumb question, but how was the stage door after Nick's opening night?

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:54pm

I didn't stage door, but no the mezz was empty cuz no one was there. I mean there were more people at any given performance of Tale of Two Cities than tonight.

There weren't any crazy fans in the audience. Applause was light until I Believe in You (which was pretty amazing) and Brotherhood of Man.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 11:38pm

Nick Jonas is great, not as good as Daniel- he doesn't have the charm down and the moments when he looks to the audience, he just looks scared, not the knowing smile that Daniel had down pat.

Michael Urie is brilliant, totally stole the show.

[theaterfangirl]

Posted: 1/27/12 at 11:53am

I was there for Nick's first two evening performances. The first night we were in the 4th row orchestra, dead center, second night up in the mezz.

Nick did an outstanding job, in my opinion(but I am a fan of his, so..) I was pretty impressed. As someone said above, he played Finch as someone who was pulling the strings...he was manipulating but at the same time you were still rooting for him, which is exactly how Finch should be played. His singing voice was fantastic. I think there were some mic probs at the beginning of opening night because he didn't seem as loud (although as the show went on, he did) and I didn't notice that at all the next night so that's what makes me think it wasn't a permanent issue. And he did have some great facial expressions, so no he doesn't just stand there stone faced.

Michael Urie was fabulous as well--very funny and he and Nick have really good chemistry. I wanted more scenes between them because they were so good together.

The crowd was pretty well behaved opening night--one girl in the front row did scream down into the orchestra pit before the show (I think she saw Nick down there getting rigged up for his entrance) but people shushed her. While Nick did get lengthy and loud applause and cheers for his entrance, the other actors did get loud applause as well. But there wasn't nonstop screaming, crying, or people shouting inappropriately in the middle of scenes.

The second night was obviously a more subdued audience, but Nick did still get loud applause and a good ovation at the end.

Stage door was pretty crowded opening night, although nothing like Darren's from what I hear. It was probably more crowded just because Nick's family was there so people wanted to see his brothers as well (I think only Nick's parents--cause I saw them--and maybe Nick's girlfriend were there the second night.) The second night I did get close enough for autographs from Michael, Beau and Nick, but the shoving when Nick came down, even with a smaller crowd, was pretty intense and scary. But to his credit, from what I heard from someone who stayed after I left, Nick stayed out for a long time trying to sign for nearly everyone. He did even come down the corner of the barricade and sign for people from the corner all the way to about halfway to the theater entrance.

I'd say the mezz was maybe 25 to 50% full the second night? All I know is nobody was rushing for tickets--we thought there would be a line so we got there at 7:30 and nobody was there. In fact nobody showed up other than us until about 9, and even the theater people were surprised the crowd was so small. We were #1 for rush and ended up with box seats row A seats 1 & 2 for the night, but right before the show the usher asked us if we wanted to move and put us just off the center in the fourth row of the lower part of the mezz. So that was $30 well spent!

I do hope people go see the show...Nick is wonderful in it, and if the second night was any indication there's no need to be afraid of an audience filled with screeching fans, at least if you go during the week. Weekends might be another story.


Updated On: 1/27/12 at 11:53 AM