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
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