PATTI AT RAVINIA - please post reviews here- Page 4

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 8/13/06 at 10:36pm

Ravinia is a great venue and the Sondheim series has really put Highland Park on the map in the history of musical theater!

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 8/13/06 at 10:42pm

Arthur Laurents has casting approval over any major revival: Broadway, National Tour, London. He doesn't have casting approval over regional theatre productions, unless a theatre violates its licensing contract by, say having Rose played as a man in an all male production.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/13/06 at 11:03pm

Remember what Harvey Fierstein said:

Arthur Laurents is living proof the good die young.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 8/13/06 at 11:24pm

It's so nice to read all of these wonderful reviews. It seems that someone on the other site was at a different show, because their's was the only negative one I read.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 8/13/06 at 11:25pm

While I think that perhaps it may be too soon to do a revival of "Gypsy" on Broadway, how about a limited run show? The demand is there I'm sure and many people out there would LOVE the opportunity to see Miss Patti, live, as "Mamma Rose." I certainly WOULD go back to NYC (went there in March 2006) just to see Patti LuPone! Just thinking out loud... from Roman in Austin, Texas... the official Patti LuPone FANatic

[blueroses]

Posted: 8/13/06 at 11:26pm

Thank you for the reviews! I love Patti, and these reports are the next best thing to being there.

Posted: 8/13/06 at 11:45pm

i'm thrilled for all of you!
& somehow, audio MUST be released!!!!

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 12:28am

Im not the greatest writer of reviews so this is a condesended version. I just got back and it was phenominal. Lupone is the best Rose I've seen/heard. She was sublime. Her Rose's Turn literally did what it should and stopped the show it took a good few minutes to get everyone to sit down and stop applauding. Both her act 1 and 2 Finales left me in chills. She was born to play this role and watching her I said to myself "she might not have gotten her tony this year but damnit somehow shell get one for a role like this in the future!" and im sure she will. Give it a few years and I think someone will be smart enough to bring her to do a full production as they did with her and Sweeney. She was brilliant (actually thats an understatement) in this performance and I've never seen anything like this.

Jessica Boevers: She was great. I thought not knowing much of her work other than the fiasco that is IN MY LIFE. But she was wonderful. She looked like the role and sang it well. She was a little off a tad on a couple notes I belive but other than that she gave a wonderful performance as well.

The whole show was just extraordianry and Im hoping they'll do as they did with the Passion concert and put this on tv because she was sublime.

[matt schneider]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 12:54am

I thin it is too early too revive, but i completly agree with patti fanatic, that they should do a limited run of this for the people who missed it in new york. It was the role she was born to play, I belive. Also if they put it on television, that would be the next best thing, I want to see it again, and I hope I get a chance to.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 1:36am

Let me just add to this love fest ...

Everyone has already said what needed to be said, but let me just say Patti was perfection and the whole cast was right there with her.

The pacing and staging made the evening fly by.

There were more than a few of those literally spine tingling, lump in throat moments throughout the performance,(I was breathless at the close of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and as has been said, "Rose's Turn" will never be the same for me) but let me just say that Patti made those songs sound like this was the firs time anyone had ever sung them. Fresh, funny, sexy and scary as hell, but most of all totally human.
I hope this will not be the end of LuPone's Rose, for everyone's sake.

On another note, to all the wonderful people of this board that I had the great pleasure of meeting tonight, thanks for a fantastic date.

What happened at Ravinia stays at Ravinia...and you will have to pay me to keep the pictures off the board!

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 1:47am

damnit there were other bww people there tonight? damn, i wish i coulda met some of you. oh well, perhaps when patti does this role again as she must!

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 2:01am

Even after cutting off his nose to spite his face, Arthur Laurents continues to smile.

[Kringas]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 2:08am

It was an absolutely delightful evening from start to finish. I'll piggy back on what others have said and just reiterate that LuPone was outstanding; you'd have thought the role was written for her. I thoroughly enjoyed Jessica Boevers as Louise as well. The entire cast was tremendous and it was very easy to forget that this wasn't a full-fledged production. It was just that good.

Meeting some of my favorite BWWers tonight was the icing on the cake.

[halyiaganitefiz]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 2:14am

The idea of having this hit B'way for a limited run, or even Chicago, duh.... It makes me SIGH with longing. : I agree it's too early to revive, but a limited run would be low-key. And I would love to see an even BIGGER house get up off its ass for the brassiest woman in Broadway business today.

Guh. I hope she does something again soon; I want to see her again and again.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 2:30am

Wow.

I have chills...

[kissmycookie]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 11:34am

*Elphie-green with envy*

[tgrabon]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 11:56am

Saturday nights pefromance was FLAWLESS (even the weather). I saw Sweeney Todd with Patti LuPone at Ravinia years ago and it was a concert (and it rained). I vaguely remember actors holding and reading from scripts. I assumed Gyspy would be the same. Boy, was I wrong and thrilled that it was full staged.
Ravinia needs to do Follies next year. Chicago hasn't had a production of Follies in years.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 12:03pm

Thanks for all of the reviews, kids! I'm SO jealous to have missed this.

I LOVE that Derin Altay was Electra...she was the first Eva I saw on Bway...I missed Patti.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 12:37pm

Here's the review I did for BWW:
Everything's Coming Up Patti

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 12:40pm

"My only issue with the performance was that the Chicago Symphony under Paul Gemignani's baton, while lush and impressive for the ballads and certain other moments of the score, lacked a certain oomph for the brassier sections. The sound balance definitely sounded off throughout, noticeable especially when the bravura trumpet solo in the overture was drowned out by strings and the real lack of rhythmic punch during 'You Gotta Get a Gimmick.'"

Margo - I couldn't agree more. The first four notes of the overture were barely audible and started the show on the wrong foot, though the songs themselves more than made up for the lack in brass, though it was a bit disappointing.

While I enjoyed the show and found Patti to deliver a wonderful performance, I felt that she held back a bit in her early numbers. While her singing was spot-on, at times the emotional drive and quality seemed to be lacking for me throughout most of the first act and she did tend to murmur her way through some crucial dialogue though it is de rigueur for Dame LuPone. "Some People" was technically perfect, but seemed as if she were singing-by-numbers for much of the song, where I think I would have forgiven some perfectly placed vowel sounds for more character and drive. But this could have been that she might have been holding back knowing how much of the score was still ahead in this runaway train of a production, which always remained on track. It wasn't until "Everything's Coming Up Roses" that I felt Patti finally let herself go and cut loose vocally and emotionally in song. All in all, it was a fantastic show and I wouldn't be so nitpicky if I hadn't seen Patti deliver flawlessly numerous times in the past.

Updated On: 8/14/06 at 12:40 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 12:48pm

I agree with everything Dollypop said.

EXCEPT for your pronouncement on "Little Lamb." Ever since I was a kid lip-synching to the OCR in the mirror, I have loved that song! You know of course that Jerome Robbins tried to cut it out of town and Jule Styne said, "If that song goes, the rest of the score goes too."

It creates needed sympathy for Louise, and Sondheim's final lyric, "I wonder how old I am...?" gives the audience startling psychological insight into what it was like for a child performer to grow up without a normal childhood.

Like "One Hand, One Heart," in West Side Story, it is the tender, legato moment against which the contrasting drama gains color.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 1:02pm

I was there on Friday and LOVED IT! I don't even really like Gypsy a lot, but seeing Patti Lupone do Mama Rose was orgasmic. I love that woman. I think that when she did "Rose's Turn," I may have blacked out for a moment. It was that good.

[sunflower12063]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 1:14pm

Just got back last night. Patti was fabulous. Patti in Sweeney Todd and Gypsy in one year...can't get much better than that if you enjoy Patti's talent.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 1:33pm

[It creates needed sympathy for Louise, and Sondheim's final lyric, "I wonder how old I am...?" gives the audience startling psychological insight into what it was like for a child performer to grow up without a normal childhood.]

I think Louise's senstivity could have been established by having the character say "I'm sensitive. I'm sensitive" and be over with it!

Updated On: 8/14/06 at 01:33 PM

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 1:35pm

Pal Joey, I couldn't agree with you more about Little Lamb. I have never understood what people have against that song. To me it is VITAL to illustrate the affect the chaos of Louise's life has on her, but also establishes the simplicity she longs for and her innocence, which makes her transition into Gypsy all the more powerful.