Piazza last night (8/31): the night of a thousand understudies

[flaemmchen]

Posted: 9/1/05 at 10:22am

I finally got back to Piazza last night for viewing #4. As everyone knows, this is Kelli's vacation week and Aaron Lazar doesn't start until Friday. What was the point in seeing the show? Well, (a) I love it, (b) I love it, (c) I love it. And it's always interesting to see the understudies go on. When I got to the theatre, I had an even more pleasant surprise: Sarah Uriarte Berry was ALSO out and Laura Griffith was going on as Franca! After redhot's rave reviews of her performance, I was really excited to see her.

The show was amazing, as always. I just got back from Firenze about two weeks ago, so the second the orchestra started the overture and the leaves started blowing, I was in tears. Vicki was absolutely fierce, as always, and the audience was with her from the moment she walked out on-stage, all the way to the last note of Fable. I'm always left awestruck and wobbly kneed from her performance, and last night was no exception...especially Fable, my god she just fills the space with her presence and her energy. I'm getting goosebumps remembering it.

Buuuut, everyone wants to know about the understudies!

I'll start with Laura, because she was my favorite of the bunch. Her Franca was amazing! Her voice has a very beautiful quality to it, and her Joy You Feel was magnificent. She had the attutide down, the relationship with Giuseppe (though Sarah and Michael get down to a lot more necking, hee hee hee!), the accent. She really did an all around fabulous job, and I wouldn't mind seeing her again.

Jennifer Hughes as Clara. She played the role very quirky and more childishly than Kelli, so it was a little jarring at first, but David Burnham plays Fabrizio a lot younger, so it all worked very well. Her voice is pretty, albeit not as powerful as Kelli's (it seemed to me like she was even holding back a little), and she delivered wonderful renditions of The Beauty Is and The Light in the Piazza. Her Clara's Interlude was particularly amazing because there was such pronounced anguish there--it was heartbreaking.

David Burnham. David Burnham is a comic genius. Lines that never got laughs with Matt got laughs with David, and his delivery is excellent. As I said, he plays the role a lot younger, and that made me notice some things that I'd never seen when Matt was Fabrizio, although it could be because I was watching something else at the time: Patti Cohenour doted on David a lot. She would come over, take his face in her hands, see that he was all right. It was clear he was her bravo ragazzo. His voice doesn't have the clarity or richness of Matt's, but he's so fearless with it that it's thrilling to hear him sing Il Mondo and cry out those "CLARAAAAA"s. When he and Jennifer sang Say It Somehow together, their voices blended so beautifully. Aiutami was a problem, though, because he worked himself into such a state before he came out on-stage that he could barely sing! It was an amazingly realistic bit of acting, but the song is written for five voices for a reason!

The cast handled these huge changes expertly. I hear you all saying 'It's not that astounding, they ARE performers, you know,' but having a new daughter, or a new family where the Naccarellis are concerned, can really throw someone, and the regulars were able to easily adapt so that if you'd never seen the show and didn't check your playbill beforehand, you wouldn't know that you weren't seeing the full cast.

And speaking of the regulars, they were top notch, as always. Michael Berresse was a riot, Patti Cohenour was amazing. It was probably my last time seeing Marc Harelik as Signor Naccarelli, and I can't imagine Chris Sarandon being able to top this guy!

Anyway, sorry for the length of this! But I thought that the...well, we don't have an official name yet so for now I'll just say Piazza fans, would be interested.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 9/1/05 at 10:34am

Thanks for the review. Seeing it tonight for my third time and I must say I am excited to see how the understudies fair. I hope Laura Griffith is on again tonight!

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 9/1/05 at 10:39am

I'm so glad you got to see Laura perform - sounds like a lovely evening - think I'll go put the CD on right now!

[flaemmchen]

Posted: 9/1/05 at 11:35am

Oh! I forgot to say that when I was reading the playbill last night, I saw that Laura is the second understudy for Clara. I'm not sure if she's scheduled to go on at all this week, but that's something I'd love to see.

AND I bought the souvenir program. It's absolutely gorgeous and worth the $10.

[IssaMe]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 12:05pm

Maybe it's just me...but I think David Burnham has been giving some of the most amazing performances I have seen in recent years this week when he has been on before Aaron begins tonight.

He is funny, energetic, acts wonderfully and sings beautifully.
He makes you see things in the character that were never there before.

I saw it with out of town (and from abroad) producers during this week and they were all raving about him...ready to cast him in a minute.

Simply an amazing performance! Had never seen him before in anything... but can't wait to see him again.


Nothing against Lazar in any way (haven't seen him) but why wasn't Burnham promoted to the role after understudying it for so long? Obviously, not the first time this has been asked! What were they thinking???? I know it is hard to lose a reliable and talented understudy --- but really, this guy is a superstar in the making.

[thespian geek]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 12:12pm

I saw it with out of town (and from abroad) producers during this week and they were all raving about him...ready to cast him in a minute.

Think there'll be a national tour? Because if so, David should be Fabrizio on the tour. Because I really want to see him.

[James2]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 12:23pm

There's a program? I wish I knew. i would have bought it when I saw Piazza in July.

[kyle.]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 12:30pm

i think the program is pretty new, only a few weeks old.

from what i understand there is going to be a nat'l tour, though i have no idea what dates, cities, or when it starts. let alone what the cast will look like.

please tell us more about the program. whats included? only photos? is there any text? lots of photos we have already seen before? lots of new ones?

thanks :)
Updated On: 9/2/05 at 12:30 PM

[flaemmchen]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 1:06pm

A lot of the Margaret, Clara, and Fabrizio pictures in the program are ones we've seen. There's a really adorable one of Margaret lying on the bed in the hotel, talking to Roy, that I'd never seen. What the program is really great for is all the pictures of the featured cast, particularly of Sarah and Michael. Everyone who sings a song gets their own page with the lyrics to their song on top. It's VERY nicely done. I'm going to try and scan some soon and put them in my fan photos.

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:24pm

Thanks for the review flaemm... I honestly didn't like David Burham when I saw him, but maybe it was because my expectations were too high. Anyway, I can't wait to get my program! I'm really excited to finally see all the pictures...

Hooray for all of the cast being in pictures, including Michael Berresse!

--korenglish

[Phantom2]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:29pm

I've heard a lot of nice things about David Burnham.

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:33pm

I think I was more disappointed than anything... I saw Signor Nacarelli's understudy, and I loved him. Then I saw David, and I wasn't impressed... but then again, it might have been my "healthy obsession" with Matty getting in the way of that.

[brdwaybaby17]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:36pm

I.... lost my souvenier program... cannot find it... never got to look at it... *cries... alot*

[Phantom2]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:36pm

Well, there's only one Matty Fresh. If there were two, Mistress wouldn't be able to post!

Posted: 9/2/05 at 5:47pm

haha ... definitely true. There is only ONE Matty Fresh, and that's okay by me. I hope he's having a good time at Naked Girl, because I miss him at Piazza!

Posted: 9/2/05 at 6:00pm

*ponders the idea of two Matts*


sigh.

[flaemmchen]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 6:18pm

Oh god, brdwaybaby, I'm crying for you.

[brdwaybaby17]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:11pm

Thank you... I appreciate it.

Can you buy them online?