This was such a frustrating experience at the theater! It's so close to being wonderful, and yet still so far.
To start on a positive note Norm Lewis was fantastic and owns the show. It is his story anyway, and Bess is always a more secondary character whether in the original or the new and unimproved Paulus version. People going to expect an Audra showdown might be a tad disappointed. She is wonderful, as always, but this isn't her piece.
I thought everyone in the cast was fine except David Alan Grier, who just does not have the right type of voice for my tastes. I did not like his "There's a Boat dat's leaving soon for New York" AT ALL. He didn't even attempt to hit the high note at the end. They cut my favorite bit of Bess' right after that too when she sings, "You low crawling hound, get away from my door!" and then calls him a rattlesnake.
The new orchestrations stink too. All the excitement after "There's a Boat..." has been cut completely. So sad not to hear that in the theater.
There is SO much potential here for this to be a wonderful production. Sure the set is ugly as sin and doesn't evoke any specific time or place, but you could make it work. The costumes are nice. All you really need though is to rely on the score and book to pull you through with the right actors and you'll be fine. Too bad Paulus didn't had neither the faith in the material nor her audience to do just that.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
