#1
Posted: 7/20/07 at 12:47pm
Last night I went to see "Dreamgirls" at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, GA. I got nosebleed seats, but they actually weren't that bad. The theater is HUGE, but gorgeous, but I didn't feel too far away from the stage.
First off, I've never been to a show like this before. The audience would yell at the stage, clap randomly, stand-up and throw things at the stage, it was an amazing experience. I could just feel the love in the room for the performers on stage.
We all know the show so there's no need to explain it, but this show was based on the original B'way staging, so the sets and lighting were minimal at best, but still worked well.
All the performers were pretty good in their roles. My only concern was the fact that none of them seemed to ennunciate so the people in the upper balcony couldn't understand half the words that were being said. If I didn't know the story going in, then I would have been totally lost.
Jennifer Holliday - She sounded SO GOOD, but that's to be expected. I honestly was a little let down by her "...And I am Telling You" because it didn't seem as "big" as I was expecting. She did some awesome vocal tricks, and the ending was actually right this time. She sat down on the chair as the scrim came in with the Dreams singing. She stopped the show a couple times in Act 1 with her singing and people would just throw out standing ovations here and there. And after reading her interview in the playbill that was handed out, I was a little pissed by her. She seemes very fully of herself and a hard person to get along with. To quote her, the main reason she did this production was "to get people to forget the movie." I mean, ya, you did the first production, but it's not the end-all of productions. Her acting wasn't all that great. And she really didn't command the stage like I thought she would. During her big Act 1 closer, she basically just wandered around the stage - I realize she was going for "unstable" but it just came off as if she didn't know what she was doing. Also, I don't feel like a lot of the type of singing she did fit into the show. She seemed to be showing off for the sake of showing off which sort of got on my nerves.
I thought Brandi Chavonnne Massey was the stand-out. Her voice was perfect and her acting was great. You could see her arc as she grew from naive little girl to diva r&b star. She actually sang and acted the role and I felt like she was getting overhsadowed by Holliday - even though Holliday was only playing to the crowd rather than actually playing her character. I loved every one of her scenes and her rendition of "Ain't No Party."
The rest of the cast was strong - the ensemble was great and had a few faces I recognzied. Adam Fleming (Wicked/Bare/Hairspray) is in the ensemble, I guess - according to his bio - he's from GA so it was a "homecoming" type thing. Also, Mevlin Bell, III was in the ensemble. He played Angel on the last RENT tour. And although I thought he was bad as Angel he was fine in this part.
If you have any other questions please ask. I thought it was a great night out at the theater and I was suprised to see the theater so packed.
First off, I've never been to a show like this before. The audience would yell at the stage, clap randomly, stand-up and throw things at the stage, it was an amazing experience. I could just feel the love in the room for the performers on stage.
We all know the show so there's no need to explain it, but this show was based on the original B'way staging, so the sets and lighting were minimal at best, but still worked well.
All the performers were pretty good in their roles. My only concern was the fact that none of them seemed to ennunciate so the people in the upper balcony couldn't understand half the words that were being said. If I didn't know the story going in, then I would have been totally lost.
Jennifer Holliday - She sounded SO GOOD, but that's to be expected. I honestly was a little let down by her "...And I am Telling You" because it didn't seem as "big" as I was expecting. She did some awesome vocal tricks, and the ending was actually right this time. She sat down on the chair as the scrim came in with the Dreams singing. She stopped the show a couple times in Act 1 with her singing and people would just throw out standing ovations here and there. And after reading her interview in the playbill that was handed out, I was a little pissed by her. She seemes very fully of herself and a hard person to get along with. To quote her, the main reason she did this production was "to get people to forget the movie." I mean, ya, you did the first production, but it's not the end-all of productions. Her acting wasn't all that great. And she really didn't command the stage like I thought she would. During her big Act 1 closer, she basically just wandered around the stage - I realize she was going for "unstable" but it just came off as if she didn't know what she was doing. Also, I don't feel like a lot of the type of singing she did fit into the show. She seemed to be showing off for the sake of showing off which sort of got on my nerves.
I thought Brandi Chavonnne Massey was the stand-out. Her voice was perfect and her acting was great. You could see her arc as she grew from naive little girl to diva r&b star. She actually sang and acted the role and I felt like she was getting overhsadowed by Holliday - even though Holliday was only playing to the crowd rather than actually playing her character. I loved every one of her scenes and her rendition of "Ain't No Party."
The rest of the cast was strong - the ensemble was great and had a few faces I recognzied. Adam Fleming (Wicked/Bare/Hairspray) is in the ensemble, I guess - according to his bio - he's from GA so it was a "homecoming" type thing. Also, Mevlin Bell, III was in the ensemble. He played Angel on the last RENT tour. And although I thought he was bad as Angel he was fine in this part.
If you have any other questions please ask. I thought it was a great night out at the theater and I was suprised to see the theater so packed.
