I saw the show tonight. I sat H14 which was partial view. I missed the entirety of Everything Else but was able to see Henry when entered. I couldn’t see Henry and Natalie with their little jam session during Psychopharmacologist and I but I saw every other thing in perfect detail. I thought the seat was fantastic. I think house left partial probably would have a slightly better deal because of the piano but I’m not sure.
It is an identical restaging. I saw the original several times at Arena, Broadway, and once on tour and am still digesting my thoughts and opinions on it. I certainly did not come away from the show with a glowing review that most others seem to. I think that comes from being so familiar with the original which I saw borderline obsessively in my teens and performing Diana with a youth company when I was 18 in 2013.
There were several lyric flubs (well covered), late lyric entrances, a few wrong or missing harmonies, and a very strange movement of the stairs Natalie and Henry are on before perfect for you.
Rachel Bay Jones- overall very strong performance. I think she did fabulously and mostly sounded good to incredible. During some moments in the higher belt range, especially I Miss The Mountains, her voice got so raspy I wasn’t sure she would be able to sing. It sounded like her voice was just giving out on her. But then she went on to sound really good. Back and forth. Perhaps she is sick or I’m just unfamiliar with her voice. She was definitely a standout and did the role justice and put her own spin on it.
BVD- Sounded incredible. Truly. Everything out of his mouth was beautiful and the riffs he added to the score were really good. I felt his acting left a little to be desired. His “crying” moments felt forced with a sobbing like voice for one sentence and then back to normal with no tears the whole time. The rest of my party there (one last row orch one last row mezz) didn’t have this issue so it seemed to read great from further back.
Ben Levi Ross- incredible. Perfect Henry.
Maia- so, so bad. Seemed like she was trying to be Arianna Grande. Sexy breathy voice and then clear belting that was good but there was just NO acting. Rushed through funny lines, really there was nothing going on in the acting department. It brought my opinion on the production down.
Khamary- At Times very very good vocally. Beautiful riffs. Singing was a little flat at times, mostly I’m Alive tonight. I like him. I missed how scary Aaron was when Gabe reappears and the dark foreboding he brought to There’s a World. Gabe was just too nice. I did like him though. He is talented.
Michael Park- good. Missed the high tenor in the rock star sequence and he just seemed a little old for the rockstar joke. He made some funny choices with octaves in Light. Serviceable, not outstanding.
Over all, I think had this production had its own unique staging and feel instead of being a carbon copy I would have judged it less harshly. The original (and closely following replacements of. Few of them) cast were so outstanding and this just didn’t live up to that. I’m happy, however, more people will get a chance to essentially see the original production and it was fun revisiting as an adult 10 years from my first viewing.
Hunter: Your teeth need whitening./ Heidi: You sound weird./ Jeff: You taste funny.
-Jeff Bowen's worst onstage line flub.
