I went last night too, I loove her, and I'm queen of the long posts anyway so forgive me for the fact that this is pretty long.
MASSIVE SPOILERS
Okay, before the show started I started thinking how much taller Rachel is than Sherie, but when she came out, that's the first thing I noticed, b/c it got to be really amusing. It was awesome though to see the same costumes made for the taller person and such. And then I thought her and Norbert are gonna look so funny, until I remembered he's in a wheelchair most of their scenes. But the few scenes he was standing, she was quite a few feet taller than him, I mean she's wearing heels too, so it was just funny watching her bend down slightly when they kissed. Oh, and during the More We Dance, she barely was able to make it turning under Dennis(Parlato, who was in for Pryce, who's very sick) Really funny. And the last scene with the 3 of them singing the finale, when I'm used to John towering over the other 2, who was clearly the tallest? Rachel. It was just kind of amusing.
Now onto her performance...I mean, it's not perfect, it was her first time, but still was just fantastic. She has an amazing voice, and it really showed on the songs where she used the lower part of her range, I was getting lots of eargasms during "Nothing Is Too Wonderful To Be True" and "Love Is Your Legs." Her high note n that was great, she attacked it as a true soprano, adding this lovely vibrato in. And seriously all I was thinking during Nothing Is Too Wonderful was gah, if there was some way for her to record it. And her last big part, "three of a kind," you can tell she's still experimenting but she put in a great riff. And I mean she was great in Here I Am, holding out that last note, though I think she's still getting used to it, she stayed on that high note instead of coming down a bit like they do for the last "am." Again, something that sounded weird on my ear, but her tone of that was amazing. And during their duets, you could see her and Norbert playing around trying to catch their harmonies. They had a bit of trouble at the end of Nothing is Too Wonderful, it kinda went from together, to more Norbert while Rachel adjusted, to just Rachel. But they did much better w/ the end of love is your legs, the last "legs" sounded beautiful to my ear. Yeah, she's like a vocal goddess to me.
Oh another thing I don't think I knew about her...she's not quite as good a skipper at the end as Sherie, but she's actually a great dancer! The part where Lawrence names the different dances for them to do, she's in the front and looks great doing it, and was perfectly in sync with everyone. And again w/ also being tall but also being a good dancer, at one point her and Dennis kick their leg up really high, it was hard not to notice how much higher her leg went than Dennis'.
In terms of her take on the character, again I think it will be a little more polished as she gets more used to the role, but she def doesn't try to play it like Sherie which is good, offers her own take. I loved what she did at the end when she's in the pit and says her "good-bye boys," I dunno if I could describe it, but she kind of...got her voice higher and accented the "bye," kinda emphasizing the con, I really liked it. Definitely not comfortable jumping over the pit thing yet, she said "jackal" before she left, and she more climbed over one foot in front of the other than jumped like Sherie did. She stays more hysterical even when she gives back the suitcase, but I def sensed she was running really fast to get away. I also kinda liked the way after Norbert was knocked down how she said "I Do That A Lot." Pretty ambigious, like I could more see her saying that as the con than the way Sherie did it, which seemed more like a ploy so the audience wouldn't catch on but out of character. Oh, she almost knocked the table w/ the hot soup over as she closed the doors.
And for her first time, she avoided lots of oopsies (as opposed to Dennis who was silent for like 10 seconds of "Love Sneaks In". A couple of times she came in too early, and Norbert or whoever would finish and then she'd start, only big one I noticed was she was supposed to say I won this all-expense paid trip...she said I won this all-American...and I could see her pause and realize what she said, but then she collected herself and made it work, she said something like All American expense, you know they paid for it, trip or something. Again, not something anyone would catch onto if you didn't know the show so well, and that's all I ask of performers.
I really can't wait to see Rachel develop and become more familar with the role, this woman is just an incredible talent!
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli