Reviews of Wicked, Altar Boyz, and Rent (6-4-06 & 6-5-06)

[altoid06]

Posted: 6/8/06 at 9:51pm

I just got back from my trip to New York and figured since I relied heavily on other reviews, maybe I could help out someone else. Here we go!

Wicked Matinee on June 4th - I'll admit it, I was weary of Kate Reinders and had my heart set on Megan Hilty. Kate Reinders, however, played the part of Galinda very well. She was sort of spazzy, hilarious, and well, very Galinda-ish. The one complaint I had with her was the fact that when she jumped to her higher register she was about 10 times quieter. It was just a little uneven. Eden Espinosa was amazing, as expected. My seat, a limited view in the seventh row, provided me with some complaints. I found I was distracted by the ensemble talking off stage while leads were performing. They were quite loud. Also, I got to see how the Wizard works, and a lot of people right on the stage wings. Overall though, I really enjoyed the show and the cast was incredible!

Altar Boyz 8 o'clock show on June 5th - We sort of stumbled upon these tickets. A guy wearing an Altar Boyz shirt caught my attention and of course, being the friendly midwesterner I am, I said something about it. Well, he was with the show selling vouchers that guarantee you a spot in the first ten rows for 35 bucks. We decided to take him up on the offer (not that I guarantee buying stuff off the street in NYC) and received our vouchers. We ended up getting seats in the 7th row center. The best part about this was that we got to see Tyler Maynard's last show. He was fantastic. The show, I felt, was more polished than Wicked was. Each action showed something about the characters and they really connected to the audience. I felt Wicked lacked that connection. They just did an amazing job! After the show, we stayed around and got autographs. The guys were all genuine and nice. They were more than happy to stay around and talk or sign playbills. It was an amazing trip to the theater!

Rent 8 pm show on June 6th - We TKTS-ed the tickets for this show. Not expecting to get very good seats, I was thrilled to find that they had 5th row center open. We snatched them up. Sadly, I must admit that this show was my least favorite of the ones we saw. I love the music, the movie, and have been waiting for quite a while to get to see it. The cast, I felt, was not as strong as it should have been. Our Roger could not find a good not screaming volume. He mangaged to yell every line he said. If he could have toned it down a little, his voice would have been really good for the part. The Mimi we had was one of the worst fake die-ers I've ever seen. It was so bad that I actually started to giggle. The other members of the cast were very good. I really liked the Maureen. She had the part down perfectly. I guess, in my advice, skip this cast and see it later. The show itself is phenomenal, but they really didn't do it justice.

--KDLYNN06

Updated On: 6/10/06 at 09:51 PM

[WiiCKED x3]

Posted: 6/8/06 at 9:57pm

Eden really is amazing.
Glad you had a good time at Wicked.

And sorry you had a pretty bad time at Rent, you got really good seats though!

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 6/8/06 at 9:59pm

Glad you had a fun time!

[.LittleWing. 0224]

Posted: 6/8/06 at 10:14pm

who did you see as Mimi in RENT?

[mint0621]

Posted: 6/8/06 at 10:36pm

I ran into Tyler after his last show (I wasn't there at the show) when him and some cast members were celebrating. Tyler seemed happy about his last performance. Congrats to Tyler for his amazing run in Altar Boyz!

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 6/8/06 at 10:43pm

Good job on the reviews! I'll second the, "Who was Mimi?" question, as I'm wondering who you saw. Glad you had a good trip!

[altoid06]

Posted: 6/9/06 at 8:33pm

Our Mimi for Rent was played by Antonique Smith.

I actually enjoyed Rent a lot. I thought it was a good show. The rest of the cast, minus the things already mentioned, was good. And of course, it was pretty awesome going to the Nederlander to see it. Plus the great seats for half price always makes a girl happy! I guess my final statement is if you haven't already seen it and are in the city, go for it. If you are a theater nerd, just being there will give you a rush. If you have already seen it, I'd skip this one, go see a different show and see what else the big apple has to offer!

[Parks]

Posted: 6/9/06 at 9:31pm

I thought Antonique was supposed to be good...

Hm, how was the rest of her performance? Who's playing Maureen these days? Did Ava leave?