Saw MILLIE tour last night

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 7/23/03 at 11:50pm

I saw and enjoyed the MILLIE tour in Dallas last night. Just a few thoughts:

*The seats in Music Hall are an abomination. Does anyone else hate having to lean back like that?
*Matt Cavenaugh made a fine Jimmy, but sadly kept his shirt on the entire performance.
*It took me a while to adjust to Darcie Roberts' (Millie) appearance. The costumes were exact copies of those on Broadway and it was strange, after viewing so many pictures from Broadway, to see someone other than Sutton Foster in them. Also, Darcie is a big, tall gal vs. the petite Sutton. Not a criticism at all, just an adjustment for me.
*I was impressed with the overall energy and enthusiasm of the cast, especially Hollis Resnik (Mrs. Meers). I had seen the show on Broadway in May and Sutton Foster and Harriet Harris both seemed to be bored and phoning it in. Darcie really sold "Gimme, Gimme" and was rewarded with an enthusiastic ovation.
*Other than a bit of added or changed dialogue here and there, the book, as far as I could tell, was faithful to the Broadway version. The most noticeable difference in the set is the omission of the elevator.
*The Dallas audience seemed much more receptive to the comedy than the New York audience. The Chinese "translations," for example, drew hearty laughter in Dallas versus less enthusiastic chuckles in New York. This may be due to the low energy of the New York cast on the day I saw the show.
*Pamela Isaacs was a standout and audience favorite as Muzzy.

Just my observations.... Anyone else see the show?

Updated On: 7/24/03 at 11:50 PM

[PJ]

Posted: 7/24/03 at 12:00am

actually, sutton is like 5 ft. 9 or 5 ft. 10. Maybe you meant petite as in slimmer?

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 7/24/03 at 12:03am

Maybe so....not to suggest at all the Darcie is not lovely in the costumes. She just seems bigger to me than Sutton. Hmmmm, all preception I guess.

[Copeman63]

Posted: 7/24/03 at 12:06am

They got rid of the elevator? How did they change the dialogue?

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 7/24/03 at 2:34am

Did you meet Juilana?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/24/03 at 2:57am

Yes, Sutto is quite tall. Look at tehphotos of her standing next to gavin. Gavin is 6'2". That gives ytou an idea of the height that she has.

Yes, I hate the seats at the Music Hall as well.

[Bway_Mill_Fan]

Posted: 7/24/03 at 1:00pm

yes, Ms.Foster is 5'9.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/24/03 at 1:03pm

It struck me as funny to see her in Les Miz for the first time. She was a good 2 inches taller than Marius!

[Madame X]

Posted: 7/24/03 at 1:05pm

Maybe he means Darcie is more built (muscular) than Sutton. In the picture on playbill.com w/ Darcie at the end of Gimme Gimme, her arms are RIPPED.

[Madame X]

Posted: 7/24/03 at 1:10pm

Just your friendly neighborhood link to the pic I'm talking about...
Playbill pic

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 7/24/03 at 1:39pm

She looks good as Millie. When I see it, I want to see Juliana as Millie (just as much as Darcie)

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/24/03 at 1:43pm

I REALLY want to hear Darcie's vocals for 'Gimme, Gimme". Hopefuly she will add an audio of it to her site. I LOVE the recordings of her in Funny Girl. Updated On: 7/25/03 at 01:43 PM

[BillyLawlor]

Posted: 7/25/03 at 12:40pm

I want to hear her "Gimme Gimme" as well. Matt Cavenagh is probably who I want to hear the most, although I hear he wears his glasses. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I think he looks ten times better without them!

[GirlOnASwing]

Posted: 7/25/03 at 1:14pm

Juliana totally rocks. I can't wait to see her do the role sometime.

[musicaltheatreman]

Posted: 7/25/03 at 2:28pm

does matt really wear glasses?? i wonder why they added them into the show?? i know on broadway jimmy does niot wear them. in the touring they are used as his cover up

by the way matt sounds good as jimmy great singing voice!! i did not know he was so tall.
darcies gimmir gimmie is good to! she does not have the same power in her voice like sutton but she does sound good singing it! she does not stop the show like sutton though

[Musetta1957]

Posted: 7/25/03 at 2:42pm

" does matt really wear glasses?? i wonder why they added them into the show??"

Or added them back, rather -- Jimmy wore them in the La Jolla production.

[BillyLawlor]

Posted: 7/25/03 at 11:28pm

Ugh! Don't remind me of the La Jolla production. Those costumes, those glasses, the height difference between Jimmy and Millie!!!! I can't bear to think of it!

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/25/03 at 11:32pm

Height diff??
Obviously you haven't seen Sutton and Christian then.
Go to Sutton's site and look at photos of her and Christian together from different events, then get back to me.
www.suttonfosteronline.cjb.net

[skingdom]

Posted: 7/26/03 at 12:01am

Don't go dissin' the La Jolla Millie. The costumes were better than on Broadway! They also had great songs, a great Jimmy ( Jim Stanek) and a great Miss Dorothy ( Sarah Uriarte Berry)a lot of wonderful cut songs and although I love the Broadway production, La Jolla had some wonderful elements!!!

[Musetta1957]

Posted: 7/26/03 at 1:06am

I loved the La Jolla production! I haven't seen it on Broadway yet, but from all the stills I've seen (and there are a lot!) La Jolla seemed to have so much more charm in its simplicity. And at least from the OBC CD, I preferred both Uriarte Berry and Stanek to their Broadway counterparts.

Bring me back the La Jolla prologue!

[musicaltheatreman]

Posted: 7/26/03 at 2:17am

where can i find pics and sound bits of the la jolla production??? thanks

[Musetta1957]

Posted: 7/26/03 at 4:17am

http://www.geocities.com/milliedillmount/photos.html

[BillyLawlor]

Posted: 7/26/03 at 9:14am

La Jolla costumes, in my opinion, and remember-this is just based on pictures, sucked. The green dress Millie wears while out with JImmy in the speakeasy is absolutely disgusting, and Muzzy Van Hossmere's costumes are hideous looking things. Uriarte Berry probably was better, because I really don't like Angela Christian, but Gavin Creel beats all, hands down. I don't care who Jim Stanek is!
And Broadwayguy2- I know there's a big height diff. btwn Sutton and Christian. I saw the show with the both of them, but in costume on stage, Sutton and Christian's heights do not vary as much, and the original Jimmy seemed like her little brother.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/26/03 at 9:43am

hmmm.... Christian must wear lifts on stage. ::shrug::

as far as Gavin coming across as a little brother to Sutton on stage... most of the time, with his female romatic interests, it does seem more plausible for him to be a brother figure rather than romantic interest. When he was touring in FAME, he consistently recieved good notices, but one comment that was almost always there was that with Gavin's portrayal, it would have been more believable for Gavin's character to end up gay and 'best friends for life' with Jen Gambatese's character rather than them ending up together romantically. :)

[BillyLawlor]

Posted: 7/26/03 at 9:58am

No, I meant Jim Stanek- Gavin, to me, didnt come across as a younger brother- no way. I'm talking about Jim Stanek's height difference. So, if we're talking height difference, the one between Sutton and Jim Stanek was much bigger than Sutton and Christian.