Secret Garden - FIRST POST

[CTY]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 11:24pm

Somehow I'm the first one here...probably everyone else is enjoying the after party :P

let me just say-it was INCREDIBLE. another fantastic job!

[liotte]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 11:39pm

review?

[gavrochegirl]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 11:43pm

Yes, where is your review?

[Luckydave14]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 11:47pm

I'll make a review of it in a few. I'm still in awe. And I have to eat dinner.

[iRuvPrinceton]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 11:50pm

*bounces* Yes, I can't wait!

[sanda]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 11:51pm

I am back. God, I am so tired. My review is short.

The show started 30 mins late. A magical evening. I feel so happy because this is my first time seeing TSG live although I have listened to the recording hundred times.

The best thing is the orchestra. Simply amazing. Totally deliver the beauty of the music. Kudos to Mr.Conductor.

Two children are perfect. I cannot believe that, for such a short rehearsal time, they could do the job so well. Mary is so adorable. And what a voice!

Martha and Mrs.Medlock and Ben all are great.

I feel a little difficult to listen to Dicken's singing sometimes. Not sure if it is due to the accoustic system. He is cute.

Neville is a little rushed.

At beginning I feel a little difficult for Lily and Archie, maybe because I am so used to the wonderful Rebecca Luker and Mandy Patinkin, but later they totally won my heart.

The magic of TSG never fades.

BTW, I met the wonderful Lucy Simon and told her how much I appreicate her beautiful work.

I feel so fulfilled.

Edit:one more thing, when I entered the elevator, I swear I saw Idina Menzel and her hudsband just standing beside me. I say nothing because I thought they didn't want to be recognized.





Updated On: 12/6/05 at 11:51 PM

[Jimmcf]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 11:52pm

I also thought it was a magical evening. I saw the original Broadway production a few times, and it remains one of my all time favorites. I have to say, I am now in love with Steven Pasquale!

Updated On: 12/6/05 at 11:52 PM

[secret-soul]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 11:54pm

AMAZING. Friggin AMAZING. Lily's Eyes with Steven and Will got the biggest applause ever as well as Hold On. Celia & Michael Arden both had INCREDIBLE performances, and "How Could I Ever Know" Made me cry like hell. Steven was a surprise Stellar performance. Laura Benanti will continue to amaze me forever...absolutely beautiful performace. And Max Von Essen as Albert was...SO touching. The staging ended up just perfect. Jackie and Struen were adorable as ever--both VERY strong performances. that's all for tonight. I've been up since 4:30am and teching the concert since 6am...and it was SO worth it :)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 12:24am

Add me to the Steven Pasquale Appreciation Society. While I've admired his work in non-musicals before (I'd seen him in A SOLDIER'S PLAY, BEAUTIFUL CHILD, and SPINNING INTO BUTTER) but had never had the pleasure of witnessing him singing at full strength as he did tonight. What a heck of a voice. He and Will Chase all but stopped the show with "Lily's Eyes." Then again all the performances were first rate. Glad I went.

[greenegirl87]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 12:29am

kudos to sanda for no eye-dina fan girl stalking

[Luckydave14]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 12:29am

The night was incredibly awesome. The show started about 30 minutes late. When the show started, they had a short video monatage of Camp TLC and then they had Joey DiPaolo and his mother come onstage to talk about the organization and how our money was going to be used. Then they had two women who had attended the camp talk about their experiences there (one of them who was very funny).

The show started and the cast came out onstage, with the main ones sitting on the sides of the stage when they weren't performing. The show was splendid. I am not going to go into a review of each song, but a few highlights were Lily's Eyes, Wick, and Hold On. A big surprise to me was how good Steven Pasquale is. I had no idea he had such an amazing voice. Laura Benati was excellent. She has such a pure voice and was great as Lily. I did not really care for Michael Arden. Maybe it was just the part of Dickon that I didn't like. Because of the accent that Michael was tryng to pull off, you could barely understand him when he sang. Celia Keenan-Bolger was AMAZING as Martha. Her Hold On was great and the last note in the song gave me chills. Will Chase was good with what he had. I felt like his role wasn't that big. His Lily's Eyes with Steven was amazing and had the longest and biggest applause of the night. Barbara Rosenblat was very convincing as Mrs. Medlock. Both kids were very good. Jaclyn Neidenthal was very good as Mary Lennox. She hit both the comedic and dramatic aspects of the role dead on. Her singing was very nice. I couldn't tell if she was making an English accent or if it actually was her accent. Struan Erlenborn was great as Colin Craven. He blended great with Laura in Come to My Garden and was very funny in the role. Overall it was a great night.

There were some celebrity sightings: Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs (Who I rode the elevator with!), Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Natalie Joy Johnson (I heard), and that is all I can remember.

Sanda: I guess we rode the elevator together!
Updated On: 12/6/05 at 12:29 AM

[sanda]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 12:36am

wow, nice to meet you.

Oh, about Albert. I love the arragement in the concert when he tried to send a white rose to his daughter and in the end Archie did it. Great idea.

[carnimiriel]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 1:03am

I'm totally in love with Steven Pasquale after this event. In my opinion, he totally out-sang Will Chase on 'Lily's Eyes' and his rendition of "Where in the World' and 'How Could I Ever Know' with Laura Benanti was amazing. The 2 kids were wonderful too and I have to say that I went in expecting to enjoy Celia and Michael a lot more than I did. I don't feel they were bad, just didn't wow me.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 1:12am

Thanks for all the posts! I loved Steven Pasquale in Miss Saigon and Will Chase in Lennon. My brain would've exploded with joy seeing TSG.

[WesternSky2]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 1:40am

AMAZING night. The whole cast was incredible. Some highlights for me: Lily's Eyes, of course. HUGE applause, much much deserved. Steven Pasquale and Will Chase were incredible. Celia's Hold On was definitely memorable. What a voice. And just seeing Michael Arden on stage was breath-taking. I think he's absolutely amazing. And what about Jaclyn Neidenthal?! Great performance. Great night. Amazing score.

[Trisky]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 2:00am

I knew nothing about The Secret Garden going into tonight's concert. Hell I barely knew anything at the end of Act I, even after sitting through the entire thing but I do know that by the end of Act II, I thought the music was a thing of beauty and the performances were the melody that held it all together (which would make the orchestra, the instruments, quite literally).

Okay, my minor quibble is the varying degrees of accents which ranged from quite believable to non-existant, to maybe spent some time in America, maybe didn't and Irish brogue but not really sure. But that's really neither here nor there, as I don't expect anyone to suddenly become a dialect master with a few hours of rehearsal.

I think the choice of show dovetailed remarkably with the foundation that the ticket sales were benefitting. The camp itself is it's own secret garden in a way, a place where things grow and perservere and change people. That was what was most striking about the performance, thinking about how it resonated with the charity it was benefiting.

Casting was spot on all around, from what I could tell, having no previous knowledge of who inhabited the roles. Stephen Pasquale especially impressed me, just because... well I'm not really sure why, having heard him sing before I knew he could, just didn't know he was capable of that much. Laura Benanti's voice was beautiful and the way she floated in an out of scenes was serene and calming. Michael Arden, I still want to stick him in my pocket and have him sing for me at will, he's adorable and cheeky as ever. What a remarkable talent that Jacklyn Neidenthal was. I'll be interested to see where life and her talent take her as she gets older and more established.

Great show, great cause, great time.

[overthemoon419]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 4:30am

"Lily's Eyes" was the only point of the evening where I actually clapped out of appreciation for the performance, and not just to comment the cast for getting through the show. Will and Steven really woke me up with that number (I now know I am NOT a Secret Garden fan).

My complaints (other than the fact that I didn't particularly like the show) were the little girl (who is talented and a trouper, but a bit nasal sounding and annoying to me) and the fact that between the accents and the microphones I couldn't understand most of the dialogue. The only person I could understand throughout the entire show was Will Chase.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 6:19am

I was there last night and it was glorious.

Steven Pasquale and Will Chase have never been better than as Archibald and Neville Craven. "Lily's Eyes" was absolutely breathtaking.

Laura Benanti broke my heart as Lily. I was practically drowning in tears during "Come to My Garden". Celia Keenan-Bolger was pitch-perfect as Martha, and gave a showstopping rendition of "Hold On". Michael Arden was his usual adorable self as Dickon.

All in all, a wonderful evening. I wish it could be recorded, but that is obviously a pipe dream.

[Eastwickian]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 7:03am

Random question - are they using the original Broadway version (with the Quartet and Lily's Eyes in Act One), or the rejigged London script (with Lily's Eyes starting the second act)?

[bythesword84]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 7:04am

Lily's Eyes was in act I and they did the Quartet

[rainbow high]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 8:22am

I'll give my two cents, just because.

I absolutely 100% agree about Steven. For me, he stole the show (followed closely by Michael Arden & Celia Keenan-Bolger, personally). "Lily's Eyes"... oooh my goodness. That's the one song I was looking forward to the most (I only know about three others) & it met my expectations. It was definitely a "Whoa, this guy is hugely versatile & he's done everything I've seen so very well." I'm just awestruck by his talent. "Race You to the Top of the Morning" was simply sweet, & "Where in the World" was iiiintense, followed beautifully by "How Could I Ever Know."

Laura Benanti was good, I just wasn't as captivated as I expected to be, having heard great things about her... I was far away though, so, you know, this is from a faraway standpoint. No real complaints, though. She's gorgeous & she has a grace about her that really worked for the part.

Michael Arden is adorable & has a great voice. His face is so expressive. "Wick" & "Winter's on the Wing" were easily two of the most enjoyable numbers in the performance. Celia Keenan-Bolger was great if only because it was so cool to see her do a complete turn around for Olive Ovstrovsky. She was charming, & "Hold On" blew me away.

I don't think Will Chase's part allowed him to do too much, but what he had was great! I can't wait to see his Roger in Rent, because after seeing him do something slightly more conventional in terms of what musical theatre is seen as, it'll be neat seeing him do a rocker roll, since I've only seen him do this accent-oriented, song/dialogue musical, if that makes sense... I was just amazed at how versatile the cast was, for what I knew that had done previously.

Max Von Essen also stood out a bit as Mary's father, but I really couldn't see his side of the stage very well because of the balcony seating in the ballroom. I had heard his name before but have never seen him perform, but he made an impression on me, which is the overall goal of a performer, I would imagine.

I hadn't seen a "concert" of a musical before, so it was a first experience for me.

[Hester Prynne]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 8:44am

Celia Keenan-Bolger can do no wrong in my book!

[touchmeinthemorning]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 9:43am

Steven Pasquale is a star.

How he hasn't had a musical written for him is beyond me. Such control and passion all with an understated simplicity. He was stunning.

[JailyardGuy]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 9:55am

I have, quite honestly, never been that moved by a performance of a musical in my entire life. I spent at least 65% of the evening in non-stop tears. Steven Pasquale possesses the silkiest, creamiest, most astonishingly beautiful baritone I have ever heard, and I cannot BELIEVE how gorgeous Laura Benanti sounded. (And I am NOT a LB fan, at ALL.) The acting was absolutely superb, and there was a real sense of story there, which I find tends to be lacking in most concert productions. Michael was, as always, charming and adorable, and my GOD, that voice! The kids, of course, were wonderful, and I am STILL reeling from Celia's voice and hysterically funny comic timing.

My only grouse was the orchestra in the first act. I do not know WHAT happened to the woodwind section, but it sounded like a high school wind ensemble. SOMETHING must have happened during intermission (I have a sneaking suspicion the conductor told them to either find their lost senses of pitch and tone quality, or they would be hung up by their reeds...), because they recovered beautifully during the second act, and sounded fantastic.

My favorite moment was watching the concertmistress (that's the first chair first violin player, for the nonmusicians out there) crying hysterically, then wiping away her tears and playing the most beautiful violin solo *ever*. THAT is musicianship!

I'm VERY glad we got to see this.

Updated On: 12/6/05 at 09:55 AM

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 10:05am

Well, not much to add that hasn't already been posted. But I too agree it was simply fantastic. I had the cast recording for a little while and thought it was beautiful, and of course love the '93 movie, so it was so great to see this live. "Lily's Eyes" is my favorite too and it was so eargasmic to hear. Other highlights included "Come to My Garden," "Winter's on the Wing," "Hold on," and "How Could I Know."

I agree Stephen was fantastic--I've seen him in A Soldier's Play but never saw him sing, but what a voice! He was so great in the role and did wonderful w/ all of his songs. Michael Arden was adorable, I thought he did a great job w/ the accent and I totally was able to buy him as the friendly, sweet Dickon. And Celia...I've always liked her in Spelling Bee, but she was just amazing on Hold On, really showing off a voice I didn't realize she had.

And the orchestra was simply AMAZING. The actors, the chorus, along w/ them, gave me chills during the big number. Soo beautiful. I of course bawled at the end. What a wonderful night.