Posted: 2/9/20 at 10:34pm
Well I just did a whirlwind 24 hours in New York City to see some comfort theater. I'd like to share my thoughts on my two favorite shows currently on Broadway.
I saw Phantom on Saturday, February 8 at 2pm. It was probably my 3rd time seeing Ben Crawford as Phantom and man has he dug into this role. It was mesmerizing seeing him sing the title song, especially at the end when he was enthralled with Christine singing for him. He made the Phantom sexy, sympathetic, insane, and utterly cool. MEGHAN PICERNO though. Wow. Just wow. I am rarely impressed by a Christine, and this is my 74th time seeing the show at the Majestic. There are good ones, and sometimes even great ones. But Meghan? She has completely reinvented this role. When I think of Christine, I always think of some interview I saw years ago when an actress was asked if she would want to play Christine on Broadway and she said that that would be like being a in a trance for 2 hours. But, that is how many actresses play it: scene after scene, they just have a look of either shock or stress on their face and that's it. But not Meghan Picerno. Her Christine is mischievous and just as interested in being naughty as the Phantom is. I was floored at the way she flirted back with him and how she was basically enjoying having two men fight for her. Maybe it was just the undeniable chemistry she has with Ben. All I know is I can't wait to see her again and I sincerely hope she stays with the show for a long time. The only awkward part of the show was during the Il Muto scene when John Riddle's Raoul yelled out an extra "Christine!" and it clearly threw everyone off their marks. Incidentally, I saw the show with a former student who's now a senior at NYU and you never know if these 1980's era special effects will still impress young people but he was so thrilled by all of them, and with the story too so that was nice to see.
CHICAGO was the next show I saw, on Saturday, February 8 at 8pm. Please. PLEASE. Do yourself a huge favor and do not see this show til Erika Jayne is done. And let's be clear. I love Chicago. Last night was my 30th time seeing the Broadway production of Chicago and I adore it for so many reasons. But the Roxie I saw last night was unforgivable. I knew something might be up before the show even started and everybody around me was TALKING THIS LOUD ABOUT HOW MUCH THEY LOVE ERIKA JAYNE AND IT WAS LIKE TOTALLY THE ONLY REASON THEY WERE LIKE EVEN LIKE THERE OK LIKE FOR REAL. And the show started, and that doesn't mean the conversations have to end! Or the phones have to be put away! Not when a Real Housewife is on stage! Then I realized i'm hearing at least 4 to 5 people singing along to All That Jazz. The people behind me know about 50% of the lyrics, so they would sing the last words of each line pretty much, but people down the row from me, 2 rows ahead of me, and all over behind me, sang along. For a while I legitimately thought that perhaps it was a special sing along performance because there really were that many people singing along.
Then came Roxie's first number, Funny Honey. And Erika Jayne spoke her way through it. However, no one taught her how to project her voice, and she has kind of a baby voice like Paris Hilton or the Kardashians so it was hard to hear her even talk her way through the song. Yikes. And then the lines started and it just got worse. She read her lines as if she had the script in front of her and they were just doing a line reading. It was so painful especially being such a huge fan of Chicago and knowing what Bianca or Charlotte normally do with this material. And then Roxie's monologue came. And I thought ok, this woman clearly has a fan base; I bet she is going to have so much spunk and personality in this song. Nope. Fastest, 110% script-based Roxie monologue I've ever seen. No joking with the conductor, etc. She got my favorite line wrong "I am older than I ever intended to be" She said "I am older than I ever imagined" and then quickly kept going so the line was totally lost. You know how Roxie starts doing some moves during the Fooling Around/Screwing Around lines? Well, Erika just stood there and keep barreling her way through the song. It was obvious that there was not enough rehearsal time for her to make the song her own and that the creatives struggled to even get her to know the basic blocking, so adding the unique sparkle that each individual actress adds to Roxie monologue would be impossible. Listening to My Own Best Friend sung by Velma singing in full voice and Roxie talking her way through was unacceptable. I was bracing myself for my favorite song in the show, Me and My Baby, hoping against hope that somehow she wouldn't screw it up because it is an easy song to sing and the production has done a good job of slightly altering the choreography for less skilled actresses. Ugh. I would say that about 60 to 70% of the choreography was changed. Kudos to the Me and My Baby Specialty dancers Denny Paschall and Michael Scirrotto because they did such a great job of distracting us from Roxie and they learned a whole new version of that song. It was kind of sad/funny at the end of the song when they seemed to be blocking her as they did huge kicks across the stage and she..........did not.
Overall, the show is in great shape. Although it was my 30th time seeing it, I have not seen it since June 2018 so there were lots of new faces in the chorus. Even Amra Faye seemed rejuvenated and man she looked spectacular compared to Erika Jayne. Something definitely has happened to the show---either Walter Bobbie re-thought a few things or with all the new cast members they jazzed it up because I noticed lots of new nuances and small changes. Just an example, during the Entre Act, the two Me and My Baby Specialty guys stand up and do a quick thing instead of sitting at their seats doing the hand gestures from that song. There were so many new approaches to the blocking and choreography that I deeply appreciated and enjoyed.
The phone use during the show was definitely the worst I've even seen. The ushers and their flashlights were a CONSTANT presence in the aisles and people just would not cooperate. As soon as an usher left, their phone would come right back out. They recorded scenes, songs and took LOTS of pictures. People felt perfectly entitled to argue and talk back to the ushers and debate the rules about phones. It didn't matter what was going on onstage. Having an usher literally screaming at someone down the aisle from you really does inhibit your enjoyment of the show lol.
I hope I don't have to wait another year and a half to see it again, but I will NEVER see it with Erika Jayne, and the next time someone is stunt cast in the show, I am going to really think twice about seeing it.
Updated On: 2/9/20 at 10:34 PM
