#1
Posted: 8/20/06 at 7:06pm
I saw the first show of the new Spelling Bee tour today at 2:30. And this cast is TALENTED! Special mentions go to Katie Boren (Marcy Park), Lauren Worsham (Olive Ostovsky), and Miguel Cervantes (Chip Tolentino), but the whole cast was great. The only one I wasn't especially thrilled with was Jennifer Simard as Rona Lisa Peretti. She definitely had the potential, but her voice was a little too whiney for me. The whole show went really well, for a first time with an audience. There were some noticable sound glitches, however. Many times the wrong person's mic was turned up too high. And a lot of times the harmony was actually louder than the melody. There were a couple of little changes to the book that I noticed. One was, in Woe is Me, instead of Logainne yelling "Jesus Christ" she yelled "Jeez Louise." Maybe it's because Atlanta is in the Bible belt or something. They also tailored a lot of it to Atlanta. The schools they came from were all Atlanta schools and Olive took the MARTA to the Bee. Overall, it was a great show. In many ways completely comparable to the Broadway show. The show is adorable and the entire audience loved it, laughing in all the right places. On a side note, I was sitting in the back of the orchestra, and I could swear I saw James Lapine sitting back there taking notes. It would make sense since he is the director. It was kind of cool. Oh, and I did sign up to be in the Bee but I did not get chosen, unfortunately. I definitely recommend this production!
"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
I can't wait to see it.
