Spring Awakening and Speed-the-Plow: December 27, 2008
Spring Awakening and Speed-the-Plow: December 27, 2008
#1Spring Awakening and Speed-the-Plow: December 27, 2008
Posted: 12/28/08 at 12:48pm
I took a trip up to Broadway with some fresh fund money from Christmas and this time I saw Spring Awakening and Speed-the-Plow. So a short run-down:
Spring Awakening seems to me to still be in excellent shape. The orchestrations continue to impress me, along with the sound coming from the cast. I saw the understudies for Christina Estabrook and Thea on the matinee, but everybody else was in.
Hunter Parrish: I was actually underwhelmed by him. He proved to be a competent actor for Melchior, very shrewd and intelligent with a nice balance of humanity and apathy. But his singing...maybe he has a cold, but as soon as he got to his upper register for Mirror Blue Night, Left Behind, and Totally F*CKed, his voice sounded both thin and strained, and very uncomfortable. But maybe that's just me. He was not anywhere near awful, though, and he did a very nice job of making Melchior his own instead of copying JGroff.
Alexandra Socha: When she first came onstage I said "Jesus she is young!" and at first that put me off, along with the fact that her voice seemed very quiet. But I soon grew to love her, and I thought she did a brilliant job. Her Wendla seemed so much more innocent than Lea, and it worked. Her chemistry with Hunter was great, and I didn't mind seeing the extra flesh either. But props to miss Socha.
Gerard Canonico: I came in expecting to be underwhelmed, and Jesus Christ was I wrong. Gerard was brilliant. He was NOT a carbon copy of Johnny Gallagher, and indeed brought a certain shyness to Moritz that I enjoyed. He was timid and shy when acting with others, but as soon as he started singing, he was ELECTRIFIED. He put 150% into the role and it showed. He showed such a depth of emotion...he was crying before ATTWN and he began crying again while Emma sang Blue Wind, which I thought was brilliant because it just further accentuates that Moritz is merely lying to himself when he sings DDS. A brilliant show and great voice.
Emma Hunton: Her Ilse was something like I had never seen before. She was so much more in love with Moritz than any Ilse I had seen before, and the character she brought with her beautiful voice during The Dark I Know Well and Blue Wind was unbelievable. Far better in my opinion than anything I saw from Lauren.
Both adults were versatile and I commend both of them, especially Glenn Fleschler for so seamlessly splitting characters through body language and simple facial structure differences.
SPEED-THE-PLOW was quite an experience. Norbert was still on book for the last scene, but jesus was he phenomenal. His Bobby was incredible, and every emotion brought out was strong and solid. He went perfectly from good buddies with Raul to confused sexuality with Ms. Moss to anger to confusion again to acceptance that he has been set up. He seemed determined to make the show work, and for only nine days of prior preparation for that night he was sensational.
Raul of course was every bit as good if not better than Mr. Butz. He fired off his lines so casually and so surely that I was sure Norbert wouldn't be able to keep up. And we he got mad he got MAD and OH MY GOD...from his "Bobs" to his "I TOLD YOU SO" he was just soo incredible.
Elisabeth Moss...I wasn't so sure about her at first. But as the night went on and she became more developed, I began enjoying the stiff, not-quite-all-there approach to her character. A fine performance.
Both shows are in amazing shape, if not better shape than opening night, and last night's trip made me quite confident that Broadway can pull through anything. I will be very sad to see SA go, though.
"But alone is alone...not alive..."
#2re: Spring Awakening and Speed-the-Plow: December 27, 2008
Posted: 12/28/08 at 12:54pm
Alexandra Socha: When she first came onstage I said "Jesus she is young!" and at first that put me off...
I hear this a lot from people who have seen her. You do realize Wendla's supposed to be 14, right? That's why everything that happens to everyone is tragic/disturbing.
Glad you enjoyed yourself! I'm incredibly jealous you got to see NLB in SPEED-THE-PLOW.
Updated On: 12/28/08 at 12:54 PM
#2re: Spring Awakening and Speed-the-Plow: December 27, 2008
Posted: 12/28/08 at 1:09pm
Oh no I'm fully aware they're all supposed to be fourteen. But Lea Michele did NOT look that young and it looks like everyone else was cast more on the sixteen seventeenish look...and she is the only one that actually looks her age.
"But alone is alone...not alive..."
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