Wicked Elphie, I'm going to say exactly what I said the first time you said you didn't want to see Susan in the role:
Here's what don't understand. The show is wonderful. Quite cheesy at times....melodramatic....but it's a very good, energetic, lively and exciting show. Something you wanna go back to again and again if only to get the thrill. So why, WHY would one say you don't think you want to see it with another actress. It SHOULD be that the show makes the show. NOT the actress makes the show. Each actress may have her own take on the role...may bring a different energy. But with a show like this, with a large ensemble....that one actress won't change it so drastically that it'll be a different show. For instance: The Phantom of the Opera. MANY actors have played the Phantom. I, fortunately, saw Jeff Keller in the role, almost seven years ago. It was a brilliant performance. NOW Hugh Panaro (whom my mother saw perform the part of Raoul) is playing the Phantom. I've read that his take on the character is much darker. It brings a different element to the show....and that's what I seek when I go to the theatre. I HOPE that each experience will be different. I HOPE that theatre is not stock or stiff. If I were to go back to Millie and have the same exact experience I had the first time, that would make my appreciation for the show change. We go to the theatre hoping to learn something...it's not all just for spectacle...and those who attend theatre to see spectacle...are going for the wrong reasons. An actor opens up his or her soul before the audience when they perform. If you refuse them that opportunity to share themselves with you, then why are you there?
I am very excited that Susan Egan has joined the ensemble of Millie....I can't wait to see it. She's extremely talented and beautiful...and a very nice person on the side. Sutton Foster will be missed, I am sure. But actors, just like politicians, have to move on sometimes (unless, of course, you're Jeff Keller--he's been in the same role in Phantom since it opened--he was also the first American to play the Phantom)...
Plince! Plince! Nein! T-Rex!!
because her real hair was longer in Cabaret.
