Saw today in Toronto. Overall it’s in great shape. Kennedy’s interpretation is very different from Lenk. Kennedy has a much more flesh and blood feel to the character. She feels more scrappy and human. Lenk had a stoic sadness and eroticism that bewitched me. Her Dina felt like a siren, so you wondered if Tewfiq would succumb, like the married guy. There was some tension.
Kennedy was not as erotic to me, but I still liked her. I watched the show and set Lenk’s performance aside. Kennedy looks very young next to Tewfiq and I don’t know how that worked. Some chemistry wasn’t there for me, but not a deal breaker. Kinda felt like she was sick of her situation and hitting on a old dude.
Adam Gabay as Papi was a wash for me. He reads really old so no baby faced naïveté came through for me. He also plays Papi as a stoner with squinted eyes and his mouth hanging open, catching flies. I wasn’t rooting for him. Also his diction was lousy. He swallowed most of the lyrics to Papi Hears The Ocean and that’s a great story song.
The rest of the cast is stellar. It all still works-sets, gorgeous lighting and everyone aside from Adam has glorious voices.
I think this has a hard time playing in large venues. I’ll only see this show from the first few rows. A lot of people left and there was a lot of grumbling afterward that people thought it was boring and nothing happened. A lot of the reviews on the Mirvish site are very critical.
I don’t think I’d have gotten into this show as much sitting in the rafters of a 3000 seat theatre.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
