Apparently everyone was at Paper Mill yesterday! I also trekked there for the Saturday matinee, only to find that Deborah was out. I wasn't amused at all, but spoke to the box office and they were nice and said to watch the first act and that if I wasn't satisfied for any reason that they'd exchange the tickets. My friend and I watched the first act of the matinee and while Jasmine did sound great in certain songs, I feel she doesn't have the range for some of the songs, especially the lower notes. She also didn't have enough charisma to make her believable as a huge star. Complicating things a bit more, Emily Jenda as the sister sounded REALLY good and I think had more presence...so it felt like the sister should've been the star instead of Rachel. I'd love to see her as Rachel. Anyway, I switched the tickets for the evening performance at intermission.
Deborah was in for the evening show and she definitely had more charisma and star power, and sounded great in certain songs, but then sounded a bit rough in others. I guess no one is Whitney...though I would have loved to have seen Heather Headley in this.
The show itself is just as ridiculous and cheesy as you'd expect. Good god, those projections. Why do we have projections of the stalker doing things while the actor is doing the same thing on stage? There was laughter at stalker-related moments that were supposed to be scary (I guess?), so I'm glad I'm not the only one. A few other thoughts (spoilers, I guess, but do you really not know and/or care about the plot?):
-So when the sister checks on the son and finds the pillows, the dress and the knife, I assumed he was kidnapped...but then in the next scene Rachel says he's find and sleeping in a throw-away line. Wtf happened to him?! Ridiculous and unclear.
-I'm kind of obsessed with Frank's fellow investigator friend who comes onstage (WITH FILING CABINETS) to talk about the stalker's possible motivations and all kinds of things that make no sense. He was very passionate about "THE IP DOESN'T MATCH THE EMAIL ADDRESS!!!!!," yet we don't even know about any emails! He was doing classic stalker magazine clipping letters. Maybe that's why they don't match the IP address!
-I love how at the end she sings The Song We've All Been Waiting For and then it's just over. *high notes* ---> curtain call
I could go on and on, but this will never come to Broadway. See it if it's cheap and you're drunk (like the very excited gays in left orchestra last night that made the show much more enjoyable than the silent matinee!).
