I saw Taylor Sternberg go on for Brandon Mattheius awhile ago, and there was just something innately amusing in seeing someone so physically dissimilar in the role. It made it hard for me to evaluate his performance.
'"Contrairiwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."'
~Lewis Carroll
Jackie said Erich has bronchitis... That's horrible. I had come down with a case of that myself during the fall and it sucked. Plus it was during my finals.
Last night was my 8th Well I'm right behind you. I've seen it 6 times, and this weekend will make it 7. And I'm sure that number is going to skyrocket during the summer. If anyone else is a JB regular, how many times have you seen the show?
...something innately amusing in seeing someone so physically dissimilar in the role. I have to agree. When he was on I just couldn't get into him playing the track because I was so used to seeing Brandon doing it.
I'm at 6... I think. And this weekend will make it 7.
'"Contrairiwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."'
~Lewis Carroll
I was wondering why they sent Jennifer Evans since she has to be on standby... but I realized that Rick was performing on Tues and Wed so they couldn't send him. :) Easter bonnet presentations
I just came back from the matinee today and it was packed as usual and the audience was very responsive!
I rushed too early at 9 am so I went shopping first and went back at about 10:30 and I still got a ticket :P
My review to come soon!
It was a rare treat to see Miles Aubrey and Rick Faugno in the main roles!
It was my first time to go to the stage door and I got my playbill signed by Deven May, Michael Ingersoll , Melissa Strom, Joe Siravo, Nathan Klau and Heather Ferguson -the swing from the Broadway cast! I previously got Jennifer Evans and Rick Faugno's from Borders.
Melissa Stom was very sweet as usual but I kinda got nervous and probably made some weird face while talking to her.
'"Contrairiwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."'
~Lewis Carroll
Erich is still out and Bob's role was played by by Miles Aubrey who did an amazing job but being an understudy...not to slam Miles but you cannot stop the comparison to Erich and Miles seems to be holding back at the matinee today and seems to be on auto-pilot but he owed to the role specially the part that is shying away from the limelight unlike Erich who seems to be all about the spotlight!
Rick Faugno played the Frankie Valli part and he brought some uniqueness to the role and more energy to the dancing part since he have this certain "bounce" in him that just goes with the beat!
I also adored Faugno's powerful falsetto but since I have seen him as a Pesci in my first show screening...it kinda stuck in my head.
2 things that kinda didn't work well today was the first singing part of Frankie when Rick's mic didn't work for the first 3 seconds but got fixed right away and the "Can't Take My Eyes" part where Rick forgot the lyrics to a few words in the 2nd stanza!
Heather Ferguson as Lorraine and others was kinda bland but she still delivered.
With regards to the other cast.....
I miss Chris Jones's acting because he always play it with his heart out and you could really feel that he owns to the character that could really put a tear in your eye specially the part when Francine dies and also that part when Frankie buys Tommy out of the group!
This time around...I could distinguish Michael's voice from the harmony since this is my 3rd show already and
Deven May gets sexier and even better for his role as days go by!
Now this is going to be insanely long just to warn everyone.
So I rushed today since this would be the last time I would be seeing the Sherry company. Can't go on 5/3 because of midterms on 5/4 but would definitely be there if I could.
A couple people were out today. Eric Gutman, but we all know why, so Taylor took his track. Sandra is still out, and Heather Ferguson took her track. Although Sandra might be back next week because Heather mentioned after the show that she was heading back to NY after this weekend. And unfortunately Erich Bergen was still out. I was a little disappointed because this was the last time I'm seeing this cast in SF (might go to LA for a bit this summer and will catch them there if I do) but his health is a priority. So get better Erich so the JB fans, expecially the regulars, here can see you this final week. So Miles was on as Bob, which is cool because I was hoping to see his take on the role. Erik Bates played Miles' normal track.
Out of the other times I've seen the show, today's ranks up near the top. The cast was amazing as usual and the audience loved the show. There were moments where the guys couldn’t go straight into their lines after certain songs as they normally do because the audience would not stop clapping. This happened after “Sherry” and “Working My Way Back to You”. And luckly there were no problems with the lift today because I was worried after Nate told a group of us that they had to pause the show on Friday because it got stuck. Now here are a few things that suck out
Chris' performance of the songs after Frankie goes solo was full of energy and emotion. He really got the crowd into the music today. A few audience members forgot we were in a theater and not at a Four Seasons concert. I heard a woman sitting a few rows behind me singing some of the lyrics of "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You". I was about to do the same but remember I'm at the theater. And after he sang "Working My Way Back to You" he couldn't go directly into the lines after the song like he normally does. He got three words out and had to pause for a while because of the applause he got.
Deven's performance at the table scene today was intense. He played Tommy with a lot of anger and passion in that scene. When Bob suggest the group buy Tommy out I thought Deven was going to hit Miles. Although that moment was slightly spoiled by a guy in the back of the audience yelling out "Yeah!" right after Tommy says "...I buy you out." and sticks his finger in Bob's face.
The same applied to Michael during that scene when he did Nick’s rant. The audience was laughing for a while after he finished it.
Now on to Miles’ take on Bob. I was impressed on his take as Bob and it didn’t feel like he was trying to be a carbon copy of Erich’s Bob. When he’s first on stage, Miles’ Bob came off to me as a very innocent, young guy and a little bit of a dork and he really played that up. Then after “Oh What A Night” it was obvious that Bob is no longer that young dorky kid he was earlier in the show but was a man now who knew what to do to get the Four Season to the top of the charts. And Miles has a great voice, I loved his rendition of “Cry for Me” and was happy that it got some spotlight.
Now that this is the second time seeing Courter doing Joey I have to say that today he was magnitudes better then when I saw him 2 weeks ago. When I first saw him playing Joey, he didn’t come off as that funny and it felt like he was holding back. Today he was not holding back at all. His Joey was very over the top and crazy and I loved it. He got me laughing the way Rick’s Joey did. I’m happy he found his grove.
I’m so sad this cast is going to be leaving SF next Thursday. They are an insanely talented group of actors and just great people in general. They are really going to be missed by all their fans here. And honestly if you haven’t seen this cast, you’re missing out so get you butt down to the Curran before 5/4.
Oh also heard a few interesting things today. One of the backstage guys was talking to someone and I clearly heard him say that they will be doing a few tech runs in Sacramento to work out the road set. Unfortunately I couldn’t catch him mention a possible time when they would be doing this although I’m assuming it will be later in the summer. Also asked Michael about him coming back to SF and he said he will be back in SF on 7/15.
Aw! A friend saw the show on Friday night (they had to wait half an hour for that lift problem) and said Erich was in. Hope he took the time off to concentrate on getting better. :)
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
A few of us actually saw Erich leave the theater about 30 minutes before the show started. We thought he was going to come back but obviously he didn't. Hopefully he's better now.
Oh and I have to say it was great meeting a bunch of other regulars in the rush line today, which suprisingly didn't have alot of action until 11:30. Every other time I end up being the youngest person in line, or I get stuck standing next to a werid person who won't shut up.
Oh and I have to say it was great meeting a bunch of other regulars in the rush line today
It was great meeting you, too! I had a lot of fun seeing the show with the Sherry cast one last time. Oh, how I will miss this cast. They were awesome today. They've really grown into their roles. I missed seeing Erich, too. When I looked in and saw nobody else listed to play his part on the "At the Performance" board, I was sure we'd get to see him. I hope he gets better!
The audience just wouldn't allow them to say their lines after a song finished! That happens a lot though. I like how the show is supposed to just flow from one song to speaking to another song, but the audience always wants to clap. Oh, and that lady who started singing "Can't Take My Eyes Off You"? I was like, lady, I did not pay to hear you sing. I know people sometimes sing under their breath at shows, but this lady just screamed "I love you, baby!" like she was competing with Chris or something.
I'm really goanna miss this cast. But, as Deven told me after the show, it only costs $50 to fly to LA...