I was at the 1,000th performance today (matinee) and it was wonderful! Nothing special done like speeches or announcements or anything, except for on the playbill they put a star sticker thing that says the date and "1,000th performance" (similar to an opening night playbill). I was also curious if photographers would be around for curtain call, but it was hard to see. Hopefully a few pictures pop up somewhere. But at least it was an amazing performance, as usual.
Here's the playbills they gave out for the 1,000th performance: [IMG]
Also, since when have they been using that artwork? Or was that just for this performance. Because the last time I saw it back in February, it was all Corbin: [IMG]
Hey Everyone, I was just wondering if anyone went to Chris Jackson's last show tonight?
I was there for the matinee today and it was a great show! Chris was his usual energetic self and sung his tracks with so much effort and soul. I got chills everytime he opened his mouth! :)
Also if anyone else was at the matinee today could you please tell me what all the yelling was about in the Mezz and then the clapping? I couldn't understand nor see what was going on.
Also if anyone else was at the matinee today could you please tell me what all the yelling was about in the Mezz and then the clapping? I couldn't understand nor see what was going on.
Was this right before the show started? If so there's an usher in the mezz who gives a *brilliant* turn off your cell phones blah blah blah pre-show speech, so I'd imagine it was that.
Yeah, she's hilarious! Perhaps someone else here knows the exact wording of it, but it includes things like (paraphrasing here) "...and if you wanna BBM your BFF, you're gonna have to deal with a BWWAA, that's a Black woman with an attitude." It's been a while since I've heard it, but if that was it she *always* gets a round of applause from the people in the mezz.
I saw the Nat. Tour for my third time and it was INCREDIBLE! Better than ever:) I have to say Lexi has even improved since last time. I thought Joseph was better than Lin even though Lin was incredible! The cast was having so much fun and it showed! They even said it at the stage door, and I had like 10 minute conversations with each actor and actress. The two stage door highlights were taking a pic with Gwen Stuart and Telly Leung (there to see Lexi) and than later Telly taking a pic of me and Lexi!
It is a tribute to Chris Jackson. According to Lin they whole cast wathced it on stage right before the 8pm show on Chris' last day. Its snippets and deleted scenes from the PBS special they did! I posted the link below...ENJOY! In The Heights....I Believe In Chris Jackson
I'm not Anakela, obviously, but I was at Janet and Corbin's last show last night (as well as Chris' Sunday night). They both got entrance applause and much cheering/extra applause throughout. There were no speeches at the end, but they got extra bows, and then the band switched up the music to Conga (Miami Sound Machine), and Janet and Corbin did this great dance together. I don't know to what extent it was planned or improved. And then they danced off the stage. It was like an ITH alumni night. Lin was there. So was Karen, Andrea, Nina (lafarga), Javier, Seth, and I'm pretty sure I spotted Thomas Kail. Most of them slipped in right before the lights went down, about 10 rows back in the orchestra. I was in the 2nd row, and I'd never thought that I would be closer to that stage than any of *them*. It was a bit surreal. I asked Andrea about it at the stage door, and she said it was a little strange to watch someone else be you (or rather, your character) on stage. Being so close to the stage, and dead center at that, I could catch some of the extra words being mouthed and the facial expressions and gestures that might go unnoticed from further back (or if you haven't seen the show a ridiculous number of times :). For example, through the scene right after Everything I Know, Priscilla was crying. You wouldn't have known it from her line delivery, but she had tears streaming down her face the whole time. Rick was a little teary, and by the look on Janet's face as well as her voice, she was barely holding it together at that point. Pauses and hugs that lasted longer, seemed a little tighter, and words being mouthed privately between them (well, private in that they weren't picked up by the mics). I also noticed some of that in the dinner scene. Corbin seemed like he was getting a little choked up at the finale- all those lines about home and staying- rather ironic last night. You could see some of that same kind of "extra" between him and Olga and him and Sean. Chris' last show was also fantastic. I wish he had stayed until Tuesday, so he and Janet could have left at the same time. I think it would have been more...moving/special/whatever if their last performances had been with each other. NuBenny did a great job, but it was so odd seeing a new Benny, having only ever seen Chris in the role (for the aforementioned ridiculous # of times). I will miss them all in the show very much, but I'm so glad I could be there on Sunday night and last night. To quote one of Sonny's lines, "It's the end of an era." And this is the end of a post that ended up much longer than I'd intended. Sorry.
^ LondonNow pretty much covered it. :) A lot of extended hugs and added touches/rubbing of backs/grabbing of hands/etc. during the show, but no ad-libs or anything.
I wasn't going to do one of these, because sometimes I feel like I notice the things no one else cares about, but...
- Before the show started I commented how awesome it would be if Janet was allowed to do her last show without the wig, and if they played something from Wonderland for her last bow
- huge entrance applause for Corbin
- nice entrance applause for Janet. Who not only wasn't wearing the wig, but she was totally rocking the curls.
- her voice during Breathe had a tiny little trying not to cry tremble to it, but that actually completely works for that number. Gorgeous.
- new!Benny (sorry Clifton Oliver, last time I'll refer to you as new!Benny :)) is adorable. I really enjoy him. Nice "hello" riffing during Benny's Dispatch.
- So, the cell phone sequence during Blackout is one of my personal favorites. I'm still not sure if something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye, or if I just 'knew,' but I turned (I too was sitting second row orch) and looked at that Heights alumni section during that segment, and certain people were holding their cell phones up. One of my favorite memories of that night.
- the most annoying school group ever, which decided to follow up their clapping along to Carnaval with clapping along to When the Sun Goes Down (seriously?!) was in attendance.
- the orch played what I am told was The Boys Are Back (I've still never seen the HSM films) during Corbin's bow, and then after the orch bow they played Gloria Estefan and Corbin and Janet shared a last bow/dance. With Janet completely living it, and doing what I like to refer to as all of her best Carla choreography. :) No flowers, no speeches. Which didn't happen during Janet's last version 1.0 either, when she left as Carla, but I thought for sure there'd be Corbin flowers or something.
- woman near me asked if Janet was Corbin's girlfriend, and so that's why she got to dance with him at the end.
- another favorite memory of the night: watching Andrea Burns take pictures of Janet at the stage door, as Janet signed for the last time
I don't know anything about Jordin Sparks, but I am so excited for Kyle Beltran's Usnavi to be on Broadway! I caught the tour in Boston months ago, and he is pretty amazing.
