Two Gentleman of Verona-Best Musical? — Page 2

Mister Matt - I remember hearing from the cast a few times back when they were doing it that people were interested in a trasnfer, but it ultimately fizzled out by the end of the run.

Couldn't say it was very shocking news.

MB is right - it's an ideal show for something like Reprise or Encores.

Updated On: 4/16/07 at 12:56 PM

Funny you say that -

I remember being trapped outside the theater (they had very few late seating breaks) with a friend (after deciding to go looking for her after she hadn't returned from the bathroom), and hearing some kind of squawking coming from the stage....turns out, it was Dawson admirably trying to get through "I Am Not Interested in Love."

Goldsberry was fine - I'd just see someone with a bit of a more soulful voice in the role. If Beyonce Knowles ever wanted to do Broadway - that would be a good part for her...

Now see I thought NIGHT LETTER in the park was a reative dud - but maybe if I hadn't heard that live recording (where again the audience goes into hysterics) I would have been more open minded! We are always spoiled by what we've previously heard...

I didn't know that Phil. There certainly isn't any indication on the OBC that the show was recorded using session singers.

The biggest reason, IMO, the cast recording isn't a good representation of the stage experience is that the tempos were played incredibly slow for the disc. "Night Letter" is almost twice as fast on the live recording.

I was about to say that....the tempos for most of the songs are at a snail's pace.

Perhaps it was the night you saw the show as well, MB. The night I went, the audience went nuts for Night Letter and Love Me. I never forgot Goldsberry's "Think baby...think think baby..." which had the audience howling. Also the dove in Love Me. Priceless...

I was just going to say that--Goldsberry's numbers were easily the audience favorite the night I saw the Marshall production in the Park. Though I'm sure it didn't match the vibrancy and immediacy of the original, I really fell in love with the 2005 production and I wish there were an official recording of the cast, if that Broadway transfer was never meant to be. I had even seen a really excellent production of the original Shakespeare at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival a few weeks earlier (in which Verona was a spunky all-American high school and Milan was a sleek, vaguely "guido" city), and as much as I loved that HSVF show and its always-top-notch performers, I ended up loving the musical more. Marshall was a perfect fit for MacDermot and Guare. It would still be a hit if mounted again this summer--maybe even more so, since "bringing all the boys back home" is a more seriously discussed topic this year.

Thanks for some good points about this fun musical free from the show-queen snobbery that usually accompanies it...

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The thrill, for me, of the production a few years ago was sitting 5 rows behind Kathleen Marshall and Oscar Eustis and across the aisle from John Guare.

It was obviously previews, and it was a kick to see the 3 of them "conferencing" during the intermission.

it's hard for me to make a judgement since I didn't see either of the Original productions, but I have seen other productions of both and own both OBCRs and I have to say Follies is much better