What do you think of Shoshana? — Page 3

I think Shosh is amazing! Lots better than Idina in my opinion.

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You know guys, supporting your opinions would help. I see a lot of praise for Shoshana Bean, but it’s never really much longer than an “I love her” or “She’s great”. Support your opinions, and you might find more people chirping in.

Indeed, I found a lot of the replacements to be an embarrassment. Not that they don’t have their own talents, but some of the just seemed very lost up there, or more specifically, coasted by on what they thought they had to do to be successful. Jennifer Laura Thompson is talented, with a good voice and some comic timing, but she just doesn’t utilize it in Wicked. I hate when actors “phone-in” performances, as they call it, and Thompson’s performance, at least when I saw it, was a definite example of that. Bean’s performance was full of the amateur gesturing that you often see at a community theatre. You know what I’m talking about, a lot of arm movements, half extended arms, and weird facial features. What I liked about Idina, is that she gave a complete performance-a thru line for her character and allowed the audience to fall in love with her. Bean is unable to do this, and instead plays Elphaba from song to song, resulting in a half-baked performance, again, similar to amateur theatre. She’s not a bad singer, she just doesn’t know how to use her voice to evoke emotion and sympathy from the audience. She would be a great pop singer, or even more specifically, great on American Idol or in the background of some pop/R & B group. It didn’t help her that David Ayers is one of the most incompetent singers/actors around. Seriously, I covered my ears when he sang “As Long as You’re Mine”. I’m not even kidding. Ugh.

I've seen Shoshana four times as Elphaba and was one of the people going into the show having had very high expectations as the vibe around her on this board and from friends couldn't be ignored.

She disappointed me. Her voice is good but nothing special in my opinion. For example, out of the four times I have seen her she had to interrupt notes such as 'again' at the end of No Good Deed and pick it up again because she simply didn't have the 'strength' to hold it for that time. I also think she sounds nasal occasionally.

Someone mentioned on this thread that her portrayal of Elphaba is very different to Idina's, comparing Idina to being bitter and Shoshana to trying to be younger. This is very true and this is one of the reasons I had problems with Shoshana.
Her Elphaba never really gets upset, p*ssed, angry or anything, she never really shows any emotions and her voice doesn't do her any favours when it comes to bringing across these emotions either.

Her voice is a lof 'softer' than Idina's, so when she sings notes such as 'bring me down', they don't have this anger and emotion attached to it. Yes, she sounds good but I was hoping for a bit more force behind these notes.

Lots of people criticize Idina for over-acting on stage and therefore prefer Shoshana.
Yes, Idina was more emotional on stage but has anyone seen what Shoshana is doing with her arms during No Good Deed? They are all over the place... last time I saw the show I had 5th row orchestra and was worried that she'd poke my eyes out with them. She almost knocks herself out.

I'm surprised to see that JLT is not liked that much on this thread. I always found her performance to be spot on. Her comic timing is great, she's funny (although sometimes over the top) and her singing voice is lovely too. I prefer her to Kristin because I felt Kristin was playing too much 'to' the audience. JLT is obviously out there trying to make the audience laugh too but is less obvious in that attempt than Kristin.
The winking at the audience (one of Kristin's trademarks) really got on my nerves after a while.

Having said all that, I actually haven't seen the new cast and not seen Shoshana since January. A friend of mine who was as unimpressed with Shoshana as me saw the show again this week and mentioned how much Shoshana improved.
I definitely need to return soon as I'm curious to see how David Ayers and Jeffery Kuhn are doing.

QM

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Updated On: 3/4/05 at 01:35 PM

I do love Shoshana's voice, though.

Her vibrato makes her sound like a musical theatre Stevie Nicks

Sorry that was a typo, i just read it over and realized what I said---I wanted to say AS MUCH vocal power...sorry.

HA! I'm sorry, I thought I caught all the mistakes the 2nd time though. Notice I said I would like Shoshana's voice in my ideal Elphaba? :)

Ive seen it twice, once with Idinia and once wth Shoshana, and while I do think that Idina was stronger in the role, I don't think that Shoshana was that bad. Her "I'm Not That Girl" was pretty awful, I must say, but her "No Good Deed" was far superior to Idinia on the CD or in the performance that I saw her do.

I prefer JLT to Kristin. I think she's a much stronger actress, and puts much more character into her songs. She milks the role for everything she can, and not in a bad way.

Ayers sucks, though. Off-key, no character, spoke-sung half of the stuff. He ruined every scene that he was in. His part of "as long as your mine" was worse than half of the singing i've heard in local high school productions of shows.

and the new boq sucked too. he added in things that weren't funny, really messed up some line deliveries, and was flat on half of his notes.

but i think george hearn, like JLT, is much better than his predecessor. joel had the tap going for him, but he didnt really have a character and his singing never had anything behind it. hearn makes the wizard seem almost like a complex figure at times, and it lends an greater air of believabilty to the whole show.

Bobby - Seriously...your reviews...it's like you are reading my mind. I winced so many times during Ayers' As Long As You're Mine...it was painful.

As far as JLT, someone said she "milked the role for all she could" or something like that. I think that that was the thing I liked least about her. I felt like she stretched things out longer than they were funny. While I felt Kristin's acting, especially in numbers like "No One Mourns the Wicked" and "Thank Goodness" was subtle but clear enough that one could see Glinda's transformation, JLT made me really dislike Glinda. By the end, I couldn't figure out why Elphaba still wanted to be friends with such an annoying person (and utterly static character). Her singing was always on tune, but was never "pretty" or pleasant to listen to.

As far as Shoshanna, while I feel that she can be shrill occasionally, overall she was my favorite new cast member.

Okay, so I just watched the Broadway.com video of Wicked behind the scenes, and I have to say, it doesn't paint any of the 3 principals in a good light.

I seriously think the casting people responsible for the new replacements don't care that they are mediocre. Notice how critics were not invited back to see the replacement cast, probably because they didn't need another set of bad reviews, or probably, even worse reviews than the initial production recieved. While most of the original cast got good notices, and the focus was on the overal structure of the piece, I think if this new cast was reviewed, they would not fair as well.

Really, the original cast brought a bounce to a flawed show. The music is serviceable but unverwhelming, and pails in comparison the the tight book.

Anyways, my point is, Bean is just awful in that video, which I assume was from an actual performance of the show. And Ayers, again, wow he is horrible. Bean just doesn't fill the shoes of Elphaba or Idina in any kind of competent way.

I think she's wretched.

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I don't feel like watching that bway video again (wasn't Carole hilarious?) but did she smile or something during some serious part in DG....?