#1
Posted: 7/26/04 at 10:27am
Pre-Show
Had a great seat (ORCH A 14); friend calls and says she’s coming into town. No problem. We’ll just get on the cancellation line. Get to the cancellation line at 4:15ish (after scoring fourth row at LSOH for 26 bucks!) We’re 17th in line. Eep. I get the inclination to call Ticketmaster a little after five, and we end up with ORCH A 104. Good deal. That is, until I win lotto :) (Lotto was about 400 people. CC 1 and 3. I made a little embarrassment of myself: while the other winners said “here” or calmly walked up and raised there hand, yours truly lets out a “OH SH*T” in front of the crowd. Good times. I kept saying to my friend, “This never happens. I never win Saturday night lotto, and they NEVER release seats for Saturday night.” Now she thinks WICKED tickets are easy to get.
The Show:
Idina!
You’d think that a week after Idina Menzel’s co-stars had left the show, six weeks after she’d won the Tony, that Elphaba would be a little more relaxed. You’d think wrong, though in this unfamiliar cast, Idina running upstage for her entrace was like a bit of home. Miss Idina hit notes on Saturday night that I’ve never heard (in The Wizard and I, she took “no one thinks you’re strange” up a third and held it) and notes I’ve only heard once (in Defying Gravity, she took “flying solo” up the scale rather than down). Utterly amazing. The acting just gets better and better. It’s also interesting to listen to Idina work her lower register, as they’ve lowered “As Long As You’re Mine” so that Joey can hit the notes (he sings the same ones Taye Diggs did when he filled in for Norbert in December/January. “For Good” was particularly stunning; you could tell that Idina’s incorporated the depth that she and Kristin reached into working with Jennifer. Two slight goof/bloopers: In "Something Bad", William came in about three beats early on "Nothing all that bad", and William and Idina had a gigglefest for a minute. In “One Short Day”, JLT sang Idina’s “two good friends” line, which made Idina laugh, and they both sang “two best friends”. Very cute. Again and again, Idina proves herself to be a wonder.
Jennifer!
My first thought: She’s wearing the wrong wig. (Duh, why would she be wearing Kristin’s wigs?) My second thought: Wow, she’s tall! (She stands about two inches taller than Idina). From the moment she first sang, though: Wow. Her voice is VERY similar to Idina’s (in both clarity and pronunciation) and so to hit the notes in “No One Mourns...” she does a lot of vibrato. It sounds just fine. The last lines of “No One Mourns...” she clearly hits the notes, but it’s impossible to hear (even from the second row) what the words are (Good news! Good news!)
I know Kristin always talked a lot about G(a)linda’s layers. I think JLT has made some incredible acting choices regarding her character development. Kristin’s Galinda was self-assured, through and through, even as she learned of her own depth (see: Thank Goodness!) JLT’s Galinda is quite the opposite. She knows that she’s very pretty, but that she isn’t very bright, and has problems being herself in front of people that she wants to impress. She’s a socialite who has been groomed to be who she is, but has this real depth beneath her that she can’t seem to let out. JLT has two G(a)linda “voices”, one that is very peppy and squeaky (and that largely disappears in Act Two), and one that is more subdued and bell-like, so it’s easy to tell when Galinda is being her true self (her interactions with Elphaba) and when she’s “on” (with Fiyero and the Wizard). Really a cool character move. JLT”s “Popular” is stunning, and to me, this is where she outshines even Chenoweth’s amazing performance. JLT takes Galinda’s transition from “snob” to “friend” very seriously, and she treats “Popular” as if she’s really letting Elphaba in on the grand secret to playing to society’s expectations. “I know, I know (the second “I know” she whispers) exactly what they need.” She did a nice job with Thank Goodness; Carole Shelley was out, but JLT really expressed the true emotion and feeling of the scene. She seemed to be having a great time on the stage, enjoying herself, which is a huge part to making Glinda believable. Oh- and my favorite JLT moment, and this may only be noticeable to hard-core WICKEDites; the one thing that drove me NUTS about Kristin’s performance, and I joke about this all the time, is that she made it clear that Glinda was afraid of Chistery, and yet, when the group of flying monkeys are first revealed, she waves to them. Why? LOL. JLT was horrified and shocked by the monkeys, which was delightful :) JLT doesn’t do the sign language for “captivity” or “dialysis”, and she’s changed the hair flip to a little “toss toss” moment, and then just repeats the very prim “toss toss” for the laugh. It works just fine.
I’m looking forward to seeing how she progresses.
Joey!
Okay, not good. Better than horrible, which I’ll get to later. He doesn’t try to even attempt the energy necessary for Fiyero, nor does he hold any note longer than he has to, or make himself a believable love interest for either girl. After the confrontation scene, into “No Good Deed”, I had to pretend that the Fiyero both Glinda and Elphie were screaming about was Norbert or Kristoffer or Derrick. Joey is serviceably cute, but he squints throughout the whole performance, and shoots off his most important lines (“I’m going with her.”) nonchalantly, as if ordering a pizza. Not, not good.
George!
Worse than not good. From the get go. Doesn’t act, doesn’t sing, doesn’t dance. Makes up his own tempi, and didn’t seem to know his lines all that well. At intermission, a friend warned me about “Wonderful”, and with good reason. Remember how Sean added in all of that slick choreography? Gone. Remember the little but somewhat interesting choreography Joel had? Gone. Gone. During the last “dance break”, George turns around in place, once, slowly. His “waltz” with Elphaba is largely walking up and downstage holding hands. And why doesn’t he have a hat? Very, very strange. Not sure what the producers were thinking when they hired him.
Understudies Galore!
Adinah Alexander was on for Carole Shelley.Didn’t love her, only because she seemed to copy Shelley’s performance, which is so animated as to not being able to be replicated. She is tall and very thin, and looks a little awkward in the Morrible costumes and white face. She did a good job with delivery, though.
Eden was on for Michelle, as she had been all week. It was my second time seeing her as Nessa, and I was even more impressed. She puts such heart into Nessa, and youth. Lovely, and makes a great transition into the Governor of Munchkinland.
Had a great seat (ORCH A 14); friend calls and says she’s coming into town. No problem. We’ll just get on the cancellation line. Get to the cancellation line at 4:15ish (after scoring fourth row at LSOH for 26 bucks!) We’re 17th in line. Eep. I get the inclination to call Ticketmaster a little after five, and we end up with ORCH A 104. Good deal. That is, until I win lotto :) (Lotto was about 400 people. CC 1 and 3. I made a little embarrassment of myself: while the other winners said “here” or calmly walked up and raised there hand, yours truly lets out a “OH SH*T” in front of the crowd. Good times. I kept saying to my friend, “This never happens. I never win Saturday night lotto, and they NEVER release seats for Saturday night.” Now she thinks WICKED tickets are easy to get.
The Show:
Idina!
You’d think that a week after Idina Menzel’s co-stars had left the show, six weeks after she’d won the Tony, that Elphaba would be a little more relaxed. You’d think wrong, though in this unfamiliar cast, Idina running upstage for her entrace was like a bit of home. Miss Idina hit notes on Saturday night that I’ve never heard (in The Wizard and I, she took “no one thinks you’re strange” up a third and held it) and notes I’ve only heard once (in Defying Gravity, she took “flying solo” up the scale rather than down). Utterly amazing. The acting just gets better and better. It’s also interesting to listen to Idina work her lower register, as they’ve lowered “As Long As You’re Mine” so that Joey can hit the notes (he sings the same ones Taye Diggs did when he filled in for Norbert in December/January. “For Good” was particularly stunning; you could tell that Idina’s incorporated the depth that she and Kristin reached into working with Jennifer. Two slight goof/bloopers: In "Something Bad", William came in about three beats early on "Nothing all that bad", and William and Idina had a gigglefest for a minute. In “One Short Day”, JLT sang Idina’s “two good friends” line, which made Idina laugh, and they both sang “two best friends”. Very cute. Again and again, Idina proves herself to be a wonder.
Jennifer!
My first thought: She’s wearing the wrong wig. (Duh, why would she be wearing Kristin’s wigs?) My second thought: Wow, she’s tall! (She stands about two inches taller than Idina). From the moment she first sang, though: Wow. Her voice is VERY similar to Idina’s (in both clarity and pronunciation) and so to hit the notes in “No One Mourns...” she does a lot of vibrato. It sounds just fine. The last lines of “No One Mourns...” she clearly hits the notes, but it’s impossible to hear (even from the second row) what the words are (Good news! Good news!)
I know Kristin always talked a lot about G(a)linda’s layers. I think JLT has made some incredible acting choices regarding her character development. Kristin’s Galinda was self-assured, through and through, even as she learned of her own depth (see: Thank Goodness!) JLT’s Galinda is quite the opposite. She knows that she’s very pretty, but that she isn’t very bright, and has problems being herself in front of people that she wants to impress. She’s a socialite who has been groomed to be who she is, but has this real depth beneath her that she can’t seem to let out. JLT has two G(a)linda “voices”, one that is very peppy and squeaky (and that largely disappears in Act Two), and one that is more subdued and bell-like, so it’s easy to tell when Galinda is being her true self (her interactions with Elphaba) and when she’s “on” (with Fiyero and the Wizard). Really a cool character move. JLT”s “Popular” is stunning, and to me, this is where she outshines even Chenoweth’s amazing performance. JLT takes Galinda’s transition from “snob” to “friend” very seriously, and she treats “Popular” as if she’s really letting Elphaba in on the grand secret to playing to society’s expectations. “I know, I know (the second “I know” she whispers) exactly what they need.” She did a nice job with Thank Goodness; Carole Shelley was out, but JLT really expressed the true emotion and feeling of the scene. She seemed to be having a great time on the stage, enjoying herself, which is a huge part to making Glinda believable. Oh- and my favorite JLT moment, and this may only be noticeable to hard-core WICKEDites; the one thing that drove me NUTS about Kristin’s performance, and I joke about this all the time, is that she made it clear that Glinda was afraid of Chistery, and yet, when the group of flying monkeys are first revealed, she waves to them. Why? LOL. JLT was horrified and shocked by the monkeys, which was delightful :) JLT doesn’t do the sign language for “captivity” or “dialysis”, and she’s changed the hair flip to a little “toss toss” moment, and then just repeats the very prim “toss toss” for the laugh. It works just fine.
I’m looking forward to seeing how she progresses.
Joey!
Okay, not good. Better than horrible, which I’ll get to later. He doesn’t try to even attempt the energy necessary for Fiyero, nor does he hold any note longer than he has to, or make himself a believable love interest for either girl. After the confrontation scene, into “No Good Deed”, I had to pretend that the Fiyero both Glinda and Elphie were screaming about was Norbert or Kristoffer or Derrick. Joey is serviceably cute, but he squints throughout the whole performance, and shoots off his most important lines (“I’m going with her.”) nonchalantly, as if ordering a pizza. Not, not good.
George!
Worse than not good. From the get go. Doesn’t act, doesn’t sing, doesn’t dance. Makes up his own tempi, and didn’t seem to know his lines all that well. At intermission, a friend warned me about “Wonderful”, and with good reason. Remember how Sean added in all of that slick choreography? Gone. Remember the little but somewhat interesting choreography Joel had? Gone. Gone. During the last “dance break”, George turns around in place, once, slowly. His “waltz” with Elphaba is largely walking up and downstage holding hands. And why doesn’t he have a hat? Very, very strange. Not sure what the producers were thinking when they hired him.
Understudies Galore!
Adinah Alexander was on for Carole Shelley.Didn’t love her, only because she seemed to copy Shelley’s performance, which is so animated as to not being able to be replicated. She is tall and very thin, and looks a little awkward in the Morrible costumes and white face. She did a good job with delivery, though.
Eden was on for Michelle, as she had been all week. It was my second time seeing her as Nessa, and I was even more impressed. She puts such heart into Nessa, and youth. Lovely, and makes a great transition into the Governor of Munchkinland.
JOHN LITHGOW
I just realized, your last name is Butz! Both "Norbert" AND "Butz" are in your name! You must have gotten picked on a lot as a child!
Glad that JLT is good though! Thanks!
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