a Chorus Line of understudies and Galinda Chenoweth climbs an Apple Tree

quick comments...

saw Chrous Line was a slew of covers.. first of all, I must just say that I LOVE Diedre Goodwin and that I still think Charlotte is awful, which is unbelievabl since she is playing HERSELF. I'd like Goodwin to give a whirl at cassie. She has the same real life story after all.....
Yuka Takara is still out, and J Elaine Marcos has come in to play Connie. I enjoyed her more than Yuka.
David Baum was on as Bobby, I liked him, butw ould like to see him as any of the other roles he covers. He SCREAMED straight man trying to gay it up but not too much, if that makes sense, and he lacked the bite and wit of Ken Alan.
Pamela Jordan was HORRIBLE as Kristine.The one dissapointing understudy.
Lyndy Franklin was a great Bebe, though I missed Alisan Porter.
Mike Cannon was in as Al. I think I liked him more than I liked Yazbeck.
Dure to running out of swings, they did the opening number with a cut track, which I felt was glaringly obvious.

Stay tuned for my Apple Tree post....

Okay.. first, the cast.

Kudisch was great. Loved him.
Walter Charles goes horribly underused.
Brian d'Arcy James was good and enjoyable in Act One, but came off as HORRIBLY miscast in Acts Two and Three.
Cheno, as always, was a one trick pony, though she does it well. I was only impressed because she expanded it to "a trick and a half". Act One, she is doing Glinda again. Act Two, she does Glinda doing "Popular". Act Three, shocker, she starts by reverting back to Sally Brown mode (Glinda with a tom boy walk and reigned in voice), but goes right back into Glinda when she is glamorous.
Sean Palmer and Sarah Jane Everman are the ensemble standouts.

The set was horrible.. ugly, unattractive, and VERY cheap looking throughout. The only aspects I liked were the show curtain panel, which looked like a left over from Beatty's Color Purple set, and the back wall used during Act two.

The use of body doubles was awful and OBVIOUS.. at least find someone short to double for Cheno for God sake... and when the double was onstage, Cheno's voice was even fed through a COMPLETELY different set of speakers... VERY obvious. I hope it was an intentional cheezy "60sish" effect, given the act it takes place in, but sadly, it just came off as "w have no budget and shoe string summer stock company told us to do this."

The sound design was awful... aside from late cues, there was bad micing where James' voice would be double amped - from HIS mic AND Cheno's.. and the orchestra was mic'd in a way that EVERY turn of a page of sheet music was heard loud and clear... just awful.

All in all, this show should be left cold in award season, just as it left me cold last night. Thankfully, I was comped.

Updated On: 12/7/06 at 11:48 AM

Finally, someone else sees the light about THE APPLE TREE.

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When I saw the show last week it was full cast, except Yuka, who since its known that she's out for a while wasn't a big deal.

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last time i saw LINE, there was a full cast. This show leaves the cast VERY prone to injury.. so it would not be unreasonably to have many times where SOMEONE is due to to injury or in order to prevent it.

Amen, Munk... I even wanted to enjoy myself.. and at moments I did. I think I almost WET myself during act three when the producer character yells at Cheno, as Passionella to learn how to act.. and then again when she wins a best actress award for playing herself... now that was just too much to handle.

I couldn't tell you which I prefered.... I just thought they were both weak.

Oh, and that damned staircase for TIGER was horribly designed.. it looked decnt, but was 100% NOT functional.. Cheno's whip because stuck on it several times.. before it became tangled in her headpiece... just a mess on sooo many levels.

and other actresses as well....

I saw David Baum too, he needed to be more "gay"

broadwayguy2...

I second the request to see Deidre take on Cassie. I don't think Cassie's music would sit well with Deidre's voice, but I picture a technically superb and intense dance break. Still think she's the best female dancer in the production.

Cheno's whip because stuck on it several times.. before it became tangled in her headpiece...

The whip in the headpiece seems to be a bit and not a mistake..it's been happening consistently over the past few perfs..

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I bet you Apple Tree will get nominated for Best Revival just to have Chenoweth perform at the Tonys. Unless they won't let them have a performance because it'd be closed for months by then.

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i saw acl with 100% attendance!

minimal is fine, but theres no reason why you should see clear into the wings, or have the stage drop off about 2 feet before the brick backwall of the stage.

...as for the whip, I thought it was part of the act too but maybe its just happened so often she knows how to handle it by now.