goofy's reviews (with pictures): RENT, XANADU, SA, POPPINS, ACL, LB

just got back from 5 days in the city. it was my first time to go to broadway and i loved every second of it. i got to see six shows:
rent (marcus as collins),
xanadu (on-stage),
spring awakening (matt doyle as hanschen),
mary poppins (catherine walker as mary poppins),
a chorus line (jason tam's final performance with nadine isenegger as val and jessica lee patty as cassie), and
legally blonde (leslie kritzer's final performance).

here are my reviews. beware of potential spoilers. ill try to keep them brief.

RENT (Thursday, August 9, 2007)

it was great to adam and anthony. they seemed to be running through the show effortlessly. which, i guess, is a good thing. it felt surreal to finally be seeing these two. tamyra has a powerful voice and i enjoyed her acting choices. she is unlike any other mimi i have "seen". but it didnt seem like her and adam had alot of chemistry. nevertheless, they were great together because they are talented.
merle dandridge is the real star in this cast. she blended well with every actor she shared the stage with. she has a knock-out voice. i was upset i didnt get to meet her.
the rest of the cast was disappointing.
justin johnson was so bored with his character that he would add in things to get laughs. lame. it took away from the character.
apparently marcus was on for troy. there were several slips in my playbill but i didnt have one confirming this, so im not sure. whoever he was, i didnt care for him. didnt feel the passion in ill cover you (reprise). maybe because he was shouting. nicolette was good. not great. d' monoroe was terrible. rarely was he singing on key. the ensemble seemed bored. and the entire cast did not mesh well; seasons of love wasnt together and the pacing was off the entire night.

very disappointed with this show. it was the only let-down of the trip. wasted $80. it was nothing compared to the non-equity tour i saw last november.

stage door: crazy. i exited the theatre and it was already three/four people deep around the sides of the barricades. nicolette, tamyra and anthony came out to sign things. adam did not, which pissed me off. i even went back friday night to see if i could meet him, but he didnt come out then either. boo.

ill post the other reviews when im finished writing them.

Updated On: 8/14/07 at 10:13 PM

I still can't believe people liked the non-equity production last year. Everyone I know hated it, and I saw it twice and thought it sucked pretty bad. No one really "shined" in the cast. But sorry to hear you didn't like RENT in NYC.

I saw John Gallagher, Jr. running up Broadway today.

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Thanks, love all your pictures.

chayenne is gorgeous!!! damn! great reviews so far...

SPRING AWAKENING - matinee (Saturday, August 11, 2007)

i rushed. it wasnt bad. i got there at 6.30 and was twentieth in line. twenty-fifth by the time they opened the box office. i hate when people save spots for friends. i sat fourth row back on the left side, last seat. closest to the curtain. partial view but not bad. i didnt feel like i missed anything.

pretty good show.
these kids are not the best actors. it seems like they've been hired because of their voices.
matt doyle was on as hanschen and he did really well. it seemed like he was doing his own thing but also staying true to the hanshcen that johnny b. wright had created.
i thought the stand-outs of this cast were john gallagher jr., gideon glick, jonathan groff, lilli cooper, and matt doyle. the rest were mediocre, in my opinion. of course, most of the girls dont have much of a role. the real talent is shown by christine estabrook and ken marks. they were brilliant.

i enjoyed act two more. i think the music is more moving. but overall, i was a tad disappoined. i was expecting big things from this show and dont get me wrong, it was good. just not great.

i stagedoored but didnt take pictures. there werent that many who came out. matt doyle, robie hager, lilli cooper, brian charles johnson, gideon glick, and john gallagher jr. that was it.
remy came out of the lobby doors and was sitting on the sidewalk, i guess waiting to be picked up. so i got her signature too.

oh! they were out of window cards which pissed me off. so i had to run across the street to the colony store and buy one for $32. ripoff. and after i left the store, i noticed it was bent. oh well.

MARY POPPINS - evening (August 11, 2007)

catherine walker was on for ashley brown. when i saw this, my jaw dropped. i love ashley brown and i was finally able to see her and we had an understudy. i was so bummed. but catherine was phenominal. she came off as a younger mary poppins but she was great in every aspect.

i was not expecting much from this show. even though this was my first disney show, i knew that it would be filled with spectacle and tricks. let me just say, this show is amazing. it was the only musical i saw this weekend that left me in tears. the book is wonderful. it is one of the only shows that i would say is better than the original movie.
rebecca luker is amazing in this show. i was so glad i was able to see her something. the whole show i kept thinking, man i wish i had seen secret garden. gavin lee was great. kind of forgetable.
jacob levine and kathryn faughnan were wonderful children.
james hindman was on as george banks and he was wonderful. no flaws.
my favorite number was temper, temper. it was great.
the second act was better than the first.

loved the show. the theatre is beautiful. would recommend it to anyone.
i also did not stagedoor this night. i wish i had though...

Updated On: 8/15/07 at 12:57 PM

I was at the SA matinee that day as well.. I guess I hung around the stage door longer than you did because Jonathan Groff came out eventually... Just fyi!

Your first time? You look like a pro. Glad you had a great experience.
Welcome to a lifetime obsession!

OK, can I tell you how jealous I am that you met Kerry Butler? I loved XANADU, too, and I will definitely be going up to the city to see it again.

Thanks for the reviews. Do you have any more pictures besides Rent and Xanadu??

Goofy -I was also at the same performance of Xanadu as well. In fact I was right behind you at the stage door. I couldn't stay that long because my mom and I had to get dinner. Great reviews!

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okay. so i am probably the slowest review-er here but alas, my final reviews:

woke up at 6.15 sunday morning to go get in line for legally blonde rush. there were already about a dozen people there and i was told that i would only be able to get two evening tickets because the rest were already claimed.
someone was misinformed because i got five tickets between my friends and i, and i know a few people behind me were able to get tickets.
nevertheless, the evening show rush had to be sold out by at least 7.30. the wait wasnt that bad, except that it was kinda hot. after i got my tickets, i walked over to the schoenfeld and bought rush tickets for the matinee. easy.

A CHORUS LINE - matinee (Sunday, August 12, 2007)
jason tam's final performance
nadine isenegger as val
jessica lea patty as cassie

i was really impressed with this show. i wasnt expecting to like it as much as i did. it went by quickly. i didnt notice any weak links in the cast.
i was really impressed with deidre goodwin, kevin worley, natalie cortez, and krysta rodriguez. they were all great. the stand-outs for me were jason tam, jessica lea patty, and melissa lone. melissa did look consdierably older than mara davi but when she hit those money notes during 'ballet', i teared up.
i thought jessica was great in the role. im not sure why she isnt playing it eight times a week. i thought she was good enough.
jason tam was phenominal. the amount of compassion i felt for him by the end of the show was unmeasurable. great. what is next for him?

im not sure they did anything special for him. did they? it was my first time seeing it so, how would i know?

good show. passed my expectations. the cast was strong. full house too.

LEGALLY BLONDE - evening (Sunday, August 12, 2007)
leslie kritzer's final performance
andy karl as professor callahan
matthew risch as dewey/kyle

i loved this show. loved it.
wasnt sure how i would like it going in. i just knew that the cast was talented. this show is so much. everyone on stage looks like they are having a blast.
someone from the rush line had told me that leslie would be adding some crazy stuff into the show since it was her final performance. it was hard for me to tell what was in the show and what was off the cuff but nothing seemed out of character.

i love this cast. laura bell seemed a little hoarse but she is in virtually every scene and singing in almost every number. she seemed like she was doing fine. she was crying alot during the show. i guess because of kritzer leaving.
christian borle and orfeh were great. perfect casting.
kate shindle is unbelievable. the notes she hit gave me chills.
andy karl was a great callahan. he didnt do anything for me, but he carried the part well.
i believe matthew risch told me it was his first night on as kyle/dewey. i thought he was great. really really good.

i would love to see this show again, but i dont think i would sit on the first row again. sure being so close to the actors is great, but i would like to sit a few rows back next time and be able to see the entire stage. i dunno.

stagedoor: nothing special. there were alot of people. almost everyone came out except for christian borle and kate shindle. two of my favorites. so that was disappointing. also i was pissed i couldnt take a picture with laura bell. oh well.

loved new york. definetly going back next year. im not sure when. maybe spring break? hopefully. i wanna to be there when it is nice and cold. plus there will be great shows out then.
thanks for reading.

Updated On: 8/16/07 at 06:07 PM

Yay review of Kritzer's last. :) I am so glad that you enjoyed it! (and that you got tix.) And I love that you couldn't tell what was in the show and what was an add on that night- some of the stuff that Kritzer was doing was cracking me up so hard, but I wondered if someone who'd never seen it before would even notice...

And I hate to say this, since someone else already did it with Spring Awakening, but Kate did come out that night- I never saw Christian, so I am pretty sure that he did not, but Kate came out after Laura Bell.

Sorry! I did seriously contemplate not writing that, but see now next time you will be a veteran at all this, and you'll know. :)