matinee review 4/5
understudy day
the understudy slips literally rained out of my playbill
Victoria Matlock- Elphaba Standby. This afternoon was her very first performance. She is exceptional, the best description of her is a mix of idina,ana, and kristy but a little bit sharp. She doesn't riff, which is refreshing. For "what is this feeling" she omitted the glinda voice impression in favor of doing a full impression of glinda getting morrible's attention on "every little trait however small". Her hat is not her friend it seems, she almost lost it during defying gravity, and then knocked it clean off before "for good"
Emily Rozek- Glinda. She is hilarious in the part and should play it full time. During popular she randomly screamed "i love my shoes!" looking at the wall of them. At the stage door she pointed out i have terrible luck since this is the second show i've seen with her filling in the lead (she was my millie)
Nicolas Dromard- Fiyero. He sis great until it came to the higher notes, its not that he couldn't hit them he just got softer notably on them. He had remarkably good chemistry with his 2 understudy leading ladies, and landed the jokes well.
Chris Russo- dillamond. not much to say, he was very good, though i will use this spot to point out that it took a while to figure out who was playing the good doctor. The Playbill says Tim Parker still, then theres an insert with k. todd freeman's bio listed as joining the cast in the part, then i later found the other slip with chris's name on it.
logan's boq annoyed the hell out of me. Alma was amazingly evil in all the right places, the whole cast was in top shape. Lotto was a nightmare whereas i forgot it was lotto not rush and got there at around 10:45 and spent a whole lotta time out in the cold. There was about 60 people there give or take.
"Grease," the fourth revival of the season, is the worst show in the history of theater and represents an unparalleled assault on Western civilization and its values. - Michael Reidel
