Karin1984
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2012
Thanks for the tip! Our trip to CA is now planned for March, but I don't have any hopes for theaters to be open by then! I can really recommend getting the DVD of Miss Saigon, it's so amazing.This made me smile. We are Jon Jon Briones fans, too. Got to see him as the Engineer here in L.A. (you are right -- he's fabulous! And I was so glad to see someone Asian playing that part!) We first saw him in a very small production of Ragtime where he played opposite his wife. That was a lovely production -- you could really see and hear the details. And we've seen his children in a small production of Gypsy. The family has been very active in the L.A. small theater scene. If you get a chance to catch them on your next trip out here, do!
And it's indeed such an improvement to have an actor/actress in a part where they have a familarity with. It's the same with Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, it works perfectly fine as a performance when a none Jewish man is playing Tevye. But you notice a difference when he is played by someone who is very familiar with the Jewish faith.
Another fond memory is from the show called Elisabeth (about Empress Elisabeth of Austria), it never made it to the US I think, but it's popular in Europe & Asia. We had a couple playing in the cast, he was first cast for the Emporer and she was the understudy for the Empress. It's custom here, with the big musical productions, that in the one before the last performance the understudies get a chance to give a performance one last time, but also to do some adlibbing and just go out on a bang. So the one before the last performance, this couple gets to perform together. In the last scene they have together, he is supposed to end the scene with 'I miss you', but the actor adlibbed and said 'I love you', his voice broke and it was such a sweet moment