The Broadway show thread where we discuss all things Broadway

[aprilgail2]

Just saw my daughter in Fiddler last night ironically... she's Chava. It really is a nice show. As far as the old classics go... it's one of the good ones!

Nice! Saw my daughter in Les Miserables last night, seeing her twice today and once tomorrow-I go to sleep with the songs ringing in my head!

 

[czycropper]

Love the Les Mis songs. My DD's high school did Les Mis in concert with the NJ Orchestra and it was fantastic then we went to see it on Broadway a couple of weeks ago.

What was your DD's role?

 

[aprilgail2]

Love the Les Mis songs. My DD's high school did Les Mis in concert with the NJ Orchestra and it was fantastic then we went to see it on Broadway a couple of weeks ago.

What was your DD's role?

She is a "lovely lady"- has a solo during factory song and in "turning"- she is also a wedding dancer.

 

[AustinTink]

Just back from a two week trip to London and New York. We were lucky enough to see 4 shows during our trip. In London, we saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Phantom of the Opera. In NY, we saw A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and Bullets over Broadway.

A Gentleman's Guide absolutely blew us away!! I can't' recommend it enough. Phantom came in a very close second. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was well done with strong performances throughout. Sadly, Bullets comes in a distant fourth for us. I was hoping for much more.

Regardless, we enjoyed our theater adventures whole heartedly. Can't wait to see another show!!

 

[crazymama]

So just returned from 10 days in New York. This is going to sound insane but I saw 13 shows in those 10 days. (I have a bit of a problem lol!) What a whirlwind!!!!!!!!!!! I'll list what we saw so if anyone has any questions about a particular show I can at least give my 2 cents worth.
Aladdin, Cabaret, Cinderella, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (NPH), Beautiful, Matilda, Rocky, Newsies, If/Then, Phantom, This is Our Youth and Book Of Mormon and Gentlemans's Guide.
A dream vacation to be sure!!!!

 

[crazymama]

Man... I feel like a thread killer. No activity since my last post so I thought I would try to get things going again! Is anyone else out there excited that Michael C. Hall is playing Hedwig after Rannells??? I think he will be great but seems a bit too buff (visions of Dexter in his grey "kill shirt" run through my mind ) Hedwig self-describes as a "slip of a girlyboy." That ain't how I think of Hall by any stretch of the imagination Since I absolutely tapped out the bank with our trip this summer I am moving to Plan B which involves Lottery tickets. I have promised my daughter that we will go see him should I win a minimum of $5000. Wish me luck.

 

[LBIJim]

Your post about 13 shows in 10 days must have slipped down to page 2 before I got a chance to see it. I likely would have commented had I seen it.

Sounds like you had great time. Nothing crazy about it. I once saw 4 shows during a weekend and if something good was playing on Sunday night there probably would have been a 5th. But then I would have been burned out.

Glad you enjoyed your whirlwind Broadway vacation, and good luck on winning the lottery to see Dexter in Hedwig.

 

[Adipoo]

This will be the longest I've ever waited to see a play...I snagged tickets to see Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet in London...next October!

I am anxiously waiting to see who else is cast.

 

[superme80]

Just saw my daughter in Fiddler last night ironically... she's Chava. It really is a nice show. As far as the old classics go... it's one of the good ones!

Our Chava was out sick this week so I filled in for her. What an emotionally draining part!


Adipoo: So jealous about the Hamlet tickets. I hate that play but I would love to see Mr. Cumberbatch on stage.

 

[JenM]

Man... I feel like a thread killer. No activity since my last post so I thought I would try to get things going again! Is anyone else out there excited that Michael C. Hall is playing Hedwig after Rannells??? I think he will be great but seems a bit too buff (visions of Dexter in his grey "kill shirt" run through my mind ) Hedwig self-describes as a "slip of a girlyboy." That ain't how I think of Hall by any stretch of the imagination Since I absolutely tapped out the bank with our trip this summer I am moving to Plan B which involves Lottery tickets. I have promised my daughter that we will go see him should I win a minimum of $5000. Wish me luck.

You should like you had the best vacation ever. Hell, I work in Times Square and I’m still catching up to a few of those shows...

I’m seeing Hedwig with Andrew Rannells next week, I can’t wait! Loved him in Book of Mormon. Not too worried about Michael C. Hall being too built for the part. Skinny as he was, NPH was pretty ripped when he was in the show too. Definitely want to come back to see him as well. I feel like I need to see all of the Hedwigs. NPH was actually my 4th Hedwig - I saw John Cameron Mitchell, Kevin Cahoon, and Matt McGrath when it was off-Broadway.

I saw If/Then a few weeks ago, which I wasn’t expecting much from since the reviews weren’t that great, but I really enjoyed it. Idina was amazing! I’ve had the cast recording pretty much on repeat ever since I saw it.

I also just saw You Can’t Take It With You, which was a lot of fun. I’d never seen the play before, just the Frank Capra film, but the play is very sweet and very funny. Plus, it was very cool to see James Earl Jones on stage.

Next show I have tickets for (besides Hedwig) is The River, starring Hugh Jackman, but that’s not until January. Hoping to catch Gentleman’s Guide and Les Miz (finally) before then.

 

[smitty0705]

I saw If/Then a few weeks ago, which I wasn’t expecting much from since the reviews weren’t that great, but I really enjoyed it. Idina was amazing! I’ve had the cast recording pretty much on repeat ever since I saw it.

I'm glad to read this. We have tickets for next month!

 

[crazymama]

I'm glad to read this. We have tickets for next month!

My daughter and I really liked it. The set is quite cool and cleverly done. The night after we saw it we wound up at a "cabaret" where Seth Rudetsky was interviewing James Snyder (Josh). I was close enough to practically touch them both. James seems like such a nice and down to earth guy!!

 

[AllisonK]

I saw the pre-Broadway tryout of "Finding Neverland" this summer in Boston twice - once in previews in August and then again about two weeks ago. While there's still some work to be done it is hands-down one of my favorite shows I've seen in a LONG time.

The cast is top-notch and I hope that the tweaks that could be made to improve the show will be made before it heads to NYC in the spring, and that the producers are smart and keep Jeremy Jordan as J.M. Barrie. I had never been a huge fan of his, but I had also never seen him in anything except for "Smash" on TV (and his character was kind of a jerk...) so I was pleasantly surprised and have totally jumped on the bandwagon. Rumor has it they want to replace him with Matt Morrison from "Glee," and I like Matt a lot (I saw him in "South Pacific" about 6 years ago) but after seeing Jeremy twice, I cannot picture Matt in the role.

Up next for me will probably be the national tour of '"Cinderella" next month when it comes to Providence. My father gets free tickets to a lot of shows at PPAC through his job and so I am hoping we get "Cinderella" tickets.

 

[aprilgail2]

My daughter and her friends are going in on Sunday to the Broadway Flea market- http://broadwaycares.org/fleamarket2014

 

[crazymama]

Our Chava was out sick this week so I filled in for her. What an emotionally draining part!


Adipoo: So jealous about the Hamlet tickets. I hate that play but I would love to see Mr. Cumberbatch on stage.

Chava is such a great role! That Ballet sequence scene is lovely and soooo sad! Awesome that you filled in this week.

 

[crazymama]

You should like you had the best vacation ever. Hell, I work in Times Square and I’m still catching up to a few of those shows...

I’m seeing Hedwig with Andrew Rannells next week, I can’t wait! Loved him in Book of Mormon. Not too worried about Michael C. Hall being too built for the part. Skinny as he was, NPH was pretty ripped when he was in the show too. Definitely want to come back to see him as well. I feel like I need to see all of the Hedwigs. NPH was actually my 4th Hedwig - I saw John Cameron Mitchell, Kevin Cahoon, and Matt McGrath when it was off-Broadway.

I saw If/Then a few weeks ago, which I wasn’t expecting much from since the reviews weren’t that great, but I really enjoyed it. Idina was amazing! I’ve had the cast recording pretty much on repeat ever since I saw it.

I also just saw You Can’t Take It With You, which was a lot of fun. I’d never seen the play before, just the Frank Capra film, but the play is very sweet and very funny. Plus, it was very cool to see James Earl Jones on stage.

Next show I have tickets for (besides Hedwig) is The River, starring Hugh Jackman, but that’s not until January. Hoping to catch Gentleman’s Guide and Les Miz (finally) before then.

Wow you sound like a Hedwig expert!! I would have loved to see John Cameron Mitchell! Finally watched the movie last week (thank you Amazon) and loved it so much. Although I did not care at all for the Country Western version of Sugar Daddy! Ick! I hope I don't offend anyone with that comment I think I am a Hedwig groupie now. Better late than never I guess! I am jealous of your seeing "The River" with Hugh. Man I wish I lived closer. We are out in British Columbia so a pretty long hike to Times Square...

 

[elgerber]

I would love to hear your review of Andrew Rannels in Hedwig. We saw NPH in July, and Andrew has some big shoes to fill! I'm sure he is amazing as well!!

 

[Dancind]

I returned to Oz aka Wicked for my 33, 34 and 35th time this past weekend and caught the new Elphaba, who's also the youngest English speaking Elphaba, in only her second week. She's got such an amazing voice, I was blown away by her. She was also in the touring production of Next to Normal with Alice Ripley and she was 19 back then. But am saying if Wicked comes near you and it's Emma Hunton/Gina Beck as the witches, you will be in for a treat. The standby, Emmy Raver-Lampman, was equally amazing as Elphaba.

Saw the touring company last night in Albuquerque! Loved Emma Hunton's voice! She was upstaged a bit though, by Chandra Lee Schwartz as Glinda. I had never seen Wicked, so watched Kristin's performance of Popular on You Tube, and I really think Chandra did it better! I guess she was on Broadway as Glinda for a while too.

The whole cast was great. Very enjoyable evening.

 

[crazymama]

I would love to hear your review of Andrew Rannels in Hedwig. We saw NPH in July, and Andrew has some big shoes to fill! I'm sure he is amazing as well!!

I didn't see Rannells but my daughter saw his opening night (she had seen NPH just 5 nights prior so was pretty fresh with the comparison.) She really liked him. Said the only thing was that he was not as comfy yet with the banter and ad-lib stuff (to be expected for sure) but his voice was great and he nailed the "car wash.) Although he did not lap dance or do the glasses lick. She thought he was a great replacement. Not easy to hold your own after King Harris lol. On a side note, the day that our two friends were there (we were all in NYC at the same time but didn't go to Hedwig the same day) they were in their primo seats centre stage and 2nd row back and sure enough got the lap dance and glasses treatment. I swear my friend did not wash them for 48 hours he was so excited. This icon kind of captures his reaction...

 

[JenM]

Wow you sound like a Hedwig expert!! I would have loved to see John Cameron Mitchell! Finally watched the movie last week (thank you Amazon) and loved it so much. Although I did not care at all for the Country Western version of Sugar Daddy! Ick! I hope I don't offend anyone with that comment I think I am a Hedwig groupie now. Better late than never I guess! I am jealous of your seeing "The River" with Hugh. Man I wish I lived closer. We are out in British Columbia so a pretty long hike to Times Square...

I love Hedwig! I first saw it in October 1998, when John Cameron Mitchell was still playing her. The second time I saw him was in January 2000, which was my 5th time seeing the show. It was just before they started filming the movie, and he came back for a few weeks to get back into character. Michael Pitt, who played Tommy in the movie, was in the audience that night as well.

We actually saw the show twice in that night. We saw Matt McGrath as Hedwig at the 8:00 show, then we came back for the 11:00 show to see John. He was out of control, it was great! He was just ad-libbing like crazy, and even letting the audience finish some of his lines, since everyone pretty much knew the show by heart anyway. He even followed a guy into the bathroom at one point. It was hysterical.

I hadn’t seen it since that night when I saw NPH in June, so I was amazed how well I remember it all. There were a few updates and changes - the John Mayer line was Phil Collins in the old show, an Anderson Cooper reference was Larry King, and the joke about Luther running off with the bag boy (which I won’t repeat in its entirety here) was new.

The Hurt Locker stuff was all new - did you get one of the joke Playbills? That was amazing. And instead of the Belasco jokes, they were jokes about the hotel the theater was in. The hotel - and this is actually true - had been where the surviving crew members of the Titanic had stayed when they finally made it to NY. So Hedwig did a tribute to them: “You poor souls, blasted by man’s hubris and washed up on cruel shores. I, who am simply blasted and washed up salute you!”

I love the new version of Sugar Daddy! I was never a big fan of the country version either. My favorite part of the movie version of Sugar Daddy is watching Andrea Martin trying to get the people at the restaurant into it.