djp

popcultureboy, on 17 May 2013 - 11:02 AM, said:

Quite liked the scenary. Looked quiet classy/Presidential/imaginative?. Provided something to watch in duller moments.  Thought the ensemble was very strong, if almost uniformly young looking. Great to see  a proper musical out there thats  using some of the young talent though. General Peron was strong enough for an Argentine General. . Magaldi (Nick Gibney) was strong.  and got a very good reception. The Mistress,  Sarah McNicholas, was really excellent and also got a very strong response  - someone to follow . Great look for Eponine,  or an interesting Cosette.......

The accent thing was odd, . accents  appeared with some  characters, and never with others. The music volume, particularly early on, was too loud, which meant that even when the 2 main leads hit all their notes,  the last ones tended to get lost, and it didn't help establish the characters. Strings would be nice. Something looked very wrong with Don't Cry For Me when, after the song, the cast all started clapping as Evita's public, and the audience sat there making not a noise as they were confused whether the scene had ended or not. They can't have intended that  the biggest song in the  show  got no applause can they??  Rethink needed?

Agree Marti Pellow.  Slightly better - but Russell Crowe's vocal range,  and  Nick Jonas's acting came to mind. Got better for a couple  of songs in act two, which had some oomph. Lacked edge and never quite looked  like public enemy number one, or a revolutionary  leader. Kept things going along though, and served his purpose - he's pulling in his fans, they  like him, and judging by the response he got, there may be 10-20% of people at least there to see him.  

Evita was interesting. You can see why she gets the role - thought Don't Cry For Me was good,  and after she was diagnosed as dying and added emotional content,  her songs were very good indeed. The treatment of some of the earlier songs got some strange looks as they were hit into orbit . Depends what you want/like - some will love vocal fireworks - I preferred the versions of those where the lyrics and music provide the  emotions,  rather than  hearing the  emotional build up end in a vocal explosion. Not sure that the idea of Evita as someone  who stands out and someone who comes from the  people works. I thought Evita started out looking remarkably like Piaf had in Leicester  - which makes sense given the  role similarities,  and Madalena playing her recently,  but Piaf worked because Frances Ruffele  has enormous stage presence, and the early scenes were directed to allow her to show that, and it wasn't helped here by Evita getting lost in her taller ensemble. Not sure either she comes over  as a woman of the  people strongly  or convincingly enough at the  start - there's not much to use, but Madge managed that  better. That may all change though as the  tour progresses,  if they think of things to add,  and take out some of the more OTT bits. The audience seemed impressed,  and Evita was suitably ovationified -  though some were heard saying they expected something different.

I thought it was well worth a visit, but Che is not the obvious best casting choice,  and Evita is currently a bit of yes, and no, and yes.

poster J, on 18 May 2013 - 10:50 PM, said:

Indeed some people in the 25-30 bracket,  can still look 15 on stage if they want to - others not.

Actually I would be happy to see 4 at least of the people mentioned as Elphaba - happy actually to see them in anything . It just struck me that  this time there may be   an option to actually use people who are and look more like the  age of the  characters,  which is unusual given the difficulty of singing the roles.  I can also see  strong arguments though for some of the other people mentioned, who might be different in other ways,, or just basically stunning anyway. Glinda is if anything more intriguing to see who they can come up with who can sing it,match their Elphaba,  fit the bubble,  do comedy, and hit the emotions .

poster J, on 18 May 2013 - 10:03 AM, said:

Amy Lennox was my personal ,  Jestend Tuckman like,   moment of inspiration for my own Wicked cast......No idea at all who they are actually  looking at.

If they ever do go young for one of Glinda/Elphaba pairing though, it might be necessary to go that way with the other one too? Or they might look a bit odd.?

tommy123, on 17 May 2013 - 04:01 PM, said:

You won't get Sheridan for any tour. She's moving from a film to Shakespeare in  St Martin's Lane this year, via several more TV shows and her star is still rising  Natalie can sing her song in 9-5 well and was one of the people who could really  sing Ireland well in Legally. Not sure Elphaba is her type of role - might be interestingly different..

However if you look at 9-5 you don't have to look far down the cast list to see a possibly great future Glinda, who sounded beautiful as Elle and Lisl, does comedy really well, and I imgine would have no problem singing it........??

The question, more for Elphaba, may be  whether they will want to go for  a TV character regerdless, whether they will go with someone tried in the role , whether they  will go with some  of the really good top  singers in the usual age range , or whether they  might go for someone younger than most -   given there's some young Scaramouche's and Christine's around at the moment who could probably nail the acting and the vocals.

Alexandra, on 13 May 2013 - 10:14 AM, said:

The music/singing  comes in at the moments where magic is being  enacted. Makes up for the lack of 17th century SFX and the  need to make things  clear.   Colin sounds pretty good. The spirits and goddeses are very good . Roger and Jessie don't have much to sing,  but its pretty stunning when they do - lots of potential there together  for other roles.

Actually the Tempest should make a decent musical. It may have  a  lot more potential than the Winter's Tale, which I thought was pretty tedious and ultimately story light,  but  got some well deserved good reviews last year for some really good performances