I saw the Beauty and the Beast tour in Newcastle last night, and it was great fun. Aside from some sound and set issues at the start (it was their first night in the venue) things went well, and the cast was great other than some (possibly deliberate) overacting from Gaston. Fabulous costumes, and the balcony set looked amazing.

When the Beast started talking, my ears perked up. Then he gets to "If I Can't Love Her" - phenomenal, gorgeous song and what a voice - and I recognised him. I almost jumped out of my seat yelling "MATTHEW CAMMELLE! I KNOW IT'S YOU!"

This man was my first Marius, and my second Enjolras, as well as seeing him in the 10th Anniversary Les Mis concert, in Martin Guerre and in Phantom. He just turns up in shows that I go to see! I'm not stalking him, honest! But it would be totally worth it!

WICKED TOMORROW WICKED TOMORROW WICKED TOMORROWWWWWWWWWW.

La laaaaaa la laaaaa WE'RE GONNA MAKE YOU POP!U!LAR!

Soooo, how was Wicked? Which production did you see? I haven't seen the show in well over a year but I still love hearing about how the different casts are. Details!

The reviews are in for Tamyra in Rent and apparently her singing is fierce (shocker) although her acting needs some work. Since it was her first night I'm sure she'll loosen up with it and get better with some more time. That's why I prefer seeing people later on in their run, when they're more comfortable with the role. I remember seeing an early preview video of Wicked and some of Idina Menzel's line readings were just awful. But then when I saw her just before she left the show, she was unbelievable. (Even though her voice by then was basically shot to hell.)

I am very sad that my new favorite thing, Don't Quit Your Night Job, is closing. It's like Whose Line meets Broadway and it is genius. I just went last night and their special guest was Gavin Lee from Mary Poppins, and he is ADORABLE. He did musical madlibs, which is exactly what you think it is. Richard Kind was there (it seems like he is ALWAYS there) and surprise guest was Will Chase, from High Fidelity. Who makes a very, very hot Tinkerbell. They also had the kid that plays Chip in Beauty and the Beast do a monologue from The Coast of Utopia. Heh.

AHHHHHHHHH OMG IT WAS INCREDIBLE.

We saw this cast and they were fantastic.

Victoria Matlock is a University of Northern Colorado grad, so she got a lot of love from the Denver crowd. Her Elphaba was wonderful - note-perfect musically, and her timing - both comedic and dramatic - was absolutely right on the money. I think it was kind of jarring for my husband - who's so used to Idina - to hear different interpretations of songs, especially "Defying Gravity," but I loved it. Her lower range isn't as strong as Idina's, so she did some slightly different things when she needed to (particularly on "No Good Deed").

Christina DeCicco was probably my favorite part of the show. So adorably spazzy, and clearly having such a good time, her energy was infectious. But man, she could turn emotionally on a dime, and she gave G(a)linda such depth. It was wonderful to watch. Vocally, she had a few sour notes in the first number, but was spot on for the rest of night. "Thank Goodness" is a song I kind of tend to forget about, for whatever reason, but she did amazing things with it, and made it hard to ignore.

The two women had incredible chemistry together, and sold every single twist and turn of the relationship. Absolutely breathtaking, separate and together.

Cliffton Hall was perfect perfect perfect as Fiyero. The perfect combination of cocky asshole and hot guy, with a Deep And Lonely Underside, he played all the sides of the character, which made him an even more interesting character.

The other major standout for me was Deedee Magno Hall as Nessarose. Her transformation from the first act to the second was stunning, and her acting and singing in the second act was emotionally devastating. Just a few minutes of stage time, but she really made a major impact.

In a nutshell? Fucking awesome.

Thats great. I'm glad you had such a good time :)

Wicked is a show that I think fails or suceeds on its actors (its gorgeous to look at and a lot of fun, but I think its kinda eh when it comes to the book and all that), so I'm glad you got a great cast.

I got to see Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel and they were unfuckingbelievable. Really, just awesome. And that made all the difference.

I saw a clip of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels from the website posted above, and loved it! Loved Norbert!

I wished I could have seen it. I imagine it has closed for good now?

Edited to add: Aaaand I can't get enough of Patti Lupone!

Me too! I think the stage show is so much fun to watch. and I like the score, but it doesn't get stuck in my head the way other recordings have. Have you heard Idina Menzel's new version of "Defying Gravity"? She sings very well, as usual, but it's not my favorite.

The techno dance thing...yeah...its not great. Still love her...but no.

This one isn't a techno version - it's more like lite music station Defying Gravity. But yeah, I dislike the techno version a lot too.

I saw the same version of Wicked as ka-*test*-('")i a month ago and loved it. I thought Deedee Magno Hall was great, but I've liked her since seeing her in Miss Saigon. She and Clifton Hall seem like a good couple.

ka-*test*-('")i, glad you enjoyed it! And now for my own longassed post...

This is partly why I haven't been back to see the show in awhile. They were casting great replacements early on, but I'm still kind of nervous to be shelling out so much cash (as there's no way in hell I'm winning their lotto) and then possibly having to sit through a cast I don't like. I loooooooooove Julia Murney (The Wild Party is my crack) but I have a hard time picturing her as Elphaba.

Also I'm not even gonna lie, I'm totally spoiled from the last Elphie I saw, Shoshana Bean - the girl riffed like you would not believe. I've found that it's hard for a lot of people to sing like that every show - and I loved that she always gave a solid, strong vocal performance.

Strangely, my favorite Galinda, Jennifer Laura Thompson, was actually the weakest vocally out of all the ones I've seen or heard. Yet her acting and comedic genius more than made up for it for me. She had a way of performing "Thank Goodness" that would just give me a lump in my throat.

The show closed on Broadway, and I know it was touring recently (with Norbert at a few stops!) but it may have ended by now. I really enjoyed DRS - saw it three times! - and it had some scenes that were just genius. "All About Ruprecht" is just... wow. Norbert definitely earned his Tony, that's for sure.

I think I'm going to a Tony viewing party just because June 10 is also my birthday so I'll have something to do. But I don't know how excited I am for them this year, honestly. I was actually hoping they'd let some of the other shows perform this year - I know they tossed the idea around very briefly, but ended up not going with it. I really don't see the argument the producers of the nommed shows had - how would it steal airtime away from them? It's not like they wouldn't also be performing that night. And the people tuning in to see Legally Blonde may end up watching and liking Grey Gardens. Something like that.

Then again I guess I'm somewhat biased, since I enjoyed Legally Blonde far more than Spring Awakening.

Anyone see the Tonys last night? Spring Awakening swept, which I'm kinda a little disappointed about. Not that I hate it or anything but I don't get the big deal, which I wish I did, because it'd be nice to have a new musical to love. Maybe it's because I had read the original play for class before the musical came out. That play is unsentimental and pretty harsh, and the musical just seems to be making it all about mushy teenage Angst.

Aw, I loved Spring Awakening, and I actually thought it ended up being pretty harsh and bleak.

I was happy with all the wins though. Except I wa totally rooting for Raul Esparza. But I've heard good things about David Hyde Pierce.

Well, to be fair, I haven't actually seen the play, just listened to the songs. (Although I think the musical's summary on the homepage misrepresents the story so much. Melchior and Wendla were not lovey dovey at all. It says, "Now the young lovers must struggle against all odds to build a world together for their child." All I can think is, what? >>I don't think Melchior even finds out she's pregant until after she dies.)<<

I haven't seen any of the best nominee musicals this year, nor even know much about them. I was just surprised that Spring Awakening won so many awards. In fact I thought that they wouldn't win best musical because they were winning so many already, that it was to make up for that. I actually do wanna see it though.

I didn't mind Pierce winning, but I think I would've liked it better if Esparza won. He's always really good.

Everyone at our Tony's party was rooting for Raul, it was pretty much the biggest scandal of the night when he didn't win. I love me some David Hyde Pierce but if you're going just by their performances last night... no.

I was (happily) surprised to find I wasn't the only person at the party underwhelmed by Spring Awakening. Which made it fun when it picked up every award, EVER. (The one that pissed me off the most was best choreography. Seriously? All they do is jump up and down waving their arms around!) I will say that it was the only musical number of the night that we rewound and watched again. (Aside from one of the Jersey Boys fucking up his choreography.) But that was mainly because the changed lyrics and self censoring was just so weird. Why couldn't they have just performed "Touch Me" instead of choosing a medley where two out of three songs had to have major lyric changes? Oh wait, I know why; it was to show what a hip, rebellious show it is, what with all the swearing and sex and angsty young people.

ulkis - Your spoiler is what happens still in the show, and while I wouldn't use the term 'lovey-dovey' to describe Melchior and Wendla, they're definitely the central 'love story' of the show.