121 posts
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Post by Joseph Buquet on May 21, 2017 18:14:47 GMT
Dialogue and lighting not the best, but music UNBELIEVABLE. Truly exceptional all round
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2017 18:18:19 GMT
Ooo lord i've cried about three times already! The girls are slaying, Rachel John bringing the house down!
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716 posts
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Post by theatre-turtle on May 21, 2017 18:20:07 GMT
Ooo lord i've cried about three times already! The girls are slaying, Rachel John bringing the house down! I cried at the act 1 finale too
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4,159 posts
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Post by HereForTheatre on May 21, 2017 18:21:23 GMT
Enjoying this. Rachel John I can see what the fuss is about....Wow. Just wow. Marisha.....great...but maybe she's been built up a little bit too much...
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1,064 posts
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Post by bellboard27 on May 21, 2017 18:21:34 GMT
Ooo lord i've cried about three times already! The girls are slaying, Rachel John bringing the house down! I cried at the act 1 finale too I hope the Cadogan has a mop!
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Post by d'James on May 21, 2017 18:22:45 GMT
Who's playing which roles?
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1,064 posts
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Post by bellboard27 on May 21, 2017 18:26:32 GMT
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4,458 posts
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Post by poster J on May 21, 2017 18:28:02 GMT
Sound balance is awful and I want to throttle the people sitting next to me, but the female leads and Tyrone are wonderful.
The choir are ruining it for me, there are far too many of them, they're overpowering it and the choreography is cringeworthy and not being performed particularly well. Not a patch on Broadway ensemble-wise, but the leads are really lifting this.
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4,159 posts
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Post by HereForTheatre on May 21, 2017 20:16:33 GMT
The sound got better in the 2nd act. I did not care at all for the guy who played Mister. Everyone else, brilliant. I only really knew the one song everyone knows from this.....all the others were new and i loved the score. Especially with those voices. Also, i must say, that when it comes to shows i have a bit of a cold heart and don't really feel the emotion but there were times in this... lord were there times. I think especially towards the end of act 1 and I am Here.
Marisha, i think i can understand the appeal. She gave it her all, you could tell she was lost in it, in her big numbers she let rip and you absolutely felt it which is why she got such a big reaction. I just think it's at the determent of her voice because even though the performance was amazing sometimes the singing was off and actually rather screamy at times. A loss of control and especially towards the end on I Am Here. Maybe i just had Cynthia too much in my mind as i have listened to every recording probably possible of her singing that and it's always note perfect. I guess this was just a more wild take on it. But i did love her and do see how she would make a great Effie.
Rachel John, another one i saw after a lot of buzz on here about her...she blew me away with her voice. I can see how she played Rachel Marron as her voice reminded me of Whitney. She was sensational.
Tyrone great, i have seen him before and his voice is brilliant and a word for the young lady who played Nettie who i thought was brilliant and a bit of a star and of course Wendy Mae Brown who provided some great comedy moments.
The band were great too.
All round i was really pleased to see this and impressed. I must say this is the first time i have seen something like this, a concert performance of a show, so it took me a while to get used to the format but i soon got quite into it. It makes me very interested to see the full stages show as i think it would be even better, obviously, but i guess that's not on the cards.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2017 20:55:32 GMT
Tonight was f***ing incredible. I found it so moving, so emotional. Stunning quitr frankly. You could just tell this cast were living their roles. Marisha was amazing, as always. Its like she is in Dreamgirls, where she really in her singing, you tell she got completely lost in her own head, she was living that moment. Completely earned that standing ovation after her solo. Rachel was amazing too, especially in Push Da Button, which blew the roof off the place. Wendy was also stellae, as was Tyrone.
I was really moved by the score. With the Ensemble and thw full cast singing, it felt so powerful and moved me to tears several times. It was a really overwhelming experience. And it was clear most, if not all, the audience were loving it! Very responsive! It was clear from the beginning they were on that ride and it totally deserved every moment of the response at the end, with Marisha visably moved by the whole thing.
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4,159 posts
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Post by HereForTheatre on May 21, 2017 21:01:56 GMT
Were you in a light blue patterned short sleeve shirt Daniel? If so, i saw you. If you weren't. I didn't.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2017 21:04:36 GMT
Were you in a light blue patterned short sleeve shirt Daniel? If so, i saw you. If you weren't. I didn't. That was me! Haha
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1,203 posts
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Post by Steve on May 21, 2017 21:07:33 GMT
Breathtakingly brilliant one-off show, with a stand-out star-turn by Marisha Wallace, and sterling supporting performances by Rachel John, Wendy Mae Brown, Seyi Omooba, Tyrone Huntley and Bernadette Bangura. The key to Wallace's performance as Celie was to be found in her final solo song, in which her stealthily modulated build to her ultimate declaration of personhood, "I'm Here," had the audience on their feet in an instant standing ovation. Wallace had until this point reserved the full impact of her devastatingly full and emotional voice, as her tender, tentative Celie had until this point been cowed by the batterings, both figurative and literal, of her horrible story. From the start, Wallace played the hollow-eyed dazed soft vacancy of a battered woman to perfection, which hollowness she filled in slow gradations throughout the course of the show. By halftime, her character was still only half human, causing some in the audience to doubt the fullness of the actress' potential. But this methodical character building was a testament to the seriousness with which Wallace approached tonight's show as a fully acted performance, rather than a mere one-off opportunity for show-boating, and judging by the fullsome tears of multiple audience members all around me, she succeeded in taking the audience with her on the journey of a nobody to become a somebody! The most emotionally fulfilling performance in a musical I've seen all year! All around her were supporting performances to die for: there was the effortless easy comedy sass of Wendy Mae Brown's Sofia, making hilarious hay of her anthem "Hell No;" there was the dominating diva antics of Rachel John's Shug, whose Push Da Button" brought the house down in the first half, but who also evinced heartbreaking tenderness in her song "Too Beautiful for Words;" there was the preternatural sweetness of Seyi Omooba's beaming Nettie, with a dulcet voice that belied her toughness in the recent "Junkyard;" and there was Tyrone Huntley's magical charisma, making up for the man-hating book, by lending Harpo a softness and likeability he doesn't have on the page, thereby balancing the misandry of the show as a whole. Of the wonderful 3 strong church lady chorus, all with exceptional voices, on the right of the stage, Bernadette Bangura, in the centre, stood out for her total passionate emotional commitment to every song! The sound mix was a little hollow and tinny, which tended to make the bass voices of the men a little harder to hear, but nonetheless, Cavin Cornwall as Mister, was a force of nature, never more so than in his body-rolling, wide-grinning cackling excitement about "Shug Avery Comin ' to Town." LOL. Anyway, I enjoyed this much more than when I first saw the show at the Menier, partly on account of being more familiar with the work, partly for being less bothered by all the manhating, but mostly because this was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime star ensemble cast that really understood the work and all their parts in it, and made the whole night so much more than the sum of it's parts! Truly, my favourite night of the year so far! 5 stars
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4,159 posts
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Post by HereForTheatre on May 21, 2017 21:07:38 GMT
Were you in a light blue patterned short sleeve shirt Daniel? If so, i saw you. If you weren't. I didn't. That was me! Haha Well if you saw a lad starring at you as you were walking down the isle at the interval then that was me trying to work out if it was you or not. haha.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2017 21:15:46 GMT
Well if you saw a lad starring at you as you were walking down the isle at the interval then that was me trying to work out if it was you or not. haha. Ahaha if im honest love I was still in a bit of a daze haha
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1,189 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on May 21, 2017 21:37:54 GMT
Utterly glorious night. Wonderful cast, orchestra, choir, show and great view from middle of Row M. Love love loved it xx
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2017 21:38:52 GMT
Man-hating? Forgive me if I'm missing something as I only saw this show once on Broadway 11 months ago, but what is man-hating about it? The abusive male character even gets redeemed at the end.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2017 21:40:32 GMT
It was interesting being at the front as wel, the people all around me were on their own, and no joke, when we were chatting pre-show, pretty much everyone said as soon as they saw Marisha, Rachel and Tyrone listed in the cast list ahead of time, they booked instantly because they had either seen them or had heard about them. And there was alot of tears down the front, I was pretty much an emotional wreck at several points in the proceedings.
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2,051 posts
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Post by infofreako on May 21, 2017 21:51:51 GMT
It was good, I'm not sure I was familiar enough with it. Superb voices though, pity the sound wasn't slightly better as that may have impacted my enjoyment
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1,203 posts
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Post by Steve on May 21, 2017 22:03:07 GMT
Man-hating? Forgive me if I'm missing something as I only saw this show once on Broadway 11 months ago, but what is man-hating about it? The abusive male character even gets redeemed at the end. Spoilers follow. . . Snutte, All I mean is that, for me, the book goes too far down the men-are-awful route. No men are decent, all women are decent. Dad rapes and beats his own step-daughter, man systematically beats his wife, other man cheats on women without a care, redemption merely amounts to "oh I feel a little regret, now that you've left me, please take me back." Frankly, I'd expect him to start beating her again if she did, as actions speak louder than words (especially the words of someone who wants something). For me, Dreamgirls is far better and more sophisticated in it's depiction of myriad kinds of men, and the way they mistreat women. I compare it, as it's got the same feminist trajectory of an underdog woman defining herself, in a world of abusive men. Then again, the show really worked for me tonight. So what I'm saying is, I'm rethinking these thoughts now. I'm open to hearing anything about this. It was interesting being at the front as wel, the people all around me were on their own, and no joke, when we were chsting pre-show, pretty much everyone said as soon as they saw Marisha, Rachel and Tyrone listed in the cast list ahead of time, they booked instantly because they had either seen them or had heard about them. And there was alot of tears down the front, I was pretty much an emotional wreck at several points in the proceedings. DanielJohnson14, I was next to you, I realise, re-reading the thread. I was in CC8. Your bouts of crying were as infectious as sneezes, as I found myself crying too shortly after lol. Nice to meet you. I definitely booked because I wanted to see Marisha Wallace, based on some youtube clips of her, having missed her in Dreamgirls. She's as good an actor as a singer, so I hope to see her in Dreamgirls sometime, which I've only seen with Amber Riley, previously.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2017 22:07:19 GMT
Man-hating? Forgive me if I'm missing something as I only saw this show once on Broadway 11 months ago, but what is man-hating about it? The abusive male character even gets redeemed at the end. Spoilers follow. . . Snutte, All I mean is that, for me, the book goes too far down the men-are-awful route. No men are decent, all women are decent. Dad rapes and beats his own step-daughter, man systematically beats his wife, other man cheats on women without a care, redemption merely amounts to "oh I feel a little regret, now that you've left me, please take me back." Frankly, I'd expect him to start beating her again if she did, as actions speak louder than words (especially the words of someone who wants something). For me, Dreamgirls is far better and more sophisticated in it's depiction of myriad kinds of men, and the way they mistreat women. I compare it, as it's got the same feminist trajectory of an underdog woman defining herself, in a world of abusive men. Then again, the show really worked for me tonight. So what I'm saying is, I'm rethinking these thoughts now. I'm open to hearing anything about this. It was interesting being at the front as wel, the people all around me were on their own, and no joke, when we were chsting pre-show, pretty much everyone said as soon as they saw Marisha, Rachel and Tyrone listed in the cast list ahead of time, they booked instantly because they had either seen them or had heard about them. And there was alot of tears down the front, I was pretty much an emotional wreck at several points in the proceedings. DanielJohnson14, I was next to you, I realise, re-reading the thread. I was in CC8. Your bouts of crying were as infectious as sneezes, as I found myself crying too shortly after lol. Nice to meet you. I definitely booked because I wanted to see Marisha Wallace, based on some youtube clips of her, having missed her in Dreamgirls. She's as good an actor as a singer, so I hope to see her in Dreamgirls sometime, which I've only seen with Amber Riley, previously. Ahaha! Well it wae nice to meet you then! It really was fabulous, such a sensational performance, and the general consensus where we were sitting agreed! The audience went nuts for this cast and rightly so! But really moving, I found the final few songs incredibly touching, as well as the Act I finale.
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4,458 posts
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Post by poster J on May 21, 2017 22:10:31 GMT
I'm afraid I didn't love this as much as a lot of the rest of you seem to have done. I agree with pretty much all of what HereForTheatre said. I think I was spoilt by seeing the Broadway production, because I couldn't help but compare it to this - not the production, of course, as this was just in concert, but the vocals and acting. In that respect, I don't think Marisha lived up to Cynthia, though I doubt anyone can in that role as I can't imagine a better, more nuanced Celie than Cynthia's. Overall, Marisha was very, very good for the most part, particularly in Act 1. I can certainly see why she's had such hype for her performances in Dreamgirls - she's got one hell of a set of vocal chords! However, I think all Celie performances to a certain extent stand or fall on I'm Here, and unfortunately that is where I thought Marisha's performance didn't work. She was clearly giving it her all, and there is no doubt she was pouring emotion into it, but for me she overdid it in the second half of the song, to the point where it seemed almost to be screaming for the sake of screaming, and the heart of the piece got lost. At the start it was beautifully measured and I thought it was really going to soar gradually, but instead it just got a bit too shrill too quickly. When I saw it on Broadway, I was blown away by how much power Cynthia created out of silence in that song, and from singing parts so softly she might as well have been whispering. I didn't get that from Marisha, and I think some of the impact was lost in her attempt to make it so big and loud. I didn't get as emotional as I expect that song to make me. I thought her Color Purple Reprise was wonderful though (that did make me cry!), and she had great chemistry with Rachel John even though they mustn't have had much rehearsal time at all given Rachel was still in Canada not so long ago! If she sings And I Am Telling You in Dreamgirls in the same manner as she sang I'm Here, then I'd have a few reservations about going to see her, but given this was the one weak link for me in her performance this evening, I think it'll be worth me going along to the Savoy on a night she's on anyway, as I can see how her voice suits that score. It was clear that Rachel hadn't had as much rehearsal time as she was relying on her score and script a lot more than anyone else, but it didn't affect her performance at all, she was fabulous. I'm a bit biased as I've been a fan for a long time, but I thought her vocals were the standout performance on that stage, and her acting a perfect mix of subtlety and perfect comic timing. Can't wait to see her in Hamilton! I thought Wendy Mae Brown was a brilliant Sofia, just as good as Danielle Brooks was on Broadway and very similar - great comic timing and I powerhouse voice. She and Tyrone Huntley were a good pairing - I thought he was great in Act 1 but faded a bit in Act 2, but as a pair they worked well together. I thought Seyi Omooba was a wonderful Nettie, everything that character should be, and she and Marisha worked really well together. T'Shan Williams was fine as Squeak, a bit too shrill at times and some of her diction was unclear, but it's not the greatest of parts and she did well with what she had, albeit missing a bit of the comedy factor that Patrice Covington brought to the role on Broadway. The weak link for me was Cavin Cornwall's Mister - I thought he completely overacted it to the point where it was just cringeworthy. Mister doesn't have to turn into a giggly mess at the sight of Shug to make the audience see he's in love with her, it was so over the top it was funny for all the wrong reasons. I'm afraid I also thought his diction was poor. I also wasn't particularly impressed by the Church Ladies - I couldn't see them at all where I was sitting so couldn't judge any acting, but purely from a vocal point of view they seemed not to be completely in sync with each other and either they were over-miked or they were singing so loudly that at times they overpowered everyone else on stage when they shouldn't have done. They all have great voices, but the balance was wrong. And I've already posted my thoughts on the ensemble/choir - all good singers, but the choreography was dreadful and it just wasn't tight enough, it looked messy and amateurish. Same with the diction in places. There were also a few people who seemed intent on drawing attention to themselves by over-acting, particularly when they were at the front for Miss Celie's Pants, to the point where it got distracting and not in a good way. I wasn't impressed with the sound balance overall - sometimes it was difficult to hear the leads because the musicians were too loud. There were a few missed mic and lighting cues, but given it's a one-off that's to be expected. I thought generally the leads coped well with balancing the mics and props and scores though, and apart from Mister they all had really good diction and had clearly put a lot of thought into how to speak the dialogue as well as sing the songs, which meant they created Celie's world very vividly despite the lack of a full set. Overall, it's always wonderful to hear that fabulous score played and sung live, so it was lovely evening, made all the better by the standout performances from the female leads. Definitely worth a lot more than the ticket price I paid!
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2017 22:14:17 GMT
I said exactly that to the girl sat behind me! I am so glad I didn't see the Menier or Broadway Production because I knew it would cause me to compare and potentially be dissapointed. I am so glad I never saw it before tonight.
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4,458 posts
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Post by poster J on May 21, 2017 22:16:56 GMT
I said exactly that to the girl sat behind me! I am so glad I didn't see the Menier or Broadway Production because I knew it would cause me to compare and potentially be dissapointed. I am so glad I never saw it before tonight. I don't think the Broadway production can be bettered, it was just breathtaking from Cynthia right through the entire ensemble - no weak links. Tonight didn't reach those levels for me - I didn't particularly expect that it would, so I had a feeling I wouldn't love it as much as others probably would. I think maybe I just expected a bit more from Marisha in I'm Here in terms of nuanced performance rather than just belting.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2017 22:18:37 GMT
Interesting. I think the book has issues (the show wasn't received well the first time around on Broadway for a reason) and they largely lie in what's on the page. I can see where you're coming from with the characters being simplistic, although I don't necessarily agree with it being a gendered thing. The women do come across better than the men in general - this is after all a show with a female protagonist in which much of the plot revolves around her escaping the sexism that surrounds her - but I definitely don't think the show states that 'all women are decent'
Spoilers: Celie encourages Harpo to beat Sofia, Shug practically cheats on Celie and is largely depicted as being self centered etc.
I certainly didn't see Harpo as any worse of a person than Shug for example. Perhaps it is in the way that the actor plays him as I only saw the Broadway actor and not the Menier actor, but I found him mostly likeable and I felt as if the audience was meant to be rooting for him. Correct me if I'm wrong as my memory is a bit fuzzy, but he is taken back by Sofia and they conspire to help Celie. Whilst I agree with you that Mister isn't fully forgiven by the text, I'd say he is forgiven as much as he should be. There's a reason why people have an issue with the ending of Carousel in comparison for example.
I guess I just don't see it as completely far fetched that a woman in a community like this would have two or three awful men surrounding her and whilst perhaps they could have been written in a more nuanced way, I didn't leave the show thinking I was meant to feel that the message was anything to do with all men being bad.
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2,051 posts
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Post by infofreako on May 21, 2017 22:19:10 GMT
I said exactly that to the girl sat behind me! I am so glad I didn't see the Menier or Broadway Production because I knew it would cause me to compare and potentially be dissapointed. I am so glad I never saw it before tonight. Strange isn't it? I came away thinking had I seen it previously I might've enjoyed it more. But then I was completely unfamiliar with the whole score which may have hindered.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2017 22:20:29 GMT
I said exactly that to the girl sat behind me! I am so glad I didn't see the Menier or Broadway Production because I knew it would cause me to compare and potentially be dissapointed. I am so glad I never saw it before tonight. I don't think the Broadway production can be bettered, it was just breathtaking from Cynthia right through the entire ensemble - no weak links. Tonight didn't reach those levels for me - I didn't particularly expect that it would, so I had a feeling I wouldn't love it as much as others probably would. I think maybe I just expected a bit more from Marisha in I'm Here in terms of nuanced performance rather than just belting. Thats completely fair enough, I understand that and I know from the clips I have heard, Cythia was sensational so those who saw her, it is tough to beat. I can see why her I'm Here may not be to everyones taste, but my god I just found it so powerful and moving. Maybe being in 3rd row made the difference as it was really felt there? I agree with you that Rachel relied alot on the script, especially in the first half. But remembering she only finished in Canada on Sunday and flew straight over, I was alot more forgiving and understood it wasn't entirely her fault in thst instance haha.
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4,458 posts
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Post by poster J on May 21, 2017 22:28:36 GMT
Thats completely fair enough, I understand that and I know from the clips I have heard, Cythia was sensational so those who saw her, it is tough to beat. I can see why her I'm Here may not be to everyones taste, but my god I just found it so powerful and moving. Maybe being in 3rd row made the difference as it was really felt there? Fair enough! I don't think where I sat would have made a difference as it was Marisha's vocal choices I didn't like, not her acting. It didn't move me because it was too loud and too big too soon. For me it didn't build in the way Cynthia managed to build it without being at the very top end of her belting capabilities all the time - for me it seemed that Marisha went to that part of her voice pretty quickly and then when she did get to the big money notes at the end they sounded a bit forced and over-sung. Just my point of view though, I think it's really just style preferences I'm definitely still glad I saw the Broadway production though, hands down one of the best afternoons I've ever spent in a theatre, it really was something special.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2017 22:32:36 GMT
Also, took me until the middle of the second act to realise why Marisha was wearing a purple dress whilst everyone else was in black...
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4,458 posts
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Post by poster J on May 21, 2017 22:41:19 GMT
Also, took me until the middle of the second act to realise why Marisha was wearing a purple dress whilst everyone else was in black... It didn't even occur to me that that was deliberate until you mentioned it! Presumably Nettie wearing white was symbolic too then.
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