We won’t find out until they release the tickets on Monday but just getting us started.
When you receive your actual seats, post ‘em (if you want), so we can see what they gave out via the lottery.
Curious if anyone got their seats *before* they went to the lottery and already know where you’ll be sitting? Feel free to post here too.
See y’all on Tuesday!
I took the A from Harlem to the Rockaways today, mostly to have an excuse to enjoy a long air-conditioned subway ride.
But when I got off at Beach 67th St, I was very pleasantly surprised to find the temperature was easily 10-15 degrees cooler, the humidity was lower, and there was a cool sea breeze blowing everywhere.
If you have the time and want a break from the heat in the middle of the city, take a ride out to the oceanside.
He was in a reading tonight at the Delacorte, and I am always happy when I see him in the cast. I connect him to Stereophonic, maybe because he won the Tony for his performance, but when I mentioned him to a friend after tonight’s reading, her response was, “From Mrs Maisel?”. It was then that it dawned on me that he had been Midge’s brother.
God, we were all so young, once.
So, I had the chance to see Just in Time with Jeremy Jordan on Sunday. I splurged for a table seat for my friend’s birthday and it was fantastic.
But then, I got a notification that a special fund raising event for the Circle in the Square Theater School, which had been scheduled back in February but got *snowed out* was being rescheduled for yesterday, Monday, June 22.
So, less than 24 hrs after I was just there, I sat in another table seat in the downstairs theater at Circle in the Square to watch a 12-hr marathon reading of five plays by Tracy Letts (I did about 10 hrs because I arrived late, but that was the one play I’d seen already).
Only in New York.
So, thanks to another thread in this sub, I was inspired to make my first trip to see the show since the new cast has taken over. I was planning on seeing it during June to get my Pride Month copy of the new Playbill, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
For a Wednesday matinee, I didn't think the audience was too bad; I'd say the orchestra was about 80-85% full. I couldn't see completely up to the Mezz or the Balcony, but of what I could see, they did not look very full. I also noticed that the far side seats were virtually empty on both sides of the house.
Hannah was out sick, so we got to see Savy Jackson. Marcus and Dez were also out, so the only "main" cast member that I got to see was Zachary Noah Piser. Daniel May was in for Marcus, and Christopher James Tomayo was in for Dez. Of the cast, Christopher was the only one I'd seen before, so it was a very nice, fresh view of the show from top to bottom.
First, the good.
I think both Zachary and Savy are very strong singers--actually stronger than Darren and Helen--and they did a great job on all of the songs, especially their harmonies with each other. Zach also did a fine job on Where You Belong with Daniel, though their harmonizing started a bit rough in the beginning. From the last time that I saw Christopher--I believe he was filling in for Dez then too--I knew that he was also an excellent singer, so the music was in good hands.
Now, for my concerns.
It's still less than a month since he took over the role, but Zachary still seems a bit unsure in his character. I saw a similar uncertainty in ABF's first performance that I got to see, but that was literally his second day of doing the show, and I found him much more self-assured and occupying the role as his own the second time that I saw him about a month later.
Zachary's version of Oliver is more like ABF than Darren; he's a bit of a neurotic, nervous, and just not very sure of himself. He never displays the confidence that Darren would express between his bouts of insecurity, and he seems a bit more juvenile a character than Darren's Oliver, which tracks, since Zachary is six years younger than Darren. Oddly, when he would take on a false bravado from time to time, his performance reminded me of the king in the King and I, hands on hips and all.
I can only hope that Zach will eventually find his footing in the character of Oliver and he'll give a more confident and grounded performance in the role as he gains more experience and he becomes more comfortable on stage.
There are obviously a number of individual quirks that every actor imbues to make the character their own, and for the most part, I'm fine with Zachary's approach to the character, but there was one segment that I found a bit odd. During the fireflies sequence, Oliver is chasing after the fireflies in the beginning, and judging from Zach's actions, he's never chased fireflies in his life. He looks like he's trying to kill mosquitos rather than snag a firefly in his hands. Needs work.
For the most part, I had fewer quibbles with Savy's performance, especially in light of the fact that she had just taken over for Hannah, mid-show, the day before. Her Claire is a bit more self-assured, a little less neurotic than Claire Kwon's, and less snippy than Helen's. Again, her singing was superb and she harmonizes very nicely with Zach, so nobody should be concerned that they're not getting the best if they see her as the understudy for Claire.
I'd never seen Daniel before, and I think his performance was the most different from his main cast counterpart, Marcus. I don't know how frequently Daniel gets to go on, but he was clearly getting adjusted to his role as the show went on. At the very beginning, when he walks over to the turntable to switch the record and start the show, Daniel walked up to the turntable way too early, and he looked a bit silly standing there, waiting for the song to end. It's a very small thing, but something that anyone who's seen the show a few times might notice. I found his overall portrayal of James a bit more subdued and calmer than Marcus'; not necessarily better or worse, just different.
So, did I love the show the same as I did with the OBC? I think that's a hard question to answer and the long and medium term success of the show will really rest on how the new audiences come away from the show after their first or second viewing. The ovation was very hearty and heartfelt at the end, so the people in the Belasco this afternoon seemed to enjoy it. I can only hope that word of mouth will continue to be solid and positive for this show and that it will find a way to sustain itself, at least through the end of the year. We'll have to see how things will come around once the touring company starts actual performances, and we'll see how the road production differs from the Broadway one, and whether people will still want to make the trip into NYC to see the Bway production.
If your child is incapable of sitting still and quiet for 100 mins, don’t take him to a 100-min Broadway show.
Between the constant fidgeting, rocking, craning, and noisily rooting through his knapsack, he was one of the most distracting attendees in our section.
I’ll be there in the front row. Not a gift wrap seat but nice and close for Darren’s farewell bows. Anyone else coming tomorrow?