I'm too connected to be truly objective here, so I'm sorry. I had a wonderful time at the show yesterday. It was great. Highlights:
The seats!! Row R in the Orchestra, thanks to the ticket fairy - in the form of one of my colleagues whose aunt, a Bway in Chicago subscriber could not use her tickets.... And on the aisle too!
Judy Kaye's Mrs. Lovett - I was worried. Really. I think we all know how I feel about this. But she was great. "Always had a fondness for you, I did," she sings, and this unrequited love of this man is what drives this Mrs. Lovett to do just about anything. She was less predatory and sexy and more Hyacinth Bucket, a down on her luck lady in a really short skirt... I found it a little hard to believe that her bedding would ever be rumpled. I think her sheets would be ironed with the same precision she polished the "equipment" in By the Sea.
Lauren Molina, Ben Magnuson and Diana DiMarzo - the original Broadway casters, transplanted to the tour. Loved them.
Did not really like the Beadle or the Judge (channeling Darrell Hammond playing President Clinton???) and David Hess was somewhat underwhelming. The moment I fell in love with the show when I first saw it in 2006 was Sweeney's first entrance, when he looms out of the coffin and says "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd..." I was hooked. Each time thereafter, that line gave me chills. Mr. Hess didn't give it the same delivery, the same fire. There also didn't seem to be any chemistry between him and Judy, but that is okay, since that dream of love and marriage is hers alone.
Anyway, point is, I liked it. I'd go back, if I could...
3 comments:
Glad you enjoyed it! Did you attend the Sunday matinee? I was at the evening performance.
Why be worried about one of the classiest and most accomplished singing actresses around?
I was at the matinee... and Ms. Judy was divine...
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