We splurge on one broadway show per year because Matt knows it is something I love. (He enjoys some shows better than others, but in general he's there only because of my love of Broadway music.) This year we saw Jekyll and Hyde, and it was one last nice date night before our lives are taken over by a newborn in less than 2 weeks.
*everything below is my opinion on the performance, which will hold no interest if you know nothing about the play :o)
I've seen this play once before, and I preferred the first performance. Jekyll/Hyde was played by Constantine Maroulis, who apparently was a runner-up in an American Idol season that I didn't watch. He has a wonderful voice, but there is also a certain rock quality to his voice which I guess the director really wanted to bring out and which I didn't care for. A Broadway first for me was seeing an electric guitar in the orchestra pit, and it was utilized in several of Hyde's songs and even a few that Jekyll sang. Because of the electric guitar addition, "This is the Moment" was not all I hoped for, although there were several parts he sang beautifully. Constantine also did a lot of ad libbing in his songs, which disappointed me as well.
The two songs that let me down the most were "Murder, Murder," which was changed completely from the original (it was a slow song instead of a quick song), and "Confrontation." The first time I saw this play, this latter song won me over because it showed just how talented Jekyll was as a singer and actor. This song is a duet between Jekyll and Hyde sung with incredible passion. The guy who played Jekyll/Hyde the first time I saw it performed pulled half of his hair up (Jekyll) and left half of it down (Hyde) and sang the song switching back and forth between characters so quickly and masterfully, turning his head between characters, that I was left in awe. He had some serious talent to be able to pull that off! So I went into this one with the same expectations, and the director completely changed up the performance of this song as well. Totally bummed.
I really enjoyed all of Emma's songs and thought she sang superbly. Lucy had a beautiful voice, but did some ad libbing in songs that I didn't care for. "In His Eyes" was performed beautifully, which is one of my favorite songs!
It was an enjoyable evening, and we are so grateful to Matt's mom for babysitting the boys for us so that we could enjoy this fancy date night!
No comments:
Post a Comment