Big Fish - Pre-Broadway Try-Out: Chicago, Illinois (April 2, 2013) *Evening*
FIRST EVER PERFORMANCE! (FIRST PREVIEW!)
Cast:
Bobby Steggert (Will Bloom), Norbert Leo Butz (Edward Bloom), Zachary Unger (alt. Young Will), Kate Baldwin (Sandra Bloom), Krystal Joy Brown (Josephine Bloom), Ben Crawford (Don Price), Alex Brightman (Zacky Price), Katie Thompson (The Witch), Sarrah Strimel (Girl In The Water), Kirsten Scott (Jenny Hill), Tally Sessions (The Mayor), Ryan Andes (Kyle), Brad Oscar (Amos Calloway), Bree Crawford (Ensemble), Robin Campbell (Ensemble), Bryn Dowling (Ensemble), Jason Lee Garrett (Ensemble), Leah Hofmann (Ensemble), JC Montgomery (Ensemble), Angie Schworer (Ensemble), Lara Seibert (Ensemble), Cary Tedder (Ensemble).
Review:
"The God's Honest Truth" is this show is wonderful! Big Fish definitely still needs some work, but the show as is when I saw it is pretty spectacular! First off, I saw the very FIRST performance of the show EVER! I know that plenty of changes and tweaks are to come before the end of its run. Let’s start off with the cast. Norbert Leo Butz is so fantastic at whatever he does. I strongly think he’ll come close to getting his next tony with this show. His performance as Edward Bloom was spectacular. His voice is so good! I never really realized it. This is really the first show where he gets to show off his voice a lot! Kate Baldwin is just a doll. Her voice is so pretty! She played Sandra with such warmth and compassion. Bobby Steggert was really good as Will Bloom. His voice was kind of like Aaron Tveit’s, but a much stronger belt. You could really feel the anger coming off of him. Katie Thompson was FREAKIN AMAZING as The Witch. Her vocals are out of this world! Ryan Andes really was awesome as Karl The Giant. He had to stand on stilts plus he is already like 7 feet tall! The rest of the cast are completely stellar! Everyone gets to do something, and it really shows. The set was pretty cool. Due to the fact it’s Pre-Broadway they can do whatever the hell they want to the theatre, so they weren’t limited like touring shows. The set was basically the sets of “Wonderland" & “Bonnie And Clyde” coming together. There were amazing projections, visually, and great little tricks. The orchestra was actually on stage in the back. I thought that was really cool! They did this so they could use the orchestra pit as the river. A lot of tricks were done with that. I also noticed a couple of lighting cues were a bit off (it was the first show, that’s possible to happen). Also, Norbert’s mike in the first act seemed to be sounding a bit low in some parts. Maybe it was just me. In the end I do believe the movie captured the story better, but I enjoyed the musical a lot more. The story seemed to be very heavily condensed in the show. It was a bit confusing in some parts and others really did not make that much sense. There was a western number in act two called “Showdown” it was really fun and I got what they were going for, however it really did not fit with the rest of the show. The score is wonderful. I loved a lot of the songs. I still say that “The Addams Family” is Andrew Lippa’s best score. “Big Fish" is definitely second. In the end “Big Fish” compared as an adaption of the movie gets a 7/10 and as the show itself 9/10. I would definitely love to see it again. It truly is a wonderful show! :D
Stage Door:
Stage door was really cool! It was packed! Well at least, the most packed one I’ve ever gone to. Norbert was out first. He was in a super huge hurry. There was like 50+ people there and everyone wanted to meet him. He signed my Playbill and Grimmerie. Then he was out of there pretty quick. Then Alex Brightman came out. He signed my Playbill, but I didn’t realize it was him. Then someone said BRIGHTMAN! So, I went back over to him and had him sign my Grimmerie, after all he was Boq! Then Brad Oscar and Ryan Andes both came out and were super nice. Ryan was really cool, everyone loved him! Then Kate Baldwin came out and she was so sweet. I told her voice was beautiful and she was like “awe thank you so much”. Then Zachary Unger came out. He was so little. It was actually his birthday that night. He seemed so happy and blessed that everyone loved him. I had him sign my Playbill and his “At This Performance” Slip. Then there’s like two more people as well but I’m not sure who they were. One of them saw my Grimmerie and said “Do you want me to sign that?”. Then I said no that’s just for people who have been in Wicked. He said “Oh, I’ve never been in Wicked”. Then I said maybe you should change that and then he laughed and said “NO WAY!”. Is it bad to be in Wicked now? LOL. So, It was a pretty successful stage door! :D
Vlog:
I think it is my best vlog yet! I actually got footage of the stage door!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WwMkM-1Pv4&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WwMkM-1Pv4&feature=youtu.be