Printer Friendly - Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by jacobsnchz14 2012-11-22 10:35:46
I did not really care for ELF, but NICE WORK and ANNIE were good. CINDERELLA's on now... really liking it.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by CapnHook 2012-11-22 10:54:06
ELF chose a good number to perform. Buddy had absolutely no energy at the end of the number and the TV cameras picked up on it: there was a half-ass kick in the choreo, and a half-ass smile on the button.
NICE WORK looked boring on TV. Ensemble was great, and Kelli has so much zest, I love her, but she and Matthew doing S'Wonderful is not exciting enough to keep one's attention in the excitement of the parade. It's hard to take in the energy of thousands of people then suddenly focus in on just two.
ANNIE was the most successful number. That performance will sell some tickets. It was smartly crafted and despite the director not landing some camera cutaways, it was still successful.
CINDERELLA was also successful, and the camera angles blended with the choreography to make some LOVELY pictures. Wish the prince's costume made him look more princely. When he was revealed, I thought maybe it was an ensemble member stepping in for the prince (thinking maybe something off-camera happened causing him not to go on).
BRING IT ON had so much going on, it was difficult to focus on each moment. That poor director who had to keep up! Love the show, and still had fun, but wish they would have done one of the cheer routine numbers instead.
Anyone see ONCE or NEWSIES?
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by broadwaydevil 2012-11-22 11:14:41
Once and Newsies were both prerecorded (I believe) and were in their theatres, which creates quite a different environment. To be honest though, it was far more conducive to showcasing their respective shows, vocals, choreography, etc.
Both were well done.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by E.Davis 2012-11-22 11:18:55
I am really digging the design for Victoria Clark's Fairy Godmother.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by OKBroadwayFan 2012-11-22 11:23:30
Did you catch Matt Lauer's intro of "Nice Work.." "Singing S Wonderful..." :)
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by frontrowcentre2 2012-11-22 11:28:33
S - Wonderful.... I had to laugh! Just proves that Lauer's generation (and younger) don't know the Gershwin repertoire!
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by best12bars 2012-11-22 11:29:04
Loved the Cinderella number. Victoria looked and sounded terrific, so did Laura and the cast. I have a feeling this show is going to do really well.
Nice Work ... Matthew looked so restrained and cautious. Blah. He's uncomfortable to watch.
Annie -- I enjoyed the number, but that wig looks really bad on Annie. It's not doing her any favors. She looks like a mushroom. The cast was appealing though. I really like this Daddy Warbucks.
Bring It On -- seemed like this number was trying to be too many things. "Street" and "squeaky clean." Suffering from an awkward identity crisis. I enjoyed it enough, and it worked really well in this parade environment.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by best12bars 2012-11-22 11:30:10
frontrowcentre---"S. Wonderful" as spoken by Matt Lauer.
Jesus, Matt.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by beautywickedlover 2012-11-22 11:47:23
'Cinderella' was very good. I really do want to see it this spring. But as I mentioned earlier I was not crazy about the crown on Laura's head. It really did look like the one the White Witch wears in the 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'. I would perfer to see her wear a traditional crown/tiara.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by showchoirguy 2012-11-22 11:48:52
I did a double-take when I heard S. Wonderful. I just shook my head and chuckled.
Cinderella looks like it's going to be fantastic. We still need to wait and hear what the book is going to be.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by Mildred Plotka 2012-11-22 11:51:23
I don't think Nice Work needs TV to be boring. 
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by Joviedamian 2012-11-22 12:10:29
If anyone is interested, here is a video of the cast and creative teams explaining the additions, etc to the book of Cinderella.
http://www.cinderellaonbroadway.com/lookandlisten
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by frankywhitley 2012-11-22 13:06:08
ANNIE and CINDERELLA gave the best performances on the parade today. Both story driven and will clearly sell tickets :)
WHY did Macys choose to let ELF do another performance over "A XMAS STORY"... Mistake I think... boring.
Nice Work's dancers were fantastic, then it died when Matthew and Kelli came out...
Bring it on I thought was great too, too bad they are closing and people really didnt give this show a chance... The choreography those kids do in that show is amazing. The show is so fun...
Rockettes looked stunning.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by E.Davis 2012-11-22 13:22:23
Are the expanding the role of the God Mother?
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by degrassifan 2012-11-22 13:33:19
"Are the expanding the role of the God Mother?"
Yep! And, just like the original French version, the younger stepsister will be nicer than the elder.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by sing_dance_love 2012-11-22 13:47:12
Thanks for sharing those videos on the Cinderella website, Jovie. Really interesting. I am SO excited for this production.
And I thought the performance this morning was magical. Victoria and Laura looked and sounded beautiful, great choreo, and loved the way it was shot.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by TheatreDiva90016 2012-11-22 14:02:40
This was my favorite
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by SNAFU 2012-11-22 14:05:45
Like the performance but sorry, I find the costumes hideous! Nothing magical about them.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by Far From Home 2012-11-22 15:33:45
"Nice Work's dancers were fantastic, then it died when Matthew and Kelli came out..."
Matthew would look so much better if he lost 20 pounds. Right now he looks like a fat little kid, and it takes so much away from the whole image.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by TheatreDiva90016 2012-11-22 16:38:22
Is there any reason for Buddy, the Elf, to be so.... large?
I thought Victoria Clark looked washed out. And that dress...
Price Charming couldn't have been more plain looking.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by allofmylife 2012-11-22 16:43:42
Oh My God, (I'm old school no OMG for me) I laughed my ass of at Matt Laurer, introducing the cast of "Nice Work" and their, apparently, Spanish version of the Gershwin hit, "Ess Wonderful."
That's simply embarrassing.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by MattDe 2012-11-22 16:49:41
i Smell a tony for laura
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by OperaBwayLover 2012-11-22 17:37:25
I thought all of the NBC performances were equally good this year; the first half of the "Nice Work" performance was great, all that energy in the dancing(the second half...meh). And I cringed when Matt said S Wonderful.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by After Eight 2012-11-22 21:23:39
I thought the Annie number came off best. The Elf song was just bad. Bring It On's song sounded better than it did in the theatre. Nice Work was ok. I found the costumes in Cinderella to be quite ugly, and the Fairy Godmother's dress perfectly hideous. Luckily they didn't mess with the music.
I gratefully missed the number from Once.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by sueb1863 2012-11-22 21:36:02
The 'Ess Wonderful' gaffe reminded me of the moment in 'Glee' when the musically clueless high school principal referred to Ke$ha as 'Ke Dollar Sign Ha'.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by sparrman 2012-11-22 23:54:58
"S. Wonderful" is the sequel to "M. Butterfly".
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by allofmylife 2012-11-23 00:41:04
or M. barrassing.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by FANtomFollies 2012-11-23 00:41:36
I was sort of assuming most of the Cinderella costumes weren't final. Often costumes aren't even completely done for the first preview, and even that is a little ways away.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by secondstar2theright 2012-11-23 00:45:12
I didn't care for the Elf performances. I hope they get much better by the time that they open.
Nice Work seemed kind of boring.
I liked Cinderella and I really like Laura Osnes' voice! However, I was not particularly wow'd by her ball gown.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by Liz7 2012-11-23 08:24:04
Newsies did what they always do....King of New York. I like it and it was nicely done but can't they do something else once in awhile. It's gotten old.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by eperkins 2012-11-23 08:29:24
Actually, Newsies does "Seize The Day" just as frequently. It's always one of those two. But what other number from the show would you do?
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by yankeefan7 2012-11-23 08:31:15
It was OK, nothing special. What struck me was how awful Broderick is,it looks like he is learning the dance and has no energy.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by ClydeBarrow 2012-11-23 13:35:49
For the person asking why ELF was chosen over A XMAS STORY, part of ELF is set in Macy's and it's the Macy's parade so...
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by ClydeBarrow 2012-11-23 13:36:00
Double post
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by SondheimFan5 2012-11-23 23:00:20
I believe Macys may be a producer of ELF (or at least a major investor). I may be wrong though.
Annie was certainly the most effective. A vibrant, exciting performance.
Cindy will be good in the theatre.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by Movidude742 2012-11-24 09:39:03
I have to wonder if the casts that get selected for CBS are thankful that they get to prerecord in their own theaters instead of having to get up early and perform outside.
I imagine NBC has a larger audience, but does that balance the rest. Especially if the company did 2 shows the day before . . .
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by karen24 2012-11-24 20:37:04
All I could think of to sort of excuse Matt's gaffe is that he was no doubt reading from a teleprompter, and maybe they wrote it out as "S Wonderful" without the apostrophe, and he just read it without realizing the mistake until it was too late. But then again, if I were reading it and I knew the correct title of the song, I'd just automatically correct it in my head and then say it properly...so never mind. It was definitely awkward!
I also liked CINDERELLA and ANNIE the best. I was actually kind of out of the loop on CINDERELLA and didn't realize at first that it was Laura Osnes - then I started thinking, "Wait, who IS that talented girl?!" Can't wait to see the rest of the cast, especially Harriet Harris and Ann Harada.
I don't know if I'll wind up going to see ANNIE, but it does look like a good production and I'm sure many, many little girls will go. I think I liked the dog best 
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by Timmer 2012-11-24 22:36:58
I caught that -- Lauer is obviously ignorant about Broadway.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by shrekster224 2012-11-26 13:58:13
Honestly, I can say that Nice Work has quite the ensemble. I have watched just the "Lady Be Good" part of the performance on Youtube probably 5 or 6 times now because of how captivating they are as dancers and performers. I would have been completely happy if they ended it there, but showcasing Matthew and Kelli in S'Wonderful just killed the fun in a way. All of the dancers are so interesting and just great, and I don't think any one dancer stood out more than another. Also love all the swings, and it's no wonder most of these guys jump from show to show.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by dreaming 2012-11-26 14:01:59
I hated the Nice Work performance. I wished they'd done something featuring the two Tony winners, who sure had more energy than Matthew Broderick did when I saw it.
Also-please fix Cinderella's dress and tiara-the tiara is hideous and the dress is very boring. She fails to stand out. However, I loved the singing and choreography.
Thanksgiving Parade Performances
Posted by theobsessed 2012-11-27 09:37:11
I personally was really impressed with Cinderella (more than I expected) and really didn't like Elf (more than I expected). Slightly more in depth review in the link below.
http://broadwaydude2378.blogspot.com/
