EDWIN DROOD Highlights Video

[jacobsnchz14]

http://broadwayworld.com/videoplay.php?colid=425188

Looks like so much fun!

[Mildred Plotka]

Seeing it Saturday! Very Excited.

[evic]

They should have hired a dialect coach for Chita. She is a national treasure but as in Nine, she just cannot do accents.

[castlestreet]

Looks amazing!

[DRSisLove]

They filmed this last Wednesday when I was there... saw myself in the footage :)

[nasty_khakis]

I LOVE that they included Andy Karl's head bob as it made me laugh harder than almost anything else in the show. I demand a .gif of this!!

[best12bars]

Stephanie Block sounds and looks fantastic, and I love her energy in the part.

Rosa Bud has a good voice, but her acting in Moonfall is nonexistent. She's just singing the song. There was so much subtext going on when Patti Cohenour did it. She looked (at times) frightened, seduced, plaintive, confused ... she kept looking at Jasper to see what he was doing and thinking and then looking away ... and he was "seducing" her from the piano bench while she fought him, sometimes winning sometimes giving in. It made the number have so much depth. But this version stops at "nicely sung."

Chita is Chita (and not Rita). Doing her thing very well. She's not Cleo Laine, but she makes it work for herself in this clip.

I think the rest of the cast looks great. The staging seems a bit dull, compared to Graziella Danielle's work. But all in all, this looks like a fine production, and this video would definitely get me into the theatre to see it in NY.

[callitquits]

Oh, best12bars, I so wish I could've seen Cohenour's Rosa Bud after that description, because I absolutely loved this production but couldn't help feeling that Betsy Wolfe is a little miscast/out of her element as Rosa Bud. Her Deidre Peregrine is a coquettish Eve Harrington-esque riot, but it seems like once she has to go into character as Rosa for the "straighter" scenes, she becomes lost - vacillating between doing lots of self-aware, knowing winks and nudges to the audience and, in the case of "Moonfall", making no real choices at all. There's also the issue that Rosa has many lines about what a dainty, childlike doll of a person she is, even saying to Helena at one point something like (I don't remember the exact line) "I feel like such a tiny innocent mite standing before a solid, voluptuous woman like you!"...while Wolfe has a statuesque, almost Christina Hendricks-like body. Maybe this is intentional, to possibly make Jasper seem less predatory? But the repeated lines about her tiny stature felt odd to me coming from the tallest, curviest woman on the stage.

[best12bars]

Those lines suited Cohenour perfectly. She looked like a tiny "Dresden doll" on stage. So petite, with a lovely face. I'm not sure if others had noticed this about her, but back then, she looked a lot like Billie Burke in her heyday, years before paying Glinda in MGM's "Oz." A dainty ingenue from a bygone era. Very similar features and stature.

And her voice was incredible. She shook the rafters when she sang "The Name of Love/Moonfall" with Howard McGiillan (equally terrific).

And Patti definitely switched gears between the innocent, confused, and haunted Rosa Bud, and the coquettish, slightly mischievous, and even occasionally bawdy Deirdre, who played her.

I saw her performance and Bebe Neuwirth's in Sweet Charity, who was good and beat Patti for the Tony that year. I thought Patti gave a much better performance.

[best12bars]

Patti:



Billie:

[showchoirguy]

I cannot watch! I don't want to ruin anything!

[shrekster224]

Wow, it looks great! Haven't really been into this show until this weekend and I really want to see it. The cast seems like a perfect mix of talent, and Stephanie J. Block sounds amazing as usual. For experts on this show, what outcomes from the voting will make for the best show?

[dexter3]

Any idea if there is talk of a cast album?

Stephanie J Block is masterful, and she gave me chills in the theater, as she did in this video. The way she sings the closing number is truly rousing and heartfelt.

[E.Davis]

I have watched the video a bunch of times and I think that Wolfe makes some interesting choices. There is an over looming fear in her eyes and you can just feel the pressure of Jasper leering into her.

[Kelly2]

A friend of mine who's involved with the show says that the audience has yet to pick some of the endings that are his favorites in the script, though Neville/Puffer as the lovers was one of the ones he was waiting for people to pick and that happened on Thursday night.

He encouraged me to vote for non-obvious choices.

[macnyc]

The scene in the opium den is amazing, very dreamlike, and with very evocative choreography. Just beautiful.

[perfectlymarvelous]

best12bars, having seen Betsy Wolfe in the theater, I tend to agree with you about her Rosa Bud. Beautifully sung, but rather uninteresting on the whole. She really faded into the background for me, especially next to the other performances being given that were really wonderful and engaging and funny.

[Miranda3]

Having seen the orignal also, I agree completely with Best12's opinions re Cohenor. Re Norton: From the little I can see in these highlights, Norton is a perfecly fine Chairman. BUT he lacks the crispness and verve that Rose had. To isolate a tiny detail: "We but cheer you've made it here at all." Rose hit that with a crisp "T" in front of the "all". His enunciation was, "We but cheer you've made it here at Tall." Tiny but crisp and puncuated with his body moves. Small differences. But they punched the energy in a way that Norton (admittedy, from this small sample video) does not quite. Chita is Chita and deservedly beloved. But Cleo's "Wages of Sin" rules!

[Bialyhoos22]

Miranda3 - I love how you picked up on those small touches that George brought to the role, especially in 'There You Are'. Couldn't agree with you more! There was a larger than life exuberance and knowingness that Rose brought to the role (and that opening number) that Norton sorrily lacks. Norton is a wonderful Chairman to be sure, but he could afford to have a lot more size in his performance.

I also think the new arrangement of There You Are is doing him no favors -- Rupert really toned down the rollicking bounce of the percussion.

I uploaded an excerpt from the OBC press reel below -- which really highlights the difference in approaches, both in terms of the orchestration and Rose's inimitable performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEj1dn1Mrco

Enjoy!

[undercoveractor]

I agree with so much here...especially in regards to George Rose, Patti Cohenour, and Cleo Laine. BUT in truth, that original production is one for the ages, and I knew from the moment that this was announced that I would miss those original performances. They were perfect. As was the contribution of the genius Graciela Danielle and WIlford Leach with the staging.
That said, I LOVE this production too. My minor quibbles (Chita being the weak link to me, and Block sounding amazing as usual, but coming off as far too modern/contemporary, as usual) are nothing compared to how much I love Jesse Mueller, Andy Karl, Peter Benson, Will Chase, Robert Creighton etc etc. It is a fabulous show and I hope that it sticks around for some time.

[Bialyhoos22]

Well said -- the original was truly one for the ages. I was actually surprised that Kathleen Marshall wasn't called upon as choreographer for the revival. She and Rob were in the original Broadway company (with Rob actually receiving an associate choreographer credit opposite Graciela). When Daniele was unavailable post the Broadway run, Rob and Kathleen choreographed the '88 national tour using much of the original staging. Though Edward M Greenberg is credited as Director (recreating Wilford Leach's work) it was actually Rob who put Clive Revill into the show after George's untimely death.

While Warren Carlyle's choreography is quite good throughout (even fantastic at times - the Opium Den sequence is stunning), I feel the music hall verve is missing in the music hall numbers (particularly There You Are).

[Miranda3]

Bialy: Thanks so much for your upload from the press reel! I really enjoyed seeing George Rose again, in the spoken part of the role as well as the number. There is another YouTube video from the Tonys that year with the whole OBC doing "There You Are". It shows Cleo, Patti, and Betty, as well as Howard, interacting with the audience before being called down to the stage by The Chairman. I think everybody has seen it, but I can find and post the link if wanted.

[AAO26]

everyone should just get over the past and enjoy the present! stop comparing and complaining! its a wonderful, enjoyable production with great performances. chita will never be a "weak link"...not sure where cleo is these days-but glad to know where chita is and deserves to be = putting a hell of performance and entertaining audiences every night! the audiences can't get enough of her - perfect accent or not..

[Miranda3]

AA026: It is perfectly fair to compare. Liking the original better doesn't mean that the current production is bad. Cleo is doing fine, thank you very much. She is 84 and still performing, after the death of her husband and musical partner, John Dankworth.

[Miranda3]

OK. My dander is up. Watch this and (unless it is verboten) dare to compare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fE2VW1rYZ0

[Bialyhoos22]

AAO26 -- no one is complaining or bemoaning that we have a glorious revival of this remarkable show. But it must be said that the role of the Chairman is as inseparable to George Rose as Max Bialystock is to Zero Mostel. And it was Rupert Holmes that made this exact comparison. The role of the Chairman was in a major way shaped by Rose's persona and adlibs during the initial staged readings done in February and May of 1985.

As such, there are certain tent poles to the role that actors need to be at least aware of to be truly successful in the part. Norton has done more than an admirable job filling these large shoes, but could stand to have A LOT more Victorian Music Hall in his performance. There was something very authentic about Rose in the part (who would be 93 next year) -- he was a 'barker' in the role (just as the real Chairmen of 1890s were known to be) Whipping the audience into shape, teasing them, scorning them, rousing them up. That particular aspect is missing here.

I think it's perfectly valid to compare and contrast this production, as many of these roles played to the strengths and idiosyncrasies of the original performers. ie. George Rose WAS William Cartwright, Betty Buckley WAS Miss Alice Nutting. Their performances shaped the characters, plot and music Rupert wrote. Therefore it only makes sense to include them in the discussion of any subsequent production.