Oops, sorry for the delay!
I had to work an hour overtime almost every day last week, and then yesterday kinda forgot, but at last here's the slightly more detailed post as requested. :)
Not that there's a whole lot to tell, really. I'm still 100% on winning rush lotteries in New York (including that first time back when Rent was still super popular and my sister and her friend wanted me to enter to increase their chances of getting a pair, and all three of us won), which is good because I'd finally decided I was not going to pay full price for Annie, and by lottery time it wasn't on TKTS, despite having still been up an hour later the previous day. That put me front row, about five seats off center, which is really partial view due to the height of the stage. (As in, there was a dog? Not that I really saw. Also totally had a crick in my neck before intermission.) Was almost directly in front of the tuba, so I suspect the recording's nearly pointless, which is fine since my tape deck and CD recorder are both in storage so the tapes are useless to me anyway.
The girl two seats over was kind of upset that there was an under!Pepper, of all things. (Her dad: "This is her fourth time seeing it, she just really likes her." Me: "Fair enough, I'm just here for Anthony Warlow myself.") But she was much better behaved than the one behind me, who kept singing along. Plus it was amusing listening to her explain to her dad what a swing is. (Also amusing: the little girl in the booster seat a row behind me at Matilda the night before telling her mother that no, the boxes aren't the best seats in the house, they're the worst, because you can't see half the stage!)
Now that all that filler is out of the way, I'll get to the important bit: Warlow. Vocally, of course, he's totally wasted in this role, but I pretty much knew that going in. For me, the fun part was finally getting to experience him as an actor. DVDs are all well and good, but it's not the same, you know? And I'm soooo glad I did. He's very committed; not surprisingly I hardly looked anywhere else when he was onstage, and even when he was in the background he was constantly reacting, even if just by slight changes in expression. Despite Warbucks' being a regular person with no specifically required physicality, his whole body was in on the performance from the way he carried himself to his near-permanent scowl. I suspect a fair bit of his performance would have read well from the back of the house, which is of course what you want in theatrical acting, without being too broad for those of us up close to enjoy. Just lovely.
Would I have enjoyed another show more? Almost certainly. Would I have regretted not taking this chance? Most definitely. So, you know, I'm happy with the decision.
(Didn't waste my time trying to find the stage door, because I know he tries to avoid them when possible and it was quite literally nearly freezing. Besides, I never manage to sound like anything other than an idiot when I do that.)
Not that there's a whole lot to tell, really. I'm still 100% on winning rush lotteries in New York (including that first time back when Rent was still super popular and my sister and her friend wanted me to enter to increase their chances of getting a pair, and all three of us won), which is good because I'd finally decided I was not going to pay full price for Annie, and by lottery time it wasn't on TKTS, despite having still been up an hour later the previous day. That put me front row, about five seats off center, which is really partial view due to the height of the stage. (As in, there was a dog? Not that I really saw. Also totally had a crick in my neck before intermission.) Was almost directly in front of the tuba, so I suspect the recording's nearly pointless, which is fine since my tape deck and CD recorder are both in storage so the tapes are useless to me anyway.
The girl two seats over was kind of upset that there was an under!Pepper, of all things. (Her dad: "This is her fourth time seeing it, she just really likes her." Me: "Fair enough, I'm just here for Anthony Warlow myself.") But she was much better behaved than the one behind me, who kept singing along. Plus it was amusing listening to her explain to her dad what a swing is. (Also amusing: the little girl in the booster seat a row behind me at Matilda the night before telling her mother that no, the boxes aren't the best seats in the house, they're the worst, because you can't see half the stage!)
Now that all that filler is out of the way, I'll get to the important bit: Warlow. Vocally, of course, he's totally wasted in this role, but I pretty much knew that going in. For me, the fun part was finally getting to experience him as an actor. DVDs are all well and good, but it's not the same, you know? And I'm soooo glad I did. He's very committed; not surprisingly I hardly looked anywhere else when he was onstage, and even when he was in the background he was constantly reacting, even if just by slight changes in expression. Despite Warbucks' being a regular person with no specifically required physicality, his whole body was in on the performance from the way he carried himself to his near-permanent scowl. I suspect a fair bit of his performance would have read well from the back of the house, which is of course what you want in theatrical acting, without being too broad for those of us up close to enjoy. Just lovely.
Would I have enjoyed another show more? Almost certainly. Would I have regretted not taking this chance? Most definitely. So, you know, I'm happy with the decision.
(Didn't waste my time trying to find the stage door, because I know he tries to avoid them when possible and it was quite literally nearly freezing. Besides, I never manage to sound like anything other than an idiot when I do that.)