The much (or at least somewhat) anticipated PART 2
Okay, i miei bambini, here we go! I'm splitting up the cuts in half so that you can skip my VERY in depth review of the show if you so desire. LOL
THE SHOW
The show itself was phenominal. OMG - EVERYONE was on top of their games. They all sounded amazing. Let's see....I always love the first scene, Give Them What They Want, because the whole stage just dances - like, everything is in constant motion and it's glittering and full of music and I just love it. :-P Anyway, Joanna was hysterical. "Well, merde!" John exuded his usual charm and Greg was absolutely unstoppable. His "big pencil" line brought the house down. Joanna sounded gorgeous during What Was A Woman To Do, although they had some sound problems - I could hear people's mikes going in and out during the song. But it was still great - and I did miss Laura in the usher thing - no one can do it like she can! It also seemed like John & Norb were rushing their dialogue - like they were behind the music or something, but it worked anyway. :)
Great Big Stuff. What can I say? Norbert was just kind of ALL over the place, completely insane and in perfect voice. I think I die a little every time he tries to rap. It's the best. :-D That's becoming my favorite song ever ROFL. For me, he makes the entire show. He's perfect in this role, and I just adore him. During Chimp in A Suit, he mooned the audience, something brand new to me! :-P I was like "oooh man." So pretty much by the end of the night we'd all seen most of Norbert. ROFL The man has no shame, I tell you. Greg killed everyone. The audience ate him up.
I know that while Norbert was over in the box RIGHT in front of Andrea and Bry, Bryana was dying. She's madly in love with Norb, and I actually watched her through that entire scene. It was quite comical ;). Sara Gett was in ESPECIALLY perfect voice. Sounded A-frickin-MAZING. That woman can belt. Oklahoma was phenominal. She was hysterical, had everyone in stitches. I also think the image of John Lithgow in a cowboy hat tickled everyone. Hehe. So, the scene between that and Ruprecht was friggin hilarious. Although, I have to say that Norbert hasn't quite milked the jerky scene as much as he used to. That made me a little sad, but it's still great. Then, during All About Ruprecht, Norbert was over-the-top again, being completely repulsive and I loved it. I <3 Sara Gett too.
During the scene with Greg & Joanna in the convent or whatever, Greg had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand - especially with lines like "an entire nation will lick your head!", "they are getting small in the distance like tiny little people going away....go be one of them!" and "we'll miss you...only if you leave!"
THEN, the long-awaited moment when....LAURA takes the stage as Christine Colgate!!! Here I Am was EFFING AMAZING. Holy crap. There aren't enough synonyms for "amazing" to describe how fantastic she truly was! When she first entered, the six of us, strategically scattered throughout the theatre, whooped and hollared for her, and afterwards, when she finished and was posed for the applause, we all went NUTS screaming for her, and I KNOW she heard us cause I saw her throw her head back and laugh. :-D
She and Norbert actually have pretty awesome chemistry! :) They work REALLY well together and look adorable together. Nothing is too Wonderful was beautiful and hysterical. I swear, the two of them work SO well together, and Laura was unfalteringly WONDERFUL. The Miracle was great. For me, as a person who knows the show, there are a few moments in the show when I just LOVE to watch the audience react. The moment when John walks in as Dr. Shuffhausen is one of them ;)
After intermission, we opened to what I think was the MOST fabulous rendition of Ruffhousin' Mit Shuffhausen I've ever seen. I'm not kidding - all three of them were on fire during this scene. John & Norb hammed up the whole thing SO badly! I loooved it. Following that comes one of my other favorite songs, Like Zis/Like Zat. I think that the Andre/Muriel subplot is such a wonderful addition to the show! It adds some real heart as well as divine comedy between the two of them. Greg rocks my world and Joanna absolutely personifies all things charming and elegant. After that comes The More We Dance. I think Laura is absolutely ADORABLE in that little red dress!! And she can move well..tee hee. She says she can't dance, but now I know she can. Norbert was hilarious and I realized for the first time that Joe Cassidy was one of those sailors. I'm stupid ROFL. Anyway, the scene totally rocked. I also noticed for the first time exactly how many times John and Norbert have their hands on Laura's (or Sherie's, whatever) ass! LOL....This was also the first time I was up high enough to see the stage itself, so I was able to appreciate for the first time the INCREDIBLE lighting design!
Moving on, we have Love is My Legs. I adore that song and this time there were no unfortunate wheelchair incidents. Laura hit that high note like WOAH. :) And like I said before, they have such wonderful chemistry and they were both in perfect voice. Everyone went NUTS when the doors opened and showed the choir - LMAO. Then, the classic robe and cuff moment with Joanna and Greg....Love Sneaks In was relatively boring, except for the fact that John was perfect, as usual. I do love that scene. Very emotional.
Son of Great Big Stuff O.M.G. I almost died during the entire thing. Laura was HILARIOUS. Instead of Sherie's usual, "Buzz...hooie!" in regards to the candlestick down his pants, Laura goes, "Buzz.....woooah!" in the most adorable voice - ROFLMAO. Those two look so good together!!
*******SPOILER ALERT*******************
During The Reckoning, I actually got to see Laura change places with the conductor. That was cool - first time I'd ever seen it. Laura did so well jumping out of the pit - didn't even stumble! ;) I would have been on my face. This was the second moment when I LOVE to just watch the audience react- when they find out the truth about Christine. And Norbert/John's facial expressions were priceless.
Dirty Rotten Number was AMAZING OMG! They were both perfect. Except, at the end, on "guys" in that last line, "dirty rotten guys", Norbert didn't go up for the high harmony part that always blows me away. Sad, but maybe he was just overworked. LOL Anyway, the line "we still deserve a hand" was PERFECT and the audience went nuts. Then, afterwards, the applause honestly lasted like TWO minutes. The song rocked out loud. Norbert kept making hand motions for us to stop...but did anybody stop? I think not. LOL At one point he checked his watch, like "geez". Laura came in again and WOO! The show ended perfectly.
AFTER THE SHOW
Afterwards, Britt & I booked it outta there, and scrambled out of the theatre and to the stage door. We eventually met up with all of our other girls, including TIFFANY!!! I was so excited to meet you baby! <3333
Umm, I'm trying to remember who I saw come out - I saw John, but he didn't stay out very long, and Norbert came out too....He was so nice to everyone, even though he didn't stop for any pictures, he seemed actually apologetic this time. But whenever he finished going through all the people for autographs, he stopped, looked around and made sure to ask, "Did I get everybody?" and if anyone said they still didn't get an autograph, he would go over to them. He asked like 2 or 3 times, and on the last time, Bry still hadn't gotten an autograph and was scared to talk to him cause she's in love with him, he said "Anyone else?" And I said "yes, here!" and pushed her at him. ROFLMAO. He was very nice to her, and she was able to tell him that she thought he was amazing. I even got to tell him that he'd done a fantastic job. He was extremely kind.
Greg came out, and we were still waiting for Laura so he was like "oh, that's cool - whenever she gets out here I'll take you guys inside." So that was cool, and we waited for our famous Laura, and once she did come out, we talked to her for a long time. She was all about the hugging after the show. She goes, "I heard you guys!!" And I'm like "were we loud enough?" and she said, "OMG It was perfect!" haha so we were all excited. We talked shop for a long time, about the show and such, and after a long time Greg came out again looking for us, but since he's the kindest person on the PLANET, he invited us all in, but we couldn't go up to his dressing room to do webcam since there were so many people. That was OK though! I still enjoyed going onstage and backstage again. I have LOTS of pictures of the set this time.
From the stage
The gorgeous scenery
The lovely Bry in Beaumont ;)
I was WAY too close, but that's Lawrence's house.
The sofa thingy from the house.
Two classic set pieces, the "paging Dr. Shuffhausen" sign, and Norbert's Ruprecht trident thingy. ROFL
The hotel set
The intricate designs and jewels of the painted trees on the backdrop. I LOOVE the detail they put into the set here!
This is the Ruprect set stuff - all hoisted up. :)
While Greg was giving his tour, Joe Cassidy along with two other guys I didn't recognize were singing Kristin Chenoweth's "Let Yourself Go" on the stage. They sounded friggin amazing with this beautiful three part harmony going on....toward the end of our tour, I noticed that Joanna had joined them! She was definitely a few feet away from me, and I couldn't go talk to her. I really wanted to and I almost did, but then I realized she was rehearsing too, they were rehearsing for a benefit. I wouldn't want to disturb her like that. So I will wait for another day when I can meet Joanna. Still, I loved seeing her and hearing her sing that song. She has such a beautiful, soothing sort of voice. It was also really funny to see this woman who exudes such elegance in sweats and tennis shoes. ROFL
So we went back outside and Laura is actually (I swear) STILL there! LOL It was so cool! So we said our final words to each other, talked a bit more, took a couple of pictures...
and then we were on our way. We went to this pizza place to eat, although Britt & I didn't actually eat there. We just hung out with the other ladies. By this time, the lovely Amanda had joined us, on her break from work (the lucky little girl works for BatB!!) and showed off her uniform (which I covet oh so much!):
(picture courtesy of Andrea. LOL)
It was amazing to be with all of them again. I hadn't seen ANY of my NYC girls since June and who knows when the next time we'll all be together will be?? So I just cherished seeing you ALL. And Tiff, my first real time hanging out with you. I miss you all already!!!
Then we all went to try and help Holly & Melissa win Spelling Bee lotto, but alas, my luck finally ran out and I did not win. For the first time. LOL But that was where we parted, I said goodbye to all my loves and Britt & I went off to get us some dinner. We ended up at a Burger King on 8th Avenue where some alchie tried to attack me in the bathroom. The man actually had a bottle of who-knows-what concealed in a paper bag. A reminder to me as to why I make it a rule not to spend too much time on 8th Ave after dark....LMAO.
Anyhow, we ended up catching an earlier bus back to the Burgh than we'd planned, because the same bus driver who brought us TO NYC was going back to Pittsburgh with an 8:40 bus (as opposed to our 10:15). So he offered us seats and we're like "heck yess" and that's where the interesting stuff ends, so I shall stop this madness and end the post. :-P
So that's it! YAY I had an amazing day. I wouldn't trade the experience for ANYTHING. Laura and Greg rock my world. :-D
LOVE to Holly, Britt, Tiff, Bryana, Amanda, Melissa, Andrea, and especially ALLY because I didn't get to see you!!
THE SHOW
The show itself was phenominal. OMG - EVERYONE was on top of their games. They all sounded amazing. Let's see....I always love the first scene, Give Them What They Want, because the whole stage just dances - like, everything is in constant motion and it's glittering and full of music and I just love it. :-P Anyway, Joanna was hysterical. "Well, merde!" John exuded his usual charm and Greg was absolutely unstoppable. His "big pencil" line brought the house down. Joanna sounded gorgeous during What Was A Woman To Do, although they had some sound problems - I could hear people's mikes going in and out during the song. But it was still great - and I did miss Laura in the usher thing - no one can do it like she can! It also seemed like John & Norb were rushing their dialogue - like they were behind the music or something, but it worked anyway. :)
Great Big Stuff. What can I say? Norbert was just kind of ALL over the place, completely insane and in perfect voice. I think I die a little every time he tries to rap. It's the best. :-D That's becoming my favorite song ever ROFL. For me, he makes the entire show. He's perfect in this role, and I just adore him. During Chimp in A Suit, he mooned the audience, something brand new to me! :-P I was like "oooh man." So pretty much by the end of the night we'd all seen most of Norbert. ROFL The man has no shame, I tell you. Greg killed everyone. The audience ate him up.
I know that while Norbert was over in the box RIGHT in front of Andrea and Bry, Bryana was dying. She's madly in love with Norb, and I actually watched her through that entire scene. It was quite comical ;). Sara Gett was in ESPECIALLY perfect voice. Sounded A-frickin-MAZING. That woman can belt. Oklahoma was phenominal. She was hysterical, had everyone in stitches. I also think the image of John Lithgow in a cowboy hat tickled everyone. Hehe. So, the scene between that and Ruprecht was friggin hilarious. Although, I have to say that Norbert hasn't quite milked the jerky scene as much as he used to. That made me a little sad, but it's still great. Then, during All About Ruprecht, Norbert was over-the-top again, being completely repulsive and I loved it. I <3 Sara Gett too.
During the scene with Greg & Joanna in the convent or whatever, Greg had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand - especially with lines like "an entire nation will lick your head!", "they are getting small in the distance like tiny little people going away....go be one of them!" and "we'll miss you...only if you leave!"
THEN, the long-awaited moment when....LAURA takes the stage as Christine Colgate!!! Here I Am was EFFING AMAZING. Holy crap. There aren't enough synonyms for "amazing" to describe how fantastic she truly was! When she first entered, the six of us, strategically scattered throughout the theatre, whooped and hollared for her, and afterwards, when she finished and was posed for the applause, we all went NUTS screaming for her, and I KNOW she heard us cause I saw her throw her head back and laugh. :-D
She and Norbert actually have pretty awesome chemistry! :) They work REALLY well together and look adorable together. Nothing is too Wonderful was beautiful and hysterical. I swear, the two of them work SO well together, and Laura was unfalteringly WONDERFUL. The Miracle was great. For me, as a person who knows the show, there are a few moments in the show when I just LOVE to watch the audience react. The moment when John walks in as Dr. Shuffhausen is one of them ;)
After intermission, we opened to what I think was the MOST fabulous rendition of Ruffhousin' Mit Shuffhausen I've ever seen. I'm not kidding - all three of them were on fire during this scene. John & Norb hammed up the whole thing SO badly! I loooved it. Following that comes one of my other favorite songs, Like Zis/Like Zat. I think that the Andre/Muriel subplot is such a wonderful addition to the show! It adds some real heart as well as divine comedy between the two of them. Greg rocks my world and Joanna absolutely personifies all things charming and elegant. After that comes The More We Dance. I think Laura is absolutely ADORABLE in that little red dress!! And she can move well..tee hee. She says she can't dance, but now I know she can. Norbert was hilarious and I realized for the first time that Joe Cassidy was one of those sailors. I'm stupid ROFL. Anyway, the scene totally rocked. I also noticed for the first time exactly how many times John and Norbert have their hands on Laura's (or Sherie's, whatever) ass! LOL....This was also the first time I was up high enough to see the stage itself, so I was able to appreciate for the first time the INCREDIBLE lighting design!
Moving on, we have Love is My Legs. I adore that song and this time there were no unfortunate wheelchair incidents. Laura hit that high note like WOAH. :) And like I said before, they have such wonderful chemistry and they were both in perfect voice. Everyone went NUTS when the doors opened and showed the choir - LMAO. Then, the classic robe and cuff moment with Joanna and Greg....Love Sneaks In was relatively boring, except for the fact that John was perfect, as usual. I do love that scene. Very emotional.
Son of Great Big Stuff O.M.G. I almost died during the entire thing. Laura was HILARIOUS. Instead of Sherie's usual, "Buzz...hooie!" in regards to the candlestick down his pants, Laura goes, "Buzz.....woooah!" in the most adorable voice - ROFLMAO. Those two look so good together!!
*******SPOILER ALERT*******************
During The Reckoning, I actually got to see Laura change places with the conductor. That was cool - first time I'd ever seen it. Laura did so well jumping out of the pit - didn't even stumble! ;) I would have been on my face. This was the second moment when I LOVE to just watch the audience react- when they find out the truth about Christine. And Norbert/John's facial expressions were priceless.
Dirty Rotten Number was AMAZING OMG! They were both perfect. Except, at the end, on "guys" in that last line, "dirty rotten guys", Norbert didn't go up for the high harmony part that always blows me away. Sad, but maybe he was just overworked. LOL Anyway, the line "we still deserve a hand" was PERFECT and the audience went nuts. Then, afterwards, the applause honestly lasted like TWO minutes. The song rocked out loud. Norbert kept making hand motions for us to stop...but did anybody stop? I think not. LOL At one point he checked his watch, like "geez". Laura came in again and WOO! The show ended perfectly.
AFTER THE SHOW
Afterwards, Britt & I booked it outta there, and scrambled out of the theatre and to the stage door. We eventually met up with all of our other girls, including TIFFANY!!! I was so excited to meet you baby! <3333
Umm, I'm trying to remember who I saw come out - I saw John, but he didn't stay out very long, and Norbert came out too....He was so nice to everyone, even though he didn't stop for any pictures, he seemed actually apologetic this time. But whenever he finished going through all the people for autographs, he stopped, looked around and made sure to ask, "Did I get everybody?" and if anyone said they still didn't get an autograph, he would go over to them. He asked like 2 or 3 times, and on the last time, Bry still hadn't gotten an autograph and was scared to talk to him cause she's in love with him, he said "Anyone else?" And I said "yes, here!" and pushed her at him. ROFLMAO. He was very nice to her, and she was able to tell him that she thought he was amazing. I even got to tell him that he'd done a fantastic job. He was extremely kind.
Greg came out, and we were still waiting for Laura so he was like "oh, that's cool - whenever she gets out here I'll take you guys inside." So that was cool, and we waited for our famous Laura, and once she did come out, we talked to her for a long time. She was all about the hugging after the show. She goes, "I heard you guys!!" And I'm like "were we loud enough?" and she said, "OMG It was perfect!" haha so we were all excited. We talked shop for a long time, about the show and such, and after a long time Greg came out again looking for us, but since he's the kindest person on the PLANET, he invited us all in, but we couldn't go up to his dressing room to do webcam since there were so many people. That was OK though! I still enjoyed going onstage and backstage again. I have LOTS of pictures of the set this time.
From the stage
The gorgeous scenery
The lovely Bry in Beaumont ;)
I was WAY too close, but that's Lawrence's house.
The sofa thingy from the house.
Two classic set pieces, the "paging Dr. Shuffhausen" sign, and Norbert's Ruprecht trident thingy. ROFL
The hotel set
The intricate designs and jewels of the painted trees on the backdrop. I LOOVE the detail they put into the set here!
This is the Ruprect set stuff - all hoisted up. :)
While Greg was giving his tour, Joe Cassidy along with two other guys I didn't recognize were singing Kristin Chenoweth's "Let Yourself Go" on the stage. They sounded friggin amazing with this beautiful three part harmony going on....toward the end of our tour, I noticed that Joanna had joined them! She was definitely a few feet away from me, and I couldn't go talk to her. I really wanted to and I almost did, but then I realized she was rehearsing too, they were rehearsing for a benefit. I wouldn't want to disturb her like that. So I will wait for another day when I can meet Joanna. Still, I loved seeing her and hearing her sing that song. She has such a beautiful, soothing sort of voice. It was also really funny to see this woman who exudes such elegance in sweats and tennis shoes. ROFL
So we went back outside and Laura is actually (I swear) STILL there! LOL It was so cool! So we said our final words to each other, talked a bit more, took a couple of pictures...
and then we were on our way. We went to this pizza place to eat, although Britt & I didn't actually eat there. We just hung out with the other ladies. By this time, the lovely Amanda had joined us, on her break from work (the lucky little girl works for BatB!!) and showed off her uniform (which I covet oh so much!):
(picture courtesy of Andrea. LOL)
It was amazing to be with all of them again. I hadn't seen ANY of my NYC girls since June and who knows when the next time we'll all be together will be?? So I just cherished seeing you ALL. And Tiff, my first real time hanging out with you. I miss you all already!!!
Then we all went to try and help Holly & Melissa win Spelling Bee lotto, but alas, my luck finally ran out and I did not win. For the first time. LOL But that was where we parted, I said goodbye to all my loves and Britt & I went off to get us some dinner. We ended up at a Burger King on 8th Avenue where some alchie tried to attack me in the bathroom. The man actually had a bottle of who-knows-what concealed in a paper bag. A reminder to me as to why I make it a rule not to spend too much time on 8th Ave after dark....LMAO.
Anyhow, we ended up catching an earlier bus back to the Burgh than we'd planned, because the same bus driver who brought us TO NYC was going back to Pittsburgh with an 8:40 bus (as opposed to our 10:15). So he offered us seats and we're like "heck yess" and that's where the interesting stuff ends, so I shall stop this madness and end the post. :-P
So that's it! YAY I had an amazing day. I wouldn't trade the experience for ANYTHING. Laura and Greg rock my world. :-D
LOVE to Holly, Britt, Tiff, Bryana, Amanda, Melissa, Andrea, and especially ALLY because I didn't get to see you!!