I should have gone to the Outer Critics Circle Awards today....but there was a problem. I was so engulfed in law school exams over the past few weeks that I completely forgot to RSVP. As such, it was a surprise to remember this morning that the OCC Awards were today. Oh well, another one bites the dust...
Instead, I went to Seth Rudetsky's weekly Chatterbox show at Don't Tell Mama for the second time. His guest was Stephanie J. Block, who I do consider to be a superb female performer, but one who is in a terrible show as of the moment (i.e. THE PIRATE QUEEN). She discussed how she was a Disney Land performer prior to her musical theater endeavors, and how she workshopped the role of Elphaba in the early LA readings of WICKED, but lost the role later on to Idina. Of course, she later got to originate the role in WICKED's first national tour.
One piece of gossip arose from the chat - she will play the Jane Fonda role in the upcoming reading of the movie-turned-musical NINE TO FIVE.
Then I went back to GREY GARDENS. This marked my third time seeing the show, the first being Off-Broadway, second time being in November at its first Broadway night. That first time, I was pleasantly surprised by not only Christine's superb performance, but by the Sondheim-esque, smart quality of the score. But when I returned in November, I thought the many revisions made to its first act were not for the better, and I missed Sara Gettelfinger in the role of Little Edie.
Yet tonight, the Broadway version finally worked for me, and I think it was the best performance I've seen as far. In particular, Erin Davie's performance as Little Edie has grown substantially. Her performance of "Daddy's Girl" was unbelievably authentic, such that it felt as though she was improvising the song's lyrics right in front of me on the spot through her character's confused, vehement emotions.