Recently, I went to New York for a week on vacation. Now, I am a theatre-lover and watching a musical or a play is one of my all-time favorite things to do.
Also one of my favorite things: Harry Potter.
Now imagine my excitement when the one and only Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter since I was 9) was starring in a musical on Broadway. If you can't imagine it, I was VERY excited.
Having been involved in theatre for a long time, I have to say I'm pretty hard to please. Not only with theatre, but with singing too. For my whole life my oldest sister has been the best singer I've ever known, so she set the bar pretty high. It's very rarely that I'm impressed with singing, and I hate to admit that I'm kind of a snob. Haha. I also know good acting when I see it, and I know bad acting when I see it, and before I went to New York I hadn't been to a professional live theatre performance that I'd really been impressed with in a long time. Even Wicked at Capitol Theatre was really good but that was the performance that the actress who played Elphaba left a little to be desired when she sang Defying Gravity.
Having said that, I really enjoyed watching Harry Potter sing and dance.
What I was the most impressed by was the dedication that was clearly shown in Daniel Radcliffe's performance. I could tell that he worked really hard on the singing and the dancing and his character, and it really paid off. He's not so famous yet that he would get hired through his name alone. And being Harry Potter for all of his acting career thus far, he had to do a lot to prove to the world that he CAN be something other than Harry Potter. And he didn't have to be naked with a horse to do it. (Even though he did that already.)
I can really tell that he deserved this role because I saw Chicago in New York also, and Christie Brinkley was Roxie Hart. She's a famous supermodel who used to be married to Billy Joel, for those of you who don't know (I didn't know who she was.) She DEFINITELY got the part through her name. Because her singing, acting, and dancing were not up to par. I was really disappointed because I feel like casting directors should know better. And it just seems unfair to me, casting her and not someone way more talented, just because she was famous.
But this a critique on How to Succeed, not Chicago.
It was fun, entertaining, and captivating. I was not bored during this show even once, and when it was over I wanted to watch it again. Someone once told me that you know a show is good if you come out of it singing a song. And I have been those songs for a month and a half since I saw the show. And as far as the singing goes, if an actor didn't have the best voice, they definitely made up for it with their character. Like Wally in the clip above. And John Laroquette. He's not a singer, but he proved that he deserved his role just as much as Daniel Radcliffe did.
I saw five shows in New York, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying was my favorite one. In 1994, Matthew Broderick played Daniel Radcliffe's role on broadway and that just made me like it even more. Haha. I love Matthew Broderick.
I only love good theatre. I don't give standing ovations unless they are deserved. And as soon as the curtain call started, I was on my feet.
I didn't give a standing ovation for Christie Brinkley.
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