Posted by Heather
on 8/23/2008, 10:12 pm
69.118.58.124
So I saw Tale of Two Cities today in New York with a friend and her family, and am very happy to report that we all enjoyed it thoroughly.
The cast is wonderful with great voices and acting--if possible, I love Sydney Carton even more now. Despite the initial overwhelming quality of the set design, it actually works very well in the show. I definitely think a few things can be cut or at least shortened (some scenes are unnecessarily drawn out--Jerry Cruncher's graveyard scene, for one), but that's what previews are for. I actually really liked the music, contrary to some of what I've been hearing, and didn't find too much to fix in that area. Sydney Carton's interactions with little Lucie are wonderful, as is his entire change throughout the story. I won't give anything away, but Lucie's song near the end was very powerful and well done, as was Natalie Toro's performance as Madame Defarge. Not surprisingly, since I did the same when I read the book, I cried at the end. People were standing during the applause even when minor characters were coming out for bows at the end, and everyone went crazy when James Barbour took his bows. There was a very long bout of enthusiastic applause combined with whistles and cheering, and nearly the entire theater stood.
All of the comments I overheard during intermission and after the show were definitely positive. It's still very, very early yet, but I hope this show does well! Everyone involved definitely deserves it, as you can tell they all put everything they had into the performance.
As a side note, my friend and I decided to stage door it after the show, and I highly recommend doing so--the cast was very gracious and friendly. Almost all of them, notably Natalie Toro, James Barbour, Gregg Edelman, and Michael Hayward-Jones, were very willing to chat with everyone and spend time with the people at the door. The kids who were in the show were adorable signing Playbills as well. Much better than my stage door experience after Grease last August (what with all the TV show madness, it was just an absolute mob there).
Anyway, I definitely loved this show, and I think with a little bit of tweaking and scene shortening, it has a chance of doing very well.
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