Show: Spring Awakening
Date: 4/16/08
Type: Audio
Cast: Jonathan Groff (Melchior), Lea Michele (Wendla), Blake Bashoff (Moritz), Emma Hunton (Ilse), Skylar Astin (Georg), Lilli Cooper (Martha), Jonathan B. Wright (Hanschen), Gerard Canonico (u/s Ernst), Brian Charles Johnson (Otto), Phoebe Strole (Anna), Remy Zaken (Thea), Kate Burton (Adult Women), Glenn Fleshler (Adult Men)
It's clear no notes in Mama Who Bore Me are difficult for Lea, but she doesn't sound young at all. There's this professional tone that comes through, and here I can SERIOUSLY hear it and it really bothers me.
For some reason my list says this is Kate, but it's totally Christine. The stork scene was...same old. I've kind of gotten tired of this scene, it's not really all that funny to me.
Mama Who Bore Me sounds fierce. Those wonderful harmonies, I can hear a little of Lea and Lilli especially.
Groff is great, especially in All That's Known. I'm not a fan of Blake's Moritz and I really dislike it with Groff, he and Gallagher had such chemistry.
I like that Gerard's Ernst isn't as high pitched as some of the others. One kind of funny thing was Skylar sort of fumbling with Grossebustenhaulter which made it all the funnier.
The girls scene and My Junk are really cute, but I can't stand Lea in them. Lea's line in My Junk is totally not believably a teenage girl. While the rest are so wonderfully convincing. Anna and Thea are definitely the most familiar characters, and I love the way Remy and Phoebe portray them. Remy gives Thea this spunk, it really shows when she says "we've all got our junk" she kind of says junk like ju-unk which gives a lot of personality. And Phoebe plays Anna as so sweet and very daydreamy. If you remember my criticism of Gabby's Anna being snobby and as if Wendla wasn't cool for not coming to the wedding, the way Phoebe says "orchids and chrysanthemums" is it's her dream wedding or something. And her voice is just gorgeous in her My Junk lines, and like I said the "spend the day wondering what you do..." emphasizes her girly daydream quality. Lilli also plays her part wonderfully, I find the way that she plays along with the rest while having her own desires is really nice. I really like that she likes Moritz based on more than just his looks.
I'll always find the Georg/Hanschen part of My Junk funny, but it's so much funnier when you're actually seeing it.
The journal scene is always very different depending on Melchiors. I like how Groff's take sort of scoffs at the world how it is. It works well with how he's so old (that sounded weirder than intended) and the way he talks to Moritz is like his protege, there's definitely that mentor/mentee admiration.
Touch Me started off great with Groff, then was immediately brought down with Blake. I have to admit, I didn't really even realize it was Gerard as Ernst because I've never found Ernst's solo as amazing as other people's. Brian was great, although whenever I hear or see him I kind of imagine Max!Otto. Skylar was also really good, but what I loved was that you could slightly hear the girls with their harmonies and it was absolutely gorgeous.
The Melchior/Wendla conversation was fine, Word of Your Body was lovely on Groff's part but Lea's voice was irritating me.
The Passed scene was also fine, but it kind of sounded like Blake said "actually heaven must feel like this"
I really love the way Anna and Thea tease each other, it's really cute and believable. Also Lilli does an excellent job confessing her secret, the girls react much better here than they did in the tour recording.
Dark I Know Well was great, Emma and Lilli sounded wonderful together.
The journal scene I find really powerful. Because of the relationship Melchior has with Moritz here, you can understand Melchior's anger at what happened. He's really having this world that he dislikes hurt him, which understandably angers him.
With Groff and Lea both being way too old for the roles, the conversation between the two almost isn't so bad. But wow, when Groff test-swings the stick, you seriously can hear it slicing the air. Reminds me of when I used to whip my violin bow. The beating itself was very disturbing, very loud and lots of yelling. Some odd grunting on Groff's part. Lea's crying was really loud, I'm not sure how I felt about it.
Blake's part of And There Were None is super hard to hear because of the instruments overpowering him. Probably for the better.
I found the harmonies much more interesting in Mirror-Blue Night and I Believe than what was actually happening.
I Believe definitely has beautiful harmonies, especially the girls. I was pretty sure I could hear Eryn a little.
The Guilty Ones was a little hard to hear, as was Don't Do Sadness I think because of the proximity to the band. I'm not a huge fan of Emma's acting, I think she makes Ilse seem a little weird, but her voice is just gorgeous.
Left Behind was awesome, Groff really sings with this sadness in his voice and the harmonies you could hear were beautiful.
Totally Fucked was fucking awesome, Groff always says the opening line with a wonderful punch it's great.
As I said before, I really enjoyed Gerard's Ernst because he doesn't have a very high pitched voice like the actual Ernsts often do. The dialogue before Word of Your Body Reprise was kind of hard to hear.
Gerard sounded great in WOYBR. I'm just going to say this: I don't like how JBW sounds in it. It sounds like he's saying "gawna." I find it so irritating. But this may be my favorite WOYBR that doesn't have Matt in it. Not because of Gerard, and definitely not because of JBW but because of Phoebe! The information for this audio says that you can hear her, but it's not just that you can hear her but she sounds absolutely gorgeous! Seriously, breathtaking. Love that girl.
I'm not a fan of Whispering, I partly think it's kind of a boring song. And also-especially here-Wendla's acting more than she's singing. I mean you can sort of tell that Lea's trying to cry and act upset and it doesn't sound as good as it could perhaps.
Although Groff is good at seeming distraught, his "no"s sounded a little bit constipated.
Those You've Known was decent, Song of Purple Summer was so beautiful. You can hear several people separately. I know I heard Phoebe, Eryn and BCJ. Maybe others as well.
That was fun, see you tomorrow with Addams Family!
1 comment:
whole-hearteadly agree with the dislike of Lea's Wendla. I hated her until she was in Glee. Lmao, you're so critical of Blake! I think he's ok. I think he's adorable though, so maybe love is deaf.(...instead of being blind. Just wanted to make sure I made sense)
Post a Comment