Day 146-4/14/10

Show: Bye Bye Birdie
Date: 1/3/10
Cast: OBC
Type: Audio

I don't know why, but now I'm a little bored of this show.

Day 141-3/9/10

Show: Matt Doyle's Concert at Joe's Pub
Date: 8/17/09
Cast: Matt Doyle, Jodie Moore, Alice Lee, Blake Daniel, Wesley Taylor
Type: Audio

There are some songs that I absolutely loved, and then there are some that I didn’t care for. I loved Cathedrals, A Change is Gonna Come, Hey Jude, With A Little Help From My Friends, You and I Both, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Semi-Charmed Life, and Unexpectedly. Also some of the audition songs. There were others that I didn’t like as much.

Day 122-3/21/10

Show: Kerrigan and Lowdermilk: Under the Influence
Date: 3/1/10
Cast: Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk with guests: Annaleigh Ashford, Jenni Barber, Nick Blaemire, Lisa Brescia, Matt Doyle, Meghann Fahy, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Morgan Karr, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Caissie Levy, Kacie Shiek, Vienna Teng, Katie Thompson and The Spring Standards
Type: Audio

I feel bad because I fell asleep during this. Haha. But I actually liked quite a bit of it. Freedom was really good. I just like the way that it sets such a positive opening. Last Week’s Alcohol was a lot deeper than they were at the other concert. But I think he also enunciated better. I understood a lot more words than I did the other time. I really liked Celia’s My Party Dress. It was just really cute and fun. I’m definitely going to mention it at dance, because she mentions a lot of dance moves and other fun stuff like that. The introduction to Two Strangers was definitely funny. “This is really supposed to be for a girl. But then we met Morgan Karr” That’s another thing I want to bring up at dance because there’s this girl that thinks that nobody and certainly no boy could go as high as Kristen Chenoweth and I’m going to be like “Morgan. Freaking. Karr”

Day 98-1/25/10

Show: Rated RSO
Date: 1/25/10
Cast: Alex Brightman | Gerard Canonico | Matt Cavenaugh | Blake Daniel | Stephen DeRosa | Cait Doyle | Matt Doyle | Hunter Ryan Herdlicka | Jay A. Johnson | Morgan Karr | Andrew Kober | Eric Michael Krop | Lindsay Mendez | Jenny Powers | Kacie Sheik | Grace Wall | Natalie Weiss
Type: Audio

I love it! It's so much fun to listen to! My two favorite songs were the ones from Mrs. Sharp and I also super loved "The Plane Is Going Down" and the "Mess"

Day 97-2/24/10

Show: Bye Bye Birdie
Date: 1/24/10 Closing Night
Cast: Full
Type: Audio

Good show. Lot of energy. A lot of emotion. Matt was better than usual. Personally I didn't like John's speech. He basically made excuses, rationalizations, and retorts to the bad press and word of mouth that the show got. Oh, BTW, Gina was awful. I usually don't mind her in English Teacher, but she this time she was bad start to finish.

Day 96-2/23/10

Show: Spring Awakening
Date: 2/23/08
Cast: Matt Doyle as Melchior, Alexandra Socha as Wendla, Jesse Swenson as Hanschen
Type: Audio

Like I said in the last post, Socha's Wendla and Matt's Melchior are a decent fit. Jesse's Hanschen isn't perfect...it's a little off vocally and a little off in acting. But overall it's a great show.

Day 94-2/21/10

Show: Matt Doyle at Joe's Pub
Date: 8/27/09
Cast: Matt Doyle, Lilli Cooper, Blake Daniel, Alice Lee

I love it. Always. Matt is such a beautiful singer. Golden Train is perfect and so is Falling Slowly. He picked songs that played to the voices so well. I'm not in love with Bring it On Home. I liked it more with Jodie Moore.
Matt's big problem is that he does a lot of the same songs. He needs to shake it up. Get out of his comfort zone. I'm now trying to brainstorm songs for him....I Got Life, Blackbird, Good Girls Go Bad (Although he might want to change it to Good Boys) I don't know. After seeing Koberet I thought to myself that I'd love to see Matt play around like that.

Day 84-2/11/10

Show: Bye Bye Birdie
Date: 9/27/09
Cast: Robi Hager as Conrad
Type: Audio

So what I found to be really good for ignoring how atrocious Gina is, is imagining my dance teacher Sara playing Rosie. It works so well because Sara's Latina and a fierce ass dancer.
John isn't so impressive. It just doesn't really work for me.
Matt sounded kind of deep in One Boy. It didn't sound bad, just it didn't exactly go with Allie's higher voice.
Robi has a much deeper smoother voice than Nolan. He didn't put as much pizazz and pitch, I think it's because he didn't need to. He sounded creepier than Nolan as well.

Day 80-2/7/10

Show: Spring Awakening
Date: 11/29/08 M
Cast: Alice as Wendla, Zach as Ernst, Eryn as Martha
Type: Audio :(

I know I listened to the audio from the evening already but I needed to find a show and I randomly clicked this one. Alice is absolutely gorgeous, I wasn't totally in love with Zach and Eryn was super haunting and beautiful. Hunter was weak, Matt was gorgeous.

Day 71-1/29/10

Show: Spring Awakening
Date: 3/14/09
Cast: Christy Altomare, Matt Doyle, Blake Bashoff, Andy Mientus, Ben Moss, Anthony Lee Medina, Kimiko Glenn, Gabby Garza, Matt Shingledecker, Steffi D, Sarah Hunt
Type: Audio

Matt ♥
Christy
Kimiko
Gabby
ShiShi
Anthony
Ben
Andy
Steffi
Blake

-I swear that it sounded like Christy said "MelCHior" are the end of I Believe
-Matt sounds so pretttty
-Christy's speaking is so weak and is just annoying to listen to.
-Kimiko's voice, especially speaking, is so high pitched and a little bit squeely. It hurts
-Gabby sounds so bitchy in some of the scenes.
-Shishi's Touch Me is such a disappointment
-Anthony's decent.
-Ben's voice makes me want to die, Andy just falls flat.
-Steffi sounds just stupid when she talks

Day 64-1/22/10

Show: Spring Awakening
Date: 8/18/07
Cast: Lea Michele, Jonathan Groff, Gerard Canonico, Johnny B Wright, Gideon Glick, Lauren Pritchard, Remy Zaken, Phoebe Strole, Jennifer Damiano, Matt Doyle, Skylar Astin
Type: Audio

So this is a performance that I’m quite used to. It’s all over youtube and it’s good quality so I’ve used it in a lot of my videos and dream casts. Mama Who Bore Me was decent, I can definitely respect Lea’s strength in her voice. Although that’s pretty much all I like about her voice-the strength. And Groff’s Melchior is ever-wonderful. It’s a little different with Gerard’s than it is with John’s. With John…it’s sort of like the friend who everybody has that has super strict parents who don’t let them know anything about sex, or babies and whatnot. Well, John’s not asian, but the principle applies. I’m not sure if I’m making my point properly, so I’ll restate it. What I mean is that Groff’s Melchior and John’s Moritz are very much equals, but Melchior has the upper hand in some ways. I’m still not explaining myself well, so I’m going to resort to real life examples. Moritz is like Katherine, Melchior would be like me. Now, I’m smarter and I’m better in school and I’m better at talking to guys and all that and I share my knowledge with Katherine. (Was that a run on sentence or what?) But with Gerard, Moritz is like a seventh grader in a freshman in a freshman/sophomore split class. My point is that Groff adapts well to Gerards in a way that it still works and Gerard still takes on a very real character that is both relateable and understandable. Bitch of Living was great, but seriously, what is wrong with Marianna? I mean, I totally understand not calling Brian, Gabe, or even Anthony back? But why would you not return Matt/Otto’s call? She’s an idiot. Okay, it’s hard to focus right now, I have guys on either side of me talking over me and I swear I’m going to kill one of them. Or both of them. Can’t they move? Okay, My Junk was good despite Lea. I’m not trying to be mean, but she stands out in a bad way. Jenn, Remy, and Phoebe all sound like cute young girls and Lea does not. But I do really like Jenn’s Martha. Touch Me was many kinds of wonderful. Especially Matt. His voice is so pretty :D I’m retarded. Although I don’t like Lea’s voice, it works pretty well duetting with Groff. I don’t know why, maybe Groff just has a chameleon type of voice, maybe he adapts to whoever he’s with but he always seems to sound good. Jenn’s Martha, she sound’s really angry and a little bit spiteful in DIKW and I think that realty works. She’s haunting in a different way. Lea really just makes the Beating Scene lose a lot of its meaning, because I sort of want her to be hurt. Matt sounds so pretty in the Reprise. It’s interesting to hear him sing the same words, but make it sound so completely different. This is one of Gerard’s early Moritzes and it still completely OWNS And Then There Were None. Totally Fucked was wonderful, Groff really explodes in this song. Those You’ve Known didn’t quite fit together, Lea’s voice didn’t sound quite right with Gerard’s. Song of Purple Summer was gorgeous. Lauren’s voice is wonderful.

Also something that I thought of: I didn't like the Adult Men, he used no characterization and every thing sounded exactly the same

Day 60-1/18/10

Show: Spring Awakening
Date: 1/18/09
Cast: Hunter Parrish, Alexandra Socha, Gerard Canonico, Matt Doyle, Blake Daniel, Emma Hunton, Gabe Violett, Andrew Durand, Amanda Castanos, Caitlin Kinnunen, Emily Kinney, Morgan Karr, Alice Lee, Eryn Murman, Zach-Reiner Harris
Type: Audio

Oh gosh. This was an emotional rollercoaster. First, everyone was great, especially Alexandra.
There was so much excitement in the audience and you could tell that they were totally into it. And I was totally wrapped up in it. And it was so emotional. I can't really say much more about other than a lot of the great parts made me cry. Especially Song of Purple Summer. But let me explain to you my relationship with the show that makes it so emotional. In July, Rachel saw Spring Awakening (it may have been in June...yeah, it was June) and in July I got hooked on the OBCR and the pictures that I found on Google. By August I was becoming a youtube whore. But what was it, October? That closing was announced. I told my mom, who said she'd talk to my dad about letting me go, who said no.
It was too early. I know for some of you out there, you saw it. You met the cast. You got autographs, you did it all. But I did none of it. I was planning on doing all of that in December...of 2010. I thought the show would have lasted that long, I mean it was so popular. You have no idea how envious I am when people talk about all the people they've seen and when I read the reviews of how magical Touch Me, it kills me. And while I'm at it, do you know how mad I get when people complain about an understudy that they saw or something?

My point is that although I'm hiding it, today has been really rough on me. And last year was even worse.

Watch this slideshow I made from the closing pictures:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_jWl8_OZAM

Day 57-1/15/10

Show: Spring Awakening
Date: 5/18/08
Cast: Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, Blake Bashoff, Blake Daniel, Matt Doyle, Brian Charles Johnson, Skylar Astin, Remy Zaken, Phoebe Strole, Lilli Cooper, Emma Hunton
Type: Audio

So, I'll forgive Lea for sounding so irritatingly polished. If I were to be nice, I'd just say that she's probably the strongest singer. But she's not right for the role. When she speaks, there's not believable way that she's a 14 year old girl. It reminds me of Lost in Yonkers, the grandmother takes care of Bella even though she's all grown up. That's a little more extreme, but the principle of the matter. I've been finding Christine terribly annoying in the stork scene. MWBMR was quite powerful, Lea's strength in her voice is quite a help here. I think all the other girls have been stronger than others in the same role, maybe not including Emma and especially Lilli. I really enjoy Groff's singing. He always looks like a sweet guy, but his voice is powerful with still effortlessness. I love how in ATK you feel his passion. This was a brilliant show overall, despite Blake. Touch Me was wonderful to listen to. So was My Junk, Matt was fantastic in it. The audience for this show was also fantastic. Constant cheering and excitement is actually great to listen to, although the screaming makes some bits hard to hear. There wasn't just enthusiasm for Groff and Lea, but for everyone. Matt got tons of Cheers in My Junk and Totally Fucked. And Word of Your Body Reprise was wonderful. Groff was great and Lea wasn't terrible, and they have pretty good dialogue with each other. And Whispering was also quite good. Totally Fucked got so much applause, there was a second track made for just the applause.
Lea's speech was wonderful and truly made me tear up.

Day 53-1/11/10

Show: Spring Awakening
Date: 1/11/09
Cast: Eryn as Wendla (last), Matt as Melchior (last on Broadway), Jesse as Hanschen
Type: Audio :'(

Call me the genius who forgot to sync her ipod. I have a much better quality version of this, but of course the only one that I had on my ipod was the more muffled version with clicking in the right ear. Very irritating. I think I'll chop of my right ear soon.
Mama Who Bore Me was quite lovely and beautiful. Very unusually, there was applause after it and usually there is not!
The stork scene wasn't a huge stand-out. Decent, but I never really love that scene.
Mama Who Bore Me Reprise was pretty fierce.
All That's Known was totally wonderful, oh that voice is so wonderful to hear.
Bitch of Living was awesome and totally bringing the energy. And it got an amazingly huge applause.
Matt and Gerard work so well together, it's fun to listen to.
Caitlin was not fun to listen to when talking with the girls. Eryn was quite good, probably better than I've found Socha to be a lot.
Jesse sounded almost like he was trying to be like Matt in My Junk. I just wasn't into him so much, his singing fell short and everything.
All of Matt and Eryn's scenes sounded really good and natural, she has this naturally high voice and he has a naturally soft voice, but they are both normal so it works.
This was just a wonderful show, many people who were there say that it's been one of the best performances ever.

Day 51-1/9/10

Show: Spring Awakening
Cast: Morgan as Georg, Jesse as Melchior, Rest of the closing cast
Date: 11/20/08
Type: Audio

Socha still sounds like she wants to be young, but MWBM was pretty good. The reprise was not all that strong, but the voices do fit well. Jesse was better than Hunter in many ways, but that’s not exactly hard. All That’s Known was quite good. It was a bummer that BOL hadn’t been recorded, I would have liked to hear the understudies and Matt. I’d say Caitlin wasn’t as bad as she has been at times. My Junk was fairly cute, the girls mesh well vocally. Matt’s Hanschen is well, wonderful and also realistic. I kind of could picture a guy being like that. Morgan’s Georg worked alright, sounding kind of nervous and eager. Definitely liked Jesse and Gerard working together. Morgan’s Touch Me was…beautiful beyond belief. I just wish he had been even more powerful in his second solo, other than that it sounded fantastic and gorgeous. When Socha is talking to Jesse, she just sounds way to young and he sounds more natural than she does. I didn’t like her in WOYB so much, he was fine again. Amanda’s DIKW was haunting, I really do like her voice, she sounds very comfortable with the singing and she really seems effortless. Emma was too sexy yet again, but the duet was perfect they both sounded very equal. My problem in the Beating scene is that Jesse just sounds too angry in general and the whole beating is just ugh overkill. And jeez, Socha just sounded unnatural and high and “young.” For once I am actually remembering Gabe! I liked his WOYBR, I like it more than his Touch Me solo, it really works when his voice is soft like that. Gerard owns And Then There Were None, he just brings all of his energy and emotion to it, and it’s wonderful to hear. Jesse in Mirror Blue Night is fairly good, his voice is kind of deeper. I sort of hates the hayloft today. Socha’s voice is irritating the living crap out of me, she’s adapting to Jesse’s Melchior all that well. He has a deepish matureish voice, and she sounds all high pitched and it’s soo hard to listen to. The Guilty Ones was good, Socha sounded pretty good here. I have no idea why, but in this audio there is Guilty Ones with Hunter as Melchior. I think its because TGO wasn’t recorded from that night, so a different performance was subbed in. Gerard was great in Don’t Do Sadness, but I feel like he should just own it a little bit more. I mean really, just EXPLODE. He sort of only explodes. Not in big capital letters. Emma sounds just too sexy in Blue Wind, but that doesn’t mean her voice isn’t totally beautiful. Left Behind sounded like a bit of a struggle for Jesse, just like it was too high. TF was missing a little something from Jesse. Oh, but Matt was wonderful. That note. I think Jesse could have put just some more passion into it. WOYBR was 50000 types of amazing. Oh Matt, so good at seducing. No wonder he got himself such a cute boyfriend. Must have been easy ;) Whispering wasn’t as bad as it has been, but not great. TYK and SOPS were both pretty good.

Day 47-1/5/10

Show: Spring Awakening
Date: 10/7/08
Type: Audio
Cast: Hunter Parrish, Alexandra Socha, Morgan Karr, Emma Hunton, Caitlin Kinnunen, Amanda Castanos, Andrew Durand, Gabe Violett, Blake Daniel, Matt Doyle.

Alexandra: Her biggest problem for me is making her voice higher to sound younger. It doesn't work and isn't necessary. I was most impressed in The Guilty Ones, she sounded truly pretty. Everything else was pretty much the same.
Hunter: I just don't like him. His voice is all wrong for me.
Morgan: Such a beautiful voice, but every time he spoke real lines all I thought was "why is Ernst having Moritz's lines?" Just because he is a great singer doesn't mean he should cover the role.
Emma: For once she didn't sound "sexy" in Dark I Know Well. Instead she sounded haunting and lovely. But she went back to sounding sexy in Blue Wind. She was pretty good in Song of Purple Summer.
Caitlin: In the radical scene she is pretty much awful. It's as if she's trying to say all of her lines as loud and fast as she can. But in My Junk itself she's somewhat softer and smoother. She was a little bit better in the secret scene as well.
Amanda: My favorite part is when she says "For god's sake, papa beat me enough as it is?" she sounds so urgent and worried that she accidentally blurted it out. Everything else was pretty
good.
Gabe: I just never notice him.
Blake: He's great, as usual.
Matt: All kinds of fantastic. He really just sounded so on. Word of Your Body Reprise was absolutely fantastic, I was starting to feel seduced. His line in Totally Fucked was absolutely incredible and he was great in My Junk. There were a few other moments where I thought I could hear him; Mirror-Blue Night, I Believe, possibly Song of Purple Summer.

This was recorded in the front row, so Song of Purple Summer sounded unbelievably cool. You could hear a bunch of beautiful harmonies as they moved around.

Day 31-12/30/09

Show: Bye Bye Birdie
Date: 12/27/09 Matinee
Type: Audio
Cast: John Stamos (Albert Peterson), Natalie Hill (Rosie Alvarez), Bill Irwin (Harry MacAfee), Dee Hoty (Mrs. MacAfee), Nolan Gerard Funk (Conrad Birdie), Jayne Houdyshell (Mae Peterson), Allie Trimm (Kim MacAfee), Matt Doyle (Hugo Peabody), Neil McAfferty (Randolph MacAfee), Brynn Williams (Ursula), Catherine Blades, Deanna Cipolla, Paula Leggett Chase, Riley Costello, John Treacy Egan, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Todd Gearhart, Patty Goble, Suzanne Grodner, Natalie Hill, Julia Knitel, Jess Le Protto, David McDonald, JC Montgomery, Jillian Mueller, Paul Pilcz, Daniel Quadrino, Emma Rowley, Tim Shew, Kevin Shotwell, Allison Strong, Jim Walton.

This was a wonderful treat to see that I had this morning. I'm just not a fan of Gina's Rosie and I was so eager to hear Natalie, especially after her At This Performance performance. She sounded absolutely great. She has a softer voice than Gina and really played Rosie for what the character seems like. She totally showed Gina up in singing, especially in Spanish Rose. I actually found it fun to listen to, unlike Gina who is actually painful and sad. Everything else was pretty much the same, except by now I'm getting tired of Bill Irwin and Jayne Houdyshell. It's like the opposite of an acquired taste, unacquired. They're both very consistent but it becomes a little much after awhile. Allie and Matt were both absolutely wonderful, and I like Dee Hoty's performance. I think she's quite underrated. As usual, I'm not impressed at all with John.

That's all for now!

Day 37-12/26/09

Show: Spring Awakening
Date: 11/29/08
Cast: Hunter Parrish (Melchior), Alice Lee (u/s Wendla), Gerard Canonico (Moritz) Emma Hunton (Ilse), Eryn Murman (u/s Martha), Emily Kinney (Anna), Caitlin Kinnunen (Thea), Gabriel Violett (Otto), Zach Reiner-Harris (u/s Ernst), Matt Doyle (Hanschen), Andrew Durand (Georg), Christine Estabrook (Adult Women), Glenn Fleschler (Adult Men)
Type: Audio :(

Alice: What a beautiful voice. I found her Wendla to be quite like Phoebe's, especially in songs. But she has this very wonderful even voice. She doesn't get squeally when talking like many other Wendlas do. She sounded good in MWBMR, everyone blended nicely. Her TGO may be one of my favorites, as well as her Whispering, and she was very strong in TYK. Across the board; very strong and great to hear. I wish she could have gone on with Matt as Melchior, they sound so good together.
Hunter: Meh across the board. His acting isn't much more than fine for me, and his singing is just not good. Some songs he's decent in; All That's Known, Totally Fucked. Some songs he doesn't destroy everyone else in; Touch Me, Those You've Known. And some songs he's just terribly weak in; Mirror Blue Night and Left Behind. Mirror Blue Night was really not easy on the ears, he cracked pretty badly.
Gerard: Wonderful. He brings so much to Moritz and makes everything just wonderful.
Emma: Decent. Once I said she sounded too "sexy" or something, I didn't hear that quite as much this time.
Eryn: Alright. I think her Martha is one of the weaker roles she does, but Dark I Know Well was pretty good and she and Emma fit together well.
Caitlin: Softer than usual. Didn't sound quite as forced in My Junk as I've thought before.
Emily: Cute as usual, very cute, very sweet.
Zach: Great to hear. I like the pitch of his voice very much, and he sounded great with Matt.
Matt: Awesome as per usual. Just great. Always fun in his scenes and irresistable in songs.
Andrew: My favorite thing was is Touch Me solo, pre riffs. The riffs were fine, but the normal part that he does after Otto was really nice.
Gabe: Didn't really notice him much, but he was fine.

Day 27-12/16/09

Show: Spring Awakening
Date: 8/12/08 (Hunter's Second)
Type: Audio
Cast: Hunter Parrish (Melchior), Alexandra Socha (Wendla), Gerard Canonico (Moritz), Emma Hunton (Ilse), Andrew Durand (Georg), Amanda Castanos (Martha), Matt Doyle (Hanschen), Blake Daniel (Ernst), Gabe Violett (Otto), Emily Kinney (Anna), Caitlin Kinnunen (Thea), Christine Estabrook (Adult Women), Glenn Fleshler (Adult Men)

This helps alot: http://forum.theguiltyones.org/index.php/topic,10240.0.html

Hunter: I was kind of meh. I mean, he was better vocally than he was later. But I could just hear how old he was, and he didn't mesh with Alexandra all that well. For once I could hear Melchior in WOYB, but it was kind of because they weren't meshing.
Alexandra: I didn't like her here, usually I like her more than this. She sounded annoyingly young a lot. I'd say more so in speaking than in singing, but it was like she was raising her voice to sound smaller and it sounded irritating.
Gerard: Very wonderfully spazzy and youthful and it really worked.
Andrew: Touch Me was quite good, definitely good riffs. Although I will say that it was either too much or not passionate enough, there was something missing and it wasn't the notes or the riffs in general.
Gabe: When he starts his Touch Me solo I feel like he has this accent, and it's so irritating. But in general he's fine.
Matt: I still believe that he alters his voice when he's speaking. In My Junk, he was talking one way and when he sang it sounded like a completely different person. But I have a rationale that actually makes the voice altering a good idea, so I'm getting over it.
Blake: Good. Cute.
Emily: She says her lines so cutely. It takes getting used to, but really it's fine.
Caitlin: I feel like if you're constipated you just shouldn't go on.
Amanda: Good, Powerful.
Emma: Beautiful, although I still think it sounds too sexy.
Adults: Not bad. Both are kind of over the top, but at least they BOTH are.

Day 23-12/12/09

STILL MY BIRTHDAAAAYYY!

Show: Bare (2007 Official Recording)
Cast: Idk...The one with Matt Doyle :)
Date: 2007
Type: Audio, unfortunately.

Matt melts my heart from the very beginning in Epiphany. His voice is soooo sweet.
I love You and I. It makes me happy, and my heart gets all gooey.
Role of a Lifetime is pretty much just orgasmic. I seriously want to drift away.
I'm having too much fun to say anything more. But Matt's killing me here. and One just ended.
Matt absolutely slayed me in Absolution. Like seriously, call 911. I think I'm dead. Either that or they just found that I actually have a heart.

As I said in my facebook:

At the beginning of the CD I was in love, by the end I was dead. I'm like the main character!

Fun times!