I say do it! I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I left City Center more overwhelmed than I had left the Kennedy Center after seeing FOLLIES.......
Last night prompted me to buy a ticket for this Sunday's matinee.
But Keenan-Bolger's Mary is rollickingly unfunny, landing none of her booze-drenched-yet-parchment-dry quips (and sounding underequipped for her rangy songs)
I'm hardly ever one to agree with a Matthew Murray review, but I had the exact same problem with Keenan-Bolger. I thought she found a really interesting way in to the latter (or, within the course of the narrative, earlier) scenes, but she felt painfully out of her league at the top of the show, when Mary's supposed to be bitter and jaded and sardonic. It just didn't work. It also bothered me that, usually, a part of the story is how Mary's let herself go and gained weight during her later years, and they've completely dropped that element with Keenan-Bolger, who couldn't be tinier. In regards to her voice, again, its just a total mis-match of performer and material. Mary's songs require a punchy, colorful belt, and Keenan-Bolger doesn't have that (ironically, it's the same grit she's missing from her characterization.)
Overall, I think she delivers a successful performance, particularly toward the first half of the second act, but I couldn't help but feel it would have been a lot more emotionally impactful if they'd cast someone who could truly nail the scenes at the top of the show and provide a full journey for the character, who's already underwritten
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Ouch. Rough review. I'm seeing it tonight. I have never been a fan of Merrily but was hoping that the edits to this version would change that opinion. We'll see...