Raul definitely, and surprisingly (for me at least), Fantasia. She is quite the performer.
"Hey Joey McIntyre, is there a balcony in Madison Square Garden? Joey knows his venues a little better than me. That's okay...I have a bigger part on broadway...:)" -Idina Menzel
I adored A Chorus Line's performance! Also, allie, I didn't love Curtain's performance of "Show People" either. I guess I'll have to see the show to trulley appreciate it. From what I've heard of Curtains, it certainly isn't K&E's strongest.
Nothing about Curtains really appeals to me. I think the music sounds to much like Kander and Ebb's old scores, not very new and original in my opinion.
Raul was my favorite of the night. Followed by Curtains and A Chorus Line. Fantasia was wonderful as well. I love Spring Awakening but thought their choice of medley was terrible.
in terms of selling tickets to someone who isnt a theatre person... i would say the best were chorus line and mary poppins. chorus line i think benefitted a bit from having the opportunity to open the show and do an inside-outside bit (plus no one has had the opportunity to find the show boring and change the channel yet). and while i would have loved to have seen mary fly at the end of the poppins combo, those songs and the big cast, worked well in my opinion.
audra really nailed her song but that big sun/moon thing didnt look all that great on tv. spring awakening did a good job but the edits and censoring were a little wierd, set looked awesome tho. curtains was ok, just nothing special. i found the jokes in the grey gardens bit more effective than the singing. raul just looked scary with the crazy close up and random column.
I didnt really pay attention to Jersey Boys or Color Purple because I was too busy debating the sense in excluding other shows such as Legally Blonde from performing but it being ok for these two other random shows to perform. Color Purple at least had some sort of excuse, but with Jersey Boys someone just thought it was clever to refer to the tonys as 'oh what a night.' maybe next year theyll decide you need to be 'positive' or have a 'chip on your shoulder'
I loved all of the musical performances except for Mary Poppins. Spring Awakening was my favorite ensemble, and also David Hyde Pierce with the company from Curtains were sensational, too.
The problem I have with Audra's "Raunchy" is that I can never quite hear that song without hearing Inga Swenson's amazing vocal performance of it on the original broadway show cast album. Inga sings and acts the songs in such a way that you really know that men consider Lizzie unattractive, an "Old Maid". Audra's performance, while terrific, had one flaw: I don't believe that men wouldn't be all over her! So it winds up seeming like the problem is her race/color, not her social awkwardness.
I loved all the performances! I can't really pick one. I wasn't really paying attention to the Grey Gardens one because I was distracted at the moment. Company was probably my least favorite (I still wanna see the show, though).
"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611
Audra and Fantasia were absolutely wonderful! I also enjoyed the ACL opening and of course "Show People" by the Curtains cast. I didn't care for SA. It seemed sloppy and disjointed, and when the cast broke into that seizure-fest all I could do was laugh at their having won for Best Choreography.