Cast Changes

Looks like I saw my shows in New York at just the right time. After almost a year of the original cast staying together, Tarzan is getting its first major cast change. This Rob Evan guy is certainly cute, but he seems a little young to be taking on the role of Kerchak. Shuler Hensley had much more presence and really looked the part, as well as being phenomenally talented. I have a recording of him on the Frankenstein cast recording, and he really is a fantastic singer. I was glad I had the chance to see him.

In slightly more disappointing news (disappointment that the replacement wasn't in the show when I saw it), there are major cast changes going in The Drowsey Chaperone as well. Now it's already old news that Bob Martin has left, with an understudy filling in until April 17 when John Glover will take over. I am very glad that I got to see Bob, he is the show. I'm also glad I got to see Georgia Engel, she's very fun and really brought a lot of her personality to Mrs. Tottendale. However, seeing as how I'm not a big fan of Sutton Foster, I really would have liked to have seen Janine LaManna as Janet. I saw her almost 12 years ago when she stepped for Chita Rivera just before the end of the first act of Kiss of the Spider Woman the night of it's first performance at the Chicago Theatre. Poor Chita somehow got injured just before the Gimme Love number, and we had a 30 minute intermission while Janine got ready (which at the beginning, they only announced that there was a "cast injury", it wasn't until the lights came down again and the show was about to resume that they announced that the role of Aurora/Spider Woman would be played by Janine LaManna, and the audience became very expressive of its feelings), she did the number, then we got the regular intermission, and she completed the second act and in an amazing performance completely won over the audience that booed her first appearance. She really was completely fantastic and left the audience wondering "Chita who?" by the end. Chita never returned to the Chicago run, but unfortunately, Janine only got a couple of days of performances and they brought in someone else to permanently take the role. Chita returned to the show in the next city, and about a year later came back to Chicago for a two week run and made it all the way through. I still have bragging rights about being in the only audience to see her the first time around. It was a big night for me, it was my first Kander & Ebb, I was in the only audience that got to see Chita and experienced all the drama that attends an event like that, and it was my last hetero date ever. Granted, it was only my fourth hetero date (the other three having been high school dances, the last of which was with the same unfortunate girl that was with me that night), but once you know what you don't want, you don't need to mess around with it any more. She was so enthusiastic about the show I came bursting out of the closet on the way home. We haven't spoken lately. Anyways, Janine was so fantastic I was sure that it was her 42nd Street moment, but she disappeared again until a few years ago when she again turned up in Chicago filling in for an injured star. This time it was for Christina Applegate in Sweet Charity, who broke her toe on stage during a preview, and for a brief time, it looked like this was finally it. For a few days the Weisslers still planned to take the show to Broadway with Janine as the star, but Christina talked them out of it, and no one's heard from Janine until now. I've got my fingers crossed for her this time, she really deserves her break.