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Tonight was amazing!
I saw the show and was simply blown away. Daniel Reichard was out and his understudy Daniel Torres (who some of you may have seen as Harvey Beaver) was in as Emmet. As a result Matthew Furtado played Harvey.
A few random thoughts:
I expected the theater to be bigger than it was. This made the fact that my "near the back" seats only 13 rows from the stage so awesome. I *think* it maybe sits a full house of 400 and pretty much is full for every show.
The initial impression (aside from theater size) was based on the trees and scenery present at the start. Trees, a map of Frogtown Hollow and River Bottom, and birds chirping over the theater music. I was instantly mystified and regressed to childhood. Magic...
Everyone's initial thoughts on Jane and her way of being put in the story seems on target. She doesn't hurt the story one bit. She is quite good and fits well.
The squirrels are LOL funny. Tyler Bunch is very obvious when one of them sounds EXACTLY like Treelo from Bear in the Big Blue House.
All of the scenes were very well done and its very easy to lose the costumed characters into your memory of the puppets of the original.
Wendell Porcupine & Charlie Muskrat were ESPECIALLY on target. Whenever Wendell would talk, I would chuckle because his character was so dead on to the original Wendell performance.
The Nightmare Band was incredible... Catfish & Snake are fantastic. This was just another example of how good the intergration of puppetry and actors was spot on. Doc Bullfrog and Old Lady Possum were also great performances.
Seeing the original puppets make appearances was a "fan boy geek out" moment personally.
Mrs. Mink's talent show number.... WOW... I'm just sayin...
Some of the puppetry happens on the sides and floor of the stage. Some is hard to catch depending on your location or your height.
As magical as the show was, the way I suddenly was sucked INTO the second half and felt like I was in Frogtown Hollow's theater as an audience member of the talent competition (as opposed to an audience member of this show) was wonderful. Suspension of disbelief in such a show is a typical duty of an audience member. IN these scenes, at times you almost forgot it was a show you were watching and felt it was a show you were IN!
The Goodspeed staff were friendly and talkative. They provided cushions for the smaller guests to help them "get a boost" to see in the theater. The bar served themed egg nog and hot chocolate (coined "Riverbottom Nightmare Blend").
Souvenirs available were really nice red Emmet Otter mugs, Blue logo hooded sweatshirts, the re-issue of the DVD (minus Kermit), and poster flats for the show. I picked up one of the posters signed by the entire cast to be framed and hung in my office.
If I had the opportunity, I'd go ten more times this run of it. I hope you all get a chance to see the show. If it does become a semi-regular show, which I heard is a possiblity, it would not be a bad idea to even make plans to travel a bit to see the show. I'm not one who is usually emotional during plays and movies, but this one had some really great moments that choked me up.
An EASY home run, 5*, A+ production.
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...from the Muppet-Molded Mind of Matt West
"Hey look... The Comedian's a Bear..."
"No He'sa Not, He'sa Wearing a Neck-a-tie"
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Just awesome!
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