Aida the Musical- Page 2
Aida the Musical
#25Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/7/15 at 11:17pm
Headley was never going to be topped.
Toni Braxton and her lowered keys were a disaster, as was Michelle Williams, whose voice was thin and whose acting was horrendous. Of the celebrities they brought in, Deborah Cox, unsurprisingly, was the best.
Simone was a fierce vocalist (in a lot of ways the best), but she was a terrible actress. And she looked like Grandma Moses up there.
I enjoyed Maya Days a great deal, but she didn't have the "big" voice some of the others did.
Of the understudies I saw, Schele Williams was awful. Saycon Sengbloh and Nikki Renee Daniels were both very good.
broadwaysfguy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/27/14
#26Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/8/15 at 12:41am
thanks adam
maya days was the other aida i saw....
I think heather headley delivering one of the most incredible singing/acting combination performances
imaginable, given who many songs and scenes she was in and the vocal difficulty of the songs
im so grateful to have seen her do it, over and over again, and every performance i saw was absolutely extraordinary
I think her performance and this show had more to do with reawakened my passion for musical theatre than anything else id seen previously as an audit, and my obsession for musicals and yearly journey to broadway to see all the new obc's each year....
broadwaysfguy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/27/14
#27Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/8/15 at 1:00am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmgG6CjnNFI
the gods love nubia OBC 2000
words i seldom say "thank you rosie odonnell!"
broadwaysfguy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/27/14
#28Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/8/15 at 1:15am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO1U8T0i3pk
one of the few good captures of the OBC doing
the absolutely terrific "A Step too Far"
(the orchestrations are wanting....)
#29Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/8/15 at 3:15am
No Schele was amazing when she went on.
Thursday as awful.
Heather was Heather can't beat her amazing performance.
Maya was great. Her voice was totally different than heathers which people didn't like.
Simone was awful. She could sing but she came across so cold and old
T''Rea was pretty but bad.
Braxton - yes key changes - was enjoyable
Saycon just ewww
merle was fierce
michelle Williams sang the hell out of it.
Paulette Ivory was perfection.
Loved Cox.
broadwaysfguy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/27/14
#30Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/8/15 at 9:22am
dang jbradshaw
thats a lot of aidas you saw perform...
how many times did you see the show?
#31Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/8/15 at 12:26pm
I had issue with Ivory's accent at the time.
Also saw Cheyenne as Radames, he was very, um, unconvincing as a straight army general
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27199361@N08/ Phantom at the Royal Empire Theatre
#32Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/8/15 at 1:04pm
JBradshaw said: "No Schele was amazing when she went on.
Thursday as awful.
Heather was Heather can't beat her amazing performance.
Maya was great. Her voice was totally different than heathers which people didn't like.
Simone was awful. She could sing but she came across so cold and old
T''Rea was pretty but bad.
Braxton - yes key changes - was enjoyable
Saycon just ewww
merle was fierce
michelle Williams sang the hell out of it.
Paulette Ivory was perfection.
Loved Cox.
"
I remember Days' performance being wildly divisive. She was the replacement for Heather (right after 9/11 no less), and her performance was significantly different from Headley's. It was a much quieter, subtle performance than Headley gave. She sang the role differently (her voice was strong, but nowhere near the knock it out of the park level of actresses like Headley, Simone, or Merle Dandridge).
I enjoyed her a great deal, but I know lots of people didn't.
jbradshaw, seems like we both saw the show a lot.
Sousaphun
Swing Joined: 6/18/14
#33Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/8/15 at 4:24pm
I'm gonna see it Thursday and I just have to know... does she hit the high F in Dance of the Robes? :P
#34Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/8/15 at 5:02pm
I love Aida, while fully acknowledging it's flaws. The books is downright abysmal, with laughable dialogue and no character development. The score has to compensate for all of the shortcomings of the book, which it often does. I've always wanted to hear this score re-orchestrated with more traditional, less pop rock instrumentation; I know many probably like the wailing guitars and synthesizer, but I think I'd like it more without them.
broadwaysfguy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/27/14
#35Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/8/15 at 6:26pm
Sousaphun said: "I'm gonna see it Thursday and I just have to know... does she hit the high F in Dance of the Robes? :P
she did when i saw her, although I think she cracked just a tad...
Dance was the highlight performance of the evening and got a number of folks in front(inlcuding me) to
give a standing ovation...)
She did a terrific job on one of the most demanding roles ever...
i hope she delivers when you see it!
#36Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/8/15 at 7:54pm
The book was revised and improved for the tour and licensing, but it's still sort of the weakest side of the triangle. The score should have been sung through, I think.
#37Aida the Musical
Posted: 9/8/15 at 8:59pm
I had never thought of it being re-orchestrated, but come to think of it I would love to hear that too.
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
DigificWriter
Leading Actor Joined: 1/23/12
#38Aida the Musical
Posted: 8/18/16 at 8:36am
Sorry to bump the thread, but I just finished listening to the score for the show in its entirety (more on that in a second) and want to share some thoughts.
When I initially found my way to the score for this show, I wasn't all that impressed by it, as I couldn't quite figure out the narrative through-line of the songs and was thrown off by what seemed to be the random shifting of focus from song to song. There were also moments that felt derivative of songs I'd heard from other shows.
However, after doing some research on both the musical and the opera that inspired it, I gave the score a second listen-through and have come away massively impressed.
There are still some parts of the score that feel derivative (Another Pyramid, for example, feels like it was melodically stolen from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), but that's really a minor issue when juxtaposed against songs like Every Story is a Love Story, Fortune Favors the Brave, A Step Too Far, I Know the Truth, and Not Me, all of which easily could and probably would have been the "featureed poece" in any other show, so the fact that they're all in the same score speaks volumes.
I love the score for The Lion King, but as good as that show's music is, Aida is several magnitudes better, and is one I would put up there with the likes of Les Mis, Phantom, West Side Story, and Beauty and the Beast, all of which make my Top 5 list of the best theatrical scores of all time (which is not something I would've thought would be the case given my initial tepid response to it).
#39Aida the Musical
Posted: 8/18/16 at 9:14am
Aida is definitely one of my favorite Broadway soundtracks. Adam and Heather are flawless and the songs are terrific. We must have seen the show 10 times when it was on Broadway- we saw Heather and Debra and Michelle and even Toni Braxton as Aida, always with Adam as Radames. We even went to see the show regionally several times, I would love to see it make its way back to Broadway!!
#40Aida the Musical
Posted: 8/18/16 at 6:18pm
Someone above said 'Simone can't sing?' Ummm, yeah, about that...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCrojEBu7wI
Lisa Simone was likely the best sung Aida during the run. Yes, her acting was wooden, but damn if she couldn't add her own power to that score. She did the same thing as Mimi in Rent. Just. Killed. It.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy2o7pacVGI
#41Aida the Musical
Posted: 8/18/16 at 6:45pm
BenjaminNicholas2 said: "Someone above said 'Simone can't sing?' Ummm, yeah, about that...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCrojEBu7wI
Lisa Simone was likely the best sung Aida during the run. Yes, her acting was wooden, but damn if she couldn't add her own power to that score. She did the same thing as Mimi in Rent. Just. Killed. It.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy2o7pacVGI
No one said she couldn't sing. Everyone, including me, acknowledges how well sung her Aida was. The problem was she was too old and her acting was awful.
broadwayboy223
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/2/14
#42Aida the Musical
Posted: 8/18/16 at 6:46pm
Wasn't Simone the original Aida in readings and workshops?
#43Aida the Musical
Posted: 8/18/16 at 8:04pm
I always felt that if the book got reworked & some songs deleted(Another Pyramid) and they add a new song this would've won Best Musical. If Disney ever opts to revive this, I hope it's put in the right hands.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
#44Aida the Musical
Posted: 8/18/16 at 9:54pm
I'm fully in favor of a revival! What about an all-star cast for an ABC live musical?
"I saw Pavarotti play Rodolfo on stage and with his girth I thought he was about to eat the whole table at the Cafe Momus." - Dollypop
#45Aida the Musical
Posted: 8/18/16 at 9:55pm
broadwayboy223 said: "Wasn't Simone the original Aida in readings and workshops?
Yes. The show had a very different sound to it at the time. The way Simone sang the score was completely different from how she ultimately sang it onstage. The audios from the demos are a fascinating listen if you can track them down.
BroadwayMan5
Featured Actor Joined: 7/30/15
#46Aida the Musical
Posted: 8/18/16 at 11:35pm
I think Aida is a very underrated show. Yes, the book has some issues and they sometimes missed on casting later in the run (Idina Menzel did not work as Amneris at all) but the score is brilliant and the story is touching. It's insane that it didn't get a Best Musical nomination in 2000.
#47Aida the Musical
Posted: 8/19/16 at 11:56am
Believe it or not, I actually found Taylor Dayne to be a better Amneris than Idina :)
#48Aida the Musical
Posted: 8/19/16 at 12:20pm
Now what I have always been curious about is, would Sherie Rene Scott be allowed to play Amneris in todays climate with casting and such.
"I think lying to children is really important, it sets them off on the right track" -Sherie Rene Scott-
broadwayboy223
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/2/14
#49Aida the Musical
Posted: 8/19/16 at 12:56pm
adamgreer said: "broadwayboy223 said: "Wasn't Simone the original Aida in readings and workshops?
Yes. The show had a very different sound to it at the time. The way Simone sang the score was completely different from how she ultimately sang it onstage. The audios from the demos are a fascinating listen if you can track them down.
"
If anyone on here has these demos please feel free to PM me. I'm curious because Simone has a great voice and she sounded really good on the score.
