Alice Ripley proving a tad elusive

Posted: 5/4/11 at 2:32pm

This has got to be hurting ticket sales:

"According to reports from readers, Alice Ripley, the star of the superb touring production of "Next to Normal" did not perform in Chicago on Tuesday night, nor last Saturday afternoon, nor last Friday night.

According to Broadway in Chicago, the show's presenter, Ripley is contracted to perform her demanding role six out of eight weekly performances, and also took a personal day last week.

Readers (one of whom traveled four hours to see Ripley) report being given the option to exchange their tickets, although with no guarantee as to whether Ripley would then be performing. Her schedule is not announced in advance.

Several readers, a couple of whom have seen the show several times, have written admiringly of Ripley's understudy, Pearl Sun, whom I have not seen."

Theater Loop

[steven22]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 2:35pm

Get Marin Mazzi, Jessica Phillips, or Catherine Porter IN. All excellent Dianas.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 2:57pm

At least the role appears to finally have an alternate.

Get Marin Mazzi, Jessica Phillips, or Catherine Porter IN. All excellent Dianas.

Marin Mazzie is not going to tour. Jessica Phillips is currently in a Broadway show. I doubt Catherine Porter, who has young kids, wants to go out on the road.

Besides, the tour is clearly built around Ripley. She's not going to be replaced.

Posted: 5/4/11 at 2:59pm

All the press and ads here seemed to be "See Alice Ripey in her Tony Award Winning Role!!"

[steven22]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 3:01pm

Any chance the producers would hire another Diana cover?

[littlegreen2]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 3:19pm

I have seen the tour several times and so far I have only seen Ripley - no Pearl yet. I think this past weekend in Chicago as well as a weekend in Seattle were the only times she missed a significant "block" of shows at once. I think traveling as well as living Diana so often is taking a toll on her and her singing voice. It's sad.

I have friends who have seen Pearl and they compare her to JP and say she is absolutely wonderful. Although yes, it must be hurting ticket sales. I think it's silly to get your money back if she's not there though.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 3:26pm

Frankly, getting to see her turns out to be a dubious reward, at best. I saw her opening night of the St. Louis tour and her voice sounded terrible. I realize that if she's reading this I'll get derided for not being a Tony award winning actress myself, but the fact remains that she sounds pretty dreadful.

[Eos]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 3:29pm

^ And, you'll be derided IN ALL CAPS!

[littlegreen2]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 3:32pm

I posted earlier in this thread but I think she sounds like Alice... Her voice is so tired, but her belt is still strong - it's the quieter stuff that she's having more difficulty with. Every time I've seen her in this tour I've been impressed - If you can look past the rough vocal patches which are few and far between (my opinion), she is still living Diana as she did on Broadway.

Holistically, her performance is still incredible.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 3:38pm

I would have thought seeing her on the first night of a leg would have meant the rough patches were few and far between, but the whole show sounded like a rough patch. In addition (or because of?) the vocal strain, half the time her voice sounds like she's doing some sort of Irish brogue and I thought for all the talk of this AMAZING, BALLS to the WALL performance she was pretty low-key. Also, there were some botched harmonies, which I assume were because she was unable to get to the right notes. To me, holistically, it was a disaster.

[littlegreen2]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 3:47pm

I completely respect your opinion about her voice, PRS. A lot of people have said the same thing but I guess it didn't take anything away from the performance for me. Just out of curiosity, what did you think of her overall performance as Diana (looking past the vocal aspect)?

I guess I just love the show so much that something like the quality of her voice doesn't affect what I think about the performance as a whole. I'll keep traveling to see her until the tour ends because I just enjoy it.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 3:54pm

I was disappointed. I've been a fan of hers since I saw her in Side Show, and I knew going in that her voice was in a much different state than it was then, but overall, I just found the whole thing lacking. Perhaps the part of the problem is that the Fox in St Louis is just a huge barn. Even though I was in the middle orchestra, perhaps the space is just too big for the show. I just thought her performance was low-energy all around.

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 4:00pm

It's unfortunate that she's missing a lot of shows, but she did sound great at her recent concert. Much better than she'd sounded in a while.

[steven22]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 4:00pm

After seeing her on broadway after she took vocal rest, I have to say I think the producers should give her a break for one or two legs of the tour. Once back, her voice will be much better.

[littlegreen2]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 4:10pm

I doubt they would let her take off a whole tour stop but the whole cast has a decent break at the end of May and beginning of June... May 23rd - June 6th. Hopefully that will help her somehow. She really does sound wonderful after a break. When she was doing her concerts at dopo teatro over the summer, she hadn't been playing Diana for a significant amount of time and she sounded INCREDIBLE.

[Goggles]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 4:13pm

how was the concert the other night? i havent heard much about it and i am very curious...i actually was gonna try and fly out there for it but unfortunately work got in the way :/

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 4:28pm

I heard that she was also out Sunday afternoon. Many people from my school went this past weekend (sucking up to the choir director who loves the show) and were quite disappointed to see Pearl. What annoys me most is that most of them can't see past the fact that they're not seeing the Tony-winner and don't give the understudy a chance to be good because "the other one won a Tony!" I'm seeing the show Sunday (I'm so excited--I've waited over two years to see this show) and I'm kind of hoping to see Pearl go on. I've never really loved Alice's voice, and I'm sure I wouldn't like how it sounds now. In the review in the Chicago Tribune, the critic was defending Alice Ripley's poor technique as portraying pain or something like that, but from the sound of it, it's really not intentional. Alice didn't have this much trouble on Broadway, did she? I know that her vocal health dipped toward the end of her run, but she had three or four months to recover. I don't remember hearing about her calling out this often.

[littlegreen2]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 4:34pm

She sounded fantastic at the beginning of her Broadway run but it became significantly weaker towards the end (though it never bothered me). Her voice is an acquired taste. Personally, I still think she sounds great when she belts (her You Don't Know is the best).

I really want to see Pearl eventually! Her voice is beautiful.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 4:45pm

She didn't perform last night and the people sitting next to me tried to go on Sunday and said they were told she wasn't performing then, either. They were pretty ticked off because they tried to schedule specifically to see Ripley based on the GLOWING RAVES in the Tribune which touted this tour as being superior to the original Broadway production with love letters to Ripley. Plus, she was scheduled to perform a cabaret act Monday night, but I didn't hear if she showed up for that or not. My mother was really bummed about not seeing Ripley, but all that vanished shortly into the first act and it was clear the audience was on board with the cast they were given (3 understudies: Diana, Natalie and Henry). There was applause in places I've never heard it before. Audible sniffing and sobbing. And outright CHEERS for the cast during the bows. The house was probably only 60% full, but it sounded like SRO. During intermission, the people I met were eating it up and after the show, my mother said, "I want to see it again." I heard nothing but positive buzz while making the long trek out to the street. Pearl Sun had the audience in the palm of her hand from I Miss the Mountains and I will say that Caitlin Kinnunen was the best and most convincing Natalie I've seen. She floored me.

Updated On: 5/4/11 at 04:45 PM

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 4:48pm

Goggles, The concert was incredible. She was in great voice and she chose a good mix of covers and original songs. She sang with such passion and it was very powerful experience.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 4:54pm

So she did perform the concert. Yikes. Hope nobody rushed to buy tickets to Next to Normal thinking they'd get to catch her in the show.

[moowithme85]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 4:56pm

I was at the show Saturday evening and last night as well (had heard that Alice would be on, so I gave it another shot).

On Saturday, I was unimpressed by Pearl's acting (seemed more like Diana was drunk, rather than bipolar...), but her voice was beautiful. It was actually kind of refreshing to hear the ballads sound beautiful, rather than strained. I haven't heard Alice as Diana since her final Broadway show, but I remember that night thinking she sounded worn out. At last night's show, I thought Pearl was much better...maybe it's my imagination, but I think performing so many shows in a row is allowing her to develop more into Diana. However, a lot of the time, I felt like I was watching a Ripley impersonation...

I was also at Alice's solo show on Monday. I thought she sounded fine...a couple songs were clearly hard for her to get through (Led Zeppelin's Cashmere was particularly painful), but overall, she was charming and beautiful and the crowd ate it all up.

She had a small meet and greet after the concert, and she told that she had been out of the Chicago shows due to a knee injury she got in St. Louis. I'm obligated to believe that because that's what she told me...
Updated On: 5/4/11 at 04:56 PM

[newintown]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 4:57pm

I saw it late in previews, and she was consistently flat the entire evening in her middle range around the first break (e-g). Painful to listen to, and sad to watch her do it to herself.

[JeaniusIsMe]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 5:48pm

A friend of mine went last night and said there were several understudies on. While he was sad not to see Ripley, he said he really enjoyed Sun, for what it's worth.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 5/4/11 at 6:28pm

It's f@#%king ridiculous that she isn't showing up to her 8 shows a week and she is booking additional concert gigs in the city she is performing in. What a joke-clearly she has the producers by the balls thanks to her Tony and comes and goes as she pleases.

She should at least be planful about her absences and post them for theatre-goers, many of whom want to see her.

This will stick with people and they will stop showing up for her.