Understudy Reviews

The Smoothie Queens

I went back and saw Spring Awakening AGAIN last night. Yes, the show was still beautiful, powerful, and electrifying, to say the least, but right now, I'm just going to give you the reviews of the understudies I saw.

Julie Benko as Wendla: Her voice is sugary sweet. It fits the character--Wendla is supposed to be fourteen. Her acting was good. Her singing was good, and her higher soprano parts were clear sounding and pure and pretty much great (i.e. 'The Word Of Your Body', etc...). There were a few moments where I wished she delivered the lines differently, but...if I hadn't seen Christy Altomare go on last week, I would've absolutely loved Julie. But as an understudy, yes, she did very well.

Krystina Alabado as Anna: Well, as much as I totally loved Gabby Garza's performance as Anna, Krystina did a great job! My Mom didn't really like her all that much, but I thought she did well. It was just weird, in my opinion, to see Anna in a green dress, when everyone's used to seeing Anna in a red dress. You could really hear Krystina's voice in 'Mama Who Bore Me (Reprise)', and she did a cool little riff (or something close to a riff) in 'My Junk' that I thought was so pretty and cool, and naturally I forgot what it was three minutes later.

Lucas A. Wells as Hanschen: No. I mean, if I didn't see Andy Mientus (sp?) go on, I would probably think Lucas did okay, but even then, he wouldn't be my favorite. For example: Andy was extremely into 'B*tch Of Living'. He rocked out the most. If you looked at Lucas, you could tell that he was the understudy because he wasn't moving nearly as much as the other boys. And he just didn't deliver the lines the way Andy did, and that was also the way I've heard Broadway Hanschens say them. In 'The Word Of Your Body (Reprise)', the first time he sang "body", he cracked so much that my Mom and I looked at each other and sighed. So no, he wasn't too, too terrible, but he didn't really do it for me.

Laura, let's hear about your understudy experiences. Broadway, national tour, regional theatre--do tell!!
Other undertudies that were good/great: Beth Curry (for Nikki Snelson) as Brooke Wyndham in Legally Blonde, Jay Armstrong Johnson (for David Hull), as Mark in the national tour of A Chorus Line.
Undertudies that were bad/totally sucked: Jim Walton (for Tituss Bergess [sp?]) as Nicely-Nicely Johnson in Guys And Dolls.