Tarzan
Richard Rodger Theatre
2/11/07 – 6:30pm
Preface: When Tarzan first came out I listened to peoples reviews and stayed away. I didn’t bother booking tickets or buying the cast recording. When other people asked me I told them that I heard horrible reviews and I didn’t plan on wasting my time. A month or so later while downloading other cast albums I decided “what the hell”, and downloaded the Tarzan OBC. It took me a few more weeks and then I decided to pop it in. The rest is history. I absolutely fell in love with Josh’s voice, loved the songs, and tried to ignore everyone’s reviews. So I booked tickets and waited patiently.
I was a little disappointed when I arrived at the theater to a list of four understudies, but all fears were soon put aside. We had seats Orchestra Row E, left, a few seats in. Obviously Center would have been better, but these seats were awesome. I don’t know what it is like sitting in the mezz, but sitting so close and seeing the actors faces and expressions really brought the show to a new level for me. I sat in awe the entire show because I was in love. Now, don’t get me wrong, the show has some obvious faults, but none of them bothered me.
People may think I am naïve because I haven’t seen many plays yet. Maybe people see that it’s Disney and that if they are going to be such a colossal figure on Broadway, it should be much better. I don’t see it that way at all. I didn’t look at it as “Disney” or this or that, I took it for what it was. I think that we as Broadway fanatics have become spoiled. Five years ago this show would be coveted, but because so many shows have such large scale special effects, etc., that we are harder to please. By no means am I saying this is an altogether bad thing. As our society ages, that is what all things must do, grow , adapt, re market, and continuously stay one step ahead of the competition. And now a days staying ahead of the completion requires pushing the boundaries and never ending technological advancements. Anyways, back to point.
Cast:
Darrin Baker (u/s) – Kerchak – I wasn’t attached to Shuler so I didn’t mind an understudy for this position, even thought I was psyched at thinking I was going to see a complete original cast for the first time. He was very good, and his voice very similar to Shuler. The only thing was that “No Other Way” was staged and sung a little too much like a ballad. He just seemed to stay in one spot of the stage to often facing the audience with his arms reached out. He had good chemistry with Kala. I will admit his little “ape sign off” we call it was a little comical. I didn’t mind the ape sounds or anything, but his was just quirky.
Andrea Dora (u/s) – Kala – I really wanted to see Merle Dandrige in this role, so I was a little disappointed at first. “You’ll Be in my Heart” was ok, but there was just something slightly off (my mind always resorting to cast recording, bad habit I know), which made me worry. However, she grew on me as the night went on. She was adorable with young Tarzan and also had good chemistry with Josh.
Alex Rutherford – Young Tarzan – Cute. Very cute!
Chester Gregory – Terk – Oh my, he was too adorable. I just wanted to go pinch his cheeks! He has an amazing voice and is very funny. “Who Better Than Me (Reprise)” still remains one of my favorite songs of the whole show. My only complaint was with “Trashin’ the Camp”, and it didn’t really have to do with him per say, but I was expecting something staged a little more elaborate. It was still good though.
Josh Strickland – Tarzan – Love, Love, Love, Love Josh!!!! When I first heard the OBC, the thing that made me listen again and again was Josh’s voice. It was intoxicating, than I happened to see a picture and well yeah, no need to say anything more. He was absolutely adorable as Tarzan. It was a little weird that all he did was grunt and the break out into eloquent song, but I’m just OCD like that. I really wish he was able to have actual lines. He had great interaction with each actor/actress. His voice was even better live than on the OBC in my opinion. His “Everything That I Am” took my breath away.
Jenn Gamatese – Jane Porter – I had never seen her work before, but she was brilliant. She had great comedic timing and a beautiful voice.
The rest of the cast was amazing as well. I had understudies for Mr. Clayton (he looked quite like Peter Facinelli) & Snipes.
Set – I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. Yes it’s a lot of green, but it didn’t bother me. The opening sequence was great, along with the night scene in “Strangers Like Me” and the forest scene at the end when they meet the Gorilla families. Maybe it’s because my favorite color is green to begin with, who knows. I absolutely loved how they did all of the scenes with the leopard (panther? I don’t remember which cat it was exactly), esp. the end battle with Tarzan and the red glow.
“Waiting for this Moment” was staged beautifully. One of my favorite aspects of the show was the audience interaction, and the butterfly in this scene was exquisite. But at the end, it was quite strange when the plants were feeling her up! I am terrified of anything related to spiders, so I could have done without that scene personally.
Going with the scenes that I wasn’t expecting (plants feeling her up), I was shocked at that first scenes between Tarzan and Jane. It was hilarious and played perfectly by Jenn but for a show that was aimed at children they really focused on Tarzan’s manhood a lot!
Many people’s major complaints about the show was the vines/harnesses. I don’t know if maybe they have cleaned it up a bit, but I didn’t see anything that was too distracting. I mean, it’s a live Broadway show not a movie, some things you cannot get around to arrive at the effect one is seeking. I really only noticed obvious hooking of harnesses in a few scenes. Otherwise, too me, it was not as annoying as people made it out to be.
Which brings up the costumes, obviously I loved Tarzan’s costume, but I thought the gorillas were great. I liked that they still resembled humans. Blame it on my sophomore English II Honors teacher, Mrs. Dellanno. She made us relentlessly look for symbolism in every book we read (I love One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest, but I can never look at in the same way again!), so that is what my mind automatically defaults to when watching things. Seeing the human aspects of the characters helped bridge the feelings that they were really a family. Plus full ape suits probably would have been hard to maneuver in! But I’m also weird.
I may have not seen a lot of musicals in my lifetime so far, but I’ve seen a lot in the last 6 months, and none of them had this effect on me. I really liked them, but it wasn’t the same. I will honestly say it rivaled the emotional effects of Rent and Les Miserables when I saw them in my teenage years, and those emotions I had then led me to continue my love of theatre.
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