Seeing this show was one of, if not *the* motivating factor for my trip to New York on this particular weekend - I had to see Roger Bart as Leo before he left the show! And I guess I must have hyped up the show pretty well, because Susan decided to come and see it with me. :-) And this was the first time I've been able to sit down for this show! Mind you, it was in the very last row of the upper balcony, but still, it was a seat! :-)

The first thing that caught me right off the top was how much I missed Nathan Lane as Max. Lewis Stadlen did a fine job, despite being very difficult to understand a lot of the time while he was singing, but he was just missing that manic energy that Nathan has. I knew when I saw Nathan do it that nobody would ever live up to him, and seeing somebody else in the role just showed me that I was right. For example, King of Broadway hardly got any laughs - but that might just have been because nobody knew what he was saying!

Me and Roger Bart

With Leo, the distinction was a little tougher. I *loved* Matthew Broderick as Leo, but I also love Roger Bart in general. :-) I think, being completely honest, that I probably enjoyed Matthew in the role more. He was just a little more dorky and a little more helpless. But Roger was also completely enjoyable! He was an especially fantastic spastic over his blue blanket. :-) And I loved when he collapsed to the floor, the way he just kind of fell over, it was too funny! Although, sadly, he left out the part where Leo jumps on his briefcase, which was one of my favourite silly moments in the show. However, all of his singing was just lovely, and that was probably the area where I preferred him to Matthew. Cady Huffman is the only major original cast member left, and she just shines, even more than before. She was the highlight of the show for Susan. I think that if I wanted to explain to somebody who saw the show now what the original cast was like, I would say that everybody was of the same calibre as Cady Huffman.

Brad Musgrove is a wonderful replacement for Roger as Carmen - he had some of the biggest laughs of the day. And I liked John Treacy Egan as Roger, although I *really* missed the whole Judy Garland bit during Springtime for Hitler. He just sat on the stage and posed for a while, which was also funny, but not as much so. Peter Samuel was a good Franz, although he was trying really hard at some kind of accent, and I'm not exactly sure what it was. It definitely wasn't German. ;-) But overall I enjoyed him a lot.

Anyway, my final impression was that it was still a very fun, enjoyable show, but not quite the amazing theatrical experience that the original cast was. However, it did prove to me that the show does still work with another cast, and I just might have to check it out in Toronto!