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My friend who attended Thursday night's performance called me Saturday and we had a long conversation about Randy's performance.
She and her husband got back to their hotel room around midnight Thursday and she decided it was too late to call me and instead sent the brief email message I posted here Friday about Randy owning the stage and how the audience "exploded" when he came out for his curtain call.
She said that "exploded" was not an exaggeration. She and her husband are avid theater goers and she said she had never witnessed an ovation like that before. She said it was like a roar from a stadium crowd at a sporting event.
We talked about the first time we heard Randy sing when we all went to Wicked together and how we looked at each other when he hit the extended note - "Because you are so beauuuuutifuuuuuul!" - during Boq's part of "Dancing Through Life":
We saw him sing again in Tommy and I saw him sing in Atomic and, of course we watched My Hit Parade and Skivvies youtube videos. But we agreed we were blown away by his solo numbers in Cabaret
She remarked that she always knew he had a "Broadway voice" but the strength and versatility of his singing in this production just stunned her. She said his voice was even richer than in the past and I had to agree.
They had a box seat stage right, so no one was sitting in front of them. She purchased their tickets over a month before the show arrived in Miami and all the orchestra seats were sold out. Her husband brought his high power binoculars and so they had the ability to get very close up views of Randy's performance. including that his makeup included body glitter.
She also added that the audience was very responsive when he came down into the first orchestra row at the beginning of Act 2 and that two people he asked to come on the stage to dance with him were not reluctant at all.
One of the things that also impressed her was that after he finished the "Money" song where he literally danced across every part of the stage, up the steps to the catwalk and down again, he was not the least bit winded.
She felt that Andrea's very different rendition of Cabaret was extremely fitting and beautifully done. And she had high praise for Shannon Cochran's Fraulein Schneider, and Mark Nelson's Herr Schultz and their sweet but tragic story line.
She also said that the audience was extremely involved and receptive and it was obvious they loved every part of the show, and the entire cast and adored Randy.
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