If/Then In Concert w/ Kerry Ellis - Savoy

When declaring people rude it's always worth remembering that we don't know what someone is going through. They could be having a bad day, they could be in a bad mood, they could be ill, they could be stressed, they could have depression or anxiety, they could have something serious going on in their life. None of us are lovely to people 100% of the time and it doesn't make us a bad person.

You should've seen it when it was Idina. Literal camping overnight! We arrived at 2am and were 10th in the queue. Never again!!!

Very much this!  I remember seeing the show in NY with Idina as the lead, and while I enjoyed it and was happy to have seen it, I came away thinking that the book was a bit shaky, and the various shifts between the alternative storylines were not always clear-cut and "easy to read".  All in all, it doesn't strike me as something that British audiences would really take to.  

Despite a more than decent score with a bunch of solid contemporary MT numbers - and the kind of ballads designed around Idina's vocal sweet spot - and despite a stellar cast (alongside Idina, the likes of Anthony Rapp, Lachanze and Jenn Colella were among the OGs), this didn't quite flow as smoothly as perhaps it could have.  However, Idina's solos were little lessons in acting through song.  

I think Ellis is a brilliant vocalist, but not nearly as brilliant as an actress, and I fear she would struggle to carry the show on her shoulders.  She may as well belt the high section towards the end of 'Always starting over' beautifully, almost certainly technically more accurately than Idina, but... if she fails to make me connect with and care for her character(s) on the way there, her 'my new life starts right now' won't move me nearly as much as it should.  

Didn't someone say Kerry Ellis was doing this?

Threads merged.

Kerry guested with Tom Kitt at his Crazy Coqs show and did a couple of numbers from If/Then.

While they mentioned how Kerry had workshopped it and how they wanted to do it, it doesn't sound like there's any active development of it further sadly.

Spoke to her afterwards and that's not necessarily the impression she gave me...

I didn't get a date but the producers who are going to be doing it were at the Tom Kitt concert and she said it's moving forward ...

I think producers that continue to cast Kerry Ellis in anything are taking a big risk ,she hasn’t been a ticket seller for a long time and the producers lost there shirts that produced Wonderland and her past concert at the Adelphi was such a flop ticket sales wise.

I like Kerry Ellis, but I do see the point corblimey is making. I think Kerry Ellis’s ‘prime’ may now be behind her, both vocally and in terms of her popularity and ticket-selling power. ‘Wicked’ was obviously huge for her, but I think it was more the show and the ‘belting nature’ of the role that created the hype, not Ellis herself.

I saw Ellis in Wicked. Vocally, at that time, she made the singing seem effortless, but her acting was not up to standard. To be frank, she seemed bored. In ‘Wonderland’, her acting was, again, amateurish; in fact, for much of the time, she didn’t seem to know what to do (and she struggled vocally in certain parts).

For me, ‘Anything Goes’ was the best all-round performance she’s given. She was cast alongside a truly talented company (including Simon Callow and Bonnie Langford), which possibly made her ‘up her game’. This was ‘broad-stroke’ comedy acting though.

Whether she can carry a truly emotional, nuanced and dramatic role, however, is another matter. I’m not convinced.

Don’t misunderstand me : Kerry is still a great singer (although I have to be honest - her hand gestures and twiddling of the fingers has become very annoying), but she cannot seem to sell tickets based on her name. I think some of her earlier successes may also have been due to her association with Brian May. On her own, I think there is less interest.

Other Wicked performers seem to generate more of an interest and they go on to other successes (e.g. Rachel Tucker, Willemijn Verkaik). Samantha Barks also seems to go from one show to another more ‘smoothly’. This may be because they are much better actresses, alongside their huge voices. Hitting the notes is not sufficient in the modern musical theatre world (as there are clearly many performers who can actually do that nowadays); a much more rounded acting performance is needed - and this is where I think Ellis falls behind the other performers I have mentioned.

The clip of here singing is odd. I don't know if thats the key they're gonna do in the concert or altered for video, but I was not a fan of the changes especially to the last few lines. It is a very belty role and Kerry seems to be quite scared of belting in the clip, so fingers crossed I guess?