Narnia : The lion The Witch and The Wardrobe

Though im not a professional coming off broadway I think u would find my thoughts just as useful as those of an experts as sometimes u just need the opinion from an outsider because there will be non-theatre people watching your shows... I have been involved in many productions in different theatre companies throughout the peel region.. One of which was Jesus Christ Superstar. I vaguely remember a viewer tagging it as the "Jason Arrow" show.. in no way am I saying that jason was not brilliant as judas (infact his portrayal was mind blowing in my opinion... and besides the fact he is a friend of mine :P) but i really think that the role of judas steals it in ANY production of jcs.. as long as you can hit those notes than of course u will be the star of the show as .. lets face it.. Judas gets the best selection of songs besides i dont know how to love him (which was sung BEAUTIFULLY by Ali Hill).... But back to the point i was making... In my opinion... NARNIA was really the Jason Arrow show... Though fully masked as a member of the wolf pack in the first half, he still stood out with his distinctive way of moving... and if I may add.. that turkish delight song was DEFINITELY my favourite piece of choreo so kudos to Sally... In the 2nd half when he was finally introduced you could see a rise in the audience as they all sat up a little straighter. His stage presence is really second to none. Though i will not deny that Jason has AMAZING vocals.. It was really the costume that gave the ultimate finishing touch, and with an entrance song like his.. it was hard to pry my eyes away from him and take a look at the acting and dancing that was taking place around him. (big thumbs up to the orchestra)... the only let down in his scenes was of course the mics which made some notes sound faulty. But hey... Jason Arrow was not the only person in the show.. :P.... Though you can now see how a cast member might feel after putting months and months of hardwork and effort into a show and it then being labeled a one man show..... Sarah did a WONDERFUL job as the robin... overall i enjoyed the choreo but at times I felt the facial expressions of some of the dancers brought the atmosphere down.... Performance is just as important as talent.. which brings me on to my next point.. As being friendly with quite a number of the cast I know what a lot of them are capable of and I would have loved to have seen them used more. Alex Wall and Hayley Smith both proved the famous saying "There are no small parts.. only small actors" with their great background acting.. I would have loved to have seen more pointe work by Elysia Addison and Meaghan Doohan though the other girls did fantastically, they maybe looked a little on the young side to have started on pointe (im no professional in ballet either so dont take me to seriously ahaha). Natalie Burbage was FANTASTIC as the white witch... but honestly.. have I EVER seen a show with Natalie Burbage where she hasnt been amazing??? :)... Her cackling sidekick was also a standout and brought some comic relief to the show. Now to the four children.. I attended Narnia on their last sunday matinee which had the original leads... Overall i did not find the children very "strong" but they contributed in their own ways.. Lucy was EXCEPTIONAL and really stole the show out of the four with her vibrance.. it was a pity that she had a malfunctioning mic in the second half though Edmund was played well by Cal and his solo was VERY good considering the key it was in... it was a bit of a shame that he didnt have that many lines and was more skulking around the stage. Kody played her character very well and I was impressed with her acting and accent but wasnt too fussed on her singing.. Christian to be honest lacked a little in projection as well as a bit of acting but I felt it was a little like that with all four of them as they were trying very hard to maintain their accents and a lot of actual "acting" was lost. Also the movement in the song where they were pushing lucy around became a little repeatative and would have been more effective if it was only done about two times at the most... At times the orchestra did drown out the singers but that usually occurs in my experiences with working with orchestras anyway Overall i found the show to be very well directed and I was entertained throughout... :D Once again... please dont take my opinion to heart... this is just constructive criticism because as a performer myself i know that it is good to find out the areas in which you can improve on.