awakeFledermaus was very good. There were some very good topical jokes, as is common. In the first act, when Eisenstein is dressing up in nice clothes to (supposedly) go to prison, and his wife notes the incongruity, he responds that Falke has reminded him that these days, all the best people are going to jail -- "accountants, lawyers, politicians... lots of politicians!" Eisenstein was played as wonderfully curmudgeonly -- he had a good clear singing voice, but in his spoken parts would dig in for a gravelly growl. Falke was rather dashing -- Brian Leerhuber reminds me of a young Samuel Ramey. The cast didn't include a lot of big names -- mostly young, very energetic and athletic folks, who were great for the dancing, and the pratfalls in the last act, when everyone's hung over from the party. They did have one well-known singer, Gerald Thompson, the countertenor playing Orlofsky, who put on vocal fireworks that really captured the jaded-but-mercurial character of the Prince. (They also had the prince specifically mention that he's bored by comedic operettas, especially Johan Strauss, and break the fourth wall to suggest that the audience really should just leave now. *g*) Oh, and their Frosch was quite good, and made some more fourth-wall jokes, as is fairly common for that character; there was a particularly good bit revolving around the supertitles.
Oh, and the sets and costumes were superb. I believe this is an entirely new production; I hope they'll be keeping the materials around for future re-use, because they were just gorgeous.
Anyways, a good show. I'm kinda bummed my second ticket didn't get used, though. :-(
