Post by Talissa on Nov 22, 2004 7:44:40 GMT 11
I'll say first of all that anyone who has not yet seen Hayden on stage must do so the first chance that comes their way as he is not to be missed. Before tonight I'd heard nothing but good of him, and even so managed to be pleasantly surprised. He's an extremely charismatic performer, with a clear, powerful voice and strong ineraction with the audience (which apart from myself and two people who appeared to be connected with the Butterfly Club consisted of two people), and is an outstanding character actor, slipping into a few roles over the course of the evening without faltering once.
His patter was quite obviously scripted, but engaging, with not a word wasted as he spoke of Kander and Ebb and his own experiences regarding the pair, and though it was a short show, every second was of value. He coped extremely well with the small audience, compromising nothing, and apart from two well-timed comments about the size of the audience ("In a Sydney performance, three people out of the sixty present had seen Chicago, and two of those were myself and Nigel. It's a cultured place here. There are three people, and you've all see Chicago"), someone who could see only him wouldn't have known he wasn't performing to a full house. He also did very well ignoring the thumping upstairs of a couple of dozen teenagers. Nasty conditions, but he did extremely well.
His patter was quite obviously scripted, but engaging, with not a word wasted as he spoke of Kander and Ebb and his own experiences regarding the pair, and though it was a short show, every second was of value. He coped extremely well with the small audience, compromising nothing, and apart from two well-timed comments about the size of the audience ("In a Sydney performance, three people out of the sixty present had seen Chicago, and two of those were myself and Nigel. It's a cultured place here. There are three people, and you've all see Chicago"), someone who could see only him wouldn't have known he wasn't performing to a full house. He also did very well ignoring the thumping upstairs of a couple of dozen teenagers. Nasty conditions, but he did extremely well.
