Aida (The Musical, the Movie)

[DeltAlum]

I saw Adam Pascal and Heather Headley do the show in New York, so several thoughts...all strictly personal opinion.

Beyonce may be too beautiful -- That sounds strange, but it's my gut feeling. Headley, tall and thin, just looks like a Nubian Princess to me. Beyonce looks like a movie star. There's a difference.

I think she can probably sing the role -- but may "oversing" and "overact." This isn't Motown.

Now, to somewhat contridict what I said about Beyonce not "looking" like a Nubian princess, Adam Pascal doesn't look like an Egyptian general, but I don't know how you replace that amazing, sometimes raspy, voice. I saw him in Aida and RENT on Broadway, and sometimes you just forget how someone looks because the performance is so good. For that matter, what does and Egyptian general look like? Does Sherie Rene' Scott look like an Egypitan Princess? On the other-other hand, Pascal is better on stage than in the movies, I think.

Speaking of Sherie Rene' Scott, any word on who plays Amners in the movie. Scott was outstanding in NY.

A little rambling here, but as I recall the NY production, there were a lot of cast members who didn't "look" the parts. As I said before, sometimes you get so lost in the music that you forget that the actors aren't type cast.

Finally, I also saw Hairspray in both NY and here in Denver and will probably go see the movie out of curiosity, but remembering RENT as a movie, I have to keep reminding myself that the two disciplines are much different and not to compare them too closely.

They just ain't the same animal.

(Sensuret, thanks for the link. That really is an outstanding high school production. I'm just a little sad that AIDA was released for high school performance the year after our son graduated. He would have been a great Radames. In fact, he and a young woman from the class ahead of him won the Colorado Thespian Conference duet musical competition with "Written In The Stars.") They could easily have won the national competition, but she was out of the country so they couldn't compete. He won Solo Vocal at the Colorado and national level the years before and after. End of gushing from proud father.)