#h2sbway

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_QEixr6-xs

I feel like I'm going through this all again. When Dan ended his run on How to Succeed, I sobbed. I remember watching his final speech and literally sobbing my eyes out. This show is incredible and I wish I could of seen it more then I did. I was lucky to see it 4 times. 3 times with the hyper active and incredible DanRad who surprised me each and every time. Getting to see it with him was the best experience, and I was even luckier to win tickets to see it with Nick once back in March and was planning on going again end of June for a last time but sadly, fans were more interested in meeting Nick, then seeing the show and it ended tonight. This show gave me a love for musicals and theater again. I know I will see it for sure if it ever comes back to broadway cause it really is a terrific show. 

Now I find myself, 5 months later, once again sobbing my eyes out. I wish I could of seen it 100 times cause every time I laughed, I cried, I had fun with every member of its cast, with every performance, it got better. If I had a job, I would of gone a few more times and even for Darren Criss. This show is so much fun. 

Whether I was last row, center, 3rd row or front row, I enjoyed every minute of it. From the beginning music to the final bow. I will cherish these memories for a life time.

I went to NYC with one of my best friends, Meredith, to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying starring Darren Criss...I could honestly go into a ton of detail, but I'll probably get emotional if I try dong that right now.... The show was incredible ;___; we left the theater sobbing [pretty sure we were the only ones in the theater that were] and the rest of the audience pretty much thad to kayak out due to our tears. Anyway, the city was gorgeous, and I'm actually happy we were there when there was snow on the ground, no matter how cold it was or how gross the morning weather was.

Instead of leaving our show early or rushing out to the stage door after our show, we decided we'd come back and wait outside until after the later show was done. However, we found out people were lining up really early. So, we walked through Times Square, got approached by a few frightening men, took a few pictures of Darren's huge billboard, and went back to our hotel room. We ate, I finished writing Darren's and CJ Hanke's fan letters, and we headed back out.

We ended up waiting at the stage door for 5 hours in the 10 degree weather. Was it worth it? Absolutely! We met such awesome people, ordered pizza to the stage door, and I got Beau Bridges's, Christopher Hanke's, and Darren Criss's autograph, along with as many pictures and videos I could get. Christopher even signed a heart on my poster when I said I loved him. I made eye contact with Darren and Criss twice each, and I almost passed out.

The crowd wasn't as bad as i expected.... some people were disrespectful, but all in all we tried to work together to help others get autographs. Everyone was just freezing and determined to get a signature after waiting for so long.

Starkid at How to Succeed - January 7, 2012

When Darren Criss emerged from the orchestra pit in his window washer suit, hair slicked back, and purple bow tie perfectly affixed, the roar was deafening. This crowd was here for Darren. His face was focused as he "read" intently from his companion on this journey - his book bearing the title of the show: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The only sign of nerves was a little tremor in his hand. Once on the ground, Criss was off and running toward success with the crowd behind him, laughing and cheering along.

  For someone so famously humble, Criss has no trouble stepping into the role of self-centered ladder-climber. Criss' J. Pierrepont Finch is at once a disarmingly charming, naive, and cunningly ruthless young man who sees people only as a means to his ends. Mastering Finch is like walking a tightrope, and Criss’ balance is impeccable.

Criss' strength is in his timing and nuance. There are a few shining moments where Criss seems to leap from his tightrope with perfect comedic technique and land again with the audience’s hearts in their throats and in his hands. A few moments stand out. The first, Criss’ nervous, knowing laughter when his boss’ mistress declares she’s will be Finch’s secretary and sets her sights on him. Criss communicates, with incredible comedic timing, what the audience already knows – this lady is trouble. And Criss’ breathy, nervous laugh assures the audience he knows this as well, and better yet, he has a plan.

Later, in a more obvious display, when Finch has just realized that he’s in love with Rosemary, the secretary who’s had her eye on him since he walked into The World Wide Wicket Company (can you blame her?), Criss leaps onto the couch, and triggers that second-hand-embarrassment-inducing moment when Tom Cruise declared his love for Katie Holmes on Oprah, by giddily jumping up and down on the couch. Throughout his rendition of “Rosemary,” Criss expertly leaps from couch, to stage, to desk like a lovesick man ready and needing to shout his love from the rooftops. At one point, Criss’ Finch is so excited by the music all around him, in which he can hear Rosemary’s name, that he enthusiastically pounds the keys of an imaginary piano!

Now, fans of Criss’ Blaine on Glee are no strangers to his seemingly inhuman ability to communicate so much (namely, Blaine’s love for Kurt) in one facial expression. This skill is on full display when Finch’s cunning leads “BBDO” (the new guy who’s been brought in to be the head of the advertising department) to reveal he’s a Chipmunk – the dreaded rival of the Grand Old Ivy Groundhogs, the beloved alma mater of the boss, JB. The spotlight finds Criss’ face adeptly displaying the type of smugness that can only come with the success of a well-laid and executed evil plan, and the crowd erupts into well-deserved gales of laughter.  Speaking of the good ol’ Groundhogs, Grand Old Ivy is always a much loved and heavily anticipated number. Again, Criss does not disappoint. As I heard a fan declare on the way out of the theater: “That boy can dance!” She spoke truth. Criss runs, leaps and is carried through the air (at one point, being passed through the air while in the fetal position, during which he had the good sense to put his thumb in his mouth and earn some hearty laughter). Grand Old Ivy is a physical work out and Criss is sweating. Profusely. But it's endearing - a physical display of just how much effort he and Finch are putting into this.  Brotherhood of Men is another number of note. Although Criss is still developing his Broadway lungs, and it showed a bit when he seemed to lose steam on a note or two in the beginning of the number, he puts on an incredible and inspired performance, especially for a guy who just debuted on Broadway about two hours ago with as many weeks of practice under his belt. Criss nails every single move like he was born to high-kick, spin and twist on stage. And I can say that after witnessing it, it is certainly possible that is the case.  As someone who was privileged to also see Daniel Radcliffe in the role, I noticed some differences in the choices the two men made in portraying the iconic Finch.  Notably, near the very end, when the audience and Finch fear that all has been lost and he indeed won’t succeed, Finch reveals he began his climb as a window washer only to find out that the chairman of the board (who’s been brought in to reprimand the people responsible for the current state of the company) began as a window washer as well. This fact immediately endears him to the chairman.

All throughout the play, when Finch’s manipulations have proved successful, the spotlight falls on his face and he gives the audience a look that says, “This, too, was all a part of the plan.” When the spotlight found Finch’s face in this moment, Radcliffe chose to portray it as Finch's crowning moment of trickery - his face telling the audience he knew this little fact the whole time. This too was just another of his tricks to the top. However, Criss chooses this moment to humanize Finch, displaying shock and relief at the chairman's revelation. For Criss’ Finch, this moment is a stroke of luck and not the result of trickery. Ultimately, Criss’ Finch finds success not through cunning, but through the honesty of accepting and admitting who he really is.  This choice, I think, reveals a lot about Criss’ interpretation of Finch and ultimately of the man portraying him.

Darren Criss is a stunning example of the truth of exactly the opposite of what his character’s metaphorical Bible professes to be true. In order to succeed, at least in the way Criss has and does on the Al Hirshfield stage, one must work incredibly hard. 

  I was privileged to sit in the row directly in front of many of his family and friends. It adds a little something special to a story about a boy who rises to the top when the protagonist is embodied by a boy who has done just that and the story is backed by the soundtrack of his friends’ and family’s laughter and tears—his mother’s laugh the loudest and most contagious of all.

And while Criss may have briefly stumbled over a few lines in the end, it was clear it was caused by the sheer magnitude of it all. This man, who only a year ago was a self-professed “nobody” gaining and reaching out to fans through YouTube, was uttering the last few lines of his Broadway debut with his friends, family and fans within reach.  He's done it. Everyone was on their feet when Criss emerged for his first Broadway curtain call. He graciously blew kisses to the audience, clearly just as apt to hand over his heart. As the curtain closed, you could see the gratitude in his eyes. And when the curtain finally came down between Criss and his first Broadway audience, tears were shining in his eyes.