As a musical Director with nearly 30 years experience you'd think the most important thing to me would be the voice. NO! Combine a voice with the ACTING and you're there. And as an MD you witness people singing this in auditions with marvellous voices and you don't believe a word of it. Well believe me,when I saw Mr Lester do this it brought tears to my eyes because it was so BELIEVABLE and I made sure I thanked him for it.
Looks like they pulled a random man off the street and just asked him to tell his story. Perfection. Probably one of the best acting performances I have ever seen.
His voice is so raw and vulnerable. You hear and feel every note reverberate into your inner being. Best performances are one’s that connect deepest with the audience. This dude killed it.
really felt this one. others have nice voices but they just stand there looking at someone in the sky. this performance really shows what bobby is feeling.
I always knew Bobby was a a commitment-phobe, but this interpretation along with Lester's "Marry Me a Little" has given me much deeper insight into the character. Truly moving.
First, I was stunned to see A.L. do this. Then, I was completely blown away by his performance. He doesn't just sing. He creates this song. I've never seen such a raw, emotional rendition. He GETS IT. Thank you, Adrian Lester!
He overdoes the "twangy" sound at the start, but he's superb. He exploits the piece to the "max" and I think thats what Sondheim wanted. He makes some of the other versions sound almost robotic.
Best acted version, which best serves the play. Lester was also an amazing Hamlet (Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 2001), though he had to compete with an electric orange carpet, the glare from which nearly put everyone to sleep. Why Peter Brooks thought that a groovy idea is a mystery.
Underrated version. Really feel this gets across the story better than other, gets across the two halves of the song. I feel I could send it to friends who know nothing about Company and they would get it
Saw the West End transfer and the 10th anniversary concert. I have never heard an audience roar, but that happened after his rendition at the 10th anniversary. The ultimate Bobby.
This perfomance is amazing even if his voice isnr the best because of the emotion however his voice at parts did remind me of kermit xP maybe its cause he wsstrying to do a new york sccent idk
Meh the beginning his voice was a little too sharp for my taste, but when he had his breakdown and really didn't care what came out and just decided to be honest, it was fantastic.
Carl Gonzales I didn't see this production, but I'm guessing Lester is playing Bobby as somewhat drunk as he goes into the top of the song and that makes a lot of sense. As a dramatic performance of this great song, it's nearly perfect.
He is the BEST Robert of any COMPANY production. Even better than Dean Jones and Raul Esparza! Yea, I said it! WHY? Because I believed in his character!
His performance is very interesting, emotional, and different from the norm. He brings much-needed humor to the role. But he forces the wrong vowels in an effort to sound American. He does sound a bit like Kermit the Frog at times. Nobody told him that affluent Manhattanites don't speak like Kentucky farmers' wives. But then again American actors are notorious for bad British accents or using the wrong accent for the role. I remember seeing Arthur Miller's ALL MY SONS at the National Theatre in London once, where this whole middle class midwestern family talked like Chicago thugs from a 1930s gangster film lol. There are countless British accents and countless American ones. Too many actors think one will do for all roles. :)
