Broadway Rant: Darren Criss and How To Succeed

As many of you know, I went to NYC about a week and a half ago! It was amazing and a full-fledged post about my experiences there is coming soon, but first... a rant.

Background for those who aren't keeping up with Broadway: Daniel Radcliffe just ended an 11 month run as lead in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and now Darren Criss is taking the lead for just 3 weeks, ending on January 22nd.

I've spent the last week being "Proud Mamma Bear" about Darren Criss being on Broadway, but I think now I need to switch, briefly, into "Protective Mamma Bear."

• It's not fair for people to criticize/judge Darren's performance/singing in How to Succeed based on a few bootleg YouTube videos and WAV files recorded on someone's iPhone memo app.
• It's also not fair to compare his stage performance voice to his voice on the tracks of any of the Glee soundtracks because there is a huge difference between professionally produced songs and singing and dancing on stage. As one deliciously snarky YouTuber put it, 'welcome to live theater.' (If anyone has watched him in any Starkid production and compares it to his H2$ performances, you'll agree he's really grown as a performer since then! < / proud mamma again >)
• It's especially not fair to compare any of that bootleg footage of Darren to the professionally produced soundtrack tracks or professionally recorded video clips of Daniel's show Broadway.com/The Tony's/any number of Tonight Shows/Early Shows showed on TV. Nor is it fair to use that to say how Darren sucks in comparison to Daniel Radcliffe. 

Daniel Radcliffe said in an interview before Darren ever took the stage that he felt Darren would have a hard time ahead of him because of the short amount of time he'd be on stage. Dan said it took him (Dan) months before he really felt like he had sunk into the character and really was doing his best work. Basically, he said he wouldn't want anyone to judge what he can do on stage solely on his first 3 weeks in the show and that he knew that is what Darren was about it endure.


I saw Darren in How to Succeed about a week and a half ago on January 8th. When I got home a few days later, I saw that someone had posted a video of Darren's first night. Just from that YouTube video to the night I saw him, I could tell there was a huge improvement in his performance.


So my point is this--

For someone to take a snapshot from one night and plaster it across the entirety of his performance as though it's an adequate representation of what Darren can do is not right, nor is it fair. Especially if you are comparing it to any of the ultra perfected and produced professional tracks/videos from Dan's show.

Now, from what I saw, I DO think that Daniel is the better actor and Darren is more at home singing and dancing. Overall, they each excelled at what they were most comfortable with. But if Daniel was better, why is that surprising? He's been a professional actor for more than half his life and been mentored by some of the most esteemed actors in the WORLD (...ALAN RICKMAN....). Plus, he was J Pierpont Finch for almost a year. To compare what Darren does in 3 weeks to ANYTHING other than what Daniel did in his first 3 weeks on stage is just stupid.

Anyways. The end. That's my rant. I just had to get it off my chest because, no matter what, I am *no proper adjectives* proud of Darren and the fact that he is head-lining a show on Broadway. He's come so far and is still going and basically, GET OFF MY BABY OKAY.