Fantasia I 39;m Here

[Niobe Hennigan]

Interestingreview but yours seems to be way off from the countless professional New York Theatre critics where her acting is mainly praised, you mainly praise her singing and not a one of them say's anything about her acting being "no where near that of Lachanze" in fact they say the opposite. Most of the role of Celie is acting, not singing, in fact many wanted fantasia to get to "sing" more, so perhaps that's why the critics praised her acting more because that's what she does most and best of in TCP.

Here's a snip of the many rave reviews from a theatre critic.

Anonymous, you're absolutely right that there's not a lot of singing to Celie's part. And right again that the critics praised, or as I say, threw roses at, Fantasia's performance. But for me, she didn't so much act as relive the experiences of her own life which dovetailed the character's. I know that's what many good actors do but they also do more. LaChanze created a similarly affecting performance in a role that was far removed from her own life but I'm not sure that Fantasia could play someone so different from herself. I'd be happy to be proved wrong though.

Jan - The Tony committee actually did create a category for Best Replacement in time for last year's awards, but then failed to nominate anyone. Most thought either Harvey Fierstein in Fiddler On The Roof or Jonathan Pryce in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels would be presumptive nominees.

It was only after failing to nominate that they reversed themselves and did away with the replacement honor.

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