Personally, I felt that not only could the singing have been stronger, but also some of the instrumental playing and some of the acting.
I was very moved at certain points (for example, "Cinderella at the Grave" of all things, the great transformation sequence after the deaths of Rapunzel and Jack's Mother, and a couple of other places) and for a long while I thought that I was really going to love it. In the end, I liked a lot of it and was a bit disappointed in some of it.
I guess that some people are finding the last 15 minutes or so very moving. I found it less moving than in several productions I've seen i the past. For example, I have sometimes found the scene between Jack and the Baker in the middle of "No One Is Alone" really wrenching in past productions. It didn't come close for me here. Maybe they were having a slightly off night.
Still, I certainly felt that the strengths outweighed the weaknesses. I would recommend the production.
To clarify: I didn't mean college production to sound as negative as you seem to be taking it. It has the feel of something intentionally done with limited resources (although clearly most colleges do not have as much to spend on the set as was spent there). Having said that, I did feel that some of it was not up to the standards that I expect at a major New York professional company, and that also made it feel like a college production. It's a small company, and that means that compromises are going to be made in the casting, as would be the case in a college where you have a limited pool of people. But, as in a college production, you kind of forgive the weaknesses. I did find some of the weaknesses easy to forgive. Others not so easy.
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