THEATRE GOSSIP #327: Bobbie and Patti and AnnE Edition

Miss Elizabeth Seal!

Re the idea of "Company" moving with its British cast. It's a commercial production. The only time an entire company of foreign actors is allowed over is with something produced by the National Theatre or RSC or some such (or equivalent companies from other nations). Add to that the fact that "Company" is an American show with all American characters (except that they've now turned one of the "boyfriends" into a sassy Brit) - it's not gonna happen. They have a big plus in that one of their stars is an American, so she'd be set, and Rosalie Craig and Jonathan Bailey have gotten such raves that perhaps a case could be made for including them, but that's it. There's no way all those supporting couples are going to be allowed over here to play American parts in an American show without the NT or RSC involved, which they aren't.

Bobby & Elaine!

[quote]Sutton seems inevitable and yet so depressing

Is this in reference to "Company"? Because Sutton is almost 44. She's too old to play Bobbie, and not right for the only other "star" part, Joanne.

I saw Bobby Van (and Elaine) at the Shubert Theater in LA. It was January 1980, the opening night of the LA company of "Evita" (with Loni Ackerman). He looked dreadful, and he had his hair done in a tight perm which didn't suit him at all.

He died of a brain tumor about six or seven months later, and I realized why he looked so bad, and the perm was probably a wig to cover his bald head from the chemo.

I know this will get me killed, but I think AnnE might be very good as Bobbie.

I loved Bobby Van.

[R2]: Do you think Mel Giedroyc (and would someone PLEASE tell me how her last name is pronounced?!) has enough U.S. cred as a former host of The Great British Baking Show to come over with the London Company? And Richard Fleeshman did Ghost on Broadway so maybe he and his towel could come as well.

Has Megan Mullally ever played Joanne?

r4- Bobbie, if like the original production, is 35. Sutton can pull that off.

I would LOVE to hear her sing Ladies/Lunch as Karen, r8!

I don't think Mullally has ever played Joanne and I'm sure she'd be terrific. She can replace Baranski.

The quality of this is rotten. Please tell me Mary isn't in blackface.

Where’s the Idina Troll to tell us she should play Bobbie?

In the London production of Company, when Joanne calls Bobby "Robert", what have they changed it to?

Equity said no to the National Theatre cast of Oklahoma coming over (which included Hugh Jackman) and they’ll say no to whoever produces Company in NY.

Any updates on Wesley Taylor and his boytoy, Isaac? Still going strong?

Mel is not very good in Company. Neither is Rosalie, although maybe I saw her on an off day.

R9 35? Why, Sutton can pull off 25, according to 'Younger'

To R603 in the previous thread - how was AiA a flop? It's weakest week did 83% capacity. Not stellar, granted, but hardly a flop.

Why is that Limey cunt singing my big number, R1?

R19 Weekly revenues minus Weekly Costs equals flop

Speaking of, who knows the weekly break-even for King Kong?

Laura Linney *IS* Bobbie

[quote]Do you think Mel Giedroyc (and would someone PLEASE tell me how her last name is pronounced?!) has enough U.S. cred as a former host of The Great British Baking Show to come over with the London Company? And Richard Fleeshman did Ghost on Broadway so maybe he and his towel could come as well.

First, according to YouTube, it's pronounced "Gidd-royce".

Second, no, she has no cachet here at all of that show and that won't get her okayed, nor should it. It's better cast with an American actress. Thirdly, Fleeshman was okayed for "Ghost," so I guess that would be in his favor, but his role in Ghost was a lot bigger than his role in Company. Jonathan Bailey has one of the two biggest showstoppers and has gotten raves, so they could make a case for him if they so desired. But really, the whole thing could be cast just as well here. And Anne Hathaway has not been offered anything when it comes to Company.

[quote]Bobbie, if like the original production, is 35. Sutton can pull that off.

She's ten years older than that, and no, no she can't pull that off.

Elizabeth Seal and Keith Michell doing one of their numbers from Irma La Douce.

[quote] Gee [R548] you seem really invested in some stranger's career. How creepy of you.

Yeah, I pulled up IMdB for 15 seconds, then posted my response. Man, call me a stalker!

Well, according to Patti, they're coming to America

[quote] Waverly Gallery is likely to get stellar reviews and have a good run. The casting is spot on - everyone gets a chance to shine. The subject matter is painful, and it is not a tightly plotted kind of play. When I saw it, the audience was very moved and vocally appreciative of the quality of acting.

It's great that you enjoyed it, but WOM is deadly. And the show has been on TDF every day since it began previews. It's a limited run, so they may be able to crawl to the finish line, but there would be no point in recasting to keep it running. (Ironic since those who likely have to bolt for other projects are the weakest parts of the show.)

This is old, but I'd never seen it. Patti drunk on Watch What Happens Live. Good stuff.

R21 What were the weekly costs for AiA?

[quote]Why are you seeing a show that you are "DREADING"? What's wrong with you?

How else can you have an opinion on a show if you haven’t seen it?

Duh. Roberta, r14.

I have no investment in this one way or another but how much do you want to bet Equity caves and the entire British cast comes to Broadway. Something just ells me it will happen.

Things are changing fast in this crazy world we live in.

R13

Idina is 47 and as easy as it is to imagine her passing as 35, the Idina trolls don't think she could pass as unmarried and straight at 35.

Sutton literally has a TV show about how her look isn't as mature as she is. Sutton looks young and Benanti looks mature. Even on HDTV.

[quote]Duh. Roberta, [R14].

Roberta has an extra syllable and doesn't fit into the rhythm in certain parts.

“Barbara Darling”

Bernadette for Bobbie :-)

I'm confused. A bobby in the UK is a policeman.

The entire cast of The Ferrymen are Brits...

I loved Barrowman as Bobby (yes, I saw him). He also managed to make something special out of Joe Gillis and was far superior to that bland stick of wood that played it on Broadway. He played opposite Betty B for two weeks while Alan Campbell was filming a movie.

R41, Barrymore was “something special” in Sunset BLvd? He was worse than a stick of wood in it, couldn’t act at all, reeked of arrogance and smirked himself into a stupor.

R40, you’re using a really lousy example. The cast of The Ferryman are actually playing Brits (in Northern Ireland).

The Company cast will NOT be allowed over here intact.

Elizabeth Seal is fabulous in those two clips. Her dancing especially is marvelous; obviously Michael Bennett just wanted his wife to do the role when he fired Ms. Seal in such a cruel manner. Keith Michell was really good. I saw him as a replacement Georges in "La Cage aux Folles", and he was excellent. Did anyone see him nude on stage in "Abelard and Heloise" opposite Diana Rigg? Was the nude scene reasonably well lit?

I saw that nude scene. It was dark, and the two were semi-recumbent. You couldn't see anything.

I remember there used to be items from places like Earl Wilson's column on another Keith, Keith Baxter who starred on Broadway in "Sleuth". Apparently the story was that Baxter used to greet visitors backstage while he was naked. Anyone got any more info? He looked pretty hot.

Thank you for your understanding, r32.

Good lord, equity has little to no power anymore What are they gonna do to stop the UK company transfer, stomp their feet in a tantrum - equity continues to be a big useless joke

Wow, R1. Elizabeth Seal really was quite a dancer! What a shame that Encores and director John Doyle forever tarnished Irma La Douce with their crappy production.

Oh FFS, r47. Not counting names (Bryan Cranston, Glenda Jackson, etc.) there is literally an American onstage in the West End this year for every Brit that is on Broadway.

I'm no fan of Equity, but this paranoid fantasy of British actors climbing over some Trump-style wall and stealing our jobs is just ridiculous.

Yes, but the difference is, you won't find Americans in the UK playing Brits in quintessentially British plays. That happened in "AIA" and it shouldn't have, and it won't be happening in "Company," if in fact it even comes over at all - right now, the "Broadway transfer" is just a DL fantasy based on the mostly rave reviews it got in London. That's really all that's fueling it at this point.

R43, my understanding is that Bennett wanted Donna in the first place. He had every intention of firing whomever was cast as Cassie so he could bring Donna over as a last minute save. Anyone who was originally cast as Cassie would have been fired. It was also good publicity for the show. (There is no such thing as bad publicity.)

R41, Barrowman was fine as Bobby, but he looked overweight, wore a tank top during "Barcelona". The weak link in that DC production was Lynn Redgrave's Joanne.

R45, Keith Baxter and Rex Reed were a couple back in the 1970s.

Marianne Elliott directing Company? Ehhhhhhhhh.... that AiA was just so dull and bland and wrong, with a few exceptions, and frequently what the Brits think will work on Broadway rarely does (and to be fair- vice versa.) As for Sondheim’s approval, he’d give the green light to a Bobby that likes scat and pissplay onstage if he thought it’d keep him relevant and part of the conversation.

Lol R34, Equity hasn’t had the ability to stop a Brit cast transferring in well over two decades.

In the American transfer of Company Bobbi will be a notorious pussyhound and Big Bush Supporter.

The challenge with Joanne and LWL is being able to do something different with it since it's written so specifically for Stritch. Mullaly might be the one who could pull that off - agreed that Baranski is too, um, on the nose

I remember reading in more than one place that years ago Sondheim allowed Billy Porter to play a gay Bobby in a college production of Company where he was a guest artist and directed and starred in the show. Sondheim allowed it because the two are old friends and it was strictly a one time local thing and none of the text and lyric changes were ever licensed.

Am I just totally mistaken? I couldn't find any reference to it with a google search. And I'm not confusing this with a Sondheim revue Porter once did at Vassar called "Just Company." This was a college production of Company that Porter did with Sondheim's permission with Porter as a gay Bobby. Does anyone else remember hearing about this?

I’m afraid Megan would just turn up the volume on Karen, and that’s not what Joanne is.

Saw Apologia last night, or the first act. I didn't hate it, but the play did not engage me enough to stay and I decided to leave and get some work done back home. Then again, I suppose if you leave a play to go home and do work, that's a pretty piss poor endorsement.

Stockard played a character she's played a million times, a cultured, intelligent, acerbic matriarch who withers everyone with bitchy passive observations. It honestly felt like she was doing the role in her sleep. I didn't feel her connection to this woman. The rest of the cast barely registered. And I didn't like one character on that stage. Maybe the fat old queen character was amusing here and there.

I sat through most of the intermission deciding if I should go, and I heard a lot of murmurings of "Should we stay? Do YOU want to leave?" etc, etc.

I will say that Stocks' plastic surgery seems to have settled in so that it no longer elicits a gasp when one sees her for the first time.

Do we really need to ever see another Company or Follies?

Yes. Until somebody gets all of it just right and records it in HD.

Don't forget me, r62!

Not even Miss Rigg's insufficient flying buttresses, r44?

I remember it, r58, but not with the amount of detail you recall. I wasn't aware it was based on personal friendship, for example.

The review above has a great pull quote,

“Miss Channing’s recent plastic surgeries have settled nicely so that they no longer elicit an audible gasp during her entrance.”

I don’t know why the producers wouldn’t feature that on the marquee

Do we really need to ever see another Hamlet or Lear?

[quote]Do we really need to ever see another Hamlet or Lear?

I'd like to see a production of Hamlet done as written, without gimmicks, without Hamlet being played by a woman or done in modern day. Just a straightforward production. I don't even need a star, just a cast who acts well.

[quote]I'd like to see a production of Hamlet done as written

So you'd like to see an adolescent boy play Ophelia?

Quick, Mary, my vapors!

[quote]So why is Robert happier “side by side by side” instead of coupling? The show never offers an answer to the puzzle, because Sondheim and Furth have taken the number away: the nature of Robert’s sexuality.

This is an interesting article: I've always thought the story for Company is weird (and now dated), a straight guy whose best friends are a bunch of straight couples. Does it, as Pat Lupone says, make more sense with a woman as the lead character?

R69 Except it wasn't written that a boy plays the female roles, it was just custom.

....and featuring Judy Anderson as Gert!

R71, well if it is only custom then what is the problem with a woman playing Hamlet? It is not written that a man plays the male role, it is just custom.

When people what a "traditional" or "straightforward" version of a play, they do not really want a production that sticks to the script or the author's intent. They want a production like the ones that were common 3 to 5 decades ago--and that depart from the script and the intent in the ways that they did back then.

I have no problem with a woman playing Hamlet. By the way I'm not R68, I was just pointing out "as written" isn't the same as "as originally performed".

Company began as a series of 11 one act plays that George Furth wrote for Kim Stanley. They were offered to Sondheim's then boyfriend Anthony Perkins to direct if a producer could be found. Perkins was then looking to transition from an actor to a director.

Perkins showed the scripts to Sondheim for his opinion and Sondheim in turn showed them to Hal Prince. It was Prince who thought the material might be turned into a musical and the character of Bobby was then created to connect the stories. The show was written around Perkins, who was originally to play Bobby, but he dropped out after receiving a different offer to direct another show.

The show went went forward with Dean Jones replacing Perkins; and how Larry Kert came to replace Jones a month into the Broadway run is a story that has been posted at DL many times.

R74, that is a distinction without a difference.

A playwright cannot anticipate what changes will happen 100 years from now. Shakespeare had no reason to specify that boy's play the women, since he did not know that actresses would exist in English theater. Just like Arthur Miller never specified that it had to be humans playing Death of a Salesman, because he did not anticipate that in 300 years, trained dolphins would take over theatrical performance.

It is fine to say that you want characters to be played by people of the same gender and to perform under artificial light on sets specifically designed for the play. But that is no more "straighforward" than some concept production. Both distort the play's intent, but in different ways.

Everyone is trying to do the production that is most true to the play.

Don't forget some of them ended up in Twigs, r75.

I find it sad that Flipper was born 350 years too soon, r76.

[QUOTE] Shakespeare had no reason to specify that boy's play the women

Exactly, it wasn't written. So R69's attempt at a joke fails. Literally the only point I was making, but hey don't let that stop you bloviating, it's clear you like the sound of your own keyboard.

Wondering what r69 thinks "vapors" means. Not what it actually means, certainly.

How was she going to do 11 one acts ???

We assume a la Tonight at 8:30, r81.

I read somewhere that Furth wrote the one-acts on the advice of his analyst, as part of his therapy.

And I thought he was with Sondheim at that time, not Perkins.

I do not bloviate an my keyboard is silent.

R80, you are obviously young.

R81, I don't know, ask Furth. (Yes, I know he's dead, that's why i suggest you go ask him.) Maybe some of them were extremely short or they were meant to be performed over multiple nights. Provide links to show I'm wrong. I've often been wrong but not on this.

R85, you've just proved my point.

Ohhhh, R69 really does not understand what "vapors" meant or how it was used....and is now trying to cover for it.

Wikipedia says Company began as eleven one act plays for Kim Stanley.

George Furth had many Broadway writer credits and was otherwise known as a quite successful milquetoast Hollywood character actor. Very talented guy.

R86, I have no idea what you mean.

r88, see r87.

Nobody can hand you the vapors, but they might hand you smelling salts or a brandy if you had the vapors.

[quote]Company began as a series of 11 one act plays that George Furth wrote for Kim Stanley.

I have a feeling that Kim Stanley would have been doing what Martin Short did in "Little Me" playing all the different roles. And we know that not everything that is written ends up in the final show. Those 11 could have been reduced. There are 5 couples in the current Company and three girlfriends, so Stanley could have ended up doing 8 different characters in 8 different scenes.

Btw, r88, I don't think anyone would dispute that Furth wrote a series of one-acts and hoped to interest Kim Stanley. I believe the question upthread was how Stanley was to accomplish this, and I believe Prince has been quoted asking a similar question--all the wig and costume changes, etc.--and expressing the view that it was an unwieldy concept.

[quote]How else can you have an opinion on a show if you haven’t seen it?

This must be your first visit to a DL theater thread.

Bennett also poorly cast his replacement NY company with several performers including his replacement Val and replacement Diana leaving within a couple of performances. For Diana, his choice was Barbara Luna and she was so bad that he told her to tell the press that she injured herself horseback riding. Seal was 44 and hadn't danced in years so while the choice was questionable, he tried to get her to tell the press she hurt herself dancing so she couldn't go on. Bennett would later say that Seal was just not up to it but that was just a cover to get Donna into the show. Interestingly, the entire London replacement company signed a letter to Equity saying she should be allowed to do the show. Seal would get a very nice settlement from Bennett and both he and Donna were somewhat humiliated in the press because of the incident.

The Apple Tree premiered on Broadway in 1966. In that show, Barbara Harris, Alan Alda and Larry Blyden play 3 different characters in 3 different acts. I wonder if Furth was trying to take this idea and use it for Kim Stanley.

[quote] Seal would get a very nice settlement from Bennett and both he and Donna were somewhat humiliated in the press because of the incident.

What was the reason Donna did not originally transfer to London? Would British Equity not allow it? Because most of the original Broadway cast went to open the LA production, so it's not like she was reluctant to leave NYC.

Meet BarBara Luna!

Fuck your restraint, r89. My comment was quite obviously a reference to my youth when everyone referred to The Vapors as well as to Sheridan's The Rivals when Lydia asks for her sal volatile and her maid asks if it has a blue cover and Lydia has to reply "My smelling salts, you simpleton." Otherwise I love you.

And yes, r93, the first replacement cast for ACL was an extreme embarrassment and I was furious because I took my parents to see it without having any idea how bad it would be.

What proof do we have that Sondheim and Perkins were more than just pals?

All this talk about Barrowman in "Company." I thought he was awful. He came off as a dumb frat boy. Actually, the production was pretty horrible, even the Esparza version was better, and that's saying a lot. Nothing has come close to the original. (Sorry, Eldergay alert)

Oh, and it took years to learn that The Vapors was acually a gas attack. Ladies retired to their bedrooms so as to not stink up the joint...

[quote]The Apple Tree premiered on Broadway in 1966. In that show, Barbara Harris, Alan Alda and Larry Blyden play 3 different characters in 3 different acts. I wonder if Furth was trying to take this idea and use it for Kim Stanley.

It's not as though it was a strikingly original idea. In 1967, "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running" was an evening of four unrelated one-acts (written by Robert Anderson, not a writer really known for comedy, unless you count "Tea and Sympathy"), with cast members, including Eileen Heckart and George Grizzard) playing various roles.

R95, I think Donna thought she was going to become a movie star. The London Cassie was Sandy Roveta. Yeah, who? I have not seen any reports from people who'd seen her do the role but I did read some negative reviews of her performance. She would later be seen with an LA replacement company Cassie Pamela Peadon on Charlies Angels.

R97, we know what "the vapors" are. You seem to think that they are the same thing as smelling salts. Smelling salts are a cure for the vapors.

The vapors themselves are a state or malady within someone. Idiomatically, though, you would never refer to them as "my vapors" any more than you would refer to "my lupus" or "my AIDS" in most conversational scenarios.

"Oh! The vapors! Someone quick, fetch me my smelling salts!"

[quote]the first replacement cast for ACL was an extreme embarrassment and I was furious because I took my parents to see it without having any idea how bad it would be.

r97, how was the replacement cast bad? Were they bad actors or bad dancers? In one of the books, I think it's Cameron Mason talks about he decided to stay with the Broadway cast and not go to LA and that some of the character points that he had worked out with Michael Bennett suddenly became detrimental with the new cast.

[quote]Barrymore was “something special” in Sunset BLvd?

Lionel, Ethel, John, or Drew?

While we're on the subject, did anybody here see ACL past the record-setting performance? I'd love to know when the original run started feeling stale, or did it withstand that?

I saw a replacement cast of ACL on Broadway; only Wayne Cilento of the principals was still around. The show was really good, but Ann Reinking fell during "The Music and the Mirror" and the Diana, who has the most singing, was named Loioda (Iglesias) or something like that and her two big solos were very disappointing.

Performers who make you think about baseball instead would be a liability ...

I saw most of the Chorus Line replacement casts. Adding, I don't remember the entire cast ever being replaced at once. Nevertheless, despite some individually wonderful performances, only the last cast ever came close to replicating the excitement of the original.

And then it closed.

[quote]While we're on the subject, did anybody here see ACL past the record-setting performance? I'd love to know when the original run started feeling stale, or did it withstand that?

I saw the show a month before it closed. There were about 50 people in the audience. It was a Monday night performance (ACL was one of the few shows that performed on Monday night). I had an entire row to myself. There was a Japanese businessman sitting in the first row center. *DURING* Music and the Mirror, he stands up, climbs over the few people in the row and goes to the bathroom. Upon his return, rather than taking one of the 1,000 other empty seats in the theater, he walks all the way back down to the first row, climbs over the few people and returns to his original seat. Laurie Gamache was playing Cassie and I bet she just wanted to strangle him.

I liked Laurie Gamache as Cassie, but some of the other actors seemed like they were just doing it by rote. Some of the jokes seemed stale, like the actors didn't bother to try and put them over. It had been announced that ACL was closing and this was just the final push to wring out profit and sentiment before it closed, so maybe the actors were just collecting their paychecks and hoping their agent would call.

I did buy an "End of the line..." t-shirt which I still have to this day.

I wonder if Keith Baxter had flashbacks about Orson Welles’ hat whenever he approached a couch.

R109, I saw the final cast several times, the next to last time two weeks before the show closed, and the house was full. People were emotional about it. I saw the final performance too. It was weird. I bought my ticket at the box office an hour before the show and I assume I was sitting in a previously unreleased house seat since it was orchestra sixth row center with a sickly Joe Papp sitting next to me and Tommy Tune behind me.

And I'll add that a national tour staged by Baayork Lee that played at Papermill in October of 2001 was *exceptionally* good. But I'm very emotional about that, as I am about the final performance, since Gary and I lived in lower Chelsea and it was the first time we left the neighborhood after 9/11.

Keith Baxter was very hot. An internet search showed that he was picked up by Nureyev. Would love to hear more of Baxter's naked backstage greetings.

I'll add finally that the first time I saw ACL was standing room at the Shubert 4 or 5 weeks after the Broadway opening. It was the hottest ticket in town and impossible to get, but one of our group of six had some kind of connection. What an unbelievably exciting evening, that show, that cast, New York at that time. But it was so many years ago and I am the only one left of our coterie.

Keith Baxter and Rex Reed were never a couple. They were a tag team who used to troll for teenage boys and bring them back to the Dakota. Much like Nathan and Victor used to do. And Lenny would often drop by. It was a happy place back then.

R109, I know what you mean. I was at a performance of " The Band's Visit," when the phone of a WHITE MAN began to ring. This WHITE MAN proceeded to answer it and talk for about a minute. This WHITE MAN ruined the entire evening.

One more question about nu-Company. How rewritten is "Have I Got a Girl For You"? Is it cut? I'm not even sure what a non-clunky replacement for "My niece from Ohio" (in the lead-in) would be.

Good question, R116. That song has such a masculine energy, too. And not just the lyrics.

Since it went from Bobby to Bobbie, is it now also changed from Company to Companie?

I got picked up by Keith Baxter one night in the Earls Court district in London about 20 years ago. He was in his car trolling for young/youngish guys and I was in the ballpark. I got into the car. He was going to take me to his house somewhere outside the city. I made the fatal mistake of knowing who he was right away and mentioning a mutual friend. He suddenly wasn’t in the mood.

Judy Kuhn is playing Golde in the Menier Chocolate Factory production of Fiddler. Why? Golde hardly sings. What a waste. I hope Kuhn at least does a cabaret act while she’s in London.

Who was the poster who was picked up by Jerome Robbins and didn't mention that he knew who he was until the middle of the evening when he asked about Billion Dollar Baby thereby killing the evening?

Can you imagine? This being DL and being theater queens I guess yes we all could.

Keith Baxter played The Ghost and The Player King in Michael Urie's DC Hamlet just last year.

He looked.....very old.

Keith Baxter was gorgeous. If I walked in on him and he was naked and didn't bother to cover up I would have fainted.

Judy Kuhn?? The saddest-faced woman in show biz?

Not that Golde is a laugh-riot, but some comic chops wouldn't hurt playing Golde.

R124, with that voice, she can look any way she damn well wants.

Who had the better chest hair, Larry Kert or Dean Jones?

r126 Rosalie Craig.

Does anyone else think Stockard Channing was born to play Joanne in Company? Casting someone with a voice like LuPone seems like a bit of a waste to me. It'd fit well within Stockard's rather limited singing range. I always hate when they cast really great singers as Joanne. If ever there was a role for a movie star trying out Broadway or a wonderful character actress not known for musicals, it's this role.

I assume she'll be wearing rags, r124.

"well if it is only custom then what is the problem with a woman playing Hamlet? It is not written that a man plays the male role, it is just custom."

Well, if you'd seen Judy Anderson's performance of the role in the 1960s, as I did, you might feel differently.

The recent talk about Torch Song makes me think of an actor I have always been smitten with: David Garrison. Wanted to see him so much in Torch Song but he did not last long. Anybody know the story?

Also always heard he was straight yet there has never been one word about him dating or marrying or having children. Considering his success on that show for which at least his character is remembered very fondly it seems strange. Not that I've heard anything about dating guys either. Not one word ever about his personal life which is pretty unusual for an actor except for where he went to high school and college.

"Everyone is trying to do the production that is most true to the play.'

Except some, if not most, of those "everyone" are more stupid and less talented than others.

[quote]Everyone is trying to do the production that is most true to the play.

Not nowadays. Today everyone is distorting the play into a mirror in which they can see their own refection. The author's intent and the truth of the play is not a consideration.

R133 Exactly that , so agree

See what Ivo von Hove has wrought?

[quote]R133 Today everyone is distorting the play into a mirror in which they can see their own refection. The author's intent and the truth of the play is not a consideration.

Because we live in the present. Not the past.

The author’s estate gets their money, and should be damn glad.

Keith Baxter today . . .

R136 Oh dear.....

He’s still handsome...don’t be mean!

David Garrison is a major pussyhound, r131. I know of two Broadway ladies, one still prominent and the other gone off to Disney voices, who both sampled the Garrison schlong long amd hard. No commitments, but he is a very talented fuck, according to his past ladies.

Garrison's still longtime partner is Patricia Ben Peterson.

And he's tops in taps, r140!

[quote]Because we live in the present. Not the past.

And the present is completely narcissistic. Up until fairly recently, the present could empathize with the past. The slew of hyper-historically accurate Merchant/Ivory films are a good example. They were only 30 years ago. Individuals could empathize with character's whose experiences were nothing like their own. They did not need to have the world distorted to reflect themselves to the extent that we see today. When it did happen, it was usually unintentional as opposed to the blatant deconstruction. Theater today is not art, it is collage. It is a bunch of elementary school children cutting up magazines to make dubious "art".

[quote]The author’s estate gets their money, and should be damn glad.

The author's estates have control. They own the property, you do not. The fact that you perceive your will as more important than their rights is an indication of just how self involved you point of view is.

There will never be a shortage of unimaginative, cookie-cutter revivals trying to be faithful to the original productions.

If you are anle to watch it through...

^^able to watch

So, you feel Manu Mimes should have barred midgets from A DOLL’S HOUSE?

Premiere night

Above for R143

R147/149 Unfortunately, I saw that production. So I can say, "yes" from a knowledgeable position.

r145: that is one of the worst things I've ever seen. If I'd been able to sit through the whole thing, it might have been THE worst, but I gave up after they sang "phone rings, door chimes, in comes companeeeeee."

What the hell is that thing on the left in r145's video?

Stockard was visiting someone in my apartment building about a year ago and was in the lobby when I came home. Her face sure hadn't settled at that point because she looked so bad I may have literally gasped out loud. She was in a leather jacket, high heels, all done up but even in a FULL face of makeup I'm not sure I've ever seen worse plastic surgery.

I asked the doorman "Do you who that was? She's a famous actress, Stockard Channing." He said she'd given him her (real) name as Susan.

Whatever it is, r152, it is truly hideous--and seems to be completely unaware of this.

Has anyone proposed Billy Magnusson for Bobby? He'd be perfect.

Chris Pine is closer to the right age for Bobby, R155. Billy’s too young. Has he hit 30 yet?

It certainly appears inevitable that if the London Company doesn't come to Broadway next season there will be some Broadway revival of it very soon. I wonder if Marianne Elliott would consider doing it without her London cast?

Who would you like to see direct a new version of Company on Broadway?

Billy is 33 and by the time they mount the next Broadway revival he'll be exactly the right age.

Anna Kendrick for Bobbie in Companie.

Not Kendrick. Too young, and too brittle.

She's 33 and it isn't here yet.

You think she'll get less brittle by the time it's ready to transfer?

I don't find her brittle in the first place. She comes off as smart and talented.

R143 r147 Are we allowed Shakespeare transported to different eras? The best MACBETH I saw, overall, was moved to WWII.

I also saw a cute MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR done kind of like I LOVE LUCY...and a sweet LOVE’S LABORS LOST set in the 1930s. The king and and his three friends wore watching rugby uniforms. (I think at A.R.T.)

Remember this production of Candide?

R164, changing period is not in itself an issue, as long as it doesn't alter the truth of the play. Macbeth set in WWII is fine. Life with Father set in the 1960s not fine. Actually, the recent "After Miss Julie" was not a bad idea. It was a shame it didn't quite jell.

I’d love to see an indie film of COMPANY starring Billy Magnussen (brilliant casting idea, and he can sing it) and some interesting 30/40-somethings. Similar to what they did with HELLO, AGAIN recently. I get the feeling Sondheim always wants the most A-list cast imaginable for film versions of his material, though... and, time and time again, he’s gotten them.

Incidentally, I remember Billy being the only one of the INTO THE WOODS leads to be left off of posters and PR pieces. But, his star has risen since then. I remember seeing him in a Sondheim/Lloyd Webber mashup charity show at Joes Pub with his band and they did hard rock versions of some SWEENEY and SUPERSTAR songs that were really quite inspired (he didn’t sing lead, just backups and guitar), if very loud.

R143, the idea of a "historical" setting is a 19th century creation. Shakespeare's theater seems to have made little or no effort at historical accuracy. Until the 1900s (and even for a while after) there was little or no attempt at historical setting. If you look at paintings and prints, Romeo is in knee britches and Beatrice has panniers, just like the people in the audience.

Theater is always in the present tense.

"And the present is completely narcissistic. Up until fairly recently, the present could empathize with the past. The slew of hyper-historically accurate Merchant/Ivory films are a good example. They were only 30 years ago. Individuals could empathize with character's whose experiences were nothing like their own. They did not need to have the world distorted to reflect themselves to the extent that we see today. When it did happen, it was usually unintentional as opposed to the blatant deconstruction. Theater today is not art, it is collage. It is a bunch of elementary school children cutting up magazines to make dubious "art"."

I'm reading a fascinating book of essays called AMERICAN AUDACITY by William Grimaldi that has much to say about the current malaise in our culture., albeit in the field of literature and letters, but much of it applies to our current theatrical situation as well:

"In the late 1960s and 1970s, the socially marginalized began to get a foothold in academia, and when (Harold) Bloom admits that he 'gave up on the academy's betrayal of the true use of literary study more than forty years ago,' he is referring to that foothold. Since that time he has been in almost constant combat with those academic politicizers he famously dubbed the School of Resentment...'a pride of displaced social workers...' all of them, to Bloom, denigrators of the imaginative faculty. In THE WESTERN CANON, Bloom asks, 'If multiculturalism meant Cervantes, who could quarrel with it?' But of course it doesn't mean Cervantes; it means for the most part woefully inadequate writers, aesthetically inert, chosen for their ethnicity only. The School of Resentment nurses their social grievances by devaluing the authors Bloom has spent a lifetime learning from...The callous denial of Shakespeare's aesthetic genius--a genius that exists outside of culture, race and history--in favor of a proto-feminist fourth-rater like Aphra Behn is an insult Bloom cannot let pass...(He) argues, 'The study of mediocrity, whatever its origins, breeds mediocrity...We do not accept tables and chairs whose legs fall off, no matter who carpentered them, but we urge the young to study mediocre writings, with no legs to sustain them."

"And the present is completely narcissistic. Up until fairly recently, the present could empathize with the past. The slew of hyper-historically accurate Merchant/Ivory films are a good example. They were only 30 years ago. Individuals could empathize with character's whose experiences were nothing like their own. They did not need to have the world distorted to reflect themselves to the extent that we see today. When it did happen, it was usually unintentional as opposed to the blatant deconstruction. Theater today is not art, it is collage. It is a bunch of elementary school children cutting up magazines to make dubious "art"."

I'm reading a fascinating book of essays called AMERICAN AUDACITY by William Grimaldi that has much to say about the current malaise in our culture., albeit in the field of literature and letters, but much of it applies to our current theatrical situation as well:

"In the late 1960s and 1970s, the socially marginalized began to get a foothold in academia, and when (Harold) Bloom admits that he 'gave up on the academy's betrayal of the true use of literary study more than forty years ago,' he is referring to that foothold. Since that time he has been in almost constant combat with those academic politicizers he famously dubbed the School of Resentment...'a pride of displaced social workers...' all of them, to Bloom, denigrators of the imaginative faculty. In THE WESTERN CANON, Bloom asks, 'If multiculturalism meant Cervantes, who could quarrel with it?' But of course it doesn't mean Cervantes; it means for the most part woefully inadequate writers, aesthetically inert, chosen for their ethnicity only. The School of Resentment nurses their social grievances by devaluing the authors Bloom has spent a lifetime learning from...The callous denial of Shakespeare's aesthetic genius--a genius that exists outside of culture, race and history--in favor of a proto-feminist fourth-rater like Aphra Behn is an insult Bloom cannot let pass...(He) argues, 'The study of mediocrity, whatever its origins, breeds mediocrity...We do not accept tables and chairs whose legs fall off, no matter who carpentered them, but we urge the young to study mediocre writings, with no legs to sustain them."

"And the present is completely narcissistic. Up until fairly recently, the present could empathize with the past. The slew of hyper-historically accurate Merchant/Ivory films are a good example. They were only 30 years ago. Individuals could empathize with character's whose experiences were nothing like their own. They did not need to have the world distorted to reflect themselves to the extent that we see today. When it did happen, it was usually unintentional as opposed to the blatant deconstruction. Theater today is not art, it is collage. It is a bunch of elementary school children cutting up magazines to make dubious "art"."

I'm reading a fascinating book of essays called AMERICAN AUDACITY by William Grimaldi that has much to say about the current malaise in our culture., albeit in the field of literature and letters, but much of it applies to our current theatrical situation as well:

"In the late 1960s and 1970s, the socially marginalized began to get a foothold in academia, and when (Harold) Bloom admits that he 'gave up on the academy's betrayal of the true use of literary study more than forty years ago,' he is referring to that foothold. Since that time he has been in almost constant combat with those academic politicizers he famously dubbed the School of Resentment...'a pride of displaced social workers...' all of them, to Bloom, denigrators of the imaginative faculty. In THE WESTERN CANON, Bloom asks, 'If multiculturalism meant Cervantes, who could quarrel with it?' But of course it doesn't mean Cervantes; it means for the most part woefully inadequate writers, aesthetically inert, chosen for their ethnicity only. The School of Resentment nurses their social grievances by devaluing the authors Bloom has spent a lifetime learning from...The callous denial of Shakespeare's aesthetic genius--a genius that exists outside of culture, race and history--in favor of a proto-feminist fourth-rater like Aphra Behn is an insult Bloom cannot let pass...(He) argues, 'The study of mediocrity, whatever its origins, breeds mediocrity...We do not accept tables and chairs whose legs fall off, no matter who carpentered them, but we urge the young to study mediocre writings, with no legs to sustain them."

"And the present is completely narcissistic. Up until fairly recently, the present could empathize with the past. The slew of hyper-historically accurate Merchant/Ivory films are a good example. They were only 30 years ago. Individuals could empathize with character's whose experiences were nothing like their own. They did not need to have the world distorted to reflect themselves to the extent that we see today. When it did happen, it was usually unintentional as opposed to the blatant deconstruction. Theater today is not art, it is collage. It is a bunch of elementary school children cutting up magazines to make dubious "art"."

I'm reading a fascinating book of essays called AMERICAN AUDACITY by William Grimaldi that has much to say about the current malaise in our culture., albeit in the field of literature and letters, but much of it applies to our current theatrical situation as well:

"In the late 1960s and 1970s, the socially marginalized began to get a foothold in academia, and when (Harold) Bloom admits that he 'gave up on the academy's betrayal of the true use of literary study more than forty years ago,' he is referring to that foothold. Since that time he has been in almost constant combat with those academic politicizers he famously dubbed the School of Resentment...'a pride of displaced social workers...' all of them, to Bloom, denigrators of the imaginative faculty. In THE WESTERN CANON, Bloom asks, 'If multiculturalism meant Cervantes, who could quarrel with it?' But of course it doesn't mean Cervantes; it means for the most part woefully inadequate writers, aesthetically inert, chosen for their ethnicity only. The School of Resentment nurses their social grievances by devaluing the authors Bloom has spent a lifetime learning from...The callous denial of Shakespeare's aesthetic genius--a genius that exists outside of culture, race and history--in favor of a proto-feminist fourth-rater like Aphra Behn is an insult Bloom cannot let pass...(He) argues, 'The study of mediocrity, whatever its origins, breeds mediocrity...We do not accept tables and chairs whose legs fall off, no matter who carpentered them, but we urge the young to study mediocre writings, with no legs to sustain them."

"And the present is completely narcissistic. Up until fairly recently, the present could empathize with the past. The slew of hyper-historically accurate Merchant/Ivory films are a good example. They were only 30 years ago. Individuals could empathize with character's whose experiences were nothing like their own. They did not need to have the world distorted to reflect themselves to the extent that we see today. When it did happen, it was usually unintentional as opposed to the blatant deconstruction. Theater today is not art, it is collage. It is a bunch of elementary school children cutting up magazines to make dubious "art"."

I'm reading a fascinating book of essays called AMERICAN AUDACITY by William Grimaldi that has much to say about the current malaise in our culture., albeit in the field of literature and letters, but much of it applies to our current theatrical situation as well:

"In the late 1960s and 1970s, the socially marginalized began to get a foothold in academia, and when (Harold) Bloom admits that he 'gave up on the academy's betrayal of the true use of literary study more than forty years ago,' he is referring to that foothold. Since that time he has been in almost constant combat with those academic politicizers he famously dubbed the School of Resentment...'a pride of displaced social workers...' all of them, to Bloom, denigrators of the imaginative faculty. In THE WESTERN CANON, Bloom asks, 'If multiculturalism meant Cervantes, who could quarrel with it?' But of course it doesn't mean Cervantes; it means for the most part woefully inadequate writers, aesthetically inert, chosen for their ethnicity only. The School of Resentment nurses their social grievances by devaluing the authors Bloom has spent a lifetime learning from...The callous denial of Shakespeare's aesthetic genius--a genius that exists outside of culture, race and history--in favor of a proto-feminist fourth-rater like Aphra Behn is an insult Bloom cannot let pass...(He) argues, 'The study of mediocrity, whatever its origins, breeds mediocrity...We do not accept tables and chairs whose legs fall off, no matter who carpentered them, but we urge the young to study mediocre writings, with no legs to sustain them."

"And the present is completely narcissistic. Up until fairly recently, the present could empathize with the past. The slew of hyper-historically accurate Merchant/Ivory films are a good example. They were only 30 years ago. Individuals could empathize with character's whose experiences were nothing like their own. They did not need to have the world distorted to reflect themselves to the extent that we see today. When it did happen, it was usually unintentional as opposed to the blatant deconstruction. Theater today is not art, it is collage. It is a bunch of elementary school children cutting up magazines to make dubious "art"."

I'm reading a fascinating book of essays called AMERICAN AUDACITY by William Grimaldi that has much to say about the current malaise in our culture., albeit in the field of literature and letters, but much of it applies to our current theatrical situation as well:

"In the late 1960s and 1970s, the socially marginalized began to get a foothold in academia, and when (Harold) Bloom admits that he 'gave up on the academy's betrayal of the true use of literary study more than forty years ago,' he is referring to that foothold. Since that time he has been in almost constant combat with those academic politicizers he famously dubbed the School of Resentment...'a pride of displaced social workers...' all of them, to Bloom, denigrators of the imaginative faculty. In THE WESTERN CANON, Bloom asks, 'If multiculturalism meant Cervantes, who could quarrel with it?' But of course it doesn't mean Cervantes; it means for the most part woefully inadequate writers, aesthetically inert, chosen for their ethnicity only. The School of Resentment nurses their social grievances by devaluing the authors Bloom has spent a lifetime learning from...The callous denial of Shakespeare's aesthetic genius--a genius that exists outside of culture, race and history--in favor of a proto-feminist fourth-rater like Aphra Behn is an insult Bloom cannot let pass...(He) argues, 'The study of mediocrity, whatever its origins, breeds mediocrity...We do not accept tables and chairs whose legs fall off, no matter who carpentered them, but we urge the young to study mediocre writings, with no legs to sustain them."

"And the present is completely narcissistic. Up until fairly recently, the present could empathize with the past. The slew of hyper-historically accurate Merchant/Ivory films are a good example. They were only 30 years ago. Individuals could empathize with character's whose experiences were nothing like their own. They did not need to have the world distorted to reflect themselves to the extent that we see today. When it did happen, it was usually unintentional as opposed to the blatant deconstruction. Theater today is not art, it is collage. It is a bunch of elementary school children cutting up magazines to make dubious "art"."

I'm reading a fascinating book of essays called AMERICAN AUDACITY by William Grimaldi that has much to say about the current malaise in our culture., albeit in the field of literature and letters, but much of it applies to our current theatrical situation as well:

"In the late 1960s and 1970s, the socially marginalized began to get a foothold in academia, and when (Harold) Bloom admits that he 'gave up on the academy's betrayal of the true use of literary study more than forty years ago,' he is referring to that foothold. Since that time he has been in almost constant combat with those academic politicizers he famously dubbed the School of Resentment...'a pride of displaced social workers...' all of them, to Bloom, denigrators of the imaginative faculty. In THE WESTERN CANON, Bloom asks, 'If multiculturalism meant Cervantes, who could quarrel with it?' But of course it doesn't mean Cervantes; it means for the most part woefully inadequate writers, aesthetically inert, chosen for their ethnicity only. The School of Resentment nurses their social grievances by devaluing the authors Bloom has spent a lifetime learning from...The callous denial of Shakespeare's aesthetic genius--a genius that exists outside of culture, race and history--in favor of a proto-feminist fourth-rater like Aphra Behn is an insult Bloom cannot let pass...(He) argues, 'The study of mediocrity, whatever its origins, breeds mediocrity...We do not accept tables and chairs whose legs fall off, no matter who carpentered them, but we urge the young to study mediocre writings, with no legs to sustain them."

"And the present is completely narcissistic. Up until fairly recently, the present could empathize with the past. The slew of hyper-historically accurate Merchant/Ivory films are a good example. They were only 30 years ago. Individuals could empathize with character's whose experiences were nothing like their own. They did not need to have the world distorted to reflect themselves to the extent that we see today. When it did happen, it was usually unintentional as opposed to the blatant deconstruction. Theater today is not art, it is collage. It is a bunch of elementary school children cutting up magazines to make dubious "art"."

I'm reading a fascinating book of essays called AMERICAN AUDACITY by William Grimaldi that has much to say about the current malaise in our culture., albeit in the field of literature and letters, but much of it applies to our current theatrical situation as well:

"In the late 1960s and 1970s, the socially marginalized began to get a foothold in academia, and when (Harold) Bloom admits that he 'gave up on the academy's betrayal of the true use of literary study more than forty years ago,' he is referring to that foothold. Since that time he has been in almost constant combat with those academic politicizers he famously dubbed the School of Resentment...'a pride of displaced social workers...' all of them, to Bloom, denigrators of the imaginative faculty. In THE WESTERN CANON, Bloom asks, 'If multiculturalism meant Cervantes, who could quarrel with it?' But of course it doesn't mean Cervantes; it means for the most part woefully inadequate writers, aesthetically inert, chosen for their ethnicity only. The School of Resentment nurses their social grievances by devaluing the authors Bloom has spent a lifetime learning from...The callous denial of Shakespeare's aesthetic genius--a genius that exists outside of culture, race and history--in favor of a proto-feminist fourth-rater like Aphra Behn is an insult Bloom cannot let pass...(He) argues, 'The study of mediocrity, whatever its origins, breeds mediocrity...We do not accept tables and chairs whose legs fall off, no matter who carpentered them, but we urge the young to study mediocre writings, with no legs to sustain them."

"And the present is completely narcissistic. Up until fairly recently, the present could empathize with the past. The slew of hyper-historically accurate Merchant/Ivory films are a good example. They were only 30 years ago. Individuals could empathize with character's whose experiences were nothing like their own. They did not need to have the world distorted to reflect themselves to the extent that we see today. When it did happen, it was usually unintentional as opposed to the blatant deconstruction. Theater today is not art, it is collage. It is a bunch of elementary school children cutting up magazines to make dubious "art"."

I'm reading a fascinating book of essays called AMERICAN AUDACITY by William Grimaldi that has much to say about the current malaise in our culture., albeit in the field of literature and letters, but much of it applies to our current theatrical situation as well:

"In the late 1960s and 1970s, the socially marginalized began to get a foothold in academia, and when (Harold) Bloom admits that he 'gave up on the academy's betrayal of the true use of literary study more than forty years ago,' he is referring to that foothold. Since that time he has been in almost constant combat with those academic politicizers he famously dubbed the School of Resentment...'a pride of displaced social workers...' all of them, to Bloom, denigrators of the imaginative faculty. In THE WESTERN CANON, Bloom asks, 'If multiculturalism meant Cervantes, who could quarrel with it?' But of course it doesn't mean Cervantes; it means for the most part woefully inadequate writers, aesthetically inert, chosen for their ethnicity only. The School of Resentment nurses their social grievances by devaluing the authors Bloom has spent a lifetime learning from...The callous denial of Shakespeare's aesthetic genius--a genius that exists outside of culture, race and history--in favor of a proto-feminist fourth-rater like Aphra Behn is an insult Bloom cannot let pass...(He) argues, 'The study of mediocrity, whatever its origins, breeds mediocrity...We do not accept tables and chairs whose legs fall off, no matter who carpentered them, but we urge the young to study mediocre writings, with no legs to sustain them."

WTF??

The best production I've ever seen of Much Ado About Nothing was the RSC's in 1983 with Derek Jacobi and Sinead Cusack as Benedick and Beatrice. It was set in India during the Raj in the late 1800s, I think. It was the only time I've ever seen the character of Dogberry work since he was Indian and struggling to speak correct English. The whole thing was a delight. (The recent non-Branagh movie didn't work for me because it was set in the near-present when no one would have cared if dumb Hero wasn't a virgin.)

The weird thing is this "school of resentment" has let so many great writers into the cannon who were previously excluded because of the narcissism of white men who could not see the value of great writers like Kalidasa, de Vega, Guan Hanqing, not to mention more recent playwrights from South America, Africa, and Asia.

R168, not exactly. There was always an attempt at history, but it was often fanciful as the designers had very little documentation to work with. It is the equivalent of the representations of dolphins that look very little like actual dolphins. They did the best they could with what they had.

Apologies for the serial re-posting. I have NO idea why that happened. Moderator, please delete, if possible.

I saw Blythe Danner do a good Beatrice, set in the 1800s. It was in Central Park.

Kevin Kline was impressive and slightly cloying, as per usual.

[quote]R182 Apologies for the serial re-posting....Moderator, please delete, if possible.

Her name is MURIEL.

Did I bump into any chorus boys in that one, R183? On my third (OK, fourth) glass of Pinot so a little foggy on the details...

And I saw TV stars Jimmy Smits and Kristen Johnston (WEHT?) in another lovely Much Ado in Central Park in the early 2000s.

Surely Pearl Bailey shouldn’t have been barred from HELLO, DOLLY, even if it wasn’t what Thornton Wilder originally envisioned?

R181, where to begin...

First, there were no designers. Outside of court masques, that visual language did not matter much.

And this idea that they were so benighted before the 19th century that they could not know what people of other times and places looked like, goes against the evidence we have in paintings and drawings. Renaissance artists and those who came after would often put a few figures in historical costume and the rest in modern dress. The Peachum drawing shows Titus wearing a sash meant to approximate ancient Roman dress, but all the other figures wore contemporary clothing.

The evidence shows that they did have some idea but just did not care.

And this is not uncommon or unintelligent. But it a fallacy.

We tend to project our ideas of theater and entertainment back onto previous times and assume that things were created the same way they are made now or that audience expectations were the same as they are now. Someone here dismissed the way theater was done in the past as mere "custom" with the implication that the "normal" way to do it is the way we do it now.

But things really were different. Shakespeare's audience had seen actresses on tour from Italy, but preferred boys for home grown drama. Footlights and stand and deliver musical staging and anachronistic costume/setting were not seen by their audiences as limitations in each age, but rather positive things.

We see them differently, but that does not mean that way things are done now is what they would have wanted, but could not. It just means our values have changed.

And how did audiences in the 1500s react to giant ape puppets?

Just got home from Daniel's Husband, a watchable but hokey play dealing with the rights gay marriage brings. Ryan Spahn and Matthew Montelongo were both good. Some ex-soap actress played Spahn's mother (Anna Holbrook?) and was awful. And there was some cute twink in it named Leland somethingorother who warmed up into his role and was quite good. Lou Liberatore was wasted in a nothing role. Man, has he hit the wall. He looks like an old Italian Grandpa.

I think I want us to go back to dissecting Follies after reading such strenuous internal reflections.

The best Sarah Brown I heard sung was Ernestine Jackson in the 1976 Motown version.

Her IF I WERE A BELL is perfection. Wish it were on YouTube for more to enjoy.

[quote]R192 I think I want us to go back to dissecting Follies after reading such strenuous internal reflections.

Can we have a FOLLIES set at the Cotton Club? Or do we need whitey’s permission for [italic]that,[/italic], too?

[quote]R189 Shakespeare's audience had seen actresses on tour from Italy, but preferred boys for home grown drama.

They would have joined us in picketing Goop ! !

[quote]And I saw TV stars Jimmy Smits and Kristen Johnston (WEHT?) in another lovely Much Ado in Central Park in the early 2000s.

Kristen, who's now ENORMOUS, is in the middle of a recurring role arc on "Mom," with Allison Janney and Anna Faris.

R193, I worked on that production of GUYS & DOLLS. The cast was led by Norma Donaldson as Miss Adelaide, Robert Guillaume as Nathan Detroit, Ernestine Jackson as Sarah Brown, and James Randolph as Sky Masterson and Ken Page as Nicely-Nicely Johnson. Billy Wilson directed and choreographed the production which was nominated for three Tony Awards.

And for many years, I had the huge bright pink neon sign from the marquis as a wall ornament in my living room (until it died).

No one on DL ever mentions Ashton Springer, who was one of the producers. Owner of a coin-operated laundromat in Queens, he became a flamboyant player in the Broadway scene in the 1970s, until he joined the ranks of several other producers who were convicted of cheating the government and their investors. Though he never went to jail, it effectively ended his career.

I wonder what’s up with Kristen Johnston? It wasn’t that long ago that she was so thin that people were worried about her.

R197 Thank you, Billy! Neat to hear!

R197 Love your stories Billy, that thread on tours and Summer Stock was bloody legendary!

R191, down here in Florida Daniels Husband was greeted like the second coming. But it is weird that everyone talks in idioms from the 50s and 60s. (Refs to Tallullah Bankhead and wearing long pants, etc)

[QUOTE]Someone here dismissed the way theater was done in the past as mere "custom" with the implication that the "normal" way to do it is the way we do it now.

I made no such implication, nor was it a dismissal. This is just another example of you making up a strawman argument so you can go on and on about something because you (mistakenly) think you're interesting.

[quote]Just got home from Daniel's Husband, a watchable but hokey play dealing with the rights gay marriage brings.

If you think that play is "hokey," I weep for you.

I'm bummed Anna H. was bad. How so?

Poor David Garrison . Harvey was a tough act to follow in the original Torch Song Trilogy. He WAS Arnold. David was in a lose/lose situation. Henry Goodman and the first replacement cast of ACL suffered a similar fate. No one was going to be happy with them.

Lauren Ambrose *is* Bobbie in Company, except on two show days, days when she doesn't feel like getting out of bed and just general days when one of her kids needs some attention. But she'll show up if Tony nominated.

Is The Ferryman really Paddy Considine's FIRST theatre role? Quite the debut.

Lucie Arnaz would make an impressive Joanne, vibrato and all.

[quote] I'm bummed Anna H. was bad. How so?

She was RECITING! her lines. She had no connection to the character whatsoever. Every time she entered the stage (after the first) I winced because I knew the stage was about to get hit with some ACTING!

[quote] If you think that play is "hokey," I weep for you.

And if you think it's great theater, weep for yourself. It was an ABC Afterschool Special about the dangers of not saying yes to gay marriage. Be careful, gays and lesbians, if you don't exercise your right to get married THIS could happen to YOU! It was pure propaganda and complete bullshit.

SPOILERS

The main character himself said if they had just signed each other's health care proxies, all would have been taken care of, so that little tidbit negated the entire plot. It reduced the play from "If you're not married, the law can take away your crippled partner" to, "if you're lazy, the law can take away your crippled partner." It was pro-marriage propaganda.

A most lovely Much Ado.....

I thought the reason boys and young men were employed to play women onstage in Shakespeare's time was because there was genuine concern that actresses onstage would incite the crowds to rioting.

But it was Charles II, when he was restored to the throne, who brought actresses back.

First of all, there were designers in Shakespeare's time.

Inigo Jones is the only name that survives but his drawings still exist.

Don't forget Jane Greenwood, r212.

R213 DYING. Thanks for the laugh

Reviews

Ariana Grande IS Bobbie!

She has loved everything Sondheim all her life! She has earned this!

Was that Company/George Furth/Kim Stanley discussion in the last thread? Anyway, according to the Secrest Biography (which is often not accurate but whatever) the plays were actually going to be produced as an evening of one-acts with a cast consisting of Stanley, John McMartin,and Ron Liebman; the play was close to opening when the producer bailed. That's when Furth turned to Sondheim for advice and he in turn went to Prince.

When I was very young I saw the original broadcast of that Much Ado and fell in love with Waterston then and there. No one can surpass for me having seen it at such an impressionable age him and Widdoes in those roles.

[quote]The main character himself said if they had just signed each other's health care proxies, all would have been taken care of, so that little tidbit negated the entire plot. It reduced the play from "If you're not married, the law can take away your crippled partner" to, "if you're lazy, the law can take away your crippled partner." It was pro-marriage propaganda.

No, it's not pro-marriage propaganda. The play is much more complex and is about a lot more than that.

[quote] No, it's not pro-marriage propaganda. The play is much more complex and is about a lot more than that.

Hardly. It was barely able to put across its main issue without taking a clown sized sledgehammer and whacking one over the head with it.

I have a question for those who are savvy about Shakespeare broadcasts.

When I was in high school, in the dark ages of 1981, our English class watched a video of Richard Chamberlain in a Shakespeare play. The reason I remember it is because our spinster English teacher said, "He's so gorgeous, too bad he's gay." I thought that the play we were watching was Taming of the Shrew, but I can't find out anything about it. Anyone know anything about Richard Chamberlain performing in Taming of the Shrew?

[quote]Hardly. It was barely able to put across its main issue without taking a clown sized sledgehammer and whacking one over the head with it.

Obviously, I disagree with you.

R221, I assume you're referring to the HAMLET that Chamberlain did for TV.

Per IMDb, Chamberlain did a TV Hamlet in 1970 with Michael Redgrave as Polonius, Margaret Leighton as Gertrude, John Gielgud as the Ghost and Alan Bennett as Osric.

Speaking of televised Shakespeare and Much Ado, is anyone else watching PBS's Shakespeare Uncovered series? The first episode of this season focused on Much Ado with Helen Hunt as the host. They showed a brief clip from a 1967 television production of Much Ado with Maggie Smith as Beatrice that was thought to be long-lost. She was very... Maggie Smith, and I would have happily watched the entire grainy b/w film, overly fussy costumes and all.

[quote]I assume you're referring to the HAMLET that Chamberlain did for TV.

I don't think it was Hamlet because I think it was done in front of an audience. I'll have to do a bit more research.

doesn't seem to be here.

R224, I think it must have been HAMLET, so maybe you're just not remembering correctly about the audience. Or maybe it wasn't a Shakespeare play, maybe it was THE GOOD DOCTOR by Chekhov? Anyway, you can just go to imdb.com, type in Chamberlain's name, and check all of his credits that way.

I think it was this production we saw and maybe the teacher said this guy reminded her of Richard Chamberlain or she wished that RC had played the role.

A mashup of current topics. It wasn't this but whatever.

A nelly man playing Bobby is just weird. And why is Bernadette is yelling.

R227 -- maybe, but Richard Chamberlain was/is a lot more famous, and more famously gay, than Marc Singer. Also, Singer and Chamberlain bear very little if any resemblance to each other.

R228

I never thought of that song as a comedy solo before. But now I can't unsee it.

A quick scan of imdb tells us Richard Chamberlain played Octavius Caesar in Julius Caesar in 1970. That appears to be his only Shakespeare credit on film.

Though I could have sworn he'd filmed Hamlet and maybe Richard II.

Chamberlain did HAMLET for TV, not as a film released theatrically. See link and scroll down to 1970. I remember watching this when it aired. One reason it stuck in my memory was that -- if I recall correctly -- it was filmed/taped in an odd way, with the interiors videotaped in a studio and the exteriors filmed on actual film.

r230 I'm really sorry!

BTW that was only part of a longer suite of numbers from Company. Bernadette also does the April monologue and I'm pretty sure Carol Burnett did Ladies Who Lunch.

Maggie Smith is ALWAYS Maggie Smith......

Marc Singer and Fredi Olster (I think that's her last name) were fabulous in that production of Shrew. PBS showed it several times a week when I was a teen and I must have sat through it 5 or 6 times...maybe more (insert MARY here). And it wasn't just because I thought Singer was hot.

[quote]A nelly man playing Bobby is just weird.

I know, right?

R232 That's not unusual for British television at the time. There's even a Monty Pyton sketch about it

I remember those Sylvia Kaye musical excerpts from PBS. I thought Chamberlain was great casting. They did Oklahoma and John Davidson was just great but Carol Burnett doing Ado Annie was not. And you'll never forget Miss Bonnie Franklin doing "A Wonderful Guy".

R236 I’ll give you Barrowman, but gay isn’t the same as nelly.

Thanks R237. I did not know that, and I have to say, I remember that all the switching back and forth between videotape and film in HAMLET was very distracting.

[quote]I did not know that, and I have to say, I remember that all the switching back and forth between videotape and film in HAMLET was very distracting.

They also did that with episodes of Upstairs, Downstairs. All the indoor scenes were very realistic looking. But on the few occasions where they filmed an outdoor scene, the poor quality of film was very noticeable in how poorly it was done, lighting, etc.

Videotape was cheaper to record on and easier to edit, but the cameras were huge and needed studio lighting, making them ineffective for external shots, hence the use of film.

R211, it is not clear exactly why women did not appear on the English Renaissance stage because it was so taken for granted that no one re specifically explained it. It is sort of how until recently no one explained why white actors in Raisin in the Sun was unthinkable. It was so strong a taboo that no one ever had to justify it.

Italian actresses on tour appeared on stage in England and other women on special occasions performed songs in the theaters (though not as actresses).

R212, Inigo Jones designed masques. Those were for court entertainment and were not performed in the theater

[quote]the play was close to opening when the producer bailed.

No. The play was sort-of close to rehearsal, not opening.

The Chamberlain Hamlet is one of my fave versions of the play. It moves like lightning (thanks to judicious cutting and playing), and RC is excellent ...and gorgeous (those sideburns, Mon Dieu!)

Though he didn't come out as gay until decades later, Richard Chamberlain was brave to forgo commercial projects and put himself into lots of classic theater and serious movies (like The Music Lovers, Lady Caroline Lamb and Petulia) after he finished with Dr. Kildare. I believe he left Hollywood for England in the mid-1960s.

I worked with him on a play in the early 1980s. He was very professional and competent, if not brilliant or particularly warm and friendly.

He was a regular doll!

OMG!! When I was in junior high (I'm old!) every girl in my class wore a Dr. Kildare smock blouse to school.

I was a Ben Casey fan. I liked them hairy.

[quote]The Chamberlain Hamlet is one of my fave versions of the play. It moves like lightning (thanks to judicious cutting and playing)

Unlike the John Voight version which was the whole damn play performed at a glacial, method actor pace.

He's a doll, too, r251!

[quote]r235 Fredi Olster (I think that's her last name) was fabulous in that production of Shrew

EXCUSE me ? ?

Did anyone ever try to put Swing Kids on Broadway?

Wasn't the ill-fated Barry Manilow musical Band in Berlin based on the same material, r256?

I know of many people and companies that lost a lot of money when that show folded during its final rehearsals and never saw the stage.

I think Band in Berlin was the same material as a different piece, r257. There was another play version, can’t remember the name now.

Re Brits being cast more in American production than vice-versa: Americans, in general, are more receptive toward Brits, whereas Brits seem to have a chip on their shoulder regarding Americans. The ones I've met seem to have a love/hate relationship with America(ns). Very snobby, too. This goes for accents, too. There's a myth that Americans suck at British accent and that Brits excel at American accents. But the Brits are just as bad. I can always tell when a Brit is playing an American. Their accents often slip. However, like I said, Americans are more receptive and forgiving. On YouTube videos where Brits attempt American accents, you will always see Americans posting things like "That was close enough" or making some sort of excuse for them and being overall supportive. But go to "Americans attempt British accents" and all the Brits have the knives out and won't give Americans a break. Seriously. Check them out. Some non-American/non-Brit posters have even commented that Americans seem easygoing and are much nicer to Brits than vice-versa.

In short, Brits get more roles in American films/movies/theater than vice-versa because Americans are nice and the Brits take advantage of that.

Imagine taking YouTube comments as the opinion of an entire nation of people. Seems like you're the one with a chip on your shoulder, R259.

[QUOTE]The ones I've met seem to have a love/hate relationship with America(ns).

"If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole."

The Barry Manilow musical was called Harmony if I remember correctly.. Band in Berlin covered the same story much differently.

Everytime I hear a Brit do an American accent on tv, it sounds like a cross between someone from Brooklyn trying to do a Texas accent. We all don't "tawk tough" and we all don't talk with a "drawwwwwwwwl."

[quote] All this talk about Barrowman in "Company." I thought he was awful. He came off as a dumb frat boy. Actually, the production was pretty horrible, even the Esparza version was better, and that's saying a lot. Nothing has come close to the original. (Sorry, Eldergay alert)

My favorite Bobby was big-dicked Justin Guarini, in Bucks County, PA. (I saw Dean Jones in the concert version in Long Beach and he was excellent, but since it was a concert, I don't count it)

Here's to the ladies who munch!

I had no idea Justin was that hot. I just remember him from his somewhat goofy Sideshow Bob look from his Idol days. Can he act?

R259, here in the US the belief is the opposite--that our conservatory trained stage actors are good with Brit regional accents, but that British actors are not good with American accents, and get the regional nuances all wrong.

And decades of NYC play-going and BBC drama watching leads me to think this is very true.

The reason British actors and productions are more welcome here than vice versa is simple. The Brits are far better.

Holy smokes! I just watched a bootleg of Summer, and I don't think I have ever seen such crap in my life. It would not have been out of place on the stage of a Holiday Inn bar in Topeka, KS, or on the stage of a high school theater project. The writing had the depth of stale fortune cookies, the set looked like it was cobbled together with leftover craft supplies from my 6 year old sister's art class, and the choreography had none of the excitement and allure of disco. And, although La Chanze is a wonderful singer and actress, she was miscast. La Chanze is warm and earthy and like your big sister you want to have tea with and talk about boys and the state of the earth, Summer was more arch and glam and more of a diva. I knew Summer slightly -- we lived in Nashville at the same time, and our paths crossed several times -- and, although she was nice enough, she was not warm the way La Chanze is.

What an incredible train wreck piece of shit show. It is depressing that it is making money, because it will just cause producers to mount more of the same. How can anyone like this show?!? What, are they too young to get in to their local Holiday Inn bar?

[quote]Summer was more arch and glam and more of a diva. I knew Summer slightly -- we lived in Nashville at the same time, and our paths crossed several times -- and, although she was nice enough, she was not warm

You probably knew her before her Jesus days. Once she became born again, she was warm and friendly and gracious.

[quote] It is depressing that it is making money, because it will just cause producers to mount more of the same.

r268 it's probably not making money, at 47& of GP last week. not that there aren't a long line of these jukebox bio musicals still coming but maybe the really crappy ones will fail and make people realize they can't just throw these together, Michael Jackson, Temptations, Cher, Tina turner and people in meetings are still calling them biopics - some even pronounce it rhyming with "myopic'

Glenn hosted an event about mental illness this weekend with many Broadway "stars", I'm told... Whoopi "rape-rape" and others participated, so there's that. I hope it alleviated her PTSD or fibro or whatever for the moment... I sent my love and returned my RSVP in a timely fashion.

r263

I need proof of big dickness

Guarini had major trouser trout in IN TRANSIT

R272 Maybe DL fav Telly Leung can weigh in

Justin Guarini has a gorgeous legit tenor. I didn't see him in Encores' Paint Your Wagon but his rendition of I Talk to the Trees and a couple of other ballads on the CD is truly magnificent.

I was about to say that Justin is doing Anything Goes in DC starting soon but that is Corbin Bleu

Why was he the best tho r263

r276 I had never seen Corbin Bleu in anything previously, but I thought he was very impressive in that PBS telecast of "Holiday Inn."

Corbin is spectacularly talented and very hot. But he needs a restyle of his hair.

Meaning you're not OK with his having black hair?

[quote]Here in the US the belief is the opposite--that our conservatory trained stage actors are good with Brit regional accents, but that British actors are not good with American accents, and get the regional nuances all wrong. "

Can we please stop making huge generalizations? The truth is that some Brit actors can do excellent U.S. accents (for example, Hugh Laurie, Daniel Radcliffe, Kate Winslet), while others cannot, and vice versa. Nor is it the "belief" of everyone in the U.S. that Brits are not good at American accents.

[quote]Holy smokes! I just watched a bootleg of Summer, and I don't think I have ever seen such crap in my life.

And the sad thing is, that's an understatement :-(

[quote]Once she became born again, she was warm and friendly and gracious.

And a deluded, ignorant homophobe.

Thanks for posting that clip of Anna Kendrick back when she had talent and loads of promise. Richard Chamberlin is great in Petulia and it was very daring for him to take on a role like that after playing goody goody Dr Kildaire. He could easily have kept making crap like Joy in the Morning opposite Yvette Mimieux but he took some big chances and ended up having a nice career. He would have had a better career but, sadly, he's not a great actor.

Now Rosie is blabbing that she'll be playing Mrs. Brice but not sure if Gaga will be Fanny. I really wish she would just go away.

Run, Gaga, Run away. It would be nice to see you in a Broadway show, but not any show that Rosie comes in contact with.

Oh.....

r68 The Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern, a hidden cultural treasure, is doing Hamlet April 13 to May 5. It's an original practice playhouse with a replica of the Globe stage. I found the place on a work trip and have returned once a year since. For 20 bucks I saw a Merchant of Venice that was 100x better than the Darko whats-his-name version with F Murray Abraham filled with high tech gizmos and modern Wall Street dress.

The Tavern casts are a mix of Equity and apprentices and their work is thoughtful and presented well.

Yes, I know, Atlanta.

Anyone seen The Ferryman? If so, do tell.

I want to go to see The Ferryman and Paddy Considine's classic BDF.

Stood in line for two hours yesterday at the Orpheum Theatre (aka, The Orph) in San Francisco to get front-row loge seats to Hamilton in August 2019. Jealous...anyone? Bitches?

who the hell cares what nickname the locals give the theater?

The Ferryman is excellent!

R288 - you want to pay hundreds of dollars to see a face that you assume is tangentially attached to a big dick?

Have you no porn sir?

I like both! But I can't afford to pay hundreds of dollars. Given that it's a play, it will have a separate window from the musicals at tkts and it will probably be available a lot.

r290 is new here.

I was just thinking about Taina Elg.....

No one, but no one, in SF calls it “the Orph” just like no one in NY calls theatres the nicknames that DL has memed to death. Some asshole thought he was being cute about five or six years ago and made up the “in the business, we call it the James” lie, and it’s one of DL’s stupider routines.

The thought that SF would demean itself further by subscribing to such a puerile routine is just stupid.

[quote]Some asshole thought he was being cute about five or six years ago and made up the “in the business, we call it the James” lie, and it’s one of DL’s stupider routines.

I thought it was funny.

Or as those in the business call it, the biz.

Just don't try that shit in Mr. Orpheum's office.

Overheard someone say that Liza in the Bob Fosse/Gwen Verdon miniseries is being played by someone named Carrie who was in Doctor Zhivago?

Is the NYTimes going to review the London revisal of Company or just leave it at the feature they ran on it a couple of weeks ago?

Would the Times normally review a West End production?

[r302] the irony being 25 years ago it was that very thing that sunk LuPone in London’s Sunset

I saw The Ferryman in London about 6 months ago and was fairly engrossed with it for its 3 hours.

However, if you put a gun to my head now, I couldn't tell you the plot or much else about it.

I just received word I've gotten a callback for Jennyanydots in the movie version of Cats, or as we in the biz call it, Cats. Any advice on how to play the part? I was thinking smart and warm but strident. And most of all independent. Wish me luck!

no advice, but Merde.

Glenn, dear, I think you may have misheard "Jennyanydots" for "litter box". Sorry I have to be the one to break it to you. Do have your hearing checked, especially at your age. Since a job is a job (for you), how well do you scoop? And, I don't mean your singing (though we are familiar with your singing, ahem, style).

[quote]I just received word I've gotten a callback for Jennyanydots in the movie version of Cats, or as we in the biz call it, Cats. Any advice on how to play the part?

Play it just like Meryl and you'll be fine.

At dinner with Lord Andrew to discuss my doing the SUNSET film and I confirmed with him that he has written the new role of "Jan The Litter Box" in CATS just for you, Glenn! How fortuitous. It is a silent role, but to be on screen at all will be boon to your "career". Anyway, aperitifs are being served... perhaps I will make due with your role in SUNSET, after all. How lucky for us both.

Sure, Jan!

[quote]no advice, but Merde.

I think it’s spelled “Meryl”

Oh, dear sweet Meryl. Your alzheimer's must be kicking up again. I spoke with Andrew and he says he saw you and your purple hair in Into The Woods. He doesn't think he can afford your star salary *AND* autotune as well. So he's going to choose autotune and hire a less, how shall we say, expensive star.

[quote]He doesn't think he can afford your star salary *AND* autotune as well. So he's going to choose autotune and hire a less, how shall we say, expensive star.

I'll sweeten notes for $500 and a turkey sandwich.

[quote]r296 No one, but no one, in SF calls it “the Orph” just like no one in NY calls theatres the nicknames that DL has memed to death

“San Francisco has no Orph Theater. That was a stupid lie, easy to expose...unworthy of you.”

Is there anything worse than the M and G person posting back and forth to himself?

Jukebox musicals, R315. But that's it.

r315 will be sorry when the M&G meme enters mainstream culture.

R315. You made me laugh out loud. Thank you.

Well, G is definitely a he so R315 is onto something there.

The M & G meme won’t enter the mainstream because it has no basis in reality, whereas Bette and Joan was basically all true.

That Janet Blair "One Touch of Venus" is on Amazon Prime, and she's really good in it. However, Russell Nype has no sex appeal at all.

Does this count as elder abuse?

r322 This doesn't quite look up to The Christmas Candle with DL Fave Samantha Barks, but BRAVO BRAVO, I have heard the denouement includes a genuine coup de theatre/cinema.

Random thoughts -

That 1976 Taming of the Shrew with Marc Singer was from ACT in San Francisco. One of my college roommates was in that production.

Saw The Ferryman last week. Three and a half hours that never drags with a shocker ending. Paddy Considine is great. Not a show that's likely to get a lot of productions with 11 cast members playing under 18. The guys playing JJ and Michael are both cute.

Saw King Kong. Piece of shite other than the monkey. (The leading lady is OK and deserves better material. The leading man is woefully miscast). I hadn't realized breakdancing was so popular in early 30s New York.

I quite enjoyed Cherry Jones, Bobby Canavale and Daniel Radcliffe in their new play with the title I can never remember.

The New York Times is reviewing COMPANY, to run on Saturday in the international edition.

The problem with these huge cast shows (like The Ferryman or that other Butterworth show, Jerusalem or August: Osage County) is that no one can afford to do them, that can do them any kind of justice. If a big regional theater decides to do a show this huge (outside NYC or Chicago), that means the other 5 to 7 shows in their season have to be solos or two handers.

There's only so much Mike Daisey and Lauren Weedman solo shows to go round....

Anyone see the first preview of Prom?

r326 I'm sure they can find a way to slap together a Forever Plaid no problem.

Glenn's DEATH & THE MAIDEN is a three-hander, isn't it? Maybe they can do that. I haven't heard about it since the Polanksi film with Sig in her role... but, there's that.

I saw Manilow’s “Harmony” when it was trying out at the La Jolla Playhouse in 1997. Based on the a capella men’s singing group The Comedian Harmonists, who were undergoing a revival in interest at the time, the show suffered from a dull book and unmemorable songs. A more recent production in LA.in 2014 didn’t do much better.

(Incidentally, the Comedian Harmonists weren’t nearly as interesting as their reputation. In 30’s Germany, a line of white guys in evening clothes, just standing there, singing current pop songs, like “Happy Days Are Here Again,” though in beautiful harmony. They sang both German and English songs, and were pretty innocuous. Despite suppression by the Nazis, they still were hardly avant garde. A German movie about them had some slight popularity in the mid-90’s, but, if there’s a stage musical in their story, it has yet to emerge.)

———

I was also in the audience at the Delacorte in 1976, the night “Kiss Me Petruchio”was filmed. My ex-wife, my now-deceased older brother, and I had excellent seats in the middle of center. The whole performance was filmed by people with cameras.The moment when a woman stood up to protest Petruchio’s sexist attitude seemed staged. Streep was wonderful, funny and tiuching. Julia was Julia, whom I always found mannered.

Curiously, this is the first time I’ve noticed “Kiss Me Petruchio” on video. It’s never been released commercially. I’ve never seen it. I’m reluctant to see my now long-dead brother chortling away, and views of a time so long ago. I may watch this, but I’m not in a big hurry.

Anyone? The Prom?

Go to Broadway World message board R331. Several people have commented on the first preview. Mostly favorable.

Off-topic.....is this really Suzy's voice?

R333 It sounds like her. Plus she was one of the finalists to play Louise in the original Bway Gypsy, so she must have had some singing chops.

For what it's worth, there was a Broadway musical based on the Comedian Harmonists story. It was called "Band In Berlin", and is justly forgotten.

Funny you mention that, R335, since at least three other people already have.

Oh, really, R300. Was it by any chance your best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend who heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with a girl???

Kelli Barrett from Zhivago is playing Liza in the Fosse movie.

////

This is fabulous, r339. ^^

[quote]The problem with these huge cast shows (like The Ferryman or that other Butterworth show, Jerusalem or August: Osage County) is that no one can afford to do them, that can do them any kind of justice. If a big regional theater decides to do a show this huge (outside NYC or Chicago), that means the other 5 to 7 shows in their season have to be solos or two handers.

Are you sure about that? Isn't the pay scale for LORT theaters somewhat lower in comparison to other costs than the pay scale on Broadway? That would make the large-cast shows more, rather than less, affordable at regional theaters, and I think that's even more true when there are children in the cast.

[quote]perhaps I will make due

Oh, dear.

More from that Paris Candide....

Short and sweet

God, that tempo is glacial on the Paris “Make Our Garden Grow” and those operatic voices are annoying. I had to purge it from my memory and listen to the flawless original cast recording.

R345, what are you talking about? The tempo for "Make Our Garden Grow" in that clip is fine, far from "glacial." If you want to hear glacial, check this out. Conducted by the composer at the end of his life. Also, the voice of that Candide in the Paris clip is no more operatic than Robert Rounseville's, and the soprano sounds great, too.

Large-cast plays like The Ferryman and August: Osage County are perfect for summer repertory theater festivals with resident casts. They give actors who might otherwise be playing messengers and maids something meatier to do.

The Prom is a mixed bag. Some of it is over-the-top unfunny caricatures, while the high school storyline is more realistic and moving. The songs in the latter part are serviceable to good.

WHICH flawless OCR, r345? The Rounsville/Cook one from '57?

Btw, I thought the tempo on the Paris clip was fine.

Well, there is only one OCR of CANDIDE, and it is pretty flawless :-) But yes, the tempo for "Make Our Garden Grow" in the Paris clip is just fine. The production concept, not so much....

Well I think it was a most interesting effort, r350. They were certainly consistent with it.

I'm available for the part of Miss Jessica Lange when it comes to the ALL THAT JAZZ section.

While you may not have to pay a large cast at a LORT theater as much as you would pay on Broadway, you still have to pay a large cast more than you would if it was a smaller cast show.

And you will not make the kind of money back that you can make in an open ended Broadway run.

And while the play might work for a theater with a large resident cast...how many of those are there?

And Kelli Barrett's hubby Jarrod Spector is playing Sonny Bono in Cher.

It’s very rare to see a LORT theatre season that includes more than one "large cast" show. And then it’s usually a musical, preferably a chestnut that can’t miss at the box office. Otherwise it’s all three-person, one-set plays and The Last Five Years.

[quote]Otherwise it’s all three-person, one-set plays and The Last Five Years.

I see no point on spending so much money on such large casts.

Who's playing Lenora Nemetz and Annie Pie Reinking???????????????????????

I'm not a big fan, but Alison Pill could pull off Reinking's look... does she dance? Kelli Barrett will slay as Liza (criminally underrated performer, though probably too pretty to play Liza but who cares). Great casting, she's got pizzazz. Norbert Leo Butz would be a great Fred Ebb, too. I wonder who will play Lange? She and Fosse had an affair before/during ALL THAT JAZZ so I assume it will be a decent role.

Also, would Karen "I can't dance peoples!" Olivo deign to play Chita? Again, too pretty (and she can't dance, peoples), but it would likely be good casting. Also, Wayne Brady could do a commendable Ben Vereen, or, if they want someone younger, Brandon Victor Dixon could probably pull it off.

Kelli Barrett looks more like Ann Reinking than Liza.

Brandon Victor Dixon is too hot to play Vereen.

Taye Diggs for Vereen. Or is he too hot, too?

Benanti is getting raves on the chatboards for her performance last night. Apparently she and Harry only had one rehearsal together since he's been out making the Downton movie. Between Benanti, Rosemary Harris and Danny Burstein, the show is getting some really great replacements which could keep it running for a while.

Taye Diggs is insanely hot and has a huge dick. How Idina could’ve given that up is beyond me.

^^Possibly the decision wasn't hers.

Men like him.

Fun fact: John Goodman was the original Pap on Broadway in "Big River".

But Roseanne never let him sing on the show like Patti LuPone, Bea Arthur and Dixie Carter did on their shows.

Not true:

John Goodman was deep into his addiction stage during BIG RIVER, drinking a case (!) of beer a night along with mountains of cocaine. He talked about it on Howard Stern a few years ago, how he would go onstage totally fucked up, terrified he didn't know any of his lines/staging, but the second he went onstage it all just came out of him as if he was a robot or something and then the second he came offstage he'd remember nothing. Must be adrenaline plus whatever special magic happens when actors walk onstage.

As lovely as Ambrose is, Benanti should have opened the show.

The Tony would have been hers.

[quote]Benanti should have opened the show.

The show was called My Fair Lady, not My Fair Cougar.

R370 She spoke about MFL with Paul Wontorek. Bart Sher apparently wanted everyone to audition, and asked Laura too, but it came so soon after her giving birth that she couldn't pull it together for the audition, and realised if she couldn't do that, no way could she pull it together for the actual show.

In the same interview she mentioned how her first rehearsal with Harry was on the same day she started, as R363 mentioned.

The bizarre thing with that Benanti interview is everyone assumed Bart gave Eliza to Lauren to make up for the Funny Girl shitshow, but this makes it sound like if Benanti had just auditioned in the first place, it might have been just she.

I wonder who else read for it.

I don’t know what made me think of this, but remember when DL ‘s favorite jailbird Sarah Gettlefinger tried to do that classical crossover bullshit?

[quote]R334 [Pleshette] was one of the finalists to play Louise in the original Bway Gypsy, so she must have had some singing chops.

I hope I’m not making stuff up...but was Sandra Church the girlfriend of one of the show’s producers, or something?

The five young men who play the teens in The Ferryman are some pretty hot beefcake. Who's had them?

R375 I believe it was Gypsy composer Jule Styne that Sandra Church had a relationship with. As for the casting, according to Wikipedia (so it must be true:) "In his autobiography, Arthur Laurents states, 'It came down to between Suzanne Pleshette and Sandra Church. Suzanne was the better actress, but Sandra was the better singer. We went with Sandra.'"

Louise has only one real song (that almost got cut) so it’s odd they placed such an emphasis on singing.

Can’t even non-singers get through LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU?

The Angela Lansbury revival of "Gypsy" had just played LA and it's obvious where they got this open.

Fuck you R378 and don't even think about bringing up Against All Odds.

Aw. This was cute. You can tell how giddy she is about landing this role.

[quote]The bizarre thing with that Benanti interview is everyone assumed Bart gave Eliza to Lauren to make up for the Funny Girl shitshow, but this makes it sound like if Benanti had just auditioned in the first place, it might have been just she.

Didn't Benanti say in one of those jokey season roundup videos she made that she was told by her agent that the MFL people (presumably Sher and/or Sperling) gave her a "hard pass" on the role of Eliza? Does that mean they gave a hard pass without her auditioning? Does it mean she DID in fact audition and then they passed? Or was the whole thing a joke? Benanti jokes about things so often that it's hard to tell when she's telling the truth.

too hot to play Ben Vereen?!?!?! Vereen was sex on a fucking stick in the 70s, and his sexiness is undeniable: that beard, those eyes, that tight cut body. Usher should play Ben Vereen, and we all know why....

I want to pinch Usher's buttocks!

Benanti is pure magic as Eliza.

Hey - did anybody here see the 2013 Second Stage production of the musical Little Miss Sunshine? Was it any good? Terrible or just boring? It’s being produced in London.

The story was that after Styne finally got his "friend" Sandra Church cast, it lead to endless drama because nobody else wanted her, including Merman. When the show opened it was at least an hour too long and big cuts were going to have to be made. Everybody wanted to get rid of Little Lamb but it was Church's only solo and Styne refused. It got to the point that Styne finally delivered an ultimatum to Laurents and and Robbins: if Lamb was cut, he would pull the rights to the entire score, so it stayed.

There's also some famous zinger by Merman either addressed to or about Church but I can't remember it exactly. They didn't get along.

BTW, local news here in NYC reporting that another package like the bomb packages has just been removed from outside De Niro's apartment on Greenwich St. in Tribeca and loaded into a bomb disposal truck. Greenwich has been shut down for several hours without a given reason.

Bomb package has been loaded into a bomb disposal truck and is on its way to ordinance yards in the Bronx.

[QUOTE]Didn't Benanti say in one of those [bold]jokey[/bold] season roundup videos she made that she was told by her agent that the MFL people (presumably Sher and/or Sperling) gave her a "hard pass" on the role of Eliza? Does that mean they gave a hard pass without her auditioning? Does it mean she DID in fact audition and then they passed? Or was the whole thing a joke? Benanti jokes about things so often that it's hard to tell when she's telling the truth.

Why don't you take a minute and think that one through.

Thanks for that backstory, r387. I've read it before, and I was always puzzled why Styne would fight so hard for "Little Lamb." The Sandra Church connection explains it!

What the Hell is "Buttons The Movie" and why when I go to four actor's IMBD featured in that trailer to find out it's not listed?

It's a great story that Benanti was able to have a baby and then also still come back and play this role, even if not first. There are always new examples of how you never know how people's careers are going to play out ...

[quote]Didn't Benanti say in one of those jokey season roundup videos she made that she was told by her agent that the MFL people (presumably Sher and/or Sperling) gave her a "hard pass" on the role of Eliza? Does that mean they gave a hard pass without her auditioning? Does it mean she DID in fact audition and then they passed? Or was the whole thing a joke? Benanti jokes about things so often that it's hard to tell when she's telling the truth.

[quote]Why don't you take a minute and think that one through.

I did think it through, but it seemed like that part of what she said in the video was serious, especially since she had made it clear she really wanted the role from the beginning. Maybe I was wrong about that. I think Benanti is often hilarious, but to repeat, she jokes about things so often that it's hard to tell when she's telling the truth.

[quote]I was always puzzled why Styne would fight so hard for "Little Lamb."

Well, I do think it's important for there to be a song for Louise in that slot, so if they had cut "Little Lamb" because nobody liked it, Styne and Sondheim would probably have to have written another one.

Stockard Channing's face on Andy Cohen last evening looked like cookie dough, as she promoted Apologia endlessly.

When asked which cast member during the filming of "Grease" was getting the most sex, she immediately replied Jeff Conaway.

[quote]I do think it's important for there to be a song for Louise in that slot, so if they had cut "Little Lamb" because nobody liked it, Styne and Sondheim would probably have to have written another one.

Hey!

R391 -- Same here. I tried to find out what it was, but there is no mention of it anywhere. Does anyone know?

R397, r387 here. Styne's refusing to allow Little Lamb to be cut because Church was his girlfriend is a very well known story. But I like the song and agree with you completely that it's a nice little respite in the way the first act of Gypsy aggressively flies by.

Meanwhile, I went looking for the Merman zinger about Church I mentioned and I don't think I found the one I was thinking about but I found two others.

The first is from The Urban Dictionary, of all places:

"When asked why she never spoke to her Gypsy co-star Sandra Church, Ethel Merman said, "Of course I talk to her! Every night after the curtain closes, I tell her to go fuck herself!"

The second is from an old Broadway World forum thread about Merman quotes:

" - One night after a performance of Gypsy, everyone took turns to take Ethel Jr. out on the town. Ethel still fummed at the relationship between Sandra Church and Jule Styne. While Tossing back the booze she asked "IS SANDRA F***ING JULE?, WELL IS HE!?!" She kept saying that right in front of her daughter."

Like I said, though, I don't think I found the quote i was actually looking for.

Meanwhile, I did find this extended and fascinating interview with Sandra Church from just last year at the "Everything Sondheim" website. It covers briefly her entire life and career (she's a painter/visual artist now) but focuses on her Broadway and film career with a main emphasizes on her time in Gypsy. It doesn't touch on her relationship with Styne but it is nevertheless a wonderfully interesting read for anyone really interested in the show, Merman, the other creatives, or Broadway during that era.

And here's the link to that BWW thread about Merman which is tons of fun in places.

Cuz they're a w-o-m-a-n.....

I know I'm a little late to comment, but I just watched an excellent quality bootleg of Escape to Margaritaville, and am astonished at how stupid it is. And, not having really listened to his music, I also never realized how insipid Buffett's music is: the chord changes are pedestrian, the rhymes are obvious and uninteresting; the lyrics banal. The plot of the show is just absurd and amateurish; it's as though someone mounted the very first draft of a script.

I know the purpose of these jukebox shows is for the company who owns the music catalogue to make money, but why don't they at least put a modicum of effort into it, so the product is at least interesting, and has a chance at longevity? Are they that cynical that they think they can throw anything on the stage, and, because the songs are popular, it will be a hit, not matter what? Although I'm sorry for all the cast and crew who lost their job when it closed, I am glad it bombed, lest producers continue to think that crap like this will succeed.

As much as I dislike Disney, they showed that it is possible to take a popular product -- The Lion King -- and create a work of true art from it. Why does everyone else not put any effort into creating a show? Are they interested in music, but not in musicals? Do they think so little of musicals that they think anything will succeed, that it doesn't have to be good?

Interesting story about John Goodman. He was terrific in Big River.

Considering how he’s looking on The Conners, one wonders if his addiction problems are back.

[quote]Although I'm sorry for all the cast and crew who lost their job when it closed, I am glad it bombed, lest producers continue to think that crap like this will succeed.

I agree, but one of the worst jukebox shows was the biggest, longest-running hit of all, and if you're going to go by quality, "Summer" should be gone by now.

[quote]As much as I dislike Disney, they showed that it is possible to take a popular product -- The Lion King -- and create a work of true art from it.

But that was the only time they managed that. Have you seen "Frozen?" It's not godawful, but so disappointing that ticket sales are already softening.

[quote] Interesting story about John Goodman. He was terrific in Big River. Considering how he’s looking on The Conners, one wonders if his addiction problems are back.

He lost a ton of weight and his skin is just hanging. People with some facial fat always look better. He needs a facelift to tighten the skin NOT a eye job that ruins guys looks forever like Kenny Rogers.

Benanti just posted on Instagram that she won't be doing any stagedooring.

She explained that she has a compromised immune system and a toddler at home, so can't be too careful--and she promised to sign anything left for her, as well as presigning a lot of Playbills. None of this strikes me as unreasonable.

But Lion King is a beautiful opening number followed by boredom. They made a magnificent pageant of it and attached a musical that has staying power because it kind of underwhelms enough that no one even remembers it enough to get burned out.

NYTimes review of the London Company revisal

I think that review clinches a transfer.

R407 good review, Broadway next?

I haven't even read the review yet but I already know what it's going to say. Just like we can predict that this thread like every other would devolve into talk of Gyspy. Le Yawn.

Aren't you perspicacious, r410. Not to mention blase.

Yawn.

What a bunch of nobodies and losers. I thought we were supposed to get celebrities like Hugh Jackman, Emma Stone, and Sandra Bullock. These people seem like they're direct from the Mark Two Dinner Theater.

[quote]The show was called My Fair Lady, not My Fair Cougar. —L.A.

Uh .. you do realize Lauren Ambrose is almost two years older than Benanti, don’t you?

[quote] Uh .. you do realize Lauren Ambrose is almost two years older than Benanti, don’t you?

And surely you realize Laura Benanti looks about as old as Colleen Dewhurst did shortly before she died.

Sandra Church wasn’t fucking Jule Styne when she was cast in Gypsy. That didn’t happen till the show opened. Merman had no problem with Church being cast, but took an immediate dislike to her because she called her “Ethel” right from the first rehearsal. Then, when the rumors about Styne and Church started, that sent Merman over the edge, and there was no going back. As far as she was concerned, it was all/out war with Church from then on.

[quote]"In his autobiography, Arthur Laurents states, 'It came down to between Suzanne Pleshette and Sandra Church. Suzanne was the better actress, but Sandra was the better singer. We went with Sandra.'"

At one point, Anne Bancroft was considered. So I guess they were auditioning non-singers.

Anne Bancroft was considered for Funny Girl, not Gypsy. And Bancroft was, in fact, a singer, as she proved on a couple of TV specials.

Miss Church.....

Apart from keeping Little Lamb in the second act, what in the world would she want with Jule Styne?

[quote]Anne Bancroft was considered for Funny Girl, not Gypsy.

She was first considered for Gypsy.

Here is what Steven Suskin says in "Second Act Trouble":

"Elkins also tells us that Arthur Penn arrived in Boston with Anne Bancroft, whose career was launched with two Tonys and an Oscar for Gibson and Penn's Two for the Seesaw and The Miracle Worker. The idea, apparently, was for Bancroft to take over the female lead [in Golden Boy]. This did not happen, but it was not altogether farfetched; the production team behind Gypsy very much wanted Bancroft to play the title role, but she turned it down for Miracle Worker." Page 187

That Sandra Church interview was great. Thanks for posting it. Interesting that Hal Prince offered her the lead in Cabaret.

"The Ferryman" is a bad play, poorly acted. It's not as bad as "Jerusalem,," but "Jerusalem" had Mark Rylance, who can transcend anything. The "Ferryman" cast have been playing these roles for a couple years, and are bored and tired. The two vaunted "leads" have a scene at the beginning and a scene at the end. In between are two hours and forty minutes of whisky and The Troubles, the same play the Irish have been writing over and over for the last fifty years.

r410 speaks truth. Snoresville.

How right you are, r423 and r410. Who wants to see an imaginative and apparently well-executed revisal of a Sondheim classic when they could instead see a new.....hmm..Pasek and Paul? Or a musical about a gorilla?

r422 Mark Rylance, however great he may be, couldn't transcend the tepid and overwrought script his wife wrote in Farenelli and the King, a truly mediocre night of theatre.

Anyone else see the filmed version of FunnyGirl last night? I liked Sheridan a lot in the role. Whats the gossip? Is she a bitch ? Is that why she lost to Amber Riley?

[quote]Is that why she lost to Amber Riley?

She lost to Amber Riley because the Brits haven't given enough awards to black people.

All of Broadway bores me to tears these days, r424. I'd rather stay home, drink and catch up on classic silent movies on YouTube. Until the wind changes...

I'd never heard (or heard of) this before.....

I have this album. It's great, with some really fun material, like Ms Church's rendition of Kern's WILD ROSE and the Brahms shtick by GRL.

R426 -- I'm not sure what you mean by the filmed version. Did they film the British of Funny Girl? Did they stream it at theaters ? That is the first I've heard of it. I saw a bootleg of a version of the play mounted a few years ago from some theater outside LA, and the actress -- whose name I can not remember --- was outstanding. I forgot all about Streisand's performance within ten minutes of watching her. So.. is Smith's version available? Thank you.

This is a left-fiend thought, but does Amy Schumer sing? I think she could be a wonderful Fanny Brice. She is vulgar and loud, but also funny and bawdy, and she has an ability to make you care about her, despite how crass she is.

Fanny Brice wasn't fat, r432.

[quote]So.. is Smith's version available?

It aired in the US last night as one of those Fathom Events things - and the trailer for it was posted in one of the previous theatre threads. Sheridan looks fat, the sets and costumes look cheap. You didn't miss much.

Brice, for all her low-crotch burlesque, was a woman of great elegance, wit, warmth, and wisdom.

Enough said.

Fanny & Nicky

R432, ugh, no thank you! The fat bitch can’t sing or dance a lick.

15 years ago I really think Idina would’ve been definitive post Streisand. I’m surprised she didn’t get it.

DL fave Sandra Bernhard was supposed to also do the revival years ago but it didn’t come to pass.

About twenty years ago there was a glorious workshop of Funny Girl, I think Taylor Dayne was originally in the lead but an understudy named Becky Baeling was fantastic and would have become a major stage star if the production came to pass, I believe there was big money behind it but they would not go forward without a star and Dayne became a liability after failing in early rehearsals of the workshop. I can’t remember who was directing it.

r433, r434 and r437 all say 'fat.' DL can do better than that

Someone with lots of avoirdupois?

How about blubber, r440? Does blubber meet your stringent standards?

Why didn't Sandra Church ever get a follow up show after Gypsy?

R438

Idina doesn't really do revivals. She has never been in the mix of Broadway belters duking it out with Sutton Foster for every show that comes by (she doesn't dance as was determined in her Millie audition.)

It is really odd how producers still seem to be unaware of her and her appeal. Why no one thought to put her in a revival of Funny Girl when she had time to do 'See What I Wanna See' after Wicked seems odd. But if her career reflects on her own tastes in projects (doubtful, Broadway actresses are not really a particularly powerful bunch when it comes to planning their careers) it would appear that she prefers to originate roles with new music. Will she even do a show unless it includes at least one new number that immediately is put on the 'Do NOT audition' list for young belters?

She also appears to think it is funny that Streisand doesn't like her and was unimpressed by her attempt to win her over at her tribute concert.

r444 Streisand doesn't like Idina? Maybe she does have good taste.

Streisand recognizes someone with bad technique. As does everyone who has heard Iscreama’s live performances.

[quote]It is really odd how producers still seem to be unaware of her and her appeal. Why no one thought to put her in a revival of Funny Girl when she had time to do 'See What I Wanna See' after Wicked seems odd.

After Rent, there was talk of Idina doing a Funny Girl revival. She even sang a song in the Funny Girl concert version in 2002. I think it was decided that she just wasn't funny enough to pull it off. She didn't have the quirky comedy style that Fanny Brice had. Same with Lea Michele. Poor girl did everything she could think of to get Funny Girl to Broadway and nobody really saw much beyond her ability to belt the songs.

Lea also shit the bed trying to perform one of the songs live

I don't know r443. Her wiki page is sparse.

B loves me, alas. I guess I am the greatest star. Can't wait for February 24.

What about DL fave Laura Benanti as Fanny Brice?

Let's face it, Gaga is really perfect for it in every way. She;s got the ethnic look, the vocal chops, the outsize personality, the vulnerability... I can't imagine anyone else with marquee value for whom the part fits like a glove. Get her a REAL, first=class director and you've got a show.

Isn't Sara Gettlefinger getting out of prison next year? The Weissler's should put her in Chicago. Benanti didn't have go to through a long rehearsal and preview period and could focus on her newborn then got to step in and play her dream role. Not a bad deal.

I base my opinion purely on clips I've seen of the Funny Girl concert from 2002. The only one among those women who could have pulled off playing Fanny in a new production was Julia Murney.

Pitchy!

I know, I know, even though it’s been told before, what’s the story with Larry Kerr being cast in COMPANY after Dean Jones dropped out? Anyone?

I felt sad watching Stockard on WWHL. First off, she seemed like she really didn't want to be there. She barely acknowledged Ellie Kemper who was also a guest and kept her chair facing Andrea Cohen. Cohen makes the show so mindless you either go with it or, like Stockard, act like it's way beneath you. And I wish she had left her face alone because when they showed clips of young Stockard she was fucking adorable and really could have just aged gracefully and still looked good.

Did anyone go to the Marin Mazzie memorial today?

Oh I don't know....I found watching Stockard on WWHL kind of interesting. She didn't seem that engaged but I respected her for it! She was being asked such dumb questions and yet she was always polite and sweet with her answers. She seemed far warmer than she ever does on stage playing a character.

Funny Girl is a terrible show, although 2/3 of the songs are wonderful. Until someone comes along and writes a book as good as the songs, nobody's going to sign up for a revival.

R460. I noticed on the ads for the revival that Harvey Fierstein adapted the book. Did he change much? or just polish it?

Did anyone see the Debbie Gibson FUNNY GIRL?

How's Laura's English accent(s) in MFL?

Did anyone see the Pia Zadora Funny Girl?

Wow, they aren't even repeating Funny Girl. I don't see it on the calendar at all. I guess it was one and done.

R425, I agree with you about Farinelli and the King. I used to think I would see Mark Rylance in anything, but I guess his wife dissuaded me from thinking that anymore. The show was like the mediocre sequel to a hit movie. And Twelfth Night/Richard III was so good.

[quote]Did anyone go to the Marin Mazzie memorial today?

I did, r458, and it was as a fitting and lovely send-off as one could hope for. This post, from the much-reviled All That Chat, summed it up nicely.

I was so glad that it was open to the public. She touched the lives of so many.

Who knew?

Can we stop trying to Marin Mazzie happen? Sad storyof course but she was a third-tier Broadway star at best.

Someone uptrend said Stockards face on Wwhl looked like raw cookie dough and I sadly must agree. On the other hand I have a ton of respect for her for coldly acting like the whole show was beneath her.

Most people become idiots on that show.

R470, She may have never even seen the show. When they all stood to do the shotski, Stockard reached for her glass until Andy told her it was to be imbibed from the ski.

I was hoping that Cohen or a caller would ask her about Joan Rivers, who gave her one of her early breaks in the ABC movie "The Girl Most Likely".

R469, Jason Danieley has to be Broadway's #1 bachelor now.

Did he return to Pretty Woman after Marin's death?

How soon after she left the WWHL set did Stockard fire her publicist?

Why did Stockard have Christian Hoff fired from Pal Joey?

I've seen a rare boot of him in the show and he was fine.

OMG could u imagine the poor gay publicist getting that phone call from an enraged Stockard Channing about why the fuck she was booked on such a shitshow?

DL fav and NY1 Theater Frankenstein Frank DiLella was the guest bartender on that WWHL, is Andy after that Broadway beefcake?

Thanks, r467, for posting the ATC link. Glad you were able to be there. I see that Lapine was there but no mention of Sondheim, who really should have put in an appearance.

And, r471, she downed that drink as if it were going to make the whole show go away

r473 Jason is reported in the Broadway big dick club

I have a weird reaction to Mark Rylance. I've loved him in everything I've seen him in on screen and hated him in everything I've seen him in on stage. To me, his film work seems nuanced, his stage work seems hammy.

R4469, well she could act as well as sing, which is more than could ever be said about you, Ethel. Yeah, yeah, I know "Gypsy"--but you supposedly walked through the role much of the time, doing your grocery list. Martin did deserve that Tony over you.

Yes he is, r480.

I wonder if he feels it will be more respectful to have his big schlong serviced by men for a while?,

Speaking of Mark Rylance and big dicks ...

Did someone above seriously say that Sandra Bernhard was supposed to be in a Funny Girl revival?

What WWHL?

What is, that is...

R486, Watch What Happens Live, Sun - Thurs @ 11:00 PM on BRAVO.

Just read the LA Times rave for Dear Evan Hansen. But it includes this in reference to the lead Ben Levi Ross

[quote]Stephen Christopher Anthony assumes the demanding role of Evan on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees and on Sunday evening performances.)

Has it always been that way? Did Platt only play four performances a week?

R447

No. Idina wasn't particularly featured in that concert. Producers sure as hell were not offering her revivals based off her Tony nomination and her pack of fanzels from RENT.

In the 90s Idina pursued a singing career in the LilithFair circuit. After getting canned by her label, she returned to theater to acquire some really good cringe-inducing audition stories (breaking down and crying rather than singing her song at one audition because Taye had just dumped her, getting through the Millie singing audition well enough to be invited to the dance audition "with Sutton Foster"... and getting all the way through 6 pages of Defying Gravity only to blow the last note, scream 'fuck' and start over.) After RENT she had to fight to get back on Broadway as the second replacement to Sherri Rene Scott's Amneris in AIDA -- which is hardly the same as being pushed for a Funny Girl revival. The way we know she is insecure about her ability to do comedy is that when recounting her September 11 story (she was supposed to be put in THAT day) she mentioned how uncomfortable it felt to make her big Broadway return in a Disney show in a comic role to a mostly empty theater after what had just happened. Apparently she auditioned for and landed the Wicked workshop a few days later.

It is really not easy to tell pick apart what of Lea's story is real and what is fiction made up to get attention for GLEE -- but it is pretty safe to say that SHE definitely gunned for a Funny Girl revival and openly though she was the TV star with the chops to pull off a revival. Idina and Lea are not the same person. They do not have the same career. Even if Lea has tried to pass herself off as having had Idina's career.

The Company IG or Twitter account featured an announcement earlier today: cast album slated for a recording in November.

Hallelujah! The New Yorker seems to have taken Hilton Als off as theater critic and now has a rotating list of critics. I don't mind Als as a culture writer, but he should never have been reviewing theater.

[quote]Producers sure as hell were not offering her revivals based off her Tony nomination and her pack of fanzels from RENT.

Producers weren't offering anyone. There was a huge push in the late 90s/early 00s to get a revival of Funny Girl to Broadway because it was one of the few high profile shows that had never had a revival. So every Jewish girl who could belt was being watched to see if they could bring it back. One of the productions that was trying to gain steam to Broadway was the Debbie Gibson tour in 1996/97. At that time, Idina was getting a lot of press because of her Broadway debut on Rent. The PR machine was trying to tie her to Streisand and hyping that she could go on to star in the Funny Girl revival after her Broadway debut, just like Streisand did.

So this happened during the OC cast run of RENT, not after, and it really had no connection to actual producers or Idina. Her name was just mentioned because she was Jewish and nominated for a Tony?

[quote]So this happened during the OC cast run of RENT,

The hype of the original Rent cast was huge. They were even on a billboard in Times Square. As mentioned above, Idina tried to have a singing career but that wasn't her strong point. It was merely zeitgeist of people wanting a professional production of Funny Girl and Idina being in the public spotlight. I'm not saying any producers ever approached her, but people were certainly putting together in their minds a Funny Girl revival and a new Jewish girl belt singer.

Amy Schumer is pregnant with Chris's child. What happens when it comes out the chute looking like a teeny tiny Jake?

Hilton Als will not be missed.

I didn't realize that they took Als off theater-critic duties at the New Yorker. There are very few writers whose work I actively dislike, but I dislike his. His essays are almost always more about him than anything else, and his theater reviews showed he didn't have a huge depth of theater knowledge, because he never adequately puts the play in perspective. I do not understand his success. Perhaps he was just the right person at the right time.

Als is the one who called Hamilton for the ___ it is, which is good enough for me.

Frank Dillela's brother is much much cuter and not dorky looking....like Frank. Fortunately for Frank he has a very nice body. Andy is nothing but a lazy eye attached to a fit fat bod.

For the poster upthread.

Yes Michael Musto recently wrote about a Funny Girl revival that never came together with Sandra Bernhard, years ago.

I actually think it would have been really good.

Seeing King Kong tonight — wish me luck.

You’re doing God's work, r502.

Oh, I needed a real big laugh tonight, R503, and you gave it to me. Thanks.

R489, it's well deserved. Ben Levi Ross is spectacular and the whole show is great.

I saw APOLOGIA last year in London. Stockard Channing's work had obviously been recently done. I spent at least 20 minutes of the first act agog at what she'd done to her face. My respect for her as an actress remains fully intact, but I so wish she'd just let herself age more naturally.

FERRYMAN is superb, by far the best play NYC has had on Broadway in more than a year. It's ambitious and full of life and language, and surprises.

INDIA PALE ALE is striking mediocre, with some of the most dire direction and acting I've seen on a NYC stage in a LONG time. Why is MTC doing this play? My guess is because all the non-profits are trying to give shots to previously unheard voices, no matter how pedestrian and under-developed the writing.

PLOT POINTS OF OUR SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT at LCT3 is another example. This writer has some potential, but my heart sank when I realized about 3/4 through that essentially the story is the emotional conflict two lesbians are having about one wanting to use a strap-on on the other. Not exaggerating.

I've not gathered the strength yet to see KING KONG.

There are bootlegs of Debbie Gibson and Pia Zadora in their respective productions of Funny Girl. Zadora is better than Gibson which will give you a clue as to just how bad Deborah was.

Debbie's Fanny.....

Which community theatre produced Debbie's production of FG? Was it in NYC?

Now, now everyone, don't rain on Pia's parade.....

Maybe Fanny wasn't Pia's role but she's hardly an embarrassment in that clip. Gibson, on the other hand......

OMG.

So strange that Pia got Funny Girl staged.

I also think it is amusing that Seth knew how to get his 2002 Funny Girl Concert listed as a revival on IBDB. So yeah, I guess it is listed as one of Idina Menzel's suprisingly few Broadway credits. (But she was hardly featured) Speaking of Pia, the wonderful Alice Playten was simply listed as 'Fanny Brice' in the 2002 concert. I guess Whoopi was a narrator but at some point they swapped to Playten?

Did anyone here go to Seth's thing?

Alice did a scene in the second act, but no song. What a shame.

The low point of that Funny Girl concert was Jane Krakowski grabbing Peter Gallagher's junk. Gallagher was Arnstein for the entire concert I believe and he seemed quite surprised.

The truly peculair thing about Stockard's face is that after all that work, nothing is particularly tight or lifted. I really don't get what she was after.

And that mass of dark unruly hair (or wig) only makes her huge header even bigger. On stage she looks unreal.

peculiar

R514

Hilarious.

Yes about Stockard’s face. It’s like she paid thousands of dollars for awful surgery where it seems her face is covered with under the skin golf balls.

Anybody hear anything about DL fave Megan STAR Hilty in the Kennedy Center Little Shop of Horrors? There seems to have been some backstage drama and the cast list changed at the last minute, but I haven't heard any reviews. Apparently Ivanka went to see the opening. Did they pull a Hamilton and ask her to be a better leader?

1 of 6 people that saw the Smith/London funny girl in movie theaters this week. Smith was impressive. She clearly studied footage of real-life Fanny Brice and got very close. She wasn’t able to sing the score as written. New arrangements of music that makes me dance& who are you now were made to hide her vocal limitations. For low-budget/small theatre the production itself was wonderful. I would love to see what this team could do with more money. Fierstein’s book adaptation does seem like a completely new book. It plays like an actual show now rather than a star turn with dressings.

The trailer for Funny Girl showed her huffing, puffing, and gasping for air. Is that what the performance was in the final cut?

The tour Evan Hansen alternate is doing two shows a week, same as on Broadway. The wording for the description of the alternate schedule is confusing. Different cities have different schedules, and in each city, only two of the four times listed will actually take place.

Ben Platt started the show without an alternate but he started having vocal trouble during Tony season. After the Tonys, he missed a TON of shows, and people were getting mad. The producers finally gave him an alternate, which has been true for all Evans since.

I saw King Kong. It'll give me bragging rights in years to come. The leading lady may have a career after this debacle as she does pretty well with the shite she's been handed. Everyone else will disappear after the critical lambasting.

[quote] I also think it is amusing that Seth knew how to get his 2002 Funny Girl Concert listed as a revival on IBDB.

Don't credit Seth for doing anything special, IBDB lists all those one night concerts that are usually fundraisers for BC/EFA or The Actors Fund.

I saw the Pia Zadora Funny Girl in Long Beach. Adrian Zmed was her Nicky Arnstein. The only good thing about it was Kaye Ballard as Mama Brice, although she lost her balance when a set piece moved unexpectedly on the night I saw it.

Pia was awful. Really bad. She did the final "Parade" reprise wearing a Native American costume for some reason (I think the real Brice had an "Indian" number but there's no mention of it in the show).

It was easily the worst thing I saw at the Long Beach CLO (now defunct), and I saw a lot.

[quote]I saw King Kong. It'll give me bragging rights in years to come. The leading lady may have a career after this debacle as she does pretty well with the shite she's been handed. Everyone else will disappear after the critical lambasting.

Does the ape sign Playbills at the stage door?

I don't totally get how the DEH casting works, if anyone here is insider enough to explain - like why would Lisa Brescia get Bway and not the tour and Jessica Phillips get the tour and not Bway? Same for Christiane Noll and Aaron Lazar.

[quote]She did the final "Parade" reprise wearing a Native American costume for some reason

Was she doing a rain dance during the song? Cuz that would be pretty counterproductive.

The only way Funny Girl will ever be revived on Broadway is with someone who can SING. Period. The end. Sheridan Smith is not a singer.

R502 here. Well that damn ape puppet was the best part of the show. The audience went wild for it - lots of tourists and families. I was impressed with how expressive its face was. Some of the best acting on the stage. The cast was OK, Darrow was decent considering the material she had to work with. Some nice looking chorus dudes. The physical production was actually pretty impressive. The show itself was dreck. Musically it was confused and didn’t know what it was meant to be. For a piece that is supposed to be set in the 30s they really didn’t try to go for any kind of period sound - lots of guitars and power ballads. The choreography made little sense - still trying to figure out why someone pulled break dancing moves in the opening. The book was mediocre, but they did manage to make Kong a sympathetic character more than monster.

C-

Liliane as Young Grizabella.....

Fanny's Indian number.....

Such a dark Rose....

R515, a number of years ago a few of us were having drinks at Bar Centrale and Stockard was there after a show, a few other notables joined us and she came over, incredibly warm and feeling no pain, she was a peach but even then I was distracted by her facial work, it seems almost painful looking. Why do these actresses all get the bad filler? What quack doctor is doing such awful work?

I don't know, r534, but perhaps The Girl Most Likely left an indelible impression on her.

When Stockard was in Other Desert Cities, the plastic surgery was perfect for her character. I remember at the time some people were wondering whether it was makeup for the show or whether it was real.

She was phenomenal, by the way. But since then, she’s gone overboard with the work, and now it’s a distraction.

I was so looking forward to seeing Betty Lynn in Gypsy, having heard a tape of her doing Roses Turn from a BBC recording of the show. She blew me away, so imagine how disappointing her performance was at Papermill. Sadly, she certainly could have pulled it off spectacularly, if she had the right director and listened to him/her. I think that was during her craziest period.

Her face could be swollen due to a medical condition. In fact, that makes much much much more sense than surgery. She is old and it is unfortunate but when it comes to making appearances, that's life and she just goes out anyway.

What do you think of the musical "Follies"?

Thanks for going to see the Big Puppet show, R530. You took one for the team.

So given that Kong's current show is pretty bad and likely to close, but he is the best thing in it -- do you think we should be considering Kong for a revival of Funny Girl as Fannie? Or should he be Sally in Follies?

Mimi's Fanny.....

Really, R539? Shut it.

R533 - I don't think there's anything wrong with a dark "Rose's Turn" -- it's like a god damn mental meltdown. What I don't particularly like about that performance of Betty's is all the INDICATING. It feels so high school spring musical production. I mean the literal baseball motion on "batting a thousand..." etc. and frantically darting from one spot to the next -- never letting a moment land. I guess it's a choice, but, this, even in its abbreviated form, was incredible, because Bernie knew when to be busy (like earlier in the song) and when to let stillness take over.

Do the Brits start laughing every time someone addresses her as "Fanny" in "Funny Girl" over in the UK? Fanny means a lady's private parts over there, and is kind of a naughty word. Have they ever done the Harold Rome "Fanny" in the UK? How would that look on the marquee?

Drury Lane produced Fanny in 1956, successfully, though it wasn't a smash.

Oddly, it was a completely different staging from Broadway, though ever since Oklahoma! it was routine to bring over the Broadway production.

When the movie version was made, the posters proclaimed, “Joshua Logan’s Fanny”, which caused hilarity in the UK.

[quote]The only way Funny Girl will ever be revived on Broadway is with someone who can SING.

AND be funny. I think that's why nobody wants to bring the show to Broaday with Lea Michele. She's not funny.

Will Miss Jessica Lange show up at the opening to King Kong?

I remember when Nick & Nora opened, they dragged poor Myrna Loy, who was then in her late 80s, to the opening. She had to sit there and pretend that the horror show she saw on stage was as good as the material she performed in The Thin Man series.

r526 and r540 tied for the win.

I haven't seen King Kong, but I've always been puzzled at the way Drew McOnie has been hailed in London for years as a director/choreographer wonderkid. Save the Regents Park On the Town, nothing I've seen that's been choreographed by him has felt particularly inspired, and some of his directorial work has been downright insipid. The London premiere of the LaChuisa Wild Party tried far too hard to be sexy and dangerous, and Strictly Ballroom was a hot mess.

King Kong and Strictly has the same Australian producers. Who clearly have far more money than taste.

I'm surprised that Jack Thorne was willing to lend his talents to this, though.

Stockard's weird face bloat may be due to the steroids she takes for her bad knees.

[quote]I remember when Nick & Nora opened, they dragged poor Myrna Loy, who was then in her late 80s

In their defense, Myrna was still in her 70s when the show started previews.

OMG Pos Zadora ending a performance of Funny Girl as a Native America. Woman is the best thing I’ve read on datalounge in weeks.

I feel like that ending should be the new standard

Bea Arthur rules Rain on my Parade

of the semi-hot Broadway men who get acclaimed for sexiness, James Snyder is the only real one

R554 is brilliant!

Someone really needs to revive that DL classic - Fuckups of Broadway. Next to the old Summer Stock memories thread, it might be one of the dishiest...!

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK was Susie Thighmaster's Broadway show?? How did this get produced??

I was reading through r559s Broadway fuckups thread and Les Miz at the Tonys was posted.

Holy Jesus, this is bad. Marius sounds terrible.

Mimi Hines has a very unfortunate overbite.

I thought fanny just meant someone behind. My grandmother always said she would whack me on my fanny if I didn't stop whatever wrong thing I was doing.

There was an episode of "Get Smart" where Max and 99 were undercover as actors playing a maid and butler for some reason. Max had the line "You shot me, Fanny!" but he kept saying "You shot me fanny!" and it was hilarious.

Lots of women were named Fanny in the first three decades of the 20th century, including in England.

Fanny in the US is your buttocks. Fanny in the UK is a woman's pvssy.

"Fanny" when meaning pussy, has literary connotations!

"Vagina, named after early 18th century English erotic novel 'Fanny Hill'. Later became slang for the posterior in the USA."

FOLLIES!

Is it time yet to bring back "cacophony"?

Darn tootin', r563!

"Follies" is a very good show. What were some of your favorite performances in that show?

Your mom sucking John McMartin's dick and eating Alexis Smith's cunt

^^the middle schoolers have arrived. hooray.

R570, your mom called. Your extra large order of Krispy Kremes has arrived. She wanted to remind you to use the freeway, she's sure it'll be safe with your skateboard.

R570 was the only LOL moment of this thread

You asked for it!!!!

I thought r570 was an acceptable response to the troll at r569, who kept at it after already failing at r539.

The Cher Show's starting previews soon, and the Temptations and Tina Turner shows are soon to follow. Inevitably, it will be Madonna's turn. Which would be the lesser of two evils -- a jukebox musical or a bio musical?

[quote]Inevitably, it will be Madonna's turn.

That’s a nasty threat, r576!

If you google around you'll find photos of Barbra Streisand in an "Indian maiden" costume in the original production of Funny Girl, though it may have been cut by the time the show opened on Broadway.

Fanny Brice actually did a famous bit as an Indian Maiden though there was no such number in Funny Girl but audiences then were old enough to remember the character, as they did Baby Snooks, another Brice creation.

Streisand was also costumed as an “Indian” in Funny Lady, too. Remember when Fanny threatens to hurl a tomahawk at Billy Rose in her dressing room?

[520] here. The trailer could not have been a worse representation of the show if they tried. The audio/video is the don’t rain on my parade reprise at the end of the show. It’s the worst costume she wears all evening. She handled the number much better at the end of act one. I didn’t notice much gasping until that number, which was someonewhat understandable given it’s an exhausting show to carry and she spent the preceding half hour crying. I don’t mean to say that Sheridan Smith is a viable choice for a broadway revival, she’s not. And while I had my reservations about her she gave a good performance. The production/new book I could absolutely see being the basis of a broadway revival if it were glammed up a bit.

Funny Lady also had two brief bits of Baby Snooks. One where Fanny's got the water wings and the swimsuit and is distracting the bathing beauties. The other where she's completing a radio sketch near the end.

Pia Zadora honestly isn't a bad singer at all. She's not even a terrible actress. She's just sorta there. She was never shockingly bad, just blah.

Don't get me started on Betty's "Rose's Turn". Brilliantly sung, but about as emotionally involving as a tuna fish sandwich.

And FUNNY GIRL (the movie) also has a little bit of Barbra as Fanny as Baby Snooks, when she exits the stage after a number as that character and then confronts the reporters about Nick Arnstein's arrest.

King Kong and Mighty Joe Young in a revival of War Paint. Would have to be better than the show that played last season.

r584 you type fat

Audio boots of Company/London and MFL/Benanti are in circulation.

r533 I don't know that one can even say this was well sung but poorly acted. Some of her annoying tics are in display, like bending the melody ("This people's spreadin' it AROUND") and rushing through lines ("I dreamed it FOR YOU, June" and the next few lines).

I agree with r544 about her "indicating". She also makes some plainly weird gestures, like holding her head in "Some people got it and make it pay." It's almost the same gesture as Liza singing "Get a feathered hat for the baby"! And those kicks after "Mama's gonna show it to ya" are just frightening.

I have to wonder if she's ever asked YouTube to take the clip down. It really doesn't show her off well.

Pretty sure Betty considers it part of the director’s job to tell her when something doesn’t work. You have to be unafraid of giving her feedback

Barbrahontas.............

I saw Pia Zadora's Carnegie Hall concert in the 1980s. She was actually very good. I thought she sounded a lot like Liza. Pia was married to a really rich guy, so she hired a full orchestra and had some good arrangements made, but she had a good voice which sold them. I mean, she had been cast in shows on Broadway before, so it wasn't like she was coming from no experience. I was actually impressed.

Bajour!

Q: How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

A: Marry a rich guy who'll rent it for you.

LIke a lot of those foreign artists playing Carnegie Hall no one has heard of, even if you're rather up on who is who in the classical world?

Well, that settles it. I'd like Pia Zadora as Patti's standby when Company comes back to Broadway.

Pretty much any performance venue in the world can be yours for a price. Apparently lots of yokels don't consider that.

The Cher Show and To Kill a Mockingbird start previews on Thursday. Is anybody going to either?

I Zadore Pia!

I believe it's already been offered to Miss Joey Heatherton, r597.

We hope the new thread title doesn't suck

A...My Name Is Alice starring Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Tovah Feldshuh and Pia Zadora.

c'mon - we need a Bajour! to end this thing!