THEATRE GOSSIP #444: Lin Manuel Miranda to Direct the Movie of FOLLIES Edition

Previous thread

Would Sondheim allow one of Weinstein's beauties to return as a man? What's a film in the 21st century without one Trans, right? An F to M is just what Follies needs! The new "he" could be part of 'Who's that Woman?' The creative juices are just getting started, baby...

Wait 'til you see what I can do with some recasting in "Agnes of God"!

lordy, dont ever let him direct again after that Heights disaster.

Except he didn't direct "that Heights disaster."

Who is Besmie of the previous thread?

I think it's meant to be Beanie.

Is The Humans movie a remnant of Rudin's relationship with A24? I can't imagine that movie getting made with him having had strong-armed it after producing it on the B'way

...and now, a word from our Sponsor...

FOLLIES!

Does creating stuff like this actually help a show?

In the case of TGFTNC, probably not. That show seems doomed to close imminently.

It's a shame, because the ensemble is very talented and the music is terrific. It's just not a good story or a very satisfying evening for most audiences. Who thought a Bway run was a good investment?

From the previous thread:

[quote]Saw The Visitor yesterday.....What’s up with no bio in the Playbill for lyricist/co-book writer Brian Yorkey? Was that by his choice after all the birthing problems this show had?

Damn, I did not notice that. It must have been his choice, because his union would never allow the elimination of a bio as punishment, or whatever.

But here's the thing: What's the point in cutting your bio from the Playbill if you're going to retain credit as lyricist and co-book writer on the title page?

R2 I think you meant Weismann, not Weinstein. Too many Weinstein beauties may still be a-suing -- and he has another trial coming up.

I want a film version of BAJOUR. Or maybe even on TV: BAJOUR LIVE!

When are they finally going to cast someone as Elphaba who's NOT a fierce belter? Or even a singer at all? Just because someone doesn't have Idina's high notes doesn't mean that they can't give an amazing performance. I'd much rather see a great actor who can't sing at all than someone who got the part just because they were lucky enough to be born with a good sense of pitch or the money to go to a good school. So many girls have LIVED Elphaba's story and it's just another example of Broadway's bigotry that if you don't have a world-class singing voice, then don't even bother to audition. It's time we change that! If they really wanted to show how diverse they were they would cast an Elphaba who can't sing at all. But Broadway likes to pretend it's diverse when it's really just the same old privileged people propping each other up. Equity needs to demand that they stop forcing people to sing at auditions, it's discriminatory.

Why not someone who can't act either? Such bigots!

I guess her garden isn't so secret anymore

Broadway’s Return Is Triumphant, But Uncertainty Looms: Industry members discuss how COVID changed the culture and why Broadway's return to "normal" may take years:

R14 you're kidding right? Its a freaking musical. And Elphaba is not a hard role to play. She's constantly in victim mode. Take away the vocals and there isn't an actress on planet earth capable of making her compelling, given the show's script.

Except Meryl Streep of course, who deserves ALL the singing roles 🙄

Let's not kid about LMM and Follies. I love that show.

....is the new Company good? I want to see Patti, but when I saw the NPH concert version the show kinda annoyed me. I hated the "Bobby bubbie!" chant (is that still there?) and found the plot meandering. Is Not Getting Married now sung by a man?

Was wanting to see Lillias White in Chicago but heard how tired her voice sounded in a rehearsal video and now I'm concerned she'll sound worn out and that'll be depressing. Plus folks keep saying the show itself is lackluster now.

I definitely wanted to see Little Shop but Tammys voice sounds too deep for Audrey. Does she have an alternate who performs regularly? Is that gal better?

I 100% wanted to see Music Man but it would be in previews and I'd be hard-pressed to find a cheap ticket. Do they do discount tickets day-of for a show that anticipated during the holidays?

You aren't going to enjoy anything. You should just stay at home.

R19

Hardy hat har.

I rarely get to NYC and try to choose how I spend my money carefully. Theatre is pricey.

R18 --- are YOU kidding? You find the plot of COMPANY "meandering" and don't understand why? Because you thought Lillias White's voice sounded tired in a video of a rehearsal for CHICAGO, you think she's going to sound tired in an actual performance?

Yes, I"m Not Getting Married is now sung by a man. I saw it last week and enjoyed it very much. Even if the show is dated and changing it to a woman's story doesn't work 100%. Still a very good night in the theatre.

Yes, it's really outrageous to expect actors auditioning for musicals to have to sing.

And why should they have to read lines and act? What intolerance for the acting-deprived!

In fact, why do auditioners even have to be alive? We could dig up Ethel Merman's corpse, perhaps pour a life philtre into Laurence Olivier's remains. Imagine the marquee: My Fair Lady starring Edmund Kean and Marilyn Miller! And let's beg for forgiveness from trannies because reasons!

Or why have theater at all? Theater is anti-tranny! Hire no one but trannies! Down with trannies! Up with trannies! Follow the science! Science is trannies! Trannies forever! Cave, cave to trannies!

Oh, do shut up, r23.

Go see Caroline or Change

[quote] Why not someone who can't act either? Such bigots!

Because everybody has the ability to act. Some are better at it than others, but everyone is born with the ability. Just look at children playing. It’s all acting.

R14. I assume yours is a parody post?

Just for the record, the name of the song is “Getting Married Today”.

R28, I'm glad you went there so I didn't have to :-)

R14 Send that to the people running diversity seminars and webinar at Equity! Hah!

That'll make someone there less Bliss-ful.

Saw The Visitor again last night, and yes, "Better Angels" is a terrible song. However, Hyde-Pierce's voice has never sounded better and his performance is heartbreaking.

Is Hyde Pierce really able to create a character that is not Niles Crane?

I'd be shocked. Not entirely his fault, but that's what inevitably happens when an actor so successfully creates a character and plays the character for years on end.

I saw Kimberly Akimbo at the Atlantic over the weekend. Loved it.

His Horace wasn't Niles, r33.

I was also surprised by his Horace. It seemed like such an out of left field choice, but he delivered and ended up being one of the better Horaces I'd seen and he had excellent chemistry with Bette. Garber wasn't anywhere near as funny, but he had great chemistry with Bernadette which made the whole "I'm marrying Horace for his money" thing seem a lot less skeevy. It felt like, underneath it all, there was actual love and romance there.

R21 Calm down.

I simply wanted to know how the changes did or didn't improve on the NPH version. Thanks r22 for answering my questions instead of sassing me :) Did they still chant Bobby Bubbie? (Fucking hated that)

I caught Bernadette in Follies years ago and loved her but could tell her voice was fraying. I probably wouldn't see her now because its tough kistenimg to someone strain to do 1/4 what they used to be able to.

Lillias sounded REALLY rough in that rehearsal footage - so much so I was surprised they released it. If she can't do her infamous runs and has lost much of her range, AND the show feels tired? If that was just 7am footage and her voice is still really good and the cast are strong, I'll check it out. Love Lillias, like the score.

I tried watching the bootleg of Caroline years ago and it didnt grab me.

R37, I'm perfectly calm. But I found your questions/comments very odd, and I was just mirroring your "You're kidding right?!" response to a previous poster.

Since no one has yet explained this to you, COMPANY was based on a bunch of unrelated short plays that had been written by George Furth. When it was put together as a musical, the character of Bobby was created and used as the connective tissue between the various scenes with the different couples. That's why the plot seems "meandering" to you, but the show was never intended to have a traditional, linear plot.

And I'm sorry you hate the "Bobby bubbie" chant, but since that's the foundation for the title song, I doubt it will ever be eliminated from any production of the show -- except I guess now it's "Bobbie bubbie"

[quote]His Horace wasn't Niles, [R33].

Neither was his Tony-winning role in "Curtains."

[quote]Is Hyde Pierce really able to create a character that is not Niles Crane?

Yes, and he has done so several times. So maybe the problem is your own lack of ability to see him as any other character, even when his performances have been very different in terms of vocal inflections, accents, body language, and so on.

I saw DHP pre Fraser in The Heidi Chronicles and he was playing Niles even back then. His range is limited but he’s smart enough to stay in his lane.

It's the curse of a long TV run. Niles was DHP, now DHP is Niles. Ditto Kelsey Grammer, Alan Alda, Lucy, etc etc

R41, like most actors, his range is not unlimited. But that said, his Horace in DOLLY! was a completely different characterization from his Niles. So was his role in CURTAINS! and several of his other roles.

So you dismiss the other examples given where he wasn't Niles, r41?

Garber has admitted his voice is no longer what it was, and for that reason, he'll never do a stage musical again.

That, plus nobody is going to hire him. For what? A revival of Shenandoah?

R41. I do. I saw him in Dolly and Accent on Youth, both non-Niles roles but I still saw Niles. Maybe it’s me. Maybe he just made such a strong impression as Niles that I have trouble seeing him as anything else. But I do think he’s a very talented, engaging actor.

Besmie Feldstein as Fansie Brice!

Is Daniel Davis always Niles, too?

Probably, r48.

Only when he walks off a show in a snit.

I just watched Knives Out for the first time. I'm not sure I understand the breathless reaction the film got. It feels like the filmmakers thought it was cleverer than it actually was. I mean, it had its charms, but the ambition outweighed the execution for me. But, I did think of y'all when.... SPOILER ALERT...

S

P

O

I

L

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...Daniel Craig broke out into 'Losing My Mind'. Did one of you work on this film?? There's no escaping Follies!

Bernadette’s voice was frayed in Follies because she was singing in a soprano range that she hadn’t touched since “Star Tar” in Dames at Sea.

Her voice is certainly not what it was, but as long as she sticks to her money range, she can sound pretty good.

Star Tar

[quote] My Fair Lady starring Edmund Kean and Marilyn Miller!

Fuck Marilyn Miller. Fuck her right up her fat, no-talent ass.

Marilyn was a star when she danced. When she sang...not so much.

Master Class of acting and singing.

DHP's Vanya was every inch Niles.

[quote]I saw him in Dolly and Accent on Youth, both non-Niles roles but I still saw Niles. Maybe it’s me. Maybe he just made such a strong impression as Niles that I have trouble seeing him as anything else.

I think that's the issue here, because again, his Horace was NOTHING like Niles.

[quote]DHP's Vanya was every inch Niles.

Agreed, those were very similar characterizations, but that was appropriate for those two roles.

All actors, even the very good ones, have a range they can effectively play and a bag of "tricks" they use.

Same thing with all theater artists....directors and designers, too.

I see about a 100 shows a year in a major U.S. city and after a few years of this, I can anticipate what to expect from many artists. That's not necessarily a bad thing but it does open your eyes to how people use their talents.

I do my best to mix things up.

Plus most of the actors we love have some personality that's theirs and that makes them who they are. Look at Bogart and both Hepburns and Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant.

[quote] I caught Bernadette in Follies years ago and loved her but could tell her voice was fraying.

Her voice was fraying in Song & Dance. Unexpected Song was a song she really couldn’t handle vocally.

After the purity of her Mack & Mabel vocals, she started to get that slight rasp in the 1980s and it has basically been there ever since. That said, I was frankly surprised at the soprano range she pulled out in Follies and thought she navigated it better than I expected. Her "Losing My Mind" was overwrought, but I'd blame that on her director, who should have dialed it back.

Based on my own experience and anecdotal evidence, Bernadette has been inconsistent vocally for many years now. I'm not sure if it depends so much on the role, or more on what performance you happen to catch. Maybe she has some kind of chronic condition that impacts her singing sometimes more than others, like post-nasal drip or acid reflux or whatever. I have a vague memory that she may even have said something like that, but I'm really not sure.

Bernadette is one of those performers who always seems to go for broke during each performance which can be taxing on the voice. She never just marks it. I saw her in a preview of Gypsy and she was screaming every line and, although she also had some sort of respiratory infection at the time, I had the feeling her vocal issues stemmed more from her screaming every line that any sickness.

Bern '65

Wearing a red dress in FOLLIES was another of Bernadette's ideas that her "director" should have nixed but it took a Washington DC tryout to prove that Phyllis wears red, not Sally.

She needed shaping, not inches.

Did Bernadette have some back molars removed early in her career? Photos of when she was very young indicate chipmunk cheeks. Or was her heavy jawline reconfigured?

R63 see I thought her Losing My Mind was perfect and stark. Just her standing head-on, crying and singing. I liked her switch from belt to head voice on the last "you said you LOOOOOVVVVEEDDD MEEEEEEEeeeeeeee....!"

When I see other actresses pulling out their hair (or off their wigs) and singing it in a lush way, THAT feels like too much for me. Vicky Clark, who is awesome, felt too strong and healthy to me in the clips I saw, compared to Bernadette.

R38 you are correct that I never knew the history of Company. Is this new version stronger than previous ones though?

Has anyone seen someone other than Tammy in Little Shop since the show reopened?

[quote]Her "Losing My Mind" was overwrought, but I'd blame that on her director, who should have dialed it back.

Eric Schaeffer is a hack. Always has been, always will be.

Given the desperation and mania that Sally exhibits throughout the rest of the show, I prefer "Losing My Mind" to be controlled, stately and still. It's the way Sally imagines herself versus the frantic and neurotic reality. I do love Bernadette in general, but she went all weepy with it. It was too much.

You need a bad wig.

Anything opening at the St. James next spring?

Kimberly Akimbo is rumored to be moving uptown this Spring to take the Tony.

Is the musical better than the play because I remember being wholly underwhelmed by it.

Those in the swim call it "The James," R74.

Does AMERICAN UTOPIA have a definite end date? I saw the version on streaming and wanted to see it live.

R77 American Utopia is beautiful, and human.

Losing My Mind always gets the most attention, but to me, the best Sally song is In Buddy's Eyes. And Bernadette sang that one beautifully.

R79, she did sing it beautifully EXCEPT for the extremely annoying back phrasing, which just about everyone in that production fell prey to. I can't believe the musical director and conductor didn't stay on them about that.

I really do not get it. The wobbly notes and weird head things she does and the lack of acting, not to mention certain vowell sounds getting over emphasised--maybe not terrible in a Hattie, but for Sally's songs it is just wrong.

Sally is 49 and the old lady voice is just bad.

Losing My Mind needs booze...

sick of seeing/hearing about/anything to do with mr miranda.

[quote]sick of seeing/hearing about/anything to do with mr miranda.

Who has not even been discussed in this thread until you yourself brought him up R83.

[quote]Maybe she has some kind of chronic condition that impacts her singing sometimes more than others, like post-nasal drip or acid reflux or whatever.

Yes, everybody has known about it for years and she has talked about it. It's why she missed so many previews of Gypsy and hadn't settled into a firm performance when she came back before she was fully recovered to open the show. It's why people who saw her early on had very mixed things to say about her but people who saw who late in the run raved.

Miranda's name is IN THE TITLE OF THE THREAD.

[quote]Anything opening at the St. James next spring?

I will be doing so in the third stall of the downstairs men's room.

At least there isn't the line there is at the Ladies

There will be now that R87's opening has been announced.

I saw R87's pre-Broadway opening in Boston. It's going to need some major work and tightening to become a hit on Broadway.

R85 post nasal drip and acid reflux affect singing?

*gulp*

and La Grippe

...speaking of which, too bad Bernie never played Adelaide

I saw r87’s opening in Boston, too.

No girls, no gags, no chance.

But I have gams r94.

I HAVE GAMS!

Hell, cast Bernadette as Adelaide at her age now and she'll really come across as desperate. Didn't Megan Mullally do it a few years ago when she was in her 50's?

I wonder how Mullally would have fared as Reno in the recent revival had she done it. She can sing...but dancing like Sutton?

The comedy probably would've been better and they wouldn't have had as much dancing for Reno.

Billy Porter for Reno. The show might finally make psycho sexual sense...

[quote]Billy Porter for Reno.

For a character who's supposed to be a lot of fun? Yeah, no.

[quote]Maybe she has some kind of chronic condition that impacts her singing sometimes more than others, like post-nasal drip or acid reflux or whatever.

[quote]Yes, everybody has known about it for years and she has talked about it. It's why she missed so many previews of Gypsy and hadn't settled into a firm performance when she came back before she was fully recovered to open the show.

But wasn't there an additional, separate illness that plagued Bernadette during GYPSY? Something worse than post-nasal drip or acid reflux?

[quote]I wonder how Mullally would have fared as Reno in the recent revival had she done it. She can sing...but dancing like Sutton?

Reno in ANYTHING GOES was not originally conceived as a dancing role. It only became one for certain productions in later years when people like Ann Miller, Mitzi Gaynor, and Sutton Foster took it on.

[quote]Reno in ANYTHING GOES was not originally conceived as a dancing role

True. Ethel Merman really wasn't known for her terpsichorean talents.

R103, and neither is Ms. LuPone. As originally written, Reno was supposed to be a nightclub SINGER turned evangelist, so there was no need for her to dance. And it actually doesn't make much sense if she does dance, unless she's now supposed to be a chorus dancer turned evangelist.

[quote] Reno in ANYTHING GOES was not originally conceived as a dancing role. It only became one for certain productions in later years when people like Ann Miller, Mitzi Gaynor, and Sutton Foster took it on.

Don’t forget about me, doll! Did you catch my sublime tapping when I did the title number on the Tony Awards broadcast?

Anna Christie was not conceived as a dancing role by Eugene O'Neill but she she sure danced in New Girl In Town when Gwen Verdon played her. Nevertheless, there was still no reason for the character to dance.

[quote] Don’t forget about me, doll! Did you catch my sublime tapping when I did the title number on the Tony Awards broadcast?—Patti

Yes, Patti and we also heard your gasping “Oh my Gawd” the minute you pulled back and let the real dancers take over.

Patti always hated me because I could easily dance “Buenos Aires” cool as a cucumber, while she gallumphed all over the stage sweating.

"dog fucks baby in the ass" is number one with the quotes, number two without.

^ Sorry, wrong thread!

I'm not going to ask which thread is the *right* thread, r110.

[quote]^ Sorry, wrong thread!

Pics please.

"Google Searches That Come Right Back to Datalounge"

I know, R106, but that's not what I meant.

[quote] "dog fucks baby in the ass" is number one with the quotes, number two without.

Is this a reference to my dancing? Because if it is, how dare you?!? I have feelings, you know. Fuck you in your own ass, you fucking piece of shit.

[quote]But wasn't there an additional, separate illness that plagued Bernadette during GYPSY? Something worse than post-nasal drip or acid reflux?

Arthur Laurents?

You're all supposed to be theatre mavens - well, at least for Follies (and I saw Bernadette as Sally Durant. Her "Losing My Mind" was not very good, so overwrought; blech. Jan Maxwell's performance as Phyllis was excellent and IT should be discussed and praised more often) - so why haven't any of you mentioned that decades ago a production of Anything Goes was proposed where Reno was a guy - and he was (gasp!) gay! - and he and Sir Evelyn Oakley ended up as a happy couple at the end of the show?

The Porter estate denied the producers permission to put on the show with that casting. Billy Porter as Reno, puhlease...

Soooo....did Helen give Young Phyllis any tips?

THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 2009, "Fela!" opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.

NNN at Encores was sublime. Even Rosie was good and Sandy Duncan was fantastic.

Jan Maxwell truly was an excellent Phyllis. I wish she'd done more musicals.

What she accomplished in the craptacular Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was heroic.

Wasn't she under the weather when she did it?

Monday: A “personal” actual paper letter from Sharon D. Clarke asking for a donation to the Roundabout.

Tuesday: You get an ynderstudy for your performance. Sharon D. Clarke is taking off the Saturdays after Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

Yes! Maxwell was an incredible Phyllis, somehow starting “Could I Leave You?” at 100% and still making it incredible. I saw the closing night of “City of Conversation” and still remember her incredible intelligence and power. It was one of her last performances.

R124. Thanks for the heads up. Clarke’s understudy is the amazing Sharon Brown and I’d much rather see the show with her!

R123. I don’t think so. But Christine Ebersole did Applause with the flu but she still did a great job.

Yes, Sandy Duncan was in excruciating back pain.

[quote]But wasn't there an additional, separate illness that plagued Bernadette during GYPSY? Something worse than post-nasal drip or acid reflux?

[quote]Arthur Laurents?

Arthur Laurents was an acid drip.

Are you people fucking high? Jan Maxwell was HORRIBLE as Phyllis. She couldn't dance for shit and she shrieked through Could I Live You like a complete shrew. She got none of the humor of the song. I was always a fan of hers, but she was god-fucking-awful in Follies, as was most everyone else, in a rancid, worthless production.

JUDAS!

Patti - For Dance 3, For Looks 2

A black (or blackish) actor in that mob that stormed the Capitol? What a pathetic, confused individual.

Leslie Uggams sends up Leslie Uggams on "Family Guy"

No video, but here's a transcript.

Family Guy is one of those shows where you forget that it's still on...apparently, like the Simpsons, it can't be stopped.

True, r136. It's more "miss" than "hit" these days, too. But, when the show was firing on all cylinders its musical parodies were great -- that's one area in which they exceeded The Simpsons.

R137 Don't be ridiculous.

Family Guy is an abomination.

Apparently Music Man will be over choreographed

How is that over choreographed r139?

Hugh dances gay

But he sucks dick like a straight man!

[quote] Apparently Music Man will be over choreographed

I’ll be the judge of that!

NYT reviews the film version of "The Humans":

THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1951, "Gigi" opened at the Fulton Theatre.

R137 my jock brother who detests musicals loves the 'Shipoopi' scene when Peter sang it after scoring a touchdown for the Patriots. Sometimes you can hear him going about mindlessly saying, "♪ Shipoopi! Shipoopi! ♫" 😂

The Humans was a complete slog as a play. I can't imagine it will be any better with a rotten cast and a first time director who is up his own ass.

[quote]Family Guy is an abomination.

So true, r138. And yet I watch it and it makes me laugh. I'm terrible, Muriel.

Audrey kicks at the curtain call...

[quote] How is that over choreographed [R139]?

I'll take a stab at it. One thing Onna White does brilliantly in the choreography for the movie is have dance start to emerge gradually as the town falls under Harold Hill's spell, as well as succumbing to the pleasures of music itself. "Ya Got Trouble" is the first encounter most of the town has with Harold Hill, and this looks like a go-for-broke dance number. I know it is presumptuous to judge by a few seconds on Instagram, but it feels like too much, too soon for the storytelling. But... everything is out for blood these days. The Jerry Zaks approach is to set everything at 11, with people shrieking and making faces at each other, so I assume it will carry over to other departments as well, like this choreography.

Damn, that MUSIC MAN clip looks horrible. Sometimes dancing just doesn’t make sense and is distracting without adding entertainment value. I call it the Blankenbuehler effect (and please excuse that spelling, if necessary). Very annoying in BANDSTAND, not such a great aspect of HAMILTON either. I LOVE theatrical dancing but it seems the geniuses who really make it work are scarce: Balanchine, Robbins, Bennett, Tune—and on a slightly lower plane—i.e. choreographers who don’t so successfully direct—Kidd, Layton, Onna White, Joshua Bergasse—and who else comes to mind? Saddler, Daniels… Anyway, too much of a good thing is too bad. Too much of a not-so-good thing is…an annoyance.

The diversity hire in that clip is completely off the count.

R151, you can add de Mille and Hanya Holm;

[quote]Actor who plays Judas in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ charged with joining Oath Keepers during Capitol breach.

[quote]The first song in the musical is Judas singing about how he fears a mob of blind followers is getting out of control - Catherine Rampell

Agree that the choreography seems way over the top for that song. Guess they want to take advantage of Jackman's dancing skills.

Wait until you see Sutton's tap dance break for My White Knight.

[quote]NNN at Encores was sublime. Even Rosie was good and Sandy Duncan was fantastic.

A fun show. Beth Leavel, Michael Berresse, Mara Davi, Charles Kimbrough, Shawn? Wiley.

Berresse and Leavel in You Can Dance With Any Girl.

[quote]THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1951, "Gigi" opened at the Fulton Theatre.

Starring Audrey Hepburn.

Helen is effortless...

[quote] NNN at Encores was sublime. Even Rosie was good and Sandy Duncan was fantastic.

Sandy was great. During a big chorus dance, she slipped and fell. She went down smiling and came right back up smiling. She’s the only person I’ve ever seen fall and keep a toothy smile the whole time.

Near the end of a MY ONE AND ONLY performance Don Correia picked Sandy up in his arms, twirled downstage and fell off the stage without dropping her. She laughed hysterically and he turned beet red. It was adorable. And Don was a worthy successor to Tune. He did Singin in the Rain right after that.

I remember Mitzi tapping Anything Goes on Johnny Carson, r161, and she did the same thing.

r140 see what r150 and r151 said. It seems like dancing for the sake of it, listening to the rhythm of the music but not the words or purpose of the song. So many steps, Hugh can't even breathe, and he's the one who needs to be hoodwinking an entire town through his words and the spell he's casting. Do you see that evoked in anything they're doing?

It reminds me what of Rob Ashford did to "The Company Way" but I thought Carlyle was better than that. (Hell, I thought my [italic]nephew[/italic] was better than that.)

It is 14 (fourteen) seconds out of one number in an entire show r164. And yet you the great and powerful theatre wizards of the Datalounge have decided that the fate of a highly anticipated revival of a classic musical is doomed. DOOMED I tell you.

Rob Ashford is the pits as a director and choreographer. It’s hard to pick which one he does more poorly.

r165 all I said was "over-choreographed."

R167 It is kinda busy.

Why is No Nut November playing at Encores?

I know they don't don't really have a "product" yet, but why-oh-why does theatre think releasing rehearsal footage is ever a good idea.

Well, I don't know where someone got a clip of the choreography for the upcoming MUSIC MAN, but obviously, that post above has been removed.

Stephen Karam should stick to writing, judging by his direction of The Humans.

Seems odd to cast Beanie as the character who chides her mother for her weight and appetite.

“You Can Dance With Any Girl” is such a great number. The Encores version is fun and charming, but the 1971 original is one of the great Broadway dances. Bobby Van gives his song-and-dance man best, but the divine Helen Gallagher, as has been pointed out, doesn’t break a sweat, it’s all as natural as breathing to her. Her little nod at the end “you see? Nothing to it!” is fabulous.

And she’s still with us at 95! Physically a little frail, but her mental faculties & memory are still sharp. She did a guest q&a appearance just before the pandemic, & a couple of radio interviews, too. They’re all on YouTube.

R171 it’s a link to Hugh’s Insta and it’s still there

[quote] it’s a link to Hugh’s Insta and it’s still there

I’m still here. Look who’s here. I’m still heeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeee!!!!!

Rob Ashford DESTROYED H2$ with his busy, unjustified, humorless choreography. I remember watching "Brotherhood of Man" and actually becoming angry over how stupid and inane all the "choreography" was. You had Radcliffe (and his successors) moving like they were in some Martha Graham revue. Wayne Cilento's work in the 1995 revival was far more clever, imaginative and character-driven (in the way that Michael Kidd's and even Fosse's best choreography is)

I don't have any negative reaction to Warren Carlyle's work on TMM. It's a short clip without orchestra (or context) and Carlyle's work has been generally very tasteful and imaginative (without becoming overwrought) so I remain cautiously optimistic.

Well... I had my own problems with the approach to "Brotherhood of Man" for the 1995 revival. It's not a gospel number. It's a parody of a gospel number. The original production had battle-axe Ruth Kobart chirping away ludicrously as she was 'getting the spirit' in the whitest way possible. It's still funny. In the 1995 revival, it was turned into a definite showstopper in Lillias White's hands, at the expense of every single joke and comedy moment for Miss Jones for the entire rest of the show. It became exactly what the original authors were parodying. Still, it was better than Ashford's version, which was a bunch of hot chorus boys in suits performing a rigorous routine.

[quote] a bunch of hot chorus boys in suits performing a rigorous routine.

You say this like it's a bad thing.

R177, agreed on all counts.

I saw the original staging, which was mean, dark, snarky, funny as hell and brilliant. But mean. Neither of the film nor the revivals had a clue what the show is about. It's not supposed to be cute. It's hilarious because it's truthful, dark, nasty in its heart, but served with sauce à la Loesser and Fosse.

That 1995 revival was one of the worst shows I've ever seen. They destroyed the show! The biggest problem was they didn't trust the material. You wanted to scream "It won the Pulitzer! " And they even cut my favorite line, worried that the tourists would be offended, I guess: "Goddamn it, Voila!" I was lucky enought to see the original in Chicago. (with the soon to be Mrs. Cary Grant as Rosemary.) She and it were wonderful.

R180, I agree with all of that, except I wouldn't really describe the show as "dark." It's a sharp satire, very sarcastic, and yes, hilarious. Certainly not supposed to be "cute."

[quote] "Goddamn it, Voila!"

I said the same thing on Oscar night, 2017

R181... I'm so confused. Are you referring to Follies, Annie, How to Succeed or No, No, Nanette?

Because, Follies and Annie are good candidates, right?

But I think you mean How to Succeed...

I don't see NNN as "I saw the original staging, which was mean, dark, snarky, funny as hell and brilliant. But mean."

Not asking for a friend, but me...

Harold Hill is supposed to be convincing the townspeople that there is "Trouble"--why is his back to them? Who are they all singing to? If this were a scene in a play, all the actors would not be all facing front delivering their lines (unless it were a John Doyle production), they would be relating to each other.

That choreography looks like a celebration, but the Trouble number is anything but: Harold Hill is warning the townspeople that their society is undergoing a rough change. He's conning them into being upset, not merry, and this dance routine is worse than irrelevant: incorrect.

I don't care if it's just a few seconds and it's just a rehearsal. This is the work of a choreographer who has no ability to "read" a story. It's just pointless dancing in an in fact rather pointed narrative.

I don't remember who's doing it, but I'll bet it's Warren Carlyle.

EDIT: I just checked IBDB. It is WC.

Helen's Blues

Anyone else watching The Humans on Showtime tonite or will I have to rip it to shreds by myself.

[quote] a bunch of hot chorus boys in suits performing a rigorous routine. You say this like it's a bad thing.

Ordinarily not. I like a hot chorus boy in a suit. But original How to Succeed producers Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin were known for casting "people with bumps" - eccentric musical comedy types. I think that phrase referred to their casting for Guys & Dolls, but it holds true for How to Succeed as well. In what other show would Robert Morse, Rudy Vallee, Virginia Martin, Sammy Smith, Ruth Kobart, Bonnie Scott (or Michele Lee since we have a Bonnie Scott hater amongst us), and Charles Nelson Reilly occupy a world together? If you watch "Brotherhood of Man" in the film, you have all of those odd business-man types trying to execute the choreography, which has a loose, improvisatory feel, like Finch is making it up on the spot - which story-wise, he is. Each revival has taken a harder sell approach, to whomp it into a showstopper. The Ashford version is this frantic athletic overly choreographed gymnastic thing with young hot guys jumping around in suits and glasses. It's desperate.

Can someone tell me where to find the MUSIC MAN clip? I don't see it posted here, but apparently at least one post has been deleted -- R139.

It's still there at R139.

Ah, then I guess I must have blocked that person :-(

Golden Age musicals generally weren't cast with lots of sexy men in the singing or even dancing ensembles. Though there might be one or two hotties, they were mostlt populated with real-looking men who also happened to be brilliant performers. While the Gower Champion and Bob Fosse shows, even as late as PIPPIN, CHICAGO, HELLO, DOLLY! and MACK AND MABEL all had lots of gorgeous leggy chorus girls, most of the men were character types, which often helped create a more "real" look to the feel of the show.

Ah, I found the MUSIC MAN clip elsewhere. Aside from everything else, the choreography is so elaborate that Jackman is gasping for breath while trying to sing. A choreographer should never ask a star (or anyone else) to do that much dancing WHILE singing.

[quote]A choreographer should never ask a star (or anyone else) to do that much dancing WHILE singing.

Hi, Patti LuPone!

[quote]A choreographer should never ask a star (or anyone else) to do that much dancing WHILE singing.

Tell me about it, r194.

there is talk of replacing him.....the show sux.

Talk of replacing who, r197?

Not sure, r198. I guess it's either Hugh or Patti.

Patti is using 'him' pronouns now?

So r192 if you blocked me does that mean I can say anything I want about you now and you won’t ever know?

Gwen, Donna, Paula & Helen

[quote]there is talk of replacing him.....the show sux.

Replacing the choreographer?

I know I'll be booed for this but that really is a problem today: all chorus men and the majority of young male actors in musical theater all have to have ridiculously over muscled, gym polished, porn star bodies. Which is lovely from a purient aspect of admiring those bodies but it's also off putting seeing musical theater pieces populated by an entire cast of super buff people...it works fine for shows with young characters but when it's a period show and everyone in River City or Younkers or Edwardian London has a ripped body, it looks ridiculous.

Booooo, R204.

Not really, though. I agree with you.

"Aside from everything else, the choreography is so elaborate that Jackman is gasping for breath while trying to sing."

Exactly like the Radcliffe revival of H2$. Instead of sailing through the choreography as a metaphor for his ability to scale the ladder of success with ease, poor Dan was huffing and puffing red-faced throughout the strenuous production numbers. Not only a misunderstanding of the show but hardly a way to showcase your star.

Then again, the metaphor, theatre's greatest device, has been absent from Broadway musical theatre for years. Everything is literal and spelled out. And the poverty of imagination and ideas, along with pandering to fashionable trends, is just too depressing to contemplate.

R204. When I saw the film version of Evita starring Madonna and her chiseled arms I thought DAMN! EVA WAS A GYM RAT!

[quote]when it's a period show and everyone in River City or Younkers or Edwardian London has a ripped body, it looks ridiculous.

Tsk tsk, R204. Don't you know you're meant to suspend disbelief these days no matter what appears on the stage representing which? Because, you know, you do it for some things so you have to do it for all of them.

Anyone watching the Macys performances? Anyone else think Harry looked clumsy, bulky and unhappy? Or am I just being a Thanksgiving Cunt? Have to hand it to her, the girl was great.

And is Six the cheapest megahit ever? Cast of 6 and a band of 4.

Watched Moulin Rouge on Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It looks like total crap. Broadway was not meant for recycled pop songs.

They could have switched the casts of Six and Moulin and there wouldn’t have been any difference. Tacky hooker costumes and ass shaking.

...or booze and pills! Now get out of my way, I've got a man waitin' for me!

Macy's is doing a Wicked number. What's next, an Evita number?

[Quote] there is talk of replacing him.....the show sux.

R197 what are you talking about?

The Humans movie is horrible. Hard to overstate how misguided it is. And I liked it in the theater! It makes sense now that it was dumped onto Showtime.

[quote]everyone in River City or Younkers or Edwardian London has a ripped body, it looks ridiculous.

Younkers?

Bob Fosse's chorus boys were amazing dancers, but they offered very little in the looks department. The original Chicago in 1975 had the homeliest faces I've ever seen on a stage.

The '70s were another decade (like today) when Hollywood and Broadway were trying to be subversive by casting the ugliest, homeliest actors/performers. But the '80s brought back the glitz and glamor and beautiful people.

[quote]The original Chicago in 1975 had the homeliest faces I've ever seen on a stage.

Maybe so, the they dripped sex.

[quote]They could have switched the casts of Six and Moulin and there wouldn’t have been any difference. Tacky hooker costumes and ass shaking.

I'm sorry to say that I changed the channel on both of them. That ear-bleeding number from "Six" is just godawful in every way (I can't even imagine sitting in a theater listening to that at full blast) and "Moulin" is just more mechanized corporate drivel designed to separate tourists from their money, so the less said about it the better.

The disappearance of the sort of creativity that Broadway once generated is a bit heartbreaking. And no that’s just not a old guy lamenting changing tastes.

I resemble that remark, R218!

True, Christopher Chadman was the only relatively hot guy in the Chicago ensemble in 1975. The rest were fug.

I'm guessing they're going to try keeping Six open through the Tony Awards.

There are no great directors or choreographers anymore. The "talents" of today just recycle the same old crap show after show after show.

[quote] I'm guessing they're going to try keeping Six open through the Tony Awards.

Six ain’t going nowhere. Not a fan myself, but it's doing very well. The average ticket price is extremely high and its weekly running costs are about $12 and change.

R226 biggest example is Casey Nicholaw who’s probably very rich now from Mormon and Aladdin. Unbelievable

"Six?" They made a musical about Jenna Von Oy?

SIX is the next Mamma Mia! and Wicked. International appeal that will keep replenishing itself. Will tour forever, and every three years, new legions of 14 year girls will go out of their minds

Is SIX like a HAMILTON wannabe (multiracial cast, hip hop score, contemporary costumes modernized) but about Henry VIII instead?

But unlike Wicked and Mama Mia, Six costs NOTHING to run. The profits will be HUGE. What is the appeal? I really don't get it.

Mornings at Seven is closing a month early. Maybe the $147 top ticket price for a small off broadway show had something to do with that?

Karam's direction is just so heavy-handed and overdone

Six is a fun premise and there's some wit in the lyrics. But it is paper thin and stretched to the breaking point to fill an evening. It starts to reach for a feminist message in its final minutes that is meant to provide meaning for the rest of the endeavor. There's something about how we today only remember Henry VIII because he married six wives, which really does a disservice to the reformation. But yes, it's selling really well and costs two cents to run, so it will make a mint.

I don’t quite get what Six offers audiences outside the UK. Do tween girls in the US know who any of these women are? Or even Henry VIII? That whole "Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived" rhyme that opens the show is taught in British schools but it’s meaningless here, right? So literally the first joke of the whole show is lost on the audience. It’s very curious.

I agree with the comment about Harry Connick in the parade. And in additional to looking uncomfortable, he wasn't singing well, he even got a little pitchy in a couple of places. The little girl really outshone him.

And speaking of overdone choreography - if that's really the choreography for "I Don't Need Anything But You," they're in trouble. The first part of the song should just be Annie and Daddy W, but they had the chorus dancing all around them while they were singing,

Hopefully it was just something they put together for the parade.

I think the very exotic and unknown quality of the history is part of the show's appeal, because the women's stories are interesting and--to the bulk of the American audience--a novelty.

It's like seeing Brigadoon for the first time knowing nothing about it: it's all a quaint surprise. And some of Six is timely, as in the tale of how one of the wives was sold to Henry on the basis of a falsely flattering image. There's a line about how "I didn't match my profile picture" that comes in on a rhyme and really lands.

The show is definitely going over with youngsters, and obviously they don't know English (or any) history. So the piece comes over as new fun.

I have to admit, it's rather cleverly brought off. And the short weight of the evening, which simply flies by, is another thing that appeal to the young, because they get out of the theater quite soon, and that's how they like it. Young people always have somewhere else to go.

[quote]I agree with the comment about Harry Connick in the parade. And in additional to looking uncomfortable, he wasn't singing well, he even got a little pitchy in a couple of places.

All the vocals in the parade are pre-recorded. He was lip-syncing.

They have no idea who Jane Seymour was, r236.

I thought the entire cast of The Humans was in top form but it was deadly dull and there were way too many long shots. . Beanie and Amy were the standouts for me.

[quote]All the vocals in the parade are pre-recorded. He was lip-syncing

They were holding mics and looked like they were singing live. (not the chorus just Harry and the little girl). He really sounded bad, almost like he was sick. If it was a prerecord, it doesn't make sense that they would go with that take rather than let him re-record it.

Will Harry Connick go back to his wig after ANNIE is done?

Annie is the one who wears the wig at the very end.

The Big Easy's Connick is terrible casting as Warbucks and it looks like no one knows that better than Connick himself.

Did somebody request Rebecca?

what was Papi Esparza nowhere to be seen around Tick Tick Boom?

"That ear-bleeding number from "Six" is just godawful in every way"

As is the rest of it. A perfect example of how pop music has ruined musical theatre and leeched it of any nuance or emotional shading, while pandering to the lowest common denominator of numbing, crotch-level vulgarity. As in rock concerts, the decibel level is inversely proportionate to its lack of content. The amateurs have taken over the asylum.

Body types are the physical equivalent of musical scores for the stage. Sure, they can't help but reflect contemporary sensibility---but, ideally, within a vocabulary (type) expansive enough to suggest a period-appropriate sound (or look). The penchant these days for every damn score sounding like 70s piano-pop or Celtic music or worse (see above), regardless of period, place or character, is, questions of talent and taste aside, just plain careless (the polite word). For example, a silent screen star singing to a contemporary backbeat is ridiculous, considering she is a relic from another era entirely. Metaphor lost, again. When Verdi wrote Aida, however, it may have been pure 19th century Italian opera, but with enough musical exoticism to at least suggest Ancient Egypt.

Was there no English language bootleg video filmed of Rebecca?

The show was only staged in foreign languages right?

Has nobody seen Lillias in Chicago since it reopened..?

This is apparently Pia singing in English, r249.

[quote]Then again, the metaphor, theatre's greatest device, has been absent from Broadway musical theatre for years. Everything is literal and spelled out. And the poverty of imagination and ideas, along with pandering to fashionable trends, is just too depressing to contemplate.

That CERTAINLY true if we're discussing the inexplicable career of Rob Ashford.

I agree that SIX is utter garbage. It's not an exaggeration to say that if something like this can be successful, it represents several more nails in the coffin of quality musical theater.

[quote]I'm guessing they're going to try keeping Six open through the Tony Awards.

Are you the same poster who claimed that more people vastly preferred PYGMALION to MY FAIR LADY in the previous thread?

Just... wondering.

R254, why do you find it so unbelievable that the producers of SIX will try to keep the show open through the Tony Awards -- especially when it's apparently doing quite well at the box office as of now? And anyway, what does that have to do with a comparison of the respective popularity of PYGMALION and MY FAIR LADY, however strange that comparison may have been?

Tried watching The Humans on Showtime but it’s unbearable. Horrendous direction, terrible choice of music, endless long shots. The acting is good but could have been so much better with the right director. I noticed that not only was Scott Rudin’s name wiped off the end credits as one of the producers of the film his name was also wiped off the list of the producers of the Broadway production, too. In other words, a rewrite of history.

Another demerit for Beanie Feldstein?

R256 he'll get his credit back in a decade or two, after this leftist version of McCarthyism has run its course.

I'm not r254 but I'll guess what he was alluding to is that SIX is by now regarded to be a huge smash mega-hit so wondering whether or not its producers will keep it open for Tony consideration is a just plain uninformed if not ignorant question. And perhaps it's the same kind of ignorance as stating that PYGMALION was more popular with audiences than MY FAIR LADY.

This thread is not for amateurs, bitches.

Amen, R259.

Oh, thanks, R259. That make perfect sense, I didn't get the exact point of the sarcasm.

It's deeply depressing that SIX is a hit, and will be even more depressing if it remains so.

Just saw Tick...Tick...Boom! tonight and absolutely loved it. Say what you will about LMM, but this film is perfectly put together and directed in every detail and so incredibly moving. A must for anyone who's ever been involved in the performing arts, especially the NY theater world.

Well, there's one thing that stuck out very badly just cause everything else was so perfect and that's Judith Light as Jonathan Larson's agent, giving the hammiest sit-com version of a yenta imaginable. It's like she walked in from another movie. Does anyone know who the agent (Rose or was it Rosa?) is actually based on and if she really was that much of a cartoon in real life?

R262, I had the same initial reaction as you did to Light's performance, but then I started thinking I wouldn't have felt that way if I had never seen Light before and didn't know that stereotypical older Jewish female agent type of speech and look that she did was so far from her usual persona. As for the character being a "cartoon," I don't know -- there ARE real people like that, you know.

R217 It was an honest mistake on my part but I'm also originally from Nebraska so entirely understandable.

It's hard to accept but musical theater has now devolved into creating material that isn't much more sophisticated than a nightclub show or revue on a cruise ship, Vegas casino, or theme park. Simple, mindless, basic and cheap to produce. And, pretty much always based on other existing popular culture.

It's very depressing to think about.

R265 I don’t disagree with you, but there are rare bright spots that give me hope. The Band’s Visit was one. Um…and another recent example was…um…

My parents have been so hyped to send me money to go to a Broadway show and enjoy the theater, but as I’ve told them thank you, but no need. There just doesn’t seem to be anything I can get that excited to see anymore. I told them the Broadway I loved seems to be a thing of the past. At most I would go to Diana to hate watch it, but spending that type of money to do that isn’t justifiable, like a TV show you can watch for free.

Or I would go to see a particular actor like Aaron in Moulin Rouge, but from what I gather that Soutine doesn’t on any level appear to be even superficially French and I don’t think Aaron is playing it as being Scottish at all, which was so much of the warmth of that character. The most interesting thing was that anniversary concert of Spring Awakening, which harkens back to the last time Broadway was great. I can no longer justify the cost for the experience, something I never had to do in the past. When poor I would literally give up things like expensive food or eating out to pay for tickets. Now I could be given money to go and just don’t see the reason why.

Everyone is giving the Humans cast a pass, but the miscasting of Jenkins (and Birney before him) is central to why the whole story doesn’t work. Jenkins and Birney seem like patrician professors, playing a character written as a kind of Danny de Vito or James Gandolfini bullying cheating janitor. It’s part of the condescension to the working class parents that’s built into the play.

R267 go see Company. It’s an excellent production.

R269 ugh, beyond Patti and the wedding song turning Gay I have no interest, that NPH and Stephen Colbert production ruined it for me. The only thing worse is if James Corden was in it.

Why was The Humans filmed as if it was a horror movie? I kept waiting for Jamie Lee Curtis to pop in.

[quote] I kept waiting for Jamie Lee Curtis to pop in.

More than willing, but the fuckers wouldn't do direct deposit.

And yet then blows the ending anyway!

The Humans is a POS. That goes for the yappy, vapid play, and Karam's foreign-film-adaptation-into-cinematic-horseshit disaster of a movie even more. I tried to watch it, but what the fuck was he doing and why the fuck would the producers allow it?

In regard to Tick...Tick...Boom! I find it interesting to contemplate which beloved Broadway stars did not get cameos in the film, among them:

Nathan Lane

Leslie Odom, Jr.

Patti LuPone

Mandy Patinkin

Idina Menzel (particularly egregious as she was a part of the RENT "family")

Also missing cameos in the TTB film are the entire original cast of the Off-Broadway production -- Raul Esparza, Amy Spanger, and Jerry Dixon. I think Amy's out of the business, but I wonder why the other two aren't there.

Also, I wonder if Lin-Manuel even considered having Sondheim play himself, with some CGI to make him look 25 years younger, in those scenes at the writers' workshop and the SUPERBIA reading, OR if he considered giving Sondheim himself a cameo in the "Sunday" number. Has anyone read any comments from LMM about that?

I imagine the reason why some of those people mentioned didn't appear was just simply due to scheduling. Leslie Odom is very busy these days, so maybe he was asked and just didn't have time? Not making excuses, just saying it's possible that was the reason and not because LMM snubbed him.

Sure, that probably is the reason in some cases, R277. Also, apparently the number was filmed at the height of COVID restrictions, and some people may have been uncomfortable with that, plus I'm sure those restrictions presented additional problems in terms of scheduling.

Spanger was at NYC premiere.

Here's a good article on putting together the "Sunday" number, with lots of comments from the performers involved. (I love that Bernadette actually checked with Sondheim to see if he was OK with it.)

Nothing is mentioned about either (a) people who were asked but couldn't make it, or (b) people who weren't asked in the first place. Still, it's interesting reading.

Amy Spanger is not out of the business. I was at a show at Green Room 42 last week and the emcee mentioned she had an upcoming show there. So maybe she's barely hanging on to the business?

I think Sondheim was taking covid isolation very seriously and was up in the country until recently. I doubt he would have been that interested in a cameo. A shame not to have Mandy, though--although then Jonathan couldn't have done that bit of "Sunday" business with Bernadette.

Whitford really captured Sondheim's expressions and mannerisms beautifully. That was Sondheim's actual voice on the voice mail towards the end, wasn't it? At least he got in a vocal cameo.

“Vocal cameo” is that an actual thing?

Joanna Gleason and Chip Zien were asked but they couldn't make the scheduling work.

That's a shame--they're both wonderful.

It was Sondheim's voice. LMM is telling the story on all the talk shows this week: Sondheim screened the movie and liked it, but thought the voicemail script as written was trite and not something he'd have said, so he asked if he could rewrite it, saying he'd record it if the actor was no longer available.

I gave The Humans a pass when I couldn't sit through the thing in the theatre.

First time ever I walked out of a performance, and it was because of the total textual mediocrity masquerading as profundity. The actors were fine/OK.

I thought Houdyshell was ridiculous casting, especially when Sarah Steele was playing her daughter. Houdyshell looks 73 if she's a day and there's no way she birthed someone as young as Steele. And I never even bought her and Reed Birney as a married couple.

But I soon forgot about that because the play started and I had the writing to criticize.

Sondheim's actual voice was used for the voicemail message in the Off-Broadway of tick, tick....BOOM! with Raul Esparza et al. As I recall, the text was similar to what he says in the movie, but not exactly the same, so I guess he offered his input about the content when it came time to make the movie, and rewrote it somewhat. But R286, I don't think it had anything to do with Bradley Whitford "no longer being available," I'm pretty sure the plan from the beginning was to use Sondheim's actual voice for the message.

Does an actual original tape of Sondheim's voice mail message to Larson still exist? I'm wondering if that was presented to Sondheim and he suggested rerecording it with "improvements"?

I thought Bradley Whitford was great but I was kind of astounded that anyone would have ever have thought of him as perfect casting as Sondheim. Yet another case of casting a non-Jew to play a Jew, lol.

[quote]Yet another case of casting a non-Jew to play a Jew, lol.

And you honestly find that "lol"? Seriously?

R290, I don't know if Sondheim's original VM to Larson still exists, but I seem to remember reading that the one used in the Off-Broadway show was specially recorded for that production by Sondheim.

Danny Burstein should have been cast as Sondheim.

A wigged Evan Handler would've worked nicely as Sondheim as well.

The way LMM is telling the story, Whitford had already recorded a message, Sondheim asked for a rewrite and said he’d record it “if Whitford’s not available”. LMM didn’t even check if Whitford was available and just had Sondheim record it.

Because, of course.

My first Gypsy. (Tyne was fanTAStic. It's a damn shame the producers made her do the cast recording when she was sick.)

Sondheim is dead.

Sondheim is dead at age 91.

As crazy as this sounds I thought Sondheim would live forever. Well, he’ll live forever through his work. RIP

So glad I got to see the first preview of Company last week with Sondheim in the audience and a huge ovation for him.

Guess his new musical is dead, too.

Has Patti commented yet? Bernadette? Mandy?

Yes, Bernadette has responded.

How incredible to be the most beloved and respected and most produced man in the theatre at the time of one's passing.

[quote]How incredible to be the most beloved and respected and most produced man in the theatre at the time of one's passing.

But I haven't passed yet.

and now social media jammed up with folks competing for bragging rights

I worked with him, I was close with him. I'm the most devastated, no [italic]I'm[/italic] the most devastated.

Is is possible someone at that Thanksgiving party telling him that LMM was his successor brought on the agita to Sondheim? Yikes. At least Sondheim wasn't overrated.

The producers of [italic]Company[/italic] are hoping this is their Jonathan Larson moment

Bernadette’s period key also died 😢

Can you just imagine tonight when Patti says:

"I'd like to propose a toast!"

[quote]The producers of Company are hoping this is their Jonathan Larson moment

Or at least their Gower Champion moment.

[quote]and now social media jammed up with folks competing for bragging rights

I'll wait a few days until it's less crowded.

List of people who need to comment:

Mandy Patinkin

Angela Lansbury

Carol Burnett

Julie Andrews

John Barrowman

Julia McKenzie

Let's go people, time's ticking. He's Jewish so he has to be in the ground tomorrow!

Isn’t it rich?

Sondheim hired me twice! I sucked his cock both times and he fisted me and fake-choked me once. When can I expect media calls asking for a quote?

Barrowman's spoken, R313.

[quote]Isn’t it rich?

Wasn't he queer?

Bye Bye Buñuel!

[quote]Barrowman's spoken, [R313].

After I publicly shamed him on DataLounge.

R301

[quote]The last of the great Musical Comedy composers has died. Steve, I will never be a able to properly thank you for the lessons learned. You are the Gold Standard.

Her choice to say Musical Comedy seems deliberate. And I guess she didn't care much for his lyrics.

People seem to be forgetting that Strouse & Adams, Sheldon Harnick, and John Kander are still among the living.

[quote]And I guess she didn't care much for his lyrics.

That's because she had poor diction.

They’re all brilliant, r321 (and likewise all in their 90s), but Sondheim was Sondheim. He’s been like a god for at least three decades, if not more.

But they're still greats, r323.

Glynis Johns, for whom Sondheim wrote "Send in the Clowns", is still living, too.

[quote]Kimberly Akimbo is rumored to be moving uptown this Spring to take the Tony.

Saw it. Liked it, didn't love it. Good cast. Victoria Clark, Bonnie Milligan, and the young people are all really strong.

There is NO way this show would work on Broadway. It's too small, too odd, too "special" to attract a Bway audience: it's about a teenage girl dying of the premature aging disease. And Tesori's music is good but not great (when is she ever great?)--the score is not memorable enough to sell the show. "Spring Awakening" it is not.

Worth checking out downtown, anyway.

R268 You're an idiot.

You subscribe to some lazy stereotypical idea of casting. "Oh! It's a working class character and he has an affair so he should be short, fat and homely" in order for the show to make sense to you. Because all working class men who cheat are short, fat and homely.

Wow.

So stupid.

Or he's a casting director who wasn't hired to cast that particular show.

R268 OH! And, you basically trash the original Broadway production AND the recent film for casting a"patrician" actor in a working class role that's condescending to the writing of the characters WHEN THE AUTHOR OF THE PLAY WAS HEAVILY INVOLVED WITH THE BROADWAY PRODUCTION AND DIRECTED THE FILM ADAPTATION!!!!!

I guess if the casting happened with the approval of the person who created the character in the first place, that's the casting the writer intended with that role.

Dontcha think?

You'll also be horrified to know that former John Boy Walton actor, Richard Thomas played the father role in the national tour of The Humans. He is also alarmingly thin and professorial looking.

I want a musical version of Call My Agent! In French.

[quote] But I haven't passed yet. —Lin-Manuel Miranda's hubris

No, this is R304's heartless, soulless, pathetic bitterness and bright-green envy speaking.

R329 Given his directing, I wouldn't exactly rely on Karam's judgement. Also, R268 says the play itself is condescending towards the working class characters (which would therefore be another reason not to trust Karam's judgement on casting), not condescending to the writing of the characters.

[quote]I guess if the casting happened with the approval of the person who created the character in the first place, that's the casting the writer intended with that role.

Yeah, pretty sure that was the point R268 was making.

R332 So, you're also an idiot?

Stephen Karam created the character, wrote every line describing the character, and every line uttered by the character in addition to overseeing the original production of the play on Broadway and the nationwide tour AND presumedly cast the film adaptation that he directed and in every single instance of casting the role of the father in The Humans went with a thin, non-descript, average build, and look actor for that role yet there are people who insist that "the role was miscast and it's disrespectful to the working class characters". Even thought the person who created that character evidently thinks otherwise.

Because everyone knows, only short, dark, chubby actors should play working class roles.

Jesus....

R333 The only one looking like an idiot here is you. Try reading what's actually been written, not what you've already decided you're going to sneer about. Resorting to insults and strawmen just shows you can't argue the points that have actually been made.

WELL!

That told me OFF!

The Humans is like the film a director would make if they didn’t want anyone to watch it. All those distant takes and dark light - you can’t see anybody in it. Nobody wants or needs to watch 5 mins. of trying to get June Squibb in a wheelchair down a hallway - it feels VERY condescending. And contemptible of the audience.

I can’t believe there was a national tour of this play. That must’ve really raked in the revenue.

Richard Thomas starred in The Humans tour. John Boy sells tix on the road. He’ll be touring in Mockingbird next.

West End theatres will dim their lights for Sondheim for 2 mins on Monday night.

Well, it's a start.

Geez.

Sad.

Any word on how he passed? Was he ill?

I hope it wasn't covid.

R341, apparently not COVID. It has been reported that he seemed to be in good health when he celebrated Thanksgiving the day before with some friends in CT.

[quote] West End theatres will dim their lights for Sondheim for 2 mins on Monday night.

I assume that’s Cameron Mackintosh's doing. Unlike a lot of the big NY heavy hitters who’ll be flaunting their professional relationships with Sondheim at the tsunami of memorials we'll be subjected to, Mackintosh was actually his friend, dating back to the 70s.

For anyone doing comparisons - to LMM or anyone else - remember the streak of 1970, [italic]Company[/italic], 1971, [italic]Follies[/italic], 1973, [italic]Night Music[/italic], 1976, [italic]Pacific Overtures[/italic], 1979, [italic]Sweeney[/italic]. That's insane output of legendary work.

Wow.

👏👏👏👏👏👏

[quote]For anyone doing comparisons - to LMM or anyone else - remember the streak of 1970, Company, 1971, Follies, 1973, Night Music, 1976, Pacific Overtures, 1979, Sweeney. That's insane output of legendary work.

Yeah, but of those five shows, only five of them are great.

[quote]Richard Thomas starred in The Humans tour. John Boy sells tix on the road. He’ll be touring in Mockingbird next.

I wonder what he could do in "The Blonde in the Thunderbird."

How many Disney films did Sondheim write music for?

r348 "Dick Tracy," for one.

That’s actually an interesting thought. I wonder if Disney tried to get Sondheim for one of their animated films?

Disney shitting all over Into the Woods was sufficient

Not to mention all the bears shitting there as well.

R343 Always seemed slightly odd that they were friends, given Mackintosh's approach to musicals (by his own words - all about the show, doesn't care about the art) is totally different to Sondheim's.

R351, come now. Even if you didn't like the movie of INTO THE WOODS, it's kind of ridiculous to say that Disney or the director or anyone else "shit all over it." In fact, some of us feel the movie is an improvement over the stage musical in some ways, for example, the fact that the stuff that happens after "happily ever after" is not as heavy-handed in the movie as it in the show.

Rapunzel living was inexcusable

Do you really think having Rapunzel live harms the story in any significant way? Isn't the death of the Baker's Wife enough to make the point that "sometimes people leave you halfway through the wood" very poignantly?

If Rapunzel lives, the witch hasn’t lost anything. (Seeing your child ride off with her Prince Charming is not the same as seeing her squished by a giant). So she’s just whiney while everyone else is suffering loss.

“Sometimes people leave you” is not the only point this show is trying to make.

R357, I see what you mean, but I totally disagree. The Witch lives for Rapunzel, to an unhealthy degree, and I'm sure she'd be devastated to lose her to marriage. She does not have to die for the story to make sense, and one could argue that if she dies also, it lessens the impact of the death of the Baker's Wife.

The show opened in the middle of the AIDS crisis. The point wasn’t just about loss in general, it was about random, overwhelming losses. It must be a great luxury to find that message heavy handed.

[quote] one could argue that if she dies also, it lessens the impact of the death of the Baker's Wife.

You mean like the authors originally intended?

Everyone suffers in the second act, as a result of their actions in the first act, and yet they have to keep going. That’s a much bigger point the show is making than “sometimes people leave you”.

Except the witch, who gets a pass on suffering because it’s a Disney movie and we can’t kill a Disney princess.

[quote]It must be a great luxury to find that message heavy handed.

What an insulting remark. It's not the message I find heavy-handed at all, it's the way it's hammered home in the second act of the show. In my opinion, the points of the second act are well made, and then remade several times. It's overkill, if you'll pardon the expression, and just not necessary.

[quote]Everyone suffers in the second act, as a result of their actions in the first act, and yet they have to keep going.....Except the witch, who gets a pass on suffering because it’s a Disney movie and we can’t kill a Disney princess.

In the movie, the Witch suffers by having Rapunzel leave her to marry a Prince Charming, which to the Witch is a great loss due to her unnatural degree of attachment to Rapunzel. Again, not everyone in INTO THE WOODS has to die to make the point of the show. You might as well argue that the show and the movie aren't as powerful as they could be because Cinderella doesn't die.

It’s not our fault you have a facile understanding of the show.

I think I have a very good understanding of the show, and I'm not the first person in history to feel that the second act is a bit heavy handed. But of course you're entitled to disagree.

The movie starred James Corden.

It's automatically dreck.

Richard Thomas was very good in the tour of The Humans.

The production itself was...good?

The play is very depressing. The mood created via the sounds, lighting, set design, etc is supposed to be creepy and unnerving...you keep waiting for something PHYSICALLY awful to happen, like Pennywise showing up to slaughter everyone with a bolt gun but the actual horror is in the text as it's gradually revealed that every member of the family is fucked as to their future, much like most Humans living in America today.

It's not a fun show...it's dramatically powerful in its implicit horror, but is it a play you need to experience more than once?

No.

And, it actually had lousy set design. It's one of those shows where if you don't sit in the exact middle of the house, you're not going to get the full affect of that creepy claustrophobic set.

[quote]the actual horror is in the text

I can agree with that though not for the reason you state.

WHET Shelly Burch? I was listening to Nine and her version of Unusual Way is so gorgeous. How did she not do anything after that show?

Maybe she liked the security of TV work (she was on One Life to Live for many years) and later, being Martin Charnin's wife. Seems like a waste, though.

[quote]WHET Shelly Burch?

She was the final wife of Martin Charnin. She probably got a nice chunk of Annie royalties upon his death.

I was just looking her up. Her birth year listing is all over the place, but they all seem far too young. Her wiki page claims she was born in 1960 but that she finished Carnegie Mellon the year before her first Broadway show (in 1978).

[quote]WHET Shelly Burch? I was listening to Nine and her version of Unusual Way is so gorgeous. How did she not do anything after that show?

Maybe Charnin had something to do with her career drying up long ago. He could be extremely difficult.

I'll be very surprised if LCT doesn't announce a Bart Sher-helmed revival of A Little Night Music for next season.

Seems like a no-brainer though I'm not sure how I feel about it (I saw the unsurpassed original 3 times and the Jean Simmons tour twice) but I'd prefer it to a Marianne Elliott revival for sure.

An interview Patti did with Sondheim will be airing tomorrow on CBS Sunday Morning

Just watched TTB again. Third time. Just curious if anyone has any info on Jon's best friend Michael. I assume he's based on a real person. Did he develop full-blown AIDS? Did he succumb? And, if not, where is he now? Robin de Jesus is amazing in the role.

R372-Great notion. With Danny Burstein as Fredrik, Estelle Parsons As Madame Armfedt, and Hannah Waddington as Desiree. And Rachel Bay Jones as Charlotte.

It’s Matt O’Grady, and he is alive today.

[quote] I'll be very surprised if LCT doesn't announce a Bart Sher-helmed revival of A Little Night Music for next season.

There are no American actresses who can play Desiree. Stay away from Sutton Foster, Kristin Chenoweth, Jessie Mueller, etc. They need to look to the Brits. Maybe Hannah Waddingham since she's known for Ted Lasso. Perhaps Julia McKenzie as Madame Armfeldt.

It’s Waddingham r375 and she played it in London but was replaced by CZJ for B’way

[quote] a Marianne Elliott revival

Just think of how well Now/Later/Soon will play in three neon boxes.

In a Marianne Elliott musical, Petra will be transgender.

Speaking of transgender, who is that actress who reopened Wizard as Madame Morrible? Oh year, Alex Billings.

I could see her as Madame Armfeldt. Or Andrea Martin? Hannah Waddingham might be acceptable now that she's an Emmy-winning costar of a hit show. Or what about Bernadette as Madame Armfeldt?

Burstein's voice isn't legit enough for Fredrik.

Rachel Bay Jones is in her 50s. Isn't that a little old for Charlotte? Pat Elliott was in her mid-30s when she originated it. I also don't know if I could see RBJ getting the "cutting" nature of Charlotte's comments.

I could see Donna Murphy as Desiree.

[quote]I could see Donna Murphy as Desiree.

Her Desiree would be as interesting as watching paint dry.

[quote]Or what about Bernadette as Madame Armfeldt?

We already saw her play Armfeldt in Act 2 of Sunday in the Park with George. It wasn't good.

Yes, A Little Night Music is begging for an LCT revival with full sets and orchestra. The last Broadway revival had some really good performances, but a drab set that seemed determined to evoke the black and white source material

Shelly Burch didn’t see it within herself to actually enunciate the word “end” in the lyric to “Unusual Way” on the OBC. It just sounds like “But somehow it will never ehhh…” That’s always annoyed me.

She was terrific in Act Two, r385. Do you like ANYTHING? Please tell us, who do you think gave a good pertformance in something? All you do is bitch and spread negativity, and you don't even say anything amusing or fun to mitigate it.

[quote]Do you like ANYTHING? Please tell us, who do you think gave a good pertformance in something?

Regina Resnick in A Little Night Music was perfection

Guys & Dolls with Nathan Lane and Faith Prince was perfection

The UK revival of Follies was exquisite

Brian Dennehy and Elizabeth Franz were stellar in Death of a Salesman

Debra Monk in Picnic was heartbreaking

Nunsense was habit-forming (saw it three times)

Falsettoland was cathartic

Little Shop of Horrors (the original off-Broadway production) was one of the best things I've ever seen

Happy dear?

[Quote] Her Desiree would be as interesting as watching paint dry.

Clever metaphor there r385. Did you just make that up?

[quote]Yes, A Little Night Music is begging for an LCT revival with full sets and orchestra. The last Broadway revival had some really good performances, but a drab set that seemed determined to evoke the black and white source material

The last Broadway revival also had something like a six piece orchestra. In a Broadway house. No joke. It was pathetic.

The last Broadway revival was poorly directed. The cast sitting on the ground as if they were going to a picnic was an astonishingly poor choice.

I’ve said in THEATRE GOSSIP threads for years that Bart Sher should direct ALNM at the Beaumont with a full orchestra and glorious sets (I’d be fine with the original designs adapted for a thrust stage). I couldn’t begin to cast it, but I like the idea of Waddingham for Desiree if she’d care to do it again. Maybe Katrina Lenk? Just cast it with Broadway, not opera, singers. I don’t love the City Opera production (the costumes are over designed and the sets under designed) — except for Resnik — but when the Armfeldt family manse flies in at the end of A Weekend in the Country I never fail to tear up. Mary! Me all you want, but that’s theatre magic right there.

After that someone can recreate the original production of Pacific Overtures, sets, costumes, orchestrations and all (including Chrysanthemum Tea, thank you).

After watching her in Ted Lasso, I can't imagine Hannah still has the vulnerability to play Desiree.

The role needs a star with continental sophistication like Juliette Binoche. Is she too old now?

I'm not a huge fan of Laura Benanti but she'd be perfect for Charlotte.

[quote] Maybe Charnin had something to do with her career drying up long ago. He could be extremely difficult.

They didn't marry until 25 years after Nine.

[quote] They didn't marry until 25 years after Nine.

But she was in the original cast of Annie. Who knows what was going on behind the scenes? Only Sandy knows the truth!

[quote] but when the Armfeldt family manse flies in at the end of A Weekend in the Country I never fail to tear up. Mary! Me all you want, but that’s theatre magic right there.

But was it a coup de théâtre?

The last Bway revival of ALNM was only a decade ago. It ran for just over a year (and sold at 100% capacity for only one week) so I doubt it made any real money.

I'd love to see a LCT revival with a real set and a full orchestra, but it would be an enormously expensive proposition. I doubt it will happen any time soon.

The Roundabout will do A Little Night Music with Megan Mullally as Desiree and Blythe Danner as Madame Armfeldt.

Speaking of exploring the beloved Sondheim catalogue....

What can possibly be done with EVENING PRIMROSE, short of just reshooting the original TV movie? Some of that music is gorgeous and deserves to be discovered.

[quote]The last Bway revival of ALNM was only a decade ago. It ran for just over a year (and sold at 100% capacity for only one week) so I doubt it made any real money. I'd love to see a LCT revival with a real set and a full orchestra, but it would be an enormously expensive proposition.

Why do you feel it would be more "enormously expensive" than any other revival they could do at LCT? The sets required for ALNM aren't especially elaborate, and the show actually requires a much smaller cast than MY FAIR LADY, THE KING AND I, or SOUTH PACIFIC, to mention three of the shows previously revived to great success at that theater, so they could save quite a bit of money there.

I saw a semi-staged concert performance of EVENING PRIMROSE in NYC some years ago. The piece would actually be rather ideal for stage presentation if it were expanded considerably to make it a full evening's entertainment. I wish Sondheim had worked on such an expansion as a late-career project, but alas, instead of doing that and other interesting things, he spent years writing and rewriting and re-rewriting the utterly forgettable show variously titled GOLD, WISE GUYS, BOUNCE, and ROAD SHOW.

Glenn Close for Madame Armfeldt.

What about PAS...? *ducks*

You didn't duck soon enough, r404.

Who or what is PAS?

Complete the word, r406, but I'd really rather you didn't.

[quote] The UK revival of Follies was exquisite

No it wasn’t, although it was much better when Joanna Riding took over as Sally from hambone Staunton, who stomped all over it as usual. Tracie Bennett was a so-so Carlotta, Janie Dee was okay as Phyllis but not great. The thought that the same director is planning on doing the movie version would be distressing if it were really going to happen.

And Regina Resnick deserves points for not being dragged down to the level of mediocre that the rest of that cast operated on.

But thanks for revealing your taste. It says everything about your other opinions.

Any comparisons between Sondheim and LMM are patently absurd. Only one is a great artist for the ages.

Baranski would be the great Mme Armfeldt. It’s surprising that she did Lovett and Carlotta (neither well) yet despite her friendship with SS never did her more obvious roles of Phyllis, Desiree, or Cora Hoover Hooper.

[quote]Always seemed slightly odd that they were friends, given Mackintosh's approach to musicals (by his own words - all about the show, doesn't care about the art) is totally different to Sondheim's.

I agree with your sentiment, but Mackintosh gave him a particularly felicitous farewell: "Sadly, there is now a giant in the sky".

[quote]Off-Broadway’s Assassins Honor the Late Stephen Sondheim

I'm not completely sure I'd like to be honored from the stage by a show whose main character is John Wilkes Booth.

No one wants to see or hear fat, ugly, bald Danny in ALNM.

I'm glad most everything has been revived recently so there's not a new deluge. It will be interesting to see how rights are administered moving forward, and what (god help us) "concepts" are approved.

Donna Murphy is 62. She's in Armfeldt territory now.

Nicole Kidman for Desiree

Dan Stevens for Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm

Kate WInslet for Desiree

My Tony campaign will be epic.

R413

Yo.

Be nice to Danny.

*cracks knuckles*

Kate Winslet needs her goddamn EGOT so yeah, Desiree would be a good way for her to achieve that.

Roseanne as Mme A

R411 That smacks of the publicist’s writer’s room, not something genuine he came up with himself.

Just wathced Patti’s segment of Stephen on CBS Sunday Morning. Lovely. Emotional.

John Goodman as Roseanne as Mme A

R424 But why did it have to be Mo Rocca of all people doing the story, he’s one Gay man who creeps me the fuck out.

My favorite Sondheim remembrance came from Robert Johanson, who directed the Paper Mill production of Follies. He recalls reaching out to Ann Miller in Sedona to see what she thought of "I'm Still Here." She replied, ""Well honey, the lyrics are terrific, but the music just stays in the same tempo the whole time - sweetie it needs some fucking pizzazz! We should kick it up with each chorus, really bring it home."

Chita Rivera for Mme Armfeldt's mother!

Love the idea of Kate Winslet for Desiree!

Rob McClure as Mrs. Doubtfire as madame Armfeldt

Rob McClure is the Irra Pettina of the 21st century.

Winslet is a good choice - appropriate, reasonable age, would sell tickets, would do it for egot reasons, echoes the original Desiree. So Winslet, Benanti, and Baranski. What about the men?

Baranski would NEVER play Winslet's mother.

SInce when is Kate Winslet a singer? Even enough for Desiree?

Come, come people. I think we all know the only person fit to play Desiree around here. And it ain't Katrina Lenk and her weird ass accent.

No, r435, no, no, no...

[quote]Come, come people. I think we all know the only person fit to play Desiree around here. And it ain't Katrina Lenk and her weird ass accent. —Patti

Dear, deluded Patti. Desiree is a European actress. She has some sexual appeal, hence the name Desiree. She is not an over the hill, Long Island fishwife. I hear the Milky White role is open for the revival of Into the Woods. Perhaps that's more your speed?

Patti and Stephen

I'll bet Winslet could easily sing Desiree as well Ms. Johns did.

thanks for posting r438, I almost forgot to watch

The cool menthol vocal stylings of...

Did someone tape “Glass Menagerie” directed by Ivo with Huppert ?

The ultimate Clowns...

I’m just sayin', Desiree requires true sophistication and vulnerability. And I’ve that crap coming out of my fucking ass.

R431 I think Andy Karl is also in Irra Pettina territory with almost as many flops, too as McClure (but without the legit singing of Irra).

Carol Burnett in Scarlett O'Hara's curtains with rods but dressed up as Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Blvd" as Mme. Armfeldt!

made up as Norma Desmond

I really hope someone bootlegged COMPANY last night. The whole thing is historic.

R442 Like herpes, it will turn up.

Elaine Paige as Madame Armfeldt.

[quote]My favorite Sondheim remembrance came from Robert Johanson, who directed the Paper Mill production of Follies. He recalls reaching out to Ann Miller in Sedona to see what she thought of "I'm Still Here." She replied, ""Well honey, the lyrics are terrific, but the music just stays in the same tempo the whole time - sweetie it needs some fucking pizzazz! We should kick it up with each chorus, really bring it home."

Of course it needs some pizzass! You can't tap to that number the way it's written!

[quote]Any comparisons between Sondheim and LMM are patently absurd. Only one is a great artist for the ages.

Why, thank you!

Sondheim probably would have loathed Winslet's autotuned, poptart wannabe vocals at R441, and loathed that banal, cliched song even more.

Pass.

I'd imagine the chances of a proshoot of Company just increased rather significantly.

That was mean and nasty, r413, but I would agree that Danny Burstein is not ideal casting for Frederic Egerman.

Kate Winslet has a terrific voice.

Winslet could be wonderful. Cate Blanchett might be excellent as well. It's really not a tough sing at all in terms of range or being able to hold notes for very long.

Natasha Richardson would have really been smashing in the role. A shame that never happened.

I don't think either Winslet or Blanchett would be interested in the role. They'd be bored playing that 8 times a week; Blanchett does far more adventurous stage work and Winslet likes a challenge as well. Both of them could play Desiree in their sleep.

[quote]Both of them could play Desiree in their sleep.

I'd pay to see that.

One night only! For some Steve-approved cause. And only if Baranski will play the old grandma.

And Audra as Petra.

To Cuntella (ella ella ella) at R408: It's not confirmed yet but given the timeline, I'm pretty sure R389 is referring to Cameron MacIntosh's 1987 revival of Follies which was pretty much the first major revival with a full staging since the 1971 original.

I guess that's what happens when a bitchy bottom tries to top everybody.

[quote]Natasha Richardson would have really been smashing in the role. A shame that never happened.

Didn't she do it at Roundabout with her mother just before she died?

She was supposed to.

The 1987 London Follies was even worse. Completely rewritten (at Cameron’s behest) and several inferior replacement songs.

There’s an audio of the Richardson-Redgrave benefit that used to be out on YT.

So on TikTok it popped up that a bunch of Broadway enthusiasts showed up at the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park and sang Sunday, and then cast from all different shows sang it on the steps of the TKS booth roof.

First video I’ve seen so far:

Apologies if someone posted this already. Angela Lansbury Remembers Stephen Sondheim:

"Sunday" from Times Square earlier today.

Lol what a heartfelt personal tribute from Angela’s publicist

R471 how do you mean by that?

I've been trying to come up with great casting suggestions for a revival of NIGHT MUSIC but beyond Benanti as Charlotte, I'm utterly stumped, at least for famous names, Well.....even for non-famous names, which you could probably get away with for everyone besides Desiree, Mme. Armfeldt and Fredrick..

We just don't have big personalities with that kind of talent on Broadway any more, especially those with the kind of legit singing voices and sophistication the show requires. Everyone is so homogenized and dull.

I know LMM was at that Sondheim singalong today but the only person I recognize from that video is asshole Chris Sieber.

Why is he an asshole?

That was very nice, R470. Thanks for posting.

R474, in addition to Sieber, I also recognized Tom Kitt.

I think the man you think is Christopher Sieber is Sean Allen Krill. Erich Bergen is in that video too.

R477, you're right -- they just interviewed Bergen on WPIX 11 a minute ago.

Jennifer Nettles should play Miss Mona in a Whorehouse revival. Great show. Lots of fun.

How did that come together so quickly? Everyone learning the harmonies etc?

Ahh, thanks. I thought Sieber was looking a little too trim.

[quote] I also recognized Tom Kitt.

Was his lovely wife Eartha with him?

Judi Dench should play Armfeldt. Or Maggie Smith.

Good article on Sondheim's early years on the UWS of Manhattan:

I'm watching her right now on Mission:Impossible, r482.

Lauren Kennedy trapped in South Africa!

CBS Sunday Morning just posted this 2002 long segment on Sondheim that has lots of nice clips.

Emily's behind it, r486!

[quote]How did that come together so quickly? Everyone learning the harmonies etc?

Maybe a lot of them were in the original performance at the end of his 80th birthday tribute.

Just out of first screening of West Side Story in NY. Well, I thought it was something of a disappointment for various reasons. One thing it does get right that the original film didn’t, in my opinion, was Maria and Tony. Especially Maria. Rachel Zegler is absolutely spectacular in every department. Ansel Elgort’s obviously not a trained singer but he’s fine. I believed them as tragic lovers. The rest of the castwere just OK, nothing more. I think it was a mistake to have Rita Moreno play a replacement for Doc-it’s far more than just a cameo, by the way-she sings all of “Somewhere”, for starters. I miss Doc hollering at the Jets “Yiu make this world lousy!” Instead she yells at them something like “I know all your names. I’ve known you since you were little boys. And you’ve all grown up to be rapists.” Except they don’t rape Anita although they’re very close to doing it when Valentina walks in. Even though a fair amount was shot on location it all looks like it might as well have been done on a Hollywood soundstage. Even “America” which was shot primarily in Washington Heights. I did enjoy the subway train (was it then the IRT) at 72nd/Broadway actually doing those three notes from “Somewhere.” It was subtle, though, not the wink-wink it could have been. The biggest applause at the screening was given when Rachel Zegler, Rita Moreno and, of course, Stephen Sondheim’s names appeared on the screen. There is a dedication “For Dad” but surely Spielberg is going to add another one for Sondheim? Anyway, man, I really wanted to love this more. But at least it has a Maria who almost single-handedly justifies why WSS even needed a remake in the first place.

[quote]I miss Doc hollering at the Jets “Yiu make this world lousy!” Instead she yells at them something like “I know all your names. I’ve known you since you were little boys. And you’ve all grown up to be rapists.”

They really want to vilify white men, don't they?

Do they explain why Tony, whose first positive experience with a Puerto Rican is supposed to be Maria, was working for a Puerto Rican woman?

Here is another video of today's tribute performance that aired on Channel 11:

Toni Collette for Desiree

I know accents are not her strong suit (e.g. "Drood" revival), but Chita could make an interesting Madame Armfeldt. You could believe she had been a courtesan in her youth, the role requires musicality not strong singing, and they could add a dance break to "Liaisons," where a bunch of hunky courses boys in cut-away evening wear lift her and carry her around the stage as she extends the leg, as she so memorably did for mlop. I saw Stritchy on one of her good nights (she only blew one line as far as I could tell), so why not Chita?

Tony, Tony...etc

The "it's even nicer to win two" is just perfection.

Damn you, R495, it's still too soon.

R491, they make it clear that Valentina and Doc raised Tony for a number of years after his parents died. He lives down in the store’s basement.

That seems odd, Lynn!

It always seemed to be an assumed plot point that Maria was Tony's first encounter with anyone Puerto Rican. If he lived with Valentina all those years he would have met lots of PR girls, no?

[quote] Toni Collette for Desiree

She could act and sing it, but she’s not quite pretty enough to be thought of as a Desiree.

Rachel York for Desiree.

Emily Skinner for Desiree. Tyne Daly for Madame Armfeldt.

[quote][R491], they make it clear that Valentina and Doc raised Tony for a number of years after his parents died. He lives down in the store’s basement.

Are we sure it wasn't a dungeon?

[quote] It always seemed to be an assumed plot point that Maria was Tony's first encounter with anyone Puerto Rican. If he lived with Valentina all those years he would have met lots of PR girls, no?

r499 that actually helps with racist concerns. He's not falling in love with her just because she "exotic"

[quote]Too soon?

Too facile.

Seriously, what is wrong with people like r503? Does it make them feel better about their own inadequacy to trot out stale jokes over and over again?

I’m one of those who wished Sondheim had written a bit more material for Evening Primrose and made it into a stage show.

A reprise of “Take Me To The World” sung by Mrs. Monday would have been interesting. A sort of regret threat: “Take her to the world and she’ll regret it.” But that may be too close to the witch’s “Stay With Me.”

I realize the show was intended for a 1 hour tv slot, but they could expand the Mrs. Monday role (especially if they could have persuaded Angela Lansbury to play it.). Maybe there are some Sondheim trunk songs to pad it?

Think Sondheim would loathe the idea of forcing trunk songs into an earlier show.

Kathie Lee Gifford as Mme Armfeld, but only if they let her spruce up the dialogue.

r509 and interpolate a couple of her original songs.

[quote]Think Sondheim would loathe the idea of forcing trunk songs into an earlier show.

Agreed.

The official video of the Sunday noon songfest in Times Square is out. Autotune much? Because that trumpet at the end, for one detail, did not sound like that live.

and why not r512? How well do you play the trumpet in the middle of Times Square?

where is it, r512?

R499, the relationship between Valentina and Tony is sweet. But the ending is rushed and she’s not able to show any grief at Tony’s death. But it is she who is in the final shot (a high and wide shot) holding Chino’s arm and escorting him to the approaching cops.

R514-Playbill.com

Bern, Carol & Tony

Sam Mendes on Sondheim, which includes a knock at Laurents

And Jenna Russell, Daniel Evans and Janie Dee recall working with him

[quote] They really want to vilify white men, don't they?

Every racist post you do makes it clear why.

Putting it Together was the first Sondheim show that Janie saw, r519? Really?

R512, were you actually there? I was. They sang to a track.

[quote]Think Sondheim would loathe the idea of forcing trunk songs into an earlier show.

Sondheim didn't even like it when Jule Styne used a trunk melody in "Gypsy" for "You'll Never Get Away From Me."

Here is a pair of non-Sondheim things. I've used up my free articles, but the headlines are intriguing.

"Andrew Lloyd Webber has accused younger cast members in his musical Cinderella of failing to remember they work in the “service industry”, adding that “nobody has a right to be on the stage”

And this

"Cameron Mackintosh has hit back at Andrew Lloyd Webber for claiming that Mackintosh made the sole decision to reduce the orchestra of The Phantom of the Opera, labelling it “absolutely untrue”

Based on the clips I’ve seen on YT and the songs I’ve heard Cinderella is pure crap. Has anyone here seen it?

I know two US people who saw it and were shocked by its badness

I thought it was horrible.

R524's link:

Andrew Lloyd Webber has accused younger cast members in his musical Cinderella of failing to remember they work in the “service industry”, adding that “nobody has a right to be on the stage”.

In what appeared to be a criticism of the attitude of actors in his show, he addressed claims that he had “berated” the cast following a bad review in the New York Post, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

Lloyd Webber told Samira Ahmed on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row that he did address the cast, but that it had “nothing to do with the New York Post”.

“What I was saying to everybody is, the younger cast don’t really realise all the time [that] we are a service industry, and nobody has a right to be on the stage. I don’t have a right to have my musicals in the theatre,” he said, adding: “What we have to do is try to give the best performances possible. All I was saying is, that is what we have to do and the cast we have at Cinderella are really wonderful and are well capable of doing that. But this has been wildly exaggerated.”

He denied that there would be major changes to the musical following the review in the New York Post, but said there would be some tweaks, amounting to cuts of about two or three minutes.

He added that the Broadway version of Cinderella would not be able to be staged as it is in London, because the Gillian Lynne Theatre has a revolve, of which the musical makes use.

He said in New York it would be performed in a “different configuration”.

Lloyd Webber also used the interview to discuss cuts to the orchestra of the West End production of The Phantom of the Opera, as reported by The Stage.

He said the cuts were not implemented by him, but by Cameron Mackintosh as producer, and added: “I would have preferred the orchestra to be bigger.”

Lloyd Webber also said he would like to “fight for three or four more players”.

In the wide-ranging interview, he also warned that he would be forced to sell his theatres if any more restrictions were brought in, such as another lockdown.

“When we had to cancel Cinderella in July we lost £700,000 overnight, and the fact of the matter is, whatever the government thinks, if this happened again certainly we would go under,” he said, adding: “We would not be able to continue – the theatres would have to go. I have already had to sell one of our theatres, the Other Palace.”

Lloyd Webber also criticised the government for not helping commercial producers, and claimed it did not understand what commercial theatre did for cities and for “everybody who depends on it”, such as restaurants.

Speaking about how theatres are operating on Broadway during the pandemic, he said UK venues might soon have to follow its lead on Covid safety by asking audiences to provide proof of double vaccination and wear masks throughout a performance.

“At the moment we don’t have to do that, but if that was necessary to keep our theatres open without social distancing I think that is a very small price to pay, as theatres can’t work with socially distancing – economically it’s impossible,” he said.

And R525:

Cameron Mackintosh has hit back at Andrew Lloyd Webber for claiming that Mackintosh made the sole decision to reduce the orchestra of The Phantom of the Opera, labelling it “absolutely untrue”.

He added that Lloyd Webber has “full contractual control” of his music.

Speaking to Front Row earlier this week, Lloyd Webber was asked about a decision to cut the orchestra by 50% when it reopened at Her Majesty’s Theatre earlier this year, as originally reported by The Stage.

When asked why he had reduced the orchestra, he insisted: “Well, I didn’t. That is the simple answer to that. Cameron Mackintosh produces The Phantom of the Opera.”

He said he would have liked to have had a bigger orchestra.

However, Mackintosh – in a statement issued exclusively to The Stage – said Lloyd Webber’s claim that it was solely his decision was “absolutely untrue”.

“The recent statement by Andrew Lloyd Webber that the decision to use a new orchestral line-up for the new production of The Phantom of The Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre was solely mine is absolutely untrue. It was a joint decision by Andrew’s own company, the Really Useful Group and myself, in order for us to be able to afford to bring back this spectacular musical to such an intimate 1,200-seat theatre,” Mackintosh said.

He said: “As it is, even with the new line-up, it is likely to take several years for this highly praised production to break even.”

Mackintosh described Lloyd Webber one of “the most powerful and celebrated composers in the world” who “naturally has full contractual control of his music”.

“Indeed, he is also billed as co-orchestrator of the current 14-piece Phantom orchestration, which he and David Cullen originally created in 2012, and has since been used around the world, apart from Broadway. Andrew’s own head of music and personally appointed musical director supervised the music at Her Majesty’s for the new production that opened in July this year,” he said.

He added: “As a composer, I am sure Andrew would have preferred some extra musicians, but the Phantom orchestra remains one of the largest playing in any of his musicals around the world - including those solely produced by himself.”

VIDEO: Broadway Sings in Times Square to Honor Stephen Sondheim:

Community sing-out at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park on Sunday:

Rob McClure gives speech after the "Mrs. Doubtfire" curtain call on Friday evening at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre:

THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 2006, the third Broadway revival of "Company" opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

How the fuck is Doubtfire not on TDF?

r517 That clip is from Carol's failed (cancelled after seven episodes) 1991 series. Richard Kind was one of the regulars.

[quote] a new orchestral line-up for the new production of The Phantom of The Opera

oh, Cam. Euphemism much?

Broadway Musical Comedy Star ARLENE DAHL has died at the age of 96. I assume there is or will be a thread of her own soon if not now but thought it should be honorably mentioned here.

RIP Arlene!

Where will her beauty mark go? The Smithsonian?

R538, here you go:

Company Reunion

Wanted so much to love that r541.

You can't go home again, r542.

More from the '93 NY reunion---

Merrily reunion...

What was it, exactly, that happened to Sally Klein? Why did she not appear in the Merrily reunion (either time). Or why isn’t she in “The Best Worst Thing That Ever Happened”? I know she did resurface last year for one of those “Zoom” things where everyone sang - I think it was “Our Time” - she had one solo line and sounded like she hadn’t sung in 30 years. Does anyone know her, or know why she withdrew from the biz and from her status as a Merrily lead?

Isn't she supposed to be the best Jackie?

From what little I've heard and read about it, it seems to me that maybe Sally Klein became a scapegoat for the tremendous problems of the original production. And maybe the guy who originally played Frank fell into that category as well.

From the Mendes article:

[quote] (Sondheim) broke the traditional mould of the American musical theatre, which tended to decree that the original production was the right and only one, so the work was then calcified for all eternity by draconian rules handed down by author’s estates and entertainment lawyers.

Uh-oh, Follies lovers. You in danger, gurl.

Has anyone seen the recent docs about Broadway & Covid? Dori Berinstein did one called The Show Must Go On and James Stern (Every Little Step) did one called On Broadway (which is less all about Covid but does discuss it).

I'm watching the Berinstein one, which is about the S. Korean productions of Cats & Phantom, and I'm trying to give a shit.

[quote]and I'm trying to give a shit.

Metamucil?

The Lehman Trilogy is being developed into a tv series. So you all can be bored for free in the privacy of your own homes.

The huge problem with the Berinstein documentary was that it was too early in the Pandemic. So much has changed. Feels like an ALW shill piece for CATS. .

[quote](Sondheim) broke the traditional mould of the American musical theatre, which tended to decree that the original production was the right and only one, so the work was then calcified for all eternity by draconian rules handed down by author’s estates and entertainment lawyers.

I don't really understand this odd statement, but it does seem to fly in the face of Sondheim's famous, very public reaction to the abomination that was the most recent Broadway production of something now called THE GERSHWINS' PORGY AND BESS.

But that Porgy and Bess WAS a piece of shit.

Sondheim took issue with Heyward getting scant mention and Paulus' lack of understanding of the piece and the form, r554. His complaints were justified. Re-imagining a piece doesn't mean misguided tweaking via hubris.

I completely agree that the Pauls et al. PORGY AND BESS was an abomination, and I thought Sondheim's letter to the NY Times about that debacle was brilliant. I just don't think it's correct to say that it was Sondheim who opened up the floodgates for reinterpretation of old shows, and he was not the first major figure to participate in reinterpretations of his own works.

[quote]and he was not the first major figure to participate in reinterpretations of his own works

Who were others, r557?

So the Jesus Christ Superstar actor who was part of Oath keepers on Jan 6 says some weird shit

According to IBDB, he is also Known As Delisco, James D. Beeks, James Delisco Beeks, and James T. Justis

WTF

"“I am an American standing under public law and I am here by special divine appearance,”

Beeks is a self-deluded moron.

[quote]”I am here by special divine appearance”

Are we sure it’s not Patti LuPone?

R558, for one example, Oscar Hammerstein is actually credited with the screenplay of the 1936 SHOW BOAT, and that's different from his script for the stage show in some very significant ways. I don't know if Hammerstein directly participated in any of the other rewrites of SHOW BOAT that took place during his lifetime, for the stage and/or for the 1951 movie, but I assume he would have had the power to put the kibosh on all that rewriting if he really objected to it.

Not so sure about Hammerstein's rights to a film version of his work once the rights were sold, r562, at least back in the days of all that studio power. I'd be very surprised to learn that he had any veto power at all over any changes once he was paid (and it was surely with the explicit understanding that changes would be made).

Good point, R563, but there were all those revised stage productions of SHOW BOAT as well.

Other shows greatly revised within some of the the authors' lifetimes: A CONNECTICUT YANKEE, ON YOUR TOES, BABES IN ARMS, THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE (all Rodgers and Hart), ANYTHING GOES (Cole Porter). And I'm sure there are some more I can't think of right now. All I'm saying is Sondheim was not the first writer to participate in and/or allow such revisions.

Definition of pedant

1a: one who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge

b: one who makes a show of knowledge

c: a formalist or precisionist in teaching

I know Hammerstein did the rewrites for the 1946 Broadway revival.

ha!

Slave Play already on TDF

Slave Play was, and is, a commercial flop.

Ricky got tickets to Over the Teacup!!!

OMG, they almost didn't go. And *all* because of...

Heather Headly as Desiree and Phylicia as Mme A

r571 The colorized version

Norm Lewis as Fredrik.

Fuck John Doyle. He fucking ruined Assassins! Some terrific performances, but the whole show just lays there, like a turd. Musicians all over the stage, interrupting scenes, laying on the floor playing their flutes and clarinets. What a fucking mess. He's turned a wonderful musical into minor Sondheim. Seeing this is what probably killed Steve.

I'm so happy Doyle is leaving CSC. Hopefully he'll get out of NYC and work only in London from here on.

Have to agree with you about this production. Made me feel less about the property than I did before. And I quite liked it before.

I liked it a lot more, too, before last night's shiftest.

I’m enjoying the Night Music with black people idea. Maybe get Angel Blue for Petra. Can Taraji sing? Love to see her as Charlotte.

Just a weekend in the ghetto... the shooting should be great.

Jeremy O has some free time. He could punch up Hugh Wheeler's book. And maybe even make some lyric changes now that Steve is gone.

Taraji can sing, but she’s too old for Charlotte.

Vanessa Williams would be a better Desiree than Heather Headley. Leslie Uggams should be black Mme. A.

Taraji wouldn't think it was beneath her to lead the singers in ALNM, would she?

Vanessa is older than Taraji.

Yes, r583. But Taraji was mentioned as a Charlotte, while Vanessa W was mentioned as a Desiree. Charlotte should really be mid to late 30s.

Vanessa is talented and accomplished, but she's always lacked that special x factor and magnetism to me. I find most of her performances competent. The idea of a black or color blind Night Music is interesting to me. I'm not sure how much I'd love Vanessa's Desiree, though.

I like a Desiree who has a Glynis/Tammy Grimes sound.

Oh...my...gawd. Can you imagine Eartha's Liaisons?

I wonder what Diahann Carroll would have brought to ALNM, whether as Desiree or, later, Madame.

R588 -- I could envision Diahann in either role (at different stages of her life, of course)... that's an interesting one.

The thing is... we don't really nurture the kinds of actresses who are perfect casting for a role like Desiree anymore.

If it’s Sher and I hope it’s not it’ll be Kelli

Chita as Mme

Christine Andreas as Desiree

Joanna Gleason as Desiree

Christine Andreas is 70. She’s only five years younger than Gingold was when she played Mme. A. That’s Andreas’ part now, not Desiree.

Kevin Kline as Frederick

I know on paper she's too old, but do you think Judith Light would have made a good Desiree?

What about Jean Smart?

I'm going to reiterate my preference for a Desiree with a character voice. It makes her more interesting and you get plenty of legit voices elsewhere in Night Music.

R597 - I think it's a MUST. I agree 100%. One exception is Sally Ann Howe from the NY City Opera production. Though, I think it was her pith perfect performance in the book scenes that really sold me on her performance.

Judith Light would have acted the shit out of Desiree, that's for sure. Shoot, she or Jean would be a unique Madame.

and bajour

Molly!