THEATRE GOSSIP #446: Show Me on the Doll Where Leonard Soloway Touched You Edition

An interesting effort, OP.

Not a bad thread title, but was Leonard Soloway MeToo'ed?

I know Golden Globes are mostly a joke, but so are Oscar noms these days.

Look at all the GG love for musicals.

Well THIS clears up everything about the next TONY Award noms. But not really.

Here's a controversial opinion: having watched DIANA THE MUSICAL, I would be quite happy to see Jeanna De Waal nominated for her fine work. But it's Erin Davie as Camilla who really triumphs over mediocre material and delivers an outstanding performance. Alas, neither Jeanna nor Erin get a musical moment equal to their talents. (And the ladies in SIX are all eligible for Best Actress noms.)

Soloway obit:

[quote] An interesting effort, OP.

Sort of like Company?

So DOUBTFIRE is supposed to weather terrible reviews, no sales and now a COVID shut down?

There's an instagram post going around with a story of Leonard Soloway preparing to give blow jobs during Fleet Week.

I'd take a blow job from Leonard Soloway before I'd take his check.

Star of Broadway’s ‘Company’ broke a finger during a performance (plus a little LuPone dish, too). Sorry, link is to the Post:

"Flying Over Sunset" to release cast recording in January:

[quote](And the ladies in SIX are all eligible for Best Actress noms.)

I hope not collectively like the BILLY ELLIOT boys. That was ridiculous!

That American Theatre article is absolutely insane, and a ridiculous example of bad thinking when it comes to transgender issues. When did American Theatre and TCG get taken over by the lunatic bins.

DeWaal deserves a nomination over a lot of potential performers. She was almost heroic in what she had to do in that show.

R13 to which article are you referring?

Trannies are Killing Broadway!!!!!!!

Also of note:

Billy Porter and MJ Rodriguez BOTH nominated for Golden Globes! I mean the performative box-checking is in full effect!

[quote]There's an instagram post going around with a story of Leonard Soloway preparing to give blow jobs during Fleet Week.

Can someone share the link?

[quote] "Flying Over Sunset" to release cast recording in January.

Thanks for the warning.

Personally, I can't wait for all the shitty reviews for Lapine's crapfest to start coming in tonight. He deserves every brickbat hurled at him for this psycho-babble nonsense. Tony Yazbeck is great and loves amazing in his swimsuit. That's about it. Why is LCT still producing Lapine's leftover turds? This is one of the worst musicals of the last 20 years.

Ooh. Are there production photos of Tony Yazbeck in his swimsuit?

The NYTimes continues the "ANY" excuse to write about Sondheim phase. This time, about RENT

This was the insane TCG article. It ended the last thread. The guys twitter feed is beyond sanctimonious. He's getting his masters from SUNY.

How does Ladies Who Lunch work in a modern Company? It’s really a song of the early 1970s.

Spielberg tried to save ‘West Side Story.’ But its history makes it unsalvageable:

Caftans? Hats? Optical Art? Yes, the 70s.

WEST SIDE STORY has been officially.... canceled.

Ashley Lee doesn't believe anyone can use their imagination. According to Ashley Lee, we can all write about ONLY ourselves. She is true Gen Z.

Tales of encounters with Stephen Sondheim:

From r24’s article:

[quote] “I really felt — we felt, all of us, together — that we needed this to be a Latinx production.”

Then they missed the point of the story!

It is the white Jets's story as much as the PR Sharks.'

I love the Jets’ version of “In America”. Poor oppressed things only get Krupke.

[quote]Personally, I can't wait for all the shitty reviews for Lapine's crapfest to start coming in tonight. He deserves every brickbat hurled at him for this psycho-babble nonsense. Why is LCT still producing Lapine's leftover turds? This is one of the worst musicals of the last 20 years.

I haven't seen the show yet, but of course, Lapine has close to zero talent -- something that wasn't so obvious (at least, not to some people) when he was working with Sondheim. I think LCT has continued to produce him on the basis of his rep from the Sondheim shows, and also, although ACT ONE was awful, I don't think it was perceived as a huge failure, only because of the theater cred of the title (and Moss Hart).

[quote]In May of 2019, I wrote an essay for American Theatre, “The Gender Problem Tootsie Can’t Dress Up,” which became the site’s most read story of the year and sparked a lot of critical debate.

This turd blows his own horn in his own idiotic article. Absolutely appalling.

I can't even reach mine!

What I don't understand is how people completely miss that WSS was made by 4 gay Jews in the 1950s. They're just "white guys" to them......

Someone told me Tony Yazbeck has a scene in act two where he wanders around saying “I’m a penis rocket” over and over. Can anyone confirm?

[quote]What I don't understand is how people completely miss that WSS was made by 4 gay Jews in the 1950s. They're just "white guys" to them......

Maybe some people "miss" it, but I'm sure many know it and just don't care. To these fools, specific minorities may be written about ONLY by members of those groups. And this even applies retroactively, even going back more than 60 years (and further).

Got a rocket/in his pocket!

Gen Z will get the Broadway theatre it deserves but by then I'll be dead and won't care.

R39, yes, the theater and movies they deserve. And my sentiments about that are very similar to yours.

[quote]"Lloyd Webber to create hub for new work next to Theatre Royal Drury Lane" by The Stage's Giverny Masso - "Andrew Lloyd Webber’s LW Theatres is seeking planning to open a new venue containing two small-scale performance spaces, which will become a hub for presenting and rehearsing new work."

Amusing, given how long Cameron Mackintosh has been claiming he's going to open something like this. Originally was going to be the Sondheim Studio between the Gielgud and (then) Queens, then was going to be Ambassadors rebuilt and also renamed as the Sondheim. Be interesting to see if these plans actually go ahead.

r37, yes, all too true. I saw the first preview and the "song" is one of the most embarrassing I've ever seen. I would have thought that it would be cut by now.

"Gen Z will get the Broadway theatre it deserves"

No, they won't. The hysterical psychosis will eventually burn itself out, as it will and must and always does.

What musicals can be staged without the SJWBLMnon-binarytransfeminist cabal attempting to have it cancelled?

That American Theater article is rough. It is hung up on potential.

COMPANY: The reviewer believes that b/c Bobbie could have been bi it is *wrong* that she isnt, that this has lost potential. If the director and writer dont think it would work out as well, if they simply think it would be fun/simpler/more common to see a straight woman dodge three male doofuses, thats fine with me and most people.

I think they were hung up on the way some people read 1970s male Bobby as possibly gay. Since that kind of successful young man over 35 would have been seen that way THEN. I believe the original creative team that this was about a straight commitment phobe. Female, straight Bobbie comes off the same way: a detached, straight person who is realizing she doesn't fit in with her committed friends.

The writer reviews potential ideas for most of the article in an alienating way.

Creatives have the freedom/risk to change characters, song, etc. just like the creators of ) LA CAGE, HEDWIG, KISS OF SPIDERWOMAN shows that could probably work better in this environment. If I were an investor , I would love to invest in one of these instead of nitpicking.

WHET Anne Twomey?

Isherwood reviews "Flying Over Sunset":

R36 sounds like it’s true. There’s this in the Times review-

[quote] Grant imagines himself as a “giant penis rocket ship” on a “secret mission” to spare the earth from disaster

Times also blames Lapine for everything wrong with the show, which does indeed sound terrible

Anne Twomey does nonprofit work, last I saw.

R44 Maybe nothing is good enough?, I am a progressive who is weirded out by people that think change comes from picking apart every creative decision or things can change all at once .

A few of these people are incredibly loud on social media and think that typing and reacting is the same as activism. Nope. They suck all attention out of the room and would drive away creatives if they insisted on shoving their Twitter rants in their face.

Good things come from smart actions like Broadway Cares, 42nd CLub (investing group), Uplift Producing Program (Tyler Mount got his first Tony b/c of this). These are groups that are going to improve things for years to come. My friends and I would like to get involved producing through things like this. I asked one theater investor at Assassins a question and noticed a change on the website, pretty sure from our light conversation (I asked for more detail on an event).

And then there is that meandering article writer...

How does that article writer get in American Theater magazine?

Christ, New York stage criticism is insane. What the fuck are these people basing their reviews off? Who are these people?

Lewis has a PHD and founded queervoices. So the experience is there and there will always be a place for that kind of academic criticism (and some HuffPost stuff). I assume Lewis watched the entire shows...

The problem is people who are immature who cannot think long-term, many of whom have liberal arts education. They have to win the latest outrage/ conversation. That wont go down well with wealthy investors and producers who can walk away from them in person.

I had a friend who could only talk about the latest election news including ignoring his own guests b/c of fighting with people online. He was so busy being outspoken and liberal online, it was easy to move on.

I can only imagine how that kind of person collaborates with others to *improve* theater.

So take the case of any story about two different kinds of people (in other words, most compelling stories, but that’s another matter) – if only a person from the referenced background is allowed to write about it, how does anything interesting get written?

PS Dash I understand that a creative team in theater should not be completely homogeneous but these people are saying that a man can’t write about a woman, a white can’t write about a LatinX, One minority cannot write about another…… if Rita Moreno is OK with the new west side story, then so am I. I saw it and she is right.

Last thought before bed – is Covid going to close theater again?

CHICAGO '92

Ann Twomey is only half as good as Ann Fourmey.

But Ann's daughter, Sockit, is spectacular.

[quote] Last thought before bed – is Covid going to close theater again?

With the shit that's on Broadway, let's hope so.

Everyone is going to have to make uncomfortable and unfamiliar risk/benefit calculations regarding Covid. It's not going anywhere and until the entire population of the globe is willingly vaxxed, it's going to keep popping up and killing people.

The hell with Covid. Come see " Slave Play," the seminal work of a genius. So what if you get sick and die. At least your final memory will be of me and how I called you a racist.

R61 , I just saw it in a half-filled theater! I thought it would have been more interesting with less fast-talking psychobabble. Really slowed the pace and the clinicians were a little hard to hear. Cool idea and set, though.

Who or what is this Jeremy everyone keeps going on about and why should I care?

Is Anne Twomey still married to the super hot John Bedford Lloyd?

Can John Bedford Lloyd still be super hot after all these years?

WHET John Bedford Lloyd?

Who is John Bedford Lloyd??

What Did Stephen Sondheim Really Think of ‘Rent’?

Jesse Green's review for "Flying Over Sunset":

I'm betting FLYING OVER SUNSET will now close early and not complete its limited run.

Is FLYING OVER SUNSET trying to be like that INSIGNIFICANCE play about the fictitious meeting between Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, and Joseph McCarthy?

Leave it to the closeted Lapine to soft pedal Cary Grant’s homosexuality.

I think Lapine is married to a woman and has a kid.

Tony is playing Cary Grant?

I had tickets to see Flying Over Sunset back before COVID, but I'm not very pressed to see it now. I wonder if I'll regret not seeing it.

[quote] Who or what is this Jeremy everyone keeps going on about and why should I care?

Some have called me a modern-day combination of Shakespeare, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams and August Wilson…but just the good parts.

Green's review is a bit more favorable than I would have written, but he probably saw a shorter version. Basically, he is spot on. As for soft-pedaling Grant's homosexuality, Lapine does play footsie with the subject (ha ha) but tiptoes away at the point when it might be interesting. Can't believe the penis song wasn't cut.

[quote]I think Lapine is married to a woman and has a kid.

Yup. Just like Leonard Bernstein. Or Ladybird Bachmann.

Helen Shaw on Vulture is fast becoming my favorite NY theater critic. Anyone know her background? (I searched, but couldn't find anything.)

Shaw asks the right question about "Flying...": How the f did this happen? They had workshops. Didn't they see how much it didn't work? Or were they all high when they saw it.

If I were LCT, I'd start selling gummies in the lobby. There wouldn't be an empty seat.

Not only did FLYING OVER SUNSET have workshops, it was in tech rehearsals when Covid shut it down and Lapine had A YEAR AND A HALF to reconsider, rewrite and cut, and he did NOTHING.

[quote]Gen Z will get the Broadway theatre it deserves but by then I'll be dead and won't care.

Move it along toots.

Helen Shaw was a critic at Time Out New York and at a website called 4Columns before she replaced Sara Holdren at NY Magazine/Vulture. She's one of the few critics that I think earns the respect of her (mostly male) colleagues. I've seen them often retweet or repost her reviews in admiration of her writing ability and perspective. She's also just a lot of fun to read.

I've just read that American Theatre article. Mrs Doubtfire is a turgid abortion and I disliked both Company and JLP, but Jesus fucking Christ - what nonsense.

[Quote] the state of gender and sexuality on Broadway isn’t great, and sadly the future does not look bright. What does 'the stage of gender and sexuality' even fucking mean? You could do a carbon copy of the original 1943 staging of Oklahoma!, and it is pretty much ALL ABOUT gender and sexuality. Gender and sexuality, on Broadway and in pretty much all of western culture, is doing just fine and has done for several millennia. And what we need is more musicals like Head Over Heels? GTFO. Head Over Heels was bad art, and frankly, I can find more concretely productive ways of supporting my trans siblings than shelling out $100 for a Go-Go's jukebox musical.

It's all just so banal and crushingly literal, leaving no room for metaphor, allegory, and - absolutely essential for critiquing theatre - any kind of empathy. You can't have theatre without well-intended acts of imagination, and this article - like much of the discourse - just assumes the worst of everybody's motivations, all the time.

And I was so annoyed I fucked up the quote!

He's character actress pretty", r64.

r80, I'll bet AdamFeldman is jealous.

JOH at r73 I fixed that for you:

[quote] I think of myself a modern-day combination of Shakespeare, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams and August Wilson…but just the good parts.

1) Adam Feldman is a nice guy, mediocre reviewer and TERRIBLE cabaret singer. Lordy! 2) Lapine is indeed married and has an adult daughter—but— he was also Andre Bishop’s boyfriend in the 80s. Presumably that’s how this car-crash show got produced?

[quote]Lapine is indeed married and has an adult daughter—but— he was also Andre Bishop’s boyfriend in the 80s. Presumably that’s how this car-crash show got produced?

Damn! If that's true, it's really dishy. And it would explain A LOT.

[quote] Lapine is indeed married and has an adult daughter—but— he was also Andre Bishop’s boyfriend in the 80s. Presumably that’s how this car-crash show got produced?

And [italic]that[/italic] is how we gossip. Thanks r86 for showing how it's done (true or not).

Good God! Who would want to fuck James Lapine?

Even Andre Bishop could do better than that.

And Lapine's daughter nearly capsized that last revival of "Sunday" and daddy had to sneak in to fix it.

Speaking of capsizing...

Lapine's (undeserved) success and longevity would be one thing if he were smart, cunning, and ruthless, like Eve Harrington.

But he's not. He comes across as an aging slacker stoner hippy dude, and not an overly intellectual one at that. Which makes it all the more frustrating for those us who are not fans. Success in theatre is something that "just happened" to him.

r90

That was his niece. HIs daughter is a chef.

The wife is a writer--screenplays mostly, I think--including Impromptu in the 90s (directed by hubby), starring Mandy, Bernadette, Judy Davis, a bunch of others. Comes from money.

His wife is two-time Oscar winning documentary filmmaker Sarah Kernochan.

Interesting article touching on Sondheim's homosexuality and naming two women who wanted to marry him but implying that there were others--any ideas who? Also dancing around the notion that others like him married and raised families (no names, obv) but he was too honest to do that.

IMPROMPTU is pretty uneven, but it's mostly a charming little movie that appears to be utterly forgotten these days.

It's on Youtube.

Regarding James Lapine's undeserved success, it certainly didn't help that Sondheim defended him to the death and WOULD NOT hear any words spoken against him. In a way, that's understandable, because Sondheim always credited Lapine with getting him back to work after the heartbreaking failure of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. And I suppose that, even if Sondheim recognized deep down that Lapine's talent was miniscule, it's also understandable why SS would never openly admit that to anyone.

Doesn't the info typeset on this book cover explain Lapine pretty clearly?

We saw the Sunset Flying Shitfest on Sunday. The "I'm a giant penis rocket ship" number is still there and it's cringe-inducing. So is most of the score and all of the book. A giant POS.

Seeing the new Company photos I thought Ms Lenk might have had some work done and now that YT clip seems to confirm it, right?

Plus all of them look like they're just doing bad choreography to a number called "Lets Give Each Other Covid in a Small Box"

That COMPANY clip is perfect evidence for anyone espousing the idea that musical comedies are awful.

Why didn't they do The Little Things. That would play out of context wouldn't it? Even with the understudy.

The Side by Side staging with the little tables & chairs is ghastly.

When I saw COMPANY in London, Patti actually would sit out the dance section of Side By Side and grab a stool on Stage Left and just watch. Does she do that on Broadway?

Sondheim always defended his book writers: one, because he did draw ideas from their work to create the songs; and two, because he was a decent, loyal guy who wasn't about to trash his friends.

Exactly, r107. He was a gent.

Adam Feldman has HORRIBLE taste.

R109 in what?

Landscaping, Rose.

Adam Feldman has a horrible moustache, to be sure.

[quote] Interesting article touching on Sondheim's homosexuality and naming two women who wanted to marry him but implying that there were others--any ideas who?

Didn’t Sondheim say that he thought about marrying Lee Remick?

I remember an Elaine Stritch interview where she said Sondheim thought about marrying Lee. (It also could have been Stritch pretending more insight/intimacy with SS than she actually had, but whatever.)

Remick was a knockout in the 60s with a great sense of humor. What gay man wouldn't have liked her?

R83, that’s a current pic of John Bedford Lloyd, who’s almost 66.

Back in the day he was gorgeous, but time has not been kind to him.

Thank you, r115. I thought I was posting a picture of Maggie McNamara

R86-Holy Crap! You just triggered a massive flashback to a party in the early 80's in a big loft. I was dating this cute little guy who knew Andre from Playwrights Horizons because he was a reader for the group. And he introduced me to Andre's boyfriend, who was this creepy leech who tried to tempt us all into a foursome after the party. I balked, boyfriend walked. But I can see that balding creep and it was....James Lapine. MAKE THE MEMORY GO AWAY!!!!!

Well, Bishop's loyalty to an ex-boyfriend has really bit him in the ass this time. A big, expensive bore that will lose lots of money. Hope the sex was good.

No regional theatre will ever include FOS in their season. No self-respecting producer will ever allow this atrocity to befoul their stages.

THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1936, "You Can't Take It With You" opened at the Booth Theatre.

Patti LuPone shares memories of working with Stephen Sondheim:

Leonard Solloway was a total #metoo perv.

R113/114, I'm not sure Sondheim ever said he thought about marrying Lee Remick, but he's made it clear that it was an important emotional relationship. And I've read that she very much wanted to marry him. Mary Rodgers said--I think in the Meryle Secrest bio--that she and Sondheim danced around the issue of marriage after her first marriage fell apart but it was clear that things weren't going to work out.

Sarna Lapine is Jame Lapine's niece- not his daughter, R90.

Jesse Green's bio of Mary Rodgers is due to be published in August. Subtitle calls it "Shockingly Outspoken." Hope so.

R125 Hope she shifted on Laurents. That cunt.

It was Remick who proposed to Sondheim and he thought about it for a long time before finally turning her down. They adored each other and were a couple on the social scene back in the 60s through the early 80s. And she wasn't naive or stupid, she knew exactly what their relationship would be.

And then she died.

If Sondheim had married Remick, they would have had the loving kind of relationship that gay Hal Prince had with his wife Judy. That's probably why Sondheim considered it before declining.

Although Hal & Judy had two kids so they knocked boots at least twice

Did Jesse Green work with Mary Rodgers on the book before she died?

[quote]Although Hal & Judy had two kids so they knocked boots at least twice

Wasn't the girl who played the Mistress in the original Broadway production of EVITA a friend of Prince's daughter and that is how she got the part?

R127, They were a couple for 2 or 3 years in the late sixties, period. She married her second husband in 1970 and lived with him in England, so she and Sondheim were hardly hardly a couple on the social scene through the early 80s. They remained close friends until her death.

Yes, 130.

[quote]Someone told me Tony Yazbeck has a scene in act two where he wanders around saying “I’m a penis rocket” over and over. Can anyone confirm?

R36, in the preview we saw of FLYING OVER SUNSET - during the ridiculous penis number - a young couple seated in the very front row center, got up and walked out. That meant climbing the stairs at the Vivian Beaumont all the way up to the back exit, so the couple was quite visible as they departed. When they approached and passed me (I was sitting on that aisle), I heard the fellow mumble something to his wife/girlfriend in German. After having seen so many completely ridiculous theater productions in Germany, I wondered what could have been so bad about this production that so offended them?

YCTIWY

Poor Tony Yazbeck is served especially badly in FLYING OVER SUNSET.

As I recall, Carmen Cusack (as Claire Booth Luce) has to simulate an LSD-induced orgasm (or whatever that was) in Act 1, but otherwise she's left mostly unscathed, as is the actor playing Aldous Huxley. Yazbeck looks magnificent, sings well enough, and dances divinely, but can't quite master the Cary Grant voice--and then he has most of the humiliating bits in the show. Like the penis-rocket scene. Even the 1950s swim trunks he wears in Act 2 are pretty ugly.

PS, Grant's bisexuality is mostly limited to a fleeting reference to Randolph Scott. The end.

I suspect James Lapine hates Tony Yazbeck.

Yazbeck is very talented and hot, although he may not have the it factor. Nonetheless he and Andy Karl both deserve better luck than they have had.

I suspect James Lapine LOVES James Lapine, though.

r134, I suspect that they were offended by the combination of mediocrity and tastelessness that is FOS. Germans have taste.

Green was working with Rodgers on the book when she died. When asked by Green about Arthur Laurents, she supposedly said, "Ask me again when he dies." We'll see if he got any juicy bits from her. Wonder how much of the book is going to be a Daddy Dearest about ol' Dick. Oddly, the book is called SHY. I know it refers to one of her songs, but it's a strange title for a bio.

When oh when will they bring Satan in High Heels to the Broadway stage?

I'm so far behind. What's this about a penis rocket?

Apparently Cary Grant had one.

It's the number they're going to do on the TONY Awards.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

What the fuck is going on with the right side of Claybourne Elder's mouth? Are his front caps too big for the rest of his teeth? I didn't notice it the other night at the theatre, but I sure noticed quite a gap there in that awful GMA "Company" number this morning.

There's a great article about Richard Rodgers by his other grandson, Peter Melnick, son of his other daughter, Linda, out there in the recent internet ether. I wish I was clever enough to find it and link it here for you bitches but Peter brings a whole other side to Rodgers than the womanizing soulless meanie we've heard about for so long.

I've only seen Tony Yazbeck in one thing -- On the Town -- but he was sensational. Well... that whole damn production was divine. One of the best musical revivals I've ever seen. And, man, that glorious Bernstein score sounded amazing with that lush, full orchestra.

YCTIWY - I assume that's 'When I see snakes, it's time to lie down...'

For anyone interested, Jonathan Groff is on Colbert's show tonight.

Yes, exactly, r131. Jane Ohringer was a friend of Daisy Prince.

Tony Yazbeck has a smokin’ body but I find him strangely unsexy.

[quote]"Flying Over Sunset" to release cast recording in January.

"I like 'I'm a Giant Penis Rocket Ship.' It has a good beat and you can dance to it. I'll give it an 8."

So it's been more or less confirmed that Hal and Judy's marriage was a lavender, if loving, one? I remember in one of the previous threads someone alluded to Hal being close to Larry Kert. I think at one point Kert was frustrated in 'Company' and exclaimed "who do I have to fuck to get out of this show??" And someone in the room quipped, "the same person you fucked to get into it!" Alluding to Hal seemingly??

[quote]Although Hal & Judy had two kids so they knocked boots at least twice

Well, Judy knocked boots at least twice with someone.

R152 Yeah, I agree with you....terrific body and he seems like a lovely guy but he doesn't really moisten my panties.

I think he's just too...straight. He seems like a very nice but dull, straight guy into boring straight people shit like Jesus and mortgages and sports.

The DL always assumed your panties were pre-moistened r156.

R157 I'm cheap and refuse to pay for pre-moistened panties.

Also:: they don't sell pre-moistened undergarments in my size.

#SizeistBastards

Excuse me r158. Let me correct myself.

The DL always assumed your panties were self-pre-moistened.

The moistness in his drawers is just dribbles of piss.

In these days of modern times we must take our moistness where we can find it.

Oddly, for all the gay rumors about Prince, there haven't been, as far as I know, any smoking guns, as it were, i.e. a former male lover telling all. Maybe one is forthcoming. Having met him years ago, I never got much of a sexual vibe from him. Perhaps there's a big bio in the future, like the one that exposed Moss Hart's bisexuality. Has anyone ever interviewed Judy? She's now 93; Sondheim adored her.

Judy is in her early 80s.

R162, would you admit to having been Hal Prince's lover?

Does anyone want to read 600 pages about Hal Prince?

Even Judy will not admit to having sex with Hal.

[quote] Oddly, for all the gay rumors about Prince, there haven't been, as far as I know, any smoking guns, as it were, i.e. a former male lover telling all.

They're all dead or senile.

Aw, c'mon. Who wouldn't want to hit that?

For a job in FOLLIES r167? Or to be part of that hot WSS ensemble? Close your eyes and think of England (or whatever that expression is).

Didn’t Prince and Sondheim have a falling out? I think Sondheim was ticked off at the poor decisions Prince made with “Merrily We Roll Along.” Casting young kids, firing the leading man, etc.

R167 Prince had some DSLs.

They reunited for BOUNCE or whatever it was called at the time.

It was Sondheim who responded to Kert, r154. He could have been referring to himself, or Prince, or Bennett, or anyone for that matter.

And confirmation from DL that the Princes had a lavender marriage is worth exactly nothing. The amount of misinformation in this thread alone is astonishing.

[quote]The amount of misinformation in this thread alone is astonishing.

The Datalounge does its best!

I think choreographer Larry Fuller was SUPPOSEDLY one of Hal's bfs.

James Snyder permanently gone from the show and no reason given?

That's the only possible explanation for having Larry Fuller choreograph your show, r 175.

[quote] The amount of misinformation in this thread alone is astonishing.

Misinformation and gossip are two different things, so unclench yourself, darling.

The Shocking True Story of Cary Grant's Experiments with LSD:

THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1999, "Amadeus" opened at the Music Box Theatre.

It's a tough COVID day. Tina, Harry Potter, Doubtfire. All cancelling performances.

Yes, Prince and Sondheim made up well before Prince died. And I would happily read a full bio of Prince, one of the great theater giants of the 21st century.

You have a couple of choices r182

and there's this

Prince and Sondheim "made up" within months of the Merrily fiasco. Safe to say that 40 years is "well before" Prince died.

But they took a very long time before working together again.

[quote] Yeah, I agree with you....terrific body and he seems like a lovely guy but he doesn't really moisten my panties. I think he's just too...straight. He seems like a very nice but dull, straight guy into boring straight people shit like Jesus and mortgages and sports.

He's the holy grail...a straight guy with mad musical theater skills.

Hal Prince once grabbed my one-time lover’s crotch while inviting him over for dinner.

Hal was fucking Larry Fuller for many years, before and after EVITA. Duh.

Hal Prince cruised 24-year-old me in the lobby of Boston's Shubert Theatre in 1976 during previews of Rex, when he had been brought in to take over as director, albeit uncredited.

Prince hit a rough patch in the 80s. He was successful with On the 20th Century, Sweeney Todd and Evita. Then a string of flops before Phantom of the Opera.

[quote] Prince hit a rough patch in the 80s. He was successful with On the 20th Century, Sweeney Todd and Evita. Then a string of flops before Phantom of the Opera.

And an even longer string of flops after Phantom Of The Opera.

[quote]Yes, Prince and Sondheim made up well before Prince died. And I would happily read a full bio of Prince, one of the great theater giants of the 21st century.

But Goldman knew it was only 2021 -- and there were 79 years to go!

Those books posted were written before he died and don't count in terms of his personal life.

[quote] He's the holy grail...a straight guy with mad musical theater skills.

and that ass

[quote] And an even longer string of flops after Phantom Of The Opera.

Not really. The drought between Evita (79) and Phantom (late 1987) was 8 1/2 years. He came back in 1994 with Showboat.

[quote] But Goldman knew it was only 2021 -- and there were 79 years to go!

what?

Ragtime reference, R197. It made me laugh R193!

I've worked with Tony Yazbeck and while he's a perfectly nice guy, he is indeed very dull and rather asexual. And he takes himself way too seriously as a performer. I do think he dances brilliantly with a true masculine bravado but I find his singing and acting nothing special.

Broadway Covid Cancellations:

Saw KIMBERLY AKIMBO the other night - what an incredibly fresh, inventive and quirky new musical! Perfectly cast, directed and acted. Great score by Jeanine Tesori with lyrics and libretto by the original source play's writer David Lindsay-Abaire.

I do, however, think it would be a mistake to move this one to Broadway, as the subject matter - a teenaged girl with a rare aging disease and only a year or two to live, is simply too hard to sell, even if the show itself actually deals with it all beautifully and poignantly and even has a sort of upbeat ending. But I hope it can be extended for a few months for more to see. I believe the run is all sold out as of now.

Anyway, it really puts lame recent efforts like DOUBTFIRE, THE VISITOR and FLYING OVER SUNSET to shame and shows the new possibilities of the genre.

I hope it’s better than SOFT POWER, which was the worst.

SO much better than Soft Power. KA would do very well in a nice off-Broadway house, but we're not in the 1960s, where those were plentiful.

R201, I wish could agree with you about KIMBERLY AKIMBO. Alas, I found the musical version simplistic and obvious. It reminded me of 70 Girls 70 (the gang gets together to pull of one bug heist). The original play, done at Manhattan Theater Club, was terrific, and Mary Louise Burke as Kimberly was much more believable and moving than Victoria Clark (who looks stoned to me with that silly grin).

I remember Mary Louise Burke getting raves at the time, r204.

[quote]one bug heist

Pics please.

R199, According to the New York Post, Tony was the one who ratted out Laura Osnes for not getting vaccinated.

[quote] the gang gets together to pull of one bug heist)

So whose bugs did they steal?

I loved Victoria Clark and the main storyline in KIMBERLY but found the subplots (the check-cashing scheme with the aunt, the wretched parents expecting a baby) ridiculous and uninvolving (although Bonnie Milligan is a powerhouse talent). The high school kids are cute. But I don't see this odd little show succeeding on Bway either.

Still, so much more worthwhile and original than most new musicals in recent memory. And someone find a show for Bonnie to star in.

Another nice thing about Tony Yazbeck is that he is thoroughly comfortable with gay men and playing gay himself. He’s done several of those benefits where men sing Women’s song & Vice-versa. (Mad About the Boy and Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag with Michael Berresse come to mind).

Considering he’s straight & Christian, that’s something.

Personal experience has shown me that straight, christian men are frequently neither.

[quote]According to the New York Post, Tony was the one who ratted out Laura Osnes for not getting vaccinated.

So he ratted out a fellow Christian?

She deserved it.

Kimberley is on TDF as I write this.

R211 = Miz Lindsey

R210, that's interesting to know. I've never seen Yazbeck in anything. Has he ever made out with another guy on stage? Or is he more the type that will play gay so long as he doesn't have to kiss another man?

Tony Y is a professional and he has kids. He understood thd requirements for getting back to work and he met them and expected those he worked with in close quarters to meet them, too.

Yaznek did a musical called Sycamore Trees at Signature Theatre in Arlington VA. He played a gay son and sang a love song in bed with Matthew Risch. I remember the mic cable going up his shirtless back.

I'D like to go up Tony Yazbeck's shirtless back!

You didn't find Bonnie Milligan a little too much outside of her character in KA, r209? I thought she was hilarious, get why she'd be a fan favorite, but she seemed a bit like a stand-up comedienne making a guest appearance in the show to me (she kept rolling her eyes to the audience re the plotting).

I’m not R209, but I found Milligan and Justin Cooley extremely cartoonish (particularly next to Victoria Clark). The staging was pretty amateurish, even as it seemed to have an eye on Broadway. The score also didn’t do much for me - Tesori really needs a strong collaborator.

Tony, Tony!

R217, I never saw a performer perspire like Matthew Risch did in Pal Joey.

R222 you clearly never saw Lena Horne in her one-woman show on Broadway. Or Diana Ross in the movie of The Wiz.

With all these COVID-related cancellations, should I abandon my plans of vacationing in New York this spring?

So, what are the odds Broadway will shut down completely before Christmas? It certainly is gonna happen after the holidays with a huge covid spike a foregone conclusion at this point…

The last weeks of December and the first days of January are the most lucrative time on Broadway. Keep the shows open until mid-January and then close them all for 2 months when business stinks anyway.

That seems the most likely, R226. There's no way they're ever going to allow another year-long closure, but a two-month hiatus might be the ticket.

I was supposed to film a role in a tv series the first week in January and was just told by casting that it’s been cancelled and they have no idea why. My first thought was COVID. I think broadway and tv productions are anticipating a huge spike over the next few weeks and they’re preparing to shutdown for a bit. I’m usually optimistic but I fear the next few months are going to be rough.

What role? What series? We know you want to tell us.

KAREN!!!

Meanwhile, how are things on the West End?

[quote]I’m not [R209], but I found Milligan and Justin Cooley extremely cartoonish (particularly next to Victoria Clark).

Seriously? Justin Cooley's performance is one of the sweetest and most natural I've ever seen. Where do you people come from?

Kids Night on Broadway is in February, right? I wonder if MJ The Musical is participating.

Whatever happened to Plaza Suite with the Brodericks?

R234 you mean Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker?

R235, No, Rose, Betty and Dan Broderick.

Not great, R231.

People are going to be reluctant to purchase tickets, now, fearing a last minute cancellation.

I never saw a performer perspire like Matthew Risch did in the steam room at New York Sports Club on W. 41st.

" Slave Play" is still open for all you Londoners who crave brilliant writing. The cost of a flight to New York, hotel, and tickets will be money well spent, because you will be seeing the seminal work of the most talented writer since the now-cancelled Shakespeare.

WE SEE YOU WHITE AMERICAN TALKBACKS!

Plaza Suite opens in February, COVID conditions pending.

Smaller shows might weather COVID just fine. Plaza Suite just has to keep a couple of (admittedly irreplaceable) actors and a handful of (easily swung out) stage hands COVID-free and they can essentially have Broadway all to themselves in February.

Matthew and I have been social distancing from one another pretty much since our children were born.

Who is paying Matthew and Sarah’s prices? Tickets for that show are $600 for all orchestra.

Recently watched the movie; it's dated and not very funny. Can't imagine reviving this.

Kimberly Akimbo will do well on Broadway. Everyone said The Band's Visit was too slow and quirky and "not for Broadway" and we know how that turned out...

Plaza Suite is ancient and irrelevant, just like its stars.

Sarah's loyal SATC fans of fraus (and gays) are now her age, so it's wealthy 50-somethings, R245. These are also the folks who cherish the memory of Broderick in THE PRODUCERS.... back 20 years ago.

Wow, the article r241 posted is stunning in its tone deafness. I understand that talk backs can be a free for all (there’s always some wise ass who thinks they could have staged it better) but when you use phrases like “protect our artists” that sends the message that the PAYING audience is the enemy.

[quote] And we have to acknowledge that that structure—a binary opposition of talking and listening—is one that is inherently Western, colonialist, and patriarchal.

[quote] (In composing this piece, I tried to find out who invented the panel discussion. While I was unable to track down a specific name, I feel fairly confident that it was a man.)

Any update on James Snyder with Harry Potter? Is he sick?

The movie is a poor representation of Plaza Suite R246, and the gimmick of Matthau all the way through, but different leading ladies, handicaps it further. The gimmick of the same actors in different roles doesn't work as well in that particular film. California Suite's movie is much more successful, with an ensemble star cast instead of actors in multiple roles, and that play is not as good.

Plaza Suite is one of Neil Simon's longest running hits and has been done everywhere. It's a real audience pleaser, and I'd rather sit through another production of it than half the crappy plays that take ten years to develop only to get panned and play a limited run on comps in a not for profit seasonal slot.

Plaza Suite was nominated for best play and should be right up there just a notch below Barefoot and Odd Couple. The craft of the writing is excellent in terms of humor, pace, and structure. Try to track down the Orbach-Grant tv production.

R248 name three plays written in the past five years (not "ancient") that are relevant, that mainstream audiences want to see enough to sell out on Broadway, even for a limited run?

[quote] (In composing this piece, I tried to find out who invented the panel discussion. While I was unable to track down a specific name, I feel fairly confident that it was a man.)

That's probably true, since men invented everything else.

I take umbrage at that, r253.

[quote]And we have to acknowledge that that structure—a binary opposition of talking and listening—is one that is inherently Western, colonialist, and patriarchal.

I don't understand what this means.

[quote] That's probably true, since men invented everything else.

Mike Nesmith’s mother invented Liquid Paper.

[quote] Any update on James Snyder with Harry Potter? Is he sick?

He's still very spent from cumming repeatedly in my mouth

R256 okay, MOST everything else. There are always exceptions.

Wiseass.

A wiseass is better than a dumbass.

Okay, who is obsessed with James Snyder on this board, and keeps trying to make a non-story a story? Who cares about backstage at Harry Potter?

I thought people only stayed for the talkbacks to be polite.

Jesus Christ, a no-name actor is no longer in a play. How does that merit a giant press release? Stop asking.

The best plays on Broadway (IMHO) of the past 20 years:

Proof

Doubt

August: Osage County

The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?

The History Boys

The Inheritance

King Charles III

Take Me Out

That's a pretty meagre list, but they're all a hell of a lot better than Plaza Suite.

Only the 3rd act of "Plaza Suite" is funny and good.

And let's not forget that SJP is not the most winning of comedians. Without the versatility to master three distinct characterizations.

[quote] And let's not forget that SJP is not the most winning of comedians. Without the versatility to master three distinct characterizations.

She’ll play act one as a Carrie, act two as a Charlotte and act three as as a Miranda. There will be no Samantha.

Kim Cattrall was offered Mimsy.

And will matthew do all three as his usual catatonic special needs nebbish?

I may be in the minority but i find Broderick every bit as limited an actor as Parker. And I'm not a fan of her work.

I recently had to view the original off-bway Torch Song Trilogy for some research at the library, the production where Broderick played David, and I was struck by how long he's been doing his jewish catskills delivery schtick. The thing is, he's able to break out of it now and then in film, but for some reason onstage, he gives the same performance every time.

[quote]I may be in the minority but i find Broderick every bit as limited an actor as Parker.

You are definitely not in the minority.

Broderick stopped making an effort after Producers. He's always coasted, now he's free-wheeling.

I wonder if Plaza Suite would benefit from a free-wheeling patio number.

R263, you left off Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

And 263's list is chock full of overrated crap.

I didn't leave it off, r274. I didn't like it. It was all about the sets, not the script.

I also left off War Horse, another Marianne Elliott ALL ABOUT THE SETS play.

PLAZA SUITE will be the Broadway directorial debut of DL Scourge John Benjamin Hickey. Wish him luck, bitches!

Both of those shows were emotionally involving, r277. People aren't moved by just sets.

i WILL cut you r263

Why is he DL Scourge?

[quote]Jesus Christ, a no-name actor is no longer in a play. How does that merit a giant press release? Stop asking.

James Snyder is hardly a "no-name actor." He had leads or major featured roles in three Broadway shows before HARRY POTTER, and as far as Broadway audiences are concerned, he's probably one of the best-known actors to have appeared in the show thus far. So I for one am not surprised that someone is curious as to why he departed the show so abruptly and with no announcement at all in the press.

He didn't show up for half-hour one night. And then he died.

My friend after seeing Broderick in "Brighton Beach Memoirs" said that Matthew already had as many mannerisms as George Burns. It turns out he's given pretty much the same performance (other than singing in some shows) ever since. Actually, SJP has some more range, as she was actually very good playing the difficult central role in "The Family Stone". So she might actually be able to differentiate at least 2 of the 3 acts of "Plaza Suite". Broderick will probably think the different costume and wigs will be enough to do the job, unfortunately.

I thought the first season of SJP's show on HBO called "Divorce" was quite good and she was good in it, so I agree that she has more range than I think she gets credit for.

John Benjamin Hickey might have turned down someone (or more than one person) here and/or is a social/sexual climber into different roles. At least he showed full-frontal and/or backal nudity when he was younger and hotter, plus he's a really good actor, winning the Tony for his touching performance in the revival of "The Normal Heart".

But I really want to do is direct. Your dick into my ass..

No one cares why James Snyder left Harry Potter, if he has left Harry Potter. In fact, no one on this board cares about Harry Potter.

John Benjamin Hickey has a nice fairly sized dick (not as big as Steve Bogardus’ or Randy Becker’s).

Not true, r288. I don’t care about HP, but the disappearance of a prominent actor from a major show with no explanation at all is news.

"the disappearance of a prominent actor from a major show with no explanation at all is news"

To whom?

Prominent to whom?

Major to whom?

I care, r291.

Everybody listen. From now on you are only allowed to post what passes r291's muster. Otherwise there will be hell to pay.

When the actor playing the title role in a Broadway show suddenly vanishes from the show with no explanation, there's something up that's worth discussing in a theatre gossip thread.

Perhaps Snyder got a lucrative film or TV series? And the producers didn't feel that his absence was worthy of a press release as most people haven't heard of him and don't care? His name is not above the title and refunds would not be due in his absence.

My bigger question is why James Snyder has never had much of a film or TV career.....he's certainly got the looks for a sit-com bf or young dad, at least.

Does anyone know if Matthew Lombardo's new play WHEN PLAYWRIGHTS KILL is his version of the Faye Dunaway Tea at 5 experience? There was an industry/friends reading today with quite a cast - Jeremy Jordan, Joanna Gleason, Andre de Shields, among others.

I just can't focus on that until I know what happened to James Snyder r296.

"Audience talkbacks are an extension of colonialism." Please tell me no one actually takes these lunatics seriously.

Snyder is still on the show's website and ibdb.com.

I haven't seen productions of The Goat, History Boys or The Inheritance but I have seen the rest...

August: Osage County is great. An grand guignal family (soap) opera.

Proof is good....Doubt is really overrated in my opinion. Trying so hard to be a brilliant play it just feels forced. I always just want to slap the fuck out of the old nun/bitch even though she's right about the priest. She's still a witch.

King Charles III was....disappointing. All that hype and then it just felt....undercooked.

Take Me Out is a soap opera with some terrific moments.

As for Simon, he hasn't aged well. They're very well crafted joke machines but the jokes are pretty old.

A DL fave!

[quote]"Audience talkbacks are an extension of colonialism." Please tell me no one actually takes these lunatics seriously.

I hope not. They are also saying that it's white supremacist to expect POC performers to show up on time and do 8 shows a week. 🙄

[quote] Take Me Out is a soap opera with some terrific moments.

It's a soap opera with some terrific NAKED moments.

I wish I had seen Daniel Sunjata in TAKE ME OUT. God, he was beautiful! I had planned on seeing Jesse Williams in the proposed 2020 revival, but then Covid happened.

I would like to see (all of) James Snyder in Take Me Out

Isn't that Take Me Out revival still on for winter or spring? I know they canned Jussie and his big dick but I thought the show was still on.

Hickey is a fine actor (was especially good in IN TREATMENT) and was a really nice guy when I chatted him up in the West Village recently. Maybe some on DL are jealous?

Or maybe Hickey thought you were somebody and could do something for him?

JB Hickey's bestie is Andy Cohen. Which, I think, speaks volumes about his character and his judgement.

R309 how do you mean?

Take Me Out is back on - if you had tickets, they let you reschedule.

Andy's an asshole. So is John Benjamin Hickey.

R291 is a real jerk, spreading nothing but negativity throughout the thread.

Tonight on Dick Cavett:

Eve Arden is interviewed in 1980.

*and*

Maureen Stapleton talks about a Broadway cab change, Marlon Brando, and her fear of heights.

This is getting crazy, folks. I hate to say it but maybe the whole industry should voluntarily shutter for a couple of weeks just to see what happens with the virus?

‘Moulin Rouge!’ Cancels Tonight’s Performance After Audience Seated:

Watched a 2016 L&O SVU rerun this morning featuring Andy Karl, Craig Bierko, Raul Esparza and Peter Gallagher.

That's some prime beef.

[quote]I wonder if Plaza Suite would benefit from a free-wheeling patio number.

What show wouldn't benefit from a free-wheeling patio number, R273? The free-wheeling patio number in "Golden Rainbow" was the talk of Broadway for years.

THE GOAT is magnificent. Saw it with the replacements, Bill Irwin and Sally Field. Field's performance was stunning. Unlikely premise, but brilliantly and persuasively executed. Don't think it sold out, but it did pretty well for a play about goat-fucking. I think THE HISTORY BOYS, also very good, did sell out for its limited run.

Jon Ben Hickey's other bestie us SJP so there ya go.

THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1976, "The Night of the Iguana" opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre.

R320, A revival.

[quote]Does anyone know if Matthew Lombardo's new play WHEN PLAYWRIGHTS KILL is his version of the Faye Dunaway Tea at 5 experience? There was an industry/friends reading today with quite a cast - Jeremy Jordan, Joanna Gleason, Andre de Shields, among others.

It's mind boggling how that litiginous POS gets people of that level of accomplishment to work with him. I guess they haven't heard the stories.

[quote]]When the actor playing the title role in a Broadway show suddenly vanishes from the show with no explanation, there's something up that's worth discussing in a theatre gossip thread.

To everyone except R291, who's too busy licking his own scrotum.

"The free-wheeling patio number in "Golden Rainbow" was the talk of Broadway for years."

Mainly because Eydie Gorme bared her breasts.

Before they found Barbra, they wanted Eydie for Funny Girl. But she wouldn't do it without Steve as Nick. And that was a bridge too far.

Like, Steve would haven't have been better than Sydney Chaplin? That would have been fine. And Barbra would have become a superstar sooner or later.

Blow, Patti, Blow!

R325, When Mimi Hines replaced Barbra, they cast her husband Phil Ford as Eddie.

I'll try to ignore that R263 included two examples of grossly overrated gay telenovela (Inheritance, Take Me Out) while snubbing Jez Butterworth's "Jerusalem".

Guess you're not interested if dick isn't involved.

R326, If Steve had been cast in Funny Girl, then he would not have been available that same season for What Makes Sammy Run? and he wouldn't have cheated on Eydie with co-star Sally Ann Howes.

To be honest, I didn't see Jerusalem so couldn't include it.

I did see The Ferryman and still didn't include it. So Irish!

[quote]To be honest, I didn't see Jerusalem so couldn't include it.

Fair enough. It's a stunner. "Ferryman" was alright, nothing special.

Will agree that "King Charles III" was terrific.

James Snyder would’ve been good in The Ferryman

I have it on good authority that James Snyder will be understudying Hugh Jackman in The Music Man.

Into the Woods Outdoor Regent's Park production

[quote] Will agree that "King Charles III" was terrific.

The stage version must have been substantially better than the videoed version that ran on PBS.

See? I told you all...

I don't believe Steve cheated on Eydie.

All this talk of Hal Prince's lavender marriage. Is it it not remotely possible that he was bi? I know some eldergays seem to think bisexuals don't exist, but perhaps he was bi and had an understanding with his wife that he got to hook up with men?

R339 -- I think this could be a possibility as well. Might even make the most sense given there's no smoking gun(s). Perhaps, like Mike Nichols, he was bi, having occasonial dalliances with men, but longer term relationships with women?

[quote]Does anyone know if Matthew Lombardo's new play WHEN PLAYWRIGHTS KILL is his version of the Faye Dunaway Tea at 5 experience? There was an industry/friends reading today with quite a cast - Jeremy Jordan, Joanna Gleason, Andre de Shields, among others.

[quote]It's mind boggling how that litiginous POS gets people of that level of accomplishment to work with him. I guess they haven't heard the stories.

Right, r322? The man basically sued Valerie Harper for having cancer. I'd love to hear someone respond to r296 's question, though. Also, who pays for his plastic surgery and jet-setting? He posted his recent necklift on FB. It's not like his plays do well. HIGH, with Kathleen Turner, was a lurid melodrama that closed on Broadway the week it opened. Michael Berresse played a priest in it in the out of towns, but wisely bailed before Broadway.

Even with a blizzard of comps given away, it never hit more than 25% capacity.

Cameron Mackintosh is obviously worried that ALW might have the dumbest takes on covid:

[quote]Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Britain’s biggest theatre producer, said: “The last 10 days’ rhetoric and pronouncements have seriously affected forward bookings and just looking round the streets it's obvious that footfall is only a fraction of what it should be for one of the busiest weeks of the year. The public have been wonderfully supportive so far but fearsome government rhetoric is naturally making people decide to wait until this is over.”

Of course, it's not covid which is the issue, it's just "fearsome government rhetoric". Why shouldn't we encourage people to spread omicron, Cam has another house he wants to buy. It just that fearsome rhetoric that has resulted in over a dozen shows cancelling shows, nothing to do with positive covid tests.

Of course, this is made all the more ridiculous that the government rhetoric hasn't been fearsome. It's been as reduced as possible so Boris Johnson can try and avoid a rebellion from the 'libertarian' Tories (you know, that ones who find wearing a mask and being asked to show a covid passport (note, not a vaccine passport - a clear test is also accepted) is the end of liberty, but they're perfectly fine with voter ID laws and giving the Home Sec permission to strip people of British citizenship).

And of course, he only attacks the rhetoric. Not a word about lack of government support for the hospitality and entertainment sectors, but Cameron won't knock them for that.

R338, It was no secret at the time with columnists like Dorothy Kilgallen around.

Well, that Sally Ann was just a tawdry tart, wasn't she? I would have thought her Desiree would have been more sensual.

R340, but reportedly, Hal's romantic/sexual relationship with Larry Fuller lasted for a while.

I knew Hal Prince's son Charles in school. No question about parentage: his son was a dead ringer for Hal, but with hair. Daisy also resembles both parents.

Here's an interview with Fuller. I'd do him. He's hot.

R346, There's always a way . . .

[quote]If Steve had been cast in Funny Girl, then he would not have been available that same season for What Makes Sammy Run? and he wouldn't have cheated on Eydie with co-star Sally Ann Howes.

Didn't Sally Ann have a bit of a history of getting it on with male co-stars?

[quote]Well, that Sally Ann was just a tawdry tart, wasn't she? I would have thought her Desiree would have been more sensual.

Sally Ann, like Julie Andrews, doesn't "do" sensual.

R348 in vitro didn't exist when the Prince children were born. That didn't come about until the late '70s.

There may have been interest in Eydie for Funny Girl, but that would have faded at the first table read. She was a terrible actress.

Yes, Sally Ann reportedly cheated on her husband, composer Richard Adler, with her KWAMINA co-star Terry Carter.

James Snyder would've been good in What Makes Sammy Run?

He truly would have been really good in [italic]They're Playing Our Song[/italic], which seems appropriate to point out on national Tony Roberts Day.

So were Hal and Steve ever lovers?

So if temporary closures continue, should shows have to pay cast & crew? It's not their fault the shows are pausing, but paying with no income will quickly clobber the shows' finances and then the entire company could go out of business. Dilemma. Discuss.

Discuss? R356 would end sick days for all of us.

Of course, the actors get paid. Unless the show is closed, the actors are still retained under contract. The terms of the contract require weekly payment.

R356's nonsense would require that all new contracts be negotiated and approved by union membership and then signed by all the actors cast in a Broadway show, now or in the future. If Broadway can't function safely, then shut it down until it can.

LET'S FOCUS ON THE IMPORTANT STUFF: DEAR LORD IN HEAVEN WHAT IS GOING ON WITH JAMES SNYDER? WHY GOD WHY?

r357 please relax. I have no "nonsense," I was just citing the two arguments and, if you notice, not taking sides. It's a dilemma for all parties. Healthy discourse is good. Remember that?

and r358 you know now it's just about annoying you, right?

If there was common sense on Broadway, all the shows would shut down in January and February and everyone -- EVERYONE -- would agree to 25 percent of whatever their salaries/fees are for 6 weeks, so the wobbly shows could have a shot at re-opening. But Broadway is never unified and the theatre owners and the unions don't give a fuck. They know another show will come along. They really don't care.

Smart idea, I think, r361. I also agree with you that theater owners and unions are the biggest problems, more than producers, even though the latter is more often vilified. The theater owners don't care at all, like most landlords. Producers are still tenants trying to make a ridiculous business work.

[quote]Smart idea, I think, [R361]. I also agree with you that theater owners and unions are the biggest problems, more than producers, even though the latter is more often vilified.

The unions care very much indeed, r361 and r362. It's not just their current shows on the line, it's their health and their lives - but as you say, unions are often vilified.

The landlord theater owners care a great deal. They operate the box offices in their theaters and they get their cut first. If there is no show, there is no income. But there are property taxes. And heat. And electricity. And small staff to keep the theater safe and secure.

They care a great deal.

The mostly care if the next show might do better

You mean they actually like to make a profit, r365?

R353 Snder is a wonderful tenor, but Sammy Glick is a baritone role, where a lower voice would make a best impression. Eydie was funny on old skits of Steve Allen and Carol Burnett. If she had been cast, the powers that be would have worked with her, same as they did with Barbra. Steve Lawrence looked more like the real Nicky Arnstein anyway, and he sang much better than Sydney Chaplin. But Fanny's daughter was already upset they didn't choose a traditional beauty to play her non-traditionally looking character comedienne mom, so she must have insisted that her father look gorgeous to counter Streisand's casting, who she at first and apparently for some time, very strongly was against.

Snyder, that is. He was great in the musical "Fanny" opposite Elena Shaddow (WEHT?).

They worked with Barbra to tap what was inherent in her skills. Doubt that Eydie had the acting chops deep down inside to serve the dark sides of the character. And I'm guessing Eydie herself knew that.

Flying Over Sunset!

r367, you don't know what you're talking about re Sydney Chaplin.

He was actually perfect casting look-wise for Arnstein. Steve Lawrence bore no resemblance to the man whatsoever and would never have been believable as a shady gangster. And, whatever you may think about Chaplin's singing, he had real sexual chemistry opposite Barbra (they had a brief backstage affair) and was also wonderful opposite Judy Holliday in Bells Are Ringing (they also had an affair so he must have had something!), where he won a Tony Award and a Theatre World Award for his performance. Chaplin was the kind of sexy suave adult leading man who could wear a tux well that Broadway used to have but no longer does.

R366 see r361

Serious Question: are you still going to the theatre with the quick rise in Covid cases in NYC ?

I'm a frequent theatregoer, R373. Just saw Assassins, Sunset, a few other things. Had another show I had tix for cancel.

I have tickets for 2 off-Bway shows in mid-January. Let's see how the next 3-4 weeks shape up.

I am not buying any additional tickets right now. NYC got scary again this week.

Seeing Assassins next week. I wonder f they will cancel? If they do I hope they make the decision soon to save me the bus and tunnel trip.

That one scene at r370 with the flying colored globes looks like Planet 13 in Vegas (the high end recreational pot dispensary) when they send the drones flying out over the showroom floor. I suppose that’s appropriate.

Yes, I know Chaplin almost stole the show from Holliday in "Bells Are Ringing" till they wrote her 11 o'clock number for her. But he had a definite tendency to sing flat, especially noticeable in "Subways Are For Sleeping". Here's the real Nicky Arnstein, who doesn't quite look like either Chaplin or Lawrence.

I can understand why the young are very la-di-da about going out in public and being highly social....they don't have that much to fear from Covid, at least if they're vaxxed.

But, anyone over 50 (and definitely everyone over 60) or anyone with existing health concerns who is running around and gathering in crowds and getting up close with lots of people is just stupid. Even with vaccination if you're older, frailer, and/or have health issues you're more likely to get sicker and need hospital care if you get Covid.

I'd love to get out and see some shows and be (somewhat) more social but why risk it right now? Even if it's just to avoid getting sick and clogging up the healthcare system.

Another of Nick Arnstein.

I like Harry Haden-Patten's bod in that shirtless scene more than I do the other guys, even Tony.

Radio City Music Hall has canceled all remaining holiday shows for this season.

Very. Bad. News.

Be careful, New Yorkers.

Chris O'Dowd looks like a Nick Arnstein.

r377's link is a photo of Fanny with Billy Rose. That's not Nicky Arnstein.

That's Billy Rose, r377.

[Quote] But Fanny's daughter was already upset they didn't choose a traditional beauty to play her non-traditionally looking character comedienne mom,

Had she read the script? Had she even read some of the song titles?

Side note: Funny Lady is a chore to sit through, but James Caan is hotter than hell playing Billy Rose. He and Barbra are actually quite sexy together.

[Quote] So were Hal and Steve ever lovers?

I think they both preferred handsome men.

Who doesn't?

R377's photo doesn't look anything like James Caan.

Perhaps r389, but fortunately r379's photo looks EXACTLY like Omar Sharif.

So Fanny had a mustache fetish?

I can understand that. It's been my downfall more than once.

THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1998, "Parade" opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.

TOMORROW IN BROADWAY HISTORY: Jason Robert Brown became an insufferable prick.

Didn't Streisand fuck most of her male co-stars back in the 60s/70s?

Supposedly, her interests were less libidinal than professional: she would try to establish a bond and easiness with them, a dynamic that would play onscreen. I heard a similar rumor about Meryl Streep in the 1980s. (Allegedly!) She fucked a LOT of her leading men.

I think Arnstein looks like John Astin.

Here here r393. Why the hell did Billy Crystal pick him for his musical? That is not the songwriter for that sort of comedy. JRB doesn’t have a funny bone in his body - although his bone is reportedly huge. Maybe that’s how he and Hal Prince got together

No, it wasn't for professional reasons, r394. Barbra was a ho, darlin'. You were young once. Don't you remember?

I'm planning on seeing shows if they remain open. As audience I'm vaccinated and wearing a mask so chances of infection are low, even with the spectre of Omicron.

[quote]the spectre of Omicron.

Sounds like ALW's next musical. Is the Puccini Estate still watching him?

Babs is the female, Broadway/cabaret equivalent of the homely dude who becomes a rock star to get "chicks."

R371, Sydney Chaplin reportedly inherited Charlie's big cock.

Miss Bacall was another who sampled it during the run of Goodbye Charlie.

JRB was a close friend of Daisy Prince, r396. Probably Hal would have kept his distance.

Question: how anyone tried stealing some of ALW's melodies for their own musical, and would he risk a lawsuit knowing that he'd be held up for (allegedly) doing the same in his mucho moneymaking shows?

Babs mainly, except for Elliot Gould, wanted to get back at her mother for discouraging (or at least encouraging) her career, and by shtupping lots of good-looking shagetzes (that's male goyim).

shaygetzes, might be more easier to the proper pronouncation

R403, Elder gays will recall when Jerry Herman was sued for plagiarizing the Hello, Dolly! melody and he lost the case and had to pay up.

ALW stealing from Puccini is different from anyone stealing from ALW.

What happened to Sydney Chaplin after Funny Girl? Did he have any other professional successes on Broadway or elsewhere?

Elliott Gould was dating his costar Marilyn Cooper when rehearsals for I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE. Barbra stole him away.

to which Marilyn Cooper replied "What's so wonderful!?"

He didn't lose the case, r406. They settled, but he didn't want to.

R411, Jerry still had to pay, which is the same as losing.

"The melodic and rhythmic resemblance between a four-bar stretch of Jerry Herman's 1964 classic Hello Dolly ("Hello, Dolly, well, hello Dolly. It's so . . .") and Mack David's 1948 quotidian hit Sunflower ("She's a sunflower, she's my sunflower, and I . . .") cost Herman $250,000 when he indignantly settled out of court in 1966."

That was Hal David's brother?

Was in line waiting to be seated to see Little Shop of Horrors when theater staff came out and said the show was canceled.

Do these actors realize that if they aren't responsible, they will no longer have a career? Very soon I might add.

And how about testing the actors earlier in the day. Things cannot go on in this manner. If shows are at risk of being canceled right before curtain, no one is going to buy tickets.

Or I don't know, maybe we have to realize that Covid is here to stay and we just have to live with it and not shut everything down the minute there is a positive case.

Anyone know why Company cancelled 10 minutes into the performance tonite?

[quote] Anyone know why Company cancelled 10 minutes into the performance tonite?

Patti found out that Glenn Close was in the audience.

Jerry Herman insisted that it was 20th Century Fox that insisted on his settling. They had bought the rights for the film and planned to start filming in 1967 (turned out to be mid-1968) and didn’t want that hanging over the project. They paid for it.

R415, maybe it wasn’t an actor who tested positive, maybe it was crew.

R416, they just said on the 10:00 news that an actor fell ill but that it's not COVID-related and the show will resume performances with tomorrow's matinee (at least for now anyway).

r416, supposedly food poisoning. Here's a tweet (with the amusing typo "good poisoning") from an audience member, with a shot of the curtain call. Sounds like Patti came out and entertained them for a bit, so it wasn't a complete loss.

Oh dear.

How on earth is food poisoning spreadable to anyone other than who ate/drank from the same food or drink? And to the entire audience? Who's making these decisions to end the performance?

"good poisoning" -- double "oh, dear"!

I agree, R423. Does that make sense to cancel an entire performance just over that? Why not just put on the understudy? Or maybe everyone's so tensed up right now (understandably) that they're just too terrified to take any chances and would cancel over a stubbed toe.

r423, I doubt it was because the illness was contagious--more like they didn't have an understudy ready to go for whatever reason.

Looking at the curtain call photo, the ones who seem to be missing are Etai Benson, Christopher Fitzgerald, and maybe Nikki Renee Daniels? (Plus one of the understudies is on in the part usually played by Manu Narayan.) Any of them could just be cut off on the photo. But that's a lot who aren't there.

Does "Company" still use the Vocal Minority, or off-stage singers, as they used to call it? Can't they have someone off-stage singing and/or reading lines if they can get the rest of the show to continue? Or have someone on book like they did at the recent "Morning's at Seven"? People would put up with it rather than having to go back to New Jersey without having seen a show, I would think.

No more getting pizza from the same place before a show, y'all!

The other night all of the male understudies were on. If that happened again tonite and someone else got sick they’d have to cancel.

Show people. They smile when they are low.

Yes, but nowadays through the masks you can't see their teeth!

Nobody wants to think about that mieskeit JRB’s schlong.

Sunflower.

R434, The melodies are only mildly similar.

R403 I believe I've read on here that ALW threatened Forbidden Broadway with lawsuits to prevent them parodying his stuff for a while.

R436, the story goes that ALW did threaten to sue Forbidden Broadway but he was so roundly ridiculed by his peers that he dropped his plans. Also, parody is one of the few legally protected forms of copyright infringement so there was no certainty as to how successful his suit would have been.

[quote] I believe I've read on here that ALW threatened Forbidden Broadway with lawsuits to prevent them parodying his stuff for a while.

Yes, in the early Phantom of the Opera segment, they used other music. I think ALW was more insulted that Forbidden Broadway took a shot at Sarah Brightman by having the actress wear buck teeth.

Why was she wearing buck teeth?

"Buck never would have been wearing buck teeth!"

r439, presumably to make fun of Brightman?

[quote] Here here [R393]. Why the hell did Billy Crystal pick him for his musical? That is not the songwriter for that sort of comedy.

Well, JRB isn't writing the lyrics this time around.

The Forbidden Broadway Phantom parody did indeed use an altered tune.

But later their parody of Aspects of Love used the Love Changes Everything without altering the melody any.

I find it hard to believe Patti would lie for the show. She’s on record as saying she’s very queasy about the whole safety issue with Covid and isn’t convinced at all by producers. If they lied to her, she’ll surely scream about it at some point and probably sue and walk out. I don’t believe it was food poisoning for a second. No Broadway show cancels for food poisoning.

Half-serious unpopular opinion: name who's been diagnosed. I want to know if swing Kaden McBraden has ruined my evening or if it's stagehand Lois St. John.

oh r442 good point. I forgot. Amanda can be funnier, and more in line with that humor. BTW I see they're only ever doing 7 shows a week.

for r439, in addition to r441's pic

Oh, R447! My eyes are destroyed and you ruined the morning coffee, too. Could those two look any more British? I think not.

The very first edition of Forbidden Broadway featured, "Don't Cry for Me, Barbra Streisand." ALW didn't get in a snit about it. It was Lauren Bacall who put them on the map with her threats about the show's parody of "Woman of the Year." Every other star skewered by the show had a bit thicker skin and played it more artfully. They enjoyed it, or at least claimed to. But they did not make themselves look like a person who should be lampooned in Forbidden Broadway.

What did Bacall say and what did FB say about Betty?

She ranted in print about bringing a suit, closing the show, blah, blah, blah.

[quote]Oh, [R447]! My eyes are destroyed and you ruined the morning coffee, too. Could those two look any more British? I think not.

Reminds me of when FAMILY GUY made the Griffin family British and gave them all gnarly teeth. 😂

Sheesh. I only asked if hottie James Snyder was hurt? Someone had posted on another thread that there was an accident at Harry Potter. Happy Helladays

Not one of Gerard's best at R450.

R453, that song is the foundation on which the entire enterprise rests. The show was but a few weeks old in Palsson's, a tiny club that only sat about 60 or 70 people. It's ability to harm Lauren Bacall was absolutely zero. But that song and Bacall's evil heart made the show the hottest ticket in town and, subsequently, an institution of its own.

I saw WOTY and Bacall was so stiff and awkward in that number. It was as if those chorus boys were performing with a cardboard cutout.

I still can't believe Bacall won two Tonys for Best Actress in a Musical.

For two musicals based on movies, to boot!

This looks like it's the very first NY Times review of FB, with a reference to the Bacall number. I can't find anything online about Bacall's res0onse though

Betty rehearsin'...

Bacall’s win for Applause was a shock even to her because Hepburn was expected to win for Coco. But Hepburn was never embraced by the broadway community. She later won for WOTY because there was no real competition.

Rex Reed wrote about it, very early on. Especially about Bacall.

This was all LONG before the internet, but there are still things to be discovered there about Rex, Bacall, and the early Forbidden Broadway.

Bacall wasn't bad in Applause, but she was still better than Hepburn.

Ethel Merman In row A of Bacall’s opening. She finishes “But Alive!” Merman: Jeezus Christ!

I thought they were both great.

I've always heard the punchline as "Pick a note, Betty," R462. Can you imagine if audiences were as (deservedly) hostile to Hepburn's braying in Coco?

Sorry, r462, but the story of Merman saying that (and not in row A) was at WOMAN OF THE YEAR.

Hepburn had a glorious voice. None of you have a scintilla of taste.

To see the Forbidden Broadway ALW sequence go to the 19:00 mark. And once again, I think he was more insulted about how they portrayed Sarah Brightman than that they were parodying his show.

What would have happened if Hepburn had starred in APPLAUSE and Bacall in COCO?

The interaction of all molecules would have been altered, and COVID would never have happened.

Superb Merman, r467.

[quote]Superb Merman

In the early days of Forbidden Broadway, they had some actors who really knew their stuff. The recordings are good, but to actually see the actors and how they were dressed and moved really proved what an excellent show it was.

The second recording of Liza One Note (with Christine Pedi) is better than the first, though.

Is it finally time for Encores to explore COCO? There's no shortage of fabulous ladies of a certain age to play Chanel.

Some of us say YES... to "A Brand New Dress". Not one's of Chanel's songs, but it's pretty.

I liked Chloe Webb's Carol Channing ("Mista Carmichael and Mista Allesandrini!").

[quote] Is it finally time for Encores to explore COCO? There's no shortage of fabulous ladies of a certain age to play Chanel.

Back in the 1990s, Encores used to ask their audiences what shows they should do. For several years, I listed Coco with Dixie Carter. Alas, they never listened to me and Miss Carter has passed into the great Southern Beyond. But I believe Dixie Carter could have done a great job in Coco, at least for an Encores run.

That Forbidden Broadway song about Bacall would probably get them labeled as transphobic these days.

Musicals in Mufti did it a few years back with Andrea Marcovicci. She was just ok, but hard to really tell with such a stripped-down production. But waiting in line to pee, I did get to tell Andre Previn how much I admired his work. He seemed more interested in getting to the urinal.

FB at Paulson's was always a delight. Not just the cast or the show, but the whole experience.

The Mufti production proved what a bore the book is but the score has some real gems.

Also, Applause is no masterpiece, but it’s a lot better than Coco.

[quote] Applause is no masterpiece

It’s a masterpiece compared to any new score on Broadway right now. I’m looking at you, Doubtfire, Six and Flying Over Sunset.

James Snyder would be good as Margo

James Snyder would be good as Gittel Mosca.

James Snyder would be good in my mouth

So, is this the day that Diana dies all over again?

R460, Rex Reed wrote a scathing Woman of the Year review in 1981 that infuriated Bacall.

They had been at odds since John Lennon's murder in 1980, after he revealed "live" on GMA the morning after that Bacall was a fellow Dakota resident. She berated him for revealing something that was already widely known, and he retaliated by trashing WOTY in print the following year.

I finally got around to watching "The Humans" on Showtime. Jesus Christ, what a horrible movie. This is what drew raves on stage? What a complete waste of time, not to mention a perfectly good cast.

Play was emperors new clothes crap

But I'm sure Beanie will redeem herself in Funny Girl!

[quote]The melodies are only mildly similar.

No, as per this recording of "She's My Sunflower," the melodies of that song and "Hello, Dolly!" are exactly the same, including the pitches and the note values, for the nine or ten notes that make up the repeated title phrases of each song. The section in question begins here at 30 seconds in.

Well, can we all at least agree that Jerry Herman improved on that Sunflower theme?

Gerard Alessandrini has stated that the story about Lloyd Webber denying permission for his music to be used in FORBIDDEN BROADWAY early on is inaccurate, and the reason why one or two of the melodies of ALW songs were changed for those early editions was simply that the music rights hadn't cleared yet. (The show would pay rights for the songs as if they were going to perform them as written, and then GA would write parody lyrics, which were protected by parody laws.)

As others have pointed out, later editions of FB used ALW melodies unaltered.

R490, No, they are not. You're hearing what you want to hear and you are quite wrong. Sorry.

Moonlight in Vermont vs. Autumn in New York.

April in Fairbanks

If you want to do an Andre Previn show with a great score, they should do "The Good Companions", with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, based on the wonderful J.B. Priestly novel about folks joining a touring theatrical company. Mufti did it some years ago, and it holds ups. Never got a full production here, though. Original starred Judi Dench, John Mills with Christopher Gable and Marti Webb.

They'd cancel Coco nowadays anyway since it later came out she was either a Nazi sympathizer and/or collaborator during WWII.

I still want a real production of Lolita, My Love!

With Lisa Welchel in the Dotty Loudon part!

I’m available for the title role!

I thought Lisa Whelchel was supposed to have a decent voice. She was downright hideous sounding on the Facts of Life thing a couple weeks ago.

R501, I didn't see the show but thought people blamed her mike cutting in and out for that?

Microphones cutting in and out don't cause you to sing totally off key.

I thought her voice sounded tuned. I did only watch it once.

Roz

Anyone going to Music Man invited dress?

The PICNIC scene is a lot more effective than the one in the movie.

I think it felt more immediate, r507.

Madonna, New Faces 2021

The only part of Sunflower that’s the same is “She’s a sunflower, she’s my sunflower” which corresponds to “hello, Dolly, well hello Dolly” after which it veers in a completely different direction.

Man, Debbie Allen was on fire in the West Side Story revival. I'd hazard a guess the best danced Anita outside of Chita.

She definitely was a stand-out on the Tonys that year.

I was in high school when I saw that 80s revival of WSS. The reviews were tepid, but I thought it was fantastic.

And that Maria ended up getting the lead in Guys & Dolls and kiss hot young Peter Gallagher when they fired Carolyn Magnini , and then get fired herself from Nick & Nora

[quote] Microphones cutting in and out don't cause you to sing totally off key.

Uh, yes they do.

The original Forbidden Broadway revues were genius. And then I had to go and meet GA. He was a real putz.

r514, she was fired from Nick & Nora before Guys and Dolls (it's what freed her to do G&D after Magnani was fired there).

rereading your post, maybe that's what you meant. I wasn't sure.

So how on earth is music man going to protect itself from Covid with all those kids

Canova

How on earth is The Music Man going to protect itself from the fact that it has Harold Hill and Marion Paroo tap dancing together?

Wait, when did librarians start tap dancing?

Just saw. Diana: The Musical commercial after Saturday Night Live, that seems like flushing money down the toilet.

Well, they've got that all that Windsor fuck you money, don't they?

[quote]To see the Forbidden Broadway ALW sequence go to the 19:00 mark. And once again, I think he was more insulted about how they portrayed Sarah Brightman than that they were parodying his show.

We should all be grateful he didn't adapt Citizen Kane as a musical and star her as Susan Alexander, R467.

R497, I never got to see the show, but I could definitely say "Stage Struck" from The Good Companions, done well, would make a sensational audition piece.

[quote] We should all be grateful he didn't adapt Citizen Kane as a musical and star her as Susan Alexander,

He was at one point going to produce a version of A Star is Born. She could have been Mrs. Norman Maine.

Sarah Brightman IS ... Helen of Troy.

Sarah Brightman IS…Typhoid Mary.

It's Carolyn Mignini, not Magnani.

That's all we need in 2022 - a musical about a plague starter.

GOOD COMPANIONS has a sweet score, but there must be a reason it doesn't get revived often. Or at all.

Just watched a youtube clip of the curtain call on Broadwayworld.com of that Britney Spears musical Once Upon a One More Time try out in DC that recently opened.

If you wan to confirm your worst fears about the death of Broadway and musical theatre, do have a look. I couldn't get beyond the atrocious choreography and costume design to even consider the music.

But hey! Here's to Girl Power!!!

So the Public Theater is now requiring 24-hour Covid test results from all audience members! How fast will people start canceling tickets?

I shudder to think of the state of theater a year from now. Sadly, I fear that once we get through omicron there will be another wave of something else. The world is changing more rapidly than we realize and theater will be one of the things that will be most affected and damaged.

[quote]theater will be one of the things that will be most affected and damaged

Perhaps it can some day return as a more relevant art form and a more affordable entertainment option.

I don't know how 'more affordable' you want it to be, R536. The Music Man with its ticket prices is an outlier. There's plenty of good, even great Broadway available (as B'way goes these days) for under $50. Sure it may be rush and sure you may have to work a bit to get it, but it's there to be had. Nearly every show has some sort of low-price ticket option.

Sure, for a family of four, that's still a $200+ night out for the tickets alone (and please don't reply with something about parking and the meal before and after or the sitter). But what are these low-price options for entertainment for that mythical family of four that cost so much less, other than staying at home? And why must every form of entertainment cater to that demographic?

I have tickets to the Public Theater next week. I guess I'll be standing in a long line to get a rapid test.

R493, in the recording I linked to -- NOT in the Sinatra recording -- the nine or ten notes (depending on how you count it) that make up the relevant sections of "You're My Sunflower" and "Hello, Dolly!" are, indeed, exactly the same.

[quote]The only part of Sunflower that’s the same is “She’s a sunflower, she’s my sunflower” which corresponds to “hello, Dolly, well hello Dolly” after which it veers in a completely different direction.

Yes, exactly, but I assume it's the fact that the main melody of the choruses of both songs are the same for nine or ten notes in succession that prompted the lawsuit to begin with. If the similarity was in another section of the song, it might not have been an issue at all.

I read the original book 'The Good Companions" recently. It was a huge bestseller around 1929, and it still holds up. It's like 650 pages, and frankly, I didn't want to end. I want to read it again sometime. Just wonderful about 3 people from different walks of life who chuck it all, and end up meeting by chance and joining a touring musical company. The idea of a musical party (sort of a touring vaudeville company) was thought by some producers not to be familiar to American audiences, which is one reason I've heard they didn't produce the show here in the U.S., but it's really like a just a musical touring group. Fabulous score, and it would appeal to people who like "Gypsy", "42nd Street", kinds of backstage musicals.

Yes, Good Companions was deemed “too British” to translate to American audiences (same thing with “Billy,” which had been a huge London hit with Michael Crawford three years earlier).

As to the London version of The Good Companions, there was a wave of IRA bombings in London that summer and fall (1974), and that was thought to have contributed to the short (7 months) run.

Judi...

[quote] Wait, when did librarians start tap dancing?

When Sutton Foster was cast.

Well, Shirley Jones and presumably, Barbara Cook did the Onna White choreography which did have them dancing when giving in at moments during the great "Marian the Librarian" number, plus also when Harold is asked to show the latest dance steps while partnering Marian during "Shipoopi". However, thus far there was no Marilyn Miller tap specialty inserted, as she would have certainly have requested.

R542 Interesting that it was considered too British, since Johnny Mercer was American and Andre Previn had made America his home. While there are quite a few British references, I think it would still be enjoyable to Americans who would pretty much understand what is going on in the show.

[quote] Well, Shirley Jones and presumably, Barbara Cook did the Onna White choreography

Yes, there are pictures of Cook and Preston dancing in “Shipoopi.” No one has problems with Marion dancing a bit, because she always has. But the rehearsal clip SuttFo posted the other day was her and Hugh doing a tap routine, which seems wrong for Marion.

Hugh loves to tap

No one is alone...

R543 - that's lovely. I wonder if Dench was ever considered for A Little Night Music's original London production. I know she did Desiree in the 90s, but her voice in that Good Companions song sounds PERFECT for Desiree even back then. She would have been 40 then.

I doubt it, r550, she didn't have movie star recognition in 1975....which is what they went with.

R548, And how!

DREAMGIRLS B'way '84 Act Two Opening

That ‘84 DREAMGIRLS revival was better than the original. Originally it was a limited run but then Bennett died and ticket sales increased so it ended up running several months.

the original dreamgirls was still running in 84. the "revival" was a tour that came to bway in 87.

Wow, that's so good, R553. I've often read about Michael Bennett's legendary staging, but outside of the Tony Awards clip, I've never seen video of the production (the original or these '84 revisions.) If only there were a full production in this quality.

Eldergays, any of you had Howard McGillin? He was SO dashing. I mean, he's still very good looking as he approaches 70, but he was gorgeous in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

I lived in Park Slope in the 1980s and would see Howard with his wife and passel of kids on the subway station at Grand Army Plaza. He looked miserable. Gorgeous, but miserable.

Isn't Howard ill?

I have not “had” Howard McGillin, but I’ve seen his dick (not erect) and it’s huge. He was a swimmer and has kept his swimmer’s body as he aged.

He has two sons. The oldest is almost 40 and has had some problems, I think. The youngest, Brian, had a baby a couple of years ago, so Howard is a proud grandfather. And he’s not ill.

R560 But he is gay?

Gay and out, R562.

R562, Gay, out and married.

Dick Samson is a perfect 70s porn name.

And just for gossip's sake, this is the CV of the [italic]Secret Garden[/italic] stage manager he was in a relationship with when the marriage broke up.

Gay, out, married, hung.

I changed the order for you r566: Hung, married, gay, out, married.

I must have missed something. Why is the Secret Garden's SM's CV of interest to us?

It's of interest to DL headhunters, r568.

Broadway Covid Cancellations – An Updated List:

Broadway League not considering industry shutdown amid COVID cancellations:

THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1981, "Dreamgirls" opened at the Imperial Theatre.

Broadway can’t shutdown again. Many shows would simply not reopen. The next month or so is going to be bad but I’m being optimistic and hoping things will get back on track by the end of January.

[quote]"‘West Side Story’ Sequel In The Works As Ethnic Groups Reclaim Their Stories" by Forbes' Marc Hershberg - "... Long Wharf Theatre has commissioned a sequel to the beloved Broadway musical. While the details are still being determined, the new musical named Maria will focus on what happens to the female protagonist after the curtain comes down in the original show."

What would be the rights situation in this case? Surely the Bernstein/Laurents/Sondheim estates could shut this down?

Or grab a piece of it r574.

JULIAN MARSH NEEDS TO DO A SHOW!

A Strange Loop is coming to Broadway. I guess people have money to burn.

Well, the woke Broadway NYC theater queens are the only ones who will see it, R 577.

and who's going the 2nd week?

HAMILTON has now cancelled all shows until after Christmas.

I can't believe Thoughts of a Colored Man is still running. Who the hell is going to see THAT? It's been on TDF since Day One and is ALWAYS available.

If they can't even get people in to see Slave Play with all the noise JOH makes, then who do they think is going to come see a musical about a fat, effeminate, ugly black bottom who whines that no one wants to fuck him?

A Strange Loop annoyed the shit out of me. A protagonist who is a lard-ass, whiny, self-pitying musical theater writer bottom ? Good Lord.

All of you know why it's being produced, so it makes no sense to question why. It might be better to question what Broadway's going full woke will mean for its future.

[quote] It might be better to question what Broadway's going full woke will mean for its future.

Lack of a future, I’m sad to predict.

r581 and r582 you each mention he's a bottom, is that in the show, or are you surmising?

It's in the show. He talks at length and in great detail about bottoming.

How...vivid.

I'm wondering if a new musical about a young Puerto Rican girl who happens to be named Maria needs to have permission from any estate if the plot doesn't involve or even name any of the WSS characters. Perhaps there's a clever way to infer all that came before?

[quote] It's in the show. He talks at length and in great detail about bottoming.

Broadway is dead

‘Stars In The House’ Sets Special Omicron Episode Tonight With Covid Experts & Broadway Performers:

For anyone interested, HBO is showing a documentary tonight about the Public Theater called "Reopening Night." It airs at 10pm ET.

Jagged little pill is done. I bet they’re thrilled to have COVID as scapegoat

And Seth’s guests include Jagged Little Pill cast members Elizabeth Stanley, Lauren Patten and Kathryn Gallagher

As R592 said:

By spring the only shows running will be Hamilton and The Music Man with tickets affordable for billionaires.

My show can play forever, because it's the perfect show, suitable for the entire family.

You say that like it's a bad thing, R595.

Shipoopi!

New thread. Be kind.

Bajour!