THEATRE GOSSIP #482: Jerry Herman dragged his crippled ass to the Kennedy Center Honors and so can Liza

Harsh OP

well dammit, start your own 482!

Okay, well.

Ya got us here, OP.

So there's that.

Is there a permanent committee that chooses the KCH? Or does it change annually? Maybe these folks just aren't into Liza. Simple as that.

Let me tell you something about Liza as of late... Girl likes to party and hold court. I saw this at her last appearance with Michael Feinstein a few weeks ago. She walked out with the help of 2 guys and sat and sang her ballad. Afterwards she smoked and drank backstage with friends and told stories by the piano. There's tons of video clips of her all over TikTok. There's plenty of parties happening for the KC Honoree's. Liza has done a lot for HIV research and a hell of a lot for dancers and the broadway community. Give the legend her flowers while she's alive. Maybe she turned them down because it doesn't pay?

Shirley MacLaine KCH tribute with Kathy Bates, Sutton Foster, etc.

Great thread title OP, LOL!

I wish Betty Buckley would get an honor so that someone could sing “And Eve Was Weak” in front of Joe and Dr. Jill Biden. They go in thinking they would hear peppy showtunes and you hear the slow intro of French horn…then…

I would have camera closeups on them during

“He Will Burn Youuuu!”

OP, I hate nearly every Theatre Gossip thread title that comes along, and yours...

does not suck.

Link to previous thread, which is grayed out above and doesn't appear, for me, anyway.

Folks in the know, is there any chance of the current West End productions of Cabaret or Grease transferring to Broadway?

Oh please, the last thing Broadway needs is another fucking revival of either of those 2 shows.

What is Aaron Tveit's next venture?

Who's heading to the Berkshires in August to see A Little Night Music?

I'm heading there next week to see the trans/all female Most Happy Fella!

[quote]Who's heading to the Berkshires in August to see A Little Night Music?

However does please report here.

I'm going to step on a grenade and admit that I like Sierra Boggess and I think in a few more years she would make a great Desiree. In her belt voice she has a tendency to go sharp, she needs to work on that, but she's got great acting chops and deserves to try some of the juicy mature roles.

Oops

I meant WHOEVER

Whomever

I wish Cabaret, Grease, Gypsy and A Little Night Music had never seen the light of night. Then we wouldn't be subjected to constant revivals of them. I know I don't have to go but just hearing about them coming back seems like something out of a nightmare.

[quote]Oops

[quote]I meant WHOEVER

[quote]Whomever

"Whoever does" is correct.

I assumed Liza had one. That's disgraceful.

Or should I say, dischgraschful?

Liza has friends, close ones, on the Kennedy Center's Special Honors Advisory Committee, the group that makes the recommendations of honorees. It truly is a mystery why she hasn't been recognized.

[quote] I wish Cabaret, Grease, Gypsy and A Little Night Music had never seen the light of night. Then we wouldn't be subjected to constant revivals of them.

I never need to see Grease again on stage or screen. But as for the others you mention, I would say American theatre has certain masterworks, both plays and musicals, that are part of our contribution to the tradition as an art form. Major opera companies revive La boheme, Carmen, Magic Flute or La Traviata every year. Ballet companies will not go a season without a Swan Lake, Giselle, The Nutcracker or Romeo and Juliet. In London, the major Shakespeare plays are always in revival year after year and no one says "Hamlet again?" We too have our great plays and musicals that are part of the canon. It's Streetcar, Salesman, Glass Menagerie, Long Day's Journey, or View from the Bridge on the play side, and I suppose about a dozen major musicals that are frequently in revival. I actually do not think Little Night Music is overdone, compared with some of the other Sondheim titles. Cabaret and Gypsy certainly are revived a lot - but if some great female star wants to take on Gypsy, why not? Cabaret, for me, is a miracle, and I'll see it whenever and wherever it is done. The new London production appealed to me a lot more than the sledgehammer Mendes version.

I wish there was a great revival of the original Prince CABARET. Not a literal revival of that production but one that went back to that libretto. I still vividly remember seeing Prince's production 4 times with Lotte Lenya when I was in high school.

CABARET is definitely coming over.

Every singer I know is submitting a self tape for SWEENEY

Alex Newell is Johannx. Peppermint is Beggar Person.

I wouldn't mind the same R24. Perhaps with the rewrite from the Prince revival in the 80s making Cliff bisexual.

Some of the fabric of the original Cabaret has been lost with the revivals. I could make a case for the necessity of "The Telephone Song," with its depiction of easy and open sexuality, which included a gay couple in the original staging. It was much more than just an arbitrary dance number - it adds to the depiction of Berlin 1929. Or "Meeskite," often dismissed as just specialty material for Jack Gilford, when it builds the dread of the party scene that ends Act 1, where Herr Schultz thinks he's among friends, but doesn't realize that the song's Yiddishisms brands him as the "other." I also don't think the show needs the pile-up of Act 1 songs for Sally that started with the Mendes production. You don't need "Don't Tell Mama" and "Mein Herr," much as I love them both. But even as I question some of the things that have been done to Cabaret, it's still one of the most audacious shows of the 20th century.

The Prince revival of Cabaret was deadly and dull.

[quote] The Prince revival of Cabaret was deadly and dull.

So what?

r30

see r24 , you dolt

R28, we do need “Don’t Tell Mama.” It’s our first intro to Sally and it shows us she’s high energy and free wheeling. I agree we don’t need “Mein Herr.” I go back and forth between “Maybe This Time.” Cabaret has always been Act 1 top heavy. I think in the original rendering Act 1 runs 90 minutes and Act 2 runs 30 minutes.

R31, turn in your gay card.

"Maybe This Time" has always seemed to be a typical mid-century show ballad shoehorned into the film, where all of her other songs at least have the flavor of the period. Love the song, love Liza's performance, but would not include it onstage. (I do think the addition of I Don't Care Much, cut from the original, could work.)

Oh sorry, R31. I didn't realize I was dealing with the Kevin Sessums psychotic.

All I suggested keeping from the Prince revival version is the rewrite that made Cliff bisexual, which they didn't do in the original production. Probably a bridge too far at the time.

People saying “Maybe this time” not needed has obviously never seen a revival of Grease with an audience where they don’t perform “Hopelessly devoted to you” and “You’re the One that I want”

Audiences get ANGRY when they don’t hear the songs they love

Anyone see THE KITE RUNNER? Thoughts?

DL fave Joanna Gleason and her hawt son at 54 Below!

Who's had him?

I haven't seen it, but this review caught my attention this morning. FYI, there are spoilers throughout it.

I don’t know anything about The Kite Runner, but I don’t think groomer obsessed bigots go anywhere near Broadway or have any interest in drama or art, so it’s safe to say they won’t love it.

Yikes. Who exactly is the audience for THE KITE RUNNER?

I'll take a pass.

I think it's just people who've read the book, since it was a bestseller. Just another case of IP being exploited. The book was a hit, so some people saw an opportunity to make more money off of it.

"My Man" isn't in the stage show, but here's Lea doing her Barbra impression.

Is she really going to imitate all of Streisand's phrasing in FG?

Maybe This Time wasn't written for either the show or the film. Kander and Ebb wrote it in the early 60s for Kay Ballard to use in her club act. It became a staple on the NYC cabaret circuit and Liza had recorded it twice. When Fosse wanted more material for Liza, it was a natural fit.

r44, SPOILER: Yes.

The play of "The Kite Runner" began as a faculty-directed student-acted production done by the playwright/adapter Matt Spangler at San Jose State, where he teaches. I've known Matt for over twenty years and he is a superb playwright and director and, most relevant to the charges above, not remotely homophobic in his professional and personal life. I will confess I've never been a huge fan of the novel itself, but Matt is very committed to the welfare of immigrants and to the production of good art (he has written a one-man script called "Albatross," based on the Coleridge poem and is a Joyce scholar, as well), and this has been a passion project of his for years--so good on him, as an academic NOT at an Ivy or Northwestern who got a script on Broadway. He's one of the nicest people I know. Does that make this play or production merit-worthy? Not in and of itself and I haven't seen it or read the script (though hope to get to the production). I think the critic's beef should be with the source novel--from what I can tell, Matt's adaptation is extremely faithful to it. (Some critics might say too faithful, as he uses the conventions of chamber/narrative theatre meticulously).

Could the divine soul who rushes to close the end of threads with 7 posts in a row PERHAPS remember to put a link to the new thread as ONE of those posts?

[quote] he is a superb playwright and director

But is he hot?

[quote] Could the divine soul who rushes to close the end of threads with 7 posts in a row PERHAPS remember to put a link to the new thread as ONE of those posts?

Surely you understand that most times a new thread is not created until the old one closes.

I'm not r48, but r50, that's the point. The best way to do it is to start a new thread before the old one closes and post a link before the rush of BAJOUR! posts close out the thread so people know where to go next. When it doesn't happen, it often results in a multiple new threads since new ones don't come up in a search yet (as we saw with the four 479s).

Yes, but then you get some pain in the ass who creates a new thread when we still have 75 posts to go.

Got my tickets for A Man Of No Importance yesterday by joining CSC. Without John Doyle running the place, there could be some worthwhile shows next season after AMONI.

r52 So what? Just because a new thread is created doesn't mean you have to move to it until the old one is done.

Anyway the point is academic, since in this case the idiot filling the thread up with Bajour in the last thread is also the OP of this thread.

Did Kander & Ebb know that Kaye was a lady lover when they wrote Maybe This Time?

Liza made it work as the girl who had so many issues that she couldn’t keep a man.

Maybe Kaye couldn’t keep make relationships because men weren’t her thing? The song also seems too vulnerable for Kaye.

Danny Kaye? Kaye Thompson? Kaye Ballard?

Who are you talking about? The character is named Sally Bowles.

Lea Michele is doing a concert here in Boston this Sunday. Website said it’s sold out.

Kaye Ballard does vulnerable with this song from the musical "Carnival"

When Kaye Ballard and Liz Smith bumped pussies, it looked like the tuna steak display at the seafood market.

[Quote] Danny Kaye? Kaye Thompson? Kaye Ballard? Who are you talking about? The character is named Sally Bowles

Read instead of shooting off your sassy mouth r56. See r45.

R57, The venue where she's performing, City Winery, has a seating capacity of just 100.

[quote]Matt is very committed to the welfare of immigrants and to the production of good art (he has written a one-man script called "Albatross," based on the Coleridge poem

Nobody loves an "Albatross."

[quote]Kander and Ebb wrote it in the early 60s for Kay Ballard to use in her club act.

She was only "Kay" Ballard during the short run of "Molly."

R63, How odd.

I concur.

Kaye was momentarily under the spell of a psychic/numerologist, and that’s who told he she needed to drop the “e” from her name. Kaye did, but then realized what bullshit it was and went back to “Kaye”.

[quote]We do need “Don’t Tell Mama.” It’s our first intro to Sally and it shows us she’s high energy and free wheeling. I agree we don’t need “Mein Herr.” I go back and forth between “Maybe This Time.”

The stage version doesn't need, and suffers from the inclusion of, "Mein Herr" and "Maybe This Time." The only reason those songs were included in the Mendes revival was not to disappoint people who only know CABARET from the movie and therefore expect to hear those songs.

A lot of prickly, unhappy queens on this thread.

Did Sondheim even say no to any new concept for one of his shows? Hammerstein, his mentor, was famous for turning down new concepts.

I've been on other continuous threads and the key is to not have anyone start a new one until the old one is past 580 or so.

I get that this one moves fast, though, so I guess that's easier said than done.

[quote]Did Sondheim even say no to any new concept for one of his shows? Hammerstein, his mentor, was famous for turning down new concepts.

He reportedly said not to a production of COMPANY with a gay male Bobby, directed by Billy Porter (!!!!), that was tried out some years ago. I think it was done as a workshop and then was not allowed to go forward.

[quote]The only reason those songs were included in the Mendes revival was not to disappoint people who only know CABARET from the movie and therefore expect to hear those songs.

Somehow I doubt that he was trying to please those people, given the performance he allowed from Horrocks, and the fact it was at the Donmar.

I actually likes Horrocks in the Donnie Cabaret. I like that kind of thing though. I would rather that…than a paint by numbers Sally where you know what she’s going to to do before she opens her mouth.

There was an all-male FORUM that fell apart, too, with the wonderful Christopher Fitzgerald as Pseudolus. Does anyone know why? Did Sondheim nix it?

r73 Oh I agree, I just meant the kind of people annoyed at not hearing the song from the film aren't likely to get her performance either

[quote]There was an all-male FORUM that fell apart, too, with the wonderful Christopher Fitzgerald as Pseudolus. Does anyone know why? Did Sondheim nix it?

I don't think it "fell apart." I believe there was a tour or mini-tour of the production. I saw it in New Jersey and thought it was delightful overall.

I saw an interview with Natasha Richardson around the time Cabaret opened and she said it was her suggestion to add Maybe This Time to the Roundabout revival.

r70, that's usually the case here too (r52 is full of it). Even then people will complain. I started one at r590 a few threads back and the first poster in the new thread said, "Started this a little early, didn't you?" Someone's always going to bitch.

[quote]I saw an interview with Natasha Richardson around the time Cabaret opened and she said it was her suggestion to add Maybe This Time to the Roundabout revival.

Kristin Chenoweth did this with "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown." In the original show, there is a character called Patty who is just glorified chorus. When they did the revival, they decided they needed another prominent female besides Lucy. Chenoweth said she went into the audition and they didn't yet have her named and she said, "Just make the character Sally." I'm sure the producers rolled their eyes and thought, "We're way ahead of you."

Directed by Funny Girl hack Michael Mayer ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The all-male FORUM was originally done at Williamstown and then went on to Two River Theatre in NJ. It was directed and conceived by Jessica Stone who directed the new musical of KIMBERLY AKIMBO. It starred her hubbie Chris Fitzgerald and Michael Urie as well as some other great young actors whose names I'm blanking on. So, besides being all male it was also cast relatively young instead of with the usual alta cockers which brought a breath of fresh air.

I didn't see it....just heard great things. In any case, I don't think Sondheim nixed it going forward.

There was some mention in the previous thread about Lapine and Andre Bishop being lovers . What about Lapine and Sondheim in the 80s?

Apparently, the Roundabout wanted to transfer that all-male FORUM but insisted that Stone recast some of it, including her husband who played Pseudolus, and she refused and they dropped it. Fucking Roundabout!

I wouldn't want to be in the audience of a production of The Sound of Music where they don't include Something Good.

r82

Hmm.. that never occurred to me that SOndheim and Lapine could be lovers... Steve seemed so asexual... who did Steve have sex with? Hal, Arthur, Leonard?

[quote]Steve seemed so asexual... who did Steve have sex with? Hal, Arthur, Leonard?

Not to mention the third chorus boy from the left.

[Quote] saw an interview with Natasha Richardson around the time Cabaret opened and she said it was her suggestion to add Maybe This Time to the Roundabout revival.

And then she died

Sonndheim and Anthony Perkins were boyfriends in the late 60s/early 70s. Perkins was offered the direction of the 11 short one act plays Company is based on and took them to Sondheim for his opinion. Sondheim showed them to Hal Prince. Originally Perkins was to play Bobby but he dropped out and was replaced by Dean Jones.

'who did Steve have sex with? Hal, Arthur, Leonard?'

I would have slept with Hal. He lived the life of a heterosexual but according to posters here he was bi. I'd like to think so but I have never heard of any man who slept with him.

Hal Prince?

Silver daddy Hal Prince?

I'd have ridden his dick until it snapped off in my asshole.

Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber were lovers.

Who put that grin on Hal Prince’s face?

Sondheim comes across as completely asexual

Larry Fuller, Michael Bennett, Victor Garber...

Hal Prince once groped an ex-lover of mine.

and your ex should be gropeful for that

And then he died.

Larry Fuller was with Prince at some point. Sondheim had him too?

Definitely not Arthur, although Arthur may have wanted people to think so.

Who the fuck would want any part of that piece of shit Arthur?

I lived to regret it, R99.

[quote] who did Steve have sex with?

Check the dungeon?

Hal Prince cruised 24-year-old me in the lobby of Boston's Shubert Theatre in 1976 where the musical Rex was playing prior to Broadway.

R91, That premise is less believable than Patti LuPone and ALW being lovers.

ALW looks like someone who would give guys monkeypox.

Sweeney with Beanie and Spivey but in their contracts they never have to show up at all.

Regarding Tony Roberts from the last thread: Ken Davenport could play him in the bio-musical.

ALW looks like someone who would give monkeys monkeypox.

Would love to hear proof of the Sondheim-Perkins relationship. Perkins taste leaned toward young pretty men: Tab Hunter, Grover Dale, etc.

This reminds me of the folklore of Larry Kert's "Who do I have to fuck to get out of Company?" birthday joke and the retort ("The same person you fucked to get into it."). Did Larry fuck Hal or Stephen?

We are just out of stories

ha!

Did I tell you about the time Laurette Taylor hit me in the head with a fondue pot?

Oh, that’s right. More info, please, on Tony Roberts’s huge cock.

[quote]Billy Boy, please tell me you didn't travel all the way to San Francisco just to take in that production of Follies?!

The answer is yes, sort of... It was my husband’s birthday, and he let me know a few weeks in advance that what he wanted was to go to SF to see this production of Follies. It’s his favorite show, and he actually has a room in our home dedicated to Follies memorabilia. So once I realized that we could get tickets, I decided to take him to SF for what amounted to a long, romantic weekend.

So, here’s my “review” of the San Francisco Playhouse production of FOLLIES. It’s just my humble opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. And understand that I spent much of my career as a musician, composer, orchestrator, arranger, and musical director, so that history influences my point of view. (I apologize for the length of my review.)

As I’ve mentioned, we went to see this production with meager expectations, based on comments and pictures posted on the DL website. The production can best be described as semi-professional, with the four leads being Equity actors and the rest of the cast being non-Equity or locals. The theater is relatively small – about three hundred seats - located on the second floor of a hotel. I’m guessing that before it became a theater, it was the ballroom for the hotel, similar to the old Edison Theatre in New York City.

The proscenium is not very wide, with little wing space or fly space, and the set that greeted us as we went in was certainly less-than-inspiring. Follies takes place in a theater about to be torn down and replaced by a parking lot, so many productions create an eerie, dilapidated environment haunted by the ghosts of past Follies girls. The National Theatre production that many are familiar with captured this beautifully. This SF set piece looked like the lobby of a Spanish-themed movie theatre that shows art films, certainly not about to be torn down. Again, not a great start to what we hoped would be an exciting evening.

-2-

BUT, everything quickly changed for us. In bold strokes, let me summarize what didn’t work and what did work:

What Didn’t Work

The costumes were terrible. Probably because of a low budget, these costumes looked like they were off-the-rack or personal clothing of some of the actors. Very amateurish, not appropriate for the period (the 70s and flashback), and definitely not flattering.

The actors were good, but not great. There were no standout performances. I suspect that Natascia Diaz (as Sally) was suffering from exhaustion and laryngitis. I’ve seen her several times before, and this was not Diaz at her best. Her acting was strong, but she struggled through numbers and was pitchy. Chris Vettel as Ben and Anthony Rollins-Mullens as Buddy both sang well. And Maureen McVerry as Phyllis seemed to be channeling Jan Maxwell (not a bad thing to do), but she seemed at least a decade or two older than Sally and definitely not a dancer (think Blythe Danner).

There were no statuesque follies girls to haunt the entire proceedings. Instead, there was an array of what I would call community theater chorus girls - some relatively short, some full-figured – but lacking any semblance of that Las Vegas showgirl look. And the costumes sure didn’t help.

What Did Work

The music was terrific. The seven-piece live band played expertly, using an arrangement that captured the spirit of the piece. I left the theater humming the tunes as if I had heard them for the first time.

The choreography was terrific. I’ve never seen better overall dancing in Follies except for Michael Bennet’s original staging. I’ll give more details later.

The direction was inspired. Bill English approached the piece with both a reverence for the original material and an understanding of what could and should be improved. He put everything back on the table from the original production. He carefully edited and added as needed. He took his less-than-ideal cast and put them into a perfectly conceived production – worthy of our attention. Again, more detail to follow.

What we thought would be bad scenery turned out to work exceptionally well. First - because of the narrowness of the stage - the cast was forced into a relatively confined space that made it seem like a real party – crowded and noisy. Beautiful Girls, for instance, filled the stage, even though there were probably only eight ladies. And while the stage was narrow, it was very deep. AND it had a full turntable! The chintzy opening set quickly revolved to reveal a much more cavernous space, which the director and the set designer used to whisk us to various corners of the theater. It reminded me of the National Theater turntable, but on that narrow SF Playhouse stage, it had much more of an impact. Finally, when needed, the scenery could be moved to the back of the stage, allowing a lot of room for some exciting dance numbers.

-3-

Some of the highlights for me included:

The director and choreographer improved many numbers by adding dancers to them. For instance, in Ah! Paree!, he gave Solange two comic French sailor dancers to work with during the number. It was pretty funny and perhaps the best-staged version of this number I’ve ever seen. It perfectly matched The Whitmans with their Rain On The Roof choreography and added balance when both groups joined Hattie for Broadway Baby. You didn’t leave the moment feeling like Solange and The Whitmans had intruded on Hattie’s finale. It worked.

The Right Girl was originally conceived as a song and dance number for Gene Nelson (who was terrific in the original Broadway production). Here, the director pairs Buddy and Young Buddy, allowing older, wiser Buddy to choreographically challenge Young Buddy, who is waiting for the ‘right girl’ Sally upstairs. The actor playing Young Buddy was a terrific dancer, and the two paired off in a well-performed number. So, again, it worked well.

And the director restored the Bolero! Originally danced by Vincent and Vanessa, here he gave it to The Whitmans, who danced the number shadowed by their young ghosts. Surprisingly, the two older actors playing the Whitmans were terrific dancers and wowed us with their agility in what was, once again, perfect choreography. And once again, it worked!

But best of all was their creation (or re-creation) of the original Mirror Mirror number. Of course, it starts with the old gals flanking Stella while she sings Who’s That Woman? I was afraid these seniors wouldn’t make it through one chorus of the number. But boy, was I wrong. They all tapped the entire number... and not some shuffle, hop, shuffle nonsense, but some challenging choreography. And like the original, they were mirrored in the back by their younger selves. Because of the spinning turntable, we could see every perspective of the number, including that crucial moment when the ghosts “break” the mirror and join their older selves in a precision finale that rivaled the Rockettes. They must have worked on this number for months to make it work so well. The audience went crazy with yelling and applause throughout and at the end of the number.

One bit of trivia about the Mirror Mirror number. The actress who played Stella also doubled (for some unknown reason) as Heidi (One More Kiss). I didn’t realize it until I checked the program. So that means that for the first time anywhere, Old Heidi danced in the Mirror number! I’d like to see Regina Resnick do that.

-4-

There was an intermission added. (I still have mixed feelings about that, but as I get older, my bladder appreciates the pause.) Usually, this interval is done following Two Many Mornings, with Act II starting with The Right Girl. But the director chose to put the intermission following I’m Still Here. It ended the first act on a high, triumphant note, and none of the audience seemed bothered.

Loveland - while sadly costumed - was where the choreographer got to shine. I’ve seen Buddy’s Blues done as a solo, with burlesque girls, with drag queens, etc., but the director chose to portray Sally and Margie as wind-up dolls, complete with giant keys in their back that needed to be turned to get them going. The concept, along with Buddy dancing his way through his life, provided an excellent rendition of the number.

In The Ballad of Lucy & Jesse, the director and choreographer knew they had a non- dancing Phyllis, so yes, they surrounded her with male dancers who lifted and moved her around the stage. But, they also added two female dancers: Lucy and Jesse. So Phyllis gets to explain her dual personality dilemma using the two dancers as her foil. The girls danced well, and the choreography felt like Fosse’s work in Chicago. It worked so well that I forgot that Phyllis couldn’t dance.

And finally, the director’s intermingling of the ghosts with the leads throughout the production was very well done. Lots of almost touching, mouthing the exact words, looks of recognition, and paralleled movements all happening on the small stage worked well and enhanced the story. The only productions that did it better were the original Broadway production and the one at National Theater, where they had a ghost for every character.

I could go on, but I just want to mention one other production that was one of my favorites – perhaps for some of the reasons I liked this one. In 1976, the Equity Library Theater in New York did a production of Follies with a wonderful cast on a tiny stage. It had the same challenges as the SF Playhouse production and triumphed in many of the same ways. Most impressive was doing Follies on a postage stamp stage. Who knew it would work? But it did!

Thank you for the detailed review, Billy Boy. You're very generous! I'm not sure I could dislike so many aspects of a production and be as positive about it as you are.

A Broadway transfer was nixed because the Roundabout wanted someone other than Christopher Fitzgerald in the lead? What morons -- I expect that he was wonderful in it.

r117 - Yes, thank you Billy Boy. I saw that Stella doubled with Heidi. She must have been "the Voice" among the cast. Was Heidi not in Beautiful Girls?

Roundabout has been run by one massive moron for years.

[quote] R57 Lea Michele is doing a concert here in Boston this Sunday. Website said it’s sold out.

[quote] R67 The venue where she's performing, City Winery, has a seating capacity of just 100.

I see the little minx is planning her strategy wisely. Hopefully Beanie just skims the headlines.

[quote{R114 It’s my boyfriend’s favorite show, and he actually has a room in our home dedicated to Follies memorabilia

I am staring at this. Open mouthed.

I don't have an entire room dedicated to FOLLIES, but the husbear and I do update the seasonal displays of our Madame Alexander collections (in the upstairs extra bedroom).

Last fall we did a whole series of FOLLIES tableaux. They were such a hit with friends that we may bring them back again right before the holiday season kicks off.

Liza and I are both waiting for our Kennedy Center Honors.

Same R123. Same. I do not understand the bizarre obsession with this show.

r113 I only know of a woman he occasionally slept with LONG ago who said he’s big.

Good times and bum times/I've seen 'em all and my dear/I'm still queer

But Becket Cook isn't!

Roundabout only casts *stars* baby.

Or maybe I should say Roundabout miscasts stars.

[quote]Would love to hear proof of the Sondheim-Perkins relationship.

Decades ago I heard an interview with Perkins where he said he "stayed" with Sondheim [he said in what period, but I forget]. I remember him saying "He was so particular that if there was a sock poking out of a drawer you'd hear about it." I thought it was odd, if Perkins was only a houseguest, that Sondheim was inspecting the neatness of his room. In other words, I thought that was your proof. Am I reading too much in, DL?

[quote]Am I reading too much in, DL?

On the DL, that is a LITERAL impossibility.

Wasn’t Hal Prince straight?

When I was a gayling, I recall seeing pictures of producer Cameron MacIntosh and thinking how hot he was. Now he’s old and fat but he’s still sexy to me.

Wasn’t Calvin Klein straight? I mean, he married a woman, didn’t he?

There *is* something kinda sexy about Mackintosh, I guess. Maybe it's the energy and confidence (misplaced as it may be these days). Of course, he's about 5'0" so there's that.

Hal was married but certainly knew his way around a cock or two.

Or three. Or occasionally six.

I read a Perkins biography. It mentioned that Perkins had a blond twink whom he photographed in S&M poses. I think rope was mentioned. This would have been late 1960s, early 1970s. Maybe he and Sondheim Eiffel Towered a succession of twinks.

The stage musical of 101 DALMATIANS opens at Regent's Park in London.

Could be fun, charming... but the production photos just look... odd.

I saw a touring production of The Kite Runner on stage, several years ago. My only take away is that the lead actor read gay, which I don't think the character was.

Who’s boy toy was Joel Grey? Did he mess around with Prince?

You'd have to ask Willy Falk about Cameron's cock.

Willy Falk nothing! These days it’s Little Charlie Stemp riding the Cam cock.

R132, that Perkins quote about the out of place sock was in the 1973 Time magazine story about Sondheim. I think. And both Perkins biographies include Sondheim in a list of Perkins' lovers. I think it's probably true. I'm much more interested in whether Sondheim and Lapine were lovers. I think they were but I can't find any "evidence."

Wasn’t Michael Bennett straight? I mean, he married a woman, didn’t he?

Oh, of course, r147. My mistake.

Grover Dale also married a woman.

Any gossip about Jerry Herman’s love life/sex life? He was so handsome when he was younger.

[quote] ALW looks like someone who would give monkeys monkeypox.

ALW looks like he's been dead since 1994 and someone forgot to tell him.

rowr!

The British love taking classic Disney films and turning them into their signature arch, garish, dystopian panto-nightmares. Pinocchio, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and now 101 Dalmatians. Americans have little appetite for Disney turned creepy. Only Poppins made it stateside.

R146-Tony Perkins I can understand, but Sondheim would have had to be just released from prison to do anything remotely sexual with mad fugly Lapine.

I don't know. Lapine wasn't terrible looking at all when they started working together.

Ooof, if Lapine was as furry everywhere as those forearms.....indeed, he wasn't terrible.

Sondheim started copying Lapine's style of dress--even to wearing identical sweaters in one photograph. If nothing else, he seems clearly to have been crushing on Lapine.

[quote]Grover Dale also married a woman.

Not just any woman, but Anita Morris. Told this story before, was a kid and went to see "The Magic Show" on Broadway and was standing by the stage door and out pops Ms Morris who almost knocks me down and with that southern drawl says "Oh Honey, I'm sorry" and gives me a big hug. My gosh she's been gone 28 years now.

Gone too soon, r158.

Anita Morris and Grover Dale's kid James Badge Dale

Wasn’t Leonard Bernstein straight? I mean, he married a woman, didn’t he?

Wasn't Stephen Sondheim bisexual? I mean, he almost married Lee Remick, the one woman he truly loved.

This is a word-for-word duplicate of Theatre Gossip #104

If any of you has seen and remembers World War Z, James Badge Dale plays the army officer in South Korea who gets bitten and has to off himself.

Dale is bearded and in uniform and gives one of the most fantastically masculine performances I've ever seen. Just total testosterone. He's really built, too, though there's no skin in the sequence.

Fun Fact: His middle name is Badgett, not Badge, but he thought the Badhe scanned better as a movie credit.

Crushing on a woman and even having sex with her doesn't make him bi. That describes my life and I'm anything but . . .

I dated Miss America, Bess Myerson, who was one sizzlin' hot piece of pussy if ever there was one!

That's how I'm doin'!

r164, James Badge Dale is hot (and yes, that super-masculine energy he has is even hotter). And he has a nice ass.

Hey Ed @ r166... did you have a three-way with Bess and Vonda Kay Van Dyke?

Don't cry for him, DL...

[quote]R162 Wasn't Stephen Sondheim bisexual? I mean, he almost married Lee Remick, the one woman he truly loved.

Yes! But then the vicious chorus boys all conspired to pull him (and his pants) down again!

The Proof of Their Love: [italic]Never Happier

Their passion together literally burned up the screen

Wasn't Howard McGillin straight? I mean, he married a woman, didn’t he?

Lee Remick is just luminously beautiful in that clip. Sondheim is only 35-36 at that point, but tubby. Was he drinking and smoking heavily at that point?

Between Ludden and Peter Lawford, the closeted energy is overpowering.

Sondheim mentions he's working on a new musical The Girls Upstairs with a book by James Goldman. It's too bad it never happened.

It may have morphed in Follies, but wasn’t “The Girls Upstairs” supposed to be a murder mystery?

Yes.

Lee, who could have been the new Kitty Carlisle Hart of her generation’s theater scene if only she’d accepted Sondheim’s proposal : (

The ingratitude!

From those I know who knew her, Remick was a wonderful person. Not surprising that Sondheim was smitten with her.

Could Steve have been any less handsome on Password? Good thing he was clever.

Would love to see a script from The Girls Upstairs.

At the library looking up old Theatre World books and came across the obituary of Jerry Dodge who died during the Broadway run of Mack & Mabel in 1974. He was 37. It said he died of “chemical poisoning” while undergoing medical treatment for a virus. He was also in the original cast of Hello, Dolly! “Chemical poisoning”?

I think it was Lee who proposed, not Steve--although apparently he gave it serious thought and concluded he couldn't go through with it.

James Badge Dale was in DONNYBROOK!!!! Susan Johnson fans, rejoice!

I just watched the first scene of "Clyde's."

A- Does the show get any better?

B- Does Uzo's performance get any less amateurish?

For those of you who like these things, James Badge Dale... not nude, but D-A-M-N. That chick from NCIS who he impregnated? Oh God, to look up and have that slab of beef above me? I'd swoon like the senatrice from South Carolina.

I wouldn't bet one penny, r185.

If only it was the musical, r185!

From what I understand, the transition from The Girls Upstairs into Follies came with the idea of not doing a whodunit, but a who'll-do-it. It is sorta interesting to think about, who in Follies would be the one to be killed off and why.

My vote is for Solange.

The waiter that Phyllis fucks

I'm gonna go with the Whitmans.

Dee Dee West in the hall with the wrench.

The very cute Jerry Dodge originated the role of Barnaby in Hello, Dolly! Neither he nor the very cute Danny Lockin had a happy end.

[quote]James Badge Dale was in DONNYBROOK!!!! Susan Johnson fans, rejoice!

Susan Johnson was also in "Whoop-Up!," which was based on the same novel that later inspired an Elvis movie, "Stay Away, Joe." The Elvis movie had songs, but not the ones from "Whoop-Up!"

[quote]Nobody Throw Those Bull Like My Boy Big Joe

Pics please.

It was obvious that Stella would be murdered. The “Who’s That Woman” number foreshadows that. And with Yvonne de Carlo sitting out the choreography, it was quite clear that Carlotta did it. She hated how Stella was the life of the party and could gather all the girls around her.

I check out Grover's FB page every once in a while. I see he hasn't posted since March, so I hope he's doing okay. It was sweet how excited he was about becoming a grandpa. He was working on publishing his memoir and occasionally would post great stories. Here's one about the beginning of his relationship with Perkins:

I feel bad for Lee Remick. She was taken far too soon!

Great story r199!

R199 - "Dear Penthouse Forum..."

From the previous thread... "Sondheim's main problem has always been that his music and lyrics are usually much deeper than anything the playwright thinks up. When the characters are singing, everything's great, but the moment the dialogue resumes, it takes a dive'

Inevitably, the composer/lyricist plunder the script to find the most emotive and/or plot-driven moments that lend themselves to song. Any librettist knows this and willingly gives up his script to the collaboration. Since songs should be THE event in any musical (although that practice fell into desuetude on Broadway decades ago), naturally the dialogue doesn't have the same charge...but it can hardly accused of taking "a dive."

Also from the previous thread...

Since when have directors, artistic or theatrical, EVER been transparent? That's not their job. They deal with specialized departments/talents on a one-to-one basis in order to achieve a unified whole or mission statement and it's nobody's business but their own to know how it's all supposed to come together.

Thanks, r199! So glad GD got to document this relationship. Really hope he has written much more and that we get to see it!

Remick had such a lovely energy. Even when playing cold or troubled people, she's very likable and radiant.

Anita Morris is one of the only women I've seen who made me question my sexuality. Some people just naturally radiate sex and she was one of those. Much like Marlon Brando did. You'd look at them both and think "I bet they're wild in the sack."

I had no idea she and Grover's son had such a delicious ass. That thing looks huge in R167's picture.

Dale is so wonderful in Half a Sixpence and Molly Brown. A very handsome, sexy and thrilling dancer. Too bad he stopped dancing on Broadway a long time ago and I never got to see him. Nobody EVER talks about it and it was never excerpted in any of the MGM That's Entertainment films but He's My Friend is one of the best dance numbers put on film. Molly Brown is not a favorite movie musical(though I would have given anything to have seen it when it opened at Radio City) but that number is a highpoint in movie musical history.

[quote]R184 I think it was Lee who proposed, not Steve--although apparently he gave it serious thought and concluded he couldn't go through with it.

No. She was already married at the time. Sondheim was the one with the infatuation.

Really, Follies feels like it could have been a plot for a Very Special 2 part episode of "Murder She Wrote".

Grover Dale is also wonderful, along with George Chakiris dancing in Jacques Demy's "Young Girls of Cherbourg" also with Gene Kelly. Everyone's singing is dubbed in the film, except for Danielle Darrieux, who went on to replace Katharine Hepburn a few years later on Broadway in "Coco".

And the murderer is…the mole under Phyllis's breast!

r205, indeed. Here's the video. Even before the pants come off, you can see he's packing those jeans. That ass is huge.

Remick was estranged from Colleran when she met Sondheim. I don't deny that he was infatuated and maybe more, but so was she and she wanted a commitment, which he couldn't give. I think he would have married her if he'd been able to convince himself to "live a lie."

Birthmark, r210...

"If any of you has seen and remembers World War Z, James Badge Dale plays the army officer in South Korea who gets bitten and has to off himself.

He was also in "24" in some very tense and thrilling episodes opposite Kiefer.

Don't Tell Mama is a FAR superior song to Mein Herr.

[quote]Why Did “Anyone Can Whistle” Flop?

Because it was a huge mess with an awful book mired in '60s psychobabble.

It was no Lady in the Dark, r218...

How imperturbably perspicacious of you, R218!

A Foggy Day in London Town is an English song from WW ll? Ok Angela.

Another Lady look...

I can’t find the video on YouTube where Patti LuPone gives a tour of her memorabilia barn, and displays Ethel Merman’s jewelry.

This is upsetting to me.

Every time I see a commercial for the music Six I wish Henry VIII had a good first marriage and stayed Catholic.

Does anybody have photos from this 1974 LACC production of FOLLIES?

Patti '72

Remick was miscast as Frances Schreuder in Nutcracker. Judy Davis would have been incredible.

Chill r223...

Wow! I was actually a dresser on that little documentary about The Acting Co. in 1972 which was just going out on its very first tour after their graduation from Juilliard. IIRC it was originally shot for PBS. It was my first job after I moved to NYC the summer before. For those who care, you'll also see Kevin Kline, David Schramm, Mary Lou Rosato, Gerry Gutierrez (who had temporarily changed his last name to Shaw) and David Ogden Stiers in those scenes, who were all part of Patti's class and founding members of The Acting Co.

As you can see the costumes, wigs and sets were lavish and beautifully designed with big budgets. Patti was spoiled early! What I remember most is how they all smoked so much in the dressing rooms and even off stage. I was very impressed that all these young actors were willing to give up careers in NY to tour the country, mostly playing college auditoriums, even if it was a great showcase for their talents.

Haven't see any of this film in decades...thanks for posting, r226.

^^ merci, r228

Breathing has calmed!

Next time, r230, take your Nervine.

[quote]As you can see the costumes, wigs and sets were lavish and beautifully designed with big budgets

They certainly were, r229!

R209, Danielle was also Porfirio "Rubi" Rubirosa's second wife and got to enjoy his legendary huge cock for five years.

Really wonderful interview with Lansbury at r213! Thanks for posting. Makes we want to listen to my ACW CD again.

Wardrobe Boy @ r229, Patti talks in her autobiography about getting crabs from those costumes. Why didn’t you wash them? 🤣

Aw, I was just dressing the men, r235!

'Patti talks in her autobiography about getting crabs from those costumes'

From the costumes? Ha ha ha.

What documentary is that from? I'd love to try and find the whole thing.

r229/WardrobeBoy- Can I put your post in the Yahoo comments?

Sure, r229.

Where do I go to find them (I'm old as you can probably tell)?

Why did Patti donate her stuff to Columbia University?

r328, when the documentary was originally shot in the fall of 1972, it was really about the first graduating acting class at Juilliard, not so much about The Acting Company, which was just getting started......but all about their training with scenes from plays they had performed while students which would then form the rep The Acting Company was taking out on the road, as well as footage of them in all their classes. I believe it was shot by PBS, I guess WNET? I don't remember the title of the documentary.

Patti and Kevin Kline were thought to be the stars of the group but there were also Norman Snow and Mary Joan (or Jo?) Negro who also played romantic leads, were both gorgeous and were actually married in real life. I guess they both left the business long ago. Any old timers remember their names? IIRC After Dark did a big story on the original Acting Company in 1973 or so featuring all the lookers.

After Dark cover with Norman Snow

If it's still on youtube, Grover Dale fans should look for the HALF A SIXPENCE number "If I Had Money to Burn" in which GD has an incredible solo dance within the fabulous number. It's really fun.

Man, I wish someone would digitize old copies of After Dark. I bet they'd be a hoot to browse through.

Actually, just looked it up and it's a clip from The Ed Sullivan Show, not the film of HALF A SIXPENCE, for the Grover Dale solo. It's on youtube!

Sorry, I'm too feeble to link it.

Go here, r240...

For the feeble and not so feeble:

Tommy Steele and Grover Dale in Half A Sixpence

James Badge Dale is spectacular in one small scene in the movie Flight which is the one with Denzel Washington as the hard-partying pilot who flips a jet over before landing it and saving most of the passengers. JBD is a smoking patient he encounters in the stairwell. His character doesn't even have a name, but, wow, does he make the most of a small role.

That number was exhausting, r248.

Sixpence...

Kevin Kline gave Patti the crabs

Anita Morris recovers from a wardrobe malfunction.

Kline must have because there were at least three gay men in Patti’s graduating class.

And wasn't she a pretty one?

My, that James Badge Dale is certainly ... healthy.

As a youngster, under the name Badgett Dale, JBD was in the flop 1990 remake of LORD OF THE FLIES.

R242 (and others), Mary-Joan Negro has an oddly slim career, given not only her training but her superb performances on 2 classic LAW & ORDER episodes -- "In Memory Of" (a daughter testifying against her father for a decades-past murder) and "White Rabbit" (arguably the greatest episode in the show's history, with William Kunstler playing himself).

Her oddest credit, at least of those I've seen -- there's a SIX FEET UNDER episode that begins with someone dropping dead in the middle of a Chekhov performance, and Miss Negro plays one of the nonplussed cast. I don't know that she even had a line.

Looks like she's been teaching acting at USC. Her webpage on their site is no longer active, but according to the Google cache it was as recently as July 10.

R258, don't you think that Mary-Joan Negro's "I'm Susan Forrest" is as impactful and moving as Judy's "I'm Mrs. Norman Maine."?

In all seriousness, that L&O episode with Kunstler is excellent.

[quote]Patti LuPone Shows Off Her Archives

Most people call them " tits."

"Man, I wish someone would digitize old copies of After Dark. I bet they'd be a hoot to browse through."

They are. I bought some copies off Ebay, and they are fascinating documents of an extraordinarily vibrant pre-AIDS era in the arts, when the opening of a Hal Prince-Stephen Sondheim was anticipated with the fervor of a Verdi opera a century earlier. All that creativity, taste, intelligence, erudition (with a touch of decadence) would all be laid to waste in the years to come. Like Fran Leibowitz has written: "What is culture without gay people? This is America, what is the culture? Not just New York. AIDS completely changed American culture. People always say “pop culture.” As if we have some high culture to distinguish it from. The effect of AIDS was like a war in a minute country. Like, in World War I, a whole generation of Englishmen died all at once. And with AIDS, a whole generation of gay men died practically all at once, within a couple of years. And especially the ones that I knew. The first people who died of AIDS were artists. They were also the most interesting people...The knowing audience also died and no longer exists in a real way. So all the judgment left at the same time that all this creativity left. And it allowed people who would be fifth-rate artists to come to the front of the line. It decimated not just artists but knowledge. Knowledge of a culture. There’s a huge gap in what people know, and there’s no context for it anymore."

Maybe being a Negro affected Mary Joan's career.

[quote] Mary-Joan Negro has an oddly slim career, given not only her training but her superb performances on 2 classic LAW & ORDER episodes

Was Mary Joan Negro in that School for Scandal? WEHT to Cynthia Hermann who was also an inaugural member of The Acting Company? Both Mary Joan Negro and Mary Lou Rosato would have had bigger careers as character actors today. What an incredible launch for those young actors. Back then everyone in the business religiously went to the theater. Agents, casting directors, producers, TV and film people. Can't think of a better launch for any group of young actors that has happened since. Now they only go if there are stars or clients involved.

Related topic: Spending the summer upstate NY: Tom Hanks has written a play that is getting its world premiere in Ulster county. We enjoyed it. Definitely could use a good dramaturgy and some rewrites, because its hard to follow, but some very strong performances. Stars Tim Busfield

link to review of Tom Hanks play

Sandy Duncan was just profiled on CBS this morning. Brought back happy memories of watching her play Peter Pan. What a shame it wasn’t taped for tv. She was brilliant.

Mary Lou Rosato had an even bigger honker than Patti LuPone. No way was she ever going to have a substantial career, even as a character actress.

Mary Joan Negro was somewhat attractive-she was on the daytime soap Another World for a while in the 1980s.

I doubt they think you’re pretty either.

Headshot at link.

Mary Joan Negro was gorgeous, Patti didn't come close though she had great charisma and drive.

MJN played a servant in School for Scandal, a nothing role, I suppose to compensate for the plays in rep in which she played a lead. Women, Beware Women, was one of those. Norman Snow also played a servant in The School for Scandal. I wonder if they're still married? I think I remember that they started as Juilliard students already married, they didn't meet there.

Cynthia Herman was cast within their class more in soubrette type roles, not so much leading ladies. I worked with her again in 1977 but lost track of her after that. She was sweet but rather ditzy. Mary Lou Rosato had a hunky younger boyfriend who was still a student in a later class. Everyone was agog at how she landed him, lol.

IIRC, the documentary showed the students in a larger variety of plays, all once performed when they were still students, than they actually took on the road with The Acting Company. I remember they did The Hostage, Scapino, Ring Round the Moon and John Dos Passos' USA, among others for the doc.

Sad to read that review of the Tom Hanks play in which the reviewer raves about all the actors knowing they'll undoubtedly be replaced by "names" when the show hits Broadway. Well, maybe not Timothy Busfield.....would he still be considered a name? I wonder if Melissa Gilbert and Rita Wilson hung out backstage together.....

Agree that Mary Joan Negro was/is a very attractive woman. That headshot doesn't do her justice and was probably the result of an agent marketing her as "ethnic" Did Patti play Masha in that Three sisters? I can't remember if it was her or Leah (last name escapes me) All I remember is Kevin Kline's Vershinin from that production

[quote]Sad to read that review of the Tom Hanks play in which the reviewer raves about all the actors knowing they'll undoubtedly be replaced by "names" when the show hits Broadway. Well, maybe not Timothy Busfield.... .would he still be considered a name? I wonder if Melissa Gilbert and Rita Wilson hung out backstage together....

Tim Busfield and James Riordan are the only actors in the cast of 6 with Broadway/NYC credits. James Riordan is excellent in this in a variety of roles, a nice showcase for him. We saw it opening night and Hanks was in the audience along with Marsha Gay Hardin (stunning in black) Watched a photographer taking pix after the show in the theatre. Hanks seemed very friendly with Busfield and Riordan in particular so maybe there is some connection there Play needs work but it was entertaining. Mellisa Gilbert was also there looking great but in some kind of shmata I can't identify

I'm 264 btw

You don't look a day over 250 r274!

Love you r275! I am AT LEAST 250 in years, thankfully not in pounds. Ancient and loving it

r273, Patti was Irina, Mary Joan was Masha and, of course, Mary Lou was Olga. The Three Sisters was added to The Acting Company repertory when they returned to NY after 6 months or so on the road. I'm also spacing on Leah's last name, lol. She never got the lead roles of the other ladies.

Leah Chandler

Thanks r277. Just got off my lazy ass and looked it up: I'ts Leah Chandler. She played Isabella in Measure of Measure, which I didn't see. Did Kline and Patti really get in bus for 6 months and play colleges? I remember seeing both of them around quite a bit right after they graduated, but it was lifetimes ago, so I could be wrong

I just read/listened to William J. Mann's Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand, all about the 1st 4 - 5 years of her career from her move to NYC as a teenager of 16 through to B'way run of Funny Girl. This should've been required reading for Beanie and certainly Lea Michelle - no surprise, Funny Girl was TAILOR MADE for the young Streisand. She's not playing Fanny Brice at all (which we know, of course) but rather using the association to launch her own career-making mythology. The entire "kookie" Barbra phase of her persona was invented by her and her handlers to put and keep her in the running for the role and columnists and national media to constantly refer to Fanny Brice to describe the young Streisand. It was a fascinating listen. I remember as a boy in the '70s, reading what I think was an early James Spada large paperback that recounted like the 1st 10 - 14 years of Streisand's career and it was ALL myth-making. The Mann book breaks down the early influence of Barry Dennen (which we know of, of course) and some other homosexuals who styled her for her nightclub debuts, etc. It's a really interesting account. It kind of makes sense as to how the bigger she got and more removed, she became so boring and MOR. The "kooky" Barbra thing was all an act, manifested by other people. It doesn't denigrate her talent in any way, just breaks through the mythology.

Lea Michelle (and any others) should realise they're not playing Fanny Brice and they can't play Barbra - they have to manifest their own individual blend of comedy, pathos and, above all - SONG. The idea that casting a non-singer like Beanie in the role was ever going to work, as something different, is just stupid. That's not how this show is built. Of course, the book includes the entire behind the scenes creation of the B'way musical, Funny Girl (and a fair amount of I Can Get It For You Wholesale). It was eye-opening.

[quote]Lea Michelle (and any others) should realise they're not playing Fanny Brice and they can't play Barbra - they have to manifest their own individual blend of comedy, pathos and, above all - SONG. The idea that casting a non-singer like Beanie in the role was ever going to work, as something different, is just stupid. That's not how this show is built. Of course, the book includes the entire behind the scenes creation of the B'way musical, Funny Girl (and a fair amount of I Can Get It For You Wholesale). It was eye-opening.

Very perceptive. All the ladies playing this role are essentially inheriting a dress made and fitted for someone else. The smart actress/singer will ask for alterations

Didn't Beanie want to do Barbra's movie number on roller skates?

Lea Michele doesn’t know how to be anyone but Barbra at this point.

R281, Streisand certainly did.

[quote]all about the 1st 4 - 5 years of her career from her move to NYC as a teenager of 16

Brooklyn is NYC, r280.

r264, yes, Leah Chandler!

Yeah, they all got on that bus, including Patti and Kevin, and went from stop to stop, often one night stands or split weeks, and often playing college campuses. My early impression was that Kevin was the most eager to leave the company and get on with his career and he was certainly the most sellable.

But as I said upthread, I was really impressed by their commitment to The Acting Company and seemingly putting their commercial careers on hold for what might have been the most vital years of their youth. Then again, none of them, except for Kevin, were really Hollywood hero/heroine types and even Broadway wasn't going to headline them in a classic revival, which was what their training was all about. So, perhaps they made the right decision. John Houseman really got into their heads.......

r285, Brooklyn was about as far from Manhattan as Nebraska in the early 1960s. I'd say it still is.

Thank you, R287.

I never think of Streisand when watching Leah. There's nothing zany about Sarfati.

It’s funny, I tried talking to a Streisand stan about some of the comments in the Hello Gorgeous book regarding her kooky image being manifested by gay men, Barry Dennen, etc and he wasn’t having any of it. Claimed these men who were there were just trying to rewrite history. He couldn’t possibly accept that Barbra doesn’t think of everything herself.

While I have no doubt Streisand had gay friends who encouraged a kookiness in her young persona and guided her to thrift shops for wardrobe advice, I find it hard to believe that she didn't come up with most of all that by herself.

[quote]Brooklyn is NYC, [R280].

Only Manhattan is considered NYC to the majority of people in the world and Manhattanites, R285.

Manhattan is Manhattan. NYC has five boroughs.

New York is the center of New York!

[quote][R285], Brooklyn was about as far from Manhattan as Nebraska in the early 1960s. I'd say it still is.

r280 didn't say Manhattan, r287, they wrote NYC which Brooklyn is a part of.

Well R291, the 2nd hour of A Star Is Born is proof of what Streisand could accomplish on her own, fashion-wise, and it was pretty incoherent.

[quote] Howard McGillin

I'll take "Theater Penises I'd Like In My Mouth" for $1000, Ken!

Jezebel visits Funny Girl

[quote]“That seat sucks,” said a kind and nearly blind usher as she pressed my ticket to Funny Girl to her eyeglasses. She shone her flashlight about 20 rows closer to the stage, directing me to row E, and said, “They’ve given me a bunch of extra seats tonight.” It was the 12th-to-last day of Beanie Feldstein playing the role of Fanny Brice on Broadway, and the house was not packed.

...

[quote]It was in the first act, during “Henry Street”—when Fanny and friends are celebrating her Ziegfeld debut with dancing and revelry—when I literally lost Beanie in the crowd. I thought maybe she’d left the stage before I realized she was front and center, gazing lovingly at Nicky Arnstein. The New York Times had quoted a casting notice from an earlier (failed) Broadway revival that declared Fanny must be a “once-in-a-generation talent.” Beanie wasn’t standing out in a sea of 15 people, let alone a generation.

...

[quote]My senses were tuned to the micro-reactions from audience members, too. Perhaps I expected someone to boo her—to be outraged that this talented woman was a little less talented in a specific way than anticipated. But the entire audience seemed to be rooting for Beanie. In the lobby during intermission and after the show, I heard a resounding sentiment, repeated like a plea: She is good. She is good. It was good. Only the more times it was repeated, the less confidence I had in whoever was saying it, like they were reassuring themselves after hearing the floor creak in the first half of a horror movie: Nothing to worry about here! It’s good! She is good.

The Beanie fans are describing this as a hate piece, which shows how far gone they are

[Quote] Sad to read that review of the Tom Hanks play in which the reviewer raves about all the actors knowing they'll undoubtedly be replaced by "names" when the show hits Broadway.

To be fair R272, it’s from the Sullivan County Democrat, National Award-winning, Family-run Newspaper

R296. Exactly. I guess she had an epiphany at the end of the 60’s and lost every shred of kooky taste she had.

[quote] And like a horror movie, somewhere, unseen to us, is Lea Michele wandering around with a butcher knife.

[quote] I Agree that Mary Joan Negro was/is a very attractive woman.

With the best name in show business!

That Jezebel article is....for Jezebel, surprisingly well executed with some good points.

She certainly has a Magnani beauty going on.

One example of someone making the songs her own without imitating Streisand is the Diana Ross FUNNY GIRL. If they could find someone like this, it would be truly exciting. But Lea I fear will just do her Streisand shtick. (Jule Styne was on record (hah) of loving the Ross renditions.)

The Money to Burn number is terrific but it goes on too long. The whole center portion should have been cut. The sensational Flash, Bang, Wallop is another number where Dale shines and the title number is wonderful. The whole movie while unfortunately very uneven(it needed better editing) has a lavish production and the work of Irwin Kostal at his best which is saying a lot. It definitely needs a beautifully done bluray but I'm the only person who would buy it.

It was Diana Ross and the Supremes doing Funny Girl, r305. Different sound and a pop arrangement. Again the show/role was formed with Barbra's shtick.

Lea Michele IS Diana Ross AS Barbra Streisand AS Fanny Brice IN Funny Girl!

It IS among the best thread openers in the history of the DL.

That is if "history" is what you'd call this mound of humanity's detritus that just keeps getting taller, drier and older, like the tell of Jericho.

Tommy Steele was not half as hot as Charlie Stemp is.

R308, does that mean she would shit in her own wig?

AND plant her own tree r311!

Lea Michele is Veruca Salt. She's no Diva.

r296, I woke up late and caught the end of that CBS Sunday Morning piece on Sandy Duncan. I adore both Duncan and her husband Don Correia. Back in the early 80s I thought he was the hottest man in New York, with or without his mustache, and there were so many many hot men in New York then, before the plague. I first noticed him as a replacement in A Chorus Line, and then with Sandy as replacements in My One and Only, Singing in the Rain, the first Follies revival and others. I love them both so much and was so thrilled to see them still happily together after 42 years.

I'll OH MARY! myself but it was such a nice way to wake up.

That "Money to Burn" number from the movie of Half a Sixpence is SO overblown and overlong and over-everything. It's like the movie of Hello, Dolly! on steroids. I had forgotten how bloated and elephantine the movie was. I saw it in the theater when it came out, and remember thinking that Tommy Steele was playing to a third or fourth balcony. By contrast, here's the same number on The Ed Sullivan Show. It's still too long but Onna White's choreography is superb.

Why are they highlighting Sandy Duncan?

Thanks, r315!

You all have to watch the Ed Sullivan Show clip of Money to Burn on youtube! That's the golden one. Much more immediacy and a greater build than the film version, even in black & white. And I'm impressed with Tommy Steele allowing Grover and some of the other dancers so much focus, even when he's sharing the stage with them.

R314. Sandy and Don were wonderful together in My One and Only. I remember he left the show to do Singin in the Rain which was awful but he was gorgeous and charming.

Hello, daddy!

(not the photo below, but the older one they show in the article)

All roads lead back to Follies.

But no Pousse Cafe, r320?

DL Theatre Gossip Threads are Bizarro World when it comes to men deemed "hot."

[Quote] Why are they highlighting Sandy Duncan?

Because HoMo Rocca is a weird DL-reading broadway hanger-on

Will they do one onMaureen Moore?

The choreography for Nine is credited to Tommy Tune but in fact Grover Dale came in to stage and choreograph, uncredited, his wife Anita Morris's big number A Call from the Vatican. Tune, Dale and Morris were all good friends.

Why not, r316?

R323 Mo seems to be the one on CBS Sunday Morning assigned to the dowager actresses - Angie Dickinson, Sandy, etc.

Nanette Fabray!

Cynthia Herman was in the Wendy Wasserstein play Uncommon Women and Others onstage and then on PBS. She was also in some deodorant commercial and there are outtakes of her and a fellow actress pushing up their t-shirts and making out with each other.

[quote]She was also in some deodorant commercial and there are outtakes of her and a fellow actress pushing up their t-shirts and making out with each other.

I just tried looking on Youtube for that, r329, but couldn't find it. One of the midnight movies we'd go to in the '70s was a compilation of vintage commercials and that's where I first saw it.

R327, And me!

How could I forget Mitzi? My deepest apologies.

Don and Sandy do The Castle Walk. Who knew straight men can dance like this?

The Castle Walk, popularized by Vernon and Irene Castle, was a famous popular dance at the turn of the last century. Onna White used it for the Shipoopi number and even the current revival quotes from it.

Some of Don's moves and poses suggest that perhaps......he's a bit more flexible

Sorry.

[quote]Grover Dale is also wonderful, along with George Chakiris dancing in Jacques Demy's "Young Girls of Cherbourg" also with Gene Kelly.

That would be "The Young Girls of ROCHEFORT"

[quote]Sandy Duncan was just profiled on CBS this morning. Brought back happy memories of watching her play Peter Pan. What a shame it wasn’t taped for tv. She was brilliant.

She was and unfortunately this is all we have and it's downright thrilling. She lost the Tony to Lupone in "Evita"

[quote]She was and unfortunately this is all we have

Not quite, r337...

My favorite part was when Sandy referred to Mo as "Ro".

That clip of Sandy and Don doing The Castle Walk is musical comedy heaven. I've seen The Music Man many times and those Castle Walk steps in Shipoopi are obvious. Isn't there even a line of dialog in the show right before the number where one of the boys says something like "Come on, Professor, show us the latest steps" or something like that?

Forget Mary Joan. What about the late Pamela Payton Wright who was Streep's contemporary and thought by some to be the next big thing? I think her highlight was being on One Life To Live. And what about the male next big thing? The late Paul Rudd. No, not that Paul Rudd but the dreamy one who traipsed naked on the boards in The Changing Room?

Now I won't be satisfied until Meryl plays the pope. How? Why? Who cares, she's Meryl.

Personally, r341, I think Tillie was her highlight...

Bootleg of Sandy and Don performing "He Loves and She Loves" from My One and Only ...

...and Don's bare feets in 'S'Wonderful" from the same.

More of Son and Sandy in My One and Only. Just wonderful. Those were the days, kids.

Don Correia is hideous. Sandy is only with him because she lost an eye.

Such wit, r347...

Don wiping up the floor literally with Ann Reinking. He's so much better than John Mineo that you wonder if he did the role originally if he would have gotten the reviews.

R348, the DL is too rough for you.

"review of Tom Hanks play"

Yawn...

Not just Brooklyn R287. My old manager, a staunch Upper West Side Jew used to say he went to Europe more than he went to the East Side.

I guess he used Newark Airport then, since you have to go through the east side to get to JFK airport.

Are you really that pedantic, queen? 🙄

Thanks for the Stritch! Jason Graae was cute as a button.

I saw the original Broadway production of HALF A SIXPENCE, but with the second, American cast. I thought it was just okay. Had I seen it with the originals, maybe I would have liked it better. Tommy Steele is really electric in the Ed Sullivan clip. But watching him on screen is like a frontal attack. I tried to watch THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE a couple of years ago, and it was painful, mostly because of him.

Saw Half a Sixpence with the ill-fated Dick Kallman in Detroit. Onna White was a genius.

If Diana Ross had ever done Funny Girl, it would have just been called GIRL!

Oh that’s right, Dick Kallman is on the list of second-tier Broadway murder victims, too, along with Danny Lockin.

But what is it that happened to Jerry Dodge? He wasn’t murdered, was he?

I can't believe how adorably hot Don Correia is in that clip with Ann Reinking, who dances great but looks awful with her stringy greasy hair and ineptly unsupported titties. But poor Don, he really was born too late, wasn't he? With those looks and that talent, he might have thrived at MGM in the 1940s.

I saw the original Broadway production of EARL CARROLL'S VANITIES, but Helena Callahan was out and the understudy was ineffective as The Tall One. I was only 15, but I remember noticing she wasn't tall.

R359, And there was the unsolved murder of Barbara Colby.

Don Correia has big … feet.

[quote][R348], the DL is too rough for you.

No, r347, but sometimes it's too hoary. Get some fresh material.

R341, I'm delighted to report that I saw Pamela Payton-Wright opposite George Grizzard in a 2002 Hartford Stage revival of SEASCAPE. It moved to Broadway in 2005 -- well, same director and production design, and same leading man, but with 3 new actors, alas. I don't say that to defame Frances Sternhagen, who was probably good in the part, but Miss Payton-Wright was just superb in Hartford.

In 2003, she met a similar fate when the Robert Falls/Brian Dennehy LONG DAY'S JOURNEY moved to Broadway from Chicago. There the replacement was the searingly brilliant Vanessa Redgrave -- but at least PP-W got to play the part again for a few performances when Redgrave took time off to mourn her late mother.

Can someone post the link again for the full Julliard WNET show? It's seems to have disappeared. Thanks.

Acc to The Times, Dodge died in 1974 at age 37 at home from "chemical poisoning." He had been treated for a virus infection. Was this thought to be suspicious at the time?

Has the full show been posted, r366?

I was a huge fan of Pamela Payton-Wright and also worked with her a few times. Wonderful woman, very sweet and fragile and funny and so unique. Her talented son Oliver Butler is an up and coming director.

But I'd never put her in the same generation as Meryl Streep as Pamela was acting on Broadway as early as the mid-1960s. I first saw her on Broadway in a play called Jimmy Shine with Dustin Hoffman. Also, saw her as Juliet and Laura in Menagerie at Circle in the Square in the early 70s. She had about a 10 year head start on Streep even if she never came close to her level of fame.

[quote]Acc to The Times, Dodge died in 1974 at age 37 at home from "chemical poisoning."

What does that mean, exactly? Drug overdose? He was given the wrong medication & was allergic? He died on Halloween. I wonder if it was related to that?

I think Lisa Kirk offed him.

I remember reading somewhere (it may have even been on DL) that Dodge was suspected of being one of the very first cases of AIDS deaths, years before anyone even had an inkling of what it was. Of course, I'm not arguing for or against that, just saying that I read that rumor.

Who had Jerry Dodge? Surely on an elder gay thread like this, there must be someone.

This is just anecdotal, and may be totally wrong, but I remember that in the Broadway community it was widely rumored that Jerry Dodge took medicine that was past its use-by date.

That's only a rumor, remember. But I seem to recall that he was still in (or had just been in) Mack & Mabel, and he didn't look like someone dying of a wasting disease.

I forgot to mention this--can you actually die of taking medicine past its use-by date? It sounds extreme to me. But that's what people were saying.

[quote]can you actually die of taking medicine past its use-by date?

It's possible but very rare. Usually when you take a med post its use by date, the efficacy is just less. But not always. It depends on the med.

Name one expired med that kills, r376. Not saying it doesn't happen, but I've never heard of it.

Does Tommy Tune have another show (as director) in him? Will we ever see the Beanster back on Broadway, this time in a play? Was The Fucking Visit really Chita's swan song? Who's the hot Audrey coming into Little Shop? Expect an iconic historic performance! Hadestown is about to welcome Lilias White has the new Hermes: truth or bww rumour?

Thanks for all the video links above of Don Correia in his prime. Nice to know that I was in love with him 40 years ago for a reason.

Isn’t Beanie Feielstein straight? After all, she played Fanny Brice on BROADWAY.

Since I missed the Sandy Duncan piece on CBS Sunday Morning, I went and found it and thought I'd post it here for anyone else who missed it:

[quote]That clip of Sandy and Don doing The Castle Walk is musical comedy heaven.

Yes. I can't stop watching it and despite she was the big star dancer at the time and he doesn't seem to be trying to pull focus, I can't take my eyes off of HIM.

Don and Sandy in 1983.

ADORABLE!!!!

Don was definitely rocking the classic "Clone" look. Super cute and hot!

I prefer him with a stache but here he is in his physical prime:

Humpy!

[quote]The choreography for Nine is credited to Tommy Tune but in fact Grover Dale came in to stage and choreograph, uncredited, his wife Anita Morris's big number A Call from the Vatican. Tune, Dale and Morris were all good friends.

There was lots of publicity at the time that Morris was actually nude under the skimpy lace outfit she wore, but it was all just publicity, She always wore a nude colored bodystocking underneath.

Expired tetracycline can kill your kidneys

That Castle Walk number at R335 really is wonderful.

R385, I remember some television stations refused to air the Nine commercial because of Anita's costume.

Take it from Anita herself!

Well she did the entire number with the costume looking quite nude underneath the lace on Johnny Carson's desk. Though I figured it was a flesh colored body stocking. But one can dream even on a gay site. Saw the production with Sergio and there has been nothing on Broadway like it or Dreamgirls since then. The end of Broadway I call it. Aids was about to hit like a tornado.

The type of Broadway that appealed mostly to gays ended (Nine, A Chorus Line, My One and Only, Dreamgirls.). The kind of Broadway that appeals mostly to straights and tourists was just about to start.

Re the CBS profile: I didn't need to see Mo Rocca kicking his leg, like a cut-rate Chita.

I'm glad you included My One and Only in your list of the early 80s Broadway musicals that were sort of the last gasp, R391. I admired it for several reasons. It was one of Broadway's great saves from out of town disaster, when Tune took the reins from Peter Sellars and brought in his team to work quickly. It might not have been a classic for the ages, but it had a crazy, loopy charm, just an anarchic spirit of anything could happen. I remember there was one crossover with the 'Ritz Quartet,' four Elder Gays, in a car traveling slowly in mid air, as they languidly sang a reprise of "He Loves and She Loves." It served no other purpose but to delight. I also remember a number, "High Hat," that was performed partially in black light? It's not on the cast recording, but it was a highlight. It even made it into the TV commercial (see below). It was also great to look at, with sensational Michael Gibson orchestrations. Cats was the big deal that season. Once was enough for me with that one, but I made a few visits back to My One and Only.

No one needs to see the thoroughly z list mid Mo Rocca do anything.

Twiggy was vampy and delightful opposite the very handsome Tune. And the ensemble all had a chance to shine individually. One of my very favorite shows.

Twiggy was barely serviceable as a musical comedy actress.

Did anyone see Lucie Arnaz, and her hummingbird vibrato, on tour in My One and Only?

Can't remember if I posted it on a Theatre Gossip thread or elsewhere on DL but I recently came across Ken Russell's THE BOYFRIEND on TCM and was bowled over by Twiggy and the entire film all over again. I don't think it's available for streaming anywhere. It really needs to be reissued in a special DVD and celebrated. It was not appreciated enough on its debut.

Antonia Ellis made more of an impression on me in The Boyfriend than Twiggy.

You posted it somewhere r398 and I watched (and loved) it as a $2.99 rental on Amazon Prime based on your post.

For which I thank you!

"Pick Out A Simple Tune" wasn't in the original Broadway production of "Half A Sixpence". The only number with a ukulele was "Money To Burn", My partner once did a production of the show and didn't recognize it. Was it plucked (see what I did there?) from a long-lost trunk and added to the current West End production? Can't find any reference to it in the reviews. It's a smoothly choreographed number, no matter what its origin.

The 1960s welcomed many great (and not so great) British music hall style musicals to Broadway, including Sixpence, Oliver!, Pickwick, Walking Happy, Roar of the Greasepaint..., The Girl Who Came to Supper.....and I'm sure there were others. I certainly preferred them to the British invasion of Broadway in the 1980s.

Does anyone remember a cute super-talented British performer named Roy Castle, who played a supporting role in Pickwick? Never saw that show but fondly remember his guest appearances on The Garry Moore Show and other TV of the time.

[quote]I recently came across Ken Russell's THE BOYFRIEND on TCM and was bowled over by Twiggy and the entire film all over again. I don't think it's available for streaming anywhere. It really needs to be reissued in a special DVD and celebrated. It was not appreciated enough on its debut.

It was not appreciated on its debut because it's a bizarre misfire. In my opinion, the movie is an abomination, but for what it's worth, and rather surprisingly, it is available on Blu-Ray.

I think Mo Rocca is a charming and knowledgeable interviewer, and you bitches who are ragging on him are just pea green with envy over the fact that he gets to interview beloved stars on major network TV.

HI, Mo! Do you also think you're handsome and hung?

We [italic] know [/italic] you're here.

Moulin Rouge celebrating three years on Broadway is a move which would make Merrick proud

Mo slept with Nathan Lane. He told me so.

Of course he told you that. Certainly.

THE KITE RUNNER got very "MEH" reviews on Bway. It's a limited engagement (October)... will it even run?

Wasn't it a big hit in London?

I tried imagining Mo Rocca fucking Nathan Lane and now I like girls.

You can have 'em.

Why would I invent that, r408?

Why would he ADMIT he had sex with Nathan Lane is the real question.

He didn't say it with pride.

R405 = bitchy queen who mistakenly thinks it's funny to "joke" that any positive comment about an actor or any other public figure MUST have been made by that person themself.

I’d rather have sex w Cleo Lane[sic]

I'd rather have sex with Lois Lane.

I'd rather have sex with Lois Lane.

Maybe they didn’t have sex. Maybe they just lay together

[quote]Mo slept with Nathan Lane. He told me so.

There's an image I didn't need to conjure today.

What a repulsive pairing. All that pasty skin and all that TALKING

R401 “Money to Burn” is all about Kipps wanting a banjo, not a ukulele.

[quote]R386 Expired tetracycline can kill your kidneys

Snacking on rancid snatch is also dangerous.

Just an FYI for everyone.

[quote] "Pick Out A Simple Tune" wasn't in the original Broadway production of "Half A Sixpence". The only number with a ukulele was "Money To Burn", My partner once did a production of the show and didn't recognize it. Was it plucked (see what I did there?) from a long-lost trunk and added to the current West End production? Can't find any reference to it in the reviews. It's a smoothly choreographed number, no matter what its origin.

George Stiles & Anthony Drewe wrote new songs for that production of Half a Sixpence, and rewrote several of the original David Heneker songs. "Pick Out a Simple Tune" was one of their new songs, and probably the best of their contributions. This was similar to what they did on the Mackintosh/Disney Mary Poppins with the original Sherman Brothers material. Charlie Stemp carried the thing on his shoulders and was charming, though I found the new production pushy and aggressive. Even Tommy Steele might have said "too much."

Tommy Steele NEVER said "too much."

[Quote] Tommy Steele NEVER said "too much."

I don't know about that. How hung was Larry Parnes?

'The kind of Broadway that appeals mostly to straights and tourists was just about to start.'

Yes from The Black Crook through the early 80s the Broadway audience was overwhelmingly gay men. Who else would go to see South Pacific, My Fair Lady, and Fiddler on the Roof? Then they started filling the Broadway theaters with the shit lying in the streets of Times Square and the straights started fighting to get in.

[quote] I didn't need to see Mo Rocca kicking his leg, like a cut-rate Chita.

Apparently his giant penis needed to breathe for a moment.

I wonder if Mo and Don Correia compared size?

[quote] Mo slept with Nathan Lane. He told me so.

Not sure which I find more astonishing - that someone slept with Nathan, or that they admitted it

Don Correia was a good dance and a nice-looking guy but, after seeing him about 3 or 4 times onstage, I realized that he just didn't have "IT". The break-out dancer gene that made him stand-out. I once checked him out while in Shubert Alley and the look he gave me said "I Am NOT Gay". I retreated.

R186, I happened to catch CLYDE'S on YouTube and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Really rough show but it kept me interested, especially the women actresses who were Superb.

R174, Sondheim let himself go late 60s-early 70s. Greasy hair, unkempt, smoking like a chimney. Not Attractive at all and had that look later given to Johnny Depp - "I smell". After his heart attack, he cleaned up his act nicely.

[quote] especially the women actresses

There are men actresses?

[Quote] There are men actresses?

Cough.

I used to go to the same gym as Nathan and I've seen enough to be disgusted.

I wonder if Sondheim got to see that production of Follies in Dresden where the storyline was adjusted to be about the collapse of the German Democratic Republic.

"Then they started filling the Broadway theaters with the shit lying in the streets of Times Square and the straights started fighting to get in."

Amen. A major curve on the downward spiral of culture....

Str8s weren't interested in Fiddler? Maybe that was a joke.

RIP Paul Sorvino.

BAJOUR!

I had no idea Sorvino was in Bajour but he played "Second Patrolman."

Second Patrolman >>> Man 6

[quote] Did anyone see Lucie Arnaz, and her hummingbird vibrato, on tour in My One and Only?

There was some kind of brouhaha in LA when Lucie did it. Something about Larry L telling Lucie she shouldn’t kiss Tommy in the show because of AIDS. And Sandy D, who had started the tour, insisting she was fine after kissing him for a year.

R388, that is not true. No one banned a commercial with Anita Morris' costume because there was no such commercial. The only one was the one linked above where she covers herself and teases that you will see more live.

They wouldn't allow her to do her number on the Tonys.

“Who’s not eating an-y snatch? I’mmmmmm notttt.”

R440. Meanwhile, who was Larry kissing?

Chits is on the road tonight!

Jesus Christ, the girl's 89!

[quote]Jesus Christ, the girl's 89!

So young.

Tweet by Paul Rudnick today:

Critical Gay Theory tells us there's nothing wrong with schoolchildren debating the different Sondheim songs for the Lucy & Jessie slot in Follies, but violence is never the answer. Unless someone asks "What's Follies?"

Very funny! But I'd rather hear a tweet from Paul Rudnick explaining why he departed from THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. In any case, seems like he dodged a bullet.

THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1975, "A Chorus Line" opened at the Shubert Theatre.

R441, That was the very commercial that either Channel 9 or Channel 11 would not air in 1982.

R440, How ironic, since Larry Luckinbill was an original The Boys in the Band cast member.

Don C in that clip from Over Here! could Get. It.

[quote] Jesus Christ, the girl's 89!

So young.

It's not ironic because of Larry's Boys credit...

His eyes are too close together.

I ran across this again from the Eleanor Parker thread.

R430 Yeah, Don Correia was humpy and talented (back in the day) but at heart he was a chorus boy playing at being a lead. He didn't have the necessary star presence to go much further.

He turned into what he would have been if he hadn't gone to have a Broadway career...a successful real estate salesman who would have been the star of his local community theater once a year.

As for the long, slow decline of Broadway, obviously AIDS played a huge role in that. It decimated an entire generation of talent.

All you have to do is look at the Tony Awards from 1980 to 1995....as those years rolled by, the interesting inventive theater of the early 80s was replaced by hideous theater created by boring straight people. Or, to be fair, boring corporate people many of whom happened to be straight (though not all).

So, AIDS wiped out all that potential then corporations figured out how to milk their tentpoles. Basically, AIDS and Disney helped kill innovative and interesting theater...and music....and film....

Was this really never posted when the Correia and Follies connection came up?

Might a different last name instead of "Correia" have helped his career?

It does sound like an unpleasant medical condition, R461.

or that war on "M*A*S*H".

Don’t Sandy and Don have have a gay, very queeny son? I know they have two sons, but one is straight.

[quote]corporations figured out how to milk their tentpoles

Pics please.

Let’s discuss vintage gossip.

In the last revival of The Music Man, Ruth Williamson played Mrs. Shinn. She left the production claiming her wigs gave her a scalp infection.

What was the *real* reason?

Was Lea Michele in it, R466?

I was going to share this even before I read what r459 had to say - but it is certainly a good example. Every image and video I see from this show reminds me of that vulgar yet stultifying evening I spent there when the show was new. It is like a flashback to a bad word experience

A bad word experience?

Ugh. Bad WAR experience.

The Piano Lesson is going to the Barrymore. Now we're just waiting on Into the Woods to announce an extension.

[quote]AUSTRALIA: For any readers who were confused by the item included in yesterday’s AUSTRALIA section about Jagged Little Pill’s Australia tour being canceled, the news from AussieTheatre pertains to the Australian tour, and not the North American tour launching later this month, which is not canceled.

Just how dumb are some of the readers of Broadway Briefing that this clarification was necessary?

[quote]Basically, AIDS and Disney helped kill innovative and interesting theater...and music....and film....

And don't forget the Brits -- more specifically, Cameron Mackintosh, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Trevor Nunn, and a few others.

KINKY BOOTS is back!

Off-Bway.

Was anyone clamoring for a return of Kinky Boots?

Do the Dodgers own New World Stages?

Maybe with Kinky Boots and the return of the Yiddish Fiddler they'll finally make New World Stages a viable and profitable off-Broadway space. The off-Broadway version of Jersey Boys had been doing very well there but never really regained its audiences after the pandemic.

[r475] well since you bitter queens SHIT all over my grand Funny Girl revival, my bank account needs something!

[quote] Do the Dodgers own New World Stages?

Once upon a time, but not anymore. It's now operated by the Shubert Organization.

Yiddish Fiddler, which is truly excellent, is a limited run. And Kinky is at Stage 42, a Shubert property, which has been an impossible house for many reasons.

New World Stages isn't a bad space for smaller shows. Not great, but not bad. I can't imagine what the "backstage" conditions are like, though, as it really wasn't designed for live performances.

It still lives on in my mind as the $2/$3 movie multiplex it once was in the early 90s.

Correia was in the LA company of A Chorus Line playing Mike. I don't think he ever missed a performance, which proves how seriously he took his job. He was talented but IMO, he didn't have that extra something that Gregg Burge or Hinton Battle had that made you sit up and take notice.

I remember when New World started out as a movie theatre and then became a second run theatre, charging a few dollar per movie—and now off Bway theaters

I loved the Yiddish Fiddler. And I had the best seat I’ve ever had in the legitimate theatre.

I thought that the Yiddish Fiddler was going to NWS and not back to Stage 42 this time around?

Now that Into the Woods is firmly ensconced at the St. James I wonder if it could last several years there with constant stunt casting a la Chicago? So many roles there would be catnip to has-been celebs.

This is how old I am- I used to go to that theater BEFORE it was a 2nd run house. They used to show movies that were at the tail end of their first runs, and charge full price for them, so no one would ever go there because the films were already played out. I would go, pay for one movie, and then sneak into two others.

When they switched over to 2nd run and were charging $2 for tickets, the place was always packed. People didn't give a shit what they saw, if it was $2, they'd go. I remember seeing the film Restoration on a Saturday night with a nearly sold out house, filled with Hells Kitchen trash who had no idea what they had stumbled into. There were crying babies and talking back to the screen. My last time going at night. But I was working on Broadway at the time and I would go to matinees in between shows on Wednesdays. What made me laugh was, after they switched to $2 tickets, they had ushers stationed at the doors of each theater checking tickets so people couldn't sneak in, when it was full price, no one gave a shit.

[Quote] Now that Into the Woods is firmly ensconced at the St. James I wonder if it could last several years there with constant stunt casting a la Chicago? So many roles there would be catnip to has-been celebs.

Don't give Loretta Swit any ideas.

[quote] Don't give Loretta Swit any ideas.

Someone has to play the cow.

[quote] It still lives on in my mind as the $2/$3 movie multiplex it once was in the early 90s.

My boyfriend and I jerked each other off during a movie there.

Luckily, everyone else was engrossed in "Sister Act" ...

I saw MISERY in that $2 theater.

A bargain!

[quote] I thought that the Yiddish Fiddler was going to NWS and not back to Stage 42 this time around?

That's correct.

[quote]My boyfriend and I jerked each other off during a movie there.

I hope it wasn't "Schindler's List."

It was Kindergarten Cop.

[quote]I hope it wasn't "Schindler's List."

I hope the seats have been changed.

R480, When did Hinton Battle play Mike in A Chorus Line?

Do the Dodgers do anything anymore in NYC theater? Does it even exist?

I saw Priscilla Queen of the Desert at that $2 theater. Was it called something like Worldwide Plaza cinema? It was attached to the Worldwide Plaza apartments which were reduced rent apartments. Everything about that block was cheap including my date who took me to the movies there. But I did go there in my poor New Yorker days.

Yes! Worldwide Cinemas.

Linked article says it started doing $2/$3 second runs in 1995/1996, but my memory tells me it was a bit earlier.

[quote] Linked article says it started doing $2/$3 second runs in 1995/1996, but my memory tells me it was a bit earlier.

It was early 1994 (which is why I question the poster upthread claiming they saw Misery there for $2.) I can recall being in my first year at NYU and right before the fall semester started, I went to see three reg priced movies there- Strictly Ballroom, Poetic Justice and something else I can't remember. Then they switched it up a few months later and the first time I went to the bargain priced version, I saw What's Love Got to Do With It for the 2nd time. (I have a near photographic memory for useless shit.)

Has Patti LuPone commented on Paul Sorvino’s death?

Maybe if ITW extends Miss Suzanne Sommers can finally play the witch!

My mother told me to only say something good when a person dies.

Paul Sorvino is dead.

Good.

As a sidenote, Jerry Orbach, much beloved by his peers, had a kind and classy word for almost all of his theatre and TV colleagues. An old-school gentleman.

Except for one he simply did not, could not bring himself to care for. Not even a little...

Paul Sorvino.

Boy, Patti can really hold a grudge.

[quote]Maybe if ITW extends Miss Suzanne Sommers can finally play the witch!

Is she going to add that extra M to her last name to play the role, the way Kaye Ballard removed the E from her first name to star in "Molly"?

Did he have a classy word for the critic who said he sang flat?

Hinton Battle and Greg Burge were wonderful dancers, but not box-office. Battle, with his many Tonys, surprisingly was never promoted as much as say, Audra, around the time they were tied with as many Tonys as each other. I saw Don Correia in "Singin' in the Rain" which he was fine, but no one (or any production) was going to live up to that movie's reputation and that fact that that film really does live up to its hype. Seeing Correia in other things, and those clips with Sandy, he was a superb dancer though and quite cute.

I went out a couple of times with a music director who had conducted Patti LuPone on Broadway and asked if she was difficult to deal with. He said that she was all right basically, but she had this attitude which she walked around with the aura of being "entitled", which was his word.

She was entitled to fall on her ass in the Buenos Aires number.

Take back your stink, r500.

I never saw that, but I did see Ann Reinkind fall during "The Music and the Mirror" number in "A Chorus Line", which was kind of jarring to see, as she was usually such a wonderful dancer. I forget how she sang it -- they must have changed the keys, since she didn't have Donna McKechnie's voice or range.

She didn't have a church lady soprano? How sad.

Reinking, that is.

Jerry Orbach had a really fine vocal instrument, but he did have intonation problems, so yes, he did sing flat. Try listening to the OCR of "Promises, Promises", or better yet, listen to the one remastered where he and some of the other guys in their duets or trios were cleaned up (auto-tuned or whatever) by that guy who runs Kritzerland -- much better and in tune.

What do you remember of Bruce Yarnell?

Beautiful voice and good-looking guy. Never saw him in person, as he died in a plane crash many years ago. He's great on "Granny Get Your Gun" with Merm and on "The Happiest Girl in the World" along with Cyril Ritchard and Janice Rule. His widow is a well-known voice teacher in NY.

Fuck off, Benay.

I think Yarnell did a stint on "Bonanza" on tv back in the 1960s for a number of episodes.

I saw Sandy Duncan fall during Encores “No, No Nanette.” She went down smiling and she came right back up with a huge grin on her face. If I didn’t know the show, I’d swear that bit was choreographed.

Sandy was a masochist!

The girl who fell down? Get your own schtick, Duncan!

[quote] I never saw that, but I did see Ann Reinkind fall during "The Music and the Mirror" number in "A Chorus Line", which was kind of jarring to see, as she was usually such a wonderful dancer. I forget how she sang it -- they must have changed the keys, since she didn't have Donna McKechnie's voice or range.

I love Ann, but I also saw her miss a landing on stage. It was the slide onto the pedestal in “Sing, Sing, Sing”, and she never stopped. Just kept sliding to the floor.

She did recover well, IIRC.

I thought it was Topol that Patti really didn't like in "Baker's Wife"? Didn't she just do the recording session with Paul Sorvino?

What prompted Ann to get a facelift? Was she up for the lead in The Sally Field Programme?

Are there any recent photos of Vicki Frederick?

This is the most recent that I could find, r523.

That Worldwide Plaza Cinema was such a 90s place, wow. I remember David Letterman did one of his remotes on Late Night - "may we see your movie tickets please?" or something like that - and they went into that cinema as people were coming out of having seen BATMAN in '89. Made me even more curious about NYC.

I've never heard stories about Paul Sorvino being a problem.

Does anybody know what he does to antagonize people?

He puts a horse head in their beds.

Back when the original A Chorus Line was doing it’s 15th “we’re finally closing the show and this time we mean it” the original cast members were on various talk shows. Donna McKechnie told a story about a little boy who hung around the stage door a lot. They could never figure out who he was but somehow he watched the show because one time he told her, “I saw you fall on your turn.”

I suspect Donna was in a tranquilizer haze and that little boy was Michael Bennett.

Vicki had a recent photo on her FB page then took it down. It was a little fuzzy and she was wearing sunglasses but she looked good. And rich. So talented. Wish she had come back to broadway as Roxie or Velma.

Patti definitely hated Topol when they did Baker’s Wife. I mean Andrew Lloyd-Webber level of hatred. I don’t remember her saying anything good or bad about Sorvino in her book, but maybe I’m wrong.

Sorvino did the last two weeks of the DC run of The Baker’s Wife. Patti rehearsed and performed with him on h. They were all over it by that point, and Sorvino’s gung-ho “let’s save the show!” attitude did not sit well with the rest of the cast

Did Ann Reinking fail to see Donna McKechnie for CHICAGO because she thought McKechnie was past it?

[quote]Was it called something like Worldwide Plaza cinema? It was attached to the Worldwide Plaza apartments which were reduced rent apartments.

The apartments in Worldwide Plaza are and always have been the opposite of "reduced rent." I guess you're confused, you're probably thinking of Manhattan Plaza.

R521, Paul Sorvino replaced Topol in BAKER'S WIFE. (His recording-only replacement was in CARMELINA, which is bizarre since he was a high tenor replacing Cesare Siepi, a classic Italian basso cantante.)

R530, she certainly did trash Sorvino in her book. Page 85: "My new Aimable was . . . Paul Sorvino. Sorvino looked like a husky defensive lineman and sounded like Dennis Day . . . He joined our company all full of bravado, enthusiasm and superiority . . . I hated him on sight. I wasn't alone. The company looked at him dead in the eyes and filled with venom . . . everyone took an instant dislike to him, and his attempts to rally us fell on deaf ears . . . He was also the classic show-off tenor. On the first day before he was officially introduced to us, whenever a new cast member would enter the rehearsal room, he would hit a high C. It was like having Howdy Doody at Auschwitz."

R502, did Jerry Orbach work with Paul Sorvino in anything other than the episode of LAW & ORDER in which he (Orbach) replaced him (Sorvino)?

[Quote] his attempts to rally us fell on deaf ears . . .

I tried to tell him about my paper plates trick...

Was Dennis Day an opera singer?

Wasn’t there some sort of drama where McKechnie auditioned for Roxie but was offended that Reinking wasn’t at the audition but it turned out to be some sort of miscommunication.

And now, three posts about fucking Daniel Fish's Most Happy Fella travesty

First some photography

No, r537.

Now a NYT review

But any larger point is lost. What does it mean to take the girl-watching harmonies of “Standing on the Corner” out of the mouths of men and put them into the mouths of these actors? Unclear. Given that no one is playing a character from the musical, what is the actors’ relationship to one another meant to be? Ditto. Fish has uprooted these songs from their original context without planting them in a solid new one.

it feels like something less alive than theater, and less shared.

In a Q. and A. in the digital program, Fish says that the show...is ideally “a proposition or a provocation to the audience that asks ‘What happens when this person sings this song in this space with these people?’”

Dennis Day was the light-voiced but pretty sounding tenor with a genial manner on the old "Jack Benny Show".

Thanks. I've never heard of him. I have heard of Jack Benny.

And a New Yorker review

These aren’t so much reinterpretations of Loesser’s songs—the sort of thing a pop singer does to a standard—as an effort to juice them of their thematic material and make of them one hard, shiny, lacquered surface.

Burge auditioned for the Donald OConnor role in the Correia SITR. He correctly thought that there was no love interest, or anything else race related and they could have just given him the part but he never got a callback. I do think he would have been great.

I saw Howard McGillin trip and fall during one of his dance routines in “Anything Goes”.

Just when I begin to believe Patti is human, I'm reminded of her vast, exponential levels of cuntitude.

All this talk about the $2 movies, reminded me of the time I went to see HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS there. I remember a large black woman and her family there as well, eating fried chicken. We figured they thought it was a horror movie.

Topol and Paul Sorvino both had horrible reputations. Friends did a Fiddler tour with him, and everyone hated him. I did see Sorvino in MOST HAPPY FELLA at City Opera, and he was just okay. But see how two topics just discussed are connected? Funny how that happens...

Tony Dow has died. RIP

Had he ever trod the boards? And I don't mean surf boards.

[quote] I saw Howard McGillin trip and fall during one of his dance routines in “Anything Goes”.

And his tripod dick didn't catch his fall?

[quote]All this talk about the $2 movies, reminded me of the time I went to see HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS there. I remember a large black woman and her family there as well, eating fried chicken.

I, too, distinctly remember seeing a large black woman and her children eating fried chicken during a movie at Worldwide Cinemas, but I really don't think the movie was HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS. So maybe that woman and her family were regulars.

Maybe it was "Chicken Run"? That would have been appropriate.

I worked with Paul Sorvino on a film in the 80s...yes, he was full of himself, overly upbeat and could be obnoxious in a "are you for real ?" sense, but he really was a nice guy.

Tony and the Beaver toured together in a few plays. Stock. Dinner theatre. I think they did Boeing Boeing at some point. RIP

I can’t follow that New Yorker review of MHF to save my life.

How about some gorgeous singing to brighten your day? Fritz Wunderlich in the "Magic Flute".

He's no Lana Cantrell, r556...

[quote][R502], did Jerry Orbach work with Paul Sorvino in anything other than the episode of LAW & ORDER in which he (Orbach) replaced him (Sorvino)?

I'm not r502 but a year or two before Orbach replaced Sorvino as a regular, Orbach had a guest spot as a sleazy defense attorney. I don't remember whether they had any scenes together.

Beanie’s final 8 shows this week! Or 7 shows. Or 5 shows. Or 2 shows

^ Extra DL catnip: that episode is "ripped from the headlines" and is based on the Betty Broderick case.

R551, there’s a reason the Worldwide Plaza Cinemas were known as Third World Plaza. Black families would pile into those theaters and used them as babysitter venues for their little kids. And it didn’t matter if they were R rated. Several times I’d sit near these little kids watching films with with a sex scene or an extremely violent scene. I wanted to report those mothers to social services.

[quote] there’s a reason the Worldwide Plaza Cinemas were known as Third World Plaza. Black families would pile into those theaters and used them as babysitter venues for their little kids. And it didn’t matter if they were R rated. Several times I’d sit near these little kids watching films with with a sex scene or an extremely violent scene. I wanted to report those mothers to social services.

Yup. They didn't care what they saw. $2 for air conditioning for two hours was a bargain.

R561 and R562, it never occurred to me that lack of air conditioning at home was the explanation, but I guess that might have been true at least in some cases.

Howard McGillin has a big dick. Very big.

Were he and Patti hot 'n' heavy?

It's now being reported that Tony Dow is still alive!

Here we go again.

R567 is a great reason to read through so much crap on DL. An excellent post, excellent.

R524, you bitch.

I absolutely loved when Mira Sorvino won the Oscar and Paul Sorvino was beating with such pride. When she mentioned him in her speech, he started crying.

Beautiful moments that stays in my memory

Beating= beaming

I didn't think he had so much pull, since I like her in other things, but not so much in the role she won an Oscar for.

For which she won an Oscar.

Love the vintage theatre gossip. Let's hear about some backstage dish from the 70s, 80s and 90s! We had a banner couple of threads a decade ago with Summer Stock Memories...let's get some vintage dish happening!

Was Crista Moore the Lea Michele of her day? Did Michael Maguire get blackballed for his (alleged) abuse of Stro? What about the mass Les Miz and Annie firings by management?

Did Ricky Martin blow Richard-Jay?

What's the dish on Hal Luftig?

R573 Thanks, English teacher.

I think Michael Maguire also couldn't act (at least when he wasn't singing) But yes, supposedly he got violent towards Stro.

If Tony Dow is still alive, his "manager" has got to be the most incompetent asshole ever to hold such a position.

R556, Fritz Wunderlich had one of the best voices ever heard. I listen to him when I need reassurance there has been beauty in the world.

I somehow missed the entire Michael Maguire/Stro confrontation. What’s the story?

It's been Dow's doped up wife posting the misinfo. He's not in a hospice; he's receiving palliative care at home. He either fell asleep or went into a coma and she became hysterical, calling his managers to tell them he had died and then posting the same to Facebook.

These do appear to be his final hours, though.

[quote]These do appear to be his final hours, though

Should we expect a *Tony Dow is DEAD to me...AGAIN* thread?

What did Sarah Jessica Parker do to get to play Annie on Broadway? She sho was ugly.

I think they were dating, r581, and he got violent. I’ve met him a couple of times in the last few years. He’s an attorney now, although he does still sing. He has not aged well at all. But he seemed like a really nice guy not full of himself at all. I think he’s fully aware why his career dried up, and it’s been humbling for him.

[quote]He’s an attorney now

Does he cross examine in song?

What did Sarah Jessica Parker do to get to play Winifred on Broadway? She sho was terrible.

Maguire worked in Finance, made a shitload of money then quit and pursued theatre full time. He got a lot of attention during his time in Les Miz. He was good in a Harv Presnell kind of way.

Just checked out last week's Broadway grosses and Moulin Rouge is only making about 1,200,000/week. While that's a lot of $$$, can a show which must have astronomical weekly running costs really survive on those numbers? Not trying to be snarky, just curious if those in the know have educated opinions.

American Psycho Goes To Broadway.

Some women should be beaten regularly, Stro. Like gongs.

New/next thread for when needed:

Maguire in 2020 with Judy Kuhn and Frances Ruffelle

r592

thank you

and

it's

the

end

adieu

BAJOUR!

Ba

Jour

Boom. Splat.

You think so r600?