THEATRE GOSSIP #551- Sutton’s Worse Worst Pies Edition

Will ST make it 12 more weeks?

JRB’s The Connector is really a miss. The plot is obvious well before the first number concludes. Once again, there is a weak and resentful woman raging at a man who has found success easily. There are a few songs that are just short of very good, including one for Jessica Molaskey, one for Bakula, and two for the leading lady whose strength gets undercut because she is drinking during both of them. And she wins out not by being a good reporter, but by getting a note from an embittered reader.

But the cast is great, especially Ben Levi Ross. If Broadway ever is interested in singing actors who can develop a full character, he’ll have quite a career.

But how is Joe Locke?

Joe Locke for Officer Lockstock

and Cheno for Little Sally

[quote]But the cast is great, especially Ben Levi Ross. If Broadway ever is interested in singing actors who can develop a full character, he’ll have quite a career.

Ben Levi Ross was terrific as Evan Hansen on the national tour.

Does Ben do anal? Asking for a friend.

He has a boyfriend/partner.

What about Buena Vista Social Club? After those rave reviews it must be transferring, right? One of the most joyous shows I’ve seen in years.

Girls, Robbie Fairchild is wonderful in "Illinoise" You did not tell me! Ben Cook and Ricky Ubeda are also wonderful.

Nice to see Robbie Fairchild get his flowers.

I'm seeing ILLINOISE at the Armory this spring. Can't wait!

I had tickets for at Bard but didn't give myself nearly enough time to drive there for a Sunday matinee. Had no idea the traffic could be so bad.

On the last thread, somebody asked if Tyne Daly was divorcing during Gypsy. Gypsy started out as a tour before it came to Broadway. So she was away from her husband for several months. Don’t know if they were already planning to divorce, but being away from each other for weeks probably put a strain on their marriage.

Buena Vista was underwritten by producer Orin Wolf so good luck with that.

Ironically, Tyne's replacement in Gypsy was Linda Lavin who was going through a messy divorce at the time.

Why does everyone leave????

Sometimes people leave you halfway through the woods.

One quick look as each of them leaves you......

If ever I could leave you ...

Maybe leaving’s not the only way to go.

Guess!

What time do I go on today?

Narcan call is 2:30, Tyne.

What’s wrong with producer Orin Wolf?

I must say it has been a long time since I have seen someone ripped to shreds on Twitter for a Broadway performance like Sutton foster. I agree; the clip is atrocious that is making the rounds. Why did NO ONE intervene on her behalf before this happened?

Is this voice memo recording of performances somewhat new? This situation with Foster and Tveit is the first time I've noticed them getting widely disseminated. They've been all over Twitter. It seems like something the powers that be would want to curb, though that is probably next to impossible.

From last thread:

[quote]561 This is kind of frightening. I've heard from more than one source Tyne Daly is on suicide watch. She was having enormous trouble with remembering her lines, is severely depressed and was found to be hoarding pills. In her fucking purse. Therefore the news blackout on her "hospitalization".

Whoa. If true, that’s so dramatic. Especially for someone who, from interviews, seemed so clear eyed and grounded.

Younger:

I wonder if Sutton and Aaron auditioned.

Tyne and Sharon were both snorting during Cagney & Lacey. Sharon went to Betty Ford because of it and met Elaine Stritch while there.

Knowing when to leave will never let you reach the point of no return!

[quote]I wonder if Sutton and Aaron auditioned.

I have no idea, but regardless, I would say that if director Thomas Kail approved and supported their casting, that's another black mark against him in regard to his stewardship of this production -- on top of his approval of the silly choreography, the fact that some of his staging gives obstructed or partial views of the action to certain sections of the audience, the very questionable casting of some of the roles among the original company, and of course, the fact that this production has few if any moments in it that are truly scary or suspenseful.

Did any Broadway chorus boys get to sample Josh’s massive meat during his Sweeney run?

I'm something of a Sutton loather, but even I have to give her some space regarding Sweeney, given that she just finished an energetic run in Mattress. That doesn't excuse bad singing, but she perhaps should have taken some time off to energize her batteries.

Agreed, r33, but when would she get another chance to play Lovett on Broadway?

Does Harv know?

r25 Not that new, especially among the fangirl circles, it almost seems like some of them are trying to record every performance - you'll see requests for specific dates, even when it's just a regular performance with no new cast members or anything like that.

Sorry but they should have closed it when Groban left especially when they saw the severe decline in attendance and sales whenever he was out.

Patti saw ST yesterday. I'm sure she loved it.

This is tragic. I'll bet Patti posted it.

Patti was on her cell phone all during the performance.

R40 made me laugh so hard, the cat left the room.

The video at R39 is TERRIBLE.

R42. Read the comments if you have a chance. They're very entertaining.

The video isn’t that bad.

It's bad enough

It’s not like Sondheim avoid cheap humor in A Little Priest, but this shift to desperation is unfortunate. If you listen the the 1979 opening night recording, there is a palpable sense of shock as the audience realizes what is up. Which is why the song has to be as long as it is.

But you can’t go back. Hamilton once felt very fresh, but now the audience knows every line before it is sung.

[quote]Patti saw ST yesterday. I'm sure she loved it.

It was the nuts, R38.

I hope Sutton stays away from social media for a while.

I'm embarrassed for the poor thing.

LOL, R49.

First look at "Wicked" trailer:

I like it.

[italic]Prostitution whores ! !

^^ re:

[quote]especially among the fangirl circles, it almost seems like some of them are trying to record every performance - you'll see requests for specific dates, even when it's just a regular performance with no new cast members or anything like that.

Saw matinee of NOTEBOOK. Like WAITRESS a pop writer makes it work. It's a moving story, solid direction, beautiful set. Overall, totally satisfying. Going to be a big hit.

Is Aron wearing a visible face mic in that clip? It's been a while since I saw this revival, but I don't recall Josh (or any other cast member) having those styles of mics, but rather the ones hidden in their hair. Am I mistaken?

And, yes, that clip was terrible. He can barely cut through the orchestra and sounds out of his depth and she might overtake Annaleigh in the mugging by the end of next week.

Sutton Foster as JoAnne Worley as Mrs Lovett

[quiye]R56 Is Aron wearing a visible face mic in that clip?

It’s so tacky.

Gawd, that Sweeney clip is horrible. They've turned it into the The Three Stooges.

On a completely different note: The Wicked teaser doesn't look half bad.

“quiye”? I meant to type the command “quote”

[quote] Sutton Foster as JoAnne Worley as Mrs Lovett

With a side of Dorothy Loudon.

Sutton makes Annaleigh seem like Blossom Dearie.

So Sugtonks turned A Little Priest into the same kind of thing she did with Hugh J on Music Man. Trying to crack each other up.

[quote]With a side of Dorothy Loudon.

She was an exceptional Lovett, r61.

R55 I ran into someone at my gym who’s very close to one of the key performers —he said the same thing…the crew, cast and producers are confident that they’ve got a really good show.

[Quote] I ran into someone at my gym

Indeed.

Yes. His locker is on the same row—he shares Broadway news often. …you would have seen him on stage as well in the past season (he got a great review for that performance).

A poster on ATC offered a rave about Tveit and Foster that only an agent or relative could contrive.

Why do I think Patti heard the audio of Sutton massacring Worst Pies and immediately bought a tkt for the next days matinee. Did she see the show with Annaleigh who, like it or not, got great reviews.

This production has been over praised from the very beginning.

A friend of mine saw THE NOTEBOOK and said that the laughably inconsistent color-blind casting makes it very hard to follow the story, which is challenging enough to follow because of the different time periods. He also couldn't understand why they have THREE different pairs of actors playing the lovers in the show -- he said all the switching makes it harder to invest in the characters and the actors playing them, and one set of actors for the bulk of the show and another set for the scenes in which the couple is much older would have been a better choice..

[quote]A poster on ATC offered a rave about Tveit and Foster that only an agent or relative could contrive.

Spoken like a press agent!

Oh, a "friend of yours..." Sure. Any way to make a racist comment, find the excuse.

Today, I was walking on the street with some friends after seeing a show. We were discussing the upcoming Encores! production of TITANIC and were joking about what Ramin Karimloo will be wearing -- or not wearing -- in his role of Barrett, the stoker. As we were talking, two other gay guys who were passing by overheard and turned to us and said, "That's all anyone wants to know about Ramin in TITANIC, what he will or won't be wearing!"

So funny, as RK has hypocritically claimed that he hates being objectified for his body -- yet he has continued to display it in various shows, even when inappropriate, as in FUNNY GIRL.

Noooooo! Would no one have mercy on her?

R73, if you think it's "racist" for someone to comment that it's confusing to the audience when characters in a show are played by actors of different races at different stages in the characters' lives, you are obviously beyond all rational thought and have been programmed to cry "racism" at every opportunity, even when that charge is completely unjustified.

R74 It’s funny you mentioned Ramin and “Funny Girl” because I saw him in “Funny Girl” with Julie Benko back in August 2022. I sat front row during that performance. While I enjoyed and reveled at Benko’s performance, seeing Ramin on the stage half naked was one of the highlights for me that night.

Broadway needs Ramin's naked Sweeney Todd! Sally Struthers IS Mrs Lovett!

[quote]Broadway needs Ramin's naked Sweeney Todd!

Sondheim sends his heavenly approval for this idea.

What I heard from an acquaintance of Tyne Daly is that she was suffering from exhaustion and heart arhythmia (evidently undiagnosed before now) and was told that if she tried to do eight shows a week it would kill her. It was recommended she go home to LA and lay off all work for a while.

I saw the Groban/Ashford Sweeney but what I remember best is the Datalounge crack about her spinning around on the floor like the Three Stooges.

[quote]R80 What I heard from an acquaintance of Tyne Daly is that she was suffering from exhaustion and heart arhythmia… and was told that if she tried to do eight shows a week it would kill her.

Why didn’t Sharon Gless step in?

Fuckin’ fair weather friend.

SUNSET BLVD. (as it was/is officially billed) won 7 What’s On Stage awards tonight, including Best Actress and Best Director, and a bootleg video of “As If We Never Said Goodbye” has leaked… get it before it’s gone! Whatever opinions one has about the production, there’s no denying that Nicole certainly gives a brilliant performance and her vocals are on par or even more impressive than Patti, Barbra, Elaine and the others (sorry G).

Damn, that was torture. She doesn’t act when she sings, she emotes, gives us weird vowel sounds and moves her arms like a modern dance spoof.

How is that woman from Vanderpump doing in Chicago?

I find that video of SB awful actually. Performing the song like the tacky cabaret singer she is. Vapid and tacky. Pass.

I wish Tyne Daly well. I hope she's OK.

That said, I LOVE Amy Ryan in everything, particularly Gone Baby Gone and The Office. She's one of our great underrated actresses.

I had no interest in seeing Doubt with Tyne—I could envision her entire performance without seeing it—but I'm going to buy a ticket to see Amy.

I saw this in London and was completely won over, though I think it’s a terrible show. The theatricality of it is precisely what sells it, and that is in contrast to an otherwise stark and minimal production. All I can say is that in context this works, she works. It’s a deconstructed version of Swanson’s mannered performance.

Though I admit that seeing that clip out of context her performance seems like eccentric kabuki

“This”meaning “Sunset Blvd”.

[quote] I had no interest in seeing Doubt with Tyne—I could envision her entire performance without seeing it—but I'm going to buy a ticket to see Amy.

Yes, you've told us before.

Just resurfacing Sutton's truly horrific version of "Worst Pies in London."

I sense this will live in DL infamy.

It’s sub-collegiate level.

The funniest part of Sutton's Worst Pies is her growl when she sings "wouldn't do in MYYYYY shop."

Some highlights from the Twitter comments on Sutton's performance posted at R91:

Why is she serving Lansbury from Temu

Limited wind indeed

*worst voice in london

Sondheim just hit 600rpm in his grave.

It's giving Edith Bunker.

Wait not who is this for real??? Why is Sutton Foster singing like this?

Jackie Hoffman, is that you?!

this was the worst thing I’ve ever heard! the high school version of sweeney todd I saw had better casting

sounds like an air raid siren... if sondheim was still alive that performance would have killed him

Yeah, I heard a lot of Edith Bunker. It's a relief for the world to see "sure bet" Sutton can't do everything.

I’m convinced Christopher Guest is filming a new mockumentory right now on Broadway and Sutton is playing the role like “waiting for Guffman, part 2!”

[quote] what I remember best is the Datalounge crack about her spinning around on the floor like the Three Stooges.

Aw, I was the one that posted that comment on DL. Thanks R81.

Comments include QUEENIE TODD and SCREAMY TODD. This looks so bad I might have to buy a ticket.

Well, he sounds better than she does, but not by much.

I understand the complaints about Sutton sounding like Edith Bunker, but I think people are being unnecessarily harsh on Tveit.

I think he sounds great,

But some people are going to be extra hard on him because he's a handsome, white, fair, blue-eyed, American male., which to them means ultra-privileged and therefore not worthy of compliments or much else.

Many of them were upset when he and not the POC understudy inherited the role and have been ready to pounce ever since.

He's got a fine voice, but his tone makes him sound like Seymour from Little Shop playing Sweeney Todd. It's a miscast.

The thing that most bugs me about Sutton’s performance is that she gets a big laugh at one point, obscuring what SHOULD be the laugh line, “and I’m tellin’ you those pussy cats is quick.” She’s adding comic bits to get extraneous laughs and not play the lyric.

If I was Sutton, I would be concerned that nobody gave me the feedback I needed to hear.

Tveit just seems a little lightweight for the role, too slight, youthful and cute. And he sounds drone-y in certain registers as if he’s shredding his vocal chords. Though certainly a ‘name,’ he does seem miscast.

Didn’t Len Cariou claim that doing Sweeney damaged his voice?

I don't believe the criticism of Tveit has anything to do with race or love for the understudy. He's certainly talented but wrong for this role. I love Danny DeVito but I wouldn't want to see him tackle Private Lives.

[quote]I love Danny DeVito but I wouldn't want to see him tackle Private Lives.

I don't think I could sit through Private Lives again with anyone BUT Danny Devito.

I'll be seeing Julian Ovenden at The Menier this April in a hot new play (and non-musical) THE POWER OF SAIL

I’m dissapointed in LuPone. She shit all over SRS and NPH to their faces about their horrible performances, but by all accounts spared Sutton.

I wish they had called Helene York to do Lovett. I am also on record in The Other Two Season 3 thread saying I hope she’s the first millennial to do Rose in the next Gypsy revival.

R105, it wasn’t the singing that damaged his voice. It was the dust from the grave at the beginning.

I really enjoyed Amy Ryan recently in BEAU IS AFRAID. I thought she was hysterical in it.

I hope they announce more information on Tyne Daly. I’m a huge fan and hope she recovers quickly

Agree. Love Tyne and she deserves better here.

R105-what Len said was it "nearly killed him". The Scotch and the cigarettes ruined his voice.

[quote]Whatever opinions one has about the production, there’s no denying that Nicole certainly gives a brilliant performance and her vocals are on par or even more impressive than Patti, Barbra, Elaine and the others (sorry G).

In that clip, the voice itself is great, but she sings the song like a pop song, the lyrics are very unclear during most of it, and her decision to hold that high note on the word "home" for SO LONG is counterproductive and wrecks what's usually a sure-fire climax to the song.

[quote] Didn’t Len Cariou claim that doing Sweeney damaged his voice?

He sounded great when he played Sweeney Todd, and he never sounded great again.

[quote]I had no interest in seeing Doubt with Tyne—I could envision her entire performance without seeing it.

Yes, as you've mentioned SEVERAL times before in these threads. Some of us would still very much have liked to see Tyne in the role, and it would have been fine with us if you stayed home.

Will Aaron and Sutton be doing that staged “breaking up” at every performance?

R117, Isn’t that why he didn’t tour?

Rumors are out there that Thomas Kail offered little-to-no direction to his actors in SWEENEY.

R115, Plus, he was with G at that time.

R121, no direction or not, Sutton's rendition of Worst Pies should never have been on a Broadway stage.

[quote]I’m dissapointed in LuPone. She shit all over SRS and NPH to their faces about their horrible performances, but by all accounts spared Sutton.

I assume NPH is Neil Patrick Harris, but who is SRS? And why can't you type full names rather than use initials?

Wow, R121!

[quote]She's one of our great underrated actresses.

Anyone who receives an Oscar nomination is by definition NOT "underrated."

[quote]Will Aaron and Sutton be doing that staged “breaking up” at every performance?

I wouldn't be surprised. Sutton and Hugh Jackman "breaking up" in that clip from THE MUSIC MAN is appalling in its unprofessionalism. But sadly, most of the audience loves that shit, so I guess Miss Foster feels she has hit on something and there's no way she's going to stop doing it.

Tyne Daly is a warm, friendly, great gal. 100% down to earth. Genuinely kind. Professional. You know if she's missing a show for health reasons, she must be truly ill, she's not just breaking in new shoes.

Regular NYC theatregoers have seen her rescue many a middling play with an excellent performance. Even if the play's no good, you know that she'll be good, and that's a great compliment to an actor. So she did some TV to get more famous and make some bank, so what? Who wouldn't? Get famous on TV and you can do all the theatre you want as long as you deliver at the box office. And she was good on that TV show too.

Truly, we should all be wishing her well.

R91 wow. That is wild.

The only thing more grating than sitting through that performance would be listening to the fools laughing hysterically in the audience.

[quote]Tyne Daly is a warm, friendly, great gal. 100% down to earth. Genuinely kind. Professional. You know if she's missing a show for health reasons, she must be truly ill, she's not just breaking in new shoes.. Regular NYC theatregoers have seen her rescue many a middling play with an excellent performance.

Agreed, and that awful Terrence McNally play is a perfect example.

[quote] Tyne Daly is a warm, friendly, great gal. 100% down to earth. Genuinely kind. Professional. You know if she's missing a show for health reasons, she must be truly ill, she's not just breaking in new shoes.

AND she was the best Mama Rose.

R131, You ain’t seen nuttin yet.

[quote]AND she was the best Mama Rose.

Fuck you.

R133. Oh Ethel!

Surprised that no one has done a review of Sutton and Aaron yet if ST is so bad with them in the lead rolls.

Do reviewers wait a week or 2 for the leads to get more comfortable in the roles before they review them?

Terrence McNally was truly underrated. He received a Tony Award in four out of five consecutive years. Even if you just look at his plays, he created characters that were so vivid that he launched the careers for several stars. His work meant a lot to me, and I was fortunate to be able to tell him that in person.

R135, I'm surprised you don't know how it works. Critics are not going to be invited back to review star replacements in a show right after they begin performances. Rather, the production will typically wait at least two weeks or so before inviting them back. Of course, critics could purchase tickets and review the replacements right after they start, but that would be considered a huge breach of professional etiquette.

[quote]...with them in the lead rolls.

Oh, DEAR!

[quote]Terrence McNally was truly underrated. He received a Tony Award in four out of five consecutive years.

In what sense was he "underrated" if he received Tony Awards in four out of five consecutive years? It's nice that you love his work, but though I think his books for musicals are generally very strong, most of the plays he wrote in the latter part of his career are pretty bad in my opinion.

And yet McNally wrote nothing that can be considered a great play. LVC! was excellent and had a great cast, but nothing that be considered classic. IMHO, of course.

McNally was mediocrity incarnate.

Some good one-liners, like Rudnick, but more famous for being first than being best, that McNally.

[quote]And yet McNally wrote nothing that can be considered a great play. LVC! was excellent and had a great cast, but nothing that be considered classic.

FWIW, I think L!V!C! is one of his worst plays, though MASTER CLASS is tough competition in that group. If I had to name his best non-musical plays, I would say THE RITZ and THE LISBON TRAVIATA. Also, IT'S ONLY A PLAY is quite hilarious.

For me, Lips Together Teeth Apart and Frankie & Johnny each seem to give dignity to stories of people I feel have really met. Whether that makes them great plays or not is not as important to me. A lot of the great plays seem less do decades later. But I still smile thinking of Christine Baranski/Chloe’s community theater aspirations or Frankie and Johnny’s romance.

Had a very negative experience with Terrence McNally at an awards show. Think "don't you know who I am" territory.

Is McNally's The Lisbon Traviata worth reviving?

R146 I don’t know who could play the Nathan Lane part well. And PLEASE not Mario Cantone! But there are lots of actors I would like to see playing the naked John Slattery part.

T. McNally's book for "Ragtime" is a HUGE improvement over the screenplay from the (non-musical) movie.

Follies!

Supposedly, Stephen Daldry is directing a film version of The Lisbon Traviata. I don't know who the stars will be but I believe it's already in pre-production.

Wow! Get your tickets now cause that one'll be a blockbuster.

Isn’t everyone though “Don’t u know who I am?” Everyone famous is basically an asshole.

I saw the recent-ish Broadway revival of “Frankie and Johnny” with Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon and it exposed just how weak that play is. If McNally had been honest with himself or someone around him had been, he would have realized the play didn’t hold up and needed heavy editing.

As a one-act it would be a great showcase for two good actors. As a two-act it is repetitive and endless, with the couple back to square one with each other in act II for no good reason. I wasn’t surprised it did a fast fade despite good acting and full frontal nudity from both stars.

No one wanted to see where Audra kept her Tonys.

Agreed, R153. And MASTER CLASS is a puerile, nasty, opera queen's depiction of Maria Callas. And MOTHERS AND SONS is pretty worthless, and DEUCE was a horrible thing to do to Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes as a supposed vehicle for their talents. So there were VERY few good plays written by McNally, though again I really like most of the books he wrote for musicals.

McNally was of his time, and will remain so.

Like Neil Simon?

Very few playwrights end up being timeless...

[quote]Like Neil Simon?

And Wendy Wasserstein.

Frankie & Johnny started out as an off-Broadway play and should have remained there. It’s not really a mainstream play. It belongs in a small theater where the audience can feel the intimacy between the actors.

But I do agree that some of it should be rewritten. If not cast well, Frankie can come across as whiny and Johnny can come across as uncaring, which may be what McNally intended by setting them in NYC.

Let's just all be grateful we didn't see Bonnie Franklin and her exposed fried egg titties when she took over for Kathy Bates back in the 80s.

Not to mention her ginger minge.

[quote]R87 That said, I LOVE Amy Ryan in everything, particularly Gone Baby Gone and The Office. She's one of our great underrated actresses.

She is a great actress. For a while she was known in NY as “Cryin’ Ryan” because she can really deliver in an emotional role. I read in an interview with her that it’s quite physically exhausting to cry onstage every night, performance after performance, for months. I think she was referring specifically to “On the Mountain” at Playwrights Horizons, where she played a widow.

I thought that was interesting.

[quote]R98 …SCREAMY TODD…

Oh. My. God!

Bwaaa haha!

Eileen left The Bad Sad when it got to be too much, r163.

[quote]R98 Aaron Tveit “Epiphany”

those are odd key changes in the middle of the song, aren’t they? (“Nor a hundred can assuage me”)

Heckart? Seed?

Oops, r167, yes.

When I was looking up Bethel Leslie (of all people) I was struck by how many early plays were written in three acts (dramas and comedies.) Did three acts require two intermissions? That just seems a bit much.

Were the three acts really mostly for the playwright, to define the story in their head?

I saw THE CHERRY ORCHARD at BAM performed straight through without intermission, and thought that was fine, just letting the story unroll without intermission. I can’t imagine pacing around through two intermissions.

Reviews of Eddie Izzard's solo "Hamlet." I didn't know that Izzard is now a she/her instead of a they.

[quote]I saw THE CHERRY ORCHARD at BAM performed straight through without intermission, and thought that was fine, just letting the story unroll without intermission. I can’t imagine pacing around through two intermissions.

How nice for you. Are you aware that theater audiences tend to be older and that some older people have bladder issues?

R169 also seems completely unaware that the actors might like a break or two when performing a show like THE CHERRY ORCHARD, rather than playing the whole thing straight through.

[quote]I can’t imagine pacing around through two intermissions.

Take up smoking.

DEPENDS! : The Musical

Despite this VICIOUS “Knives Are Out” chorus of response, my question is was it standard to have two intermissions for a three act play, back in the day? And when did things stop being written in three acts (if they ever were.)

Yes, R175, a three-act structure was quite standard for plays, and two brief intermissions were not uncommon.

[quote]How nice for you. Are you aware that theater audiences tend to be older and that some older people have bladder issues?

There's a simple solution.

[quote]R176 Yes, a three-act structure was quite standard for plays, and two brief intermissions were not uncommon.

Thank you. Do you know when that changed, and why?

[quote]Thank you. Do you know when that changed, and why?

I'm guessing TV shortened people's attention spans. Show time was also at 8:30.

Time has not been kind to THE RITZ, as a recent revival proved. Gay men (and Italians) deserve better.

[quote]Thank you. Do you know when that changed, and why?

I guess it really depends.

1990s - Angels in America had two intermissions.

1980s - Crimes of the Heart had two intermissions

More recently, The Lehman Trilogy had three acts and two intermissions, as did each part of The Inheritance.

Leopoldstadt, recently, played all the way through without an intermission.

Even more recently. Prayer for The French Republic has three acts and two intermissions.

"Our Town" has three acts, and the two intermissions are written into the play.

Stage Manager: "This act is called 'The Daily Life' . . . "

Stage Manager: "That concludes the second act. You can go out and smoke now, those that smoke."

[quote]R179 Show time was also at 8:30.

Oh! That explains the Noel Coward title.

Exactly, r186.

And sometimes later...

The lovely Luella Gear...

The lovely Frances Williams...

Love these threads

[quote]Do you know when that changed, and why?

The obvious answer is that it changed very gradually, but not completely. There are recent examples of plays with three acts and two intermissions -- including, as someone mentioned above, PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, which is currently running on Broadway.

Your questions aren't stupid, but I'm sorry, you phrase them in such a way that they sound stupid.. Anyway, I hope you're satisfied with the answers and have learned something.

My understanding is that the second intermission makes the evening too long for many busy patrons as well as potentially adding another hour of wages onto the bill (incurring penalty rates after 11PM).

Perhaps someone connected to production can weigh in on this subject?

And to bring it back to Terrence McNally, Love! Valour! Compassion! had 3 acts and 2 intermissions. I love the play and am perplexed why iot hasn't yet had a amjor revival. Or even a reading with the original cast for a gala at MTC or Roundabout.

Shakespeare wrote his plays in 5 Acts and they were performed without any intermission. Likewise, many 3 Act plays are often performed with only one intermission. It strikes me as a structural tool more than anything.

Has ANYONE CAN WHISTLE ever been done with two intermissions?

Interesting LOVE! VALOR! COMPASSION! details in a recent Terrence McNally bio -- the "Nathan Lane role" was in fact written for Charles Busch, who had been talking to McNally about playing a genital male onstage. Then Busch bowed out, and David Drake was scheduled to read the part. Nathan Lane was there, and when Drake was running very late, they asked him to read Buzz.

R194, you may love the play, but I expect many people have come to agree with me that it's a pretty horrific depiction of different types of gay men. That business where one of the men threatens to shove another one's hand in an active garbage disposal because he's angry with him over something? The ridiculous character of the blind young man who behaves like no human being on the planet? And that nonsense with the good and evil twins who are named John and James Jeckyll? You're welcome to all of it, but spare me.

[quote]Shakespeare wrote his plays in 5 Acts and they were performed without any intermission. Likewise, many 3 Act plays are often performed with only one intermission. It strikes me as a structural tool more than anything.

As you may or may not know, it was common in Shakespeare's time for audiences not to watch a whole play in rapt attention, but to leave and return during the performance, often more than once, for whatever reasons they felt necessary.

Act breaks can be used by playwrights for structural purposes, but it's ALSO necessary to have intermissions in longer plays for the benefit of both the actors and the audience. Do you understand how both of those things can be true at once?

The original Dancin' had two intermissions presumably to let the dancers catch their breath since they performed like racehorses.

R198, I can't analyze every aspect of why intermissions exist in a single DL post. I offered a few off-the-cuff observations, authorial intent happens to interest me more than audiences and actors wanting a pee break.

Do you understand you can respond to a post with being a cunt?

[quote]Authorial intent happens to interest me more than audiences and actors wanting a pee break.

Believe it or not, what interests YOU is not necessarily the main reasons why shows have act breaks and intermissions. Also, of course it's not just about "pee breaks," and you must know that, but you're just being argumentative because I guess that's your nature.

[quote] The original Dancin' had two intermissions presumably to let the dancers catch their breath since they performed like racehorses.

As did Fosse.

[quote] Do you understand you can respond to a post with being a cunt?

Silly boy!

To go in a slightly different direction, I always tend to roll my eyes at how bloated the casts would be in many plays from circa 1930-1960.

That's a brave stand, R204. Some of us miss the excitement of a large cast populated with wonderful character actors.

[Quote] it was common in Shakespeare's time for audiences not to watch a whole play in rapt attention, but to leave and return during the performance, often more than once, for whatever reasons they felt necessary.

r198, did you enjoy that kind of theatergoing?

[Quote] it was common in Shakespeare's time for audiences not to watch a whole play in rapt attention, but to leave and return during the performance, often more than once, for whatever reasons they felt necessary.

r198, speaking of common—

Are three acts really necessary to unwind this 1951 tripe??

——————————

[italic]LO & BEHOLD: A Nobel Prize winner has lived for years on a meager, unpalatable die to favor an ailing heart. This lack of much heart has made the philosophy of his books coldly cynical. After signing a will that leaves a third of his estate to his young doctor, a third to perpetuate his house as a sanctuary for his spirit, and the final third to the Harvard Law School to insure that the terms of his odd testament will be carried out, he eats a sumptuous meal and dies happily. Instead of the solitude he expected, he is beset by the spirits of an Indian girl pushed off a cliff by her lover, a Southern belle with a disturbing drawl and a phony liberal attitude, and a frustrated composer. Then the pretty cook - a former model who prepared the fatal dishes - returns to the house and is mistaken for his illegitimate daughter. He eventually finds peace by furthering a romance between the doctor and the young girl.

Who does J.B. anymore?

R209, that’s Frieda Claxton, who LOVES prune danish and HATES trees!!!

She was no Celia Rubenstein.

Yes, r210, see the signature.

SAINT JOAN has always sounded so boring and bloated to me. 1 girl on stage with 300 men, or whatever.

What is J.B.?

I had to look it up. It’s a late 50s play with a huge cast, set in a traveling circus.

[quote]Who does J.B. anymore?

My high school did it, but I'm an eldergay. The original production starred Pat Hingle.

It's a retelling of Job by poet Archibald MacLeish.

R195, there is evidence that Shakespeare wrote for a five act structure, and plenty of evidence against it.

Shakespeare did not follow classical Greek or Roman playwriting structures in general.

No publication of any of his work before the First Folio included act breaks.

The plays themselves, usually do not fall into a five act structure and the act divisions introduced by editors often seem arbitrary.

There were other writers of the time (Jonson and Webster for example) who did write within a five act structure, so we know how that structure felt in Early Modern English plays. Shakespeare is something different.

[quote]Time has not been kind to THE RITZ, as a recent revival proved. Gay men (and Italians) deserve better.

Recent as in 2007 at Studio 54?

Geez they've cancelled a lot of performances.

Based on my time off-bway, I'd say theatres produce shorter plays because of their audience's ever-shortening attention span.

I mean just ride the subway. You see 2/3rds of the car scrolling through 5" videos on Instagram and tiktok - flick, flick, flick, flick, flick. People get bored after 10 seconds.

Connected to why theatres produce plays with small casts - they can't afford to pay more than a cast of 2-3.

[quote]What is J.B.?

It's the sequel to "How to Succeed" told from Mr. Biggley's point of view.

R206, I did! But I noticed that YOU were one of the groundlings who indulged in rowdy behavior and kept leaving and returning. Shame, shame!

We did J.B. when I was in college in the early 70s (!). It was a big pompous bore even back then but the originally production starred Raymond Massey, Christopher Plummer (one of his first Broadway shows), Pat Hingle and Nan Martin, a huge commercial hit that won many awards, including the Pulitzer.

The story of Job, but portrayed as a proud modern business tycoon who is brought down to humility by God (Massey)and the Devil (Plummer), all in the context of a shabby traveling carnival. No surprise there's never been a Broadway revival.

How witty, R207. Perhaps you should become a playwright? Or not.

I'm sorry that certain people here are reacting so badly to being told some facts they obviously didn't know beforehand -- including, in this case, one of the reasons why Shakespeare's plays were so long and had so many act breaks.

[quote]No surprise there's never been a Broadway revival.

Or a musical.

R205 it's sometime advantageous to write a small part for a college age boy who comes on in the first act and then has nothing to do until the end of the third act.

[quote] I'm sorry that certain people here are reacting so badly to being told some facts they obviously didn't know beforehand -- including, in this case, one of the reasons why Shakespeare's plays were so long and had so many act breaks.

Oh, the irony, as has been mentioned above, Shakespeare didn't write "act breaks" those were added later by editors/publishers.

R228, even if Shakespeare didn't write act breaks -- and I don't believe that's certain -- he wrote VERY long plays, as I noted, at a time when it was expected that audience members would leave and return whenever they wanted during the performance. This has been given as one reason why there's so much repetition of information in Shakespeare's plays, and also why there were no set intermissions in the original productions.

Some say Shakespeare didn’t even write the actual words much less the act breaks.

Fuck Shakespeare! This bottom's gonna come out on top!

I wrote all of Shakespeare's plays.

News from the "ballroom" Cats at the Perelman PAC

[quote] Joining directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, choreographers Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles and dramaturg and gender consultant Josephine Kearns will be.....

Cats with a gender consultant. Can't wait.

They may as well credit her as "Grifter"

Speaking of intermissions, the 4 hour 15 minute Taylor Mac spectacle "Bark of Millions" at BAM does not have one. You have to squeeze out of your seat and make everyone stand up if you need to get to the John.

Why the fuck would anyone sit through 15 minutes of anything by Taylor Mac, let alone tacking on another four hours?

R235, are you serious? Four hours and 15 minutes without even ONE intermission? Why doesn't the audience revolt?

Not long ago, I attended a show at BAM after having not seen anything there for years, and I was reminded why it's such an infrequent destination for me. Seems like most of their shows are ridiculously, pretentiously "arty" in an extremely off-putting way. I expect it will be a long time before I make the trek again.

[quote]Four hours and 15 minutes without even ONE intermission?

Pee in your seat.

[quote]r207 it was common in Shakespeare's time for audiences not to watch a whole play in rapt attention, but to leave and return during the performance, often more than once, for whatever reasons they felt necessary.

They had crops to raise, ale to tend, bears to bait - - full and demanding lives.

Yet I am denied this!

[quote] They had crops to raise, ale to tend, bears to bait-

I can think of a few bears that I would like to bait.

Didn't Nicholas Nicely have three intermissions but Act 1 was like five hours.

I'm pretty sure NICHOLAS NICKLEBY did not have a four or five hour stretch without an intermission, R242.

First intermission was at about 4:30

Nick-Nick had an intermission between Parts 1 and 2 to allow for dinner.

Couldn't they have just served chili?

r245 the acts also had intermissions

Taylor Mac and Justin Vivian Bond have singing voices I wouldn’t pay to hear.

I enjoyed "Kiki and Herb" in small doses, but when I saw their Broadway show, I found Justin's singing to be almost unbearable after two or three songs. And the friend with whom I attended said he felt it was the worst show he had ever seen on Broadway.

I like Justin…but I agree…the singing voice is not pleasant.

You don’t think this is pleasant?

SLAVE PLAY is opening on the West End. Sorry, London! Consider it payback for CATS!

[quote]Four hours and 15 minutes without even ONE intermission? Why doesn't the audience revolt?

I'm surprised that the theater's cleaners haven't revolted.

[quote]Didn't Nicholas Nicely have three intermissions but Act 1 was like five hours.

I don't remember.

The first act of Nicholas Nickleby had two intermissions, then came the dinner break,

Per wiki “Part 1 was 4 hours in length with one intermission of 15 minutes. Part 2 was 4½ hours in length with two intermissions of 12 minutes.”

Wasn't Nicholas Nicely Nicely in GUYS & DOLLS?

JK Simmons was, r257.

OMG...I can't wait to see what The Brits react to SLAVE PLAY.

Would it KILL someone to release that 1992 production of Guys and Dolls on DVD? I know there's a pristine pro-shot of it somewhere.

Speaking of Runyonland, any word on the Bridge Theatre's production coming to Broadway? With Andrew Richardson, please?

I really thought the immersive GUYS AND DOLLS would take The Broadway since it had already been reconfigured.

[quote]I really thought the immersive GUYS AND DOLLS would take The Broadway since it had already been reconfigured.

Use the set up from a major flop? C'mon now.

Anybody see Boy George yet?

So, SWEENEY TODD grossed $1.2 million this past week with Foster and Tveit.

Some on BWW are trying to give credit to Joe Locke, but when he joined the previous week it only grossed $857,422.

I remember seeing a preview of the musical GIANT by Michael John LaChiusa at the Signature Theater in DC in 2009. It ran 4 hours and 15 with one intermission. I loved it.

By the time it got to the Public Theater, it was 2 1/2 hours.

Last November, I was in a fall production of “Pride and Prejudice” at the community college I used to attend. The script was adapted and written by Kate Hamill. I was Mr. Collins.

Surprisingly, one thing I noticed backstage during the performances was the show runs up to not even 100 minutes. The pacing for this production was a lot tighter then again. The Jane Austen novel is around 400 pages funny enough.

The Kate Hamill script, probably for budgetary purposes, leaves out Kitty though. Ugh!

Yes, GIANT was shorter at the Public. And I left at intermission.

Yeah, R267, it was a really bland yawner by the time it got to The Public, devoid of the intense emotions of the more extended version.

You can say they didn't just cut it. They circumcised it!

Revive Nicholas Nickleby!

Any of you old sluts see it live? I do so adore it.

[quote]Revive Nicholas Nickleby!

There’s nobody talented enough anymore to do it.

Smike will need to be played by someone in a wheelchair. Kate will need to be Trans. Ralph needs to be black.

R271, Aaron and Sutton

My second boyfriend back in the '80s did, r270. He said it was wonderful. That seems to be the opinion of most who saw it.

At the Signature Giant production, John Dossett had a great entrance song at the end of Act 1 about coyotes. The director and most of the cast were replaced for the Public. I didn’t see it there, but it was a decent show at Signature. But seriously? LaChiusa has received a lot more productions than just about any of his peers. Even though, apart from The Wild Party, the shows never seem to work.

Wild Party wasn't the show for me, but I appreciated it and was glad I saw it.

Nicholas Nickleby and The Grapes of Wrath were both epic theater, well worthy of the time and money spent.

Contrary to the crap here, Sutton is terrific in the part, and will probably improve as she goes.

Nicholas Nickleby: The Musical!

Liev looks very happy

[quote] Contrary to the crap here, Sutton is terrific in the part, and will probably improve as she goes.

Honey, don't try and shit us. We have ears.

And she would have to improve because there's no way she could get any worse.

"Honey"? Seriously...How old are you?

What a stupid thing to ask. There's no age set with the use of that word. You must just be embarrassed your shitty taste was exposed and you're trying to deflect.

Sutton will move from Edith Bunker to Archie Bunker. She’ll start referring to Johanna as “Little Goil”.

Hi, Sutton at R277!

I saw GIANT at The Public and remember the first few scenes and numbers as terrific.....but then the lack of plot kicked in and it all fell quickly apart. I have the same problem with the film. There's really very little plot or conflict except for the ongoing jealousy of the 2 leading men over the leading lady.

Broadway’s ‘The Notebook’ Sells Out First Three Previews As Overall Box Office Gets Chilly:

I hope history is not kind to this SWEENEY, I hated Kail's production so much I started to question the quality of the material. Ashford's performance as Bugs Bunny playing Mrs. Lovett was the most self-indulgent I have ever seen.

It sounds like Sutton Foster is even worse somehow. I swear Ashford did not draw out this bit for so long (see link).

I saw Nickleby, and it remains the single greatest theatrical event in my 6 decades of Broadway-going. House seats for the show were front mezzanine. Added bonus was sitting near Rex Harrison.

She certainly did not, r287. That's a scandal, and far worse than anything Ashford did.

[quote]Added bonus was sitting near Rex Harrison.

I don't know, r288, he had a reputation of being flatulent.

R287, This is becoming a nightmare for Sutton. She's a very talented and likable performer but these clips are horrendous.

The entire opening night performance of Worst Pies. Wow, just wow.

Speaking of overwrought… Chess is one of my favorite scores and someone suggested to me that I check out the radical Swedish rewrite from the early 00s. I don’t speak Swedish, so I have to assume that the lyrics were significantly rewritten to justify this incredibly bizarre and over-the-top staging of “Nobody’s Side”. I have to admit, I’ve never seen anything like it (and not in a good way). Oddly, the comments on the video are unanimously positive, so I feel as though I may be missing something. Thoughts?

[quote]R258 I saw GIANT at The Public and remember the first few scenes and numbers as terrific.....but then the lack of plot kicked in and it all fell quickly apart.

The movie’s not so hot, either. For the same reason.

Don't forget the number one rule for Sondheimites is no matter how many productions of a Sondheim show there are, each performer must sound exactly as the original cast.

I think maybe the one rule for Sondheimites is that you should be very good at what you do.

Earlier today, I heard an audio recording of Aaron singing "My Friends". Although his voice is higher than Sweeneys of the past, I thought he sounded pretty good. A couple times during the song, however, there was noticeable audience laughter. Since nothing in the lyrics or Aaron's performance should cause that reaction, I can only presume that Sutton was mugging in the background.

[Bold]Sweeney Todd[/bold] has several blatantly comic songs. "My Friends" is not one of them.

Jesus, that clip at R287 is such an embarrassment. Didn't anyone bother to tell Sutton that she's no longer playing Princess Winnifred?

Hey nonny nonny by the sea! 🎶

r292 The people attempting to defend her in the comments are unintentionally hilarious

[quote]she's croaking along because she's playing a character. Go to acting school and it's one of the First thing they teach you Mrs Lovett isn't meant to sound nice at all

oh, r295 , you’re back Yawn. I mean, so nice to see you. Again.

The new musical from the writers of "Six" is about two friends struggling to write a musical. How fresh!

[quote]The show, which has a 12-person cast, follows two friends struggling to write a musical and asking each other why they’re chronically single. That idea may sound similar to the creators’ time in Connecticut, but Moss, laughing nervously, said it was “definitely not a complete autobiography.”

[quote]Marlow said that the musical, which includes songs inspired by Dua Lipa hits and numbers from “Singin’ in the Rain,” was “about friendship and love and loneliness and everything that goes with it.”

R298, you may have hit something. Maybe she can't yet shake Winnie and Mattress because it was only a couple of weeks ago, Of course that is no explanation for her shocking lack of technique but the feeling of her numbers is indeed closer to Mattress than Sweeney.

[quote] Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow spent years working out how to follow their hit musical about Henry VIII’s wives. “Why Am I So Single?” is their answer.

Really? One look at their picture answers that question.

I was literally embarrassed to watch what Foster is doing in that clip at R287. Just appalling.

A musical about friends struggling to write a musical?

I just saw that show with Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad and it was hilarious.

[quote]Don't forget the number one rule for Sondheimites is no matter how many productions of a Sondheim show there are, each performer must sound exactly as the original cast.

That's not the issue here, and you KNOW it's not the issue here, so......I rarely use this phrase, but please shut up.

Someone told me to shut up so I'm starting a thread about it.

Thanks for letting us know, R308, so we can be prepared to ignore it.

Sutton and Aaron should do a revival of Sugar Babies after this.

With De. Is O'Hare in the Mickey Rooney part!

I misread that as Sodomites. What’s their number one rule?

[quote]The new musical from the writers of "Six" is about two friends struggling to write a musical.

Tried and failed.

Now I sort of want to hear Mrs. Lovett sing "Shy."

[quote]you’re back Yawn. I mean, so nice to see you. Again.

Truth hurts don't it. Here is the same old bitching every time a Sondheim show opens or cast change. Tviet isn't good enough Foster's all wrong. Horseshit.

It's not horseshit. You're projecting.

R287, Was that staging used for Josh and Annaleigh?

Pretty soon Sutton’s going to start popping her pussy into Aaron’s pie.

R317, as I remember Annaleigh also climbed on Josh, I think she wrapped herself behind him and rocked back and forth. She did not flip upside down and rub her feet all over him.

The question is, who has the foot fetish: Sutton or Aaron?

. . .

Give back her $10 bucks.

R319. Both

I saw that article about BCEFA this morning - very disappointing. It was charity I always supported, but I guess that stops today. I don’t want my money going to anything in Gaza. I feel really betrayed by them

^it was the one charity

[quote] Why the fuck would anyone sit through 15 minutes of anything by Taylor Mac, let alone tacking on another four hours?

Gary was considerably shorter, but it seemed much longer than four hours and fifteen minutes.

r315 Seems odd to limit it to Sondheim shows, most posters here do that about every show they see (and I suspect plenty that they don't actually see)

I remember reading an interview with Sondheim where he said that the original performers from the first productions of his shows were invariably the best. That makes sense, because sometimes songs are tailored for the voices of actors ("Send in the Clowns" for Glynis Johns, all of Gypsy for Merman), and the original cast members get to develop their roles with the help of the authors. Offhand, I can't think of any actors who were better than the original performers in a Sondheim show. I loved Angela Lansbury in Gypsy, but I'm not sure she was better than Merman (at least based on the Merman cast album).

I'm guessing that Lansbury (I saw her twice in GYPSY) acted the role better, but Merman performed it better. If that makes sense.

[quote]I loved Angela Lansbury in Gypsy, but I'm not sure she was better than Merman

Who was it who said 'With Merman you got goosebumps, with Lansbury you got tears"?

R318 I thought Aaron’s pie was only popped for stage door twinks.

[quote] Who was it who said 'With Merman you got goosebumps, with Lansbury you got tears"?

It was r295.

That mention of the Signature Theatre production of GIANT reminded me of a terrific theater actress who was in it: Judith Blazer played Luz, the older sister (played in the movie by Mercedes McCambridge). One reviewer called it a "finely dark, sexually ambiguous, and multi-layered performance." Blazer had a fantastic, long, and dramatic number in the First Act, which was eventually cut to shorten the show. For me, this was the beginning of the slow death of GIANT THE MUSICAL

I first saw Blazer in a small Broadway flop called A CHANGE IN THE HEIR. She was terrific in that as well, with a very young JK Simmons playing her father. But the ploy was silly, and the leading man amateurish. She's popped up in other shows like TITANIC, ME AND MY GIRL, and A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO KOVE AND MURDER. But she's never seemed to find the right new production to showcase her talents. I'm not sure what she's doing now.

R327 Rita Moreno was better than Chita Rivera, that’s an acknowledged fact. 👽

R333 Rita was dubbed.

Partially.

[quote]I remember reading an interview with Sondheim where he said that the original performers from the first productions of his shows were invariably the best.

I don't think that's true in the case of Merrily We Roll Along. I think the London cast from a few years ago (which the current Broadway show is based on) were equal if not better than the original Broadway cast.

I'll be the asshole who will open up and say Daniel Radcliffe is weak-voiced and the weak link in the Broadway version. London was better.

Instead of Sutton and Aaron doing Sugar babies, Aaron should do sugar tits

Sutton should retire and Aaron should do Oh! Calcutta!

Another DLer here who saw Nicholas Nickleby on Broadway. I wholeheartedly agree with the poster upthread who said it was the finest theatregoing experience of his/her life. I cannot imagine ANYthing beating it. Forty-eight fantastic character actors in 150 roles over eight and a half hours -- I saw it all in one day, it flew by and I never wanted it to end. You laughed, you cried, you gasped, you clapped (you could even catch a muffin during the Hot Muffin (and Crumpet) Baking and Delivery Industry riot.) While I did not sit near Rex Harrison or any other celebrity, I did have an orchestra aisle seat, and during one of the intermissions when the cast mingles with the audience Roger Rees (Nicholas) very nicely signed my playbill.

Is it revivable today? Of course, but the costs will be in hiring all those actors (no stars needed -- the show is the star -- but you do need actors with stamina). The main set isn't much (individual scenes are often merely suggested with some furniture the actors carry in and out), nor the costumes, although there are a lot of them (props, too). Lincoln Center could do it, although it might lose a little charm not being in an older, turn-of-the-century theatre with gilding and rococo. I'm surprised the larger repertory/regional theatres don't do it (maybe they do...) as they would have a large stable of actors on hand. I cannot imagine what tickets would cost on Broadway for it now. At the time people were scandalized that a single ticket cost $100, but that worked out to about $12/hour of show -- a bargain, really, even then.

It was filmed for PBS, alas, not very well, but I'm so glad there's a record of it at least. I watch the DVDs every couple of years and laugh and clap all over again. (Hi, valens!)

r339

Does anyone think Aaron is packing though? I sense average meat at best

R341 he implied he was well-endowed in this interview he did while promoting GREASE LIVE! several years ago (skip to 11:32).

They were discussing the short-shorts he had to wear in one scene and how everyone laughed at him:

"I'm, like, there's eight other guys in the same shorts. Why are you laughing at me? I mean, I do have enormous... legs... but anyway..."

Donna typing! (Not turkey-lurkeying.)

[quote] Of course, but the costs will be in hiring all those actors (no stars needed -- the show is the star -- but you do need actors with stamina).

Don't even think about asking me.

Yes, the DVDs of NICHOLAS are not very good, but at least they remind us of what was good about the show.

A few years back I was staying at the same hotel as Roger Rees while he was doing The Visit. I stopped him in the hallway to tell him how much that production meant to me. In his very charming British way he replied, "Oh. you're too kind." Loved him.

I’m sorry but nobody under 60 would have the attention span for an 8hr play these days. We can’t even handle 2hr movies!

[quote]While I did not sit near Rex Harrison or any other celebrity, I did have an orchestra aisle seat, and during one of the intermissions when the cast mingles with the audience Roger Rees (Nicholas) very nicely signed my playbill.

During my intermission at Nicholas Nickleby, actress Jane Carr (as Fanny Squeers) wandered near my seat. She was trying to stay in character, but I couldn't help myself. When I caught her eye, I blurted out in true DL fashion with a Scottish accent, "Oh my god, you're MARY MCGREGOR!!!!!"

I loved her in THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE. She smiled and said something like, "Why yes, I was !"

Jane Carr was in the LA engagement of Nick Nick, too, I can’t remember who else from the original cast was. Michael Sibbery (who later did Sound of Music opposite Rebecca Luker) did the Roger Rees role, it played the Ahmanson, which is a very “modern” feeling theatre. I went to the first (of twoj) previews. They gave AEA members comps to that preview (which was the whole show with a dinner break).

I think Jane Carr is genius. She was magnificent in NN.

I had the great good fortune to work with Roger Rees and Jane Carr each a couple of times over the years. Two of the sweetest, loveliest humans ever.

And I'm another huge Judy Blazer fan. Tragic that she somehow never really clicked with a hit show. So much talent!! If you don't know the recording of Irving Berlin's LOUISIANA PURCHASE, you should. Fantastic witty score and she's stellar on it.

[quote]R346 nobody under 60 would have the attention span for an 8hr play these days.

Gdamn Millennials!

[quote]I don't think that's true in the case of Merrily We Roll Along. I think the London cast from a few years ago (which the current Broadway show is based on) were equal if not better than the original Broadway cast.

This is what one would call an outlying opinion, to put it mildly. You must be British.

R352, I think the operative word was "original" Broadway cast, which was almost universally deemed to be bad, unprofessional and not deserving of Broadway.

Judy Blazer also does an ace Judy Garland impersonation.

[quote]R347 When I caught her eye, I blurted out in true DL fashion with a Scottish accent, "Oh my god, you're MARY MCGREGOR!!!!!" I loved her in THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE. She smiled and said something like, "Why yes, I was!”

Mary died a fool! Her brother is fighting for [italic]the other side. [/italic] Mary was headed for the wrong army!

Judy Blazer hit me in the head with a fondue pot.

I also am a huge fan of Judy Blazer. When people ask who I think should have been a star, I always mention her. Just never had the right role.

As to replacements who were better than the originals in Sondheim shows, I can think of two, both in ALNM. Joanna Riding in the London National Theatre production was the best Anne I ever saw and Doug Sills playing the Count n the Kennedy Center production was hilarious. Just his eyebrows alone were worth the price of admission.

The Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration definitely was an excellent showcase for DL Fave Papi Raul Esparza… those of us who saw him could rightly argue he was the definitive Charley in Merrily to date and his George in Sunday was definitely on the level of Mandy (and superior to Daniel Evans and Jake G.).

Joanna Riding is a freaking treasure. She took over for Imelda as Sally in the NT Follies and knocked it out of the park.

Fun fact: Janie Dee was Phyllis in that production, and she was Carrie to Riding's Julie in the legendary 1993 NT Carousel. Seeing the show knowing that was a special treat.

Sunday in the park with Papi…

He sounds great.

[quote]I think the operative word was "original" Broadway cast, which was almost universally deemed to be bad, unprofessional and not deserving of Broadway.

I assumed we were talking about the three leads of MERRILY. I think many people feel that Ann Morrison and Lonny Price were excellent as Mary and Charley, maybe Jim Walton somewhat less so as Frank, but of course he took over that role very late in the process.

R336, Which was the same production Maria Friedman brought to Boston at the Huntington Theatre in 2017.

R358, My carburetor vibrato and I thank you.

....

[quote]Rita was dubbed.

Was or will Chita be remembered for her voice?

Raul would have made an excellent Sweeney. Or could he still?

Funny to think that Audra MacDonald took over Janie Dee's role in that NT CAROUSEL when it was produced at Lincoln Center. They seem so different to me in so many ways.

Raul was born in 1970, so he’s roughly the same age as George Hearn was when he did the first national tour of Sweeney with Angela and did the filmed production… of course, Hearn also did it 20+ years later with Patti, as well. So, to answer R367, yes, he “still” is available.

Instead, Raul is devoting himself to some new musical about Galileo at Berkeley Rep in the coming year. Directed by that hack Michael Mayer. Sounds like an inevitable flop.

Mayer really is the king of schlock. Especially with all those dreary rock musicals

I saw Old Friends in London and Janie Dee and Joanna Riding were standouts.

Ask Lucie A. how she feels about Joanna Riding. Then stand back.

Janie Dee was also wonderful in The Menier's THE BOYFRIEND. Quite adorable.

R373, Lucie Arnaz. the ultimate nepo baby with the rapid fire vibrato?

Ask Martine McCuthcheon how she feels about Riding's BAFTA that she got for My Fair Lady which was partly a done out of spite because Martine was so terrible to the cast and crew

Lucie was the difficult one on Witches of Eastwick, r373, not Joanna.

Riding did a Desiree in Night Music that never really took off the ground, but I hear it was most excellent.

Fun fact: Riding was the tree/Cinderella's mother in the Into The Woods film. I wonder if it was a nod from Sondheim because "What's The Use of Wondrin'" was one of his favorite songs, and Riding sang it beautifully. Best performance I know of.

Ian McShane walked out on Witches because of Lucie.

R376 nobody won a Bafta for a theatre performance and Martine won the previous year. I’m confused

Martine won an OLIVIER and a visibly pissed off Jonathan Pryce is seated directly behind her. Hilarious.

[quote]Martine won an OLIVIER and a visibly pissed off Jonathan Pryce is seated directly behind her. Hilarious.

One does not cast soap opera actors in classic musical theatre presentations, let alone award them for it.

Correct,.sorry, it was Olivers when they used to allow replacements to be nominated in subsequent years.

I never miss a 17th-century astronomer musical.

Craig Lucas adapting Prelude to a Kiss as a musical

[quote] Prelude to a Kiss, a powerful moving World Premiere musical that gives the phrase “for better or worse” new meaning. A co-production with South Coast Repertory, Prelude to a Kiss is adapted from the Tony-nominated play by Broadway great Craig Lucas (The Light in the Piazza, American in Paris) that also inspired the 1992 hit film of the same name, and with a breathtaking score by Daniel Messé (Amélie) and Sean Hartley (Little Women the Musical).

Lordy, I hope they did extensive work on Prelude since its South Coast premiere because it was a real dog back then.

The grammar guru Benjamin Dreyer often talks about theater on his social media page (I see content on FB sometimes) and I had to laugh when he mentioned a certain DL favorite.

[quote] Currently listening to the OCR of Bajour, and it's possibly the single most unrevivable post-1950 Broadway musical I can think of (that isn't complete garbage, that is), but boy is it funny. I mean, you couldn't even Encores! it unless you wanted the theater burned down.

[quote]I think the operative word was "original" Broadway cast, which was almost universally deemed to be bad, unprofessional and not deserving of Broadway.

I've said this before on DL, but the fundamental problem was not the actors' quality but the actors' age. Suspension of Belief is critical to watching an artificial presentation of life like the theater. We must ignore the obvious pretense of the fourth wall, actors projecting, facing outward much of the time, wearing makeup and wigs, etc. When I saw the original Merrily (twice), I realized that the audience was not ready to accept young actors playing older roles. It was just a bunch of kids doing make-believe. Conversely, the audience will accept older actors playing younger. We see it all the time.

A very successful play called VANITIES followed a group of cheerleaders from their high school days through college to their eventual adulthood. This show was cast with actors in their 30s (or older), and the audience was willing to suspend belief and accept these adults as high school kids. But I argue that it would not have worked had they cast high school kids and aged them through the play.

So none of the work done by Hal Prince and company to save MERRILY would have made the audience any more likely to accept these kids playing grownups. And that's why it failed.

Of course, IMHO

R388 I saw the original production in previews--I was about 23 at the time. Even though there were some talented folk in it, it didn't feel that different from the high school and college shows I had just finished attending and sometimes performing in. (Already marked as a character actor, I grew to know the smell and feeling of Streaks 'n Tips and spirit gum at age 13). This somehow added to my sense that what I was seeing just wasn't on a par with the few earlier shows I'd seen on Broadway (I grew up in Chicago), such as Lansbury and Cariou in Sweeney Todd and the original cast of The Elephant Man, my first two Broadway shows. It didn't feel innovative--frankly, I'd seen better work in the Dolphin Shows at Northwestern (which, by the time I as there, were no longer synchronized swimming shows, but student-produced musicals--including Gypsy starring Suzie Plakson) and in the Theatre Department's productions (such as A Little Night Music--in which the actors were too young for heir roles--but they were Gregg Edelman, Suzie, Megan Mullaly, so there was that). Hell, in high school, we had Dan Castellaneta and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in Man of La Mancha as well as The Sound of Music and Oklahoma (and Kathy Griffin as a very creditable Hodel in Fiddler). So, the youth of the cast in Merrily--in which there were no break-out stars (though Ann Morrison was very memorable)--just seemed like talented amateurs, with only ugly and unimaginative design elements.

[quote]in which there were no break-out stars

I broke out of that sorry assed show about white people's problems.

Merrily was my first show and I was glorified chorus. My next show was Jelly's Last Jam with the credit "Also starring".

Asshole, I was in that shit show myself but luckily I got on a hit tv show.

R389, thanks for your well-penned comments. When I was in college, there were lots of productions cast with students playing older roles that I thought were fantastic. Just peruse through YouTube, and you can find some incredibly talented kids doing Sondheim productions like A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC or even FOLLIES that amaze me with how well they do. But, if I'm being honest, they still look like kids with gray wigs - not adults with enough maturity, history, and subtlety to pull off these roles to an impartial audience.

Another show that has worked time and time again with actors too old for the parts is GREASE. Have you ever seen a production of Grease done with actual high school kids?

Of course, IMHO

My niece's high school did A Chorus Line. Jesus, that was bad.

They replace "Tits & Ass" with "This and That". Nobody wants to watch some high school girl sing about her This and That.

[quote] I've said this before on DL

Always a promising start to a post.

Sharon Scruggs understudied Ann Morrison/ Terri Klausner in GOBLIN MARKET at Circle in the Square.

(Maybe it was just Terri Klausner, but you know…. [italic]respek!)

I was hoping that Raul would've taken on Sweeny - I would've jumped to see it again. I don't have any desire to see Aaron and after hearing that caterwauling from Sutton Foster, I'm not going near it.

^^ oh. this was in response to

[quote]r362 I think many people feel that Ann Morrison and Lonny Price were excellent as Mary and Charley,

^^ i am making this worse

[bold]: (

This! When am I gonna grow this?!

R399 grab a cab and go see the wizard on Park and 73rd.

You're all looking at my that now, aren't you?

I never heard about The Red Shoes, I never saw The Red Shoes, I didn't give a fig about The Red Shoes.

Shoot, Richie, shoot!

Can the adults please smoke?

I didn’t want them like yours

I wanted them in proportion

[quote]Currently listening to the OCR of Bajour, and it's possibly the single most unrevivable post-1950 Broadway musical I can think of (that isn't complete garbage, that is), but boy is it funny. I mean, you couldn't even Encores! it unless you wanted the theater burned down.

Yes, the 'wokes' are a humorless, radical bunch.

They're destroying the arts with their censorship.

Why are Democrats acquiescing to the far-left?

I love the idea of a bunch of radicalized DLers going full Jan 6th because Bajour keeps getting passed over by Encores…

With Chita gone, there’s no point in reviving Bajour….actually there’s no longer any point to anything.

Well, we still have Nancy Dussault

I did it for you, Laura Linney

[quote]Well, we still have Nancy Dussault.

And us!

Sadly, I don't think Papi Raul has much of a draw for nervous producers any more. He's one Broadway star whose fame has only dimmed by attaching himself to a TV series (that no one has watched in years) and mostly being away from the stage.

[quote] I broke out of that sorry assed show about white people's problems. Merrily was my first show and I was glorified chorus. My next show was Jelly's Last Jam with the credit "Also starring".—Tonya Pinkins

And theater has been paying for Joanna Merlin's mistake for 40 years, Tonya.

Not everyone can be an Angela Lansbury and seamlessly shift between stage, tv and film.

[quote]r408 With Chita gone, there’s no point in reviving Bajour….actually there’s no longer any point to anything. Well, we still have Nancy Dussault

Why can’t she do a 1 woman show of BAJOUR where she sings all the parts, like Eddie Izzard just did with HAMLET?

It’s a provenly successful format.

R411, And with Sondheim dead, he’s lost one of his major supporters in the theatre.

[quote]So, the youth of the cast in Merrily--in which there were no break-out stars (though Ann Morrison was very memorable)--just seemed like talented amateurs, with only ugly and unimaginative design elements.

While no one immediately went on to fame & fortune following Merrily, you could argue that some of the "talented amateurs" have proven to be talented professionals in long-lasting careers - most as actors, directors, or singers:

Jason Alexander

Liz Callaway

Giancarlo Esposito

David Loud

Ann Morrison

Tonya Pinkins

Lonny Price

Daisy Prince

Jim Walton

Does anyone know why James Weissenbach was replaced in Merrily? And why they fired the lead during previews and why it took them so long to figure out he wasn’t working?

What did Daisy Prince know and when did she know it?

Couldn’t sing, couldn’t move, couldn’t act. There was no mystery about it.

[quote]Couldn’t sing, couldn’t move, couldn’t act. There was no mystery about it.

Wouldn’t they have discovered that in auditions? Or was he brought in as someone’s boy toy?

There are some clever and well-written additions to the revised Merrily. However, I’ll bet if the current cast simply performed the closing night 1981 script, it would work as well and maybe better. The immaturity of the talented cast sunk the show, far more than the ugly physical production and reverse chronology.

R419. Whatever happened at least he had a sense of humor about it when interviewed for the documentary. And he's aged very well.

R419, he was the son of one of Prince’s college friends. They were enamored with the idea of using raw, fresh talent. As soon as it was in front of a paying audience, the flaws were less easily excused. The producers wanted the lead replaced with someone less raw.

I like Merrily ending with Our Time. The Hills of Tomorrow never worked for me.

[quote]Couldn’t sing, couldn’t move, couldn’t act

A regular Lina Lamont, eh?

Giancarlo was in Seesaw...

[quote]I love the idea of a bunch of radicalized DLers going full Jan 6th because Bajour keeps getting passed over by Encores…

"Bajour" fanatics: The hidden single-issue voter faction.

*

[quote]Lordy, I hope they did extensive work on Prelude since its South Coast premiere because it was a real dog back then.

If anyone who had anything to do with LITTLE WOMEN is involved in the creation of a new musical, that has got to be one of the biggest and brightest red flags ever.

To the person who mentioned Vanities, the women in the show were in their 20s, and were believable as High School students. (and that includes Kathy Bates, brilliant in her first professional role.)

When I saw Vanities:

Elizabeth Ashley 38

Barbara Sharma 38

Leslie Ann Warren 31

[quote]If anyone who had anything to do with LITTLE WOMEN is involved in the creation of a new musical, that has got to be one of the biggest and brightest red flags ever.

And that brings us back to this thread's titular star.

Where is this?

Cleavon Little Women

Saw Merrily Tuesday night liked it a lot but when did Jonathan Groff get fat? Daniel Radcliffe still looks great great but seems to have shrunk a few inches. I've seen several productions of this show but for the first time it dawned on me that the song "Opening Doors" is the same as a "Weekend in the Country" from ALNM. "Not a day goes by" is the same as "Loving You" from Passion.

[quote]Daniel Radcliffe still looks great great but seems to have shrunk a few inches.

Shrinkage!

SHHH! Don't tell R434 about "76 Trombones" and "Good Night My Someone!"

[quote]I've seen several productions of this show but for the first time it dawned on me that the song "Opening Doors" is the same as a "Weekend in the Country" from ALNM.

No, it's REALLY not.

[quote]R429 [Vanities] includes Kathy Bates, brilliant in her first professional role.

Excuse me, Kathy Bates said in an interview she got her Equity card playing a chicken in a children’s theater show.

[italic]We can’t rewrite history!

Don't you understand that no one on Broadway is allowed to say this production of "Merrily" is just okay?

r434

Um, no they’re not. 🤦‍♂️

[quote] Excuse me, Kathy Bates said in an interview she got her Equity card playing a chicken in a children’s theater show. We can’t rewrite history!

Kathy bates threw the first brick at Stomewall!!

Can you take your transphobia elsewheres?

Kathy Bates ate my lunch, kicked my cat, deleted all the contacts in my phone and told Tyne Daly that if she showed up for one performance of Doubt, it would be her last.

Kathy Bates hit me with a fondue pot.

She did it for.... Johnny....

Kathy Bates is on my terrace naked and doing a freewheeling patio number to the cast album of Bajour. If she attempts a cartwheel it will be the end of the dining shed below.

[quote] Can you take your transphobia elsewheres?

Can you fuck off?

[quote]Saw Merrily Tuesday night liked it a lot but when did Jonathan Groff get fat?

He's been fighting it for years, but it's a losing battle. The only thing he likes stuffing more than his asshole is his piehole.

And his father is big as a house, so he has the fat genes.

R448, And the fatter he gets, the smaller his already tiny penis will look.

R449 . . .

OT: You know what I hate? When actors are in a new play and their character shares their name. Why wouldn’t the producers just change it in the script once the performer was cast?

Like, why did the character Bonnie Franklin played in “Applause” have to be named Bonnie? It’s stupid.

[quote]Like, why did the character Bonnie Franklin played in “Applause” have to be named Bonnie? It’s stupid.

I think it's a fine idea!

[quote]Like, why did the character Bonnie Franklin played in “Applause” have to be named Bonnie?

That was the point. To give it some verisimilitude. They wanted to cast a real Broadway gypsy and give her the chance to “break out” with the big title song. It was always named the same as the actress - Leland, Sheila, Debbie, etc. when Encores did it, they called her “Bonnie”.

“LIIIIIIIIEEES!”

R450. I need to use a desk lamp just to find that little sucker

[quote]Kathy Bates hit me with a fondue pot.

In the head, r444. "Hit me in the head with a fondue pot."

There was a loser quality to Kathy Bates and Kenneth Welsh (and Carol Kane and Bruce Weitz) that starrier actors Stanley Tucci or Audra and Shannon can’t approach

You left out Edie —-the home wrecker

I got the impression Tucci would have been happy to do the entire play naked. Took him a lonnnnnnng time to get dressed. Not that I'm complaining. His body was nice and tight and his big fat little Tucci was hot.

*

Edie Falco would have been good in the new true detective show in the Jodie foster part. Now I would believe Edie would fuck everyone as a cock-hungry slut instead of cane face Foster

[quote] There was a loser quality to Kathy Bates and Kenneth Welsh

That the movie version completely ignored. The movie had potential if they had cast it adequately.

R462. And hired a different director.

R461 You are right, that's a great choice. My big problem with this season is watching Jodie getting banged. She should be bumping with her bisexual partner. In no world does Jodie come off as straight, sorry.

Is Vanities worth reviving?

I don't think so, r465, there isn't much there as I recall. There's also the musical.

I saw Vanities off-Broadway, way back when. Couldn't tell you who was in the cast or what the plot was either. I know I enjoyed it but pretty quickly forgot it. There used to be lots of those little shows that were designed only to entertain and ran for years. (Starting Here, Starting Now was another.)

[Quote] Couldn't tell you who was in the cast or what the plot was either.

Or what I ate for breakfast or who is President or if I’m pooping my pyjama pants right now as my aide types this for me.

[quote] There was a loser quality to Kathy Bates and Kenneth Welsh

The movie tried to make it into a rom-com.

In these post-Covid days, I would like to see a production return to the underlying idea in the show about being afraid to connect and loneliness. But this may not be the right climate for a show with a downbeat message.

Vanities casts...

Good news

R470. Ohhhhhh I want to hear those Elizabeth Ashley stories

[quote]Ohhhhhh I want to hear those Elizabeth Ashley stories

Read her autobio. Apparently she liked banging married men in toilet stalls.

Well, they all had a right to be pissed off at Leslie Ann.

Can you imagine Liz and Lesley in the same cast? Poor Barbara Sharma.

[quote] I've seen several productions of this show but for the first time it dawned on me that the song "Opening Doors" is the same as a "Weekend in the Country" from ALNM

That’s correct, except for the fact that the music and lyrics are completely different.

Maybe it's me, but I think a "news article" that claims Tyne Daly is expected to make a full recovery after her recent hospitalization without giving the reason for her hospitalization is pretty much completely worthless. Anyone feel otherwise?

Yes.

R477 No. The public isn't owned an explanation as to why she was hospitalized. She was hospitalized, forced to drop out of Doubt and now she's on the road to recovery. That's all we need to know.

^owed. Not owned 🙄

I've never seen any version of Frankie & Johnny but I'm wondering if anyone ever thought McNally was actually writing about 2 men? Would he or would his estate allow a production of the play performed by 2 men as 2 male characters? Would that work? I'm surprised it hasn't already come up.

I'm curious about Michael Riedel. Has he been somehow banned from Broadway? What does he do for a living now? Where is he? It seems like he's just completely disappeared from the NY theatre scene. Was that voluntary?

Alien abduction, r482...

[quote] I'm curious about Michael Riedel. Has he been somehow banned from Broadway? What does he do for a living now? Where is he? It seems like he's just completely disappeared from the NY theatre scene. Was that voluntary?

He co-hosts a radio show on WOR, contributes stories to Vanity Fair, Air Mail and The Wall Street Journal, and writes the occasional book.

[quote]He co-hosts a radio show on WOR

With Arlene Francis, r484?

R484, Is he still claiming to be straight?

Well, hes married to a woman . . . I suspect he really is straight. I've been in his casual company several times and my gaydar never even flickered.

[quote]I've seen several productions of this show but for the first time it dawned on me that the song "Opening Doors" is the same as a "Weekend in the Country" from ALNM

[quote]That’s correct, except for the fact that the music and lyrics are completely different.

While I'm not defending the original statement, I'm guessing that the poster meant that both numbers were designed to close an act: an extended song indispersed with bits of other songs (There's not a tune you can hum), and with a lot of plot advancement happening as the number builds to a finale.

FRANKIE AND JOHNNY is a grotesquely overrated play, as the recent revival made plain. Among other problems, McNally couldn't write the sex talk convincingly -- how many straight men ask women, 'Stroke my tits"?

[quote]Is Vanities worth reviving?

They wrote a play about bathroom fixtures?

Michael Riedel is one of those guys who is basically straight but who won’t turn down a reasonable offer.

Sutton Foster is a home-wrecking slut!

The talk about Vanities reminds me of the HBO production, which is no longer on YouTube. In 1981, it was Annette O'Toole, Shelley Hack and Meredith Baxter.

He mentions it at r470, r493.

But he doesn't mention this. Was it actually filmed?

[quote]r471 Tyne Daly is expected to make a full recovery following her recent hospitalization and subsequent withdrawal from the Broadway production of Doubt.

Too little, too late!

No Tony for you.

Opening Doors doesn't close an act. Now You Know does. Maybe that's like Weekend in the Country? Then again, maybe not.

[quote]While I'm not defending the original statement, I'm guessing that the poster meant that both numbers were designed to close an act: an extended song indispersed with bits of other songs (There's not a tune you can hum), and with a lot of plot advancement happening as the number builds to a finale.

That may be what the poster meant (though I doubt it), but anyway, it's not what they wrote.

[quote]I've seen several productions of this show but for the first time it dawned on me that the song "Opening Doors" is the same as a "Weekend in the Country" from ALNM

It seems possible that seeing too many productions of certain Sondheim shows can be the neurological equivalent of being hit in the head too many times playing football (see also: DL FOLLIES fans.)

LOL, R499!

R416. Your point is well-taken. My response would be that I didn’t see anything in that production or material that would reasonably lead me to say, “That’s a performer to follow to better material.” Not the fault of the performers—most of the ones you list have gone on to have justifiably memorable and accomplished careers. But I would not have been able to predict it based on that production. Princes uninspired direction, designs do ugly that they masked the individuals, and, other than a sprightly score, a story and script that made them all as unappealing as possible worked against them. I’m glad so many of them went on to flourish. The “grown-ups” should have known better and worked harder on their behalf.

R502, I'm surprised you didn't feel you'd like to follow Ann Morrison to better material if only on the basis of her singing, which is GREAT on the cast album (as it was in the show), and/or Lonny Price if only on the basis of his performance of "Franklin Shepard, Inc."

I seemed to recall someone in a previous thread, wondering why Betty Buckley never ended up playing the witch in Into the Woods. I just finished Paul Ford’s fun, bitchy, and not especially well written memoir. He talks about how Buckley was in a workshop for the show before Bernadette was hired:

Finally, the call came to start gearing up for the Broadway run. James Lapine wanted to do more work on the show, so a two-week workshop was scheduled.

Most of the eventual original cast was assembled with one big exception. Betty Buckley would be playing the Witch. We were at 890 Broadway this time and most of rehearsal was spent reviewing. There were no new songs yet, so Lapine wrote and rehearsed three versions of the ending of Act Two — the one we currently had, another where absolutely everyone in the show dies a horrible death, and finally, one where everyone magically comes back to life for a completely happy ending.

We would do three run-throughs for a tiny audience, using each of the second act rewrites. My only memory of the reading is trying to teach "Boom Crunch" to Betty Buckley who, after hearing the piece played, simply said, "I don't feel it that way." And... awaaaaay we go. Wheeeeeeeee! She was late to rehearsal a lot and made the stage manager walk her dog.

The Giants in the Sky podcast is loads of fun. I especially enjoyed listening to Maureen Moore and Betsy Joslyn both of whom adore Bernadette. Joslyn choked up when she recalled Bernadette's kindness after her mother died. She called Betsy at her mom's home and told her not to worry about being away from the show and to take as much time off as needed.

Where is the best place to stand to view the dimming of the lights for Chita tonight?

R506, On the kitchen table . . .

I swear, I could watch or listen to A Weekend in the Country once a week and never get tired of it. (And in concert it zips along without the interstitial dialog scenes between Desiree and Fredericka.)

The big regret of Into the Woods is there is no bootleg audio of Betty singing either Boom Crunch or Stay with Me during that workshop. The only audio that exists is from the previous run through at playwrights horizon of her doing just the rap.

I wonder why she won’t speak to Ben. He brings her up in every episode.

You sound old…

You sound cunt.

Charlotte St. Martin celebrates Black Theater Coalition!!

Maybe Betty's ITW memories aren't something she's interested in sharing.

Betty replaced Bernadette Peters in Song & Dance. She wasn’t happy when the producers decided to close the show. She was probably livid when they went with Bernadette for Into The Woods. She was probably also unhappy that after Tender Mercies her movie career was going nowhere.

"The new musical from the writers of "Six" is about two friends struggling to write a musical. How fresh!"

Ahem

He’s releasing these out of sequence, plus they were recorded weeks or months ago. I sometimes laugh as he announces the upcoming interviewee (“the Witch in James Lapine’s blocking exercises!”), but they usually are surprisingly informative even. In retrospect, he should have interviewed the major participants later because so much new information has come up in subsequent episodes. He really seems like a sweet person. Also, this could be the source for an excellent book.

R516 I also like that the interviews aren't all about ITW but the performers also talk about their experiences in other shows. The Paul Ford interview is great. Who knew that Eartha Kitt, Petula Clark and SUSAN ANTON were all considered for the witch.

There's no fucking way Susan Anton was seriously considered for anything having to do with a Sondheim show.

Her height might have been interesting.

And I think she was reportedly a singer…

Alex Cohen would hire Susan Anton to perform every year on the Tonys throughout the early 1980s and she helped turn it into cruise ship entertainment.

Cancel Susan Anton!

Don't be so sure, r518!

I saw Susan Anton when she temporarily replaced Cady Huffman in Will Rogers Follies. She was perfect casting as a Ziegfeld showgirl. As far as ITW goes, she's a Florinda, not a witch.

She was strongly considered for Fosca in PASSION, too. I think she did 12 auditions.

#Fact

From Miss Yucaipa to 2nd runner up at Miss America

So many pastels!

To Her Detractors: Anton did HAIRSPRAY in Vegas!

[italic]Satisfied?!?

I'm pretty sure I saw Susan Anton in Hurlyburly as a replacement for...someone.

R529. She replaced Candy Bergen who replaced Sigourney Weaver.

That’s really going down the chain.

I believe Joyce DeWitt replaced Anton.

Since Suzanne Somers passed on the Witch, they should have went with Joyce DeWitt

[quote]they should have went with Joyce DeWitt,

Oh, dear.

Arlene always struck me as more than a little phony. She would always pipe up with an extravagant compliment like, "You gave the most polished, exquisite performance in [movie, TV show, play, etc.]". Maybe she was appointed by the producers to be fawner-in-chief.

Are you looking for the WML thread. r535?

In a couple weeks, Six will enter the 1,000 Broadway performances or more club. MJ isn't too far behind. Assuming & Juliet hangs around for one more year, it could also reach that status.

And soon Suffs and Lempika

They'll be lucky to reach100 performances, r538.

[quote]And soon Suffs and Lempika

"Suffs" and "Lempicka" had been merged into one show?

^^ have been . . . ^^

Recently I watched the movie Marjorie Morningstar with Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood. Has this ever been made into a musical? It seems like a sure fire musical as it’s about the entertainment business. I’m not sure how well the original source material is written, but the one fault of the movie is that it bogs down in the middle plotwise and never regains its footing. But I think that could be covered with excellent music.

[quote]But I think that could be covered with excellent music.

Excellent music? On Broadway? These days?

The novel MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR is depressing. This privileged girl sets her sights on being an actress, despite not really being talented. After a short career consisting of setbacks, plus a failed romance, she chucks show business to become a suburban housewife.

As I remember it, the novel of MM is set during the 1930s but it completely feels like it's the 1950s when it was written. I never finished it.

Not sure about the film but the photos I've seen certainly look like it's set in the contemporay1950s. I'm not sure if the decade is ultimately pertinent to the story.

[quote] The novel MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR is depressing.

The opposite of those sparkling shows Sunset Boulevard, Fiddler on the Roof, Evita, Les Miserables and Miss Saigon.

The movie ends before she becomes a housewife.

Anton as Phyllis and DeWitt as Sally.

I loved MM in high school, I read it twice, and I cried at the end both times, her dreams never realized.

Big Ole MARY !

Sutton for matinee Marjorie.

[quote]Sutton for matinee Marjorie.

It really needs a Jewish girl.

Or an actress versatile enough to play a Jewish girl and a Puerto Rican girl.

I can't believe they've never been able to adapt Flashdance. It seems like such a natural but both productions I've seen have been terrible. It's hardly a great movie but the basic story is very relatable and the music is great. At both productions I saw, Alex doesn't sing the title song and she absolutely must sing it.

Marjorie Morningstar was always a heartbreaker for me. - I LOVED it as a young girl - I read it again 15 years later (and often over the years ) with new eyes and could relate to the disappointment of dreams not turning out as you were SURE they would because “you were special” or “you were destined “ ……….. Spoilers spoilers …Spoilers …Her family wasn’t well off for long. Her dad owned - was it a line of dry cleaning stores? They were briefly well off and her mother moved them into high society too quickly. It was because Marjorie was so pretty and bright doors opened. Her mother wanted her to make the right match and marry well. Marjorie wanted to be a great actress. Her dad lost money and they moved down and she went to public college and worked small jobs. It is very very Jewish and the story is laced with wonderful food and social and religious details - plus lots of ww2 Holocaust foreshadowing. Plus it is full of New York theatre, college shows, and performing at the summer camps.Her heartthrob Noel Airman (really Saul Ehrmann) - after reading it again was as sexy as hell and was massively bipolar - chainsmoking, disappearing, sabotaging jobs and opportunities for himself - making him maddeningly attractive and elusive….. the portion where Marjorie follows him across the Atlantic to Europe to force him to marry her (she was still appalled that she gave him her virginity) - she found her “leading man” Noel to be a loser. He was living - cooking, cleaning, sleeping with an older German woman - he was a “kept man.” This was as the Nazis were getting a foothold and Noel lack of awareness to to the fact that he should probably get a visa and get back to America is unsettling. He proposed to Marjorie - what she dreamed of for years but she turned him down and moved home. She married a doctor who almost called it off when he found out she wasn’t a virgin. It shamed her and she was “grateful” that the Dr still married her even though she wasn’t “good enough” for him….. Lots of wonderful colorful New York scenes - love the names “Guy Flamm” “Marsha Zelenko””Sandy Goldstone” …… I’ve always loved Marjorie Morningstar. Sorry for the ramble. I really do love Marjorie Morningstar.

[quote] love the names “Guy Flamm” “Marsha Zelenko””Sandy Goldstone”

Have an eggroll, Sandy Goldstone!

[Quote] I can't believe they've never been able to adapt Flashdance

They can use our dirty rainwater.

Broadway dims for Chita . . .

I read Marjorie Morningstar when I was a kid and loved it. The movie sucks.

Excellent writeup R554, and I'm with you on the book. Marjorie Morningstar the musical almost happened decades ago, with a Charles Strouse score and...not sure whose lyrics.

The commercial for the new musical WATER FOR ELEPHANTS seems to be hiding it's a musical. Same for BACK TO THE FUTRUE though that one doesn't surprise me. Come to think of it, you'd barely know KIMBERLY AKIMBO was a musical from the commercial.

And that commercial for Pippin! Is it a musical or a dance show?

Just do ya know, they did dim the lights last night. The dim tourists seemed a bit perplexed.

Saw Appropriate—Paulson is excellent, Fanning is pretty good, Stoll is a muffin top and the script veered all over the place… comme ci, comme ça.

Another Marjorie Morningstar fan here - book & movie.

Haven't seen it for awhile - doesn't she end up with Marty Milner once she drops dull Gene Kelly?

[quote]Haven't seen it for awhile - doesn't she end up with Marty Milner once she drops dull Gene Kelly?

It’s only implied in the movie. In the end, she chases after Gene Kelly back to the summer camp. When she realizes that’s all he can manage, she leaves on a bus. The camera pans to the mirror on the bus and we see Milner sitting a few seats behind her. Fade to black.

Personally, I would have grabbed Martin Milner the second I saw him. He was a hottie.

Does Gene Kelly seem too old for his role in MM? Or is the casting good? I know Noel is supposed to be an older man but is he just too old? And should Noel appear to be more Jewish than Kelly could manage?

Hi it is the Marjorie fan from above. Gene Kelly was bad casting or rather it was lazy casting. He played the Gene Kelly Summer Stock, American in Paris Guy - that wasn’t Noel. “Noel” was supposed to be very tall and slim and sardonic. Reddish blond ish hair - he could sit down and play piano with a cigarette dangling - charming - sometimes crazy in his wiring. I remember reading that Danny Kaye wanted the part - he was closer but too old. …… When I was a YOUNG girl I understudied Louise in Carousel. Billy was played by unknown Terry Lester - Jack in Young & the Restless. After the show He would look rumpled and sit at the piano and riff and sing - he was beautiful back then - he was an absolute knee buckler. To my young eyes he WAS Noel Airman - that is who I pictured in the book. ….. He is too old now but I could picture Bradley Cooper possibly ……… Years ago I was aghast that Melissa Gilbert wanted make a Marjorie tv movie. That is when she did Miracle Worker, Diary of Anne Frank and “Splendor in the Grass.”

How did the theatre thread turn into the "Marjorie Morningstar" thread?

[quote]How did the theatre thread turn into the "Marjorie Morningstar" thread?

I asked if it had ever been made into a musical and enthusiastic fans gave their answers.

We are rushing to 600, a bit early. Any port in a storm!

Sutton and Joe in ST....

They're both horrible.

Stop my heart! ^ ;)

R570, It’s difficult to understand what he’s saying.

You'd think a Brit wouldn't have problems with a British accent

I could not understand a word of that first set of lyrics he sang.

Merging Suffs and Lempicka - may I present Slumpicka! the new lower east side musical....

Geez, Sutton has no realism in her characterization. It’s all put on. Tapping his nose is like she’s playing Marmee in a Little Women community theater production.

I dare ya to share this on the Heartstoppers thread! I dare ya…

I just saw a decent bootleg of Torch Song and would love to know the major changes from the stage version. The first 2 stories were good, but after awhile I just felt like I was watching a weird sitcom with the adopted hitting on the boyfriend and Arnold's accent. Is the movie worth watching? Anyone think it could be revived soon?

[quote]Anyone think it could be revived soon?

No, a woman would demand to play Arnold.

[quote]How did the there thread turn into the "Marjorie Morningstar" thread?

Temporary and inexplicable changes of subject happen sometime. They're one of the oddball charms of DL.

You know, I am the Marjorie fan - I have been on DL for more than ten years. Usually just silently “Hmm … Hmmm ing” along or tossing in an”Eve Arden” once in a while. I don’t have family except that I am taking care of my 87 year old mom with Alzheimer’s and my old sick cat. It has been a worrisome and invisible time in my life. Last night I got my agitated mom to bed and I was enjoying the back and forth about Sutton and Giant and Nicholas Nickleby and Jonathon Geoff’s. Pudge - someone mentioned Marjorie Morningstar. I geeked out - I suddenly dropped 40 years and thought about a happy thing in my life and wanted to share something I knew about so well. That is how it got sidetracked - I promise I won’t bring up Young Blood Hawke……..Terry Lester DID make a good Billy Bigelow!

Groff ^

Isn't "Youngblood Hawke" the one in which Eva Gabor plays a literary agent?(!)

[quote] Anyone think it could be revived soon?

It was just revived five years ago. And it was a flop.

[quote] My big problem with this season is watching Jodie getting banged

Because you can’t accept a gay actor in a straight role? Nice. Sounds like it’s your own pigheadedness and lack of imagination

[quote]r567 How did the theatre thread turn into the "Marjorie Morningstar" thread?

[quote]r568 I asked if it had ever been made into a musical and enthusiastic fans gave their answers.

I am NOT one of her FAAAAAANS!

Besides "A Very Precious Love", what musical has a song with the words "Marjorie Morningstar" in its lyrics? I can hear them in my mind, but I can't remember what song/show they're from.

Why, it's good old reliable Marj’rie Marj’rie, Marj’rie

If you're lookin' for action, she'll furnish the spot

Even when the heat is on, it's never too hot

R582. Hugs, my dear. My 85 year old husband (we’ve been together 28 years) is in mid-stage Alzheimer’s (generally good physical health and sweet and genial, but memory is very impaired as are executive functions), so I know we have to take pleasures when and where we can. Post as much about Marjorie Morningstar as you like—I read the novel fifty years ago, have never seen the movie, but will read EVERYTHING you want to post about it!

I can't wait for "Marjorie Taylor Greene: The Musical."

I should add that maybe I found Marjorie Morningstar depressing because when I read it I was a struggling actor/waiter/model in NYC. I had some success, but not enough to support myself consistently.

So the plot was just TOO dismal for me. For instance, the heroine finally gets a featured role in a show along with a chorus of other girls. But then the girls get used less and less in rehearsal until their scenes are cut altogether and they’re fired before the opening.

Now there’s a potentially fun musical number for you!

Youngblood Hawke........loved the movie but I couldn't understand one word Genevieve Page said.

[quote]The first 2 stories were good, but after awhile I just felt like I was watching a weird sitcom with the adopted hitting on the boyfriend

The adopted son does not hit on the boyfriend in any version of TORCH SONG TRILOGY (or TORCH SONG).

Link to new thread here

[quote]The adopted son does not hit on the boyfriend in any version of TORCH SONG TRILOGY (or TORCH SONG).

He does in our fantasies.

and

time

for

BAJOUR!!!!