Theatre Gossip #567: I Have Some Sarah Paulson Tea Edition

Previous thread

[quote]I Have Some Sarah Paulson Tea Edition

I shudder to think what's in those teabags.

It's tepid tea.

Get it over with already. We all know it's going to be disappointing.

By far an away my favorite Thread title. Thanks OP!

Hey, OP!

Apologies if this isn’t as Earth-shattering as built up to be (a thread title!), but it was news to me so I wanted to share. And I do think she’s a superb actress in many ways.

Sarah Paulson and Tracey Letts dated at some point for some unspecified amount of time. After Tracey hit it big with “August: Osage County” (and while they were no longer together) Sarah was heard openly referring to him as “my boyfriend” (never using “ex”) particularly when reading reviews of his new play out loud to others. People would correct her and she’d laugh but then she’d just keep doing it. It was completely bizarre and it was like she had created this world where they were still a couple and the reviews were for her too.

Boy, she really is a user/opportunist, isn't she?

That gossip was so underwhelming, I can't even be bothered to properly chastise you, R7.

Just know you failed everyone.

Jesus even I am bored by this news!

I thought Pedro Pascal was her boyfriend?

I've heard from so many people who've worked with Paulson that she's an entitled bitch, going back several years now. How she won that Tony is beyond me.

After reading more chat on Queen of Versailles, I'm still eager to see it but it does sound like they may need another season to fix it all before opening on Broadway. It really sounds too delicious to fuck up.

Co-stars (and heroes) Sarah and Beanie will bring the long-awaited musical adaptation of "Beaches" to Broadway.

Will Beanie be the Beach?

Has Cherry Jones weighed in on Sarah yet? Are they still pals?

Oh, r7, that's what happened to me when my boyfriend, Lanford, and I opened in his play on Broadway. The reviews were as much for me as for him. I was very proud!

R7-That would have been at the same time she was living with Cherry Jones. You sure about this crap?

I dream that someday will write the book/article about the truth of the Beanie FUNNY GIRL trials. I've heard some wild rumors, and would love to know if they were true.

The Marquis already has a BIG show for next Spring...

What have you heard, R19?

I heard Barbra went backstage and gave Beanie pages and pages of notes.

I've heard from several people who worked backstage at Funny Girl, and they all said the cast (and everyone) loved Beanie and were utterly supportive of her, even knowing she wasn't up to the task. But she was beloved.

Sorry.

It's Smash, isn't it, R20?

Doubt there's enough stuff for a book, but it could make for a juicy New York mag article. Except, of course, that nobody cares any more.

Speaking of Beanie in Funny Girl, that production was a prime example of the errant belief that performers will magically find some kind of voice they simply don't have after previews. No Internet refrain is more annoying than "it was a preview, give them time to improve!"

There seemed to be lots of love and tears for Beanie at her final curtain call. It looks like the cast adored her.

Or maybe they were just happy it was the last time they had to hear her sing the score.

The whole world knew Beanie was miscast from the first announcement. Fortunately she and the producers eventually figured it out and let Lea turn the show around.

Michael Mayer was to blame for that fiasco.

He had a “vision” and really should be held accountable for that decision. Had Lea not stepped in and turned the show into a hit, it would have flopped and everyone would have been pointing fingers.

Oh goodie, a Beanie thread.

R30, I think there was a lot of pointing fingers at Mayer -- and also the producers, and maybe also Fierstein -- even though the show did turn around with Lea.

From the other thread, someone said the actors in Stereophonic were playing their own instruments. I never said they weren't, but a few had to learn the rudiments of how to play their instruments.

Have you missed me as much as I missed performances?

I notice Jane Lynch didn’t show up to be in Beanie’s closing (which would also have been her own).

Broadway Babby.

Has anyone seen Stephanie Mills in Hadestown? Very curious about how she’s doing but haven’t seen any chatter about it.

r35 Yes, everyone else noticed that two years ago when it was actually relevant

Jane Lynch had a scheduled absence on what turned out to be Beanie's last day. Beanie left a month earlier than originally planned when she found out Lea would be taking over.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

But the big question…is Tracey Letts hung?

Dick pics?

I thought the Queen of Versailles thread over at ATC was very interesting. It made me reflect further on my own opinion of it.

Look, I had a great time on Thursday night. So did the audience. There was very enthusiastic applause and whoops and hollers at the end of Act 1 and at the curtain call. Is the show perfect? Of course it isn’t. Yes, on further teflection I do have issues with some the present day material. Jackie Siegel can be, at times, an unlikeable character. She does something in Act 2 which is pretty unconscionable but at least she’s “punished” for it.

I do somewhat agree with the criticism bythe poster over at ATC about Schwartz’ score. It’s disappointing up to a point. I think it fits the story. However a lot of it is merely pleasant and generic. I kept trying to think what it reminded me of and for some reason David Shire’s score for Baby as well as Marvin Hamlisch’s score for Smile came to mind. There is one melody in it where the opening verse has a but which immediately reminded me of “My Heart Will Go On” but if course it goes in another direction. Overall the score is pleasant without being distinctive. As I mentioned in the previous thread the orchestrations are great and the score is beautifully conducted by an offstage orchestra. I tgought the Colonial had an orchestra pit butvI’m sure thee is someone here who can educate me.

I won’t budge on how impressed I was by the staging, though. It’s excellent. The other thread suggested the 18th century France stuff was intrusive and should be reduced or cut. I disagree. I think jt’s very effective and witty and provided some good comedy.

I don’t think it needs a year to be re-worked. I can easily see it arrive on Broadway at the Imperial, the Palace, the Beoadway or the Winter Garden by spring.

Why do you all say Patti isn’t nice? This is delightful

And it's that Cole and Patti didn't film this at the same time.

Patti looks good there. She should have reminded Mary to turn off her cellphone before the show starts.

That little promo clip tells me everything I need to know about Oh, Mary.

No thank you.

"Oh, Mary!" joined the $1 million club and broke the Lyceum's box office record last week.

I wonder if Oh, Mary! will get filmed for cable or streaming.

R22 She had one note sent from Malibu.

R37 I haven't seen her, but saw a bootleg clip on TikTok. She looks amazing in the new costume they made her, and she sounds great!

Escola was on The View this morning and pointed out that the Lyceim Theater was where she played once upon a time. Cole told her, "You didn't flush!" There was very nervous laughter until Whoopi said, "Now my toilet flushes itself!" (Joy has seen his show twice.)

I was going through my theatre memorabilia and discovered this amusing little tale about Ann Miller in my 1981 Merrily playbill:

"Dear PLAYBILL: In Ann Miller in Tap (PLAYBILL, Oct., 1981) Ms. Miller is quoted as saying she was voted 'Woman of the Year' by the Defamation League. Didn't she mean the Anti-Defamation League?"

—Geneva Meehan

Butler N.J.

"As the article pointed out, Ms. Miller is famous for her malapropisms. The star told PLAYBILL that she was voted that honor by the "Deflamation League." What she obviously meant to say was the "Anti-Defamation League."

Is this the same Ann Miler, who when asked about Passover replied, "Oh, honey--you know I don't do game shows."

And the same Ann Miller who, when she heard there was going to be a Broadway musical called ARI, said she wanted to play Jackie Onassis in it :-)

And the same Ann Miller who said “I can’t wait to see Joseph and His Amazing Raincoat!”

Are Sutton and Hugh still a thing? Whatever happened there?

Ari

How about when Ann Miller referred to the dead Richard Rodgers as still alive and then, when corrected, said, "What do I know, honey? I've been on the road!"?

I believe it was Ira Gershwin, r58.

I also recall it that she asked him to stand up and take a bow.

Love that anecdote, R58. I hope it's true.

What a dreary time this is for Broadway theatre gossip.

Is Devil WEars Prada really coming in next season? I've heard some doubts..........

Cole Escola smells down there.

Is the Patti Lupone/Mia Farrow show in rehearsals now? Or is that next season?

I know, R62--where are the stories of actors' cocks and sex lives?

Or not even sex. Backstage feuds, bad behavior, theater landlord politics, crazy co-producers. I think DL now has more senior theater fans and fewer industry folk who have moved onto other platforms. Reddit, for one.

And Ann Miller's wig was made of thin gauge black wire so it wouldn't droop with sweat when she danced.

Adam Lambert will be the next Emcee beginning Sept 16.

Forgive my old fogeyness, but is Adam Lambert much of a draw?

Roger Friedman, the shit-stirring Riedel wannabe, is usually wrong or dim or both, claims Eddie & Gayle are leaving early and had been contracted for a year. Anyone recall if that's true? I thought I always recalled hearing about a. summer departure.

Aaron Tveit and beard are expecting.

I thought Eddie and Gayle were contracted through August. I doubt Eddie would commit for a year. He didn't even play a year in London.

Cole Escola’s career has no where to go but down from here. Tiring little troll. Why is he taking space from POC voices and faces? He needs to hand over the role to a Trans WOC ASAP!

Cabaret's Cliff will be new in September:too: Calvin Leon Smith, of Fat Ham fame.

Rs 58 - 60 Actually, that was a famous anecdote about Ann Miller’s coment at the Oscar Hammerstein memorial. It was a star-studded showbiz event,with one big name after another singing Oscar’s praises, and after a while, Miller looked around quizically and said, “But where’s Oscar?”

After being told he had died, she snapped “Well how did I know, I was on the road!” This led to her reputation as the dumbest broad im the business.

Who is Gayle Rankin that she could get such a short contract? Though perhaps if she wasn't selling tickets, they're happy to see her go early.

[quote]This led to her reputation as the dumbest broad im the business.

Until Jessica Simpson came along.

I checked the Redmayne details and as usual-always Friedman is full of shit. From Playbill announcement in Oct '23:

[quote] Redmayne, reprising his Olivier-winning performance as The Emcee from the production's London debut, and Rankin, starring as Sally Bowles, will play a limited engagement on Broadway through August 31. Beginning June 17, Redmayne will sit out Monday evenings and Rankin will not perform at Wednesday matinees.

In fact, per this info, the current stars are staying 2 weeks longer than announced, to mid September. How does Friedman keep his job?

Molly Osborne will play Desdemona opposite Denzel in Othello.

Adam Lambert is going to look pretty funny with that little party hat on his big head.

Kathleen Turner and a giant wig

Why did they dress Mdme Armfeldt like Mrs Beasley?

Good lord, Kathleen Turner looks like '90s NYC Public Access sensation Mrs. Mouth in that photo.

R76, I believe at least some of the Ann Miller stories, but not that one. The death of Oscar Hammerstein was front page news around the country and probably around the world, and it defies credibility that Ann would not have known about it, even if she was really busy "on the road."

Especially if Annie was actually at the memorial.

I guess they just couldn't find a young American actress to play Desdemona opposite Denzel and Jake.

Equity is truly pathetic.

When Betty was in Sunset, Was she offered to stay longer and she refused or did ALW want a new Norma?

R87, it was obvious they weren't going to cast an American. They want the "prestige" of a British actress.

They need the "prestige" of a British actress when they have two Hollywood movie stars?

Thanks, R90, I was just about to type that same response.

Jesse Green writes an article about racism and appropriation in old musicals and gets it wrong.

[Quote] A correction was made on July 23, 2024: An earlier version of this article misstated the background of Liat, a character in “South Pacific.” She is Tonkinese, not Polynesian.

R88. Betty played Norma for 14 months in NY and, I think, a year in London? She probably had enough plus it paved the way for Elaine to finally make her Broadway debut.

Hollywood has always had an inferiority complex to British actors. Broadway is the same, although not with musicals.

The Desdemona casting is just insulting and unnecessary with 2 box office mega stars already leading the production. It's not about the talent of the British actress who was cast.

Fuck Kenny Leon (who should never be directing Shakespeare).

Kenny Leon should be directing animated film shorts.

Kenny Leon sure is in the catbird seat. Before BLM, he was the only established, regularly working black theater director I can think of, and since that whole thing happened, he has been working CONSTANTLY, almost literally non-stop. Because producers have been turning to him again and again as someone who already had Broadway experience, even if he's only a mediocre director at best.

There are far better BIPOC directors than Leon. Look at how he fucked up Purlie Victorious.

And his Hamlet in Central Park last summer was an abomination on every level.

I’ve never heard of Molly Osborne. That Deadline story is stupid; typical “showbiz” trash Baz does for the DM. I don’t even remember Trevor Nunn having an acclaimed Fiddler revival.

Interesting that the violin doesn’t play both ways; why shouldn’t a “person” of color play Desdemona in the big money grab Broadway Shakespeare show with two huge stars for a limited run? Oh, suddenly, the text shows that race matters all of a sudden? Please. But, it’s a mostly unknown (white) British actress so it’s all ok…

She doesn't look all that white, actually.

She’s an Essex girl so most of her “Britishness” will just be drama school airs.

Oh Mary extended to November. Most tickets are between $200 and $350.

I think I was a little less enamoured with Oh, Mary! than most, but it is really great that a rather silly one-act Off-Broadway play is having what feels like a mainstream cultural moment (insofar as plays ever do).

I feel bad for Charles Busch who toiled (and still toils) in tiny off and off-off Broadway theaters for decades in far wittier and better-produced plays than Cole and his silly skit. Oh, Mary! has nothing on Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Psycho Beach Party (which were indeed long-running hits but never really broke their Downtown origins).

Charles is a victim of time. But he is a Tony nominated writer and he was just inducted in the theatre hall of fame, so I think he’s okay.

But I agree, he must be envious

Has Busch weighed in on Oh, Mary? Publicly at least?

Slow curtain. The end.

I didn't quite understand the raucous laughter all around me when I saw Oh Mary at the Lortel Theater. I thought it was too aware that is was campy and only mildly amusing. However, I will say that the next-to-final plot twist (I won't give it away) was hilarious.

[quote] Charles is a victim of time.

Obsolete in his prime?

Out of date and outclassed, by his past.

Busch’s latest was terrible, R106, didn’t work as comedy, satire or as a wild campfest. It was blah, and Busch seemed to be playing his part as Ibsen’s widow straight, playing for tears more than laughs, which was just weird.

Here is Molly Osborne's example showreel. Good God, she's horrible. I mean this is five years ago, but the most I can say for her is she is kinda pretty. The majority of this acting could have been done better by Susan Lucci. I initially thought she was doing a good American accent, but then listen to her float in and out of it. It's terrible. If this is the best actress they could find, Brit or American, Othello is in trouble.

What an idea, R114! Susan Lucci IS Desdemona! Susan Lucci IS Lady Macbeth! Susan Lucci IS Titania!

Frankly irrelevant, R113 -- the point is OH, MARY! can't come within hailing range of *prime* Busch, especially the masterful LADY IN QUESTION and RED SCARE ON SUNSET.

[quote] feel bad for Charles Busch who toiled (and still toils) in tiny off and off-off Broadway theaters for decades in far wittier and better-produced plays than Cole and his silly skit. Oh, Mary! has nothing on Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Psycho Beach Party (which were indeed long-running hits but never really broke their Downtown origins).

Charles made a fucking fortune from the Broadway production of ALLERGISTS WIFE. So don't cry for him. He's a doll btw

Sondheim vs. Patti. She was not a fan of the Sweeney Todd movie. But then again, who was , besides Sondheim?

Sondheim's first two lines, second paragraph are brutal.

[quote]Couldn't you just have kept your feelings to yourself?

Could the leopard change its spots?

I can't believe we're stuck with a "Sarah Paulson Tea" thread for another 478 posts when the tea was so weak and so long ago.

Wow Steve was a good writer.

I'm hopeful that the Sarah tea promised is still brewing, and R598 will spill something so strong and hot that the shock will leave us unable to type BAJOUR.

How do letters like that one from Sondheim get out there on the internet? Surely Patti didn't share an image of it for general consumption? Did Steve keep copies of all the letters her wrote that have now been let loose with his death?

I applaud his sentiments, however.

Interesting question, R124. Anyone?

[Quote] The role models are evident: If my kid learns how to play guitar, maybe they could be the next Taylor Swift! “But when you say, ‘Oh, my kid might be the next Kenny Leon’” — the Tony Award-winning director of “A Raisin in the Sun” — “people are like, ‘Well, who is that?’ You should know that Kenny Leon is one of the most celebrated Black directors of our moment,” just as fundamental to the formation of culture as any pop star is, Harris says.

[quote]R119 Sondheim's first two lines, second paragraph are brutal.

I don’t know…. “Very little in as obnoxious as unasked-for criticism” strikes me as one of the most incredibly privileged things I’ve ever heard. [italic]You didn’t want to hear criticism?? [/italic]Oh, boo fuckin’ hoo!

People will respond to anyone’s work, whether they’re asked or not. People will comment on a bad parking job!! Yes, the safest thing to do is keep criticism to yourself, but surely Mr. Sondheim can tune out a few comments he’d prefer not to hear.

If he wants to know what REALLY obnoxious behavior is he can be in charge of tidying Goop’s guest rooms when Derek Blasberg visits.

The question at R126 should be: "Will We Ever Be Rid of Jeremy O Harris?"

R127, Sondheim was absolutely right. Nobody has a right to foist their opinions on someone. Fuck her.

Well, everyone has a RIGHT to express critical/negative opinions to someone about that person's work, but one should be prepared for and expect that those comments may not be well received, no matter how diplomatically (or not) they're phrased.

P.S. In stark contrast to Patti "I'll-Say-Whatever-the-Fuck-Comes-Into-My-Head, No-Matter-How-Bitchy-or-Rude" LuPone, I know that Angela Lansbury made some very carefully worded negative comments about the film of SWEENEY TODD, but I very much doubt she ever expressed any of those feelings to Sondheim directly.

[quote]r129 Sondheim was absolutely right. Nobody has a right to foist their opinions on someone. Fuck her.

Tee shirts printed [bold]PRAISE ONLY! [/bold]would have made great opening night gifts for Steve.

People, unless they're critics, should offer their opinions only when asked.

But really, what's the point of giving someone criticism on something that can no longer be changed? (And I don't mean actual critics.)

I'm a filmmaker and there are many times during writing and production and post where I seek out opinions and reactions from people. I want to know what's working and what isn't while I can still fix it. I make work for others to enjoy, not for myself. So if something is not working, then I want to know about it. And if I can fix it, I will.

But once it's done and out there, I am not the least bit interested in hearing negative things. Of course, I cannot control what reviews say, nor would I want to. Not everyone is going to like what you do, and if you expect them to, you're in for a rough ride. But I don't need friends or colleagues coming up to me afterwards (or even strangers, which has happened) to tell me what they didn't like about a particular film. It's not like I can do anything about it. And it's more than likely I already know about it and may even feel similarly, but even if not, it in no way is going to help.

And on the other side of it, I would never consider doing that to any creative friends or colleagues. If I don't like something, I just congratulate them on getting it done and out into the world (which is next to impossible these days) and leave it at that. I don't blame Sondheim for going off on Lupone, who should have never written him unless it was to offer congratulations.

And though I don't know what her specific comments were, I'm inclined to side with her on them. It was a horrendous film version with stupefyingly bad casting for the leads, especially Bonham-Carter, who would have never gotten the role if she wasn't married to Burton at the time, and who should have been so embarrassed by her performance that she should have never done another musical. Instead she had to shit the bed again, playing Mme. Thenardier.

[quote]R130 Well, everyone has a RIGHT to express critical/negative opinions to someone about that person's work, but one should be prepared for and expect that those comments may not be well received, no matter how diplomatically (or not) they're phrased.

Yes, I agree. I just find it amazing that Sondheim was so irked by what must have been a regular occurrence - just given the number of people who’d meet him and see his shows. And it’s not even that I’m surprised he found unsolicited criticism annoying… it’s that he ranks the outrage so high! (“Few things are as obnoxious as…”) There have to be more obnoxious things one can do in the theater?

It really RESONATES with him! Was he very insecure? He always struck me as very [italic]assured.

You don't go backstage and offer up your opinion, right? You wait until you're asked by the person you're there to, ostensibly, support with your presence. Then, when it's okay to offer your opinion, go ahead.

And if you're around third parties somewhere else and said friend's whatever-it-is comes up, then feel free to offer your opinion.

You don't write or call or whatever Lupone did, shit out your opinion, and expect anything other than a "fuck you."

This cunt is famous for this kind of shit, though there's no excuse for trying to justify it.

[quote]R134 it’s that he ranks the outrage so high! (“Few things are as obnoxious as…”) There have to be more obnoxious things one can do in the theater?

I’m sorry, his original wording was, “Very little in as obnoxious as…”

Patti LuPone has a strong academic background; she graduated from Juilliard and toured in the classics under John Housman. There is a bigger picture to theater to her than the empty “kiss kiss, marvelous, darling” chanting Sondheim wanted.

Theater is a shared cultural experience that is supposed to encourage discussion. I’m surprised Mr. Sondheim was so thrown by that.

[QUOTE] I can't believe we're stuck with a "Sarah Paulson Tea" thread for another 478 posts when the tea was so weak and so long ago.

Why don’t you stop complaining and post some “tea” of your own if you’re that fucking stressed out about it? I specifically said that it was nothing major and did not ask anyone to make it the subject of the next thread title.

I’ve dropped good tea in the past including a year ago when it was also made the subject of a thread title.

[quote] I’m sorry, his original wording was, “Very little in as obnoxious as…”

Still not right! "Very little is as obnoxious as..."

[quote]You wait until you're asked by the person you're there to, ostensibly, support with your presence. Then, when it's okay to offer your opinion, go ahead.

But even in that exact situation Sondheim still got pissy if he got anything other than praise - as Jason Robert Brown can tell us. And he paraphrases Sondheim as saying:

[quote]If you come to my show and you see me afterwards, say only this: “I loved it.” It doesn’t matter if that’s what you really felt. What I need at that moment is to know that you care enough about me and the work I do to tell me that you loved it, not “in spite of its flaws”, not “even though everyone else seems to have a problem with it,” but simply, plainly, “I loved it.” If you can’t say that, don’t come backstage, don’t find me in the lobby, don’t lean over the pit to see me. Just go home, and either write me a nice email or don’t. Say all the catty, bitchy things you want to your friend, your neighbor, the Internet.

[quote]Maybe next week, maybe next year, maybe someday down the line, I’ll be ready to hear what you have to say, but that moment, that face-to-face moment after I have unveiled some part of my soul, however small, to you; that is the most vulnerable moment in any artist’s life. If I beg you, plead with you to tell me what you really thought, what you actually, honestly, totally believed, then you must tell me, “I loved it.” That moment must be respected.

[quote]R139 Still not right! "Very little is as obnoxious as..."

[italic]oh god…[/italic]

I’m sober, and feel like I drank!

I’ve never heard of a Mme A who takes her curtain call in the wheelchair. I hope Kathleen is ok. She looks genuinely happy to be there

[quote] Patti LuPone has a strong academic background; she graduated from Juilliard and toured in the classics under John Housman.

It's called drama school and rep theatre, R137. Don't paint her as an intellectual.

Sondheim was being honest about how he feels and setting his boundaries, which may seem unreasonable, even ridiculous, but feelings often are.

Oh for chrissakes. Patti was insensitive and stuck her foot in her mouth. She hurt his feelings and his ego, both of which Stephen fucking Sondheim was entitled to. He may have been blunt, but he was open and honest with her. I'm sure he was thrilled that the movie got made and was directed at a more general (younger) audience.

[quote] I’ve never heard of a Mme A who takes her curtain call in the wheelchair.

That is odd. Does she squat on the ground like a Bohemian at the beginning of the second act, or is that cut too?

[quote] I'm sure he was thrilled that the movie got made and was directed at a more general (younger) audience.

Probably less so when that audience then complained they were tricked into seeing a musical

Just a reminder of how cheap and sad the first Broadway revival of Follies was… it’s hilarious to read comments about how “great” the opening number was, with those poor “girls” having to navigate the fire escape staircase. Perhaps there were a few good performances and one or two memorable moments, but this was an embarrassment.

Gregory Harrison deserved better!

[quote] r137 Patti LuPone has a strong academic background; she graduated from Juilliard and toured in the classics under John Housman.

[quote] R143 It's called drama school and rep theatre. Don't paint her as an intellectual.

Juilliard is on a very different level than other “drama schools,” just as John Housman’s Acting Company is very different from your run-of-the-mill repertory theater.

Try getting into them.

Sondheim’s note suggests that Patti actually took the initiative to write to him to say she didn’t like the movie. That is not the same as his not being able to take criticism.

Fuck 'em, r147, they got their horizons broadened. They didn't say it *wasn't* a musical.

And she's still no fucking intellect, R150.

Is this the same Patti LuPone who bitches about how Glenn Close never called her to apologize for stealing Norma Desmond from her but never admits that she didn't call her predecessors in THE BAKER'S WIFE to apologize to them?

Team Sondheim here, in any case. Does LuPone seem in any way like the kind of person who herself would welcome such a letter? Of course not. So why did she feel the need to write one?

But she *is* a Broadway legend, r153, so there's that. What is your educational background?

You know, maybe she sent the note maliciously?

Had she ever been his first choice for anything? I think she’s only done revivals and concert versions of his stuff. With the clock running down, maybe she just cast the gloves off and decided to twist that knife.

Yeah, r156...no. It was very, very humbling for Patti.

[quote]Theater is a shared cultural experience that is supposed to encourage discussion. I’m surprised Mr. Sondheim was so thrown by that.

Except it wasn't theater--it was a movie.

[quote]Sondheim was being honest about how he feels and setting his boundaries, which may seem unreasonable, even ridiculous, but feelings often are.

He was probably humiliated that his "masterpiece" is forever on film starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter and people noticed.

Beanie? That's a person named Beanie?

Sondheim was always a bit thin-skinned. I just referenced the Sweeney Todd chapter from the Seacrest biography for an anecdote. According to Keith Baxter, he and Burt Shevelove (one of Sondheim's best friends) were having Dinner with Sondheim after the first preview of Sweeney. Shevelove jokingly asked Sondheim (who was already moody from audience comments), if he wants the good news or the bad news, Sondheim slammed down his glass and exploded "There is no bad news, Burt! Do you understand? No bad News!"

But sending an unsolicited letter to Sondheim, critiquing a film he didn't direct, was presumptuous on Patti's part.

[quote]R161 sending an unsolicited letter to Sondheim, critiquing a film he didn't direct, was presumptuous on Patti's part.

She’s a truth teller.

So sue her.

[quote]He was probably humiliated that his "masterpiece" is forever on film starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter

He had no problem with that, r159. And his is the only opinion that matters after all. It's *his* work of art. How would you feel if Patti wrote you that your baby is ugly and you should have procreated with someone else?

Gingold used to be wheeled out for the curtain call, then leap from the chair and sprint to the front of the stage.

I was watching her on WWHL and LuPone doesn't seem to have a kind or encouraging word about anyone. She missed her calling. She's a female John Simon.

I can only imagine that Sondheim's own discontent with the outcome of the SWEENEY TODD film was a large part of why he was so sensitive about the topic.

And if Patti was a true artist, she would have been very aware of that.

And I mean really....what could she possibly have thought she gained by sending that note? I could almost forgive her if she kind of blurted out something negative in casual conversation with him but to take the very intentional step of writing and mailing a letter to him? Outrageous!

[quote]I can only imagine that Sondheim's own discontent with the outcome of the SWEENEY TODD film

Where did he express discontent, r166?

A BA and an MA, R155--more than Patti. And you?

Not that we haven’t talked this topic to death, but it’s interesting to note that she sent this letter after she had played the role on Broadway. Cringe

Yeah, it was pure spite. Cunt.

[quote]A BA and an MA, [R155]--more than Patti. And you?

I'm not the one disparaging Patti's educational background, r168.

Congratulations on your MA. Are you as successful in your field as Patti is in hers?

r167, did you actually read what I said, and you quoted?

I'll repeat the pertinent words for you:

I can only imagine....

Are you, R171?

And it's not disparaging to say she's no intellect, which she's not, and from the sound of things, neither are you.

I didn't realize how many Patti queens there are here.

Patti is is on Law and order on Sundance right now

Someone should call her and critique her performance on L&O after it's over.

Well...smell Miss Intellect @ r173.

Beats being a stupid cunt like you, R176. I actually have books where I live, not old Patti LuPone Playbills.

Do we know what was in Patti’s original note?

Was Sondheim’s alma mater, Williams, a big deal when he went there in the 1940s?

F*** Patti, let's get back to FOLLIES!

This is audio from the entire Original Broadway Production. It's a great chance to see if your memory of or dreams about that production match the reality. For me, many of the tempos are different from what I remembered. It's not a bad thing, just different.

[quote]R178 Do we know what was in Patti’s original note?

No. I imagine it was probably a thank you note for Sondheim inviting her to the screening - and she added her regrets and sympathies about the quality of the adaptation.

Beanie. Follies. Bumping Blythe. Patti. JOH. It’s like the not so great greatest hits. Again.

Did Patti send her note to Sondheim before or after the one he sent her criticizing her performance in Passion at Lincoln Center?

Oh, r177, don't be such a negative Nellie, you just turn that frown upside-down.

R183, the Lincoln Center PASSION with LuPone came a couple years before the SWEENEY film hit theaters.

[quote]But even in that exact situation Sondheim still got pissy if he got anything other than praise

Well, not exactly, because part of the point of the Jason Robert Brown story is that Sondheim DID NOT ask for JRB's opinion.

I'm not saying I don't think Sondheim was hypersensitive about criticism, because I DO think that was the case, but we should be clear about what happened on that occasion and what Sondheim's parameters were.

R185 Thanks for the info.

If he’d sent her a totally crushing review unsolicited and after a show had opened, I can understand how Patti might not have felt it inappropriate to send him an unsolicited negative review, even if it is bitchy to do.

Of course, Sondheim as the playwright is much more entitled to critique her performance than she is to critique the Sweeney film.

[quote]Just a reminder of how cheap and sad the first Broadway revival of Follies was… it’s hilarious to read comments about how “great” the opening number was, with those poor “girls” having to navigate the fire escape staircase. Perhaps there were a few good performances and one or two memorable moments, but this was an embarrassment.

All thanks to the Roundabout Theatre Company and its leadership at the time.

Sondheim supposedly held screenings of the SWEENEY TODD film for friends at his home, so I doubt that he secretly hated it.

Interesting that Sondheim made at least one public appearance with Patti LuPone after she trashed the SWEENEY film in that letter to him. But it's worth noting that, during said public appearance, he made it clear to her publicly that she was not really a star :-)

[quote]All thanks to the Roundabout Theatre Company and its leadership at the time.

Their Company was subpar as well.

Yes, their COMPANY, with a star who couldn't handle singing the leading role eight times a week and so wound up missing about half of the total number of performances throughout the run.

He was in when I saw it, r191. It was an odd production.

[quote] Sondheim supposedly held screenings of the SWEENEY TODD film for friends at his home, so I doubt that he secretly hated it.

Where? In his townhouse and Conn real estate listings, neither mentions a screening room?

I hope Patti broke and/or stole something while she was there.

Passion is the worst.

[quote]r195 Passion is the worst.

And I hope Patti [italic]told him that.

Sondheim and John Logan wrote the script for exactly what the Sweeney movie was going to be, the only change was to cut the chorus which was ultimately advantageous… like it or not, it was an R rated musical and made three times its budget, undoubtedly a hit.

PS Sondheim himself stepped in for it not to be NC-17; the several stabs for Turpin’s death was a big issue and whether to make the film R or dreaded NC-17.

[quote]the only change was to cut the chorus which was ultimately advantageous

No it wasn't. Total nonsense.

R194 after eating the main course, LuPone tore up the guest toilet like a rockstar!

r186 Except you're wrong, Sondheim outright asked:

[quote]Finally, after an eternity, Steve mumbles, “So, uh, did you like the show?”

And that was after 20 minutes of them specifically avoiding talking about the show. Sondheim knew what the answer would be, and yet asked anyway. It sounds like he was setting Brown up for failure.

Plus, on top of everything, Brown was 23 at the time. Sondheim got pissy at a 23 year old because he didn't know Steve's secret rule that he must only be praised.

[italic]He Who Must be Praised

Poor Patti couldn’t help herself. Truthfully, my work was ALWAYS ripped to shreds by Sondheim and I was fired from Into the Woods….so I get it!

I had an intermittent written correspondence with Sondheim for decades. The only time he got pissy was when I made an assumption about how a lyric might apply to him and he firmly corrected me.

[quote]he firmly corrected me

Pics please.

The chorus was originally supposed to be in the Sweeney Todd movie before production was unexpectedly shut down for a while due to Depp’s daughters serious illness. She was in a London hospital for a while and Depp wouldn’t work until she was well.

Cuts had to made as a result so out went the chorus.

The chorus was supposed to be made up of ghosts of Sweeney’s victims. Really a shame.

They became the ensemble of The Addams Family

The lack of any of the choral numbers in the Sweeney Todd film is its biggest disappointment. I mean other than everything else.

[quote]Where? In his townhouse and Conn real estate listings, neither mentions a screening room?

The dungeon was designed to easily transform into a screening room.

[quote]The chorus was originally supposed to be in the Sweeney Todd movie before production was unexpectedly shut down for a while due to Depp’s daughters serious illness. She was in a London hospital for a while and Depp wouldn’t work until she was well. Cuts had to made as a result so out went the chorus.

It makes zero sense that Depp's absence would have had anything to do with the elimination of the chorus from "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir," "God, That's Good!," etc. Especially for the ballad, the voiceover chorus could have been recorded while Depp was absent, if it hadn't been already.

The real reason why the chorus was eliminated was that, apparently, both Burton and Sondheim felt that modern-day film audience can't accept choruses singing in musicals without cringing. But in my opinion, which I know is shared by many others, the elimination of the chorus was a huge blot on the movie.

To the person who posted about no "screening room" in either Sondheim's Manhattan or Connecticut homes: Sondheim was a huge film buff, so I imagine he must have had a very nice audio-video setup at either or both places. One does not have to have a dedicated "screening room" to invite people over to watch a movie, and also, I didn't meant to imply that he held screenings for large numbers of people at each sitting.

R201, I apologize. I read Jason Robert Brown's account of that interaction with Sondheim when it was published, but I did not remember that there was a point during the meeting when Sondheim came right out and asked what JRB thought of the show. In my opinion, that changes everything, and of course he shouldn't have asked if he wasn't prepared to receive any criticism at all.

Although this was apparently not JRB's intent, I think this story shows Sondheim in a very poor light. How thin-skinned and emotionally immature of someone ask someone else who obviously didn't like their work for their opinion of it, and then become furious when they make some critical comments. Sondheim eventually came right out and told Brown that he should have lied about his feelings if they were negative. What sort of childish game is that?

[quote]The dungeon was designed to easily transform into a screening room.

In the case of the Sweeney Todd film, how apt.

Maybe by 'screening' SS meant he popped in a DVD and everyone watched in his living room.

How on earth could anyone owe $4.5 million in back rent.

R216, I always have the same question whenever I hear that a huge amount of back-rent money is owed. I understand that it can be very difficult to evict individual tenants from apartment buildings, but I don't see how that would apply to a business or a show.

The idiotic, despicable Susan Sarandon is going to be hosting an upcoming show at Little Island, Incredible that she still has the nerve to set foot on stage in NYC. I can't say I hope the performance is interrupted by protests, but I do hope people confront her afterwards to let her know what a stupid fool she is for her political beliefs.

R218 Hi Debra! Hope things are going well after will & grace!

R219, I actually was unaware of the Messing/Sarandon feud until I Googled it after reading your post, but I kinda think Messing is not the only person who despises Sarandon for her politics.

Did Sarandon get the new movie before or after her agency dropped her?

[quote]R213 …this story shows Sondheim in a very poor light. How thin-skinned and emotionally immature of someone…

THANK YOU!

R213, would YOU accept virtually any unasked for critricism of anything you did? WHY should he have? You're full of shit, Mary.

R183, this is my favorite quote re: Patti’s reaction to Sondheim’s criticism:

“I also thought if there was anybody with less experience than me, they would’ve turned in their Equity card.”

But ya DID, Blanche! Ya DID turn in your Equity Card!!!

BTW, I was at a private screening of the TV version of “Gypsy” on the Disney lot back in 1993. Maybe ten people in the screening room, including Sondheim, Peter Jones, and his guest (and friend) Roddy McDowell. We approached SS afterward to congratulate him…

His response? He rolled his eyes, shook his head, and said “Thank CHRIST Arthur (Laurents) wasn’t here, or I’d never hear the end of it…”

Just another Steve story.

I think sending unsolicited criticisms in a posted letter is particularly cruel because the receiver approaches it as the sender having made an effort and there is some heightened anticipation when opening it…only to find the negative contents.

It reminds me of years ago when a guy I was dating broke it off with me via a delivery, a messenger. I wasn’t expecting anything, we’d just recently taken a trip together to NYC and had a blast, etc. I thought it was going to be something special. After I read his stupid note about not being able to be in a relationship at this time, I couldn’t believe I’d had to sign for it! It seemed incredibly arrogant as well, like he could’ve just said that on the phone or we could’ve discussed it over a drink.

I don’t think those criticisms should be offered unless they’re solicited. Just because you watched something doesn’t mean you’re part of the creative process - I’m sure there were plenty of discussions amongst the creative team and Patti should know better than anybody that film is not Sondheim’s medium. It doesn’t matter if it was directed by Harold Prince or Tim Burton, it could still be a turkey. As it was, the film was successful on its own terms.

If anything, she should’ve thanked him for the opportunity to see an advanced screening and for including her amongst his guests. Nothing else needed to be said.

[quote]Patti (with Betty looking over her shoulder)

Breathe through your mouth Patti! Breath through your mouth.

[quote]R223 would YOU accept virtually any unasked for criticism of anything you did? WHY should he have?

Because it’s unrealistic to think we’re above reproach.

Anyone see JOB on Broadway yet? Or downtown? Any opinions?

Everybody needs to reproach r227.

Thank god for the dueling cunts of LuPone and Sondheim which saved this thread from the horrendous non-gossip about Sarah Paulson.

Let’s all practice what we might have said in the awkwardness following a SWEENEY screening at Mr. Sondheim’s house.

————————

“That Colleen Atwood woman really makes the most amazing costumes …. (pause) …. So, was Katharine Hepburn’s terrace the one over there?”

“Helena Bonham Carter was very good in A Room with a View. Is it true Toni Collette screen tested for this?”

[quote]Would YOU accept virtually any unasked for criticism of anything you did? WHY should he have? You're full of shit, Mary.

If your reading comprehension level were higher, you would understand that I was referring specifically to the Jason Robert Brown incident -- during which, apparently, Sondheim actually came right out and asked JRB "Did you like the show?" -- and not to the LuPone incident.

I think common courtesy is that audience members should not offer unsolicited criticism of a show to those involved in it, especially not right after seeing it -- BUT part of the contract is that the people involved in the show should not ask how the audience member liked it if they don't want to receive an honest answer. If they DO ask, then I say all bets are off. Do you disagree with that?

I really liked that Jamie Campbell Bower who played Anthony. So nice to hear someone who can actually sing.

"Finishing the Hat" is a shitty song.

Some more context for the Sondheim story: JRB and his friend were comped specifically by Sondheim and were meeting him for dinner. Frank Rich was reviewing that performance. They didn’t comment on the show for 20 minutes.

Also, [quote] So I called Steve the next day. It was not a fun phone call. He was clearly still hurt, but he acknowledged at one point that “that’s exactly the kind of stupid thing I would have done at your age.” Which I appreciated.

Finally, no one has mentioned the show, which is presumably Putting it Together. So, they remained silent sitting with the composer after seeing Julie Andrews (returning to a New York stage for the first time in 30 years) in a 299 seat house.

R233, my reading comprehension skills are just fine, and yes, I do agree with what you said, but I've said the same thing further upthread, so maybe your reading comprehemnsion skills could use work.

Somehow I doubt we'd be seeing much discussion about unsolicited criticism if, instead of someone like Sondheim, it was someone like Sarah Paulson being criticised. Or if the note came from, oh I don't know, someone like Trish Hawkins.

R237, if you knew I was referring to the JRB incident, and if you agree with me, then why did you comment "You're full of shit, Mary?" One of us is very confused, and I think it's you rather than me.

Trish doesn't do note (singular), r238.

Thanks for the additional context, R236. Seems to me the whole situation was an accident waiting to happen, considering that JRB and his friend were comped into the show by Sondheim and were set up to meet with him for dinner immediately afterwards. Seems to me that JRB and the friend might have thought ahead as to what if anything they were going to say to Sondheim if they didn't like the show. But for that matter, if they did want to have dinner together, Sondheim could have avoided putting the other two on the spot by not coming right out and asking their opinion of the show.

Perhaps the whole thing could have been avoided if the three of them had not had dinner immediately afterwards, in which case JRB could have sent Sondheim a note the following day saying something like "Thanks so much for inviting us, it's always a privilege to see your work performed," or something to that effect.

What do you talk about now that Merrily has closed?

[quote]R238 …if the note came from, oh I don't know, someone like Trish Hawkins.

oh god - I so want to read that 6 page email. Maybe she’ll sell a printout at a charity event.

Is she one of the "Paulson" Paulsons?

And is it true that Mrs. Paul's fish sticks are going to have a brand change to Sarah Paulson's fish sticks?

What would Patti (or Steve, for that matter) say about Lea's "swingin" version of "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd"? Did Steve ever offer his opinion on this rendition?

What about Lea Salonga’s cockney accent in the Sweeney Todd sequence in Old Friends?

[quote]The lack of any of the choral numbers in the Sweeney Todd film is its biggest disappointment.

A bigger disappointment than Helena Bonham Carter?

To put this all in context, did Patti or Steve give unsolicited criticism when Andy from The Office played Anthony at the Loose Screw Playhouse?

I would like to see Follies starring all the ADA’s from Law & Order over the years

Alana's face goes on the window card, r250.

[quote]What do you talk about now that Merrily has closed?

The future revival of Merrily, of course, Silly.

ADA Borgia singing “Rain on the Roof” still stuffed in the trunk of a car.

Well, FOLLIES did start out as a murder mystery.

R228 I saw the first preview of Job on Broadway, didn’t get to see it downtown. It was well-acted and I was invested for the whole show right from the start but it veered into melodrama at the end and made one of the leads much less compelling than they were for the majority of the show. Sorry to be vague, don’t want to spoil things.

Jeez. Patti's a cunt and Sondheim is dead. Enough already...

Whatever happened to the conversation about the producer barred from their show from the thread a few back. Did we figure out who it is?

He wasn't dead when he wrote that letter, R256.

But Patti was already a cunt.

That she was (and is).

She was probably a cunt on the way out of her mother's.

Next week ... Bernadette Peters is on Live with Kelly and Mark on Tuesday. Cole Escola is on Watch What Happens Live on Wednesday. Moulin Rouge! is performing Thursday on Good Morning America and GMA3.

Stop trying to make Moulin Rouge happen!

That show will never recoup.

For gentle r263.

I wonder what rehearsals for THE ROOMMATE are like?

Like watching trained seals at feeding time.

Rehearsals for The Roommate are at a studio in Connecticut because they all live there.

Marsha Mason is the Associate Director on The Roommate. Interesting.

I hope she can co-direct better than she can play Madame Armfeldt.

R269 - Kathleen Turner

Associate Director/Referee

Who?

Sarah B has been out of Sunset Blvd again. She was just absent for an entire week. But the show is moving to Sydney as scheduled.

She should be the one “guest starring” for Nicole

[quote]Sarah B has been out of Sunset Blvd again. She was just absent for an entire week. But the show is moving to Sydney as scheduled.

Absolutely incredible to me that this micro-talented woman still has any level of a career, let alone one that would cause her to be cast in a role that requires a major star.

Just what you've all been waiting for -- a new "Star Trek" musical:

[quote]Sarah B has been out of Sunset Blvd again.

I thought this said,[italic] “Sarah B has been out [bold]ON[/bold] Sunset Blvd again.”

Just got in from "Cats: The Jellicle Ball" and it was fabulous -- just a joyous evening filled with great dancing and equally great singing (many of the performers onstage doing all of that gyrating and posing also have gorgeous, powerful voices). Hope they can extend for anyone who hasn't yet had a chance to see it. Highly recommended.

Unfortunately, I cannot give high remarks to the Perelman Performing Arts Center. Just another drab, cold, antiseptic monstrosity with absolutely no charm whatsoever (just my opinion).

[quote] Stop trying to make Moulin Rouge happen! That show will never recoup.

[quote]For gentle [R263].

OK everyone, point and laugh at R263!

r273 As ever, Forbidden Broadway had it right

They play Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again while announcing her absence.

Saw the other Gatsby at ART yesterday. Has the relative success of the current Broadway adaptation doomed a transfer for this one? NO LOSS.

If I may say so, I don’t think The Great Gatsby really has a terribly thrilling plot.

R283, I think many people would agree that the plot is not the reason for the classic status of the novel, it's much more about the character relationships and the certain class of people in a very specific place and time.

R283 you really didn’t learn a thing!

What I mean is, in dramatizing a novel you’re mostly working with the plot as the carryover. Movies and plays don’t lend themselves to the same philosophizing that books do.

So I don’t have high hopes for a Gatsby stage play as every time I see the movie versions I think, “This plot is rather THIN.”

PS:

Supposedly it was very hard to adapt A FAREWELL TO ARMS in 1932. Once the plot was detached from the language of the novel, it became apparent there was little to work with.

One of the studio writers said in frustration, “This is a story that’s written in water!”

[quote]In dramatizing a novel you’re mostly working with the plot as the carryover. Movies and plays don’t lend themselves to the same philosophizing that books do.

That's true, but I would say there are still many examples of movies and plays, and musicals, that work mostly because of the characters, the character relationships, and other elements beside the plot. It's just that those elements have to be conveyed in a different way than through narration or "philosophizing," as they are in a novel. But when you come to think of it, that's also true of plot.

Is Adam Guettel really straight?

How it Should be Done: A long time ago I saw Marian Seldes in a TERRIBLE Terrence McNally play and had dinner with her afterwards. The first thing she said to me when we met was: "I know you LOVED the play so there's absolutely no need whatsoever to talk about it."

What was the play, R290?

r278 all the video cuts they have just show people strutting up and down that runway. I’m not doubting you, but is it more than that?

Shout-out to Max Von Essen who has been playing Billy Flynn in Chicago for 9 whole months when most Billy's, Roxie's and Velma's normally play limited runs of 3 months or less. He's also missed very few performances.

Wow, our standards for "shout outs" have really diminished, haven't they...

In Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened documentary, why did Jason Alexander have hair? Was he doing a role somewhere?

He was doing an Alan Brady homage.

[quote]Shout-out to Max Von Essen who has been playing Billy Flynn in Chicago for 9 whole months when most Billy's, Roxie's and Velma's normally play limited runs of 3 months or less

Unfortunately for Max, those 9 months are some of the worst box-office that Chicago has ever had.

[quote] Shout-out to Max Von Essen who has been playing Billy Flynn in Chicago for 9 whole months when most Billy's, Roxie's and Velma's normally play limited runs of 3 months or less. He's also missed very few performances.

Isn't that lovely.

R297. Actually, Jinkx Monsoon and Ariana Madix both gave Chicago some of its best non holiday weeks in the past 9 months.

Teen Norma has quite a set of pipes!

That was our Marian, R290 :-) And of course we know exactly what play you're referring to, and sad to say, it was indeed a piece of theatrical refuse that somehow suckered in not only Marian but one of the other greatest acting talents of our time.

I agree about the Cats revival. So much talent. . And the PAC is a claustrophobic theatre with a huge entrance requiring theatre goers climb three long levels of steps. Who designed this mess?

I saw Marian and Angie in that play. It wasn't good....

Bad novels/plays source great screenplays, often. Great novels/plays source great screenplays, rarely.

I was one of those rare exceptions—according to Nelle Lee

R292, I wouldn't say there's much variation as far as the choreography goes -- it's basically the usual pose-like moves you see if you follow ballroom culture -- but it's more to do with the youth and energy of the cast and just the overall creative "reimagining" of CATS as a runway drag show that makes it so much fun. The score is the same but with some really interesting new arrangements (my favorite was "Old Deuteronomy") and they even turn several of the songs into "battle" dances with a trophy awarded to the winner. (Junior LaBeija, the M.C. from "Paris Is Burning," plays Gus the theater cat.) I don't know what the producers' plans are with regard to the show's future but the audience we saw it with loved every minute of it, so they really should consider moving it uptown (which Adam Feldman also seemed to suggest in his TimeOut review linked below).

By the way, I saw Andre De Shields, who plays Old Deuteronomy, greeting fans by the stage door as he was on his way in before the show. He seems like a lovely man.

I think it’s a bad idea that everyone is rehearsing The Roomate amongst friends in Connecticut. Also, since when is Marsha Mason a good associate director?

Patti needs a strong hand, I’m afraid left to her own devices she will lean into her worse habits.

Will the play last until November? Who is buying tickets for a Mia Farrow two hander?

[quote]I think it’s a bad idea that everyone is rehearsing The Roomate amongst friends in Connecticut. Also, since when is Marsha Mason a good associate director?

Marsha Mason has been directed by some of the best directors, stage and screen, who have ever lived. Maybe she feels that she has absorbed enough from those experiences to have something to offer at the table. She probably does. She's an actress of a certain age with 2 other actresses of a certain age in a room with Jack O in CT for a reason. She can advise Jack on the care and handling of his two charges AND if one of them implodes in rehearsals or has a fit or a problem and walks out, a one time movie star with significant stage experience is on hand. She's not the understudy but ......

I wonder who the audience is for The Roommate. Broadway ticket prices have nearly doubled after the pandemic, so something this small doesn’t feel like an event worth dropping that much money to see. I’m no Patti fan, but I’d rather see her sing.

Marsha has been associate for jack before.

The Queen of Versailles is waiting until 2025-2026.

Marsha and Jack are very good friends and Marsha has directed regional productions on her own.

R312 too bad she didn’t direct herself to give a better performance in a Little Night Music

Elaine, honey. I was The Goodbye Girl when you were a has been who had to flee to England.

Marsha Mason could wipe the floor with both those actresses. They are lucky to have her around.

Agreed, R315.

Please. Marsha Mason has a career because of her famous husband. She didn't deserve any of her Oscar nominations and pretty much gave the same performance in every film. And once they split up, her career was over.

R317 Hi Patti! Hope your show sells tickets since we all know you are NOT a star!

And that marriage broke up when “Doc” Simon discovered his wife was a dyke who married him to further her career.

The Goodbye Girl is one of the classic movie comedies of the 1970s. It’s a wonderful film and Marsha Mason is great in it.

She's fine, but anyone could have played that role.

[quote]She's fine, but anyone could have played that role.

Even Arnold Stang?

Yes, even Arnold Stang.

[quote]R319 that marriage broke up when “Doc” Simon discovered his wife was a dyke who married him to further her career.

Mr. Simon was an emotional vampire who needed someone to raise his two daughters from the first marriage. For the following years Mason couldn’t accept acting jobs aside from his without causing a melt down. He finally instigated divorce when she needed breathing space, and rented and set up an office outside their home.

R317, Cinderella Liberty is an amazing performance from Mason and almost shocking in how deep she goes into creating an unsympathetic character. Frankly, I always had problems seeing her as the lovely, charming mother she often played after this performance.

Meh

[quote]R325 Cinderella Liberty is an amazing performance from Mason and almost shocking in how deep she goes into creating an unsympathetic character.

Trivia: Mason was curious as to how the director envisioned her looking and acting in the movie, as she herself wasn’t blatantly sexual or hookerish, as a rule.

Before filming started she noticed Mark Rydel had taped up some photos of French actress Miou-Miou in the wardrobe department… just looking like an attractive but ordinary woman. That made her realize the story wasn’t going to be an overly sexualized fantasy, but a study of two realistic people.

If I were co-starring with James Caan in 1973, I'd have opted for the overly sexualized fantasy.

The invaluable SoHo Rep is leaving its 46 Walker Street space. Saw so many wonderful, ingenious productions there. They will produce 2 out of 3 productions each year at the smaller of the Playwrights Horizons spaces for the next few years.

They will lose the downtown, dirty but very flexible ability at Playwrights, unless they let them gut the theater a few times.

[quote]The Goodbye Girl is one of the classic movie comedies of the 1970s. It’s a wonderful film and Marsha Mason is great in it.

Like so many Neil Simon plays and screenplays, it hasn't aged terribly well.

[quote] She's fine, but anyone could have played that role.

I wouldn't claim she was the only person who could have played it, but of the mid - late 70's female actresses who were at the level to be considered, I think she was the best choice. The reason being: Mason's character has to be a likeable adult while she constantly hooks up with the wrong guy an puts her kid in uncertain situations. She's not much of a mother, and you kind of want to smack her, but Mason't unique persona really pulls it off in a way I can't see another 70s era actress successfully doing.

Btw, Mason's director's eye might have changed the fate of A CHORUS LINE in the Mid 70s. Mason saw the show at the Public and told Michael Bennet the reason the audience was not responding to the ending the way Bennett wanted had to do with Cassie not getting the job in the original version. They changed the ending and started getting standing ovations

R331, it was of its time. Today, ACL could have Cassie not getting the job and it would be seen as realistic.

[quote]it was of its time

Happy endings have never gone out of fashion, r332.

R331, R332, R333 - this is for you, as only Mel Brooks could explain.

Today Cassie would have to be empowered.

Cassie would lose the job to a trans.

Cassie would BE trans.

If anyone's trans nowadays, it's Sheila.

Jill Clayburgh would have been great in The Goodbye Girl.

Marsha Mason woud have been bad in An Unmarried Woman. Especially in the scene where she pukes in Soho.

[quote] Especially in the scene where she pukes in Soho.

And why would that be, R340? Clayburgh had the edge puking on camera?

Having back to back insufferable daughters in "The Goodbye Girl" and "An Unmarried Woman" would have caused more trauma than any actress could bear.

Clayburgh did the puking elegantly. I think Marsha would have looked a tad bovine as she upchucked.

Elegant puking. That's a new one.

YouTube used to have footage of Marsha Mason playing a waterfront hooker vampire on DARK SHADOWS.

All gone now.

I just checked prices for "Oh, Mary!" for the Fall.... are people paying $300+ to see it? I saw it off-Broadway but, at those prices, forget it.

R347, if you do rush or lottery or TKTS, you can get it much cheaper. This is most shows’ pricing strategy now, which is to price as high as possible and use those sales to subsidize last minute discounts. Look at the prices for The Last Five Years.

Marsha Mason is a curious case of someone who presents herself as some grand-dame of theatrical royalty, who’s most recent credit was an under-five guest shot on Grace and Frankie.

[quote]Marsha Mason playing a waterfront hooker

Art imitates life.

[quote] Marsha Mason is a curious case of someone who presents herself as some grand-dame of theatrical royalty

Where does she "present" herself like that, R349? She's actually a very low-key, unassuming person.

Marsha Mason always seems like she is “indicating,” whenever she is on screen. Does she come across that way onstage?

[quote] Marsha Mason always seems like she is “indicating,” whenever she is on screen.

Really, R352? Can you provide instances where she's done that? Indicating what?

Marsha Mason was actually funny in the middle

THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1920, "Opportunity" opened at the 48th Street Theatre.

R351 Hi Marsha! Sorry you never got the Oscar after 4 humiliating losses!

The lousy McNally/Seldes play was Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams (2005) [291]

It wasn’t “Deuce”?

R356 - Glenn Close

Jesus Christ, we’re talking about MARSHA MASON???!!!!!

Also, will I show up to this evening’s performance?

R347, that’s $3.75 per minute.

The day the Broadway engagement was announced, tix went on sale at a steep discount (as part of their promotion). I grabbed two seats, on the aisle, for $99. This was for the second preview (a Friday evening). When I realized I couldn’t attend, I put them on StubHub and some shmuck paid $900 for the pair.

Yeah, if we've gone as low-interest as Marsha Mason, can we please talk about Follies again?

Is Marsha a Sally or a Phyllis?

Marsha, Marsha, MARSHA!

Yes, because this thread is always NOTHING but au courant--Patti and Steve, Follies...

Don’t forget my Manhattan Plaza scandale!

You know what was missing from Hell's Kitchen? Jan Maxwell!

Nowadays, Cassie would lose out to a DEI hire.

I was happy to prove in my 2005 tv remake, just how good Marsha Mason was in the original.

It was also Marsha Mason who convinced Ibsen at the 1879 opening of A Doll’s House that Nora should slam the door behind her rather than just put the empty milk bottles out.

And she also convinced Jerome Robbins to have Rose make her entrance down an aisle of the theatre rather than from the wings.

She talked Steve and Eydie into the freewheeling patio number and choreographed most of it.

Marsha convinced Lucy to make Mame.

And she convinced Joseph Kesselring how much funnier it would be if there were TWO dotty aunts.

She hit 𝙢𝙚 in the head with a fondue pot.

Has the scandal at The Outsiders subsided? It's apparently a great big hit.

There was no real scandal at The Outsiders. The show has been sold-out for weeks.

Marsha convinced Alicia Keys to have Jay fucking Z do a number with her on the Tony Awards when neither of them are even in Hell’s Kitchen.

Marsha Mason should have talked Marsha Mason out of doing A Little Night Music. Her “singing” was harmful to the memory of those who came before her!

Marsha convinced Joe to drop out.

Yes. Marsha’s singing was harmful to the memory of Elaine Stritch’s caressing vocal finesse.

Full casting announced for RDJ play:

Is there anyone referenced in this thread who is not completely loathed? Now we are hating Marsha Mason? Would be almost unbelievable were we not on DL.

R383 is the MOST loathsome thing on this thread.

And that means something in my family—

My friend Julie taught Marsha Mason everything she knows.

The better question is, Who is [italic] not [/italic] loathed here?

Marsha is a DeeDee West.

Was Nagle Jackson family? RIP

[quote]R383 Now we are hating Marsha Mason?

Her autobiography is very winning. She seems hardworking, impulsive, and ultimately - like most stars - someone with a jolt of luck on their side.

An impressive thing is that when roles finally start to come in for her the jobs keep overlapping, and she has to keep convincing directors to let her arrive late in the process… or leave early… or agree to let her work on two things at once. She somehow manages to pull it off!

She comes across well in the book. Oh yes - her first husband was gay and they remain very close friends after they divorce. She even lives with him and his partner at one point.

^^ hubs was an actor named Gary Campbell. They met in her early NYC starving artist days.

What was the story with Neil Simon’s two marriages to Diane Lander (1987-1988)​ (1990-1998)​ She’s the one who came after Marsha and before Elaine.

Did Diane get sick of his control mania the first time around and told him to FUCK OFF? Then he came crawling back for Round 2?

[quote] her first husband was gay and they remain very close friends after they divorce. She even lives with him and his partner at one point.

"The Odd Throuple"? "Chapter Threesome"? "The Sunshine Boys Meet the Goodbye Girl"? "Come Blow Your Horned-Up Ex"?

Broadway Withstands NYC’s Summer Heat As Ticket Buyers Fill 96% Of Available Seats:

Wasn't Mason bumping pussies with Joan Hackett? They were in Only When I Laugh together. I always got them confused so sex must have been like masturbation.

Is Marsha Mason bi? She doesn’t go into that in her book.

Consider the source, r395.

Diane Lander Simon for Harris

does the exact text of this note exist?

—————-

Mary Tyler Moore, Chided by Neil Simon, Quits His Play - Dec. 5, 2003 (NY Times)

Hurt by harsh criticism from the playwright Neil Simon, Mary Tyler Moore has withdrawn from his latest comedy, 'Rose's Dilemma,' which was to open at the Manhattan Theater Club on Dec. 18.

Ms. Moore was seen storming out the backstage door minutes before the 2 p.m. curtain on Wednesday. Several sources close to the production said she had just received a brusque letter written by Mr. Simon and delivered by his wife, the actress Elaine Joyce, reproaching her for not knowing her lines. Ms. Moore had received prompting through a microphone in her ear, the sources said.

Ms. Moore, who played the title role of a novelist, was replaced by her understudy, Patricia Hodges, on Wednesday and yesterday. Producers said Ms. Hodges would perform at least through the weekend.

'Mary was devastated and completely debilitated personally and professionally,' said her publicist, Mara Buxbaum, in a prepared statement. 'Mary has been working tirelessly for months but feels pushed out of this production.'

Mr. Simon declined to comment.

What seemed like a match made in theater heaven -- Broadway's favorite comic playwright and America's television sweetheart -- has become the latest subplot in a season beset by failed productions and revolving-door casts.

Manhattan Theater Club has had a particularly difficult time holding onto actresses. Laura Benanti was replaced in its production of 'The Violet Hour' after a few rehearsals, and Jasmine Guy left the play in the middle of a preview, citing medical reasons.

Ms. Moore's departure follows reports that jokes were falling flat and that there was tension between Mr. Simon and the cast. 'Neil gets nervous when he doesn't get laughs in a show,' said a source close to the production, speaking on condition of anonymity. 'Inevitably, the actors get blamed.'

Does anyone else think Sarah Paulson got to OP first and that’s why, ultimately, the tea was more like tepid tap water?

You know she’d cut a bitch.

OP is not appropriate!

I’d like to see Elaine Joyce try to give notes to Sarah Paulson.

[quote]Also, will I show up to this evening’s performance?—Lindsay “Cunt” Mendez

This evening's performance of what? Merrily's been closed for a couple of weeks.

Does Lindsay know that?

Same difference, to her.

After sold out runs at Soho Playhouse and The Connolly JOB get "meh" reviews on Broadway. Interesting that the NY Times critic who gave it a "critics pick" didn't get to re-review it uptown, just so that Jesse could shit on it.

I wish Elaine Joyce had given notes to Patti LuPone after a performance just to see that reaction.

Actually Elaine Joyce giving notes to:

Patti LuPone

Elaine Stritch

Debra Winger

Tonya Pinkins

Raul Esparza

Would be worth the price of any admission!

‘Death Becomes Her’ Musical Announces Complete Broadway Cast:

Nancy inspired Barefoot in the Park. Elaine inspired Chapter Two. Diane inspired Jake's Women. It's a shame that we never got the play that Elaine inspired.

Wanna try that again? ^

"Ask Walter Bobbie!"

So they kept Michelle Williams after those reviews? Well, okay.

Marsha inspired Chapter Two. Joan inspired Barefoot in the Park.

Wrong on so many levels. If she couldn't play Dolly 8x a week she surely wouldn't be able to handle Mame.

She did a reading of Mame in the 90s with Christine Baranski as Vera. Jerry Herman wasn’t involved in the reading, freaked out that he was being left out and cut Bette out. That is when the talks with Cher started.

Aw, leave Grammy Mame alone!

Midler isn’t one of those actresses who yearns to try something new, is she?

I'm busy on Tuesday nights. Call Carolee.

I'm on tour. Call Debra Monk.

Sure, Bette...

In 2025 Bette will be 80…so even Lucy should talk her out of that one!

A taste of Silvie

Cole Escola should do Mame in 2025, with Jinx Monsoon as Vera and Beanie Feldstein (rising like a zaftig phoenix with a serviceable mezzo soprano from the ashes) as Gooch.

Wow! Check out the comments in the NY Times review of "Six Characters" at LCT3. Seems like audiences have really had enough of the pandering programming they are getting.

The Times review was more careful, the the comments let loose!

[quote]That is when the talks with Cher started.

Jerry Herman wanted to a film remake of Mame with Streisand, but that fell through after a year of speculation. Barbra was interested in the project at the time. Cher came into the picture after Streisand was no longer interested. Cher as Mame was said to be for TV.

R416, when you ask, "Midler isn’t one of those actresses who yearns to try something new, is she?," are you forgetting about the time she was the sole performer in a world première play that opened cold on Broadway?

Double Tony Winner Michael Cerveris Joins Broadway’s ‘Tammy Faye’ As Jerry Falwell:

Herman wanted Angie to do a TV version of Mame but after her disastrous revival, she correctly noted that both the role and show had passed her by. I think she was also aware that the public has passed Mame as well. Herman kept asking and she said she won't do Mame again. She would eventually do Mrs. Santa Claus which had a charming moment where the elves sang We Need A Little Christmas.

When Lucy was announced for Mame, Roz said that Cher should do it because she could bring something new to it.

Maybe the audience for Bette/Mame could be given new high technology disposable glasses which de-age Bette onstage.

[quote]R425 When you ask, "Midler isn’t one of those actresses who yearns to try something new, is she?," are you forgetting about the time she was the sole performer in a world première play that opened cold on Broadway?

Yes, I am. Of course you are right.

I just immediately have such a clear image of how she’d probably play Ms. Dennis… and that on top of the fact I don’t even like that show much anyway makes me think, [italic]“Bluuuugh.”

I did not see the Sue Mengers play but there are lots of highlights on youtube. And it just ain't that funny.

[Quote] Maybe the audience for Bette/Mame could be given new high technology disposable glasses which de-age Bette onstage.

No, but attendees will be required to smear Vaseline on their eyeballs.

Even at 80, Bette could still sing the role better than Lucy did.

Why did Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne have a country house in Wisconsin? Isn’t that kind of out-of-the-way? How did they get people to visit there?

How long would it take to drive from Manhattan?

That's a pretty low bar to clear, R432. The fact is that Midler had to make a lot of vocal compromises just to sing the DOLLY songs. MAME calls for more firepower, and at this stage of the game she's not close to up to the challenge.

And yes, she is way too old for it.

[quote]Even at 80, Bette could still sing the role better than Lucy did.

So could J.D. Vance's couch.

I thought Jerry Herman wanted Lorna Luft to do Mame?

Lunt grew up in Wisconsin; he had the house, Ten Chimneys, built before he met Fontanne, and his mother and half-siblings lived there year round. Eventually his mother moved to a smaller house on the property, and the Lunts took over the main house. It was out of the way, but Carol Channing said for actors it was like visiting the Vatican, a pilgrimage. There's a play set there in 1938, when they were rehearsing "The Seagull."

R437. I read the play a few years ago—not very interesting, though Lunt and Fontanne were fascinating separately and as one of those legendary lavender marriages. GurneyMs The Grand Manner, a very fictionalized (and openly so) dramatization of teenage Gurney’s backstage encounter with Cornell, McClintic, and Macy was much more engaging and the four actors (Kate Burton, Boyd Gaines, Brenda Wehrle, and the much-missed Bobby Steggart) were wonderful.

Why does the show in every clip of "Cats The Jellicle Ball" look sloppy?

Didn't the :Lunts prefer a remote location to better pursue their bisexuality? Much like Mary Martin and Janet Gaynor hiding out in Brazil.

I hear Eva LaG is very difficult

^^ Katharine Cornell

I'd imagine the Lunts, even after all their Broadway and touring successes, really weren't all that wealthy in their middle age, and they knew they could swan around the family manse in Wisconsin with far more ease and comfort (and a fleet of servants) than say, a home on Long Island or up in Connecticut.

They should've tried Manhattan Plaza!

Lunt was a Cordon Bleu chef, and the meals he prepared at Ten Chimneys were legendary. They had a large vegetable garden, cows, pigs, and chickens, so much of their food was home grown. During the war, when they were in New York and suffering from the food rationing, they had butter sent to them from their farm.

The younger Lunt is better looking than I imagined.

I wonder who his boyfriends were.

[quote]Herman wanted Angie to do a TV version of Mame but after her disastrous revival, she correctly noted that both the role and show had passed her by.

Oh, that’s not accurate at all. It was 1990-91 and Angie had dropped 20 lbs or so. The plan was to do Mame for three weeks at the Long Beach Civic Light Opera. In the third week, it would be pro shot like Sweeney Todd. Angie would reunite with Bea Arthur for the short run and filming. Both of them wanted very much to do it.?At the last minute, CBS pulled out, and the rest of the money followed suit. Angie was crushed. She still had Murder She Wrote, but she had desperately wanted to preserve her Mame.

I thought the story was that the 80s Mame revival was recorded for a television broadcast, but plans were scrapped and the tapes were either discarded/reused or lost.

I think we'd all have a collective "MARY!" moment if that material ever resurfaced.

The problem with the 80s MAME revival is that the whole thing was done on the cheap, The production for Long Beach/TV was going to be first class, no expense spared.

[quote]It was 1990-91 and Angie had dropped 20 lbs or so. The plan was to do Mame for three weeks at the Long Beach Civic Light Opera. In the third week, it would be pro shot like Sweeney Todd. Angie would reunite with Bea Arthur for the short run and filming. Both of them wanted very much to do it.?At the last minute, CBS pulled out, and the rest of the money followed suit. Angie was crushed. She still had Murder She Wrote, but she had desperately wanted to preserve her Mame.

Thanks for that correction, which is the story as I had read it previously.

Reading all of the comments about MAME makes me feel like I'm listening in on a party line.

Hang up?

CBS has always had a bug up their ass when it comes to theatre, Tony Awards notwithstanding.

r453

Which is really weird since MSW was on CBS(wasn't it?)

Here's a musical designed for all the MeTV fans out there:

Adam Driver To Star In Kenneth Lonergan Play ‘Hold On To Me Darling’ Off Broadway This Fall:

R455, I can see it now: Hitchcock's careful suspense debased into campy parody. Goodness knows none of the current crop of directors and writers can do a well-paced mystery or thriller.

Didn't Atlantic do that Lonergan play 8-9 years ago? And I don't remember it blowing anyone's socks off. Why the fuck can't producers find NEW plays by NEW playwrights? Why does everything have to be recycled?

[quote]Why does everything have to be recycled?

In this case, I think the reason for the "recycling" is extremely obvious. So much so that I'm not going to bother to spell it out for you.

As I am not r458, could you spell it out for me, r459?

But would Bea have gone down the staircase in a WHITE dress at Long Beach?

[QUOTE] So much so that I'm not going to bother to spell it out for you.

Will you spell it out for me using Adam Driver’s moles?

Seriously, R460? The answer is because: Adam Driver, a major movie star, wants to do the play. And sure, he might have looked for a new play to do, rather than a revival, but obviously he likes this one.

[quote] In this case, I think the reason for the "recycling" is extremely obvious. So much so that I'm not going to bother to spell it out for you.

Why spell when you can cunt it out, right?

Seriously, r 463? That is the big reveal you were holding over our heads?

No, my entire point is that there is NO "big reveal." Someone asked above, "Why the fuck can't producers find NEW plays by NEW playwrights? Why does everything have to be recycled?" That person apparently couldn't figure out why this particular play is being revived, even though the answer is glaringly obvious. So, incredibly, I had to spell it out.

Some of you people will probably wonder why it has just been announced that WAITING FOR GODOT is going to be revived again in 2025, apparently not understanding that the fact that Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are going to be starring might possibly have a little something to do with it.

[quote] No, my entire point is that there is NO "big reveal." Someone asked above, "Why the fuck can't producers find NEW plays by NEW playwrights? Why does everything have to be recycled?" That person apparently couldn't figure out why this particular play is being revived, even though the answer is glaringly obvious. So, incredibly, I had to spell it out.

No, shithead, you ASSUMED I was asking for an answer. It was rhetorical. You didn't have to spell anything out other than what an asshole you are, which you did quite well.

[quote] Why the fuck can't producers find NEW plays by NEW playwrights? Why does everything have to be recycled?

I know that's the usual song, but it's out of tune. There are premiere plays by writers I'm sure most of us have never heard of in every nonprofit season, and several on Broadway. Have you seen them all, r458? Surely most of them will fail at the box office or at least struggle. Aren't Patti & Mia doing a new play? Isn't Job a new play by a young playwright? Isn't Stereophonic a new play but a not-very-familiar playwright? Don't you capitalize too much? So many questions...

David Adjmi has been around forever.

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are starring in a Broadway revival of Waiting For Godot. It will play at an ATG house "in the fall." So, which closes? Moulin Rouge!? The Book of Mormon? Hadestown?

[quote]No, shithead, you ASSUMED I was asking for an answer. It was rhetorical.

Oh, really? It was "rhetorical?" Then why did you bother to ask a "rhetorical" question about revivals as opposed to new plays in reference to this particular revival, when the reason for this particular revival is so fucking obvious? Also, see R468:

[quote]There are premiere plays by writers I'm sure most of us have never heard of in every nonprofit season, and several on Broadway. Have you seen them all, [R458]?

R470. I would rather see them in a revival of The Odd Couple.

R466, you sound like a slightly unpleasant person to put it mildly.

R470, it’s Fall of 2025. Hudson is likely to be free after The Last Five Years.

Exactly, R474. It's difficult to say which theaters will be available a year from now.

r473 I blocked that one long ago! Nothing but bile.

I'm only unpleasant toward fools, R473. As noted above, at least one person posting here can't understand why Adam Driver agreeing to star in an old play by Kenneth Lonergan would be more than reason enough for a revival of that play rather than the presentation of a new one, and probably also doesn't quite get why WAITING FOR GODOT is being revived for the umpteenth New York production, this time with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter in the leads. Or why GYPSY is being revived AGAIN, this time with Audra McDonald. Or why OTHELLO is being revived AGAIN, this time with Denzel Washington. Or......

[quote] In a joint statement, Reeves and Winter said, “We’re incredibly excited to be on stage together and work with the great Jamie Lloyd in one of our favorite plays.”

Excellent, incisive quote, and I love that they said it in unison.

[quote]r458 Why the fuck can't producers find NEW plays by NEW playwrights? Why does everything have to be recycled?

We must have new forms. New forms are needed. And if we can’t have those we may as well have nothing at all.

[quote]Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are starring in a Broadway revival of Waiting For Godot.

Well, needless to say, that should be a near-impossible ticket to get.

Godot, even under the best circumstances, can try an audience's patience. In Act 1, nothing happens. And then in Act 2, nothing happens all over again. Then, there's Jamie Lloyd, who will set it in a grey box, with no one looking at each other. Those audiences paying top dollar expecting some sort of Bill & Ted's Existential Adventure are going to be sadly disappointed.

My reading comprehension just isn't what it used to be.

But "Waiting for Godot" was HUGE at the Mr. Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre. Jim Nabors and Jamie Farr were never better!

Hitchcock's TV series was an anthology, and, like "The Twilight Zone," there were 30- and 60-minute episodes. So how will they make that into a play? Choose one and expand it? Do three or four separate stories?

Where will the leg of lamb fit in?

Wasn’t Tyne Daly going to play Bea in a revival of Ballroom years ago or was that just a fever dream?

Now there’s a role Bette is right for. I can see a new production where most of the score would be thrown out except for “A Terrific Band and a Real Nice Crowd” and “Fifty Percent.” With new material by a team like Pasek/Paul.

The thing about the televised version of Mame was that the A&E channel should have stepped up and produced it. That channel never reached its potential.

I remember when Bravo used to show operas, R487.

[quote]Godot, even under the best circumstances, can try an audience's patience.

Can and usually does. It's a bore.

R486. Tyne played opposite Charles Durning in a new production (Long Beach?) ages ago. There is a soundboard recording and they framed the show with Bea's memorial which is a great way to open a musical. There was also a workshop a few years ago with Lucie Arnaz as a band singer but I can't remember who played the leads.

[quote]R489 Godot, even under the best circumstances, can try an audience's patience.

I’d prefer an all womyn version:

[italic] Waiting for Gal Gadot

Everyone seems to forget that the thing that made the original BALLROOM sensational was not just Dorothy Loudon's heartbreakingly beautiful performance but also all of Michael Bennett's glorious ballroom choreography danced by those fabulous middle-aged gypsies we all cherished from 60s and 70s Broadway musicals.

Is the Adam Driver play a one man show?

No, R493, but it is tedious--a condescending piece of crap about a country western star.

[quote]Is the Adam Driver play a one man show?

I’d pay to see Minnie Driver do it.

Looking live at the the neanderthal Driver, so hideously-fugly-there-should-be-a-law against it/him, they would have to pay me.

What a twosome--Driver and Lonergan, two of the more contemptible narcissists in their professions.

[quote]Looking live at the the neanderthal Driver, so hideously-fugly-there-should-b - e-a-law against it/him, they would have to pay me.

I’m surprised he went to Julliard. I didn’t think they accepted fugs.

Well, they did accept Patti LuPone.

R498 - Deb Winger

Forget Godot! Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter should be doing Bill and Ted's Excellent Musical Adventure. Songs by Metallica! Dances by Debbie Allen! It would run for years!

[quote]Where will the leg of lamb fit in?

They'll be serving kebabs during intermission.

Who will they find that looks enough like Martha Mason?

Why was there never a Timbuktu! OBC made with Eartha Kitt and Melba Moore?

It only ran 221 performances (March to September, r503, but that's probably not the reason.

I'm a good mood tonight, so here's something for you, R503. A Timbuktu soundboard, in quite good sound for a bootleg from 1978.

Get it while its hot.

The producer of Job is one of the biggest gay climbers ever. Makes Derek Blasberg look meek.

Does he have a name, r506?

Godot.

Queen Eartha Kitt did an extensive “loose” interview with Whoopi Goldberg on her short-lived late night show in the mid-90s, spilling all tea with grandiosity over two episodes.

Fainting couches and/or smelling salts may be required for Part 2.

No cast album for Timbuktu, but there are five songs from that show included on the Jay recording of the complete Kismet score. No Kitt, alas, but it gives some sense of what this remake was like. As I remember the show was memorable for its spectacle and Kitts's muscular minions.

“Very little is as obnoxious as unasked-for criticism”

Like his dismissing Larry Hart?

Exactly, R512. As I'm sure you know, Sondheim's "rule" was supposedly that he would only publicly criticize the work of dead people, not those who were still alive, but I'm not sure how rigidly he followed his own rule.

He was known to leave bitter reviews on Rentmen.com.

Cole Escola’s Great Day on Broadway:

‘Moulin Rouge!’ at 5: How The Broadway Musical Overcame the COVID Lockdown and Went Global in Record Time:

When I saw TIMBUKTU on Broadway, my friends and I were invited for a backstage tour after the performance by another friend who worked on the production. We happened to pass Eartha Kitt on her way to her dressing room, out of her costume and turban, in only a sad old robe and scuffs. I doubt she was even 5' tall. We were truly shocked by the transformation she did onstage where she looked like the Queen of the World. She really knew how to command the stage.

The show was spectacular, btw, with all that glorious music and elegantly and expensively produced (unlike Geoffrey Holder's The Wiz). I never understood why it flopped.

R505, Thank you!!

If any show could run and run, it’s Moulin Rouge. Perfect for tourists of any age whether they speak English or not. Big, splashy, fun music everyone knows, derived from a well known movie, stars who can come and go ala Chicago.

I’m sure it’s expensive but it could run for years.

By the way, I hated it (but love the movie).

[quote]Why was there never a Timbuktu! OBC made with Eartha Kitt and Melba Moore?

Would it have worked better under its original title, "Hello, Mali!"?

Mali Hai!

Kaye Ballard in...

for r458

[quote] Atlantic Theater Company's 2024-25 Season to Feature Five World Premieres” by Broadway.com’s Hayley Levitt - “Productions include NSangou Njikam’s A Freeky Introduction, directed by Dennis A. Allen II; Eliya Smith’s Grief Camp, directed by Tony Award nominee Les Waters; Mona Pirnot’s I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll; Ethan Coen’s Let’s Love!, directed by Tony Award nominee Neil Pepe; and Abby Rosebrock’s Lowcountry, directed by Tony Award nominee Jo Bonney.

Jamie Lloyd's [italic] Godot [/italic] for Keanu will comprise life video of the two of them wandering the streets of Times Square. Or to save money, maybe Los Angeles. The audience will just watch a black and white screen, [italic] waiting [/italic] (get it?) for the stars to arrive.

Contractual issues with the Waitress pro-shot?

Jamie Lloyd directing Beckett??

Eeeeeeek.

Becket, dummy 😵‍💫

Oh, MARY!

[quote]If any show could run and run, it’s Moulin Rouge. Perfect for tourists of any age whether they speak English or not. Big, splashy, fun music everyone knows, derived from a well known movie, stars who can come and go ala Chicago.

Another way to phrase it is that this show appeals to the lowest common denominator among audiences -- i.e., people with horrendously bad taste, for whom familiarity with songs and story points trumps everything, and the actual quality of the material and the presentation is simply not a factor. Compared to shows like these, even very problematic shows like THE OUTSIDERS seem like masterpieces.

What about Eartha Kitt as Carlotta in Follies?

What about it, r530?

I saw "Timbuktu" back in 1978. Eartha Kitt had the most fabulous entrance I've ever seen on Broadway.

R531, fabulous.

Earths got a legal letter from Sondheim demanding she not sing “her” lyrics to I’m Still Here when she did it in concert.

She did an interview about it.

She also auditioned for the Witch in Into the Woods to replace Bernadette and was passed over for Phylicia Rashad.

Sondheim was…not…a…fan

[bold]#Justice4Eartha

Sondheim was also a fussy bitchy queen. Eartha stood up to Lady Bird Johnson about Vietnam and got herself a CIA dossier.

Oh, please. Back then you were a nobody if you didn't have a CIA dossier.

Team Jerry

Candice Bergen was confused when her CIA dossier was finally made public, as it described her as a brunette starlet.

“Brunette?” she wrote. “Starlet?”

She’s the most exciting woman in the world

I'm not sure, but I think DL favorite Lainie Kazan was the first performer to take liberties with "I'm Still Here" (not counting Yvonne De Carlo, who just couldn't remember the words).

R536 you’re full of shit.

It was the FBI.

Face it, no one cared about Beebe‘s Bathysphere.

Would have killed to see Eartha as the Witch.

I imagined Bebe was a socialite, and her bathysphere was some kind of garden feature. Like those mirrored spheres you see in old formal gardens, on pedestals.

Well, we live and learn - -

I thought Bebe was a novelty performer who would bath in champagne.

r532 But was it a coup de théâtre?

Is this thread down to three or four old queens talking to each other?

Cut us some slack, there's only about 50 more posts to go. (And let's face it, new theatre gossip tends to come one item at a time.)

The Tom Holland-led production of Romeo & Juliet closes tomorrow in London. Remember when that seemed like a sure thing to transfer?

Are the two kids in the upcoming Romeo + Juliet here really that big? That likely to be any good at this?

Would you like to have been in the room when Patti LuPone was told she was getting second billing to Mia Farrow?

Patti is Broadway royalty, Mia is mostly known for being Woody Allen’s muse. Is Mia’s name going to attract more business than Patti’s? Is this a show that is going to market to tourists?

Then again, maybe it’s a big fuck you because Patti was so vocal about dropping her Equity membership.

or maybe they just went alphabetically?

Ya think?

I'm more interested in seeing Mia than Patti.

[quote]If any show could run and run, it’s Moulin Rouge. Perfect for tourists of any age whether they speak English or not. Big, splashy, fun music everyone knows, derived from a well known movie, stars who can come and go ala Chicago.

The theater and atmosphere is pretty Spectacular! Spectacular! too!

Just two Broadway items next week. The cast of The Outsiders are performing Tuesday on Good Morning America. On Friday, Michael Urie's plugging Once Upon a Mattress on Live with Kelly and Mark.

Mia was a huge television and movie star when Patti was still in school. She can’t feel hurt by being given second billing.

Had no idea Mia and Patti are friends. Whodathunkit.

[quote]Would you like to have been in the room when Patti LuPone was told she was getting second billing to Mia Farrow?

Yes, but Patti's first name is highlighted in white, Mia's isn't. Probably a concession for having her name second.

[quote]R559 Had no idea Mia and Patti are friends. Whodathunkit.

Are they? Are they.

[quote]Mia was a huge television and movie star when Patti was still in school. She can’t feel hurt by being given second billing.

Mia was a nepo baby. People remember her for Rosemary’s Baby and how she was bested in The Great Gatsby by both Karen Black and Lois Chiles. Other than that, it’s the Woody Allen movies and scandals.

Patti is Broadway royalty, she had her own tv series and she pulled out her baps in a Spike Lee movie. And she has an ongoing animosity towards Glenn Close and Andrew Lloyd Webber. And she doesn’t have a freaky Peter Pan son that denies his celebrity crooner father.

Mia is still a bigger star than Patti ever was or will be. Sorry.

[quote]Had no idea Mia and Patti are friends. Whodathunkit.

I think it’s the type of relationship where Patti calls Mia and says, “I’ll be over in 15 minutes. Have a bottle of Scotch and some crackers and cheese ready when I get there.” Mia spends the next 15 minutes running around the house and throwing junk into closets. Patti arrives and says, “Doll, let’s chat.” And she spends the next hour running down Andrew Lloyd Webber, Bill Smirnovitch and NYC theater critics. Then she gets up and leaves, leaving a bit ass dent in Mia’s sofa and a trail of cracker crumbs.

Wasn't Mia at Sondheim's Last Supper?

Yes, R565, where James the Greater sat.

Sondheim was the god-father to one of Mia's adopted kids. I mean, take your pick as to who it was.

Did Sondheim have any catty comments about Hepburn's ridiculous caterwauling?

Sondheim had been persuaded to write the lyrics for the musical Gypsy, a Broadway smash when the production had opened the previous May. With the proceeds he would make a permanent home in Turtle Bay Gardens, surviving a fire in 1995 and continuing to live there with his two black poodles and Baldwin piano on into old age.

Ten years on from the success of Gypsy, as Sondheim would later recall, he heard a loud banging on the French doors of his townhouse, and was greeted by an ‘angry, red-faced lady’ in bare feet. Katharine Hepburn was raging, as she was in the middle of preparations for her sole Broadway musical Coco, and argued that Sondheim’s piano playing had kept her awake all night long. Sondheim said:

‘I remember asking Hepburn why she didn’t just call me, but she claimed not to have my phone number. My guess is that she wanted to stand there in her bare feet, suffering for her art.’

In fact Sondheim was hosting a dinner as he commenced work on his new musical Company, with his guests that night including the director Hal Prince. They had been discussing the withdrawal of Anthony Perkins from rehearsals, with the lead role in Company eventually going to Dean Jones, whose participation would also prove short-lived. As the evening grew livelier, songs from the score cut above the sounds of rainfall and howling winds. The following day, Prince bought Sondheim an electric piano, so that the composer could use earplugs and leave Hepburn in peace.

There were other encounters between the two famous neighbours across the courtyards of Turtle Bay. Several years later, Hepburn could summon a similar anecdote from the time when Sondheim was working on his 1973 musical A Little Night Music. As the composer sat down for another spell by the piano, Hepburn ‘nearly went mad’. She said:

‘One night, in a fury, I walked barefoot through the snow in the backyard, just wearing my pajamas, and pressed my face against the window and looked in. I must have looked like an old witch. He had a friend with him, and they had drinks in their hands. All of a sudden they both looked at me and absolutely froze. I just stood there. Seconds passed. They just stared at me. I stared at them. I disappeared. Afterwards, silence.’

[quote]Mia was a nepo baby. People remember her for Rosemary’s Baby and how she was bested in The Great Gatsby by both Karen Black and Lois Chiles. Other than that, it’s the Woody Allen movies and scandals.

Those of us of a certain age also remember her quite well for her brief marriage to Frank Sinatra. (Not to mention "Peyton Place.")

[quote]Did Sondheim have any catty comments about Hepburn's ridiculous caterwauling?

I think I heard it once said that the Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd was Sondheim’s tribute to Hepburn doing the “across the backyard” frenzy.

City on fire!

WHO THE DEVIL CA-AHS?

Mia and Patti both have houses in western Connecticut, as did Sondheim. As does director Jack O'Brien. Lots of theatre types in that neck of the woods.

They should get Martin Short to play the Beggar Woman (as Hepburn) in the next revival.

An Alfred Hitchcock musical! I can’t wait to see The Birds freewheeling patio number and the North By Northwest tap dance.

The story goes that Sondheim included an often used phrase in his house about Hepburn in Into The Woods. "It's the witch from next door."

[quote]r562 Mia was a nepo baby. People remember her for Rosemary’s Baby and how she was bested in The Great Gatsby by both Karen Black and Lois Chiles.

[italic]Excuse[/italic] me??

- - Allison MacKenzie, airing 3 times a week

R572 as does apparent DL villain Marsha Mason who was ripped to shreds in this thread

[quote]R572 Mia and Patti both have houses in western Connecticut

Some of the documentary ALLEN V. FARROW is shot in Mia’s country house. It looks very shabby chic elegant, and cool.

I used to feel bad that she legally had to give up her huge, rent controlled apartment by the Dakota because she wasn’t there 50% of the time….but the Connecticut house ultimately looks better.

R565, it was at Marsha Mason’s house. Jack O’Brien usually hosted, but was having renovations.

Connecticut during the pandemic must have been great - Sondheim, Streep, Baranski, Farrow, O’Brien.

[quote]R572 Mia and Patti both have houses in western Connecticut, as did Sondheim. As does director Jack O'Brien.

[quote]R577 As does apparent DL villain Marsha Mason, who was ripped to shreds in this thread.

Marsha Mason is a precious little baby who never did anything wrong.

No, R565, but Ronan did receive an invite to a circle jerk down in the dungeon.

It’s not like all those celebrities with houses in Connecticut live on the same street and were having coffee during the pandemic. Meryl Streep lives in Lakeville, which is almost an hour north of O’Brien (who sold his house) and Baranski who lives near New Preston. Sondheim lived 20 min east of them in Roxbury. My bet is they were all hunkered down at home like the rest of us. A Tony nominated theater director lives in my street and wouldn’t even get closer than across the road from me as we took our daily walks.

Because he knew you to be A WHORE!

New thread

R584. Thank you for leaving me out of the thread title.

The menthol-cool vocal stylings of...

[quote]R573 They should get Martin Short to play the Beggar Woman (as Hepburn) in the next revival.

OMG - I am resolved to figure out how to upload things to YouTube, so I can do some CHOICE selections of this MYSELF!!

[italic](“With her fancy gowns and her fancy ways…she needs a brisk game of TENNIS!”)

Nerdy question, just to bring us closer to the thread's end ... I wonder if there's ever been a time where all the Broadway theatres were open, had a tenant, and had performances on the same night? Would there be a rule (either by Equity, or the state or city of New York) preventing all 41 houses from operating at the same time?

Why do you think Equity, or anyone, would object to all Broadway theatres having performances at once, r588?

Tuesday is Hamilton's ninth birthday on Broadway. Hard to believe it's been that long.

Longer than the Seven Years War

It won't be too much longer until Life With Father and Tobacco Road are no longer in the top 20 for long-running Broadway shows.

Who and what?

Just wait 'til I tell you about Abie's Irish Rose, R593. THAT'll blow your mind.

Closing ...

This ...

Thread ...

Out ...

Wait for it ...

The Last Midnight!

Bajour!

Queenie was a blonde.

BAJOUR

SUGAR!

BAJOUR!

A DOLL’S LIFE!

TAKE ME ALONG!

ANGEL!

HELLZAPOPPIN’!

CABIN IN THE SKY!

STARMITES!