Kelly Bishop

A young "Carole Bishop" as Sheila in A Chorus Line

Carole with boa...

My favorite Gilmore Girl

A scene from A Chorus Line

Daddy always said that he'd married beneath him....

Her nude scene with Paul Mazursky in Miami Rhapsody.

She was such a great friend to Lily (and Holden) that summer in Wyoming.

[quote]My favorite Gilmore Girl

Emily's journey through widowhood was literally the only thing I liked about the GG revival on Netflix.

I'm 3/4 the way through the book. It's pleasant enough with no real surprises or candor. She remains somewhat guarded and very much a not so bright dancer and actor.

Bishop and Edward Herrmann both won their first Tony's on the same night. They remained friends, but really bonded on the set of Gilmore Girls.

Both were "the gets" of the show, both lived on the East Coast and traveled to LA for filming, an they shared a trailer while on set. They competed with each other to see who could finish the NYT crossword the fastest.

R9 Have you got to her pregnancy section?

She was in Private Parts too

She has the looks of Barbara Stanwyck and the voice of Lauren Bacall

R2- Golden Rainbow - a totally forgotten extravaganza

OP, don’t you know Carole Bishop became “Kelly Bishop” because of SAG RILES?

R15 Yes

Great thread and glad to learn more about Kelly. I knew she was good but didn't know the details. Loved her on GG.

I'm changing my name to Sag Riles.

IBDb

Who is Sag Riles, and why did he force her to change her name?

Sag Riles is back in town.

I love her in An Unmarried Woman. I believe that was her first movie so she had to join SAG. Since there was already a Carole Bishop she changed her name to Kelly.

She was great in Bunheads with Sutton Foster.

The late 1990's/early 2000's were great for women of "a certain age"

Kelly Bishop was on Gilmore Girls

Susan Sullivan was on Dharma & Greg

Jessica Walter was on Arrested Development

Frances Conroy on Six Feet Under

Christine Baranski in Cybil

Wendie Malick in Just Shoot Me

I am surprised Bunheads only got one season.

She was also in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

R24 I do love every single one of those women of a certain age. Excellent list.

R27 YES! I'm sure there are others I am forgetting, but damn they delivered. Usually they were the best in the cast.

Although she is a few years younger than the above, Megan Mullaly gets an honorable mention.

[quote]Golden Rainbow - a totally forgotten extravaganza

The show may be forgotten, but its freewheeling patio number is still much-discussed on the theater thread!

I loved her as Howard Stern’s mother.

She just has good comic timing

She's a survivor, that's what she is...

Jezus, r6 … can’t you post a “HORSEFACE ALERT” ???

Was she Carole or Kelly when she won her Tony Award?

Carole, r34.

She was Kelly when she won the Tony.

Sexy secretary sitting on the desk in "Promises Promises."

She was submitted under the name Carole for the Tony, but won under the name Kelly.

Between the nomination and the win, she registered with the SAG under the name Kelly to appear in more TV and film productions.

Otherwise, she would have been known as Carole Bishop Miller.

I like Bishop, but she was quite lucky to have landed GG. Before, she was a standard supporting player. John Simon was a big fan of her performance in ACL but noted a few years after that she was considerably less impressive in every other work. Emily Gilmore spouted the same bitchy lines Sheila Bryant did and TV history was made.

"I hope Martin gets a permanent case of the clap and his pecker falls off."

Both...tried.

Bishop went on to share that A Chorus Line's Michael Bennett played a role in changing her name from Carole to Kelly, saying that she had a bit with a fellow cast member where they would pass each other in the hallway and greet each other as different characters. “I had one who was particularly obnoxious. Her name was Kelly Westbrook, and she was a very spoiled rich girl," recalled Bishop. "She'd say, ‘Because dad said, I can't have my fourth horse, so I really want a fourth horse.’ And so, this little group I was a part of, they started calling me Kelly. And then Michael started calling me Kelly. And of course, if Michael called me Kelly, he was God, so I left it like that.” Bishop recalls seeking out Bennett’s thoughts on when to change her name. She recalled that he responded with: “Don't change it until after the Tonys." But then, during Tony Awards rehearsals, "Someone from the Tony committee came trotting down the aisle, and asked, ‘When your nomination is announced, would you want to be Carole Bishop or Kelly Bishop?' And I said, Kelly. On national television, what better way to say I'm changing my name…I didn't run that by Michael. I'm sure he was a little miffed, but it worked for me."

I don't know her

To be honest, Kelly wasn't my favorite Sheila. Kathrynann Wright and Jane Summerhays were much more vulnerable and appealing. Kelly's Sheila was too much of a mean bitch. Or maybe I caught her on an off night.

In that book On the Line some of the ACL cast members wrote, Bishop comes across as really bitchy. (She calls the roommate she had a weak person. It was the woman who played Kristine.)

From OP’s picture, she could have played Maria Callas.

If they were going to reboot Golden Girls, it should have been Wendie Mallick, Susan Sullivan, Christine Baranski, and Kelly Bishop.

She immodestly said she was the best dancer on Broadway and only Pam Sousa was her equal.

[quote] In that book On the Line some of the ACL cast members wrote, Bishop comes across as really bitchy.

Are you surprised? Sheila is the bitchiest character in the show, and the characters seem to have been mostly based on the actors who originated them.

She's still very tight with Priscilla Lopez.

R44, you should have seen Charlene Ryan do it. She played it as a total badass, completely unafraid of Zach. Unsmiling and intimidating. She was about 6 feet and her size made her all the scarier. Many didn't like her portrayal at all but Bennett worked with her on Coco and knew her personality. When her Sheila was dismissed, she stood in the back with great scorn before storming off.

[quote] To be honest, Kelly wasn't my favorite Sheila. Kathrynann Wright and Jane Summerhays were much more vulnerable and appealing. Kelly's Sheila was too much of a mean bitch. Or maybe I caught her on an off night.

Jane was really great in ACL and created a version of the character that was as legitimate as Kelly's but very different.

Much of Jane's performance is here.

She also did a very short-lived series with DL fav Sutton Foster called Bunheads.

She played a hippie dippie ballet teacher whose son married a Vegas chorus girl, then died. Foster moves in with her and takes over the ballet school. Hilarity ensues with the quirky townspeople.

Basically showing that Amy Sherman-Palladino can write Lorelei Gilmore and no one else.

Anyone see Bebe Neuwirth as Sheila on Broadway?

R56. I saw Bebe as Cassie on Broadway (when she was an understudy). I would rather have seen her as Sheila. Actually, there was also a Sheila understudy on that day who was quite good. Diane Duncan? I think that was her name.

Did anyone see Ann Reinking as Cassie? I remember someone on DL said she fell on Music and the Mirror.

[quote]Did anyone see Ann Reinking as Cassie?

My friend Dan did. He said she used her hair as a personal prop.

R59. So did Vicki Frederick to great effect. She started Music and the Mirror with her hair in a ponytail which broke free during the dance.

R59 and R60, the problem is Reinking's hair was thin and stringy. She couldn't use it effectively, it was just long. Frederick on the other hand had one of the most incredible heads of hair in the business. She started the show in a ponytail (during the opening number it gave her an almost balletic look). During Music, she pulled it down when she ran to the mirror and used it in the number. During the final "handshake", she bent at waist and then sprung up creating a spectacular image.

Getting back to Bishop, I wonder why she never tried to play Cassie. Also, since she thought so highly of herself as dancer, why didn't she work with Fosse.

Vicki Frederick, looking sexier than any dancer before or since:

Was Denise Pence in the original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line?

I saw the show in (I think) 1985 — Robert Lupone played the director.

Kelly Bishop was God-awful in that Paper Mill MAME.

The less said about that MAME the better, r64.

*

r41

R63. Denise Pence and her husband were the models for married couple Al and Kristine. She never did the show but I loved her on Guiding Light. Her hubby (Steve .... Bookver?) did play Al at some point.

So, Denis Pence couldn't....sing?

Denise, that is.

Fuck.

Thanks, R66! I too loved her on GL. I knew she and her husband were the basis for the characters, but I was never sure whether they’d actually been in the production.

Pence is husband is Steven Bockvor. I saw him play Zach on Broadway.

My first introduction to ACL was when I saw the movie on VHS in 1985. (86?) I know, I know. But I was a 15 yr old growing up in the country. I had heard of the Broadway show, but I also thought I hated musicals. I was obsessed with Vicki Frederick as Sheila in the movie, but thought a lot of it was cheesy.

I then checked out the original Broadway cast album from our little public library and just about wore it out. Over the years I saw a touring version and a community theater version. Loved it every time. When Gilmore Girls came out, I loved Kelly Bishop as Emily and vaguely remembered her from As The World Turns and Dirty Dancing. It was a couple of seasons in before I realized she was the original Sheila and she was the voice I’d listened to on that album!

WHET to Vicki Frederick?? I think I read on her that she married VERY well and retired from performing.

So take a look at me now!!!

How about Dennis Price?

[quote]I am surprised Bunheads only got one season.

It's because Shonda Rhimes (showrunner of GREY'S ANATOMY and SCANDAL) complained about the "all-white" casting.

She said there was no one for her daughter" to relate to" and made a big stink about it on social media

This caused many people to turn against the show, labeling it "racist: and "exclusive."

It was when the industry began shifting far-left (c. 2012-2013) and fourth-wave feminism (i.e. "woke") emerged.

Well, Rhimes was right, wasn’t she? Why did the show have to be so blindingly white? Did the producers have something against hiring black people?

Why doesn't Amy Sherman-Palladino have the right to tell the story she wants to with the characters she wants to? Let Shonda worry about her own shit.

Fuck Shonda Rimes and her big fucking mouth. Her shows suck.

R75 why? Then she be accused of appropriation of stories that are first to tell because she herself isnt black. People write what they know.