Theatre Gossip #291: The “I Just Want to Transfer to Broadway, Is That So Wrong?” Edition

Matt who?

Matt el-Loonah.

He’s the one that started this thread.

Sez you, OP.

Who is harassing the hot blond in Kinky Boots, that guy has a rock solid ass on him!

I also couldn't easily scroll through the last thread so I'm relieved to see this one start. I've no doubt the final 20 posts on the last one will be either irrelevant, blasphemous or.....Bajour!

Let's try and keep this one civil, juicy and fun.

I can't figure out how I feel about the Tom Schumacher affair. On the one hand, I feel like grownups should be able to deal with ribald talk from some silly fag. On the other hand, if someone is really grossed out by it, I don't think it's fair that they should have to choose between putting up with it or throwing away their career by reporting the guy.

And all the pictures with him in those ridiculous glasses ain't helping.

From what I've read, he was rude and inappropriate, but he never threatened anyone with firing them if they didn't put out. Why can't adults learn to say to stop it, or ignore him? We've all been guilty of saying inappropriate things. It happens.

I’d always heard he was a first-class dick; very Mean Girls. Disney Theatrical was not a nice place to work if you were in the least bit fragile.

But what about that guy that he harassed, didn't he get fired?

he was sent to another building where he had no work and had to leave depressed and burnt out from the experience.

Why do you think all the other papers are carrying the story but not The New York Times?

Looks shady.

Having worked with Shumacher, I'd say it's time for him to go. Way over time.

Joshua Strickland was a mess of a pass around bottom during the 2006-2007 season. He had a train pulled on him by many a BBC at that cycle’s Broadway Bares after party, was Schumacher’s worship puppet during Tarzan and the counted upon third or fourth in whatever debauchery gathering Jerry had on either coast. His defense of Tom is hysterical in its falsehood. BAD PEOPLES.

^this. Disney’s family oriented profile cannot afford to weather the additional details that will emerge. They better cut their losses quick.

Don't start that NY Times crap on this thread, r11. Please, let's have sanity.

Ever since Disney entered the Broadway fold I have always cringed at the possibility of backstage Broadway debauchery seeing the light of day. It is the EXACT OPPOSITE of Disney’s g-rated brand. Now with everyone from star to chorus boy having a camera phone, it’s inevitable that sometime something will come to light. The fish rots from the head down, if the boss permits salacious behavior in a professional setting with millions of not billions of dollars at stake, that boss, especially after the events writ large over the past several months, MUST GO.

"The events writ large"? Your purple prose is too, too divine.

A certain actor who just finished up at a candy factor once said the Disney Theatrical underbelly was the Dark Side made terrifyingly real, like Eyes Wide Shut shocking.

R17, hilarious that’s the best you can do: writ large indeed, e.g. Harvey’s substantial waistline. It may be child’s play to you, but you’re about to see lives RUINED.

Agreed. This is not the Disney of our youth, that produced beloved classics like "Mary Poppins" and "The Ugly Dachshund."

[quote]he was sent to another building where he had no work

Are they accepting applications?

Wait, Joshua got BBC?!?!

Whats SANE R15 is theres a big cover up underway. And this is a site that deals with topics most of America WONT.

Now YOU go back to your G rated world of family entertainment.

This thread has now been taken over by the adults.

THANK YOU R18 R16 R13 (I laughed when I heard his support of Tom too)

We're already scraping now with a Disney exec being mean to people and Brendan Fraser taking to his fainting couch because an old guy touched his ass

R24, if you’ve ever been even a stone’s throw from backstage on Broadway, you know full well there’s a mountain of dirt barely even unearthed. So don’t be disingenuous. The fact it’s been under wraps so long is because the culture hadn’t changed yet. But now it has. The storm is coming.

There’s a whole thread about Schumacher. Or you could start one about the NYTimes.

Hey, we’re still waiting for our dealer to deliver before intermission, and don’t worry about that condom order we don’t use them.

no R26--this is a theater gossip thread and this is THE BIGGEST THEATER GOSSIP so far this year.

Look how many people on this thread have responded to it?

We're fine right where we are, thank you.

All the people who have responded to it are you talking to yourself, r28/Matt.

[quote]have warm feelings of nostalgia for Marry Poppins

I wouldn't Marry Poppins if she asked me herself.

Matt and the Matt identifier have finally found eachother.

Except this time, its the identifier who's the crazy one thinking hes found Matt.

Rumors are that Disney is going to withdraw Bedknobs and Broomsticks and never release it again. Angela says she doesn't want that thing out there after she dies.

All 34 of his supporters disavow all knowledge of this.

I read awhile back B&B is being developed as a stage show. Has anyone heard anything about that recently?

I'm curious to see who will be first in the media to call out the Times for holding back on the story till after Frozen previews began?

It's tricky......

When is Bernie's opening night? I'm pulling for her and hoping she gets glowing reviews in what's almost certainly her last leading role in a Broadway musical.

that was fun R36

Is it possible that the Times is not printing the story until they can add something to it? It is too big a story to ignore, so my guess is that they will try to one-up what we already know. This is really terrible timing for Disney. I would guess that he is gone as soon as Frozen is, well, frozen.

Its possible R39 but not a wise move to not print ANYTHING. They will have happen to them what NBC did for not running Ronans story.

And we know the karma from that--

Matt!

And I mean of the Lauer variety!

Does the Times often rehash other people's stories?

YES! The answer to that is YES!

Tonight is Bernie’s opening night, r37. Someone printed the stellar guest list yesterday.

[quote]I read awhile back B&B is being developed as a stage show

It’s a third rate score to a fifth rate screenplay from a book about naked children. Why would someone want to develop it?

Did someone say "naked children"?!?!?

Baz Bamigboye just tweeted that Ashley Day is going into 42nd Street in London starting March 19th. And so will Lulu.

[quote]It’s a third rate score to a fifth rate screenplay from a book about naked children. Why would someone want to develop it?

Because THE destruction OF the New YORK Times depends ON it!!!!

[quote]in what's almost certainly her last leading role in a Broadway musical.

Why is that?

Come on, R48. I ADORE Bernie, and while, yes, she looks very good for her age, she's just about to turn 70 and while I think she can handle the Dolly score fine, her voice has been showing its age over the last 5 or 6 years. How many lead musical roles in the canon are left for her? And do you really see any of today's composers writing a lead role for her? She may have supporting roles in musicals in the future, but I think there's a very good chance this is her final lead role in a Broadway musical.

I agree, R49. Even if she doesn't have the stamina for Hello Dolly, the goodwill created by the role will support her. But otherwise? She's old. Why would she want to deal with the exhaustion of creating a new role, or doing something just for the sake of doing it? The only age-appropriate role would be M Armfeldt, but she is so wrong for the part. What else is there for someone of her age?

Bajour, r50?

What do you mean, doesn’t have the stamina for Dolly? There have been no indications that she doesn’t.

I could see her doing a role like the one Patti did in “Women on the Verge.” In fact, I could see her singing a song like “Invisible,” too.

I didn't realize she was 70. I thought she was at least a decade younger than Bette Midler. She certainly looks it.

I didn't mean to imply that she doesn't have the stamina for Hello Dolly. By all accounts, she does. I meant to say that hypothetically if she didn't, that it is one of the most loved roles on Broadway, that there is automatically a great deal of goodwill thrust upon whoever plays it, that someone could be bad in it, but still be adored by the audience. I didn't mean to imply that Bernadette couldn't do it. I have no doubt she will knock it out of the park.

Variety wrote a love letter to Bernie and Victor.

Surprisingly, not so much to Charlie Stemp.

Right, R53, but wasn't that a supporting, not lead role? Anyway, if this is her last lead role, she's going out in style. Rave reviews from the critics NY Times, Washington Post, Variety, The Wrap, EW, Hollywood Reporter, NY Daily News. And look at the red carpet tonight outside the Shubert.

It makes me very happy that a great lady of the stage who has been delighting and enthralling me (Mary, I know!) since I was in single digits is having this moment at this stage in her life. Back where she belongs, indeed.

Jesse Green enjoys the depth Bernie adds.

That red dress is just so tasteful and boring. Thank god they copied the headdress from the original costume.

Opening night bows

[quote]How many lead musical roles in the canon are left for her?

Bernadette Peters IS Tevye!

They could revive 70 Girls 70 for Bern.

this really does feel like a moment

R49 Bernadette will next play "Mame"! hehe

This may reignite once again the debate about if there should be a Tony category for replacement actors. I remember it being discussed in years past with performers like Reba McEntire ("Annie Get Your Gun"), Vanessa Williams ("Kiss of the Spider Woman") and Fantasia ("The Color Purple"). Sounds like Bernie would be a shoo-in.

[quote]That red dress is just so tasteful and boring.

I like it. It's certainly better than that awful Freddy Wittop original, which looked good on nobody except Channing - and even began to look ratty and tired by the time she hit her third revival tour.

They shouldn't have a Best Replacement Tony, at least not as a standard yearly thing. Award a Special Tony when there's enough support, just don't call it Best Replacement.

LOL at Lulu saying she was previously offered the part and turned it down. She and her manager appeared on the doc/reality show that launched Sheena Easton. Lulu was diplomatic but her manager made it clear she didn't rate wee Sheena.

I've seen Lulu in concert and she certainly doesn't move like, say, Streisand does, so she'll probably be ok in the role.

Don't forget Brantley's "Jerry Springer" rave!

I'm so glad Greene used the word "hoyden" in his review. For decades, The Hoyden was a staple in musical theater but you never hear about them anymore.

^ Er, Green, not Greene.

Is Ado Annie a hoyden or jus a ho?

I think both, r72. That would be my kind of girl if I were into girls.

Who was the bigger hoyden in the original Dolly company, Bette, Beanie, or Jennifer Simard?

^ Taylor Trensch?

Even with that rave, Jerry is staying off Broadway. The public is not going to buy Jesus swearing...

George died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe that if I don't want to.

THOUGHTS??

(from that other site)

The Wall Street Journal's "article" was a bald, open hit job designed and timed to inspire maximum clicks and supposedly inflict maximum damage at the very instant of "Frozen's" opening after its years in development. Hopefully this demolition derby will fail as much as "Frozen" succeeds – i.e., hugely.

Having been in the theatre for 40 years, I've observed just how low the bar has fallen on what constitutes "harassment" and whatever other trendy words they're calling the hypersensitivities of the moment - and here, it's scraping the ground and downright laughable. The theatre has always had its own brand of flamboyancy and street-patois and (most particularly in the gay element) a je ne sais quoi, and that free suggestiveness (among everyone, actors, directors, particularly dancers and choreographers, including the primmest ushers) is the very reason I jumped onto the theatre bandwagon and escaped the repressive Church-Lady nonsense of my small hometown in the first place.

I'll save names for my book, but I don't know a single choreographer, composer, director, etc. of the Golden Age (and into the 70s and 80s, including most I've worked with) who didn't live by a code far different from the iron Miss Gulch standards of the flash-in-the-pan pearl-clutching of today: all four of the top-most director-choreographers of the 1970s and 80s made overtures and maneuvers and had affairs with their leading or secondary leading ladies and others (once or twice leading to fleeting marriages.) One of the most famous composers, thought to be straight, was having gay affairs with dancers and actors, as was one of the aforementioned straight-ish director-choreographers. Read the biography of George S. Kaufman for perhaps the most famous example of theatrically powerful interaction with the hoi palloi. Read ANYTHING and you'll find out the theatre community, for 10s (if not 100s) of years, had its own standards and understanding of personal-professional interactions – and it made that community very adept at depicting both itself, and the instantly recognizable skirt-chasing satire of, for instance, "How To Succeed," choreographed by a particularly knowledgeable example of the above.

Some say we're smarter now, and have very recently gained sophistication and come out of a long period of darkness. I have gained no popularity in other forums by claiming the exact opposite. The contemporary lurid licking of chops, of which the Wall Street Journal article is the latest specimen, shows half the sophistication of yesteryear, twice the maudlin, absurd self-victim postures – the examples in the WSJ article are sidesplitting in their meagerness (whether with "two witnesses" or 100) – and, in this instance, a strikingly malevolent homophobic posture and a surly accuser-prosecutor-judge-jury-executioner role to which some excessive humorless and talentless individuals have appointed themselves in our current environment.

I have never met or worked with or for Mr. Schumacher; but I can't think of a current Broadway entrepreneur I'd rather support or work for, and add to the list of legends I've worked for, who'd now be regarded as "harassers" and "predators," and that goes quadruple after this smarmy, unwarranted journalistic excess twenty-four hours before this Broadway opening night.

Hugh Lambert is credited for the choreography of the original How to Succeed. Fosse is only credited for "musical staging." It's a long story.

How dare The NY Times publish a review of Bernie when they haven’t even covered this earth-shattering Disney scandal?

First the horrors of Julie Andrews and Mary Poppins, and now the horror of Tom Schumacher in his bathrobe! Only Nazis and philistines and anti-semites support Disney!

well, with R80 it seems the crazies have arrived to stir up troubles they'll deny they started

R78 “Free suggestiveness” and backstage affairs do nothing for the art of theater. In fact they bring the overall quality of the art form down because people who aren’t very talented but are sleeping with producers and directors are given roles they really can’t do justice — and very talented people are forced out of the business because they won’t put out.

The whole art form and its audience would benefit greatly if a more professional atmosphere was in place. Firing Schumacher is a good place to start.

Wait a minute - did Gavin Creel not play the opening night? I know he played the press previews, but it looked like his understudy, Christitan Dante White (he of the hot body) was on for him in those bows.

What exactly is he having the back surgery for? Had it reached the point where he simply couldn’t go on for one more performance?

I don't think the Hugh Lambert story is that long. Wasn't he hired for How to Succeed based on a pirate number he choreographed on TV, but the producers discovered it's the only number he had in him? I think Fosse choreographed everything else, but took the "musical staging" credit in deference to Lambert.

Broadway is just a microcosm of any theatre environment anywhere in the world. If you don’t get that, there’s not much you do.

"Don't forget Brantley's "Jerry Springer" rave!"

Whut'd I keer about that?

Marilyn Stasio? How old is she anyway? And how does she find time to read five mysteries per week for the book review section?

How satisfying it must be for Peters to triumph at the Shubert Theatre where her Gypsy wasn't as well received and a bit of a mess.

I agree with the poster upstream about how the theater world -- sorry THEATRE world -- has different rules. It IS flamboyant, rude, outrageous, and often inappropriate, and possibly that probably drives some people away, but it is those outrageous characters who are often the ones who come up with something original and brilliant. Plus, the theater was probably one of the first work environments where being gay was the norm, and where those it employs could feel comfortable being the most extreme version of themselves. Some of them might have taken that a bit too far, but I choose to believe it was all in fun, and in high spirits. It might be the the younger theater workers didn't grow up in a time when they couldn't be themselves -- and gay -- outside of the theater, and don't feel the need to act as outrageous as some of the older people. The sensitivity and sensibility has changed. The older workers will never know what it is like to have grown up in an atmosphere where being gay outside the theater is as acceptable as it is now, and the younger crowd will not know that the older workers might push things a little too far, because that is the only place they felt they could express themselves at all.

Given that it's the bookend show to FOLLIES r62, she should at least do it in concert form. But will they give See the Light to her or throw a crumb to Patti?

R83, The reviews all indicated that Gavin played the opening night performance.

Naughty Rob got to go to a party, ryhog is so jealous. Soooo jealous. Those ATC queens are too much!

R83 and R91, Gavin Creel has not appeared in any performance of HELLO, DOLLY! this week. He has been out for back surgery (he had been doing the show in extreme pain). The critics who reviewed Gavin attended performances last week. Christian Dante White has been playing Cornelius and will continue until Santino Fontana takes over on March 13.

Agree or disagree, R78 is brilliantly written! Bravo.

R94 Yes, not since The Sound and the Fury...

Christian Dante HOT!

[quote] Ever since Disney entered the Broadway fold I have always cringed at the possibility of backstage Broadway debauchery seeing the light of day. It is the EXACT OPPOSITE of Disney’s g-rated brand.

Not my darling Telly!

A Whole New Bottom

So, just listening to Miss Rudetsky on Sirius. 1. She encouraged us to watch the Oscars this Sunday--of course, it's not for another week and 2. she then played "Somewhere Out There," which she informed us won the Oscar for Best Song (it didn't). Presumably she's as sloppy a bottom as she is an announced. how did that mess manage to graduate from Oberlin. What an idiotic jerk.

You know damn well the Talking Broadway queen @ R78 was wearing a muu-muu and petting a shih-tzu while writing that drivel.

[quote]A Whole New Bottom

Not that new.

Farewell to No Nose Nanette.

Farewell First Lady.....

Telly is actually very talented. More authentic and compelling than the vast majority of the plastic parade these days... his album is wonderful, too. Very thoughtful interpretations.

And, he's very pretty.

Too bad he hasn't broken out yet. Is it the Asian thing? Sad if true. I'd think GLEE would have given him a leg up, but it was a nothing part unfortunately.

r94 I would hardly call writing brilliant that, given the degree of dudgeon, misuses "hoi polloi." It's never "the hoi polloi," as "hoi" means "the (plural" in Attic. It would be the same as saying "the the people" (or the the crowd), as an schoolboy at Eton could tell you.

R104, the only careers GLEE helped were Ryan Murphy’s and Ian Brennan’s. The actors now are almost to a person either a disaster or at the very LEAST a JOKE.

[quote]The actors now are almost to a person either a disaster or at the very LEAST a JOKE.

Or deceased.

I was just going to say: Or dead.

You're so polite, r107.

Darren Criss has redeemed himself with the Versace TV series.

I saw Telly wiggle that ass of his down West 47th Street last summer. I bet he’s quite the cock tease. His bf’s last name is Babcock?

Dang, that Charlie Stemp really IS adorable. He's going to get so much D in NY.

"I can show you my hole/Shining, shimmering, splendid..."

R105, according to Merriam-Webster, "In Greek, hoi polloi means simply "the many". (Even though hoi itself means "the", in English we almost always say "the hoi polloi".) "

As I can show you on this simple little chart ...

Is that in reference to Charlie Stemp, r112?

Peter Marks in the Washington Post actually saw a performance with Christian Dante White, and gave him a great review.

"Christian Dante White, filling in for an ailing Gavin Creel, makes for a gorgeously sung Cornelius. Keep an eye out for this magnetic actor. You’ll be seeing him somewhere soon executing a big turn all his own."

[quote]Is that in reference to Charlie Stemp, [R112]?

Well, it was supposed to be a reference to Telly in ALADDIN. But perhaps it applies to Charlie as well. Somebody should call CamMack Ltd and ask.

I can't picture Charlie Stemp as a bottom. He oozes "top" to me.

[quote]He oozes "top" to me.

Eeew. He should get that looked at.

Looks like Goldie Hawn saw Hello, Dolly this week. Did she purposely wait for Bette to leave before she bought her tix?

Goldie is an old friend of Bernadette's.

[quote]His bf’s last name is Babcock?

First name Dwight?

AND she and Bette loathed eachother during making of FWC

[quote] I saw Telly wiggle that ass of his down West 47th Street last summer. I bet he’s quite the cock tease. His bf’s last name is Babcock?

Yes, James Babcock.

They're married now

How CUTE is this fella? He was at Bernie's opening night with his 90 year old YOUNGER sister. My dad's 70 and he doesn't even know what Instagram is.

So where was the list of opening night celebrities posted? I haven't found it. TIA.

Telly Leung is STRAIGHT!

It was on the prior theatre thread, #290A

Christine Baranski mentioned on Colbert last night that she was on her way to Bernadette’s opening night.

Joel Grey, Christine Baranski, Harry Connick Jr, SJP& Matthew Broderick, Bob Mackie, Marilyn Maye, Danny Burstein were some of the guests on Bernie’s opening night,

Just got in from the first performance of "Angels in America." It's a pretty striking production and the performances are all outstanding, despite the fact James McArdle(?) was having a little difficulty in certain scenes remembering his lines. Nathan Lane was on fire, though, and I can see him definitely getting nominated for the Tony and probably winning (depending on the reviews and his competition). The appearance of the Angel is pretty unusual and spectacular (I assume this is what they did in London) and I must say I found Lee Pace very sexy in the Wall Street look he wears throughout the show. No matter what one may think of him as a film actor, Andrew Garfield does throw himself completely into his performance, even if his muscular body somewhat betrays the dying AIDS patient he's supposed to be (I certainly didn't mind when he took his shirt off). Looking forward to seeing part 2 on Wednesday.

By the way, perhaps because it was the first preview, but the first intermission ran pretty long -- almost 25 minutes. (The second one was about 20 minutes.) In all the years I've been going to theater, I don't remember an intermission ever being that length before. All in all, we were in there for a total of about 4 hours.

Are the Roths producing this? If so, I didn't see Daryl but Jordan was there, sitting quite a few rows ahead of me. He's quite the interest-looking fellow.

I sat on James’ Bab(cock) once a few years ago.

[quote]despite the fact James McArdle(?) was having a little difficulty in certain scenes remembering his lines.

After that long run in London, and four weeks rehearsal here, he couldn’t remember his lines?

Angels AGAIN??!!

Jeez New York!

Try SOMETHING new.

And not based upon a movie or Americas fake history.

TRY!

Huh? Still puzzling out the above remark.

What’s puzzling, r131? R129 said James McArdle was having trouble remembering his lines, for a part that he played for over three months in London, and then rerehearsed for four months here.

Actors often start to go up on lines when they've played a role too long. After about six months, they lose the investment. Some just go on autopilot and manage to keep the showon the road. Others go so far away in their head that they dry.

[quote]I don't think the Hugh Lambert story is that long. Wasn't he hired for How to Succeed based on a pirate number he choreographed on TV, but the producers discovered it's the only number he had in him? I think Fosse choreographed everything else, but took the "musical staging" credit in deference to Lambert.

Very, very close, r84. But the pirate number Lambert did that got him the the How to Succeed gig wasn't for TV. It was for one of those live industrial trade shows the big corporations used to produce using all Broadway talent for their annual meetings and/or trade shows that were so popular back in the 1950s and 60s.

Us McArdle’s enjoy going up on a line now and then!

I had no idea that the "How to Succeed" Hugh Lambert was Nancy Sinatra's (late) husband, Hugh Lambert. He died at 54 in 1985. AIDS??

R128, Mary Tyler Moore wanted to be there.

Wasn't Hugh Lambert also a name you would hear way back when, associated with some musical variety hours....The Hugh Lambert Dancers? Like The Peter Gennaro Dancers, etc.?

Dear Elder Gay - yes indeed. That's how he met Nancy, choreographing a number for her for a variety show.

Charlie Stemp's "Number One"???

Michael Xavier just tweeted he’s off to LA for pilot season. I wonder if he’ll land one. A role on a pilot, I mean.

Stephen Spinelli showed his dick in the original production. You mean Garfield doesn't flash peen??!!!??!!

He doesn't in Part 1, R144. We will see what happens in Part 2.

Unless it changes from the London production, Garfield doesn’t show peen in Part 2, either.

You think buying a ticket to a show means you're gonna see Andrew's penis? Good luck. I dated him for years and never got to see it.

If this Charlie Stemp is so fabulous, why is fifth banana instead of a lead on Broadway as he was in London?

[quote]If this Charlie Stemp is so fabulous, why is fifth banana instead of a lead on Broadway as he was in London?

Producer cock is easier to get in London than it is in NYC.

So... Nathan REALLY plays a convincing Roy Cohn? I've never seen him disappear into a role. And his casting still seems so bizarre to me.

I, too, was wondering why Stempl chose to make his US debut in a supporting role. I would have thought he'd wait until he could play a role more important to the play. Also, count me in the minority who think there's something unattractive and creepy about him. He might have skills, but he seems entirely manufactured.

I'm watching the series Above Suspicion which has Amanda Lawrence in a small role. She played the Angel in the National's AIA. Why did they not go for a more classic beauty for the angel?

Probably because a classic beauty doesn't work well with Marianne Elliott's "War Horse" conception for the angel. Damn, this angel is ugly. I don't mean the actress. I mean they really made the angel ugly: hooked nose, unruly hair, screechy voice, the works.

[quote] So... Nathan REALLY plays a convincing Roy Cohn? I've never seen him disappear into a role. And his casting still seems so bizarre to me.

He doesn't. He plays what you would imagine Nathan's actual soul to be with a bunch of Nathanisms thrown in. It's a mildly good performance but it's not Roy Cohn.

[quote]Damn, this angel is ugly. I don't mean the actress.

The actress is not conventional looking, but she has one of those really good looks for a character actress.

But if the play is called Angels in America, what is the director trying to say by not casting a more conventional looking angel?

Can we just get a bit more high falutin around here?

Thank you

Mr. Stemp is smart to test the waters in New York before taking on a larger role. Get some nice reviews without taxing himself and whet appetites for his next role. Helming a brand new show would be risky, and what current lead could he step into?

Nathan is somehow “less” as far as a force of nature in the role, which is interesting as Lane IS usually the ultimate force of nature on any stage he inhabits, but it works for this production, but it is not the Cohn of Ron Leibman‘s masterful and vile sort of the original production.

Half A Sexpence revival with Mr. Stemp might make a decent Roundabout limited run.

R150, in the NT Live Broadcast Lane was definitely the weak link. Weirdly, his accent was the least convincing of anyone in the cast.

This production really looks at the characters and relationships anew. The angels really are the calcifying fabulous bureaucrats described in the script. It was surprising, but actually seems more in line with how the script describes them than the angels of previous productions.

The info about Hugh Lambert and the pirate number is interesting. I always wondered why the big Act II number in HOW TO SUCCEED is a pirate number. The script tries to make it seem a little less of a non sequitur by making it the centerpiece of the "treasure hunt" TV show produced by the World Wide Wicket company. But it still seems out of place, like some other production numbers in other shows -- for example, "Steam Heat" in THE PAJAMA GAME (though, of course, that's a fabulous number in itself.)

I don't get why anybody questions Charlie Stemp stepping into DOLLY! as Barnaby. It's a good role for him in an established hit, plus he got reviewed because the critics came back to review Bernadette. And of course it's not going to prevent him from playing the lead in his next show, whether or not it turns out to be a Scott Rudin production.

How is he allowed in the role at all though? Doesn't American Equity have an issue with him taking a part from an American actor? It's not like he's a star in any sense, it just seems so odd that he was cast in Dolly.

R162, have you never heard of the exchange program between Actors' Equity in the U.S. and England?

[quote] [R150], in the NT Live Broadcast Lane was definitely the weak link. Weirdly, his accent was the least convincing of anyone in the cast.

Really? Then you must have been in the bathroom every time Andrew Garfield was onscreen.

Does Andrew drop trou so to speak? Probably not, he's a movie star ya know.

Nothing about the Messenger's appearance works in this production. Then again, nothing about this production compares favorably to the original Broadway mounting.

I thought Lane was miscast as Cohn. I laughed when Ethel makes the comment about him being skin and bones when he got sick.

The only actors I really liked were Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Belize and Susan Brown, who did a really nice job in Ethel’s hospital scene with Roy and as Hannah.

How does Charlie Stemp get the role over an American actor? Because American Equity is just as enamored with British actors as every other producer. There are so many roles that could be played by Americans but are not. Actor's Equity does not represent its actors, it's much more producer friendly now.

Really r166? Everything I've read sounds interesting about this version of the Angel. I'd love to see the puppeteering and the way the scenes are choreographed.

Anyone attend the Robby Awards in LA this week? It was so fun! So many people had the honor of being nominated and even winning!! (Myself included lol.) One of my friends won for a staged reading lead role and I am so proud! We need to support each other! You can always CREATE YOUR OWN action. There is no excuse for feeling left out! CREATE YOUR OWN OPPORTUNITIES!! Thnak you Robby Awards for showing the excellence in theatre in our own back yard!

R170. ARe you Naughty Rob?

naughty? I'm not Rob although I do consider him a dear friend. He really includes us all so well!

I have a question for Broadway historians. Did Ghost Skipper actually make it into Cat On A Hot Tin Roof or was he cut before they opened? I know they were rehearsing with the character and maybe he made it into previews, but did the character actually make it to opening night?

OMG I meant to say Robby Awards LAST YEAR WERE SO FUN and wondered if anyone is going this week? It will probably be packed! Anyways, havea great weekend everybody and get your semi-formal evening wear dry cleaned lol!

The Robby “Awards” are a joke. He makes the “nominees” and then he picks the “winner” among his nominees. Can’t believe he’s still doing it and that people support this scam artist (who is also a terrible writer).

[quote]How does Charlie Stemp get the role over an American actor? Because American Equity is just as enamored with British actors as every other producer. There are so many roles that could be played by Americans but are not. Actor's Equity does not represent its actors, it's much more producer friendly now.

We have an equity exchange program. There are plenty of Americans in the casts of West End shows. How many years did Gavin Creel do BoM over there?

R175 with all do respect, I have to disagree. He gives us opportunities taken away by the snobby equity actors (sorry but they are). And it doesn't have to be just if your in a full blown production it can be a reading too which is good because it shouldn't require money in a production to win awards well deserved!

I believe Dream Skipper was cut before the revival of Cat opened. But seen in previews.

Please, r177. The "snobby Equity actors"? You mean the ones with actual talent? Since the 99 seat disaster, I've seen two all non-Equity 99 seat shows that were just dreadful. The worst was a non-AEA "Legally Blonde" at a place called the Cupcake Theatre. Truly one of the worst nights of theatre in my life, and they clearly all thought they were ready for Broadway.

Who is the guy behind these Robby Awards?

[quote]How does Charlie Stemp get the role over an American actor? Because American Equity is just as enamored with British actors as every other producer.

What a ridiculous comment. It's an EXCHANGE. There have been American actors in "Book of Mormon" ever since it opened. It's highly likely that Stemp got the role because we owed the Brits a contract. And if not, Stemp's performance just opens the door for an American to do a run in something over there.

[quote][R175] with all do respect, I have to disagree. He gives us opportunities taken away by the snobby equity actors (sorry but they are). And it doesn't have to be just if your in a full blown production it can be a reading too which is good because it shouldn't require money in a production to win awards well deserved!

This is very mlopian.

[QUOTE]have you never heard of the exchange program between Actors' Equity in the U.S. and England?

Obviously I haven't. I assumed it was for stars or those bringing some unique talent or skill in the role. But by all means, respond to a perfectly reasonable question with condescension.

Whatever happened to mlop r182?

I've never heard of the Robby Awards. I thought the Ovation Awards were the LA version of the Tonys.

[quote] The worst was a non-AEA "Legally Blonde" at a place called the Cupcake Theatre.

I detest that theater. Overpriced, poorly managed, and inferior to many other, smaller companies. I went once-- never again.

R183, stars don't need the exchange program. They can appear free and clear in the US. (And likewise, the UK. Nathan Lane didn't need the exchange to be a part of the National AIA).

The exchange program is to allow non-star performers from both countries to perform in the other. You'd be surprised to find out how many American actors have done roles in the UK thanks to the program.

For instance, right now with the AIA cast, only Garfield would be considered a star (and he wouldn't need it, anyway, since he has dual citizenship). The rest of the cast are only appearing due to the exchange, and that will generate that exact same number of contracts that are required for Americans in the UK.

r183 has a very good point. The exchange program should be for people who have some extraordinary talent that can't be filled in the US. It shouldn't be used so that actors can get experience in a foreign country. Unions have become useless in this country. What's the point of a union if they are not protecting American actors?

I think that the leniency began because the Brits had crap dancers and so many American dancers had to go to the UK to dance in musicals. I had a friend who went and performed in London in The King & I because they couldn't find any Asian dancers. What special talent are the Brits bringing over to the US?

I know those with close connections to the New York Times and even THEY are saying how shocked they are how theyve hidden the story.

It is now hidden in ONE SENTENCE with a link to the Wall Street Journal article.

And of course not in the Arts section. Cant mess up that.

But in the Business and Policy section under-

"How to Liquidate A Failing Bank"

Blink and you'll miss it

" The misconduct flyaround"-NYT

• The Dallas Mavericks franchise has hired outside counsel to investigate allegations of inappropriate conduct against its former team president.

• A national online survey found sexual harassment and assault to be much more common than previous studies had suggested. (NYT)

• The former NPR executive Michael Oreskes was warned repeatedly that he was acting inappropriately toward women, and kept doing it, according to an independent investigation. (NYT)

• Tom Schumacher, the Disney executive who took “Frozen” to Broadway, has been accused of workplace harassment. (WSJ)

• An anonymous chat app is helping lift the lid on sexual harassment in South Korea. (Reuters)*****

They said they always thought The Times was unbiased journalism and now are a bit crushed to realize who theyre in bed with.

So it looks like Forbes is going to now take a crack at it.

Forbes: harassment, abuse, or misconduct in the theater industry,

Lee Seymour from Forbes: (he’s a great reporter and a great friend)

Given recent allegations in the entertainment world, I've set up a new email account: metooforbes@gmail.com

While wearing my journalist hat, most of the people who will talk to me on the record are defending the accused, because they have the power and privilege to do so. I'm hoping to shift that balance and support the voices that aren't being heard, but I can't do that without those voices.

If you've experienced harassment, abuse, or misconduct in the theater industry, and want to speak about them to a member of the press, please reach out at the above address. I'm here to listen, correspond, and ultimately elevate through future coverage in Forbes magazine and other outlets.

Please feel free to pass this around your networks, whispered or otherwise - this is inclusive of all gender expressions, races, or orientations. A sea change in entertainment is coming, and I want to use my platform and privilege to support it. #MeToo

DL fave John Benjamin Hickey is about to open at the Young Vic in The Inheritance by American Matthew Lopez. Hickey is the only American in the cast, which is composed of all relative unknowns except for Vanessa Redgrave. I've heard it's a modern retelling of Howard's End.

Hickey is always a pleasure to see drop trow, and a fine actor too.

I hear Hickey is "difficult" to work with.

I doubt his saggy ass will send them coming over in droves from The Cut and Lower Marsh.

[quote]If you've experienced harassment, abuse, or misconduct in the theater industry, and want to speak about them to a member of the press

Does this include the way ushers are nasty to patrons?

Patrick Boll is gone from the King and I tour. Sucks but when you're touring with a family friendly show ya gotta stay away from the hookers.

I love that attending two non Equity production (one of which is a small production of a large musical) leads one idiot to think he knows enough to make pronouncements about non-Equity productions.

R183, I didn't intend to be condescending in my response to you, but I am surprised that you hadn't heard about the American/British Equity exchange program, which has been in existence for decades (at least).

And R188, it seems to me that as long as the exchange of actors is kept equal, then the unions are doing their job as far as this matter is concerned.

A Gmail account in which to send your deepest, darkest secrets? That seems legit!

The Ovation Awards are the only theatre awards in LA/SoCal. The Robby 'awards' are made up by a guy named "Rob" who has a blog and decided to create his own 'awards'. I guess it's proactive - if you want to have something to make you feel good about yourself.

I just read about Patrick Boll. I was unfamiliar with him until reading about the sting operation. Why on earth would they bother entrapping men who thought they were hiring a prostitute. Dear god, do the police have nothing better to do? What I am not clear about was if the six men were planning on meting her separately, or if they intended it to be six on one? He is a handsome man. And what on earth would he be playing in The King and I?

Who's the guy with Charlie Stemp?

He’s playing Captain Orrin and Sir Edward, r200.

Oops, I meant Captain Orton.

[quote]Who's the guy with Charlie Stemp?

His number one! At least that’s how he labels him in the post.

"but when you're touring with a family friendly show ya gotta stay away from the hookers."

Why? What he does on his off time has NOTHING to do with his job. He got busted, tough. But so what? No one knows who he is and NO ONE CARES.

R202 -- I just checked the King and I tour site, and they now have someone else listed as playing those parts. Wow. He was scrubbed off pretty quickly. Why would getting caught propositioning a prostitute cause you to lose that job? It's not like he'd be in any city long enough for the story to come out. That seems a bit of an extreme reaction.

So with all of the intense SJW obsession with deciding just WHO is allowed to play roles on Broadway nowadays, HOW in the world is a Chinese actor Telly Leung allowed to play an Arabian character like Aladdin, without torch carrying and protest marches? Have the SJWs dropped the ball, or does it take an actor's whiteness to light them up? Certainly the whole show should be shuttered until a Middle Eastern and staunchly Muslim actor can be found for the role! I will not stand for this YELLOW WASHING!

Actually, r207, in the original folk tale, Aladdin has a Chinese Mother and Arab Father. (which is how he was portrayed in Cole Porter’s musical version, which took place in China).

[quote]Aladdin is an impoverished young ne'er-do-well, dwelling in "one of the cities of China". He is recruited by a sorcerer from the Maghreb, who passes himself off as the brother of Aladdin's late father, Mustapha the tailor, convincing Aladdin and his mother of his good will by pretending to set up the lad as a wealthy merchant. The sorcerer's real motive is to persuade young Aladdin to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave.

Eldergays, tell me more about Lee Roy Reams! He seems like such a hoot. Great voice, too. He must have been hilarious in The Producers.

I wish I'd made it to NY for this production. No one will ever match Bernie & Mandy, but I was not expecting Jake to sound so good and how lovely is Sondheim's reaction to Annaleigh's singing?

I've worked with Lee Roy Reams twice. He's a great guy, and he is definitely a hoot. He's worked with almost everybody, and has stories about them all. That said, he's one of those people who is almost always "on," which can be a little exhausting.

He was great in "The Producers" ( that wasn't one of the ones I did with him, but I saw him in it). Unfortunately, the rest of the cast was pretty drab (Lewis J. Stadlen was a wan Max, and Don Stephenson was, actually, not bad as Leo. The rest were mostly awful).

R207, agreed! And what about The Genie, he’s funny and BLUE, not unfunny and black, this show needs an enema!

R200, Was the "prostitute" male or female?

[quote]Why would getting caught propositioning a prostitute cause you to lose that job? It's not like he'd be in any city long enough for the story to come out. That seems a bit of an extreme reaction.

Because the police became involved and it brought negative publicity to the tour. And in these days of the internet, news travels quickly.

I wonder if Charlie Stemp has been propositioning any prostitutes while he's here? He probably doesn't need to with all the cute guys in the Dolly cast.

R209, you do realize that tape is pretty old? He's just a bit shy of 80 now.

So, yes, an actor playing a supporting role in the Kind and I was caught with a prostitute. Why would they take him off the tour, when the President of the USA has had relationships with them?!? I think people aren't quite as easily offended as the theaters think they are. Plus, most of the tickets for the Kind and I are probably sold out via subscription, so it's not as though any potential negative publicity would affect them. Plus: I just don't even see any local paper writing about it.

And to the person who asked, they never said if the prostitute were a male or female, but it did say they were looking for "straight sex," which I thought was oddly phrased. The whole article was badly written, because it also does not make it clear if all six men were hoping to meet with her at one time -- a good old gang bang -- or if the six were contacting her separately. It is a shame. He is very handsome, and I doubt he would have to resort to hiring someone for sex.

From what I understand, all of the men arrested with Patrick were local Florida guys who regularly and together hired local prostitutes. Patrick, unfortunately, got seduced into participating in this local operation. Is that not true?

Oddly, I never would have heard this story (which was originally only reported in a FL newspaper) if not for DL. I still haven't seen it reported anywhere else. Has it appeared on theater or gossip chat sites or somewhere else?

It was strictly protitutes, one on one, no gang bang. Yes, a woman. She made appointments and when the man showed up, he was busted.

So ridiculous.

[quote]For instance, right now with the AIA cast, only Garfield would be considered a star

I'm wondering, if "Angels" gets a lot of Tony noms, how exactly the issue of lead/featured actor would be handled insofar as Lane and Garfield. The first time around, Ron Liebman won lead and Stephen Spinella won featured (Spinella won lead the next year for "Perestroika"). I don't know if Lane and Garfield are both being billed above the title, but if so, does that mean they'd both have to go in lead? I would think the "Angels" producers would want to keep them out of the same category but not sure how this would be handled should they both get nominated.

Garfield and Lane are both billed above title (and in that order) and you're crazy if you think either one would consider for a second being touted for Supporting Actor.

"The Inheritance" is about gay life in the USA since the AIDS epidemic. The play is in 2 parts and Vanessa shows up in part 2. That's why part 2 is completely sold out. No one gives a fuck about Hickey, over there or over here.

Nathan Lane was the worst Hickey in "Iceman Cometh" I'd ever seen. Brian Dennehy walked off with that abysmal production.

As for Stemp, he's being groomed for a starring role no one is talking about yet. But Scott Rudin always has something up his sleeve. Or in his pants.

Why does Stemp give me the creeps? I tried watching a bootleg of Half a Sixpence, and he just seemed smarmy and greasy, in the way of those olden performers like Tommy Steele, et al. Talented, yes, but not an ounce of sincerity.

I've got a question about a line in "Move On." (Beautiful clip upstream, by the way; thanks for posting it.) I've always thought the lines "Stop worrying if your vision is new. Let others make that decision; they usually do" meant that others are going to be quick to judge and say if something is good or not, so how the world judges an artist's work is out of his hands. A friend of mine, however, insists that it has a literal meaning, that others do, indeed, decide that what Searaut does is good. I disagree. I think the point is more that an artist has no say in how he is remembered. Thoughts?

re: "Aladdin" -- Well, what ethnicity was the ORIGINAL Broadway Aladdin?

Is the Aladdin Theatre on the their tour schedule?

R224, the point is that artists should not get crippled evaluating their own work. They should focus on their connection with the work.Anything you do, let it come from you, then it will be new. Sometimes, the lyric says it all.

R217, I was railroaded in Massachusetts.

[quote] What special talent are the Brits bringing over to the US?

Foreskin?

[quote] Why would getting caught propositioning a prostitute cause you to lose that job?

Maybe it was a Tranny POC who was literally being murdered.

[QUOTE]you do realize that tape is pretty old? He's just a bit shy of 80 now.

Yes, I realize that Jerry Herman Hollywood Bowl tribute is from the 90s. Bea Arthur's in it it, too. But, I'm not sure what me posting that clip and asking for any fun stories or remembrances of Lee Roy Reams has to do with his present age, though. I honestly wasn't familiar with him before I saw that clip last night.

Anyway, this is hilarious...

Speaking of the Hollywood Bowl ... this year's musical is "Annie," directed by DL fave Michael Arden. No cast announced yet.

Also "Grease" and "Sound of Music" sing-alongs. j

And ... MISS ROSS!

Is Charlie Stemp being groomed for a Broadway revival of......Pal Joey?

I can't think of any other Golden Age musicals that starred a youngish male dancer except for the highly unlikely Half a Sixpence, George M. and Barnum. And it's surely not one of those Anthony Newley efforts?? Maybe it's a new musical?

Please let us in on the scoop, r222. We're all anonymous here and can be trusted to keep your secret.

And speaking of LA, the 2018-2019 Ahmanson season:

Ain't Too Proud

Dear Evan Hansen

Come From Away

Cinderella (Matthew Bourne, not Rodgers and Hammerstein)

Indecent

The Play That Goes Wrong

I always assumed that the line from Move On meant that people are so quick to judge what someone else does.

I just saw that Love Never Dies is coming to my town. I saw the streaming production of the original run. The music was awful, but the sets were magnificent. I can't imagine that they can afford to duplicate those sets for a touring production. I looked at the tour web site, and the photos were all of the original sets. Is it possible that they really can take that elaborate a show on the road, or is it bait and switch? Usually there is a disclaimer "photos from the original production" but I did not see them in the site.

The video was the Australian production, so probably not.

[quote] Is Charlie Stemp being groomed for a Broadway revival of......Pal Joey?

Oh crikey, I hope not. Joey needs to be masculine and a bit of dangerous/rough. Stemp is too boyish and coquettish.

Would Rudin attempt Half A Sixpence to lure in the family crowd?

He really reads too young for a lot of the male lead musical roles.

Half a Sixpence was pretty bad. Stemp was both exciting and annoying at the same time, an “everything but the kitchen sink” performance.

I can’t imagine it having a life in the US.

[quote]As for Stemp, he's being groomed for a starring role no one is talking about yet

Sure, Jan.

Charlie Stemp as the Matinee Mame?

Maybe they will do a revival of Me and My Girl with Stemp.

Half A Sixpence didn't do well on the West End so wouldn't have a hope in hell on Broadway. As for Stemp hiring prostitutes while he's in Manhattan, um, I somehow doubt it.

They are doing Me and My Girl at Encores this spring. Maybe Stemp will do that in the hopes that it will transfer to Broadway?

[quote]Half A Sixpence didn't do well on the West End

It was a transfer from Chichester, so probably all the British had already seen it and it didn't do well with tourists.

Did anyone bother to see Hunchback?

[quote]They are doing Me and My Girl at Encores this spring. Maybe Stemp will do that in the hopes that it will transfer to Broadway?

I doubt Rudin would let him out of Dolly for the two weeks he’d need after only three months in the show. Especially after the (mostly) raves he got. Plus he’s really a little young for MAMG. Bill is supposed to have a big of life under his belt. Robert Lindsay was in his late 30s when he did it, and Lupino Lane (the original for whom it was written) was in his 40s.

Did anyone ever make a mistake on a program or billing reading "Lee Roy Creams"?

That's a fun clip R231 posted but his memory is a bit wobbly.

He says that they went to the opening of WOMAN OF THE YEAR on the hottest day in August. But WOTY opened in March.

He says they were unable to get anywhere because traffic was so bad due to the Puerto Rican Day parade. But the Puerto Rican Day parade was held on June 7, 1981.

I don't doubt that he accompanied Carole Cook and Ethel Merman to the opening, but I always find it interesting that people feel the need to embellish their stories with inaccurate 'facts', when the story itself is a good one.

A funnier punch line would have been Ethel whispering loudly to him “Who told that cunt she could sing?”

I was at Angels last night too, and I thought it was in great shape and the only lines I noticed dropped were by Lee Pace, which is understandable because it was his first performance. I had no idea how tall he is. He must be 6'1". It made Cohn's lust make great sense. Beth Malone was on as the angel and she was fantastic as the nurse and the real estate agent. The production is a little Brit for my taste, but its a great, great play.

Half a Sixpence was mutilated by that composer lyricist team. They should have left well enough alone and would have had a charming musical instead aof an annoying clodhopper.

Why does everyone think Stemp is a big talent and a future star? I thought he was way too broad and treacly in Half a Sixpence, and he doesn't have leading man looks. He will not age well. Sure, he can dance well, but so can a lot of other guys. I do not see why he gets as much attention as he does. Does he have a backer or management or PR team giving him the push I'm not sure he deserves?

Every so often someone seems to come in strong with a big push seemingly out of nowhere. Ashley Brown was that way (Disney machine trying to make her happen). Remember her? I didn’t think so.

[quote]Why does everyone think Stemp is a big talent and a future star? I thought he was way too broad and treacly in Half a Sixpence, and he doesn't have leading man looks. He will not age well. Sure, he can dance well, but so can a lot of other guys. I do not see why he gets as much attention as he does.

Because he's B*R*I*T*I*S*H

In case you haven't noticed, Americans fall all over the British like they are the be all and end all in the theater and movie world. How many British have won Oscars, Emmys or Tonys just because they were British?

Rudin’s retooling the flop West End musical Billy for Charlie Stemp. It’s based on Billy Liar, that old film with Tom Courtenay.

Didn't Roundabout do a huge flop "pal Joey" just a few years ago with Stockard Channing?

[quote]I was at Angels last night too, and I thought it was in great shape and the only lines I noticed dropped were by Lee Pace, which is understandable because it was his first performance. I had no idea how tall he is. He must be 6'1". It made Cohn's lust make great sense. Beth Malone was on as the angel and she was fantastic as the nurse and the real estate agent. The production is a little Brit for my taste, but its a great, great play.

Is Lee Pace naked? Is anyone naked? If we have to sit there for six hours, someone better get naked.

[quote] Didn't Roundabout do a huge flop "pal Joey" just a few years ago with Stockard Channing?

Wasn't that the one where they cast a Joey who couldn't sing, dance or act and they ended up replacing him? Or maybe Stockard had him fired because he wouldn't put out for her?

Charlie has to be kept in NYC until he can perform in Broadway Bares.

Why is there an Angel alternate?

Maybe the Brit has to leave early for another gig in the U.K.?

R253 Stemp got a mixed to negative review of "Hello, Dolly!" where they called him too broad.

I think that was in Variety, r262. Most of his other reviews have been glowing.

r262 Wasn't he broad where a broad should be broad?

[quote]Rudin’s retooling the flop West End musical Billy for Charlie Stemp.

First of all, "Billy" wasn't a flop. It ran for almost three years, and sold out consistently while Michael Crawford was doing it. (Roy Castle took over late in the run). It had an off-West End revisal about five years ago, too, that got rave reviews.

The reason such a hit show never transferred to the US was that it was simply too British - too rooted in things US audiences wouldn't understand or be interested in. It's hardly likely that a version with Stemp would be done over here now.

About the accusations regarding Disney theatricals--

I won't go into detail here though I have considered giving my story to WSJ who broke this story.

I left that godawful place and was pretty traumatized by the whole experience.

For those saying the article was a smear campaign: It is far from a smear campaign.

I will leave it at that.

Does it get worse????

Oh do fuck off r255. You sound like a deplorable and reduce the IQ here by your very presence.

Maybe Rudin will revive Rocky Horror and Stemp will play Brad.

Stemp is fantastic in Dolly

Stemp isn't good looking enough for Brad in Rocky Horror.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

[quote]Really? this is supposed to be hot?

He doesn't photograph well. From the stage, he looks very boyish and cute. Somehow he clawed his way out of the dancer's chorus, but he won't have a huge career in the US. He'll end up on some British soap like Hollyoaks.

[quote]Bill is supposed to have a big of life under his belt.

Pics please.

r273 Why is Imelda Staunton playing Barnaby?

IDK about Stemp but can we have Alison Janney as Vera

No r277, we can't. Miss Janney will, instead, be headlining in a Vegas tab version of SKYSCRAPER.

Wow does the new Frozen song suck or what. Songwriting used to be an art and lyrics used to be fun or beautiful or simple. This is none of those. Dreck.

[quote]IDK about Stemp but can we have Alison Janney as Vera

Alison Janney is too "librarian" for Vera. Vera needs to be a loudmouthed wiseass, "look at me" and extremely theatrical type. I thought even Bea Arthur was too restrained. Who these days can project that grand dame wiseass characterization?

People are always suggesting Christine Baranski as Mame but she's a Vera.

"ahem"

Vera in Pal Joey, not Vera in Mame!!!

Cheez, the young'uns here.......

Stemp was on Theater Talk this past weekend, with Kate and Gavin. He's not what I would call good looking . . . and he has one of those Lily Tomlin smiles, gums for days . . . plus his teeth are in need of attention.

[quote]People are always suggesting Christine Baranski as Mame but she's a Vera.

I agree with you, R281. Baranski did play Mame in a 2006 Kennedy Center production that was mounted with an eye toward Broadway. The production was a big disappointment, and any talk of Broadway went out the window. I thought the biggest problem with it was that it exposed just how dated the book has become.

Is there really a nude scene in "Frozen"? Apparently, some theatre-goers were surprised by skin showing. Are are they flesh-colored body suits? Can someone describe the scene? Thanks.

[quote]—Loud-mouthed wiseass Patti LuPone

When we need the fishwife type, Patti, we'll call you.

[quote]People are always suggesting Christine Baranski as Mame but she's a Vera.

Christine Ebersole also did Mame somewhere like Papermill and was awful. She's more Vera than Mame.

Stemp gave one of the most accomplished and charming performances I've seen in years in SIXPENCE. That being said, I'm not sure there are a lot of roles written these days for his type. DEH? No. Book of Mormon? Maybe, but probably shouldn't do another replacement gig. Maybe they'll revive CRAZY FOR YOU for him.

[quote]Vera in Pal Joey, not Vera in Mame!!!

Alison Janney is also wrong for Vera in Pal Joey. You have to believe that Vera gives exciting society parties. Vera is a Kitty Carlisle or Babe Paley. Janney is a PTA mom.

Someone needs to get permission to rewrite/adapt MAME with the original script from AUNTIE MAME which still holds together and is a much better script

Saw Stephen Karam's The Humans in Toronto last week, and am completely baffled by the accolades this entirely mediocre piece of writing got. It took a lot of completist willpower not to leave the theatre mid-play.

How did this end up with the Tony and the Pulitzer?

Because the middlebrow and mediocre frequently rises to the top, R292.

But "The Humans" didn't win the Pulitzer; it lost to "Hamilton."

"Hamilton" is gimmicky. Would it have won if cast with actors the same ethnicity of the people as they were in real life? It's called reverse cultural appropriation.

I have to mostly agree...Hamilton only succeeds BECAUSE of the "gimmick" of the non-traditional casting. (Which really isn't a gimmick since it's written into the fabric of the show.) The use of non white actors is really the only original and creative thing ABOUT Hamilton. That, and the excellence of the staging/choreography and the power of 4 or 5 songs is what makes it a success.

As written, it wouldn't work with a white cast.

[quote]Maybe they'll revive CRAZY FOR YOU for him.

Why? Stemp is totally wrong for that part, too. And for the record, they’re already reviving it (there was a workshop last month), and Tony Yazbeck, who IS right for it, is playing the part.

I did a face palm when Encores announced it was reviving 1776 with a color blind case after Hamilton opened. I mean, come on, really?

What did the black actors culturally appropriate - hip hop?!

And yes, The Humans is the poster child for inexplicably overpraised mediocrity. Was there any critic who dared write how this emperor had no clothes?

Some Broadway Babies celebrate the working girl.....

If you want real dirt on Schumacher, you should ask the dancers who played monkeys in "Tarzan".

Yeah, r300.

Or any of the Newsies.

Why does FROZEN look so horribly.....frozen...in all of the publicity photos? Are they all highly photo-shopped? Everyone and everything just look like they're made of wax.

I know it's based on a cartoon but still. Isn't theater supposed to be live?

Granted, I'm not the target market for Frozen, but I don't think I'd go even if someone gave me a free ticket. (I was meh... about the movie.) I'd go see the Harry Potter plays for free, though, just for the staging and Jamie Parker who was pretty dreamy as one of Alan Bennett's History Boys.

Now the Geffen Playhouse in LA has dropped their planned production of Neil LaBute’s “Fat Pig,” likewise with no explanation. Wonder what’s about to break on LaBute?

There are several problems with FROZEN, and some could be fixed but ultimately won't be.

. First of all, Patti Murin is mediocre at best, and looking like Judith Light in "Who's The Boss?" doesn't help. It's a frantic, subpar performance, and reduces the character to a supporting player, which doesn't help. On the other hand, Caissie Levy gives a career-making performance and is sorely missed whenever she's not on stage. She carries the show.

Grandage has directed beautifully, but he's not given a lot to work with. The sets are cheap looking until the ice arrives, and then the incredible lighting design takes over, which is what really saves the show. When the lighting saves a show, you're in trouble.

The poor actor playing the reindeer deserves to show his face at the curtain call, because he is wonderful. The actor playing Olaf should hide his throughout the show. He's trying to be Nathan Lane.

The score really sucks when you're hearing it live, there are no great songs, except for "Let It Go", which is ruined by Murin. And the book is terrible.

This is one for the kiddies, every adult in the audience looked bored shitless.

R300 and R301 are you joking?

And totally agree about Hamilton.

Funny you mention Jamie Parker. I watched some promo trailers of the upcoming Harry Potter play, and realized I had crossed an invisible line when I found the dad hotter than the guy who plays his son. I was unaware of who Parker was, but he is handsome, and a DILF.

Does anything HAVE to be about to break with LaBute? His plays are hateful, misanthropic, and misogynistic. Even if he were an altar boy, perhaps the theaters are recognizing that it might be tone-deaf to produce one of his hate-filled plays right now.

Yes, but what about the Frozen "nude" number?

I gather from comments at BWW that the nude number opens Act II and is set in a sauna.

Anybody seen performing The Lambeth Walk should be shot on sight.

Well, given America at the moment, that shouldn't be hard to arrange.

On a separate topic, I thought Levy sang Let it Go and not Murin - or does each gal get her turn with the clicktrack?

Lupino Lane and the original London cast perform The Lambeth Walk, broadcast live onsage by the BBC in 1939.

Scintillating.

What's scintillating in that clip, r313, is Teddie St. Denis as Sally. Plus, just the fact that we're looking at a live TV broadcast from 1939. Lupino Lane is insufferable, and the number itself was a lot more fun the way it was staged in the revival.

Murin ,unfortunately, is the only one who sings "Let It Go". As for the sauna number, all the actors are wearing flesh colored body stockings. Weird, because men are half-naked throughout the show. And backstage, I'm sure.

R306-not joking.

The Lambeth Walk in the Broadway revival at the Tony's1986.

That's so odd. I assumed Levy sang it since she has been doing it in concert for yonks now. Oh well. Another reason not to see it. Murin in LYSISTRATA JONES was enough of her to last a lifetime.

But Caissie Levy is playing Elsa, the same part played by Idina Menzel. In the movie Elsa sings "Let it Go," not Anna. Have they switched which character sings it for this production?

TV reviews of the Broadway tour of Me and My Girl when it hit LA, with multiple clips.

Tim Curry is great!

The playbill for Frozen lists Elsa (Caissie Levy) singing "Let it Go.:

Elsa does sing it. I just checked a few of the reviews. Please stop spreading fake news, whoever you are upthread (as opposed to upstream)

r313 I'm pretty sure after seeing that, Hitler started planning his London bombing campaign.

I wonder if r305 actually saw "Frozen," or was just lying? Surely he didn't have his actresses confused?

You would have to deaf, dumb and blind to confuse Levy and Murin. They occupy different planets.

Next, I will post numerous clips of The Lambeth Walk performed by high schools and community theaters across the the country....

Patti Murin plays Anna -- the actual lead. Levy is Elsa and she sing's Let It Go -- and yeah she looks a touch like Judith Light. I think you got your actors confused.

The original movie and story is about Princess Anna. In the animated movie Elsa stole the show from Anna because it was subtly more apparent to kids accustomed to super-heroes that Elsa's super powers provided a bigger conflict to be resolved than Anna's Princess ambitions. With the snow animation it was more clear that one of them was dealing with controlling the weather while the other one was just trying to find herself and marry a prince.

It appears that the Broadway production has no interest in linking Elsa to her dangerous powers in any thrilling or thematic way. (No actual impressive ice castle. No frozen fjord.) So basically the whole super-hero origin story that hooked lots of kids and triggered a fixation on Elsa is lost in translation.

As for the nude scene -- they have a sauna number at the start of Act II where body stockings are worn. A lot of people don't like it.

Surprised that the Tim Curry tour played LA, which was where the original with Robert Lindsay tried out.

R299 Janet Blair really does look and sound like Mary Martin in that clip. Wasn't Blair reported to have said, when someone asked if she was Martin, "No, I'm the one who likes men"?

R328, in of the reviews the critic specifically says he thinks Curry is much better than Lindsay was in previews.

Janet Blair led the original national tour of South Pacific and played Nellie over 1200 times on the road, so it's not surprising she's similar in type to Martin.

R331 Now that you mention it, I remember my parents saw Janet Blair in South Pacific when it came to Chicago. My mom had grown up in a small town in the UP of Michigan with a woman who had married the advance man for the Rodgers and Hammerstein organization, so when a show came through Chicago, my parents got comps--they saw "King and I," "Flower Drum Song," and "My Fair Lady" (I know the latter was not R&H--maybe the husband worked on shows besides R&H). I remember when I was a teen, my mom told me her friend, Esther, told her the company never had to worry about the chorus boys fooling around with the chorus girls.... As close as my mom came to talking about that part of "life upon the wicked stage."

"The use of non white actors is really the only original and creative thing ABOUT Hamilton."

Excuse me, r295?

"His plays are hateful, misanthropic, and misogynistic"

So what? That's arguably HIS worldview and he is entitled to it, just like Strindberg, Buchner, and any other number of playwrights, novelists, painters, etc .

And to bring the topic up to the present day, Janet Blair famously replaced Nanette Fabray (RIP) as Sid Caesar's partner on Your Show of Shows (though maybe by then it was called The Sid Caesar Show?). Her casting was commented upon at the time that each TV "wife" got prettier than the last one (beginning with adorable Imogene Coca).

Now why does that Lambeth Walk number from the revival just make me all emotional? I never saw the show but the sheer theatrical joy of it is quite stunning. I almost had a tear in my eye.

Patti Murin has been married to Curtis Holbrook and Colin Donnell so she must be doing something right.

R337 Clearly she's Frozen but not Frigid

DL fave Ashley Wilkes Day Fairchild is going into the London production 42nd Street as a replacement.

Remember two years ago when Patti M. took on the forum at BWW?

" But then there’s also a nasty faction of “fans” who take our hard work and turn it into gossip, and pissing contests over who can come up with the snarkiest insult or meme or GIF, and bragging rights over who is the most insider-y when it comes to Broadway and theater secrets. It’s snarky. And you know, I like some light snark. But it’s nasty snark. Immature and uninformed people are hiding behind screen names and posting incorrect information, passing on rumors as facts."

We know, r339. It was announced a week ago and reported upthread.

[quote]Remember two years ago when Patti M. took on the forum at BWW?

And BWW got snotty with people who had been there from the beginning and were valuable assets to the site all because they wanted to star fuck third-rater Patti Murin.

[quote]Now why does that Lambeth Walk number from the revival just make me all emotional?

Because it's back when Broadway musicals had spark and energy and talent! There were no screamers among those singers. It was legit musical theater people.

Patti Murinz was a complete hypocrite crying bloody murder about snark on the message boards because her Twitter was a vile and drunken mean girl fest 24/7, she’s a subpar non-starter who is nearly INVISIBLE in Frozen, just a bore. Levy is giving a star power turn and saves the tepid night, the show is a dud, another Tarzan fiasco right now. Blah!

Yes, r342, much drama for weeks, with big write-ups in The Times, Huffpost, etc., posters banned, others leaving voluntarily after years there, a change of moderation policy and much use of smelling salts. I was eating popcorn and staring at the screen with eyes wide open, my mouth agape and my head silently nodding up and down and left and right

All that over WHO?.

So is there any backstage drama at "Angels"? Do Andrew and Nathan get along?

To the poster upstream: Yes, of course that is LaBute's worldview, and he is entitled to it. I don't think he is without talent, and I think some of what he does is quite good. I was just making the observation that some theaters might be reluctant to stage something that will spark an outrage because of the cruelty and misogyny of the piece. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just saying that some theaters might prefer to avoid the drama and the potential bad press.

Saw an interview with Lane on Colberts show and he spoke of "the brilliant Andrew Garfield" in the show so make of that what you will.

Saw a photo on FB of the entire cast of Angels celebrating in the green room after their first preview, actors, understudies, dressers, stage managers, crew......but no Nathan.

Make of that what you will.

R327-You're right. I have my actors confused because I saw a final dress rehearsal where there were no programs. So everything I said still holds except I got the actresses wrong. Patti is wonderful and Caissie has no character to work with. And what she has is underwritten and boring.

The number wears out its welcome a third of the way through. Tiresome and how can anyone in their right mind call it well staged? Cutesy poo and everyone in it deserves to get the hook.

Aren't we all down to earth and fun?

r351, we don't know what you're taking about.

Go to bed. Now.

Curtis Holbrook. Slurp.

[quote]Instead of “Fat Pig,” L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse will present a new play by Amanda Peet called “Our Very Own Carlin McCullough.”

Why wouldn't they produce a play by an actual playwright? This trend of theaters producing plays by C-List actors needs to end.

R351 is a sad old bitch.

Am sure he loves you as well.

Newsflash: #FrozenSoStiff #FrozenSoWhite

It's actually too bad bc that was a great part for Chrissy Metz

Robert Lindsay was so sexy! Didn't see that show but he got sensational reviews and was the toast of NY.

I don't think he ever returned to Broadway or made films. Has he just been doing classical theater in the UK? WEHT?

Robert Lindsay is a TV staple in the UK. He's known for sitcoms mainly, I think. He did the musical of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels over there, unless I'm mixing him up with someone else. He's not toiling away in low paid obscurity.

I just checked his imdb page. He has been working pretty steadily, albeit in programs that haven't crossed the pond as far as I know.

Even though Lambeth Walk is the type of song Noel Coward called "a nasty insistent little tune," the number is wonderful in performance and it made me a bit teary, too.

Just felt like watching this number.....

I was just organizing my Capri pants and it just brought back such memories.

[quote]Robert Lindsay was so sexy! Didn't see that show but he got sensational reviews and was the toast of NY. I don't think he ever returned to Broadway or made films. Has he just been doing classical theater in the UK? WEHT?

A lot of UK tv work. He played the father on "My Family" with Zoe Wannamaker as the mother. That played in the States on PBS for a bit. Unlike Miss Patti LuPone and Miss Linda Lavin, you would never know that Lindsay was a song and dance man because he never demanded to perform in his sitcom. But "My Family" is fun and he's good in it.

I'm watching Miss Baranski on CBS This Morning. Lordy, she looks good.

I was looking at Maryann Plunkett's Broadway credits and she looks like she was a company member back when Tony Randall was trying to make a National Theatre happen in New York. All of those productions were so mediocre. It's too bad Tony didn't invest in the National Theatre but let someone else be Artistic Director.

Maryann was fantastic in "Saint Joan", but she was tortured during the run by sadistic director Michael Langham. He was a nasty piece of shit who always picked one person to inflict psychological torment onto in anything he directed. He caused many an actor to leave the business. And he was a concentration camp survivor. Randall despised him. He had Randall barred from rehearsals during one of his productions. Miss Plunkett continues to refuse to speak at length about her experience in that production, which, btw, also starred a very young Michael Stuhlbarg.

Maryann also replaced Bernadette in Sunday in the Park

I saww Maryann in one of those Apple plays they did at the Public Theater about 4-5 years ago; she was fantastic!

I saw Maryann in Agnes of God. Thrilling!

R337, Curtis is definitely a hottie, as is Colin.

R368, how the hell does a director get the producer barred?

TAMMY.......

Robert Lindsay is the sexiest man out since Charles Laughton!

Ah, The Patti Murin hater/lurker has returned. Can't wait to see what it posts when she gets a Tony nom. Industry word of mouth on Frozen is that it's a B/B- show (won't matter; will run for a decade) but Murin is one of the best things in it. Another lesson in not handing over a new musical to a Brit.

R365, Well, based on her "performances" on Alice, you'd never know Linda Lavin was a song-and-dance man either!

Maryann Plunkett was wonderful in the strange, little seen film "The Family Fang," based on a much better novel.

Tammy's singing at R374 is very reminiscent of Elaine Stritch's during the same period. Both were the 1950s notion of a "song stylist."

[quote]To the poster upstream: Yes, of course that is LaBute's worldview, and he is entitled to it. I don't think he is without talent, and I think some of what he does is quite good. I was just making the observation that some theaters might be reluctant to stage something that will spark an outrage because of the cruelty and misogyny of the piece. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just saying that some theaters might prefer to avoid the drama and the potential bad press.

Ironically, FAT PIG is one of LaBute's least misogynistic scripts, in my opinion. Yes, one of the supporting female characters if a first-class bitch -- but so is one of the supporting male characters. The leading female character is very sympathetic, and the leading male character is portrayed as a nice guy who really loves her despite her weight, but unfortunately their relationship is destroyed by the poison of the guy's friends and coworkers. But I guess a lot of people still think of the play as misogynistic because of the subject matter.

I worked with NAT for its first few seasons (the ones where it actually did more than one production a year). Tony had all good intentions, but he fucked it up from the get go and went from having actors like Tyne Daly, Jon Voight, Matin Sheen, Lynn Redgrave, etc. to KT Sullivan and Karen Prunczik, and trotting out Tony and Jack Klugman when they needed a cash infusion.

Plunkett was a company member for the first two seasons and was in every show except for Three Men on a Horse. She and Lynn Redgrave did stellar work the first season and should have gotten Tony nominations, but Randall refused to comp the Tony nominating committee because he claimed he didn't have enough seats to spare because his subscription audience was so large. The nominating committee of course refused to consider any of the shows that season and the company was super pissed at him. He relented in the 2nd season, but the damage had been done. The only show that season that drew any nominations was Saint Joan and it was too good to deny.

NAT moved from the Belasco to the Lyceum, which was a lateral move at best. Each had three floors so each had three ticket pricing levels, with the balconies going for $20-$25 per ticket in a subscription. Of course what wound up happening once we got to the Lyceum was all the alter cockers who were too cheap to buy tickets in the orch or even the mezz would freak out when they saw how many stairs they had to climb and would insist on being seated downstairs. That started a whole scam of people all buying the cheapest tickets knowing they'd be able to be moved (and once the bloom was off the rose, this was easier and aeasier to do as we sure as shit weren't selling out).

The only successful shows were the ones w/ Tony and Jack. They did three shows together (one was just a benefit of The Odd Couple) and people just adored seeing them together. After the third season, we went to doing one show per year because that's all the money Tony had. The only success was The Sunshine Boys (Tony & Jack). Matthew Broderick came in to do a revival of Night Must Fall which did okay (but for NAT, it was their biggest non-Tony/Jack success since the first season). Randall foolishly moved the production to the Helen Hayes because something else was coming into the Lyceum and it died.

Tony could be very moody and somewhat unstable, but his hear was in the right place. He made sure every show did a free matinee for inner city high school students who just ate it up. And he gave starts to a lot of actors who went on to have great success such as Danny Burstein, Laura Linney, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Martin and others who didn't become stars but went on to have long careers in the theater and he also gave jobs to a lot of his old pals who probably weren't getting hired much anymore. It's a shame the company didn't do better and isn't still functioning. Considering what Broadway has become, I think if they'd done this 10 years later (not that Tony was around), they might have found greater success.

R324, I've heard similar comments about Frozen on other websites so it's very possible that he saw the show.

Does the stage version have the family with gay fathers like the movie does for a split second?

R382, it doesn’t need to; there will be plenty of real ones in every audience.

NAT's "Timon Of Athens" with Brian Bedford and John Franklyn-Robbins was pretty damned good, too.

R373-When the producer was Tony Randall and the director was Langham and after Langham gave notes one day, Tony tried to give his own notes. Langham whipped around, picked Tony up by his arms, and carried him out of the theatre.

Poof! He was banned.

There once was a girl named Plunkett.....

R380, thanks for all that info on NAT from someone who was there. I didn't know some of it and had forgotten the rest, including the part about Randall not inviting the Tony nominators that first season. I do remember Randall saying one main reason for the move from the Belasco to the Lyceum was that the latter had a lobby area where the company could have parties

Count me as someone else who doesn't understand how Langham (or any other director) had the power to ban Tony Randall from rehearsals of a show put on by his own theater company, but maybe Randall allowed himself to be banned as some kind of show of humility on his part.

Lambeth Walk is certainly infectious like an ear worm but what in the world is there about it that would make one tear up?

[quote]Lambeth Walk is certainly infectious like an ear worm but what in the world is there about it that would make one tear up?

I'm thinking the innocence of it as experienced in today's awful, dark, cynical world. Quite a different type of number from what you'll find in a lot of today's musicals.

I've never seen this movie. Janie really was quite the dancer! Why, though, is she the only one in the number that's scantily clad?

The Lambeth Walk makes me tear up (at least in that Tony clip) because of the sheer joy of the performers and the audience's reaction to them. I love the way it builds. Very primal in its appeal, if that doesn't sound too affected. It all feels very real and sincere, not overly FROZEN like a current show I could name.

I'd always thought Lindsay had made his rep in England with classical theater roles and this musical was actually a departure for him.

Plunkett took many years off to raise a family with her actor husbear Jay O Sanders. It's great that she's come back to work.

I did several shows for NAT though only in their last few rather desperate years. Very sad! It all could and should have been so much more successful. I believe a lot of the money was Tony's own from his mega earnings over reruns of The Odd Couple. And that's where Tony met his very young wife Heather who was an intern in the acting company. As far as I could see, they were very much in love and she doted on him.

Is the setting for that Jane Powell number a masquerade ball? There seem to be cast costumed in different historical periods. Maybe that would explain her tights. Also, I guess if she's gonna dance, let's see her legs!! And what about those tight white pants on Ricardo and Carleton?

I absolutely can not believe how tiny her waist is.

I just saw Hamlet with Michael Urie in DC and Gertrude was played by Madeleine Potter who was the ingenue in all of those Tony Randall NAT shows. She had kind of a big build up then and then seemed to disappear. I was surprised to see that she was still acting. She was quite lovely if rather quirky as Gertrude. The production was great and I wish it was coming to Broadway with Urie instead of that half-baked Torch Song.

[quote] And that's where Tony met his very young wife Heather who was an intern in the acting company. As far as I could see, they were very much in love and she doted on him.

Oh yeah, that was a huge fount of gossip material within NAT (not to mention the rest of Broadway), but if Heather was a golddigger (and I don't share that opinion) she was certainly lovely to everyone and seemed to truly care about Tony. of course, all of us were dubious about the two kids, but I suppose if Anthony Quinn could do it at close to 90, than anything is possible.

Lynn Redgrave was a lovely woman but she became very frustrated with Tony and refused to do any more shows after the first season. I do remember that Lynn took a shine to Heather and tried to fix her up with her son. But that is a whole other story.

That fucking Powell bitch stole my song!

......

..rose.......

Katharine Hepburn attended a matinee of Me and My Girl and was enthralled by Robert Lindsay's performance.

[quote]Matthew Broderick came in to do a revival of Night Must Fall which did okay

I saw this. The best thing in it was Judy Parfitt as the old lady. She was fantastic. Broderick was just okay.

It was noteworthy for an opening scene of - supposedly - Broderick fully nude, committing a murder. You really couldn't tell for sure that it was him (it was supposed to be his character Dan). It later turned out that it was a body double. Have no idea who the nude actor actually was.

Madeleine Potter lived in London for a long while and did a lot of stage work here including the BRILLIANT Royal Court premiere of Sarah Kane's 4 48 Psychosis.

Robert Lindsay still does do a lot of stage work here tho' he was dreadful in DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS and it didn't help that he and his male co-star were apparently not on speaking terms. Most recently he played the cinematographer Jack Cardiff in a dreary play called PRISM by Terry Johnson, who wrote HITCHCOCK BLONDE. PRISM got so-so reviews and went nowhere after its Hampstead Theatre run.

I can't remember who did the nude appearance but I can tell you it was definitely not Broderick. I can't remember if it was his understudy or another US. Too many years have gone by.

The idea of Broderick nude on or offstage is kinda scary

I remember during The Sunshine Boys, I used to go to the back of the house on each level to listen to Jack Klugman at different points in the first act to make sure I could hear him and understand him.

He'd had surgery on his vocal cords after a bout of throat cancer and his voice was very, VERY gravelly. It wasn't the most pleasant sound to listen to, but after a couple minutes, you got used to it and he was completely understandable and it didn't hurt his performance one bit.

Inevitably, one or more people would come and complain during intermission that they couldn't understand him. Most tried to be polite about it and asked what was going on with him, but several wanted their money back. I would usually tell them how lucky they were getting to see a legend still able to perform after having had cancer and that they ought to go back in and finish the show instead of complaining because they were likely never going to get an opportunity like this again (and they never did). Jack was a sweetheart and we all felt very protective of him. He worried constantly that he was disappointing the audience. There was a standing ovation every night and as much as I loathe standing O's, you had to do it for Jack (and Tony).

[quote]The idea of Broderick nude on or offstage is kinda scary

I know, right?

I saw Fat Pig off broadway with the repulsive Jeremy Piven, Keri Russell, Andrew McCarthy and a marvelous actress named Ashlee Atkinson. I loved it. The ending seemed a tad abrupt but it was more than worth my $10 TDF ticket. Wasn't it supposed to be revived on broadway a few seasons back with Dane Cook?

I always felt bad for the lovely actress Ashlie Atkinson. After she played that part, whenever she was mentioned in an article she would be referred to as Ashlie (Fat Pig) Atkinson. That's a heck of a way to be recognized.

Also saw Robert Lindsay in the Cameron Macintosh “Oliver!” at the Palladium (Sonya Swaby was Nancy; don’t remember anyone else)

Three Tall Women cancelled first two previews. Technical issues? I remember the original having a very simple set. Of course the drama queen in me is imagining Glenda is being fitted with one of Angie's old ear pieces.

Speaking of 3TW will Laurie Metcalf skip the weekend performances to attend the Oscars?

That was my.....whaddya call it r406? My......soubriquet!

Glenda Jackson recently played King Lear so I don't think learning lines is a problem for her.

[quote]will Laurie Metcalf skip the weekend performances to attend the Oscars?

She really shouldn’t bother.

I want to hear about Andrew Garfield hooking up with hot chorus boys while he's on the old Broad Way.

Are Gavin and his Tony date Henry Gottfried still together? Asking for a friend.

Joy, my darling r388, joy.

Well the Robby Awards were a HUGE sucess!!! If you were in LA you missed a treat. The place was PACKED to the gills and there was so much talent in the room I thought I may go crazy with sheer contentment. SPOILER: (humblebrag) I won in my category. That's all I'll say. I want to thank Rob for assembling a literal cornucopia of talent in that room last night. It is so wonderful to be recognized! You hear that Variety/The NY Times/The Tony's?? There is a star in Los Angeles making it all happen WITHOUT YOU!!! Cheers!

Eldergays, is "Lambeth Walk" one of those you-had-to-be-there numbers? I kind of feel that way about the title song of Hello, Dolly. It's a perfectly pleasant Jerry Herman number, but the way people would describe their ecstatic reactions to it seemed over the top to me. But, then I saw the number in the context of the show and despite not really understanding why, it was undeniably thrilling.

Similarly, Lambeth Walk doesn't look like it really translates on screen, but it clearly went off well with that audience.

BTW, that looks like a HUGE cast on stage for that Lambeth Walk number. Am I mistaken or would it be unusual today to get an ensemble that large? Much more doubling of roles, I'd presume.

Ashley Day’s latest Tweet, after he and Robbie visited Paris: “Missing Paris. Where water becomes champagne, and love became even bigger love.”

Robbie gave him four hearts in response.

Where is the “I’m so concerned they’ve broken up!” Troll now?

I'd say Lambeth Walk = you had to be there, but if done RIGHT? It could work in a cafeteria.

[quote]After she played that part, whenever she was mentioned in an article she would be referred to as Ashlie (Fat Pig) Atkinson.

I feel her pain.

[quote]Christine Ebersole also did Mame somewhere like Papermill and was awful.

Christine Ebersole was awful.

Christine Ebersole is awful.

Christine Ebersole will always be awful.

"Me and My Girl" was the first professional show I ever saw, and I saw it in the West End. So yep, when I hear "Lambeth Walk", it's gonna bring up some feelings, cause when the world is crappy like it is right now, a joyous number is a tonic for the heart and soul.

R209, Lee Roy Reams is a great guy. Have worked with him several times, and he's fun, hilarious and beloved. A raconteur of the highest order. He's also incredibly supportive, and makes an effort to see his friends in whatever they are doing or developing. And, DL should note, he knows all the gossip and sex stories, and they are priceless. Who nice is he? Even Betty Bacall liked him.

R422: A Lee Roy Reams story for you:

A long time ago, Bill Tynes was producing a concert of Friml's old operetta The Firefly, and Reams was in it. Bill didn't know how to deal with The Donkey Serenade, because it's not from the show. (It was written for the film.) But Bill was doing very correct revivals, so he didn't see how he could fit The Donkey Serenade into The Firefly's storyline--which is comp-pletely different from the movie, anyway.

The writer Ethan Mordden was a close friend of Bill's, because they had a violin-and-piano act together, playing in restaurants. Bill told Mordden he was simply not going to do The Donkey Serenade, because it just wasn't part of the show, and Mordden told him he couldn't not do it, because it was the only song from The Firefly that anyone ever heard of.

Lee Roy was in the show, and Mordden told Bill to let him sing The Donkey Serenade AS AN ENCORE once The Firefly itself was over. The idea was that, after all the operetta archness, something as basic and vital (and familiar) would sound nifty, and Lee Roy would sing the heck out of it.

So that[s what Bill did, and Lee Roy brought the house down. He kind of threw the song sheets into the air at the end, with a sort of "Boy, that's a toughie" feeling. It was the best thing all evening.

[quote]will Laurie Metcalf skip the weekend performances to attend the Oscars?

Her two time co-star didn't bother to show up for hers.

[quote]Christine Ebersole also did Mame somewhere like Papermill and was awful.

Hot off the presses, per Waymon Wong . . . After 20 years, Michael Riedel is leaving the NY Post for a radio gig on WOR-AM. Last column is this Friday.

Waymon wishes Michael all the best.

I would say Lambeth Walk is closer to Put on Your Sunday Clothes than to Dolly's title tune, in its joy and exuberance and the way it builds.

Joy for joy's sake, not for the leading lady.

R409 Yes.

[quote]After 20 years, Michael Riedel is leaving the NY Post for a radio gig on WOR-AM. Last column is this Friday.

Wow. First "Theater Talk" and now the NY Post. Michael is really on the move!

All the way to local AM radio!

[quote]So yep, when I hear "Lambeth Walk", it's gonna bring up some feelings, cause when the world is crappy like it is right now, a joyous number is a tonic for the heart and soul.

It's like "We'll Take A Glass Together" from Grand Hotel. And when you see Michael Jeter dance it, it is simply amazing. Thank God for YouTube.

R430, Michael’s not going to have to take such good care of his appearance anymore. Oh, wait.

Methinks Riedel hath gone off the deep endeth.

[quote]"Me and My Girl" was the first professional show I ever saw, and I saw it in the West End.

So, how was Lupino Lane?

Did you all see Bert Keeler's column this morning?

[quote]What well-known Broadway producer is in for an embarrassing moment and a breath-taking surprise at the champagne supper he's tossing tonight for a certain French actress who won't be there?

Somehow Broadway blind items always sound much more salacious and oddly glamorous than they ever turn out to be.

A well-deserved Tony.....

Was this the thread where somebody posted about a very famous composer who the public thought of as a womanizer but was really after the chorus boys?

Why can't you let us know who he is? He's probably dead anyway. All the good ones are. Jule Styne? George Gershwin? Jerome Kern? Loesser? Burton Lane? Berlin? Loewe? Rodgers I wouldn't believe. Too many horny stories by women about that dog.

It can't be Bernstein, Herman, Sondheim or Porter who everybody and their Aunt Ida already knows about.

Dear Ms. Helen Gallagher,

Pick a note.

I have a serious question. Does anyone think all this talk about guns will eventually affect plays and musicals? For example, Annie Get Your Gun or Hamilton that show guns. (AGYG has already cut a song because social justice warriors got offended). Will high schools not be able to do these shows because of their gun use?

Well, we've probably seen the last revival of Assassins.

Unless Sondheim has reason to add one more assassination to the play.

This gives Sondheim reason to write another one of his edgy challenging intellectually tortured musicals. A lot of high school productions requiring the much sought after large cast.

In r425's video, it looks like Ebersole wants to turn her dress slightly and stab that kid in the chest.

"Oops, sorry kid, didn't mean to stab you with my dress."

Who is the French actress and who is the Broadway producer? Am I being dense?

r435?

Did you all read Phyllis Newman's take-down of Carol Lawrence in her BWW interview about Subways Are for Sleeping?

Surprisingly bitchy (even if true) considering Carol's still among the living.

For those who were asking, Lee Pace gets stark raving naked towards the end of Act 1. Super hot body. Beautiful bush. Nice cock.

By the way, meant to say end of Act 1 of “Perestroika.”

Does he go full frontal, R447? Russell Tovey just showed ass in the NT Live showing; don't know if that was changed for the movie audience or you just got a prime view of Lee's front from wherever you were sitting.

I didn’t think it was that bad. She just said Carol was difficult, and refused to let her stay backstage and watch the show while she was on because she didn’t want Newman watching her.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

Wow, nice to hear Lee Pace is showing all, after Russell Tovey just gave us his ass at the NT.

R447 I thought they were all standing with their back to the audience in London?

R421 I love you!

I think Ebersole always seems like B list casting (if you consider Patti, Bernie A list and someone Like Carmello C list). Thoiught she lacked the star quality to pull off 42nd ST(she’s an Apple Annie not a diva) . I did like her in GREY GARDENS but felt she was working hard playing the two Edies whereas Mary Louise Wilson was transcendent and her performance was uncanny.

There’s always something shrill and fish wife with Ebersole (even with her Guenevere) and loathe her Ado Annie.

Don't forget that she's start raving mad and a huge conspiracy theory nut.

That doesn't really bother me, but I've seen her basically sleepwalk through countless roles after the critics have come, which I find unforgivable. Maybe she's just not talented enough to hide it.

Well, I for one think Ebersole is absolutely wonderful and very much in the tradition of Broadway leading ladies of the Golden Age. She's the one who should be playing Dolly on Broadway.

Christine Ebersole had to slink back to Broadway after she got fired from Saturday Night Live

R447 here. We’re on second intermission. Yes, he goes full frontal. At one point he runs across the stage from one side to the other. Doesn’t last long but just long enough. Awesome body,

Andrew Garfield is in full Queen of the Nile mode but it works.

Oh, and many of the same people who were here on Friday night are here again, all sitting in our same seats. And yes, that includes Jordan Roth.

R459 Tell us how the audience reacted at the end, I'm really curious to see the effect after the whole run.

[quote] Russell Tovey just showed ass in the NT Live showing;

They don't do full frontal on NT when it's in the show..

R458 - Please describe Jordan Roth's current emotional support wig. Is he still pretending that's his actual hair? Or, should I be using the "they" pronoun?

Scott Rudin is looking for a new Executive Assistant. $50,000 per year.

If I were young and willing to starve, i would apply for the Rudin job. I doubt I would last long, but how fascinating it would be to have a front row seat for the madness.

Someone should wear a hidden camera. I cannot believe people are still ranting and raving so much these days with tiny cameras and PoundMeToo and all that jazz.

"They don't do full frontal on NT when it's in the show.."

It may have been from the Young Vic. but I saw Brick's peen and posterior, confidently displayed, in the broadcast of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, courtesy the NTLive.

'Ebersole is absolutely wonderful and very much in the tradition of Broadway leading ladies"

No, she is not a leading lady, but a very versatile character actress.

HAPPY 70TH, BERNIE!!!

shhhhh

Two cakes for 70!

[quote]She's the one who should be playing Dolly on Broadway.

If Ebersole had taken over a month ago, it would be closed already. She’s awful, and she doesn’t have star allure.

This is spectacular.

Very mixed to negative reactions to the first preview of Carousel on BWW.

R447 here. Just got in from "Perestroika." This was the first performance and the director, Marianne Elliott, stood up and addressed the audience prior to curtain. She thanked us for coming and warned that it might be a long night. As anyone knows going in, "Angels" is a big-ass behemoth of a play, but still I wonder if she'll try to do perhaps just a little bit of trimming here and there given that tonight's performance ran four and a half hours (in contrast, Part 1 last Friday was a mere 4 hours). If technical mishaps were what she feared, thankfully there were none, it's just the length. (A couple of people in our row left after Act II.)

R459, the audience reacted at the end like most audiences at Broadway shows these days with a long standing ovation (and as happened on Friday, the actors came out three times) but in this case I won't say it wasn't deserved as these actors have a lot of shit to do up there (Kushner's dialogue alone is fucking insane) and they do it exceedingly well. (By the way, there are two Nathans in this production of "Angels" and their scenes together are riveting.)

Not that I'm greedy (Lee Pace made my night) but I wouldn't have minded James McArdle also dropping trou. He's hot (and tonight he remembered his lines).

R461, I wasn't sitting close enough to Jordan to tell whether his hair is a wig or not, but whatever it is, it was long, free and flowing and he seems to draw great confidence from it. Any time I happened to look up and see him during the intermissions, he was always smiling and waving at people around him and behind him. Though there's something undeniably odd about him, to his credit he does appear to be quite approachable.

R473 How was Lee Pace's performance, I mean besides him looking like a Greek god? He actually came out as bi tonight, not sure if the audience knew but it was an interesting coincidence(?) He's new to the cast, everyone else worked together so many times before already.

Ebersole says "Is that all I'm worth to them?" with all the panache of a high school drama student. What an amateurish line reading.

She does better with the singing. Her voice is still in excellent shape (how old is she, about 65?), but the song itself is pretty dull. When that's the highlight of the score, it's easy to see why this show was a disappointment after "Grey Gardens."

How upsetting to turn 70 so publicly when you look 50.

[quote](in contrast, Part 1 last Friday was a mere 4 hours).

What are they doing in the show? I think the original only ran 3 hours.

Did Bernadette consume any of the cake or just make do with half a Kind bar?

My god, those comments on Carousel at BWW are brutal.

[quote]My god, those comments on Carousel at BWW are brutal.

Can you post some of the better ones?

None of us go to BWW since it’s frequented by morons and children.

What Are they saying about carousel

"There's no carousel during the waltz! They cut songs! It's great! It's horrible!"

R483, cut songs? Plural? Ok the geranium song is often cut, but what else?

Stonecutters, apparently.

$50,00 sounds absurdly low for having to put up with the antics of you know whom (as per above). Isn't there such a thing as hardship pay?

And apparently the domestic violence is at one point dialed down from a slap in the face to a SLAP ON THE WRIST.

Literally a slap on the wrist?

The line about a hit that doesn't hurt has apparently also been cut. It makes sense for the climate we're in but is still disappointing.

R489. that is like cutting "I have always relied on the kindness of strangers." or "Show me a happy homosexual and I'll show you a gay corpse." Unfortunately, like it or not, it is central to the play.

I sltill can’t get Ebersole’s endless caterwauling out of my head with that horrendous Summer in an Autumn Town or some such confusing nonsense in Gray Gardens.

Lee Pace came out as bi?

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

They've also cut that useless song "You'll Never Walk Alone." Couldn't find a soprano to hit the high notes, so it just ended up on the scrap heap.

[quote]like it or not, it is central to the play.

You're assuming producers and directors can tell what's central to any work these days.

I love how the DL puts those hyphens in the middle of the hahahahahas.

If they are cutting songs in Carousel, they can cut the Hornpipe dance after Jigger's "Blow High, Blow Low." We cut that when I was in college and nobody missed it. And why are a bunch of sailors standing around dancing anyway?

As long as we're cutting Carousel, they need to cut "Real Nice Clambake." Everyone knows that's a dirty song. A clam in slang for a woman's privates and "we're might glad we came" is just nasty.

"This Was a Real Nice Clambake" is sacrosanct!

Cut that long boring sung section where Julie and Billy are on the park bench, it just bides time til If I Loved You.

Lee Pace is about as bi as Andy Mientus.

[quote]And apparently the domestic violence is at one point dialed down from a slap in the face to a SLAP ON THE WRIST.

No production of CAROUSEL that I know of has ever featured a slap in the face. As per the script, we only hear about Billy hitting Julie, but we never see it happen. The only slap in the script is the slap on the wrist that Billy gives to his daughter Louise when he comes back to earth after his death.

I had a conversation recently with someone who honestly doesn't see the point of the bench scene--called it unrealistic because strangers don't fall in love after a single 10 minute conversation.

[quote]strangers don't fall in love after a single 10 minute conversation.

Wow, I sure did.

Actually r501, the original script had him back-handing her. She falls to the ground and he starts viciously kicking her in the ribs.

The bench scene is one of the great scenes in all of musical theatre.

Hey, I'm reporting what the BWW weirdos are bitching about. Backhand, wrist-slap, whatever--I'm not invested.

They not only didn't cut the horn pipe dance but LENGTHENED it to show off Justin Peck's tepid choreography.

BWW posters also complaining how cheap and drab Carousel looks compared to Hello, Dolly!, which is odd since Rudin produced both and Santo Loquasto designed the sets for both. But I imagine Rudin could reasonably think Carousel could never make the profits of Dolly and Bette.

Maybe Alexander Gemignani is complaining to his Dad, heavily big in the business musical director Paul Gemignani about them cutting "Geraniums in the Winder". He doesn't have much to do besides the duet "When the Children are Asleep" then.

Plus they apparently cut "Woodcutters". How do they do the opening without an actual Carousel on stage? The whole thing is supposed to be mimed with Billy seeing Julie and Carrie on the merry-go-round and Mrs. Mullins getting jealous and throwing them out by the end.

Julie has the bench scene, including "If I Loved You", sings a couple of lines in "You're a Queer One, Julie Jordan" and has the 1-2 minute or so, lovely but non-11 o'clock number " What's the Use of Wondrin'" in the 2nd act. Carrie is really the better part. In the film, closeups of lovely Shirley Jones on the big screen made the part seem longer and more substantial.

The bench scene in Carousel is long because the stage crew needed time to disassemble the carousel from the opening number. If it's not played well, it can drag on....and on....and on....

I always say two heads are better than one to figger it out!

I want to be, no one but me.... Oops, Lassie's barking!

What's the use of wond'rin

If the show will sell or fail?

Or if you the chorus boys are getting tail?

Oh, what's the use of wond'rin

if the hitting will be rude

it's a moneymaking venture

and we won't see any nude.

At the National Theatre, Russell Tovey stripped down but cupped his hands over his penis. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything at The National that had full frontal male nudity but I'll ask a friend who sees everything there.

In the original AIA, wasn't Stephen Spinella the only one who went nude?

In the film he unexpectedly slaps Louise on the wrist with anger when she gets frightened and pulls away from him and the man who has accompanied him back to earth yells 'Failure!'

It's a stunning moment.

I also like the fact that he's killed in the robbery attempt. His stabbing himself is not only awkward(people killing themselves rarely stab themselves in the stomach. It's too hard unless you've trained for sepuku) but a young arrogant man filled with braggadocio caught in a crime would be defiant not committing suicide. It also makes him less sympathetic as he's purposely abandoning his young wife and child.

I totally agree with your assessment r516 except for Gordon MacRae's unforgivable pot belly in those tight carny tees.

To be fair, MacRae was called in after shooting started, to replace Frank Sinatra. He actually went on a crash diet, but there's just so much you can lose in four days.

The point of the bench scene is that Julie is seducing Billy, and using reverse psychology to do it. Julie is not long for the mill (girls were usually kicked out at 18 and replaced by more young "apprentices".) and is desperate to have somewhere to go.

"called it unrealistic because strangers don't fall in love after a single 10 minute conversation."

BILLY: You don't come to the carousel much.Only see you three times before today.

JULIE: I been there much more than that.

BILLY: That right? Did you see me?

JULIE: Yes.

BILLY: Did you know I was Billy Bigelow?

JULIE: They told me.

***

In other words, they already have a history before the Bench Scene, and there's nothing "unrealistic" about the progress of their relationship.

is r520 AlanScott?

I'm not sure which I think is more powerful: Billy killing himself, as in the original script of CAROUSEL, or falling on his own knife while trying to escape, as in the movie. I guess they're both pretty powerful. I suspect it was changed for the movie because they didn't want to show Billy'd death as a suicide? In LILIOM, the title character kills himself by stabbing himself in the chest.

Odd, I thought Alan never left his apartment.....

Killing himself would be more of an impetus for Billy to redeem himself than a passive fall on the blade.

That NewtonUK and his opinions are insufferable (though hilarious) over on ATC.

Everyone knows he's the small-time producer of the wretched and utterly misguided Dames at Sea revival. Nothing UK about him. And he's a grown man...doesn't he have any friends or colleagues he could be letting out gas with instead of the queens and teens on ATC?

[quote]Killing himself would be more of an impetus for Billy to redeem himself than a passive fall on the blade.

Good point, although I think he would be going to purgatory and would need to redeem himself either way because of the bad things he's done in his life, including being abusive to his wife.

Harvey Schmidt has died, at 88.

Let's revive "Celebration"!!!!!

I like that score

Sondheim was at Hello, Dolly! the other night. Has anyone checked Charlie Stemp for cigarette burns?

"Celebration" is rather hopelessly rooted in the 1960s, with its simplistic fable of youth vs. age and wealth vs. poverty. It's very much from the Flower Children era, without being nearly as much fun as "Hair."

How did Sondheim look? He's within weeks of his 88th birthday, isn't he?

Does anyone else think Billy’s soliloquy is one of the most self-indulgent and overrated songs in the Broadway musical canon? I always find it endless. It’s no Rose’s Turn that’s for damn sure.

I would imagine the young Stephen Sondheim - being an acolyte of Hammerstein and having been weaned on Carousel - had Soliloquy very much in mind when he and Jule Styne worked on Rose's Turn, so your dismissal above seems doubly wrongheaded.

I think Sondheim had Soliloquy in mind when he wrote Being Alive. Both songs are bombastically theatrical.

You're completely missing the mythic subtext that underscored ALL of Jones and Schmidt's shows, r530. CELEBRATION is not just timely, rooted in the zeitgeist of the 60s, but timeless in its archetypes and set against the eternal cycle of nature.

MikeR's dance belt smells like recently baked baguette. He once told me that his perineum had always emitted a pleasant freshly baked bread scent, though if it's an especially humid day, it takes on a nuttier pumpernickel smell. His foreskin's another matter...

SOLILOQUY and BEING ALIVE are not in the least bombastic but inevitable and theatrical in their discovery and realization. Characters caught on the horns of a dilemma or conflict need to work their way towards resolution.

Inga...

Actually, MikeR hasn't been posting over at ATC for a quite while, it seems like for several months at least. Maybe someone called him on his writing style-- while he's supposed to be in person a reasonably nice guy, his writing can be rather condescending and Mrs. Slocum (as in "I am unanimous in that") without Molly Sugden's charm.

MikeR can be quite... assertive offline as well. Fun fact, he's been moisturizing since middle school.

Here's a queer one, Nettie Fowler.

If this reprint is accurate (which it may not be, but I just saw it online), why does Renee F's CAROUSEL bio claim that this is her "Broadway debut" when it so obviously is not? Is she trying to write that Douglas Sills play out of existence, the way Nicholas Hytner no longer mentions the Donna Murphy film CENTER STAGE in any of his London bios

>> Renee Fleming (Nettie Fowler): Fleming, A National Medal of Arts recipient, is also the winner of the 2013 Grammy Award (her fourth) for Best Classical Vocal Solo. She has sung for momentous occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee Concert for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. Fleming has recorded everything from complete operas, orchestral works, and classical songs to jazz, indie rock and the soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings. Her concert will include classical songs, opera arias and popular selections from musicals. This is her Broadway debut.

[quote]Is she trying to write that Douglas Sills play out of existence

It was directed by Kathleen Marshall, the most boring director on Broadway, so Renee was probably so bored she forgot about that show.

She may have forgotten about it, but the bio is fraudulent. Why not just say her Broadway MUSICAL debut, since the Sills thing was a play. Problem solved. (The weirdest thing about that show, by the way, was her billing, which was no bigger or better than any of her THREE "co-stars" .... she must have a really inept agent!)

[quote]Nicholas Hytner no longer mentions the Donna Murphy film CENTER STAGE in any of his London bios

Victor Garber doesn't list the Godspell movie in his bio. But maybe that's because he's trying to convince Charlie Stemp that he's only 50 and there's no way he was old enough to play the lead in a movie musical from 1973.

Center Stage is so awful, it’s entrancing. It really is compulsively watchable in its kitschiness.

Maybe she just turned in the same bio she had used for the awful Sills play, and didn't notice that it said it was her Broadway debut.

[quote]How upsetting to turn 70 so publicly when you look 50.

Better than turning 50 publicly when you look 70.

Given how sloppy young people are about details nowadays, Fleming most likely did call Carousel her Broadway musical debut, and some intern didn't transcribe the wording properly.

.....it's here.

Donna Murphy as a dancer? With that posture?

R531, I saw him last August when he attended a performance of Company in the Berkshires, starring Aaron Tveit. He looked rough and disheveled.

Sondheim has looked rough and disheveled for several decades now.

I'm a singer who dances, r550!

One of the BWW reports said Geraniums and Stonecutters were listed in the program, even though they aren't in the show. I can't imagine R&H approving those cuts.

"Largely glorious cast with soaring voices - “Soliloquy” was simply stunning. I have some quibbles - the Starkeeper has been added into large quantities of the first act and should really be cut. “Blow High, Blow Low” has been lengthened to 6/7 minutes and brought the show to a crawl - but the audience loved it. Lindsay sang a verse of “When the Children Are Asleep” that I had never heard before! The set is beautiful, though the Carousel is not a big spectacle moment - we only see the top of the carousel come through the ceiling, the actors dance in a circle below it."

At midnight tonight, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Weird Al Yankovich are dropping "The Hamilton Polka."

I hope no one catches it, r556.

I saw him in the summer and thought the same, [r551]. And it's a different kind of rough and disheveled, [r552]. I wonder if he's not able to take care of himself.

--531

Hey, bitches! Don't blame me, I didn't write the fucking play!!

r553, I always felt so sorry for the poor chorus boys who had to wear the white vests and bow ties with the black shirts in that Lucy/Jessie number.

WHET Megan Hilty? I haven't heard a word about her in a long time.

According to her website, Megan's on a concert tour. She plays the Café Carlyle in April. To be honest, I'd rather see her in some of those never-gonna-happen shows penciled in for Kristin Chenoweth (Tammy Faye musical, Whorehouse revival, etc.).

Saw Three Tall Women tonight. It was over two hours without an intermission and there was a three or four minute “pause” to adjust the set. The play is overwritten. The seats at the Golden are not all that comfortable. However Allison Pill is excellent, Laurie Metcalf is fantastic and Glenda Jackson is INCREDIBLE. Really. It will end up being one of the five greatest performances I’ve seen in over fifty years of theatergoing. Metcalf did go up on a line towards the end of the performance and was aided by a very cute prompter in the front row. Jackson seemed to be letter perfect and I think she had way more dialogue than the other two. She really is something. A towering performance never to be forgotten. She has the Tony for sure.

Mrs. Norman Maine on 'Center Stage'

So who will Glenda’s competition be? Does anyone else even have a remote chance?

I hope Lee Pace gets good reviews for AiA. Russell Tovey was just awful (miscast as well as being misdirected). I thought James McArdle was fucking brilliant as Louis. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt like Louis was a tragic character.

I loved Center Stage. Great cinema it is NOT, but it's a fun, silly film that's got some great dance sequences (and some terrible acting). I think Hytner is a good film director, but Christ, he does the dullest DVD commentaries ever.

Hytner himself has more or less disowned CENTER STAGE as well as most of his film career, which is pretty odd given that it began on a high with the much Oscar-nommed MADNESS OF KING GEORGE. As for Sondheim,, his just-got-outta-bed look is nothing new, but the semi-closed eye is a function of age. We all get there if we live that long.

Hytner ought to disown The Lady in the Van. It was an execrable piece of shit.

His film version of The Crucible was wonderful, though.

yes agree re CRUCIBLE -- which is of course also where Daniel Day-Lewis met his wife. Joan Allen TREMENDOUS in it, as was Scofield.

I want to second R563's post: Glenda Jackson is EVERYTHING. It's one of those towering performances never to be forgotten. I don't think the play is overwritten, but it did feel long, though I'm certain that will change once the actors are a little more confident with their lines and the rhythms of the play. No other actress need bother to compete for that Tony this season. It is done. Do not miss Jackson, DL folks.

Billy died accidentally in the film of Carousel because Fox didn't want a "C" (Condemned) rating from the Catholic Legion of Decency. They were still a powerful censorship organization in the 1950s and surveys had shown that their C rating of Oklahoma! had affected its box office. (They didn't take kindly to Poor Jud Is Dead with Curly trying to convince Jud to kill himself.)

Suicide is a mortal sin, you know.

"Poor Jud Is Dead" is such a fascinating song. It's pretty funny and more than a little fucked up.

So another year for the Brits, since Garfield will win Best Actor despite all the hand-wringing, past and future, about his performance on this board. Josh Henry and then who's the fourth?

I keep hearing how great DL fave Patti Murin is as Anna in Frozen. Is she the new Best Actress in a Musical front runner?

Garfield was actually born in Los Angeles, to a British mother and American father, though he grew up in the UK. As far as Glenda Jackson, she's been Tony-nominated for all four of her previous Broadway appearances and never won. I don't think there's anything that will stop her this year.

I'm sure they'll never revive it, but Megan Hilty should play the mother in Blood Brothers.

Glenda Jackson is a goddamn superwoman.

Don't count out Condola Rashad as St. JOan. Especially if Laurie Metcalf is also nominated for Best Actress and she and Glenda cancel each other out.

Is Charlie Stemp the man to finally get a Best Replacement Tony?

I don't see Laurie and Glenda Jackson canceling each other out. I mean, Glenda Jackson IS Glenda Jackson.

Don't be silly, r580. There won't be a Best Replacement Tony, and if there were, it would go to Bernadette before it ever went to Charlie Stemp.

How does is Glenda's American accent? I can't quick picture her with one.

Uh uh, R579. Condola Rashad could never be a threat to Glenda Jackson. Nobody could.

R583, her accent is fine. It helps she’s playing an upper class old lady so her “grand tones” work fine. She’s utterly mesmerizing. She gets enormous laughs throughout, sometimes with just a look. And her final monologue packs a huge wallop.

What do Broadway actors do with all the crap that fans give them at the stage door?

The same thing we all do with crap.

R585, Are you kidding? I love my bedazzled dildo.

[quote]You're completely missing the mythic subtext that underscored ALL of Jones and Schmidt's shows, [R530]. CELEBRATION is not just timely, rooted in the zeitgeist of the 60s, but timeless in its archetypes and set against the eternal cycle of nature. —It's called metaphor.....

I guess that explains why the show has been revived so many times since 1969. Metaphor or not, it still sucks.

But CELEBRATION makes for a very entertaining recording!

[quote]timeless in its archetypes and set against the eternal cycle of nature

In other words, boring.

For those who have seen THREE TALL WOMEN, which sounds tremendous, does it matter at all that all three of the actresses are anything but tell and Ms Jackson is in fact pretty diminutive? In the original NY and London productions, Myra Carter, Maggie Smith, Marian Seldes and Frances de la Tour all lived up to Mr Albee's title. I am sure this time around it's their acting that stands tall even if they don't. Ms Jackson was an incredible Lear and is clearly on a roll.

I'm the one who brought up "Celebration." It really does have a charming score, but the book is not very good. It falls into the "fantastiks"/"Roar of the Greasepaint" allegory-that- makes-you-cringe genre. I'd suggest it to Encores but with someone having fun with the book. Perhaps a post-Molly Jeff Whitty? Also Glenda Jackson gave us a charming singing voice in "Marat/Sade," who no more musicals? Anything else this weather-filled morning? Anybody remember a Watergate told as nuns movie called "Dirty Habits?" Loads of theater gals in that.

Sorry "Nasty Habits"

[quote]"fantastiks"

Someone wrote a musical about an all-purpose cleaner?

Just bought Nasty Habits on DVD a few weeks back. Geraldine Page and Sandy Dennis are terrific, but the movie itself is pretty labored.

You know how black chicks are, r592.

[quote] It falls into the "fantastiks"/"Roar of the Greasepaint" allegory-that- makes-you-cringe genre.

I just find the allegory of "Celebration" much more cringe-worthy than that of "The Fantasticks" or even "Greasepaint." So heavy-heanded, with character names such as Orphan and Rich.

And Gilbert Price as The Negro

No, not cringe-worthy one little bit

Bajour, Negroes!

Bajour toujours!