Theatre Gossip 292, "All this dull talk of Carousel is making me long for Follies Chatter" Edition

Looking forward to seeing Lee Pace naked in "Angels". Anyone else get nude on stage lately these days?

I saw Three Tall Women at the Promenade back in 1995. Myra Carter had left and Seldes had moved to the older woman. Joan Van Ark had taken over for Seldes and Jordan Baker was still the young woman. It was one of the most thrilling evenings I've had in the theatre. I very much want to make it back to NYC this Spring to see this production.

If Glenda Jackson hadn't quit acting to go into politics for 25 years, she would easily be mentioned in the same breath as Helen Mirren, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Her absence has made the public largely forget about her, despite the fact that she has two Oscars.

I hope she gets at least one more killer film role before she packs it in for good.

[quote]Her absence has made the public largely forget about her

I should say the *American* public. I'm sure she's still very well-known in England.

Glenda Jackson *is* Nettie Fowler in Carousel!

Glenda's rendition of "I'm Still Here" is the definitive version.

Glenda Jackson *is* The Negro

Love Glenda, but the sight of her pubes in "The Music Lovers" still haunts me.

or her tits and underarm hair in "Women in Love"

R8 and R9 are Tories, no doubt.

Two things. One: What is all this "bajour" business? Did I miss where and when it started? What does it mean?!? And: Carousel. I know it's a classic. I know it's beloved. But: I think it is tedious beyond belief. I was uncomfortable with the abuse long before the me too movement. It always seemed wrong, and I never could care for either Billy or Julie. I have seen some decent productions, but maybe I have not see that one production where I will say: oh, I get it. I doubt, though, that I ever will. I just do not like the musical. (I've also long had that same problem with My Fair Lady. I've seen pretty much every NY area production, hoping to one day like it more than I do. I will, of course, see Lauren Ambrose, hoping that she will bring something to the role that makes me appreciate the musical more.

[quote][R8] and [R9] are Tories, no doubt.

Or homos.

Reprising my question about having three short actresses in THREE TALL WOMEN - does anyone notice? do they look from a distance as teeny tiny as they are (especially La Jackson)?

[quote] Reprising my question about having three short actresses in THREE TALL WOMEN - does anyone notice? do they look from a distance as teeny tiny as they are (especially La Jackson)?

They all wear stilts in this production, Rose.

They are all more or less the same height—Glenda and Allison are 5'6' & Laurie is 5'7'—so I don't think it matters much. If one of them was 6' and the others six inches shorter, then maybe it would be an issue.

I passed on the revival - Linda Hunt

Amazing that Sinatra could turn something like Soliloquy into a standard at his concerts and out of context still make it thrilling for a mass audience.

And for the poster who doesn't like Carousel or MFL are there any old classic musicals you do like or are they all just hopelessly dated for you?

If the obcs of those shows do nothing for you I don't think anything will.

[quote]What is all this "bajour" business? Did I miss where and when it started? What does it mean?!?

Bajour was a 1960s flop musical starring Herschel Bernadi, Nancy Dussault, and Chita Rivera. Michael Bennett and Leland Palmer were dancers in the chorus.

I heard the NY Philharmonic play Carousel years ago and the music was so rich and thrilling. I’ve loved it ever since.

That said,I’m going to miss the latest production just because I don’t need to see Carousel ever again.

R2, Marian Seldes has to share the stage with Joan Van Ark???

Buzz after the first preview is this version of Three Tall Women is incredible!

I love Carousel and MFL but don't need to see either again.

[quote] [R2], Marian Seldes has to share the stage with Joan Van Ark???

Van Ark is actually a very accomplished theatre actress and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, a Tony nominee and an all around terrific actress. Don't let the recent plastic surgery disasters fool you. And she more than held her own on that stage.

I agree that the abuse in Carousel is troublesome (although I don't find anything in the show tedious or slow) and have always been a bit surprised that the authors included the dialogue. But they did and I'm not sure something organic to the characters should be eliminated.

Sheldon Harnick set this lyric in Fiorello (late 50s?): "And if he likes me, who cares how frequently he strikes me? I'll fetch his slippers with my arm in a sling, just for the privilege of wearing his ring." (I'll Marry the Very Next Man). He subsequently re-wrote it without doing any harm to the song, but that was an entirely different matter than eliminating a plot/character point.

Glenda Jackson hasn't been 5'6" in a long long time --- closer to 5'2" (if that) --- check out the pix of her as Lear with Rhys Ifans as her fool where he towers over her. I have been with her twice recently and she's an itty bitty thing -- people do shrink as they get older, don'tcha know?

but not their tits!

I honestly don't know why that plot point was put in there. I have never known any woman to be anything other than humiliated by a slap. I mean was there ever a time when someone said his slap was like a kiss? Well maybe in humiliation porn.

I didn't check out her tits ....... they were quite effulgent in WOMEN IN LOVE

I'm the guy who doesn't care for MFT or Carousel. I do love old musicals. South Pacific is probably my favorite of all time. THere's just something about the other two that do not appeal to me. I don't mind that they're dated -- many of the great classics are, and that's what often gives them their charm -- it might just be that I don't care for a lot of art that uses class distinctions as a plot device. And, it could just be that I have heard them so many times that I'm sick of them, and don't recall the time when they might have held a thrill, although I could listen to South Pacific every day for the rest of my life and still enjoy it.

He hit me, and it felt like a kiss.

R28 meet R9 !

[quote]I agree that the abuse in Carousel is troublesome

That behavior was acceptable in non-drama entertainment. Even later, look at I Love Lucy. In one episode, Ricky puts Lucy over his knee and spanks her.

And did Henry Higgins threaten to hit Eliza in My Fair Lady?

Well The New York Times and Disney pulled it off.

He threatens to wring her neck. She replies "Wring away", but in a way that says "go fuck yourself, Higgins" and he retreats, calling for Mommy by the end of the scene.

What was the Angels in America stage door like after Lee Pace's coming out yesterday? Anything scandalous?

He didnt "come out"

That behavior does, indeed, go back, r32.

I don’t love My Fair Lady either. I do love the music but the entire thing, as a whole, leaves me bored.

It was obviously a big deal in its day. Maybe I’m jaded. Most books of the classic musicals are weak, I think. I’m always surprised when I finally see a musical, the music of which I loved for years. It’s usually a bore.

r38. MFL does drag about the time you get to the purpose of the show, the embassy ball, which ironically many productions cut because they realize what a slog it is to that point. I think it's having to sit through the Ascot Gavotte and then 15 minutes later having to sit through the Embassy ball.

[quote]I'm the guy who doesn't care for MFT or Carousel. I do love old musicals. South Pacific is probably my favorite of all time. THere's just something about the other two that do not appeal to me. I don't mind that they're dated -- many of the great classics are, and that's what often gives them their charm -- it might just be that I don't care for a lot of art that uses class distinctions as a plot device.

I would say that class distinction is only a very minor point in the story of CAROUSEL, if at all.

In CAROUSEL, it's Billy's daughter Louise who, after the ghost of Billy slaps her, tells her mother, Julie, that the slap "felt like a kiss." The really controversial line in the show comes after that, when Louise asks her mother if it's possible for someone to hit you "real hard" and not have it hurt at all -- and Julie replies that, yes, it's possible. I'm pretty sure we all know what she means, but it sounds so dicey. And people have been troubled by that line ever since the show opened, so it's not because of changing perspectives on man/woman relationships.

[quote]I'm pretty sure we all know what she means

And I'm perfectly sure I don't.

Oh for god's sake. At the point that Billy hits Louise, he's a ghost. How come nobody realizes that? Did they sleep through the whole death and Heaven sequence?

I'm the poster who said he doesn't like art that uses class distinctions as a plot point. Yes, R40, I agree that class is much more important in MFL than in Carousel, but, IIRC, issues of class are still a factor in the latter. It has been so long since I've seen it that I forget much of the plot, but isn't the secondary couple one of mixed class - Mr Snow I think his name is?!? -- that it presents marrying up as a way for Julie to escape her position. And, Julie and Billy are who they are because of their poverty, and their inability to rise from their station. We can split hairs and say that really isn't about class distinctions, but i think I meant that point mostly about MFT, and only secondarily about Carousel. Julie's inability to escape her poor fate is depressing, and I'm not comfortable with it. I grew up wealth, and am not comfortable seeing drama in which people struggle like that. It makes me feel guilty and anxious. I know I was lucky, but that is all..I was just lucky.

[quote]I grew up wealth, and am not comfortable seeing drama in which people struggle like that.

That's a central problem of our society. Rich people want to pretend that poor people don't exist—in life and in art.

I've never been a huge fan of Carousel (June Is Bustin' Out All Over and This Was A Real Nice Clambake both make me want to eat my head from boredom), but the Hytner production at Lincoln Center was thrilling. Afterward, I thought, Well, now I never have to see Carousel again, that was as good as it gets. I felt the same way after seeing the RSC's production of Macbeth with McKellan and Dench. Anyone else have a definitive production that was so good you never want to see that work again for fear of ruining the memory?

[quote]Anyone else have a definitive production that was so good you never want to see that work again for fear of ruining the memory?

The Heiress with Cherry Jones, Philip Bosco and Frances Sternhagen. It was so beautifully acted and designed. It was one of those productions that should have been broadcast on PBS, it was just that excellent.

Yes, the original casts of Sunday and Light in the Piazza.

COMPANY at the Kennedy Center in 2002 was as good as I can imagine the show will ever be (way too young to have seen the original 1970 production). Perfectly cast. John Barrowman IS Bobby. Neil and Raul didn't even come close, enjoyable as they were. Alice Ripley's "Not Getting Married" was a master class (best she's ever been; perfectly cast). And, conducted by Jonathan Tunick with the complete original orchestrations (and pit singers)! Perfection.

I wholeheartedly agree about THE HEIRESS. The more recent production, with Jessica Chastain, was nowhere near as good, and that probably had a lot to do with the Moises Kaufman's direction. Gerald Gutierrez did an excellent job with the Jones production.

I think what Julie means when she says in CAROUSEL that it's possible for someone to hit you without it hurting at all is that it didn't hurt when Billy hit her because she knew he really loved her and understood that he was striking out in anger and frustration. I'm NOT saying I agree with this, but I can't imagine any other interpretation of her meaning.

Yes, there are some class issues in CAROUSEL, especially in regard to Billy being a n'er do well and an outlier in the community. Good point about Carrie marrying Mr. Snow, although it's worth noting that he's not yet rich when she agrees to marry him. That happens later, according to his plan.

The very misguided Grecian urn graphics of this revival's poster just about says it all.

What the hell is this oddball number from?

The class issue with Carrie and Mr. Snow is about how draining her class ascent is. She is transformed from a vivacious, love struck girl to a rueful, almost clinically depressed woman who needs to get her husbsnd’s approval to see a Broadway show she loves. So much for all those fishes.

Well.....let's see, r48......

[quote]The class issue with Carrie and Mr. Snow is about how draining her class ascent is. She is transformed from a vivacious, love struck girl to a rueful, almost clinically depressed woman who needs to get her husbsnd’s approval to see a Broadway show she loves. So much for all those fishes.

Not to mention the fact that she winds up bearing him nine children. She jokes about it, but I mean -- NINE CHILDREN!

[quote]Joan Van Ark had taken over for Seldes .... It was one of the most thrilling evenings I've had in the theatre.

Now THERE'S a sentence you don't hear every day!

So have we just given up on the traditional formatting of the theater gossip thread title (capital letters, number sign?) What has the world come to?

So true r55.....

Thanks for the clip, R53! Better than I even remember it, with Alice taking the ending up the octave and a well-tanned Matt Bogart in his underwear. Delish.

I’m the poster who attended last night’s preview of Three Tall Women. Re their height it never crossed my mind that there was much of a disparity. Maybe sitting in the second row of the front mezzanine helped. Allison Pill wears heels in the first part. In the second part Metcalf wears heels. Jackson’s character makes a big deal about having shrunk. I can’t stop thinking about Jackson’s extraordinary performance. The audience roared its approval that I haven’t heard in a very long time. I do think it’s mainly for Jackson-the audience seemed a majority of 40 plus in terms of age so I think most were well aware of Jackson. There is such an added sense of occasion when one is aware this is her first NY performance since giving up acting many years ago. And she just gives and gives in this performance. I found it to be all very touching. And her “pee pee” monologue has to be seen and heard to be believed. One of the funniest fucking things ever.

[quote]Bajour was a 1960s flop musical starring Herschel Bernadi, Nancy Dussault, and Chita Rivera

And me! Don’t forget me! I filled in for Nancy for a month!

[quote]check out the pix of her as Lear with Rhys Ifans as her fool where he towers over her

She could be 5’9 and Rhys Ifans would still tower over her.

R51, we can boil it down to three shows -- Carol Burnett, The Kraft Music Hall or "Bing Crosby - Cooling It."

Ashley Day posted a pic on Instagram today from rehearsals for 42nd Street and Robbie Fairchild responded with “You’re adorable.” Awwwe,

Normally, I don't believe in fortune telling. But this is like Mary Martin called the psychic network hotline and got the lowdown on Lucille Ball.

The fabulous Maureen Anderman is Glenda's standby and Mary Gordon Murray is covering Laurie Metcalf. Will MGM be on this weekend while Laurie flies out to LA to lose the Oscar to Alison Janney?

Well r62, they don't appear to be the Ernie Flatt dancers, so.......

I had no idea that Maureen was married to Frank Converse.

Maureen Anderman *IS* fabulous, R65. Very underappreciated. She was brilliant (as was everyone else) in the Sam Mendes/Kevin Spacey RICHARD III.

She was one of Albee's favorites, having originated SEASCAPE (Pulitzer).

Class act all the way.

God, I totally forget Mo Anderman was in R III --- the best one in that production by far was Haydn Gwynne as Elizabeth.

Poor Mary Martin had a face for radio, not the big screen.

She's the poor man's Deborah Kerr, r68.

>> I do think it’s mainly for Jackson-the audience seemed a majority of 40 plus in terms of age

Just like every bleedin' Broadway show therefore. I mean who else can afford the ticket prices. Even the 40-somethings are hard-pressed unless trustafarians or Wall Streeters.

I think the point is that Julie forgives Billy; he's not painted as a hero, but as a deeply flawed human being who tries to do right by his widow and daughter. And as I recall, he ends up getting into heaven, right?

[quote] Joan Van Ark had taken over for Seldes .... It was one of the most thrilling evenings I've had in the theatre.

Well, I didn't exactly phrase it like that, but I stand by my assessment, and Van Ark more than held her own alongside Seldes.

Miriam Seldes wasn't that great of an actress. She was a poor man's Katharine Hepburn.

And she rented a room from Shelley Winters to boot!

Seldes wasn't remotely like Hepburn except that - unlike Mesdames Jackson and Metcalf - they were, indeed, both tall !!!!

Seldes was like Hepburn. Both were patrician. Both had that same grandeur acting style.

They were both tall. End of comparison. And had the letter N in their first names.

As 3 Tall Women is in previews, there is no show on Sunday.

Laurie, the Oscar is yours to lose.

R447 from the previous thread here. Someone asked about Lee Pace's performance in "Angels in America." He was excellent, bringing just the right amount of self-flagellation and unconscious sexiness to the role and when he sheds those clothes ... hot damn. He and James McArdle (who's also outstanding as well as hot) have great chemistry and you could almost root for their relationship if it wasn't so fucked up. (My apologies for the delayed response by the way.)

[quote]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.

Though Garfield is fine as Prior, I'm not convinced that he will win the Tony -- Nathan Lane may be in his way. Being a movie star is by no means a guarantee of a win (see Tom Hanks) or even a nomination (see Daniel Radcliffe), so Lane, a stage vet, could have the edge. (I'd admittedly be shocked if Garfield wasn't at least in the running, though.) On the featured side, I think Lee Pace, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (who commands that stage every time he steps on it), Denise Gough and James McArdle are sure to be nominated. Hopefully, Susan Brown, who is outstanding as Hannah Pitt as well as various other roles, also will be recognized.

Ugh, that whole cast was lackluster. Lane had his moments. Susan Brown was very good in Pt. 1 but she really blew it in Pt. 2. I did like the woman who played the angel quite a bit. Gough was massively overrated and Garfield is just a straight up shitty actor. Unless they brought in a new director I don't know how much their performances could have improved from London to NYC.

[quote] I did like the woman who played the angel quite a bit.

A few years ago, she was in the British murder mystery tv show "Above Suspicion" with Ciaran Hinds.

I've been seeing her pop up in a lot of stuff since I saw AiA. She's got a great face.

Garfield is exquisite. Honestly. A very DL-worthy bitchy queen take on the role but given the dynamics of the production it hits a mark. He's not a great stage actor (yet), but the choices are wise and work. No Cherry Jones (or Stephen Spinella), but it's more than respectable. You can see why Nichols cast him in the PSH SALESMAN. He has an undeniable presence. Also, Lane is very masc, surprisingly, so the juxtaposition with a very fey Prior hits the right chords. It works.

In the scene with Louise Billy is not a ghost. He is very much there and his interest in her begins to frighten her and she tries to escape. He slaps her wrist and it is very real.

The class distinctions are a very important plot point in Louise's ballet. I don't know how that isn't obvious to everybody. Look at it in the film.

I never need to see Carousel on stage again because I saw the perfect production years ago at Jones Beach with John Collum and Constance Towers which my parents brought me too. The opening which I've written about here already was one of the most extraordinary things I've ever seen in my life and can never be done again anywhere.

The very large stage was separated from the orchestra and audience by a lagoon in which sets floated in on barges. The larger scenes took place on the main stage in the water. I won't go into the details but the reveal of the spinning full size Carousel when the brooding prelude bursts in to the waltz was not to be believed.

They also used the original DeMille choreography my favorite moment of which is not in the movie. Maybe the censors found it too strange and twisted.

Sorry John 'Cullum.'

Glenda Jackson appeared on Broadway in a Eugene O.Neil plat Strange Interlude.

I saw part of that on PBS r87.

This is Glenda's fifth play on Broadway—but her first since 1988. She was nominated for a Tony for all 4 of her prior performances.

[quote]In the scene with Louise Billy is not a ghost. He is very much there and his interest in her begins to frighten her and she tries to escape. He slaps her wrist and it is very real.

And yet when Louise goes crying to Julie and Julie comes running out, Billy says, "I don't want her to see me" and the Starkeeper says, "Then she doesn't." And Louise is left standing there baffled because she can't find the man that just slapped her. Do human beings in your world appear and disappear whenever they feel like it?

When in heaven's name did Cherry Jones play Prior Walter??? In some prior life, I hope LOL!

OMG! Frances McDormand played Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire" on Broadway opposite Blythe Danner's Blanche! What a weird production that must have been.

Yeah, Blythe Danner kept bumping into Ghost Homosexual Husband.

It was a terrible production of Streetcar, and McDormand was the only one who walked off with good reviews.

A friend of mine saw AiA this week and he said Garfield has toned it down somewhat and refined his performance so my guess is that someone related to the production is a DL'er, because it sounds like they took all our criticisms to heart. I still won't sit through it again. I do love Lee Pace, but he's not enough.

Did anyone see the 2005 revival of Albee's Seascape? Or any regional productions? I'm interested in whether or not that play has held up over time.

Aidan Quinn played guido Stanley in the Danner/McDormand Streetcar

Did he show his ass like James Farentino did?

Really nice..

I’d love to have seen Glenn Close play Stella in the McCarter production of Streetcar. I think Shirley Knight played Blanche.

Maxine Peake played Blanche last year in the UK. I would have liked to have seen her.

And Frank Converse was Mitch in the Danner/McDormand STREETCAR.

R80 Thanks!

When will Imelda Staunton be playing Blanche? Before or after she plays Vera in Pal Joey?

[quote]Aidan Quinn played guido Stanley in the Danner/McDormand Streetcar

Would've been better with Aileen Quinn.

.....or Quinn Cummings

How about FOLLIES starring Quinn Cummings, Linda Blair, Danny Bonaduce and Ricky Schroder

And Frank Converse is and was married to new DL fave Maureen Anderman!

And they are two of the nicest people.

[quote]She jokes about it, but I mean -- NINE CHILDREN!

Even five is four too many.

R53 - if it wasnt for her props there'd be no humor nor nuance in that clip.

She hits everything too hard .

Also, in the comment section she expresses anger thats its been posted illegally.

But great breath control. I'll give her that!

r110, that's what I thought. She's trying way too hard in that song, especially when she screams "Next to my suicide note." That's such a funny line and she just kills the laugh.

[quote] In the scene with Louise Billy is not a ghost. He is very much there and his interest in her begins to frighten her and she tries to escape. He slaps her wrist and it is very real.

Of course he is a ghost in the sense that he's dead. That's what I meant. I guess you could say he's a ghost or spirit who materializes for that scene. But the reason Louise says the slap didn't hurt at all is because it doesn't feel like an actual, physical slap to her -- because Billy is a spirit.

[quote]The class distinctions are a very important plot point in Louise's ballet. I don't know how that isn't obvious to everybody. Look at it in the film

Yes, but I think the main point about Louise is that, like her father, she's a troubled outsider, but her dead father's spirit helps her become part of the community.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is on Fallon and he’s a insufferable as ever, and boy does he vanish on camera, he’s going to sink the Mary Poppins sequel, trust.

I thought Frank Converse was dead.

Does Maureen know?

Frank Converse was a hot daddy. Good actor but had mush mouth issues.

Frank had serious heart issues and gave up acting.

Who is Tyler Mount and how did he get a vlog on Playbill.com?

I want to see a version of "Carousel" where Billy shouts down from Heaven, "Sing out, Louise!"

[quote]Did anyone see the 2005 revival of Albee's Seascape? Or any regional productions? I'm interested in whether or not that play has held up over time.

I did, it was decent, but they needed to replace Frannie Sternhagen (kind of dull) with Marian Seldes and it would have soared, imo.

What does "mush mouth" mean? did he have thrush?

It means he had a habit of eating corn mush right before going onstage, and it affected his diction and his breath.

[quote]I want to see a version of "Carousel" where Billy shouts down from Heaven, "Sing out, Louise!"

I'd rather see a version where Billy shouts down from heaven "You haven't any talent! Not what I'd call talent. Talent for the deaf, dumb, and blind, maybe!"

That would be a revival I could enthusiastically endorse.

Corn mush????? Is that a thing? Never heard of it eaten before going onstage or any other time - we're not sharecroppers, are we?

Read and learn, r123. the Southerners also like to let it sit overnight, then slice it and fry it and serve it with maple syrup.

Its good to know the future of Bway is in such witty, inventive,talented hands!

That Lin...!

I saw that Kennedy Center Company. Lynn Redgrave was a mediocre Joanne.

Carousel, Carousel, Carousel! All this talk of Carousel is spoiling the fun at every party this spring!

The "Not Getting Married Today" that was posted from the KC is so wrong it's dreadful. The only good thing is Emily Skinner singing some lovely soprano notes that I didn't know she had in Teri Ralston's part.

As mentioned above, Alice Ripley is just terrible. She stomps all over the song, and her over-the-top anger keeps it from being funny at all. Massive directorial and performance fail.

What was good about the KC Company was doing it as a Day Glo Swingin 60s period piece ... that helped contextualize and make sense of a lot of it and was at least different from the Aronson modernist vision or the John Doyle grim dirge ... seconded about Barrowman being an ideal Bobby and Redgrave tried her best but no one will ever make that part really work because it is so explicitly written in the voice of Elaine Stritch

[quote]The "Not Getting Married Today" that was posted from the KC is so wrong it's dreadful.

There is no “Not” in the title of that song.

Oh, I’m not a Patti LuPone fan, really, but I thought she was excellent playing Joanne, and really made the part and the song hers. I’ve seen all the NY productions of Company, and LuPone is the only person who managed to own that part herself and not invite comparisons to Stritch,

I agree, r131. I despise her Lovett, but her Joanne is perfect.

It’s as if she were born to play a rude, blowsy alcoholic.

Agreed, R131 and R132.

I might tap on a few extra vacation days to a NY business trip in April. I'd probably have three slots open for shows. Totally subjective, but if you had a brief opportunity to catch some NY theatre in April, what would you see? I'm thinking... Hello, Bernie!, My Fair Lady and Three Tall Women.

Debra Monk was a dreadful Joanne in the 1990s utterly misguided revival of Company directed by the clueless Scott Ellis at Roundabout's old Criterion Center space. And poor Boyd Gaines could not sing the score.....painful. This was the sort of typical production that solidified Roundabout's general ineptness at musical revivals that persists still.

I hope that everyone who played Joanne after Stritch called her for her blessing. It would have shown respect.

I didn't think LuPone was such a good Joanne. Her problem is that she lets you know that she's singing a song. She was always fine in sung-through musicals, but in book musicals, she is never able to slide from scene to song seamlessly. And with Ladies Who Lunch, her cadence is like a song rather than a character speaking through song.

Has Joanne in Company ever been played differently? I've always seen her played as an acerbic drinker. But could she be played in more Elizabeth Taylor style? Showing a lot of cleavage, purring her way through it all and more of a silly drunk than an angry one?

That's how I imagine Angie Dickinson would have played her. She was approached but "won't," according to Everything Was Possible, the book about Follies' original run. Considered as replacement Bobbys were Robert Morse, George Hamilton and Richard Chamberlain.

[quote]I didn't think LuPone was such a good Joanne. Her problem is that she lets you know that she's singing a song. She was always fine in sung-through musicals, but in book musicals, she is never able to slide from scene to song seamlessly.

That's a great summation of LuPone's deficiencies and perfectly describes why her Mama Rose was so off and lacking.

[quote]Debra Monk was a dreadful Joanne in the 1990s utterly misguided revival of Company directed by the clueless Scott Ellis at Roundabout's old Criterion Center space. And poor Boyd Gaines could not sing the score.....painful. This was the sort of typical production that solidified Roundabout's general ineptness at musical revivals that persists still.

Yes, but I think that production was generally well received, probably mostly because people were just happy to see the show again, even in a mediocre production.

[quote]That's a great summation of LuPone's deficiencies and perfectly describes why her Mama Rose was so off and lacking.

Also, her vocal quirks and mannerisms are more distracting sometimes than others, I guess partly because of what type of role she's playing and what style of music she's singing.

[quote]I didn't think LuPone was such a good Joanne. Her problem is that she lets you know that she's singing a song. She was always fine in sung-through musicals, but in book musicals, she is never able to slide from scene to song seamlessly.

I agree that this is a problem with LuPone, but it doesn’t really apply to Company, as there are no seamless slides into song anywhere in that show. The songs are inserted, as Sondheim said, “like nuts in a fruitcake”.

You must take into consideration Alice is bonkers.

No???

Did Hyde Pierce deserve the Tony over Esparza?

r141, I have no idea what you're talking about. There is a book scene right before Joanne breaks into the song.

R117, oh MARY! That video is part of what’s wrong with theater today, dreadful dreadful people thinking they matter and demand to share their ineptitude. Who the HELL is Tyler Mount indeed, his last name should be ‘Messybottom’ and Lin with Weird Al was unwatchable until it became assaultive, why why?!?!

Jane Russell replaced Stritch on Broadway and then did the national tour.

[quote] Did Hyde Pierce deserve the Tony over Esparza?

Truthfully, neither one of them deserved it. Both productions were awful (and Curtains is a dreadful show). Hyde-Pierce was badly miscast and Raul overacted like mad (and spit nearly as much as John Lithgow did in M. Butterfly.)

The other thing the two shows had in common was a number of really untalented supporting performers. Wherever Jill Paice came from, I hope someone sent her back.

So here's a Company question. In the LuPone video linked above, Bobby says he never took up smoking. Yet a few scenes before, he smokes pot. Was pot not considered smoking because it wasn't done as frequently as cigarettes?

Maureen Anderman stood by for Vanessa Redgrave in both Driving Miss Daisy and The Year of Magical Thinking. Went on in both productions. She's a really marvelous actress and I loved her as Blair Browns sister in the now forgotten Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.

Nothing against Miss Anderman, but I would have been super pissed if I'd bought a ticket to The Year of Magical Thinking and got stuck with her instead of seeing Vanessa Redgrave.

Has anybody be here seen Carousel yet? What is this awful final image I keep hearing about? Spoil away, please.

[quote]What is this awful final image I keep hearing about? Spoil away, please.

As the schoolyard all join in to sing the final refrain of "You'll Never Walk Alone" the schoolhouse set revolves around to show Louise inside has hung herself in a desperate attempt to find her father so she can slap him back.

That's almost as good as the production of Annie where she wakes up in the orphanage at the end and realizes it was all just a dream. Almost.

r153 Enoch Snow, Jr. takes out an AK-47 and mows down the entire cast at the graduation ceremony.

[quote]What is this awful final image I keep hearing about? Spoil away, please.

The Emcee appears in a concentration camp uniform with a big Juden patch on his arm.

What is this awful final image I keep hearing about? Spoil away, please...

Billy, unseen (he's a ghost) by the graduating students, walks downstage center, pulls down his pants and slowly poops on the stage while a pinspot slowly punctuates the filth. Blackout.

*****SPOILER*****

The truth is: The Starkeeper sprouts some ratty feathered wings when he takes Billy back to Heaven with him. Until then he's just been shuffling around the stage throughout the show like an old carny roustabout.

150 Maureen Anderman played Molly's best friend, Nina. Molly's sister (the perfectly named Mamie Grolnick) was played by Sandy Faison.

Mo Anderman and England's own Mo Lipman should star in One Mo' Time ....

[160] Or Two Gals Named Mo

Or Jonathan Groff and Noah Galvan in "Two Mo's, Two Ho's."

[quote]Mo Anderman and England's own Mo Lipman should star in One Mo' Time ....

White women taking the roles that were written for black women?? Typical!!

Sandy Faison-Sandy Faison, r159?

[quote]The Starkeeper sprouts some ratty feathered wings when he takes Billy back to Heaven with him.

Hey, that’s MY schtick!

[164] Yup, that Sandy Faison.

Thank you 159. Eldergay here and my memory failed me yet again. But I did love Molly Dodd and that amazing cast (Blair Brown, Victor Garbor, THE Sandy Faison, Ms. Anderman and Alyn Ann McClerie - I'm sure I did not spell that correctly).

Close enough, honey!

David Ogden Stiers has passed from cancer.

R168 Love you and thanks for the sweet correction

That's too bad, r169.

DOS was a fine actor. RIP.

Allyn Ann McLerie is still with us at 91, though her hubby, George Gaynes, died a couple of years ago.

Sandy Faison is still with us too, looking good if a bit plump.

I wish the new ending of Carousel involved something that would stop Cousin Nettie from starting that last reprise of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

r175 is one of Jerry's Kids.

Actually Nettie doesn't start the "You'll Never Walk Alone" reprise. The old man who is giving the commencement speech speaks the first line and the entire chorus takes it up and starts singing it.

Then have the old man keel over and croak before he gets to start it. That’ll be a fresh take on the ending.

Someone get me Jack O’Brien on the phone so I can give him this note.

I heard that Sandy Faison had been teaching at LaGuardia High School (formerly Music & Art/Performing Arts) in NYC for quite a few years.

Anyone who thinks the KC Company was difinitive has absolutely no taste. I thought it was hands down the worst version of it I have ever seen. Bobby played like a dumb frat boy. And poor Lynn Redgrave was badly miscast. And Alice Ripley...there are no words. Even over the top, Raul was a thousand times better, and that was far from a good production either. THe Roundabout production had some good people, and Boyd Gaines would have been perfect if he could sing it. They wanted Patti, but they asked essentially for an audition, (though they didn't call it that) and she refused. I wish they had cast Joanna Gleason as Joanne. She would have been superb.

Joanna Gleason comes off as too nice, not really brittle or loud drunk enough though in the Stritch mode.

Roundabout should have cast Dorothy Loudon as Joanne.

Bea Arthur might have made a good Joanne years ago.

Once upon a time Allyn Ann McLerie was married to Adolph Green....or maybe just engaged. Well, never mind.

No, they were married, R184. She replaced Sono Osato as Ivy Smith in the original On the Town. George Gaynes, of course, was the leading man in Comden and Green's (and Bernstein's and George Abbott's) follow-up show, Wonderful Town. Not sure how the timelines cross, but I think Allyn and Adolph were divorced by the time Wonderful Town came about.

The production of Company at the Barrington in the Berkshires last August was wonderful. Aaron Tveit made an excellent Bobby. Sondheim was there the night I saw it, sitting in the last row of the Orchestra.

I’m sure Sondheim invited Aaron Tveit out for dinner and a good gumjob afterwards.

After Annie Sandy Faison starred in Charles Strouse's next flop Charlie and Algernon (pictured above with Strouse and costar PJ Benjamin), then moved to Hollywood as she was the wife of the fellow who created The Wonder Years. Long divorced (maybe remarried?), she has indeed been teaching high schoolers at La Guardia.

Lovely woman!

She was lovely in "Annie" as well.

" Lin with Weird Al was unwatchable until it became assaultive, why why?!?! "

And poor Sondheim having to pretend like he loves his work.

What must he REALLY think about Broadways future??!!

I know Dorothy Loudon was coming off the success of Annie, but did the people behind Ballroom consider Bea Arthur? I mean, she ended up singing Fifty Percent during her one woman show.

Lin does seem to be pretty far into his 14th minute. I'm guessing he's financially set for life, though.

Maybe Dick van Dyke will be around to criticize Lin's British accent when the new Mary Poppins premieres.

Van Dyke has a cameo in Mary Poppins Returns.

If only Dorothy had made a big hit out of Ballroom I would have had my next big film property!

[quote] I'm guessing he's financially set for life, though.

That would be a resounding yes. "Hamilton" is a cash cow.

Best moment on the 1979 Tony Awards was Angela Lansbury applauding enthusiastically in the audience after Dorothy performed "Fifty Percent".

Between Lin on Fallon and seeing the horrors of Frozen tonight I think I’m out.

Jane Russell didn't replace Stritch in "Company". Vivian Blaine replaced Stritch, then Jane replaced Vivian.

Thanks for the correction, r199. I did know that Jane Russell had replaced on Broadway and then did the tour.

Is there any place outside of the Lincoln Center Library to see that black and white video of the national tour that Prince submitted as representative of the original production? And didn't Julie Wilson play Joanne at some point in the original production or on the tour or am I completely misinformed?

According to the notes on this youtube video, Julie Wilson did play Joanne on tour but the poster doesn't say which tour.

The original national tour of Company greatly simplified Boris Aronson's original sets. The hydraulics involved weren't suitable for touring.

Tell me about Elizabeth Ashley, theatre gays. I'm quite ashamed to say that I wasn't familiar with her until stumbling upon this very entertaining Theater Talk interview with her. I love her speaking voice -- somehow sounding regal and posh and like a real "broad" all at once.

Baby, we feel you!

How bad was Frozen R198?

Share your woe.

Jane Russell may have done the tour of Company, but she didn’t do all of it. Stretch was in the show when I saw it at the Ahmanson Theatre in LA. (Along with Pam Myers, Teri Ralston, George Coe, Barbara Barrie. Donna McKechnie was in it but left a few days after I saw it, I think to shoot “The Little Prince.” For some reason I can’t remember if Susan Browning was in it. George Chakiris played Bobby.

That would be Stritch, not Stretch.

[quote]Tell me about Elizabeth Ashley, theatre gays.

I worked on ENCHANTED APRIL, the show Ashley is talking about in your link, r203 (thanks for that, btw).

She had a quick change booth backstage. A sign was pinned to the the curtain door, lettered "The Beast". She put it up herself. A bawdy broad who was a lot of fun to work with.

Who was your favorite performer to work with R207? Great story!

In that production? Ashey, of course, r208. Ringwald was nice, but kept to herself a lot.

*Ashley,*, pf course

Tveit was great in that COMPANY (and that rhymes) but the supporting cast was woeful - the high schoolers who do MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG in LADY BIRD would have been better. I gather from someone connected to that production that Tveit *is* Bobby, in so many ways.

[quote]Tveit *is* Bobby, in so many ways.

Would those ways include bisexual fooling around, as with Bobby?

R181, Joanna Gleason can play mean. She's not addicted to being nice. She was brilliant in "The Normal Heart" and "Sons of the Prophet" Off-Broadway, and neither character was particularly lovable.

R203, She was on the cover of LIFE Magazine the week of JFK's assassination.

I can't imagine Tveit being anything other than bland and affectless

FROZEN is another Disney snooze fest, like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Mary Poppins, and Tarzan whatever was magical and fun in the source material is awol, the two leading ladies sing fine, but look like they should be doing CHICAGO, Patti Murin is funny but looks 48 years old. Ensemble is MESSY, only Jelani Alladin stood out as inspired. The kids in the audience were RESTLESS during all of the new songs, which are mediocre, the whole evening was tired. Yaaaaaaaaaaawn.

[quote]Joanna Gleason can play mean. She's not addicted to being nice. She was brilliant in "The Normal Heart" and "Sons of the Prophet" Off-Broadway, and neither character was particularly lovable.

She was also really mean and nasty in what little she had to do as Mark Wahlberg's mother in the movie BOOGIE NIGHTS

Tveit was spectacular (and hilarious) in the little seen musical SAVED at Playwrights Horizons about 10 years ago, playing a conflicted gay high schooler. The musical was written by the late great Michael Friedman and based on the indie film, and also starred Celia Keenan-Bolger, Julia Murney, John Dossett and Curtis Holbook but got lost during the post-Tony spring season.

He should have then had a real breakout moment with CATCH ME IF YOU CAN but was really let down by the inferior Shaiman/Wittman material and lackluster direction by Jack (Carousel/Chocolate Factory) O'Brien.

EXACTLY as I expected R216.

Now we can all look forward to the sequel to To Kill A Mockinginbird.

I mean, at their ages it MUST be the sequel,right?

TELL me its the sequel!?!?

Though Disney never truly embraced it, Newsies was their only musical that had any real joy and spark in it. I don't know if it's because it began at Paper Mill without too much development and intervention from Schumacher and company or not....

R220--could it have a little thing to do with the fact THAT IT HAS A CAST OF 30 YOUNG ACROBATIC MALES???

DANCING NON-STOP??!!

[188] Boy, this place is a hotbed of misinformation. Sandy Faison was married to Bob Brush who did NOT create The Wonder Years, but became its head writer for a good portion of its time. Before that he was one of the main writers on Molly Dodd & The Slap Maxwell Story. Before that he was the composer of the Broadway musical The First. Correct, though, in that they are divorced, and she's very nice.

If you haven't read Elizabeth Ashley's autobio, it's real dishy. She talks about a Broadway production she was in and she was getting ready to leave the show (or maybe when it was when she took a week's vacation from Cat On A Hot Tin Roof) and before she left they altered her costumes for the next actress and she threw a bitch fit (rightly so). She also talks about getting banged by Mike Nichols in a restaurant ladies room.

R223, She also wrote of fucking author Thomas McGuane in a movie theater, during a movie.

R218, Having seen CMIYC in previews in Seattle and then on Broadway, I can attest that the show was ruined in the interim. They should have left it alone.

Who's to blame for Aaron Tveit's performance in Grease Live? Eve Plumb?

I'm surprised to see praise for James McArdle's performance. Has it changed for New York?

Hey, I fucked Mike Nichols, too!

Is Denise Gough family?

R223 OH YES! I still have my copy of Ashley's bio POSTCARDS FROM THE ROAD? She was pissed that they altered her costumes for Joanna Petit in Take Her, She's Mine the week before Lizzie left. Said something like 'YOU ALTERED THEM FOR JOANNA PETIT THEN LET JOANNA PETIT WEAR THEM' She said the cast and crew referred to her as Betsy von Bitch or something like that. By her own admission she was exasperating to the point where the actress who played her mother grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her backstage during one of her outbursts. If you can find the book read it.

Wasn't Ashley freebasing backstage durimg her run in Agnes of God?

Any news how Laurie's next play is selling? She has done several show almost back to back?

I think Carrie Fisher mentioned something about doing drugs with Liz backstage during her Agnes run. They both seemed stoned the night I saw them.

She was supposed to have been great in "Barefoot in the Park" on Broadway, but put her career on hold for years as she pursued her relationship with George Peppard. She could have been a bigger star if she concentrated on the career, as she is very talented.

I only saw Ashley in Vanities (in Chicago) with Leslie Ann Warren and Miss Barbara Sharma. The only thing I remember is their onstage warm-ups and they were all in fabulous shape.

Am I the only New Yorker who is enjoying the new ALADDIN ad campaign?

After a miserable day at work, it's so nice to get on the train and see hunky Telly Leung smiling down on me

I wonder if Ashley ever fucked Robert Redford when he was in his prime during the run of Barefoot in the Park.

or did Mildred Natwick?

Even though Neil Simon was Jewish, he allowed Robert Redford the Waspy-iest Wasp who ever Wasped to do Barefoot in the Park.

Simon would approve of James McArdle then.

[Quote] Ashley Day posted a pic on Instagram today from rehearsals for 42nd Street

Lulu or it didn't happen.

[quote]Who's to blame for Aaron Tveit's performance in Grease Live? Eve Plumb?

Yes, and that's obviously why he threw her under the bus. (Well, the TRAM, anyway.)

The excellent CMIYC workshop with Nathan Lane and Matt Morrison was fantastic stuff, cast, show and score were perfect.

I wouldn’t call Telly Leung “hunky.” “Twinktastic” is more like it, a power bottom queen for the ages.

Aaron Tveit is a perfect Bobby because he’s likeable. John Barrowman was the worst casting for him because he’s a thoroughly unlikeable narcissist and sn overall obnoxious piece of shit. He should thank God every morning for Torchwood and that other piece of cartoon crap he’s in nowadays.

Ashley claimed to have smoked 4 thai sticks before the first Broadway preview of "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof". I was in the audience that night, having seen her last performance in the show on closing day in Stratford, Ct.

Liz stoned was an infinitely better Maggie than Liz coked up.

And I do believe the stories about Liz in "Agnes Of God". The night I saw it, she was late for her second act cue, so while the lights were down for a good 2 minutes, you could hear her doing the "coke snorter's gurgle" before the lights came up, because her mike was on.

Has there ever been a "Carousel" without a carousel? couldn't they have gotten some bunraku puppets?

CATCH ME was very, very good out of town. The score sizzled and Tveit was smoking hot and nearly nude for a huge showstopper that got cut where he fucks the Playmate. Also, “50 Checks” was THE standout song in the score that was inextricably replaced by a woeful dirge about pinstripes for Broadway. I’ll never understand how O’Brien could ruin something so good, and, then, he followed it up with the abysmal original London production of LOVE NEVER DIES which was vastly improved in Australia by that dazzling Simon Phillips production now on tour. The mind boggles...

Jack O’Brien got “found out,” as it were. That’s what happened.

Liz Ashley’s ACTRESS is a riveting read and is bookended by her tale of freebasing coke backstage before a performance of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. One of the best and most dishy autobios evah.

My parents took me to my first play “Somebody Killed Her Husband” with Elizabeth Ashley (and Ted Shackelford). I can still remember bits and how great she was...and the deep voice.

Handsome singers are so often mistaken for actors on Broadway.

Looong thinkpiece in today's Sunday NYTimes on The Boys in the Band and the gay canon.

Laurie's next show? Laurie who?

I love June Havoc.

Telly is a fabulous Aladdin, he has a loveable charm and quirkiness that elevates the production, and dat ass! Sadly the choice to not cast a truly gifted comic star as The Genie stops the show from soaring, every actor I’ve seen play the role is out of breath ten minutes in upon his arrival, but the kids eat it up, unlike Frozen where the children in the audience were restless until Let It Go when they screamed along, happily the experience is behind me.

I saw June Havoc in the second National tour of Sweeney Todd. Much darker than Angela.

Ashley made her film debut in "The Carpetbaggers", where she met Peppard. It shows up on the cable movie channels now and then, definite guilty pleasure viewing. Peppard was an absolute dick, both Audrey Hepburn and Patricia Neal thought so, as did Ashley, eventually. They had a son, must be in his forties now.

Photos of the grown up Peppard/Ashley coupling, please! He must be gorgeous.

Ashley was also married to James Farrentino. Woof woof woof.

Christian Peppard, with his mother.

Oh my but he does have his dad's smirky sexy grin

And he looks healthy! Nice to see that.

Is her son a 'mo?

Not a patch on his gorgeous dickhead father.

My play won an Oscar for its film adaptation!

Saw Perestroika over the weekend and unlike shy Russell Tovey, Lee Pace is literally prancing around the stage naked. He even went from one side of the stage to the other so both sides of the orchestra could get a full frontal view.

The cock isn't that impressive, but he looks good.

So I"m reading that in the 1980 film Windows, Elizabeth Ashley played an insane lesbian who paid a cab driver to rape her neighbor and tape record the encounter so that she could listen to the recording and get off. Ya know, like lesbians do. Ha.

To be fair, R266 it is FREEZING in that theater

The evil dyke/killer lesbian was a film trope (meme) for decades, R267.

R266, how long was the show? Is it still running 4 and a half hours?

Windows was pretty terrible, but it was better than Get Out.

I am SHOCKED This Is Me didnt take home the Oscar.

Joyfully so.

Then I realized it went to Disney.

How IS that article coming along Tom S.?

There is no article, unless you're referring to the WSJ, which appears to have been forgotten.

No one cares about Tom Schumacher wearing a robe in the office and saying he was naked under it.

Whoa, r244, sorry that Barrowman wouldn't talk to you in the club

When did Faye Dunanway morph into Dolores Gray!?!

You beat me, r275! I was going to post the same thing last night but decided I just needed to go to bed.

R270 No, it was 4 hours 10 minutes. They could stand to lose more if they tightened the intermission time.

Perestroika was nearly 5 at the first performance at the National. Started late due to tech issues, and they spent altogether too much time moving that angel around the stage.

Just begs the question, r275. Why didn't they just replace Glenn in L.A. with Dolores?

Hiya John/R274! I never have actually been in your personal orbit, I’m going by what I’ve seen on countless TV things and also from bad stories I’ve heard from people who’ve worked with you.

Barrowman came to do a benefit concert at my middle school circa 2002 or 2003. We middle schoolers were in some ensemble numbers, some high schoolers did some solos and duets, and Barrowman did a number of songs. I don't know why he came to do it, I presume one of the parents had a connection to him.

He was nice enough until the dress rehearsal when some of the students started whispering and he exploded and cursed us all out and harped about "unprofessionalism." I'm talking full-voiced yelling. Then, he became nice and congenial again for the rest of the time, as if nothing had happened. But the explosion of anger was shocking—and, admittedly, quite hilarious to us kids.

That's all I got.

Sadly, Dolores was already frail by that time. Here she is at her last Tonys appearance with some fans.

There’s a reason Barrowman never became a big star and Jackman did-Jackman is talented AND a wonderful person.

So now that we know the starkeeper(or is it the guy who brings Billy back to earth) sprouts wings at the end do they both fly up to heaven?

And then the entire graduating class and their parents point to them going up and everybody is like 'wow!'

That would be fun.

The curtain call has everyone in sparkly angels' wings doing the hustle to "Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel".

[quote]So now that we know the starkeeper(or is it the guy who brings Billy back to earth) sprouts wings at the end do they both fly up to heaven? And then the entire graduating class and their parents point to them going up and everybody is like 'wow!'

No, the entire graduating class goes with them. It's a Rapture sequence to bring in the Mike Pence crowd.

The chatters on ATC are NOT pleased with Carousel's final image (which seems to involve angel wings, but, alas, not the Hustle). And one poster said there was no there there in Mueller's Julie Jordan.

If Carousel is doing angel wings, please tell me a bell rings.

[quote]And one poster said there was no there there in Mueller's Julie Jordan.

Hmm. Maybe God was just absent that night—because without him, nothing is possible, and that is true, and that will always be true.

[quote]The cock isn't that impressive, but he looks good.

Have they considered hiring a fluffer?

[quote] I am SHOCKED This Is Me didnt take home the Oscar. Joyfully so.Then I realized it went to Disney.

And now I'm the first ever Double EGOT!

[quote]The cock isn't that impressive

What do you mean by not impressive? Is that by porn standards, where anything under 8 inches is considered tinymeat?

How awful was Keala Settle on the Oscars? I am sure she was nervous but still- that shreiking...and the hairstyle did her no favors.

Why are you trying to undermine that poster, r192 ? They weren't rude in their assessment.

Why are you trying to undermine that poster, R292 ? They weren't rude in their assessment.

"This Is Me" sounded like an old Pepsi commercial.

And Keala must be drinking way too much soda, btw. She was never that massive in "Waitress".

R162. LMAO! Accurate.

I wasn’t trying to undermine him, r295, I was trying to get specifics. On DL, no one is interested in the under-eights. I was wondering if that’s what it is, a healthy 6 or 7, or if it’s something tragic.

ALW's memoir is out. Here's some excerpts from the New York Times.

Isn't it time for an Agnes of God revival with Liz Ashley as the Mother Superior?

[quote]ALW's memoir is out. Here's some excerpts from the New York Times.

Is the Patti LuPone chapter going to be like the Ernest Borgnine chapter in Ethel Merman's autobio?

[quote]Isn't it time for an Agnes of God revival with Liz Ashley as the Mother Superior?

Agnes of God: The New Broadway Musical

Starring Tyne Daly as Mother Superior, Patti LuPone as the Doctor and Lea Michele as Agnes

R301 - it is only up to “Phantom” so no “Sunset” drama

ALW looks like an aged lesbian in that picture. I so want to ask, "Where's the cane?"

BERNIE!

I just pre ordered the ALW memoir on iBooks. It comes out in a few days. I didn't realize it didn't cover Sunset Blvd. A friend of mine was the original lyrics on that, but she was fired, and has nothing nice to say about him. She's a Harvard Law School lawyer turned lawyer, so she had good legal defense, and was able to keep her name on a few of the songs, and made some money. I've always respected her privacy about the issue -- it's a sore spot with her -- so i don't know a lot of the details. I would have liked to have learnt his side of the story!

Why does it only go to Phantom? Is it a Volume One?

If that crap Greatest Showman song and that crap new Frozen song are what Broadways new Tony and Oscar winners have to offer it's sad that songwriting is dead

R306, why are you keeping her name a secret? There is a woman who gets a kind of secondary billing in the Sunset program, and that's presumably whom you mean. But her name is out there, obviously. I won't give it here in case there is some privacy thing to respect.

She would not be the only one to look back on her collaboration with Lloyd Webber unhappily.

Did anyone see in news that Ruthie Ann Miles, who won Tony in 2015 for King and I was seriously injured today in crash in Brooklyn and her 4 year old daughter was killed. Horrific. She apparently is also heavily pregnant.

Good Christ, what a nightmare story. You have to read this.

Jesus Christ, R311. No words. Just awful, beyond belief.

The article says the driver has been cited numerous times for running red lights and speeding through school zones.

Why don't judges lock these people up so they can't hurt the innocent? They keep letting them off or giving them token penalties.

The cops do not give a fuck. The less work for them, the better. My car got plowed into last Fall by a guy who had no car insurance and no driver's license. I called the cops, they arrived, didn't even want to cite him, but did so at my insistence so I could have some proof for my insurance company, then let him get back into his car and drive away even though they knew he had no license or insurance.

I'm going to guess Miles also lost the baby she was carrying, although I surely hope not. I hope she recovers soon, though I can't even imagine how she must be feeling, as well as the woman whose 1 year old was also killed. I hope they lock that nasty cunt driver up for life.

Good God, what a horrible story. I feel so sorry for Ruthie Ann Miles and the other young mother. To lose their children like that all because some maniac didn't want to wait for a light to change. Sad.

"The Low Road" @ the Public is pretty great. A nasty little history of capitalism.

Ruthie Ann Miles is about eight months pregnant and the article said she had a head injury so I'm praying that maybe the baby wasn't hurt, and that even if they have to do a C-section and take the baby prematurely (if Ruthie is badly injured) it stands a good chance of surviving.

oh wow, i didn't realize she was so far along since she just came from doing Chess at KC. Yes then there is a better chance that the baby is okay depending on the hit.

Her little girl was adorable. This is really sad news.

According to USA Today ALW's memoir tells a "juicy" tale of Barbra recording "Memory" from Cats. They give this excerpt.

Streisand, who was thinking of recording Memory, insisted on seeing Cats in London incognito in 1981. After Act 1, she asked for a glass of milk (in lieu of the offered champagne), but before anyone could fill the request, she pleaded claustrophobia, fled the theater and missed Memory during Act 2.

A few months later the star showed up to record the song; Lloyd Webber persuaded the reluctant diva to sing it in one take with a full orchestra. The result was electrifying. “There can’t have been anyone in the room with sedentary hair on the back of their neck,” he writes.

The next day was spent "revoicing," with Streisand "constantly finding some tiny fault or other" with her performance. Sitting in the vocal booth, she asked if she could stand for the big "Touch me" verse.

"Barbra," joked the future Brtish knight, "most artists kneel when they record my songs."

Hawaiian tv station is showing security footage of the accident. They freeze it just as the car is hitting Miles' group in the crosswalk (and it's at a distance, you can't see specifics).

Yes kids have died, but let's talk about ALW, r320. And praying won't help.

I always hated that Streisand felt compelled to change the lyric from “I was beautiful then” to “Life was beautiful then.” It’s a fucking recording, Babs. No one can see how you look.

What's there to say about ALW? Ugly man, inside and out.

So @realdansavage posted this on Twitter, does anyone have any idea as to what he is alluding?

"Saw a preview performance of Carousel on Broadway last night — so many thoughts, can’t share ‘em publicly. (Show is still in previews, don’t want to be *that* showqueen.) But... got a lot to say about that clambake..."

That driver should be put under the jail. A car to car collision is bad enough but to be minding your own business as a pedestrian and that happens? Beyond horiffic. One can only hope the children died almost instantly.

Just horrifying about Ruthie Ann Miles and those children. It's open season on pedestrians in NYC and the police just don't care.

So if @realdansavage can't share his thoughts on Carousel publicly, why did he tweet that?

Yeah, leather daddy my ass.

Has Hazel been shelved?

[quote]Has Hazel been shelved?

Finally, someone asks the important question.

One always wonders if the creatives of a flop in previews read all the negative chatter. Do Scott Rudin, Jack O'Brien, Justin Peck, Santo Loquasto or Ann Roth (or perhaps their young assistants) tap into BWW and know what's being spread and share the criticisms with each other?

I know many will say....oh, that's just a lot of uninformed peoples' opinions.....nevertheless.....

[quote]Do Scott Rudin, Jack O'Brien, Justin Peck, Santo Loquasto or Ann Roth (or perhaps their young assistants) tap into BWW and know what's being spread and share the criticisms with each other?

No, they have Patti Murin do it.

Disney definitely does. They quite literally have people (low-level) in charge of monitoring ATC, BWW and Twitter in general. I don’t know that the findings go directly to the artistic team, but theoretically, a summation gets to Schumacher and the marketing team.

Well, if that's true, r334, Schumacher ultimately appears to ignore it all.

[quote]Schumacher ultimately appears to ignore it all.

He's probably a lot like Arthur Laurents. Anyone who went into Nick & Nora saw how stupid the story was. But nobody could convince him to rewrite the script. So Broadway was left with a well cast, well designed piece of crap.

Schumacher clearly believes he knows more than anyone else. And now he’s magically transformed Frozen from can’t-miss-smash into modestly-successful-theme-park-show. God only knows why he’s so beloved in Burbank.

[quote]God only knows why he’s so beloved in Burbank.

The answer lies within the statement itself.

[quote]Do Scott Rudin, Jack O'Brien, Justin Peck, Santo Loquasto or Ann Roth (or perhaps their young assistants) tap into BWW and know what's being spread and share the criticisms with each other?

[quote]No, they have Patti Murin do it.

[quote]The corpses from the BWW fiasco

Pal Joey of BWW, just give it up. Murin ain't NEVER gonna give you that apology.

Ruthie Ann Miles was supposed to be repeating her Tony Award winning performance in The King & I this summer in London.

Within the industry THESE threads are read with much more laser focus, the broadway world messages are still seen as juveniles hurling drivel while ATC is considered the graveyard of Wayman Wong’s dongfest, it is the immediacy and bitchiness that gains their discussions, especially handsy Tommy.

The Murin/bullly tears debacle really tarnished BWMB, she took the balls and swigged them all right down her sensitive hatch. Paljoey be damned.

No one at BWW seems to be holding back on Carousel or Frozen, Patti M!

BWW was always anti-user. It used to be that if you posted a YouTube link, they would remove it immediately. And some of the posters were in the business and would post gossip/news. BWW would remove it and then 30 minutes later, a post from the BWW News Desk would appear saying the exact same thing.

Patti wasn't the first though. Marc Shaiman used to post there. And if you said anything critical about Hairspray, he'd make them take it down immediately. But Shaiman could post criticism about anything else (and I do mean ANYTHING) and his stuff was never taken down. He would lecture people about not being critical of artists and someone else pointed out that if they were paying $200 to see a Broadway show, they expected something worth $200.

Every time I see the word Patti, I keep thinking LuPone. Note to self: Broadway has TWO Pattis LOL (well, really only one!)

Note to r344: You might not want to mention that to Miss L.

[quote]Note to self: Broadway has TWO Pattis LOL (well, really only one!)

And who would be the second one?

It's funny to think of Lupone scouring the internet for news on Frozen.

[quote]It's funny to think of Lupone scouring the internet for news on Frozen.

This is the woman who thought Glenn Close should call her and apologize for opening Sunset Boulevard in the US. Read her autobio. She's batshit crazy.

Why does the ALW memoir end that Phantom? Wasn't that 20 years ago???

Seems like 90.

But it was 30.

[quote]Why does the ALW memoir end that Phantom?

Doesn't want to deal with Patti LuPone.

Does ALW say anything about that whacky girl Betty Buckley? She did Cats and replaced Bernie in Song & Dance.

Update on Ruthie Ann Miles: she's out of critical condition, going to be fine, and the baby was unharmed.

She still has one dead child though, right?

Still two children were killed. The psychological pain will be beyond anything physical she's experienced.

Why this killer still has a license when it should have been suspended for life and hasn't been jailed for years needs to be investigated.

Officials who allow these people on the streets should be held accountable.

The woman who was driving is now saying she had a seizure which caused the accident.

Yes, she does, r354. The emotional trauma is beyond imagining.

What r355 said, doubled.

She has been cited for this four times before. Were those all caused by seizures?

She also speeds through school crossings.

Lock her up.

[quote]She has been cited for this four times before. Were those all caused by seizures?

No, but she knows they can't prove it and she'll get off.

[quote] No, but she knows they can't prove it and she'll get off.

Wouldn't the EMTs at the scene be able to tell if she'd just had a seizure, or witnesses testifying how the car was driving, etc.? The cunt was calmly sitting on a stretcher texting two minutes after she got out of the car. Doesn't sound like a seizure victim to me.

If she knows she has seizures, she is exhibited deprived indifference by getting behind the wheel.

[quote]Wouldn't the EMTs at the scene be able to tell if she'd just had a seizure, or witnesses testifying how the car was driving, etc.?

Drivers have gotten off for less. There was a taxi a few years ago, that went around a corner too fast and jumped up on the pavement and killed some people. He said in his defense that he was avoiding a cyclist that went into his path. Even though none of the witnesses saw the cyclist, he got off. It was quite obvious, he turned the corner too fast and lost control of the car.

The GoFundMe campaign set up for Ruthie and her family shows once again how the theatre community takes care of it's own. They've raised over $200k in about 12 hours when the initial goal was only $5k. I think the campaign for the other family is over $80k as of right now. This one is a heartbreaker and those children that were tragically taken from their families were both beautiful little souls. Even makes a hard hearted bitch like me cry.

Can't the theater community get Rafael Barba to come back to prosecute this bitch? He's one of their own, right?

Rafael Barba murdered a child! He can’t take this case.

[quote]she is exhibited deprived indifference

How deprived is she exactly?

The way they describe this woman - lack of emotion, not caring what she had done - sounds like an aspie or someone on the spectrum.

"aurora spiderwoman" on YouTube posts the BEST theatre videos, from bootlegs to long lost tv variety performances and other rare gems. Aurora, if you're a DL'er, thank you!! I'm on a Bernie kick lately and came across this clip of the final scene from Gypsy that Aurora posted (I think it's from late in Bernie's Gypsy run). This is really fantastic. I wish I'd gotten to see this performance.

[quote]The way they describe this woman - lack of emotion, not caring what she had done - sounds like an aspie or someone on the spectrum.

Or Patti LuPone.

According to the local CBS evening news here in New York, the woman driver does have physical issues. They reported she has had two strokes since the incident (or should I say murders?). A neighbor described her on camera as having mental issues as well. She should be held responsible for even getting behind the wheel of her car.

You made me laugh, r369.

I can't understand why she still had a driver's license, when she'd had several incidents in the past?

From Corey Cott's Twitter feed:

"Praise God. Via Ruthie’s Go Fund me page. “Ruthie is no longer in critical condition and is on the road to physical recovery. Also, thankfully, her unborn child is unharmed.” Keep praying. "

Um ... I had no idea Corey Cott was so fervently religious.

Broadway actors etc have been tweeting support for Lauren Lew's go fund me, too.

So far, $123,000 raised for the Lews, and $283,000 for the Blumensteins. Broadway really does take care of its own.

Imelda Staunton should be strapped into a chair, her eyes forced open Clockwork Orange-style and forced to watch that video at r368.

R298 Unless Lee is a massive grower, he's probably in the 5" range. Not a tragic micropeen, not porn star mandingo dick, just slightly shorter than average normal human size penis.

I've always heard that Bernie was a terrible Rose, but she was quite moving and good in that clip, I thought.

Maybe it depends when you saw her, r377. I saw the show about for or five months before it closed, and I thought she was brilliant. The audience clearly thought so, too.

[quote]Um ... I had no idea Corey Cott was so fervently religious.

If you looked as hot as he does, you'd be thanking God every minute of every day.

By most accounts, Bernie was still finding the role when the show opened, was fabulous by the time it closed, and had a period of very ill health in between requiring her to miss numerous performances. Arthur Laurents and Michael Reidel and their venomous comments during her run didn't help. Her Rose's Turn on the Tonys is fantastic.

And her closing night Rose's Turn from a boot:

She was brilliant as Rose.

OK, I mean no disrespect here, but I am genuinely confused. Why the gofundme site for Ruthie Ann Miles? I realize people want some way to show their love and support, but money isn't needed in this instance. There aren't any catastrophic medical bills that need to be paid. Yes, a funeral, which is heartbreaking, but at the most that might cost $20K. Ruthie very likely has health insurance (she is a pregnant mother, she has health insurance) so none, or very little in the way of hospital bills for her (thank god she and the baby are OK). If she and her husband can afford to live in Park Slope they are at the very least comfortable, so taking care of the expenses from this tragedy won't bankrupt them.

So....what is the gofundme money FOR? My best guess is most will go to charity, which is lovely, but it still begs the question, why did they need a gofundme page in the first place? Again, please understand I'm not trying to be cruel or anything, my heart is breaking for Ruthie's and Lauren's loss. I'm just puzzled.

So am I, R382. I think Ruthie Ann Miles and her husband are quite affluent.

Bernie was ill during previews and missed a few more shows right after the opening. After that she took a one or two week vacation and missed one performance due to illness. Her track record during ALNM and Follies was spotless. She never missed. Those Gypsy vids of the final performance look pro shot so there may just be a full bootleg out there somewhere and I'll bet the glorious Aurora has it.

I don't get what some of you are seeing in that final scene with Bernie and Blanchard. I never believe BP as a dramatic actor.

She does sound more in command in that last Rose's Turn than she did on the Tonys.

Bernie did miss several performances during the GYPSY previews, which contributed to the nasty column Michael Riedel wrote about her, but he had to eat his words once she opened (and was reduced to a fawning apology and practically begging in print for an invite to opening night of Hello Dolly once word got out how well those previews were going).

I thought she was a terrific Rose, hitting all those dramatic moments, and her Rose’s Turn was stunning.

[quote]I don't get what some of you are seeing in that final scene with Bernie and Blanchard

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

I enjoyed the Lazarra Sisters in cabaret back in the day.

Speaking of Bernie's Gypsy performance, this is fascinating. I've always liked her cast recording, but actually SEEING how much she put into this performance is really quite moving. It's a fucking three act play in one song, in a booth, by herself. Brilliant.

I wonder what the source was. Were there plans for a documentary or something?

23 Skidoo

I’m sorry, but the definitive Rose in Gypsy will always be Andrea McArdle. Words could never describe the depths of that performance.

I think indescribable would be the word, r391

Then there was Tovah's Mama Rose with the preview clips where she bumped and ground while hiking her skirt to show her panties. The theater forums had a heyday with them and they mysteriously disappeared almost immediately.

R389, Bernadette is way off pitch in a lot of that clip. But it's STILL better than LuPone's version of "Rose's Turn," which was mostly screaming.

Local CBS 11pm news here in New York confirming that Ruthie suffered serious injuries but that both she and her unborn child are out of danger. Also confirming that the driver had a history of seizures and that she has suffered two strokes in the hospital since the accident. But they also featured a local saying "She had a history of seizures. What was she doing behind the wheel of a car!?" He license has finally been suspended.

I loved Blanchard in Gypsy. The Benanti love confused me. She was great but no Tammy Blanchard.

Benanti was completely miscast as Gypsy. Tammy Blanchard is a seriously underrated performer.

Watching those clips, I ask again- How the FUCK did Marissa Jaret Winokur's horrid performance as Tracy beat Bernadette as Rose? It's unthinkable.

R382, it's not like Ruthie Ann Miles was able to sit up in her hospital bed and demurely refuse the GoFundMe page. And I'm also certain her husband had other things on his mind over the past 36 hours than to focus on raising money online.

It was a gesture for people who care about her and wanted to do something to not feel powerless. Also, when it was put together, no one had any idea of the extent of Miles' injuries or that of her unborn child. Insurance is lovely, but when you start getting into long term care you find yourself mortgaging everything to keep up with the bills.

If she's as well-to-do as people say and her or her baby's care is not going to be long term, I'm sure she'll make use of that money in a benevolent way, perhaps setting up some kind of scholarship in her daughter's name.

Insurance doesn't always cover everything. She may have to be in hospital for awhile.

But what does Corine Cohen think about the baby mashes? She a Broadway notables!

Who is Corine Cohen?

Those clips of BP as Rose are spine-tinglingly moving. She's so far inside the role that it hurts - and without a trace of grandstanding (unlike some). Can't wait to see her as Dolly, which isn't a role you can imagine Imelda Staunton playing, though there WAS talk many years ago now of Patti L. doing it with Stephen Daldry directing, but that didn't go anywhere - obviously.

There was talk of Patti L. doing Dolly a few years ago with Jack O'Brien directing and some money had been raised. In the end, Jerry Herman refused to allow the production because O'Brien wanted to rewrite the script and tinker with the score. Herman wasn't having it.

Meanwhile, local NBC early morning news here in NYC just interviewed a local city councilman who said that the woman who murdered the two kids crossing the street had a history driving while having seizures. He's now been able to get her license revoked and claimed he is working with the DA to get her charged.

^ By the way, the local NYC flagship stations of ABC, NBC and CBS have all been heavily covering the murder of Ruthie Ann's and her friend's children.

^ And the local stations here in NYC are all showing security footage of the woman speeding through a red light but stopping it just before impact. According to witnesses, she then sped up more and got most of the way down the block before crashing into a row of parked cars, dragging the baby carriage of the murdered one year old along the way. She then exited her car and tried to run away but was restrained by bystanders.

^ EMTs arrived just moments later and forced the woman onto a stretcher. They then handed her her handbag. She immediately sat up and began texting on her phone. She never asked whether anyone else had been hurt but told the EMTs she had Multiple Sclerosis and a history of seizures.

^ All the local news stations are leading with Ruthie Ann's story after the weather. (Our second Nor'easter in less than a week.) Don't fuck with a recent Tony winning minority mommy in New York.

Driver is being demonized.

You're gross, r407. Why make a racist comment about Miles? And the driver is hardly being demonized - she mowed down a group of five people, killing the two most vulnerable, tiny children. As it turns out, she has a history of running red lights and speeding through school zones. She shouldn't have been driving and SHE should have known that (as well as the authorities who should have pulled her license well before this).

But it's not murder. I think it would count, at most, as manslaughter, depending on the final word on her medical condition, and whether the law feels she should have known not to drive.

The only murder on this thread is what Lainie Kazan did to "Rose's Turn."

God that comment just above about Miles is repellent even by the standards of this board.

I saw Bernie in GYPSY just before opening night and she was horrible. It was kewpie doll playing Mamma Rose.

I’ve hated her ever since

R410 which one?

R409, Shoplifting Lainie needs a Go Fund Me page more than Ruthie Ann.

Bernadette was utterly horrible in Gypsy during late previews. Corey Cott's religious fervor is holding things together.

Truly amazing, sin't it r397. One of those WTF moments in Tony history.

WHET to Marissa Jaret Winokur?

[quote] If she's as well-to-do as people say and her or her baby's care is not going to be long term, I'm sure she'll make use of that money in a benevolent way, perhaps setting up some kind of scholarship in her daughter's name.

That would be lovely.

Many years ago an acquaintance of mine jumped out a window during her freshman year at Princeton. Her parents set up a scholarship in their daughter's name which not only kept the memory of her daughter alive, it created something good out of a tragedy.

She just won celebrity big brother

Bernadette was just wildly miscast in Gypsy, plus she's a very shaky dramatic actress when not playing herself. Her turn in Gypsy was off from her first line to her last. She was playing AT it, while SHOWING all her work like Linda Lavin does, convincing the easily fooled that THIS IS A PERFORMANCE to be reckoned with! It wasn't. It was just awful, but the direction of the entire production was bizarre.

The problem with Bernadette's Gypsy is that Rose is a force that needs to be reckoned with and Bernadette couldn't be that. But I also think she was fine as Dolly and I think Patti LuPone would be an awful Dolly because she has no subtlety and nuance. LuPone would blow through those little gags like a mack truck.

For example, in the current Dolly, in Irene's hat shop, there is a gag between Horace and Dolly. He tries to catch her looking at him and she does several side glances and head jerks. Bernadette really excels at this gag. LuPone couldn't pull off this silly little gag. She just doesn't have the ability to do it.

Whenever I see Corey Cott’s chest hair poking out of his shirt I, too, praise Jesus.

R407, Yes, by all means, let's make this horrific personal tragedy all about race, you toxic piece of shit.

[quote]But it's not murder. I think it would count, at most, as manslaughter, depending on the final word on her medical condition, and whether the law feels she should have known not to drive.

I'd find a way to make a murder conviction stick.

[quote] She was playing AT it, while SHOWING all her work like Linda Lavin does, convincing the easily fooled that THIS IS A PERFORMANCE to be reckoned with!

Exactly right. Especially in the recording studio video, there's nothing organic about Bernadette's performance. It comes off as a series of calculated "choices" that don't add up to anything special. I saw Angela Lansbury as Rose when I was quite young, and I've never forgotten her. Now that was a performance to be reckoned with.

I saw all the NY Roses except Merman and Lavin. Tyne Daly won the acting honors, but she couldn’t pull off the singing (I’m talking about in performance, never mind the awful CD), and therefore, couldn’t pull off the role. It’s written for a singer.

Lansbury and Peters were my favorites. Lansbury made Rose charming - so charming, in fact, that she wasn’t a the monster the part requires. But she was still wonderful. Peters was sexy and angry and disturbed - almost at Dalt’s Level, but Peters could sing it. I respectfully disagree with the poster who says Peters was “playing at” the part. She WAS the part. She was brilliant.

The worst was aluPone. Now there was someone who was playing at the part. She did her usual shouting, blustery “force of nature” routine. All there was was the bluster. She brought no colors or depth to the role. I loved LuPone in The Baker’s Wife (in LA), Anything Goes, Can Can and Women on the Verge, but just couldn’t stand her in Gypsy.

With her history and pattern of behavior, claiming "medical disorder" or "seizure" is not a get out of jail free card. Quite possibly just the opposite. And then the Lew and Blumenstein families can sue her for wrongful death and keep her tied up in lawsuits and legal action for the rest of her life, so thoroughly that she'll never have the chance to get behind the wheel of a vehicle ever again. She's a pariah now, she probably doesn't even dare show her face in public.

I wonder if they've got her on a suicide watch?

[quote]which one?

There’s only one repellent comment about Miles on this thread, and it’s r407’s ugly comment.

The new John Kander musical starring Tony Yazbeck and Peter Friedman directed by Susan Stroman. I wonder if this is why she pulled out of the LA run of Crazy for You, leaving a big empty hole in their schedule?

r425 agree with you completely. Lansbury and Peters were terrific. Daly was very good but sometimes her singing was painful. LuPone was so broad, crass, and loud. (What guy would stay with her for years??) LuPone was reminiscent of that awful tape going around with Imelda Staunton.

[quote]The worst was LuPone. Now there was someone who was playing at the part. She did her usual shouting, blustery “force of nature” routine. All there was was the bluster. She brought no colors or depth to the role.

And the sad thing is, she probably could have been great in the role if she had reigned herself in, or if she had a director who could reign her in, from giving such a self-indulgent performance that was all about Patti LuPone and not about the character.

Agreed, Staunton is terrible in the tape. I didn’t see it onstage; supposedly she was much better live.

[quote] Exactly right. Especially in the recording studio video, there's nothing organic about Bernadette's performance. It comes off as a series of calculated "choices" that don't add up to anything special. I saw Angela Lansbury as Rose when I was quite young, and I've never forgotten her. Now that was a performance to be reckoned with.

But wouldn't there have to be a layer of artificiality in parts of the recording performance since the actor has to get across the character's body language, non-verbal reactions, etc. with only the benefit of her voice?

Call me naive, but I didn't read R407's comment as racist or as sticking up for the driver. I interpreted the first comment to mean that Ny'ers aren't the type to have the attitude of "we only care when white people are the victims" (which I have to confess I've only ever really encountered on DL). And the "demonizing" remark- perhaps it wasn't the best word to use because some could interpret it as falsely accusing, but the definition of the word is "to portray someone as wicked or threatening" and let's face it, that's what this cunt was.

Anyway, just my two cents, but I was puzzled as to which comment was being called out until it was named. Carry on.

If there ever was a candidate for Worst Ideas for a Musical Ever, one of the top 5 would be Beast in the Jungle. Remember "Ambassador"? No, I didn't think so. And who's writing the lyrics? David Thompson? Not clear.

[quote]Anyway, just my two cents

Can I have change?

“In for a penny, in for a pound.”

Do they mean pound sterling?

I"m sure it won't be very good, but it makes me happy that John Kander's still 'at it' at his age.

Penny wise, pound foolish.

Scandal at ATC. Mlop, AlanScott and MikeR's creamy thighs reported missing!

I would have thought 'Ari' was the worst choice ever for a musical. Maybe they thought the ladies jewish theater parties would keep it going for a year.

"Into the Light" was supposed to be dreadful. I'd rather have seen another Dean Jones vehicle, like the musical version of "The Ugly Dachshund" with perhaps Debbie Shapiro Gravitte in the Suzanne Pleshette role. It would have given that trainer of numerous Sandys for "Annie" lots of work.

OK. So who can post he songs actually in this revival of carousel ?

What's the song list? What was cut?

"In My Life" was pretty bad. It had dancing skeletons.

The chorus girls were THAT thin, r443?!

R443 - I loved “In My Life” - it was so horrible it’s unforgettable.

And I saw Bernie twice in “Gypsy” and she was terrific.

I adored Bernie in "Gypsy"—but I was a seventh-grader and queening out, so my objective assessment is compromised.

I hated LuPone.

Peters moved me like no other Rose ever did, most likely because she herself was a child actress and knew the terrain inside and out. At the Act I curtain, I lost it in a way I've never done before at GYPSY. And her reading of the lines prior to ROSE'S TURN: "But just one thing I want to know. All the working and pushing and finagling...what'd I do it for?"....well, it came from a place of truth and it was devastating.

I saw Bernadette in previews for GYPSY and she was AWFUL! I mean, easily one of the worst Roses I've ever seen in my life. I'm talking Linda Lavin bad. I went to see her later in the run and - lo and behold - it was a totally different performance. And it was brilliant! It really was one of those bits of casting where, all of a sudden, you see the show in a completely different light. What if Rose was just a sexy, charming woman who got by due to her will and sex appeal? I loved it!

In the preview I saw, Bernadette was screaming every line as if she was trying to prove that she could out yell Merman. It didn't work. It felt forced and not very unique. That's not to mention a thing about her voice which was totally shot. I've still never seen a performer do such a huge 180 like that I thought for sure that she was simply miscast, but the show I saw months later proved that she had it in her, but she needed time to find it. That clip someone posted of the final scene was much like what I witnessed at the later performance. So heartbreaking and truthful (while still finding many laughs in the scene).

I also saw Staunton live and, believe me, she was probably the best Rose I've seen. Funny, charming, terrifying, pathetic AND she could sing the shit out of the score. That BBC video...I don't know what happened. It's like an entirely different performance. I thought she came across fairly well in the FOLLIES recording (a bit too manic, but not horribly so).

Still, we must never forget the finest "Rose's Turn" of them all...Miss. Tovah's.

It's mind-blowing to contemplate that John Kander is writing MORE in his 80s than ever before in his career... he's done, what, like 10 shows in the last decade?

Obviously, he is doing personal projects that speak to him with no eye on the box office... I'm sure we can thank Barry & Fran and those weekly CHICAGO paychecks for that, but most other composers would rest on their laurels and get lazy (at any age), whereas Kander seems positively re-invigorated by it all. Commendable.

I mean, even ALW isn't currently working on a new show at the moment, supposedly (for the first time... ever?).

BTW Kander has been writing his own lyrics for a long time, so obviously THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE is one of those projects. Final credits pending.

Edit: Kander is now 91 (!) and has had 7 new shows produced in NYC in the last 10 years or thereabouts, before anyone correct the above post.

R434, I think BEAST IN THE JUNGLE is a dance musical without lyrics.

Do you mean a ballet, r451? Or something like CONTACT? Either way, Henry James is still a piss poor source for musicalization. (Except maybe WASHINGTON SQUARE; that could make an opera in the right hands.)

R436 -- Yes, it means pound sterling. It's a british expression that means, essentially, if you're going to gamble a penny, you might as well gamble a pound. Or: if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.

R452, from the Vineyard website: "original new work — fusing dance, drama and music. Adapted from Henry James’ classic 1903 novella, THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE is the story of John Marcher, a man haunted by personal demons, whose great yet unfulfilled love affair with an unforgettable woman spans decades and continents. With a waltz-inspired instrumental score, and dazzling choreography that traverses the worlds of ballet and contemporary dance" Unlike CONTACT, this piece will have original music and will be one story not three vignettes.

[quote]Henry James is still a piss poor source for musicalization

Britten did well, but I’d agree—bizarre. And will they make anything of the homoerotic elements?

r428 with that body, that ass and those dimples he can leave a big empty hole wherever he wants

Does Hazel have an 11:00 number?

[quote]Does Hazel have an 11:00 number?

Yes. It's called "Mr. B, you can stick your floor wax where the sun don't shine, coz Miss Hazel is feeling mighty fine."

Apparently a joke in the show is that Harold puts vodka into Hazel's chicken broth. She continues to get drunk from tasting it and by the time Mr. B gets home with his boss and the boss' snooty wife, Hazel is drunk off her ass.

[quote] It's mind-blowing to contemplate that John Kander is writing MORE in his 80s than ever before in his career... he's done, what, like 10 shows in the last decade?

Funny how Kander is doing his best work after his writing partner Fred Ebb died.

Um, hardly.

[quote] Broadway actors etc have been tweeting support for Lauren Lew's go fund me, too. So far, $123,000 raised for the Lews, and $283,000 for the Blumensteins. Broadway really does take care of its own.

I used to work behind the scenes on Broadway and they are indeed an amazing community and I was proud to be a part of it. I have asked many celebs who have come to work in the theater what they thought and not one has ever said anything but how amazing and welcoming they are. Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS with their concerts, fund raisers and annual Flea Market is just one example. BWW once had a thread where the posters considered themselves part of the community. They did not take kindly to my suggesting just because they were fans, doesn't mean they are anywhere a part of the community.

A Brief History of Gay Theater, in Three Acts:

Oops, my apologies -- I thought that was a new story but see it was published over a week ago.

Honey Child Sugar Lamb!!! Bring the.Highpoint deGaffeinated coffee because Miss Jeff Whitty is spilling the TEA. She's back on her old Facebook page Jeff Whitty and TRASHING everybody from Michael Mayer to the musical director to his agency to his old lawyers. I don't know when I've seen a book writer go so completely off the tracks. Her lips ARE NOT SEALED on the next show at the HUDSON!!!

Do tell? Details?

Copy+Paste his cracky rant, thankyouplease.

Whitty’s tale:

I wonder how things are going in the rehearsal halls of “Head Over Heels,” the musical whose entire universe came out of my cheerfully productive and diligent head. For I have no idea for none of the parties involved will speak with me. Which is odd because I was never difficult, and instead presented them with a delicious beautifully-constructed treat of a show. It’s almost like they think they are getting away with something. All I did was say “no” when the architecture of the show was destroyed by the incoming director’s vision, which for some reason had his agency buddy placed where my excellent musical supervisor was. For reasons that have never been explained to me.

I sit here at home rubbing my eyes after the whole dreadful complicated kerfuffle, which I would be happy to discuss at length in a most public manner except that (words omitted here from fear of litigation from my former law firm).

(And I should mention that even writing these very words puts me at further risk of confrontation with the many mysterious strangers who have been exhorting me to “Drop my interest in the project.” Which is rather sensational news, were the scurrilous parties involved in doing so to be unearthed, which is why I am making these very public statements, to say Cut It Out. It is not fun to live in fear of somebody else’s organized “accident.” I’m just sayin’.)

What I need is a trip to Disneyland. I want to explore the wonderfully curated world of the man who smartly knew to put his audience first. Because delighting audiences is my craft. Given the pain of knowing that characters I created (which are, after all, extensions of one’s self) are now in rehearsal in ... a rather ADAPTED form ... I could use a little time with a Disney Princess and some pirates.

Anybody in LA up for a Disney trip this month? PM me!

There just better not be any accidents.

Any one know any of the songs from MOLLY?! to sing with Jeff Whitty

Saw an early Patti Gypsy performance at Encores. She seemed nervous, distracted and was hard to watch. By the end of the run, she was much better. Saw an early preview when it moved to broadway and she knocked it out of the park (and I'm not a Patti fan). Went back at the end of the run and she was ham on toast. Disgraceful. But the queens and the women who love them ate it up. Tyne Daly was a fantastic Rose even though her singing was merely adequate.

Count me as another who Imelda live (twice) and she was great. She could do Dolly easily. The Together Wherever We Go / Small World charm side of her performance got lost courtesy of the Beeb and, one suspects, Lonnie Price. Is she still set to come to Broad Way? I hope Lara Pulver gets pregnant or something, and Emma Stone gets to play Louise.

*who saw Imelda live

I rather doubt, at this point, that Imelda’s Rose is coming to Broadway. Heading up a London version of “Dolly” is a great idea for her.

Wow. Just checked the website for the “Head Over Heels” pre-Broadway run at the Curran in SF. Although the blurb alludes to Jeff Whitty (“the award-winning visionaries that rocked Broadway with HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, NEXT TO NORMAL, AMERICAN IDIOT, SPRING AWAKENING and AVENUE Q“), he is nowhere to be found in the credits, which only reference James Magrduer for “adaptation.”

An actor pal of mine is in the Denzel "Iceman" which rehearses in the same building as "Head over Heels." Last week he said he spaced and got off on the wrong floor. He said no sooner did he step out of the elevator then these two people started yelling at him. "What are you doing on this floor, you're not in this show!" He thought -- Oh must be some movie star with stalkers - then looked and saw on the sign on the door it was "Head over Heels"

We laughed about it at the time, but now I wonder if they're afraid Jeff

R473, that is really interesting, because the ibdb credits for the Broadway prodution of "Head Over Hells" read: Conceived by Jeff Whitty; Book by Jeff Whitty; Book adapted by James Magruder; Based upon 'The Arcadia' by Sir Philip Sidney;

Here’s the Curran Theatre page for Head Over Heels. The creatives are listed, with pics, below the cast.

Oh Shit. I didn't see Whitty anywhere on the SF Curran page.

I feel bad for Whitty. It appears that something that he created was wrested from him in order for his former agency to package it to get more work for their clients. I can see it happening, all too easily. Yes, some might say that Whitty is giving TMI on his facebook, but I can't imagine how frustrating and demoralizing the whole experience has been. it's better that he let it out than keep that anger inside. It sounds like he was screwed, and that is unforgivable, especially since he was the one who started the ball rolling on the project.

[quote]Oh Shit. I didn't see Whitty anywhere on the SF Curran page.

No, but Gwyneth Paltrow is one of the producers and that explains EVERYTHING. You cross Gwyneth and she will cut you right out of her existence!

Isn't he a WME Buzzetti boy? Or wasn't he? That's some cold stuff.

Wow. That really sucks for him. Bad karma on that project now—it's cursed!

I seem to remember very vaguely and a long time ago a ballet based on Washington Square at the Met. Perhaps done by Nureyev?

Does anyone else remember this?

Well Whitty did come on to "Avenue Q" and did push aside the one that isn't the double egot. Remember the documentary? So Whitty may be getting some Karma back.

Funny thing about Avenue Q is that it made the careers and fortunes of not only Jeff Whitty but also director Jason Moore and composer Jeff Marx. And all three of them have come to naught.

Jason Moore moved into film and became a very successful producer/director (The Pitch Perfect series, Sisters) as well as television.

Jeff Marx is working at Walmart, I think.

1). Whitty is nuts and refused to work collaboratively so that the show could go forward. 2). His best work was as a go-go (no pun intended) boy in the east village. 3) Avenue Q was always a piece of shite for dullards and suburbanites — “look, they’re puppets—and they’re randy”

Fuck me, that Tovah clip was jaw-droppingly awful. She'd need ten years of voice lessons just to get to being flat.

Love the La Jolla Playhouse in "Assassination of Versace." Totally perfect recreation, well done Ryan Murphy.

Call me crazy but I went into Carousel tonight expecting to see a disaster and absolutely loved it.

Don't believe all the insane chatterati. It will get rave reviews.

Was Stonecutters Cut it On Stone still cut, r489?

There was someone associated w Ave Q who famously flamed out on drugs a couple of years after it won the Tony.. was it Whitty? Whoever it was was supposed to be a real mess.

I’m surprised he has money troubles. People are always doing Ave Q.

That Feldshuh clip is surreally awful, but the sound of what would seem to be about two hands clapping at the end is hilarious

R491 Yes that was - and judging by some gossip in recent threads, continues to be - Whitty. Which would explain those money troubles.

If you have money woes while owning a considerable piece of Avenue Q which is a cash cow as it is still being done all over the world (including off Broadway for years and years) then that indicates you have some serious problems.

[quote]R42 Oh for god's sake. At the point that Billy hits Louise, he's a ghost. How come nobody realizes that? Did they sleep through the whole death and Heaven sequence?

Abuse is abuse.

ZERO TOLERANCE.

[quote]That Feldshuh clip is surreally awful, but the sound of what would seem to be about two hands clapping at the end is hilarious

That was rehearsal footage and some people who were in the auditorium for work.

Sure, Tovah /r496.

The Spring Awakening team did the same thing to Michael Mayer when it came to the movie version

No Stonecutters or Geraniums in the Winder as of last night. I missed them but those who don't know the show well won't, I guess. Shocking that the R&H estate allowed that.

And 2 more things that keep this revival from perfection: the Starkeeper's silent presence in so many scenes....not the actor's fault but the way he's costumed and used. And Renee Fleming....totally miscast and hopeless, but fortunately, all she really does is sing those 2 songs. Margaret Colin's Mrs. Mullin OTOH, of all characters, steals every scene she's in.

But I still loved the production and even found it far more moving the 1994 LCT revival..

Mrs. Mullins is one of those roles that can be a real scene stealer with the right actress. Good for Colin.

Jeff Whitty has been drug addled past the point of no return for years.

Jeff Whitty is a mess and these Facebook screeds are not helping him one bit.

IDK if this has been covered her but there's a gofundme for Ruthie Ann Miles that has raised $384K with celebrities falling over themselves to donate. Katie Holmes who unless I'm wrong has zero connection to her has given $10K.

What exactly are they using it for?

[quote]What exactly are they using it for?

If Ruthie Ann Miles is smart, she'll put it into something like a scholarship fund to avoid having to pay taxes on it.

The donors probably write it off as a deduction to a charitable cause.

How does anyone know what the long term effects of Ruthie's head injury will be?

Are you all that callous?

[quote] If Ruthie Ann Miles is smart, she'll put it into something like a scholarship fund to avoid having to pay taxes on it.

No taxes for the recipient. They're considered gifts. The person who makes the gift files the gift tax return, if necessary, and pays any tax, but it only applies to gifts in excess of $14,000 per year.

I don't think the issue is callousness, it's not understanding why a successful TV/theater actress and her consultant husband need a GoFundMe - is it because she's a minority that people assume she's poor? Is it because she's famous ... which just seems contradictory in this context?

She didn't ask for the GoFundMe, it just started up. She's recovering from a head injury and is about to give birth. And she's just beginning to grieve the loss of a child. She's got more urgent things to deal with than the ramifications of a GoFundMe page.

And people love nothing more than to jump on a bandwagon. At least once in a while it's for a good reason.

I vaguely know Ruthie Ann Miles through other people, but no more than a passing acquaintance and she's always been a very kind, sweet person. I can't imagine she'd do anything frivolous with the money, but that's not really the point. She could go to Vegas and blow it all for everything she's just been through, and no one should have anything to say about it. The difference is- she didn't go begging for the money. Don't lump her in with those grifters who invent some slight and try to work on people's sympathies.

Is it wrong to do a GOFUNDME to send Jeff Whitty to Betty Ford and then Sundance?

Not wrong r509, but certainly a waste of your money.

Give it another six months and Ruthie Ann Miles can set up the Jeff Whitty Memorial Scholarship with her GFM money.

Whitty used to own property upstate and have radical faerie-type gatherings all the time. Tiresome.

[quote] I don't think the issue is callousness, it's not understanding why a successful TV/theater actress and her consultant husband need a GoFundMe - is it because she's a minority that people assume she's poor? Is it because she's famous ... which just seems contradictory in this context?

Thank you. That's all I'm saying. Maybe there is some need we don't know, maybe she'll never work again. Who knows. It just seems odd that this sprung up when conceivably she has medical insurance that would cover this.

If Ruthie Ann is well enough to present at the Tony Awards in June, the ovation she receives will be thunderous.

Jeff Whitty might usher at the Tony's this year

[quote]Give it another six months and Ruthie Ann Miles can set up the Jeff Whitty Memorial Scholarship with her GFM money.

Has Ruthie ever played Christmas Eve?

She DID!!! Oh its a DL Venn diagram. Thrilled.

II saw several actresses play Rose: including Peters and Merman. Merman was the best. Peters was the worst, and I usually like her.

It would probably be a good thing for Ruthie to go to London in June for The King & I.

[quote] If Ruthie Ann is well enough to present at the Tony Awards in June, the ovation she receives will be thunderous.

If this didn't happen Ruthie Ann would never be asked to present a Tony (unless she has a new show coming out on CBS)

[quote]Jeff Whitty might usher at the Tony's this year

I think the most he can hope for is being a seat filler. And those jobs are difficult to get.

I saw Head Over Heels at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival a couple of seasons ago. It was dreadful. If Whitty wants to prance around in his basement lipsyncing The Go-Gos songs into a mirror with a hairbrush, more power to him, but the score does NOT go with the text of Arcadia. I felt sorry for the actors involved. As a friend who saw it with me said afterward, "Was there no adult involved in this??" I cannot believe the producers are doing this for anything other than a tax write-off.

Poor Rachel York is in Head Over Heels. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

R516 I actually saw Ruthie as Kate Monster in Avenue Q. At the time she was an understudy for Christmas Eve and Kate Monster.

Rachel York needs a better manager/husband. The one she’s got is killing her career.

R525, So true. She starred in that lame production of 42nd Street in Waltham, MA last sumner, the one where Tom Wopat was arrested for sexual assault.

Ugh. Did you see Rachel in Encores' Little Me? Dreadful. And how can anyone fuck up the role of Young Belle Poitrine?

Whatever happened to Randy Graff? I don't think she's been on Broadway since that ill conceived Fiddler on the Roof.

Randy Graff still sounds fantastic and is an interesting performer... actually possesses personality and a unique look/sound. Very kind and funny, too. Nobody sounds quite like her, either. Almost a tenor type sound... very underappreciated (Tony notwithstanding). Uniqueness... imagine!

That said, what exactly would she be right for these days? Would she slum to do Morrible in WICKED, I wonder? That's the only role I can think of she'd work in.

[quote]No Stonecutters or Geraniums in the Winder as of last night. I missed them but those who don't know the show well won't, I guess. Shocking that the R&H estate allowed that.

I'm not sure how much power the R&H estate/organization has anymore, now that the company has been sold twice, the second time quite recently.

[quote]Whatever happened to Randy Graff? I don't think she's been on Broadway since that ill conceived Fiddler on the Roof.

She won a Lucille Lortel Award last year for her Off-Broadway performance in THE BABYLON LINE at Lincoln Center.

My favorite song from Carousel:

Forgot to add, saw Randy in a Jule Styne tribute show at the Public a few years ago and she sang "People" and positively slayed... it was enormously moving. Too bad she never got to do FUNNY GIRL, I think she would have been fascinating (and someone actually able to handle the comedy). Alas, it was not to be.

What's up with Bobby Lopez? Is he a little on the spectrum? I've never really paid attention but his acceptance speech was so strangely out of sync with his wife's. It was almost like he never met her.

Randy Graff is super underrated. I've always liked her. It almost seems like she started too late or something. She'd have probably huge in the 50's-70's Broadway landscape.

That Tovah clip is...holy shit. No wonder they tried to scrub it from the internet. I actually saw her live and that's about what we got. A lot of skirt twirling (which could be appropriate at the start of the song, but seems a bit weird at the big dramatic climax) and she even did a cartwheel during the instrumental portion right after "Mama's gonna show it to ya." Other than that, she was kinda odd in the role. She slayed certain scenes, but a lot of the comedy was over her head. Like Buckley and the video recording of Staunton, she wasn't terribly funny and it made one wonder why Herbie would stick around. I don't even know what keys the score was in for her, but I'd assume they were close to the Roz Russell keys. I didn't think she sung it THAT badly, but she'd randomly go into head voice a lot.

I could not have loved Randy Graff more in City Of Angels. She nailed that character. But why, oh why did they cast her as Fantine?

I hate to be a delicate flower on here, but all the trashing of Jeff Whitty bothers me. Gossiping about people is one thing, but kicking someone when they are clearly having troubles seems so horrible and wrong. We should be hoping he works through whatever demons he has; not trying to get a front row seat for his collapse. I hope he recovers; I hope he gets his feet back on the ground.

[quote] Randy Graff is super underrated.

I agree. She was marvelous in a little-know musical, A CLASS ACT (2001), that was completely overshadowed by mania surrounding THE PRODUCERS, which opened the following month. Too bad, because it was a lovely show. She was nominated for a Tony, but lost to Christine Ebersole in 42ND STREET.

Her rendition of 'The Next Best Thing To Love' will break your heart

Bringing it all together, Tovah and Randy Graff were both in the assumedly horrible SARAVA!

Did any DL-ers see it? The commercial is jaw-dropping in its hideousness...

I just noticed that they're doing what's billed as the "West Coast premiere" of "Steel Pier" at UCLA. (I guess it never toured and regional theaters have given it a pass.) Worth checking out? I only know that it's Kander and Ebb, but not much more about it.

[quote] We should be hoping he works through whatever demons he has; not trying to get a front row seat for his collapse. I hope he recovers; I hope he gets his feet back on the ground.

I don't think most people here disagree. I think most people would like to see him succeed. As stated in this thread he has (or had) tremendous resources to get help. He hasn't and is posting absurd messages on social media that will only continue to hurt his career. No one is going to look at those posts and think "oh boy that's who we need on our creative team." I don't understand why so many creative types don't understand that. I have a social media friend who was an emerging playwright who wrote some very good stuff. He is constantly lashing out at various people on social media and posting things he shouldn't about the inevitable behind the scenes squabbles. And then he wonders why no one takes him seriously.

People gossiping on DL are not Jeff Whitty's issue. He is.

[quote]Thank you. That's all I'm saying. Maybe there is some need we don't know, maybe she'll never work again. Who knows. It just seems odd that this sprung up when conceivably she has medical insurance that would cover this.

Some need we don't know? Why do you need to know? People are giving because they want to. Good people do that. Because she's an actress doesn't mean she is rich by any stretch She's a working actress not a $20 million dollar movie star.. No telling when she will be able to work again. She will probably need a nanny to help with a new born. Maybe a meal service because she can't cook and her husband will be working and taking care of her and a baby, all the while they recovering and mourning a child.

R485, Jeff Marx is not working at Walmart. He is doing fine with money from AVENUE Q and THE BOOK OF MORMON.

I know Randy a little bit and, let's just say, she married well. She can afford to turn down work and, if it's out of town, she often does turn it down, which may not ulimately have been the wisest choice for her career.....even if best for her marriage.

"Steel Pier" has a really good score, but not the best book. It's a complicated show with a big cast and the need to stage and choreograph a large amount of dancers/actors for a good portion of the show, as they are playing marathon dancers. I saw it, and couldn't tell during previews that it was a fantasy, as the book, as I said before, had problems. But the score shone through, and it's a very entertaining CD.

She's teaching at Manhattan School of Music and very happy.

[quote]267 I"m reading that in the 1980 film [italic]Windows,[/italic] Elizabeth Ashley played an insane lesbian who paid a cab driver to rape her neighbor and tape record the encounter so that she could listen to the recording and get off. Ya know, like lesbians do. Ha.

Dark lesbians...

Her child was killed. Her friend's child was killed. She might have lost the child she was carrying and might have suffered a head injury the consequences of which can never be predicted and here we are thinking about an award show appearance for her.

Well she is an actor so what else would she be thinking about?

[quote]Jeff Marx is not working at Walmart. He is doing fine with money from AVENUE Q and THE BOOK OF MORMON.

Was he involved in BoM early on?

Yes, R548.

r527, Really who could EVER fuck up Belle Portine? Truly amazing.

Actually I saw her as Belle Poitrine -- she sang actually very well, just rather mature to be playing Young Belle.

Didn't she play both Younger and Older Belle in that production?

The early involved - Jeff Marx, Dan Knetghes and Moore were given a straight buy out. No royalty. Jeff Marx is very MIA. Still he's not begging for a 2 bedroom on face book like Molly Whitty.

R90 "Do human beings in your world appear and disappear whenever they feel like it?" The fags? Good God yes!

I saw Steel Pier when it was on Broadway. I thought it was a snoozefest.

[quote]I could not have loved Randy Graff more in City Of Angels. She nailed that character. But why, oh why did they cast her as Fantine?

Because Karen Mason was busy and Kim Criswell was slumming in London.

What was Shapiro up to, r556?

Jeff Marx hit on me when he first moved to LA. I thought about it for a minute and decided that, as funny as he was, I couldn't fake it.

Now if you could put Jeff Marx' personality into Jeff Whitty's body/face....

Randy Graff was terrific in the otherwise so-so THE BABYLON LINE. She's a top-level actor.

One of my friends was in Sarava. I need to get some scoop from him. I do remember him saying he knew it was a turkey early on and starting to look for other jobs before the show even opened, cause he knew it'd close quickly.

The score of STEEL PIER has a lot to offer, but the book is hideous. Imagine if they'd just done a stage adaptation of THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? instead, cause K&E were fine with dark material. It was the added fantasy stuff that sunk the show and detracted from any dramatic momentum gathered in the dance sequences. But Kristin Chenoweth made a big early-career impression in the show, and Debra Monk was superb. And dear Karen Ziemba got her star-making opportunity at last, at least theoretically.

I saw Bernadette Peters very late in her run in GYPSY. She was great. Obviously it took her some time to find her footing in the role, cause I don't know anyone who saw the show in previews who thought she was good then.

It's too bad Bob Crowley left FROZEN. Apparently his designs were incredible, and he was begged to not leave the project, to no avail. Instead we're getting what we're getting.

Finally, besides the brilliant Glenda Jackson in THREE TALL WOMEN, the other major production to take in right now is THE LOW ROAD at The Public. This Bruce Norris play is far superior to his somewhat overrated Clybourne Park, a thrilling and hilarious dissection of American capitalism run amok. It's so damn good.

Bobby Lopez in not on the spectrum, silly. My guess is he just gets nervous when he's accepting an award in front of gazillions of people. He and his wife are delightful.

Bobby Lopez is fat.

Rachel York's lack of a broadway career is a head scratcher. Maybe she turned off some powerful people when she blabbed about Julie Andrews hitting on her during V/V?

[quote]What was Shapiro up to, [R556]?

Trying to bump off Stockard Channing so that she could Sonia Replacement #4 in "They're Playing Our Song" rather than just "Voice #3".

Poor Debbie Shapiro. Lucie finally called out the week after Deb left the show and the new standby went on. Can you imagine?

Bobby Lopez is a great guy, and was a rehearsal pianist back in the day. Steve Flaherty was also a rehearsal pianist. I remember him coming into a bar (Barrymores? Anyone?) after a day of auditioning all the divas for Fontine and saying -" ugh spent all day playing this dirge that sounds like "Whiter Shade of Pale." When I finally saw "Les Miz" and started to sing "I dreamed a dream" I had the giggles.

Who cares about Debbie Shapiro.

I want to know more about her hot son.

Mean Girls starts previews Monday. When the project was first announced, I thought it'd be reasonably successful, but now I'm not so sure.

Washington audiences liked it, which may be the kiss of death.

[quote]I saw several actresses play Rose: including Peters and Merman

You must be ancient.

[quote]how can anyone fuck up the role of Young Belle Poitrine?

By being 45 when one plays it.

I saw Merman too.

Why hasn't Randy Graff played Rose in Gypsy somewhere? One would think they'd be a good fit for each other.

Rachel York's career is a bit of a mystery to me. I mean, she's done fine, but she made such a big splash in Victor/Victoria that one would have thought she'd have become a huge star. She was easily the best thing about that show.

When's Dan Goggin going to write another hit?

Nunsense XII is just around the corner!

Is Sara Gettlefinger's parole coming up soon?

[quote]Is Sara Gettlefinger's parole coming up soon?

Such an amateur!

Wow I forgot all about Sarah Stickyfingers. What was she in for again?

I seem to remember Ruthie Ann Miles being vilified in these very theater threads for her fundie-ness after her Tony win.

My co-worker went to see "Dolly" this week and while she thought Bernadette was fantastic, she said she found Garber's singing to be "rather weak" (her words). She said overall that she'd still recommend the show, though.

Why did Bob Crowley leave Frozen?

I thought that was Jessie Mueller, R577.

[quote] My co-worker went to see "Dolly" this week and while she thought Bernadette was fantastic, she said she found Garber's singing to be "rather weak" (her words).

Yah, because every Horace before him has been such a chanteuse.

[quote] Maybe a meal service because she can't cook and her husband will be working and taking care of her and a baby, all the while they recovering and mourning a child.

It's at $380K+... for meals?

I'd be very surprised if Jeff Whitty was still getting money from Mormon. I can't imagine they offered him royalties vs. a lump sum.

Stylistically, Garber sounded like he was still singing "Godspell" even when he was in "Sweeney Todd" (and he's never had a legit voice). It's never been more than a serviceable voice, but he's a fine actor.

Rachel York was very good in "V/V" but she was also doing a terrific imitation of the superb Lesley Ann Warren in the film (even if York did have a couple of terrible numbers added in the show that Warren blessedly didn't have to sing in the film).

I think Randy Graff is much better in comedy: saw her in "The Babylon Line", also "Do Re Mi" at Encores in Nancy Walker role and "City of Angels" among others. Her Fantine just seemed kind of apathetic and without passion. Plus it's mainly that one song. and she's gone.

I think Kander and Ebb and company couldn't get rights to "They Shoot Horses", or somewhere along the line maybe decided it was too depressing and to make it a fantasy. It's a very enjoyable score. Ziemba was great, but her 11 o'clock number is about her character's desperation and running on empty, which doesn't really translate to star-making opportunity for that number's placement in a musical, even though she did it well and was very fine indeed in the entire show.

Playing Rose in Gypsy "somewhere" is exactly what Randy Graff has no interest in doing.

I saw Mean Girls in DC. The book is probably an 8. The score is a 2. Maybe 3. Only Grey Hansen and Kate Rockwell gave note-worthy performances.

Didn’t Randy Graff play Dolly in the “somewhere” of St. Louis?

R583-Try to keep up. Whitty had nothing to do with BOM. That was Marx. And they hated him so much they paid him an absurd amount just to get rid of him. But that's ok. He was taken by the supremely untalented Harris Doran, who used Marx to meet as many people as he could, and he still doesn't have a career or money. But Marx does and still can't get laid.

[quote] He was taken by the supremely untalented Harris Doran, who used Marx to meet as many people as he could, and he still doesn't have a career or money.

Elaborate, please. This sounds good.

[quote]Didn't she play both Younger and Older Belle in that production

That was Faith Prince who played both Younger and Older Belle. Judy Kaye, looking fatter than ever, played Older Belle in the Encores production. It was not one of her more successful performances.

Klea Blackhurst is currently in negotiations to replace Bern in Dolly.

Randy Graff was very underwhelming as Fantine which was bizarre because she was paired with the signature song from the show. I remember they hustled her onto The Tonight Show when Les Miz opened and not only did she stink but it was like she knew she stank.

The husband and wife songwriting team for Disney is right where they belong: at Disney writing songs FOR CHILDREN.

Lets not confuse them with creating work for grown people.

And yes, their weight is a HUGE contributing factor in what they write.

We have lost our adult creators.

They went out with the lights in the Piazza.

And Parade.

And The Band- lost in uninspired ideas.

I hear TOOTSIE is bland as well.

Oh well.

It's a Disney World.

[quote] Maybe a meal service because she can't cook and her husband will be working and taking care of her and a baby, all the while they recovering and mourning a child. It's at $380K+... for meals?

It is NOW, no one thought it would go that high. And who said it was all going to meals? What's wrong with you?

Klea Blackhurst is so huge now, the only part she’s right for in Dolly is a giant sack of feed in Horace’s store.

Can we please move the Ruthie grief porn to a different thread? There is already one that exists. I'm tired of hearing about her. I mean, this happened on Monday and it's Friday.

As Sondheim would say: "Move on."

Yes R 587 at the Muny about 10 years ago

Bobby is nice but the wife is not

Bajour 2 - it all just got Bajourier.

Who is Harris Doran? Is he an agent?