THEATRE GOSSIP #303: Tony Makes Or Breaks Careers Edition

Da money ain't on Broadway, babe.

Lenk for the win

Murin for the gin

What agent / agency has the most nominees this year?

Boys in the Band is entertaining but the casting is weird. Bomer who seems like a trophy boy plays the introvert who likes to read. Parsons who seems like a fussy nerd plays the guy blowing all his money on trips and clothes he can't afford. Rannells makes surprisingly little impression and looks chunky. The black guy also is barely there. It's hard to understand why anyone would let this guy viciously insult them all night or why they would let him force them to make those phone calls. Even the straight guy just sits there and doesn't leave. Was any of that more plausible in period context?

I'm hoping the bloom will wear off and tix will go onto TDF in the summer. I sure as fuck don't wanna pay $160 for a ticket.

The Boys in the Band is an embarrassment as a play. It only got noticed originally because there were no depictions of open homosexuals in plays at the time.

[quote]The latest (and seemingly final) iteration of Strictly Ballroom just opened in the West End and weirdly, it’s not even a musical now

Neither was Lurhmann’s original play, which he adapted for the screen.

Lousy title and opening post this time.

I watched the Boys in the Band movie as a gayling and it depressed the fuck out of me. I really considered conversion therapy. Beautiful Thing brought me out of that funk, thankfully. I wonder if I would think it was better as an adult.

[quote]The Boys in the Band is an embarrassment as a play. It only got noticed originally because there were no depictions of open homosexuals in plays at the time.

It started in a tiny, tiny theater on the border of the West Village and Soho. It should have stayed there.

[quote]Lousy title and opening post this time.

Well, pardon me all to hell, princess. Maybe next time you can amaze us with your wit.

Costume Designer Ann Roth has been nominated for 3 different productions this year: Carousel, 3 Tall Women and The Iceman Cometh. Is that a record? Has anyone else ever achieved this?

Btw, I don't think she'll win for any of them.

There have been many clever and/or amusing titles over the last 25 or so theatre gossip threads, r11. Yours isn’t one of them.

Simple punctuation marks would be better than the dreck the Poppins Loon comes up with in his titles (and then congratulates himself for).

I just watched the Stephanie Block concert. She had a good set but the songs were too high. She needed each song down just half a step.

I loved Stephanie Block in the Falsettos thing they taped at Barnes & Noble. Was she like that?

Meanwhile, rather than link the B&N I'm Breaking Down, here is some Wicked publicity for the best tour Elphaba (for the Idina-stans) because unless I've missed someone, Mary Kate is the first openly gay woman to play the lead in Wicked.

Why don't they produce Agatha Christie on Broadway anymore. You'd think Nina Arianda would have been an easy choice for Witness for the Prosecution.

I also love The Hollow. So much better than the book, and I'm even a Poirot fan.

[quote]Why don't they produce Agatha Christie on Broadway anymore.

Because PBS has done so much AC that everyone already knows who the murderer is.

[quote]I just watched the Stephanie Block concert. She had a good set but the songs were too high. She needed each song down just half a step.

Will you be watching next week's episode, featuring DL icon Andy Randells?

The Poppins Loon hasn’t been a Gossip OP in a while, r14.

I miss the glory days of the theatre gossip threads,

SJB is so ordinary she's like the textbook example for the people who complain on here about contemporary performers having no distinctive personality. It's like your friend's suburban mom singing at a wedding. Meanwhile the theme of her act was about her thinking she's so great and then consistently not getting cast in things, like being dissed for the OBC of Wicked.

She gets Sebastian Arcelus' cock on a regular basis, that should be enough for her.

I watched SJB. I agree about soccer mom singing at wedding. Totally. Haha. Just not good like that. Very boring. Screaming at the top of her lungs, no feeling. Weird face. Pitchy sometimes. Her personality is better than i thought. Boys in the band has always been a funny, demented, twisted show to me. I can't imagine this new cast is as funny. I never took it seriously. I just laugh at it. There is no point and it has nothing meaningful to say. Just entertaining if done right.

Remember Pirate Queen???

Getting cast in Pirate Queen was infinitely worse for her career than having to wait her turn to be tour Elphaba.

I was shocked that this was her one big chance for a definitive recording of her act and her voice wasn’t as good as many of the clips of her elsewhere on YouTube. It’s lije her musical director was out to get her by placing her songs so high that she had to scream to stay on pitch in some places. It was a good set of songs for her, the concert would have been A+ if they were just a bit more comfortable for her. She excelled most in “I’m breaking Down”

and she's going to be Cher

Honey, Cher was never a vocal powerhouse.

You bitches who complain about TBITB remind me of Asian-American actors who vilify THE KING AND I and FLOWER DRUM SONG. Honey, if it wasn't for Rodgers and Hammerstein, you'd still be playing Dragon Lady or Numbah One Coolie in stock. Same goes for gay representation on stage. Franklin Pangborn, anyone?

Stephanie Block would be better suited for a musical version of Ethel Mermans life not Cher

I mean that as a compliment

Who did Lesli Margherita piss off to not get cast in that Cher show? Even DLers have to admit she's pretty much tailor made to play Cher, certainly more than anyone who actually got cast.

The best number in Blocks show was the one with her husband

They aren't episodes, r19.

R 31

Teal Wicks got that Cher role not Stephanie. Also Lesli just secured an ABC pilot.

[quote] Teal Wicks got that Cher role not Stephanie. Also Lesli just secured an ABC pilot.

They both did. Cher is being played by three different actresses at three stages of her life.

Will SUMMER still be here when CHER arrives?

Ooops - wrong thread. sorry.

[quote]Stephanie Block would be better suited for a musical version of Ethel Mermans life not Cher

Not while I'm around, bitch!

R35

Regardless of how many women are playing Cher it does look like Lesli pursued other projects rather than the Cher show. She is starring in a sit com. Even if ABC treats her like shit and it doesn't take off she will make more money and probably even gain more star power doing it.

She is hilarious and versatile. Look at this insane live action Tangled segment from Broadway Princess party:

[quote] Will SUMMER still be here when CHER arrives?

Yes. And as a promotion during the winter months, the casts will go into each other's shows.

Following up on a comment in an earlier thread -- "Reprise 2.0" (the resurrected LA version of Encores) has announced the casting of their first production, "Sweet Charity": DL faves Laura Bell Bundy, Barrett Foa and Jon Jon Briones!

What say we?

[quote]Laura Bell Bundy

LBB is too "clean" and pretty to be a dance hall hostess/prostitute. Charity needs a bit of an edge.

For obvious reasons, Parsons should be playing Emory, and Bomer should be playing Cowboy. Quinto is the perfect Michael. but is all wrong as Harold. Harold should be played by Erich Bergen.

Casting in this is all fucked up.

[quote]Parsons should be playing Emory

Parsons is too nerdy (inhibited?) to play Emory. Isn't Emory the one that jokes he got arrested in the bathhouse for soliciting? I could never believe Parsons saying that.

Directors and actors all live for this casting against type nonsense. It rarely works because most actors do not possess the necessary skill set. And this production is god awful with all the pretty boys simply preening and posing onstage. Whatever happened to craft?

Laura Bell Bundy in 2009- I'm giving up Broadway for Country Music Laura Bell Bundy in 2018- I'm giving up Country Music for Regional Broadway

Sweet Charity is a really hard sell. You need a dancer with unlimited charisma to carry the show through the overly long sequences.

Surely no one thinks LBB is the right person to pull that off...

Oh shit. You know who NEEDS to do that version of Sweet Charity?

Actual DL fave Rumer Willis.

Ugh, THAT's the first production for the re-conceived Reprise? I guess we weren't really missing anything lo these many years it's been dormant. God, I've seen some shitty productions there.

Company- starring Chris Sieber, with Judith Light as Joanne (cannot sing a note), and Debbie Gibson as Marta. But featured a fantastic Amy Pietz as April. It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman- I can't even remember who was in the cast (I think Cheyenne Jackson, maybe) and I left at intermission it was so terrible Sunday in the Park with George- Manoel Felciano and Kelli O'Blanda Applause- Sheryl Lee Ralph as Margo and Jean Louisa Kelly as Eve (JLK was great as Amy in Company)

Let me try that again. Sorry about that.

Company- starring Chris Sieber, with Judith Light as Joanne (cannot sing a note), and Debbie Gibson as Marta. But featured a fantastic Amy Pietz as April.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman- I can't even remember who was in the cast (I think Cheyenne Jackson, maybe) and I left at intermission it was so terrible

Sunday in the Park with George- Manoel Felciano and Kelli O'Blanda

Applause- Sheryl Lee Ralph as Margo and Jean Louisa Kelly as Eve (JLK was great as Amy in Company)

Actually that Company sounds kind of OK.

I'd rather see Kerry O'Malley in Medea but we can't always get what we want, can we.

[quote] Actually that Company sounds kind of OK.

You'd think. But it was awful. And Company is one of my three all time favorite scores, so I am always happy to see a production of it.

The nose situation gives LBB an edge. It would certainly knock down her marketability as a prostitute.

Were there any close ups of SJB's trademark half demented smile? That better be the DVD cover.

I'd cast Parsons as Donald. Bomer is too old for Cowboy. He's not ideal for Larry but I can only see him in that role in 2018. I agree that Quinto should be Michael.

r50 I saw that "Applause" with Sheryl Lee Ralph ... and also with James Avery. Actually, I had to go TWICE because there was a bomb threat that caused the first one to be rescheduled.

Also remember seeing Malcolm Gets, Rex Smith, and Andrea Marcovicci in "Finian's Rainbow," and Jason Alexander and the aforementioned Miss Block in "They're Playing Our Song." And "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" with Alice Ripley, Hugh Panaro and Valarie Pettiford.

Thinking about Applause reminds me of the all star reading I saw of All About Eve at the Ahmanson when I first moved to LA. Stockard Channing played Margo, Calista Flockhart played Eve, John Ritter played Lloyd Richards and I think Victor Garber played Bill Sampson. I can't remember who played Addison DeWitt (I want to say Tim Curry, but don't quote me) or Karen. Jennifer Tilly played the Marilyn Monroe part and Angela Lansbury played Birdie and she was dreadful. They all had scripts in their hands but Lansbury was acting as though it was the first time she'd laid eyes on the material. Let's put it this way- Kirk Douglas played the person who gives Eve the Sarah Siddons award and he was more with it than Lansbury.

The reading was pretty lackluster in general.

[r57] I’m laughing at your description of Lansbury. I’m imaging her getting out of a car at the theatre and being handed the script as she gets on stage only to find out she’s NOT reading Margo. Haha

I noticed Ashley Day liking an instagram post about Broadway Bares by Jerry Mitchell. I’d love to see him and Robbie in the next one, maybe in something like that incredibly natcissistic Batman and Robin routine that Chris Sieber did with his disposable bf.

I've seen Charity several times and the weirdest thing is that I think it plays better in more intimate settings. The story comes through and you're not bombarded with the musical numbers. The larger the production, the characters get lost as they just really over expand the musical numbers, even the ones that don't need to be.

That makes sense, R60

[quote] I noticed Ashley Day liking an instagram post about Broadway Bares by Jerry Mitchell. I’d love to see him and Robbie in the next one, maybe in something like that incredibly natcissistic Batman and Robin routine that Chris Sieber did with his disposable bf.

Has Chris Sieber fattened up again? I can't see him maintaining that body. Not at his age.

He did fatten up but he got back into shape. He’ll never again be as good in shape as he was for that Broadway Bares routine. Guy likes his food too much.

Christopher Seiber is someone I would love to see get an overdue Tony.

Sam Harris, Chris Seiber, Cheyenne Jackson, Sherie Scott, Marin Mazzie, and Stephanie Block are all sadly Tony-less.

How was Gentlemen/Blondes, r56?

[quote] Marin Mazzie is sadly Tony-less.

Fixed that for you

R43. Estelle is far too old to play Emory!

Erich Bergen hasn't the balls to play Harold.

And none of them has the pock-marked jew fairy face to play Harold!

that's why we're here

Someone mentioned Manoel Felciano upthread -- that's a name I haven't heard/read in ages. Didn't even know he was still around. He was great in "Sweeney" a few years ago.

R50 proving that formatting doesn’t fix bad content

Going to see BITB in July and I can't wait to meet Matt Bomer and his blue eyes.

[quote] [R50] proving that formatting doesn’t fix bad content

You tried, R72. But sometimes it really IS better to be an observer instead of a participator.

At the workshop of THE PROM I saw, it was pretty clear Sieber is a shoo-in for a best supporting nod if all his material stays.

Mano has great voice. Yalie I think.

I have to agree with R72. It was really odd to re-post that thing at R50 with zero content changes. All for spaces between lines? It's not like it was exciting to begin with!

Good, I'm glad it bothered you.

Matt Boner's main function is to open the show by showing his ass and walking around in his underwear. But this again only makes it seem as if he's supposed to be a trophy boy when that's not actually who the character is.

I bet all these guys are pushed they had to wait to open until after the Tony cut-off.

That’s the reason most do Broadway. I’m not saying the show would have been showered with noms, but one of them could have slid in.

[quote]but one of them could have slid in.

Believe me; more than one of them has tried to slip in.

R68, he has one more than you do, TWAT.

TWAT?

How 60's.

R79-There are plenty of people who have seen that ass close up. And I mean a lot of them at one time.

Right, Simon?

[quote]I bet all these guys are pushed they had to wait to open until after the Tony cut-off.

And when the Tonys come around next year, everyone will have forgotten the show.

Plus, they have to play this dreck in the Summer when all the gays flee the city and tourists aren't that jazzed about a non-musical.

And just ask Angela Lansbury how well a show does that opens in Summer. And she was doing a musical!

Does anyone have a link to the Sieber Batman/Robin thing? Sounds sexy.

[quote]Matt Boner's main function is to open the show by showing his ass and walking around in his underwear.

You say it like it's a bad thing.

[quote] I bet all these guys are pushed they had to wait to open until after the Tony cut-off....That’s the reason most do Broadway.

Dude, most Theater Queens care more about awards than actors do.

[quote] Dude, most Theater Queens care more about awards than actors do.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

*Dude*, actors live for two things- money and recognition. Awards fall squarely under the 2nd category.

You clearly know none.

Who are you kidding R87? Please.

[quote]*Dude*, actors live for two things- money and recognition. Awards fall squarely under the 2nd category.

Dude at R88: What you don't know about actors is a lot.

What's the story behind Javier Munoz' twitter breakdown / not having reps / threatening to spill the beans on the hamilton percentage fight?

Karen Olivo needs to introduce Javier to a pottery wheel. Get a hobby, Jav.

R88, Awards bring money and recognition.

[quote] [R88], Awards bring money and recognition.

Awards don't bring money as often as they used to.

[quote] Dude at [R88]: What you don't know about actors is a lot.

Sure. If you say so, pal.

Brilliant retort, R96.

Javier is ridiculous. Oh yes it's gonna go so well for your future career to spill all the details.

LMM needs to turn his back on this mess already.

R91 = 🙄🙄🙄🙄

[quote] Brilliant retort, [R96].

I gave it exactly what it deserved.

Stephanie Block is too nice to play Merman..

A Batman/robin strip at broadway bares does sound sexy they should do it!!

A Tony does bring extra money. When they begin a new show and the producer can put in the advertising "Starring Tony Award Winner..." that equates to extra that a good agent can negotiate with.

[quote] A Tony does bring extra money. When they begin a new show and the producer can put in the advertising "Starring Tony Award Winner..." that equates to extra that a good agent can negotiate with.

Thanks for letting us know!

Richard McCabe, Roger Robinson, Scott Wise, Owen Teale, Lena Hall, Anne Duquesnay, Karen Ziemba, Gretha Boston, Daisy Eagan, Michelle Pawk, Marie Mullen, Deanna Dunagan, Hinton Battle, etc.

DL fave Melissa Benoist IS Carole King!

Muñoz will be replaced by the first white guy to play Hamilton. You read it here, first.

Is it DL fave Robert Fairchild? [r106]

I made it halfway through Stephanie J Block's opening number ("Some People") and turned it off. It was so... indicative. Whoever called her a soccer mom wedding singer was exactly right.

Is this what Live at Lincoln Center has become, cabaret nights? What happened to plays and musicals? Even if the productions of Act One and The Nance were far from great, they were still better than Show Tunes 101.

R92 he doesn’t have reps anymore? Says who?

[QUOTE]Muñoz will be replaced by the first white guy to play Hamilton

So that's what Mandy's doing next?

R109

'My reps & I separated. My aggressive politics were too much for them. Seems I want to stand up for what’s right versus what is right for their pockets. Nothing to lose here folks. I’d have been in these trenches fighting with/without fame. What is right is right. End of story.'

R111 Christ, I scrolled through a few tweets, the crazy is strong. I did get a laugh from him tweeting to "fellow celebrities". I'd feel sympathy for him if he weren't being such a self-righteous prick.

The javier situation is just sad... he clearly needs mental health care

Javier has stated his boundaries!

Hopefully the reps that dropped him told him he needs some mental health care ? I mean would he even listen? It’s sad. Or is he not crazy and just being forthright about his experience in showbiz and being dubbed cray as a result?

Chris Sieber and Kevin Burrows did a Batman/Robin duo strip in the 2005 "Broadway Bares"

[QUOTE]Or is he not crazy and just being forthright about his experience in showbiz and being dubbed cray as a result?

He's definitely being crazy. He could still be being honest, but he's doing it in a crazy way which means no-one is going to pay attention. Especially with his smug superior attitude.

[quote]Is this what Live at Lincoln Center has become, cabaret nights? What happened to plays and musicals? Even if the productions of Act One and The Nance were far from great, they were still better than Show Tunes 101.

A-Freaking-Men!!! The National Theatre in London is broadcasting their productions in movie theaters all over the world.

Lincoln Center is using the Perpetually Broke System (PBS) to broadcast mediocre concerts to people who don't want to watch or pay for them.

[r188] Jesus mine airs Friday. So not looking forward to Saturday’s reviews.

[quote] Muñoz will be replaced by the first white guy to play Hamilton. You read it here, first.

Uhhh, Munoz left the show in January and was replaced by a black actor.

And the only place that Hamilton is going to be played by a white person is the Des Moines Home for the Aged where a 93 year old woman will play Hamilton, if her hip holds out.

Jeez, SAINT JOAN just opened and it's playing to 28% capacity? That must be torture for the actors to slog through that boring play with 200 people in the audience (on a good night).

And SPONGEBOB gets 12 Tony noms and is playing in Times Square at the most desirable theater on Broadway to 40% full houses (on a good night)? Yikes.

Dismal season, indeed.

[quote] SAINT JOAN just opened and it's playing to 28% capacity? That must be torture for the actors to slog through that boring play with 200 people in the audience (on a good night).

The papering services will add another 50 people.

Is Erich Bergen (Stephen Kodaly on FB) straight or gay? I've seen evidence of both options.

every time i go on TDF, I get Condola staring me in the face. And every time I think- not if you paid me.

Times Critics Pick is well worth the visit - a little known piece of LGBT history.

R124 bi

[r124] Andy Mietnus fursiously making every gay boy bisexual.

I feel bad for Daniel Sunjata. He’s gorgeous and a good actor, seemed destined for big things with “Take Me Out” and SATC in the same season...and then he just kinda meh

R128 Wonder if his views on 9/11 had anything to do with his career going slow. As for Javier, the 'Kanye of the East Coast', flicked through his Twitter, what is he fighting for? It seemed like he is anti producer and wants actors who do labs/workshops to be paid more/a cut of the profits, is that it?

I remember Sunjata as the cute sailor boy at the end of the SATC episode which referenced 9/11. Did Sunjata say we deserved it or something?

R129, others with greater accolades including tony awards have been run out of the business for MUCH less

If jailbait James Barbour is still getting work, then anyone can get work.

And Rosie O'Donnell got work after all the stupid things she's said.

[quote]Is this what Live at Lincoln Center has become, cabaret nights? What happened to plays and musicals? Even if the productions of Act One and The Nance were far from great, they were still better than Show Tunes 101.

The "cabaret shows" are a separate series in the Appel Room at the Time Warner Center, and they air on Live from Lincoln Center because they are presented by Jazz at Lincoln Center. That doesn't mean Live from Lincoln Center will no longer televise shows like ACT ONE and THE NANCE and SOUTH PACIFIC. Although I am really sorry they didn't televise THE KING AND I -- especially because they usually televise those shows at the end or after the end of the run, so it probably would have been Marin Mazzie as Anna, and she was great in the part.

Sunjata is a confirmed fuckboi (fuccboi?). He does not deserve your pity. You can read up on his antics on LSA if you're into the sick and boring lives of heterosexuals (I regret everything).

DL fave Scott Evins makes a point of referring to Bergen as his str8 boyfriend... but then, Evins claims friendship with Suzanne Somers, so his judgment is questionable.

It wouldn't have been Mazzie. O'Hara returned for the broadcast. Laura Osnes was playing the role at that time.

What is LSA?

And since when has Scott Evins (sic) been a DL fave??

The fave may have been facetious...

R136, I guess you're talking about SOUTH PACIFIC. Kelly did return for the broadcast of that one, but not for LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, so it's not certain she would have or could have returned for THE KING AND I. Anyway, that show wasn't televised, so it's a pointless argument.

Was the Piazza broadcast circa O'Hara's pregnancy?

I thought DL fave Daniel Sunjata was DL Bi or DL gay?

He’s str8?

Erich Bergen is not bi. He is a bossy bottom

From the Shirley Booth thread.....

Hmmm... Is Aaron Tveit DL bi or DL gay?

It seems to me that no one seems to know, or is willing to tell, either way. That in itself throws up questions but as of yet no answers.

I find him thoroughly uncharismatic and not even especially good looking, so I'm not waiting with bated breath for confirmation.

Sunjata seems to have a very messy "love" life involving women. You can conclude whatever you like about that ("What is SHE trying to prove?") But LSA tends to have the juice - e.g. Kerry Rhodes gay antics were long discussed before here.

Tveit is straight r144

R132 I agree that Rosie O'Donnell says stupid things, but I bet she knows what the word "jailbait" means--which, apparently, you do not.

R146, asexual

Chris Crocker has more followers than aaron tveit. I'm gonna start some shit, but oh well. I watched the applause number with bonnie franklin that was a show stopper. Wtf? What a pathetic song and message. Anything for the applause. Also, i just saw mary poppins for the first time last night. WHAT IN THE HELL?! that movie is dumb as fuck. 2 hours and 19 min of trash. THANK GOD julie andrews showed up. There was a song about depositing money in the bank. I can't. Just stupid and the kids didn't even give a fuck when she left. And now they are bringing her back after 54 years! With lin manuel?! I have no words. You couldn't pay me to watch condola either. I left romeo and juliet at intermission.

I believe you r148

[Quote] I can't.

Strangely, this offends me while "thicc" doesn't. At least the latter has a certain piss take humour to it. "I literally can't even" speak will never be amusing. It's tired.

^^^Ugh. British people.

[quote] I left romeo and juliet at intermission.

Both of them died at the end.

No surprise. Orlando Bloom must be at least forty.

r153 Spoiler alert!

(Especially for those who've only seen "West Side Story.")

For somebody with no words, r149, you're pretty blabby.

I can't even.

Anyone who thinks SAINT JOAN is a boring play has no business posting on a theater thread.

With some of the directors these days r153, you never really know for sure.

So besides his personal life (which is obnoxious on these boards)

What career wise does Robbie Fairchild have going on? He left the ballet world almost a year ago to do acting/legit theatre. Does he have something coming up?

If the next major Rome & Juliet doesn't end with Juliet charging up the centre aisle, out of the theatre, I'll light their asses up with a new hashtag movement. #me&juliet

He just did a TV pilot.

He was not called back for Cassie, thankfully.

*Romeo

So Andrew Garfield has brought as his date to the Met Gala Nathan Stewart-Jarret (the Belize in AiA)... has he officially come out? does he REALLY want that tony?

Saw SAINT JOAN on Thursday night, cause it's a Shaw play I'd never seen nor read, and this was a great opportunity.

The production has its flaws (two fraus in the mezzanine left BEFORE THE FIRST DAMN SCENE had ended!), but the show overall is pretty good. That fourth, talky scene must be hell to direct and figure out, and it's overwritten by a good ten minutes, but the arguments the characters have about faith, religion, power and politics was breathtakingly smart. Any time an actor or moment started to bore, I just focused on the language, the words and the issues.

No modern playwright can touch the intellectual vigor that Shaw possessed. Kushner tries at least, but I don't think anyone else does because they know they wouldn't get produced. The standards have dropped that significantly.

A great cast has been assembled here, including Daniel Sunjata, whom I did not recognize at all till I looked at the Playbill at intermission. He's still handsome, of course, but age does get us all.

Finally, for all its shortcomings, seeing the Epilogue in SAINT JOAN made the whole evening worthwhile. You can see the influence that time-bending scene has had on every major playwright since, and showed that Shaw was as much an artist as an intellectual.

In a season of SPONGEBOB, HARRY POTTER, FROZEN and MARGARITAVILLE, this was a welcome respite from vapidity.

Andrew Garfield has said he's not gay, or rather: "I haven't met a man who's made me swoon but... who knows?". Does no one else hate that pandering bullshit?

[quote]What career wise does Robbie Fairchild have going on? He left the ballet world almost a year ago to do acting/legit theatre. Does he have something coming up?

He's doing an evening of song and dance at the Kennedy Center in October, part of Renee Fleming's "Voices" series, which is the successor to the "Barbara Cook's Spotlight" series of recent years.

[r167] people can say what they want but he’s gorgeous especially in your pic

It's a bit rich to feature him in a series titled "VOICES". Will Hugh Jackman be featured? Andrew Keenan Bolger? Janie Dee? None of these people have remarkable voices.

Robbie Fairchild also is in the pilot for a potential fall series on FOX called "Mixtape." Supposedly it's one of the "hot" pilots (ie, getting a lot of attention and positive reactions) per Deadline.

yeah, Brian stokes mitchell had a lot of 'hot pilots' according to deadline, and look at him now

And Robbie played 1910s modern dancer Ted Shawn in the film The Chaperone, script by Julian Fellowes, and starring Elizabeth McGovern as the woman who chaperoned teenaged Louise Brooks when traveled to NYC to study modern dance with Ruth St. Denis (and Ted Shawn).

It's based on a wonderful novel of the same name.

A movie STARRING Elizabeth McGovern? In 2018? Is Julian Fellowes going to script something for Pia Zadora next?!

I’m glad Robbie is doing well though. He seems nice and grateful and he’s talented.

I doubt his wife thinks he's all that nice.

I thought they parted as friends? Did she rebound? Did he?

... Yes. Yes, I think he did rebound...

The nose ring makes the outfit

[r177] you gotta spill. Is it a good rebound?

Ugh Erivo is just the worst.

[quote]Was the Piazza broadcast circa O'Hara's pregnancy?

No, that was South Pacific, r140. I think O'Hara had other commitments that didn't allow her to return to Piazza. Pity, as the ten year one night only concert version of Piazza with the full original cast was fantastic.

R130 He believes 9/11 was an inside job

Is Erich Bergen actually bi in real life, or is it just that his character on Madam Secretary is bi? Or was that twist added to reflect his truth?

Kelli O’Hara’s other commitment was the Harry Connick revival of The Pajama Game.

If you don't believe Erich is gay, ask Jim Caruso.

Then why did professional gay Scott "in" Erich as his "str8 boyfriend"?

Because he's in a show on the homophobe network, CBS?

Back to Encores: I saw Tony Danza in Fiorello! back in the 1990s. It was fine. I remember really liking the harmonies in "Little Tin Box," however.

R106 If that happens, there goes the gimmick!

OMG R182; How COULD he???!!!!

Who could ever BELIEVE in such a crazy LIE???!!!

I mean, I NEVER!

Right Europe??

r189 The show will retain the gimmick of having terrible lyrics.

It was the best rebound ever, r179!

Rosie O'Donnell believes it was an inside job and she still gets work. And didn't Christine Ebersole have some weird conspiracy belief about something?

[quote]Kelli O’Hara’s other commitment was the Harry Connick revival of The Pajama Game.

I remember a time when "other commitments" were something to be excited about.

[quote]didn't Christine Ebersole have some weird conspiracy belief about something?

Ebersole has some weird conspiracy belief about EVERYTHING. I can't imagine how Patti LuPone put up with her for all those months. Maybe she didn't really have a hip replacement, she just couldn't deal with Crazy Christine anymore.

Fairchild should get more leading roles in musicals. He’s only 30, can dance (which is a HUGE plus) voice is passable and his looks makes the ladies (80% of audience) swoon. Plus he’s married to a fellow ballerina so that makes fraus even more happy.

Tony Danza did not do FIORELLO! for Encores.

Tony Danza played the little tin box in that production, actually.

Tony couldn't even pull off the bartender in the Kevin Spacey "Iceman Cometh".

Kelly could have done Piazza while she was pregnant. It could have been all the more reason for the mother character to get rid of it. Obviously the Italian family that the mother sold her daughter to couldn't tell the daughter was 45 and retarded.

[quote] Plus he’s married to a fellow ballerina so that makes fraus even more happy.

Not anymore he isn't.

Yeah, Piazza remains a bafflement. There are one or two good musical moments awash in a score that’s as stunted and autistic as its main character.

What would you do for love, r201?

R201. Of course, as you should recall, Clara is not autistic--she is developmentally disabled as a result of an accident with a horse. If you're going to be nasty about people with disabilities, at least get it right, asshole.

Toh-MAY-toh, toh-MAH-toh R203

[quote]she is developmentally disabled as a result of an accident with a horse.

I'm not r201, but it was hard to tell. That musical was so boring, I probably fell asleep during the part where they explained that.

In point of fact, they had to pull Spacey off the bartender in "Iceman Cometh".

Ask Rupert Graves.

wait, did Spacey and Danza cometh during Iceman?

Ok even if Robbie is separated from his wife he could surely get the Tony Tazebeck career trajectory. There aren’t many leading men who can dance as well as those two. Why isn’t Fairchild going after those opportunities if not Broadway, then London.

I don’t think tv pilots are his future...look at Cheyenne Jackson.

It was a pony, not a horse in "Piazza".

Yazbeck not Tazbeck

[quote]Fairchild should get more leading roles in musicals. He’s only 30

Not yet I'm not, bitch. I'm still in my 20s for a whole month!

Your obsession with Robbie Fairchild is embarrassing, r 208. Why do you keep coming on here to ask what he's got going on, what projects, etc etc. It's his life, not yours, and he seems to be doing well without your knowing every last moment of his career.

Isn't Robbie F a ballet dancer? Ballet is very different from musical theater dancing.

You're tiresome, r213.

[r212] is clearly Fairchild or Fairchild’s agent.

Maybe you should work on a career as apposed to bitching on an anonymous gay gossip site.

I’d rather listen to Ebersole’s insane conspiracy theories than have to sit through her caterwauling that ear bleeding Another Summer in a Winter Town nonsense.

Someone I know worked with Danza on The Producers, lovely lovely man who had the learning abilities of a one year old child, rough moments aplenty.

Tony Danza played Fiorello in a 1999 Los Angeles Reprise! production.

Soft Power began previews right on the heels of Head Over!

Anyone heading over??

PLEASE let us know!!

Robbie Fairchild would make a great Billy Flynn opposite Stormy Daniels as Roxie Hart!!

[quote]Tony Danza played Fiorello

What??? Fiorello was a fat midget. He made Jackie Gleason look like a stud.

Danza is only 5’8”.

Who the fuck cares about Tony Danza??!???

On Broadway, Fiorello was played by Tom Bosley, and even he was too good-looking for the role.

[quote]Danza is only 5’8”.

LaGuardia was only 5'1"...in heels.

[quote]LaGuardia was only 5'1"...in heels.

Did he do drag?

[quote]Did he do drag?

His first name translates as "little flower". If he didn't, he should have.

"And now, presenting....Little Flower" and out walks LaGuardia in a kimono and black wig.

How dare LaGuardia appropriate Asian culture!!!!

Yeah, that's what I meant--Danza did Fiorello in the LA Encores, which was called Reprise in the 90s.

Tony Danza, in person, is a very 'slight' man with a small frame- He looks bigger on camera.

[quote]Yeah, that's what I meant--Danza did Fiorello in the LA Encores, which was called Reprise in the 90s.

It still is -- or rather it is AGAIN, as we've discussed in this thread.

Barrett Foa is a BIG man on any stage, huge huge cock.

Why do bottoms always have the biggest cocks?

[quote]Yeah, Piazza remains a bafflement. There are one or two good musical moments awash in a score that’s as stunted and autistic as its main character.

I'm baffled that anyone could feel that way about such a gorgeous score. So we're even.

I hope we don't have to wait forever to get a new work from Guettel.

Hold me closer, Tony Danza

This thread is sad. So sad.

I'm with you, r234.

It's a sad, sad situation.

[quote]I hope we don't have to wait forever to get a new work from Guettel.

Well, the last time Guettel had a musical on Broadway, Kelli was playing a teenager, as opposed to Bridges Of Madison Country where she played the mother of a teenager. So, yeah, I’m sure Guettel will have a show coming out any day now. Sniff, sniff....

He's workshopping something called "Millions." Possibly based on Nathanael West novel, but that may be wrong.

Kelli was playing a young woman in her 20s, r 239. One of the plot points involved the Italian father discovering, right before the ceremony, that she was several years older than advertised.

Fiorello's extreme shortness is the main reason the show has never had a Broadway revival.The role is too hard to cast with a name and the title isn't famous enough to be produced without a name.

While I concede that Tony Yazbeck can dance, he's really not a good enough actor or singer to become a star. And he's about as sexy as your neighborhood goat herder. Plus, he's no fun to work with.

Yazbeck is a much better singer than Fairchild.

Millions is based on the Danny Boyle movie. It’s a good film, and a fun idea for a musical. But Guettel's been working on it for about a decade now and that usually doesn’t bode well.

I pity the queen who goes to see either Tony Yazbeck or Robbie Fairchild for their...singing...talent.

Children of a Lesser Dog to close end of May. That was fast. Or was it always that limited a run.

Deaf people I know have always found the play very problematic--maybe with heightened knowledge about Deaf culture and/or disability activism (and, yes, I know, most culturally Deaf people to not identify as disabled), the play is too dated or technically flawed to run today.

THIS, and his was a gift from the ancients.

Can you even IMAGINE the pressure of living up to that?

And it was this good from the first minute to the last (actually better sung by Kelli, but no matter).

It’s genius r247. Truly. Katie Clarke was just 20 and had never done a professional production her life. She was a sophomore at Sam Houston University when her voice teacher there submitted her for the role when they couldn’t find a replacement. She WAS Clara she’s a great actress too. Her voice is now much better but I think her Clara was stunning. Kelli sang it with perfection though yes.

I love Cohenour's voice.

Kelli maybe SANG it better

But Katie ACTED it better and was so nice backstage.

And that one eye tick?

Now THAT'S Method!!!

Loved her!!

R251 agreed

R10, the Lucille Lortel on Christopher Street isn't a tiny, tiny, theatre. It's the former Hudson Playhouse movie house with 300 seats.

R236 i so agree.

We traded in the Menzel troll for the Guettel/Katie Clarke troll.

At least we traded up.

R255 I saw Celia Keenan-Bolger as Clara at the Goodman in Chicago, pre-Broadway and she was fine, too.

One of our DL denizens has died....you may not recognize his name, but Jim Seabough of Kansas City, MO posted often in the Theatre Gossip editions (and even came up with some of the better thread titles back when they had wit and sparkle). He was close with Jill Haworth (the original Sally Bowles in Cabaret), and a host of other Broadway and Broadway adjacent names, and often passed along gossip here that later came to pass.

An elder gay by his own admission, Jim loved the theatre with optimism and humour, going to shows as much as humanly possible, in New York, on tour, and at regionals and community theatres, along with concerts and cabarets. He also loved DL, and was a regular poster in the theatre, lgbt, and nostalgia threads. He was a sweet man who would snail mail theatre bootlegs and rare dvds free of charge to any person he came across online who expressed curiosity about the Merman & Martin Ford Anniversary show, Laurie Beechman, Turkey Lurkey Time, Sondheim, Kander & Ebb, Judy and Liza, or the various Evita casts.

He also paid attention to the new ways of doing things while holding the old ways dear, and is missed by his large extended family and wide circle of friends, both online and in real life. Rest in peace, friend.

P.S. Jim definitely would have wanted the DL to know his iPod is fired up and ready for suggestions!

R258 Thank you--what a sweet and elegant tribute.

Lovely tribute, R258.

A cheering standing O to Jim Seabough of Kansas City, MO for the marvelous contribution to DL!

A thoroughly well deserved one, R261.

Was he hot? If not,, sad I suppose but no one cares.

He sounds like he was a real swell guy......

Don't Cry for me, Dataloungers

R263 YOu are a true cunt. And blocked.

I am not a huge Kelli fan, but she was way too young (as was Pasquale) for “Bridges of Madison County”

Lovely tribute, r258! Thank you.

I must ask: Was Jim also KCguy (I think that's the name)? If so, we had so much in common.

Remember this episode of American Dad?

Tony Yazbeck has an excellent voice, which he’s shown in On the Town and Prince of Broadway. Robbie Fairchild has an okay voice, perfectly acceptable for Will Parker in Oklahoma (which he did last year in the UK) and similar roles,

[quote]Plus, he's no fun to work with.

Ooh, let’s hear the stories!

Robbie Fairchild, on the other hand, is a doll to work with. At least for now.

The problem with Fiorello is its subject. Fiorello LaGuardia was a New York personality, not national. Even in 1959, when anyone over 10 knew who he was, the show couldn’t quite get to two years. The London production was a big bomb, running just seven weeks. The fact that Encores! did it twice is all the tribute it’s likely to get or deserves.

LA’s Reprise shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath with Encores. The shows were usually cheap and tacky. Every once in a while they’d do better, but not often. The board fired its controversial founder, Marcia Seligson, in a big brouhaha a few years after it started. Jason Alexander ultimately replaced her, and ran it into the ground in just five years. Seligson is back at the helm with this new one.

I wasn't a huge fan of Light in the Piazza -- I think Goettal's music is generally not melodic or dynamic enough -- this song, Dividing Day, is a stunner. It's sung by the mother, after she hangs up the phone from talking to her husband, and it is clear to her that they no longer have any kind of relationship. There is a video of the song from live at Lincoln Center, but I can't find it.

R267 I imagined Carolee Carmello in the role

[quote]It’s genius [R247]. Truly. Katie Clarke was just 20 and had never done a professional production her life. She was a sophomore at Sam Houston University when her voice teacher there submitted her for the role when they couldn’t find a replacement. She WAS Clara she’s a great actress too. Her voice is now much better but I think her Clara was stunning.

Katie Clarke was ok, but she had an extremely unfortunately habit of squatting when she reached for a note I'm serious. I hope she grew out of that.

Tony Yazbeck was fine in "On the Town" but screwed up and was lackluster doing a rather sure-fire showstopper, "I've Got Your Number", when Encores did "Little Me" a few years ago.

So, was it KC Guy who passed away?

If not, who was it?

I'm only partially joking here- but is Jordan Roth transitioning?

[quote][R10], the Lucille Lortel on Christopher Street isn't a tiny, tiny, theatre. It's the former Hudson Playhouse movie house with 300 seats.

r253, Boys in the Band didn't play the Lortel in its original run.

It was originally scheduled to play 5 performances in a theater on Vandam Street, which is a very small theater. When they saw how popular it was, they quickly moved it up to Theatre Four on West 55th Street. The show originally started in that small theater on Vandam.

[quote]Edward Albee and his producer Richard Barr, no strangers to controversy, presented a workshop through their Playwrights Unit for invited audiences at the Vandam Playhouse (now the Soho Playhouse). The list must have been long, for the lines stretched around the block. With Charles Woodward as co-producer, the play premiered Off Broadway at West 55th Street's Theatre Four, where it ran 1,000 performances.

Did anyone see "Me & My Borle" at Encores last night?

So Jordan Roth was a balding meth head nine years ago but is now a luxuriously maned woman of a certain age now? Is that correct?

Rest In Peace Jim! Sounds like another beautiful soul gone home. A blessing to the family. Nice tribute. ❤

NYC Theater Gays- Save your pennies and do NOT go see The Gentleman Caller at the Cherry Lane. Went last night and knew within 30 seconds it was a disaster, but we toughed it out for another half an hour before my friend and I decided to bolt (as quietly and quickly as we could through a sold out house).

The play is abysmally written and directed, but the worst part is the casting. They decided to go non-traditional and as Tennessee Williams, cast a Hispanic actor and for William Inge, cast an Asian actor. This didn't make me roll my eyes as much as I thought it would (perhaps because I felt so disconnected to the material as written that I never felt like I was watching either Williams or Inge). The bad part about it was that they got the two WORST Hispanic and Asian actors to play these roles. They were high school theater bad. And I kept wondering- This playwright is coming off a critical hit with Michael Urie and Robin DeJesus.

And minority actors are always bitching about how they never get roles that white people are up for- no matter the material, they should have been able to cast the cream of the crop of minority actors (at this level) for this show instead of who they got. For the first 15 minutes, I thought the actor playing Williams was (in all seriousness) doing a Ricky Ricardo impersonation.

r284, what was the playwright's Michael Urie/Robin DeJesus critical hit??

Is The Sting planning a Broadway move? I haven't heard a thing about the show since it opened.

R284, let me google that for you.

R285- The Homosexuals

Although I’ve had mixed feelings about Kelli O’Hara’s work since then, she was luminous in Piazza. I saw the show later with Katie Rose Clarke, and it just wasn’t the same. O’Hara has become more bland over time, she really did not deserve the Tony for The King and I, where she was fine but many other actresses would have done just as good a job. But I would have been fine with her getting a Tony for Piazza.

Was Theatre Four close to the 55th Street Playhouse, where Boys in the Sand premiered?

I agree, r289. Katie Rose Clarke did a fine job (particularly in the circumstances) but you could see her working; O'Hara was transcendent. In fact, the whole cast -- particularly Victoria Clark -- was superb.

Katie Rose Clark just couldn't pull it off. The luster was gone from the show with her as Clara.

However, a few years later, she made an excellent Glinda in "Wicked."

Faith Prince was the best in The King & I. She found jokes in the material that Oscar H never thought of.

There were two things missing from Faith's performance: goosing the King when she first met him and doing a spit take when he asks "Shall We Dance?" Otherwise, her performance was just like Lucille Ball playing Mrs. Anna if Gary hadn't talked her out of it.

Actually, Faith Prince was just the opposite - almost humorless as Mrs. Anna. I think she was trying really hard to play against her image.

You didn't see the performance I saw, r294. She was hamming it up and several of her lines were delivered like punchlines. Which surprised me because I saw her in Falsettoland and she was brilliant with the dramatic material. Her "Holding To The Ground" still remains one of my favorite theater memories.

R290-Just about a block away.

It's interesting that a play about gay men didn't stay in the Village but moved up town to Hell's Kitchen.

It's quiet uptown

55th Street was closer to The Ramble than the Village. If you're going to pay 30 cents subway fare to go uptown, you might as well make a night of it.

I haven't heard any stirrings about the Elton John/Paul Rudnick adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada. Is it still on? I think Paul is a brilliantly funny mainstream writer, but I think Elton is a bore and a hack at this point. I wish someone else were doing the music.

ABBA should be doing Devil Wears Prada music. Can't you hear Miranda singing "The Winner Takes It All"? The assistant could sing "Someone Else's Story" or "I Know Her So Well."

AS long as they cast Christine Baranski as Miranda, I'll go.

Yeah r301. A Broadway musical with music by ABBA.

Late to the wake, but lovely tribute, R258.

Someone should do a collage of Jordan Roth's hairline through the years... he's a miracle of science

Ohhh, so that's who that was. I'm sure it'll hurt Roth's ego to know he was posted in the Met Gala thread and no-one had any idea who he was.

[quote] As long as they cast Christine Baranski as Miranda, I'll go.

But Christine Baranski won't be able to pronounce cerulean.

[quote]As long as they cast Christine Baranski as Miranda, I'll go.

Over my dead body. Miranda was based on Anna Wintour, who has brown hair, and I have brown hair too.

Patti you really are the devil who wears prada. You needn't worry dragon face. The part is yours in real life.

Wasn't there a big scandal years ago with Roth's husband?

Is Roth’s Dad an advisor to Trump?

[quote]But Christine Baranski won't be able to pronounce cerulean.

Maybe, but Patti wouldn’t be able to pronounce, well...anything.

[quote] I haven't heard any stirrings about the Elton John/Paul Rudnick adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada. Is it still on? I think Paul is a brilliantly funny mainstream writer, but I think Elton is a bore and a hack at this point. I wish someone else were doing the music.

Really? Elton John is the hack? Have you SEEN Paul Rudnick's work in the past twenty years?

R268 and R278, yes, it was KCGuy. Glad to see him remembered.

Jeffrey was the only decent play that Paul Rudnick wrote. And even that was only mildly amusing.

Rudnick can write funny one-liners and good bitchy lines, but he has zero talent for telling stories and building arcs for characters. He peaked with Libby Gellman-Waxner.

[quote]Rudnick can write funny one-liners and good bitchy lines, but he has zero talent for telling stories and building arcs for characters.

That didn't stop me from making a career out of it AND getting a Broadway theater named after me.

I had some correspondence with Jim Seabough around 2005-2006. He was a nice guy. I think he would have been 67 now. Does anyone know what caused his death?

the state of Broadway

Jordan's hubs' habits makes Schneiderman look like mother Theresa

With the emergence of Pasek and Paul as Oscar and Tony winning “hot” songwriters, he knew there was nothing left to live for.

Maybe Elton can't find the extra twenty minutes he needs to write the whole score.

Rudnick was fun in Chelsea Piers back in 1998... not anymore

Who are you voting for in the Theater Fans' Choice Awards?

As it’s BroadwayWorld, I imagine Ben Platt will win as a write-in in every category.

[quote]Who are you voting for in the Theater Fans' Choice Awards?

It's BroadwayWorld, so whoever you vote for will be counted as a vote for Patti Murin. After she ass-whipped them a few years ago, they're not about to cross her.

You nailed it, r201.

"Of course, as you should recall, Clara is not autistic--she is developmentally disabled as a result of an accident with a horse. If you're going to be nasty about people with disabilities, at least get it right, asshole. "

Oh, the virtue-signalling! Reminds me of a Nabokov interview: Interviewer: "A critic has said that you 'diminish' your characters 'to the point where they become ciphers in a cosmic farce.'" Nabokov: "How can I 'diminish' to the level of ciphers, et cetera, characters that I have invented myself?"

Clara is a FICTIONAL character, r203. We'll talk about her any damn way we like.

Shit, I have tickets for “Gentleman Caller” on May 18.

YES, R321!

That's part of what I was talking about.

The Hamilton museum is the other.

Hamilton - The Exhibition to open in Chicago

"I remember opening night of Hamilton here in LA. I went up to Lin and told him how great the show was and if i could get a quick autograph. (There was no one around him) he didn't make eye contact and said "i dont have time for this" and walked away. Really awkward and my theatre heart broke. I know I wasnt intitled to anything (not even a "thank you" for my complement or "enjoy the show"), but his attitude was so mean. I really saw him in such a great light. Made me think, theres no cameras around so theres no need to "act" nice."

I wonder when his legion of fans will start to figure out what a phony he is.

As if there aren't stories like that about every celebrity.

[quote] Shit, I have tickets for “Gentleman Caller” on May 18.

Well, do come back and let us know what you thought.

Well, R327, you ignorant prick, just because a character is fictional doesn't mean you can't be sloppy, wrong, and bigoted about her disability. So fuck off, you stupid asshole. Autism is not the same thing as TBI and all your dog-whistling about "virtue-signaling" doesn't change THAT. Obviously, you simply view anyone not you as inferior.

That's all, twat.

Richie Jackson-Roth is off the leash again? What dungeon is he inhabiting now?

About six years ago we saw Richie and Jordan bleeding from the nose skulking down 9th ave with a sad little Spanish twink following them screeching he was hungry, surreal sight, this was 8:45am mind you...

^^^^^

Jordan Roth has gone from 'great white hope' to great white joke...

What do the Nederlanders and Shuberts think of him?

Just watched clips of "Me and My Girl." Christian Borle is shiny with sweat in just about every scene. Laura Michelle Kelly sounds great, she certainly sings it better than either Emma Thompson or Maryann Plunkett did, but she looks like she's gotten a little chunky. I guess she had too long being able to hide it underneath her "King and I" hoop skirt.

The clip on BWW

Regarding Tony Yazbeck's dull, sexless take on I've Got Your Number. Blame the choreographer. He had him dancing all over the stage when he should have never left Belle's side. It was one off the most ill conceived numbers I've seen on stage -- and in this day and age that is saying a lot. No on putting shows on today knows anything about anything. The theater has become a dark void where hacks can flourish.

Wasn’t Jordan Roth’s husband attached to BD Wong at one time? They had a kid together?

R341, I agree. The staging sank that number.

I want to believe that R342 actually did mean to reply to R341 with that.

You did it too! Both replies meant R340.

I thought Harry Potter was a lot of fun—incredible stagecraft, although it kind of drags in the last hour of Part 2.

But what is up with the actress playing Professor McGonagall? The worst performance I've seen on a Broadway stage since Matthew Broderick in "It's Only a Play." She takes you right out the play each time she speaks. I'm not asking for a Maggie Smith impersonation, but geez.

I wouldn't mind seeing the actor who plays Scorpius win the Tony. It would be well-deserved.

Couldn't agree with you more r345 - it was a stunningly bad performance.

Of all things, it reminded me of Rachel Dratch in an SNL Harry Potter skit. Honestly, I think Dratch would be an improvement

Yes, B.D. and Richie had a kid while Richie was spending most of his time getting fucked by random hook-ups. Judging by what Jordan has turned into, he must be at it again.

At one point Jordan was a reasonably informed young producer, then he upped his level of drugs and became a curiosity piece with a manic desire to be a Kardashian. He’s completely changed his vocal levels as well, truly a freak show.

Never expected to see Nabokov quoted on this site.

It's time for a revival of The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. We need a Miss Mona that has loads of charm and can sing. And not one of those old "treasures" like Bette, Bernadette or Splatty LuPone.

Would Gwen Stefani bring in the audiences?

[quote]Of all things, it reminded me of Rachel Dratch in an SNL Harry Potter skit.

Oh my God, you nailed it. That's exactly what it was like—only without the amusement Dratch would bring.

I went to the clip to watch the clip of Me and My Girl, and two things: the ad that preceded it was for a concert of Andrew Rennells, live from Lincoln Center. While he was screaming his lungs out, backed by a huge orchestra, and playing to a large house, the announcer said something about it being an intimate performance. WTF? THAT'S intimate?!? Did the ad writers even look at the video they're writing copy for? I can't believe the laziness and stupidity of some people. And...I couldnt watch the Me and My Girl clip. It kept stopping after the first few seconds. My internet connection is good, so maybe they have too much traffic to their site?

Rannells admits his go-to audition song has always been "Born To Run"

Sort of the way you feel if you get too close to that overly-botoxed face.

It's not a huge orchestra and its not a large house but other than that go for it

[quote]Rannells admits his go-to audition song has always been "Born To Run"

The Bruce Springsteen song? What does he do when a ballad is required? Half-tempo it?

R340, Tony should have imagined he was Joey. This was choreographed by Michael Bennett.

The only way Whorehouse could be revived is if Reba wanted to play Mona. And I think her sensibilities might be offended by the piece.

Jane Krakowski would be a fabulous Miss Mona. I am so happy UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT is ending so she can do more stage work... she needs to star in something fabulous soon. I can actually see her pulling off MAME, too, but they'd probably want a bigger name for a revival of that magnitude.

Although I'm not usually a fan, Sutton could probably pull off Miss Mona, too.

Shania Twain would be an interesting choice, as well. Doubt she would do stage, but maybe...

Reba could play Mona. But does Reba even want to do another revival? I guess if she wanted to try for a Tony Category star turn -- but other than the chance to get a prize, why would she?

Laura Bell Bundy would be fine as Mona. It really isn't something that needs to be revived.

Stephanie J Block, when she's done with the Cher Show? And surely a Gypsy one day?

"Best Little Whorehouse" is a really over-rated show. The original had like 2 great numbers and some good performances, but otherwise it wasn't particularly outstanding. Yes, the Aggie Song was very memorable though.

Calling Jane K. and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fans. The show is filming in the low 40’s along Park Avenue today!

Tony yawnbeck is sexless. No getting around it. Laura M Kellley always looked chunky to me. She can't stop that. Borle is just not cute. Andrew rannells in concert? That's gonna sound really pretty. Whorehouse is a bad show, but Carrie stiffwood could do it. They would eat it up. Miss Mona is not old eldergays so let's get out of y'alls age group. Think young. Fresh. RELEVANT. POPULAR. we're trying to sell tickets folks! Maybe even Britney Spears as Miss Mona!

Cheno as Miss Mona.

Absolutely r364

Why are you so critical of everyone R364?

Britney, in her right mind, could be a definitive Sweet Charity.

Betty Buckley.

Yes, Betty Buckley in WHOREHOUSE would be a laugh riot. Not.

I can't even imagine how hard, humorless and steely her Miss Mona would be.

It would probably make her GYPSY seem frothy and fun in comparison.

Trisha Yearwood.

Kelly Clarkson as Miss Mona.

Miranda Lambert would be enough of a name and the right “type” for Miss Mona, too.

Can Stormy Daniels sing?

and Jordon Roth and Richie Jackson's spanish trick as one of the Aggie boys!

Patti wouldn't be a good madam. But a great dominatrix. But can't think of a musical with a dominatrix.

[quote]But can't think of a musical with a dominatrix.

Gypsy

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM has a dominatrix.

And there's that weird lesbian techno musical flop VOYEURZ that played the West End for a few weeks in the 90s.

Oh, and HELLO AGAIN has the Nurse character with heavy S&M leanings.

" "No one putting shows on today knows anything about anything. The theater has become a dark void where hacks can flourish."

How I wish we could continue this discussion over drinks, r340!! Truer, more depressing words were never spoken. It's clear that the low-rent banality of our consumerist society is now considered a virtue on Broadway.

[quote]But can't think of a musical with a dominatrix.

La Cage Aux Folles

""Yes, the Aggie Song was very memorable though."

But it had to resort to sex to do it. Case closed.

The musical of Eating Raoul has a dominatrix.

Does the whipping in JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR count?

My godmother brought a gaggle of gals to NYC every six months for corporate training. Every time, the saw Best Little Whorehouse. The show was never the same twice. I have never seen a show with so much fiddling after it opened. Songs and scenes moves around. Costumes were changed (I remember breakaway prom dresses being added late in the run.)

I could see Orfeh or Nina Arianda as Miss Mona.

Not a character, but a dominatrix was in the My City number of Seesaw. Surely, there had to be one in The Life.

R383, they changed it even more on tour.

R383, The tour that I saw was with Alexis Smith, and yes they did change it even more, but it was mostly to add more dance for her. That I kind of expected.

If they did a revival of "Whorehouse" could they add Dolly's song "I Will Always Love You" and could she get a Tony award for that one song?

Was Ann-Margret as much of a mess in that early 00s WHOREHOUSE tour as everybody said? I remember seeing some clip of the new song Carol Hall wrote for her and being horrified by how A-M could barely move or speak/sing. Why did she do it if she was not even close to being physically up to the demands placed on her? A long national tour, no less! Very odd.

I always feel like Ann-Margret is extremely sweet but very fragile and got fucked over big time throughout most of her career because she is too nice/kind. She should be more celebrated, if only for her breathtaking performances in TOMMY and CARNAL KNOWLEDGE alone. Brilliant.

She was incredible in that epically maudlin TV movie where she gives away every one of her 10 (!) kids because she is dying of cancer, too.

[quote]Was Ann-Margret as much of a mess in that early 00s WHOREHOUSE tour as everybody said?

The whole tour was a mess. The chorus got so bored that they were fooling around onstage. My friend said at one performance, Ann-Margaret had to turn around and say, "Ladies, Miss Mona's talking now."

“I so hangry Reeeeeeechieeeee!”

yes, the Ann-Margret / Whorehouse tour was a mess but it sold like hotcakes... amazed that the Weisslers never put Ann-Margret into Chicago... she's a box office draw for those of a certain age

Is there any kind of regulation and oversight for the Theater Fans' Choice Awards to prevent things like people voting multiple times, voting for shows and actors they haven't seen, voting even if they've only seen one show in the past year, and so on? I highly doubt it. And if not, they're worthless.

Ann Margret is a cultural legend simply for the opening and closing scenes of the film of Bye Bye Birdie alone.

George Sidney's one moment of inspiration in a lifetime career.

Who would want to see Rannells in an intimate setting?

Maybe sitting in the 3rd mezz at Radio City and he were offstage.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if A-M had a career renaissance like Jessica Lange. I wonder if she’d want it or is she content in her quiet widowhood.

Isn't AM 20 years older than Jessica Lange?

Can Rannels not be exchanged for some prisoners in North Korea or given as a gift by Trump.

I suppose he always makes costar's look better..

I think A-M isn't in very good shape. I remember (or not) that Moore was caring for her on a micro- level before he died.

A-M is 78 this year

I wonder how she's been doing since Smith died. You never hear about her any more. Has she become a recluse?

Can't blame her. Old and probably drained from his long illness and death.

A-M suffered some horrible accident where she fell off the stage or something in Las Vegas and her entire face had to be glued back together, right?

She seems very Doris Day in that she appreciates her time in the sun and is enjoying the sunset.

That said, I'd kill for Ryan Murphy to give her a series/cameo/whatever. I bet she'd slay.

Wasn't she on Ray Donovan in the first or second season.

I sa this article and immediately thiught it would be about Jan Maxwell. I even thought, God Jan Macwell looks terrible in that dark wig!

But its not her.

Yes, A-M was on RAY DONOVAN and did a great job. I bet she's up for work if it's the right fit.

From wiki: "On Sunday, September 10, 1972, while performing at Lake Tahoe, she fell 22 feet from an elevated platform to the stage and suffered injuries including a broken left arm, cheekbone, and jawbone. Husband Roger Smith flew a stolen plane from Burbank, California, to Lake Tahoe to get his wife to the surgeons at the medical center at UCLA for treatment. She required meticulous facial reconstructive surgery that required wiring her mouth shut and putting her on a liquid diet. Unable to work for 10 weeks, she ultimately returned to the stage almost back to normal."

Wonder has Joe Mantello introduce Ryan Murphy to Glenda Jackson? He isn't in her league but it could be interesting....

Incidentally, A-M and Glenda Jackson did a movie together once upon a time: THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER.

A-M and Glenda can reunite for a FEUD season all about it. I'm sure there are a 8 episodes worth of stories...

Per Wiki: "In a 1982 interview with Roger Ebert, Ann-Margaret recalled that Ann Skinner, who had been the "script girl" on Margaret's film Magic, bought the film rights to West's novel. "Halfway through production, we went broke," Ann-Margret said. "The cast and crew kept working without being paid, and finally another British production company came through with some more money. It was a labor of love."[3] Although the film was actually produced in 1982, it was not released in the U.S. until 1985 due to legal complications."

I remember when I was a boy and obsessed with Variety I read in it Merrick wanted AM for Sugar but obviously that was unlikely as she had too lucrative a career going.

But wow if only she had done one big Broadway musical in her life this would have been the opportunity. Elaine Joyce was about as well cast as Eileen Heckart would have been.

Moore stole a plane? What for?

Heckart would have made a helluva Sweet Sue though, r405!

The Whorehouse Tour was put together by Manny Kladitis. Thank goodness guys like him and Leonard Soloway disappeared into the ether or else they would be such #metoo targets nowadays.

It's been so long since I've read the Michael Bennett bio, but apparently, he was pitching a Broadway musical starring A-M.

"City of Angels" deserves a revival more than "Whorehouse."

Return of the Soldier was an excellent film--Julie Christie and Alan Bates, too, IIRC. The novel (or novella, it's shortish) would make a good stage play.

Agreed R392.

Wow- A-M would have made a superb Roxie in Chicago!

Michael Bennett considered doing a musical of Love Me or Leave Me and wanted to do it with A-M.

Fosse should have done a Vegas "Chicago". A-M as Roxie, Lola Falana as Velma, Steve Lawrence as Billy, Eydie Gorme as Mama, Wayne Newton as Mary Sunshine, Rip Taylor as Amos.

At Cesars, right R415? Speaking of Ann and Ryan Murphy, she played God in an episode of Popular.

D'oh! Screwed up my "playing the Palace" joke.

R414, of course! Could you have imagined that? A perfect show for Bennett and a perfect star for him. He could have molded her to his specifications and A-M would have had the biggest hit of her career.

I've met A-M a couples of times. She also had a bad accident on "Tommy". During the breakdown scene where she breaks the TV screen with a champagne bottle and soap bubbles come out. As she is crawling she can't see the TV anymore and didn't realize her hand was in the broken TV and she cut her hand with blood everywhere. Ken Russell literally grabbed her and carried her to the car and drove her to the hospital. She ended up with almost 30 stitches. She showed me the scar and it was shocking . She is as sweet as you hope she would be and Roger was lovely too.

She’s a very sweet lady. I worked on the film Going in Style. She fell flat on her ass when we were shooting the bit at the end when the wedding guests danced. That was a little scary.

Was Ann-Margaret ever considered for a film of Evita? You'd think around 1980 or so she may have been good in it.

Funny you guys are talking about Ann Margaret. I just watched her and julie andrews in OUR SONS with hugh grant. She is so good at playing crazy. A good actress. Loved her ever since i was a kid and i saw her in STATE FAIR and BIRDIE. Sooooo gorgeous. When i got older, my older brother asked me who was that really pretty girl i used to watch in the movies. Haha. To me, she is up there with marilyn monroe. But still in her own league.

NY Times article right after A-M's big accident in 1972.

More recently, she was also in a really bad motorcycle accident.

Idina and Lea for Sideshow?

I worked with A-M briefly around 1990. Extremely nice and terribly shy.

[quote]Was Ann-Margaret ever considered for a film of Evita? You'd think around 1980 or so she may have been good in it.

I don't remember her being on the original consideration list although I would have liked to have seen a screen test for her.

The original list I remember in the early 80s was Bernadette Peters, Cher, Barbra Streisand and Meryl Streep.

And of course, Lucy wanted to do it, but this time Gale Gordon talked her out of it.

ALW mentions a Liza screen test for Evita that he says was amazing. Hard to imagine her in the role.

It's Side Show, r424......

[quote]And of course, Lucy wanted to do it, but this time Gale Gordon talked her out of it.

Gale would have OK'ed it, but they wanted him for Peron and he insisted on playing Che.

New crush: Mark Evans in ME AND MY GIRL. Steals the show and would have been a much better choice for the lead than the sweaty, always-works-too-hard Borle..

TAPPA-TAPPA-TAPPA.....

Anybody mention how butt ugly the set for Angels in America is? Revolving platforms with exposed plywood and fluorescent lights. Very claustrophobic. The "music" reminded me of The Poseidon Adventure for some reason. But still a great but grueling play.

Jesse Green was triggered by Me & My Girl! He was NOT interested in sweaty Christian Borle!

[quote]Funny you guys are talking about Ann Margaret. I just watched her and julie andrews in OUR SONS with hugh grant. She is so good at playing crazy. A good actress.

She won an Emmy for Guest Star for "Law & Order SVU" as a crazy lush.

[quote]She won an Emmy for Guest Star for "Law & Order SVU" as a crazy lush.

I coulda played that part in my SHLEEP!

Let us NOT forget, r434, that episode also featured the legendary talents of:

MISS SUSAN ANTON

*

MISS RENEE TAYLOR

*

MISS MORGAN FAIRCHILD

*

and Miss Bootsie Gumdrops herself

MISS JACLYN SMITH

A-M actually could have been a great Mame. She was in her mid-30s when the movie came out.

I don't get why they didn't put Charlie Stemp in Me and My Girl

Or Gavin Lee.

Jesse Green didn't really seem to enjoy "Me and My Girl". I saw the production with Robert Lindsay, and again with Jim Dale, and they were both great. It was one of the most entertaining shows I've ever seen. Tommy Steele might have been great in this had they done it in the 1960s or 1970s.

Maybe Stemp and Lee couldn't get out of their respective shows. And Borle, alas, is a bigger star, with 2 Tonys to his name.

Matf Lucas is playing Bill in a production of Me and My Girl in Chichester this summer. Absolutely grotesque casting.

Boys in the Band is hosting a special performance of Three Tall Women.

[quote]Maybe Stemp and Lee couldn't get out of their respective shows.

Maybe, but I expect Scott Rudin would have happily let Charlie out to star in ME AND MY GIRL if only for the publicity.

A-M was a participant in the Ralph Dennis Sonnet Reading Contest when she was a student at Northwestern. That is all.

A pity it isn't some sort of boys/women mash up like Broadway backwards with cast exchanging parts......

AM is way too old to be riding a motorcycle. How recent was the accident?

[quote]Maybe, but I expect Scott Rudin would have happily let Charlie out to star in ME AND MY GIRL if only for the publicity.

I think it was Victor Garber that wouldn't let Charlie leave the Hello Dolly company. If you understand my meaning.

In all honesty, the role was probably cast before Charlie came to Broadway. Nobody in New York knew who he was before he took on Dolly.

Of course some New Yorkers knew who Charlie Stemp was pre-DOLLY! And certainly Warren Carlyle did. Stemp seems young for the role of Bill Snibson.

But they weren't going to bring Stemp over from London just for an Encores production. It's not like Stemp was Eddie Redmayne.

Christian Borle is perfect casting for Bill - hes not supposed to be a looker! I think LMK is fine for Sally but there could’ve been more inspired choices.

LMK has the personality of a mildewed dishrag. She can sing beautifully, but funny or charming she is not.

Of course they weren't going to bring him over just for Encores! but he was already here doing HELLO, DOLLY!

R451, Christian Borle is very talented but Bill Snibson needs to be a believable Cockney for the story to work and he couldn't pull that off. Of course, few in the cast were believable in their roles.

He is here for Hello Dolly with special permission from Equity. I am sure he would need another waiver to do Me & My Girl. Probably not worth the hassle for three or four performances.

[quote]Christian Borle is very talented but Bill Snibson needs to be a believable Cockney for the story to work

I think it would take more than a believable accent to make that ridiculous story work.

LMK has a thick waist and it's not helped by the costume designer and former Project Runway winner ESosa putting a wide yellow belt around it, just to insure you don't miss it.

Saint Joan is a talky dud. Who the heck knows what Condola is doing—she’s just terrible at it.

Sunjata is still beautiful but he’s literally gotten fat with huge man boobs.

[quote]Of course they weren't going to bring him over just for Encores! but he was already here doing HELLO, DOLLY!

Being here for Hello Dolly doesn't give him the right to poach other jobs from American actors. If they put him into an Encores production, US Equity is supposed to get an equal contract for an American in London.

When will Encores revive Oh! Calcutta!

Is Me and My Girl a good show? All I know is that dreadful and interminable Lambeth Walk, and that I cannot abide.

Jesse Green hated it, other reviewers lauded it,

So was Charlie Stemp an equity trade for Robbie Fairchild?

I haven't seen Once on This Island so is that buff lead boy actually so bad that he couldn't even get a theatre world award (when they gave one to stemp as a replacement)

Edward Vlll gave many 78s of the Lambeth Walk to Hitler to give to his officers to torture enemy soldiers. I just saw this in a documentary on the Duke and Wallis Simpson.

Nasty people.

Nothing like 'Naughty Rob' on ATC talking in a post how hot he thinks Jesse Green is...

Borle does work too hard, same with his Wonka, was exhausting watching him pound on his jokes again and again, I like him, but he’s NOT a guy with effortless star charisma. He was perfect in Spamalot.

Visiting Amsterdam this week and I think I was probably the only American at a musical comedy called Selma Ann Louis. It’s about three old high school friends in the Netherlands who meet up after twenty years and decide to drop everything and take a van across the US Southwest. The plot then very loosely mirrors Thelma & Louise. In this even the American characters speak Dutch. I thought it was very charming. The songs were pleasant enough. There’s an adorable young guy in it who plays a Dutch character in flashbacks in Act One and then an American cop in Act Two. They didn’t give out programs at all (and none on sale) so I don’t know his name. I can see this being adapted for London with someone like Jenna Russell and a big TV name for Selma and Ann.

Borle doesn't sound wrong for the role the way detractors are depicting him. The show isn't high comedy.

I can't really get my head around him dating Jen Colella, 'though.

He's been with everybody else, r469.

In other news, Naughty Rob is one ugly dude.

Are you suggesting US Equity is not getting contracts for Americans to work in London?

Mark Evans is in this country because Gavin Creel was traded to open Mormon in London. Evans took over the National Tour.

I don't know if it's the same poster across threads but there seems to be an agenda to make it appear that Brit actors have carte blanche to "steal" American roles, while Americans are denied work in the UK. It's simply not true.

Wow. With no one HERE discussing the Tony Awards race, you KNOW FOR SURE no one in America gives or will give a shit.

We need to build a wall to keep out all these illegal British actors!

R466 I thought that had to be Richard Kind doing a parody. Good God, I'm no movie star, but that is one hideous man--inside and, now we know, outside. Who in their right mind would hire him to do anything that involves contact with other carbon-based life forms?

Why would Encores! ever have considered Charlie Stemp for the lead? He's many years too young for it. Bill isn't some callow youth, he's been with Sally for years, and has had a life before his inheritance. Nothing about Charlie Stemp at 24 would have been right for it.

[quote]Maybe, but I expect Scott Rudin would have happily let Charlie out to star in ME AND MY GIRL if only for the publicity.

That's ridiculous. Rudin would never have let him out, because he didn't need the "publicity," certainly not with the bump he's already gotten from Bette's incipient return. And the show is doing well enough (high 70s) with Bernadette. People are "allowed out" for a couple of weeks for something like Encores when the show has been running with them for over a year, not a few months. But Stemp would never have been offered a role he was not right for.

THOUGHTS?

WSJ: What’s Wrong With The Broadway Musical?

By Terry Teachout

Each May, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle votes on the best play, foreign play and musical of the season. This year it chose not to give a best-musical award. What’s more, the NYDCC (of which I am a member) made the same call in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2010. To be sure, nearly all of the 19 members loved “The Band’s Visit,” but it won last year’s best-musical award after opening off Broadway in 2016. As for this year’s shows, only two Broadway musicals got any support, “Mean Girls” (one vote) and “SpongeBob SquarePants” (two votes). Every other member either picked off-Broadway shows or abstained.

Does this mean that the Broadway musical is dying off? Not exactly. In addition to “The Band’s Visit,” my 15-year tenure as the Journal’s drama critic has seen the arrival on Broadway of such memorable shows as “Avenue Q,” “Dear Evan Hansen, ” “Fun Home,” “Hamilton,” “The Light in the Piazza” and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” But all of them, even “Hamilton,” are small-to-smallish-scale musicals that either originated off Broadway or were developed at regional theaters elsewhere in America. What I’m not seeing are any considerable number of first-rate large-scale Broadway musicals, the modern-day counterparts of such beloved golden-age shows as “Oklahoma!” and “Guys and Dolls.” Instead, we’re getting more and more of what I call “commodity musicals,” unchallenging confections like “Mean Girls,” “Frozen” and “School of Rock” that are more or less slavishly adapted from Hollywood hits of the past in the hope of luring fans of those films to Broadway.

When I last wrote about the decline of the Broadway musical in this space nine years ago, I cited the growing dominance of the commodity musical as the No. 1 problem facing the genre. I still see these shows as roadblocks that stand in the way of fresh creative thinking. But I now regard them as a symptom, not a cause. The real problem goes deeper.

Broadway musicals were central to American pop culture well into the ’60s. Their songs were played on the radio and performed on top-rated TV variety shows, and in due course the best of these shows were turned into hit movies. But their popularity was contingent on the existence of what could broadly be described as a common culture shared by Americans of all kinds. Back then, everybody from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley to Ray Charles sang show tunes. Their musical language was universal: They spoke for us all.

Once our common culture started cracking up, it was inevitable that the Broadway musical would lose its creative footing. “Fiddler on the Roof,” the last indisputably great golden-age musical, opened in 1964, six months after the Beatles made their fateful appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Within a couple of years, show tunes had vanished from Top-40 stations, never to return. The last such single to top the pop charts was a medley from “Hair,” which opened in 1967 and drove a deep wedge of taste between the children of the Depression and their sons and daughters, who thereafter had no use for the old-fashioned Broadway musicals their parents loved.

A half-century later, Broadway is still trying—and failing—to catch up with the Beatles. With the heartening exceptions of “The Band’s Visit” and “Hamilton,” the scores of most of the new shows that do well there nowadays are written in one of two artificial musical styles, the insipid Disneypop of “Frozen” or the equally synthetic pop-rock of “Mean Girls.” In the meantime, America’s common culture has disintegrated: No particular style of music appeals strongly to more than a fraction of the public at large. As a result, there is no longer a universal language in which artistically ambitious musicals can be written, meaning that the chances of writing a show that will appeal to a mass audience have plummeted. That’s why producers embrace the commodity musical, with its built-in audience of fans: It’s the safest way to draw a crowd big enough to turn a profit.

FROM ABOVE

I continue to believe in the creative promise of the large-scale musical. It remains as potentially fertile a theatrical genre today as it was in 1964. But the cultural obstacles that stand in the way of the commercial production of such musicals have grown daunting. And wonderful though it has been to witness the well-deserved successes of “Hamilton” and “The Band’s Visit,” I won’t feel good about the American musical again until Broadway figures out new ways to produce really big shows that are equally appealing to a rising generation of serious-minded theatergoers. Otherwise, we’ll be trapped in Disneyland—forever.

When Sponge Bob and Mean Girls have the highest number of Tony nominations, you know it’s a pathetic year.

A Band’s Visizzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Sorry, I fell asleep just taking about it

Once on This Island was the best thing O saw this year. Period

I saw Ben Platt last week walking with someone who could be his bf. Ben has lost a lot of weight and is sort of buff.

His snozz is still prominent but reduced because of his fat loss. He was looking good

[quote]Sunjata is still beautiful but he’s literally gotten fat with huge man boobs.

I'm sure there are more than a few DLers who'd stand in line to suckle them.

[quote]When will Encores revive Oh! Calcutta!

Be careful what you wish for.

Encores presents "Oh! Calcutta!" with Rosie O'Donnell and John Cullum!

Holy shit!!! Andy (can’t learn my lines) Rannells PBS concert is unwatchable, he’s dreadful, off key, sharp AND flat on everything?!???! Horrid!!!

There is a thread.

Maybe the Broadway musical is just over for good and like vaudeville it's never coming back?

The national culture was a white culture heavily influenced by black and jewish cultures both through the stage and film.

It is over kaput and it is not coming back.

Now back to streaming whatever you want. We don't have a present but we have an incredible back catalogue.

R485, and every time it does try to change, you get the elder theater queens up in arms.

Go fuck yourself, r486.

Borle is best in supporting roles. He was the best thing about Peter Pan, and he and Laura Benanti were the best things in The Sound of Music.

When he has to carry a show, all you notice is the sweat.

[quote]How recent was the accident?

Ten years ago, so she would have been in her mid-60s. Broke several ribs and her shoulder.

[quote]Once on This Island was the best thing O saw this year.

Did she bring Gayle?

Was Marlene Dietrich ever offered a Broadway other than "One Touch of Venus." I do not mean "Hello, Dolly" or "South Pacific."

She would have been a great Vera Simpson, r491.

R488 agreed. His turn in Peter and the Starcatcher was incredible and won him a Tony

[quote] Borle doesn't sound wrong for the role the way detractors are depicting him. The show isn't high comedy. I can't really get my head around him dating Jen Colella, 'though.

Wait- hold the mother. fucking. phone. Jen Colella does not eat box? I don't buy it for a minute. She's dykier than Hope Emerson in Caged.

She's bi.

[quote] She's bi.

Honey, even Andy Mientus isn't bi.

Isn't she involved in a thruple with a pre-existing male-female couple? Or am I confusing her with Maurice Bachmann?

She definitely was this time last year, don't know if she still is.

Is it because she's cross eyed?

Colella is with Chilina Kennedy now actually. Who knows what happened to last year's duo.

A LESBIAN took over for me in Beautiful?

What’s wrong with the Broadway musical is IT’S DEAD.

Fuck you bitches! I like to suckle da sausage, I might go for the hole, but I admire the hole!

Wow! Chilina Kennedy has a three year old with her fiancé — I guess she didn’t marry him! I wonder how it works with the kid now. Kid back in Canada or what?

I fuck the corpse of twinkle dwinkle dee Broadway, the rotting gash makes me tipple tapple!

Two things killed the Broadway musical:

no hummable music

no personality actors

r464 He isn't awful, but he really doesn't have much to do and is sort of just a cypher. The only thing he's called on to do is be beautiful (which he's successful at), sing one song (which is ok), and dance (which he's surprisingly terrible at)

ME AND MY GIRL: THE 2018 TOUR!

Starring Charlie Stemp and A-M!

Tickets will sell like hotcakes

(esp in the regions)

Yes r506 which is why Wicked (like it or not) is a hit. It’s not just because of the Wizard of Oz tie-in. There are hummable hit songs in there and Kristen and Idina are chock full of personality. Today nobody would cast a Bernadette or Patti. Those gals are out there but nobody casts them.

Wicked is a hit because it tapped into the teenage girl market. Every girl is either a Galinda or an Elphaba. And they drag their frau mothers to it.

Wicked is the Annie of the 21st Century.

Jenn Colella is a big ole lezzie. I knew her way back when, and that's one zebra who ain't gonna be changin' her stripes.

Thrilled for her success in COME FROM AWAY, btw!

Trite themes, insipid scores, writing without profile, personality or passion. That's why the musical is foundering. And that includes the shows championed above.

I saw John Cullum kind of naked (though I think somewhat covered by the scenery in "Doubles" years ago. Unfortunately, Austin Pendleton was not covered -- you saw all of him. I rather wish I could have seen Charles Repole who took over; he was kind of cute when he was younger. Saw Tony Roberts fat ass, but again wish I had seen gorgeous Robert Reed in the replacement cast.

Christian Borle gave one of the hammiest performances ever in that "Peter and the Starcatchers" and they gave him a Tony. He's talented, but man, he really overdid it in that show. Apparently he was naked in one version of "Angel in America" -- not someone I particularly want to look at clothed or nude, actually.

Jen Colella and Andy Mientus! Now THAT is one hot bi couple. Just imagine the raw, sexual passion between them.

R493, I think the Tony was more about his peter and his buttcatcher.

Jenn Colella and Sarah Paulson are well known “secret” cock lovers, dykes in the streets, size queens in the sheets.

I heard that supposedly Scott Rudin had a massive fight with the NYTimes last week and pulled all of his advertising.... lo and behold today's delivered Sunday Arts & Leisure section has zero ads for Dolly, Iceman, Three Tall Women, Iceman or Boys in the Band.... Does anyone know what the fight was actually about?

Jen colella and borle? 😂 Two gays in a relationship. Both soooo obviously gay. We know that. Weird shit. R464 he's not great or anything. Just kind of there looking good though. Not a great singing voice or acting or anything. I thought his dancing was the best thing about him. Haha. I can't imagine what he would be good in.

Frozen is just yawn inducing. Couldn’t the director had been more creative?

Disney just thinks the hordes will come if you stick the movie right on stage as is.

Whose going to see Bette as Dolly again? Sure she’s good in it, but the musical is just so fucking dated it creaks

Anyone seen Mean Girls? Does it really deserve all those Tony nominations?

I saw this the other day and well, i think it speaks for itself. Haha. Louderman jusr walking around doing all the cliched stuff. Pathetic and it hurts my ears. HORRIBLE music. Apex Predator? What?!

The Once on This Island guy is cute as fuck. He should go straight to LA. I could see him on that Grownish show.

That's what he should do. It's a good thing he had the michael arden connection.

Mean Girls is boring, just like Frozen, completely charm free and underwhelming compared to their superior source material, Mean Girls is especially appalling in regards to that rancid score.

Borle is an odd man child who likes his toys more than his girlfriends, he’s dating a twenty one year old who was in the ChaChocFac ensemble.

Colella is a chatty lez who likes to be dominant behind closed doors.

The Rudin tantrum has to do with Bette return main feature nix among other things way more personal...

Jordan Roth had a breakdown a year ago and this weird new “best self” is the product of his medication reboot. Yikes!

Why did Frozen go thru so many directors?

"among other things way more personal"

Such as?

Just watched the Tony Awards clip of Robert Lindsay leading the NYC cast in “Lambeth Walk.” He is sexy and a bit menacing/dangerous. And he is effortlessly charming. Borle last night worked like a dog and was goofy as hell. Lindsay was much better.

Has Rudin stopped producing films? Any insight into why he moved his endeavors to Broadway? I wonder if producing for the stage gives him more control of the product?

Lindsay was great. Beat Valjean for Tony.

Pretty woman at its all-male creative team trying so hard - they're unlikely soulmates not a hooker and a John - and they've put that dumb female producers picture in everything so it looks like there's a woman on the team.

Doubles was very annoying as the nudity was done very very half assed. As in men were very discreetly naked in a way men of their age in that time would never been. They were not only hiding from the audience but each other.

I would rather Austin had done full frontal at the time of Fiddler. That brief glimpse of him you would not have wished for anyone to see. I went for Dullea who at that time was still handsome and I'm a big 2001 fan. He changed facing away from the audience sitting down the entire time. Even more ridiculous than the towel dance.

Isn't Jenn a little young for Sarah? I thought she likes them old, wrinkled, and toofless.Someone like Jessica Lange, to be exact.

Is toothless better for carpet munching?

r510 except Annie is infinitely better.

R529, Rudin is producing a film this summer based on the best seller The Girl in the Window and starring Amy Adams.

R471, there is absolutely an issue with unfair equity (pardon my pun) between British actors working here and American actors working in the UK. Many Brits are able to work over here, especially in film and TV. The UK Home Office makes it VERY difficult for American actors to get work permits. When I fly there just for a visit I never write down “Actor” on my landing card because previously I’d get quite a grilling from the inspectors. They look out for their actors over there. The same can’t be said over here, unfortunately.

INTERESTING R536--DAMN!!

English actors with American accents are better than American actors. Or are they just cheaper?

Tell that to the many American nobodies who've populated the Book of Mormon in London. I saw that show in London about three years into the run. The leads were still American.

What people who complain about equity never acknowledge is that while London may have some snob appeal, the UK is a thoroughly distant second to the US as an entetainment economy. Money, fame, prestige - stay in, or go to, America. A BAFTA is nice, but it's no Oscar. And the paychecks? A wee bit different...

R539, stop harping about The Book of Mormon. That’s just one exception with a UK show using Americans and that’s largely due to Scott Rudin producing it.

*entertainment

What about The Inheritance, then?

The original cast of DOUBLES was fugly. Cullum, Ron Liebman, Pendleton and Tony Roberts. I went back to see Cliff Gorman, Keir Dullea, Robert Reed and, yes, little hottie Charles Repole and they were not as modest as the originals and all looked good naked.

Am I the only one who doesn't understand the appeal of Condola Rashad? She's competent but I don't think she's any more than that. There's no spark and I always feel like I'm watching her play a scene in acting class rather than performing in a broadway show. She's a big ole bore.

I agree, R545.

Regarding UK actor's in US productions. As American product is sold worldwide, with only tiny quota's for local production the least American producers can do is employ some foreign talent.

[quote]the musical is just so fucking dated it creaks

Mmm yeah. As opposed to such "fresh, current" delights as "Mean Girls." Give me dated any day.

[quote]I would rather Austin had done full frontal at the time of Fiddler.

Talk about your "wonder of wonders"!

As far as the stage goes, it's complete bullshit that we employ way more Brits over here. It's contract for contract. Every single no-name Brit in AIA, for example (which is all of them except for Garfield) is generating a similar contract in the UK. "BOM" is hardly the only Brit employer of American actors.

[quote]English actors with American accents are better than American actors. Or are they just cheaper?

English actors are taught to act. American actors are taught to look pretty.

I watch a lot of British tv and IMO the British actors create fuller characters than the American actors. With the British actors, there is something going on behind the eyes. With the American actors, I'm not so sure.

Who can we cast if "Doubles" were done today? I would love to have seen Keir Dullea and especially Mr. Brady, Robert Reed, naked! If I recall the only one who went full frontal in the original cast was Austin Pendleton. The others had blocking that either had them facing upstage or blocked by some furniture of wall in the locker room.

I'm much more interested in seeing standbys Matt McGrath and Kyle Dean Massey in BITHB rather than Andy and DeJesus, That set is fucking hideous.

[quote][R510] except Annie is infinitely better.

Annie doesn't fly.

Did they add any nudity into BITB?

Haven't seen the show but read somewhere that Bomer is in his undies?

^^ No, but you get to see Matt Bomer in briefs.

How does pay work with the British-American swap? Assuming they're paid whatever the rates are for the country they work in, British Equity minimum is less than half that of American Equity, so could it just be there aren't many Americans willing to take the paycut to go and work in the West End?

Most of the Americans going into BOM aren’t worried about the pay scale. They’re not necessarily A-list Broadway caliber performers; they’re happy to be getting a paycheck. The starrier ones who go over there are probably in it for the prestige.

R533 keep up dear, they weren’t talking about them dating each other, they were saying both like cock occasionally. Separately.

Got discount cards for Slutty Woman and Head Over Holes. Why is PW $129 and HOH is $89? Who decides things like this?

Do you guys have any idea how bad Austin Pendleton's breath smells? Like rotten cheese. Austin did full frontal in another play not too long ago. Like 3 years ago. Out on long island city or queens or somewhere. Fucking a girl onstage. He loves it.

r562, Austin Pendelton is like 105 years old. Nobody wants to see him nude.

The 4 leads in The Inheritance are American, John B Hickey and 3 young actors. One of them Kyle Soller is married to a Brit and lives in London. The other 2 young'uns Andrew Burnap and Samuel Levine are quite young American and pretty much right out of drama school. They're all spectacular.

The one other older actor is British (forgetting his name) and, of course, Vanessa Redgrave is a name and even more than spectacular.

R563, nobody wanted to see Austin Pendleton nude when he was young.

Boner walks around in his underwear and you can also see his bare ass in the mirror - I guess this may depend on where you're sitting?

R550, pay attention. The main issue is US Immigration letting in British actors to work right and left and UK Inmigration only lets American actors to come work there if they’re part of an Equity contract, are working in an American produced project shooting over there or they’re already over there in drama school.

Sorry, meant an Equity exchange, not an Equity contract.

I just read on ATC that Miss Ulla Sallert has passed away at the age of 95. I assume the lights (at least on DL) will be dimmed.

I thought Jenn announced she was 'pansexual' now?

R570 who knows . Her gf seems sweet. Left her fiancé and baby daddy for Jenn. I wish them the best

She had a fiancé and a baby daddy? Jenn's met her match, for this year.

Was Jenn's couple, famous? Broadway?

I never missed an Ulla Sallert musical.

R572 here you go:

R572 that isn’t the thruple couple that’s the new gf and her baby daddy and baby

R572 this is Jenn’s new gf before she met Jenn

Has the poor to turn straight women lesbian.

Hope the baby daddy kept his child and is getting child support.

Not sure anyone can turn anyone lesbian but yeah I hope he’s getting child support. Lord knows she’s making a good salary. Check out Collella’s twitter - these two are hot and heavy and seem genuinely happy.

I love on Jenn Colella's instagram, she is working out at Mercedes Club- she is basically a gay man

[quote][R572] here you go:

That picture looks like Parker Posey.

I think she was pansexual during If/Then -- dating a couple 'in DC.'

Holy crap, guys -- we almost let the 30th anniversary of Carrie pass without a mention.

She is a very thin gay man - (Her continued success is great.)

*I* remember how those boys could dance...

Here you go r582

Buckley was amazing in Carrie

Crazy meets crazy

I have a thing for cute nerdy jewish guys so yes I would like to have seen Austin naked in the 60s. At Doubles believe me he was just another old naked jewish guy in a locker room. You just didn't want to see it.

Dullea was naked sitting down facing away from the audience so you just saw the top of his ass crack like he was a plumber.

I mean I would have been happy if we could have had just a great view of his bare ass.

Time for a Mitzi Break!!!

Weren’t Ulla Sallert and Bob Preston fucking during Ben Franklin in Paris?

If the threat title of THEATRE GOSSIP #304 isn't *ALL* about A-M I am going to be severely disappointed!

That was rumored, r590.

People, of all magazines, shrugs it off in, of all years, 1977: "Twice it was reported that Preston was seriously smitten by an actress and planned to marry her. In both cases the ladies were foreign stars with whom he was acting — Glynis Johns, his co-star in a Shaw play, and Ulla Sallert, a Swedish actress imported for Ben Franklin. Considering the romantic uproars that go on in show business, Preston’s interludes seem of minor import."

It still amazes me that Preston was straight.

De herda herda

Ma-a-ame

De herda herda

Ma-a-ame

I'm old enough to remember when Ben Franklin in Paris played Broadway and the scandalous rumors of Preston's affair were all over the NY papers like The Post and The Daily News. They weren't just whispers in Shubert Alley.

And IIRC he was married to someone else at the time. And he had shaved his head bald to play Ben.

Boys in the Band was canceled tonight because one of the actors was sick and Either Matt or Kyle were not prepared enough to go on.

Yeah, Preston was married from 1940-87 to Catherine Craig. If he only had two affairs -- Glynis? Really? -- in 47 years, that's impressive.

Now I'm picturing some clumsy blind items at the start of the scandal: "Which musical man believes getting along with his leading lady is an international affair?"

[quote]Boys in the Band was canceled tonight because one of the actors was sick and Either Matt or Kyle were not prepared enough to go on.

So all four audience members got a refund?

Yazbeck is difficult to work with, I know that for a fact.