THEATRE GOSSIP: #310 There's Lots Of Smirking Motel Clerks EDITION

Was Andrew Rannells the first performer to have a boner on the Tonys?

Lord knows he tried r1.

[quote]Is Kismet revivable?

No.

Has Encores done Kismet yet?

R4, yes, I saw the Encores Kismet. With Brian Stokes Mitchell.

it wasn't so great.

Op, City of Angels was quickly forgotten, deservedly.

Cute, but that's it.

Is it the same person who keeps bringing up City of Angels, or is there a group of people who really thought it was great? There were great moments, but it is not a great play.

And hardly the greatest musical of the last 40 years.

List of people who have Hollywood Walk of Fame stars for LIVE PERFORMANCE:

Stella Adler, Muhammad Ali, Gene Autry, Charles Aznavour, Chriss Angel, Gene Barry, Theodore Bikel, George Burns, Andrea Bocelli, George Carlin, Kristin Chenoweth, David Copperfield, Rodney Dangerfield, Jeff Dunham, Olympia Dukakis, Placido Domingo, Fabian, Harvey Fierstein, The Four Step Brothers, Betty Garrett, Dick Gregory, Joel Grey, Buddy Hacket, Kevin Hart, Linda Hopkins, Dolores Hope, Bob Hope, Jerry Herman, Guy Laliberte, Milt and Bill Larsen, Carol Lawrence, Ruta Lee, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Joe Mantegna, Angelica Maria, Ennio Morricone, Liza Minnelli, Jim Nabors, James L Nederlander, Penn & Teller, Bernedette Peters, Brock Peters, John Raitt, Debbie Reynolds, Tim Rice, Don Rickles, Jan and Mickey Rooney, Doris Roberts, Stephen Schwartz, Martha Scott, Siegfried and Roy, Patrick Stewart, Rip Taylor, Tommy Tune, Fred Travalena, Ray Walston, Carmen Zapata.

Idina Menzel, Cedric the Entertainer, Judith Light, and Paul Sorvino are all in line to get stars next year. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bernie Mac are still in line to get their stars this year.

What a crazy 'category' -- it clearly means 'Vegas' more than anything else doesn't it?

I mean - look at how few Broadway stars are listed there! WTF.

I'm guessing Universal or Disney are buying stars for the Wicked/Princess movie contributors? But Minnelli's FANS had to shell out for her star....

I, too, saw the original production of City of Angels and remember nothing about it other than the black/white/color production and James Naughton. I enjoyed it, but it didn't stick.

[quote]I enjoyed it, but it didn't stick.

What has stuck in the last few years? I don't think City of Angels ever was high art. It was just a silly, fun night at the theater.

I saw City of Angels and thought the book was especially clever. I think somehow the characters just did not resonate strongly enough for the show to become iconic. The music was good, the book was clever and fun, the actors were all great -- but I just don't think I gave a shit about anyone so it was very easy to not remember the show and never hum the songs.

It really is a great show, however. I think it deserves some sort of thoughtful revival.

I saw the original production of City of Angels and was bored to tears.

It was a traditional book musical coming out at a time when the form was veering into other areas, r13.

[quote] I saw the Encores Kismet. With Brian Stokes Mitchell. it wasn't so great.

Encores has done two or three really great shows, a bunch of mediocre shows and two or three real stinkers.

City of Angels Too many fucking women Confusing

R16, Damn Yankees, with Sean Hayes, Jane Krakowski and Cheyenne Jackson was an outstanding Encores! production.

Jeremy Jordan, Aaron Tveit and Laura Osnes in a Broadway revival of City of Angels would be perfection.

[quote]Too many fucking women Confusing

The one thing I missed in City of Angels was the hardboiled woman. In all of those movies, there's always one skirt that's "hard". I think Lucille Ball did a few of those roles. Damon Runyon was always good about writing those low brow characters.

For all that was first rate about the look, the writing, the cast, the music and the orchestrations, City of Angels didn't really have exciting musical staging. The numbers were cleverly conceived but just kind of sat there, and you never went out of your mind with excitement. Over at Grand Hotel that season, Tommy Tune took lesser writing and staged it within an inch of its life. I wondered at the time what he might have done with City of Angels to make that show more satisfying. (I also wished City of Angels had stuck with its working title, which was Double Exposure.)

Count me in as another poster who was not particularly impressed by City of Angels and I've been going to Broadway shows since 1965 (Baker Street!). For me, it ranks with On the 20th Century. Both shows beautifully designed by Robin Wagner and Florence Klotz and that's about all that was truly great about them.

[quote]Over at Grand Hotel that season, Tommy Tune took lesser writing and staged

Wasn't that the show about the cast moving chairs around the stage?

No more Laura Osnes in anything please. Dull and boring.

Paul Gemigani (sorry if I misspelled that) ruined Kismet at Encores with his lethargic conducting. Which was odd, because it was apparently a dream project for him to conduct it.

The hateful Bruce Kimmel is reissuing the Ben Bagley “Revisited” albums on CD. They sound great, but in his new liner notes Kimmel feels the need to toot his own horn and insult Bagley for the way the CDs sounded the first time they were issued. And Kimmel doesn’t even bother to reprint Bagley’s witty and catty original liner notes.

R26, do they sound that much better than the Painted Smiles CDs to warrant buying them yet again (I had all the LPs before buying all the CDs).

I played Detective Stone in “City of Angels” in 2009. Big complaint from audiences was that there were no big chorus numbers and not enough true choreography. All snappy staging. Dull.

R27 I can’t do A/B comparisons because I’ve only bought the ones I didn’t already have on CD. But the new Lerner and Ira Gershwin ones sound very good.

Thanks, R26 / R29. I am not planning to get these unless I hear the sound is remarkable improved. I really like what Kritzerland did to improve FOLLIES and (especially) PROMISES, PROMISES.

Kimmel may be a dick but I salute his audio restoration on projects like Promises, Promises and Follies.

I hope the Cole Porter, Make Mine Manhattan, & Arlen/Duke volumes are high up on the priority list.

Do the CDs come with the original fab Harvey Schmidt cover art illustrations?

Yes and no, r32. They have Schmidt illustrations, but in the case of the Lerner CD, it’s a different one than the illustration that was on the Painted Smiles CD. Maybe it was what was on the lp, but the one of the Painted Smiles CD is much better.

[quote]Paul Gemigani (sorry if I misspelled that) ruined Kismet at Encores with his lethargic conducting.

That wasn’t the only thing wrong. Brian Stokes Mitchell was only so-so in a role he should have aced. And the Marsinah came down with the flu and didn’t sing particularly well. Marin Mazzie was great, though.

Not from the PP concert but I defy you not to tear up at Jill O'Hara sounding even better than she did decades ago when she introduced the song.

The TOOTSIE casting is tragic, in many ways fatal, a charm free bunch and not a gifted comic in the lot. Sad.

Kismet is revivable but only with smart casting.

Bsm is no Alfred drake. Even though he thinks he is

So is Andy Karl doing KMK

Isn't he doing Pretty Woman?

Don't be surprised if Kiss Me Kate is cast with a British male lead.

That Encores KISMET was dreadful! Marin Mazzie was brilliant and sexy but no on else came close. BSM seemed to have no idea that his role required anything comic or sexy and Danny whathisname (not Burstein) as the Caliph simply couldn't sing those gorgeous tunes.

There was also that unfortunately untimely Arab setting.

Jeremy Jordan, Aaron Tveit and Laura Osnes in a Broadway revival of City of Angels would be perfection.

R19 Yeah, once you get rid of Jordon and Tveit. Laura Osnes I could live with as long as you ditched those other two stiffs.

Hugh Jackman would be a good fit for a revival of 'City of Angels' --

Laura Osnes is a fucking bore. I havebt liked her in anything she’s done. She was woefully unable to sing in period style in the Bandstand thing, and she puts me to sleep whenever she makes an entrance.

The original production was meh. Why bother reviving it? Encores maybe

Agree about City Of Angels....not one step of choreography and the choreographer was given a credit! It was tolerable with a few good numbers.

That was so sweet, r35. Thanks.

I love Osnes' princess party stuff. She seems fun.

I just bought a ticket to Reprise 2.0's "Sweet Charity", with Laura Bell Bundy, Barrett Foa, and Jon Jon Briones. Should I be worried?

Yes.

You need to watch out for flying shoes.

It’s kind of eerie to hear her exact voice from 1968 coming out of Jill O’Hara in that clip.

City of Angels??

A Solid B+ on it's best day. It's so "on the nose", and paint-by-numbers, imo.

I think Hairspray is the one to beat.

Broadway's nothing without me!

R37, According to Kitty Kelley, Alfred Drake fucked future FLOTUS Nancy Davis.

Honestly, who DIDN’T fuck Nancy? They lined up outside our apartment to get a taste if that every night. She was booked so far in advance you needed a doctor’s excuse to cut in line.

CITY OF ANGELS was fun, but it's a very complicated show, and when I went back to see the replacement cast on Broadway, it was nowhere near as good as the originals. They needed a director to come back and or a really diligent stage manager, as it lost a lot of its humor and its, well machine-like precision. Come to think of it, it was like a well-oiled machine, but without very much heart, even when done well.

CITY OF ANGELS also has a ridiculously long running time for a show with zero emotional content.

"I really like what Kritzerland did to improve FOLLIES and (especially) PROMISES, PROMISES."

But especially ILLYA, DARLING!

Who's the guy with the hairy chest and pits in the green costume in the "Aladdin" commercials? He's very cute.

If only Playgirl were still around, we could get a pictorial titled "The Boys of 'The Band's Visit.'"

Anyone seen CARMEN JONES yet? 2 friends said it was a must see but comments over at ATC seem to already warning of vocal stress and sight lines.

Of course I bought seats for the last week of the run.

Kismet was done by City Opera I think it was the 80s. A lavish production and very wonderful.

Also The New Moon which was a glorious eye and earful.

How sad this great stuff is no longer done fully staged. The musical lushness is something I really miss.

All of Manhattan is choking on mountains of money but it can't afford a second smaller opera company that can do everything from intimate Mozart, Monteverdi and Rameau to Romberg and Gilbert and Sullivan. A terrible indictment of how artistically barren this city has become.

Looks like the Anika Noni Rose / Carmen Jones is being quickly prepped to move to Broadway this fall

Laura Osnes is anything but fun. She's dull and not very smart or nice.

R64, Ted Chapin adores her.

CARMEN JONES is well done, though I can't say I cared for the male lead and the show outstays its welcome. The very idea is cheeky, however, and Hammerstein II did a good job adapting the lyrics into colloquial English (I hadn't heard them in years). By the way, there isn't a bad seat at the tiny CSC theater: the show is staged with the audience on four sides (like a boxing ring?).

The Ben Bagley recordings without the original liner notes are greatly diminished. They are wicked fun.

I loved "City of Angels" but agree, it won't go down as one of the greats. Better than "On the Twentieth Century," though.

It reminds me of "Mack and Mabel" - the cast album is better than the show. Some terrific songs but oh. so. long. and. clunky.

I knew a chorus boy in City of Angels who became David Zippel’s boyfriend. Then Zippel went Hollywood and dumped him.

Loved Anika Noni Rose. Most of the cast was fine. The male lead was definitely the weak link in the production.

And I thought Hammerstein's lyrics were often incredibly bad/clunky/awkward/lazy/trite/you-name-it.

I love CoA cast recording, but agree the show itself is a problem. The book is overlong and messy, the resolution is weird and comes out of nowhere. It’s kind of like Chess, why bother with the staging, all the people want to hear is the music.

The final Fathom Events showing of Bandstand is playing tonight. I never had much desire to see the show, but will I be missing something worth seeing if I don't go? Did anyone see either the original Broadway production, or the recording of it? Of all shows to film and broadcast, Bandstand seems like an odd choice, what with the lack of stars and popular songs. At least the upcoming Newsies has the brand awareness due to Fierstein -- although I don't know how much they exploit his name -- and the movie. So..should I bother going tonight?

r72 See the linked thread.

THanks, R72. I didn't search, because I didn't think it would have its own thread!

I would love to see it but I don't know that I'll get to the theater in time as I work til 6:30pm. I wonder if Broadway HD will pick it up for streaming, or maybe even PBS. I know they don't do the National Theatre Live streams, but BroadwayHD has picked up a lot of the PBS stuff like Falsettos, She Loves Me (actually SLM started on BHD), Indecent, Present Laughter, etc.

r74 It was also discussed briefly in the last Theatre Gossip thread.

Who was Zippel's bf from the chorus?

Zippel's lyrics for CoA were so clever. And then...? What happened?

[quote] Kimmel may be a dick but I salute his audio restoration on projects like Promises, Promises and Follies.

Yeah, turning some dials must be exhausting.

All this talk of David Zippel... Encores should revive THE GOODBYE GIRL!

Will Chase will play opposite Kelly OH in KMK. I'm bored already.

[quote]The Ben Bagley recordings without the original liner notes are greatly diminished.

You’re right, even more so because Kimmel’s own notes on the Bagley CDs are unusually bland.

Methinks Disney paid for LMM' s walk of fame star to coincide with that Poppins sequel he's in

Zippel’s boyfriend was a guy with receding blond hair named Doug. Can’t remember his last name. I seem to recall he showed up in tennis whites at some point in the show, but that was a long time ago.

How does someone who cannot act, sing or dance be honored for live performance? Just askin'....

Um, no revival of TGG. Please.

That dis of Hammerstein above is on a par with the Times' overheated, hyperbolic review (the production is good, not the second coming of Bizet) and James Baldwin's umbrage. Really, JB, you have a problem with liberal Oscar giving his characters dignity and voice (and in the case of the actors, jobs) in black vernacular, like Nora Zeale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson and JeanToomer ? Puh-leez, Sistah-Woman!

Zippel by all accounts a pain in the ass, Insisted on directing things, ect. And City of Angels has - as the emperor in Amadeus would say - too many words. The lyrics are good - mostly - but he never gives us break from the barrage.

Baz Bamigboye tweeted tonight that Gillian Anderson and Lily James will co-star in Ivo van Hove’s production of All About Eve in the West End starting in February.

And, oh yeah, Patti LuPone’s Joanne in the West End revival of Company in September will have a young trophy husband.

R83

Yes. It seems likely that Disney decided to splurge last year and this year on the walk of fame.

Universal is also a likely sponsor with Wicked the movie coming out -- Schwartz, Chenoweth, Joel Grey and now Idina Menzel are all connected to one Broadway production which doesn't seem odd until you look at the Live Performance list and realize how few theater stars are there from Broadway! Bernadette Peters, Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, Debbie Reynolds and Kristin Chenoweth...

R85

Looking at the list of people who have stars for live performance mostly it is for long running Vegas acts. Sponsorship is probably a big part of that. Magicians and stand up comics outnumber actual actors. Tony nominee triple threat Debbie Reynolds, DID have a notable Vegas career. (She also has a star for movies.) Other Broadway stars -- like Nathan Lane -- have their stars for film and lots and lots and lots of talentless shmucks (like Donald Trump) appear to have bought their own stars for TV.

One would hope that Trump's star is defecated on regularly.

WEHT to cutie Scott Waara (well, he was back in 1991!) who was one of the radio singers in City of Angels and then went on to win a Featured Tony for his Herman in The Most Happy Fella? Back then he looked like a better looking version of Bill Clinton.

I went to Bandstand tonight with an open mind and open heart--my dad fought in WWII and never talked much about his time in the south Pacific--we knew it was more or less off-limits. The performers all worked hard and demonstrated enviable talent. The choreography was very good and the dancing excellent. But I found the score unmemorable and the book and plot execrable. And "The Best Years of Our Lives" may be my favorite film of all time. And what a waste of the talented Beth Leavel.

Here he is about five years ago, r90.

I think he’s a fundie, very religious.

Saw 3 Tall Women during the end of its run. Do not understand the fuss. A tiny wisp of a play. Laurie Metcalf was basically a variation on Aunt Jackie in Act I, though she WAS very good in Act II. Alison Pill seemed a bit lost in Act I and, similarly, was much more interesting and eve moving in Act II. But, Glenda Jackson? I just don't get the hype. She certainly snarled and spit and screeched a lot. Maybe it's a performance that could only be appreciated from the very last row. I was in the third row orchestra.

But Glenda as Lear will have to be appreciated from under the stage.

[quote]One would hope that Trump's star is defecated on regularly.

About 18 months ago some group built a tiny little wall around it.

Mlop (via fb) gets iconic quote of 2018!

"CD I like to have the physical album. I hate preloads."

What happens when Chits lifts her leg after taking preloads?

Saw Bandstand last night, missed it in New York. It wasn’t bad. They get an A for effort in that they tried something original and not a movie rehash or jukebox musical. Ultimately though, it was an unmemorable score. I don’t think I had ever seen Laura Osnes before. She puts the vanilla in vanilla, a fine selection but safe and unexciting. I found myself transfixed by Corey Cott’s fabulous swath of chest hair more than a few times. All in all a decent night at the movies.

Are there any pix of Corey’s beautiful hairy chest? He was shirtless in the Newsies ice bucket challenge but he shaved his chest for that.

R93, maybe you should stick to Spongebob Squarepants and let the adults enjoy the better plays.

Doug Tompos who looks pretty much exactly like Zippel.

Zippel's boyfriend was one of these guys.

Zippel had many, many boyfriends when he used to hang out in the basement of The Works on Columbus Ave.

Does Zippel like preloads too?

The Works had a basement? Why didn't anyone tell me?

When even your best friends won't tell you, r105......

You had to be invited by the staff. Not everyone could enjoy the basement.

Just those that brought their own cleaning supplies.

I realize how old I am because I laughed at r106's Katy Winters reference.

[quote]You had to be invited by the staff. Not everyone could enjoy the basement.

What did the staff make you do down there?

The usual, r110. Swimsuit, evening gown, talent.....

How long before Jason Moore is replaced as the director of The Cher Show?

[quote]How long before Jason Moore is replaced as the director of The Cher Show?

The day after Cher sees the show.

OMG, the Works basement! Haven’t thought about that in years. We had a houseguest once who disappeared down there one night and didn’t emerge until the next morning.

R113

Cher saw it already.

Corey's chest hair for r99. That's the most you see in the show; he never takes his undershirt off.

So, with the Palace raising apparently beginning later this summer, what do we think will happen to SpongeBob? Closure? Move to the Marquis or the Lunt-Fontanne?

Razing, R117.

Liliane Montevecchi died today, according to friends on Facebook.

[quote]maybe you should stick to Spongebob Squarepants and let the adults enjoy the better plays.

R100, that's kind of a childish response. You're certainly right that I'm in the minority -- of one?? -- on my negative view of Three Tall Women. I'm afraid I didn't find it engaging and I love Albee's Virigina Woolf and the Zoo Story and even enjoy some of his later work like A Delicate Balance and The Goat.

Maybe the trope of the gay man reconciling with his vicious mother feels old hat to me. It just felt like a very minor work. A talky meditation on womanhood. And I didn't feel like the (impressive, no doubt) set design and coup de threatre of the second act transition or the stronger, less scenery chewing performances of Act II really made up for it.

Am I alone, was anyone else underwhelmed by Three Tall Women?

Three Tall Women was tremendous. And I know from tall women.

I wasn't underwhelmed by it. However it definitely lost something being on a larger stage and theater. I saw the orig production at the Promenade and it was small and intimate and shattering in a very quiet way and the show just stealthily crept up on you because there was nothing grandiose about it. I felt the set in this production worked against the play and I wasn't as drawn in by it as I would have liked to be. (And it's been 23 years since I saw the original, so except for the conceit in the 2nd act, there wasn't a whole lot I remembered about the text.) I can understand walking into it having heard it was the end all be all of theater and feeling a slight bit let down.

[quote]Razing, [R117].

Actually not r118. The theater is being raised 30 feet.

The Marriott Marquis seems like the most obvious theater it would move to.

In the 1980s and early 90s, Playwright's Horizons was THE premier off-Broadway theater company. Other than 80s Broadway revivals, have they contributed anything of merit in the last 10 years?

Put me down as another one who thinks reviving City of Angels is overdue. Great score and fun show.

R119

Confirmed by Bway World:

R116, He has a very odd chest hair pattern. What is shown in your pic is all there is, nothing below his nips.

Wow, r127, that makes me sad.

So does the basement men's room get raised with it? When the whole thing collapses are they required to rebuild the whole thing or do they just get to say oops and build a luxury condo skyscraper for billionaires?

In my day arson was the go to answer.

When they raise/raze the Palace, what happens to the hotel above it? Will some tourist be lying in their bed and suddenly be 30 feet higher than they were before? What happens if a plane is flying over at the moment it shifts?

The Shit Show got a mixed to negative review from Variety. it sounds horrible.

[quote]The Shit Show got a mixed to negative review from Variety. it sounds horrible.

Sounds like a musical version of Three Tall Women.

I'm assuming Doubletree is getting a payoff to lose those three stories of space. Maybe they'll increase the rates on the remaining rooms? Is the Doubletree an in-demand hotel?

Sadly, I think The Cher Show, no matter how bad it may turn out, can be an enormous hit with the right PR campaign and a dynamite TV commercial.

I hope the Dream Ballet from Mask doesn’t get cut.

When are we going to see The Bette Midler Show. I'm especially interested in any scenes early in her career when she performed at the gay bathhouse. A few naked men listening to "Shiver Me Timbers"

Can I tell everyone that, despite how often I disagree with what is posted here and find the taste in music generally deplorable, I just love the DL theatre gossip threads to death!

And so, in tribute...

If I can't make

Three daily trips

Where shining shrine

Benignly quips...

Both of my Tony Awards were earned at the Palace.

R120 A Delicate Balance is not a "later work." (Unless you just meant later than Virginia Woolf & Zoo Story.)

I finally saw My Fair Lady and I wasn't too into it. Everyone seemed sorta...sleepy. It's a handsome production with fantastic sets and costumes, but it left me weirdly cold. Lauren Ambrose has a lovely voice and I was surprised by how well she hit the high notes, but her lower notes could barely be heard 6 rows in. I assume everyone is mic-ed up, so why not turn up hers on some of those lower notes? C'mon, people.

Diana Rigg might just steal the entire show with a tiny non-singing role. What a pro!

I got to see Bernadette in Dolly and I thought she was a good deal better than Bette. She was hysterically funny (especially in that act 2 dinner scene) and, while her voice is ragged, it still has a bit more bite than Bette's. Her monologues to Ephriam have to be the most moving ones I've seen/heard. Garber seemed a bit uncomfortable in some bits and I was surprised by how strange he sounds on his songs, which I never thought were terribly range-y. He settled down in act 2 and even got a free big laughs. Charlie Stemp looks so weird in pictures, but on stage, you can't take your eyes off of him. I thought he was great and Kate Baldwin has gotten way funnier than when I first saw her in the show. It's still probably the most wonderful revival I've seen in years.

The Three Tall Women revival was a let down for me too although a lot of it could have had to do with how ill behaved the audience was. And the set was silly.

I would kill ten people to see a fabulous revival of TALL ALICE... even the shortened/revised version.

I've heard that the Richard "John Boy" Thomas revival in the early 00s was decent but it was sadly before my time and nobody ever, ever, ever does the show (it's near-impossible to pull off, I'm aware).

It's my favorite Albee play and I adore re-reading it... perhaps it is better on the page than the stage? Alice's scenes are so weird and fabulous... and the whole thing is so enigmatic and exceptionally moving (at the end, in particular). Any fans?

Did anyone see the original Gielgud/Worth production and/or the revival and/or any other production?

^^ oof, make that TINY ALICE!

I saw it. Everyone in the cast was too old for his/her role, and the whole thing was too stately in pacing, but that scale model of the mansion was really something, and, at the end, when the monster (or whatever it was) started coming through the mansion for Gielgud, there was this ghastly smoke-ish effect that started moving through the scale model as well.

Fabulous!

Forgot to add, the recently deceased Philip Roth famously eviscerated the play in a blatantly homophobic tirade famous for his bile lobbed at Albee, et al: "The disaster of the play, however—its tediousness, its pretentiousness, its galling sophistication, its gratuitous and easy symbolizing, its ghastly pansy rhetoric and repartee—all of this can be traced to his own unwillingness or inability to put its real subject [male homosexuality] at the center of the action."

Thank you so much, R146! What a fantastic memory - you're a treasure!

Was Gielgud's last monologue at its full (10+ minute) length then and as torturous as it sounds like it was for audiences at the time? Also, did Worth have any nip-slips/nudity as was rumored to regularly occur throughout the run? Do you think the play could be played successfully today?

[quote]Charlie Stemp looks so weird in pictures, but on stage, you can't take your eyes off of him.

This is SOOOOOOO right.

A college friend of mine came to NYC and got us tickets to see Hello Dolly. She's from a small, bumfuck town and NYC is her "heaven." After the show, she wanted to wait at the stage door to get Bernadette Peters to sign her Playbill. Out comes Charlie Stemp, and I thought, "Jesus Christ, what happened to the cute dancing boy?"

But I figured it out. It's that mop of black hair that draws your eye to him. If Charlie ever goes bald, his career is over.

R144. If you do just one and it's 45, I will help finance the production.

Doubletree gone? Where will they host Underwear parties?!

Deal, R150.

Shit, let's make it an even 50.

We're all going to hell anyway!

R144/146/147, there’s a great Coral Browne story about Tiny Alice. At one point Gielgud placed his head down near Worth’s crotch and collapsed. On opening night Browne said quite loudly “Well, you’d faint, too, if you had to sniff Hattie Abrahamson’s CUNT!”

Some people just have "it" and Charlie has it. He's adorable on stage, but up close or (I'd imagine) on film, it's not the same. I think he has a big stage career ahead of him.

I wonder why the BBC hasn’t aired the taped version of Half a Sixpence yet. It couldn’t have been any worse than Gypsy.

The Gypsy broadcast probably killed any chances of a transfer. Perhaps they want to bring Sixpence over or, rather, build a fresh Broadway production around Stemp.

No, Imelda's braying, shrieking, furious performance killed any chance of a transfer.

I find it pretty hilarious to think of anyone producing Half a Sixpence on Broadway now in the wake of Cher, Donna, the Temptations and Go-Gos.

I definitely don't think that Gypsy broadcast helped Imelda at all. I'm still wondering what happened there. It was more than a case of someone being "too big" for the camera. It was a completely different interpretation from what I'd seen live a few months before. She was angry, bitter, and psychotic from her first entrance and that's nothing like what she was live. Believe it or not, she was rather funny and charming in act 1, landing more laughs than anyone since Tyne Daly, which made her psychotic and desperate "Everything's Coming Up Roses" so terrifying.

If I were Imelda, I'd kill whoever directed and edited that BBC version. I assume they filmed various performances and cut them together?

Imelda has been acting since Gielgud was in short pants. She knew what she was doing.

I thought Imelda's take was fantastic. Great to see Rose just be the complete psycho the character is.

Farts

Don't get me wrong - Imelda nailed the psychotic parts of Rose, but I remember her being much more nuanced, charming, and funny live than she was on the BBC recording where she just screamed every line and looked to be 2 seconds away from a murder spree from the get-go.

So you think Rose starts out as a funny, regular, gal? She's a driven sociopath well before she asks Daddy for 88 bucks. It was an interpretation that finally made sense.

R148: I'm afraid I don't recall Gielgud's speech well. I came to the play cold, so I didn't know what to watch for. I just remember thinking all through it--even though I was very young and scarcely aware of the ins and outs of gay--that the role rightfully belonged to some very handsome young guy (like Paul Roebling, so breathtaking in The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, a play that has much in common with Tiny Alice) and that putting Gielgud in the part was a bit like hiding the very gay nature of the piece. Yes, Gielgud was gay, but the point is that the plutocrat (Alice, the Church, etc.) is buying a beautiful boy.

Later on, I saw the ACT production, with Paul Shenar, which was much smarter casting. Though it didn't have the bombs away! production of the original.

Fun fact: When I got home, I renamed our Lhasa Apso Tiny Llama. (His name had been Scampy.) It infuriated my mother, because she guessed that there was some hidden gay clue in there that she couldn't fathom.

Lonnie Price directed the broadcast. It was an already pacy production but the broadcast amped it up further and so much nuance and variety was lost.

The Savoy was pretty vigilant about filming, so I don't think there's any bootleg video of Imelda. I'm sure there's audio.

" I find it pretty hilarious to think of anyone producing Half a Sixpence on Broadway now in the wake of Cher, Donna, the Temptations and Go-Gos."

And one measure of even a Grade B+ entertainment like HALF A SIXPENCE has more musical value than everything else above put together.

It's interesting about performers changing their performance. I remember seeing Catherine Zeta-Jones sing "Send in The Clowns" on the Tony Awards and thinking "That's nothing like what she did in the theater." I wondered if she was trying to give herself whiplash with all that head jerking.

The Albee plays (well, adaptation) I want to see revived are EVERYTHING IN THE GARDEN (a fantastic play!) and LOLITA.

R169, CZJ was embarrassing on the Tony's. It made one wonder how there was any way she could win. Bernadette's take on it as the replacement was a thousand times better.

r171, what you saw on the Tonys was NOT what I saw in the theater. The Tonys were late in the run, so maybe she developed those tics, but it's not what I saw when I went to see it.

[quote]The Albee plays (well, adaptation) I want to see revived are EVERYTHING IN THE GARDEN (a fantastic play!) and LOLITA.

What about Albee's adaptation of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" as a musical for Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlain?

R172, I'm hoping that if you had seen that in the theater, I wouldn't have seen it on the Tony's because she wouldn't have been nominated.

Has anyone seen Jesse Tyler Ferguson's play "Log Cabin" at Playwrights Horizons? If so, what'd you think of it?

Has anyone seen Jesse Tyler Ferguson's log?

Does anyone really want to see Jesse Tyler Ferguson's log?

I love Half a Sixpence at least what I can glean from the good parts of the very uneven movie but I can't imagine anyone pulling off a lavish period charm musical today on Broadway.

Even if it had the impossible good luck to be as good as the original Saks/White/Steele production(which I did not see, I'm just assuming. Channing, Streisand, Mostel, Davis Jr, and Steele on Broadway and the World's Fair in Queens...Life should have ended right there.) who would go to see it beside a handful of eldergays?

I did attempt to sit through it at Musicals Tonight but couldn't take more than half of it and left at intermission.

[quote]Perhaps they want to bring Sixpence over or, rather, build a fresh Broadway production around Stemp.

While Stemp got great reviews in Dolly, he’s hardly a Broadway star, the kind that a show could be built around. And it’s unlikely that the wretched revisal of Sixpence would find popularity on Broadway. It barely managed to eke out a year’s run in London.

" Channing, Streisand, Mostel, Davis Jr, and Steele on Broadway and the World's Fair in Queens."

I saw all of those. We didn't think it wasn't going to always be like that.

I would love to see HALF A SIXPENCE again but the clips I've seen of the recent London production was so aggressively hard-sell I know I would hate it. Charm is pretty much nonexistent nowadays.

[quote] While Stemp got great reviews in Dolly, he’s hardly a Broadway star, the kind that a show could be built around. And it’s unlikely that the wretched revisal of Sixpence would find popularity on Broadway. It barely managed to eke out a year’s run in London.

Never say never. It seems like just the show that The Roundabout would pick up.

Darren Criss in "Half A Sixpence." Inspired by the London production.

Mr. Criss, fresh off his Lifetime movie playing a murderous whore, will return to Broadway in the delightful London musical "Half A Sixpence." Bring the whole family!

I always thought it was so pretentious of Irene Worth to pronounce her last name as “Eye-REE-Nee”. Since it wasn’t her real birth name, she had to have picked it and picked the pronunciation as well,

First name, not last name.

[quote]t seems like just the show that The Roundabout would pick up.

No it doesn’t. Every single musical that Roundabout has done has been far more famous than the now-obscure Half a Sixpence is. The closest you could get was “Violet,” but that transferred straight out of the rave-reviewed summer Encores production.

The worst thing about that Sixpence revival is that Stiles and Drewe saw fit to rewrite David Heneker’s music. Not just his lyrics, his actual melodies. There was no reason for that.

[quote]When they raise/raze the Palace, what happens to the hotel above it? Will some tourist be lying in their bed and suddenly be 30 feet higher than they were before? What happens if a plane is flying over at the moment it shifts?

The Double Tree is coming down, replaced by...wait for it... a new hotel.

I want to be in that second baloney when that whole thing is picked up 30 feet.

The Catherine Zeta Jones Tony performance is pretty similar to Imelda's Gypsy. Neither of those performances are anything like what they did in the actual show. They really hurt their reputations in the process and have turned themselves into jokes. I thought Imelda handled herself a bit better in the filmed version of Follies.

Imelda definitely played Rose brittle on stage, too, but not to the extent that one saw on the BBC version. There was a little fun and charm in there. I'm sorry, but who wants to hear Some People sung by a bitter, defeated old broad? That song should be brimming with energy and optimism. The lyrics themselves are angry enough. An actor has to usually work against them. At this point in the show, Rose is still young (if we're going by the real life Rose, she would have been in her mid/late-20's at the most). She's been battered a bit by life, but she shouldn't be ready to launch into Rose's Turn yet. I've seen a ton of actresses make this mistake and it gives them nowhere to build to. Isn't it much more tragic if this woman so filled with life and optimism is brought down by the cruelty of life and her bad choices by the end of the show? What's moving or interesting about a bitter bitch rampaging through life and staying a bitter bitch?

CZJ was fabulous in ALNM. I saw an early preview and she just owned that fucking stage. I understand she had some personal problems during the run and started missing performances. She's the only actress who would make me want to see Gypsy again whether on stage or film.

The thing is, Rose IS a bitter bitch the whole time. She's a frustrated gorgon who never made it in show biz herself. She isn't optimistic in Some People she is psychotically driven to make her daughter famous come hell or high water and bitter she didn't have that kind of "support."

[quote]Mr. Criss, fresh off his Lifetime movie playing a murderous whore

Lifetime? LIFETIME? Miss Murphy does NOT make Lifetime movies!

[quote]Has anyone seen Jesse Tyler Ferguson's play "Log Cabin" at Playwrights Horizons? If so, what'd you think of it?

Is it about gay Republicans?

No desire to see Log Cabin. If I wanted to watch gays be lectured by a fucking tranny about how they're all wrong and zhir is right, I'll stay right the hell here on Datalounge, thank you very much.

If CZJ plays Rose, does Kirk play Mr. Goldstone?

After A Chorus Line NONE of the Douglases should be allowed anywhere near a musical. And even if Kirk DID play Mr. Goldstone (heh heh) it would be ironic since he apparently raped Natalie Wood years before she filmed Gypsy.

I flew to New York to see The Boys In The Band and Angels In America this week. The Boys In The Band was great. It was quite funny, but the dramatic moments were also compelling. Great chemistry on the stage, and wonderful performances. Also, if you sit close enough, the mirrored ceiling reveals a fully naked Matt Bomer taking a shower upstairs. Nice everything on that man. Fuck.

Angels In America was indeed epic. I've never sat through 7.5 hours of theater before, and it was certainly journey, and utterly gripping.

However, I have to say I couldn't stand Andrew Garfield, and he's the reason I even bothered to see it. His delivery was so affected, and over the top, I didn't believe a single word he said, and ultimately felt nothing for his character by the end. Every line just screamed "IIII AMMM ACTIIIIING!!!" What's the fucking Tony for, crying on command??

Nathan Lane was utterly brilliant and an absolute joy to watch. I knew he would be, but this was my first time seeing him on stage, and it was such a pleasure. Fucking legend.

Lee Pace's performance was about as wooden George Washington's teeth (or Betsy Ross' dildo if you're a feminist), but he does strip completely naked which is nice.

I guess I'm not sure what all of the hype is about. Yes it is epic, and has some extremely poignant and important things to say, but it is most definitely flawed in its execution.

I want to see Bomer's boner ....

Still no word on who else will be in the touring company of Hello Dolly? Won't they be starting rehersals soon? Betty Lynn just announced she won't be on social media for the tour (which if you read her feeds that is saying a lot. She tweets a bunch.)

Weird that the Donna Summer musical got such a pass with the bad reviews but with 'The Cher Show' there is a genuine question about opening at all at this point...

I assume they are approaching Kathy Griffin who spreads joy like manure.

How much does it cost to get a star r9 do you know? Anyone?

The London Half a Sixpense is absolute shite. It will not play well in the USA.

Saw Bernadette's Dolly about a month ago, and was not crazy about it. Had seen the Bette video and the humor has gotten even broader since then. I thought the eating scene was embarrasing. But the new Minnie Fay was better than Beanie McBeaniestein and I really liked Gavin Creel, who wasn't on the video. I didn't care for Charlie Stemp at all. He seemed to be playing Barnaby as a creepy letch. He had no innocence at all.

I enjoyed Three Tall Women. Glenda Jackson was all spit and bile— fun but one note.

I bought tickets for Carmen Jones as soon as I read the glowing reviews. I was surprised at how many seats were still available in the small theater.

Anyone see Boys and Girls with Carey Mulligan? I heard everything from extraordinary to excruciating.

I’m sure it’ll be a hot ticket after the reviews come out like it was in London. Now, there are tons of available seats. Sadly my partner doesn’t want to see it so I’ll miss it

Fun Home at The Young Vic in London is pretty meh. Very wide, proscenium staging that drains it of any intimacy or intensity. Zubin Varla plays Bruce Bechdel as a cliched “distant father.” No complexity as all. Makes the whole thing seem more like an anti-gay cautionary tale. Varla and the Medium Alison deliver plenty of off-key singing which is totrturous with an already atonal score. Jenna Russel delivers as Helen but it’s such an underwritten role. Sam Gold’s name is on it but it looks like it was directed by the stage manager of the national tour. Looks very cheap.

R206, are you not allowed to go alone?

I don't know why I always just skipped the Annie role on Sutton's resume -- but bless Aurora Spiderwoman for posting bootlegs that are on point.

This is not topical -- but it is Broadway...

[quote]which is totrturous with an already atonal score.

Why do you use words when you clearly have no idea what they mean?

Who's responsible for this mess?

Saw EVERYTHING IN THE GARDEN in previews in its original run. That too received homophobic reviews, including one that said (I'm paraphrasing) that the source of all wisdom in the play came from a homosexual and a young boy (played by Richard Thomas!). I thought it was wildly entertaining and I'm surprised it hasn't had even a small revival here. Barry Nelson and Barbara Bel Geddes were cast for their associations with such light Bway fare as MARY MARY.

Back in the day, the rumor was that "Tiny Alice" was a euphemism for tight anus. Anyone know if that was true?

R209, thanks for posting that. She’s pushing way too hard, trying to belt every word. She’s almost scream-singing. She’s so much better now, but she was very young then.

R197, I agree with you about Angels. People are raving because it’s Angels, not because this particular production is all that special. You might feel differently about Lane once you’ve seen him a bunch more times though. He falls back into certain schtick over and over again. The Iceman Cometh was the only time I feel he really suppressed that, and he was incredible in that production. I think Andrew Garfield is a tremendous actor, but I don’t think he understands this character at all. Before this show, I was convinced he was gay, but his performance is so clueless that I don’t think he is anymore.

I thought Matthew Bomer was wearing some kind of flesh-colored thing over his junk, no? I was also sitting very close and couldn’t make out actual cock and balls. And believe me, I was trying.

Log Cabin was as excruciating as the play with the men giving birth. Really the past few shows at Playwrights (I didn't see DanceNation) have been cross-eyeingly bad. Who the frack decides what they produce? Are they on crack?

And speaking of crack...That Sutton Foster clip was horrible. Those facial expressions and her screaming..... YIKES!

R214

She was a baby playing a 'future broadway star' to the back row in Annie. Anything she did wrong could easily be seen as an astute acting choice considering...

(she does know how to do musical theater for a TV camera... this scene is awesome in a very uncomfortable way... )

As for 'Log Cabin' thanks for the reaction. That is one to skip, I believe.

Log Cabin was heinous. Yet another lecture about how gay white men are evil (but please keep paying for everything!).

I don't blame Sutton Foster for that "Star To Be" that's the way she was directed. In the original, it was Laurie Beecham belting that out. Many people at the time commented on it. Why would a depression era singer be belting? But Laurie had more control of her belt than Sutton has. Sutton's veering off pitch in that performance. And everyone should have asked for their money back.

And Andrea McArdle played that role in the tv version. So they always choose a belter.

R212 That insightful bit of homophobia came from revered screenwriter William Goldman in his book The Season.

That wretched and Botox bland We Are The World redo is another prime example of why Broadway is DEAD! Awful stuff...

I guess both Goldman brothers were complete dicks.

R213 Agreed about Andrew Garlfield. He's completely misunderstood the character. And yes, Matt's wiener was definitely out. I was sitting in the center of the second row, lasering in on that mirrored ceiling tile above his naked self like a true pervert.

I think it's Seth Rudetsky again? I could be wrong though.

Sorry the above post was meant for r211, asking who was responsible for the We are The World thing happening tonight.

Well, the WE ARE THE WORLD is hideous. That's a hallmark of anything commandeered by Seth.

R217

A Broadway star any time before footlight mics would have been a belter or a legit soprano or a dancer who didn't need to be heard -- whatever managed to properly fill the large theaters. Merman made her Broadway debut in 1930 and her influence mostly claimed belting FOR broadway even though it was already part of the singing culture of America before she came along.

So jumping off the bus and belting your face off was a nod to old school, pre-golden era Broadway.

And totally obnoxious because when they belt they smile and pop out their eyes like they're in a horror film.

I don't think Seth is involved in the We Are the World thing. He is doing a concert tonight -- and it is sure to be a hot mess since it involves stars who happen to be available tonight -- some of them between shows. I doubt he has had time to rehearse tonight's show -- much less put together a completely different recording with as many of Broadway's working child actors as they got for that.

Seriously -- by the end of that 'We Are the World' thing you really got the idea that child labor is fundamental to Broadway.

What’s with all the wool hats in that ego-undertoned We Are The World clip? Is it still fucking winter?

Chita needs to retire already. She’s starting to tarnish her legacy. And I wasn’t looking directly at the screen when Bebe started singing but they sound exactly the same

You can tell Seth wasn’t involved because his family wasn’t front and center

I didn't get to see Matt's ass or cock being at the far end of the left orchestra side (let this be a warning to you gays looking for a naked Bomer - don't get tickets on the left orchestra and stick to the center), but the show was pretty excellent. I've never been a big fan of Bomer besides his looks and body, but he even managed to get a few laughs in this production. I thought everyone was terrific. My one big gripe is how, after literally one drink, we're supposed to accept that Michael turns into Martha from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. At least let it build a bit. I assume this is just a flaw of the show in general, though.

Mulligan is magnificent - "Girls & Boys" less so.

[quote]Agreed about Andrew Garlfield. He's completely misunderstood the character.

Completely in agreement about Garfield like you and a couple of others have mentioned.

[quote]People are raving because it’s Angels, not because this particular production is all that special.

Also in agreement about this.

[quote]I thought Matthew Bomer was wearing some kind of flesh-colored thing over his junk, no? I was also sitting very close and couldn’t make out actual cock and balls. And believe me, I was trying.

Whether or not you see his dick is extremely seat dependent which is why not everyone that has seen the show is screaming from the rafters about it. I wonder where they sat the high school students that went to see it a couple of months ago.

You can't be too far left, too far right or too far back. I was on the mez directly across from the bedroom so I did get a great view of his ass when he put his underwear on and of him rolling around on the bed. Unfortunately I couldn't see the ceiling and the view of the mirror across from him was blocked in the shower scene.

Although I still haven't seen anyone describe it with a lot of detail other than I saw it and it was there.

How sad are some of you that you're surveying a theater to try and catch a glimpse of an actor's cock?

r234 That was certainly the only reason to see "Oh! Calcutta!"

R235, I thought the reason was to hear the bitchy audience comments from the actors. Apparently, soon after opening, the actors started collecting the audience comments that the overheard from the stage (apparently the audience assumed that if you were nude, you also went deaf.) At the end of the show they would read their list. From what I heard, it was often quiet funny, and the best part of the show. (I know, that ain't saying much.)

[quote]That was certainly the only reason to see "Oh! Calcutta!"

I thought it was to try and hook up with one of the Japanese businessmen that came into town and saw the show.

[quote]How sad are some of you that you're surveying a theater to try and catch a glimpse of an actor's cock?

Mary! He wasn't embarrassed to show it R234 or use the nudity as a selling point in interviews in a completely unnecessary moment which could have been blocked off.

So no one should be afraid to mention it on a gay gossip board of all places as a bonus of attendance.

Fun Home in London is better than Broadway. The proscenium helps the show a great deal. Reviews here are all 5 star raves. I'm sure they'll try to move it. Quite the year for Tesori here.

Randy Rainbow is performing at Seth's Concert today.

That doesn't suck.

[quote]At the end of the show they would read their lis

Actually, I think that’s part of the opening number right after they strip, and it’s scripted.

“Oh Calcutta” is a dreadful show, by the way.

I wonder how much damage the interview Cher gave after seeing the show has really done. Her kindest words were for Emily Skinner who plays her mother. She really didn't give a thumbs up or thumbs down to the 3 Cher's but only said 'they have alot to do.' I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled the plug after Chicago.

Emily Skinner is doing very well as far as reviews/audience reactions. I’m surprised Stephanie Block hasnt done better, though her reviews have been fine and the best of the three Chers.

None of the reviews had a “pack it in, kids” tone to them, just that there’s a lot of work needed. I think they’ll work at it and open it in NY. Who knows? The Summer show is running, so maybe this will. But it will never be a major hit.

The fact that the Cher Show has the same three actresses playing the lead as the Summer show, I think the Cher Show is going to look like an also-ran. Plus, her concerts are pretty much a summation of her life, so I'm not sure how much difference there will be between one of her shows and this. I wonder who the original writer was that she hated.

[quote]I'm not sure how much difference there will be between one of her shows and this

Other than one of them starring Cher and the other one not?

Haha, touche, R246. But that is my point. Cher's shows are part biography, and it is HER on the stage. Why would someone see a version of what might be perceived to be the same thing, but NOT starring Cher? Have you ever been to one of her concerts? I am not a fan, but I was working for CAA at one point, and they repped her, and I got a free tickets so I went. Half the concert was videos of her life and her background, etc, so I imagine that the play covers pretty much the same ground except...no Cher. A LOT of people have seen her concerts, and she is still alive, although I don't know if she tours much now, so I don't know who would want to see a Cher show without Cher? Donna Summer is dead, so Summer has that going for it. You're not going to see Donna live now unless you're a medium and can conjure the dead.

R247 She is touring Australia and NZ later this year, as we are blessed fans

Emily Skinner got a bad rep during her Side Show and Full Monty days (lots and lots of missed performances) but man did she make a comeback. She looks amazing and works constantly (here in NYC and regionally. She even played Mame for crissake.) Whatever was going on back then is clearly out of her system now. I'd love to see her get that one Broadway role that will finally make her a big star.

Who played the son in Three Tall Women? He is not even listed in the playbill. Why is that? He is handsome.

That's fascinating about Emily. I wonder how she and Alice Ripley got along.

Close chums, r251.

[quote]The fact that the Cher Show has the same three actresses playing the lead as the Summer show,

Wow! They must be pretty damn versatile!

[quote]Who played the son in Three Tall Women? He is not even listed in the playbill. Why is that? He is handsome.

R250 - IBDB is helpful for that type of thing. Joseph Medeiros is the actor. Although, I feel like he was more handsome on stage than he appears in photos. (Unless I saw his understudy).

I assume he wasn't listed in the Playbill to avoid the surprise of his appearance. I wonder what taking that kind of role is like for an actor. You're almost like an extra/supernumerary. On the other hand, what easy $$$.

This was the understudy in Three Tall Women...

MikeR's firm, supple thighs look better in person than they do in photos.

So how did Betty Lynn get cast in Hello Dolly anyway? Who turned it down?

[quote]So how did Betty Lynn get cast in Hello Dolly anyway? Who turned it down?

Harvey Fierstein.

I have to admit, as enjoyable as it was, after seeing Bernie and Bette do Dolly, I wouldn't have had any interest in seeing the tour. Betty's against type casting actually has me interested.

I’d rather see Harvey

I'd rather see Faith.

Percy Faith?

There's been no announcement but somebody posted at BWW that Lewis Stadlen will be the tour Horace.

I just saw an interview on TV tonight with Melissa Errico and seem to recall -- almost 20 years ago now? -- when she was supposed to be Broadway's next big thing. (One can only assume her alleged divatude is what got in the way.) Any insights/stories?

You can only be a next big thing when you're IN a next big thing, r264.

[quote]somebody posted at BWW that Lewis Stadlen will be the tour Horace.

Betty Buckley and Lewis J. Stadlen - now that’s a “Hello, Dolly” for the ages! I can’t wait to rush out and miss it!

The Three Tall Women surprise reminds me of Blackbird, the play with Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams. He molested her, she tracks him down at his work. The Playbill's only got Jeff and Michelle. At the end, Jeff leaves with a young girl (the daughter of his girlfriend) and Michelle screams after him. The ushers handed out miniature sheets of paper with the girl's bio as the audience exited.

I wonder if Betty has been told by the powers that be to stay off social media. The tour is playing deplorable country and Betty was very vocal in her Trump hate online.

From the audience reactuon, you would think Christ himself had returned at City Center tonight when Jason Robert Brown stepped in to play piano for one song in Songs for a New World. One of the biggest ovations I’ve heard at City Center. As big as the Encores Chicago. I don’t get it.

I don't see Betty being any good in Dolly. I'd like to be proven wrong, but has she ever been funny? Even a little bit? She didn't land ANY laughs the night I saw her in Gypsy and the first act is full of potential big laughs.

Lol no one gives a fuck about Jason Robert Brown. I mean, who? Please.

Buckley did some off-Broadway sitcommy type thing a few years ago. Not sure if she was funny in that.

What show does her bad reputation stem from? Does it go all the way back to Cats or beyond that even?

You know who really fucked up her career? Kate Miller in Moon Over Buffalo. You can see her in the Moon Over Broadway documentary bitching about her picture outside of the theater. She bitchily says, "I think I've got it in my contract that I have photo approval." It's too bad Carol Burnett didn't sit her down and say, "Girl, shut the fuck up."

[quote]What show does her bad reputation stem from? Does it go all the way back to Cats or beyond that even?

Her nickname in Cats was Kitty Litter.

Betty stepped off the Greyhound bus and the next day had a signed Broadway contract for 1776. That's where her attitude came from. She never had to pay her dues.

Oh, please. Like Kate Miller was ever going anywhere but the unemployment line. Had it not been for that delicious bit of bitchery (which few people even know about), no one would even remember who she was.

In Stephen Hanan's book he released about the making of the show I noticed he says something like Buckley was always nice to HIM. Implying that wasn't the case for others.

Wasn't one of the Cats chorus boys dating Betty's brother? She had every right to be angry that those slut bottoms would come near her precious brother. It's bad enough she had to see those nasty boys eight times a week, but she was drawing a line at seeing one of them on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Actually, Betty's brother Norman was in a long term relationship with Timothy Scott, who was in the original company of Cats. Scott died of AIDS in 1988 with Norman by his side.

I once tweeted to Norman asking if Betty was mean to Scott. Shockingly he responded (it wasn't even a name account, I just had the egg picture) saying that Betty loved Timothy and treated him like family......so who knows.

Speaking of Cats, happy birthday to Terrence Mann.

That's interesting, r239, since the non-proscenium staging seemed to be central to the show's initial success - can you say more about why the proscenium works better?

Encores needs to do a production of Oh, Calcutta.

It’s actually one of the longest running shows in the History of Bway but it rarely shows up on the ‘longest running’ lists. Everyone is embarrassed by it

[quote] Encores needs to do a production of Oh, Calcutta.

They wouldn't do the nudity in Hair, they certainly aren't going to do it for Oh! Calcutta! And the script and music are dreadful.

Fun fact: two of the men in the original Oh! Calcutta! went on to be tv stars. Alan Rachins was on L.A. Law and Bill Macy was Maude's husband.

Speaking of Lewis J. Stadlen, I saw him in an old episode of "Benson" recently on Antenna TV (he was a regular for the first one or two seasons I think) and thought he was actually kind of cute back then. Anyone here know him?

I haven't seen the London production of Fun Home but the U.S. tour was staged with the proscenium, too. I'm not sure of all the differences with the original Broadway production, but I will say that it was one of the best tours I've seen in the past several years (from a technical standpoint). The show itself was great, too.

SPOILER: the most obvious thing a proscenium staging allowed was (dare I say) a real coup de théâtre. Well into the show, a white wall flew down that was used for projections and with lighting effects to change locations for several scenes. Just before the scene where the main les-les brings her sisterwife home to meet the family, that white wall flew away to reveal the very realistic looking home in all its glory. It really was a surprise and people applauded. Great theatrical moment!

Fun/Home began at the Public in a small proscenium space and the rave reviews of that production propelled it to Broadway and Circle-in-the -Square.

So the origins of its success were in a proscenium theater.

I have worked with Lew Stadlen and he was terrific.

Me too! Lewis Stadlen is great fun, an old pro.He still seems like a throwback to vaudeville.

They do the reveal in London (it looks like the Young Vic has repurposed a set piece from The Inheritance) but there is only one projection at the very end.

Apologies for my mis-use of the word “atonal.” But off-key singing doesn’t really suit vocal quartets/quintets.

I think Melissa Errico's bad rep started with High Society. I remember hearing about diva behavior backstage. Then the show flopped and the offers dried up. But now she's married, a mom and seems happy to work at Irish Rep and do concerts so I say good for her.

Can anyone explain why Colin Donnell hasn't had a bigger career? He certainly has the looks and the talent.

Was it a mistake for him to be doing bland TV roles instead of Broadway?

R290

I think you are all very confused if you believe a successful theater diva is awash with offers at any stage of her career. Even at the top of her game a Broadway actress is going to be chasing the same roles in the same productions as every other star. (This year only 37% of Broadway's principle roles were female.) Vehicles created for big names are not suddenly 'offered' to anyone after their big break because those slowly happen over years and can be jerked away (or be tossed aside) for all sorts of reasons. Not even theater actresses who have achieved film and TV success and show opening fame find themselves 'awash' in offers.

There are too many talented women and too few actual roles. It is as cut throat for actresses at the very top of the profession as it is for actors starting out.

[quote]I think Melissa Errico's bad rep started with High Society.

Actually her problems started with the 90s revival of My Fair Lady. She started having vocal problems and missing performances. And Broadway hates a diva who can't sustain. The role of Eliza is deceptive. To be sung properly, it needs a true soprano with a solid vocal technique. It's never been an "Evita" role where the actress only had to sing 6 shows. Eliza has always done all 8 shows. Julie Andrews, Melissa Errico and Martine McCutcheon all had problems singing the role. Julie started speaking notes rather than singing them so that she could have enough stamina to sustain the performance.

A friend who worked with her said she questions every—and I mean every—line, line reading, movement, direction, etc. when rehearsing a role. Other cast members want to kill her.

[quote]A friend who worked with her said she questions every—and I mean every—line, line reading, movement, direction, etc. when rehearsing a role. Other cast members want to kill her.

I worked with Elaine Stritch and she was that way. She always claimed "I need to understand why I do/say/think this." For her part, it was attention seeking. Stritch always knew exactly what she wanted to do. She was just jerking people's chains.

I saw Melissa Errico on an episode of The Good Wife a few years back and she has no idea how to act for the camera. She played her lines as though she was trying to hit the back row of the Broadway theater.

Wasn't Melissa one of the stars of that short-lived TV series in the 1990s about a wealthy family on the Upper West Side, costarring John Barrowman? What was that series called? Did she waste her best ingenue years trying to achieve TV/film fame?

Supposedly Sellers is seriously talking about delaying The Cher Show until the spring- and good for him- finally a producer to have balls to make tough decisions rather than focus on what house is avaiable

Her career has been fine. I really wonder what roles you think dried up for her and went to a more sturdy mezzo-soprano. Who got her career when it turned out her vocal range wasn't a strong but light lyric after all?

[quote]Wasn't Melissa one of the stars of that short-lived TV series in the 1990s about a wealthy family on the Upper West Side, costarring John Barrowman? What was that series called?

"Central Park West."

R285, agree with you on the interior room reveal with the wall paper from the earlier discussion towards the beginning of the show. It's a true magic of the theater moment.

She was an absolute cunt on Central Park West. They turned her character into a cunt because they wanted her to play to her strengths. She was the Vulva Toadstool of the 90s.

It is weird to see people posting about how Fun Home works so well in a proscenium, when just a few years ago everyone was saying that it would not work when it moved to a non-proscenium house.

So a show that got great acclaim in a proscenium theater works equally well in a proscenium theater. I am shocked.

I gasped like a nelly queen the moment when what R285 describes happened.

I didn't see the Broadway (nor Off-Broadway) production - wasn't there a similar reveal or effect for the house in those versions? I'm aware that they made extensive use of lifts for the Broadway mounting. Or did I read somewhere that something happened with the scenery during 'Edges of the World'? Nothing much happens during that scene in the Young Vic staging.

Gillian Lynne, choreographer of Cats, died tonight in London. She just had a theatre named after her. She was 92.

I didn't realize CPW made it to Season 2. I always thought it was a one season bomb.

R291, maybe because he’s a deep as a puddle and his wife’s a major pain in the ass? It’s the Jen Cody Hunter Foster syndrome.

[quote]Julie started speaking notes rather than singing them so that she could have enough stamina to sustain the performance.

No she didn’t. You’re making that up.

[quote]Everyone is embarrassed by it

Not by the nudity. They’re embarrassed that a show with truly execrable sketches and songs could run such a long time on the allure of pussies and penises.

Colin Donnell is a star of Chicago Med, a TV show in its 3rd or 4th season. It’s his third hit after The Affair and Arrow. He’s probably making 20 times what he would on Broadway. I bet he’s quite content with his career right now.

Those overheated yet ponderous credits for Central Park West are truly hilarious.

FUN HOME is a twee bore. Sorry. The staging was the only interesting aspect of the Broadway production, really, though "Ring Of Keys" is a pretty good song. Ditto the Jackson 5 parody. Judy Kuhn's part was embarrassingly underwritten (especially that trite 2-minute 2nd act solo) and Cerveris, while an awesome actor, deserved the Tony for SWEENEY and not this. Make-up win, I guess. I absolutely love Zubin Varla (did you see him in JCS or CHESS?! Incredible) so I'm surprised he has been so panned in the reviews I've read but no interest to sit through this again. Meh.

At the Public in its original staging, there was a reveal of the house similar to what it sounds like happened on tour. I remember there was this enormous backdrop as part of the house, although I don’t remember what was on it. Does anyone remember? In the Broadway version, the furniture of the house comes up through trap doors, and I believe Alison and Joan entered through the audience. In the prior scenes at the house, there wasn’t nearly as much furniture as happens in this scene. Then during the father’s final number, the trap doors all open so there are all these holes in the floor that he has to negotiate around while he is singing. Cerveris was kind of lurching around directionlessly, coming very close to the holes. It really seemed like he could fall in. A nice metaphor for what is going through the father’s mind at that time. I don’t remember any analogous bit of staging in the proscenium version.

Lynnes's dances in HAS are terrific and I often watch them on DVD.

HAS ?

Half a Sixpence.

Well, now at least she won't have to sit through the CATS film.

Unless, R317, one of the cast members drags her in to the house to show her off.

LOL, r318!

During the final dress at Circle In The Square, Cerveris did fall into one of the holes because of a missed light cue.

Those Fun Home Jackson 5-parody songs are ghastly.

So, I'm confused about the Cats film. Is this going to be a LIVE ACTION film? So, actors in cat costumes? Or animation or CGI? Why does Lloyd Webber continue to embarrass himself this way? Surely, he has enough money. The ONE thing that worked for Cats in the theatre was just that -- it's theatricality.

The movie will feature actual animal bodies, with faces of human actors cgi’d onto them. Streisand is considering providing the face/voice for Grizabella.

Dear God, please tell me you're kidding, R323. I think it could work if it were real animals that moved a la Downward Dog, but not CGI or human actors.

Thanks for your reply, R313.

"Gus was the cat at the theatre door ..."

If you're talking about the Broadway dances for HAS, they were by Onna White. And they were divine.

R327, the film was choreographed by Gillian Lynne.

If the movie Cats ever becomes a reality, I hope they don't cut the Growltiger sequence like they did for the first recorded one. Visually, it can be interesting if staged well.

They really should do old school 2-d animation based on the Edward Gorey illustration of T.S. Eliot's book.

That would actually be a movie worth watching.

I had never seen those Gorey drawings of Elliot's poems. They are adorable, and that would be a wonderfully subversive movie, but I doubt it would have enough appeal.

[quote]I had never seen those Gorey drawings of Elliot's poems.

Yes, Gorey illustrated a version of the poems. I have a copy and they are really delightful. I've always loved the poems because they are delightfully silly in a very sophisticated way.

Gus, is the cat, at the theatre door.

His name, as I ought to have told you before,

Is really Asaparagus....

Thank you r312 - I was beginning to think I had missed something.

Lin-Manuel Miranda sings for separated families. (see video)

Haven't they gone through enough?

thanks, r330--those are delightful.

lol, r334.

Speaking of Eliza's singing all 8 shows yet having vocal problems, Lauren Ambrose is cutting back to 7 shows starting this week. Understudy, who's already been on a few times, will play Sunday matinees.

Didn't Richard Chamberlain loathe Melissa Errico and preferred working with her understudy and wasn't Errico attached to Sound of Music revival before Rebecca Luker? Central Park West was a total camp fest and proved that musical comedy actors like Errico and John Barrowman should stick to the stage.

And now.......

Miss Beverly Sills in her breakout role

Errico is married to Patrick McEnroe, brother of John. Her pissy attitude has only been enhanced from being a part of that family, and she certainly doesn't need the work, hence the off-Broadway shows and concerts. Broadway has no use for her.

Elton’s picked his lyricist for The Devil Wears Prada:

[quote]musical comedy actors like Errico and John Barrowman should stick to the stage.

Not everyone can make make the switch and be successful.

I never bought Errico as Lucie's daughter on that L&O episode.......

I found Lauren Ambrose to have a rather beautiful voice and she was hitting all those top notes with remarkably ease. It really is very jarring to hear that voice come out of her. For the first few songs, I was almost wondering if she was lip-syncing. Her performance in the book scenes is fantastic, but she does something very weird during her songs that I've seen from a lot of actors who are doing musical theatre for the first time or who are uncomfortable acting through song. She all of a sudden forgets how to act when she starts singing and it's incredibly strange to watch.

The moment the music starts, she starts hunching over as if straining to get the notes out and doing all sorts of weird hand movements and facial tics. It's really odd and kept taking me out of it. Someone needs to sit her down and work with her on acting through song. She has the chops, but she needs a little help. She also seems too scared to get guttural during act 1. It's like she's trying to save her voice, which I get, but she can't really immerse herself in the character by playing it safe.

Miss Routledge......

Very few actresses have worked as consistently and regularly in leading roles on New York stages and cabaret over the past 25 years as Melissa. I don't know what you idiots are thinking. Rebecca Luker hasn't originated a role on Broadway in 10 years.

[quote]Very few actresses have worked as consistently and regularly in leading roles on New York stages and cabaret over the past 25 years as Melissa.

Melissa hasn't been on the Broadway stage since 2009, in that ill-begotten "White Christmas" that the Neanderthal Organization thought was going to be a perennial Christmas event cash cow. That was 10 years ago. And yes, Rebecca Luker has been doing replacement work, but it has been on BROADWAY!

And anyone can mount a cabaret act. All you need is money to rent the space and the musicians. You yourself could rent the Producer's Club and put on a show.

Melissa Errico was the start of the vanilla/no personality actresses that we continue to see paraded before us to this day.

^^^^well, that explains LuAnn de Lesseps' gig at 54 Below, then.

Was Melissa' last NYC production the Encore's Do I Hear A Waltz?

She's doing On A Clear Day at Irish Rep right now.

[quote]She's doing On A Clear Day at Irish Rep right now.

Isn't she a bit old to be playing Daisy/Melinda? Isn't the character in her 20s?

Judicious use of the fog machine, r350.....

Don't forget Melissa was in the misbegotten Des MacEnough Dracula. She deserved hazard pay for that one.

The Naked City was definitely the precursor to Law & Order. Both starkly NYC and able to cast from the city's talent pool. I was watching a humorous episode with Orson Bean, post BB Mae Questal, and the always dependable Barbara Harnick.

Patrick McEnroe is nowhere near as rich as his brother. That said, I’m sure he’s doing ok with his TV tennis commentating. He’s probably at Wimbledon right now. He must have a place in the Hamptons. I used to see him out there. His daughters are absolutely adorable.

Melissa got great reviews for Do I Hear A. Waltz but hasn’t done anything high profile on Broadway in years.

Wasn't there some saga following Luker recording the role of Clara for the Off-Broadway cast recording of 'Passion'? I think Errico had fallen ill during the run, but then wrote several indignant blogs about not being allowed to do the recording?

Oh, today's episode features Robert Duvall and Madeline Sherwood (doing her patented tawdry tics). The Reverend Mother was rather a departure (role-wise) for her, wasn't it?

[quote]Oh, today's episode features Robert Duvall and Madeline Sherwood (doing her patented tawdry tics). The Reverend Mother was rather a departure (role-wise) for her, wasn't it?

Fun fact: Madeline Sherwood was the original Sister Woman (Gooper's Wife) in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

I know, r357. Slatterns were her stock in trade. Also tawdry. Don't forget Sweet Bird of Youth.

You beat me to it, r358!

She looks like Stephanie Weir....

Barbara Harris was in her 30s. Melissa is in her 40s. So what. Her kids are not cute though.

Luker is actually the bigger mystery given that Judy Kuhn and Marin Mazzie (I mean as long as she was healthy) and Vicki Clark etc. get work - did she really alienate everyone that badly with what went on at showboat

Umm, if a cunt the size of Toledo like Vicky Clark can get work, there should be no reason a slut like Luker can't.

Why the hate for Vicky Clark?

Yea Vicky gets crucified in these threads but there’s never been any specifics about her bad behavior. Pure rumor and innuendo I think.

I lent her the top to my thermos flask, r365, and she never returned it. She's shallow, that's what she is....

[quote]wasn't Errico attached to Sound of Music revival before Rebecca Luker?

Yes. Errico was attached to The Sound of Music, and Luker was attached to High Society. They never should have switched projects. Errico got creamed for her charmless turn as Tracy (Luker would have been perfect), and Luker got middling reviews for The Sound of Music, which no one thought she was really right for.

[quote]Fun fact: Madeline Sherwood was the original Sister Woman (Gooper's Wife) in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

A role she repeated in the movie.

[quote]Wasn't there some saga following Luker recording the role of Clara for the Off-Broadway cast recording of 'Passion'? I think Errico had fallen ill during the run, but then wrote several indignant blogs about not being allowed to do the recording?

Errico claimed she was "fired." In actuality, there were only two weeks left in the show when her latest round of "vocal problems" caused her to miss the show again, and the producers decided it was best to let Amy Justman, her understudy, finish the run. Errico's blog posts are no longer there, but this is the most succinct description I can find, from a poster at BWW:

"She's on vocal rest, so everyone in Soho thinks she's a deaf lady (no offense to deaf people). She heard a rumor she wasn't going to be let back in the show. She got scared. She found her contract and I-9 and Direct Deposit form but never filled them out. (She's an actress! She was in heaven at rehearsal and just filed them away! She acknowledges adults shouldn't do that!). She never cheated on vocal rest. She spends a lot of money on reiki. She got a text saying Amy is finishing the run. She is sad."

[quote]Barbara Harris was in her 30s. Melissa is in her 40s. So what.

Barbara Harris was exactly 30 when she originated the role of Daisy (her 30th birthday was a couple of weeks before rehearsals started). Melissa Errico is 48. A nearly 50 year old woman is simply too old to be playing Daisy Gamble.

R357, She also co-starred in "The Flying Nun".

[quote]Barbara Harris was exactly 30 when she originated the role of Daisy (her 30th birthday was a couple of weeks before rehearsals started). Melissa Errico is 48. A nearly 50 year old woman is simply too old to be playing Daisy Gamble.

They'd have to give me some age makeup, but I could pull it off.

Although, to be perfectly frank, I'd prefer essaying Eliza at this (early) stage of my career.

Someone's thought Errico was right for Sound of Music when she lacks all warmth whatsoever? She could play the Baroness now but would have been ghastly as Maria. .

Speaking of which, I'm re-reading Ethan Mordden's Open a New Window, about 1960s musicals. He (in 2001) imagined Errico as eventually playing Mame. He also pictured Boyd Gaines, Laura Benanti and John Barrowman in Camelot.

I like that CAMELOT cast, actually. I'd def be curious to see Brian D'Arcy James, Laura and Barrowman in it. Interesting casting. I like it.

I'm not opposed to the Camelot cast, but Melissa as Mame is an idea whose time thankfully hasn't come.

Melissa played the ingenue in Finian's Rainbow quite successfully and she was far too old for it. So what? It's theatre. Mary Martin played a wayward postulant when she was in her 40s.

R376, Substitute Laura Osnes for Laura Benanti and I'm there.

[quote]Melissa played the ingenue in Finian's Rainbow quite successfully and she was far too old for it. So what?

There's a big difference between the character of Sharon, and what's required of her, and Daisy/Melinda. Ella Logan was almost 40 when she originated the role of Sharon. Her age has never been a crucial factor.

That's not the case with Daisy. Stop trying to defend Errico. She's a cunt, through and through, and she's too fucking old to be playing Daisy Gamble.

Chenoweth played Daisy in the Encores production. She was too perky. And her Melinda sounded like a satire on British drama.

To be fair, Harris sounded the same way as Melinda, r381. At least judging by that TV special.

It seems like people are either a natural Daisy or a natural Melinda, and have to really work to project the other character.

[quote]It seems like people are either a natural Daisy or a natural Melinda, and have to really work to project the other character.

Angela Lansbury could have done it. She's played posh and she's played plain.

Wow - thanks R381

Actually, what I posted in r381 was from their November concert series where they did all types of songs from different shows. So that's not an actual performance from the show, but it does illustrate how Chenoweth did the role.

Remember the 2011 Broadway revival of "On A Clear Day"? A guy played Daisy and poor Jessie Mueller played Melinda. I guess they thought Jessie couldn't handle both roles.

Ironically Kerry O'Malley was in that 'On a Clear Day' as another doctor and she got to do very fucking little. The same O'Malley who originated Betty on Broadway's 'White Christmas' the year before they brought Errico in.

Fun fact: Elizabeth Taylor starred in the film of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Another fun fact: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton starred in the film Cleopatra.

[quote]Yea Vicky gets crucified in these threads but there’s never been any specifics about her bad behavior. Pure rumor and innuendo I think.

Funny, r365, but seriously, I have done 4 shows with her, going back to the 90s. She's alwys been a sweetheart. No joke.

Melissa Errico is nice as well, but a little...otherwordly?

Or otherworldly, even

Melissa Errico slaoped my six year old nephew when he adked her for an autograph.

R391 A slaop is acceptable after being adked for her autograph

Sharon in Finian's Rainbow is not written as an innocent ingenue and she can easily be played a little older.

Speaking of the divine Ella Logan, when the legendary flop Kelly opened out-of-town, Logan played the title character's mother. She was not there when the show opened in New York, leading to Howard Taubman's legendary review which began ""Ella Logan was written out of Kelly before it reached the Broadhurst Theater on Saturday night. Congratulations, Miss Logan."

Did they change the keys for "Daisy" in the 2011 revival if it was played by a man? I know it's apparently a loathed production, but it fascinates me.

[quote]Sharon in Finian's Rainbow is not written as an innocent ingenue and she can easily be played a little older.

I should say!

[quote]Sharon in Finian's Rainbow is not written as an innocent ingenue and she can easily be played a little older.

I’ll have my agent get right on it!

What do we know about Mark Subias? Looks super hot.

WHy does anyone care about Mark Subias????

John Barrowman in Camelot?

No.

Dude is a horrible actor.

I actually like Chenoweth in that clip. She sounds great.

If Barrowman is a horrible actor, why does he work so much?

[quote] I’ll have my agent get right on it! —Bernie P

Darling, Bernadette! They said ingenue dear. That's what I am. You were an ingenue in the late 1950s, before I was even born. You should be performing the Elaine Stritch ouvre: cranky, bitchy old ladies.

[quote]If Barrowman is a horrible actor, why does he work so much?

He puts out.

R389, In interviews around the time of Gigi, Vicky declared Corey Cott the future of Broadway.

R403, A while back, Barrowman was doing a "live" Facebook chat while poolside when his naked boyfriend entered the frame, showing all.

Now Kerry O'Malley is someone you can wonder about how little she has worked.

I want to slap you just for murdering that sentence R492.

Sorry, meant R391.

While you're up, r407, you might give r406 a good smack for his/her sentence.

Kerry O'Malley Is nasty and a loon, real piece of work. She also doesn’t “get the script” and usually causes tension in the rehearsal room.

Can we all call a moratorium on the CZJ age jokes? They were never funny but are beyond painful now.

The CZJ age jokes are older than she is.

Kerry O'Malley makes Vicky Clark look sweet in comparison. Plus, she may have a good voice, but she's like watching unflavored ice cream on stage.

And Mark Subias? Anybody?

Well there you go. So called Dataloungers bitching about Kerry O'Malley? Talk about not getting the script.

Tolls aside -- if Kerry were to return to NYC, what roles should she do? I think she would kill as either of the mothers in Evan Hansen.

Maybe she should be the other diva in Chenoweth's upcoming 'Death Becomes Her.'

Madeline's Glitter.....

WOW R416

She was amazing.

r371, I referenced that fact at r356.

Knowing When to Leave is one of my all-time favorite theater songs.

Good and funny as Madeline is there, she cheats a few notes, is sort of rushing through it, and screeches the high E flat.

Here's Betty Lynn singing "Knowing When to Leave," from the London cast recording.

Rudin would not let Betty tour if she sucked. Give her a chance.

Thanks, r421! Always great to hear that version. She lacks the character's vulnerability, but . . . wow!

I've always wondered how Sally Field could stand working with those two cunts. They must have made her life miserable.

"Is it possible for someone to slaop you after being adked for her autograph--slaop you hard--and not hurt at all?"

Oh, to have had a young Betty on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun.

Yeah - thanks R421

I love Cheno, really I do. But Kerry O'Malley is everything that Cheno is not. Martin Short and Kerry O'Malley were amazing and Hayes and Chenoweth couldn't match them.

[quote]Rudin would not let Betty tour if she sucked. Give her a chance.

Is Betty getting the two Merman songs restored?

Lewis, do us all a favor and let her have them. Penny in My Pocket is a fucking snooze.

Cheno's pitch and phrasing were good on that clip, but she is not the right voice for Bacharach's melodies. I think his songs work better with warmer, more intimate voices. Dionne Warwick remains his best interpreter.

Stadlen was fantastic as Voltaire/Pangloss/etc. in the Hal Prince-directed Candide. The whole show was fantastic. I saw it twice and wish Prince would reproduce that environmental staging now (and not the revision of it he did for NY City Opera).

[quote]She also doesn’t “get the script” and usually causes tension in the rehearsal room.

What a cunt!

[quote]But Kerry O'Malley is everything that Cheno is not. Martin Short and Kerry O'Malley were amazing

Not judging by her "Knowing When to Leave" clip. She's a bore, bland, and her voice is uninteresting in that song. Thank goodness Betty B's clip shows how it should be done. Or if you want vulnerability, check out the original with Jill O'Hara. They both put Kerry O'Malley to shame.

Kerry was also a very boring Baker's Wife in the last revival.

Please NO. Please don't let Hal Prince direct any future productions of Candide, because as he's proven twice, nothing will ever come close to that 1974 extravaganza. That was perfection.

Broadway also-ran the late Kelly Garrett also did "Knowing When To Leave".

Oh, God! I'd forgotten Kerry O'Malley was The Baker's Wife in that awful Into the Woods revival. Just for that, she should never be allowed on a Broadway stage again. It think it's more than obvious that she didn't "get" that script either. Come to think of it, neither did the colossal bore playing The Baker. They should both be banned. Without a strong Baker and his Wife, the show fails. You just didn't care about their problems at all. Joanna Gleason and Chip Zien were so charming and affable that you really rooted for them. Hell, even Emily Blunt and James Corden had a similar quality.

Then again, besides Laura Benanti, most of that production was pretty shitty. Even the movie was better.

I saw Kelly Garrett in Cabaret with George Chakiris and Lilia Skala.......

Kelly Garrett sounds terrible in the clip. Clear to see why she was just a Broadway wannabe.

She couldn't act, Zach.

[quote]I saw Kelly Garrett in Cabaret with George Chakiris and Lilia Skala

What a parade of Broadway heavy hitters!

Well, r441.....it was Dallas. It was first announced with Rita Moreno. I don't know what happened with that. Soooo....we got Kelly Garrett instead.

Kelly had the same Merman/Lupone concept of singing in that everything was a belt. She couldn't tone it down enough to be pleasant sounding. I saw her in Words and Music and she was very impressive and then I saw her in Harry Chapin's revue "The Night That Made America Famous" and I thought she was excellent making terrible songs into showstoppers. However, onstage, doing revues is what she was best at. She was a finalist for Evita (didn't get it) and was fired from Mack and Mabel because she couldn't act but Gower was so inspired by her performance in W&M that he tried it anyways.

Bitch stole my gig!

Rita Moreno as Sally Bowles? Oh, what might have been (holding my sides as I roll on the floor in my caftan)

I always assumed saner heads prevailed, r445.

R437

Chad was a great cow in that. Don't forget Chad.

To me the reveal when Vanessa Williams took off the ugly make up was the best and worst thing about that production.

On one hand, everything they had done up to that point had led to the Witch doing a quick change while flash-pots and loud sounds stood in for theatricality which always came across as cheap and more careless than self-aware. The musical really is structured around an incredibly lame magic trick and no amount of ironic detachment (Joanna Gleeson) or forced pathos (Bernadette) could save the show from itself. On the other hand Vanessa Williams was genuinely stunning so they had that going for them.

R445, Moreno did some amazing things in stock. She was a great Lola in "Damn Yankees" and even did Annie in "Miracle Worker" with an Irish accent that was way better than Linda Lavin.

R445, Rita Moreno is performing with the Boston Pops tomorrow evening on the Esplanade. Was she chosen because she and Betsy Ross were once roommates?

oh dear r414, what did Mark Subias do now?

Jeff Loeffelholz (long running Mary Sunshine over at CHICAGO) apparently took his own life after a dressing down by Walter Bobbie and Bobbie Stifelmann. There’s a blog hinting at bullying but it’s a bit of a teaser.

Anyone know what happened?

I saw him go on many times back in the early days of the run.

Here’s the only blog post I can find. Whose blog is it? They hint that he was berated by Bobbie and Stiefelman as a way to get him to quit, since he had a run of the play contract.

Yeah, that's the impression I'm getting. If it's true, I'd also single out Barry and Fran for blame. This might be the saddest sentence: "Since Chicago was Loeffelholz’s dream job, it was doubtful that he would ever quit, despite having other opportunities falling by the wayside over the years due to his devotion to the Kander & Ebb revival." It also reminds me of George Lee Andrews being let go from Phantom after 23 (?) years. I hope he had a good support system.

Christ, after all the money that show made and as for as long as he was in it, they couldn't be decent people and spend a measly $30K to buy him out of his contract? What scumbags.

I'm watching The Naked City. A Burmese Buddhist sailor seeks revenge upon a ship's captain. Mr. Martin Balsam plays the ship's captain and portraying Maung Yun (the Burmese Buddhist sailor) is........

Why was he getting fired? I think we've all seen him in the show (multiple times) and he was always fabulous... off the top of my head, I've seen him with at least Henshall/Duncan and Pettiford/Spanger... he was always fantastic. I wonder what the issue was? Was he getting paid more than the others?

It sounds like he was only getting paid $2K per week. Not exactly a windfall.

Why do producers sign run of the play contracts? Makes no sense. I understand that's a difficult role to cast, so maybe that is why.

He signed it as a cover, yes? Because he didn't originate the role. So couldn't they have just bumped him back down to cover and only used him when they had to?

I had to rewrite that whole sentence because I realized the poor bastard was dead.

Just how long was he involved in Chicago? I could see some powers that be not assuming the show would run for 22 years.

Is there REALLY a Kerry O'Malley apologist typing from their iron lung on this thread, I mean...

The Kerry O’Malley apologist and the Melissa Errico apologist should get together and apologize for each other.

Holy shit about Jeff Loeffelholz.

R460 according IBDB since Nov. 1996

Ryan Lowe has been Mary Sunshine for 10+ years at this point. Jeff L. must have left years ago.

No. Jeff L was the understudy from the first.

Curious about this handwritten note.

Go Fund Me to support his memorial. The goal was already reached.

R438. Who did Chakiris play--Fraulein Kost?

As R465 said, Ryan Lowe has been playing the part since at least 2008, so I am confused.

So Jeff must have been the U/S. If he had a spotless record for 22 years and he wasn't going on regularly, then why fire him?

The article itself said he was the standby, so there's really no need for confusion.

Whoever wrote that post needs to re-assess tone. Doing the teasing thing for the handwritten notes doesn't exactly go with the spirit of trying to get justice for someone.

Ryan was just on vacation for a week or so. Maybe Jeff went on during that time and things didn’t go well.

honestly, who the fuck is going to that show at this point except for asian businessmen. At this point, it's the same crowd that was going to Oh Calcutta its final 10 years. Mary Sunshine could go on and sing bass and none of them would give two fucks.

[quote]I have to say I couldn't stand Andrew Garfield, and he's the reason I even bothered to see it. His delivery was so affected, and over the top, I didn't believe a single word he said, and ultimately felt nothing for his character by the end. Every line just screamed "IIII AMMM ACTIIIIING!!!"

I called his performance "Ginger Grant as Prior Walter", later changing it to Pola Negri. I was mocked and called a hater. Oh well.

"Angels in America" is 100% critic-proof. It is THE important AIDS play, written at the HEIGHT of the epidemic by THE IMPORTANT Jewish intellectual, NY Times-approved playwright. It can't EVER get a bad review! Thus, this we get this odd, yet occasionally compelling jumble of a production. Neither Garfield nor Nathan Lane are very good. Lane, having nothing to lose in his career, might have attempted to look or sound like Roy Cohn, who was alive and known to many people still alive, but he didn't. He's just his regular self, reading the lines as he always does. I was disappointed. I like Garfield, but his descent into goth drag as his illness progresses and the weird sing-song delivery were weird.

and Lee Pace should have been blonde. Go to Utah. They're blonde.

Lee Pace should have been hung.

Lee Pace is hung.

I don't get bringing over much of the British cast for an AMERICAN play.

The casting was stupid.

And, Andrew Garfield isn't a "star" actor. His big claim to stardom was being Spider man.

Briefly.

Also: did they change the line when Ethel says to Roy "You've really slimmed down...you used to be zaftig...mit hips"

Cause, Nathan hasn't slimmed down. And, he's still "zaftig mit hips"

R479 Exactly. Nathan is a fat cunt and it looks like he has eaten Roy Cohn

Nathan has slimmed down A LOT ! Don't know if you have seen him recently but he's shed a lot of pounds. You can see it in interview footage of him either in NY or while he was at the National. He's no longer a butterball.

He didn't look all that slimmed down on the Tonys, r481, and certainly not in the taping from the National Theatre. That's one of the things that didn't work - not just that he looked nothing like Roy Cohn, but that he looked nothing like someone who might be dying of AIDS.

Fatties shouldn't play Roy Cohn.

thank god R475 that people dont need "critics" now thanks to the net.

" I called his performance "Ginger Grant as Prior Walter", later changing it to Pola Negri. I was mocked and called a hater. Oh well.

"Angels in America" is 100% critic-proof. It is THE important AIDS play, written at the HEIGHT of the epidemic by THE IMPORTANT Jewish intellectual, NY Times-approved playwright. It can't EVER get a bad review! "

PERFECTION.

[R482], you may need to change your glasses --- the prevailing discussion in fact here was how much weight Lane has lost. His face is his face but I can tell you having spent time with him during the London run that he isn't remotely fat -- if anything he's looking a bit too skinny now.

Nathan will always look stout because he's short, he has narrow shoulders and big hips. He's basically built like a woman.

I can only imagine what it would have been like watching Rita Moreno play Sally Bowles as Googie Gomez.

Curiosity got to me and i saw HEAD OVER HEELS. oh boy. Total TRANS PROPAGANDA. The gogos music really sucks. I never knew. The best two songs are belinda carlise and they count that as the gogos. Peppermint was funny. He plays a Frankenfurter character. It was kinda similiar to rocky horror in some other ways to me too. Jeremy Kushnier got OLD. Like wow. Really old. The guy who plays the love interest has a hot bod surprisingly. He was very funny too. The show is pushing all kinds of agendas and the music is pointless. Just stupid and silliness. Not good. It felt cheap.

They brought in a vacation replacement while Ryan Lowe took one of his Mary Sunshine vacations. I don't think Jeff went on that much at all. I saw him early in the run and thought he was fabulously funny. One of the current dancers posted something about his passing on Insta but I was kinda surprised the Chicago Insta page posted nothing. Now I'm not surprised. Very sad. Reminds me of when the head of HR at my old company fired someone for getting drunk at a office party and making an ass of himself. The guy went up to the roof and jumped. She was a total cunt and should have handled the situation better. Sad.

I saw Nathan walking in midtown a week or so ago and he did look slimmer than I’ve ever seen him look, but he still waddles a bit, time to lose the all black ensembles you skinny bitch you!

Jeff L's pic and bio have been removed from the Chicago website.

I don't mean to be snarky, because I'm really sad for this guy, but how does one commit suicide with a handful of Tylenol?

I didnt read through this whole thread. Why did he commit suicide? Are his handwritten notes somewhere?

Saw CAROUSEL for the first time last night. (This production, I mean.) Nick Belton was Billy and has the potential to be a great one. Gorgeous, beautiful voice, fine acting. Just needs to settle in to the role. (This was his first sub for Henry.) Audience ate him up. Fleming was out, too, and her understudy, Ms. HIll Jackson, was magnificent. Brought a kind of Leontyne Price grandeur to the role. Totally see why the production is controversial. So many good things and yet so many oddball choices. And as for Ms. Menendez, why so much mugging?

[quote] And as for Ms. Menendez, why so much mugging?

She has to go big to have it register on that extra chromosome face of hers.

You can OD on water, r491.

r492, the blog posted upthread indicates handwritten notes and suggests the narrative will be continued.

Handful of tylenol washed down with scotch sounds to me like a cry for help more than a real suicide attempt, but since it worked who am I to say?

R453 I thought R Lowe has been doing Mary Sunshine for years in NY? Ryan was a former Naked Boys Singing and a rather memorable member of that group, ahem.

Jeff was the understudy.

The second part of the article is up, based on the handwritten notes. Jeff hadn't been on since February, and seems the rehearsal was called so Bobbie could find out why. Frankly, none of what's detailed seems all that terrible, doesn't seem like there's much of a scandal there.

[quote] “I cannot tell you what to do,” Bobbie continued. “But twenty-two years… I don’t agree with Equity and their ROP (run-of-the-play) contracts, but you make more money than I do with this production! It’s been twenty-two years … just saying.”

Really? Walter Bobbie, who directed the show, which has been on Broadway for 22 years and is playing all over the world in productions based on his concept, makes less than $2000 per week? Horseshit.

So the SM and the MD thought Jeff had gone stale in the role (not surprising given the length of time)? I can't imagine why Bobbie got involved in something like this involving an understudy, and it does sound as though all three were rotten to him on the day, but I'm not seeing cause and effect.

Ok. I don't wanna sound like an asshole but to die over this shit is a pussy move. White people are way too sensitive. Get some strength for gods sake.

It would be interesting and helpful to hear from others who were there and know what actually occurred. Was he singing wrong notes? Was he oversinging or speaking notes (one would seem to be the opposite of the other), etc.

The PSM, David Hyslop, is an extremely nice man, so I wouldn't group him in with Walter Bobbie or the MD. Most of what is posted in that part 2 is not even "rotten." It sounds like he was given some very specific notes, which is not out of the ordinary. It sounds like there was some rustiness in his performance of the role and they were trying to get something different out of him. The musical director said he was "always" doing something wrong, and that she couldn't follow him. It's very possible that he was in fact doing something wrong that had set in over 20+ years. There are wrong lyrics and wrong notes that never get corrected, or there are discrepancies between vocal and orchestral scores, so what she said is very possible, despite him saying no. The only thing that goes a little overboard are some of Bobbie's comments toward the end, where it sounds like they might have wanted to clean house, but it's also a very specialized role and there aren't dozens of countertenors to choose from. How this ends up with him taking his own life, I don't quite follow.

Right. None of this sounds terrible enough to precipitate a suicide. It sounds like legit criticism with Bobbie getting a little exasperated at the end. Is it possible that the handful of tylenol + tequila was meant as a dramatic response ("you'll be sorry when I'm gone") that unfortunately went wrong. I don't know any of these people so this may be entirely off base.

The guy was trapped in that shitty show for years and they bullied him over it.

Tylenol destroys the liver. That was a terrible suicide.

Where's the bullying?

Wait: a handful of Tylenol will destroy the liver that quickly? Maybe this blog is constructed poorly. I thought he swallowed the pills and was immediately so ill he was put on life support; is that wrong?

And based on the blog, I understood that he was devoted to the show and passed up other opportunities to stay with it. Doesn't sound trapped to me.

It is pretty easy to overdose on Tylenol. Just taking 20 extra strength tablets can do it. And if someone is a chronic user or has liver problems already or a genetic predisposition, less can do the trick. If you take two extra strength every four hours, you could overdose after just two days.

It’s a lot easier to overdose on Tylenol than almost any other over the counter medication. Most people don’t know that. It’s impossible to know whether this was intentional or a cry for help.

You know Tylenol, r508. Ya nevuh know when it's gonna be laced with cyanide. Anyhoo, I'm watching the Twilight Zone marathon on Decades. The stalwart Miss Barbara Nichols. Yes, THAT episode. Curious if she'd done Broadway. Was in the 1952 Pal Joey and this......

Ya know, some guys just can’t hold their Tylenol...

[quote]Really? Walter Bobbie, who directed the show, which has been on Broadway for 22 years and is playing all over the world in productions based on his concept, makes less than $2000 per week? Horseshit.

This is the part that has me suspicious. Unless the suggestion was that Walter Bobbie was saying that with deliberate exaggeration. I mean, what percentage of gross does a director earn? Even if it's just 2%, Chicago has grossed over $620M on Broadway alone, so that would be the equivalent of a more than half million dollar salary a year for Walter, but then there's London and national tours all built off his original direction, so it's probably a lot more that he's still raking in, right?

And, how reliable is a dead narrator? I mean, without knowing this guy, how can we judge how accurate his notes/diaries were? I'm not trying to make light of his obviously very sad ending, of course.

Walter Bobbie made Ute Lemper cry when he forced her to change how she made the sign of the cross during rehearsals for the West End production. Because back home in her town of Münster it was apparently done the other way around. I guess it was a German thing.

Not all directors make a cut of the profits. It's possible (the Weisslers being the Weisslers and all) that he was paid a flat fee, since it was just a quickie redo of a concert staging and was never expected to be long running show. It may not have even been a guild contract. He might well have negotiated a cut of other productions (tour, London, etc.) but still gets paid very little for the NYC stand itself.

Has anyone seen what John Cariani's husband looks like? He's a detective. I've always thought this was hot. They've apparently known each other since adolescence.

About 10 years ago (maybe more) original cast members Michael Kubala, David Warren Gibson, the late John Mineo and, I think one or two of the merry murderesses all left the show around the same time. I assumed they were cleaning house and wanted to bring in new blood (which is understandable). After reading about Jeff I hope their contracts were bought out and they walked away with a tidy sum of $$$$$$.

Even if Walter Bobbie is a prime pos, this sad story doesn't convince me that he drove this guy to his death. Did anyone here know Jeff and know whether he was entirely stable?

R510, I saw her in LET IT RIDE. The show wasn't very good--nor was she. There was a CD release and it has some enjoyable songs. George Gobel sang very well.

Well, r518, she seems to do the best she could with what she was given......

No, but it's a fun song....

I will admit to being quite fond of "Twirling my projections in opposite directions".

No, it's not "Adelaide's Lament" but it would have sounded a lot better if it had been sung by Vivian Blaine or another decent singer.

Wow, that Barbara Nichols thing is TERRIBLE! No winder the show was a big flop.

Sounds like Leslie Stiefelman was as big a cunt to him as Walter Bobbie was. She haa blood on her withered old lady hands, too!

I don't know how it's possible to conclude from this blog that either of them was a cunt to him or has blood on their hands.

Walter Bobbie is an awful director and an ass

Here's what I think may have happened with Jeff Loeffelholz. He felt attacked on all sides. He had the fear that he was going to be fired. What other job could be possibly get after 20 years in the same show? The future may have looked very dark from where he was standing.

On the other hand, why were they ganging up on a standby who hadn't performed since February? Were they planning to put him in the show? And let's face it, sometimes that show has been a tired mess. If they wanted to get rid of him, they should have bought out his contract.

And the reason Walter Bobbie left Encores, he said, was to spend time staging Chicago on Broadway. So I'm sure he got a cut of the show because he gave up other work to do it.

Bobbie is also the luckiest director around. I'd give Reinking at least as much credit for the Chicago revival as him and her contribution was certainly more important. Another director, yes. Another choreographer, no.

Maybe Jeff had other issues and the incident was the last straw, so to speak. He felt he was going to lose his job with a show he was so devoted to and, along with whatever else was bothering him, it just became too much for him to deal with.

Mary Sunshine is hardly a pivotal role that isn't going to make or break the show. I've seen some pretty tired Velma's and Billy's that could have used a 'pep talk' from Bobbie. Having been in a similar situation but in a corporate environment I know just how the poor guy must have felt. I just wish he had done what I did - stick it out and smile cuz there's no way they can fire me and, if they do want me gone, then they're going to have to pay. Big time.

Walter Bobbie's only claim to fame was playing the Stubby Kaye role in that glorious early 1990's revival of Guys and Dolls with Faith Prince, Nathan Lane and Peter Gallagher. He was totally forgettable in an unforgettable production. How desperate is he to remain relevant?

The only time I ever heard of Bobbie was when he was in the original cast of Grease, light years ago.

^ i wasn't fair above. Bobbie sings on at least one of those wonderful Lost in Boston albums by Bruce Kimmel.

Wow, I haven't seen dancing this bad since Jan Maxwell did The Story of Lucy and Jessie.

I love Jan but Philis is actually an extremely difficult role because of all the different skills required. I doubt anyone will surpass Alexis.

Er, uh, Phyllis, not Philis. sorry. Don't know what happened. Whatever.

No one's every topped this, have they? I saw Kelli & Ken and I saw the first national tour leads (their names are escaping me now) and while their Shall We Dance's were fine, they had nowhere near this intensity and certainly nowhere near the level of magnetism and outright sexual tension that Debs and Yules had. And, yes, I know Marni Nixon deserves credit, too.

ALL Broadway directors are in a union called SSDC, and they ALL receive a royalty based on each week's gross of the show. I believe it is 3% and might increase upon recoupment. Their pay has nothing to do with "the profits" of a show, just the gross box office each week. I do not think there is any other arrangement a producer can make with them. Broadways shows are among the most unionized workplaces on the planet and they DO NOT BEND the rules, even for the Weisslers!

Walter Bobbie has earned many millions of dollars for directing this production, and need never work again in his life. The poor dead guy likely earned scale, about $2,000 a week, but if he had been in the show 20 years, he'd have been looking at an Equity pension he could have happily retired on along with his Social Security. There's always the possibility of further work. People get stressed and have everything riding on their work identity, but if Walter B. really said that about the money, he's a deranged liar.

Yes I saw him in the original cast of Grease.

If he had a run of play contract as the blog mentions,, he would have earned more than minimum. He also wielded a lot of control by having that contract. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think with a ROP, he would have still been paid each week, even if they had fired him?

I agree that Bobbie is a very lucky man. The production is staged like any show at Encores, and much of the success of it is due to Reinking's work. I think in some ways, the production actually hurts the material with the cuts to the book and removing Fosse's vaudeville concepts for each of the show's numbers. A sameness starts to set in as another actor in black comes downstage center and sings another song.

R540, actually removing the vaudeville concepts and essentially making it a modern dress show is what made the revival successful.

No, no one has, r537. I saw the last revival three times and not once did the audience break into applause during the polka, de rigueur for any production of THE KING AND I.

I saw that revival twice and neither time did the audience applaud when Anna and the King break out into the polka. I have seen many, many other productions of THE KING AND I over the years and that moment has always received applause. That revival was seriously deficient.

Best response I ever saw was Donna Murphy and Lou Diamond Philips. Great connection between them. And best dress and lighting on it, which helped.

Marin Mazzie and Daniel Daw Kim also had an amazing connection and chemistry when I saw the show last summer.

Ruthie Ann Miles didn’t perform in the press night in London Monday night-her alternate Naoki Mori did.

Oops, Daniel DAE Kim.

Fanny, love your posts, but I believe you're wrong there.

A director's minimum weekly royalty (unafected by box office) is set by their union SSD&C but that can be negotiated higher (and almost always is).

Then there is the additional percentage of the weekly gross which is NOT a given established by the union but, once again, is almost always granted by the producer and can be negotiated as to the actual percentage (and this how directors can get really rich).

There's some heat between Yul and Constance Towers in this version from the 1977 revival, and performed on the MDA telethon. And applause for the polka, which I think is also due to the original Irene Sharaff costume design, which moves so beautifully.

[quote] which I think is also due to the original Irene Sharaff costume design, which moves so beautifully.

That is costume construction, not deign. A great deal of the credit needs to go to the original costume shop. Particularly back when The King and I was designed, designers did not have as much control. Often the costume shop told the designer what fabric he or she could use or how the costume would be constructed. There was one shop that was notorious for only using one bodice pattern. It didn't matter if it was Medieval, Restoration, or Edwardian, they used the same pattern. Eaves was notorious for lining everything with cotton duck, as circus and ice follies costumes were their bread-and-butter.

By the way that Love Boat stripper is a young Brian Kerwin of the movie "Torch Song Trilogy" and Broadway "August: Osage County"

That Justice for Jeffery blog linked above has removed the Part II it published last night, which was a detailed account of the infamous special rehearsal based on Jeffery's notes. Have lawyers gotten involved?

Also, several people tried to start threads about this at BWW but they were deleted. One thread had all its content removed and replaced with a moderator's note saying they can discuss Jeff but they can't repeat unproven gossip and accusations.

R547, how can a royalty NOT be affected by box office? By definition royalties are a percentage of income paid to a creative artist.

I think you are confused. Maybe this will help.

Walter Bobbie also directed that version of 'White Christmas' that Kerry O'Malley and then Melissia Errico did ...

Just to tie the thread together.

That blog has changed its name to Justice for Jeff but is still found at the URL "justiceforjeffrey.wordpress.com".

But a director can get rich off additional productions. When Hal Prince or Jerome Robbins has it put in every production "Original Broadway show staged by...." aren't they getting a cut (however small) from the royalties of that production?

The Countess LuAnn would be perfect for Dolly! You'd even get New Yorkers into the theater to see her.

Ruthie may not have had sufficient rehearsal time to open and it probably made sense to have the alternate play press nights and opening. Also, the stress of an opening might have been too much. She'll probably quietly slip in during the run.

R555, when a director has negotiated such a credit, then they probably negotiated a royalty.

Bobbie does not have such a credit. Nor at this point does he need it since it is still his production of Chicago that tours, runs in other cities internationally, etc. His production of Chicago has been reproduced over and over for more than 2 decades, and he is collecting off of each of those productions with his staging.

[QUOTE]If he had a run of play contract as the blog mentions,, he would have earned more than minimum.

You're right, the blog has now added a third post which confirms he was making more than standard. In fact he turned down the chance to actually play Mary Sunshine, and turned down a role in The Visit, to keep his run of play standby role despite his claims that Kander and Ebb tailored songs just for him.

[QUOTE]That Justice for Jeffery blog linked above has removed the Part II it published last night, which was a detailed account of the infamous special rehearsal based on Jeffery's notes. Have lawyers gotten involved?

It's still there for me.

Oddly, the more of this story that is told, the less it seems there's any need for justice. It just sounds like he was lazy, wanting to just keep collecting his cheques, and not challenge himself in any way.

Do not overdose on tylenol.

It causes liver failure and you die.

Drugs and medications do not have to be pleasurable or addictive to kill you.

Is it even clear that this not-very-big-deal confrontation with Bobbie even precipitated the overdose? Let alone whether the overdose was intentional--meaning that he intended to suicide rather than just create drama?

I want a run-of-the-play contract!

I KNOW ALL ABOUT RUN OF THE PLAY CONTRACTS!

The third installment of Justice for Jeff is very interesting. Apparently he did have an opportunity to both move up into the Mary Sunshine role f/t and work on other projects (The Visit). He chose to stay on a standby rather than become a full time Mary because he would have had to take a lower salary and move to a different contract which meant he could be cut at anytime. Jeff hung on to Chicago like Jan Maxwell held onto her rent controlled apartment.

See I get the higher-ups frustration. Bite the bullet and BUY HIM OUT. 30k is not going to sink CHICAGO, but this might.

Twenty-two years on Broadway is at least 12 too many.

I sometimes wonder about the mental health of these people who do the same show for decades. I met someone the other night who has played in the Wicked pit since the first performance. Even if you happen to enjoy hearing the music (I don't like Wicked), I feel like hearing it 8 times a week, week after week after week would drive me insane.

"It's the cheesy concert version of Gwen Verdon's last excursion."

Shelley Winters had a run of play for Ado Annie in the original Oklahoma. It was by the time the show was gasping along and they were planning to close the show so they gave her run of play to keep her interested. So Shelley started playing the role. Then they decided to bring back the original AA, Celeste Holm, for the last month or two. So Shelley got paid to do nothing but hunt for married cock.

A free lance life in the theater rarely pays well if you're not the star so the possibility of a gig that could last for 10+ years with a dependable weekly salary can be very enticing for anyone raising a family or just simply wanting financial security. Especially true for those smart enough to realize they'll never be a star.

And ensemble jobs on Broadway often leave some time to grab a quick gig in a NY based TV series if one is lucky.

There are people in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway who have been there for 20 years--steady employment, health insurance and building massive pensions.

I thought the Les Miz situation made it clear that we can't depend on lifers to keep a show fresh.

[quote]Shelley got paid to do nothing but hunt for married cock.

She didn’t have to hunt very far.

Any word on the rest of the cast for the Dolly! tour? Lewis J Stadlen is supposedly Horace -- what of Irene, Minnie Fay, Cornelius, Barnaby and the rest? Might Kate and Gavin hit the hinterlands?

What's going on over at STRAIGHT OLD WHITE MEN? First Tom Skerritt left during rehearsals and was replaced by Denis Arndt who opened the show. Now Arndt, like Skerritt is leaving due to creative differences and the standby is taking over.

Glenn Close is going to be playing Joan of Arc's mother at the Public this season. Might make a good, Oscar worthy movie.....for someone.

Correction: Straight White Men opens July 23rd so Skerritt skipped out during rehearsals and Arndt left after only playing a handful of previews.

Betty is touring with 3 dogs have not heard anything about casting.

I love Betty but, unlike Bette and Bernie, she really seems like (and I hate to say this) an old lady. I cannot imagine her as Dolly. At all. I think her pal Rachel York (who has played Dolly) would make a great Irene but she's tied up with that Head over Heels thingy.

Wouldn’t Joan of Arc’s mother be 40-ish at most? Glenn or Meryl are really too old to play Joan’s grandmother.

Glenn will actually be playing Joan’s Great Aunt Monica.

I agree, the more I read of that situation, the less sympathetic I am to Loeffelholz. To have passed up The Visit, ina role that was written for him, was stupid. Staying with the show that long was stupid. That said, Bobbie and Stifelman handled it really badly, and if they’re taking any heat, they deserve it. His suicide wasn’t their fault, but they should not have been so rotten to him.

R514, I know someone who worked for the Weisslers. Bobbie gets $$$ from that production to this day. And he is paid very, very well.

Rachel York would actually be a really great Dolly at some point. I bet she'd be very funny. Sorry, but I'm still not sold on Betty in Hello, Dolly. I hope to God she's brilliant and funny, but I don't see her being very funny at all.

If the next thread title doesn’t allude to being driven to suicide by Walter Bobbie, I’ll be sorely disappointed.

ROP contracts! Bravo! Bravo!!

Denis Arndt apparently left Straight White Men without playing any previews.

The show sounds absolutely horrible based on reports on BWW. Even from the positive reports.

I don’t want to be a full time...MARY!

I have long noted that these DL Datalounge Theatre Gossip threads have always been filled with the most boring trivia about the CHICAGO revival. Are there posters here who have worked on it? I don't think most others here care.

R589 Uh, the recent suicide story is NEWS and also interesting. Shut up.

2) Tom Skerritt had line retention issues a decade ago doing Our Town at Seattle Rep but luckily got a TV gig and left the production before it completely crashed and burned. The man is 112 years old.

3) Straight White Men is an awful play.

It's interesting that the Eunuch in THE VISIT was intended for Jeffrey... probably a wise "money move" not to have done the Broadway production given it only ran a few months (ROP wouldn't have helped). Maybe he'd have been less artistically frustrated if he did, but money is money. That's showbiz

Some are saying that people shouldn't play a role for decades but Jeff Loeffelholz hadn't been doing that--he was the understudy for the role and probably played it only sporadically and not night after night.

[quote] Glenn Close is going to be playing Joan of Arc's mother at the Public this season. Might make a good, Oscar worthy movie.....for someone.

After that abortion of a musical last year from David Byrne and Alex Timbers, the Public would be wise to steer clear of anything Joan of Arc related.

R593 That piece of shit made me appreciate GOODTIME CHARLEY so much more

How can whitebread Glenn Close play Joan of Arc's mother? Everybody knows Joan was a black girl.

It's because Glenn is old enough to have known Joan's real mother.

One of the current Merry Murderesses posted a little goodbye to Jeff on Insta and the Mary Sunshine who subbed for Ryan Lowe last week responded with 'HEY! GREAT WORKING WITH YOU GUYS LAST WEEK' Ummmmmm... Clueless?

I know a hot dude who had a few weeks with Walter Bobbie, he said the old bitch always made sure to declare how rich he was to ensure the muscled hunk stayed around after “dinner”, and he likes water sports...

If, by some reason this does cause Chicago to close, do we think Wicked would hang around long enough to become #3 on the long-runners list, behind POTO and Lion King?

Bajour!!!