Theatre Gossip #317-the Pretty Woman Premiere edition

How are people able to continue posting on the last thread when it already says "Thread Closed"?

I noticed that too, R1. A few new posts appeared after it said thread closed. The chat box did not appear on my screen to even leave a thread? Maybe they were submitted before the thread was closed, and they were just slow to post.

Yeah, r2.

Anyway, to pick up on the last topic in that thread: What's the genesis of Who Could Be Blue?/Little White House? At what point in the original production was it dropped, or was it even ever used? I'm guessing it was meant for either Young Buddy and Sally or Young Ben and Phyllis? Sorry, my copy of Finishing the Hat is in storage.

This thread should have been called Lady Thiang's Cane. No one cares about Pretty Women.

Did Andy Mills get married to a man or a woman? I wasn't really sure about his sexuality.

I can't believe people were arguing West Side Story's OCR wasn't a massive success.

[quote] Did Andy Mills get married to a man or a woman? I wasn't really sure about his sexuality.

He's openly gay and married to Michael Arden.

So did he get married to a man or a woman?

"He's openly gay and married to Michael Arden."

That's Andy Mientus not Andy Mills

[quote]He's openly gay and married to Michael Arden

Excuse me?

Everyone’s gay gay gay gay gay

Until proven otherwise

[quote]Oddly, even though "I Don't Care Much" was cut from the original production, it remained in the Entr'acte

I assume you’re basing that conment on that Brit studio recording, which is not what was actually played in the theatre. At 6 1/2 minutes, it would have killed the show dead if it has been played. Look no further than the Original Broadway recording to hear the actual Entr'acte as played in the show. I don’t know where John Yap got that long version. I doubt it was even an early version that got cut. It’s just too long.

What have you heard of Be More Chill? It's a huge hit off Braodway and is extending its sold out run. It's got solid reviews and people are speculating a Broadway transfer. Seems like it'll appeal to the Dear Evan Hansen crowd.

What is the Evan Hansen crowd? Fat female millennials?

R4, first of all it’s Pretty Woman, not Pretty Women, and Lady Thiang’s Cane would have been a rather insensitive subject title considering the circumstances surrounding its usage in the current London revival of The King & I.

WEHT the pale twink who played Pippin

He's on some BBC show. Looks like he's bulked up.

I wanna know what Will Swenson's up to.

The perfect thread title actually woulda been Lady Thiang’s Cane Is a Daring Coup de Theatre!

[quote] I assume you’re basing that conment on that Brit studio recording, which is not what was actually played in the theatre. At 6 1/2 minutes, it would have killed the show dead if it has been played. Look no further than the Original Broadway recording to hear the actual Entr'acte as played in the show. I don’t know where John Yap got that long version. I doubt it was even an early version that got cut. It’s just too long.

No, it's based on what's in the score itself. The Entr'acte was played as incidental music during intermission by the onstage girl band, which is why it's so long. The (wonderful) version that's on the OBCR is truncated from what's in the full score. And in the complete 1966 Entr'acte, "I Don't Care Much" is included.

I like r19’s idea! Sorry, OP, you blew it with your crappy title, and claiming “sensitivity” as an excuse for not thinking up a clever title is lame.

[quote] I can't believe people were arguing West Side Story's OCR wasn't a massive success.

Not "people," just one loon.

Maggie the Cat, Betty the Loon and....Mrs. Garrett

R22, still waiting for your proof that WSS OBC went to #5. And a gold record after seven years is not a massive success.

r17 He has a 15-year-old's beard.

R3, if I recall right, "Who Could Be Blue? (Little White House)" was meant for both couples. I don't know if it was meant to go where "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow" would be, or somewhere else in the show. Maybe it'd work between "Losing My Mind" and "Lucy/Jessie."

Helen/Norma

Following up regarding the Cabaret Entr'acte, this is it from the 1988 revival. That production added "I Don't Care Much" back into the score for Joel Grey, but the Entr'acte is the same as the 1966 score version, when "I Don't Care Much" had been dropped. Entr'acte starts at around 1:35:32.

Solid reviews? The Times couldn't have been more dismissive.

Drama Mama here. Reporting from the trenches of suburbia with teen theatre kids. Be More Chill has been popular because of one song “Michael in the bathroom” which teens play over and over again. They bought out show tix immediately once it was announced that the show was going to be done. plus they all think Will Roland is great-really anyone from Evan Hanson isbgreat to them.

Last time I saw this fuss was Newsies and anything with Jeremy Jordan in it.

Heeeellllpppp meeeeee

Thank you for posting that, R28. I did not know there was a pro video of the original Cabaret. I'm going to watch it now!

R24 Being the best selling album for 1962 (for both the mono and stereo charts) and 1963 is a success though, and I posted a link proving that at post 585 in the previous thread, but here it is again, for your convenience. So actually, whoever said it went to number five was underselling its success.

It's interesting that Samantha Barks costumes in Pretty Woman are almost exact replica's of Julia Roberts' from the movie. Did they just take the movie and plop it down on a stage? It just looks so uninteresting and blah. Why bother?

R31, the 1988 production tinkered with the 1966 version, dropping "Why Should I Wake Up," and replacing it with "Don't Go," and also made Cliff bisexual. Neither Alyson Reed nor Gregg Edelman are superb in their roles. It also went a little cheap on the recreation of Boris Aronson's set (including cutting a major scenic effect at the top of the show). But it does give you a reasonable sense of the original playing version.

From what I've heard there's nothing particularly interesting about Pretty Woman.

Wasn't "I Don't Care Much" originally a song for Sally? IIRC, in one of those books about Prince (or maybe Kander and Ebb), they said the song was tried for one performance, replacing "Cabaret" for Sally in Act Two (while "Cabaret" replaced "Don't Tell Mama" in Act One). Everyone realized quickly it was better the way it was.

"Don't Go" wasn't nearly as good a song as "Why Should I Wake Up?". I saw one production, about fifteen years ago, that used BOTH songs, which was disastrous.

How can there be anything interesting about Pretty Woman without my Stevie K ?

The original production of Cabaret was one of the first Broadway shows I ever saw and I loved it so much, I saw it about 4 times (I was in junior high and it was like my Wicked, I guess). The opening Wilkommen was absolutely astounding.

I really feel sorry for everyone who thinks the Alan Cumming version is definitive. It was indeed wonderful, but came nowhere near the unforgettable original.

How can you do stage versions of movies like Pretty Woman, Beetlejuice and Tootsie without them looking just like the originals? It's what the idiot audiences are paying all that money for these days.

Has William Ivey Long been arrested yet?

I feel like having Sally sing "I Don't Care Much" would be too on the nose. Giving her "Cabaret" as her last number was as brilliant as giving Mama Rose a song like "Everything's Coming Up Roses" in Gypsy. On the surface, they seem like the happiest, most exciting songs in the world, but within the context of the scenes, they can be incredibly disturbing. A really great actress can really milk all the subtext.

No one's even talking about the William Ivey Long news, though there is someone in the comments for the article that called out Michael Martin for harassment. Who knows what'll happen...

Anyway, I'm somewhat interested in the Beetlejuice musical. But I like Alex Brightman. Does anyone know who's doing the music? Kerry Butler tweeted that she was leaving Mean Girls soon, so she's likely slipping back into that role.

Why am I thinking I Don't Care Much was intended for Lotte Lenya's character to sing in the original? Does the song sound faux Kurt Weill? Did she eventually make a recording of it somewhere?

Well, everyone in the costume shops and basement wardrobe rooms of Broadway are talking about WIL!

The original.....

Would Broadway even exist if musicals based on movies and jukebox musicals were outlawed (as they both should be)?

Seems like IP recognition's the name of the game for all media.

Thanks for the original Willkommen clip, R46. Fascinating! (Although I did miss the introduction of the Cabaret Boys.)

R46 - that was fantastic, thanks for sharing.

Pretty Woman is extraordinary theatre! Bravo! Bravo!

Be More Shrill is most amateurish. Ain’t goin nowhere.

Once I was a schlepper, Now I’m just Jen Tepper...

I miss seeing performances on Letterman. I don't know why, but a Broadway performance on Letterman always felt like more of an event than Fallon or Colbert or any of the others.

Judi, Judi......

I'm the one who put televised Broadway on the map!

Oh, this is coming up on Dick Cavett........

Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave, Trevor Howard,

Christopher Plummer discusses "The Sound of Music"; Lynn Redgrave discusses the SCUM manifesto; Trevor Howard chats turning down "Cleopatra"; and Patrick Campbell talks about his stammer...

Rebutting a comment from the last thread, I think the Fiddler movie is superb. Topol could have been funnier, but it’s an excellent and very moving adaptation.

I agree, R58. It's a wonderful movie.

I know a few folks who have seen Pretty Woman. Comments range from a nice night out to I LOVED it. I’ll see it as a comp.

Sorry, Rosie at R56. Ed Sullivan put televised Broadway on the map in the 1950s and '60s.

I won't hear it!

Not to mention the many television productions of Broadway musicals in the '50s: "Peter Pan," "Kiss Me, Kate," "Annie Get Your Gun," even "Bloomer Girl" with Barbara Cook. The list goes on.

The lies go on!

Rosie has been triggered!

I’ll add Hair as a superb movie adaptation (actually a reworking) of a Broadway show. I think Michael Weller’s script is a big improvement of the formless stage libretto.

Don't forget me!

I would have been preferred Barbara Cook to Shirley Jones, and I wish "My White Knight" had been retained instead of the inferior "Being in Love," but I think the movie of "The Music Man" is one of the best stage-to-screen adaptations.

I agree, R66. I think "Hair" was underrated and underappreciated.

[quote]Rebutting a comment from the last thread, I think the Fiddler movie is superb. Topol could have been funnier, but it’s an excellent and very moving adaptation.

Yes all 5 hours of it! Singing Russian, Jewish, persecuted peasants. 5 hours. What a treat!

Why does Ann Sothern at R67 look like she's posing for a "Charlie's Angels" publicity still?

r54 It was always fun seeing Letterman enjoy a musical guest performance. Among Broadway show guests that he clearly enjoyed, off the top of my head, I can think of How to Succeed (the one with Radcliffe), Hair, Chicago. I could be remembering wrong but I think he made borderline lewd comments about Marin Mazzie in Kiss Me Kate, which he also enjoyed. He stayed tightly seated after Defying Gravity.

[quote]He stayed tightly seated after Defying Gravity.

Didn't we all!!

Fun to see that Pippin clip. What was the name of that hunky chorus boy?

You

R34: What is the special effect you were referring to that the revival didn't include?

Orion Griffiths.

Yes, R72. Letterman certainly mellowed in his later years, but he never blew smoke unlike Fallon etc., so if he offered effusive praise of a performance, he truly meant it.

I think this might be my favorite Letterman performance. Darlene Love. 2007. On promoting her appearance in Hairspray. But instead of singing a song from the show, she sang the great Ike & Tina Phil Spector song River Deep, Mountain High. Which... if I'm not mistaken... she also sang in some Broadway revue years earlier? It's a total stunner. Not just for Darlene's incredible vocals, but because of Paul's surprisingly great musical direction. In the prior thread a few folks were going on about orchestrators and arrangers. I think what Paul and Darlene did here was brilliant -- one of the few times I've heard a live performance translate the thrill of that wall of sound experience. Not even Darlene's cheap wig and bad makeup can derail this one.

Anyone ever hear the story about Kander and Ebb being at a dinner party and they were saying that they write very fast? They said they could write a complete song while the others were eating dinner. Went into another room and Kander says to Ebb "Well what should we write about?" Ebb replies "I don't care much." Voila! They finished in time for dessert.

Leader of the Pack, r78.......

r78 Darlene Love was a replacement Teen Angel. She also had the gym teacher role in Carrie (Betty Buckley's in the film).

[quote]Why am I thinking I Don't Care Much was intended for Lotte Lenya's character to sing in the original?

Lyrically, it would make no sense for Lenya’s character, unless there was a scene of amateur night at the Kit Kat Club, and Fraulein Schneider dropped by to sing her favorite ballad.

r44 A lot of Kander and Ebb sound like Kurt Weill. Kander acknowledged this in a podcast I heard years ago. (American Theatre Wing?)

^sounds

[quote] [R34]: What is the special effect you were referring to that the revival didn't include?

[R39] might be able to clarify, since he saw the original. But I believe this is what was in the original design: there were street lamps and side buildings at the top of the show that were in a forced perspective. I believe they started to draw away, as if you were walking toward the club at the start of the show, before the drum roll, the Cabaret sign and the start of "Wilkommen." I think Frank Rich talks about it in his Boris Aronson book, but I'm just going by my memory. I think Rich was especially irritated that that design element was cut entirely.

R83 - yes, Weil's influence on Kander is undeniable. I love them both.

This is a song by Weill (and Hammerstein) that, for whatever reason, I often misattribute to Kander and Ebb.

The "special effect" was a sort of fun house mirror that began and ended the show lowered and facing the audience. It was raised to begin Wilkommen and lowered at the very end of the show. You can see it in Boris Aronson's sketch under the Cabaret sign, above in r85.

The metaphor: Life is a cabaret, old chum.

R87 - I LOVE LOVE LOVE Teresa Stratas' performances of Weill songs. Am I mistaken or did Lotte Lenya herself feel like she was passing the torch to Teresa as a great Weill interpreter.

If you enjoy Teresa's performances of Weill music, you might also enjoy this wonderful album of Weill songs (plus the full performance of the 7 Deadly Sins) by Swedish mezzo soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. She sings with such sensitivity and intelligence and unlike other opera singers who try to go "songbook" she doesn't over do it.

Lost in the Stars performed by Miss Kahn.....

r89 This is Stratas' claim, documented in the liner notes to Stratas Sings Weill. I haven't seen this claim independently confirmed. But I would like it to be true! The fact that Lenya gave Stratas permission to record a whole album of previously unheard Weill Songs (The Unknown Kurt Weill, which includes the above Buddy on the Nightshift) certainly supports that claim.

I like the von Otter album too, but her versions (almost all of them were also recorded by Stratas) just don't compare.

Miss Schneider does well by Weill.....

I love that odd TV performance of Weill's 7 Deadly Sins that Teresa Stratas recorded. It used to be on YT, but I can't find it now. Shame. Apparently, Audra is performing 7 Deadly Sins with the LA Phil next year. I'd actually like to see that. When Audra tries to sing brassier music she sounds so strident, but she's got the perfect voice for that Weill... song cycle?

Stratas was great in that televised Mahagonny....

Whorez

Speaking of Weill, Georgia Brown's 1960 inflected (and slightly bitchy) story of Jenny.

And if you go to certain tiki bars in Manhattan, you'll see Don and Betty sitting in the corner listening to Georgia Brown singing Weill's Alabama Song.

R13 I haven't seen anyone over the age of 18 talking about Be More Chill except friends and acquaintances of of Joe Iconis.

It's not the new Dear Evan Hansen, it's the new A Very Potter Musical.

r93 I don’t know. I would want to hear it no matter what, but I’m afraid of the edges getting sanded.

For a really gritty Seven Deadly Sins (in English translation), check out Marianne Faithfull’s version with Dennis Russell Davies. Sometimes I think people like her Weill mostly because she sounds like latter-day Lenya, but this one works for me. She also has a concert album of Weill and other stuff.

Be More Shrill? Puh-Leeeze. Navel-gazing millennials write show for other navel-gazing millenials.

Arses.

That video of the first Cabaret revival was illuminating. I think it was actually more unsleeping than the Cummings revival, because the seediness wasn't in your face the way it was in the revival. Rather, it exposed itself more slowly and subtly, so seeing the horror beneath it all was more sad and depressing. Everything was so seedy in the recent revival from the get-go, that they had nowhere to go. I hadn't realized that until seeing that video.

And, that video. I wonder where it came from. Do you think it might be one of the Lincoln Center videos that got released, somehow?

unsettling, not unsleeping. Oh, for an edit function.

I hope Michelle Dockery isn’t doing Network on Broadway. It should be Sarah Paulson.

Or Susan Lucci!

PRETTY WOMAN has no reason for being. The music adds nothing to the show. Not a single melody to be heard all evening. In the opening number the band is playing so loudly, you can't hear anything the actors are singing. The lyrics are uniformly terrible. She sings things like "I'm never going back again, I'm never going back again, I'm never going back again.' While he sings things like "Something's going on here, something's going on here, something's going on here." At one point, the two of them walk around each other and sing "extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary" at each other. As mentioned previously, the costumes are copies of the movie. And practically every scene is frame for frame from the movie, like when he presents the necklace and closes the box on her hand. Andy Karl and Samantha do the best they can with the material. Orfeh has a big voice. My friend said, "Jerry Mitchell must have choreographed this because it looks just like LEGALLY BLONDE and KINKY BOOTS." Sadly, the audience whooped and hollered and carried on like they were seeing something phenomenal. Then spent intermission staring at their cellphone screens.

I absolutely detest this Hollywood-ization of Bway just to get tourist bucks. Please please God let this die before it ever reaches NYC. Let us retain SOME dignity

WTF?

I've always felt that way, R101, about the original Cabaret vs the Mendes revival. The original Cabaret shows Berlin on the precipice, about to embrace a national insanity, with Grey's Emcee - a "grinning jackal" as Frank Rich memorably described him - almost Mephistophelean as Nazism begins its ascent. You watch a civilized society destroy itself. I also admired how Harold Prince, Ron Field and the designers really went for it with allowing the cabaret numbers to be rather tacky and grotesque. The film, though very different from the stage version, also gets all of this absolutely right.

The Mendes version was certainly darker, grittier, sexier. It had some things that I admired. The unit cabaret setting allowed the show's pace to move in a way that it hadn't before. But it was a sledgehammer approach to the material. Some people felt Cabaret needed that kind of reinvention, but the show the authors wrote lost something in the process. There were some damaging changes, like giving Sally too many Act One numbers - she didn't also need "Mein Heir" and "Maybe This Time" (which I don't know if it belongs in any stage version). I think both "The Telephone Song" and "Meeskite" add some crucial details, and they are too often dismissed as not being as important as I feel they are. But more importantly, if you start with full-on debauchery, you're not really showing the gradual disintegration, you're already there. To draw an analogy, it's like the original version and the film subtly say "this is how it happened," while in the Mendes version, it's like a bunch of partiers wake up the next morning and say "what happened?"

The problem with the original is that the Cabaret seems somehow aligned with the Nazism rather than the ineffective resistance to it, which is clearer in the Mendes production.

[quote]The problem with the original is that the Cabaret seems somehow aligned with the Nazism

That's what I thought the first time I saw the show.

I've decided to do a mashup musical. The Sound of Music in a Cabaret.

As the Von Trapps leave Austria, they stumble into the Kit Kat Klub in Berlin. Georg is immediately befriended by Cliff and taken back to his apartment for the comradery of men that Georg so enjoyed in the military. Meanwhile, Maria must earn a living and so she must use the children to create a show for the KKK. With the help of an American woman named Rose, who is in Berlin with her performer daughter Louise and has honest to goodness show credentials in the US, Maria sets the children on a tour of the cabaret life in Germany.

Why are so many Kurt Weill interpreters sopranos? I'm a massive Weill fan and know all of his music, but Stratas and Von Otter just grate on me. My go-to interpreters are Ute Lemper and of course Lotte Lenya. Even when I youtube his songs it's always sopranos singing his stuff like it's grand high opera. His best songs are written for junkies, outcasts and the downtrodden. Hate it when it's sung all piss-elegant.

With the advent of the Mendes Cabaret, you really can't go back to the OBC or the 80's revival. Telephone Song as Meeskite are gone for good. Good riddance, they're K&E's dumbest songs.

r112 I hear nothing piss-elegant about Stratas' Weill. In fact, I might use that to describe Lemper's Weill.

In the Mendes revival of Cabaret, how did Rob Marshall get a "co-director" title. I thought the direction was pretty much based on what Mendes did with the show in London. Or did Marshall direct it and Mendes, who was busy with other projects, just came in to supervise?

I don't consider myself a piss-elegant soprano, r112. But of course I wasn't playing a junkie, an outcast or a downtrodden!

R112 , they are sung by sopranos because so many of those memorable songs were written for sopranos. Lenya was a soprano in Berlin, but her voice lowered and the keys changed. If you listen to her recording of the Crane Duet in Mahagonny it sounds terrible because she could not sing it in its original key (as she did in 1931).

Here she is in all her birdlike 1930 glory.

Stratas has the definitive version of that one, Mary

R116, yes I stand corrected - I should have said that Weill's earlier works are for the downtrodden. Obviously his American Broadway shows are a whole different story. Fascinating how he was able to adapt his harsh "Berlin bark" for American audiences.

K&E have always been influenced by Weill. Wilkommen could easily transition to Mack the Knife at any moment.

Has Sondheim ever cited Weill as an influence? Sweeney Todd could have easily been a Brecht/Weill show. I think I remember reading something about his denial of being influenced by them, and not even being a real fan of Weill (even though Lucy and Jesse is the Saga of Jenny).

[quote]I hope Michelle Dockery isn’t doing Network on Broadway.

Doubtful. I think the "Downton Abbey" movie starts shooting in November.

Thank you R27 for the Sunset Boulevard Niederhausen Germany Helen Schneider clip. Once again, it only goes to fortifiy that no one can touch Betty Buckley who just stood and produced the thrilling magic of live theatre.

[quote]PRETTY WOMAN has no reason for being. The music adds nothing to the show. Not a single melody to be heard all evening.

That's exactly how I felt about Andy Karl's previous musical, "Groundhog Day." Crappy songs interrupting a by now too-familiar story. (And I loved the movie.)

R111 I saw Sound of Music and Cabaret on the same day (touring productions) and spent dinner discussing concert mash-up ideas with my friend.

Rolf singing Tomorrow Belongs to Me, Fräulein Schneider singing No Way to Stop It, the Baroness singing So What, Captain Von Trapp singing I Don't Care Much. And the Emcee and Kit Kat Club girls could do Lonely Goatherd as a pastiche performance. We weren't sure about the plot, but the songs would work.

I love Helen......

[quote]In the Mendes revival of Cabaret, how did Rob Marshall get a "co-director" title. I thought the direction was pretty much based on what Mendes did with the show in London. Or did Marshall direct it and Mendes, who was busy with other projects, just came in to supervise?

My understanding is that Mendes's schedule was packed and when Roundabout moved the dates, he was only partially available. Marshall stepped in as co-director, which I think actually worked well. Watch the video of the Donmar production and you’ll see; it’s more like a play with songs. Whatever Marshall's shortcomings, he brought some real show biz acumen to the table. Mendes handled the high art and Marshall injected it with glitz. Neither of them could have created it on their own

Betty Buckley was the best Norma if for no other reason that she could actually belt I’ll Be MEEEE!!! Take note Glenn.

Buckley was the best Norma.

I saw both Buckley and LuPone in London and Buckley was incredible. It really looked like she was on the verge of madness from the first "You There."

She very likely was, R128.

I would love to have smelled Orion Griffiths’ leather shorts after a matinee.

Tootsie The Musical had the potential to be brilliant but I doubt it will be.

This is what passes as FUCKING GOSSIP????? What, are you all 75?

Do you have some FUCKING GOSSIP to contribute, R132? No? Then STFU.

Thanks so much.

Was Natasha Richardson a good Sally or just a classy bit of casting?

Natasha....

Jane

Judi

Well, this is pretty fucking disgraceful...and scary. I hope the frau was ejected from the theatre

Jane Horrocks' dreadful, overwrought rendition of "Cabaret" exemplifies the difference between the original production and the sledgehammer style of Mendes' "dark" production. "Subtext" is a word, Jane. Look it up sometime.

I thought Sienna Miller was the best Sally I've ever seen. Certainly not the best singer (but that works for Sally) but her acting was spot on.

Miss Maye doing a Daisy Clover/Sally Bowles mash-up!

A picture of the first National company of ACL, which was primarily the OBC. Bennett said he modeled parts of Sheila on Fosse dancer Charlene Ryan who played the part in this company. Also included is Don Correia as Mike, Andy Keyser as Greg, and Paul Charles as Mark. A Bennett boyfriend, Scott Pearson was miscast as Bobby. Pearson later worked as an executive at Falcon studios. Lupone said the members of the cast that didn't make the tour were missed "until the replacements became good and they did get good."

another

Don Correia was so fucking hot back then.

r121 r126 Didn't someone post a while back a video of various Mama Rose's singing the end of Rose's Turn? And didn't someone remark that many of them sang "for meee" as "for maaay"? And didn't Betty get a pass because she did clamp down on the long "e" sound? What's going one here then?

^going on here

Charlene Ryan never did the "let your hair down" bit. She had it tied back or up in a bouffant. I thought it was because she was wearing a wig.

Interior of souvenir program of First National Tour

Natasha was good - it was not just a stunt. She had that great throaty voice that also would have killed as Desiree. Nevertheless Judi and Emma were the best Sallys.

Natasha was the unfortunate start of excusing actresses who couldn’t carry a tune to save their lives being cast as a Sally Bowles. The absurd justification being that Sally wasn’t a great singer so it didn’t matter. Of course Broadway audiences pay hundreds of dollars for a ticket to hear some of the most famous songs in the musical theater canon massacred by horrendous wanna be singers. Great idea!

"Natasha was the unfortunate start of excusing actresses who couldn’t carry a tune to save their lives being cast as a Sally Bowles."

I thought that was Jill Haworth

Jill Haworth absolutely sounds like Sally Bowles personified on the recording, and despite Walter Kerr's uncalled for pan in an otherwise rave for the show, I've heard many people say she was brilliant in the show and probably the definitive stage Sally.

I saw several Sallys in the revival, and I actually liked Jane Leeves a lot. Good voice, the accent perfect, and very believable.

That production of "Lady in the Dark" looks really good and electric. Ann Sothern seems rather perfectly cast in a nowadays hard to cast role. Carleton Carpenter looked really cute, too.

While "Tootsie" the film starred leading character actor Dustin Hoffman, how is the musical going to work with more traditional leading man (who played Prince Charming in "Cinderella") Santino Fontana doing a character role? Dorothy isn't supposed to look particularly pretty as a woman (or as a man).

Sigh....we're apparently going to rehash the "Sally Bowles MUST be sung by a brilliant singer!" war again, mostly waged by the vapid and the bland.

How tiresome.

[quote]Be More Shrill? Puh-Leeeze. Navel-gazing millennials write show for other navel-gazing millenials. Arses.—Jen Tepperware

Where did that Jen Tep person come from, anyway?

I think I've said this before, but you go back and read Walter Kerr's reviews and they are well-written garbage. He always argues his points well, but his taste was for shit.

Jill Haworth is my favorite Sally, hands down. Judi Dench a close second. Haworth had a good (not great) voice, Dench, an okay voice. But they both sang on pitch, something that Natasha Richardson couldn’t do.

R155 She was a big [title of show] fangirl who got friendly with the actors before it's transfer and took over their social media promo back in the day. She and Joe Iconis used to do these amateurish concerts about unappreciated songs from shows no one has ever head of. Then she interned for Ken Davenport, and became his assistant on that Godspell abortion where people sat in "Tweet seats", and was somehow given control over 54 Below's concert scheduling.

She calls herself a "Broadway historian" and keeps being given these really swank theatre jobs, despite never having a success with anything she does, and has somehow gained a following of young theatre fans who want to be just like her.

[quote]That video of the first Cabaret revival was illuminating. I think it was actually more unsettling than the Cummings revival, because the seediness wasn't in your face the way it was in the revival. Rather, it exposed itself more slowly and subtly, so seeing the horror beneath it all was more sad and depressing. Everything was so seedy in the recent revival from the get-go, that they had nowhere to go. I hadn't realized that until seeing that video.

Thank you, I've said that about the Mendes revival from the beginning. Ridiculously sleazy well past the point of being counterproductive.

[quote]The Mendes version was certainly darker, grittier, sexier. It had some things that I admired. The unit cabaret setting allowed the show's pace to move in a way that it hadn't before. But it was a sledgehammer approach to the material.

Yes, sledgehammer is the perfect word for it. I've always thought they made that revival so dark and gritty and over-explicitly sexual because they COULD, whereas that level of sleaze would never have been accepted on Broadway in the mid 1960s. But just because they had more freedom to be raw and explicit in the '90s doesn't mean it was the right decision for the show.

[quote]That's exactly how I felt about Andy Karl's previous musical, "Groundhog Day." Crappy songs interrupting a by now too-familiar story.

And that's how I felt about Andy Karl's previous previous musical, ROCKY.

P.S. That photo of Orion Griffiths above is pretty bad. Google and you'll find some amazing ones.

I thought Natasha looked too old and matronly to play Sally.

She ain’t a looker.

[quote] [R155] She was a big [title of show] fangirl who got friendly with the actors before it's transfer and took over their social media promo back in the day. She and Joe Iconis used to do these amateurish concerts about unappreciated songs from shows no one has ever head of. Then she interned for Ken Davenport, and became his assistant on that Godspell abortion where people sat in "Tweet seats", and was somehow given control over 54 Below's concert scheduling. She calls herself a "Broadway historian" and keeps being given these really swank theatre jobs, despite never having a success with anything she does, and has somehow gained a following of young theatre fans who want to be just like her.

So basically she's a young person who loves theater, loves theater history and has a healthy respect for it, to the point that she tries to bring it to young audiences so that they, TOO can appreciate material that was around well before they were born and aren't just fed a steady diet of Wicked and DEH, and she hasn't let her lack of success in some areas discourage her passion for all of the above.

THAT MONSTER!!!!!!!!!

Why is this thread titled pretty woman?

By the same Cabaret logic Evita doesn’t need a great voice because Eva Peron was not a singer! And It’s okay if Eliza Doolittle croaks out her songs because she was just a Cockney flower girl and not a mezzo soprano!

I might disagree with you, R164. Although Sally's singing shouldn't drive people out of the theater, it should be mediocre in her stage songs, because she has to be perceived as someone who is a passable singer, but nothing that would ever have a successful career singing. It's a delicate line. You want the songs to be listenable, but you also don't want the audience to think that she's a great singer and is just one lucky break away from stardom. She is a mediocre talent, and success will always elude her. I think it could be interesting for her book songs to show a stronger singer, but not the stage songs. I don't know how you pull that off, though.

And, RE Pretty Woman just being the movie on the stage. I felt that abotu Rocky, as the poster above mentioned, and Groundhog Day. They did nothing to add to my appreciation and understanding of the material. What they had going for them, though, was great sets. That is the only thing that kept me interested in the play. Wall, that, and Andy Karl's bare chest in Rocky! But the shows were unnecessary, and they both had an early death. I also feel the same way about Mean Girls, but that doesn't have the set or music to make it worth watching. I thought it was an offensive waste of my time. Frozen is equally unnecessary, and they blew a chance to amaze us with stage craft. What is onstage is completely unimaginative and uninteresting and uninspired. I keep hoping that the magic that birthed Lion King will come back to Disney, but so far it has not.

I think I will feel the same way about Pretty Women, unless the music or staging is unforgettable. It is depressing how lifeless and unnecessary these shows are. They are nothing more than money grabs.

Agreed, R162. She sounds smart and driven. Has anyone read her books?

r164 r165 Haven't we been through enough of this? You're neither raising points nor citing examples that we haven't already the last time.

Did anyone ever figure out what was going on here? Was Chita raised from the dead or something? Or maybe Liza had sniffed the time-release coke that day and all of a sudden it was time?

I don't think it necessarily matters if Sally is a really good singer. Plenty of really talented singers don't get a big break and hit the big time anyway.

Jen Tep=fug.

Tepper's books are kind of a mess as far as organization, and some of the interviews are filler, but a lot of them are fascinating and many of them cover subjects that probably haven't been covered before in detail. So all told the books are worthwhile, though if you want to go back and read again specific parts that you liked the first time, you may have a lot of trouble finding them. (For one thing, the books aren't indexed, which admittedly would have been very hard to do.)

Sally Bowles can be played as someone who's working in a seedy, vulgar nightclub because she doesn't have any or much talent, but she can also be played as someone with talent who's working in a seedy, vulgar nightclub because she has no discipline and her personal life is so screwed up. I've always thought Sally can have a really good voice as long as she's not a polished singer. There are endless arguments over whether Liza's voice and dancing were too good for the role. But the whole show and movie are so stylized. I mean, it's not very likely that Fosse-quality choreography would have been seen in a place like that.

Have any of you ever heard Celeste Holm sing? Carol Channing? Yul Brynner? Glynis Johns? A pretty voice is nice, but not always necessary.

Tepper's books are what I call "snack books," the kind of thing you devour when you want something light. I tend to read stuff like that when I can't sleep and need something to settle my brain and get me to the point where I can relax and not think.

But that's all they really intended to be.

r168 That's just Liza being Liza!

[quote]I've always thought Sally can have a really good voice as long as she's not a polished singer.

I think Sally could even have a polished voice but not be success for the reasons you stated, she's not disciplined. The way Liza played her, I could see Sally drinking all night and then waking up late and missing the audition and all the big producers around Berlin know what a pain in the ass she is. Plus, she's too ugly to screw, so why bother with her? That's why Sally is playing dives because despite an excellent voice, she's a mess.

[quote]Have any of you ever heard Celeste Holm sing? Carol Channing? Yul Brynner? Glynis Johns? A pretty voice is nice, but not always necessary.

Yul Brynner played Sally Bowles?

Necessary is nice, but it sure isn't pretty, R172

r176 Carol Channing would have been a corny Sally.

r168 I thought Kander was the gay one?

Just imagine Judy Garland as Sally Bowles in the frame of mind she was while making "Annie Get Your Gun" or other career lows. Or Liza after a night at Studio 54 while doing/maybe not showing up for performances of "The Rink". So you can get a Sally Bowles who sings well, but is mentally doing crap that's not helping her career. Frankly, for the prices Broadway charges, I'd rather hear a Sally with a fine voice (for its entertainment value) and see her acting up a storm which shows why by 1) sleeping around with the wrong guys, 2) having abortions, 3) father issues, 4) neediness issues, and 5) alcohol/substance abuse issues, that's the reason she's playing the dinky Kit Kat Klub, not for lack of talent. But cast at least a good (not necessarily a great) singer, so I can at least enjoy her songs.

"The music adds nothing to the show. Not a single melody to be heard all evening."

That could describe every Broadway musical of the last twenty years.

[quote]With the advent of the Mendes Cabaret, you really can't go back to the OBC or the 80's revival.

More's the pity, because the original "Cabaret" is brilliant. Mendes' version isn't. It was already annoying by the time of the Alan Cumming-Michelle Williams production. It's a case where a director ruined a show in pursuit of a vision that captured the time it was produced rather than the time the show was about.

r181 This is why I'm kind of relieved he didn't (quite) get his way with Gypsy.

[quote]Yul Brynner played Sally Bowles?

Yes, and he was brilliant. Skip to 1:10 to hear him in his Sally Bowles drag persona.

Any other fans out there of an early 1970s Kurt Weill revue called Berlin to Broadway?

I saw it in Boston when it tried out there on its way to NY and loved it. There was a wonderful recording with the 5 person cast, most of whom would be unknown today except for Ken Kercheval (of TV's Dallas) and Jerry Lanning (from Mame).

But sadly the album was never reproduced as a tape or CD, as far as I know.

Actually, wait a few years, and someone heralding a return to the original vision of the Harold Prince-led version of "Cabaret" and the Alan Cumming/Sam Mendes mishigas will seem old hat by then.

R72 and R78

One of my favorite reactions was when David Letterman discovered that Megan Mullally could sing.

What the what??? I need some more context. What is R183 from?? Yul seemed... comfortable in drag.

Hopefully I still have mine, r184. I'm surprised it isn't on CD.

[quote]Although Sally's singing shouldn't drive people out of the theater, it should be mediocre in her stage songs, because she has to be perceived as someone who is a passable singer, but nothing that would ever have a successful career singing. It's a delicate line. You want the songs to be listenable, but you also don't want the audience to think that she's a great singer and is just one lucky break away from stardom. She is a mediocre talent, and success will always elude her.

This is actually one of the most spot-on interpretations of Sally Bowles I've ever read. Well done.

[quote]Actually, wait a few years, and someone heralding a return to the original vision of the Harold Prince-led version of "Cabaret" and the Alan Cumming/Sam Mendes mishigas will seem old hat by then.

Perhaps, but I think the poster upthread who said that each version can effectively serve its own purpose -- i.e., "before the fall" and "after the fall" -- made a brilliant point with this approach to the material. Of course the original is always better but each is excellent in its own right. I think the problem many have is the fact that the latter production has pretty much come to define "Cabaret" in the minds of many, even moreso than the film, which is both a shame and an unavoidable consequence of the original having been so long ago.

By the way, I don't know who was behind it, but wasn't there another version of "Cabaret" produced in London just a few years ago that many said was even raunchier than the Mendes version? All I remember is that they reportedly went so over the top on the shock value that critics (and maybe audiences) found the show a complete turnoff. (IIRC, the Emcee in this version may have been female.)

Regarding the heckling incident at "Straight White Men," why the hell didn't the theater throw the people out? Or someone should have gone to find the usher or theater management to get them tossed. Makes no sense.

the other Jane

Obviously, the rudeness to Kate Bornstein was inexcusable but then isn't Straight White Men purposely trying to provoke and intimidate and challenge the audience into discomfort before the lights even go down? Aren't they asking for some kind of visceral reaction from the audience?

I haven't seen it so I'm sincerely asking.

Saw "Carmen Jones" today. Phenomenal.

JILL!

LENYA

Did 'Straight White Dull Men' organize a very soft heckle of Kate to get some much needed press attention? Incident makes little sense

Julie Harris. The original Fraulein Sally Bowles.

More hairy chest

Whoops... wrong thread lol.

To make up for it, here's a picture of Etai Benson and Ari'el Stachel dancing at Bryant Park.

[QUOTE]More's the pity, because the original "Cabaret" is brilliant. Mendes' version isn't.

Ahhhh the motto of the insufferable Theater Queen, The original ................. (fill in the blank) is brilliant. The revival isn't.

Saw Jill Haworth who was far better than her reviews, and Jane Leeves, who was excellent.

I always thought that Sally knocking the microphone over was corny. Like something they would do in a college production to think they were really cool and artistic.

So is Ari'el gay? I can't tell. I thought he was...ok in The Band's Visit. I'm surprised that won him a Tony. He must be well liked?

[quote]He must be well liked?

Or well hung. Or both.

Yul Brynner singing in drag is from the 1969 film “The Magic Christian,” which was pretty much reviled when it opened. The ending was supposedly especially nauseating.

That picture of Jen Tepper does not belong in any thread with "pretty woman" in the title.

Is Jen Tepper a Tyler Mount type?

[quote] Did 'Straight White Dull Men' organize a very soft heckle of Kate to get some much needed press attention? Incident makes little sense

This is the exact thought I had when I read the article and I'm surprised more people haven't seen through the ruse.

[quote]Did 'Straight White Dull Men' organize a very soft heckle of Kate to get some much needed press attention? Incident makes little sense

I'm ashamed to admit that this didn't occur to me till earlier tonight, when I was discussing the incident with some friends.

Phenomenal? No. Well-done (if overlong)? Yes.

Jen Tepper seems less obtrusive than she used to be. We had mutual acquaintances in our early 20s and she was a lot. She couldn't talk about anything in life (books, movies, TV, straight plays, politics, sports, news) other than musical theater related topics. At least in my handful of experiences with her. I get that she's passionate about it, but someone with a worldview that narrow isn't really fun to hang out with. I haven't seen her in 10 years, so maybe she's matured or branched out.

Jen Tepper is very nice, at times droll, but always a well-intentioned fangirl who has made her way into the industry, in numerous ways. I have no ill feelings towards her. It's actually quite nice to see her posts pass through my Facebook feed - she is so positive and just happy and excited to be around talented Broadway actors all the time. How can you blame her?

Huh! I saw Carmen Jones last week and didn't get the hype at all. Talented actors but that was about it.

Anika Noni Rose deserved better though she gives it her all, especially encased like a sausage in that ill-fitting bright red dress and a mic (in that tiny theater!) sitting blatantly in the middle of her forehead.

The cheapness and minimalism (though calling it that makes it sound like a "concept") really hurt the show. I didn't feel the intimacy suited the story or especially the music. It would have come off better at Encores with a much bigger cast and a real orchestra.

So Yazbeck/Cromer win several Tony's this year for BAND'S VISIT, and Yazbeck turns around the following season to use a different director, SCOTT ELLIS, for TOOTSIE? Seems kind of rude.

Cromer's busy - acting in "The Waverly Consort" anyway.

Cromer is really too smart to mix himself up with a doomed project like Tootsie. His career will be the better for it.

And he's just signed on to act in The Waverly Gallery with Elaine May, Lucas Hedges and Joan Allen. He'll be fine.

Sometimes I think that the smartest move a director can make is knowing when to NOT do a project.

"Creative decisions are collaborative in the theater. Yes, when it comes to the creative team, writers have "approvals," but they aren't iron-clad, doesn't matter who you are.

"I didn't feel the intimacy suited the story or especially the music. It would have come off better at Encores with a much bigger cast and a real orchestra."

An interesting observation, given the operatic dimension. Then again, crossover works like CARMEN JONES (SWEENEY, MOST HAPPY FELLA, PACIFIC OVERTURES, et al) can sustain various types of productions, intimate, epic or what-have-you.

I assume Scott Ellis wasn’t the first-choice director of Tootsie. I mean, has he ever directed an original musical besides Curtains?

Jen is a fan-gurl, which is why she shouldn’t be producing anything but CHAT ROOM: THE MUSICAL.

Cromer was also a replacement on The Band's Visit. Hal Prince was originally announced to direct it.

I think a Sally that sings well for her book songs and mediocre for her club songs could be really interesting, but I almost wonder if it would confuse people and they'd say "She sounded so great on 'Maybe This Time', but why does she sound so bad on 'Mein Herr?'"

I'm still curious as to what Mendes' full vision for GYPSY was. I remember hearing stuff like people getting fucked in the wings in the burlesque scenes and stuff. I guess that might be one way to make modern audiences realize just how big of a step down burlesque was considered. I wonder what his plans for Bernadette Peters were. It seemed like she might have been misdirected, because she sure did suck early in the run, but she was genius by the end of the run.

R168, and when Chita comes out, the whole world goes, “Who is that?”

[quote]and when Chita comes out, the whole world goes, “Who is that?”

No, the whole world goes, "God, Rita Moreno is looking old. Who does her makeup?"

[quote] I think a Sally that sings well for her book songs and mediocre for her club songs could be really interesting

Susan Egan was one of the best Sallys by doing sort of that. You could tell she was a really good singer but you weren't always hearing really good singing. Very effective.

I always thought the Mendes Cabaret would have been more compelling if it had started sort of low-rent and evolved into the real seediness its opened with. As the world declined, the girls got more tattoos, the wardrobe got more ripped, more drugs, etc.

Why did the Emcee wear different costumes? For example, he wore a dress and earrings to introduce Sally singing the title song. I like my Emcees to wear one costume throughout the whole show.

R168, the entire Dinah show was done as a tribute to Kander and Ebb. When Liza did Nowadays, we were supposed to believe she thought Chita was back in NY, hence the terrible acting but you'll note she does the chorus more times than she should so Chita could make her entrance. Chita does "How Lucky Can You Get" from "Funny Lady." The fun begins around 40:00.

[quote]we were supposed to believe she thought Chita was back in NY, hence the terrible acting

Why the hell does the audience care that Chita was back in NY? And why does Liza get orgasmic over it? It's not like Liza owes her career to Chita or that Chita was some special mentor over Liza. Are they trying to drum up excitement that Chita would be appearing in a new show? To me, it ruins the moment. With Liza acting like someone just tazed her and then the fuckfest hug, it takes the spotlight off Chita and puts it on the weird behavior of her colleagues.

R225 -- I assume that was because he was a performer as well as an MC, and that drag outfit was the costume for his performance?

[quote]I assume that was because he was a performer as well as an MC, and that drag outfit was the costume for his performance?

Oh, that thought never occurred to me. I just thought they were doing it to be weird.

R228, I would assume that as well.

Who got to paint the swastika on John Stamos' ass every night?

Agree that the body mics in CARMEN JONES were absurd. There were some powerful voices in that cast. They really coudn't fill that CSC space?

Liza's "surprise" take at seeing Chita was some of the worst acting of her career. You would have thought Chita had just returned from the dead.

Joel Grey in the movie is in different costumes, for example, in drag as one of the "Tiller Girls", and I believe he had different costumes in the stage production as well (Father Time, in "Two Ladies" number, etc.).

[quote] Why the hell does the audience care that Chita was back in NY?

You should have seen them when they heard Lenora Nemetz wasn't gonna make it. They nearly set the studio on fire and looted Dinah's monitors.

[quote] Yul Brynner played Sally Bowles? Yes, and he was brilliant. Skip to 1:10 to hear him in his Sally Bowles drag persona.

DataLounge, you never fail to surprise me. The things that you can drag up from the dustbins of history are amazing!!

Dinah saying "That's Chita Rivera! That's the one they were talking about" 50 fucking times is hilarious. She comes across as mentally challenged.

R236, they were in LA and no one knew who the fuck Chita was.

They would have known who Miss Peggy Lee was!

r231, I did, of course!

[quote]They would have known who Miss Peggy Lee was!

Miss Peggy Lee would have slapped Liza viciously and told her to sit down that she was an embarrassment to her mother.

Bette

She's allowed to do press now!

What was with Sutton Foster's wig in Sweet Charity?

The Sweet Charity production seemed like such a misfire. Weren't there talks of bringing it to Broadway? It's yet to happen and it's been a few years now, so I guess we can assume it's not going to happen. I'm sorry, but I find Sutton so dull. She doesn't seem the right type for this role at all. I wish poor Christina Applegate had a better production around her when she did it. She was legitimately terrific - it was the production that sucked. I didn't care for the cheesy girl power monologue that Charity gives to Oscar, but I thought the last minute or two with the reprise of "I'm the Greatest Individual" was really great.

[quote]What was with Sutton Foster's wig in Sweet Charity?

Apparently in that production, Charity was homeless because in addition to that ratty wig she is wearing men's Florsheim shoes.

So many weird choices in that Sutton "Charity". I can see another revival in a few years, but hopefully, without her. As someone else said, she isn't really the right type for this role. She's a bit too bland. I feel like Charity has to have an overwhelming, bubbly, and fun personality. With Foster, I always feel like I'm watching an above average high school performer.

This is a bookend for r238. I prefer Dinah's voice on duets. I love the contrast of her apparel in the Peggy duet and this little girl Sunday jumper.

Laura Bell Bundy did it a few months back in LA and was well received but I also think this is one of those projects where everyone expects Fosse. Maybe you get Ann Reinking to do it in the style of Fosse.

Sutton would probably make an interesting Sally Bowles.

Patti LuPone looks pretty good in these pictures taken at the first day of rehearsal for the new production of Sondheim's COMPANY in London. Has she had some work done?

Only one Pearlie Mae..........

She does look good, R250, considering she's on the verge of 70. Keeping a little weight on helps as one ages. But what want to know is, who is that TALL glass of water she's locked arms with in that photo? I want some of his company.

It's either the face or the ass, r252.

r237 No one knew who the fuck Gwen VerDAWN was either.

r245 Ugh. I can smell her pits from here.

r250 So token black role Marta won't be gender-switched?

r252 Damn. Him and the guy to Rosalie's right and, of course, Jonathan Bailey. Which role was Jamie in the original?

R254, Dinah worked with Gwen VerDAWN. Lord, VerDAWN's singing was horrible even then. She makes Dinah sound good.

Miss...Nancy...Walker....

[quote]Patti LuPone looks pretty good in these pictures taken at the first day of rehearsal for the new production of Sondheim's COMPANY in London. Has she had some work done?

TWO minorities. Oh my God, London is sooooooo progressive. TWO non-white people.

[quote]Patti LuPone looks pretty good in these pictures taken at the first day of rehearsal for the new production of Sondheim's COMPANY in London. Has she had some work done?

Who are the two queens stealing focus from Patti? Are they lovers in real life or just using the Method acting?

London Company - how come Imelda's not in this one?

Bite your tongue, R259. Did you see her Sally?

r259 They wanted her for the witch, but she wanted Cinderella. Wait, wrong Sondheim.

Whoever did Patti's work did a fabulous job--she's got that relaxed and well rested look that good cosmetic surgery can achieve.

R168, that was the Dinah Shore Show. That episide was taped a few weeks after Liza finished her run filling in for Gwen Verdon. It was taped in Los Angeles.

What happened is that just before they taped, the musicians went on strike in NY, with the effect that no musicals could perform. It lasted for accouple of weeks. Because she didn’t have a show, Chita waa able to come out and do the TV gig. They decided to let it be a surprise for everyone. The only people ejo knew it was going to happen were Dinah, her statf, and John Kander, because he would have to be playing the piano. So Liza and Fred Ebb were genuinely stunned when suddenly, at the point “Nowadays” becomes a duet in the show, Chita appeared to surprise everyone.

Liza's reaction seemed genuine to me. She's not that great an actress.

Grammar sidebar: It's "she's not that great an actress," not "she's not that great OF an actress."

R264, just say she's not a great actress.

"She's not that great an actress" and "she's not a great actress" express different ideas.

The criticisms of Natasha Richardson’s performance in Cabaret are mind boggling. She received rave reviews and won every single award that year.

Of course, she was not a trained Broadway singer but the way she sang and acted that role was amazing to me. It’s one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen on stage and I am, at least as DL would define me, an eldergay.

Even Emma Stone said that NR’s performance is the reason she wanted to play the role in the revival. She saw that an actress who could sing well enough to be believable coukd do something fantastic on stage

The only performance I’d put in the same league is Cherry Jones in The Heiress.

[quote]The only performance I’d put in the same league is Cherry Jones in The Heiress.

That's not how my name's spelled, but thank you.

I agree with the thoughts about the original staging of CABARET by Hal Prince and Ron Field. It was actually more frightening. It crept up on you. And then it was too late when you realized just how serious things were. I loved many things about the Mendes production. Which I saw originally at the Donmar before it came over here. The ending was pretty stunning. And I loved how sexy and homo it was.

Gina Gershon was pretty excellent in the Mendes production. Her "Cabaret" was incredible I felt. So gone. So lost. The moment when she seems to honestly get lost for a moment--and then sees exactly where she is. Her eyes are great. I also love the little "ba dum bup" comedy move she does after "rented by the hour". It's so bad showbiz. And then her mad drive to the end of the song. She's one of the few actresses who pulled off knocking the mic to the floor effectively. She surprised me by how great she was in this.

I also loved her in BOEING BOEING. She beyond held her own and was wonderful with all of those other incredible character performances. So she really knows her stuff it seems.

[quote] The only performance I’d put in the same league is Cherry Jones in The Heiress.

Well, you have no taste. I saw both Cherry's performance in The Heiress and Natasha's performance in Cabaret and there's no comparison. That production of The Heiress was one of the best things I've ever seen on Broadway. There was not one false moment in that show. She held the audience in that special place of rapture for the entire show. Natasha was good, but she wasn't in the same league as Cherry.

Why should there be more than two, r257? Or one? Or four, based on what the director wants and who showed up to the audition?

[quote]Laura Bell Bundy did it a few months back in LA

Opposite DL fave Barrett Foa!

Mel from Great British Bake-Off is in "Company?" I didn't even know she was an actress, much less a singer.

Of course, I'd go see anything with my future husband Jonathan Bailey in it.

I was not expecting that. r269. Go Gina!

Can anyone who was plugged in at the time shed some light for me? I've been watching the Tony Awards from the mid-90s to early 2000s, and Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick got a lot of play presenting or hosting or performing. They seemed like they were the toast of NY judging by the audience's responses. Was that the case? Were they seen as the golden couple of Broadway?

I may have missed a post or two on this, but that odious blog has announced that the Weisslers are establishing a $25,000 scholarship in Loeffelholz's memory and will permanently display his photo in the theater lobby.

Too little, too late. Jeff’s litigious and mercenary widower is going to own that theater soon.

I also thought Gina Gershon was excellent in Boeing Boeing. That entire cast was perfection.

Poor Gina’s career has slowed though. I just streamed Cock Blockers last night. She has a tiny and borderline demeaning role.

I saw Gina Gershon in Cabaret, and thought she wasn't very good - her accent was terrible. She was far from the worst thing in the show, though. That honor went to Matt McGrath, who was playing the Emcee and was a big disappointment.

My favorite two were Norbert Leo Butz and Joely Fisher, who led the tour. They were great.

I thought Joey Stefano was kept by some Broadway costume designer?

Early Barbra......

Big dick Jeremy Shaffer was the press agent for Millie and so he basically made Sutton Foster happen. Cheers to him and his big dick.

When will Gavin Creel dump his top young boyfriend. It’s sad and weird to see a man in his 40s date a “man” in his 20s.

I believe that the homely little man conducting in the Fanny Brice clip is none other than Billy Rose, reinvented for Funny Lady by hot stud James Caan.

Am I right, older elder gays??

So that's where Bob Merrill got the expression "we travel single-oh" that he used in "People"! Fanny really sang it!

Gavin Creel and Wes Tay-Tay should both release their boy toys into the wild.

I think one of the worst Sallys was Molly Ringwald. She was also a fairly lousy Charity in a tour of Sweet Charity. She just doesn't have much stage presence at all.

I remember finding Jennifer Jason Leigh really great as Sally. She was basically doing a slightly more charming version of her character in Georgia, but she was excellent. I think she might have been a little too small for the stage, though. She'd have been great in a TV or film version.

Yes, that's Billy Rose.

From the Midler interview:

[quote] "People cry, oh they cry. They cry for their childhood. They cry for the music that they miss and they cry just from the release, from the joy," she said. "How could I stay away from something like that?"

All these years I've thought I was the only person who cries with joy at musicals.

No, really.

If I'm not wiping away tears at some point in the evening, I'm not having a good time

A couple of people above suggested a mash up of Cabaret and The Sound of Music. You're 20 years too late, The year the Mendes Cabaret revival opened, a national tour of TSOM did an extended sit down in New York. Forbidden Broadway was on it.

I'm never attending another production of TSOM unless the production includes having the Nazis take out at least two nuns and one of the kids.

I've never attending another production of TSOM unless Georg and Rolf get it on.

Georg: Give it to me, you Nazi bitch.

Rolf: Take me daddy, just like Herr Hitler.

This was interesting.

“the cast and musicians were surveyed by the producers of the show about how they would feel about Stifelman coming back to conduct Chicago. They overwhelmingly gave her a “thumbs down,” stating that they would not be comfortable working with her. As stated on this blog previously, many actors and musicians have their own “Leslie story” about the difficulties of working with her.

In fact, Actors Equity has been in touch with NAMCO – the company owned by the Weisslers that manages the show — and made it crystal clear how the actors, musicians, and crew feel about Stifelman’s possible return, according to an Equity member with insider knowledge.

Gina Gershon was mesmerizing in Cabaret. Her Sally was stoned throughout the entire performance and it really worked. For me, anyway. Oh, and the hunk next to Patti is Ben Lewis who will be playing her boytoy hubby in Company and, by night, he's currently the Phantom in London.

Speaking of Jeff L, interesting that one of the male ensemble is now covering Mary Sunshine hence eliminating the need for a standby. Was that the plan all along, Fran and Barry?

Patti must have gotten a deal on her surgeries. “Get a hip replacement and get 50% off on your face-tightening!”

r289 I don't actually CRY at musicals, but I my eyes definitely tear up (quite a bit) at certain key moments.

MARIA!

"Tito -- give me a tissue!"

[quote] So that's where Bob Merrill got the expression "we travel single-oh" that he used in "People"! Fanny really sang it!

It's single-o, for single occupancy.

R293 - AEA would not have the jurisdiction to summon the musicians and crew to speak about the MD of a show. That would be handled by 802 and IATSE respectively. AEAs exclusive concern would be the welfare and treatment of the company of actors and stage managers.

Once heard that Gina Gershon's attendance was spotty during Roundabout's Bye Bye Birdie until at one point she said she wasn't coming back and they said they didn't care, and her cover just quietly finished out the remainder of the run without fanfare. Is that true? Also that Stamos is/was a sweetheart to work with on that show and his other Broadway endeavors.

When I saw the original with Gwen and Chita, Mary Sunshine was understudied by a woman. How did they handle the reveal then? Obviously there was no reveal in the movie as well.

Gershon was total shit in Bye Bye Birdie. She played Rosie as a total bitch. But the whole thing was so dreadful that she couldn’t really be blamed.

John Stamos was perfect for the part of Albert and was pretty good, but he was fighting an uphill battle.

[quote]How did they handle the reveal then?

They just cut it. Mary didn’t do that entrance in “Razzle Dazzle.”

I don’t normally tear up at musicals, but I did when the train came out in Put On Your Sunday Clothes when I saw this production of Hello Dolly. Everything about that moment works. And it was a reminder of how wonderful it must have been to have been going to the theater during the Golden Age of musicals. Right now, we are stuck in anything but a Golden Age.

I teared up at that moment, too, when I thought about the $225 I'd blown on my ticket and this was the best it was gonna get.

[quote]I teared up at that moment, too, when I thought about the $225 I'd blown on my ticket and this was the best it was gonna get.

You sound lonely.

I don’t know if Stamos was well cast in Bye Bye Birdie, but the people I know who’ve worked with him adore him. He’s one of those rare TV stars who comes in with a good attitude.

As for Gershon, I think she just lacked the necessary musical comedy skills to do that kind of show. Blame Longbottom.

R303, The best thing about that BBB revival was seeing Nolan Gerard Funk wearing just a pair of tightie whities and displaying a bulge even the balcony could enjoy.

[quote] It's single-o, for single occupancy.

The things you learn after 50 years

Thanks

Sorry to go back to a much earlier post, but what is extraordinary about that original staging of Wilkommen is just how fucking weird it is. I love it's ambiguity: it's trying to be funny and sexual, but it never fully succeeds at being either. It's simultaneously energetic but the performance looks and feels a little underpowered. Everything is very precise, but also loose and effortless. And then it breaks out into an almost march and the audience go wild, like performing monkeys - perfectly anticipating the horrors of the second act. It's fucking genius - artful and classy and clever.

It also perfectly encapsulates what's wrong with most musicals these days (and with American culture in general): nothing is allowed to be subtle or unclear or ambiguous anymore. Every intention and emotion is clearly signalled to the point of exhaustion. So few musicals even aspire to be as sophisticated as what you see in that clip.

Thank you R311. Agreed completely.

I burst into tears when I realized that the actress playing Sally Bowles couldn’t sing worth a damn ruining the score.

The original "Wilkommen" is really quite something. It was ballsy to start off your show with something that is deliberately a little tacky and strange, but also satisfying as Broadway entertainment. Unlike the sexier Emcees of the Mendes revival, Grey's Emcee is a horrifying creation - all leering eyes, jackal grin, and grotesque behavior. I've always been fascinated in that Tony clip with the gay male couple who make an appearance. They just existed in the periphery of the production as patrons of the club, and also dance together in "Telephone Song." It shows the relative freedoms of 1929 Berlin before National Socialism. To think that Cabaret presents all of this within its first five minutes, and to an audience 19 years after the end of World War II was really audacious. Prince commented in one book about not being able to do everything they wanted with the original production (including the "wouldn't look Jewish at all" lyric in "If You Could See Her"), because they were already hitting the audience with so much. It's one of those shows that even though it has been around all of my life, you marvel at how it was ever produced in the first place.

Hair was produced around that time too. It was self indulgent while Cabaret had a lot of discipline and subtlety -- but it was just as challenging in many ways.

Any photos/video of the Birdie bulge? What scene was this -- when Conrad interrupts Mr. MacAfee's rant?

That Bye Bye Birdie was also memorable for being the only time I can remember Bill Irwin delivering an unbelievably awful performance.

Its also interesting to see that the original Wilkommen is fast and seemingly shorter than the self indulgent version in the Mendes. The tempo, the lack of added bits, it just barrels through

R318, you are seeing an edited performance of Wilkommen for the Tony awards, not a bootleg. In performance. Television performances and cast albums were much more edited back then.

I thought both the CABARET versions—Mendes and Prince—were terrific. Can the original never be produced any more?

Actually,when a woman is playing the role the Mary Sunshine 'reveal' goes from Mary being a man to Mary being a whore. She wore a sexy lingerie and garters under her drab MS costume. Not as much fun.

R245 they're supposed to be men's shoes. That picture is from the "If They Could See Me Now" scene where Vittorio gives her his tap shoes to show her friends and prove they met, and she puts them on.

[quote] [R318], you are seeing an edited performance of Wilkommen for the Tony awards, not a bootleg. In performance. Television performances and cast albums were much more edited back then.

The 1967 Tony performance of "Willkommen" is the full number, as written and performed in the original version. There are no edits. All that dialogue about the cabaret girls ("Rosie ... Lulu ... Frenchie etc.") and boys ("Bobby ... Victor... there's only one way to tell the difference") was added for the Mendes version.

R323, I do not know the script so I do not really know what you are talking about. However, it was common to cut some dance, verses, business and interactions for video in those days.

Looking at the Tony video it feels like there might be some choreography cut. And that would be typical for Tony and television presentations of that time (and even today).

Again - there is nothing cut. The 1967 Tony Awards performance of "Willkommen" is the entire number as written and performed in the original production. There IS a shift in the Tony number where it sounds like they switched from live orchestra and vocals to audio from the cast recording after Grey says "We are here to serve you." But nothing is missing.

[quote] Any photos/video of the Birdie bulge? What scene was this -- when Conrad interrupts Mr. MacAfee's rant?

No, R307, This is the sound of lonely.

I want Gavin gossip. He can’t be all that squeaky clean that there is nothing to tell.

[quote] He can’t be all that squeaky clean

We did a show with him for a year and can tell you the one thing he wasn't was squeaky clean. Especially downwind.

I always wondered how much Barbra Marilyn Michaels did in the Funny Girl tour.

Nolan Funk was stripping for a living when he was cast in BBB. That should tell you all you need to know.

[quote]I don’t know if Stamos was well cast in Bye Bye Birdie, but the people I know who’ve worked with him adore him. He’s one of those rare TV stars who comes in with a good attitude.

I've always heard good things about him. I think he knows he's not hugely talented, but he's had a terrific career because he's easy to work with and reasonably proficient in anything he does (acting, singing, etc.)

Somethin' wrong with strippin'?!

[quote]nothing is allowed to be subtle or unclear or ambiguous anymore

Um, hello? Have you seen our show?

Not to derail this thread with more Cabaret posts, but it is an interesting topic, and a well done play. I think the major difference between the Joel Grey MC and the Mendes-directed MC is that you can be amused and not frightened by the Mendes MC. He is a clown, and eager to please. We can laugh at him, and know that sitting at a table with him would be harmless entertainment. With Grey, though, he is creepy because he seems untrustworthy, and evil. He would sell your soul for a good martini. He seems dangerous and his moral questionable. At least that's how I take them. You aren't comfortable with the original MC because he could be the devil, but the Mendes MC is just a performer.

R333

No. No one has actually SEEN the Band's Visit.

Those who have experienced it take a vow to only discuss the experience in the most vague terms. Beautiful is acceptable. Calling it subtle pretty much borders on spoiler territory.

Hey -- I play the drums. Can I be in "The Band's Visit?"

The problem with the Band’s Visit isn’t that it’s subtle. Rather, it’s boring. Nothing happens. There are no stakes.

I don't know Gavin. But Broadway actors I do know say, consistently, that he's a natural, substantial guy. And I'm lost as to why strangers feel the need judge his personal life.

Another thanks to R300 for the "single-o" definition. I'd thought it was just a filler syllable.

I didn't think the Band's Visit was boring. I thought it was subtle, for sure, though, and its pleasures crept up on me. It made me think about all those people whom I might have randomly met in small nothing towns, how they got there, and how they would never leave, and all the missed connections that could but don't lead to anything. It is sad and poignant.

R337

Uum Kultum used to sing songs that celebrated killing Jews:

In May 1967, just before the Six-Day war she was heard on Radio Cairo and Radio Damas singing "Slaughter, slaughter, slaughter and have no pity ..." towards the Zionist Israeli. In 1969 it was followed by another one "Asbaha al-Ana 'indi Bunduqiyyah" (Give me a rifle).

Nothing happens but the stakes are still very high.

So in a way this thread and broadway itself kind of comes full circle with the info in your post R341. The road was winding. But get there we did.

And I loved THE BAND'S VISIT. Have seen it twice. I think it beautiful, subtle, and I felt the stakes were crazily high. Insanely high. Though in a subtle way clearly for some. The stakes start with two opposing cultures. Then identity, marriage, grief, loneliness and love. How much higher can stakes be? I think it is very artful in every way. And am glad that it's subtle and not to everyone's liking.

It seems “Cabaret” is this years “Follies”

Unlike Follies, at least Cabaret is satisfying, and hasn't lost millions for its investors time and time again.

Follies can't have done too badly for the National -- they're bringing it back starting 14 Feb.

If anyone's even remotely interested in seeing what Pretty Woman looks like on Broadway...

"Those who have experienced it take a vow to only discuss the experience in the most vague terms"

Because there's no there there.

I think it's just the opposite, r334. Cumming was a louche, grinning death's head from the very first second, Grey a tuxedoed, charming conferencier who invited you in (hence the opening number), blindsided you with showbiz (which of course was the m.o. for nearly every K&E show thereafter) till you sucked into the vortex of moral catastrophe.

I didn't hate that number from Pretty Woman. It wouldn't make me want to run out and buy tickets, but shit, it's certainly miles better than the shit Mean Girls threw up at the Tonys.

R388 is new if he or she thinks personal lives are off limits in Datalounge. Those spazz theater chat boards are probably a better choice.

R388 is so new here, they don't even exist yet!

Wow, I did hate the clip from PrettyWoman. Banks is adorable -- she was wonderful in Amalie - but that clip? Painful. I hate that whole money = class nonsense, and I find it offensive that he is bragging about the money to the store manager. It's tacky and absurd.

R346 they all do a great lipsyncing job but the the Pretty Woman herself, Samantha Barks, has a great voice.

Too bad everything else looks like a Broadway cliche

[quote]Nolan Funk was stripping for a living when he was cast in BBB

Following extensive private callbacks with Robert Longbottom.

[quote]Actually,when a woman is playing the role the Mary Sunshine 'reveal' goes from Mary being a man to Mary being a whore. She wore a sexy lingerie and garters under her drab MS costume

Maybe now, but not in 1975 in the original, at least not at first. And Mary’s costumes (she had more than one) in the original were hardly drab. The original production was quite colorful all around, especially Mary’s first costume.

Another Cabaret post in reference to something mentioned upthread:

There was a West End production at around 2005/2006 that starred Anna Maxwell Martin as Sally with James Dreyfus as the Emcee, directed by Rufus Norris. It's been on the touring circuit a few times since then - at least once with Will Young as the Emcee.

I saw a Saturday matinee late in its original run - Maxwell Martin had left, I think, but I definitely saw Dreyfus - and I remember there were lots of ladders that were moved and rotated across the stage, and while there was less raunch there was more nudity than in the Mendes version. What I *do* remember is the extraordinary final image: The Emcee is standing in front of one of these ladders and at the final 'A bientot', he undid his coat and turned round, the coat dropped to the floor and he stood there naked; other members of the ensemble stood with him, their backs also turned to the audience. They stood grouped and shivering. It began to snow. A light shone from the top of the ladder, which resembled a watchtower.

It ain't subtle, but it was very effective.

A variation of the Mendes version, where the Emcee is put in a camp and hits the electrified fence at the end.

But that's why the Mendes version is SO heavy-handed--CABARET is not specifically about Nazism but moral abandonment in general. Prince's inspiration and reference point for CABARET were not the death camps but the turbulent race issues of the 60s.

Thanks, R358. I was writing a post saying something very similar. It really is not concerned about the end results, more the onset. And if you miss it, it's all in the lines that get repeated in the ending, when the show is sort of vomited back up: Sally's apathetic "It's politics darling, and what has that got to do with us?" Or Schultz's oblivious "I understand these people. For I am German." (I'm paraphrasing). A Holocaust coda will always pack a wallop, but it's not really what the authors, going all the way back to Christopher Isherwood, were writing about.

[quote]There IS a shift in the Tony number where it sounds like they switched from live orchestra and vocals to audio from the cast recording after Grey says "We are here to serve you."

I agree with r325. When they go into the dance portion, it sounds like they do a shift. I imagine they weren't working with their regular orchestra and didn't want to rehearse that entire sequence, so they just did the cast recording starting with the ensemble dance portion. And maybe they just couldn't mike the entire cast singing in the same way in their performance and so just had Grey sing live and everyone else lip synch.

As someone has said about West Side Story, I think any production of Cabaret is never as good as the one you have in your head.

And Cabaret has a long-ass first act. I think it runs nearly 90 minutes and then Act 2 only runs less than 30.

That Anna Maxwell Martin Cabaret was too weird. It went over the top. Sometimes less really is more.

Jen Tepper assisted Tom Viertel, Steve Baruch, and Marc Routh, waaaaaaaaay more powerful than Davensnort! They hated Phil Bond so they fired him at 54 Below and brought in Tepper who TRIPLED business. She’s the voice of young Broadway and is 100% a nice gal.

Looks like that William Ivey Long story made little to no splash.

That story probably came as no surprise to anyone in the business, but it's odd that nobody's demanding his head on a spike.

[quote]Looks like that William Ivey Long story made little to no splash.

Well, what fun is that?

It's like r311 noted above, r359: metaphor has fallen into desuetude on our stages and in our culture. Everything is presented with the sledgehammer of literality. I could go on...but why bother?

You are heat, R365. A flame that thaws the iceberg with its heat.

The WIL story is absolutely the talk of Broadway and the entire theater world (who were all VERY aware of the issues). Not just about the sexual harassment but also the horrible abuse of his assistants and costume shop labor.

But everyone's disappointed that it doesn't seem the story will go any further.

I saw Alan Cumming and Emma Stone the first time I saw a professional version, so close to the end of the re-revival’s run. I don’t know what Cumming was like earlier in the run, but his Emcee unexpectedly . really wanted the audience to like him. He was very charming. I could see taking him home and cuddling afterwards. While Joel Grey in the movie is really weird and off-putting. No one’s taking him home.

[quote]It also perfectly encapsulates what's wrong with most musicals these days (and with American culture in general): nothing is allowed to be subtle or unclear or ambiguous anymore. Every intention and emotion is clearly signalled to the point of exhaustion.

Agreed. There seems to be a general assumption that modern audiences are stupid and therefore unable to comprehend subtext . Also, remakes of movies of revivals of old shows are more explicit than the originals simply because they CAN be, whereas back then such explicitness wouldn't have been accepted. Which of course doesn't mean the more explicit versions are better, and in fact, they're often nowhere near as good.

RE the William Ivey Long story. It is true it seems to have no legs. I wonder if that is because the person accusing him seems to be doing so for the publicity of it, so, instead of giving a conniver what he wants, people are just ignoring the story? If it were someone who continued to work in the industry and was respected, it might have had more effect. I trust that a great deal of the story is true, but it is mitigated by the fact that he is bringing it up now just for attention. Given his naked photos and his profession, he traffics in an area that is somewhat smutty, so it's not like he's an altar boy who was exposed to something so far from what he seems to enjoy.

Let's put on a show.....

Is James Dreyfus openly gay?

If the WIL story has faded any, it can only have helped that Playbill and BWW never covered it at all. And on BWW's message boards, a thread on the story was aggressively pruned by moderators.

Ev'ry secret prayer

Ev'ry fancy free....

they were you, r366...

[quote]anybody have a barn?

Sure!

Is Kyle Selig the hottie from Mean Girls gay?

Good question. I've wondered the same.

The reason that the WIL story has no legs is because as far as the media concerned it's about gay men over the age of consent. The media aren't interested in any narrative (#MeToo-driven or otherwise) unless it involves imperilled (white) women or children.

'Twas ever thus.

R372 Yes, he is.

How harsh will the Pretty Woman reviews be on Friday morning?

Certainly not as harsh as Gettin' the Band Back Together's....

R367, what sort of horrible abuse are we talking about? Has he had any Jeff Loeffelholz-type incidents? Or is this just millennials angry they're not being praised every 15 minutes?

They couldn't be worse than Gettin' the Band Back Together's this morning.

But the critics will no doubt be cruel as PW follows 3 other clunkers: The Cher Show, Head Over Heels, Be More Chill. The critics are sick of it all.

The WIL abuse is exactly like what Jeff L was subjected to, only more humiliating, more public and more constant. And it's not just for millennials as it goes back as far as baby boomers. It's legendary in the costume world.

The Jeff Loeffelholz incident hardly qualifies as "horrible abuse." In fact, we have only the bloggers' allegation that there was abuse at all.

The WIL story has no legs because nobody really believes it. Yes, he is a horrible person. Yes, he treats his assistants, costume shop people, *and* actors terribly. (Equity has called him on the carpet at least twice.) However, none of it is sexual. He has no reputation as a groper.

Also, he is very litigious. Remember why there was an article about the high cost of Broadway and a dresser wrote a letter to the editor with several examples of how WIL's choices drove up the cost of Crazy for You? He sued her and the wardrobe union. I am sure his lawyers are all over this. And, no, this does not contradict my first paragraph.

Personally, I've never met a non-handsy costume designer (male or female).

R387, usually the draper or the costume shop manager is the handsy one. The costume designer usually does not touch the actor. This actually taught in school. Designers do not take measurements, etc. The reasoning is that you are *the designer*. You don't do manual labor. It is easy for a designer to get into the trap of being expected to do costume construction as well, yet nobody expects a professional set designer to build his own sets or a lighting designer to make his own lighting equipment.

Did any of you London gays see 'Fucking Men'?

R389, Another fucking play based on fucking La Ronde? Fuck no. Fucking adaptations of that fucking play are worse than fucking Gypsy fucking revivals.

Trashy Tuesday!

Regarding CABARET and "I Don't Care Much" ..... Kander and Ebb wrote in their memoir that they were at a dinner party and took a bet that they could write a song between dessert and coffee. That song they wrote was “I Don’t Care Much.” They tried inserting it into the original 1966 Broadway show, but it was cut. It eventually landed in the Bob Fosse movie version of Cabaret, and was added back to the Broadway revival.

"I Don't Care Much" is not in the movie. I think it first reappeared in the 1987 Broadway revival.

[quote] you are seeing an edited performance of Wilkommen for the Tony awards, not a bootleg

r319 I was looking at the full number from the 87 revival that r28 posted so it's the whole thing, and Wilkommen is pretty fast

I brought I Don't Care Much to the attention of the world, thank you very much.

R395, What am I, chopped liver?

Has anyone heard anything about THE TRUE? I like Edie Falco but I've never seen a Sharr White play.

r396 - Basically.....yes

I saw F*cking Men Jr at a local middle school. Enchanting!

bump

[quote] Has anyone heard anything about THE TRUE? I like Edie Falco but I've never seen a Sharr White play.

Sharr White is a bullshit writer. Stay away.

Is Ariel Stach'el gay?

R402, I'm more curious about his hot co-star, Adam Kantor.

Adam Kantor is beautiful. Has he ever been attached to anyone? It seems like the most important woman in his life is his grandmother, which is cute.

r404 That's it, then. He's gay.

Several threads ago, someone mentioned Adam Kantor and his ex-boyfriend, and said he is openly gay.

R376/R377, here is Kyle Selig in high school winning the Jimmy Award

r407 He's doing an accent. 😂😂😂

He pretty much has to scream just to get to mezzo forte.

Thanks, R374. I think it's a great show but one that either people really love or pretty much hate. I find it touching and "They Were You" is a fantastic duet that encompasses that emotion.

Does he have BDF?

No, he doesn't.

Adam Kantor is straight.

Adam Kantor ate my hole!

Mlop was very helpful on All That Chat today.

Some poor soul wanted the souvenir program to Carousel and wondered where to find it (besides the theatre itself, having already seen the show). For hours, no one bothered to answer, but then it was Mlop to the rescue.

Doesn't that make you feel guilty for mocking her in the past?

It depends on how Mlop answered.

I don't think we mock her in a vicious, unloving manner, r414........

Adam Kantor is most definitely not straight, you dolt.

[quote] Adam Kantor is most definitely not straight, you dolt.

Sorry to ruin your fantasy, but there are plenty of gay theater boys to choose from.

Adam is not straight.

Adam gives world class blowjobs.

Adam Cantor in Last 4 Yrs was ass amazing event for JRD fan

Adam Cantor for matinee tour Dolly!

R 418

I know him really well, you dolt. He’s gay.

Speaking of Cabaret and the Emcee role, Matt McGrath was awful and I have no idea how he managed to keep the role for an entire year. Just God Awful.

Adam Kantor is one hot piece

is there no love lost for The Fucking Visit?

THE (FUCKING) VISIT was such a slog... I remember sitting next to Tommy Tune for the interminable (one-act) duration at a Tony voters performance and he was nonplussed. I'm sure the intentions were right, but it was just DOA in every way. Not even taking into consideration the commercialization of Broadway in the 21st century, sorry... there was no place for this. Now, or ever. Even with Angela Lansbury or Shirley MacLaine it would have been a WTF?! "Yellow Shoes"? Please.

[quote]Speaking of Cabaret and the Emcee role, Matt McGrath was awful and I have no idea how he managed to keep the role for an entire year. Just God Awful.

Maybe he kept the job for a year because he was actually good and it's you that sucks?

No, I would agree with that assessment of Matt McGrath - he just wasn't good, and I'm a fan of his and was looking forward to seeing him in the part. I saw him with Gina Gershon, who also wasn't good, but she was way better than he was.

[quote]I know him really well

Well, I hope you let him know about all his admirers who are lusting after him on DL.

The Visit was just plain bad. The creators clearly did not understand the material. Claire Zachanassian cannot vote at the end. This is a major plot point. For all of her wealth and power, she has no voting rights. Women did not gain the right to vote in Switzerland until 1971. The musical is full of these major misunderstandings of the source material.

The production looked like it was from the Peterborough Players. Chita's dress was so badly made; I am surprised Ann Hould Ward allowed it on stage.

Roger Rees was wonderful. I am really surprised that he was only nominated for a Drama League Award.

Is it true that Gavin attempted to blow Will Swenson during Hair but Will couldn’t get hard?

[quote]Speaking of Cabaret and the Emcee role, Matt McGrath was awful and I have no idea how he managed to keep the role for an entire year.

He was probably signed to a year's contract or they couldn't find anyone with a big enough name to stick in there.

R412 umm no

Chita gives the class and the sass.

R436, but she could never remember which hand was ivory. Often she gave up trying and had two perfectly good hands. Bad acting.

Matt McGrath had a year long contract and they were stuck with him? Clearly Leslie Stifleman wasn't conducting. And, speaking of McGrath, was he fired or did he quit BITB. Also, very impressive that only one BITB actor missed only one performance (and one had to be canceled) during the run.

In The Visit, it was difficult for us to hear Chita singing Angela Lansbury's songs.

R401, I’ve seen a few of Sharr White’s plays.

The Snow Geese was AWFUL and Mary Louise Parker was dreadful in it.

Annapurna was worse than The Snow Geese despite interesting performances by Megan Mullalley and Nick Offerman.

The Other Place was best of this lot and Laurie Metcalf should have won the Tony.

I’ll see The True but only for the cast. Falco’s always beyind good and John Pankow, Michael McKean, and Peter Scolari are always interesting to watch. White’s name won’t get me to the theatre but this cast will.

Mrs. Leslie Odom, Jr. to make her Broadway debut in "Waitress."

That Be More Chill musical is just...UGH

Tweet by Seth Rudetsky:

Five cabins just became available on the Sept. 1st Seth’s Big Fat Broadway Cruise to the Norwegian Fjords! Come join me, RaminKarimloo, ChitaRivera & JennaRussell for stunning scenery, a fancy-shmancy ship and non-stop Broadway! Email SethRudetskyAsst@gmail.com

If part of the experience was getting to rim Ramin I’d be all in.

[quote]Five cabins just became available

Five performers must have quit.

[quote]The Visit was just plain bad. The creators clearly did not understand the material. Claire Zachanassian cannot vote at the end. This is a major plot point. For all of her wealth and power, she has no voting rights. Women did not gain the right to vote in Switzerland until 1971. The musical is full of these major misunderstandings of the source material. The production looked like it was from the Peterborough Players. Chita's dress was so badly made; I am surprised Ann Hould Ward allowed it on stage. Roger Rees was wonderful. I am really surprised that he was only nominated for a Drama League Award.

I would say that a woman's right to vote is a very minor plot point of THE VISIT. The main point is that everyone in town becomes willing to kill Claire's former lovely in order to secure her huge donation to the town.

THE VISIT was far better down at Signature in D.C. area than it was in the Broadway production. I like some of John Doyle's work, but sadly, he screwed this one up big-time. I think it's a pretty great show that just needs to be well cast and well directed. Sorry to say, Roger Rees was not wonderful in the performance I saw at the Belasco, but (as it later turned out) he was so ill by that point that I'm sure he had on-nights and off-nights.

Sorry, "former lover."

Anyone else think that Leslie Odom Jr is insufferable? I hope he fizzles out.

[quote]Anyone else think that Leslie Odom Jr is insufferable? I hope he fizzles out.

He's getting major work in movies like the recent starry "Murder on the Orient Express." So if he doesn't get other major gigs, he's either not talented or a royal pain in the ass because that movie was high profile.

I've liked Odom elsewhere but he was really underwhelming in ORIENT EXPRESS, a completely unnecessary remake of a classic, entertaining movie.

That version of the movie was terrible and Odom was bad in it.

He's very try-hard. His vocal performances are oddly cold and contrived and controlled, like he's simultaneously enthralled by the sound of his own voice and terrified that it's going to break.

Everybody was bad in that movie. It was even worse than the first one, which boasted some of the worst acting ever seen in a feature film.

R445, it isn't a minor point in the original (yes, I have read the German version.) If you are only familiar with the Maurice Valency translation, I can understand the confusion. In the original, it is more obvious why she needs a male entourage. the fact that In the original, Ill gets the credit for the town's new wealth in the end, not Claire.

[quote]the fact that In the original, Ill gets the credit for the town's new wealth in the end, not Claire.

R445, even though the town may "thank" Ill for their newfound wealth -- just before they kill him -- that's just political doubletalk. Everybody knows where the money came from, and why. And though the reasons why Claire needs a male entourage are interesting, I still say the major point of the story is that the townspeople are willing to sell their souls and kill one of their most popular fellow townspeople to secure Claire's huge monetary donation to the town and its citizens.

[quote]If part of the experience was getting to rim Ramin I’d be all in.

With my luck, I'd get his understudy. And it would turn out to be Seth Rudetsky.

Leslie would have been perfect opposite Harry Connick, Jr. in "The Sting", but that POS is DOA.

No hot high school boy starring in musicals is straight

R454, that is a simplistic interpretation. It is far more complex than that. Ill basically forces Claire to sell her body into prostitution, by denying that the baby is his. Claire, in turn, forces Ill to sell his body for the town. Claire marries and divorces three husbands during the course of the play. Claire's ivory hand and prosthetic foot are indications of her loss of power due to men (it is implied that both the auto crash and the plane crash were not accidents. She makes a point of saying that she is "unkillable") The play is full of such contrasts of the power of men and the power of women. They are not there as filler. They exist for a reason.

The fact that Claire cannot vote serves another purpose other than the power dynamic between men and women. At the time, the death penalty was outlawed in Switzerland. This is brushed off as unimportant by the magistrates, but the fact that a woman can not vote is considered absolute. Again, we have a contrast between the death penalty and the right to vote for women. Greed and its corrupting influence is part of the play, but so is the corruption of the rule of law (both the paternity suit and Ill's "trial") and the role of women in society.

Everything's Up To Date In Ashland, Oregon

That production seems like a missed opportunity. They didn't call it Oklahomo?

Does Ado Andy sing "I’m Just A Gurl Who Can't Say No"?

[quote] That production seems like a missed opportunity. They didn't call it Oklahomo?

There's a (quite funny) play written by Justin Tanner called Oklahomo that was a fairly sizable hit in the early aughts in Los Angeles.

I think this sounds like a terrible idea (just like having a woman play Bobby in Company). Just because you can reinvent something doesn't mean you should. There's nothing in either interpretation that (at least on the surface) screams out- Holy shit, I see this play in such a new light! How amazing! How intelligent!

[quote]The idea came to Bill Rauch in the early 1990s: What if he directed a production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” where the lovers were same-sex couples?

And he should have pushed it out of his head immediately. It's such a really stupid idea. Write your own damn musical, but stop screwing with the classics.

There was also a gay porn video called Oklahomo.

Ok, fuck this! If Bobby can be a girl in Company and Oklahoma can be changed into a story about gay and lesbian lovers, I can play fucking Mama Rose in Gypsy. Come on! Someone reinvent Gypsy for me.

And now.....a tribute to the legendary Helen Lawson!

[quote]I can play fucking Mama Rose in Gypsy. Come on! Someone reinvent Gypsy for me. —Every Gay Actor Ever

Kurt already did it on Glee.

I think in The King & I, Anna should be played by a drag queen. Think of the possibilities it opens up.

r465 We all know Hugh Jackman is elbowing his way to the front of that line, even though he's straight.

The only reason I want to see the new London Company is to see Jonathan Bailey sing Getting Married Today. And, OK, I haven't seen Patti LuPone on stage since Anything Goes at Lincoln Center. I'd also be interested in seeing how Sondheim tweaks his own lyrics to suit the switched genders. (At least he gets to do it, not some dramaturg in Oregon.)

Christ, Hugh Jackman would be a horrible Rose. Now, Nathan Lane, THAT could actually be legitimately good and not in a "so bad, it's good way."

r471 Well, yes, but Hugh doesn't know that!

^And he obviously wants Zac Efron to play Louis (Gypsy Bro Lee).

Leslie Odam Jr's wife will definitely heat up the box office!

r474 = Jada Pinkett Smith, bisexual lesbian

Are Gavin Creel and Henry Gottfried still a couple? Cuz Henry just took over male lead in Waitress so it's adorbs if they'll both on bway at the same time

R458, your points about the original play are all well and good, but we're not talking about the original play, we're talking about the Broadway musical. Claire voting pointed out the absurdity of the whole process.

John Doyle took a knife to every bit of humour, levity, and comedy in the show. Would love to see the SIgnature version as the version that is eventually licensed.

Judy break!

No straight man marries a woman who is 13 years older and looks like this.

Deborra-Lee for Herbie! Or maybe Miss Mazeppa if she's not big on drag.

R445, George Hearn was quite good in The Visit/DC.

R478 - wish I'd saved the Radiohead version of that Judy clip. It was so well edited.

I know you'll all say I'm naive, but Hugh and Deb seem genuinely happy together. I think there's real love there.

[quote]The only reason I want to see the new London Company is to see Jonathan Bailey sing Getting Married Today.

Will he be wearing a wedding dress?

[quote]There was also a gay porn video called Oklahomo.

So you've been watching our home movies?

The Visit at Signature in DC was a very different beast from what ended up on Broadway. Two acts and a better all-around cast and design. It was a much, fuller, deeper show there. Sometimes, Doyle's hatchet jobs work (Color Purple), but he managed to cut out the heart and soul of The Visit and Pacific Overtures one line at a time.

Roundabout should have brought in the Signature version. It was never gonna be a commercial hit, but considering how much money they made from Cabaret, it would have been the right thing to do.

Henry Gottfried is in Waitress for a limited time. Week or two. And there is nothing “adorbs” about that relationship. Boy toy relationships always fizzle for one reason or another.

[quote]The Visit at Signature in DC was a very different beast from what ended up on Broadway. Two acts and a better all-around cast and design. It was a much, fuller, deeper show there. Sometimes, Doyle's hatchet jobs work (Color Purple), but he managed to cut out the heart and soul of The Visit and Pacific Overtures one line at a time. Roundabout should have brought in the Signature version. It was never gonna be a commercial hit, but considering how much money they made from Cabaret, it would have been the right thing to do.

Agreed, 100 percent. Also, remember when THE VISIT was announced by the Public Theater years ago, and then that never happened? I wonder what that production would have been like?

and r429 I heard they hated each other

[quote]Anyone else think that Leslie Odom Jr is insufferable? I hope he fizzles out.

I met him once and he couldn't have been nicer.

[quote]considering how much money they made from Cabaret

Yeah, I was actually surprised they closed it not only the first time but also the "re-revival" from a couple of years ago. I thought it was such a moneymaker for Roundabout that they would've kept it open and just kept recasting it a la "Chicago" for the next five years.

I hope they're bringing in a name to play the doctor in Waitress cuz Mrs. Odom sure isn't going to be a big draw. Is Adrian Zmed available?

Adrian Zmed is closer to old man Joe these days

Am I supposed to know Mrs Leslie Odom for some reason? Is she going to sell tickets? Has she been in something?

Odom seems like he has a big ego. But it’s miniscule compared to Lin’s.

She’s hugely famous. Her husband sings "Nationwide is on your side" between segments of CBS This Morning.

Moulin Rouge closes this Sunday.

I'm surprised they closed the re-revival of Cabaret, too. They'd kept the first one running for years with different casts coming in. I know Cumming stayed for all 3 Sallys, but did they not realize they could replace him like they had before?

Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Odom can revive the Pearl Bailey/Cab Calloway "Dolly."

This cunt might get off easy. Check out the "See Also" sidebar; I didn't know about that.

Love the Judy and Charles Walters clip at r378 but was MGM suffering from wartime shortages that year? What a dreary design for such a wonderful number.

And please note the number was done with just 3 cuts. They had talent back then!

I understand The Visit, in fact it is quite straightforward. The plot that still gives me some trouble is Cats. Is Grizabella a prostitute? Does the corner of her eye that twists like a crooked pin an indication of her loss of power? I find that the show is so rich with symbolism that its difficult to really get all of it in one view.

Any help greatly appreciated.

That fucking cunt who killed Ruthie Ann Miles' kids ought to get the gas.

Also, she's only 44? I guess being able to drive wasn't the only thing she was lying about.

[quote] Is Grizabella a prostitute?

If not, then an alcoholic. She worked the pubs.

She flitted about the No Man's Land

From The Rising Sun, to The Friend at Hand

[quote]Henry Gottfried is in Waitress for a limited time. Week or two

Is he covering hottie Evan Todd's vacation?

[quote]Is Grizabella a prostitute?

Yes, she is. She gives blowjobs backstage. For free. She's so destitute they're her only meal of the day. But she can sing a mean "For meee! For meee! For meeeeeeee!"

[quote]No straight man marries a woman who is 13 years older and looks like this.

First she didn't look like that when they married 20 years ago, she's aged just like he did, and who are you to say what a straight guy is attracted to?

Liberace just couldn’t find the right woman!

When they first got married, she was just as good looking as he was and was the bigger star. She aged worse than he did but by all accounts they've remained very close and she, as his manager, has done very well for the two of them. They've both been openly supportive of gay causes and I'm not about to criticize either of them for how very successfully they've lived their lives. They came out of a different place and era.

In New York, when they are in town, which is frequently, they live in a triplex in one of those Richard Meier towers overlooking the Hudson River Park in the West Village. What I've always heard is that she and the kids had the lowest floor, the second floor was common space and the third floor was Hugh and his boyfriend. Some locked doors involved.

DLF for Grizzabella! Mr Mistofellees could in a coup de theatre use his conjuring turn to turn Hugh straight.

[quote]Is Grizabella a prostitute?

Well, she apparently worked in a cathouse.

R500 good luck at your audition hahaha

pretty woman opens tonight? critical bloodbath? will it matter?

[quote]Tony Award nominee Alex Brightman (School of Rock) will star as ‘Beetlejuice’ and two-time Lortel Award nominee Sophia Anne Caruso (Lazarus) will star as ‘Lydia’ in the world premiere Pre-Broadway engagement of the new musical comedy Beetlejuice.

Wonder how often he will be out of this show? He sure missed a lot in "School of Rock."

R503 Evan Todd is in Beautiful not Waitress.

Aren't they basically the same show?

Why are so many new shows opening this summer? It's a bit of a departure, no?

[quote]And, speaking of McGrath, was he fired or did he quit BITB. Also, very impressive that only one BITB actor missed only one performance (and one had to be canceled) during the run.

I am pretty sure he did go on. They cancelled one performance but then there were a few that required the standby to go on. Correct me if I am wrong. Seems odd they would fire him though, its a limited run and he is a good actor. Probably he just got a tv thing or something and they let him out of the contract.

Matt McGrath definitely went on for at least one performance, maybe two, in BITB. Did someone say otherwise?

McGrath did go on. I saw it. Yes, he was clearly unprepared. He had to yell “line” at least three times. But that wasn’t the problem. Fact is, prepared or not, he was really bad. Really bad. And not in the “If he’d only had more time” way.

[quote]McGrath did go on. I saw it. Yes, he was clearly unprepared. He had to yell “line” at least three times. But that wasn’t the problem. Fact is, prepared or not, he was really bad. Really bad. And not in the “If he’d only had more time” way.

Was this in previews? Standbys don't get an onstage or official rehearsal until after opening. Why would Mantello hire him if he didn't have a feel for the part?

r518 here again. My point being, wouldn't it be forgivable in previews with no rehearsal and never having been on the stage to call for line a few times?

[quote]McGrath did go on. I saw it. Yes, he was clearly unprepared. He had to yell “line” at least three times. But that wasn’t the problem. Fact is, prepared or not, he was really bad. Really bad. And not in the “If he’d only had more time” way.

I'm surprised to hear that. He has been excellent in several shows and movies, and he won a Lucille Lortel Award for "The Legend of Georgia McBride."

The Lucille Lortel Award simply doesn't have the cache of the Sarah Siddons, r520.

[quote]I'm surprised to hear that. He has been excellent in several shows and movies, and he won a Lucille Lortel Award for "The Legend of Georgia McBride."

could be he just didn't "get" the role or he is the type of actor who needs rehearsal. Some can just go out and do it at a drop of a hat and some need more preperation.

Did they fire him? Must have been serious because they would have to start from ground zero with the new guy and the actors would be uncovered for a week at the very least. Risky thing to do.

[quote]The Lucille Lortel Award simply doesn't have the cache

Oh, dear.

I love that R507 defends Hugh Jackman’s decision to marry a woman and pretend that he is straight as reflecting a “different place and era”.

Since he’s only 49 and has been married for 20 years that place and era would have been the late 90s in the musical theater world of Sydney.

Give me a break.

Coming in 2019. ARETHA!!!!!!!!

[quote]Coming in 2019. ARETHA!!!!!!!!

Stand back, bitches. This is my Tony!

Would love to have seen David Turner's take on BITB. Don't think he went on though.

[quote]Did they fire him? Must have been serious because they would have to start from ground zero with the new guy and the actors would be uncovered for a week at the very least. Risky thing to do.

I was thinking the same thing. David Turner was McGrath's replacement as the standby.

Matt went on once when Parsons broke his foot. No rehearsal, just tossed out in front of an audience, Anyone would suck under those circumstances. Then, instead of giving him a day of extended rehearsal, they cancelled the next performance and fired him. The tyranny of Rudin and Mantello.

[quote] Matt went on once when Parsons broke his foot. No rehearsal, just tossed out in front of an audience, Anyone would suck under those circumstances. Then, instead of giving him a day of extended rehearsal, they cancelled the next performance and fired him. The tyranny of Rudin and Mantello.

If that is true. What a disgusting way to treat an actor. Did they buy him out? I ask because technically, an understudy has to have 1 rehearsal before being put on. Granted, the "rehearsal" could be 10 minutes on stage and that's it. Anyone know if there is more to the story. I am disgusted by their treatment of Matt from what I've read here. Did they have to buy him out? What was the "cause" they fired him for? Being unprepared when he had no rehearsal to prepare him?

stanbys/understudies go on in previews all the time with that perfunctory "rehearsal" Sometimes they go on with the book Why didn't he? I've seen it done well and as long as the actor isn't buried in the book you forget its there pretty quickly.

R530, I believe Parsons was injured during the curtain call of the matinee performance of BITB on Saturday, May 12, then that evening's performance was canceled, then McGrath went on for one performance the next day (?), then the show was dark on Monday night, and then Parsons returned on Tuesday the 15th. Whatever, I hope it's not true that he was fired for being "unprepared," but it does seem like that's what happened.

I think Boys in the Band had its first preview 4/30 and Parsons was injured 5/12. Meaning McGrath was on contract for less than 2 weeks before he was put on. Stanby contracts usually start on the first preview. So if Rudin and Mantello wanted someone ready to go during previews they should have hired him earlier.

Maybe PRETTY WOMEN will actually get good reviews and surprise us all....

Or maybe Andy Karl's next show should be a one-man show, in the nude...

[quote]Maybe PRETTY WOMEN will actually get good reviews and surprise us all....

That won't be happening.

Jesse21 liked it! Isn't that enough?

Only if Jesse21 is Jesse Green.

Andy Karl plays Edward Lewis .... who was the first guy to do the musical ... another B-way guy ....who? Name escapes me now.

r539 Did you have a stroke mid comment? Or is this some sort of new game we are playing?

Steve Kazee, dear.

So the book writers are Garry Marshall and JF Lawton? Does this mean that no one actually wrote a book and they just refashioned the screenplay? Because JF Lawton is out of the biz and Garry is out of time.

And it can get all the bad reviews they can throw at it, it's minting money and will run.

Speaking of savage reviews, how are Head Over Heels and Gettin the Band Back Together doing after their beheadings?

You know how Pretty Woman is minting money? Well, Head Over Heels and Getting The Band Back Together are digging change out of the sofa cushions.

Does Andy Karl strip down in Pretty Woman? Does he let his wife in his (presumably) nicer dressing room?

They would be foolish not to have Andy Karl in at least a shirtless scene. After all, he's fucking a whore so it would certainly be easy to work it into the plot.

However......the sad thing about Pretty Woman is it finally proves that the right kind of name recognition is ALL the tourists need to gobble up tickets. Tootsie and Beetlejuice will probably carry this repellent notion further.

[quote]They would be foolish not to have Andy Karl in at least a shirtless scene. After all, he's fucking a whore

I may have given a few blowjobs to get where I am, but I am NOT a whore!

The only movie to Broadway musical that I am remotely interested in is Beetlejuice. I didn't love the movie, but I think the concept could be interesting enough to pull off a curious, bizarre play. I will not be interested if it hews too closely to the movie, but if someone takes the basic characters and runs with it and creates something wonderful and inventive and different and somewhat avant-garde, it could be interesting. I wouldn't write that one off quite yet. Is there of who is writing and directing and starring in it? They might have announced it and I missed it.

Alex Timbers is directing Beetlejuice, so it’ll at least look good. I forget the names of the writers (I think one of them is also working on King Kong), but they didn’t give me much in the way of hope.

Thanks R541. I didn't see Once, don't really know his work, but knew the actor starred in the Chicago staging. The Tony winner left the production due to family reasons, according to the press. So .... nice gig for Karl. And no, he needn't take off his shirt.

LOL R543

[quote]Fact is, prepared or not, he was really bad. Really bad. And not in the “If he’d only had more time” way.

Well, smell you.

[quote]Does Andy Karl strip down in Pretty Woman? Does he let his wife in his (presumably) nicer dressing room?

The theater was completely renovated ALL the dressing rooms are nice.

I’m not exactly attracted to Andy Karl. I don’t get it. But if I knew he had a 9inch dick, I’d get it more!

[quote]But if I knew he had a 9inch dick, I’d get it more!

You’re not gonna get it at all, bitch.

Any Michael Cerveris news? Haven't heard his name in quite a while.

Watching The Deer Hunter. Now there is a movie that is ripe for a musical interpretation.

Starring Ben Platt. R555!

A shirtless scene for Andy would actually be fitting for Pretty Woman. In the film, it's Richard Gere who shows more skin than Julia Roberts. Remember the tub scene with the close up of his nipples?

But is Ben the DeNiro character or Walken?

Also, do you know what I never liked about Pretty Woman? That their "real" date, the one without spending big bucks, is glossed over in a montage.

Jim Parsons was injured during curtain call of a Saturday matinee during previews. The evening show was cancelled since the standby wasn't prepared and hadn't been rehearsed. However, it was cancelled close to curtain time so it makes me wonder if they tried to get him ready. Show was dark on Sunday, McGrath went on Monday and Parsons was back on Tuesday. Two weeks later, McGrath was gone and David Turner took over immediately. And, the standbys attended rehearsals in LA with the cast.

r558 Streep

Oh, Deer! The Deer Hunter Musical with music by Jeanine Tesori. Staring Nathan Lane in the Christopher Walken Role, Adam Pascale in the Robert DeNiro role, and Sutton Foster in the John Cazale role with Ben Platt as Meryl Streep. Stro will direct. They'll probably cut Adams big number in the wedding scene, but it will still make a brief appearance in the overture.

I want a coffee table book entitled The Horse Cocks of Broadway. Who would grace the pages?

Susan can make rat puppets for the cage in the river

Pretty Women reviews are largely mediocre to downright negative.

Add me to the short list of people who really liked McGrath as the Emcee in Cabaret. I thought he was fantastic and Gershon surprisingly good. It was the 2nd time I saw it and I cannot remember who was playing Schultz and Schneider at that point, but I know Hickey was gone by that time.

I'll tell you who should have been nominated (and possibly won) that year was Michele Pawk as Fraulien Kost. She was amazing.

The Featured Actress nominees that year were Audra for Ragtime (she won), Mary Louise Wilson for Cabaret, Tsidii Le Loka for The Lion King (as Rafiki) and Anna Kendrick for High Society. Would we boot anybody or just add a fifth nominee slot?

How was Anna Kendrick seen back then? She was adorable and so young at the time. Was she considered a wunderkind? Was her nomination a surprise?

If it hadn't been Audra, then Mary Louise would have won it. Michelle wasn't a strong enough contender.

High Society was boring as shit. One long, boring slog.

Can Cheyenne Jackson ever swallow enough cum?

Pretty Woman costume design is so crappy that it manages to make Andy Karl’s bod look bad.

Somehow I never saw either iteration of Cabaret's Mendes revivals. The last time I saw it onstage was the late 1980s revival where Regina Resnik stole the production in Lenya's role. It was otherwise still excellent.

The Variety review of Pretty Woman is up. It sounds dreadful. Is anyone surprised?

[quote]Any Michael Cerveris news? Haven't heard his name in quite a while.

I think he's taking some well-deserved downtime, r554. He bought a place in New Orleans some years ago. He's always loved his music, and that's a great town for it. He's been laying low on social media as well. He is still working - did a couple episodes of Gotham and a recent one-off on Elementary.

Maybe Michael C. is having a hair transplant -- or just having some of the meadows of fuzz all over his body moved to the top of his (shorn) head. Hurrah!

I want to see Oh, Deer!

The Pretty Woman red carpet was pretty sad. Debbie Gibson was the biggest star in attendance. Eek.

Anna Kendrick was adorable in High Society and easily walked off with the show.

Agree about Michelle Pawk. When I saw Cabaret in previews she was the one I raved to friends about. Wasn't crazy about Mary Louise Wilson or Hickey.

No Marin Mazzie at Pretty Woman opening. I really hope she's doing ok but it's weird that she wasn't there to support her husband.

[quote]I want a coffee table book entitled The Horse Cocks of Broadway. Who would grace the pages?

The members of the BBDC in a group photo.

Let us not forget Miss Kendrick's memorable Cabaret/Showboat mash-up.

[quote]No Marin Mazzie at Pretty Woman opening. I really hope she's doing ok but it's weird that she wasn't there to support her husband.

What's really weird (and stupid) is that you allude to the very sad reason why we can guess Marin wasn't at the opening, and then you declare her absence "weird." Did you also find it weird that Ruthie Ann Miles didn't open in THE KING AND I in London?

Let's nor forget Anna's "Ladies Who Lunch."

Wow. Anna Kendrick had quite a nosejob I never realized

No she didn't R583. Have you seen her nose? She is still in the running for movie Elphaba in spite of being a light-legit soprano with an inadequate high belt because she looks more like Margaret Hamilton than any other actress out there.

I wonder if Kendrick will ever appear on Broadway again. She seems to still like musicals, given how many she has done, especially those Pitch Perfect movies, but no live since she was a kid. She could pull off Mame or Funny Girl. She has a distinctive enough persona that comes through, so you won't think that she is imitating those who have come before her.

I remember reading that she was in High Society to support her family. It's possible she didn't really love stage work and stopped once she was earning enough.

I think Kendrick will appear on Broadway but at this point, she's making way more money doing movies. She was also smart to take a lot of roles that weren't starring parts because that gave her some name recognition.

I was rooting for Kendrick for Eliza.

Yeah I know it's only DL, but R575 is just plain unkind and totally unnecessary. Always wonder what the people posting such tripe look like, do they ever leave their basements?

Gurl R562 knows her current-crop of musicals!

Really, R589? You should drop in on some of the other current threads.

can we end this thread before 2:00

and can someone with thread starting privileges start 318 as well as a new Broadway Sex thread since the last one was closed early

I like Anna Kendrick, but she still reads so young. Woman's in her 30s and she still looks like a child. I'm not sure what leading roles she could play in the musical theatre. How old is Annie in Annie II?

r580 Girl has huge feet. Huuuuuge. And her intonation was quite poor. (It got better in r582.)

Thinking of Andy Karl's dick tonight ... big, huge.

everyone here makes references to Andy's dick but his ass is awesome

If only it was attached to somebody else.

why? he's a lovely guy

please end this thread