THEATRE GOSSIP #321: "Losing My Mind in the Company of Follies Showgirls" Edition

The worst.

After all the Company chatter, I rewatched Original Cast Album last night. I hadn't seen it in years and had forgotten how fascinating it is and what a time capsule of 1970. And now I know what Dean Jones's tonsils look like, too. I still think his Being Alive is the best. And kudos to the orchestra for playing that scores tens of time in the studio.

Frank Langella is very cagey about his affairs with men in his previous book, poster from the last thread. He even writes that he told Noel Coward, "I'm not gay," which could technically be true, but Noel's response, "I knew it when I kissed you!," would seem to close the door on that subject. Except for his mooning over Raul Julia and Paul Newman and implying some kind of threesome with Julia and Jill Clayburgh in a dressing room when they were doing Design for Living (of course!) but never quite stating that sex happened. All his specific tales of sexual conquest and relationships in the book are about women.

So this seeming confirmation of the endless DL rumors is kind of news. Except there may never be a book where he talks about it, and the article seems to put it in the context of sex addiction, which is somewhat troubling. Oh, well. Just thought I'd share.

Speaking of Original Cast Album, I can't wait to see the Documentary Now parody.

Weird, I searched this thread and it would not come up. I had to scroll through the recent threads to find it.

Also, what a shitty thread title. OP sucks.

Farts

[quote] Speaking of Original Cast Album, I can't wait to see the Documentary Now parody.

Why, will they finally do something clever and funny?

We should have gone with something topical like the One True Troll King being huge.

Does anyone know when the Gwen Verdon documentary is coming out? I'm not talking about the Fosse/Verdon mini-series.

When I first saw the headline (the way it was described) I rolled my eyes a bit because I thought someone was just waving a small American flag on a stick. But then I watched the video and was just shocked. What an asshole! Good for that actor for doing that.

Verdon doc is still looking for finishing funds as far as I know. They really botched their crowdfunding campaign.

He hardly even needed to reach down to grab the flag. The Trumpers were really being inappropriate and too close to the stage with the display.

What on earth would make that Trumper fly that banner like that? It is inappropriate and just stupid. I am shocked that actors and performers have not been shot on stage yet. Security is minimal in theaters and in a lot of performance venues, and these people are all kinds of fucked up.

R13

Go to Hugh's instagram page and watch the flag-snatch. The Trumper was facing the audience and trying to get himself as far up on the stage as possible. He looks surprised that his flag disappears in the moment after it is taken.

Looks like the London Company revisal is updated to now (or now-ish), per the lyric change: "I'll call you in the morning or I'll text you and explain."

Great. Another Fucking Follies thread.

Seriously. The majority of the last thread was all about fucking Follies. I get that it's a slow time for Broadway, but damn. There must be something else to talk about.

Here's more of Mr. Hughes.

Someone talked about Tovah's performance in Kissing Jessica Stein at the end of the previous thread and I'd like to second what they said. She's really brilliant in that film and her monologue towards the end is some of the finest acting I've ever seen. I think she was good enough to get a supporting actress Oscar that year. I really do. That monologue alone was genius.

Unfortunately, musical comedy isn't her strong suit. She was passable in Hello, Dolly and just plain scary in Gypsy. No charm at all, which surprised me.

If you mean the monologue about the grade school play and the meeskite, I agree--it was a terrific speech and Feldschuh was wonderful there and throughout. Lovely film.

Maybe she's not such a heinous bitch after all R19!

Can someone post a link of Tovah's monologue from Kissing Jessica Stein. The only think I've seen her in is Crazy Ex Girlfriend, and she's brilliant. She is such a perfect bulldozer of a jewish mother, that I can't picture her as anything but.

I caught Skintight the last week before it closed and was pleasantly surprised - would make a nice HBO movie, perhaps with Richard Gere as the Calvin Klein figure.

Here it is. If the link doesn't work (and mine frequently don't), go to Youtube and do a search for "Tovah Feldshuh Kissing Jessica Stein" -- it will be the second or third listed.

Here she is mothering Idina in Tollbooth

Interesting, R15. I get why they'd update lyrics like that if they're putting Company in a contemporary setting. And, while it's true that many of the lyrical references are of their time -- like the phone service -- I think what gets overlooked is how much the MUSIC is of its time. Some of Sondheim's music from Company sounds VERY late 60s/early 70s. It's almost like Sondheim does Bacharach. It's one of the reasons I think they should keep it a period piece.

Obviously, this entire concept is flipping the premise on its head, but, still, changing a lyric from "service" to "text" doesn't suddenly make the music sound contemporary.

r25 Whatever updating they do, I sure hope they keep the original orchestrations, backup singers and all.

Whoopi and Frank has to be one of the strangest duo of bedfellows ever.

[quote]Great. Another Fucking Follies thread.

You're welcome!

This link might work better R23

Thanks, R29.

Looks like Alex Brightman's returning to the Winter Garden:

Thanks to those who posted the Tovah clips. As I said, I've only seen her in Crazy Ex GF, so it is odd seeing her younger. She looks lieke someone who was born looking like she's 70.

For me! For me! For me!

Tovah is very good in that scene (and was marvelous throughout the whole film) but that scene is way too overwritten. It feels scripted and not natural. It feels like the character has been saving it up for years to trot out. I suppose one could have pulled a "Cassavetes" performance on it, but that's not the style of this film and it would have been a wrong choice. Tovah did the best she could have with it.

Whenever someone links to some Broadawy chorus man's Insta, it's full of semi naked physique shots. Are they that narcissitic or did Instagram bring it out in them or do they need it now for visibilty and followers

r15 I think they may be kdding for the social post that might not actually be a new lyric for real

R35 I'm sure it's a bit of all three.

R34

It was not easy to get a mainstream film about lesbians finished even at the height of the indie movement. Both Tollbooth (minor lesbian character) and Stein stand out as well made movies.

Tovah clearly had a big part in making Jewish Lesbian movie a tiny functioning genre. This 'coming out' scene is a gem.

Marla Sokoloff. That's a name I haven't seen in a minute.

Why can't we just appreciate that hot Broadway guys post hot pics on Instagram?

"Then she has this amazing scene where she tells her daughter she knows her friend Helen is more than a friend and she lets her know she's perfectly ok with that. Tovah made me cry." (from the previous thread)

What's so beautiful about that scene is that, while she gives her blessing to her daughter, you know it goes against the grain of everything she believes in and holds near and dear to her. That's why Feldshuh is so brilliant--she nails the ambivalence of the moment. Great script, great acting.

Listening to the OCR of a well-received, Off-Broadway show from a few seasons back. It epitomizes EVERYTHING wrong and pointless about contemporary songwriting in today's musical theatre. Forgettable, untheatrical music, repetitive lyrics that go nowhere, the lazy default to "recitative," one undistinguished genre trope after another, no idea how to end a song to get a hand. If it ever gets to Broadway, it'll fit right in.

And that tempo of the IT WOULD HAVE BEEN WONDERFUL clip from the previous thread is what is called "tempo juste"---absolutely perfect and well-judged. The song is a lament---any faster and the comic tone would be lost. That's how it always played in the original production.

interesting about the tempo r41, it sounded dirgier than i'm used to hearing it

The first was the best.

A WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY was also performed at a slower pace in the show than on the OCR. Otherwise, those rapid-fire lyrics would never have landed in the theatre. That's why the subsequent Brit productions of the Sondheim canon (like the stunning SITPWG with Daniel Evans) work so much better than their American counterparts--the Brits' facility with language and attention to diction and meaning require a more precise and measured approach to the score than the faster-is-better method of most stateside productions, IMHO.

I love British theatre, but I'll have to respectfully disagree that the Brits' Sondheim productions have worked better than the US originals. Also, Daniel Evans seems like a genuinely lovely man, but that British Sunday production was severely lacking the heat and intensity that Bernie + Mandy generated, for me at least, because I didn't buy Evans as a heterosexual man for one second.

Definitive

Massive fail, OP. There were plenty of things you could have riffed on for your title, and you gave us the lamest one ever. Shame on you.

With regard solely to ALMN, I think the OBC is much better sung but the OLC is better acted. (For instance, the way Maria Aitken's Charlotte says, "Good..." in A Weekend in the Country makes me laugh every time.)

[quote]I didn't buy Evans as a heterosexual man for one second.

What gave it away? The dick in his mouth?

I just finished watching a DVD of the NT"s Angels in America. I saw the original productions in NYC when they first opened, and I think the revival was superior, or at least i enjoyed them more. The acting and directing choices were brilliant, with, I think, the exception of Nathan Lane, who simply was not frightening enough. Ron Liebman scared the shit out of me. Lane? Not so much. I thought Garfield played the character too broadly and not grounded in any reality, but i don't think it affected the tone of the play, the way having a cuddly comedian play Cohn did. I had never seen Russel Tovey in anything before, and he was a revelation. I thought his Joe Pitt was heartbreaking and real and sweet and vulnerable, whereas I could never quite warm to the character before. I suspect that Lee Pace played him a little colder, since I think he is a colder actor. But Tovey? Wow.

So my question is this: What do you think happens to some of the characters after the curtain drops? I think it's clear that Mama Pitt, Louis, Prior, and Belize become those people we see hanging around NYC. They are the fabric of the city. But what about the others? I wonder if Joe Pitt kissing Cohn on the lips in his final scene suggests that he will not be careful in his pursuit of sex with men, and will eventually contract HIV, or am I reading too much into that? And what about Hannah? I didn't like the character when I saw Marcia Gay Harden play it, but I loved Denise Gaugh's performance; she was loopy and charming, as compared to Harden, whom I thought was nagging and sullen. Will Hannah break her addiction and survive?

I'm glad it was produced again. I think it will become rarer and rarer that we see thought-provoking theater, and I miss it. I can't imagine wanting to discuss Mean Girls with anyone, and I won't for a minute wonder what happens to Regina after the curtain falls.

[QUOTE]And, while it's true that many of the lyrical references are of their time -- like the phone service

I have a feeling this question will get me hated, but when old shows refer to a phone service - is it just how people referred to the phone bill? Like the cost of line rental? Or was it some kind of service? If so, what kind?

An answering service, R51. Like voicemail, only with real people.

R48, Patricia Elliott's "good" has the same effect on me.

Think Bells Are Ringing, R51.

Yes, Judy Holliday's character in Bells Are Ringing worked for an answering service. Your (landline) phone calls were rerouted to the service where live operators took your phone calls and then called you with the messages according to whatever instructions you'd left about contacting you. Or you'd call the service for your messages. The bells in the title refer to the telephone ringing.

Dotty Loudon was brilliant. The footage of her singing and dancing to Easy Street on YouTube is amazing. No one could play that character or sing that song the way she did. Not Carol Burnett, not lifeling professional victim Betty Hutton, or Kathy Bates or Jane Lynch.

That Sondheim mash up is brilliant. I happened to be in the audience for that and the applause was rapturous. She was playing to the entire hall, so in 2018 the video taped version might seem odd, but really she was brilliant that night.

I loved her 1979 TV series too. The Dorothy Loudon Show was the exact same premise as Facts of Life. It was much better than Facts of Life. For season 2, Facts basically stole a character from the Loudon Show. Just changed her name from Frankie to Jo.

I loved how Dotty would interject things between the lines of the lyrics. "How do ya like it SO far??" What do they call that? Just scat?

r15 The caption says "Rehearsal Break Time". Those phones may or may not be part of the production. But I can't imagine that it doesn't happen in the present time, what with the gay couple. Just as important, is this production set in New York or London? Homosexuality became legal in the UK only in 1967, right?

[quote]I loved how Dotty would interject things between the lines of the lyrics. "How do ya like it SO far??" What do they call that? Just scat?

No, they call it being an overbearing ham.

On the other hand, it IS shit, so ...

It's called ad-libbing. And if it's directed to the audience, it's called breaking the fourth wall.

R50, didn't you post the exact same thing in the last thread?

Attention! There were gay couples in London in 1970.

Tovah was also brilliant as Liev Schreiber's mama and Anna Paquin's bubbe in A Walk on the Moon.

When she was good she was great.

Upthread, a poster said they only knew Tovah from some film... good Lord, start watching L&O! Not SVU or CI, just the mothership, L&O. She plays Danielle Melnick in multiple episodes. Oy, Danielle.

Jaysis, Loudon was just a big, manic slab o' ham on in that clip. Granted, she's doing for (overly) comic effect, but, here, Dorothy, let Bea show you how it's done.

R55 - I'm to young to have seen Dorothy Loudon on stage, but I'd argue it DOES translate. I used to check out the Sondheim Carnegie Hall album fron the library when I was a gayling... I didn't really 'get' her performance until I saw the video, though. She does so much with her eyes. Those clips of her at tribute concerts and at the Tonys are all wonderful.

Does anyone know what her background is? Like Carol, I get the impression there's some African American blood in her line.

[quote]Those clips of her at tribute concerts and at the Tonys are all wonderful.

I find her unbearable.

Tovah could have played Golda Meir in Spielberg’s film Munich but that old yenta who was in Sex and the City ended up playing her.

R63 - how funny. Bea sang that same song in a Golden Girls episode. Had no idea it was a fun throwback to Maude!

R59. I did comment on AiA in the last thread, but my comment was about the distance of the cameras from the stage, and how very little of it was filmed in close-ups. I did not comment about what might have happened after the curtain fell; perhaps someone else did? But, the play moved me, and it has stayed with me in a way that most plays do not, and I was hoping for a conversation or someone else's views on it, since I do not know anyone where I live who has seen both the original productions, and the revival. My post was a call into the void.

For R67:

Lynn Cohen was brilliant as Golda in "Munich," r66.

Thanks to R52, R53 and R54!

[quote]Or you'd call the service for your messages. The bells in the title refer to the telephone ringing.

Oh, is that what that refers too?

[html removed]

r60 I'm sure there were gay couples in London BEFORE 1970 as well. But "Getting Married Today" for a gay couple in London would only make sense circa 2014. It's quite clear that the long-term commitment Jamie/Amy was trying to back out of was marriage, the legal one, the one you go to a register office for.

r70 I agree! I loved her in the film.

What happens after the curtain falls in AiA??

Prior Walter DIES....of AIDS.....almost IMMEDIATELY!

No one cares about AIA, r75. Old news. The revival stank. Story over.

Wrong R76

The AiA discussion is fine.

I assume that after the curtain dropped the entire cast sat around discussing FOLLIES.

LOL funny, R78. Thanks for that.

r 41

What is the Off-Broadway musical that you found wanting?

Follies!!! Follies follies follies follies-follies, follies follies follies? Follies follies follies follies follies follies follies follies follies follies follies, follies follies, follies, follies, follies follies...

Follies follies follies follies follies; follies follies follies follies follies follies! Folli es follies fo llies fol.

Liesf ol liesf--ollie sfolliesfo llies follies follies folli--esf ollie. "Sfol liesfo llies, follies," fol lies. Follies'f olliesfol lies f olli esfoll; ies follies folliesfollies fol lie sfollie?!

Sfolli esf ollie sfolliesfoll iesf oll ies!!

As for AIA, only homosexuals here ever wonder what happened to the characters after the curtain fell. True theater people enjoyed the tech work, but oh God, that dreadful storyline.B.A.

Angel: Greeings Prophet. The great work begins!

Prior: Oh, you know what’s a truly great work? Follies. Have you ever seen it? The original production. It’ll never be topped. What are God's thoughts on Dorothy Collins?

[quote]Prior: Oh, you know what’s a truly great work? Follies. Have you ever seen it? The original production. It’ll never be topped. What are God's thoughts on Dorothy Collins?

Belize: Girlfriend, why were there no black people in the original Follies? Don't you think there were black singers and dancers? I think someone like Mr. Stephen Sondheim, who was Jewish, had ancestors who knew exclusion. So why did he exclude black people from his show? That Follies show was nothing but white people problems. Oh, I didn't marry the man I loved. Oh I'm losing my mind. White. People. Problems.

I'm going waaaay back here but Tovah was brilliant in Yentl on stage back in the 70's. That was a real star is born performance. Didn't she drop out for a while because one of her sons had a learning disability and she felt she needed to focus on family? I think her husband is or was a very successful lawyer.

Anybody else remember this. Based on a Brazilian (?) film that became popular in the US. It sold so well in previews the producers kept delaying the opening until the critics threatened to come anyway. It was a mini-scandal at the time. After the reviews came out, it closed in six months.

Tovah got a Tony nom.

In one of the old Law & Order threads, someone who had worked on the show posted some behind the scene stories. He said everyone hated it when her character recurred because she was such a bitch to work with. He said that she was never cast as a regular because of it.

WTF Sarava! sounds like a winner.

What is the deal with the Times Square Church? How did they get the property in 2009? WTF.

Well at least they are not Scientologists.

Yep, Tovah got a Tony nomination for Sarava! which never actually opened over Lucie Arnaz for They're Playing Our Song.

Tovah in that Kissing Jessica Stein clip is simply exquisite. And keep in mind that is a 3.5 minute uninterrupted take. That is how you know you are in the hands of a true talent. Most film actors would be lost without an editor cobbling their performance together. Although I loathe the expression when describing an actor, it is true here. She gives a master class. Brava!

Sarava did eventually open didn’t it? After the threat by critics to come anyway, it had an opening.

r89, Sarava! did finally open.

And then it closed.

If Sarava eventually did open then it opened after the Tony noms came out.

"Sarava! did finally open.

And then it closed."

What was on it's iPod?

The Follies original cast recording.

[quote] Yep, Tovah got a Tony nomination for Sarava! which never actually opened

[quote] If Sarava eventually did open then it opened after the Tony noms came out.

Nope. Sarava opened in Feb of 1979, well in advance of the cutoff.

Womp womp.

In fact, Sarava! closed in June just 2 or 3 weeks after the Tonys. I think they kept it open on the hope Tovah would win.

I LOVE when eldergays post obscure items like that Sarava! ad. Had never even heard of the show before. Anyway, speaking of Tovah, is it controversial to have actually preferred her to Andrea Martin in Pippin? I saw them both and while Andrea Martin was very good, Tovah managed to land all the same laughs, but somehow managed to ground a few moments in her brief on stage time with genuine emotion. It ended up being a more interesting performance to me.

Speaking of the 1979 Tony Awards, it sure worked out well for Henderson Forsythe and Carlin Glynn to be considered featured actors in Whorehouse.

And now that I'm looking it up, Sweeney Todd nearly went nine-for-nine, losing only the lighting design award.

Amar's understudy is replacing him for the remaining performances of Carousel.

Tovah was a wonderful ingenue in "Dreyfuss in Rehearsal", starring DL fave Ruth Gordon, Sam Levene and Avery Schreiber. That's how she got cast in "Yentl". Apparently there was full-frontal male nudity in "Yentl" during the bathing scene. Also apparently at least one of the guys who played her husband in "Sarava" showed his ass in that show. Tovah was also great in "Lend Me a Tenor" and got a Tony nomination for her hilarious performance.

Eat your yentyls!

I saw Lucie Arnaz in concert a few years ago. At the end of one of her songs she said Sarava!! and then muttered to the pianist that's the show that kept me out of the Tonys.

Avigdor, wait!

R106 No, her errant vibrato kept her out of the Tonys. But she did have a lot of great stage presence in the show.

Why are they announcing BEETLEJUICE for the Winter Garden when ALW wants PAINT NEVER DRIES in there?

[quote]The absolute WORST version of "Losing My Mind."

Was that from the same period when Stokes played Sweeney Todd? That was an equally odd performance. He must have been going through an odd phase or on some sort of bad medication!

It’s funny I’ve spent time with Tovah in both personal and professional scenarios, she’s been incredibly warm as a person, and very firm as an actor, but never a bitch, she is actually really great with the text, smart and open, but doesn’t suffer anything.

If you worked on L&O, you were expected to suffer a lot, r112. She was too good for that.

Meanwhile, anybody familiar with her famous Craigslist ads for an assistant?

the ad for an assistant comes up a lot on Playbill. Every few months it seems to appear. She doesn't pay very well so their must be high turn over.

Tovah isn’t a bad person, but she’s the kind of actress who is always doing things like arguing with the director, and giving unwanted notes to the other actors. At the end of the day, a pain in the ass, but not actually evil.

If you have concerns about your co-actors performances, you take them to your director. You don't give notes to your co-performers and to the director.

Ask Mandy Patinkin how that worked out for him shooting Heartburn.

Mandy gave notes? I thought he got fired for contacting Carl Bernstein?

I thought there was a table read and his part called for him to sing a bit of the "Soliloquoy" from "Carousel" and he couldn't stop himself and sang the whole number while they just sat there waiting for him to stop.

Nichols wanted Streep and Nicholson for Heartburn. Streep was available but Nicholson wasn't. So Nichols went with his second choice, the then film unknown Patinkin. By all accounts, Mandi immediately started giving acting notes to Streep and jumping in and out of Nicholson's carefully staged camera shots. According to whose account you read, by the second or third morning of shooting, after Streep had complained to the already pissed Nichols, Mandi was out. Nichols put in another call to Nicholson; his planned project had fallen through and he was now available. Patinkin was out on his ass.

Mandi later admitted in interviews it was the stupidest thing he ever did in his career. He blamed it on insecurity.

That is in the final film though r118. Nicholson keeps singing the whole song practically while Streep sits and looks annoyed. I have heard Patinkin say that he contacted Carl Bernstein in order to get the other side of the divorce.

Patinkin wasn't really unknown at this point. He had done a bunch of films most notably Yentl.

And I know Mandi had done Ragtime, Maxie and Yentl, but nobody knew he was until The Princess Bride, a year later. Heartburn could have made him an even bigger name a year earlier if he hadn't fucked it up.

My parents were friendly with Dorothy Loudon. She was never called "Dotty". She was always Dorothy and her husband Norman Paris was always Norman, never "Norm". They were very nice but surprisingly formal. They lived at 101 Central Park West but I think they faced the back. Still, it was a huge grand apartment.

Not to mention the way Mandi dropped out of Criminal Minds. It is indeed a violent and disturbing show, but did he bother to mention to the producers after season two that he just couldn't continue? No. He simply didn't show up for the first day of shooting for season three. Or the second day of shooting. Or the third. After that, the producers finally reached him and he said he wasn't coming back, despite having signed on for it. Production had to be shut down for several weeks.

After that, he finally agreed to come back for an afternoon's worth of shooting that allowed the producers to write him out in a two part episode. They should have immediately written him and his character out in an unshown vicious death.

R122, they had a famously happy lavender marriage. I don't know whether she was gay or bi but he was certainly gay. Yet they by all accounts were very happily coupled.

R102, thanks so much for posting that.

But did Dolores Gray go by "Dolly" or "Dot"?

I think people are just saying Dotty because that was her character in Noises Off.

Lucie Arnaz deserved the Tony for TPOS. Hopefully she’ll get another shot in a new Broadway show.

who was the pianist with dame edna r46?

R57 and R65 are part of the reason that Broadway sucks. We used to have performers who had personality and were larger than life. Thanks to a few very vocal numnuts who think tiny TV acting is the benchmark for all performances and who constantly criticize anyone who actually has a personality, we get bland an boring.

Tovah use to host the Broadway Beauty Pageant. I use to enjoy that show. Any idea why they stopped having it?

Jesus Christ, it’s MANDY Patinkin not Mandi.

thank you, R132.

A friend of mine has a portrait of Dorothy Louden on his wall. He said he bought it who knows where and didn't know who it was.. I looked n the back and it said her name and "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". He assumed that was who painted it.

I saw DL in Sweeny Todd. It was one of my first Broadway shows. I remember loving the show, but don't remember much of her performance, having seen the Great Performance production, and the last 3 revivals...they all sort of blur together. It's still the show I gage every show I see on...and that was almost 40 years ago.

He assumed that Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil painted the portrait? That makes perfect sense.

R135 - you obviously need coffee.

Not sure why people can't comprehend that Tovah is an incredibly talented performer, who has given several stunning performances on stage (amazing in YENTL) and on film—and still be a narcissistic, demanding nut job. Both are indeed possible in one person.

She'll make do with paper plates on occasion.

Mandy's narcissism and bad behavior can be described using actual incidents of his completely crossing the line over and over and over. But Tovah is literally maligned as being 'the sort of actors who' acts like Mandy.

Does she actually give other actors notes and refuse to take competent direction? If so, give a real example. Because Mandy did that sort of thing again and again (and it is less disruptive than people who pull unpleasant practical joke on others or sexually assault people) while Tovah only has a vague reputation as having been cranky on the set of Law & Order.

Apparently said to Mandy Patinkin during dress rehearsals of The Secret Garden: Mr. Patinkin, I only *play* your servant.

I've seen Tovah's ad for a Personal Assistant several times. I think the problem is that it's only part-time. There are no set hours, you're basically on call 24/7 and the pay is lousy. So the person really has to be independently wealthy to be Tovah's serv--er, I mean assistant.

^^This occurred when the actress was "too slow" to hand him his jacket, causing him to spin into a Mandy-patented rage.

[quote]This occurred when the actress was "too slow" to hand him his jacket, causing him to spin into a Mandy-patented rage.

And from the story I heard, the actress was too slow because she was caught behind a moving set piece which they couldn't move fast enough to allow the actors to get into position.

Which actress did he physically strike? Was it the late great DL fave Jan Maxwell? I do recall that she left a production (Wild Party?) because he was awful.

[quote]Which actress did he physically strike?

Toni Collette in The Wild Party. Toni was too nice and only reported him to Equity. If he struck or bit me, he would have had it returned in spades!

There were stories years ago that he physically abused his wife. They are still married.....

I did like Tovah in Yentl way back when and there were a couple of film performances she gave that I thought she was good in, but in all the stage performances since the 80s, she has overacted and chewed the scenery like nobody's business. She can be nice when she wants to be, and she's certainly not in Mandy's league, but lets not make her into Mother Theresa. I worked with her once. She was not nice.

Don't miss your chance to see Mandy off-off Broadway in a tiny theatre on East 4th Street coming soon!!!!!

Here's an original idea - post a link to youtube to a track from the OBC of Fucking Follies! Because no one here has ever heard it before!!!

Wish = Command

R150, how many versions of Fucking Follies lobby cards do you have hanging in your studio?

Snerk... Pretty good merch!

That's cute!

Oy, that tempo, R150!

To [R50] and [R68]:

For me the best production of AiA was at the Mark Taper Forum in the fall of 1992. The direction was more surreal, presenting the magic elements of the story as real, while the obc made sure to attempt to differentiate “reality” from “fantasy.”

What struck me most, though, was how situations in the play mirrored events in my own life, at the same time, the fall of 1985, and location, Brooklyn Heights. At that time, I was also a closeted, self-hating married man, like Joe, and using copious amounts of liquor and pills, like Harper, until, in a truly metaphysical moment, like Prior’s encounter with the Angel, I got struck clean and sober on New Year’s Eve, 1985, and have been ever since.

I told Mr. Kushner about this in a letter, asking if, with all these similarities, was I a character in his play, and wondering if Joe Pitt, like myself, ended up getting clean and sober as I did, and later moving to Kaua’i, where I became the Director of the Kaua’i AIDS Project?

Kushner sent a rather startled reply, also wondering at the similarities, and added, “I don’t know what Joe does after PERESTROIKA ends, to tell you the truth — I may write about that some day. I doubt that it’ll be anything as glorious as going to Hawaii. Spiritual healing is definitely in order for him, but I tend to subscribe to the slow-motion model of human change, and even though I believe he’s been changed mightily by the events in ANGELS, I suspect that Joe has a few years of great confusion, and probably many mistakes, before arriving at a better place.”

(BTW: I also thought Russell Tovey was really the definitive Joe: conflicted, endearing, and desperate for love. There was a time I was so like that. Jeffrey King at the Taper got a lot of that. But David Marshall Grant on Broadway was flat out miscast. Joe has to be perceived as a straight married man, which Grant just was not able to present.)

Never mind, R150, I think it's my ears that are misremembering.

R147

No one is trying to make her out to be Mother Teresa -- we all know she expects people to bring food to her parties. The point is "not nice" is not the same as having juicy stories like the stuff associated with Mandy P. This thread has literally been people saying that she is a horrible person like Mandy Patinkin and THEN using stories about Mandy as illustration of how horrible she is.

Excuse me, but I believe her name is spelled Tovai.

Our mother saw the original FOLLIES at the Palace Theater in 1971. She told us about the painting of Judy Garland in the lobby. We learned years later that it was painted by a relative of a dear friend in LA!

Eldergays, can you tell us more about the original A Little Night Music production? How do you recall the production being received in the 70s? Was it very clearly superior to everything else that season? Let's move past Follies (for a minute at least).

When I was in college I saw a WONDERFUL production of Night Music at LA Opera starring Judith Ivy, Victor Garber, Laura Benanti, Zoe Caldwell, Mark Kudisch, Michelle Pawk and Kristen Bell. If I weren't a dirt poor student, I would have tried to get another ticket. This is such a "Mary!" word, but the whole evening was...well... enchanting. It was so smart of LA Opera to cast theatre pros rather than opera singers who can kinda act. It's been 13 or 14 years now, but as I recall, the casting was spot on. On paper, I'm not sure Judith Ivy would have been at the top of my list for Desiree, but she was luminous and appropriately wry. Victor Garber was in prime zaddy stage and perfect for Frederick, Laura Benanti sang Ann like a dream and absolutely nailed the comedy. Kudish and Pawk were a perfect pair as the Malcolms. For some bizarre reason, I have zero memory of how Zoe Caldwell was as Mdme. A. As I recall, she got good reviews, though.

Anyway, I feel like that's probably the best production I'll see, but would love to hear reminisces from those of you fortunate enough to see the original NY or London productions.

tovah in the obc of Lend Me a Tenor was magical

Ugh. Excuse misspellings on a few actor's names above.

R155. Thanks for your post. I am the poster who wondered what happened to the characters in AiA after the curtain falls, and find it interesting that Kushner, himself, does not really know. I assumed that Pitt kissing Cohn in his last scene suggested that he would be careless and the disease would transfer to him. I'm glad it does not, because, as you said, Tovey was wonderful, and made the character someone whom I rooted for, despite his being a closeted gay Mormon, Republican. His desperation and vulnerability and need to be loved was touching, and I wished that he found enlightenment and happiness, rather than an unhappy end. And how wonderful of Kushner to reply with a thoughtful response, especially in the days before email, when responding required more effort.

ALNM's big competition for the Tonys and audiences was, of course, the original PIPPIN.

I loved both and saw both numerous times (I was young and carefree), but comparing them would be like apples and oranges.

IRENE was in third place,

Join us for a weekend in the country!

What are our hopes for this production?

[R163]: I think Kushner was as much mystified as I was by the multiple details in his plot that were mirrored in my life. I am not generally one to write fan letters, but this situation resonated for me in such a primal way that I felt I had to share it with him. I actually began my letter with, “I doubt you have ever received a letter quite like this one,” and the first words of his response were, “Well you were right. I haven’t received a letter quite like yours.”

It was actually more than a little eerie.

I think ALMN suffered because it came after Follies.....Lord, I'm not starting another Follies thread. After that show, people were expecting something more than just this very sweet almost operetta. Of course, Prince and Sondheim did Pacific Overtures next which was even more of a departure.

I think ALNM was the only Sondheim/Prince collaboration to actually break even, so it wasn’t really a disappointment.

The definitive ALNM was the Sally Howes/Regina Resnik version. Resnik nailed Madame Armfeldt like no other actress could do. I was surprised to find out she was an opera singer, because her book scenes were fabulous.

Hal Prince said in his book "Contradictions" that ALNM was about making a buck. I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist. I saw the original NY cast and thought the show was completely charming, but I wish I'd been able to see the LA cast R150 describes.

r170 Best of all, she sang Liaisons. Sang it, with notes and all, and the right ones too.

R170 - Yes, so grateful that production is preserved on video. Regina Resnik was superb.

This might be the best copy yet of the 1990 Lincoln Center production uploaded to YouTube. Grab it before it disappears.

Gracias, R174.

Lois Nettleton, who played the "lesbian, LESbian, LESBIAN " who had the hots for Rose on Golden Girls, played Desiree in an LA production of Night Music in which Mdme. A. was played by Glynis Johns. Anyone see that production?

[quote]Best of all, she sang Liaisons. Sang it, with notes and all, and the right ones too.

One critic at the time wrote that Regina Resnik's "Liaisons" was the first time he understood all the words. Her diction was perfect for Sondheim lyrics.

The LA production in 1991 might have been a classic had Lee Remick played Desiree. Instead, it went to Lois Nettleton who was terrible. Glynis Johns played the mother brilliantly. R176, I was just writing this post when yours came up!

I'd like to see another book to stage extravaganza like "Nicholas Nickleby" or "Grapes of Wrath." Maybe Broadway economics prevent that but those shows were wonderful. Those shows had ensemble casts that all worked together like a well oiled machine.

Having seen most of the ALNM productions, including the original, I will say that I think the first production was by far the best. That said, the best Anne I ever saw was Joanna Riding in the London NT production and the best Carl Magnus was Doug Sills in the Sondheim Festival in DC. Frankly, although Resnick was very good, I don't think she was as good as Gingold and the production, over all, was one of the worst I've seen.

I can't imagine anyone thinking that ALNM was a "disappointment." I think it is the one Sondheim show that is nearly perfect.

Caldwell was a great Armfeldt, as was Sian Phillips in the Judi Dench production.

R160

It does look good. I would like to have seen Marc Kudish featured in this video --

Nothing can top the rueful European sensibility and Magritte-inspired design of the original production of ALNM...a superb, sophisticated cast...the Liebeslieders comprised of seasoned, experienced character actors rather than the callow, pretty people of subsequent productions, thereby missing the point of their function...

In 1973, I was a junior in NJ high school in love with theater and would always buy Variety (on Wednesday?) to read the latest reviews. And I remember the one for NIGHT MUSIC described the score as "astringent," which to these ears in those years was absolutely true ( though as a classically-trained musician, I found the charms of CLOWNS, EVERY DAY and A WEEKEND very accessible). I don't think one can truly and fully appreciate the glories of ALNM unless one has a little mileage on their tires in every possible way.

Two small misfires on the Aronson set for ALNM :

1. The reflective glare off the plexiglass panels 2. Frederick's sopping wet clothes left a permanent stain on the carpeted stage floor for the entire run of the show.

And what about Charlotte's trousers in A Weekend in the Country?? And Flossie was the only ALNM designer to get the Tony!

It's interesting to read the love for A Little Night Music, because that is the one Sondheim play that I do not like at all. I can't explain why waltz time bugs me, but it does, and all of ALNM's songs are in some derivation of a waltz signature. I do love Liaisons, but the rest? I can't listen to it without cringing.

R159 Did you know Roberto Gari, the artist who painted that portrait of Judy Garland? The portrait is apparently now in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York. He was the son-in-law of Eddie Cantor for a while. Much later, he appeared as the father of Amy Sedaris in some episodes of Strangers with Candy.

[quote]I don't think one can truly and fully appreciate the glories of ALNM unless one has a little mileage on their tires in every possible way.

I was 18 when I saw it at the Shubert in LA (the national tour, starring Jean Simmons). I'd heard the OBC, of course, when it came out, and I liked it a lot, although "Send in the Clowns" threw me - it just sounded like it should be a big comedy number (I went through the same thing with "Losing My Mind" in Follies - I expected a Betty Huttonish train wreck number). Anyway, by the time I saw it, I loved the score. That production was, of course, directed by Prince with the Broadway sets/costumes duplicated, which were magnificent. George Lee Andrews had moved up from Frid to playing Frederick (he was young at 31 for it, but was good), and Ed Evanko was good as Carl-Magnus. The first time I saw it, the understudy, Verna Pierce, was on as Petra and she was really great. (The second time the real Petra, Mary Ann Chinn, was on and not as good). Margaret Hamilton got all her laughs as Mme. Armfeldt, but even at that age, I could feel there was something off about her casting (I wouldn't have been able to articulate it then, but she had a "midwestern farm matron" quality at odd with the piece).

Interesting that the first three men cast to play Carl-Magnus - Laurence Guittard on Broadway, Ed Evanko on tour, and David Kernan in London - were openly gay actors.

R190, Ed Evanko became a priest.

I love his rendition of NO SONG MORE PLEASING as well as the song. Even a song from late-career Rodgers and a notorious flop has more invention, lyrical loveliness and surprise than anything you'd hear today.

And, oh, that bass line in the chorus!

R159, FOLLIES never played at the Palace where the Judy Garland portrait was but THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES did.

For those of you who lived in NYC in the old days, in diners, there were always 8x10 headshots of all different types of actors. Did you know any of those people? Did any become famous?

[quote]Ed Evanko became a priest.

Yes, and was still quite good looking into his 70s. Unfortunately, per his Wiki page, "In October 2016 he suffered a stroke and is at The Holy Family Nursing Home in Winnipeg."

My first ALNM was on the Kenley Circuit in Warren, Ohio. I have no memory whatsoever of who else was in the cast, but Eva Gabor was Desiree and Ethel Barrymore Colt was Madame Armfeldt. Gabor was... Gabor, but Barrymore Colt was fantastic. I didn't know the show at all, and my little 17-year-old musical-loving head nearly exploded when Madame A (well, Sondheim) rhymed 'raisins' with 'liaisons.' And my mother burst out laughing (in a good way) when Henrik and his dirge suddenly appeared in A Weekend in the Country, as she'd forgotten all about him.

It's still my favorite Sondheim (followed closely by Sweeney and then Pacific Overtures). I've seen it twice since in San Francisco, both times with horrible reduced scores and costumes for the lieder singers that made me go Whuh...? I so wish Lincoln Center would do it with Bart Sher directing and a full orchestra in the pit. (Katrina Lenk for Desiree.)

I knew an actress whose headshot loomed over 8th Avenue from a photographer's studio during the 80s and 90s. She is still working today.

Laura Benanti is grat in that Night Music clip. I do think she's one of the few young-ish Broadway names who is constantly interesting on stage. Maybe it's because she started so young and didn't have time for college acting programs to iron the personality out of her. I always know that, even if the show itself has issues, she'll at least amuse me.

I’ve never understood the whole “I don’t enjoy ALNM because it’s all waltzes” thing. A lot of the music is only technically in triple meter, like 12 /8 or 6/8 time, and there’s plenty of variety in this lovely score. It’s hardly an evening of Johann Strauss.

[quote]I can't imagine anyone thinking that ALNM was a "disappointment." I think it is the one Sondheim show that is nearly perfect.

Spoken like someone who's never seen the movie.

The movie was horrible, but that's beside the point.

Since the poster specifically said “the show,” I don’t understand what the movie has to do with the quality of the show itself. And ALNM was hardly the first show to get a lousy movie adaptation.

R200 -- I'm the guy who said he didn't like all the waltz time signature in ALNM. I'm a former songwriter, and might notice time signatures more than the next guy, and it seemed like an exercise of "let's see how many waltzes I can write" than what was really right for the score. It seemed liked a gimmick to me, and one that I found annoying as one waltz was followed by yet another. True, they weren't standard 3/4 waltzes, but I still heard the underpinnings of the time signature. And that is a problem with having made a living from writing music for 20 years: you hear the seams and the sweat, and it's difficult to enjoy a song without hearing the effort that went into writing it, and there is more effort in ALNM's score than most of Sondheim's other scores. (One could say that the score to Pacific Overtures is more cerebral, but a lot of its effect is from the orchestration, and not the songs themselves.)

IN regards to Joe Pitt in Angels in America:

I once met Joe Mantello and this topic came up. He said that Kushner seems to forgive everybody (even Roy) but Joe is left unhappy at the end. Mantello said that was because Kushner had intended to do a Part 3 that would star Joe but then dropped the idea after the first two parts were so successful and he feared he'd ruin it all on the third.

I noticed in the HBO mini-series there is only one added new scene (I think) and that is a scene between Streep and Patrick Wilson on the street where they are leaving for work in the morning. She says something like she's going to cook a special dinner that night and then she fixes Wilson's coat in kind of an affectionate grooming sort of moment which reads like "it will be alright, we'll get thru this."

BTW is the National Theater version available on dvd? in the US?

I don't remember that scene, R205, but that would have made me happy. The fact that Joe was left hanging and unhappy made me sad. The DVD is not available. I have a source for bootlegs, and got it from him. I will post a link to my website. If you want his email, send me an email using the "contact" section from the site.

[quote]Margaret Hamilton got all her laughs as Mme. Armfeldt, but even at that age, I could feel there was something off about her casting (I wouldn't have been able to articulate it then, but she had a "midwestern farm matron" quality at odd with the piece).

She couldn't have been as off in her casting as Elaine Stritch was. God, that woman was awful. Madame Armfeldt played like a mentally ill fishwife. I expected Pozzo and Lucky to come bouncing in at any minute.

Hermione Gingold was PERFECTION as Mme Armfeldt and I couldn't care less if she couldn't sing all the notes like an opera singer.

She did all her own stunts, too

[quote]In 1950, English actress Hermione Gingold appeared on stage in London alongside Hermione Baddeley in Fallen Angels, a Noel Coward comedy in which--controversially at the time--the two female leads contemplate adultery. Gingold soon received a threatening letter from a disgusted member of the public. With no address at which to aim a reply, Gingold instead responded with a letter that was reprinted in her 1952 book, My Own Unaided Work.

[quote] I'm the guy who said he didn't like all the waltz time signature in ALNM. I'm a former songwriter, and might notice time signatures more than the next guy, and it seemed like an exercise of "let's see how many waltzes I can write" than what was really right for the score. It seemed liked a gimmick to me, and one that I found annoying as one waltz was followed by yet another.

Whatever. There are several songs in ALNM that don't remotely have a "waltz" feel to them, most "Now," "Every Day a Little Death," and the bulk of "A Weekend in the Country"

I'm the anti waltz guy, R211. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but everyone hears music differently. As a former songwriter and someone who has spent untold hours charting songs, I subconsciously listen for the downbeat of a measure, which made me realize that the songs were all derivations of waltz time. If you haven't spent that much time writing out charts, it wouldn't be apparent, although I would disagree that A Weekend in the Country does not have a waltz feel. It does. The one of the measure gets a long note, making it even more obvious that it is a waltz, at least to me. Then again, we all hear music differently.

Hermione Gingold as an ancient courtesan was ridiculous. John Simon correctly nailed her entire persona when he said she was America's leading senior fag hag.

R212 seems a little desperate to establish his composer credentials.

R214 He reminds me of Jenna from 30 Rock: [bold]"It's hard for me to watch 'American Idol' because I have perfect pitch."[/bold]

[quote]I don't want to beat a dead horse

And yet you do, you do. I’m embarrassed for you now, the way you harp on about how special you are with your magic singer-songwriter ears that hear music differently from everyone else. Here’s to you and your ears, dear, now do kindly shut up about it.

R211, not to mention the patter sections of The Miller’s Son.

Other than the fact that she was wrong for the role and couldn't sing, Gingold was PERFECTION

The bulk of ALNM is in variations of triple time but triple time is not the same as waltz time. Waltz time is a particular subset of triple time with its own distinguishing characteristics. You may prefer the term triple meter to triple time. Whatever.

Any gossip from the bus and truck Dolly?

Is batshit Betty staying on script or is she just memorizing her “intentions?”

[quote]As a former songwriter

Oh, why didn't you say so. More than a thousand times.

Happy weekend, kiddies!

My favorite Hermione Gingold tune....

That's like saying WEST SIDE STORY and SWEENEY are "gimmicks" because they use a tritone and the Dies Irae motive, respectively, throughout their scores. It's an organizing principle---variety in unity. In fact, all of ALNM is based on "threes"--the three families (Egermann, Malcolm, Armfeldt), the interlocking romantic triangles, the triptych of NOW, SOON and LATER, duets refer to a third party, etc etc

Oh shit that's cool, r224 - I even directed the show and I didn't think of that. Sondheim really does embed puzzle structure into everything he does ...

There is that wonderful story that Gingold was attending an early screening of the movie of A Little Night Music with other cast members and she had not been told that “liaisons “had been cut. When it got to the part of the movie where her song would be and she realized it was gone, she let out with a loud “Oh my God!”

"Sondheim really does embed puzzle structure into everything he does ... "

Let's not leave Hugh Wheeler and Harold Prince out of the equation....

Hey DL, send in those clowns!

Oh, well done, R224. Seriously.

I have never seen the movie of ALNM, and had no idea that they cut Liaisons. How on earth could they have? it is a brilliant song and says so much about the changing nature of, well, liaisons.

R212, how do you feel about Rosenkavalier?

[quote]I have never seen the movie of ALNM

It equals Mame in its awfulness. Why they didn't dub Elizabeth Taylor's singing, or in fact hire an actress who could carry a tune, is a huge mystery.

Grand mal.

It's embarrassing to watch.

R223

That was hilarious.

I meant ^^ the ALNM movie but the same comment applies to Ms. Loudon.

Weekend In The Country is by far the best sequence in the ALNM movie. And Diana Rigg is, of course, ideally cast. But oh, the rest of it...

Wasn’t it Pauline Kael who said, "Harold Prince directs as if he’s never even seen a movie before"?

HELLO DOROTHY!

Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s Dorothy Loudon had a reputation as a brilliant performer who could not get the right break.

She was the highly anticipated replacement for Carol Burnett on TV's wonderful variety hour The Garry Moore Show and though she was quite spectacular every week singing and acting in comedy skits, the audiences missed Carol, and Dorothy inevitably came up short.

She also went through a frustrating string of Broadway flops like Nowhere to Go But Up, The Fig Leaves Are Falling, Sweet Potato, a lackluster revival of The Women and most famously, Lolita My Love (in the Shelley Winters role), which I was lucky enough to see in Boston try-outs. While her reviews were always ecstatic, the shows all tanked miserably.

Finally in 1977 she was cast in the huge hit Annie and her luck seemed to change. After winning a Tony Award, she went on to Michael Bennett's Ball Room and The Westside Waltz opposite Katharine Hepburn, which were both flops but at least very respectable flops. And then Noises Off, which was a certifiable success. And Jerry's Girls which did pretty well, if not on Broadway, on a long tour.

But then there was the undermining casting of Burnett in the films of her two biggest successes Annie and Noises Off. At least both films were disasters!

She also worked consistently through the 1980s and 1990s in TV and concerts but she never conquered her early insecurities and stage fright, She left LCT's revival of Dinner at Eight (in the Marie Dressler role) in 2002 early in previews because of her irrational fears.

I loved her in everything I saw her in (4 times onstage). But she had a sad life, no doubt.

Holy shit, that ALNM movie was just jaw dropping. Not only because of Taylor's singing (and Cariou gazing at her like she's just broken out of the asylum and shown up on his doorstep), but the direction and the way the song just happens in mid-conversation. You can't startle an audience member with THAT voice, but also there was no dramatic build or need for the song. He may as well have said, "I'm thinking of having the walls repain-" "Isn't it rich!"

That GIF of Loudon is hilarious. I've recently watched all the 80s Tony ceremonies and it always looked like they would release Dorothy from whatever Hannibal Lecter contraption they'd been holding her in for the past year the minute before she was to take the stage.

Side Show goes courtroom.....

That movie at r241 looks like it would have made a better musical than Side Show.

I had the misfortune to see Loudon in something called COMEDY TONIGHT in it's very short run. Four different performers doing their acts. Micheal Davis was very good, Mort Sahl was dull and Joy Behar tore the place apart. (this was a few years before The View) Poor Dorothy came out to sing and was HORRIBLE. It was so sad and embarrassing.

Taylor wanted Bette Davis for the mother role and she and Gingold did not get along because of it. Poor Sondheim had to go on every talk show and in every interview said that Taylor was such an amazing singer that everyone will say her singing was dubbed.

Oh good god I don’t think I can take another post about the deadly dull ALNM.

[quote]She left LCT's revival of Dinner at Eight (in the Marie Dressler role) in 2002 early in previews because of her irrational fears.

I heard it was because she had gone back to drinking after years of sobriety and couldn't memorize her lines. Poor Dorothy.

I also saw "Comedy Tonight" or was it "Catskills on Broadway" and loved Louden in it just doing her club act. Great fun.

Her finest film work is her hard-to-believe cameo in "Garbo Talks", playing photographer Howard DaSilva's agent. She steals the show, certainly Ron Silver just steps aside for her to do her thing. It's fucking brilliant for the three minutes she's onscreen. Hermione Gingold also has a very small yet hysterical role in the film.

I always did find the transition to Send in the Clowns jarring in the film version. Whose dumb idea was that? I like it when they have that brief intro as Desiree realizes that she's made a huge mistake. That's gold for an actress, especially with the luxury of a close up. I have no idea why they cut it out.

If Liz was going to do a musical, this is probably the one she and her teeny tiny voice were best suited for.

I just thought it might be interesting to have Desiree turn her back right before she starts singing and start off the song by not letting him see how she really feels. We'd just see her face and him behind her. That would have made more sense than her diva-ish quick head turn and glare. I laugh every time.

And why was the film version set in Austria and not Sweden? Stupid.

The weird thing is Liz Taylor wasn’t a big star anymore in 1977, they would have been better off with frequent Sondheim muse, Lee Remick.

R250, Taylor was still a star, Remick was a never-was. Also, the film was financed with Liz as the star so there's also that.

How ya like me now, bitches?

They should have used Ann Margret. She was in her mid 30s but better too young than too old. And she was Swedish.

Didn't Liz Taylor show off a lovely soprano singing voice in A Date With Judy 25 years or so before the film of ALNM? I seem to remember it being featured in one of those That's Entertainments.

I've always been curious what Audrey Hepburn in ALNM would have been like.

I can well imagine, r255.

R256 Listen bitch, they didn't hire you for Lucy or Liz either.

I can do Austrian.

So can I.

Mame and A Little Night Music are what killed the movie musical.

One of you bitches must have some stories about this

[quote]Mame and A Little Night Music are what killed the movie musical.

And I revitalized it!

R249 The Austrian government helped out with financing and shooting locations.

Dorothy Loudon also replaced Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd.

It's interesting that Sondheim shows are so popular, but none of them had long Broadway runs. I guess Forum ran a little over two years (they changed theaters three times), but the other shows ran less than two years.

Except, r213, Gingold in her heyday was a brilliant comedienne. Her work in the WWII reviews in London were known to be staggeringly funny. As was her revue work on Broadway. And to see her work in GIGI and THE MUSIC MAN demonstrates her latter-year skills. John Simon could be an asshole, as we all know.

R265, Simon WAS an asshole, but he was not incorrect. Gingold herself quoted him abut this saying he was right. It was impossible to believe she slept with any man, much less Kings and Barons.

Maybe it was batshit Betty who convinced Tovah to perform Rose’s Turn in a weird key, while flashing black panties?

[quote]Didn't Liz Taylor show off a lovely soprano singing voice in A Date With Judy 25 years or so before the film of ALNM?

Yes, she did. And the lovely soprano voice she showed off belonged to Jean MacLaren.

Exactly, r268.......

[quote]Finally in 1977 she was cast in the huge hit Annie and her luck seemed to change... And Jerry's Girls which did pretty well, if not on Broadway, on a long tour.

Dorothy Loudon had nothing to do with the very successful tour of "Jerry's Girls," which happened before the Broadway show. Carol Channing, Leslie Uggams, and Andrea McArdle were the stars, but only Uggams went on to Broadway. The reason Channing didn't go with it has to do with a nasty fight Jerry Herman had with Charles Lowe, Channing's "no-sex" husband at the time. He wanted to fire director Larry Alford and bring in a "big gun" for New York. Herman was "seeing" Alford at the time, and he refused to have him replaced. The enmity between Lowe and Herman grew, and Channing sided with her husband, and that was that for her and "Jerry's Girls." Loudon replaced her for NY, and Chita replaced Andrea McArdle. The CD had been recorded and released while the show was on the road, however, so it has that version of the show (it changed some with the two new stars) and Channing and McArdle. Channing and Herman had been extremely close so they eventually made up. The picture I've linked is Jerry with Larry Alford and his three original JG stars.

Any of you do Carol Channing impressions?

Everyone on this site does a Carol Channing impression.

Ooh, I do, I do, r271!

Someone did one in another thread typing, "Dziamondz are forever" and I'd like to kiss them full on the mouth.

Hurry and get dressed up everybody. I got tickets for Show Girl tonight!

Saw 'Sarava!" as a kid. It played from January to June, 39 previews and 177 total performances so that commercial played all the time on all the channels. It was based on the hit foreign film 'Dona Flor & Her Two Husbands" and the dead husband did indeed show his butt. I still have the Playbill signed by Miss Tovah herself.

Sarava.. no cast album but they did record the theme song.

"Frequent Sondheim muse," Lee Remick? I don't think so. Lover, maybe, but muse....nah.

Jerry's Girls seems like such a strange follow-up for Andrea McArdle. Is there a story there?

[quote]It's interesting that Sondheim shows are so popular, but none of them had long Broadway runs.

He's no Stephen Schwartz, that's for sure.

[quote]Jerry's Girls seems like such a strange follow-up for Andrea McArdle. Is there a story there?

A girl's gotta eat. That's the story.

R271, I can do Carol.

Is Darren Criss incapable of singing with his eyes open? Or of making any song all hipster-strummy (now with genders as written!)? At least he's singing in tune.

PJ Benjamin played the sexy dead husband's ghost in SARAVA and showed his cute naked butt. He went on to star in the ill-fated CHARLIE AND ALGERNON as the retarded young man converted into a genius (and back again) but has spent the past dozen years or so in and out of CHICAGO as Amos.

Thanks for posting the clip of Liz "singing" in A Date With Judy, r269, but I mis-remembered. Her real singing voice was featured in a clip from a black and white film in That's Entertainment.

Now, what was that film? And was that really her pretty voice?

That’s frightening R286. Albino Louis Armstrong, indeed.

"It was impossible to believe she slept with any man, much less Kings and Barons."

Well, I suggest you and John Simon watch her as a guest surrounded by her loving family on THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Both of you will change your tune, alright, alright.

And Liz Taylor hits EVERY acting note in CLOWNS, from bitter irony to regret...and it's a helluva lot more interesting than Dench's weepy, aren't-I-sad delivery.

[quote]And Liz Taylor hits EVERY acting note in CLOWNS,

Yes, but unfortunately she keeps them all to herself and delivers an emotionless performance.

R50 I saw Pace on stage and I thought he was absolutely heartbreaking. Never once tried to be charming, but that made the character seem even more genuine. There was something fragile about him, awkwardly real. You could tell he would end up tossed on the shore after a storm at the end. Doomed. The audience doesn't like Joe Pitt but I think he is the only character in the whole play who is really in love. For others it's all about their selves, they are navel gazing. He is breaking his life into pieces to be with another person.

Liked Garfield too, he also had the vulnerable quality but his theatrics were entertaining to watch. I thought he needed the bit of unreality to him. To become epic.

I also thought Joe wouldn’t stop. He has this quality of someone ready to burn all the bridges. It’s like this is not just sex for him but emotion, so much emotion he couldn’t feel before. I think he will either end up happy or broken, no middle ground. But not through HIV, through love. He's been scared by HIV but it didn't stop him (there was a scene pointing at that). It's like he hadn't felt alive before so now it's worth the risk.

Hannah will survive, I believe. I think she never loved Joe despite her musings. She was in love with the idea of a perfect marriage. But she is free now.

Louis will go on to have many more lovers, cheating on each of them and being a selfish asshole. That’s for sure.

R289, that was wonderful! She was surrounded by every fag in show business.

R61 I thought she was actually over the top in that film and I’m a big fan of hers

Let's not forget that JERRY'S GIRLS started with Evalyn Baron, Pauletta Pearson (now Mrs. Denzel), and someone whose name escapes me. It was a glorified nightclub act.

There's quite a long discussion of what happens or might happen to Joe Pitt in that wonderful oral history of AIA, THE WORLD ONLY SPINS FORWARD.

I love the gossip why Carol Channging didn’t do Broadway Jerry’s Girls

It’s that kind of gossip why I love DL

Is the Channing/Jerry story on this thread? I seem to have scrolled past.

R291, thanks for your thoughts. You are right about Joe Pitt: he really is the only person looking for love so desperately. And thanks for the heads up on the AiA book, R295. I was unaware of it, but just ordered it.

[quote]Didn't Liz Taylor show off a lovely soprano singing voice in A Date With Judy 25 years or so before the film of ALNM? I seem to remember it being featured in one of those That's Entertainments.

But you don't seem to remember it as stated outright in THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT that Liz's singing was dubbed in that movie. As if it weren't obvious anyway.

I’ve seen many strange things in my life, but I never thought I would ever see someone defend Elizabeth Taylor’s performance in A Little Night Music.

Oh, the humanity.

Really? Watch Sondheim's master class on acting the subtleties of the song and see if Taylor doesn't deliver virtually every point.

That was lovely R303. Sondheim's a natural teacher.

I watched a little of that wonderful NYCO production of Night Music someone posted up thread. Much better quality than the previous versions on YT. What's become of Maureen Moore? She carved out a career as, largely, a standby for bigger stars on Broadway, right? Did anyone catch her subbing for Bernadette in Gypsy or as Norma in Sunset? She's wonderful in Night Music. No Broadway our touring credits since 2007 and no movie or film credits since... the 70s. Hopefully she's enjoying a career in regional theatre? Teaching?

Young(ish) Hermione Gingold. Certainly attractive enough, combined with with and charm, that she could have been a desirable courtesan like Mme. Armfeldt. All of Mme. A's romances and lavish gifts, etc, were in her past. People act like she would have been like Eulalie McKechnie Shinn as a young courtesan.

[quote]Let's not forget that JERRY'S GIRLS started with Evalyn Baron, Pauletta Pearson (now Mrs. Denzel), and someone whose name escapes me.

It was Alix Korey. And when she left for a better-paying job, Randy Graff replaced her.

But that was a cabaret version of the show, can't remember the name of the club it played at. Its first "state" incarnation was the tour with Channing et al.

[quote]Jerry's Girls seems like such a strange follow-up for Andrea McArdle. Is there a story there?

McArdle was 19 when she started the tour, and turned 20 midway through it. "Jerry's Girls" represented her first "adult" role - she was sexy and dynamic, qualities she was hard-pressed to conjure up when she had to actually act a role. She got rave reviews, and it was definitely an "Annie Grows Up" kind of thing for her.

[quote]Is the Channing/Jerry story on this thread? I seem to have scrolled past.

Yes - the Channing/Herman brouhaha is detailed at r270.

[QUOTE]I've recently watched all the 80s Tony ceremonies and it always looked like they would release Dorothy from whatever Hannibal Lecter contraption they'd been holding her in for the past year the minute before she was to take the stage.

I can't possibly imagine what makes you think that

The best version of "Clowns."

Elizabeth Taylor is shown singing with her own voice in a little film called CYNTHIA in That's Entertainment Part 1.

I'm the poster who originally brought it up and I watched it last night....though I can't find a clip to post (sorry, that may be entirely my ineptitude). Peter Lawford, who introduces the segment, says it's Liz's own voice there but that she was "too busy" to record her song in A DATE WITH JUDY.

Whether true or not, her singing voice is far more believably matched in CYNTHIA than in JUDY.

That Hey Mr. Producer concert is actually pretty amazing, if you just fast forward through the Les Miz/Cats/Phantom/Saigon tripe (which is about half of it). There are some great performances from terrific and curious shows.

Dorothy Loudon was a great song stylist. This song should play in every dive gay bar across the country.

R261 They would have done better with Sartre's "No Exit"--with Sondheim in the male role.

R313 What I always found odd about Hey Mr Producer is it was held about two months after the Andrew Lloyd Webber Royal Albert Hall concert. You'd think they'd space them out a bit - always wondered if one was staged out of jealousy of hearing the other was getting a concert.

Tom Lehrer references this during his segment saying how happy he was to be part of the tribute of the week.

God Damn but this board is fixated on old women shit. Follies, Dorothy Loudon, Hermione Gingold, Jerry Herman, Dolly...where'd the testosterone go, fellas?

Are there body hair grooming requirements for "Naked Boys Singing"?

[quote]God Damn but this board is fixated on old women shit. Follies, Dorothy Loudon, Hermione Gingold, Jerry Herman, Dolly...where'd the testosterone go, fellas?

Hey butch, this is a theater thread. If you want to talk football and 4x4s, go start your own thread.

You know, it IS possible to discuss theater without 1500 posts about Judy Kaye and Carol Channing.

Seeing Judi Dench in "A Little Night Music: at the National was one of the most breathtaking theatrical experiences of my then-young life.

R317's idea of testosterone is hearing which chorus boy bottom has the best douching method.

[quote]You know, it IS possible to discuss theater without 1500 posts about Judy Kaye and Carol Channing.

Where’s the fun in that?

What's next for the cast of Carousel? Where do we see Tony winner Lindsay Mendez?

[quote] Where do we see Tony winner Lindsay Mendez?

One more hoagie and she'll be destroying Tokyo.

r321 gets a well-earned MARY!

Carol's number in Show Girl at r275 at 34:00 is twenty minutes long! Love her or hate her, but you have to admit that girl had stamina!

Come to think of it, Audrey Hepburn would have probably been a very good Desiree in Night Music. Her voice could probably handle the score without being dubbed. It's not a tough sing at all, which is why they usually cast actors over singers for that role. Lee Remick would have been excellent, too.

I dunno. I feel like the best Desirees have an earthy warmness to them. Audrey seemed too cool.

Ann Margret would have probably been THE Desiree to end all Desirees. She's beautiful, has an abundance of warmth, can sing, and is very funny when called to be. Now, she's the right age for the mother, which she'd probably nail, too. She'd probably be the sexiest Armfeldt. You definitely wouldn't have to suspend disbelief to see her as a courtesan in her youth.

In spite of her Swedish heritage, Ann-Margret could never have captured the world-weary continental sophistication of Desiree. Sexy, yes, but she was/is simply too all-American and her voice has always had that little girl squeaky snarl. For the A-M fans here, when has she ever displayed the proper earthy qualities onscreen? Am I missing something? And she'd be even worse as Mme Armfeldt for all the same reasons x 10.

Audrey Hepburn would also have been totally wrong. Too fragile and ethereal and, frankly, too skinny! Desiree must be voluptuous.

I hate to be one of those posters but.....Glynis Johns were perfect.

Umm...A-M played Blanche DuBois in acts version of Streetcar.

Why didn't Glynis Johns do ALMN is London. Jean Simmons did the role to acclaim as she did in the National Tour but Gingold also reprised her Broadway performance.

No, r331, I were perfect......

Why didn’t Liv Ullman do ALNM? I never miss a Liv Ullman musical.

Hell, Ullmann in ALMN might have worked.

Speaking of Jean Simmons, Eldergays, were any of you there in 1983?

Not that long after the movie, Honor Blackman toured as Desiree with Evelyn Laye as Armfeldt. I imagine the role fit her like a glove - she long had that combination of earthy and actressy, ultra sexy, with a low, fruity speaking voice.

WTF is up with George Lee Andrews' random Swedish'ish accent in the NYCO Night Music? It makes no sense with no one else in the show performing with such an accent. I always assumed he was a Scandinavian actor, but all the Night Music chatter had me looking up his bio and he's an American actor (who, apparently, has spent twenty three years performing in Phantom.)

I'm sure she gave it everything she's got, r338.

Ann Margret was a pretty terrific Blanche in Streetcar. In fact, I find myself coming back to her version the most.

Why did nobody think of me when casting Desiree. Everyone forgets I came from the legitimate theater.

Shame there doesn't appear to be any video of Jean Simmons in Night Music -- either from the US tour or the London production. Anyone see either mounting? The Wicked Witch of the West herself was Mdme. A in the tour. Also, is that Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul's 'Mike' I see listed on the playbill -- Jonathan Banks? It's difficult to picture him in a musical!

I know this is such a Mary! comment, but, LORD, those Jonathan Tunick orchestrations are gorgeous. The way that Liasions opens... it feels like the perfumed music is drifting in on a balmy summer breeze.

Steve & I should have done the movie version of ALNM. My singing had balls!

Eydie Mame would have been so much better than Lucy Mame

[quote]Eydie Mame would have been so much better than Lucy Mame

Even John Wayne Mame would have been so much better than Lucy Mame.

17 days till performances, people! I rewatched the Neil Patrick Harris/NYPhil concert staging of Company last night, which was better than I'd remembered. Still, the revisal's going to have to do a lot more than a lyric tweak here and there. For instance, in act one all the husbands sing Have I Got a Girl For You to Bobby. Are their wives now going to sing Have I Got a Guy For You to Bobbi?

R347 Steve has a hell of a lot of lyrics to change, like half of them

Just felt like watching this again.

OID LOIKE TO SEE THA SHOW TWO MOAH TOIMES!

Sheila K. Adams, who played Fredrika on Broadway and on tour, died of cancer a few years ago.

Is anyone in London going to Patti Lu's talk tomorrow night (Monday) at The Ivy Club?

[quote]Really? Watch Sondheim's master class on acting the subtleties of the song and see if Taylor doesn't deliver virtually every point.

Of course, the song is open to variations in interpretation, but I really don't think beginning it in anger, as Taylor does, is a valid choice.

[quote]WTF is up with George Lee Andrews' random Swedish'ish accent in the NYCO Night Music?

Can you mention one or two places where you hear a Swedish accent? I don't recall him doing that.

I adored Will Rogers Follies

I adored Willa Kim.

Was Willa Kim north Korean? did she have access to the nuclear codes?

Only for measurements and final fittings, Rose.

I enjjoyed Will Rogers very much also but it was indeed not quite as good as everyone had been hoping.

Meanwhile, I think it's been awhile since anyone posted the two following clips:

Our Favorite Son

Now, "I Like To Do Things For You" from the 1930 Hollywood film musical extravaganza, The King of Jazz.

The rest of Will Rogers Follies was stolen from old forgotten Eddie Cantor movies like Kid Millions.

A-M was good in Streetcar but Blanche, despite her world-weariness, is a completely American Southern Gothic invention. There's nothing sexy, earthy or voluptuous about Blanche du Bois.

Thanks for all the observations about Joe Pitt in AiA. I always identified with him. I was fascinated to read Kushner had planned to feature him in a proposed third part of Angels. In my letter to him, I gave him permission to use details from my life. (There had already been so many similarities, I figured it didn’t make any differrnce... LOL)

Curiously, when I mentioned that I was then in nursing school, Kushner responded that, had his writing career foundered, that was what he had also planned to do as an alternative.

I also saw a later Kushner play at the La Jolla Playhouse: “Slavs: Thinking about the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness.” Touted as an unused section of “Angels,” it had the same ancient Russian character, Alexander Prelapsarianov Antedeluvianovich, and concerned the effects of massive Soviet industrial pollution. Ungainly play, climaxed by a five-page monologue,spoken by what was supposed to be a toddler. Apart from that, it seemed to have not much connection at all. It doesn’t seem to have gone very far since then.

Yma.....

Yma Sumac *is* Desiree!

Uma Thurman is Middle-Aged Alison (in FUN HOME)

FWIW, when I last worked with Tovah she was very kind and the company loved her, myself included. Maybe age has softened her?

Wrong or not, I would have given a month's salary to see Audrey Hepburn play Desiree. With Kate Hepburn as her mom.

r358/r359 Someone on YouTube put together clips of Tommy Tune's stolen choreography side by side with the originals. I tried to look for it but nothing turned up.

Anyway, here are Tommy and DL fave Ann Reinking. I'm amazed that even though she is so much shorter, their legs are almost the same height.

"A-M played Blanche DuBois in acts version of Streetcar."

And her encounter with the paperboy is the finest I've seen.

" I really don't think beginning it in anger, as Taylor does, is a valid choice."

Sure it is. What a perfect arc to start with the bitterest irony and end in regret. Good stuff, Liz.

I once had a run-in with Tina Louise at the Vanderbilt Y....but perhaps I'll leave that for another day....

As for that show that's soon to close, I hope those seriously miscast performers will find themselves better (and more appropriate) opportunities. I wish them well.

No, r364.....

".....seriously miscast performers...."

This could refer to a multitude of recent Broadway shows. Just off the top of my head there's this season's Angels in America, My Fair Lady, Carousel, most everything at The Roundabout.......

Tina Louise and Ann-Margret? Is anyone here under 40?

Hell, R372, they're discussing Yma Sumac. 40 is being too generous.

[quote]"I really don't think beginning it in anger, as Taylor does, is a valid choice."

[quote]Sure it is. What a perfect arc to start with the bitterest irony and end in regret. Good stuff, Liz.

I agree. But Glynis Johns started the song quite sarcastically and accomplished the same effect without being so jarring.

I'm not posting this video because I'm an original-is-best die-hard. I'm just trying to make a very specific point.

[quote]Dench's weepy, aren't-I-sad delivery

I happen to think Judi is also very, very good. She substitutes resignation for irony in her bitterness, and so her version sounds more even-keeled.

I would love to see that Tommy Tune video. I hope someone finds and posts it!

A crew guy I know said that both West Side Story and In the Heights will be shooting next summer in NYC. Interesting. I guess some Latino performers will have to choose between the two of them. I’d pick In the Heights and LMM over West Side Story and Spielberg.

The thing I didn't like about Judi Dench's "Send In The Clowns" was that she ended too angry. Her "don't bother" was spat out with the heat of a thousand chili peppers. For me, it was too jarring for the end of the song.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, and John Legend are now EGOT winners. Is Lin-Manuel Miranda okay?

[quote]Good stuff, Liz.

LOL! Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?

Liz always had good stuff, and smoked copious amounts of it .

Tina Louise as Phyllis; Dawn Wells as Sally. Barbara Eden as Carlotta.

Did Carol Channing sing that same cut Dolly song when she did Jerry’s Girls?

Maureen Moore is one of those performers who should have been a star but, alas, it never happened for her. I saw her when she went on for Bernadette in Song and Dance and I've always heard stories about an understudy winning over a disappointed audience but this was the first time I ever saw it happened. Well deserved standing ovation and cheers at the end of the first act.

R383 - I had that experience when I saw Florence Lacey (who was regularly playing Irene) sub for Carol Channing in the Hello, Dolly! tour. I was in middle school and had no idea who Carol was so didn't know why everyone was so disappointed and why virtually the entire mezzanine and balcony was empty when Carol decided to fly to NY to accept a lifetime achievement Tony. Those who stayed were utterly charmed by Florence, myself included. And she clearly relished that rare opportunity to play Dolly, too.

Joe will flail about, have a few affairs he'll find heartbreaking, turn into a quiet gay few notice anymore, There are tons in New York, he'll not find someone, will check with his wife every once in a while until she remarries, happily. He won't be a happy elder.

Joe will throw himself into his work, just non-stop work. He will grow old and bitter and become just like Roy Cohn. He will be found dead from a trick gone wrong.

Jeff Romley. Who's had him?

[quote] Jeff Romley. Who's had him?

I don't know. Maybe someone wrote a letter to Tony Kushner about sleeping with him and Tony wrote back saying, O.M.G. Totes me too!

And they bonded.

Is Hunter Ryan Herdlicka still in show business?

He posted this on his IG:

Wow, I would’ve thought Ever After would be dead in the water after the reviews it got at Papermill. And Phil Reno is music director, that’s not a good sign.

R391 - What's the story with Phil Reno? Is he box office poison or something? Last I saw him at the podium, he was conducting Drowsy Chaperone...

Jeff Romley? Sondheim's partner? What's up?

"What's up"?

Not much, if you catch my drift . . .

Why is MockingbirdGirl such a cunt? Can she help it?

oh. right. sucks to be you, romley.

I saw Simmons in the London production of ALNM with Angela ("Mrs. Bridges") Baddeley, of all people, as Madame Armfeldt. Simmons was wonderful.

Company in West End

Rehearsals

Oh, Patti. The sunglasses are a bit too much. This is London where they only see the sun for 3 days a year.

Maureen seemed like a pretty decent Rose. How many times did she get to play the role I=during Bernadette's run? I remember her being sick for a lot of performances, so I assume Maureen got the chance to go on more than once. I heard she was wonderful.

[quote]Glynis Johns started the song quite sarcastically and accomplished the same effect without being so jarring.

Right. There's a big difference between (1) sarcasm due to bitterness, and (2) quickly wheeling around and using the first line of the song to angrily interrupt Fredrik in the middle of a sentence, as Liz does. In the script of the show, Desiree is supposed to let him finish his lines before she starts to sing. I wonder if Liz or Hal Prince came up with the (bad) idea for the interruption?

I can always tell I'm in for a rough ride when a performer singing "Send in the Clowns" extends that last note in the first line. It's "isnnnn'tttt iiiiitttt rich" not "issssnnn'tttt ittttt riiiiiiiiiccccccccchhhhhhh". Anyone who tries to make the song sound pretty over acting it is doomed.

Don't forget to stretch before you hit the stage, kids!

2 *GIRLS* 2

"in the script of the show, Desiree is supposed to let him finish his lines before she starts to sing."

It most certainly does not:

"...as if I'd come home from Timbuktu instead of the Municipal Courthouse three blocks away..."

That ellipsis makes all the difference in the world. And even if it didn't, the script is a blueprint, not Holy Scripture.

Bea Arthur really could’ve have had Stritch’s career if she wanted to, post Golden Girls.

I wonder why she more or less retired in 92

Is Angela Lansbury what one would describe as a handsome woman?

R50,

I saw the original Broadway company of AIA, the original company at the National Theatre in London (for Perestroika, which was not written when the National first did Millennium Approaches, so officially the second production of the first half of AIA), the Off-Broadway revival done at the Signature Theatre, and the recent revival on Broadway courtesy, again, of the National Theatre. (Not to mention several regional productions.) I love the play and think it's one of the most important works written for the stage in the last quarter-century.

I remember in interviews with Kushner said he was thinking of writing a third part. Obviously that has not come to pass, at least not yet, but he knew instinctively that many would want to know what happened to these characters after that last Bethesda Fountain scene. I know I did.

Most of that original Broadway cast hasn't been topped. Ron Leibman, Stephen Spinella, Jeffrey Wright, Kathleen Chalfant and Joe Mantello have never been bettered. (Though I do have to give props to Stephen Dillane's Prior Walter.)

The best Joe: Daniel Craig, in that first National production.

The angel is a thankless part, really. The actress who did the recent Broadway revival got the most interesting things to do with that role, thanks to the director. (And of course Emma Thompson brought star quality to the part.)

And... My favorite Harper is Marcia Gay Harden. She captured the humor that depressives can have and often use as armor. I much preferred her to Denise Gough, who I loved in People, Places and Things but just liked in AIA. Gough ruined the Mormon diorama scene in this recent revival, though I'm not sure if she's to blame or the director. The timing was completely off, and a scene that usually brings down the house landed with a giant thud.

Any sequel to AIA would need to include the next generation of gaysters, and highlight their astounding lack of concern and knowledge of HIV because of the new drugs. It will make the Mormon mother very, very cross. And I'd love to know how Joe is with her, and if Prior remained friends with her. And what happened to Harper. It's to Kushner's credit that so many of us still wonder about these people.

My business partner used to work in the DA's office with Roy Cohn. According to her, he was not nearly as charismatic as the great character imagined/summoned by Kushner.

I think Bea Arthur's more what you'd call a handsome woman. Lansbury's almost beautiful.

Did anyone else see "Gospel at Colonus" in the park last week?

What a thudding dud. Eldergays, please tell me the original Broadway production was miles better than what was just presented. At least in the first half. I streamed out at the intermission, along with many, many others. It all felt like a really slow church service. If the songs had been better, the evening might have been saved, but they were derivative. Hated the set, the staging, the writing... A talented cast can only do so much when all the elements are in opposition!

New York Times article on Theresa Rebeck that wonders why she isn't more revered. I want very much to like her plays, but somehow they just don't quite... make it. I hope the her new Bernhardt/Hamlet does well and finds an audience.

She is when she's drunk r410......

"She should be revered and she's not."

Why, because she has a twat? She's a shitty writer.

It’s Tatiana Maslany for Network!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Tatiana Maslany!

[quote]Bea Arthur really could’ve have had Stritch’s career if she wanted to, post Golden Girls.

Why would Bea Arthur want anything of Stritch's? Bea had a better career than Stritch. Bea's one woman Broadway show was better than Stritch's. And post-Golden Girls, Bea worked when she wanted to work like playing the babysitter on "Malcolm in the Middle" and doing a guest spot on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." The only regret is that "Will & Grace" should have begged Bea to do a cameo. Begged!

Bea's one-woman Broadway show didn't remotely compare to the quality of Stritch's. Sorry, you lost me and all of us there.

Thanks for your comments R409. It will be wonderful if Kushner finishes the trilogy. If he sets it in present time, he will be able to show what happened to all the characters, illustrate the changing views on AIDS, and also be able to have the trilogy yet be able to allow the other two to stand on their own; this would be more of a coda than a full trilogy.

Has anyone read David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing? Levithan is a YA author, but I find some of his books to be incredibly moving and lovely. Two Boys Kissing is about, well, two boys kissing, trying to break a world record of a continuous kiss. There is a Greek chorus of men who have died commenting on the action, and you realize that many of them died of AIDS, and they are the ones who died for the younger generation to have the freedoms that they have. It is really a wonderful, sweet, and sad book.

[quote]Bea's one-woman Broadway show didn't remotely compare to the quality of Stritch's.

They were different types of shows. Bea was doing a retrospective on her career. Stritch was making shit up to get attention.

"Titanic" is returning to Broadway. Eric Schaeffer's production from Signature Theatre outside D.C.

Eric Schaeffer's directing it? Will everyone enter the stage, cross to the center and have a conversation in a clump while the boat is sinking? That's basically his style.

I love Titanic's music. Never saw the show. That opening number is triumphant.

SAIL ON!

Thanks, R406, but Taylor doesn't even let Cariou finish the line you quoted. I really don't think the song works when Desiree angrily interrupts Fredrik WHILE he's speaking. Just my opinion.

[quote]They were different types of shows. Bea was doing a retrospective on her career. Stritch was making shit up to get attention.

Exactly.

Last I heard Maureen Moore is certifiable, R305. I forget what event where it happened, but Maureen started screaming into the microphone about hearing the angels sing and had to be taken offstage. I think it could have been Broadway on Broadway.

That production of Titanic is actually pretty fantastic. I don’t know if there’s an audience for the show, but if it’s cast well, it should be worth seeing.

Erik Estrada as Ben, Larry Wilcox as Buddy, Paul Links as Roscoe, and Robert Pine as Weisman.

So who's had Romley? I guess we've determined who hasn't.

I think Lansbury was beautiful at a certain point when she was young (HARVEY GIRLS) but there was always something a little Tweety Pie about her. Like a lot of those English roses, I don’t think she aged into a beauty. I always thought “Hyde and Tweet”

Bea became handsome during the run of GOLDEN GIRLS.

Patti LUPONE hosted a Q + A in London. Surely one of u queens went.

Any dish to speak of?

oh dear....

R(431) this is what happens when Barry and Fran get ideas that look like $$$$ instead of legacy reviews

Marilu was worse

For reference, here's Bernie:

And Reba:

TITANIC is the silliest of shows with an unremarkable score, nothing can save it. Of course it's being revived on Broadway.

There is one song of distinction in COLONUS, Numberless Are The World's Wonders. The rest is numbing, standard-issue gospel stuff.

At least Liz Taylor can sing ME and not MAAYYYY!

no one should ever be allowed to play Annie Oakley again after seeing Reba. She's really amazing (especially for someone making her stage debut)

Tatiana Maslany is WONDERFUL casting. I think the writing on Orphan Black is awful and, yet, she rises above it. I felt that way about that film she did in which she played the younger version of Helen Mirren, too, absolutely owned the film.

Agreed, R438. It was the perfect alchemy of performer, voice and role, never to be equaled. Ever.

[quote]It was the perfect alchemy of performer, voice and role, never to be equaled. Ever.

We'll see about that.

I adore AIA as much if not more than most, but I fervently hope Kushner isn't planning a follow-up. It is almost certain to be a disappointment, as most sequels are. (And it would be thought of as a sequel, since AIA was written as an organic entity, albeit in two parts.) He should start to plow other fields, and if the results aren't up to AIA's glorious standards, well, he still would have left us with a glorious work of art.

Stritch's AT LIBERTY was a play; Arthur's EVENING was a stand-up act.

[quote] Thanks, [R406], but Taylor doesn't even let Cariou finish the line you quoted. I really don't think the song works when Desiree angrily interrupts Fredrik WHILE he's speaking. Just my opinion.

Umm, she doesn't even do it angrily. It's more like she steps on his line because she's busy wondering what craft services is putting out for lunch.

[quote]Wow, I would’ve thought Ever After would be dead in the water after the reviews it got at Papermill. And Phil Reno is music director, that’s not a good sign.

Or as the cast called it...Never More

Maybe Liz steps on Len's line because she's lost her timing?

R418 Elaine Stritch couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.

R419. I agree about "Two Boys Kissing." Six years ago I worked with a group of college students on an ensemble performance of it and it really sings in its poetic language. I'd love to work on it again, with a multi-generational cast. And it teaches beautifully, too.

R446, that late in her career?

>> The best Joe: Daniel Craig, in that first National production.

Nope, Nick Reding was the first London Joe at the Nash 1992-3

Craig came later when PERESTROIKA was added to the mix

SAD! LOSER! as Herr Drumpf would say LOL

I was really happy when everybody died in Titanic.

I wish the Reba Fan Club would head back to the country music channel. I saw Reba in Annie Get Your Gun. And while she was really wonderful, she certainly wasn't perfect. Her acting left a bit to be desired. The only reason everyone thought she was so great is because they had just seen Baby Bernadette lisp her way through the show and when a real woman stepped up to the plate, their eyes were opened. But Reba's books scenes were B- at best.

[quote] Baby Bernadette

Oh, I love that! They should produce a line of these.

Reba was hilarious in the book scenes. A natural comic actress like Lucille Ball. Who woulda thought at the time? That’s why critics and audiences were gobsmacked. A total package performance like hers hadn’t been seen on the Great Whit Way in years, if ever.

Here's the model, r453.

[quote]Reba was hilarious in the book scenes.

Hilarious in a very obvious way. There's a reason why she's never been back to Broadway and it ain't because she "can't find the right vehicle."

R455 So cute! Same cheeky smile. Thanks for sharing!

Time for a palate cleanser...

Marilu Henner is indeed worse in her clip. Lucci sort of gets away with it once the horrible head voice section at the beginning is over.

Bernadette, is that you?

Unfortunately Baby Bernadette's gentleman friend wasn't nearly as sexy as Baby Rose Marie's gentleman friend.

The Merm.

is this sung lower than the b&w clip?

Reba didn't get that "houses" and "trousers" are a joke rhyme. In fact, she sang them as if they were anything but. That is my one exceedingly minor quibble with her You Can't Get a Man with a Gun. It's otherwise perfect.

Ethel's on r462, though, is, well...I'm sure she was better when she was younger. And that hokey orchestration, yikes.

A poor man's Liza.

Anne Hathaway should try to mount this.

Carole Shelley is much too plucky in that CABARET clip.

Laugh me off the internet, but what about ... Carrie Underwood as Annie Oakley?

[quote] Laugh me off the internet, but what about ... Carrie Underwood as Annie Oakley?

Oh, I'd like to get you off the internet, but not by laughing.

Well, she brought such personality to Fraulein Maria...

Don't care where she was born. Bitch sounds like a yankee.

The next Annie Oakley will be Sutton Foster. Mark my words.

[quote]Anne Hathaway should try to mount this.

After Bareback Mountain, I don't think anyone wants to see Anne in western gear for awhile.

Lea Michele makes her triumphant return to Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun!

Hasn't Patty Murin claimed next for Annie Get Your Gun?

Lea Michele would be amazing as Annie Oakley. An amazing nightmare

In the mid 1990s, Reba had played Annie Oakley in a TV movie about Calamity Jane starring Anjelica Huston, based on some novel by Larry McMurty. She went to see Bernadette in Annie, loved it, and whispered to her husband "I could do this!" The next morning she had her agent or manager contact the Weisslers about replacing Bernie when she left. Reba had grown up on an Oklahoma ranch with older brothers.

The rest is Broadway history.

Maureen Moore was a fantastic Rose. She went on in previews when Bernie got sick and a few times after the show opened when B was still sick but once the show was up and running she played a few performances when B took time off to tend to her husband who was having some sort of procedure and then for her vacation. Sad to hear she may not be well and I hope she's ok.

That clip is ADORABLE, R455! Bernie really has been in show business her whole life.

Reba is indeed great in that AGYG clip, but I'm guessing the reason she hasn't been back on Broadway is that she can't play any character that doesn't allow/require a thick-as-molasses country accent. She was quite poor in the only other musical theater role I know of her doing, Nellie in "South Pacific."

BTW there's another clip on YouTube of Reba doing YCGAMWAG, part of a complete performance but chopped up into segments. She delivers it almost exactly the same way but, live theatre being what it is, the audience is so much more responsive.

That's the issue with Reba - she has stage presence, can act, and sing, but she can't drop the accent to save her life. Could she sing Dolly, Rose, Reno, etc? Yes, and probably sing the shit out of them, but would they work with that accent?

Dolly would work if it were in Urdu. It's that kind of show.

As for 454, Reba was a combo of talents that hadn't been seen on Bway....ever?? Oh come now.

Reba as Phyllis!!!

I feel like the hysterical overpraising of Reba as the most perfect performance in Broadway history (and yes I saw and enjoyed it and am also a fan of hers as a country singer) is like all those anthropological Times articles about the Trump voters in Trump country who still support Trump

[quote]Anne Hathaway should try to mount this.

Pics please.

Was Annie Oakley from the South?

[quote]Was Annie Oakley from the South?

No, she was from Ohio. But putting on a hick accent is something that entertainers do to signal a person has no education.

[quote]putting on a hick accent is something that entertainers do to signal a person has no education.

Effective, that.

I think she'd be great, r472. I'm not her biggest fan, but she does excel in hoydenish roles.

Listen, redneck queens: if I wanted to discuss the merits of Minnie Pearl, Paula Deen, or any other try-hard hick turning in a community theater performance in Annie Get Your Gun, I'd hop on over to the Nashville Theater Gossip thread. However, we don't have a Nashville Theater Gossip thread because NOBODY GIVES A SHIT. Now let's kindly flush this whole Reba McEntire discussion and talk about actual performers in actual musicals.

Annie Get Your Gun and Gypsy were written for Ethel and her personality. Bernadette is closer in type to the actual Annie Oakley and Rose Hovick. But....the shows weren't written for Bernadette and so we have an Annie and a Rose with less feminine wiles and more bombast.

When Reba replaced Bernadette, some other names were floated around like Marie Osmond and Leann Rimes because they would have been so perfect.

I love you forever for posting that clip, r461.

I love a good hoyden.

Marie Osmond would have been a wonderful Sally in Follies (yes, bringing it back to Follies) if she was willing to play a character who's mentioned as having a few drinks. I know she's Mormon and all, but she's stood up for gay rights and other un-Mormon things. She has the right look and has both the belt and the head voice to let that score soar. I saw her on stage twice and I was genuinely surprised by how great she was.

Baby Rose Marie was a bit of a hoyden.

Will someone please explain the Bajour meme to me? Whenever I Google it it brings me back to DL, so I assume it started here.

[quote]Will someone please explain the Bajour meme to me?

Bajour was a flop musical starring DL fave Miss Chita Rivera. Eldergays like to say it because it sounds so flamboyant.

Bajour!!!

Thanks!

Ooh, and one more question... in the Nastiest People on Broadway thread, or whatever it's called, someone said that Beth Stevens from Broadway.com was vile. Anyone know what the deal is with her?

R488 thinks that Ohioans lack a twang. She obviously has never been south of Columbus. Cincinnati is like Natchez.

Gene Kelly played himself in "Pal Joey."

Can I be the only one left alive to say so?

People post Bajour! -- and Flahooley! and Whoop-Up! and other flop or forgotten musical titles -- when the thread gets close to 600 posts to make the thread close quickly so everyone can move to the next thread. No one wants ask about something or post about something new in post 598 and have it get lost in the transition to the new thread.

Bernadette was SOOOOOOOOOO bad in AGYG - I barely made it to intermission before fleeing.

Richard Fleeshman will be on stage in Company.

[quote]Richard Fleeshman will be on stage in Company.

Who will he be playing? Dream Bobbi?

He will be playing Andy (April in the original concept).

So Fleeshman gets "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," the butterfly story and "Barcelona." The latter of which I imagine will be 90% shirtless -- to no complaints. Did anyone see him in the Patrick Swayze role in Ghost on Broadway?

Has there ever been a straight male flight attendant in the history of air travel?

Nice mouth

[quote]Bernadette was SOOOOOOOOOO bad in AGYG

No. There are degrees of "bad," and she was severely miscast, but did her best. It was still a star performance, it was just the wrong star performance. That's why people wet themselves over Reba - she was on-the-money casting, she sang it well, she acted it well enough and was funny (she probably acted it better than Merman did), and she and Brent Barrett (in his super-hot, pre-face work prime) had great chemistry together. Bernadette was offered a revival of "One Touch of Venus" about five years earlier (which fell apart when she turned it down - this was in her "no revivals" phase). Now, that was a role she would have been perfect for. I often wonder why she chose to do Annie Oakley, which was so completely outside her wheelhouse.

Is Richard Fleeshman gay? I know one of the other male actors in Company is - is it the guy playing the Amy-equivalent?

I'm pretty sure that AGYG was not pre-face-work for scary Brent Barrett.

Fleeshman was also the bf of insane actress Roxanne Pallet who became “the most hated girl in Britain” a few weeks ago after unfairly accusing a fellow Celebrity Big Brother houseguest of physical abuse.

Richard Fleeshman is pretty seriously involved with the gorgeous (and talented) Celinde Schoenmaker -- Jonathan Bailey is gay, yes, and also gorgeous and talented and is playing Jamie/Amy

R496, I can see that. But who would be Phyllis, Pat Benatar?

Bailey plays gay-adjacent in Crashing (not the HBO one, the British one). It's six quick episodes on Netflix. I've watched it far too many times and would love to see a second season. Alas, the creator, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, is tied up with Killing Eve now. (She also created Fleabag, which also deserves a second season.)

Cher, of course.

Who was the blonde who did AGYG and almost made it close down?

Cheryl Ladd?

[quote]People post Bajour! -- and Flahooley! and Whoop-Up! and other flop or forgotten musical titles -- when the thread gets close to 600 posts to make the thread close quickly so everyone can move to the next thread. No one wants ask about something or post about something new in post 598 and have it get lost in the transition to the new thread.

People = one person who also hates Mary Poppins. He often wants to rush through the last 100 posts. It’s annoyingly stupid

Did anyone see Cheryl?

In case anyone wondered, here's the timeline of Annie and Frank for that production: Annie was Bernadette (Susan Lucci during vacation), then Cheryl, Reba and Crystal Bernard. Frank was Tom Wopat, Patrick Cassidy, Brett Barrett and Tom to complete.

For the love of all that is holy, will nobody mention ME?!

What about me?

Certainly not me!

r527 No, Miss Crystal, because when you search "crystal bernard annie get your gun" on YouTube, all that comes up are clips of Nick Jonas.

How come nobody ever mentions me? I was the perfect Annie Oakley.

R524. it's not just the Poppins loon. I've done it occasionally when the posts get into the upper 590s.

And if you're who I you are think this is not the first time you've accused me of being the Loon. I'm not.

I grew up with a wonderful studio recording of AGYG starring Doris Day and Robert Goulet. Anyone else remember it?

I loved it and was shocked when I got older and first listened to Merman's Annie. I thought WTF?!

I still have the Day/Goulet recording on vinyl. I was very disappointed with it the first time I played it and have rarely listened to it over the years. Goulet is fine. Day isn't awful, just miscast and bland. It must have seemed right on paper since one of her biggest hits had been Calamity Jane.

I wondered if it's the arrangements on that recording or Doris, r534. Probably both. Jane's songs were written for her voice and her belt doesn't really do Annie's songs justice.

BAJOUR!

Too early?

Interesting article on Tootsie. Sort of glad that they are not sticking to the original overly closely. Any news from Chicago?

Friend is seeing first preview tonite. He's not a DL'er but I'd be happy to post his opinions here if anyone is interested

Please do! I assume there will be chatter on the Broadway World message boards as well.

At least it might me a momentary diversion from AGYG, Follies, and Gypsy.

So far, there isn't an April listed among the Tootsie cast. I don't suppose that means John Behlmann gets to be the one hanging out in underwear.

Has Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin's new George C. Wolfe directed play been discussed yet?

I bought Flahooley and Plain and Fancy on CD last week. Which should I listen to first?

R543 Honestly, I’m not a fan of either

I won't be surprised if Tootsie adds a trans character in the show who's a fellow actor in the play Michael is cast in who, at the end, will tell him how dressing up like a woman is literal violence to trans people and that he should be ashamed of himself.

[quote][R543] Honestly, I’m not a fan of either

I like them both but neither is essential. Plain and Fancy is your traditional 1950s charming fluff but Flahooley is very weird in places. And doesn't it rhyme "reindeer" with "rain, dear"?

And still remains as unnecessary a musical as has ever been produced, r 537.

Yes, but there is a difference between the two in that Plain and Fancy has a somewhat powerful narrative about a nonconformist coming up against tribal folkways, and you hear some of that in the score, as well as another plotline about a NY couple.

Flahooley, on the other hand, is a confused and crazy show, and listening to the score doesn't really tell you what's happening, though it's clear that something is going on. It can be frustrating, which Plain and F never is. And Flahooley has those Yma Sumac numbers, which some cannot abide, though it is fun to hear her gaming around with her trick voice.

Both scores give us Barbara Cook: that in itself is recommendation.

From a Broadway World user re Tootsie:

[quote]Just got out of the show. This is gonna be a hit!! A couple little tweaks. But overall very very solid. Santino had everyone eating out of the palm of his hand the entire show. I’ll post more tomorrow when I’m not on my phone.

If there are that many changes, then why bother calling it Tootsie? It's only going to piss off the people who actually want to see a musical version of the film, and let's face it, that's the only reason they licensed the rights to the title.

Plus when have good reviews out of Chicago ever meant anything? Didn't they love 9 to 5 there?

Another reaction:

[quote]Wow.

[quote]This show is what musical comedy is about. I know there was some pushback about it taking place in present day compared to the 80s soap opera we know and love. However, it's not just aesthetics that is updated. The dialogue and message have been transported into present day. There's themes of gender equality and female empowerment throughout the show. (Even a God is a Woman joke for unknowingly lucky teens witnessing a show with a great life ahead of it.) The score is very reminiscent of Women on the Verge.

[quote]It ran about 90 minutes for the first act and 60 minutes for the second. I feel the ending could use a bit more tightening, but overall, this show will become a proud member of the Broadway family.

it takes place in the present day? Big mistake. How will anyone not realize he's a guy in 5 seconds?

No one in the Broadway family is proud.

r532 Don't worry its not just you. There happens to be a Poppins Loon fixated loon on this thread. Everything she doesn't like she blames on an old troll poster. She's like the mom from the Babadook, except even more unhinged.

Andy Karl IS The Babadook!

Andy Karl IS Tootsie.

Filling up the last few posts on a theatre thread with flop musical titles is a tradition that predates the Loon by several years. But only the lazy stick with just Bajour. Some do their homework and come up with arcane titles like Buttrio Square and Sea Legs.

[quote]She's like the mom from the Babadook, except even more unhinged.

Sorry, but no one was more unhinged than the real Loon at the height of his madness, when he would do things like shut down threads he didn’t start by going through and filling the whole thing up with gobbledygook. He was almost operatic in his lunacy.

The self-appointed moderator of the Timothee Chalamet threads does the same with competing threads. It's manic.

Someone started a thread yesterday asking about Sondheim's current health and whether he's still working on anything. It died after 4 or 5 posts without any answers, so I'll ask here.

How is his health these days? Is he still with his boyfriend? Is he still working on the Bunuel musical? Is the bodybuilder/body dysmorphia project permanently shelved?

Considering he's in London for Company his health must be good.

I should have thought of that, r561. Thanks. What about my other questions? Anybody know anything?

How's Marin doing?

I hope Tootsie is Santino Fontana’s breakout role.

Santino. Did anyone see him in ?

That Doris Day/Robert Goulet AGYG recording is hampered by bland, non-theatrical orchestrations and the fact that the two stars were never in the same recording studio. They recorded all their songs—even their duets—separately.

R560, if the body-builder project you mention is "Muscle," I believe it was permanently jettisoned as a Sondheim-Lapine project many years ago, but that Lapine and Bill Finn did something with it subsequently. And he is still working on the Bunuel project with Ives, but I think it's taken a back seat to the Company revisal.

I don't know anything about his partner, but assume they're still together--it's been years.

Tootsie: are there gunshots?

The updates and changes for Tootsie might be too jarring for the normal crowds, but they are almost immediately forgotten if you buy the premise. The problem is a boring score. Not fun.

Anyone who wants to see a movie transferred to the stage with all their favorite little 'bits' intact should head over to Pretty Boring Woman. What they're doing with Tootsie sounds much more exciting and original. My friend saw the first preview last night and said it was very, very funny but needs some serious cuts.

I always like to throw in a Pousse Cafe or Ankles Aweigh, r557!

Filling up the last few posts is different than what the Loon engages in, which is peppering a thread that he didn't create (like this one) with nonsense posts so that it will fill up. I agree with the person who says it's annoying and stupid.

Case in point, r566....

Some of Sondheim's lyrics for his unfinished "Muscle" musical are in his second volume of lyrics. Having read the nonfiction book about a guy going crazy on steroids as he becomes a bodybuilder, I never understood how they were going to pull that off on a stage. Did anyone see the Lapine/Finn version of it?

I guess I had never really watched Doris Day in an interview situation. She has this reputation of being classy and elegant but one of the nostalgia channels just showed a Johnny Carson she was on in the 70s, and she came off as somewhat aloof. She also wasn't wearing a bra, and you could tell it was cold in the studio!

R575, that's probably the first time anyone here has discussed Doris Day's nipples. Unlike Karen Ziemba's tiny titties.

As I remember it, the Muscle musical was one act to be paired with Passion. Passion still strikes me as a one act stretched to two.

What with all the positive reports on Tootsie and the announcement of the stellar cast of Glenda Jackson's Lear and Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin in Gary, Broadway is looking a little more promising this morning.

Really? Sounds like summer stock fare to me.

So...don't mess with steroids. You'll build muscle but you also go crazy and become obsessed with complete strangers. You deny it by pretending you just like to read.

That Day/Goulet clip was pretty awful, especially the "I can sing higher" part. Day gets hoarse on the high note, clips it, and I think she's a tiny shade flat.

"I do not squat to think/I do not squat to learn/I do not squat to search for truth/I know the truth, the truth is hardly what I need"

Rumor is that Doris was topless during the recording sessions. And it was cold!

Yes, they were to be paired, r577.

I just saw a very, very good production of Passion (at Signature in VA) and it still feels like a one-act stretched beyond its limits. But that music.....

[quote]it still feels like a one-act stretched beyond its limits.

Sondheim's never done *that* before.

I didn't feel that way about Sunday at all. Whether the second act worked is a subject for discussion, but I think it was necessary to extend the story beyond "look, I made a big picture out of colored dots."

Tootsie - Give me a tune I can hum...

You need a tune to go bum-bum-bum-da-dum; give me a mel-o-deeeeee.

Have there been any musical revivals announced for this season?

This is what I hate about Tootsie musical.

Musical theatre is arguably a gay art form. So what do we have with this musical in 2018?

A straight actor playing a woman to get work and at the same time to fool another woman to love him, all the while acknowledging how hard it is for women in the workforce and how misogynistic it is for women, all the while still ignoring the misogyny of not being able to notice a “woman” is really a man

"Musical theatre is arguably a gay art form" means what, exactly? It has to reflect a gay aesthetic/gay p.o.v.?

The only announced musical revival so far is Kiss Me, Kate.

When I saw the original production of Sunday, R584 and others, I, too, thought the second act was unnecessary. When I saw the revival, though, I realized how important it is to the story. First of all, though, I realized that I thought it was unnecessary in the original production because nothing could match the beauty and awe of seeing the painting come to life onstage. There is simply nothing that could top that, so the second act was bound to be a disappointment. The visuals in the recent revival weren't quite as grand, so the bar for the second act wasn't raised quite so hire. Also, I'm an artist now and was not when I saw the original, so I could relate to the struggle between art and commerce, whereas I didn't before.

[quote]Carol's number in Show Girl at [R275] at 34:00 is twenty minutes long!

God DAMN, I watched about twelve minutes of that video and had to stop. That shit is BRUTAL! I like tons of old corny stuff, but this crap is impossible to sit through. I can't imagine it ground out 100 performances before being forced to shutter!

589

I find it so intensely misogynistic to pretend that a man would be so much more talented in a MUSICAL than a woman who doesn't have to conform to the beauty standards applied to TV starlets. What the fuck. There are So Very Many women of a certain age with huge talent who are excluded from work because they are not fuckably thin and young -- the idea that no one could fill the role so a man in musical theater (who already has 5 times as many job opportunities as a similarly talented woman) needed to go for the 'low hanging fruit' is too fucking impossible to get over.

Then to have him able to shift the whole show to be all about his gloriously wonderful self without letting anyone know he is not male? Um. WTF. In musical theater?

[quote]Ann Margret was a pretty terrific Blanche in Streetcar.

Ann Margret was a pretty awful Blanche in Streetcar.

She was far too STURDY, almost like a head cheerleader! Miscast as fuck....and terrible.

I agree completely, r595! And those dresses! Talk about STURDY! No flimsy crepe and silk for that Blanche!

And with Ann Margaret, you wondered why she didn't turn a few tricks to earn some money.

I'm not opposed to there only being one musical revival this season. Even the play revivals aren't as overwhelming yet.

Jesus r461. That Baby Rose Marie performance is a wind-up horror kiddie performance only Ethel Gumm would enjoy!

[quote]Talk about STURDY!

I believe the word is STAUNCH!

Bajour

Wish You Were Here!