THEATRE GOSSIP #324: Betty Lynn Drains All The Humor From Dolly Edition

And from the previous thread, didn’t Jerry Herman once nix the idea of Patti playing Dolly?

There's a soundboard boot of the Betty Dolly FYI ...

For the two posts in the previous thread, Queen Latifah actually thinks her doing Dolly is a form of black face and gets very angry at the suggestion.

Fine, only honkie Dolly's from now on.

Now color-blind casting is racist? Oh, my sides!

R4, It is her life and she is entitled to make her own choices. Are going to force her to play Dolly?

Anyone else excited for Benanti getting her MFL dream soon?

[quote]Anyone else excited for Benanti getting her MFL dream soon?

Yes, her understudy. Because Laura will start skipping performances after a week or so.

Anyone fantasy-casting Kathy Bates in a musical would do well to recall her TV Miss Hannigan. She couldn't even execute the simplest of choreography without staring at her feet.

But she was wearing such cute character shoes!

Just heard "Kinky Boots" is closing on the news this morning. Not until April, though.

AHA! So the Martin Beck (sorry, Al) is the theater "Moulin Rouge" wants. The timing makes perfect sense. KB closes in April; MR starts previews in July.

Patti LuPone is not a star in the UK. It will probably be Bette. And Imelda would be higher on the list than Paige.

She may yet be a star in the UK--the word of mouth on the Company revisal is pretty strong.

Yes, and I'm sure Patti could take a few nights off each week from Company to head Hello, Dolly on the West End "while she's there."

Fran Drescher would have made the perfect (and most plausible) touring Dolly. I wonder if she was asked and turned it down?

I was speaking to her "star" status, r14, not her ability to take on the role. But I'll bet you knew that.

Can Olivia Colman sing? She's a delight.

Does London have bona fide musical theater stars? I guess Elaine Paige. When you think of Broadway musical stars, you think Chita Rivera, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters. Yes, they've done other things, but their strength is in musical theater. Is there anyone on the West End specifically known to be a musical theater person? I think they would like to make Sheridan Smith into that, but she's more known for her tv work.

[quote]And from the previous thread, didn’t Jerry Herman once nix the idea of Patti playing Dolly?

He did but it wasn't because of Patti. Jack O'Brien was to be the director and he wanted to revise the book and score and bring in a new choreographer. That's what Herman objected to.

[quote]didn’t Jerry Herman once nix the idea of Patti playing Dolly?

A lot of people nixed Patti LuPone. She has no nuance.

The BroadwayHD app on Apple TV is shockingly bad. The content is good but the interface and functionality are pathetically amateurish. They've got Nicholas Nickleby and it's impossible to find subsequent installments even though they're all there. Who runs this thing?

They also have American in Paris and the Katharine Hepburn Delicate Balance and other good stuff but the whole thing is damnable to navigate and operate.

^confused by technology

Stephen Daldry was in talks for a while -- and this was YEARS ago - to do DOLLY with PattiLu but that never went anywhere. Elaine Paige has retired from musicals and good riddance - she's ghastly.

[quote] A lot of people nixed Patti LuPone. She has no nuance.

Yes, because few musical theater roles are as nuanced and cerebral as Dolly Levi.

So, how bad is Betty in the role? I assume she at least sings it well? I'm not a big Bette fan, but I can't think of a better role to fit her personality and she made it work. Bernadette was even better and incredibly funny. She looked like she was having a ball.

Comedy just isn't Betty's strength. She's great as scary characters, but she's never warm enough to be truly funny. Her Rose in Gypsy was woeful. Thinking about it still depresses me, because that's how Betty seemed to play it - depressed. All the humor from act I was gone.

[quote] Yes, because few musical theater roles are as nuanced and cerebral as Dolly Levi.

The point is that Patti has two settings: on and off. Even Carol Channing could be touching in the final monologue to Ephraim when she says she's marrying Horace. Patti would deliver that monologue like she was yelling at a tourist who accidentally walked between the stage door and Patti's limo.

Anyone seen McTeer in Bernhardt/Hamlet, The Nap or I Was Most Alive With You?

McTeer's in all of those shows? That's stamina!

r17 Maybe I'm just missing the humour but "a delight" is not the first thing that I associate with Olivia Colman. She has a permanent scowl on her face. It's perfect for her character on Broadchurch but also made the show unwatchable for me. She did do a movie musical, about a real-life series of killings in England. I took a hard pass because it seemed unbearably pretentious. And because Olivia Colman was in it.

Why not Imelda Staunton? She gets most o the parts anyway.

Have you ever thought she was scowling because of the character she played? He performances in Rev. and 2012 as well as the sketch comedy shows where she made her name did not seem as dour as you make out.

Janet McTeer is freakishly tall and makes most audiences uncomfortable. They don’t want to watch Lurch-like actresses.

r32 She has that scowl on her face even when being telling anecdotes to Graham Norton.

^even when telling anecdotes

Olivia Colman is England's Erin Moran

Excited to see Betty Lynn as Dolly. She nailed the humor in "Dear World" in London, although it sounds like she admits this isn't a role she was ever planning to do.

Bernhardt/Hamlet is a non-play. About nothing.

zzzzzzzzzz many seats available after intermission.

R12 Patti is very much a star in West End. She has Olivier from Cradle Will Rock and Les Miz, a nomination from Sunset. She made headlines when her paticipation with Company was published.

British actors who star on the West End are also stars of British TV and film. That's how they do it over there.

Seeing it in 3 weeks

There is no West End Dolly, and there’s not likely to be one. Bette is done with the role. If she wanted another city to conquer, she woild have done eight weeks in LA.

[quote]British actors who star on the West End are also stars of British TV and film. That's how they do it over there.

That's because British film , TV and theater are all centered in London. Their entertainment industry isn't spread out on two distant coasts the way it is here.

It would be nice to see Bernadette do Dolly in London. She's never done a book musical over there, has she?

Please post about it, r41.

[quote]British actors who star on the West End are also stars of British TV and film. That's how they do it over there.

American actors who star on Broadway are also extras on Law and Order. That's how they do it over there.

If Dolly comes to London, it'll definitely be Imelda. Thankfully, it's not a terribly serious role, so she can't play it in her typical angry, manic way that she played Rose and Sally. Although, I'm sure she'll find her way to give it a shot. I think some actors (Betty Buckley is included here) are fine playing comedy when it's a role like Dolly when it's so obvious that the character is supposed to be fun and goofy, but when they play a role that has to be a mix of funny and serious (like Mama Rose), they tend to play it too serious and not bring enough levity to it.

Company - FLOP!

you've seen it, r48?

FOLLIES!

Probably not a lot of DL interest in this bit of news, but for me, it's quite funny given the default color blind casting that happens here in Hawaii...

Loretta Ables Sayre Puts Stamp on ‘Dolly!’

[quote]Loretta Ables Sayre has altered the Dolly Gallagher Levi playbook to suit her lower vocal register and plus-size profile, enabling her to put a personal spin on the titular figure of “Hello, Dolly!”....

In her 2007 Broadway debut as Bloody Mary in South Pacific, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress and also won the 2008 Theatre World Award. In the past, she played Effie White in a Tommy Aguilar-mounted "Dreamgirls" at the Hawai'i Theatre.

Olivia Colman was great in the sitcom about the gay teenager. And she had that hot Irish guy as her husband.

More Olivia Colman in Beautiful People, this time with hot Irish husband.

R51, Loretta Ables Sayre has a voice lower than Carol Channing's?!?!?!

Dolly canbe a chubby woman. Haven't any of you ever seem community theater?

Have you seen ME?

"...couldn't execute the simplest choreography..."

R8, she was staying IN CHARACTER!

Right. In character as Paul Sheldon.

Betty was adorable as Dolly. Quite a show!

....hot Irish husband?

[quote]....hot Irish husband?

In Beautiful People, Aidan McArdle played Olivia Colman's husband. I think he's hot.

Interesting definition of "hot." Do you mean the temperature, maybe?

It’s October already. Aren’t there any big Broadway openings scheduled?

[quote]Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress

Oh, dear.

R64, I'm not the person who posted that but have always wondered why the Tony acting category names are soooo long (e.g., "Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play"). Why can't they just say "Leading Actor, Play" and be done with it? Perhaps it doesn't sound as regal.

Because that would sound like he's the best actor. As opposed to: he gave the best performance in that particular play.

Janet mcteer was wonderful in Bernhardt hamlet

I Was Most Alive With You is not the best constructed play, but I was sobbing by the end. That may be because the main character's situation related somewhat to my best friend/ex-boyfriend's life, but it is compellingly acted and holds your attention, even if the simultaneous signed actors feel rather superfluous as staged. If you're a hearing audience member, you can ignore them, which seems to contradict the point, but I guess deaf folks can ignore the speaking actors so it works both ways. Russell Harvard and most of the rest of the cast are wonderful. I went partly for Harvard and to see Lois Smith on stage; her role is small-ish but she does a good job.

The Nap is very amusing, but slight, and steeped in a rural British sensibility (and, of course, a distinctly British game) that makes it less accessible than One Man, Two Guvnors, which the same playwright (Richard Bean) wrote. As discussed here, lead Ben Schnetzer is hot and appears shirtless (with abs for days) at one point, and does a good job, but he's not giving a star performance a la James Corden. Alexandra Billings steals the show, even though her character's malapropisms are silly. It's fun to see a transgender actress who can really act (Laverne Cox is charismatic but not on Billings' level as far as training and talent go) and playing a villain (albeit a comic one) to boot.

Have not seen Bernhardt/Hamlet yet, but am intrigued and hope I get back to NYC before it closes.

Raquel Welch may have been a good choice for the Hello Dolly tour.

The Nap interestingly came to NY without ever being in London. Jack O'Connell played it in Sheffield and is RIPPED !

After seeing Raquel Welch in Woman of the Year, not a prayer. The woman doesn't have a comic bone in her body.

And she doesn't swing her arms when she walks.

Should I have stayed for Act II of Bernhardt/Hamlet? That 75 minutes felt like 3 hours.

Spoilers for anything I missed?

I don't recall BDJ looking like this as the stroker

I think you meant "stoker."

r74 Does Titanic actually work as a show? I remember thinking the original Broadway production was such a garish nightmare of LETS THROW THINGS TOGETHER (it was that era where everyone wanted to be Grand Hotel/Ragtime, but ended up being The Civil War). I don't really remember the score. The "Titanic - but in an actual body of water" production just seemed like a gimmick, and I can't say this press reel makes the stage production look any better.

Is there a good show hidden in there?

yeston writes good music and hit or miss lyrics titanic is ridiculous yet parts are moving and or engrossing

[quote] Is there a good show hidden in there?

No because they didn't know what to do with it. Everyone already knows the ending, so there can be no real surprises or turn of events. There's not enough room for there to be a hero in the piece. The audience just sits through the whole show trying to figure out which characters would drown and which would survive.

In shows like this, everyone should take their cue from Sondheim. Sweeney Todd is a gory piece of theater, yet he found moments of black humor. Baking people in pies is gross yet you can't help laughing at the lyrics of "A Little Priest." Lovett and Todd are horrible people and yet we are swept up with them and follow them right along in their madness.

Everyone knew how "1776" was going to end, also, but it's still an engrossing show. (Same book writer, Peter Stone.) "Titanic" does have its book problems, but much of the score is wonderful.

[quote]Everyone knew how "1776" was going to end

But in 1776, we were given interesting characters and a process to follow. Even the most astute Social Studies teacher doesn't remember who was on which side and what their beliefs were. So while we know the ending, nobody knew the process for getting to the ending. The story of 1776 is not the ending, but how the characters GOT TO the ending. The same can't be said for Titanic.

TITANIC is a crashing bore to sit through. There are a handful of good numbers that are made stronger by the choral arrangements, but a good opening and closing do not make a good show. The best production so far was the one Eric Shaeffer did in DC because it was more intimate. It's a modified version of that staging that is aiming for Broadway. The original Broadway production was laughable. "Ship of air" as Forbidden Broadway noted. Even the "impressive" set was less than impressive and the model ships on stage made people giggle. The problem is that there are really no emotional stakes involved. You watch a series of character sketches but don't ultimately care about their fate because you don't get to know them.

it's also missing a bit of "why." plays around with class and ambition themes but doesn't have a unifying reason or POV to extract from the situation which is usually what makes a history piece work

Alexandra Billings is genuinely hilarious and easily the best trans actor we have right now. I'm glad that she's getting some props for her work. She played Rose in Gypsy back in Chicago and would have loved to have seen that. She has a killer voice.

Titanic is in competition with The Lion King for:

Best Opening Number Followed by Worst Show.

The Lion King has plenty of entertainment sprinkled throughout. You can't wait for Titanic to sink so you can go home

I'm so glad to hear people saying positive things about Alexandra Billings.

Julie Walters could have been a great London Dolly.

Titanic didn't give anyone an opportunity to get audience sympathy; it just went from one character to the next. Even the old couple singing how they would never leave each other was so taxing, I just wanted a wave to swallow them there, or be eaten by sharks.

R84 I completely agree about THE LION KING.

Lion King has some great moments, but it has some baffling ones as well. The addition of Madness of King Scar is especially galling, but Jason Raize was outstanding and absolutely gorgeous in his big number, and the choral arrangements for the show were outstanding. Some of the production numbers - like the lioness dance - were also quite lovely.

Titanic had.... Must Get on That Ship followed by almost nothing noteworthy. It wasn't as bad as The Civil War, but few shows are.

[quote]In the past, Loretta Ables Sayre played Effie White in a Tommy Aguilar-mounted "Dreamgirls" at the Hawai'i Theatre.

Bloody Mary as Effie. Now THAT's a stretch!

Thanks for the report on I Was Most Alive With You, R68. I'd go for Russell Harvard, too. I've seen him in several things on TV and always enjoyed his work.

What's the story with Miles Kreuger and his Institute for the American Musical? With all the talk of Ken Mandelbaum/Aurora, there's no greater hoarder of rare boots and material than MK. He has all those Ray Knight silent films (and god knows what other gems) slowly decaying on his shelves and makes it near impossible to view them. That shit should be properly archived and accessible at the NYPL!

What should really be done with the Ray Knight films is they should all be digitized snd made available online. If Miles weren’t such a control freak/horder, he would realize he could monetize his collection and make a modest living off of it. But then he would no longer be the guardian of the gate.

[quote]Titanic had.... Must Get on That Ship followed by almost nothing noteworthy

I liked that song with Brian D’Arcy James and Martin Moran - “The Night Was Alive” maybe it was? And “Autumn” is pretty.

I saw the first preview of Titanic and never went back. There was one great gag after that long opening number.... the guy who misses the boat, and says something like "Now I'll be the laughingstock of Poughkeepsie." Did that stay in? It's about the only thing I remember.

You don't remember my stunning supporting performance?

What about mine?!

Was Brooke Sunny Moriber in it? She was in most of the flops of that era

[quote]The problem is that there are really no emotional stakes involved. You watch a series of character sketches but don't ultimately care about their fate because you don't get to know them.

We do come to care about the characters that we do get to spend time with, such as the stoker, the wireless operator, and the Victoria Clark character. So ironic that, in real life the stoker survived the sinking (he was a captain of one of the lifeboats), but in the musical they kill him off. I've always thought that was a really odd decision on the part of Stone and Yeston.

I’m excited to see Batshit Betty in Dolly in Chicago. Will I have a good time? I saw Bette and Bernadette

[quote]We do come to care about the characters that we do get to spend time with, such as the stoker, the wireless operator, and the Victoria Clark character..

Except for the several people on this thread who have said otherwise. I tend to think they’re right, considering its flop status

To the person upstream who asked if the guy still lamented that he will be the laughingstock of Poughkipsee, yes, it is still in Titanic. I got a bootleg of the show, and was so bored by it that I didnt even make it through the first act. It is hard to tell, though, if that is because I'm so sick of the story, or because the musical just didn't pull me in. Maybe both?

Omigod, I interviewed Mles Krueger once about Show Boat. He is a raving loon.

How did Betty get the reputation as Batty Betty? What did she do? What show was it where she caused problems?

I want to hear about Miles' lunacy and Show Boat!

[quote]What show was it where she caused problems?

I think it's agreed upon that Cats was the first show where she was decidedly not just an eccentric actress but actually batshit crazy. But then again, one of the chorus boys was dating her brother, so maybe that pushed her over the edge.

Yes....please keep Imelda in the west end....not interested in her version of Gypsy on Broadway

Betty may be theatrical, but she is lovely too her fans. She signs and photographs with everyone...she even thanks and retweets any comment (nice ones of course) that you send to her on Twitter

[quote].she even thanks and retweets any comment (nice ones of course) that you send to her on Twitter

I think it's her PA that does that.

Maybe her batshit days are behind her? A friend of mine worked with her on a project a couple of years ago and had only glowing things to say about her.

[quote] You can't wait for Titanic to sink so you can go home

SPOILER ALERT!

R11, They can begin inscribing my Tony.

Saw The Nap and I Was Most Alive With You today.

The Nap wasn't as bad as I expected it to be (and I was surprised the reviews were so complimentary). The script has some good lines and we laughed about a dozen times, but goddamn, Dan Sullivan cannot direct farce. I have never seen such piss poor timing in my life. They could have shortened the show my 15 minutes easily without cutting a line if they'd had a director who was in better control and guided his actors better. And if they'd cast it better.

Conlee was terrible, as was the police woman, as was Johanna Day. Now Conlee and Day are terrific actors, so I definitely need to blame Sullivan, but the chick who played the police woman should never have been cast. She doesn't have a comedic bone in her body. Alexandra Billings was fine, but I think she was praised so highly because the rest of the cast (outside of Thomas Jay Ryan) were so awful they made her look better. Schnetzer was fine, but his is such a passive character that he doesn't really get a chance to make an impression. He's a good, naturalistic actor, but he's just one more thing going against the grain (or I suppose I should say going against the nap) of this play. Not at all sorry I saw it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

I Was Most Alive With You was really fantastic. Not perfect, a little flabby in places, but nearly impeccably acted. (The only duds were the guy playing Russell Harvard's boyfriend and the home heath aide for Lois Smith's character.) Speaking of Lois, I wouldn't be surprised if this were her swan song. She was having a very difficult time remembering her lines, had a lot of long pauses and fluffs. But she was, of course, wonderful. Russell Harvard, man- I've always loved him but he really outdoes himself here. Very emotional and dark play and I'm not quite sure it made all the points it was driving towards, but it's the best thing I've seen at PH in years, ever since they decided that they were going to only produce shows by and about women, people of color and Halley Feiffer, who, if you've ever seen her act or seen one of her plays, would assume she qualified by being retarded.

This talk of Titanic has sent me down the wikipedia rabbit hole of all the trashy overproduced musicals of that era. One thing I don't understand, is what was the reasoning behind the production history of Jeckyll and Hyde? Despite glowing reviews in tryouts, there was a five year gap and then a pre-Broadway (?!) national tour before the eventual broadway show. Who was financing this or thought this was a good plan? Then, despite being on Broadway for 4 years the show still lost money? How? I don't remember the show being particularly extravagant. The fly-away sets were neat, but didn't seem particularly luxe.

The only weirder pre-Broadway paths I can think of were Busker Alley and Jungle Book, and both of those (thankfully, for the investor's sakes) never opened on Broadway.

Betty Lynn used to like to go through men like underwear. Lots of MUCH younger men, mostly.

R61

I agree. Adrian is/was very munchable.

fuck.... AIDAN!

Are you implying I WASN'T "munchable"?

Oh no r87. Mrs Overall at The Harmonia Gardens! Mamma Mia proved she can’t sing.

She sang okay in that Acorn Antiques. Certainly well enough to play Dolly. But if there were to be a London Dolly - and there isn't going to be one - it would have to be a really big star if it weren't Bette - Julie Walters wouldn't cut it. Someone with the kind of fame of Maggie Smith or Judi Dench, but about 20 years younger. Who would that be?

A near-rave for "Tootsie" in the Chicago Tribune, including for the score. The only song he didn't like was the final number.

Who tf still says boffo

I heard Julie James say it in a Broadway.com video this summer.

Julie Walters is much the same star status as those women in the UK. Not in America, of course.

I took my parents from Florida to see a matinee of Titanic. The scenery malfunctioned somewhere in the first act and we sat there with the rest of the aged audience for about 20 minutes looking at ourselves. It restarted but killed what was probably a lousy show anyway.

There seemed to be so little drama on stage and so many characters yet none of them stood out - at least as I recall 20 years later.

My parents hated it. Such a mistake

Titanic was a fantastic nap.

Doesn't the "Bat Shit Betty" stuff come out of her acting classes? (or are they singing classes?) I seem to remember there being some weird stuff.

Tracey Ullman is a big star in the UK. She could do Dolly for a few months.

Julie James was screaming up 48th street the other night with some old queen at her heels, she was working hard to be “seen” and “fabulous”, oye!

[quote]We do come to care about the characters that we do get to spend time with, such as the stoker, the wireless operator, and the Victoria Clark character.

Except for the several people on this thread who have said otherwise. I tend to think they’re right, considering its flop status.

Good thinking. You should base all your theater opinions on the consensus of posters on DL, where the tired old theater queens hate absolutely everything.

In this case, one person says it was good. One. There’s a pretty wide consensus on this one, toots, and people who like it are in the minority. This opinion is prevalent elsewhere

What’s next for DL fave Bernadette? After a triumphant turn as Dolly will that be how she wraps her broadway career?

When I saw the film version of Mamma Mia! I turned to my friend afterwards and said 'wow I really loved Tracey Ulman in this' and she replied 'that was Julie Walters you moron.' Am I the only one who gets them mixed up? As far as Betty goes I know several people who have worked with her and they said, yes, she's eccentric and sometimes self centered and clueless but she's also very kind and lovely. And this bitches have gone to town on several other 'names' they've worked with.

R131. We love Follies!

She's probably too busy to do it, but they should get Sarah Lancashire to do Hello Dolly.

[quote] I took my parents from Florida to see a matinee of Titanic. The scenery malfunctioned somewhere in the first act and we sat there with the rest of the aged audience for about 20 minutes looking at ourselves. It restarted but killed what was probably a lousy show anyway.

When I saw TITANIC I sat upstairs in the middle of a bunch of German-speaking tourists. I know they were German-speaking because the kept speaking German throughout the show. That is, when they weren't stuffing their faces with the deli lunch they had picked up ahead of time. Including potato chips.

I should've realized it as a canary-in-the-coal-mine warning as to what was happening with Broadway audiences, but I shrugged it off as a one-off. Stupid me.

I saw Dolly with Bette. She was great but the musical is a dated klunker

Julie James is the worst interviewer in the theatre community. Honestly, so grating and unpolished -- like listening to a high school senior on AM radio show. Amazing how far people can get with no skills.

Sarah Palin as Dolly!

Just spotted Christian Borle and Jenn Collela on 9th Avenue near Ailey. Both lookin quite sexy. Especially Borle.

[quote]Just spotted Christian Borle and Jenn Collela on 9th Avenue near Ailey. Both lookin quite sexy. Especially Borle.

Were you on your way to get cataracts removed? Borle has never been sexy.

Miller Monday!!!

Anyone see Lifespan of a Fact? I was surprised at how much I liked it.

There needs to be a Broadway musical based on Facts of Life. Just think of the song titles:

Natalie's Rape

Tootie Gets Titties

Blair Is A Bitch

The New Girl's A Dyke

R141

I like Collela. (Who said she would never try to play Elphaba because every actress who she knows who did it 'lost her voice and a little bit of her mind' -- subtle shade since she was in If/Then with Idina.)

Someone needs to rehash the Borle/Lara Bell Bundy gossip. Did that really happen or were people making shit up?

Who would make up such a mundane piece of gossip?

I don't think Sarah Lancashire has any box office clout. "Betty Blue Eyes" died a death, did it not?

R18

Not really. Ruthie Henshall was probably the closest until the voice went to Lizaville.

[quote]I don't think Sarah Lancashire has any box office clout. "Betty Blue Eyes" died a death, did it not?

Betty Blue Eyes was a new musical about killing a pig. Hello Dolly is a musical theater classic Sarah Lancashire demonstrated in BBE she can do musical comedy.

[quote]Except for the several people on this thread who have said otherwise. I tend to think they’re right, considering its flop status.

TITANIC definitely has problems in both the score and the book, but some of the writing is great, and overall the writing is good enough to keep audiences involved in a plot and characters that obviously have a lot of deep emotional resonance to begin with. The Broadway production ran 804 performances, which does not really qualify it as a "flop" (even though it probably lost money), and the show has had lots of productions elsewhere, and has now been announced for a return to Broadway. Those are the facts, regardless of what you "tend to think."

You seem to be refuting something I didn't suggest. Lack of box office clout and ability to do musical comedy are not the same thing.

Who is Aurora Spiderwoman on Youtube? Ken Mandelbaum?

R134, Tracy Ullman and Julie Walters were often mistaken for each other in the 1990s but Walters now looks considerably older than Ullman.

To be fair, Walters has to be almost ten years older than Ullman, no?

And as for the (entirely theoretical) box office, she’s probably the most famous comedy actress of her generation in the UK.

The real missed Brit casting opportunity was not getting Jane Horrocks for Sally in Follies.

[quote]The real missed Brit casting opportunity was not getting Jane Horrocks for Sally in Follies.

Would she urinate onstage like she did for Lady MacBeth? Jane is great in character roles where she can be quirky. Sally is not one of those roles.

[QUOTE]she’s probably the most famous comedy actress of her generation in the UK

Ullman? No.

I didn't know that I needed a Tracey Ullman Hello Dolly until now. I think she'd be terrific.

I love Jane Horrocks and I know she can sing, but can she hit those top notes for Sally? She'd be a very interesting choice. She's around the right age for it certainly. I could see her playing it almost eerily cheerful and bright like a 50's housewife and really selling the madness later on. Great. Now, I'm obsessed with this idea now.

Jane Horrocks has difficulty singing when she's not doing an impression. The AGYG production was quite odd.

That said, I think her range has lowered. She didn't sound like Gracie Fields when she sang as her in that BBC TV film.

I suspect Jane would irritate those who disliked Imelda to a greater extent than Imelda did.

The poster was talking about Walters as THE comedy actress of her generation in the UK, not Ullman.

I'll always respect Jane for playing Sally Bowles as if she legitimately had NO singing talent whatsoever. That was a very brave choice and I think it pissed off a lot of people. God knows she could have probably sung the score well enough had she wanted to.

I think they did the right thing with subsequent Sallys and cast people who could kinda carry a tune, but not in any powerful or well trained way. They sang as best they could. It kinda added to the drama, but I don't remember anyone being quite as bad as Jane was. They were all mostly mediocre as Sally is supposed to be.

Not to turn this into another Follies thread, but what does everyone think the character of Sally needs? Obviously, it's the most vocally tricky of the roles in the show since it jumps from low alto to soprano quite a bit, but in terms of look and performance style, who's ideally suited to the role? I never saw the original production, but it seemed like Dorothy Collins was playing her like a happy go lucky Betty White type for most of the show. Is that the way to do it?

I'm not sure it was entirely her choice. I don't think she has a solid technique. Her singing arose out of being a party trick.

R65 is referring to Horrocks, btw.

R165, not r65

Sally should be a little pathetic ("in her tap shoes"). She should not be irritatingly chipper. There should be charm there. She's a survivor, despite herself. Why does Buddy not divorce her? An old fashioned sense of Til Death Do Us Part? Or does Sally have a quality, a vulnerability, that makes him want to take care of her, forever? In her own way, Sally's something of a steamroller - what she wants takes precedence over other's plans or feelings (flying out to her sons and camping on their doorstep).

Horrocks would be a horrible Sally. She’d play her like Katy Grin in Absolutely Fabulous. She was hilarious as Grin (“It’s madness! It’s carpets! It’s carpet madness!”) but it would NOT work for Sally. And Sally has to be played by a trained singer which Horrocks most certainly isn’t.

Batshit Betty's brother Norman was a relative virgin when he met the adorable Timothy Scott, who played the original Mr. Mistoffeles in the NY production of "Cats". Tim may have started out as a chorus boy, but "Cats" made him a star. He started to become sick quite often during his run in "Cats", but he and Norman were together for over 5 years, until his untimely death from AIDS complications in 1988. His memorial service was held in the Winter Garden Theatre. Their relationship in the beginning drove Betty nuts, but she gradually came to love Tim. However, during those first few months, she was a monster, often heard screaming at God from inside her dressing room.

Physically, Sally’s supposed to be a blonde, petite “all-American” girl at 50, right?

If Kristin Chenoweth had left well enough alone with the plastic surgery, I envisioned Sally looking like her.

Jesus....come to think of it, isn't Chenoweth kinda born to play that role? She was a bit shaky when she played Fran in Promises, Promises, but something tells me she might really be great as Sally. Then again, Bernadette Peters is kinda cut from a similar cloth in a way and I didn't think she was terribly good as Sally. Sally really has to be toughest musical theatre character to cast.

I already have a Tony for playing Sally, so no, thank you.

Barbara Cook was perfectly cast.

The best Sallys tend to be those whose stardom never solidified into "Get me a [Insert Female Star Name] type".

[quote]I never saw the original production, but it seemed like Dorothy Collins was playing her like a happy go lucky Betty White type for most of the show

Based on what? You never saw the show and you’re making a statement on how Collins played it? I did see the show, twice in LA, and Collins had a lot more colors to her performance than you’re stating.

R172, funny, I’ve never thought of Chenoweth and Bernadette as similar “types”.

Actually, I think Bernadette (circa 1980) would have been a terrific Fran - way more believable as a Nu Yawk waitress/side piece who just needs to be loved and protected than Chenoweth.

I think Kelly O'Hara is miscast more than she's well cast, but I think she'd be a great Sally. And boy could she sing it.

I think Kelli is as boring as can be, but she'd probably be a great Sally.

It’s official Ansel Engort is Tony in the new West Side Story film.

I bet Ben Platt is PISSED!!!!!

Oh, dear lord. I didn't want to see Platt in that role (I don't want to see Platt in anything, ever) but Elgort? Feh.

Audra as Sally. Wouldn't that be a new twist!

Oh yes, Ansel definitely looks like a former gang member. Ugh. Apparently they're even looking at Liam Payne from One Direction as Riff

Ariana Grande *IS* Anita

Don't jest R184, Camila Cabello is apparently rumoured (according to Reddit) for Maria.

this is going to be a huge joke.

Lens Dunham as Anybodys! Chris Hemsworth as Ice! Ricky Martin as Bernardo! (R186 is right...)

Elgort's a baritone, no?

[quote]Oh yes, Ansel definitely looks like a former gang member.

And Richard Beymer did?

Did I say that, R189? Mistakes of the past aren't an excuse to make the same mistakes over again.

Has Elgort's voice changed yet?

Yeah, that first film was just one big mistake

Cole Porter is funny.

Yip Harburg is funny.

Lorenz Hart is funny.

Though Sondheim can be witty when he tries to be funny he is tap dancing in wet cement.

Horrocks complete lack of a singing voice as Sally Bowles simply followed in the god awful tradition of the dearly departed Natasha Richardson whose casting was justified with the ludicrous argument that Bowles was not a good singer so the actress playing her didn't have to be. In the same vein Eliza Doolittle doesn’t have to be a trained soprano because she’s merely a Cockney flower girl who wouldn’t know an octave if it slapped her in the face.

Richardson followed Horrocks.

Somehow I don’t think Sondheim is going for “funny”

When Anita sings “Stick to your own kind” was that directed at homosexual males?

[Quote] Has Elgort's voice changed yet?

You decide.

I think Auli’i Cravalho (Moana, Rise) would be the perfect Maria but maybe they want a 100% hispanic girl to play her for this. I think Cravalho’s dad is either Portuguese or Brazilian.

Okay, Elgort's voice is fine. I just hate him, however irrationally.

[QUOTE]In the same vein Eliza Doolittle doesn’t have to be a trained soprano because she’s merely a Cockney flower girl who wouldn’t know an octave if it slapped her in the face.

It isn't the same vein at all. Bowles being a poor singer is part of her character. If Eliza were described as a cockney flower girl who was a bad singer, then it'd be in the same vein.

If Sally sings the book songs well but the diegetic songs poorly, it works.

R200 It's only irrational because you haven't read any of his interviews. Once you've read just parts of them, it quickly becomes rational hated. Just a taste:

[QUOTE]“Girls love it when you have some weird nerdy thing in your room. It makes you look less threatening, even though I’m, like, very threatening. I’m the most threatening guy ever.”

Sally's talent or lack thereof doesn't interest me as an audience member. Same for Rose in GYPSY. It's the mess of their lives and characters that holds my interest.

Thanks for giving me rational grounds for my hatred, r203. Jesus, does he have any redeeming value at all?

[quote]I tend to think they’re right, considering its flop status.

What flop status? It ran two years and won five Tony awards, including "Best Musical."

[quote]When Anita sings “Stick to your own kind” was that directed at homosexual males?

I'd say "What a stupid comment," since it's clearly talking about white v Latino, American born v Puerto Rican, but in fact your comment reflects exactly the way it was used in "Side by Side by Sondheim."

All the hate on here for Titanic surprises me as I've seen much worse that was more successful.

[quote]What flop status? It ran two years and won five Tony awards, including "Best Musical."

Yeah, but four out of five DLers hate it, so it MUST be a flop!

Ansel reminds me so much of the guy who lived two doors away from me growing up, and with whom I had sex with for about 40 years, and, then, we stopped only because we don't live near each other anymore. I even fucked him the morning of his wedding, and I was in the wedding party. So, I've got a soft spot for Ansel.

His voice is good, and he's a trained dancer. They could have picked worse for Tony. The entire story is not based on anything close to real life, so it doesn't exactly matter if he doesn't look like a gang member.

FORTY YEARS, R210?

Sex with the same person for 40 years?!

[quote]I sat upstairs in the middle of a bunch of German-speaking tourists. I know they were German-speaking because the kept speaking German throughout the show.

Oh boy.

Ansel Elgort is disgusting. I guess he's Spielberg's newest bro-crush. We saw how well that worked out with Shia LeBoeuf.

Didn't you two after at the very least 20 years age out of each other's interest? I know there's still sex after 40 but not when you've seen that person age in unsparing close-up.

Yes, I had sex with the neighbor for about 40 years. We met when we were about 14. He was the first person I ever fooled around with. It was not 40 years continuously. We went to different cities for colleges, so we didnt see each other for a few years, but we then both moved back to our home town on and off, and, when we were both there, we would get together and fool around. I'm sure that if we were in the same city, we would still be fooling around now. Why not? We didn't see each other often, he's handsome, a nice guy, and has an incredible cock. We're still friends, and I'm still friends with all of his brothers and sisters.

Julie James is insufferable as a “me me” interviewer, but she extremely nice in person. She buddies up with people like Seth Rudetsky and Rich Jey Alexander though.

R216 I assume with his wife and children as well?

Ansel is just the right kind of guy for Spacey. Heterosexual who talks like rough trade.

Titanic was neither critically beloved nor commercially terrible successful. I wouldn't call it an epic flop, just a disappointment, and I think the dislike for it here is precisely for its lack of ambition. There's NOTHING there that would be so offensive to make it flop but there's nothing there to ever make it truly work beyond a good setting and a well-written opening number.

It's not like the Pirate Queen or Carrie where you can at least admire that there was some vision behind it. It's cynical, clinical, and staid. Ragtime has some issues, it's ballad heavy and like the movie, it really lacks the magical structure that made the book such a work of genius, but you can at least admire it for attempting to say something. Ragtime just happens to also (when directed well) be a worthwhile night of theater. Pirate Queen... well, I don't think it would ever work, but man, at least you can tell somebody was trying.

Titanic is 3rd rate Grand Hotel in plotting, and Wildhorn-esque everyman blandness in music. The producers probably thought they had minted a moneymaker that would run on Broadway for 4-5 years and then be a fixture in community theater for years.

Has there ever been a Sally Bowles who sang the club songs poorly/mediocre and then brought out the belt for "Maybe This Time" or "Perfectly Marvelous?" That would be interesting and I wonder if the audience wouldn't be confused and ask "why did she sound like shit on 'Don't Tell Mama', but great on 'Maybe This Time?'"

Tyne Daly probably made the strongest case for Rose being a non-singer. In some ways, it made you root for her more and made her a bit more pathetic.

Steel Pier, Juan Darien, and The Life. This was Titanic's competition. With decent competition, it would have won nothing.

Time to revive STEEL PIER!

Just think about it.

r223 Karen Ziemba for London Dolly! To save money and given the shrinking orchestra, she could play the banjo line in the title song while also reaching out to interact with audiences from the passerelle (the 'relle as it's called in London).

You root for Tyne Daly. On the other hand you can’t wait for Tovah to watch everyone leave her.

I liked the score of Steel Pier. Is it bad? I should listen to it again as it's been awhile.

Attention fellow New Yorkers: 82 year old Anita Gillette (MR. PRESIDENT, CABARET, THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG) is performing at Birdland this Wednesday. The ol' gal was even in the original production of GYPSY.

She recently co-starred with horse-hung Juan Castano in A PARALLELOGRAM

How do we know Juan is horse hung? Where was it presented?

Steel Pier was one of the most god-awful shows I've seen. The show was zero energy until Debra Monks' song. That got a bit of energy, but then the energy level just fell back to plodding. The end of Act 1 had the entire cast running around in a circle. It's like wtf did we pay top dollar to see shitty choreography for. By the time KZ had her big "moment" nobody gave a shit. "Running In Place" more like running out of the theater. They were just looking at their watches hoping to make the 10:45 train the hell out of there.

Somebody Older from Steel Pier sounds like what Fred Ebb was typing in the AOL chatroom Men4Pinga.

Somebody younger needs somebody older.

But Rose's songs aren't club performances like some of Sally's. Non singers straining for notes make me not root for them.

[quote] How do we know Juan is horse hung? Where was it presented?

It was on full display in the Public Theater's OEDIPUS EL REY when he got naked and (unknowingly) fucked his mother

A truly spectacular penis

Did Tovah sing Rose in Roz keys or did she go even lower? From my recollection, Roz was basement, Tovah was sewer.

[quote]Horrocks complete lack of a singing voice as Sally Bowles simply followed in the god awful tradition of the dearly departed Natasha Richardson

Natasha's singing was nowhere near as bad as you're stating, so shut up. Oh, too late.

[quote]Has there ever been a Sally Bowles who sang the club songs poorly/mediocre and then brought out the belt for "Maybe This Time" or "Perfectly Marvelous?" That would be interesting and I wonder if the audience wouldn't be confused and ask "why did she sound like shit on 'Don't Tell Mama', but great on 'Maybe This Time?'"

I think they would be extremely confused, and the whole idea of singing the role that way is nonsensical.

“Girls love it when you have some weird nerdy thing in your room. It makes you look less threatening, even though I’m, like, very threatening. I’m the most threatening guy ever.”

[quote]Umm, I'm pretty sure Elgort must have been joking when he said this, and does not actually think of himself as "threatening" or think that's a good thing. I find it idiotic that anyone reading this quote would take him seriously.

Sorry for the formatting error above. Should have been:

[quote]“Girls love it when you have some weird nerdy thing in your room. It makes you look less threatening, even though I’m, like, very threatening. I’m the most threatening guy ever.”

Umm, I'm pretty sure Elgort must have been joking when he said this, and does not actually think of himself as "threatening" or think that's a good thing. I find it idiotic that anyone reading this quote would take him seriously.

Am I the only one who thinks HELLO DOLLY! and MAME are pieces of shit?

Yes.

I thought that whole article on Elgort was very strange. He isn't particularly offensive and nothing quoted even implied he had any rapey attitudes.

R218. He does not have any kids. I am friendly ish with his wife, but not friends. When we got together, it would just be the two of us for obvious reasons, so I have not spent a lot of time with his wife. She has no clue that we have ever done anything, which is amazing considering how often and how long we've been doing it. He is the last person you'd expect. He's a total he man. If we were to meet now, we would never be friends, but we have so much shared history, and I love some of his family. He is very conservative. He hunts. He fishes. He goes into the Maine woods for days and just eats what he catches. He's like something from an Orvis catalogue, and he travels around the world on these odd fishing and hunting expeditions with other he-men.

[quote] Am I the only one who thinks HELLO DOLLY! and MAME are pieces of shit?

MAME has a marvelous score but the libretto is creaky and anachronistic. In 1966 an unmarried pregnant woman was still somewhat scandalous so Gooch's situation could still resonate with audiences, but now people would just roll their eyes. Ito is often played as a horrible stereotype, one step removed from Mickey Rooney in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S. Does anyone even know what 'restricted' means anymore?

For me, DOLLY remains a total joy. It strives to do nothing more than entertain, although the message about living life 'before the parade passes by' does resonate more and more as one gets older.

[quote]r25 Yes, because few musical theater roles are as nuanced and cerebral as Dolly Levi.

I would LOVE for Betty to go on a tear and make her entrance in her SUNSET BOULEVARD costume...and procede to do the whole DOLLY show as steely, biting Norma.

People would just stare...transfixed.

(In a situation like that, would they bring down the curtain...or would the whole crew simply freeze? Would it be up to the stage manager to decide?)

I just finished performing in a semi-pro production of Dolly. Audiences ate it up as it's a great antidote for the unpleasantness of today's politics.

r240 Mame still has excellent bones. The problem isn't Gooch being pregnant out of wedlock, while there's not nearly as much of a stigma as there was in the 60s, audiences still understand that this would be an issue for a 1930s/40s secretary and her returning pregant is still a great gag. Same with things like the all-naked school, or the speak-easy. We know they aren't "edgy" now, but they weren't really even edgy in the 1960s.

Mame's problem is that the libretto doesn't really let Mame breathe as a character the way the play Auntie Mame does. Part of the joy of Patrick Dennis's writing is that here is a woman who is of no historical importance, yet through her life you understand the American Dream over a long turbulent course of events. It's like a proto-Forest Gump, without all the terrible moralizing and treacle-y babyboomer nostalgia. Even looking at how Mame and her love of life and ability to just enjoy things vs the Upson's racist snobbery would still work today if the libretto let Mame just be Mame.

With just a little bit of work, the show could be as effervescent and fun as Dolly (with a better score) but other than a few scenes that are almost direct copies of the play (the first morning after the opening party) there isn't a lot of humor in the libretto other than, hey isn't this dame wacky!

I'd still take it over Steel Pier.

Have they approached Olivia de Haviland about doing a London DOLLY?

It could be fab - - even if she was in a wheelchair

The pedophile school does kind of ruin Mame.

And unfortunately for some insane reason the movie musical makes it explicit. Even as a boy in the 70s I was like what the fuck are people thinking?

Who knew the Will Fucking Rogers Follies would come back to haunt Beto. I wonder if he was referring to Sutton Foster.

Uhhh, Cady Huffman, dumbass/R247.

Mrs. Trump II was in THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES, as well!

I do think Mame can work as a revival with a tweak here and there. It does need to be taken back to its source material a bit. The score is perfect - exciting and beautiful.

I can't remember what keys Tovah sang in, but they were LOW. She was horribly unfunny in the role, too. She played it a lot like Betty Buckley did, but angrier and without the amazing vocals to redeem the evening.

Here's the thing, I don't mind actors having to sing in different keys if they're going to be bringing something interesting to the role and getting the character right. But to give a shitty performance AND be singing in crappy keys - no, thank you. Someone else mentioned Tyne Daly earlier. I didn't mind that the score didn't exactly fit her voice like a glove, because she was giving an amazing performance. I really haven't seen anything like it in a musical before or since. Somehow, her awkward voice in the songs made it more passionate and moving.

Saw the first performance of the Dolly tour in Cleveland. Betty is the least comical of the recent crop of Dollys but manages to be very funny. She is far and away the best vocalist of the group. “So long dearie” knocks you out of your seat in the sheer amount of vocal power. Tears were streaming down her cheeks with the Ephraim monologue at the end of act one. The rest of the cast is taking a more comedic approach to their roles so everything more than evens out. The tour is well worth your time to see.

Dolly is a broader character but the musical Mame needs a light effervescent sophisticated magical actress. I don't even think there was anybody who had it after Lansbury. It was the impetus of her magical performance that had it running for four years.

There is nobody around today with the sophisticated gossamer musical comedy star talents to bring the role to life today. There weren't many even in the late 60s.

[quote]r253 There is nobody around today with the sophisticated gossamer musical comedy star talents to bring the role of Mame to life today.

[italic]Brookie can do it!

[quote]I do think Mame can work as a revival with a tweak here and there.

I really love Mame, but I saw it again recently. It's got a multitude of problems, which need more than a "tweak" here and there. The nudie school, by the way, have never read as "pedophile," but it's also not that important. It could easily be changed to some other kind of avant garde school. The "fish families" joke isn't that funny anyway, nor is the "in my school, we don't wear ANY uniforms" line. The big problem is - are you going to cast it diversely? Because what happens when you have a bunch of people of color traipsing around a Southern plantation with lyrics like Mother Burnside's "This time the South will rise again"?? That's the way it was when I saw it. And even if it's a purely white cast, it's not too hard to be reminded what kind of grand old South they're singing about in that song. And that's the famous title song, there's no cutting it. The notion of a "restricted" community is cringeworthy now, and even though Mame shows the Upsons up, it's still gross. As I recall, in the original Auntie Mame, she's opening a school for Jewish refugee children, which is at least punchier than for unwed mothers. I don't know, I suppose someone really brilliant could find a way to finesse it all and make it sparkling again, but who is there that's really brilliant who would even want to try?

Every time the title song from Mame pops up on the Sirius Broadway channel, I cringe and think, "Well, they’ll never be able to revive this; too plantation-y."

R255 Just convince Jerry Herman to write new lyrics. It's not like there isn't a precedent to rewrite offensive lyrics.

Mame is one of the more rousing showstoppers in the history of the Broadway musical. I already wrote about the frenzy it caused with the huge audience in Radio City. And it was a movie! There were no performers on stage to whom they could show their enthusiasm!

Also nobody back then thought that making the south rise again meant bringing back slavery and the oppression of African Americans. They knew instinctively the conventions of a musical and they were not thinking that making the south great again include the subjugation and humiliation of a large part of its population due to skin color. It just meant Mame was going to make everyone happy because that's what musical comedy stars do.

[quote]If I were a millionaire, I'd offer Buckley $100,000 to do it!

You fucking cheapskate.

R258 But that was almost 50 years ago.

Everytime someone brings up NR I get sad for the Night Music that never was with her as Desiree and her mother as her mother

That's what I meant. 50 years ago people got it. Today they don't.

They “got it” because they thought the South was as charming as it was portrayed.

Now we know better.

It was a musical. They knew there was little reality behind it. I mean if you look at Oklahoma it is about the arrogance of white men attempting to expand their territory by displacing native Americans and in the title song exalting the glory of it all.

But I guess people years ago were pretty stupid. And we are all so much smarter today.

And we've got the musicals to prove it with scores so exciting, melodic and moving that Jerry Herman and R& H couldn't even attempt to approach them.

Modern musicals are so good that they don't even need melodies.

People, it's not about being smarter or not. Revive Mame with those lyrics and see the bad publicity it gets. It's about moving on with the times.

And they should cut the offensive Edelweiss from Sound of Music which extolls a 'homeland' of anti-Semitic Nazi sympathizers and collaborators.

Jesus Christ, R268, how wrong can you be?

The deplorables will twist anything to try to make their stupid points.

R269 and R270 you are about the two most stupid people on the planet. And you call other people deplorables!

Theodore Bikel is on record as saying he did not like singing the song because he found it offensive.

Wow the idiots are out in full force this morning.

Could a major production of Show Boat survive in today's social justice culture? In 1994, there were already people complaining about it before they even saw what Hal Prince had done with it. I can't imagine a major production would survive a Cynthia Erivo tweet in today's culture.

I think Miss Gloria (fucking) Swanson would have made a most fascinating Dolly!

I miss the Broadway Sex thread

R271/moron, it’s made pretty clear that Von Trapp hates the Nazis. Have you even SEEN The Sound of Music? If you have remember the bit where he rips the swastika flag? Imbecile.

R272, unfortunately, I don#t think it is possible. It is sad that a musical that was intended as anti-racist is now considered racist.

Cynthia would complain on twitter and demand boycotts until she was cast as Queenie. Then an article would come out in Jezebel about how she found subtext and nuance in the role and how it was actually an inclusive show

but what to do about Ito?

Can't Ito be portrayed as a normal human being rather than a cartoon?

r272 There was a major revival of "Showboat" in London two years ago.

Cynthia Erivo IS Mame!

Cynthia Erivo is Mamie Van Doren.

Cynthia Erivo should be discussed here

Cynthia Erivo is Mamie Eisen.....oh forget it.

Auntie Mame the book is written acerbically and she really doesn't have the warm fuzzy under-layer the play had to give her. And with Roz in the role...well...

Cynthia Erivo *IS* Annie Oakley

Paulo Szot *IS* Buffalo Bill

And Daniel Radcliffe *IS* Frank Butler

My ex was friends with one of the dressers at Will Rogers and she told him that Trump put money into the show (which had been running for a while and business was slipping) to get Marla cast and she could pretty much take off whenever Donnie wanted her home at night. She also said Marla was lovely.

R286 Mushroom Man was also a producer of PARIS IS OUT!, a flop play from 1970 starring Molly Picon and Sam Levene, written by Richard Seff.

Ben Platt retweeted his West Side Story audition in the wake of Ansel Elgort's casting. How bitchy of him!

R235 Feel free to read it in context. Even if he is joking, the interview as a whole doesn't make him sound like less of a douche.

R288 His ego really went to his head if he thought he had a chance. Daddy bought you a Broadway show, a Tony and a record deal. Make do with that.

MAME is just too 1966.....

ITitanic was flawed (awful sets), but I loved it, especially Brian D'Arcy Janes' and Martin Moran's duet

What ever happened to Martin Moran?

[quote]Ben Platt retweeted his West Side Story audition in the wake of Ansel Elgort's casting. How bitchy of him!

Even if he was an excellent singer, he still wouldn't have landed the role. Tony needs to be HOT!!! They want to market this to teenage girls.

Magic.........

Will they get Sondheim to rewrite America? You just know some of those lines will cause an uproar.

Platt's self-regard knows no limitations.

Sondheim's become very accommodating in his twilight years, r295. Actually, I suppose he always has been. I'm sure he'll do whatever Spielberg asks of him.

Were any of the lyrics changed for the revival involving Lin-Manuel Miranda?

Don't know, other than possibly some nuanced changes resulting from the translation.

R298 Nope. R299 it was sung in English, at least in the versions I've seen.

[quote]What ever happened to Martin Moran?

He's written a couple books/plays about his life (All The Rage and The Tricky Part) R292, and performs them. He is a truly lovely man.

"Sometimes I wonder who I might be if I never met you."

R301, He is a lovely man, but her is also a good actor. I wished he worked more.

I'm really failing to see what's offensive about Mame. Is it dated, yes. Does it need a rewrite or two? Hell yes! Is there anything blatantly offensive in it? NO!

Sure, they sing about the south rising again, but not as they're whipping slaves or something. Yes, the Upsons are anti-Semitic cunts, but that's part of the humor. We were always supposed to find them appalling and a huge contrast to open minded, liberal Mame. It's a good source of comedy - putting characters up against each other when their views are so drastically different. Can we not find the humor in these things anymore?

I remember hearing Glenda Jackson spitting out quite a few racial slurs in Three Tall Women this past season and no one batted an eyelash. People gasped in the audience, sure, but I don't remember hate Tweets and boycotts. If you ask me, that's worse than anything in Mame for God's sake.

Have they banned Gypsy yet, because of the title?

r300, Sondheim and Miranda worked up some Spanish lyrics, since Laurents' original plan was to have the Sharks sing in Spanish. After a couple of weeks (not sure whether previews or performances) the cast started complaining that the audience wasn't understanding them, so the bilingual gimmick was dropped. But the translations were done.

Marty Moran has a new play premiering at Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ this winter.

The theater just finished a run of Pamela's First Musical based on Wendy Wasserstein's YA book from the 1990s. Script by Wendy with additions/supervision by Christopher Durang, music by David Zippel and direction by Graciela Daniele. And starring DL faves Carolee Carmello and Howard McGillin (neither play Pamela).

[quote]Have they banned Gypsy yet, because of the title?

It's being retitled to Legacy.

Martin Moran has also done a fair amount of stage acting in recent years. I think he may be in WICKED right now. If not, he was recently.

I agree that the Upsons in MAME (and AUNTIE MAME) are meant to be and are, in fact, funny in their bigotry, but some of the other humor in both the play and the musical does come across as offensive to modern sensibilities, including all those jokes about Gooch getting knocked up while drunk. And what's offensive about the "Peckerwood" sequence is that we're supposed to be happy when Mame is finally accepted by all these people who initially hate her just because she's a "Yankee."

r304 The cast recording was released with I Feel Pretty and A Boy Like That in Spanish. An iTunes edition includes Jump and the English version of A Boy Like That and a Barnes and Noble edition includes karaoke versions of a couple of songs and the English version of I Feel Pretty.

Martin Moran was also the first actor to play the father in FUN HOME, in a workshop at the public. Personally, I thought he was better and much more right for it than Cerveris and his wig.

According to the new Vulture interview, Michael Urie was cast in the revival of How To Succeed bur was fired pre broadway because a rights owner didn’t like him. He was later able to be a replacement cast member.

Was the rights owner homophobic? Does this happen often on broadway?

Thanks, r308.

[quote]r303 Sure, they sing about the south rising again, but not as they're whipping slaves or something.

[italic]"You make the cotton easy to pick"[/italic] ?

Is that worse sung by whites, or blacks?

I liked that show when I was in 5th grade. HELLO, DOLLY is pretty clunky/stupid as well.

Didn't Christopher Hanke play the rollin How To Succeed? He's another one who's gayer than a picnic basket.

[quote]According to the new Vulture interview, Michael Urie was cast in the revival of How To Succeed bur was fired pre broadway because a rights owner didn’t like him.

Would the "rights owner" in question be the widow Loesser? Whatever, Urie was brilliantly funny as Frump. He nailed every laugh that Hanke missed. It's true that Urie's singing was barely passable, so maybe that was the reason for the "rights owner" not liking him.

R312 Well, cotton is still taken off of plants still -- maybe not by hand, but it can still be considered "picked".

[quote]I agree that the Upsons in MAME (and AUNTIE MAME) are meant to be and are, in fact, funny in their bigotry, but some of the other humor in both the play and the musical does come across as offensive to modern sensibilities, including all those jokes about Gooch getting knocked up while drunk.

It's a fucking period piece. Anyone who is offended is a fucking idiot.

Your MOM'S a fucking idiot.

Jesus, some of you bitches are humorless cretins. With your moral squint and Orwellian political correctness, you'd leach every bit of humanity out of the theater, if you had the chance.

Handpicking of cotton was still done up through the 1950s. My dad (a poor white Southerner) did it alongside his entire family throughout his youth. Machines were not widely introduced until the 1950s and it still took awhile for the technology to displace manual laborers in some areas.

There was some zeleb who recently got a load of accusations of racism thrown her way because she posted some new make up she was trying to sell, and had a field of cotton as the background in the photo. So yeah, I think Mame would get protests from that crowd. Of course they're idiots. But their idiocy is effective, unfortunately. And Great Comet proved they'd rather kill a show over their made up "principles".

I want Mame Dennis brought before a Senate committee.

Now, wait just a cotton-pickin' minute!

Show Boat is *the* great American musical and an early defiant protest against racism yet now verboten. The Mikado was the most often produced piece of musical theater worldwide in the twentieth century yet The Village Light Opera was forced to withdraw their production before it opened just a few years ago because of accusations of yellowface.

Gilbert to Grossmith, the original Ko-Ko: Grossmith! Kindly omit that fall!

Grossmith: But it got a laugh, Mr. Gilbert.

Gilbert: They'd have laughed if you'd sat on a pork pie. Omit the fall.

Gilbert wanted his satire on late 19th century English manners played straight, not as a simpleton yellowface burlesque.

That particular Mame Dennis actually did have to testify, r321.

Jonathon Smith got around that in his popular and much reproduced production by actually setting the piece in Brighton Beach with the characters all Brits.

[quote]It's a fucking period piece. Anyone who is offended is a fucking idiot.

I hate extreme political correctness and reactionary backlashes against old shows as much as you do , but I don't think the plot line of an unmarried woman unintentionally getting pregnant while drunk, especially in the 1930s or early '40s, should ever have been considered funny -- even though I realize that a lot of people DID consider it funny in AUNTIE MAME and in MAME, I guess for decades. And I have to confess that I myself found it funny until I actually started to think about it some years ago.

[quote]But their idiocy is effective, unfortunately. And Great Comet proved they'd rather kill a show over their made up "principles".

The COMET protest was insane and not comparable to people pointing out that some of the content in MAME is very dicey.

^ Er, Jonathan Miller, what the Hell was I thinking.

The Temptations jukebox musical is going into the Imperial? Jesus Christ. Enough of these shows already. They’re for Vegas and the West End, not Broadway.

Make my Mikado.....

Does "The Girl From the North Country" count as a jukebox musical? Brantley seemed to think so (just...) in his largely very positive review in the Times.

[quote]Does "The Girl From the North Country" count as a jukebox musical?

I think when all the songs are by one person or team, some people call them "catalog musicals." Or "bio-musicals," when the tell the story of the songwriter's life, but that doesn't apply to "Girl from the North Country."

My prediction is that the Temptations musical won't make it, regardless of how good or bad it is. Just doesn't sound like a hit to me.

Not Jonathan Smith: Jonathan Miller.

r333, see r328. Miller's production was excellent despite its liberties. He is or was a very talented man.

Wow, r330, that was just awful. I saw "Hot Mikado" a long, long time ago, and it was more of an Andrews Sisters number. That one you posted looks like the director wanted it to be like "Two Ladies" in the revival of Cabaret. I'm surprised one of the maids wasn't a man.

[quote]The theater just finished a run of Pamela's First Musical based on Wendy Wasserstein's YA book from the 1990s.

I know I’m being pedantic, but “PFM” was a children’s book, not a young adult book.

There were two "hot" Mikados in the late 1930s. The first was "The Swing Mikado" in Chicago, a WPA production. Michael Todd tried to buy the rights to take it to Broadway but the WPA turned him down and took it New York itself. Todd responded by producing his own version, "The Hot Mikado" starring Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, which was actually better and the two versions ran as rivals on Broadway for a few months. Then Todd got his version accepted at the 1939 World's Fair, where it ran for two seasons doing four-a-day. It was very popular and there are youtube clips.

In the 1990s, attempts were made to revive the Todd "Hot Mikado" but the original performing materials couldn't be found, so a new version was created. The currently licensed version of it has little to do with the Todd's original.

Since all the original copyrights are long passed, anyone can now do their own "hot" Mikado.

Too bad there was never a Disco Mikado.

The version of Hot Mikado I saw was in the 1990s. David Bell was the adapter and it was never advertised as being the original production or arrangements. But it was still an "Andrews Sisters" (or Boswell, perhaps) take on Three Little Maids, not the nightmare mess that got posted above.

Too bad there was never a trans Mikado.

Bill Bojangles Robinson as The Hot Mikado.

r314 you are right, Urie was genius, he's one of our best stage comedians. He'd be great in Forum. His government inspector was excellent too. and he's a good guy by all accounts

Todd actually opened his "Hot Mikado" on Broadway shortly before the WPA moved their "Swing Mikado" to Broadway. But I was correct that the two shows ran concurrently on Broadway before Todd secured the transfer of his hit production to the World's Fair. Todd's was definitely the better show, employing top Broadway and Hollywood talent as opposed to the WPA's local talent.

More silent but color film footage from the World's Fair.

It's too bad Betty Lynn doesn't get to use her famed bitchiness more. From the youtube clips she was pretty fierce as Mama in Carrie.

She seemed to start worrying about being liked sometime in the 90s. I thought her Norma suffered a bit because of that. She kept saying she wanted to bring humanity to her version. Who wants to see humanity? I would have loved a full out Betty freak out in the role.

So are the rumors about BL getting caught giving BJs to stagehands backstage during performances of SB true or not?

no r346. She has a whole process of meditation and relaxation she goes thru at performances. She is not exactly social.

Sorry, I doubt it will be much appreciated here now, but this is Mike Leigh's attempt in Topsy-Turvy of recreating the original Three Little Maids from School. Historically, it as as close to accurate as could be achieved. I adore it but doubt it will be much liked here at DL now.

I saw that David Bell Hot Mikado at Ford;s Theater around 1994 and it was fabulous. Former Dreamgirl Loretta Devine played Katisha and Nanki Poo was the young guy who originated Jack in Into the Woods..

I really do think that some roles need to be approached with humanity, yes, but the actors always need to serve the story they're telling. Yes, maybe Norma Desmond, Margaret White, and Rose Hovick are filled with humanity and their own reasonings why they do everything they do, but they are the villains of their stories and should be played as such. I hate when people start getting so deep into the characters that they start making excuses for them and soften all their sharp edges. I don't think these actors are looking at the character's role in the story. If they're the villain, make them villainous. Don't soften them. I see that all the time these days. There's no threat or danger. Betty played Margaret very well, but I definitely remember her Rose being a little too soft. She certainly wasn't funny or ferocious and she seemed more depressed than anything else.

I saw a bootleg of the Temptations Too Proud to Beg. It was tedious beyond belief, although seeing the approximation of the original choreography was great fun. The problem with the show is that the story is just not interesting. They try to jam in too many characters -- the Temps go through many members before settling on the final five -- and the dramatic arc is supplied by David Ruffin's drugging and drinking and missing shows, but there just didn't seem to be any drama or high enough emotional stakes. We've all seen that story before a million times, and, because the actor is not David Ruffin and did not have his glorious voice, the audience doesn't understand why losing him would cause more than a hiccup. All of them in the show sang well, so what did we care if they lost the laggard and replaced him with someone who didn't cause trouble.

I thought Buckley was the only reason to see Sunset Blvd. I didn't see any of the other Norma's, but she sang it thrillingly and brought some touch of humanity to the role. She sang the best Rose I've ever heard, but I agree that her characterization was so chilly that the resolution didn't pay off emotionally. Debbie Gibson sang and acted dutifully, which didn't help the production--her Louise never really became Gypsy. I am intrigued to see her as Dolly (though don't know where I'll catch it), as I'd like to her her songs. Maybe she can bring some sunniness, if not laffs, to the role--I am not holding my breath, but I still find her voice exciting).

r330 "Three Little Girls from REFORM School," maybe!

Brantley’s review of West Side Story notes the Spanish translation, so it was there at opening. if I recall correctly, the conversion back to English didn’t happen for several months (probably when the box office started softening).

I saw that production of WSS and the Spanish was in there. The Sharks spoke in Spanish, except when it was a plot point. Then it came out in English. It completely didn’t work.

I did, however, see a Spanish/English “Aladdin” that worked much better.

Platt is a horror to spend time with, heavily medicated and manic in spite of those meds!

r351 I don't like Jersey Boys very much, but somehow they managed to turn that story (which has even less actual drama than the Temptations) into an at least moderately satisfying narrative. But I think the appeal of Jersey Boys is that FVs songs are all quite dramatic in an auditory sense. You can build a dramatic moment simply out of the unveiling of the song Can't Take My Eyes Off of You because the song itself is so cathartic.

While the Temptations might have a better back catalogue, almost all of them are, by their very nature, rather easy to listen to. Sure, hearing my girl or ain't to proud to beg will bring a smile to somebody's face, [and are objectively better songs] but just about anybody can sufficiently sing them at a karaoke bar.

Beautiful lucks out in that a lot of CKs greatest hits have amazing covers that allow you to play with the performance aspects and she show was wise to both utilize Jessie's mimicry while not being slavish to the troubadour-easy listening aesthetic of Carol.

You just can't hang a dramatic moment on a Temptations performance. I've seen the made for tv movie, I have no interest in seeing the show.

R348

Moaning Myrtle.

[quote]So are the rumors about BL getting caught giving BJs to stagehands backstage during performances of SB true or not?

True. Relaxing my throat thoroughly before and during a performance is the key to my thrilling vocals.

As mentioned on a previous DL thread, BL loves giving BJs to the stagehands BS. Too bad she wasn't in HD while it was still at at the SB (or the 'Shoo' as its more commonly known in SB ['the biz']). Some called BS, but during act breaks at SB, she almost OD'd on BCC.

[quote]Martin Moran was also the first actor to play the father in FUN HOME, in a workshop at the public. Personally, I thought he was better and much more right for it than Cerveris and his wig.

Thanks for that, r309. I love Cerveris, but I agree that Marty was far better suited for the role than Cerveris. I'm glad that FUN HOME was a success, but I wish it hadn't required a "name",(not that Cerveris is a huge name) to take it to Broadway.

r348 Topsy Turvy is a brilliant and gorgeous movie. One of the best films about the creation of stage art.

Word from the rehearsals is that Betty nails the humor and the warmth of Dolly.

What about Betty and chorus boys? She has lots of them and one or two must be straight.

OK, possibly dumb question, but the Mikado was only 53 years old in the mid 1930s. Wouldn't it be still under copyright?

Topsy Turvy is one of the most tedious uninteresting movies one could see about the theater. Capturing none of the drama turning to bitterness of the men's relationship or the joy of their work. But what would you expect from a filmmaker like Mike Leigh taking on such a subject. A friend told me he was going to watch it and I told him he should. After seeing it he said why didn't you tell me it was so boring. I told him he had to find out for himself. As dreary as England in the post war years.

'They’re for Vegas and the West End'

Outside the NY theater queens just who do you think the audiences are at Broadway musicals?

Marty Moran was really cute when he was younger. I know he’s got a husband now, but who had him back in the day? Anyone who wants to spill?

R368, back in the day? The have been together since 1985.

I was puzzled by that story too about Urie and HTS - if Jo Loesser objected to him, then how did he then come in as a replacement - and if it was homophobia as implied, that also doesn't make sense given the role and who was cast

Not originating the role meant he wasn't on the cast recording. Did he even do a number on TV.

Oh I don't know.....I remember enjoying Topsy Turvy quite a bit when I first saw it.

But the real fun is watching it now and seeing all the British actors who have since become mainstays of film and TV.

Bindi Irwin IS the London Dolly!

Ben Platt as the romantic Tony in WSS? Oh my sides! He's much more of a Baby John. And count me among the Topsy Turvy fans. Long but fabulous.

Micheal Urie got the Ellen Foley treatment, huh?

How many other actors can we name in this club (originate out of town but only allowed to replace in town)?

Mark Ballas IS the London Horace Vandergelderer!

R375, I am not sure that Ellen Foley is the best example. From what I understand, in that version the witch was more of a Bat Out of Hell character, with a leather jacket. It made sense to hire someone with a Meatloaf/ Jim Steinman background. She was replaced because the character was rethought.

Miss Foley...........

BCC?? doesn't the above poster mean BBC? :-)

Topsy Turvey is a masterpiece

Could Deborrah-lee be the Aussie Dolly?

R357 -- Good analysis. The Temptations' songs and choreography will make you smile, but they have no resonance. They are brilliant songs, but their joy is purely ephemeral. It is interesting that you compared the show to Jersey Boys. I actively dislike the Four Seasons' music, but thoroughly enjoyed Jersey Boys. The writers managed to bring some tension and emotion to a boilerplate story. Perhaps the difference is that the struggle in Jersey Boys was them versus anonymity, and we all root for the underdog, whereas the struggle in Ain't Too Proud was "will he do drugs and show up?," and, frankly, it's hard to care about that struggle, especially when the character was not truly fleshed out. Perhaps the story would be more effective if Ruffin overcame his addictions and rejoined the group to great acclaim, but he did not; he slid into more addiction and an early death. There is no reason to tell this story, other than to make money off the Temptations' catalogue.

For whatever it’s worth, Sondheim told Ellen that she was the best witch when all was said and done.

I still think Bernadette was the gold standard.

She got laughs and was dramatic when needed.

That Tina musical is coming to Broadway next fall.

is Platt a bareback bottom?

TOPSY TURVY is entirely stunning. that last scene with Broadbent, Manville and Corduner is sheer perfection

R365

I don't know the ins and outs of the copyright issues for every Gilbert and Sullivan work -- but international copyright agreements applied to their works and the US productions and the agreements changed several times over the years.

I would imagine that the intellectual property issues and piracy were a major reason why The Hot Mikado isn't better documented.

Yeah I think Bernadette is still probably the best witch I've seen. It fit her voice like a glove and I remember her being the funniest of all the witches and really brought the pathos. It's funny that she only played it for a few months and didn't really have much invested in it. Sometimes, that makes an actor give a better performance. They're not thinking "oh, this is my big scene. Let me make sure I save up energy for it even if it means taking it away from other scenes." or "I know this role will get me a Tony. Let me play it like I'm going for the gold." I think it can lead to much more relaxed performances.

Is there room for three Diva- belongs in Vegas- shows in one season?

sad time to be a songwriter. What % of musical openings in the past 24 months have had recycled scores?

Tina plays in a Nederlander theatre in London. Out of their nine Broadway houses, where would we put it? The Lunt-Fontanne, as a replacement for Summer? The Atkinson, as a replacement for Waitress?

She did it as a favor to Sondheim, r387. The length of her stint was set up that way from the beginning. I assume if she had wanted to continue past that would have been A-O.K. to saying.......

How was Phylicia as the Witch? She took over from Bernadette, right?

There's footage online.

do. not. like. ^^

[quote]For whatever it’s worth, Sondheim told Ellen that she was the best witch when all was said and done.

For whatever it's worth, Sondheim always tells whatever actress is currently playing any role that she was the best. Obviously, he still has his long standing mommy issues of telling a woman she's the best.

[quote]Yeah I think Bernadette is still probably the best witch I've seen. It fit her voice like a glove and I remember her being the funniest of all the witches and really brought the pathos. It's funny that she only played it for a few months and didn't really have much invested in it.

Bernadette was a last minute replacement and did it for Sondheim. She already had another project scheduled (I think it was the film "Slaves of New York") and that's why she left the show.

I have always wondered what other music Charlie Smalls, composer of THE WIZ, had written. I finally looked him up on Wikipedia. I had heard he was gay and had died of AIDS. According to wiki, he was straight, about to be married, when his appendix burst, killing him in his early 40s.

Count me among the TOPSY-TURVY detractors. I remember the movie got some great reviews when it came out, and I couldn't understand that. There was something about it that I really disliked, I guess the general tone of the movie. I didn't think there was any joy in it.

Only joy in Topsy Turvy was found in the audiences who loved it. 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. 2 Oscar wins, two more nominations.

Best Witch for me was Julia McKenzie, bar none.

Foley was replaced because the character was rethought but she was also a replacement and thus ended up playing that rethought character. Hmmm...

It’s weird how the three “divas” of broadway in the 80s: LuPone, Peters and Buckley all have a history with the role.

Betty was hired for the workshop, then after the old Globe production, she did the pre-broadway stint. She claims Sondheim wrote “Stay With Me” for her voice specifically. She was then let go after a fight with James LaPine.

Patti was then courted for the Witch, but she read for and wanted Cinderella. She finally agreed to play the Witch, but walked away from the role when negotiations broke down against her.

Then Bernadette, as a favor to Sondheim, opened the show. “Boom Crunch” was replaced for “Last Midnight”

If I recall the story correctly, Sondheim gave Foley a gift with the words "the alpha and the omega". Perhaps Foley extrapolated.

Weren't adjustments made for Berndette so she could sing the score?

"sad time to be a songwriter"

Tell me about it, r389.

Did anybody ever identify the dancer Gwen said could have done Redhead?

[quote] I have always wondered what other music Charlie Smalls, composer of THE WIZ, had written. I finally looked him up on Wikipedia. I had heard he was gay and had died of AIDS. According to wiki, he was straight, about to be married, when his appendix burst, killing him in his early 40s.

It was Ken Harper, the lead producer of The Wiz, who died of AIDS.

R397, I think he wrote the truly horrible reworking of Oliver Twist that was set in New Orleans. Stink-a-roo from top to bottom.

No but I could r381

Cleo Laine on the national tour was the best witch

I love Jersey Boys but, let's face it, it had the advantage of being the first of those bio-juke box musicals to succeed. I doubt it would have quite the same success (11+ years on Broadway and companies world-wide, still running off-Broadway and on tours) if it opened today.

[quote]Word from the rehearsals is that Betty nails the humor and the warmth of Dolly.

But does she nail the chorus boys?

Originally, The Witch was made out to be kinda lesbian-is and Betty didn't like that direction and thought she was just a really smothering, overprotective mother. Lapine insisted she play it as he envisioned it and I guess you could say that had creative differences and she either walked or was fired. Turns out, she was right and Lapine was wrong. I think that's why Ellen Foley was cast. She had a tough, punk lesbian vibe.

Of course, Bernadette transformed from old hag to sex kitten. It worked for her. It hasn't worked so well for many of the other witches since. I'm definitely thinking of Julia McKenzie and Meryl Streep, who couldn't quite pull off the sexy transformation, so they just became less ugly and more regal and cold instead.

[quote]Too bad there was never a Disco Mikado.

A missed opportunity for DL fave Miyoshi Umeki.

It also appears that Meryl was given false teeth for her transformation, because she sang everything post-transformation with a bad lisp.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

I've seen clips of others, and I saw Bernadette and later Betsy Joslyn (who was quite good) on stage, and I don't think anyone can touch Bernie's witch.

You basically got a Star in an ensemble role with Bernadette.

[quote]Natalie Wood unavailable for comment.

That bitch is ALWAYS unavailable for comment. What is her fucking problem?

I saw all of the broadway witches and Betsy Joslyn was my favorite. Her nervous quirkiness made her endearing and, other than Bernadette, she was the only one who made the transformation from hag to beauty credible. I love Rashad but this wasn't the role for her. Nancy Dussault was ok. Ellen Foley seemed like she was in a different show and I didn't like her at all. I also saw Joy Franz who was very good. Not sure if Marin Mazzie ever got to go on. And, yes, Bernadette and her Bernadette-isms were wonderful but her star presence kinda threw the show off a bit. When she left it became more of an ensemble piece.

Miss Mazzie would have been incredible.

[quote]That bitch is ALWAYS unavailable for comment. What is her fucking problem? —Rita

Calm down, Rita. Not everyone has as much time on their hands as you do.

I see your point, r420, about Bernadette's star presence (and r418), but I thought the original cast was so well balanced that everyone had a star turn.

Like the witch or hate the witch, you can't argue that the giant boot hanging off the side of the Into The Woods theater was A-MA-ZING!

The guy from Musical Theater Mash ranks some Witches.

Yes, r423. That original cast may not have been Star names, but they were all perfect and totally at Bernadette's level.

R423 Oh I agree. The entire cast was flawless. But, having seen them with Bernadette and after she left there was definitely a shift and they all shone even brighter.

Well, maybe, r427, and maybe part of the reason I liked Joslyn was that I still loved the ensemble.

Thanks for the link, r425. That is one annoying guy, and I'm not sure I agreed with his first and second choices. I've never seen the London production with Hannah Waddington, and I thought she was very good; ditto Murphy, whom I love. But Bernie's still the best in my book.

"Man, does she have the pipes"? About Donna Murphy? I can't say I've ever thought that.

Right, r429, said no one, ever. ^^

Pipes...

[quote]That original cast may not have been Star names, but they were all perfect and totally at Bernadette's level.

They were all well cast, but there's no way they were on the same "star" level as Bernadette. Bernadette spent the 1970s appearing on every tv variety show out there. She had started the 80s off by being in the movies "Pennies From Heaven" and "Annie." By the late 1980s, she had starred on Broadway in "Sunday in the Park" and "Song & Dance" she was known not just by Broadway savvy people, but others.

Tom Aldredge, Robert Westenberg, Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason were excellent in their roles, and their agents got them above title status, but they weren't known outside of Broadway/NYC.

I think your reading is too literal, r432--or mine isn't literal enough. I think what r426 meant, and certainly what I meant, was that their talents and performances were evenly matched, both with one another and with Bernadette's. Nothing to do with who's above the title.

[quote]Corner Paperboy Yelling Headlines

I see a Kent State production of "Newsies" in your future ...

Thank you, that's what I meant, r433.

Why the fuck would Patti LuPone think she could play Cinderella? Bitch looks like a frau in the local Italian-American League in Levittown.

Agree that is very bewildering, r436.

At the time of the LuPone brouhaha, the Witch only sang “The Rap” and “Boom Crunch.”

Wouldn’t you rather sing “On the Steps of the Palace?” at that point?

I’m sure if Patti was being courted for the Witch from the opening night (Stay With Me, Last Midnight, children Will Listen) she would have happily signed

Paint drying has more happening than the entire plot of Topsy Turvy. It is an unpleasant movie all about the unhappy relationship of these men with the dramatic pulse of a cadaver.

For those people who like movies and books where nothing happens. It would have put Antonioni to sleep.

Speaking of "Pennies From Heaven," would it work on stage? Granted, the premise is that the characters are lip-syncing to music they hear in their heads as an escape from their drab lives (and, sheesh, the ending is a downer). But there are several numbers from the movie that I'd love to see live -- the schoolhouse tap number Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You, the vaudeville trio It's The Girl, the louche Let's Misbehave and the title number.

[quote]she almost OD'd on BCC.

Big Chinese cock?

Who is that guy who does Musical Mash? He's really awful.

R440, I think it could be wonderful but I have a feeling the Dennis Potter estate has resisted attempts to adapt any of his scripts to the stage.

So Mrs Leslie Odom is only in Waitress through the end of October? Why do actors sign on for such short runs? Replacements barely last six months anymore.

[quote]Like the witch or hate the witch, you can't argue that the giant boot hanging off the side of the Into The Woods theater was A-MA-ZING!

Would it have killed you R 424?

I don't remember the giant's food being quite so large and wonderful. Thanks for posting it, R445.

Whether or not Stay With Me was written with Betty Buckley in mind as she, apparently, has claimed, it SOUNDS like it was written with Bernie in mind. The way her voice climbs in unison with those strings at the very last "wiiiiith meeeeee"... just.... breathtaking.

Really? I think it rather exposes how weedy her head voice is compared to chest.

Yes, really, R448. I'm a total an utter sucker for Bernie's soprano/head voice. When she hits those upper notes in her range... I dunnoo... this is so "Mary!" but it's like a moonbeam. Something about the way those notes sit in her range? It's just pure emotion. Sure there are stronger vocalists, but few that I think can sound so emotionally raw in that way and still so pretty. It's why I love her In Buddy's Eyes, too.

Thank goodness Glenn Close didn't play the Witch or we would hear "Stay With Maaaaay" and we'd be wondering who May was.

[quote]the characters are lip-syncing to music

I'm available!

We wouldn't wonder, R450. Of course, It's Baby May.

As in:

Mommy, mommy, there's something in Baby May's eye!

Eat around it, dear.

Saw the Dear Evan Hansen tour in Denver and it was great. Ben Levi Ross was off-the-charts fantastic. Sang it SO much better than Ben Platt and also didn't look like he was having medical issues while singing. Now sorry he wasn't cast in the original show. Aaron Lazar looked great but the role is still not much of an impact and the baseball glove song is definitely the throw-away in the show. Christiane Noll was really good as was Jared Goldsmith as the family friend, Jared.

Why no revival of Applause with an updated book? You think it could work? I'm available for Eve.

Applause does not have a very good score.

R447, it sounds clearly written for Betty to my ears.

That’s the Grey Gardens & War Paint composer in the clip with Donna Murphy at r 431

R442, Oh, Chita. I guess you didn't hear that I'm on the biggest sitcom on Netflix. You can go back to counting your age spots now.

[quote]sounds clearly written for Betty to my ears.

And yet Sondheim is not a fan of hers.

I can’t imagine her singing it, and we all know how dreary the comedy would have been had she played it. They were smart to let her go.

Even reporters don't know Shit-a.

Rita has aged a lot better than Chita. She’s over a year older, is hale, hearty and working on a hit show.

Chita looked frail and was notably diminished in her last show.

If you think Topsy Turvey is "boring" then you're a Neanderthal.

Go watch....I don't know.....Grease 2 or Rock of Ages or some other piece of dreck that's more to your speed.

Why wasn't Bernadette casted in the roll of the witch in the ITW Movie?

[quote]Oh, Chita. I guess you didn't hear that I'm on the biggest sitcom on Netflix. You can go back to counting your age spots now. —The only Anita America ever cared about

That's like saying it's the best selling item at the Dollar Store.

“Stay With Me” definitely seems tailored to Betty’s shrill, sharp voice tone.

I find it hard to believe that Sondheim would have made a song on Betty Lynn's voice. I don't think he's ever been an admirer.

And good question: does anyone know why Bernie wasn't CAST (not CASTED, sweetie) in the ITW movie?

oh r466 I think r463 was kidding, she said "casted" and "roll."

Irregardless, why would a studio let you cast Bernadette if you could get Meryl?

Why wasn't Lens Dunham cast as Milky White?

Tiny udders r468.

Oh, silly me, r467. I completely missed the humor.

I wonder if Sondheim pushed to get the roll for Bernie (assuming she wanted it).

R470, Bernie is box office poison. She has done a lot of TV, but Slaves of NY pretty much killed her movie career.

King Kong starts tomorrow

The guy puts Julia last without having seen her performance. How lame.

^^The guy is making Broadway videos in his mom's basement. Julia's probably not too worried.

[quote]I find it hard to believe that Sondheim would have made a song on Betty Lynn's voice. I don't think he's ever been an admirer.

You're thinking for a complete stranger, stop it.

No, r475, I'm expressing my opinion ("I find it hard to believe"), a reasonable thing to do on a message board. You stop it.

Whether Sondheim is an admirer or not, Betty Lynn WAS, for a time, cast as the witch, so why on earth would he not write a song that takes advantage of the strengths and skills of the performer, whether he admires her or not?

I don't know why this is a subject for debate. Maybe SS did write a song for Buckley, maybe not; my opinion is that he didn't and I didn't suggest that my opinion = fact. Nothing left to say.

I think that Bernadette would have always had a limited film career because that baby lisp she has gets annoying very quickly. It's too bad that Bernadette didn't get a "Sex & The City" type tv series. I think she would have done well in that.

What did you think of her role in Mozart in the Jungle, r479?

Bernadette does NOT have a lisp, r479.

I just finished a very enjoyable book about Angels In America called THE WORLD ONLY SPINS FORWARD. The authors have interviewed Kushner and nearly every actor and director ever involved with a production of Angels (although strangely, not Zachary Quinto, who was by far the cutest Louis I saw and the only one who flashed his dick onstage). Anyway, here are a couple of tidbits I found interesting:

Stephen Spinella took an early dislike to Joe Mantello, which strained their rehearsals together. Mantello had to complain to George Wolfe about it. Mantello doesn't say why Spinella disliked him, but they eventually worked it out and became friends.

Ron Liebman refused to audition for the role of Roy Cohn, arguing that doing Cohn scenes out of context would be cartoony. He got the role anyway.

Cherry Jones auditioned for the role of the angel but didn't get it. She joined the original Broadway cast as a replacement.

Even though the Broadway production was doing well, the producers low-balled the Broadway actors when their contracts came up for renewal. Mantello, Jeffrey Wright and Marcia Gay Harden all left the cast.

Marcia Gay Harden wore a large wig during previews. Wolfe hated it, but she loved it. He actually had to yank it off her head before a performance to get rid of it.

For a while, it looked like Robert Altman was going to make Angels as two feature films. He had a few flop movies, and the deal fell apart. Kushner reports that Altman was obsessed about the angel having male genitalia. Altman insisted he wanted to show the angel's dick.

Mike Nichols wanted stars for the adult roles (Streep, Pacino and Thompson) but he was fine with no-names for the younger roles. That's how Justin Kirk and Ben Shenkman got cast (Shenkman at least had a long history with Angels and had played Cohn and Louis in earlier productions).

DL fave Deb Messing played Harper in a 1993 NYU workshop of Perestroika.

[quote]Kushner reports that Altman was obsessed about the angel having male genitalia. Altman insisted he wanted to show the angel's dick.

Always knew he was a visionary.

[quote]Stephen Spinella took an early dislike to Joe Mantello, which strained their rehearsals together. Mantello had to complain to George Wolfe about it.

Mantello was a Method Actor and wanted Spinella to go out and actually get HIV. Spinella wisely refused.

I recently finished the book, too, R482, and thought it was fascinating. Two interesting takeaways for me were that Kushner was aware that Joe Pitt is the only character whose character does not have closure or some sort of redemption, mostly because Kushner thought being republican was an unforgivable sin; and that Wolfe was hired mostly because he was black, and they wanted the hip factor of having a black director. I saw Harding in the original cast, and Gough in the recent revival. I much preferred Gough. Although I think Garden has infinite warmth and intelligence, I just thought Gough was more believable.

R478 - I am 477. I did not intend to dismiss your point of view , nor did I mean to say something that appeared to be an argument. Until SS himself tells us if he wrote the song for Betty Lynn, it is just speculation whether he did or not, and I was just commenting that it would not have been out of the question for him to have tailored a song to suit the performer's talent. I don't know the answer, I was just adding more evidence to the question.

Harding OR Garden, r485....

is it speculation if Betty says that's the way it happened?

R488, yes because Betty is hardly the most reliable of sources.

[quote]Ron Liebman refused to audition for the role of Roy Cohn, arguing that doing Cohn scenes out of context would be cartoony.

What the hell is that supposed to mean? I'm glad Liebman got the part, but this story, if true, makes him sound like a putz.

[quote]Wolfe was hired mostly because he was black, and they wanted the hip factor of having a black director.

Does anyone actually say that in the book???!!!

Betty made the claim in an interview, but I've never heard of anyone corroborating it. Doesn't mean it's not true, but...

[quote]Wolfe was hired mostly because he was black, and they wanted the hip factor of having a black director.

[quote]Does anyone actually say that in the book???!!!

I doubt that's true. Originally, Wolfe had booked Angels in America to play at the Public Theatre while he was Artistic Director. Since he's gay and since it looked like an interesting script, I'm sure he slated himself to direct it. The show, like Rent, began to snowball and I think that Wolfe was able to convince backers to skip the Public production and take it straight to Broadway (and since he was already attached as director, he rides a popular production to Broadway and solidifies his career in the process). Everybody was raving about "Angels" due in part to Ian McKellen's Tony mention about the Brit production. But really, in the hands of a better director, the Broadway premiere could have been so much better. I don't think Wolfe had the imagination for the fantasy scenes and the gay characters have a bit too much "you go girl" that a straight director would have ironed out.

Not that I'd make excuses for George Wolfe, but Angels was his first time directing on Broadway and I've no doubt he was under all kinds of insane pressure bringing that unwieldy and expensive 2 part epic in for a commercial audience.

No, Wolfe directed "Jelly's Last Jam" in 1992 on Broadway. He also had directed several shows off-Broadway, including his own work "The Colored Museum." The point that it was a 2 part epic is valid and it was a huge gamble to give it to someone who had one Broadway musical that he had written as experience.

[quote]Betty made the claim in an interview, but I've never heard of anyone corroborating it. Doesn't mean it's not true, but...

The problem with Sondheim is that he is a gentleman and won't correct statements when other people are yapping at the mouth. Or he'll wait and correct a situation later on. Two examples:

The famous Elaine Stritch video in Follies in Concert. Elaine is trying on shoes while Barbara Cook is trying to rehearse "In Buddy's Eyes." He had that clip played at Barbara's funeral as a "fuck you Elaine."

There was a behind the scenes documentary made of Passion. In it, Sondheim is listening to Donna Murphy. He comments that she scoops a note and then he goes on to talk about how a composer works hard to find just the right note and yet an actor will come along and mess up the original intention. They heard the "fuck you Donna Murphy" all the way in Somalia.

Well, based on those examples, maybe not entirely a gentleman!

R490-Liebman isn't just a putz. He's a closeted asshole, who has been making life miserable for actors and directors for decades. During a "Sopranos" shoot, James Gandolfini volunteered to beat the shit out of him.

As for George Wolfe, that old queen couldn't direct traffic. He makes Jack O'Brien look like a genius.

r497 = Liebman's former wife, Linda Lavin.

I like Sondheim's subtle response in the Company documentary.

"Elaine, your voice is tired" when he really meant "Elaine, you're a fucking drunk and Hal Prince sat in the back for 10 hours watching you get drunk and did nothing about it."

So a play called BLKS is being done at MCC in New York. All characters are of color except this one. (Link below to the full breakdown.) How is this acceptable? "Incredibly white?"

[THAT BITCH ON THE COUCH (Also plays DRUNK WHITE WOMAN)] Early 20's Female. She is the only white person in this play. She’s from Westchester, New York. Incredibly wealthy, like old money white folk WASP and all that. Incredibly white. High Femme. Went to Exeter Academy for high school type shit. Did cotillion and founded her boarding school’s Black Student Union. It was confusing.

R482 here, one more I forgot. David Cromer also played Louis in a production of Angels in Chicago. Wonder if he flashed his beer can-sized cock onstage.

Being woke not only means being an ally to non-white artists' exposure but making sure to disparage and disrespect and degrade white people, silly!

R485 Ann Harding was in the original cast of Angels in America? I thought she was far superior in her version of Holiday (her one Oscar nomination) to Hepburn in the remark just a few years later!

Sondheim has always been agreeable to a fault. I think, more than any other composer, he's been willing to change keys, change lyrics, add new songs, try new concepts, etc. God love him, but he's always seemed a bit like a pushover. I guarantee you right now that if Chris Evans signed on to play Bobby in a film version of Company tomorrow or if Meryl Streep decided she wanted to play Sally in a film version of Follies, he'd change all the keys in the score to suit them and go on and on about how brilliant they are and how they're showing the character in a new, different light. Has he ever flat out said he hated a version of any of his shows?

It reminds me of that story Betty Buckley told about when she was doing Gypsy and everyone was hoping it'd come to Broadway or turn into a tour. Sondheim and Arthur Laurents came backstage to see her and Sondheim was very cordial and said she sang it beautifully (she did) and then Laurents flat out tells her "you're clearly a virtuoso, but you don't understand Rose and you will never play this role anywhere near Broadway." He wasn't wrong, but I think that speaks a lot to Sondheim's hatred of any kind of conflict. I feel like he holds a lot of stuff in and always tries to play devil's advocate.

I believe r485 was referring to Mary Garden not Ann Harding, r503.....

Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow to play Hillary and Bill Clinton... respectively of course.

[quote]"Hillary and Clinton," by Lucas Hnath, author of "A Doll's House, Part 2," is slated to open on Broadway in spring 2019. The play is set in New Hampshire during the early days of 2008 as Hillary Clinton tries to save her troubled campaign for president.

R505 I did not expect a Mary Garden reference on here today. Made me smile.

There have to be some former Gerryflappers on here, ready to post.

r495 At least Sondheim didn’t insult Elaine and Donna (in these instances) to their faces. He told Betty he didn’t like the way she recorded his songs. But then again, this is Betty’s account of what happened, and she could have been embellishing for all I know.

r405 I’ve heard the Betty Gypsy story before. I’ve always thought it was in keeping with the lecture he gave Jason Robert Brown about being kind to the artist when s/he is at her/his most vulnerable, like on opening night. Maybe he wash being a pushover, or maybe, well, you know, he was just being kind.

My making you smile makes me smile, 507.

The Society of London Theatre's YouTube channel is doing a series on jobs in the West End. The latest is about a stage door keeper, and I felt I just had to post it.

For anyone who's watched Gimme Gimme Gimme, I can't help but think we're seeing Tom's future.

^WAS being a pushover. I’m not Lizsha.

I'm inclined to think he was being kind.

I want to hear about the penis Zach Quinto displayed when he did AIA. Was it impressive?

[quote]Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow to play Hillary and Bill Clinton... respectively of course.

They'll never be as good as John Travolta and Emma Thompson were.

I'm pretty sure Sondheim has made negative remarks about the film versions of "West Side Story," "Gypsy," and "Forum," though I don't know how specific he got, and I'm not sure how public the remarks were. He was quoted in the press as saying something to the effect that the movie of "Sweeney Todd" was one of very few movies of Broadway musicals that worked as movies.

Isn't that a bit different from criticizing a particular performance? Or writer? He's been pretty clear in explaining that he won't criticize a living composer or lyricist but is happy to trash dead ones. Maybe because he got into so much trouble as a young man by criticizing Rodgers.

Mary Garden was the trashiest slut in opera. We used to call her the Garden of Earthly Delights.

[quote]Isn't that a bit different from criticizing a particular performance? Or writer? He's been pretty clear in explaining that he won't criticize a living composer or lyricist but is happy to trash dead ones. Maybe because he got into so much trouble as a young man by criticizing Rodgers.

Yeah, I think that's his general rule. He did publicly criticize those fools who tried to rewrite "Porgy and Bess," but that was based on their outrageous remarks in the press, which really were beyond the pale. And Sondheim's criticism of them was 100 percent justified.

^^Totally, r516. I was stunned at the amount of shit he got for that.

sorry--r518.

FWIW, Sondheim was helping me with some research when BB's Children Will Listen was released. When I asked if he was happy that she chose several of his songs on the CD, he just shrugged and said, "Why do they always ignore my harmonies?" No mention of disliking her.

Interesting, r521. Not sure he would have been so careless as to make a personal statement, though. What was your experience like working with him?

I think it’s funny if that was truly his only concern about her work, when to hear Betty Buckley fanboys tell it, he all but burned her cds in effigy.

Friend in London saw Company tonight, said it was fantastic, beautifully directed and Patti is superb. He liked Rosalie Craig a lot but wishes it was more of a “star performance.” He said Patti’s a lock for the Olivier Award.

Good to hear, although I wonder what your friend means by star performance. The word of mouth has been really enthusiastic about the changes, this production, and some of the individual performances; I'm not familiar with anyone in this show other than LuPone and I'm sure she's knocking this role out of the park. I wonder if they'll bring this production to NY.....

Being Alive is one of the few excellent male songs in the American Musical Theater canon. Why do they have to give it to a woman?

Two words for you, r526.....

Way to stop a potentially interesting discussion in its tracks, r526.

R485 here. To R492 and others… Yes, one of the producers said that. I wish I could remember the exact quote, but I was astounded by the comment. And: Wolfe was not attached to AiA when it was booked into the Public, because, at that point, Joanne Akalitis was at the helm of the Public, and Wolfe was not attached to it until after it was decided to open on Broadway.

The book is an oral history, and could have been edited a little better. It was surprising how some people's thoughts on certain issues were omitted. It also was difficult to tell if some of the quotes were from there sources, if the interviews were group interviews, private interviews, in direct response to a question, etc. There were also too many superfluous interviews from people whose input added nothing to the narrative. It is still worth reading, but it is not as definitive at I wished it had been.

I would love to see Patti come to NY and end her musical career in triumph! Winning a Tony for a Sondheim role.

[quote]The problem with Sondheim is that he is a gentleman

It’s true. He sent me the loveliest thank you card after our date and paid my hospital bills. A class act.

Instead of coming to NY I'd rather see Company broadcast LIVE! in my local movie theatre

And so it begins..

**Laura Benanti will not appear in performances Friday, November 16 at 8pm through Sunday, November 18 at 2pm.

THANKSGIVING WEEK CHANGE: Laura Benanti WILL appear in the Tuesday, November 20 at 7pm performance, but she will NOT appear in the Friday, November 23 at 8pm performance.

r500 that's bizarre

R533. Did it occur to you that she may have commitments she made for those dates prior to going into MFL?

If that were the case, why wouldn’t it have been announced that way rom the beginning, 533? And the Friday after Thanksgiving is clearly her just wanting more of a Thanksgiving vacation.

One is NOT amused.

Betty Lynn also claims that Meadowlark was written for her and claims it was her idea to have the special effects spin around Carrie when Miss Collins laughs at her in the film.

r504 Sondheim's other "conflict" with Betty Lynn came when he saw her in Divas at the Donmar. She was altering his melodies and doing these new agey John Tesh sounding adaptations.

He came backstage and she asked if he liked them. He said something like well, I'd never have said this but since you are putting me on the spot I have to say I really don't like what you are doing with my songs.

Betty Lynn was clearly mad about that and repeated it to the Sondheim Review.

I saw Betty Lynn do a concert at Birdland, and she did a chilling version of “Epiphany” from Sweeney Todd. She said she would love to play that role if any producers were in the room. I would love to see that. Who could play Mr. Lovett?

^^Nathan Lane! Can you imagine the two of them together?

[quote]Betty Lynn was clearly mad about that and repeated it to the Sondheim Review.

Where precisely six people read it.

Luckily for her, r542. I wonder why she would tell a story that makes her look bad.

r543 To make herself seem like the suffering, misunderstood artist. That’s very much what the Sondheim Review interview sounded like.

And how was Meadowlark supposed to have been written for her? Wasn’t Carole Demas the original Geneviève, later replaced by Patti?

[quote]Sondheim's other "conflict" with Betty Lynn came when he saw her in Divas at the Donmar. She was altering his melodies and doing these new agey John Tesh sounding adaptations. He came backstage and she asked if he liked them. He said something like well, I'd never have said this but since you are putting me on the spot I have to say I really don't like what you are doing with my songs. Betty Lynn was clearly mad about that and repeated it to the Sondheim Review.

If this story is true, it's a good indication of how nuts she is. Why in heaven's name would she have repeated this story to The Sondheim Review? Was she implying that Sondheim was wrong to express his opinion of her performance of his songs, even though she had asked him directly, and to make him out as a meany for that? Seems to me BB says a lot of things in interviews without thinking first....

" Betty Lynn was clearly mad about that and repeated it to the Sondheim Review."

I don't get the "clearly mad" at all. I take it she was putting her spin on them, Steve didn't approve, and it was an Oopsie, My Bad moment.

This was my point, r545 (and r546). Whether or not she was mad, she told a story that made her look sufficiently clumsy and disrespectful of the material to prompt the notoriously circumspect Sondheim (in these situations, anyway) to give her a frank evaluation. It just seems odd that an artist looking to be viewed as an interpreter of a particular composer would highlight that the particular composer didn't view her that way.

How many hundreds of dollars am I supposed to pay to see that r548?

Wow, what a year for plays this season. Really looking forward to seeing Laurie Metcalf as Hillary Clinton.

[quote] It just seems odd that an artist looking to be viewed as an interpreter of a particular composer would highlight that the particular composer didn't view her that way.

ESPECIALLY when that particular composer is Sondheim and the interview was for The Sondheim Review.

I'd pay good money to see a Betty Buckley/Nathan Lane Sweeney Todd. I remember Lane doing a great "Worst Pies in London" for an Angela Lansbury tribute a few years back. That's probably one of the best gender swap ideas I've ever heard. Betty's typically chilliness could work wonders as Sweeney.

What the hell is the Sondheim Review? That's an actual publication? God, you people are embarrassing.

I like that idea R552

[quote]I'd pay good money to see a Betty Buckley/Nathan Lane Sweeney Todd.

Attend the tale of Queeny Todd

A dykey Lovett and a nellie Todd.

r555: perhaps you should re-read r552.

[quote]What the hell is the Sondheim Review? That's an actual publication? God, you people are embarrassing.

Right back at ya, sweetheart. My, what a charmer you are.

[quote]Betty Lynn also claims that Meadowlark was written for her

I know for a fact that this one is false, because I asked Stephen Schwartz about it directly. He said it was absolutely not written for any particular actress’s voice, but specifically for the character of Genevieve, period. He did love the way she sang Catherine’s songs when she replaced Clayburgh in Pippin, but he did not write Meadowlark for her. He also says there was nothing wrong with Carole Demas, but the show had opened in LA tepidly,and she was the sacrificial lamb.

We hang our heads in shame before the withering scorn of worldly and sophisticated r553. And what do you read, dear?

Thanks, R558. Nice to have some solid information from the source to counteract all the b-s.

[quote]He also says there was nothing wrong with Carole Demas

Carole had bigger fish to fry as the star of Magic Garden. She was too good for Broadway.

Funny, I was at the Lincoln Center Library for Performing Arts this week waiting for the TOFT room to open and was browsing the current magazines and saw an issue of the Sondheim Review and wondered what they did for articles every month, but before I could open it and flip through, the room opened.

Idina Menzel *IS* Betty Buckley in

“Feud” Season 2: Divas vs Sondheim

Sorry if this is old news but in last week’s New Yorker they have an interview with Sam Mendes. He writes about his contentious relationship with Gypsy’s “scary” book writer Arthur Laurents and “the poisonous hatred that exuded off this tiny homunculus” Best description I’ve ever read of Laurents.

[quote]but before I could open it and flip through, the room opened.

And you had to make a mad dash to a console?

The Sondheim Review lasted for years and sometimes had interesting articles, interview and photos. It also had its share of filler about regional productions that no one cared about.

There was an attempt to revamp the magazine a few years ago (I think someone took it over from the original editors) but it didn't click.

Not sure if this is one of the selections that Sondheim wasn't wild about. It is Tesh-ish.

The Ahrens & Flaherty Weekly is better.

R568 Sounds horrible. The song is beautiful and needs no changes.

There is a BBC Radio boot of A Little Night Music with Betty Buckley. She is utterly humourless and charmless. Her take on Send in the Clowns, though more faithful to the written notes than in r568, is generic glumness.

I don't think the entire performance is available on YouTube, but it's out there.

No wonder Sondheim was displeased.

Sondheim is displeased by most of his singers. Interestingly he only really seemed to care for lee remick

Which one of you bitches... has my Marilyn Maye "Hello Dolly" CD? It showed up on my Ebay feed and then... it passed me by.

And I can't get a copy from Maye's website because CD sales are taken care of by her friend, who only accepts checks in the mail. Judy Ogle would never.

Buckley only got to do that BBC Night Music because *who* dropped out?

I was otherwise engaged that day, procuring young gentlemen for my good friend, Kevin Spacey.

No, but there's certainly nothing like a Dame.

Boy, that clip at r568 is just awful. No wonder Sondheim complained about his harmonies not being used. And why the hell did she find it necessary to change the melody on some notes?

Just dreadful.

Why do so many orchestrators throw that carnival music into the orchestration of Send In The Clowns?? It sounds awful.

One of the low points of the Six by Sondheim documentary is a montage of various people singing Send in the Clowns. It's excruciating, and the only thing that might have made it more so is Betty Lynn's version.

Apparently because they don’t understand the song at all, r579, and think it’s about circus clowns.

[quote] And you had to make a mad dash to a console?

Well... you tried it, R565. Didn't work, but you tried it.

R581 said "Apparently because they don’t understand the song at all, [R579], and think it’s about circus clowns.'

SO TRUE. The literalism and misinterpretation of musical theater hacks with strong opinions is a scourge.

It’s not a matter of “putting her spin” on Sondheim’s melodies, it’s that she’d “change the notes.” He, like most songwriters, arranged the notes in a certain way for a reason. It’s absolutely disrespectful to “improve” them. It’s like rewriting lines of dialogue without clearing it with the playwright.

[quote]There is a BBC Radio boot of A Little Night Music with Betty Buckley. She is utterly humorless and charmless.

Wait... you mean she didn't hit all the jokes in that laughfest "A Little Night Music"? Get outta here.

The bad news is after her bitter confrontation with Sondheim, she started singing his stuff as he wrote it, but by that time she was no longer recording his music, so the only last record of her singing his music, is the dreck of the 90s.

R575 Diana Rigg dropped out.

R365, the length of copyright keeps changing. It was originally 14 years. In the 1930s 50 or 55 years sounds right.

I have read that there was a flurry of interest at that time because of the Mikado passing out of copyright.

People who work in theater tend to love Topsy Turvey because it is one of the very few films that actually capture the experience of working on a production. The rehearsal and costume fitting scenes are especially great.

I can see how power struggles between director and choreographer, the anxieties of performers, conflict with producers over budget might not seem as dramatic to someone who has not worked in the arts---or run a business for that matter.

R529, your issues with The World Only Spins Forward are a little odd. Why would you think any of it was from a "group interview?" Would there even be a point to that when trying to get at people's personal experience?

Oral histories rarely if ever state if a question was asked. That is what separates them from interviews. The idea is that by splicing different voices together a fuller portrait will emerge than if one published separate interviews in a Q&A format. Including questions is thought to impede the flow--or give the impression that the various contributors were all in the same room giving a "group interview."

If some quote is from another source, the authors of a oral history will acknowledge it. Otherwise, they would be plagiarizing.

It sounds like you may just not be a fan of the oral history format.

I'm confused, I thought Betty Lynn played Thelma Lou on the Andy Griffith Show.

Copyright length was 56 years in the 1950s.

I always get her mixed up with her sisters Loretta and Diana, r591.

I hate it when Betty sings like a wounded butterfly and tries to art-jazz up songs. Just sing the fucking song Betty. She has such a powerhouse voice, but she rarely uses it. I only like it when she belts, like in As If We Never Said Goodbye.

Anyone see her in Song & Dance? I like her but she seems too strident for the role.

[quote]There is a BBC Radio boot of A Little Night Music with Betty Buckley.

A Weekend in the Cunt-ry.

There is nothing more powerful vocally then Betty’s “Touch me it’s so easy to leave me” from the 83 Tonys.

She never topped herself and no one topped her.

So she decided to fancy herself a jazz singer who fucks up Sondheim songs.

The memoir writes itself

r597 This one was fun, though. She takes a breath on "Touch me" and doesn't take another until "If you touch me". But it doesn't have the bright, steely tone at the Tonys.

I also like the song from Tender Mercies.

Kong disaster or spectacular or both?

with that someone start 325

[Quote] Diana Rigg dropped out.

Unprofessional.