THEATRE GOSSIP #360: Roth wears high heel shoes, Tviet gets love from the dudes, hope it doesn’t tank, it’s Moulin Rouge

Danny Burstein must have been thrilled to shill for MOULIN ROUGE by pretending to ride King Kong down Broadway.

Now THAT'S entertainment.

Huh.

You could start by spelling TVEIT correctly.

How thrilling...Moulin Rouge...yet another Movie-to-stage transfer to suck money from tourists

Yeah movie-to-stage transfers are the worst. Original musicals all the way.

Be More Chill is based on the novel of the same name.

Somebody oughta do a musical about....I dunno.....

Maybe they should write new musicals stolen from old ones.

For instance: Snow Boat! A backstager about life aboard an icebreaker in the Arctic. Captain Candy (a woman, for SJWs) leads the company. Ali Stroker plays not a mulatto but a trans woman, who sings :Can't Help Bein' That Man Of Mine."

Etc.

Or Follies from the POV of the ghosts.

Burstein riding Kong was just another embarrassing moment on the shit Tony show. Who wrote and directed that crap? And when did Regina King become a grand dame of the theater? The most ridiculous is seeing the hundreds of investors pushing each other to get on stage to accept the award.

When did Lucy Liu become a voting members of the Tonys?

Sutton (and her date) never looked better, at least.

At least this one has the correct number and isn’t greyed out like the others.

Small comfort, R13.

[quote]And when did Regina King become a grand dame of the theater?

Ever since she won her undeserved Oscar. WTF was that all about?

Maybe she’ll do that long-awaited revival of Night Mother with Oprah?

I thought Oprah was doing a remake of Terms of Endearment where the daughter gets AIDS from her cheating gay husband instead.

Those are both good ideas!

To no one's surprise, "Gary" is closing June 16.

I still can't believe Gary opened.

My late partner's name is Gary. I loved that there have been marquees blazing his name.

R21 was your partner someone famous? Why would they blink the lights upon his death?

I’m planning on seeing the Cats tour (I’m lame and embarrassing, I know). Does anyone know how much of the choreography is Gillian Lynn and how much is Andy Blankenbuehler? If it is a lot of him, I have no interest. I don’t get his appeal. I understand the appeal of Cats more than I understand the appeal of his work, which is a shocking statement.

Isn't Oprah a bit old for the Aurora role in Terms of Endearment? I know black don't crack, but...

Who’d play the astronaut? Morgan Freeman?

She probably wants Idris Elba. LOL!

So what show is getting The Winter Garden this fall?

R27 the Winter Garden Theatre?

Oh, weird, the old thread is still going past 600 posts. Anyway, this was much better than anything Corden did on the broadcast. More Billy Porter, please.

re R2 Is Cranston turning into Jack Lemmon? Maybe his next Tony will be for a stage version of The China Syndrome.

Or The Prisoner of Second Avenue co-starring Fran Drescher?

I got tickets to Streisand at Madison Square Gardens. Any of you queens going?

R27, The Music Man

Hugh Jackman in The Music Man at the Winter Garden. I could do that.

[quote]Hugh Jackman in The Music Man at the Winter Garden. I could do that.

Oh, me too.

So many classic stage musicals were film adaptations. Carousel, The King and I, My Fair Lady, Carnival!, Oliver!, Hello, Dolly!, Cabaret, Zorba, A Little Night Music, Chicago, 42nd Street, La Cage Aux Folles, The Phantom of the Opera (yes, it was), Sunset Boulevard, The Full Monty, The Producers, Hairspray, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Spamalot. Films give an already coherent structure to a piece, just add songs.

R32 - I mean, I'm happy for you. I hope the orchestra is very big... and loud.

R36? Oh dear.

Nearly half of the ones you listed were NOT stage adaptations of films.

R36, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that the musicals Carousel, My Fair Lady, Oliver!, and Hello, Dolly! were based on films. Three of those were famous plays before they were movies, and Oliver! was of course a book.

Oh, and Chicago was much more famous as a play than its two subsequent films.

"Carousel" was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play "Liliom," changing the setting from Budapest to 19th-century Maine. There were a couple of movie versions of "Liliom," one in 1930 and one in 1934.

And in the old days when a musical was adapted from a film, the title was purposely changed and their was no slavish referencing of every moment in the film, e.g. Lili/Carnival, Smiles of a Summer Night/A Little Night Music, I Am a Camera/Cabaret, Anna and the King of Siam/The King and I, Pygmalion/My Fair Lady.

The creators were all about creating an entirely fresh point of view, starting with the title.

r36 your thesis is absurd.

My Fair Lady was very much an adaptation of Shaw's1938 film screenplay of Pygmalion, not the original stage play. All the differences from the original play to the screenplay are included in My Fair Lady, including the final scene, which was written by producer Gabriel Pascal and infuriated Shaw when he saw the film.

My Fair Lady is really based on the film of Pygmalion, not the play. This has been noted often.

The whole "Rain in Spain" bit is also from the 1938 film and not found in the original play.

Gary today. Prom tomorrow.

Billy knocked that out of the park, R29. I could see him as a Tonys host one day.

Oh God, please no!

R36 is worse than Hitler.

Shaw was indeed infuriated when Pascal added his tacked on ending to the film of Pygmalion but he still accepted his Academy Award for best screenplay.

To be fair, The King And I, though contractually bound to claim Margaret Landon's novel Anna and the King Of Siam as its sourec, was taken lock, stock, and barrel from the movie version. The King is scarcely in the Landon book at all.

And Lionel Bart openly said that he based Oliver! on the David Lean film version.

Yes, r53, The King and I is obviously based on the screenplay of Anna and the King of Siam. All the major plot changes from the source materials occur in the screenplay. Except the film does include Tuptim and her lover being burned to death outside of Anna's window so she could hear their screams.

Supposedly, the two Dorothys, Hammerstein and Rodgers, saw Anna and the King of Siam at a matinee after lunch at Schrafts, and both went home raving to their husbands what a fabulous musical the film they had just seen would be.

I'm not making this up.

I thought Gertrude Lawrence took Anna and the King Of Siam to R & H. She bought the rights to the book after seeing the film.

I think Yul presented his hole to get the role.

That's absolutely true, r 56, but R&H had already heard about the film from their wives so they looked into the material. Laurence said she wanted a number to do with the children and so Hammerstein wrote new lyrics to a soft shoe number cut from from the Thanksgiving Show from South Pacific called Suddenly Lucky. The new lyrics began Getting to know you, getting to know all about you....

That was Billy Porter's audition for next year's annual revival of Gypsy. They decided it was time to give it to an actor of color and Billy looks fairly attractive in drag. Laverne Cox is furious. She thought she had it in the bag.

I wouldn't pay to see that narcissistic asshole Porter in anything. He's the king of the douchebags.

He totally fucked up the lyrics, too. Give me a fucking break.

How have these popular films NOT been yet turned into musicals?

Working Girl

Baby Boom

St. Elmo's Fire

Indecent Proposal

My Best Friend's Wedding

Jerry Maguire

A musical of ET where ET is trans and Elliot is a non-binary cis gendered girl and the bicycle is an old white cis gendered man who doesn't speak

I can completely imagine a current day musical of WORKING GIRL: Tess could be black, Latina, or Asian-American. It could be Silicon Valley instead of 1980s Wall Street, and Tess the admin has invented a killer app, but her evil boss steals the idea. Her fellow admin (the Joan Cusack character) could be a trans or gay male.

OR you could just do it as a campy 1980s period piece.

Cyndi Lauper is writing the score for a Working girl musical

Roma: A New Musical Comedy. Singing mounted dog heads. Full male frontal nudity. A dead baby.

An all trans cast of deaf actors for Inherit the Wind!

[quote]“Last year, a beloved male producer took a header in the Royal Suite and smashed into the wall, shattering some very valuable Venetian glass,” DKC/O&M head Rick Miramontez tells us.

Who was it? How many male Bway producers can actually be described as "beloved?"

Actually, these days, except for Scott Rudin and Jeffrey Richards (neither of whom are particularly beloved), most Broadway producers are women.

Like "Water for Chocolate" would make a great musical. It's the whimsical and passionate tale of forbidden love. Also, lots of frontal nudity!

[quote]most Broadway producers are women.

Women-women?

they better not be cis white women!!!

All right... Someone here has to know...

What's going on with CAMP MORNING WOOD?

Is it playing? It seems to have changed venues recently and unexpectedly. And there seems to be little to no web presence.

Boy does Camp Morning Wood have a homely cast. I wouldn't want to see these guys naked under any circumstances let alone on a stage. I guess any halfway decent looking actor ultimately wants a career in acting.

R36 is worse than Hitler because he left out She Loves Me and Promises.

Camp Boner

b porter was awesome!!!! what a voice and energy.....

@Jordan_Roth

For this year’s #TonyAwards look, I took inspiration from @Hadestown, a show that took hold of my heart in the first 2 seconds of the first rehearsal I ever saw. So much of this piece has buried itself deep within me, but the lines that I keep returning to...

What does DL think about Roth's video? How many "Marys" will make the board crash?

Mrs. Doubtfire: the Musical is doing a tryout in Seattle this Xmas.

The local SJWs are already foaming at the mouth since, like Tootsie, it's transphobic and offensive.

How is it transphobic?

anything where a man pretends to be a girl is transphobic now. I look forward to pickets of A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Oh and maybe As You Like It, Cymbeline. There are SO many new things to be outraged about!!!

I’m too busy starring on POSE to be outraged at the moment, but I’ll be fired up soon, dolls! Just you wait!

As You Like It is LITERALLY KILLING TRANS!

Come on, who was the drunk 'beloved' producer who caused the havoc last year?

I heard there was a lot of sex in the stairwell a decade ago when the party started

R85, I can't picture 87-year-old Elaine May attending an after party.

Was she told Mike would be there?

Miramontez is a big blowhard, good to see he can publicize his own party.

Though her speech was a little slow, Elaine May was as sharp as ever, thanking and mentioning every one of her cast members by name and their character's relationship to her. She was hilarious saying (and I paraphrase weakly), when she watched Lucas Hedges from off-stage as her grandson brilliantly talking about her character's death, she KNEW she'd win the Tony.

I can't imagine she'll ever return to Broadway at her age but I sure hope she does. That performance in The Waverly Gallery, both harrowing and hilarious, was unforgettable and I'm sad more people didn't see it. It will be remembered by those who did as Laurette Taylor's in The Glass Menagerie was generations ago.

I think the video of Roth's outfit is a little over the top, but because he seems so sweet and full of joy and has been involved with some important theater, I give him a pass.

[quote]Supposedly, the two Dorothys, Hammerstein and Rodgers, saw Anna and the King of Siam at a matinee after lunch at Schrafts

Well, I certainly hope neither of them spoke French to the counter man! Can you imagine?

Whatever, r88.

Would Jeffrey Seller be considered "beloved?" He's like four feet tall so maybe a few drinks would effect him.

Despite having posted previously on this thread, and clicking the eye to mark that I am watching this thread, it does not show up on my "watched threads" panel on the right of my computer, and I have to search for it every time. Is anyone else having this problem? Thanks.

I'm surprised they didn't record Waverly Gallery - it would seem like a natural for PBS with that cast, playwright, and subject matter

Isn't Jeffrey Seller rumored to be a rather nasty individual? Someone who could give Scott Rudin a run for his money?

The King and I, My Fair Lady, Oliver! etc., absolutely came from films.

PBS is inconsistent (if consistently disappointing) in terms of recording live theatre.

A lot of theatre they've shown (especially musicals) are repurposed recordings from another source, like The Broadway Channel.

I'm glad they still exist, but PBS kinda sucks for the performing arts.

A Little Night Music, Passion, came from films.

Whatever happened to Hazel?

R93 try clicking on one of the saved eyes on the right panel. I've discovered that if I delete a few threads I'd originally 'saved,' it makes room for more.

"The King and I, My Fair Lady, Oliver! etc., absolutely came from films."

And the source of those films were literary sources, r96, no matter how much tweaking happened between page and filming.

[quote]R36 is worse than Hitler because he left out She Loves Me and Promises.

The original source for "She Loves Me" (and for the movie "The Shop Around the Corner") was a Hungarian play titled "Parfumerie."

Friends who saw a performance of Waverly Gallery that was captioned for the deaf said that much of what May was saying had. very little to do with what the audience was reading.

R103 how do you mean?

I’m legit asking...Is Jordan Roth transitioning?

[quote] Isn't Jeffrey Seller rumored to be a rather nasty individual?

I've interacted with him outside of theatre and always found him to be an asshole who thinks way too highly of himself.

The wives of Rodgers and Hammerstein read the book first, according to books about the Broadway team.

I'm not sure I understand the debate here about the sources for musicals.

Most successful stage musicals are adaptations of something else: a straight play, a novel/short story, and yes, a movie. What difference does it make what the source is?

I know I'm sick of repurposed romantic comedy movies, usually from the 80s and 90s, brought to the stage with terrible music and no real imagination: TOOTSIE, BEETLEJUICE, PRETTY WOMAN, ad nauseum. But that doesn't change the nature of musical adaptation.

Most operas are adaptations. Many Shakespeare plays are adaptations.

Because someone complained that all the new musicals come from movies (soon we'll have Moulin Rouge). But... musicals have always come from movies, including many classic musicals.

The Shop Around the Corner contains virtually nothing but the setting, from The Parfumerie. But She Loves Me comes directly from that movie, and nothing else.

I hated the movie Moulin Rouge so I will pass on the show. Also I thought burstein was awful as Tevye. Way too wimpy. I must be jaded too. I saw clips of Six and was underwhelmed. I was one of those who used to see everything and now I could give a shit about the musicals. Years ago even the flops were fun. Now they are just boring and bad. Even the tix through Tdf are overpriced for most of the dreck.

"The Shop Around the Corner contains virtually nothing but the setting, from The Parfumerie. But She Loves Me comes directly from that movie, and nothing else."

I rather disagree, r110.

R111, I saw Moulin Rouge in Boston last summer. Danny Burstein's performance was Tony Award worthy. If he does not win the Tony next season for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, then there is no God.

I loved Danny Burstein as Adolpho in "The Drowsy Chaperone" but was very disappointed by his listless Tevye.

I think The Waverly Gallery will be filmed for Netflix.

R94, there is no singing and dancing, plus the story is too much of a downer for pledge week--so there is no way PBS would want it.

And because Waverly Gallery could be a film (with a great role for Streep, Close or some other aging diva), why would Lonnegan ruin the chances of a film sale with a piddly PBS production?

There are many changes between The Shop Around the Corner and She Loves Me. Ilona Ritter is barely a character in the film and Sara Haden's spinster saleslady character in the film isn't in the musical.

But, as I'm sure most of the smarter people here know, the BIG difference pre-Sunset Boulevard (would that be the first one of this kind?) musical adaptations didn't SLAVISHLY copy and advertise how much they were based on their film sources, usually even changing the title to declare the differences.

Oh come on, even Meryl and Glenn are at least 15 years too young to play the Grandma in a Waverly Gallery film.

And, frankly a film script of that material would come off as nothing more than a soap opera, not unlike Osage: Whateverthetitleis.

A film of The Waverly Gallery?

I smell a comeback, and a third Oscar!

R118, no film is about to be made tomorrow. If Waverly Gallery is sold, then it will be a few years till it is made and whoever is the old lady de jour will do it.

If Streep and Close are too young then it will be Glenda Jackson or whoever.

And no one is saying the film will be good. But even a film option is going to make more money than a PBS video.

R121 how do you figure?

I think Rudin will push a film through sooner or later because of May.

R121, what is your question?

Sorry, R122, what are you asking?

I had hoped a PBS film of Three Tall Women with Glenda Jackson might be in the works, but it seems not.

R125 how do you figure that a movie will make more bank?

R86 Elaine May was honored at an after-party at Marlo Thomas’ home.

R125. That is just how it is. Studios have more money than PBS.

People live on film options. Does PBS even option anything?

People spend money to see films. Streaming services spend money to offer films. How much does your local PBS station spend to air Great Performances? Do you really think the producer or screenwriter of a show on Masterpiece makes as much as anyone making a studio picture?

[quote]After Sunday’s ceremony, the party for Miramontez’s firm — which featured a disco, dubbed the Orpheus Room, in reference to hit Tony winner “Hadestown” — brought in guests including Ryan Murphy, Adam Driver, Scott Rudin, Baz Luhrmann, Laurie Metcalf, Elaine May and Darren Criss, who got on the piano to belt out Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.”

Darren Criss and belting should not appear in the same sentence.

Because Brandon is not an outsider like most posting here. I get that it's uber-romantic to think Madden saw Brandon and leapt out of the closet but that's pretty unlikely on a personal level (public/professional is a different beast).

^^ Did you lose your way looking for the 300th Richard Madden and Brandon Flynn thread?

I'm not r132 but I'm also now finding (occasionally) that when I post a response in one thread, it shows up in another thread that I've been watching. And sometimes it repeats as 2 consecutive but separate posts.

Anyone else experiencing this here lately?

Not recently, r134, but my link previews aren't showing even though I have it set at show link previews.

My link previews aren't showing either.....same problem, r135.

Saw Betty in Hello, Dolly! tonight in DC. She was pretty terrific. The audience loved her. Peter Marks in the Washington Post gave her a valentine of a review.

They had to pause the show mid-way through the eating scene due to some sort of technical difficulty. Voice of God asked them to hold and then clear the set. The curtain was down for about 10 minutes, they finally reset everything, and she backed up a line or two and took it home from there. I had a quibble or two with some of the staging but all-in-all it was a fun night. I had debated whether or not to just wait until Carolee took over later in the summer but glad I grabbed a last-minute ticket for this one.

So has Broadway gotten rid of cis white males like the social justice warriors demanded the other night?

Who is Aaron Tveit Tfucking?

[quote]He totally fucked up the lyrics, too. Give me a fucking break.

Only CIS GAY MEN know the lyrics to all the songs from "Gypsy"! Trans women of color DON'T!

Gypsy is literal violence against the Roma it should never be produced again!!

[quote]Laurence said she wanted a number to do with the children and so Hammerstein wrote new lyrics to a soft shoe number cut from from the Thanksgiving Show from South Pacific called Suddenly Lucky

There’s a lot of jumbling of facts in r58’s post. For one thing, her name was Gertrude Lawrence, not Laurence. At the urging of her attorney, Fanny Holtzman, she bought the rights to Margaret Landon’s book in 1950, and approached Cole Porter to write it. He turned it down. Then, by chance, Holtzman had lunch with Dorothy Hammerstein. The two Dorothys had both read “Anna and the King of Siam” when it came out in 1944, and based on that (not the subsequent film), they recommended it to their husbands, who were not interested. Six years later, when Dorothy H related her lunch with Fanny Holtzman, they arranged a screening of the film, and that was what convinced them there was a musical there, although they did not love the idea of having to write it for a star (since Lawrence owned the rights).

Re Suddenly Lucky, Josh Logan suggested it had provided the music to Getting to Know You, but when the lyric was found, it didn’t fit. But in the mid-1990s, a different version of the same song was found with music and lyrics, and it was an exact fit for Getting to Know You. The alternate is “Suddenly Lovely,” and both versions of the song were for Lt. Cable (not the Thanksgiving Follies), and they were replaced by Younger Than Springtime.

Suddenly lovely, Suddenly my life is lovely. Suddenly living Certainly looks good to me. Suddenly happy Suddenly my heart is happy, Is it a girl? Could be, could be!

I love the thought of Cole Porter writing KING AND I. Lots of lewd double entendres.

West Side Story going into the Broadway Theatre, Music Man taking The Winter Garden after Beetlegeuse closes

King Crab Prik, King Crab Prik

I'll smoke a bong with my baby tonite

And bang a gong with my baby tonite

But no sarong with my baby tonite

just some King Crab Prik."

(words and music by Cole Porter, from KISS ME, KING)

Don't quit your day job, r146.

Shame Moulin Rouge isn’t going into the Broadway, that’s always seemed the perfect theater for it. Fucking King Kong.

“The Waverly Gallery” is a terrible play. It isn’t even a play. It simply charts, scene by scene, the inexorable unraveling of an aging woman’s mind. She is irritating in the first scene and becomes more and more irritating (with an overlay of the pathetic) as she loses herself. There is no plot. There is no story but that. Her family wrings their hands and complains about her. Her grandson steps out of character to add narrative, a sure sign that there is nothing here to dramatize. Little was known about Alzheimer’s when the play was written, so perhaps this seemed enough at one time. It isn’t now. There is no point or message to the play except that Alzheimer’s is a terrible thing that is especially hard on families. Who doesn’t know that now? It was a depressing experience to watch, except I was kept stimulated by my growing fury as I realized nothing much was going to happen in this well-intentioned but paper-thin piece of work. The cast was stellar. Elaine May gave a superbly controlled performance and deserved the Tony. That is all.

There is no reason why Netflix or PBS would run it because the reviews would scare people off and NO ONE would watch it because it’s like watching paint dry only sadder. I imagine it was taped for the archives of the Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center as most productions have been for a couple of decades now. But believe me, you don’t need to see it.

Most productions are not recorded for the Lincoln Center Library, so I just checked the catalog. Both the Broadway Waverly Gallery and the original off-Broadway production were recorded.

My question is "why"?

Four words, r150:

Eileen

Heckart

Elaine

May

Does Lonegran ever write anything that doesn't depress?

There are also sections of Heckart's performance posted on YT by her son

Every one of Kenny Lonergan's plays are paper thin. He's a mediocre playwright at best.

R151, yes, most productions are not recorded because there are so many in New York and budgets are limited. So choices are made to record those productions that will be of most historical significance. Thus you have RIchard Nelson's Uncle Vanya but not King Kong the musical.

Some Broadway producers will spring for the costs, so there are a few Bway shows in the collection that might not have gotten in any other way.

I think people really misunderstand the NYPL filmings. I've watched a number of them and most of them are not particularly good. A lot of them are a stationary camera mounted in the back of the theater. They could never be shown professionally and even if they were they'd be unwatchable. I've watched shows that I saw live which were stirring and been bored.

The NYPL video archive is not for entertainment purposes. It is to be an archival record.

THat said the ones that are actually done by NYPL are better than most archival videos. However, many of the recordings (especially ones of productions outside NYC) were deposited there (not shot by the library) and those are worst than most archival videos.

For anyone who's ever wondered what it would be like to work for Jordan Roth, he just posted a job opening for a "Chief of Staff" in his office.

[quote]A lot of them are a stationary camera mounted in the back of the theater.

I actually prefer that. You get the feel of the whole show that way. I loathe when they present musicals on Live from Lincoln Center -- or some of Sondheim's filmed shows -- and they have too many close-ups. I feel like I'm missing something. Theater is designed for you to enjoy the whole staging at once, unless the lighting guides your eyes to look at something specific.

R159, however, IRL your eyes can choose to focus on details like gestures and facial expressions. For most people, not being able to see faces clearly makes it hard to watch archival video.

What I don't understand is how some of these bootlegged Broadway shows get such decent close ups. I always assumed they'd have to hide the camera in a purse or a bag of some sort. How do people not catch them doing this? Not that I mind. I'm quite happy that many shows have been reordered for posterity. That's the one bitch about great theatre - it can only live on in your mind and others will never know how wonderful it was.

There's a new documentary film coming about the making of Fiddler on the Roof. From the Playbill announcement of the movie, one name in this headline seems somewhat out of place: "Harold Prince, Sheldon Harnick, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and more share the origin story and staying power behind the musical that became an international hit in Fiddler: Miracle of Miracles."

R162 how do you mean?

Priceless, r162. The ubiquitous LMMeeeee was likely not born when Fiddler opened.

Ooh, a doc about Fiddler. That oughta pack em in.

Why are these SJW celebs so self-absorbed? More so than usual.

[quote] For anyone who's ever wondered what it would be like to work for Jordan Roth, he just posted a job opening for a "Chief of Staff" in his office.

Where? Link please? I don't see it on Playbill.

I remember liking this book.....

[quote] Saw Betty in Hello, Dolly! tonight in DC. She was pretty terrific. The audience loved her. Peter Marks in the Washington Post gave her a valentine of a review....but all-in-all it was a fun night.

Do you know where you are? You do NOT like a show and most of all admit it!

[quote]Shame Moulin Rouge isn’t going into the Broadway, that’s always seemed the perfect theater for it. Fucking King Kong.

Why? they are redoing the entire, you will have no idea whay theater uyou are in and fuck the Broadway, it doesn't have standing room. This is what the auditorium will look like.

You bitches are slipping. Why has there been no word about “Patsy and Loretta,” the very special upcoming Lifetime movie about the friendship between Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn? It stars Broadway musical queens Megan Hilty as Patsy, and Jessie Mueller as Loretta.

I thought that was made up?

R168, I loved that book when I got it in the 1980s. Thanks for the link, I just put in an order for a used copy on Amazon. One storyI remember from it was when the gorgeous Stuart Damon auditioned for Perchik someone suggested he put on a pair of thick, ugly glasses. Sheldon Harnick apparently said something like “Yeah, he can try putting glasses on but he’ll still look like Betty Grable.” Bert Convy was just as handsome, though, wasn’t he?

What are you referring to, r172? “Patsy and Loretta” is real.

So glad to know about this Fiddler book: I just ordered a used copy, too. Thanks, r168.

For the life of me, I can't imagine why Lin-Manual Miranda participated in the documentary.

[quote]For the life of me, I can't imagine why Lin-Manual Miranda participated in the documentary.

Primarily to give DL something to whine about.

LMM goes to the opening of an envelope.

I agree, but he couldn't just show up and cast himself in a documentary. I'm just curious what he could possibly add to the subject.

Either watch the documentary and find out, or shut up, r178.

Kindly fuck off, r179.

Did any of you go to Tootsie last night (06/12)?

No, what was special about last night?

It was my birthday.

There’s actually a trailer out for the Fiddler documentary. It seems LMM is there because he said some songs from Fiddler at his wedding. (Footage included!) “Its themes are so universal,” etc etc. No footage of Mostel and co in the trailer, but lots footage of the film, and the last two revivals.

The standby for Santino went on for the first time, R182, and I just wondered how he did.

LMM is becoming the Whoopi Goldberg of documentaries. She shows up randomly in lots of them even when she has zero connection to the subject at hand.

Then he's becoming the Whoopi Goldberg of everything.

Whoopi is a better actor & singer

LMM is a decent singer. He sounded good in Mary Poppins Butts In.

Anyone can sound good in a studio

[quote]Anyone can sound good in a studio

OK, got it, now sing this line....The whole song could be recorded in pieces.

[quote][R27] Reply 27× So what show is getting The Winter Garden this fall?

Theatre insiders all know to refer to as "The Winter."

True theatre insiders refer to it as the Weissmann, r192.

Lookin' for a nice man....

Like a Ziegfeld

Or a Weissman!

[quote]OK, got it, now sing this line....The whole song could be recorded in pieces.

And what’s wrong with that?

lin Manuel and Seth Rudetsky are one of the same. Theater obsessed and devoted to the point of absurdity. Both talented but give it a rest. The ass kissing gets to be too much.

What are Rudin's 2019-20 shows? I only know of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

This latest Jordan video leaves me as speechless as the one earlier this week

I wonder if Metcalf will win Tony number 3 for Martha

What am I missing? People goin g crazy for Billy Porter’s. Commercial break performance at eve Tonys. I thought it. Was nothing that extraordinary. He is sure riding high lately. Personally, I find him repulsive.

[quote]Lookin' for a nice man.... Like a Ziegfeld Or a Weissman!

Actually, it's Weisman. I've never understood why, but there's only one "s" in that name, which means it should properly be pronounced "Wiseman," like that documentary film maker's name.

And actually, it's "Workin' for a nice man....."

Weismann, r202.....

Ed Harris as Atticus Finch? What, Rudin couldn't get Lawrence Luckinbill?

Will Ed Harris play Atticus wigless or bald?

Harris is so brilliant. He looks so skinny now. Hope he is ok.

He's too old for Atticus. He should play the judge. Richard Thomas is perfect for Atticus. Why relegate him to a tour?

[quote] What am I missing? People goin g crazy for Billy Porter’s. Commercial break performance at eve Tonys. I thought it. Was nothing that extraordinary. He is sure riding high lately. Personally, I find him repulsive.

Well, personality aside, he sang a song that was actually lyrically and musically compelling which didn't happen on the broadcast.

Do you really think anyone making a documentary would say no to Lin wanting to participate? I mean, c'mon.

I know it isn't the best way to gauge a flop anymore, but it's worth nothing that King Kong and The Prom will soon be at over 250 performances. In 1991, that would make them ineligible for an edition of Not Since Carrie. So far, only two musicals reached that low point this season: Head Over Heels and Gettin' the Band Back Together.

Thanks, R199. Another jaw-dropping bit of narcissism.

Who wants to tell Jordan Roth that barrettes and a center part just make him look like a really mean prep school girl?

Jordan is really one of the easiest producers to deal with. He is a pleasant guy and I think the videos are a branding move more than anything. They days of the "star producer" are gone and perhaps he is trying to bring that back with a strong public persona.

Billy Porter is much more down to earth than one might imagine and very sweet.

At least THE PROM is headed for a Netflix adaptation, courtesy of Ryan Murphy, where it will find new audiences of music theatre fans, queer kids, and everyone in between. It will not be forgotten.

I guess KING KONG's presence on Bway is insuring future productions all over the world, even as it bleeds money right now.

I look at shows like PRETTY WOMAN and TOOTSIE and wonder if they'll be lost to time like HIGH FIDELITY, THE WEDDING SINGER, or GHOST. There's no great love for any of these shows and there never will be.

Question for those who know: Why have blackmarket actor breakdowns become impossible to get all of the sudden? I overheard last Sunday at the Tonys that there were some arrests of agency personell? True?

say what?

They are really milking this.

The revival of FRANKIE & JOHNNY that no one asked for?

Selling at 40% capacity.

OUCH.

I think Frankie and Johnny needs a small theater and really, really strong performances to have impact. It's an OFF Broadway play from the 80s. I saw the original and it wasn't breaking any ground back then but it was very well acted and simply produced. Haven't seen the current incarnation but these two characters are very specific NYC types from a certain era. Not sure Audra and Michael Shannon, excellent actors both, can embody that era or those characters. They play isn't strong enough for too much latitude in casting and intimacy of the space

Uh oh.

Musical adaptation of THE NOTEBOOK? You in trouble, girl.

What was the lyrically and musically compelling song Porter performed? I can't bring myself to watch it.

I never miss an Ingrid Michaelson musical.

Do we think Broadway will ever pick itself up again. Surely, they have to have been other times when it seemed like creativity was dead on Broadway and it recovered. I was hoping to take a trip to NYC this summer, but there's nothing I want to see. Not a single damn thing.

[quote]I look at shows like PRETTY WOMAN and TOOTSIE and wonder if they'll be lost to time like HIGH FIDELITY, THE WEDDING SINGER, or GHOST. There's no great love for any of these shows and there never will be.

Do they get produced in high schools or community/regional theater? I thought for sure Wildhorn's BONNIE AND CLYDE would be forgotten as soon as it closed after like 30 days in late 2011. But ever since it's gotten many high school AND community/regional theater productions, yearly! There have even been foreign productions. Currently there's a Dutch production.

I'm sure it's a terrible show, but the titular subjects of BONNIE AND CLYDE at least give it some built-in appeal/curiosity factor, especially abroad. Sure, the classic movie is renowned, but Bonnie and Clyde are also part of American folklore.

I'm not sure see I see young people gravitating toward rom-coms from the 90s before many of them were born. But then, I could be wrong.

LMM has just been cast in the movie of In The Heights. Did anyone not see that one coming?

[quote]Do we think Broadway will ever pick itself up again?

Sure. We've been on a good streak for plays the past few years, and The Band's Visit gave me hope for new musicals. I thought Hadestown was flawed but leagues better than every other musical this season.

Will this be eligible for next year's Tonys?

How well did Boys in the Band do last year? Maybe F&J bombing will put an end to this odd trend of shows opening just after the nominations period.

How long will it take Dean Cain to EGOT?

[quote]And what’s wrong with that? —Lucille “Mame” Ball

At least I could sustain whole sentences.

[quote] How well did Boys in the Band do last year? Maybe F&J bombing will put an end to this odd trend of shows opening just after the nominations period.

I think Boys in the Band did fairly well. It wasn't an impossible ticket to get but I never saw it deeply discounted. It also had a ton of huge TV/film/stage stars in it and is a work that is well known, but that MANY people haven't actually seen. I think the producers of F&J misread the appeal of the show (which was revived not that long ago) and the appeal of Audra when she's not singing. I'm not sure if it had opened a month earlier, if it would have been doing THAT much better.

Porter did “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and it was exactly what one might imagine.

Incorrect lyrics,adlibs,melissima and she even went from the audience to take over the stage to end on a big note.

I actually saw people exclaiming “YES!” and that THAT was a social media “sensation” (of a kind) just renforces the lack of discerning taste of the current Broadway “fan”. .I tend to judge the opinions of people on the theatre Facebook fan groups who declare“I didn’t like the songs or the book but it was FUN and I had a good time” as an idiot. I’m seeing that more and more and even from friends who I thought had better taste.

[quote] I’m seeing that more and more and even from friends who I thought had better taste.

I have exceptional taste, but I would never post negative criticisms of shows on social media. I think that's poor taste.

R234 isn't social media the 21st century version of 'word of mouth'?

[quote]LMM has just been cast in the movie of In The Heights. Did anyone not see that one coming?

So what? It's his fucking show.

It is now "word of finger", r235.

Listen, if I check in at a show and someone writes "how was it" and I don't answer it's because I have nothing nice to say.

I loathed Wokelahoma but I am connected to 3-4 people on the show, so nah, I don't feel the need to publicly answer some slut I fucked two years ago who is DYING TO KNOW HOW IT IS.

I follow a few folks on social media who can describe seeing something they disliked (or merely didn't love) in a few well-chosen words, without disrespecting people.

But they are in the minority. Most of us are better off saying nothing. You never know who will see/hear your comments, ultimately.

Yes, I've learned that The Hard Way.

I don't think there's anything wrong with saying why you didn't like a show. Just don't be nasty and say "that crippled bitch in the wheelchair and that old looking black chick ruined Oklahoma for me." There are ways of critiquing performances without being an asshole about it. You can simply say "I felt they were miscast because of this or that or this."

Unless of course you're here on DL, where we encourage you to parade your racism, misogyny, and/or unfocused rage about everything.

Cause it's anonymous, and that keeps it fun.

I didn’t like it because there were no Inuit people in it. They need to write a musical called [italic]Alaska![/italic]

Another thing to consider is that people today are rather thin-skinned and take even constructive criticism as an attack or something negative. They lack reading comprehension skills.

Ed Harris too old for Atticus? And Richard Thomas perfect? They're both 68.

Hola!

It’s because LMM wrote the show that he should be well aware that the music he is now called upon to sing is way too high for his rather limited skill set. He’s so obnoxious. I was looking forward to this film but now that he’s in it, I’m not sure I can stomach it, even if it is a rather minor role.

Richard Thomas is 68, 4 years older than Daniels.

Marion Marlowe!

Ed Harris is far too young to play Celia Keenan-Bolger's father.

LMM writes Sesame Street for grownups. If this were the 70s, his work would have never made it to Broadway. Kid stuff. Surprise surprise, it’s the world we live in now. Trump is president. Kim Kardashian is our biggest celeb. LMM is King of Broadway.

R245, she should have worn green.

I have a good title for the next thread and every one after that: Theatre Gossip #261: Worst Thread Ever.

Any Tveit tweets?

With better quality. It ran only 2 weeks.

[quote]He's too old for Atticus. He should play the judge. Richard Thomas is perfect for Atticus.

Ed Harris is less than a year older than Richard Thomas. Harris was born in 1950, Thomas in 1951.

And Gregory Peck was 46 when he played Atticus Finch.

And Uta Hagen was 43 when when played Martha.

And I was 22 when I played Velma Kelly in the hit film Chicago.

[quote]I have a good title for the next thread and every one after that: Theatre Gossip #261: Worst Thread Ever.

You know, that must might have worked 100 threads ago.

Re Follies and spellings, it’s Weismann

It takes 4 seconds to check online, peeps, so DO IT!!! 😩😞😱😪

I actually like this thread title. It's based on the Moulin Rouge song that was all the rage when the movie came out.

[quote]How well did Boys in the Band do last year? Maybe F&J bombing will put an end to this odd trend of shows opening just after the nominations period.

Shows open after the Tonys all the time. "Hairspray" opened in August in the middle of a heat wave so bad the producers handed out water to people online to get in.. Boys had to open when it did because Jim Parsons was working.

I can't believe the "CZJ lies about her age" jokes, which were never accurate or even amusing (she started as a child actress in England, so everyone's always known exactly how old she is) are still going, even as she is embracing turning 50 in a couple of months.

R245, that’s all very well, but why the fuck is Sally wearing green?

The best-selling musical on Broadway the week before the Tonys was Hadestown, followed quickly by Wicked, Ain't Too Proud, Dear Even Hansen, and Hamilton, in that order, all of them selling well above 100% of gross. Aladdin is still doing great, in the low 90%, followed by Lion King and Frozen. Phantom and Come From Away are in the high 80%s, but Tootsie and The Prom are in the mid-60s. Beetlejuice is in the 50s, which is surprising, didn't it get good reviews? Poor "Gary" played to 24% of capacity that week.

I believe you mean verde, r251.

Yes, r248?

[quote]I look at shows like PRETTY WOMAN and TOOTSIE and wonder if they'll be lost to time like HIGH FIDELITY, THE WEDDING SINGER, or GHOST. There's no great love for any of these shows and there never will be.

I've seen plenty of community and regional productions of "Wedding Singer," but I don't recall ever running across even one of the other two.

So Atticus should be in his 40s, really, or fiftyish, tops.

As a a life long New Yorker, I'm fascinated by this idea of community theater. I've never had the opportunity to see a production in that kind of venue. Are the productions ever really good?

R270, much of Broadway is now community theater worthy.

That’s an insult to community theatre, R271. Honestly, that’s a better value for your money, and a better way to see shows unmolested by dopey “reinventions” that will make them even more dated than they were before.

[quote]LMM writes Sesame Street for grownups.

Except that we did it first and better and that Joe Raposo could mop the floor with him.

Any excitement for Moulin Rouge!?

I have seen great productions of Beckett, Brecht, and Kushner produced in community theaters. So yes, it can be of very high quality. (Though it usually is not.)

Broadway is just community theatre with a bigger budget. Very insular like community theatre elsewhere.

[quote]Joe Raposo could mop the floor with him.

No. No, he couldn’t. That awful musical version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” that Raposo did with Sheldon Harnick Las one of the most boring, tuneless scores I’ve ever heard,

It will come as no surprise here but I hear from very reliable sources that all is not going well with Faye Dunaway's Tea at 5.

How many issues do there need to be with her before someone figures out it's her?

Spill! Spill, R278!

Playbill said Matthew Lombardo did a rewrite; I wonder how he and Dunaway are getting along.

Faye's read this and wants to know why you can't talk about positive things. Like that movie she was brilliant in that was all the rage at Cannes.

R277: You called it “tuneless” to defend LMM, who normalized the absence of melody in MUSICAL theater?

Don't fuck with Miss Dunaway, fellas.

Lincoln Center produced a almost perfect South Pacific revival for a musical some said was dated.

The King and I and My Fair Lady have been brought back more often. So those musicals are a bit less interesting.

[quote]Lincoln Center produced a almost perfect South Pacific revival for a musical some said was dated.

If they can add new life to that by just trusting the source material, then imagine what they could do with [italic]Mame[/italic].

[quote]Don't fuck with Miss Dunaway, fellas.

I’d rather have had Glenn Shadix on that orangutan movie we all did together. Too late now and I don’t do necrophIlia.

Saw "All My Sons" tonight and got to meet Annette Bening and Tracy Letts (I was introduced by a friend who's a cast member). They were both absolutely lovely (not only to me but to all of the people who waited for them at the stage door after the show).

R283, I was speaking specifically to a comment about Joe Raposo, whose awful IAWL score is indeed tuneless. And since I am not one of the psychotic LMM haters here, I have no problem pointing out that there are some beautiful songs in both In the Heights and Hamilton, even a very melodic throwaway number in Hamilton, “You’ll Be Back.” Not everything is rap in Hamilton and especially not in In the Heights. I’d be willing to bet you haven’t seen either, though.

Oh c'mon that Faye Dunaway thing is never gonna happen.

Some community theatre is fantastic!

Faye should try out her Hepburn routine in a community theatre first. The stakes will be less, and she can work on her stage technique.

R278, Seeing her in it on July 2nd in Boston.

Someone was telling me that Joe Iconis has a horrible reputation- true or not?

I was involved in It's a Wonderful Life at its premiere in DC in the early 1990s. The film source is, of course, brilliant, so we were never going to reach those heights but the music was sweet. If memory serves I'd call it more generic than tuneless.

But our biggest problem was staging it in an arena (at DC's Arena Stage) and it's a musical that was not really helped by "immersing" the audience into it. Many in the cast were part of Arena's company so that while they were good, they weren't especially adept at musical theater. And it was directed by their artistic director who really lacked a flair for the material.

So we will not get to see Dunaway play a 31-year-old Hepburn in Act 1 of Tea at Five?

I can play 31 easily

Rap is anti-music and LMM is just another privileged str8 white male hack.

Calling his critics “psychotic” is a revelation of your bigotry,

[quote]If memory serves I'd call it more generic than tuneless.

The problem is he wrote better songs for The Muppets since he didn’t have Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed being on TV all the time to compete with.

R205 - someone on ATC, who goes by “aislestorm”, made the exact same comment. Is this you?

Thank you, r250. Perfectly expressed. And absolutely true.

I once saw a community theater production of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY in New Jersey and, let me tell you, it was superior in every way to Broadway. I had disliked the play initially but came away with a new appreciation of it following that NJ mounting.

"When did Mockingbird tickets until April 2020 go on sale? Didn't realize it had extended again"

dramedy reply: it was at least a few weeks ago because I had updated my chart around the time of my ny trip."

Is he autistic? A savant of some sort? Why couldn't you just use a calendar and your eyes?

Has anyone yet musicalized AUGUST OSAGE COUNTY? All those good roles for women, and that great all-American setting.

Asking for a friend.

It was a tough enough slog to sit through the play. I join those who are perplexed at its success.

It would be one of those operas (like IT's A WONDERFUL LIFE, SOPHIE'S CHOICE, TWO BOYS, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, and just about every other one written today) that has no reason for being.

[quote] Someone was telling me that Joe Iconis has a horrible reputation- true or not?

I've never heard that. He has a cadre of performers who seem to keep coming back to work for him over and over again so I doubt if he was an awful guy they would.

If anything the knock on him I've heard is that he's been about to "break out" for a decade or more. It's strange his work has yet to be commercially successful OR critically successful and he still gets work.

If his work was critically acclaimed but wasn't finding commercial audiences he'd be Jason Robert Brown. If his work was commercially successful but no one thought it was very good he'd be most Broadway composers. He seems to be neither, but he keeps working.

[quote]So we will not get to see Dunaway play a 31-year-old Hepburn in Act 1 of Tea at Five?

If I understand correctly, "playwright" Matthew Lombardo has rewritten the piece so that the original first act has basically been cut -- Dunaway does not have to play Hepburn at 31, and some of the material from the first act has been incorporated into what used to be just the second act, where Hepburn is in her 80s. But anyway, I'm not sure it matters, because I still can't believe Dunaway will ever actually perform this play in public, I think something will happen to close it before the first scheduled performance in Boston. And if it DOES happen, I predict disaster.

I hear that Faye is scared to death and unable to learn her lines but won't quit because she wants them to fire her so she can sue them.

r308 I have no idea if what you say is true or based on anything real but in a gossip thread, I LOVE IT

I don't suppose Faye would consider an earpiece. Didn't that happen for Al Pacino in China Doll?

Honestly Warren is impossible, the winner is LaLa Land!!

[quote] I had disliked the play initially but came away with a new appreciation of it following that NJ mounting.

I could do with a good NJ mounting right about now.

Is is wrong that I'm always rooting for Faye despite her obvious personality disorder(s)? She really is a great actress and I seem to recall her tour of Master Class got good reviews. I still want to know what happened when she stepped into Sunset Boulevard for a few days and then got fired. I assume because she was too difficult or couldn't sing it or both. She'd have probably been the most fascinating Norma from an acting perspective. I'd have suffered through a few tone deaf numbers just to see her chew up the scenery.

Faye will never make it to Broadway. Broadway doesn't go for cooze and dopes.

I just had the enormous pleasure of seeing Gina Riley (Kim from Kath & Kim) as Mrs Lovett. Anthony Warlow was a very fine Sweeney too, but I can't imagine ever seeing Mrs Lovett better done. She has a powerful, tuneful voice, she was attuned to every nuance of the torch Mrs Lovett is carrying for Sweeney, and equally attuned to her business acumen. And of course, the comedic touches.

An example: In "By the Sea" when she's describing their bathing costumes and she says "A nice navy for you, perhaps, and stripes for me," she mimes horizontal stripes, then looks down at her figure, re-does the mime with vertical stripes and does a little private nod of satisfaction. She also capitalises beautifully on the last verse of that song. Sweeney is, of course, unengaged as usual by whatever she talks about. Realising that he's not entering into the fantasy with her, and in particular not responding to the marriage idea, she crouches down beside him and looks up at him for the last verse. She is comically but also almost poignantly ingratiating with "now and then you could do the guest in" and "bring along your chopper".

I loved Gina Riley on Kath & Kim although the writing was awful for the last few seasons.

Stephanie J. Block's fans who appear to think chiming in every time someone mentions Idina Menzel (or anything Idina Menzel relted) with outrage that SJB was 'the first' Elphaba -- are STILL doing this.

Wow. So winning her Tony for 'StarCher' did nothing to get that monkey off her back. She is still more famous for having been 'fired' from a role she was never officially hired for among her own 'truest' fans.

Related. Not relted.

There used to be - around the time of the film - video of a high school production of August Osage County on YouTube. Specifically it was the “eat the fish, bitch” scene. It was startlingly intense, and the teenage girl playing the Julia Roberts role was amazing. It may still be up on YouTube.

R255 the point is that Thomas looks much younger.

R270 For what it's worth, I've sometimes seen better acting and singing in regional/community theater than on Broadway. That's why I never brush aside a local production, because it may surprise me.

Big difference r321 between regional theaters (LORT) and community theater. Regional theaters are professional equity theaters that employ professional actors, often with Broadway credits and mostly from NYC or LA or CHI.. So The Cleveland Playhouse for example, is a completely different league than the Twinsburg Players or whatever

My point was that great theater can and is often found outside of Broadway. I know some people who think that Broadway is the end all/be all of theater and that everything else is low-rent. But I have honestly seen good or better productions in regional and community theater, and even high schools!

FACT: Faye still doesn’t even know her lines for TEA.

So a friend of mine, who is 44 years old with no professional acting experience and no training is talking seriously about moving to NYC to be an actor. He has done a few local theater (non paying, non union) gigs and apart from high school, thats the extent of his experience.

He thinks he is being realistic when he says he is willing to start "small" like with understudying on Broadway and a few SVU episodes. I don't want to be a downer but I know he reads the DL threads avidly, so if anyone can give him a reality check, that would be a nice

Really no experience or training? No acting classes or roles in community theater?

You can start at age 44, but why go to NYC with no credits or credentials?

How does you friend plan to make a living? It can be hard to do the unpaid off-off-Broadway shows and audition for other stuff without a reliable income.

Thanks for the Aussie Sweeney mention, R315. I love the details you included. Did you see Hugh Jackman as Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard? I was once sent a video of a great behind the scenes special of that. Also, was Philip Quast into the homosex? I had such a thing for him. And did Simon Bailey have much of a career back in Australia after being chased out of the UK for being such a manwhore?

For R315-I love me some Gina Riley (who was also great in Merrily We Roll Along Down Under)

There are a lot of talented people in the world who either just didn't have the upbringing to even consider going to NY to try for Broadway, or made the decision to stick with a more realistic career choice. Those are the people who do community theater. Of course not all of them are talented but I have definitely seen people who had the acting or singing chops to compare favorably. In fact, I have appeared in community theater productions in the relative middle of nowhere with more than one person who did community theater here when they were young and are now leads on Broadway and one has been nominated for multiple Tonys. Where do you think the people who are on Broadway all got started? They didn't spring fully formed on to the stage of the Marquis theaters.

There are many clips of the Follies in Espana. Some of the choices and staging are so bizarre and I love every minute of it. Muntza Ruiz who plays Sally is breathtaking. I am a fan. She was Toby in Sweeney and was Margaret in Carrie over there. . I have a crush and she has a gorgeous voice. Follies was a big hit I’m Madrid.

Community theaters often feature actors who got sick of the commercial world, conservatory trained actors who disliked life as a jobbing actor in NYC or LA, or who want to raise their families closer to extended family. Or actors who do not have the resources to tide them through the lean times that are part of any career.

The downside is that the closeness to the big world can make mediocre community theater actors think they can have a career in NYC. They go off and wonder why with their pitchy voices and ragged acting they cannot do as well as the better artists they have worked with.

[quote]I’m Madrid.

I'm Poughkeepsie.

[quote] I still want to know what happened when she stepped into Sunset Boulevard for a few days and then got fired. I assume because she was too difficult or couldn't sing it or both

She didn’t step in for a few days. She was signed to replace Glenn Close in the LA cast. She rehearsed on-and-off for several weeks, on a weird schedule because she was also filming Don Juan de Marco at the same time. Close was scheduled to close her run on June 24, after which Faye and company would rehearse in the theatre for a week before starting previews. On the Monday of Glenn’s last week, Faye did a run through with Lloyd Webber in attendance. Supposedly he gave her compliments and encouragement. Three days later, it was announced that the show would close, and that Faye’s singing was the reason she couldn’t take over as planned.

What’s interesting is that there’s never been a word from all those LA cast members who abruptly lost their jobs. One would think they would have stories about the rehearsal process with Faye. Maybe the had to sign NDAs as part of whatever settlements they got?

Clearly Faye should never have been signed for the role. ALW would have known at audition that she wouldn’t have been able to improve enough in the amount of time she had.

Bemidji

R333, Glenn Close apparently called a company meeting and yelled at producers “What the fuck did you think you were doing.” She also got the LA cast guarantees that they would be going on to NY.

Eldergays, tell me about Howard McGillin. So tall and dashing. Still a good looking man into his 60s. Who's had him?

So, The Flamingo Kid is closing tonight in Hartford.

My guess is they will have another regional theater production in several months with some of the same cast but the show won't make it to Broadway. That NY Times review was too dispiriting.

Howard was married to a woman for many years, starting in his early 20s, and fathered two sons. He came out while he was doing Anything Goes. I don't think he went through a long "dating" period, he had a handful of monogamous relationships with guys before he met his husband, Richard Samson. They've been together a long time now, and have a grandson via Howard's youngest son, Brian.

[quote]Calling his critics “psychotic” is a revelation of your bigotry,

Bigotry against what? LMM haters? They're pretty obnoxious.

No one likes Lin Manuel fangurl.

That’s not true, psychotic hater.

LMM is yucky

Howard McG and I both lived in Brooklyn in the 1980s when he was married and I'd see him on the subways with his wife and kids. He always looked kind of exhausted (though very handsome).

[quote]LMM is yucky

Patty Lane has weighed in!

[quote]Clearly Faye should never have been signed for the role. ALW would have known at audition that she wouldn’t have been able to improve enough in the amount of time she had.

And now it's the rabidly litigious, untalented creep Matthew Lombardo who should have known that Faye would never be able to handle a one-person show like TEA AT FIVE.

[quote]And now it's the rabidly litigious, untalented creep Matthew Lombardo who should have known that Faye would never be able to handle a one-person show like TEA AT FIVE.

Please. Faye couldn't even handle announcing the best-picture Oscar winner.

They never did announce a house for Tea at Five, did they? Imagine the absurdity of trying to present it as a reading with the Lunt-Fontanne's residency series.

Poor Faye.

I know she dreamt of opening her play at The Winter.

[quote]Rap is anti-music and LMM is just another privileged str8 white male hack.

*blinks several times*

Let's take a look at that name, shall we?

[bold]LIN MANUEL MIRANDA[/bold].

Something about that name that implies a white male is somehow not involved. Oh well. I'm sure Margaret Fucking Mead here can explain it to me.

Could community theater stars play the same role on Broadway for months, or years?

All this moaning about Lin Manuel doing the movie of In the Heights. He’s only doing a small part, not the fucking lead!

[quote]Could community theater stars play the same role on Broadway for months, or years?

Maybe not, but let’s face it, these days, neither can Broadway actors.

Thank you, R349. Here's more of an education than the Theatre Thread Race Troll deserves. From Wikipedia:

[quote]Miranda was born in New York City[1] and raised in the neighborhood of Inwood, the son of Luz Towns, a clinical psychologist, and Luis A. Miranda, Jr., a Democratic Party consultant who advised New York City mayor Ed Koch.[7][8][9] Miranda has one older sister, Luz, who is the Chief Financial Officer of the MirRam Group.[10] During childhood and his teens, he spent at least one month each year with his grandparents in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico.[11][12] He is of mostly Puerto Rican descent. His mother's ancestors include an interracial couple, Sophie, who was black, and David Towns, who was white; from the early 1800s, this couple spent their married life trying to outrun slavery as laws and governments changed around them. Ensuing branches of the Towns family primarily married Mexican spouses in Texas and Mexico, and Miranda, for his part, has described his ancestry as a quarter Mexican.[9][13][14] The name "Lin-Manuel" was inspired by a poem about the Vietnam War, Nana roja para mi hijo Lin Manuel, by the Puerto Rican writer José Manuel Torres Santiago.[15][16]

LMM has big hands, to go with his huge Puerto Rican dick.

[quote]Please. Faye couldn't even handle announcing the best-picture Oscar winner.

My point exactly. Shall we take bets on whether Faye will make it through even one public performance of TEA AT FIVE in Boston?

I've seen shockingly great community theatre and I've seen awful regional and Broadway shows. It always comes down to a god script, good actors, and a good director. If you have those three things, you have a chance. If you cast your church friends or AA sponsors as Tevye and Mama Rose, you're gonna get shit. Trust me, I've seen it. Still, let's not forget like this same stuff doesn't happen in Hollywood and Broadway where many people have been poorly cast due to connections or (ahem) other talents.

R350, I think they could if that's all they had to do. Community theater people all work 8+ hour days at a regular job and then go to the theater to either rehearse or do a show.

Tea at Five is supposed to begin performances next Saturday. Bostonian gays, you know what you must do.

r353 His father worked for Ed Koch, fuck that cunt

There are a lot of these community theater musicals on YouTube, but I’ve never seen one that wasn’t atrocious. Can anyone hear recommend one? You know, one as good as Broadway, and all.

R327, you might get more joy asking on the Australian Gossip thread.

You can't really generalize about community theater like you might about Broadway and regional theater because there are no formal rules and unions setting the standards for the work.

A lot of the differences come down to money

I do community theater and have for years. I have a demanding professional career with a good paycheck but the theater work feeds my soul. In the twenty or so years I have been performing, I've worked with people who left this town for NY or LA and made decent careers for themselves. I've worked for people who had NY/LA careers who for various life reasons came back to this community. I've worked with Tony winners. I've worked with Olivier winners. I've worked on productions that were terrible. I've worked on productions that were amazingly good. The budgets around here for a production tend to be 10-75K so you're not going to get Broadway production values but you are going to get your $25-30 worth.

[quote] I've worked with Tony winners. I've worked with Olivier winners.

You worked with these people before or after they won their awards. Tony and Olivier award winners doing communtiy theater? Really?

Please name some names.

[quote] I've worked with people who left this town for NY or LA and made decent careers for themselves.

Who are these people? How do you define "decent" careers?

[quote]r54 Except the film does include Tuptim and her lover being burned to death outside of Anna's window so she could hear their screams.

Sounds like a riveting idea for a number. Why was it cut ? ?

LA has lots of regional and community theater with out-of-work or never-made-it actors/singers/dancers who live in the area.

R355, I have a front row Orchestra seat for July 2nd.

[quote] So a friend of mine, who is 44 years old with no professional acting experience and no training is talking seriously about moving to NYC to be an actor.... so if anyone can give him a reality check, that would be a nice

You think only successful actors graduate from Julliard? Many actors start late untrained, Brian Dennehy didn't start until after 40. The guy is an adult and you never know until you try. Unless you are secretly jealous or in love with him and don't want to see him go.

R365, I'm not the poster you are questioning, but I have worked in community theater with one person who went on to be a four-time (so far) Tony nominee and who is mentioned here on a semi-regular basis, and another one who has been the replacement lead in more than one Broadway show and is currently the standby for a lead in a successful Broadway show that just opened this spring. Do you consider those signs of a "decent" career?

Finally saw HILLARY AND CLINTON yesterday. A slight play, but I loved it and couldn't take my eyes of Laurie Metcalf - she's fantastic.

[quote] [R365], I'm not the poster you are questioning, but I have worked in community theater with one person who went on to be a four-time (so far) Tony nominee and who is mentioned here on a semi-regular basis, and another one who has been the replacement lead in more than one Broadway show and is currently the standby for a lead in a successful Broadway show that just opened this spring. Do you consider those signs of a "decent" career?

I certainly would consider that a very successful career.

That poster seemed to be suggesting he/she has worked Tony AND Olivier winners in a community theater setting. That seems like quite a stretch, so I asked for clarification.

My personal opinion is that actors who can get jobs at the professional equity level are very successful. Whether those people are in NYC or LA or anywhere .

R372, I definitely believe it is more likely to work with that caliber of people on the way up versus...well, not necessarily the way "down" but let's just say after having had a Tony/Olivier nomination. I doubt that union rules even allow that.

damn shame they don't tape the great shows for posterity, pbs step up !!!!

[quote] damn shame they don't tape the great shows for posterity, pbs step up !!!!

LOL

For the person above who said they liked the community theater version of August: Osage County more than the Broadway version, what do you think the community version did that was missed on Broadway?

R369, Brian Dennehy did not begin acting at age 40. He did community theater and small professional gigs while working a day job. When his kids went off to college, he started working full-time as an actor.

But it simply is not true to say that he "began" at age 40.

OK, I’m intrigued. Which Olivier Award winner has done community theater in the US? I want to write a screenplay about that now.

Didn't Patti LuPone do community theater after she'd been a Tony (Evita) and Olivier (Les Miserables) winner? I think she got crap for it.

Some posters on this thread have no idea what "community theater" actually is.

It's theater put on by the community, no?

LMM is white. Central and South America are the products of Spanish and Portuguese imperialism. Those are white countries.

Calling someone “psychotic” for pointing out exactly how he has lowered the bar for musical theatre is not just bigoted, it’s psychological projection as it’s his fan-enablers who are the ones who have problems.

LMM would be considered 'blanco' in Latin culture where colorism does exist.

They use the N-word like it was part of their native tongue.

[quote]LMM would be considered 'blanco' in Latin culture where colorism does exist.

*blinks, laughs hysterically for 45 minutes*

Oh god, THANK YOU. I sorely needed that laugh!

And rap wouldn’t exist without sprechgesang which is German in origin.

R366 you don't think colorism (light = preferable) exists in Latin American culture? In fact, it's quite prevalent.

r380, they're using "community theatre" where they probably mean "regional theatre." I highly doubt Brian Dennehy or Andy Karl were doing major work at the Springfield Community Players. The poster above is referring to four-time Tony nominee, Andy Karl.

Between the community theatre fanatics and the LMM haters, this thread has truly lost its way.

Oh wait--TONY season is over. Sigh.

Can't you boys find some FRINGE festival/new musicals thing to divert you for a few? Anything? Do you actually see any new theatre, or just argue about famous shows you'll never see?

Joffrey from GOT was doing Shakespeare with fellow university students, none studying acting, while GOT was riding high in the public consciousness.

R389, I was 100% NOT referring to Andy Karl. And I am also well aware of the difference between community and regional theater. This was/is true volunteer, community, theater.

All character actors should take note of Jayne Houdyshell, whose career I find fascinating.

This is an actress who toiled for almost 3 decades in middling productions of classics in mostly C-level regional theaters (and I don't mean community theaters). With her full figure and less-than-classic looks, I'm sure there were many theater professionals who told her to give it up, she'd never get to Broadway, she was essentially uncastable in NY.

Yet, because of one play off-Broadway (that subsequently moved to Broadway) WELL in 2004 by Lisa Kron, in which she seemed perfectly cast as the author's dowdy working class mother, she was not only accepted but adored by the hottest directors working in NY. And she's never stopped working, all in first-class highly-regarded plays and musicals (most recently as Lord Gloucester opposite Glenda Jackson's King Lear) and some film and TV work and in a far wider range of roles than probably even she ever expected to play.

I only bring her up to say, it's never too late and.....you just never know.

And look at how Estelle Getty’s career got started. She just kept trying and trying until she actually got a part, and one part led to another.

There are lots of conventionally unattactive people on Broadway and there always have been.

Liz Smith (the Brit character actress) worked in shops until she was 50. And she raised her children alone. She wasn't just taking shifts here and there. I think her big break was a Ken Loach movie.

R394 I'd forgotten that Estelle didn't start acting until the early '80s, when she was pushing 60!

Can't anyone recommend some great community theater productions on YouTube? Or some really terrible ones?

Excellent post, R393. It's true, you just never know.

I'm assuming R397 is kidding. One can't be sure on these threads.

Estelle Getty started in Yiddish theatre and working in resorts in the Catskills when young. She was a NYC actress while raising her family, appearing off-Bway several times before creating the role of Arnold's mother in TORCH SONG TRILOGY. She had a minor role in TOOTSIE, the movie.

It may never be too late to be discovered (I'm unconvinced about that) but these actors we're discussing had training and more important, many, many years of professional experience before they "happened."

Have these two fucked?

The best Beckett I ever saw was a community theater production of Krapp's Last Tape.

Seriously.

R393 wins the thread in my opinion. Excellent (and, more important, inspiring) post.

I saw The Plough and the Stars at the Irish Rep last week and thought it was very well done. It’s part of their Sean O’Casey trilogy. Maryann Plunkett is one of the leads and is fantastic in it.

I recognized her name and realized she won a Best Actress Tony for Me and My Girl 30 years ago. She’s worked continuously since then but in small, under the radar parts in the theater, movies and TV.

I watched clips of Kate Mulgrew in Tea At 5 on youtube.she was great. I cannot see Faye at all. If she actually appears it will be an unmissable camp fest. I will always love her in Chinatown. The author of Tea looks hunky.

[quote]The author of Tea looks hunky.

He is a disaster area.

I did community theatre with two different female Tony winners (before their wins, of course), and a third (male) who has had two or three nominations.

[quote]With her full figure and less-than-classic looks

I’ve got less-than-classic looks, too!

Does anyone know Andrew Rannells' shoe size? They look BIG

Coincidentally, I'm going to a community theater production of "The Drowsy Chaperone" today. I've seen many other shows at this theater some good ("In the Heights," "Titanic"), some pretty bad ("Hair.")

Faye was never able to sing well in early Sunset auditions. They gave her some time, but concluded it would never work.

R410, did they strip naked? At the end of Hair, I mean.

Randy Rainbow followed OJ Simpson on twitter and got spit roasted....

now his upcoming broadway 'guest starring' appearance will never happen

R364 here answering R365 -

All the winners of theater awards I've worked with were long before they won. The Olivier award winner actually won for best performance in an opera. The folk with good careers are making their living in theater and film which isn't easy to do. The most famous at this point is probably Jordan Fisher. The one that became the richest was Morgan Smith who was the redhead on the Wendy's commercials for years.

Aaron Tveit could get love from this dude.

R379 After Evita, Lupone did a regional theater production of a Shakespeare play. I believe she chose to do Rosalind in As You Like It with a director she wanted to work with at the Guthrie (or was it the Goodman?). Though not community theater, it is still an interesting example of how a career is built choice by choice, or at least job offer by job offer.

R393 I saw Well after it moved to Broadway. Houdyshell was so very good in that. I've had a soft spot for her ever since, knowing that she had what I would call a successful career completely outside of NYC.

We do have some community theaters within NYC, by the way. It seems to be a mix of people with training and those who just love to perform. The excellent Blue Hill Troupe comes to mind.

I once saw a community theater production of A Chorus Line in which nobody could really dance. If my memory is faulty on that, my apologies to those who successfully blended in with the non-dancers. Tiny space, too. Still, most of them connected with the material in a way that was very moving. They really were doing it "for love." In one show, the highs and lows of community theater.

[quote]r411 Faye was never able to sing well in early Sunset auditions. They gave her some time, but concluded it would never work.

Her complaint was that she had auditioned singing the songs in a lower key, but then in mid rehearsal Mr. Webber decided she must sing them higher.

Of course she couldn't do that. It's no surprise.

I've seen some good community theatre here and there. It never comes down to the biggest budgets or best sets. It's usually just comes down to the casting. During my days in community theatre, everyone was very clique-ish and they'd allow a remarkably unfunny 22 year old soprano to play the lead in Hello, Dolly just because they went to church with her mother or something. That always led to disasters. Still, when they were well-cast, I'd say many of them were no better or worse than some shows I've seen on Broadway.

Is there a bootleg of Noklahoma?

You can judge community theater by their programing. If they do musicals, stay away. If they do Shakespeare, Beckett, Mamet, Vogel, and Kushner they usually do better work.

[quote] [R379] After Evita, Lupone did a regional theater production of a Shakespeare play. I believe she chose to do Rosalind in As You Like It with a director she wanted to work with at the Guthrie (or was it the Goodman?). Though not community theater, it is still an interesting example of how a career is built choice by choice, or at least job offer by job offer.

Yeah, the fucking Guthrie and the fucking Goodman are not community theaters, thanks for clearing that up Jesus Christ, the level of discussion here is dipping below a tolerable level of ignorance.

. The Guthrie and The Goodman are light fucking years superior to any community theater. They are premiere regional theaters with some of the worlds best actors and directors working with them. Mark Rylance works at the Guthrie, Nathan Lane did Iceman at The Goodman.

Damn, if you read these threads and think there is any kind of equivalency between Broadway, The Guthrie and The Goodman you are a just a fucking rube .

So for the record, your community theater, good as it is, valuable as it is, does not rise the level of a Broadway or Off Broadway production. That is just self delusion. And that doesn't make it any less valuable or important.

Settle down, r421. Jesus.

pleco has stated his boundaries.

r376, I'm the poster who was transformed by the community theatre production of the Letts' play. The Broadway version seemed incredibly trite to me, seemingly obsessed with television and other pop culture nonsense, not only in the writing but in the staging as well (a young girl plopped in front of a tv comes to mind). Though hardly on the same level as O'Neill, the play was elevated in the NJ production to a cosmic family drama, brilliantly played by the ensemble of actors on a stunningly designed set in a wonderful space. It made for an entirely new experience, IMO, and caused me to reevaluate the work.

To state that JRB has been "critically acclaimed" is being charitable, to say the least.

[quote]r421 So for the record, your community theater, good as it is, valuable as it is, does not rise the level of a Broadway or Off Broadway production. That is just self delusion. And that doesn't make it any less valuable or important.

Personally, I have seen some abysmal off-broadway productions, as well as lifeless Broadway productions.

So, is the bar incredibly high? Not necessarily.

I think the community theater thing depends on where you are. I knew a great community theater about two hours outside NYC that hired a lot of emerging NYC directors. As a consequence a number of their actors also did readings and workshops with off-Broadway institutional theaters and development programs in the city.

Also, when NYC theater artists came out to spend a year or two as a visiting professor, this theater pounced on them so they had strong directors and performers.

I have a feeling that a community theater in Iowa or Montana would not have the same ability to get good people.

[quote] Settle down, [R421]. Jesus.

[quote[ No thanks, I stand by what I said.

[quote] I knew a great community theater about two hours outside NYC that hired a lot of emerging NYC directors. As a consequence a number of their actors also did readings and workshops with off-Broadway institutional theaters and development programs in the city.

That wasn't a community theater or your are mistaken. "Emerging NYC Directors" do not, under any circumstance work in non professional theaters.

This was probably a small professional company or your understanding of what an emerging nyc director is not accurate

Patti Lupone did As You LIke It with Rumanian director Liviu Ciulei when he had quite the brilliant reputation for avant garde stagings of classic plays. And it was at The Guthrie, not the Goodman, which especially back then, was often cited for their lavishly produced plays.

Since she was trained in classic theater at Juilliard (as opposed to musical theater) I think she always had an interest in playing the great female roles of theatrical history and Rosalind is certainly one of them. And by the early 1980s she surely knew it was then or never. I always admired her choices.

I would agree with whoever posted it above that there might just be a bit of misunderstanding here between a regional theater and a community theater.

For one thing, the former would hire mostly Equity actors and directors and union designers. The latter would most likely not be able to afford them, at least at their union standards.

[quote] Damn, if you read these threads and think there is any kind of equivalency between Broadway, The Guthrie and The Goodman you are a just a fucking rube .

Correction "Damn, if you read these threads and think there is any kind of equivalency between Broadway, The Guthrie and The Goodman and your community theater, you are a just a fucking rube ."

[quote] pleco has stated his boundaries.

Not my boundaries, just the facts

[quote]For one thing, the former would hire mostly Equity actors and directors and union designers. The latter would most likely not be able to afford them, at least at their union standards.

And also, community theater would not be able to hire Equity actors or directors because Equity members are not allowed to work in non-union shows, except in cases where a particular show would be made an "Equity showcase," in which cases they would be able to hire a VERY limited number of Equity artists.

[quote]You can judge community theater by their programing. If they do musicals, stay away. If they do Shakespeare, Beckett, Mamet, Vogel, and Kushner they usually do better work.

Even in musical theatre, there’s a world of difference between [italic]Carousel[/italic] and some crappy 1990s/2000s flash-in-the-pan show that only gets done anymore because it seems edgy to fat fraus.

But if they do Disney, then be afraid, be very afraid. I’m no knee-jerk Disney hater - [italic]Beauty and the Beast[/italic] was the first show I actually saw in a Broadway theatre - but even I have my limits.

R428 thank you for that information. (I posted at R416 ) I couldn't remember if it was Serban or Ciulei. What an interesting time that must have been at the Guthrie. And I agree about her choices! Very admirable.

And thank you (and others) for kindness.

I know the difference between Blanche DuBois and Blanche Devereaux. And Angelina Reaux for that matter.

BUT DO YOU KNOW ANGELINA BALLERINA ? ?

I liver near a summer theater in Framingham, Massachusetts, Merman did her nightclub act for a week. Gertude Berg appeared in A Majority of One after the Broadway run.

More typical: Annie Get Your Gun with Ginger Rodgers and Damn Yankees with Tony Perkins

Apparently Mary Martin did not appear in summer theater. Strange.

Well, I wasn't going to post but back in the 1970s, our community theater did Guys and Dolls. That's not a hard show to cast, and we had some very good local singer/actors, except for Adelaide. As it turned out one of our local auditionees was a retired Equity performer who had understudied Vivian Blaine on Broadway. She was just as brilliant as Faith Prince was when I saw her on Broadway twenty years later. Our Adelaide had decided to leave the business and married a very successful professional engineer who had taken a local job for a major company.

I had five times more to post but won't because the board appears to be majorly fucked up tonight and my comment almost appeared in another thread. I will add that when I finally decided to get the Hell out of North Carolina and move to Manhattan with everything I could carry with a suitcase on a bus (call me Ruth Sherwood!), a decision I have NEVER regretted, all my friends said "You're moving to New York because you want to be a star." My reply:

"If I wanted to be a star, I'd stay in Winston-Salem."

Those summer theaters were also under the rules and guidelines of Equity and thus not community theaters. But I'm too tired to explain the difference between summer stock theater and regional theater.

I’ve worked with Equity actors in non-union shows. They used fake names and didn’t mention any of their professional shows in their bios for the program. One lady had two sets of headshots. Her regular one for her equity shows and then another with a wig with her fake name on it for the non equity shows. It can be done but, if you get caught, you can get kicked out of equity. The ones I worked with were so nice and such a joy to be around that they never got turned in by anyone.

R436, Oh, snap. You showed them.

Some high school productions are a step below Broadway when it comes to talent. Everyone wants to be in show biz these days. Those dance shows now are insanely filled with talent. And the trend is to write shows geared toward tween audiences.

Well, yes, r439, but they're still living in Winston-Salem and for the past 25 years I've been living in a a rent-stabilized doorman building apartment in lower Chelsea, which we used to call The Village Heights. But I'm interpreting your comment as a sarcastic put-down but maybe I'm wrong. It's often so difficult to interpret tone online. But i couldn't be happier or more pleased with the decisions I made as a young man. Everyone i knew at the time thought that my decisions were irrational.

[quote]So a friend of mine, who is 44 years old with no professional acting experience and no training is talking seriously about moving to NYC to be an actor. He has done a few local theater (non paying, non union) gigs and apart from high school, thats the extent of his experience. He thinks he is being realistic when he says he is willing to start "small" like with understudying on Broadway and a few SVU episodes. I don't want to be a downer but I know he reads the DL threads avidly, so if anyone can give him a reality check, that would be a nice

What is his name? And where is he moving from? I know someone in DC who I suspect is in the process of doing this!

Guess he didn't learn the lesson of another mutual friend who left a few years ago and has been a bartender ever since. I don't think he even auditions anymore.

To answer someone upstream: I don't believe there is a bootleg of the new Oklahoma. Given how visible the audience is to the actors and to each other, it is doubtful that one will be made.

Sounds like you made the right choice r441. And you are the envy of NY with your Chelsea rent stabalized apartment.

You sound like a very nice man btw

There are, of course, different types of community theatre. But my go-to image is of just plain folks (and maybe 2-3 people who think they have the goods, with one at best fitting the bill) moonlighting in either one of two productions: (a) it just closed on Broadway or (b) they dug THAT up?

Jesus fucking CHRIST this community theatre discussion is going to run the theatre threads into the ground.

Anyway... does Fairview live up to the hype? Do we think there's ANY chance of a transfer this upcoming season? I'd love to see it, but I won't make it back to NY during it's limited return engagement.

That must have been the Carousel Theatre which was a professional summer theatre and not community theatre.

Concerning summer stock (at least in Massachusetts):

I assumed Merman did not consider her week in Framingham, MA community theaters.

Gary closed today and All My Sons and Kiss Me, Kate are set to close at the end of the month. Do we foresee any surprise closures for next Sunday?

surprised GARY didn't do better with Nathan Lane in it. He is one of the few names that people will go to see in anything.

[quote] And you are the envy of NY with your Chelsea rent stabalized apartment.

Hardly, r444. I'm old now. But at least I'm not old among the Trumpites and fundie Christians where I grew up. And most of my friends from the 1980s and early 1990s didn't survive the plague so I am pretty alone now.

Thank you.

R450, if you had seen Gary then it would be clear.

[quote]surprised GARY didn't do better with Nathan Lane in it. He is one of the few names that people will go to see in anything.

Apparently "anything" didn't extend to the POS that was "Gary."

In terms of Jeffrey Seller and taste.

I think Hamilton is a blip between last ship and Cher show

Gary was a risk. I went because of Nathan and Kristen who were superb. Julie White annoyed the shit out of me. The play was weird odd and I enjoyed its bizarreness.

R447, Framingham also had the Chateau de Ville in the 1970s.

[quote]Jesus fucking CHRIST this community theatre discussion is going to run the theatre threads into the ground.

Personally I'll take a serious discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of community theatre over multiple hissy fits over who was in the original cast recording of "Hello Dolly!" any day. But you do you.

Like it or not, community theatre is an important component of American theatre.

[quote]I cannot see Faye at all.

Me either.

It upset me that the miscast, badly directed, and idiotically rewritten KISS ME, KATE got mostly very good reviews, but I'm glad at least that the run wasn't extended.

When was there a history fit over who was in the original cast of Hello Dolly? Sounds like fun!

I don’t see the point of King Kong, Be More Chill or Beetlejuice losing more money every week. I think they are the next to go. People keep talking about how the tourists in the summer will boost grosses. I say uh uh.

THIS will always be the first word (and the last) for many of us when it comes to community "theatre."

Arguments over the OBCR cast of Dolly? Who, when, where? Not here that I know of. Please "'Splain, Lucy."

I’m ok with the OBC of Hello Dolly but that Beanie Feldstein mess really poses me off in the revival. I would have loved to have her replacement instead. A fat, spastic Minnie Faye, indeed.

Any word on casting for the Broadway production of The Inheritance? Is Redgrave making the trek?

R465 Vanessa better come, or else why bother????

The “Inheritance” playwright hates casting gay men in gay roles. He’s nutty. Or just self-loathing.

R467 Really? He comes from a theatrical family, his aunty is Priscilla FFS

In theatre I have occasionally encountered both gay and straight writers and directors who seem weirdly opposed to casting gay men in gay roles. All male, of course. I still remember being lectured years ago by a straight director who felt his all-straight cast kept his production of NORMAL HEART (I shit you not) "urgent" and "fresh." (Regional theatre, BTW.)

I have never encountered female playwrights or directors who were as dogmatic about this, or even seemed to feel strongly. Perhaps these women have a clearer understanding of what ACTING is. And/or they don't care who or what their actors sleep with.

So how is "Camp Morning Wood" anyway? It's a new musical.

My Daddy told me that when he was in the military that most guys woke up with hard ons. That that's what most healthy young men do and they were actually told/instructed just to accept and ignore it and that's what they did.

Seems like an odd idea for a musical. Except for today, maybe. I guess we're all perverts now, fetishizing a normal human condition.

I wish some of you insisting on the fantastic superiority of "community theaters" would actually NAME some of these magical institutions of dramatic art. Or, even explain what your definition of "community theater" is.

Community theaters, by definition, come from the idea of the "Little Theater" movement of the early 20th century that encouraged amateurs in to create their own theaters and produce shows WITH local community members FOR the community. Which means, amateurs doing it for "fun" with the bigger community theaters probably having a small paid staff but the smaller ones being ALL volunteer. If you live in Small Town USA, or Suburbia USA, or really most theater in a city smaller than 300,000 people, it's probably community theater, though there are professional regional theaters in some smaller cities, but usually it's a towns with prestigious colleges.

I've been going to the theater at all levels for 40 years and I've never seen a "community" theater produce anything at a full Equity level of quality. I've been very much entertained by a community theater show, but to suggest there are hundreds of brilliant community theater productions out there, which some idiots on here are doing, is ludicrous. And, if you want to keep harping on it, then start listing the names of these first class community theaters. I wanna see names.

Kristen Chenowith is such a scene fug stealer, she cant even sit there like a good guest and let Rannells speak....what a lush.

What shows will put up surprise closing notices tomorrow?

Did All My Sons close early?

It's not what you said, r421. It's the way you chose to say it.

You know, when I lived in Brooklyn in the 80s I once flushed a pleco down the toilet for getting too fat.

R473

It is Kristin and why are you talking about that old clip?

[quote]Damn, if you read these threads and think there is any kind of equivalency between Broadway, The Guthrie and The Goodman you are a just a fucking rube .

You're saying the Goodman and the Guthrie are better than Broadway, right?

I had no idea Ruby Keeler was so well-versed in community theater!

[quote]r472 I wish some of you insisting on the fantastic superiority of "community theaters" would actually NAME some of these magical institutions of dramatic art.

They're like little, out of the way restaurants or overseas hotels we don't want to see overrun.

So no, we won't tell you.

What I said before

Please don't tell me Matthew Lopez thinks John Benjamin Hickey is straight?!?

[quote] You're saying the Goodman and the Guthrie are better than Broadway, right?

Actually, the Guthrie and the Goodman are often as good, if not better, than Broadway. They usually have classics that are rarely if ever done on Broadway. Broadway directors frequently direct at both theaters. They have both had productions that have transferred to Broadway. It can be hit and miss, but when they are good, they are very, very, good.

Does anyone still go to Broadway? All the real action is at St Anns, BAM and the off-Bway institutional theaters.

R485, unfortunately, I have to agree with you.

I lived in NYC for 20 years, and went to the theater at least once a week.

I saw maybe one Broadway show a year, at most.

What fortunate twink is Aaron Tveit currently fucking?

[quote]What fortunate twink is Aaron Tveit currently fucking?

Yeah. This.

[quote] Has anyone yet musicalized AUGUST OSAGE COUNTY? All those good roles for women, and that great all-American setting.

Might as well musicalize Momma's Family because that's what August Osage County basically was.

[quote] Personally I'll take a serious discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of community theatre over multiple hissy fits over who was in the original cast recording of "Hello Dolly!" any day.

Community theatre is a bore

[quote] Julie White annoyed the shit out of me.

Julie White plays the exact same character no matter what play she's in--shrieking constantly isn't fun for anyone

Mary Martin never had to play summer stock.

Remember that Roseanne episode where Jackie starts to do community theater and tries to make a career out of it?

Where does dinner theater fall on the Broadway-Off Broadway-Regional-Community theater spectrum?

I saw The Inheritance in London and although Vanessa Redgrave was quite moving her accent was all over the place. I’d prefer someone like Margo Martindale in the role.

[quote]I saw The Inheritance in London

Is it wonderful?

Redgrave's American accent has deteriorated over the decades. It was passable in the film Isadora (1968), but, laughable in, for example, Two Mothers for Zachary (1996), where she played Valerie Bertinelli's mother.

I wish people would realize that most British actors are really not that good at American accents; it's just that Americans are more receptive of their attempts and say "good enough" and let it be. This explains why there are so many Brits (and Aussies, too) mangling the American accent on shows/movies. When it's the other way around, Brits don't give Americans a pass. At all.

[quote] You know, when I lived in Brooklyn in the 80s I once flushed a pleco down the toilet for getting too fat.

And yet, despite having destroyed a creature who was superior in intelligence, better informed, and certainly more beautiful than yourself, you found no relief.

Redgrave was very frail when I saw The Inheritance in London. Agreed Martindale would be wonderful.

Lucas Hedges and Timothee Chalamet get name checked in the play - it would be interesting if one of them played Adam. The guy in London had an amazing body but his understudy was a very skinny. Kyle Soller and John Benjamin Hickey were perfection.

is Hickey doing the role in NY? asking for a friend.

[quote] Where does dinner theater fall on the Broadway-Off Broadway-Regional-Community theater spectrum?

I'd define professional theatre as any theatre that operates under an agreement with Actors Equity Association, abides by their charter and employes a majority of union actors. If they serve fish sticks, fine, just so long as it is unioin

This is MUCH BETTER than Broadway. No PC lecturing, no $300.00 tickets. Just great entertainment and performers who care.

Hillary & Clinton is closing early.

r504 No Matt Keeslar?

Surely the ancient Greek amphitheaters were non- union. They would have embraced [italic]Red, White and Blaine!

I attended a screening of CITIZEN KANE in my (small,Southern) home town earlier this year. In the audience was a lady who casually mentioned she had known Welles. Tuned out she had been a professional, working NY actress in the 60s and 70s and moved there when her husband retired. Apparently studied with well known teachers, had television and film credits. The friend I was with said she did occasionally act in local productions (none of which are regional or Equity) and she was very good.

So it happens,

There are all levels of quality of regional theater but in order to qualify as such they must be a member of LORT (League of Resident Theaters).

How much they pay their artists is decreed by LORT by the number of seats in their theaters, though they are ALL by rule, non-profit organizations. In NY, The Roundabout, The Public and Manhattan Theater Club, among others, are all considered LORT theaters, even though they have dispensations to produce on Broadway..

R501 Redgrave was very frail the night I saw her in the play, too. I was very moved by her performance and also the care with which John Benjamin Hickey attended to her during the curtain calls.

I haven't seen his name mentioned much in discussions of the play, but I hope Paul Hilton gets a chance to recreate his role on Broadway.

I think community theaters are just mostly inconsistent. Most have boards and, in these small towns, they can get drunk with power and think they have a higher purpose than they really do. I'm friends with someone who was on the board for a theater that mostly did the worst shit imaginable. They'd cast actors who could barely even string two words together, let alone find a character, but they'd get cast all the time because they were the only ones who'd show up. This was in the Bible Belt and they had a long list of shows they couldn't do for mostly undisclosed reasons. Even if there was no explicit language in a show, they couldn't do some of them because of the themes or because a character was an unwed mother or someone was thought to have been gay. This wasn't a town law or anything, they were just sticks in the mud. It was insanity.

Ultimately, she directed a few shows for them and they were absolutely brilliant. She ended up mostly stacking the casts with people she knew who could actually act so she wouldn't have to depend on that theater's usual small "talent" pool. By the 3rd or 4th night of performances, word had travelled and they were playing to packed houses of people who'd usually never step foot inside that place.

Of course, these idiots didn't know what a good thing they had going for them and kicked her off the board, because they apparently got some complaints about some of the content in one of the plays she directed (which was bullshit and was made up by the head of the board). This is where a lot of community theaters shoot themselves in the foot.

Hyacinth Bucket also loves to star in community theatre! You all know how much her neighbor Emmet loves that!

I think theater, in essence, depends upon charismatic performers connecting with an audience. If there are performers like that in a community theater, then it will be an enjoyable evening. If there aren’t performers like that, nothing will save it.

I grew up on the California coast with 5 or 6 community theaters in our county. Many of the directors and actors had passed through Hollywood or Manhattan at some point. They weren’t stars, but they’d been in professional productions at one point, or trained for the theater.

I remember when I saw my first BWay production at age 20, I was like, “That’s it??” I had expected it to be HUGELY different, and it wasn’t.

Broadway-caliber community theater:

[quote] Hillary & Clinton is closing early.

Scott Rudin is having quite the year.

Mercifully, we're almost at the end of this thread, but I have to say that I still cringe every time I see the title.

Re: the thread title:

It's Tveit, have a little Tveit, Is he any good? Sir, he's too good, that's safe, Though I 've heard he does commit sins of the flesh So he might be treif.

You know what blows my mind? Rudin had eight productions this season, counting Boys in the Band and Book of Mormon.

[quote]R516 Mercifully, we're almost at the end of this thread, but I have to say that I still cringe every time I see the title.

Why don’t you start thread #361, and show everyone how it’s done?

There do seem to be two tiers of community theater. There are the ones with experienced, well-trained actors and directors, and the ones that just give parts to somebodies cousin. Some do first productions and some do Legally Blonde. Some mount a Beckett Festival and others do karaoke night.

For New Yorkers, think about off-off-Broadway. It is like that. You might see something mind-blowing and exciting....or you might see something awful.

R516, the title is a play on the very popular song that came out when the film of Moulin Rouge did.

"Disagree? Well, that's you, and I'm sorry I'ma keep playing these cats out like Atari Wear high heel shoes, get love from the dudes Four badass chicks from the Moulin Rouge"

I think it's sad that you have nothing to contribute to this thread but the fact that you don't like the thread title.

Good one, r521 (except for the "Tviet" when you meant "Tveit," of course).

I am curious about the running costs of musicals. Does anyone know the breakdowns? I debated this with a friend who said Wicked breaks even at 1 million and Lion King is more. Is that really possible?

Aw, r521 is sad. I sowwy, r521.

Bummed Hillary and Clinton is closing early. I saw it last month (Sara Gilbert, Amy Poehler, and Rachel Dratch were in the audience as well), and liked it very much.

Laurie Metcalf was superb. I never get tired of watching her.

Tveit is fucking nothing and no one. He's as asexual as it gets.

And you know this, r526, because he wouldn't let you stick your dick in his mouth? His ass? His dick, your ass?

Summer Stock!

Is it true that Cheyenne Jackson’s “All Shook Up” dressing room was a veritable whorehouse of cocksucking and anal sex?

Half right.

Granted I was comped, but I quite enjoyed All Shook Up.

R510 Hilton was amazing - during his monologue in part one it felt like the audience was collectively holding its breath.

One thing I would like to see reworked is the characterisation of Henry's sons. Too broad and crass for men who Walter was supposed to have raised

That was a great video of the Flesh Failures. The singing and orchestration were all wonderful. I think Hair, though, is a tricky one to pull off well, so, even though the score might have been sung beautifully -- and it sounds like it would have been -- who's to say the entire production rose to that level.

R511, Did the board members who kicked your friend off get any resistance from other board members?

It sounds as though the good business they were doing with her shows would have made at least some of them want to keep her on.

I know there are always people--especially on boards--who are doctrinaire about everything and have no sense of reality. They might even have resented the attention she was getting. But didn't some others fight to defend her?

How would you all define Astoria Performing Arts Center in Queens or Gallery Players in Brooklyn?

Is it a community theatre? Regional? Genuinely curious how these definitions work, a few years ago APAC was doing really strong work but it's kind of went down the shitter.

Within roughly a year, I saw Maggie Smith in Private Lives and the Guthrie production with Patricia Conolly. The latter production would not have been out of place on Broadway. I believe that season, Conolly was also Blanche in their Streetcar.

R526, You'd never find Aaron Tveit performing in community theatre.

That comment about Matthew Lopez preferring straight actors in his superb play is total horseshit. In fact he likes GOOD actors which he had in abundance in London and if Andrew Burnap doesn’t also get to do Broadway, then there is no God. And when it wins the Tony next June, Sonia Friedman will have had three Tony winning plays in a row.

R534, the two evil board members at the top mostly stack the board with yes men and women who are going to go along with them. One of them knows absolutely nothing about theatre and never acts, directs, or even produces shows. It's disgusting.

R532 I still smile when I remember how Hilton delivered a few of his throwaway quips.

Interesting point about the sons, which makes sense.

Boards on community theaters and small regional theaters are a real problem. There is a new model that dispenses with them all together. The problem is that one has to have a board to be tax exempt. There are a few organizations that allow smaller performing arts groups to have tax exemption under their umbrella without having a board.

I do mostly heard complains about boards from those who are on them or know people who are. Especially in the south. You might have half the board who wants to do something edgy and the other half are elderly fuddie duds who are scared of losing their equally elderly and conservative subscription patrons so they end up doing Annie or Steel Magnolias again.

R543, the problem with boards is that the generally get stacked with business people who see everything in dollars and cents. They tend to be conservative, as in not "risk takers". Often in small communities, there is also a, "what's in it for me?" attitude. Everything comes down to how will it help my business.

Someone asks about blowjobs in dressing rooms but Datalounge would still prefer to discuss the ins and outs of community goddamned theater.

I’ve been on my knees more times in dressing rooms than nuns have at St. fuckin Patrick’s on Easter Sunday!

I don’t know what that theater group in Astoria is considered, but I saw a great production of Allegro there a few years ago. It was leagues better than John Doyle’s condensed version at CSC.

[quote]r545 Someone asks about blowjobs in dressing rooms, but Datalounge would still prefer to discuss the ins and outs of community goddamned theater.

It must be said we DID have a fab[bold] "Let's pretend we're a community theater production!" [/bold] thread a year ago:

Speaking of prejudice against casting gay actors as gay characters, I saw this clip recently. I'm so glad that Graham looks at the pair with a "What are you twits wittering on about?" expression. (Skip to about 5:08.)

Did someone say blowjobs?

Brooks wouldn't know a blow job if it slapped him in the face.

wicked breaks even at $750k, thanks to large amounts spent on advertising (outdoor, commercials, etc)- the massive billboard on 44th costs a ton

Let's not forget high school productions.

Without community theatre, we wouldn't have fabulous productions like that Peter Pan where the set falls down when Peter flies in the window.

Link, r556.....

It's the magic of theater!

What's the latest with the Anastasia actor?

Does anyone remember that video on YouTube of Dreamgirls where Effie was sung in head voice? I assume the actress was white but the vid was shot with a potato so it might have been a mixed performer. It looked like a community theatre production.

More memorable moments from "Peter Pan."

[quote]r438 I’ve worked with Equity actors in non-union shows. They used fake names and didn’t mention any of their professional shows in their bios for the program.

Buck would never have done community theeater.

"Does anyone remember that video on YouTube of Dreamgirls where Effie was sung in head voice?"

This isn't it,but it is truly awful. It makes Miss Lake Dardanelle not sound so bad.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford are taking Sunday In the Park to the West End. I wish I'd had a chance to see the brief Broadway production. How was it? This was the first casting of this show that made me feel like I could leave behind the incredible memories of Bernadette and Mandy.

They were wonderful, r564.

Does Annaleigh Ashford put on an accent in SITPWG?

The SITPWG made you realize just how young Dot and George were. Thee set was a little limited, but it was one of the most balanced productions I have seen of the show.

Why would anyone need an accent in SITPWG? Can you imaging having to sing those lyrics with a French accent?

Why would anyone need an accent in Women on the Verge?

It's not unusual for actors to use an accent for dialogue and ease up on the accent while singing (e.g. switching up vowels sounds to best serve their singing).

Speaking of Sunday, one of my favorite moments from Sondheim's 80th birthday concert. Can't believe that was nearly 10 years ago now.

Yes, Hickey is doing the Broadway production of "The Inheritance".

And I think it's a certainty that the 3 young male leads, who all happen to be American, will also star in The Inheritance on Broadway: Andrew Burnap, Samuel Levine and Kyle Soller (he lives in London because he's married to an Englishwoman).

All three were sensational and it will be interesting to see who will be considered Lead and who Featured.

FYI Hickey would definitely be considered Featured as would Paul Hilton or whoever plays his role here.

I do hope Vanessa makes it over. She only appears in the last 45 minutes of Part 2 but her presence packs a wallop few actresses could accomplish. Margo Martindale actually is better casting for the role but Redgrave has an incomparable gravitas just by being Vanessa Redgrave.

[quote]Margo Martindale actually is better casting for the role but Redgrave has an incomparable gravitas just by being Vanessa fucking Redgrave.

Fixed that for you.

Where's the blowhard that complains American actors get no chances in the UK, while Brits "steal " Broadway jobs?

Why is “ our town”in a festival about plays of gay life written after “Stonewall”

Thorton may have been gay but its inclusion seems odd

Pride indeed

Thornton was the gay one--his twin Thorton was a real pussyhound.

r561 wins

[quote] Buck would never have done community theeater.

Too bad All Shook Up didn’t run longer. The chorus boys must have been crushed. Matinee days between shows must have been a blast. There was even time for a nap and a snack.

oops 562 wins

[quote] Buck would never have done community theeater.

hilarious.

Another very critical "Critics' Pick" in the New York Times (this time for A Strange Loop) following last week's mediocre "Critics' Pick" for Much Ado in the Park. I'll leave it to DL to find the common denominator. Everyone gets a trophy indeed.

[quote]I'll leave it to DL to find the common denominator. Everyone gets a trophy indeed.

Racist showtune queen wants to now why the schvartzes get so much attention in the NY theater. Datalounge at its finest, ladies and gentlemen.

Ew. You're gross, R581 / racist great uncle at the Thanksgiving table.

R581 Oh please, that show sounds so fucking tiresome, just reading about it makes me lie down

[quote]I wish people would realize that most British actors are really not that good at American accents; it's just that Americans are more receptive of their attempts and say "good enough" and let it be.

This.

Indeed.

Oh 581 - hold on to your hats !! The “Our Town” in the pride plays is all trans!!

The latest in non-Binary finery

sounds interesting. i'd go!

.6 of the US population is trans but the theatre community would have you think it were some substantial minority.

The media in general would have us believe trans are a substantial minority.

But yes, contemporary theatre is checking the boxes lately: why create G&L characters at all when you can make them trans and look really au courant?

[quote] I don’t know what that theater group in Astoria is considered, but I saw a great production of Allegro there a few years ago. It was leagues better than John Doyle’s condensed version at CSC.

Yes, it was excellent; so was their Human Comedy, but the last two things I saw there were awful. I think the AD left.

[quote] Why is “ our town”in a festival about plays of gay life written after “Stonewall”

If you're talking about the Urie/Rattlestick thing I was very surprised at how few shows/authors I actually had heard of. Who are these people?

I hope the person that bitched repeatedly about this thread title does a good job on 361.

I challenged them to "show us how it's done" about a hundred posts ago. Not a peep yet.

New Thread:

[quote]r571 Speaking of Sunday, one of my favorite moments from Sondheim's 80th birthday concert. Can't believe that was nearly 10 years ago now.

dear god, I never need to hear that old ham Mandy Patinkin perform again ... but this from 1993 is quite beautiful.

WEll, bless my soul, Peter Gennaro choreographed Bajour

FTW!

I’ve never understood the affinity for Move On as a song. Sunday is much more thrilling. It made me weep the first time I saw it live!

R553, you must be new here. Blowjobs are the one consistent thing Brooks IS known for.

R598, Really? The "slap him in the face" wasn't I clue that I was not serious?

So subtle as to be imperceptible