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THEATRE GOSSIP #365: "Moon Over Broadway Dicks" Edition

As the last one wound down, we were back to Lucy's Mame, Colin's cock, Kate Miller's dead career, and Angie's high kicks.

Continue.

by Anonymousreply 600August 23, 2019 9:18 PM

A picture link wouldn't have gone astray, OP.

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by Anonymousreply 1August 8, 2019 12:29 PM

That picture link would have, R1.

by Anonymousreply 2August 8, 2019 1:06 PM

You mean Kate Miller's dead body, don't you?

by Anonymousreply 3August 8, 2019 2:18 PM

Not a trained dancer, but she moved well.

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by Anonymousreply 4August 8, 2019 3:16 PM

Did Broadway dim for Hal Prince?

by Anonymousreply 5August 8, 2019 3:17 PM

Link to Previous Thread

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by Anonymousreply 6August 8, 2019 3:17 PM

I can't imagine what it must have been like to go on for Lansbury in such a mammoth role like Rose. No wonder she doesn't remember anything about it. She's probably still in shock. I really don't know how understudies or standbys do it.

by Anonymousreply 7August 8, 2019 3:37 PM

[quote]Not a trained dancer, but she moved well.

I'm pretty sure that Lucy was a "trained dancer" in the sense that she must have had some dance training -- and probably a considerable amount of it, if not as much as a Gwen Verdon.

by Anonymousreply 8August 8, 2019 3:51 PM

No, she really didn't, r8.

by Anonymousreply 9August 8, 2019 4:25 PM

How has Manhattan Plaza kept its Legionnaire's Disease outbreak a secret? It's been weeks now and not a peep from residents or news media?

by Anonymousreply 10August 8, 2019 4:26 PM

Just a comment early on: if this thread slows way down about halfway through, it's because TPTB lock the thread for only paying members aka subscribers. That's why the posts get less witty. Because all of the smart people realize that they shouldn't have to pay to generate the quality content they create (ie, this site generates hits because of a few witty people).

Intermission over, please return to your seats for Act 2!

by Anonymousreply 11August 8, 2019 4:32 PM

Brevity is the soul of wit, PrinCESS....

by Anonymousreply 12August 8, 2019 5:12 PM

[quote]Brevity is the soul of wit, PrinCESS....

Don't mess with me, commoner. My father was a Nazi and my mother was a hairdresser.

by Anonymousreply 13August 8, 2019 5:44 PM

Yes, the last two threads have been locked at some point. 363 was locked about halfway in and took for fucking ever to limp to the finish line. Thankfully it didn't happen with 364 until there were maybe 20 slots left.

by Anonymousreply 14August 8, 2019 5:47 PM

Something tells me threads aren't being locked on just Muriel's whim. I think the more site users kick up a fuss - greying out the OP is one such tactic, I assume - the more threads get locked. If that is the case, it's bizarre. Theatre Gossip threads are a mainstay of this site.

by Anonymousreply 15August 8, 2019 6:14 PM

[quote]Theatre Gossip threads are a mainstay of this site.

They are being locked because they are popular. TPTB have to give something to the paying customers, so they lock popular threads to all but payers.

by Anonymousreply 16August 8, 2019 6:17 PM

[Quote] TPTB have to give something to the paying customers

That makes little sense if the threads then slow to a crawl.

by Anonymousreply 17August 8, 2019 6:20 PM

[Quote] They are being locked because they are popular.

The Julian Morris thread was locked and they're not popular. He's on Part 5/6 after several years.

by Anonymousreply 18August 8, 2019 6:21 PM

Regarding Lucille's dancing ability: The social dances of that era required actual steps and moves. If one had a natural grace and aptitude, one could pass as a "dancer". Joan was known for her Charleston and Jazz Baby dancing, but she was no threat to Miss Anna Pavlova. Ruby Stevens was a chorus girl who was adept at the Broadway/Vaudeville choreography of the day, but I doubt Barbara ever did a ballet warm-up at the barre. Given she was a Ziegfeld chorus girl, she should have married Ben Stone instead of Robert Taylor! Can you imagine her Lucy/Jessie?

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by Anonymousreply 19August 8, 2019 6:33 PM

[quote]r14 Thankfully it didn't happen with 364 until there were maybe 20 slots left.

i thought this said [bold]sluts

by Anonymousreply 20August 8, 2019 6:39 PM

Any of our London DLers seen the Nicholas Hytner Midsummer Night's Dream at the Bridge Theatre? If so, report back. I was sure I never needed to see another production of Dream (see also: Much Ado and Twelfth Night), but this one sounds pretty fab.

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by Anonymousreply 21August 8, 2019 7:19 PM

Is r1 a picture of Lucy in her coffin?

by Anonymousreply 22August 8, 2019 7:44 PM

Lord, it's still so....so.....

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by Anonymousreply 23August 8, 2019 7:47 PM

Any word on casting for The Inheritance? Is Vanessa doing it in NY?

by Anonymousreply 24August 8, 2019 8:33 PM

Thank God for Bea Arthur, Jane Connell and Robert Preston in that abortion of a movie. I do sometimes wonder if Angie could have saved it, but I have my doubts. The direction by Gene Saks is so limp, and Paul Zindel's script is in no way an improvement on the stage version. And as for Kirby Furlong, yuck!

by Anonymousreply 25August 8, 2019 9:00 PM

All the Moon Over Broadway talk made me want to re-watch it. Tom Moore and Ludwig are cringe-worthy and I'm only on the first clip! The play is so corny yet Moore and Ludwig think it's high art and are so condescending to Carol ('it's television'). When Tom Moore says they need to beef her up - did he mean make her role larger or beef up her performance. The fist time I watched it I thought the former, now I think it was the latter. What crust!

(I don't want to continue the Mame discussion (basta) but when I saw it on TV as a young gayling, Ball's age didn't matter - Mame was supposed to be an old broad - Lucille was an old broad! Like the movie - hate the musical numbers except the title song and bosom buddy.)

by Anonymousreply 26August 8, 2019 9:23 PM

[quote]The direction by Gene Saks is so limp

If Angie had done it, it would’ve been on schedule and filmed in 1972, and George Cukor would have done it. He had to quit because of Lucy’s delay.

by Anonymousreply 27August 8, 2019 9:30 PM

Lucy danced plenty well enough for that shitty Onna White choreography. Pavlova was not required.

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by Anonymousreply 28August 8, 2019 9:54 PM

Angie's high kicks were effortless....

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by Anonymousreply 29August 8, 2019 10:00 PM

Ow

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by Anonymousreply 30August 8, 2019 10:03 PM

Sure, everything looked effortless when she opened the show in the sixties at the age of 40. But nothing was effortless when she revived it in 1983.

by Anonymousreply 31August 8, 2019 10:19 PM

Jason Moore: worst director in New York?

by Anonymousreply 32August 8, 2019 10:42 PM

No, R32. We are!

by Anonymousreply 33August 8, 2019 10:55 PM

Particularly the book, r31. Lansbury really was what originally made it a hit. Nobody expected her (based on her film work) to dazzle with her singing and dancing. It really wouldn't have run as long had Nanette opened it. Angela wasn't just good, she was surprisingly good.

by Anonymousreply 34August 8, 2019 11:04 PM

Would it have run with Dolores?

by Anonymousreply 35August 8, 2019 11:05 PM

I wonder.

by Anonymousreply 36August 8, 2019 11:07 PM

Of course, who the hell would they have gotten for Dolores' Vera? Angela just had a natural ebullience that Dolores didn't.

by Anonymousreply 37August 8, 2019 11:10 PM

Helen Gallagher.

by Anonymousreply 38August 8, 2019 11:22 PM

Helen Lawson

by Anonymousreply 39August 8, 2019 11:55 PM

Helen Gallagher actually went into the Broadway company as a replacement Gooch. I don’t know why they didn’t see her as a Vera, which seems like a natural fit for her.

by Anonymousreply 40August 9, 2019 12:07 AM

In addition to Gooch, IBDB also lists Gallagher as a Vera replacement. Other Veras: Anne Francine and Audrey Christie.

by Anonymousreply 41August 9, 2019 12:27 AM

Ken Ludwig just sounds/seems insufferable. And, all based off the success of ONE show, "Lend Me A Tenor"....none of his other stuff really matched it.

It takes a lot of gall to think you're better than an idolized comedic institution like Carol Burnett.

by Anonymousreply 42August 9, 2019 1:22 AM

I actually saw Mary Louise Wilson as Rose. It was in LA and since there was such demand for matinees, she did two Thursday matinees. Lansbury's performance wasn't yet so legendary so stepping in wasn't a big deal. Wilson was okay but Lansbury did such a great take on the character that Wilson's reverting to a monster Rose was a bit jarring. Zan Charisse was Louise was the worst Gypsy I've ever seen. No wonder her career never went anywhere. Rex Robbins was nothing much either but Bonnie Langford was already a megastar at what, 10? You just knew she had it.

by Anonymousreply 43August 9, 2019 1:37 AM

Of course, at some point Zan Charisse was replaced by her sister, Nana Visitor.

by Anonymousreply 44August 9, 2019 1:43 AM

It’s kind of amazing that Langford’s performance was considered so important that AEA allowed her to come over and do that long tour and the Broadway run.

by Anonymousreply 45August 9, 2019 1:47 AM

Zan Charisse did the entire tour and run, r44. Nana Visitor didn’t replace her.

by Anonymousreply 46August 9, 2019 1:49 AM

Lansbury did GYPSY for years. Nana played opposite her as Louise.

by Anonymousreply 47August 9, 2019 1:58 AM

[quote]r43 Bonnie Langford was already a megastar at what, 10? You just knew she had it.

Never heard of her. But here's her take on it:

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by Anonymousreply 48August 9, 2019 1:58 AM

Bonnie Langford has never been a megastar. She's never even headlined a hit.

by Anonymousreply 49August 9, 2019 2:01 AM

[quote]Any word on casting for The Inheritance?

My friend's son auditioned for a role just a few weeks ago. I have to ask her if he's heard anything back from them or not. He's a sweet kid, so I have my fingers crossed for him.

On a separate note, I wonder if "The Inheritance" will be eligible for the Pulitzer. One of the rules for the drama prize is that a work be "preferably original" in its source and "Inheritance" was "inspired" by E. M. Forster's novel "Howard's End," so don't know if that would take it out of the running or not.

by Anonymousreply 50August 9, 2019 2:01 AM

Bonnie Langford started as Dorothy Brock in the closing cast of the huge hit London revival of 42nd Street, opposite DL fave Ashley Day.

by Anonymousreply 51August 9, 2019 2:03 AM

* Starred, not started

by Anonymousreply 52August 9, 2019 2:04 AM

The only one who headlined that production of 42nd Street was Lulu. I didn't see Sheena Easton or Bonnie Langford's name above the title.

by Anonymousreply 53August 9, 2019 2:06 AM

What years were those, r47?

by Anonymousreply 54August 9, 2019 2:09 AM

[quote]Lansbury did GYPSY for years. Nana played opposite her as Louise.

Visitor did not replace Charisse, who did the entire tour and Broadway run, as well as the Music Fair Circuit touring production in the summer of ‘75, with Lansbury, Robbins, and Charisse the three remaining members of the Broadway cast. That was Lansbury's farewell to the role.

by Anonymousreply 55August 9, 2019 2:11 AM

Nah. Lansbury returned to the role a number of times.

Here's a Washington Post review, dated 21 June 1978. Nana is namechecked.

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by Anonymousreply 56August 9, 2019 2:18 AM

There's also an Out of Stock Amazon listing for a 1976 Fort Lauderdale playbill, with some of the following text:

[Quote] Product Description. This is a rare November 22nd, 1976 playbill from the Post-Broadway ... and featured GEORGE COE, NANA TUCKER, GLORIA ROSSI, MAUREEN MOORE, JOHN SHERIDAN, MARILYN COOPER, JOHN C. BECHER

by Anonymousreply 57August 9, 2019 2:21 AM

[quote]Ken Ludwig just sounds/seems insufferable. And, all based off the success of ONE show, "Lend Me A Tenor"....none of his other stuff really matched it.

And even that one hit is a piece of crap script that was made to seem funny by the brilliance of the original cast and director. Now the play is unrevivable, thank Christ, if only because of the black face element.

by Anonymousreply 58August 9, 2019 2:23 AM

Ovrtur listing. Lansbury's daughter played Electra.

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by Anonymousreply 59August 9, 2019 2:27 AM

Rex Robbins was nude in "The Changing Room"; his bio for "Gypsy" even said that he had been in it, so he had recently taken up stripping. That show won John Lithgow a Tony (I believe the first time someone won for a role where someone was nude for part of the performance). Among others in the cast were Richard Masur and John Tillinger, who later became a director, as well as George Hearn. Any photos from back then, or recollections of how these guys looked nude and if anyone in particular stood out sans chemise?

by Anonymousreply 60August 9, 2019 2:47 AM

Re: GYPSY, I love hearing Laura Benati share how she ended up with her interpretation of the cow moos.

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by Anonymousreply 61August 9, 2019 2:54 AM

Here's a pic from THE CHANGING ROOM with Lithgow and Masur.

Not finding anything naked online, which may be a blessing.

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by Anonymousreply 62August 9, 2019 4:56 AM

Jakey G and his, um, good friend, Tom Sturridge, opened on Bway...

And the Times approves.

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by Anonymousreply 63August 9, 2019 5:16 AM

R60, were all those actors nude in it? Sounds like it was an early “Take Me Out.” Surprising that it was that early, although I guess Hair opened the door and nudity on the NY stage flourished for about ten years or so.

by Anonymousreply 64August 9, 2019 5:26 AM

Thanks R50, let us know if you hear anything more about The Inheritance carting. It must be going into rehearsal soon.

To your question, just an example, but Ketti Frings won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1958 for her stage adaptation of Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel (starring the young Anthony Perkins). Don’t know if the rules have changed since then.

The Inheritance isn’t a retelling of Howard’s End so much as it just references it, though E.M. Forster is s character throughout. It has many original elements.

by Anonymousreply 65August 9, 2019 7:12 AM

I saw an early production of Lend Me a Tenor. It was set in the 19th century. I don't know if that was the original take or just a choice for that production. I thought the play was like one of those plays advertised at the back of a Samuel French script, e.g, Who Killed Santa Claus? The Broadway production really had Jerry Zaks to thank for its success. He did make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

by Anonymousreply 66August 9, 2019 11:00 AM

Did anyone see the musical version of "Lend Me a Tenor" in London?

by Anonymousreply 67August 9, 2019 1:45 PM

How did Seth Rudetsky become sort-of famous? He's very unattractive and annoying.

by Anonymousreply 68August 9, 2019 1:53 PM

I think he began as an accompanyist, which is a specific skill. Then he was in Broadway orchestras. He's very proficient when it comes to musical and vocal technique.

I think his videos are hysterically funny. (I believe he's also written a novel and some smaller shows, but he's not known for those.)

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by Anonymousreply 69August 9, 2019 2:07 PM

One of those "smaller shows" he wrote was the execrable "Disaster!"

by Anonymousreply 70August 9, 2019 2:16 PM

Rudetsky became 'sort-of famous' because he is a respected expert at what he does and he relentlessly self-promotes.

by Anonymousreply 71August 9, 2019 2:19 PM

I still chuckle at his husband and daughter.

by Anonymousreply 72August 9, 2019 2:22 PM

And they chuckle right back.

by Anonymousreply 73August 9, 2019 2:28 PM
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by Anonymousreply 74August 9, 2019 2:45 PM

Pulitzer Prize winners based on other works of literature: RENT, HAMILTON, DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, SOUTH PACIFIC. Just to name a few.

by Anonymousreply 75August 9, 2019 2:58 PM

Does Jonathan Cake show his buns in "Coriolanus"? He used to offer at least backal nudity in NY. I don't know if he ever has done full nudity on stage. Does anyone know?

by Anonymousreply 76August 9, 2019 3:38 PM

[quote]Pulitzer Prize winners based on other works of literature: RENT, HAMILTON, DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, SOUTH PACIFIC.

Was Rent "based on" La Boheme or just "inspired by" it?

by Anonymousreply 77August 9, 2019 3:52 PM

I get why you would find Seth annoying, but he's got an encyclopedic knowledge of musical theater, and he's funny.

by Anonymousreply 78August 9, 2019 4:45 PM

Oh yes, Seth's relentless five minutes of trying to make Juli a star in the charity video was the source of many good laughs in these threads.

by Anonymousreply 79August 9, 2019 4:49 PM

[Quote] And they chuckle right back.

For the same reasons?

by Anonymousreply 80August 9, 2019 7:12 PM

Cake does not flash his cakes in Corialanus, sadly.

by Anonymousreply 81August 9, 2019 8:16 PM
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by Anonymousreply 82August 9, 2019 8:18 PM

That's too bad, R81. I hear they're spectacular.

by Anonymousreply 83August 9, 2019 8:45 PM

I remember Cake from the Robert Mosley tv miniseries. His looks made more of an impression than his acting.

by Anonymousreply 84August 9, 2019 9:03 PM

My niece was playing the lead in the high school play and she went to NY to have Seth coach her. That's his exact term. He did a great job, watching, analyzing, encouraging and pushing. Seth showed up to the show.

by Anonymousreply 85August 9, 2019 9:33 PM

[quote]r71 Rudetsky became 'sort-of famous' because he is a respected expert at what he does and he relentlessly self-promotes.

[italic]And[/italic] Patti loves him ... so any detractors here are cordially invited to just FUCK right OFF!

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by Anonymousreply 86August 9, 2019 9:43 PM

Now I want someone to get in a tizzy over mlop.

by Anonymousreply 87August 9, 2019 9:49 PM

Is mlop still around? I never get to ATC anymore.

by Anonymousreply 88August 9, 2019 9:57 PM

[quote]r81 Cake does not flash his cakes

OT, but this suddenly made me think of John Costelloe, the SOPRANOS actor who shot himself in 2008. His character was called Johnny Cakes.

[bold]: ([/bold]

Such a strange thing about his death is he was appearing in a stage play at the time (GANG OF SEVEN). Stage actors are ingrained with the sense of "the show must go on." It's not like a movie or TV show where they can quickly recast, or delay shooting. It's not just etiquette, it's that your blood literally runs cold if you're late to the theater, let alone missing a performance! They're ensemble collaborations and to throw a wrench in the works is just a fundamental taboo.

I'm curious as to why he couldn't wait until the run was over - unless he knew he had a fantastic understudy.

It just doesn't make sense to me for an actor to kill themselves while appearing in a stage show. I don't think I've ever heard of it happening before. Maybe I'm naive...

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by Anonymousreply 89August 9, 2019 10:11 PM

Mary Ure died on opening night (after the performance) of a play called "The Exorcism". Overdose.

by Anonymousreply 90August 9, 2019 10:27 PM

R90, Was she still married to Robert Shaw when she died?

by Anonymousreply 91August 9, 2019 10:36 PM

[quote]r90 Mary Ure died on opening night (after the performance) of a play called "The Exorcism". Overdose.

Eeeek! I didn't know that!

Margaret Sullavan died from a barbiturates overdose while trying out a play in New Haven. It's never been firmly established if it was intentional or not, though.

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by Anonymousreply 92August 9, 2019 10:42 PM

C'mon, Helen. The reviews couldn't have been that bad.

by Anonymousreply 93August 9, 2019 10:42 PM

It appears they just quickly blacked out Ure's name and photo from the poster.

I wonder who went on for her. And if they were good.

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by Anonymousreply 94August 9, 2019 10:49 PM

Well, they were alive at least.

by Anonymousreply 95August 9, 2019 10:58 PM

Ure had to be let go from a show a year or so before she died. Her understudy: Glenn Close.

by Anonymousreply 96August 9, 2019 11:13 PM

[quote]r91 Was she still married to Robert Shaw when she died?

According to this blog, anyway, Shaw was the one who found her dead in their home.

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by Anonymousreply 97August 9, 2019 11:14 PM

Was Shaw shtupping someone else? Was that his MO?

by Anonymousreply 98August 9, 2019 11:17 PM

[quote] Ure had to be let go from a show a year or so before she died. Her understudy: Glenn Close.

Well, that's not suspicious. AT ALL.

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by Anonymousreply 99August 9, 2019 11:18 PM

[quote] I was so eager that I sat in on all the rehearsals of “Love for Love,” which is a Congreve Restoration comedy. On the Saturday before opening, Hal Prince told me he was thinking of letting the leading lady go and would make his decision during the matinee. I hadn’t even had an understudy rehearsal. It was kind of a miracle that I was ready; I knew all the lines. They tried to assemble all the actors who had gone to dinner, to go through the show with me. Before the performance, Hal parted the curtains and told the audience I had gotten my equity card seven weeks earlier and this was my debut. I went on that night and I got through it OK.

[quote]A half-hour before that show, a note was delivered to me: “It’s a tradition in the British theatre for one leading lady to welcome the next. I welcome you. Be brave and strong.” It was from Mary Ure, who’d just been fired. That was an extraordinary act of — how would you even describe it — love, support. That meant a huge amount to me. It was a great chance but also a sobering lesson about what can be a very cruel profession. I felt elation, but it was tempered with the knowledge that this beautiful actress had been humiliated. And here I am, all these years later, playing Norma Desmond, a humiliated actress!

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by Anonymousreply 100August 9, 2019 11:27 PM

R21, I saw Hytner’s Dream this week. It’s very, very charming, but Brantley’s review seemed bizarrely disconnected from the actual production. It’s fairly run-of-the-mill until the lovers’ scene in the forest . There is a LOT of ad libbing during scenes (e.g. after Demetrius’s line, Lysander said ”Dude!”) and it’s the ad libs that get all the laughs, so if you’re a purist the whole thing I say a little hard to swallow. But Hytner wanted to make it appealing to the Gen Zers and he unquestionably delivered that. Switching Titania and Oberon’s lines just meant that Oberon is now the one to fall in love with Bottom,p. It’s very funny, but a bit of a cop out.

By the way, I saw The Inheritance over here and think it’s vastly overrated as a play. I’m a Howards End aficionado and there are big sections which are lifted right out of the book. I also think its sentimentality runs over into schmaltz — plus the parallels between the book and the retelling don’t work. People just got excited about having a big play/event, in my opinion.

by Anonymousreply 101August 9, 2019 11:32 PM

Funny, Patti didn't observe that same tradition and welcome Glenn to SB.

by Anonymousreply 102August 9, 2019 11:32 PM

haha!

by Anonymousreply 103August 9, 2019 11:38 PM

R101, I sort of share your opinion of The Inheritance. I think the first part is vastly superior to the second part. Didn’t you find the conclusion of the first part tremendously moving like I did? It will be interesting to see how it’s recreated in NY. I hope Daldry...ummm...decides to reference the older generation who suffered and died in his coup de theatre, though, not just young men.

by Anonymousreply 104August 9, 2019 11:39 PM

Anyone here see Broadway Bounty Hunter? A friend thought it might be fun, but I'm unsure.

by Anonymousreply 105August 9, 2019 11:46 PM

When you say old men, you mean, like, 30?

by Anonymousreply 106August 9, 2019 11:47 PM

Mary Ure onstage with Viviene Leigh:

the gossip about this play is the producers had done up Leigh's dressing room in a very lavish, feminine style, with rose printed wallpaper, antique French furniture, etc. It was like a flowery bower.

The cast kept breaking out with flea bites (or maybe it was crabs?) and it turned out the stage manager was making money on the side by renting out this fancy star dressing room for street prostitutes to bring their johns to after the theater went dark.

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by Anonymousreply 107August 9, 2019 11:57 PM

R104, I don’t mean to say that I disliked The Inheritance. I agree the first part was better, but both parts ended on such a treacly sentimental note that I found myself a little put off by it. So no, I didn’t find the ending moving because I thought it was manipulative. I was definitely in the minority though. The audience went crazy for it. I also thought the character based on Forster himself was the most moving.

I just remembered all the monologues!! I was puzzled by having great long monologues in scenes with so many characters on stage.

by Anonymousreply 108August 10, 2019 12:33 AM

R92, The play did continue after producer Martin Gabel cast wife, and DL fave, Arlene Francis in Maggie's role, but it never made it to Broadway.

by Anonymousreply 109August 10, 2019 1:28 AM

Has anyone ever been on one of Seth's Playbill cruises? I heard today he's doing one in conjunction with the NYTimes next year.

by Anonymousreply 110August 10, 2019 2:24 AM

We could torture the poster who doesn't like Seth R by getting them drunk, then having them come to on one!

by Anonymousreply 111August 10, 2019 2:29 AM

R101/R108 - I’ve posted about this before, but am of the same opinion about the two endings (however, while it is admittedly a skilled production and deftly performed, I pretty much loathed all of it). The ending of Part I is a cheap, cloying and unearned trick - and is offensively sentimental.

And I think this was my problem with it as a whole. Lopez mistakes sentimentality for profundity. It’s a dumb play for a dumb, uncritical age, filled with dumb, shallow characters, whose ability to know anything about recent history is contingent on inheriting an estate in Upstate New York.

by Anonymousreply 112August 10, 2019 4:56 AM

I don't understand what r111 is saying.

by Anonymousreply 113August 10, 2019 8:16 AM

R108 and R112, I guess I was moved by it because my brother died from an AIDS-related illness in 1992 and it just brought it all back to me. All those men cut down in that plague. I think it’s a stunningly effective piece of theatre. I didn’t care for the second play mainly because it focused on the hustler character and I didn’t give a fuck about him.

by Anonymousreply 114August 10, 2019 11:33 AM

I saw the Hal Prince documentary on PBS last night. I found it very odd. My partner and I could not figure out why Susan Stroman was included. I suppose it was because she was the only woman interviewed other than Angela Lansbury and they wanted a woman on the production side.

Also odd that there was no mention of costume design other than Angela telling the famous Frannie Lee story. Huge chunks were given over to set design and lighting design, but no mention of costumes. This is odd since he directed two of the biggest costume spectaculars of the late 20th century: Follies and Phantom.

Phantom was discussed and ALW was interviewed, but there was no mention of the fact that he was fired from the production at one point. It would have been interesting to mention that even an director of his stature could get fired.

It also seemed odd that they talked as if the MC in Cabaret was always a male role. I had heard that the character was female until Joel Grey audition.

by Anonymousreply 115August 10, 2019 12:44 PM

Susan Stroman was the choreographer of his production of SHOWBOAT.

by Anonymousreply 116August 10, 2019 12:48 PM

I detest everything Susan Surinam directs. When was the last time she actually had a successful show on Bway anyway?

by Anonymousreply 117August 10, 2019 1:24 PM

^Strohman

by Anonymousreply 118August 10, 2019 1:29 PM

While elements of The Inheritance parallel Howard’s End, the rest of it seems to parallel Jackie Susann. The end of the first part was moving but a bit of a lift from Craig Lucas’ Longtime Companion (1990) which I guess most people don’t remember. For that reason, I didn’t completely submit to it.

I’m sure they’ll make cuts in Part 2 which spends most of its time circling and looping around the inevitable. I never found the doppelgänger character very interesting and the actor seemed to have spent more time in the gym than acting class, and did little to illuminate the character beyond a wooden object of sexual desire.

It’ll be interesting to see how it fares in NY. It will pale in comparison to Angels but will likely hold its own against current offerings. It’s packaged as an epic but it’s contents are bit slight.

Who else can they get to play Vanessa’s role? Jane Fonda?

by Anonymousreply 119August 10, 2019 1:44 PM

Angie?

by Anonymousreply 120August 10, 2019 1:45 PM

R119, they don’t need a huge star like Jane Fonda. Someone like Margo Martindale or Ann Dowd would more than suffice.

by Anonymousreply 121August 10, 2019 2:20 PM

What about the August Osage woman? Dunagan?

by Anonymousreply 122August 10, 2019 2:25 PM

Julianne Moore. Seriously.

by Anonymousreply 123August 10, 2019 3:10 PM

[quote]It also seemed odd that they talked as if the MC in Cabaret was always a male role. I had heard that the character was female until Joel Grey audition.

You've got that all wrong about the MC. And in addition to SHOW BOAT, Stroman co-directed and choreographed PRINCE OF BROADWAY. Isn't that enough to warrant her inclusion in the doc?

by Anonymousreply 124August 10, 2019 3:32 PM

One of the original productions of CABARET had a female Emcee. Dutch, German, something like that.

by Anonymousreply 125August 10, 2019 3:34 PM

I think Susan S has gotten work at all and so highly (some might say unjustifiably) esteemed because she has been around so long, has paid her dues, and appears to be an exceptionally nice person. People seem to love her, and that goes a long way in such a collaborative medium.

OTOH, I've never been that knocked out by her talents. Even CRAZY FOR YOU struck me as cute but gimmicky and a bit cheesy all those years back, when everyone else was acting as if she re-invented the wheel of musical comedy.

by Anonymousreply 126August 10, 2019 3:40 PM

[quote]r126 Even CRAZY FOR YOU struck me as cute but gimmicky and a bit cheesy all those years back, when everyone else was acting as if she re-invented the wheel of musical comedy.

This was the best Broadway musical I ever saw. It wasn't exactly my style, but undeniably delighful. The dancing was GREAT.

In fact, the whole show was just kind of an excuse to allow for the dance numbers. They were inventive, adorable, and athletic. My favorite number was 'I Got Rhythm' ... and I don't even like that song!

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by Anonymousreply 127August 10, 2019 4:07 PM

Bitch about the canned music all you like, but her CONTACT was a fun night in the theater. I thought it deserved its Best Musical Tony.

by Anonymousreply 128August 10, 2019 4:36 PM

[quote]I think Susan S has gotten work at all and so highly (some might say unjustifiably)

No. No one would say unjustifiably. You may be unable to appreciate her talents, but most Broadway pros and the public can see and appreciate what a clever, entertaining choreographer she is.

by Anonymousreply 129August 10, 2019 5:26 PM

[quote] 'I Got Rhythm' ... and I don't even like that song!

Fuck off, motherfucker.

by Anonymousreply 130August 10, 2019 5:27 PM

r127 = Benay

by Anonymousreply 131August 10, 2019 5:30 PM

Last year Hal Prince was working on 2 musicals - one based on the documentary "How to Dance in Ohio" and one set in the 19th century which he called "an old-fashioned musical done in a new fashioned way". Does anyone know how far these got in development and who else was involved?

by Anonymousreply 132August 10, 2019 5:33 PM

How does one make a musical about autistic teen girls? These days, you would have to cast people actually on the spectrum.

by Anonymousreply 133August 10, 2019 5:46 PM

Maybe they'll get away with casting people who merely suspected they might be on the spectrum...

by Anonymousreply 134August 10, 2019 6:13 PM
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by Anonymousreply 135August 10, 2019 9:03 PM

The Inheritance makes me nervous because Matthew Lopez's previous play, The Legend of Georgia McBride is so shitty.

by Anonymousreply 136August 10, 2019 9:11 PM

[quote]The Inheritance makes me nervous because Matthew Lopez's previous play, The Legend of Georgia McBride is so shitty.

Really? I disagree. Matt McGrath won a well deserved Lucille Lortel Award for his performance in that show. His character in particular was very well written (and acted), but I loved the whole play.

by Anonymousreply 137August 10, 2019 9:23 PM

R117

Shrugs.

I thought it was gross and stereotypical and obviously written to amuse middle aged straight suburbanites.

Very "Amos & Andy" but gay.

Gaymos and Gandy?

by Anonymousreply 138August 10, 2019 9:27 PM

And so many people on the spectrum are just super interesting on stage. Every actor who's said to be on the spectrum have one thing in common - they're incredibly boring on stage. No life whatsoever and dead eyes. At best, they can pull off bitchy aloofness. Sometimes, they translate better to the screen, but the stage is usually not for them.

by Anonymousreply 139August 10, 2019 9:41 PM

[quote]r139 they're incredibly boring on stage. No life whatsoever and dead eyes.

Like Madonna.

by Anonymousreply 140August 10, 2019 9:45 PM

Is Madonna on the spectrum? It would totally make sense.

by Anonymousreply 141August 10, 2019 9:53 PM

My sources are telling me that Madonna is being considered for a brief revival of "The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas." The sticking point is if they will allow her to sing the song "Doatsey Mae".

by Anonymousreply 142August 10, 2019 10:46 PM

Nobody told me that Tom Hiddleston was coming to Broadway in Betrayal.

And this is the shittiest ad I've ever seen! NYC doesn't go for shitty ads like this one.

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by Anonymousreply 143August 10, 2019 11:02 PM

Wasn't Betrayal done just a few years ago? I think Daniel Craig was in it.

by Anonymousreply 144August 10, 2019 11:06 PM

[quote]Wasn't Betrayal done just a few years ago? I think Daniel Craig was in it.

I think producers like to do it because it can be produced cheaply and they can turn a profit. The intellectuals come to see it because it's Pinter and the tourists come to see it because it has big stars.

by Anonymousreply 145August 10, 2019 11:13 PM

Why haven't I been cast in Betrayal yet? It sounds right up my alley, dolls.

by Anonymousreply 146August 10, 2019 11:16 PM

[quote]Why haven't I been cast in Betrayal yet? It sounds right up my alley, dolls. —Patti Lu

Because the audience has to believe that the female lead is sexually desirable to two straight men.

by Anonymousreply 147August 10, 2019 11:20 PM

[Quote] two straight men.

Kevin Kline and Glenn Close. Done.

by Anonymousreply 148August 10, 2019 11:40 PM

I think Betrayal should be done with a cast of three men.

by Anonymousreply 149August 10, 2019 11:47 PM

Two of whom are living as a couple on a college campus ruled by the father of one?

by Anonymousreply 150August 10, 2019 11:49 PM

[quote]Is Madonna on the spectrum?

No, she’s just a soulless bitch.

by Anonymousreply 151August 11, 2019 2:23 AM

[quote] The sticking point is if they will allow her to sing the song "Doatsey Mae".

Presumably, if this is a real item, she would be Miss Mona, the star role. “Doatsey Mae” is sung by the character of Doatsey Mae, and it would make no sense to have Miss Mona. In the film, Dolly Parton stole “Hard Candy Christmas,” and it stank.

Otherwise, Miss Mona would seem to be a good fit for Madonna’s bossy personality and limited acting and singing skills.

by Anonymousreply 152August 11, 2019 2:30 AM

I just finished thread 364, and I was particularly interested in the discussion about Ken Ludwig.

I will be seeing his (non-musical) adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express up at the Ogunquit Playhouse in a couple of weeks, and I'm now wondering what to expect...

by Anonymousreply 153August 11, 2019 3:18 AM

R152, the joke is that Madonna will steal all of the good songs from the other supporting characters, just like Another Suitcase in Evita

by Anonymousreply 154August 11, 2019 3:31 AM

I saw BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE as a teen--and loved it. The score is far from Sondheim, but the songs work incredibly well and are funny and stage-worthy.

The original Tommy Tune staging was outstanding.

But is this really a time to revive a musical comedy about a brothel? And please god, don't rewrite it into some feminist anthem of empowered sex workers.

by Anonymousreply 155August 11, 2019 3:45 AM

Anita Gillette is playing Princess Dragomiroff in the MOTOE at Ogunquit, and William Ivey Long is doing the costumes, so they spending some money on it.

by Anonymousreply 156August 11, 2019 4:24 AM

Has anyone ever attempted to musicalize MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS?

Or any other Agatha Christie?

Just a thought.

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by Anonymousreply 157August 11, 2019 4:37 AM

[quote]I will be seeing his (non-musical) adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express up at the Ogunquit Playhouse in a couple of weeks, and I'm now wondering what to expect...

I saw it last year at a regional theater. It would probably be fine if you'd never seen or read the original, but I didn't like it because of the changes to the characters (and elimination/combination of some of them.)

by Anonymousreply 158August 11, 2019 4:44 AM

[R157] Thanks for that photograph. Wonderful image. That was such a stylish romp of a movie, and a great success. Hard to believe such a cast was actually assembled. Not to mention the brilliant score by Richard Rodney Bennett, in waltz time, no less!

Light years better than Branagh’s execrable remake.

by Anonymousreply 159August 11, 2019 5:14 AM

Funny coincidence, I'm in the middle of watching it right now on Amazon prime. It is truly luxurious, and so many real movie stars on board...

by Anonymousreply 160August 11, 2019 5:19 AM

The last "Betrayal" revival was supposedly directed by Mike Nichols, but it wasn't really, and he was way too sick to give a shit.

by Anonymousreply 161August 11, 2019 5:19 AM

R160, I remember even the lush opening credits were cited in some reviews.

by Anonymousreply 162August 11, 2019 6:10 AM

Also that all the actresses in it were so TALL.

by Anonymousreply 163August 11, 2019 6:12 AM

Has Ann Reinking been seen in public recently? She's really blown up. Her appearance at the NYCDA Awards was shocking and I suspect she would have rather not have been there but had to since she was being honored.

by Anonymousreply 164August 11, 2019 6:12 AM

Of all the cast in MOTOE, one was missing from [R157]’s photo. And the most obvious one, too...

by Anonymousreply 165August 11, 2019 6:19 AM

Jackie Bisset’s tits look really big in that pic!

They’re like, “HI!”

by Anonymousreply 166August 11, 2019 6:23 AM

R165, Richard Widmark

by Anonymousreply 167August 11, 2019 6:44 AM

Last week I saw the live Broadcast of The Lehman Trilogy from London in American movie theaters. It was fucking amazing storytelling.

Why didn’t this make a Bway transfer??

by Anonymousreply 168August 11, 2019 12:09 PM

[quote]Why didn’t this make a Bway transfer??

Because the theatre owners are saving their houses for great American works of art, like Barry Manilow On Broadway and the Britney Spears musical.

by Anonymousreply 169August 11, 2019 1:38 PM

[quote]like Barry Manilow On Broadway and the Britney Spears musical.

Pffffft. In your dreams. Now that Hamilton is a success, we're going for a more eclectic audience. Coming this fall will be "Cries Of Kanye: The Music of Kanye West" and A$AP Rocky's "Sweden Sucks." And Oprah is being a pain in the ass trying to get "Precious The Musical" into one of our houses.

by Anonymousreply 170August 11, 2019 2:03 PM

Yes, with the success of HAMILTON, it's a pluperfect time for a major revival of 1776. Shows about the founding fathers are hot right now.

by Anonymousreply 171August 11, 2019 2:07 PM

Well.....I haven't seen or read anything about Ken Ludwig's new play - but I will tell you how it begins:

A short prologue - with lots of furniture and items covered up by sheets behind the actors....

And then suddenly - the sheets are removed and we're in a completely unexpected place....although it seems as if the prologue was being watched by oddly shaped ghosts.

by Anonymousreply 172August 11, 2019 2:30 PM

[quote]B. Fossy.

Who?

by Anonymousreply 173August 11, 2019 2:31 PM

Indeed, r165....

by Anonymousreply 174August 11, 2019 2:36 PM

Just heard from an insider that the new 1776 will include a female John Adams and no cis-gendered man in the entire cast. Diane Paulus of course.

by Anonymousreply 175August 11, 2019 2:37 PM

Betty Lynn for 1776 (2021)?

by Anonymousreply 176August 11, 2019 2:49 PM

Looks like Reinking's weight gain is primarily in her upper body. Also looks like she may have had some facial work done.

Doesn't she have arthritis? Maybe this is all cortisone weight?

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by Anonymousreply 177August 11, 2019 3:39 PM

LOCK 'ER UP!

by Anonymousreply 178August 11, 2019 3:41 PM

Yikes! Ann Reinking looks like she's transitioning to a man. That long hair does her no favors.

by Anonymousreply 179August 11, 2019 3:43 PM

[quote]Betty Lynn for 1776

As what? She can't get a laugh to save her life, so Ben Franklin is out, and she no longer has the vocal chops for Rutledge or Dickinson.

The best she can hope for is Andrew McNair, congressional custodian.

by Anonymousreply 180August 11, 2019 3:46 PM

That "Orient Express" picture was probably taken at the end of production, and Widmark was long gone by that point.

by Anonymousreply 181August 11, 2019 3:46 PM

Still fitting, r181....

by Anonymousreply 182August 11, 2019 4:06 PM

Ann looks YUGE when she's turned.

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by Anonymousreply 183August 11, 2019 4:12 PM

She needs a new hairdo as well, but she's a step away from wearing caftans.

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by Anonymousreply 184August 11, 2019 4:14 PM

You wouldn't be able to see her still slim pins, r184!

by Anonymousreply 185August 11, 2019 4:15 PM

Ann appears to be inspired by Edina Monsoon, fashion icon.

"Slim ankles, sweetie!"

by Anonymousreply 186August 11, 2019 5:07 PM
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by Anonymousreply 187August 11, 2019 5:10 PM
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by Anonymousreply 188August 11, 2019 5:16 PM

1776 is a musical that just doesn’t need the songs. Take them away and the show has the exact same impact

by Anonymousreply 189August 11, 2019 5:36 PM

And you know this how, R189? You saw a 30 minute non-musical presentation of the book to 1776?

by Anonymousreply 190August 11, 2019 5:39 PM

R189, that's just not true. I like the entire score, but there are few songs in the musical canon that have the dramatic effect of "Molasses to Rum to Slaves." It's a stunning three minutes of theater.

by Anonymousreply 191August 11, 2019 5:44 PM

Am I the only one who finds 1776 a complete and utter bore? I saw the Roundabout revival in the late '90s and I nearly lost consciousness for good.

by Anonymousreply 192August 11, 2019 5:48 PM

You see we piddle, twiddle, and revolve....

by Anonymousreply 193August 11, 2019 6:05 PM

[quote]r192 Am I the only one who finds 1776 a complete and utter bore? I saw the Roundabout revival in the late '90s and I nearly lost consciousness for good.

The show itself indeed sounds torturous.

by Anonymousreply 194August 11, 2019 6:20 PM

It's nothing without a willowy blonde.

by Anonymousreply 195August 11, 2019 6:22 PM
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by Anonymousreply 196August 11, 2019 6:44 PM

[quote] I thought it was gross and stereotypical and obviously written to amuse middle aged straight suburbanites. Very "Amos & Andy" but gay. Gaymos and Gandy?

What the hell are you talking about? The main plot of THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA McBRIDE is the pretty much the opposite of stereotypical.

[quote] “Doatsey Mae” is sung by the character of Doatsey Mae, and it would make no sense to have Miss Mona. In the film, Dolly Parton stole “Hard Candy Christmas,” and it stank.

In the actual film of WHOREHOUSE, "Hard Candy Christmas" is still sung by the girls of the Chicken Ranch, at least mostly -- Dolly Parton may have one line or two, I don't remember for sure. It's only on the "soundtrack recording" that she sings the whole song as a solo, maybe with the girls as choral backup, again I don't remember for sure.

[quote]Am I the only one who finds 1776 a complete and utter bore?

You're probably not the ONLY one in the entire world, but you're part of the infinitesimally tiny minority that somehow find their way to places like the DataLounge to express their idiotic opinions.

by Anonymousreply 197August 11, 2019 7:58 PM

It's the refrain that Dolly steals, both times, and makes her own "improvements" to the melody, rendering it almost unrecognizable.

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by Anonymousreply 198August 11, 2019 9:42 PM

[quote] You're probably not the ONLY one in the entire world, but you're part of the infinitesimally tiny minority that somehow find their way to places like the DataLounge to express their idiotic opinions.

It must have taken you hours to type that with your pinkies sky high, dear. Good for you.

by Anonymousreply 199August 11, 2019 9:45 PM

Data Lounge. Where idiotic opinions are the coin of the realm.

by Anonymousreply 200August 11, 2019 9:56 PM

I wonder why 1776 hasn’t had a major revival in London, at somewhere like the National. I gather the original production wasn’t a big success but I can see someone like Steven Daldry casting it expertly and doing a great job.

by Anonymousreply 201August 11, 2019 10:23 PM

Because at the end, the Brits lose!

by Anonymousreply 202August 11, 2019 10:27 PM

Haven't been on ATC for ages...whoa -that "summertheater" character is quite unhinged....

by Anonymousreply 203August 11, 2019 10:43 PM

More so than usual?

by Anonymousreply 204August 11, 2019 11:00 PM

ATC. Everyone on that site is unhinged. And the management of ATC is worse than what we suffer at DL.

by Anonymousreply 205August 11, 2019 11:00 PM

Did Disaster! kill Roger Bart's Broadway career?

by Anonymousreply 206August 11, 2019 11:34 PM

[quote]It must have taken you hours to type that with your pinkies sky high, dear. Good for you.

When I'm dealing with someone who thinks 1776 is a boring, terrible show, my pinky isn't the finger that I'm sticking up.

by Anonymousreply 207August 11, 2019 11:46 PM

It was a joke R173 - remember those?

by Anonymousreply 208August 12, 2019 12:06 AM

I want to hear more about Rex Smith's cock.

by Anonymousreply 209August 12, 2019 12:48 AM

W/W, r207!

by Anonymousreply 210August 12, 2019 12:49 AM

R197, a straight guy becoming a better man by hanging around with two stereotypical is one of the most cliched stories around.

by Anonymousreply 211August 12, 2019 2:07 AM

[quote]A straight guy becoming a better man by hanging around with two stereotypical is one of the most cliched stories around.

A vert straight, good old boy Southern guy who realizes that he loves doing drag is hardly a cliche, you unmitigated asshole.

by Anonymousreply 212August 12, 2019 3:16 AM

[quote] A vert straight, good old boy Southern guy who realizes that he loves doing drag is hardly a cliche, you unmitigated asshole.

You really are an insufferable twat.

by Anonymousreply 213August 12, 2019 4:20 AM

I’m going to Hamburg in October and Carrie-Das Musical will have already closed, dammit. I never miss a Maya Hakvoort musical, too.

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by Anonymousreply 214August 12, 2019 4:40 AM

[quote]Has anyone ever attempted to musicalize MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS? Or any other Agatha Christie?

Yes. Christie's "And Then There Were None", or "Ten Little Indians" ("Ten Little Niggers" was the original UK title!) was the basis of a Broadway musical titled "Something's Afoot" in 1976, which ran for two months. Jerry Seinfeld's tv mom Liz Sheridan, Gary Beach, and Tessie O'Shea starred. I have seen two college productions and loved them both. It is a very funny show and I recall enjoying the score. Due to its flop status I don't think it is revived often.

by Anonymousreply 215August 12, 2019 6:00 AM

R215 Somethings Afoot is a comedy, mocking Christie, affectionately

by Anonymousreply 216August 12, 2019 6:11 AM

Yes, saying "And Then There Were None" was the "basis" of Something's Afoot makes it sound like it's based on it. As has been pointed out, it's a spoof, of many aspects of detective novels, including Christie. It's finally getting a CD, a studio cast album recorded in London, coming out for Christmas, I believe. I personally have found the songs pretty mediocre. It was done as a TV special back in the 1980s, and that used to be on YouTube, not sure if it still is. I only remember Pat Carroll played the "Miss Marple" substitute, who sings "I Owe it All to Agatha Christie." Tessie O'Shea played that part for the abbreviated Broadway run.

by Anonymousreply 217August 12, 2019 8:03 AM

R217 Jean Stapleton played Miss Tweed.

by Anonymousreply 218August 12, 2019 10:08 AM

R214, I love Maya Hakvoort . Much better than Pia Douwes in Elizabeth das Musical.

by Anonymousreply 219August 12, 2019 10:16 AM

Pat Carroll did the original, pre-Broadway LA run of the show,

by Anonymousreply 220August 12, 2019 3:31 PM

Oh! Why look....

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by Anonymousreply 221August 12, 2019 3:36 PM

Ohhhh....I just turned the TV on and Nancy Marchand's face appeared on a L&O. Wasn't she a wonderful actress?

by Anonymousreply 222August 12, 2019 4:00 PM

'Two Ton Tessie O'Shea', as she used to be billed. 'Autre temps, autre moeurs', as the phoenix said in E Nesbit..

by Anonymousreply 223August 12, 2019 5:04 PM

Now you've done it! Mention her name and....

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by Anonymousreply 224August 12, 2019 5:11 PM

Perusing TV Guide to plan my viewing schedule for this evening. Perhaps.....

Bizarre Murders

TONIGHT, 9:30 PM ON JN 34.4, 30 MIN 2018

The Luchalooters

Twin Mexican little people wrestlers are murdered by fake prostitutes.

by Anonymousreply 225August 12, 2019 6:08 PM

A friend was in A TIME FOR SINGING with Tessie and said she was incredibly vulgar, not above opening her legs to show her cooch backstage.

by Anonymousreply 226August 12, 2019 6:11 PM
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by Anonymousreply 227August 12, 2019 6:15 PM

It may be vulgar, but that's exactly what made a star out of Sharon Stone.

by Anonymousreply 228August 12, 2019 6:18 PM

Did Tessie ever work with Rex Smith and Patty Lapone?

by Anonymousreply 229August 12, 2019 6:44 PM

Tessie was on Ed Sullivan the first time he had The Beatles on in February of 1964.

by Anonymousreply 230August 12, 2019 7:36 PM

Aww....look what somebody has on Craigslist for $30.00.....

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by Anonymousreply 231August 12, 2019 8:03 PM

Who drew up the contract and agreed to that size font?

by Anonymousreply 232August 12, 2019 8:07 PM

And lowercase.

by Anonymousreply 233August 12, 2019 8:14 PM

To my shame, I've never seen AGYG, not a high school, community theatre, regional theatre or Broadway production. It's a gap I should fill in my Show CV and yet no one ever seems to do it. Is there a reason for that?

by Anonymousreply 234August 12, 2019 8:30 PM

AGYG has dated in many ways. The sexual politics of it and the representation of Native Americans make it hard to do straight. Even the wordplay of the title referencing a popular recruiting slogan does not work anymore since that slogan is long forgotten.

Also, it is essentially a one-woman show with the title character singing in most of the songs. So if you do not have an Annie you do not have a show.

That said, it has an amazing score.

by Anonymousreply 235August 12, 2019 9:21 PM

R235 Exactly, you have to cast an incredible woman as Annie, and as Reba McIntyre proved with how shit she was in the role , being a kinda name means nothing, you have to be an amazing triple threat

by Anonymousreply 236August 12, 2019 9:30 PM

I will always think of Tessie O'Shea getting big laughs.

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by Anonymousreply 237August 12, 2019 10:06 PM

[quote]Exactly, you have to cast an incredible woman as Annie, and as Reba McIntyre proved with how shit she was in the role

Shit? Reba was amazing in that role! She and Brent Barrett turned a second-rate production into the hit of the town. Bernadette had been miscast, but Reba was on the money. She's a good comic actress, and the songs fit her like a glove. She was shit in the South Pacific concert (more from being ill-prepared), but she was fantastic in AGYG.

by Anonymousreply 238August 12, 2019 10:38 PM

Reba? Pffft!

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by Anonymousreply 239August 12, 2019 11:12 PM

Dolores!

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by Anonymousreply 240August 12, 2019 11:18 PM

Pat Carroll. Tessie O’Shea. Jean Stapleton. Maya Hakvoort. Nancy Marchand.

Really, how old are you gals?

by Anonymousreply 241August 12, 2019 11:18 PM

OLD!

by Anonymousreply 242August 12, 2019 11:33 PM

Let me tell you about Marilyn Miller, r241......

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by Anonymousreply 243August 12, 2019 11:43 PM

R241 Exactly, lets talk about all the amazing broads starring on Broadway now.....

by Anonymousreply 244August 12, 2019 11:55 PM

Marilyn was lovely, but no musical comedy tart can displace Charlotte Cushman's place in my heart. Her performance as Meg Merilees moved me so.

by Anonymousreply 245August 12, 2019 11:57 PM

[quote]Really, how old are you gals?

Old enough to have seen a lot of theater.

You?

by Anonymousreply 246August 12, 2019 11:59 PM

Maude Adams. Peter Pan. Boys in the Band. Octopussy.

by Anonymousreply 247August 12, 2019 11:59 PM

The original production of The Wiz, Jennifer Holliday in Dreamgirls and hundreds of shows in NYC and London since then. I'm old but some of you girls must be ancient.

by Anonymousreply 248August 13, 2019 12:43 AM

Miss Jeanne Eagels in a public service announcement for safe sex.....

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by Anonymousreply 249August 13, 2019 12:44 AM

" I'm old but some of you girls must be ancient."

And that's a problem for you, r248....

by Anonymousreply 250August 13, 2019 12:49 AM

Hearing first hand accounts of things like Mack & Mabel or Sweeney Todd or Angie’s Gypsy is much better than just reading about it in a book. (Has there ever been anyone who saw Ethel Merman in Gypsy who has reported about it? I guess someone could have seen her in the post-Broadway tour in 1961 and still be in heir 70s).

by Anonymousreply 251August 13, 2019 1:12 AM

[quote]Really, how old are you gals?

I was an usher at "Our American Cousin" in 1865.

by Anonymousreply 252August 13, 2019 1:52 AM

[quote]A friend was in A TIME FOR SINGING with Tessie and said she was incredibly vulgar, not above opening her legs to show her cooch backstage.

Tessie was the Irish Sophie Tucker.

by Anonymousreply 253August 13, 2019 1:52 AM

I got to see “The Black Crow”

Didn’t like it very much.

by Anonymousreply 254August 13, 2019 2:09 AM

This was my introduction to the Theatre

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by Anonymousreply 255August 13, 2019 2:13 AM

R254, by any chance, did you mean The Black CROOK? The joke works then.

by Anonymousreply 256August 13, 2019 2:46 AM

Back to Important Topics: Did everyone here know that the soap actress Finola Hughes (who played Anna Devane forever on GENERAL HOSPITAL) was in the original cast of CATS?

I knew she first got attention in the U.S, playing a dancer in the awful STAYING ALIVE ... but I didn't know she was a real, actual dancer. I just imagined they kind of faked it.

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by Anonymousreply 257August 13, 2019 2:55 AM
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by Anonymousreply 258August 13, 2019 2:55 AM
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by Anonymousreply 259August 13, 2019 2:55 AM

Did anyone see Susan Lucci in AGYG?

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by Anonymousreply 260August 13, 2019 4:03 AM

I thought they did a really good production job with that Bernadette peters/Reba McEntire/Susan Lucci (??) version of Annie get your gun, especially by opening the show with "there's no business like show business," and introducing the cast of characters. Really well-thought out and well-produced.

by Anonymousreply 261August 13, 2019 5:05 AM

[quote]especially by opening the show with "there's no business like show business," and introducing the cast of characters. Really well-thought out and well-produced.

Which is exactly how Gower Champion opened the Debbie Reynolds AGYG, except he didn’t have anyone sing; the orchestra played it as the cast came on and created the Wild West Show. It was smart choice not to sing the lyric, since it didn’t ruin it for when it appears as an actual book song midway through Act One.

by Anonymousreply 262August 13, 2019 5:55 AM

R261 R262 Love you gals

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by Anonymousreply 263August 13, 2019 11:25 AM

HEY 261. The revival sucked due to the horrible rewriting.

It made no sense to start with frank and have a show within a show

Diminished the overall flow

by Anonymousreply 264August 13, 2019 12:42 PM

Yes, R264 is correct. Why give away the biggest song in the show as the curtain comes up? Ridiculous. Doubly so, since Berlin wrote a rousing opening musical number that introduces the setting and the characters. Re-write a few lyrics and it will continue to open the show with a bang.

The entire show impossible to present in the current political climate. Between all the problematic issues related to how the Native Americans are presented and the fact that the title role requires a stage star the magnitude of which we don't really have anymore, this one is best enjoyed with one's favorite audio recording.

by Anonymousreply 265August 13, 2019 12:53 PM

Hello, R 265 No star of any magnitude?

by Anonymousreply 266August 13, 2019 12:54 PM

I saw Reba in Annie Get Your Gun. Yes, she was miles and miles ahead of Bernadette, who really was miscast. But Reba was not a musical comedy star and it showed. She sang the ballads beautifully, but the comedy was extremely forced. She didn't have the comedy chops that every Golden Age musical theater star had.

For example, in "I Can Do Anything Better Than You" she sings, "Can you bake a pie? Neither can I." On the "Neither can I" she puts on her "aggravated face" and does this huge finger snap. It looked hokey as hell.

by Anonymousreply 267August 13, 2019 1:33 PM

....

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by Anonymousreply 268August 13, 2019 1:38 PM

Barbara Cook described Reba in AGYG as one of the finest musical comedy performances she'd ever seen.

by Anonymousreply 269August 13, 2019 1:44 PM

[quote]Barbara Cook described Reba in AGYG as one of the finest musical comedy performances she'd ever seen.

Barbara also said that she stalled and stalled going because she didn't think Reba was going to be any good and finally went to the very last performance.

by Anonymousreply 270August 13, 2019 1:57 PM

Cook said the same thing about Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz. (This from a woman who night after night watched Robert Preston in The Music Man.)

But what else could she say?

by Anonymousreply 271August 13, 2019 2:08 PM

[quote]But what else could she say?

That really must be difficult for an actor. You go to a show and then someone sticks a microphone in your face and says, "How did you like it?" Patti LuPone is the only one bold enough to say, "It sucked."

by Anonymousreply 272August 13, 2019 2:12 PM

What are you talking about? Cook complimented Reba in her act. Cook went to see Jackman in THE BOY FROM OZ multiple times. Neither of them were paying her bills. She was justn't "being kind."

by Anonymousreply 273August 13, 2019 2:14 PM

*She wasn't just "being kind."

by Anonymousreply 274August 13, 2019 2:15 PM

Or was she losing her mind?

by Anonymousreply 275August 13, 2019 2:16 PM

You are stupid and unsophisticated about public life, R273.

by Anonymousreply 276August 13, 2019 2:16 PM

[Quote] You are stupid and unsophisticated about public life

You can't reconcile Cook's opinions with her talent or stature, which is rather silly of you.

by Anonymousreply 277August 13, 2019 2:20 PM

Her opinions are not likely to be shared freely in front of a camera. No one who survives in show biz as long as she did would be so unfiltered. Not even Miss Lupone.

by Anonymousreply 278August 13, 2019 2:24 PM

Negative opinions are not likely to be shared freely. Cook didn't trash talk Elaine Stritch though she had plenty of ammunition. She enjoyed Reba and Jackman in their respective shows. Deal with it.

by Anonymousreply 279August 13, 2019 2:30 PM

Of course she enjoyed their work. Everyone did. They did fine work.

Were these the greatest performances she ever witnessed, as intimated by R269? We won't know that from public statements.

by Anonymousreply 280August 13, 2019 2:34 PM

[Quote] Were these the greatest performances she ever witnessed, as intimated by [R269]? We won't know that from public statements.

You'd have a point if Barbara Cook was given to saying "[Insert Broadway Newcomer's name] has given the finest performance I've seen..."

by Anonymousreply 281August 13, 2019 2:37 PM

Did you not read R269?

by Anonymousreply 282August 13, 2019 2:38 PM

[quote]No one who survives in show biz as long as she did would be so unfiltered. Not even Miss Lupone.

Miss LuPone has never held back a negative opinion. I remember at New York Times interview where she said that tourists got in the way of her trying to get to the theater. Now all New Yorkers joke about tourists, but you expect tourists to be slow in the theater district because they all congregate in Times Square and that's the point of Times Square, to stop and gawk.

by Anonymousreply 283August 13, 2019 2:42 PM

Lupone also trashed Sherry Rene Scot to a cabaret audience in London.

by Anonymousreply 284August 13, 2019 2:56 PM

[quote]Lupone also trashed Sherry Rene Scot to a cabaret audience in London.

Just to a cabaret audience? In London? She trashed me to the entire universe. And then put it in her autobiography.

by Anonymousreply 285August 13, 2019 3:03 PM
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by Anonymousreply 286August 13, 2019 4:56 PM

Nothing about Ben Sprecher? Somewhere, Marc Thibodeau is laughing his ass off.

by Anonymousreply 287August 13, 2019 5:19 PM

He has his own thread, R287

by Anonymousreply 288August 13, 2019 5:22 PM

[quote]r285 She trashed me to the entire universe. And then put it in her autobiography. —Glenn Close

What did Cook say about Close?

by Anonymousreply 289August 13, 2019 5:48 PM

[quote]What did Cook say about Close?

Her exact quote was, "I don't know why that bitch thinks she can play a silent film star. She has the face of an old man. The lyric should have been "With one look, they will rush the door, with one look and they want no more."

by Anonymousreply 290August 13, 2019 6:02 PM

R289, The funniest anecdote was the incident that caused Mary Martin to never speak to Barbara again.

by Anonymousreply 291August 13, 2019 6:39 PM

[quote]The funniest anecdote was the incident that caused Mary Martin to never speak to Barbara again.

Do tell it!

by Anonymousreply 292August 13, 2019 6:41 PM

She forgot Mary's husband's name backstage.

by Anonymousreply 293August 13, 2019 8:54 PM

Cook said Fantasia's performance in "The Color Purple" was the most thrilling experience she'd ever had in the theater.

by Anonymousreply 294August 13, 2019 9:12 PM

Lucy was going to say that Barbara Cook was the most thrilling performer she ever saw, but Gary talked her out of it

by Anonymousreply 295August 13, 2019 9:14 PM

Man, that Barbara Cook knew how to work the conversation at a buffet!

[quote] Best performance I ever saw. Are you gonna eat those shrimp?"

by Anonymousreply 296August 13, 2019 10:18 PM
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by Anonymousreply 297August 13, 2019 10:20 PM

The Hiltons' last public appearance was at a drive-in in 1961 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their tour manager abandoned them there, and with no means of transportation or income, they were forced to take a job in a nearby grocery store, where they worked for the rest of their lives.

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by Anonymousreply 298August 13, 2019 10:34 PM

Cook said Helen must eat a mean cunt, because she had a face like a garbage can lid

by Anonymousreply 299August 13, 2019 10:54 PM

That’s only because Barbara told her Carnegie Hall audience that Mary was “a cunt-lapping lez who can’t sing on pitch to save her life.”

by Anonymousreply 300August 13, 2019 11:01 PM

R298 Sad.

They should have done a GoFundMe to get out of that ratty town.

by Anonymousreply 301August 13, 2019 11:05 PM
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by Anonymousreply 302August 13, 2019 11:07 PM

I know I post this video every 6 months or so, but re: Barbara Cook, her voice really was exquisite.

Seeing her live at the Cafe Carlyle really was a highlight of my New York memories. She closed with "He was Too Good to Me" in this same style. I wish I could have seen her sing this, too.

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by Anonymousreply 303August 14, 2019 3:19 AM

This must have been from the tour I saw... same period, I think.

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by Anonymousreply 304August 14, 2019 3:21 AM

In the 1980s, I saw Cook at Michael's Pub. Bless her, she closed with an unamplified rendition of "If I Loved You." I felt like the luckiest person in the world at that moment.

by Anonymousreply 305August 14, 2019 3:41 AM

Who's seen it? Who's going?

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by Anonymousreply 306August 14, 2019 3:54 AM

The "Stars" clip is from a PBS special taped in late 1980 or early1981. The Melbourne "He Was Too Good for Me / "Losing My Mind" is from a 1995 Melbourne concert.

by Anonymousreply 307August 14, 2019 12:48 PM

The price you pay for getting to work on Bat Out of Hell is that you have to work on Bat Out of Hell.

by Anonymousreply 308August 14, 2019 1:23 PM

A lot of arms.....

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by Anonymousreply 309August 14, 2019 1:39 PM

Boy, the Tonys were pretty low rent in 1975.

by Anonymousreply 310August 14, 2019 2:21 PM

Did Cook see The Blonde in the Thunderbird?

by Anonymousreply 311August 14, 2019 4:32 PM

[quote]Did Cook see The Blonde in the Thunderbird?

She was the understudy.

by Anonymousreply 312August 14, 2019 4:35 PM

"Take Back Your Mink" was Cook's second encore number after the unplugged "Mister Snow".

by Anonymousreply 313August 14, 2019 4:38 PM

I think Suzanne should make her triumphant return to Broadway in the autobiographical show Tommy Tune planned for Cook. I need to see "Barbara" whizzing about the stage in her wheelchair, courtesty of those moving platforms.

by Anonymousreply 314August 14, 2019 4:40 PM

R309, Fosse often took shots at Michael Bennett's choreography saying it was a lot of "arm waving". Lucy and Jessie, Music and the Mirror and Tick Tock are good examples.

by Anonymousreply 315August 14, 2019 5:11 PM

[quote] Did Cook see The Blonde in the Thunderbird?

[quote] She was the understudy.

For the Thunderbird?

by Anonymousreply 316August 14, 2019 5:24 PM

To be fair, r315, T-T and MatM were for McK and I'd consider them more than arm waving. L&J was choreographed for an untrained dancer.

by Anonymousreply 317August 14, 2019 5:27 PM

They had a contest R308, Second prize was four tickets to Bat Out of Hell.....first prize was two tickets to Bat Out of Hell.

by Anonymousreply 318August 14, 2019 5:39 PM

Damn you all! You know when you mention her, she.....

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by Anonymousreply 319August 14, 2019 6:16 PM

A friend dragged me to Barry Manilow last night. The audience was the biggest group of classic DL fraus I have ever seen.

by Anonymousreply 320August 14, 2019 6:22 PM

Was the performance well attended?

by Anonymousreply 321August 14, 2019 6:45 PM

[quote]A friend dragged me to Barry Manilow last night.

Did he talk about how much he hated Bette Midler?

by Anonymousreply 322August 14, 2019 6:47 PM

Why was that Follies number on the 1975 Tony Awards show? Follies opened in 1972. And the video clips I've seen of that number from the original production were MUCH more impressive, with lots of male dancers. And say what you will about Michael Bennett's "arm waving" choreography, but it's more exciting than anything that's been on Broadway for years. There's a reason the audience in that clips bursts into applause.

by Anonymousreply 323August 14, 2019 7:31 PM

Follies opened in 1971, r323. I don't remember if there was even a number performed on the Tonys.

by Anonymousreply 324August 14, 2019 7:34 PM

Thanks, R303. That Barbara Cook concert aired on PBS decades ago but I don't think it ever had a home video release. I've always wondered why she (or Wally Harper) chose to omit a big chunk of the song. I don't think she ever sang these lyrics:

But they'll never know the pain of living with a name you never owned or the many years forgetting what you know too well

The ones who gave the crown have been let down You try to make amends without defending

Perhaps pretending you never saw the eyes of grown men of twenty five that followed as you walked and asked for autographs or kissed you on the cheek and you never could believe they really loved you

by Anonymousreply 325August 14, 2019 7:41 PM

"Lucy and Jessie" from the original production. Sorry to make this into another Follies thread, but this number is just so damn great.

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by Anonymousreply 326August 14, 2019 7:45 PM

R324, No musical number from FOLLIES was performed on the 1972 Tony Awards.

by Anonymousreply 327August 14, 2019 8:50 PM

The reason "Lucy and Jessie" was performed on the 1975 Tony Awards broadcast was because the show's theme that year centered on the Winter Garden Theatre. Angela Lansbury and her boys also performed the title song from "Mame."

by Anonymousreply 328August 14, 2019 8:55 PM

I do believe Patti sang the Sunset score in the original key, whereas Glenn poor dear was rather all over the place in search of a key.

by Anonymousreply 329August 14, 2019 9:11 PM

But not in riding togs, r328....

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by Anonymousreply 330August 14, 2019 9:12 PM

Follies was on the show in 1975 because the show was broadcast from the Winter Garden Theatre and celebrated the theatre’s history. So even though Bernadette was a performer that year, there was nothing from Mack & Mabel since it played the Majestic. Instead, she and Michele Lee did “Ohio” from Wonderful Town. Angie did Mame and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”

by Anonymousreply 331August 14, 2019 9:27 PM

[quote]I do believe Patti sang the Sunset score in the original key, whereas Glenn poor dear was rather all over the place in search of a key. —M

At least I was actually singing, unlike a movie called Into The Woods where our dear Meryl had to be sweetened by Donna Murphy. Obviously Meryl was such a "See You Next Tuesday" that the sound mixer just said, "Oh fuck it" because when you listen to the song, you can hear which were Donna's notes and which were Meryl's. There was no attempt to blend the two voices into one sound.

by Anonymousreply 332August 14, 2019 9:30 PM

Barry did not mention Bette at all, he skirted around the time he played for her.

The house was almost full but who knows how much anyone paid for the seats. The whole thing felt like a low-rent Vegas casino show with sows waiting on the buffet line.

by Anonymousreply 333August 14, 2019 9:40 PM

What did Patti say about Sherie Rene Scott?

by Anonymousreply 334August 14, 2019 9:47 PM

[quote]What did Patti say about Sherie Rene Scott?

She sucked cocks in hell.

by Anonymousreply 335August 14, 2019 9:49 PM

She said she was miscast and implied she was incompetent in the role and one of the big reasons for its being a flop. And she’s actually said as much more than once.

by Anonymousreply 336August 14, 2019 9:53 PM

I saw Sherrie in "Women on the Verge" and she was miscast. She was underwhelming, but professional, when otherwise I've seen her be terrific in other shows ("Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", "Aida"). But seriously, it's the director and creative team who should have cast someone else in her role, which was the lead. That's who Patti should have ripped.

While the clip of the full "Lucy and Jessie" number is impressive as hell, Alexis Smith's vocals on the truncated number on the 1975 Tonys are much better, though the entire performance of everyone lacked somewhat the electricity of the full number.

by Anonymousreply 337August 14, 2019 10:44 PM

[quote]Alexis Smith's vocals on the truncated number on the 1975 Tonys are much better...

Of course, because they were pre-recorded.

by Anonymousreply 338August 14, 2019 11:13 PM

R325, I think she felt those lyrics did not relate to her life or experience.

by Anonymousreply 339August 14, 2019 11:38 PM

[quote]r320 A friend dragged me to Barry Manilow last night.

Friends don't drag friends to Barry Manilow.

by Anonymousreply 340August 14, 2019 11:48 PM

[quote]sows waiting on the buffet line.

Dinner theatre pics please.

by Anonymousreply 341August 15, 2019 12:15 AM

Coming Attractions

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by Anonymousreply 342August 15, 2019 12:28 AM

[quote]At least I was actually singing, unlike a movie called Into The Woods where our dear Meryl had to be sweetened by Donna Murphy. Obviously Meryl was such a "See You Next Tuesday" that the sound mixer just said, "Oh fuck it" because when you listen to the song, you can hear which were Donna's notes and which were Meryl's. There was no attempt to blend the two voices into one sound.

Murphy denied it.

Donna Murphy @DMurphyOfficial There’s not an ounce of truth to that .Meryl was & is, her own magnificent self.

by Anonymousreply 343August 15, 2019 12:32 AM

Quasimodo

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by Anonymousreply 344August 15, 2019 12:33 AM

Lord of the Fries

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by Anonymousreply 345August 15, 2019 12:34 AM

Annie 3

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by Anonymousreply 346August 15, 2019 12:35 AM

R343, Lauren Bacall's singing voice was "sweetened" by Andy Williams for "To Have and Have Not".

by Anonymousreply 347August 15, 2019 1:22 AM

Although this legend about Andy Williams and Lauren Bacall is so deeply entrenched that you'll find it repeated even in some film reference books, it's not true. Director Howard Hawks, when asked about this, explained that he had indeed planned to have Andy Williams sing for Bacall, but after hearing Bacall sing during the rehearsals for the scene he abandoned that plan and ended up using Bacall's own voice. (Source: Hawks on Hawks by Joseph McBride [Berkeley, University of California Press, 1982] p.130.)

by Anonymousreply 348August 15, 2019 1:30 AM

The vocal stylings of Miss Lauren Bacall in "To Have and Have Not."

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by Anonymousreply 349August 15, 2019 2:05 AM
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by Anonymousreply 350August 15, 2019 2:09 AM

That original singing voice sounds like a slightly younger Lauren. I don't think she was dubbed. Maybe that became a rumor before she sang in two Broadway shows and The Fan. It seems to match that voice. They're all equally low, sorta flat, and lacking in range and support.

by Anonymousreply 351August 15, 2019 3:17 AM

Rehearsal!

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by Anonymousreply 352August 15, 2019 3:19 AM

At 4:14 in this 1979 interview, Bacall admits that Andy Williams DID enhance her singing voice in "To Have and Have Not".

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by Anonymousreply 353August 15, 2019 3:38 AM

[quote] She trashed me to the entire universe. And then put it in her autobiography. —Glenn Close

I simply MUST have that book! Sounds like a delightful read!

by Anonymousreply 354August 15, 2019 3:59 AM

R317 both TT and MATM climax with literal arm waving. The "handshake" finish is one of the biggest letdowns in Broadway dance history.

by Anonymousreply 355August 15, 2019 4:24 AM

[quote]At 4:14 in this 1979 interview, Bacall admits that Andy Williams DID enhance her singing voice in "To Have and Have Not".

There was probably talk of it at the time but I would go with the director's version as he would have the control and final say.

by Anonymousreply 356August 15, 2019 9:30 AM

Probably the worst performance ever released on an OBC recording.

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by Anonymousreply 357August 15, 2019 9:50 AM

R356, Hawks may have abandoned his plan to have Williams sing entirely for Bacall, but he still might have used his voice on a couple of her higher notes, which is what Bacall states in the interview.

by Anonymousreply 358August 15, 2019 9:57 AM

One might thing Bacall's performance of "Hurry Back" is 'the worst,' but not after hearing Patrice Munsel do it up and octave, or two, in the Bus and Truck company.

by Anonymousreply 359August 15, 2019 12:45 PM

[quote] Fosse often took shots at Michael Bennett's choreography saying it was a lot of "arm waving". Lucy and Jessie, Music and the Mirror and Tick Tock are good examples.

M and M and Tick Tock are mostly head pops and layouts because it’s the only thing McKechnie could really do.

by Anonymousreply 360August 15, 2019 2:04 PM
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by Anonymousreply 361August 15, 2019 2:14 PM

[quote]Murphy denied it. Donna Murphy @DMurphyOfficial There’s not an ounce of truth to that .Meryl was & is, her own magnificent self.

Of course Murphy denied it. Her contract forbids her from talking about it. It's not like in the day when Marni Nixon told all and sundry that she was the singing voice of famous stars.

And the one thing that I would definitely like to see is the footage that Meryl shot for the Evita movie. No way she could sing that score.

by Anonymousreply 362August 15, 2019 2:15 PM
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by Anonymousreply 363August 15, 2019 2:21 PM

Fosse's one to talk. All of this choreography was hats, hands and knees.

by Anonymousreply 364August 15, 2019 2:28 PM

And gloves, r364.....

by Anonymousreply 365August 15, 2019 2:31 PM

Shirl explains.....

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by Anonymousreply 366August 15, 2019 2:36 PM

Wow. Tick Tock at R361 is practically The Music and the Mirror step for step. Maybe not in the same order, is all.

by Anonymousreply 367August 15, 2019 2:43 PM

YES!!! Lois Smith playing the role In "The Inheritance" Vanessa played in London. Perfect.

by Anonymousreply 368August 15, 2019 2:55 PM

R368 Maybe it will get her an overdue Tony--it's the kind of small, but memorable role they like to put in Featured Actress.

by Anonymousreply 369August 15, 2019 3:14 PM

[quote]Wow. Tick Tock at [R361] is practically The Music and the Mirror step for step. Maybe not in the same order, is all.

Except Tick Tock came first.

It’s even referenced in ACL. It’s the show that Cassie had a featured solo in.

by Anonymousreply 370August 15, 2019 3:41 PM

So cool to see Tick Tock. Makes you realize how anemic all the versions to follow were. (Though I’m fond of what they did with it in the gender-swap version in London.)

And to see Donna doing this gives real power to Cassie’s story.

by Anonymousreply 371August 15, 2019 3:59 PM

[quote]Maybe it will get her an overdue Tony--it's the kind of small, but memorable role they like to put in Featured Actress.

Lois Smith should have won for Grapes of Wrath. She was perfect as Ma Joad. It was a tough year though for featured actress.

Margaret Tyzaack won for Lettuce & Lovage, and besides Lois, the other nominees were Polly Holliday in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and S. Empatha Merkerson in The Piano Lesson.

by Anonymousreply 372August 15, 2019 4:14 PM

Bullshit, r360.

by Anonymousreply 373August 15, 2019 4:43 PM

[quote]not after hearing Patrice Munsel do it up and octave, or two, in the Bus and Truck company.

I don’t even remember that. I was too thunderstruck by the sheer awfulness of Pia Zadora, waddling her way through Bonnie Franklin’s role. And speaking of waddling, there was also Diane McAfee, the original Eve who was fired out of town and replaced with Penny Fuller. She finally got her chance in that bus-and-truck tour, but she had clearly been doing a lot of comfort eating to deal with her despair over losing the Broadway gig. A few years later she started churning out babies and gave us Maude Maggart and Fiona Apple.

by Anonymousreply 374August 15, 2019 4:54 PM

It was kind of like this, R374.

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by Anonymousreply 375August 15, 2019 5:20 PM

Her MAME was one for the Aged....

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by Anonymousreply 376August 15, 2019 5:38 PM

I think Munsel's voice sounds really great in that clip of "If He Walked Into My Life." The HELLO, DOLLY! clip is ridiculous, because the song is in that weird key -- I think that's the original Channing key sung up the octave! Also, where the hell was that production of DOLLY! It looks and sounds so amateurish, and the Horace is abysmal in what little he has to do.

by Anonymousreply 377August 15, 2019 5:49 PM

Maye to Save the Day!

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by Anonymousreply 378August 15, 2019 5:57 PM

[quote]Her contract forbids her from talking about it. It's not like in the day when Marni Nixon told all and sundry that she was the singing voice of famous stars.

Marni Nixon's original contract forbid her from talking about having dubbed Audrey Hepburn's songs in "My Fair Lady."

by Anonymousreply 379August 15, 2019 6:11 PM

Lisa Kirk wasn't credited on the Warner Bros. LP of "GYPSY".

by Anonymousreply 380August 15, 2019 6:16 PM

[quote]Marni Nixon's original contract forbid her from talking about having dubbed Audrey Hepburn's songs in "My Fair Lady."

And yet, she did anyway, didn't she?

by Anonymousreply 381August 15, 2019 6:16 PM

Not at the time of the movie's release, R381. Years later, yes.

by Anonymousreply 382August 15, 2019 6:19 PM

Marni Nixon's contracts forbid her from talking about ALL of her big dubbing jobs -- for Deborah Kerr in THE KING AND I (and AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER), Natalie Wood in WEST SIDE STORY, and Audrey Hepburn in MY FAIR LADY. But the cat started to be let out of the bag when Deborah Kerr spoke to the press to credit Marni for that dubbing job. Kerr said she was partly dubbed, rather than fully, but it led to the whole truth coming out about that movie and, later, the others too.

As for whether or not Donna Murphy dubbed any of Meryl Streep in INTO THE WOODS: If she did, of course it's believable that she would have it in her contract not to talk about it, but she certainly wouldn't be required to make a statement denying it. That would have been her own doing, so I assume she's telling the truth. But who knows?

by Anonymousreply 383August 15, 2019 6:24 PM

100% correct R373.

by Anonymousreply 384August 15, 2019 6:28 PM

Close your eyes and you hear Donna Murphy's timbre all over this song.

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by Anonymousreply 385August 15, 2019 6:35 PM

Any more news on Colin Donnell's sex pix?

by Anonymousreply 386August 15, 2019 6:39 PM

Unfortunately r386 you will just have to wank to a lesser mortal.

Could someone give r386 a link and a break for his poor, blue balls?

by Anonymousreply 387August 15, 2019 7:24 PM

R386 They are posted on the Colin Donnell thin dong thread. No wonder Patti is insane, not much to work with

by Anonymousreply 388August 15, 2019 7:28 PM

That's a problem with the Dolly score. It's published in soprano keys, while of course, Channing sang it down an octave (or maybe two). Everyone who does the show has to face that issue, especially if there's no one to transpose Dolly's songs for the company.

by Anonymousreply 389August 15, 2019 7:42 PM

I don't hear Donna Murphy at all in "She'll Be Back." But it does sound like she could be doing some patches in "Stay With Me."

by Anonymousreply 390August 15, 2019 7:46 PM

But Munsel keeps jumping down throughout the song. Was it too high for her in parts?

by Anonymousreply 391August 15, 2019 7:46 PM

[quote]Kerr said she was partly dubbed

Which was, technically, true. There are a lot of places where Kerr is doing the songs (but only speaking parts, of which there are several). Someone once put on YouTube a copy of "Shall I Tell You" with it indicated when it switches back and forth between Marni and Deb Kerr.

by Anonymousreply 392August 15, 2019 7:49 PM

R392 I don't believe "Shall I Tell You" was used in the film.

by Anonymousreply 393August 15, 2019 7:51 PM

[quote]That's a problem with the Dolly score. It's published in soprano keys, while of course, Channing sang it down an octave (or maybe two). Everyone who does the show has to face that issue, especially if there's no one to transpose Dolly's songs for the company.

After all these decades, have they STILL not made the piano/vocal score and the orchestra parts available with normal keys for Dolly's songs? If so, that's ridiculous, and the licensing organization should be ashamed of themselves. (I forget, which one is it? Tams-Witmark?_

[quote]There are a lot of places where Kerr is doing the songs (but only speaking parts, of which there are several). Someone once put on YouTube a copy of "Shall I Tell You" with it indicated when it switches back and forth between Marni and Deb Kerr.

Yes, Kerr does almost half of that song as heard on the soundtrack recording, but the whole song was cut from the film itself. Kerr also speaks the opening lines of "Getting to Know You," which were written to be spoken. And I think she MAY possibly speak/sing the first line of "Shall We Dance." But the rest of it is all Marni.

by Anonymousreply 394August 15, 2019 8:15 PM

Correct, but that means Deborah Kerr was being accurate when she said she was "partly dubbed."

And yes, Tams-Witmark still has Hello, Dolly. They have had the hardest time getting with the digital age. They didn't hire someone to come in and redesign their bare-bones website till about five years ago, and even now, it's still not as extensive or user-friendly as R&H and MTI and French.

by Anonymousreply 395August 15, 2019 8:29 PM

But aren't soprano keys "normal keys"? Most women don't sing baritone.

by Anonymousreply 396August 15, 2019 8:31 PM

[quote]But aren't soprano keys "normal keys"? Most women don't sing baritone.

Does anyone...

still sing...

High C?

I've got to pee!

by Anonymousreply 397August 15, 2019 8:33 PM

But some sing alto or mezzo, r396.

by Anonymousreply 398August 15, 2019 8:33 PM

Yes, but Dolly doesn't really work as a "soprano" role, and has traditionally been sung in an alto range. The problem is it doesn't work in the keys they give you to just drop it down, because that takes it into Channing's basement range.

by Anonymousreply 399August 15, 2019 8:36 PM

Marilyn Maye above doesn't sing it especially low. She did the show multiple years in stock. No one could get a copy of that sheet music?

by Anonymousreply 400August 15, 2019 8:40 PM

I wonder if Munsel favored singing it in those keys. She got to show off her broad range, even if it ended up sounding like two different and not complimentary voices.

by Anonymousreply 401August 15, 2019 8:41 PM

[quote]Correct, but that means Deborah Kerr was being accurate when she said she was "partly dubbed."

I would say she was mostly dubbed.

by Anonymousreply 402August 15, 2019 8:43 PM

Marilyn Maye’s company probably had someone on staff to transpose the songs for her.

by Anonymousreply 403August 15, 2019 8:49 PM

What keys did Pearl Bailey, Bette Midler and Bernadette sing in? TM couldn't get the music that the recent Broadway company used?

by Anonymousreply 404August 15, 2019 9:16 PM

Lend them your magic wand, R404. Otherwise, put up the money required to license other sets of orchestrations that are the intellectual property of other orchestrators. Tams has one set of materials. Take it or leave it. Or YOU pay if you want it to be some other way.

by Anonymousreply 405August 15, 2019 9:42 PM

R375 It sounds like Munsel is a soprano who is being possessed by Mercedes McCambridge from the "Exorcist" (if she could sing) at certain points during that song. She has her soprano register but apparently not willing to go higher than a certain note, then switches to a very low (for her) tessitura. Didn't Anna Russell used to say that coloratura sopranos, after their career in opera, used to switch to singing in a very low range, usually in bar rooms or cabarets? She did a whole number about it on one of her albums.

by Anonymousreply 406August 15, 2019 10:10 PM

What's next for the PROM leads? I went to the closing performance and it was a ball but very emotional, with Beth and Brooks in particular openly crying at several points. Must have been so bittersweet for them.

by Anonymousreply 407August 15, 2019 10:46 PM

[quote]it was a ball but very emotional, with Beth and Brooks in particular openly crying at several points.

They would burst into tears in the middle of a scene?

by Anonymousreply 408August 15, 2019 10:49 PM

Thanks to you bitches I've had The Story of Lucy and Jessie stuck in my head for days now. I couldn't listen to more than a minute of Munsel's addled So Long, Dearie so that's not going to cancel out L&J. Got any other Broadway earworms?

by Anonymousreply 409August 15, 2019 11:14 PM

[quote]Of course Murphy denied it. Her contract forbids her from talking about it.

But she talked about it Dear, she denied it. If she is forbidden to talk about it she never would have answered it. Damn.

by Anonymousreply 410August 15, 2019 11:30 PM

Marni Nixon on "To Tell the Truth" in 1964.

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by Anonymousreply 411August 15, 2019 11:36 PM

I guessed it, r411. She looked the most like her son Andrew Gold.

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by Anonymousreply 412August 16, 2019 12:03 AM

I correctly guessed No. 2, also, but because I recognized her from "The Sound of Music."

by Anonymousreply 413August 16, 2019 12:07 AM

R413 Marni Nixon didn't dub Julie Andrews. Julie did her own singing. In fact, she started out on Broadway. Rather, Marni dubbed Julie's rival Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.

by Anonymousreply 414August 16, 2019 12:11 AM

Marni Nixon played Sister Sophia in Sound of Music. She didn't do Julie Andrews' voice.

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by Anonymousreply 415August 16, 2019 12:15 AM

I wonder if Julie made any of the other nuns.

by Anonymousreply 416August 16, 2019 12:20 AM

[quote]Marni Nixon didn't dub Julie Andrews. Julie did her own singing. In fact, she started out on Broadway. Rather, Marni dubbed Julie's rival Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.

Goodness! R414 is a font of commonplace knowledge!

by Anonymousreply 417August 16, 2019 12:26 AM

F414, you are out of your depth even on this pathetic thread.

Julie Andrews did not start out on Broadway.

Now, go do your homework or you cannot play with the big boys.

by Anonymousreply 418August 16, 2019 12:27 AM

[quote]Correct, but that means Deborah Kerr was being accurate when she said she was "partly dubbed."

Yes, but "partly dubbed" was my phrasing, not Kerr's. I can't find the quote right now, but it was in an interview with Earl Wilson, and I think Kerr implied that Marni only did the higher notes. In reality, Marni does all of the actual singing in the movie, and Kerr, as you mentioned, only did the parts that are spoken to music.

[quote]Lend them your magic wand, [R404]. Otherwise, put up the money required to license other sets of orchestrations that are the intellectual property of other orchestrators. Tams has one set of materials. Take it or leave it. Or YOU pay if you want it to be some other way.

Stupid comment. Do you or did you work for Tams-Witmark? The fact that the vocal score and the orchestra parts for Dolly's songs are written in Channing's keys has been a huge problem ever since those materials started to be licensed for other productions. Orchestrations for Dolly's numbers in singable keys would have been available ever since the first replacement for Channing took over on Broadway (I forget who that was), and all of the subsequent Broadway and tour Dollies performed the songs in normal alto-belt-range keys -- Rogers, Grable, Diller, Merman, and later, Midler and Petersl. But for some idiotic reason, I guest just cheapness, Tams-Witmark never bothered to make copies of and license those orchestrations., thereby making things extremely difficult for anyone who licensed the show.

by Anonymousreply 419August 16, 2019 12:37 AM

Did Lee Roy Reams sing Dolly in Channing's keys?

by Anonymousreply 420August 16, 2019 12:43 AM

Ginge was the first replacement....

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by Anonymousreply 421August 16, 2019 1:54 AM

Tams-Witmark does, in fact, offer transposed versions of Dolly’s songs. From their website:

Medium-Voice Transpositions for the role of Dolly

As sung on the original cast album by Carol Channing, the keys for Dolly Levi’s nine numbers are too low for many singers. The Medium-Voice Transpositions provide a comfortable range for most soprano “belters.” The computer-engraved transposition books contain complete musical numbers and playoffs, if necessary, to make rehearsals and performances as smooth as possible. The Medium-Voice Transpositions are specially made to accommodate Dolly’s role; all the other musical numbers remain in their original keys. The transpositions are carefully crafted to minimize range adjustments necessary for the other singers in ensemble numbers. Performing HELLO, DOLLY! with the Medium-Voice Transpositions requires both a complete set of the original performance materials and the transposition materials.

by Anonymousreply 422August 16, 2019 2:06 AM

R408, bursting into tears is a bit too dramatic. Brooks had tears coming out of his eyes before his big number in Act 2 and had to pause before he could continue singing. He broke during the confrontation scene with the homophobic mother too (who also could barely get out her lines). I've seen him in a handful of other shows and know a few people who've worked with him, and by all accounts he's a somewhat guarded person despite his gregariousness onstage. It was moving to see him be so openly vulnerable.

Beth cried during her entrance applause, and during the ovations she received before and after "The Lady's Improving," and during the moment between her character and Brooks toward the very end when she asks, "Is this what not failing feels like?" She even muttered "I'm a mess" and Brooks handed her a tissue and said "You actually look great." It was a sweet moment.

I believe they've worked on the show together for 7-8 years so these moments felt earned and added something special to the performance.

by Anonymousreply 423August 16, 2019 2:31 AM

Dolly and probably anything Bacall ever did on stage (Woman of the Year, Wonderful Town, and Applause) are probably some of the only examples where a drag queen could play the roles, keep the original keys, and just sing up the octave and it might just work. Those keys are insanely low.

by Anonymousreply 424August 16, 2019 3:13 AM

Dolly has been played by several drag queens (I think the first was Danny LaRue in London), and there has been at least one male Margo Channing (Charles Pierce In SF, of course playing it as Bette Davis).

by Anonymousreply 425August 16, 2019 3:26 AM

Danny LaRue as Dolly

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by Anonymousreply 426August 16, 2019 3:34 AM

[quote] with Beth and Brooks in particular openly crying at several points.

You'd cry too if you suddenly got the craft services table rudely YANKED away from you, bitches!!

by Anonymousreply 427August 16, 2019 3:58 AM

Craft services tables are a film and TV thing, not theatre.

by Anonymousreply 428August 16, 2019 4:11 AM

[quote] Marni Nixon's original contract forbid her from talking about having dubbed Audrey Hepburn's songs in "My Fair Lady."

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by Anonymousreply 429August 16, 2019 4:13 AM

R428 what do you they call it in theater?

by Anonymousreply 430August 16, 2019 4:13 AM

Why are you asking R428? He knows less than nothing.

by Anonymousreply 431August 16, 2019 4:15 AM

R428 what do they call it in theater?

by Anonymousreply 432August 16, 2019 4:17 AM

They call them snacks.

by Anonymousreply 433August 16, 2019 4:42 AM

[quote]R405 Put up the money required to license other sets of orchestrations that are the intellectual property of other orchestrators. Tams has one set of materials. Take it or leave it. Or YOU pay if you want it to be some other way.

Is this some kind of GODDAMN JOKE??!! When I order a burger, I want it MY WAY! Same with when I sing DOLLY! And no shady, flim-flam, double dipping hidden costs, either.

That’s not how we roll at the Little City Dramatic Society.

by Anonymousreply 434August 16, 2019 4:47 AM

The theatre doesn’t provide food for actors.

“Craft service or craft services is the department in film, television and video production which provides cast and crew with snacks, drinks and other assistance.”

Film, television, video.

I have never done a show where they provided us with food (or snacks) backstage.

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by Anonymousreply 435August 16, 2019 5:22 AM

I think in the many professional theaters on the Broadway, "Pops" the lovable backstage door man will kindly sell you snacks and soft drinks and dolls and such.

by Anonymousreply 436August 16, 2019 6:01 AM

"Pops" only deals in hard drugs. That way, you aren't tempted to eat fattening snacks and soft drinks.

by Anonymousreply 437August 16, 2019 7:56 AM

... and little boys, R 437.

by Anonymousreply 438August 16, 2019 10:21 AM

Mein Lieblings Dolly Levi.

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by Anonymousreply 439August 16, 2019 10:30 AM

Brooks has the same carbs-and-booze gut that pretty much every middle-aged man gets if they aren't starving themselves and living part-time at Equinox, but the rest of his body is pretty... average. You all talk about him like he's the size of a house.

by Anonymousreply 440August 16, 2019 12:04 PM

[quote][R428] what do you they call it in theater?

Nathan Lane’s Dressing Room

by Anonymousreply 441August 16, 2019 1:31 PM

Theaters only provide food for STARS! If you're not getting food, then you know you're not a star, toots!

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by Anonymousreply 442August 16, 2019 1:43 PM

R439 did they reset the German Dolly to the 1940s? That definitely doesn't look like the 1890s.

by Anonymousreply 443August 16, 2019 2:15 PM
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by Anonymousreply 444August 16, 2019 2:20 PM

Why doesn't Tams-Widmark include the Barbra Streisand keys?

by Anonymousreply 445August 16, 2019 2:20 PM

1950s, r443. I actually like it, though the setting is wildly at odds with the 1890s flavored music.

by Anonymousreply 446August 16, 2019 2:24 PM

[quote]Mein Lieblings Dolly Levi.

Oh, those wacky Germans! Looks like they hired Swoosie Kurtz to mug her way through Dolly. And is she wearing a wedding dress in the finale?

by Anonymousreply 447August 16, 2019 2:32 PM

Patrice Munsel was a mezzanine soprano.

by Anonymousreply 448August 16, 2019 3:15 PM

Indeed,no craft table in the theater. You get a break. 15 minutes to go get your own damned coffee and don't be late about returning, either.

by Anonymousreply 449August 16, 2019 3:28 PM

R21 - I loved the Hytner MIDSUMMER. The line swap for Titania and Oberon was a hoot - seeing Oberon fall for the ass really brought the house down. Yes, the whole thing is pandering to the Gen Z crowd, but I still loved it. It was great fun and the Bottom was the most endearing and original one I have seen.

by Anonymousreply 450August 16, 2019 3:34 PM

"15 minutes to go get your own damned coffee..."

Not true, r449.

by Anonymousreply 451August 16, 2019 3:38 PM

LOLOLOL @ R451.

Sure, Ted Chapin will do it for you. IF you have a big name.

by Anonymousreply 452August 16, 2019 3:40 PM

Ted Chapin always provided me with the best service!

by Anonymousreply 453August 16, 2019 5:02 PM

Behave yourself Yvonne!

by Anonymousreply 454August 16, 2019 5:05 PM

[quote]Ted Chapin always provided me with the best service! —Yvonne De Carlo

I thought Ted Chapin was gay.

by Anonymousreply 455August 16, 2019 5:08 PM

Ted isn't a fag and I'm the dame who can prove it. Now go kick your cat, Ethel.

by Anonymousreply 456August 16, 2019 5:10 PM

[quote] I thought Ted Chapin was gay.—Ethel Shutta

He is. You flashing your beaver at him turned him that way.

by Anonymousreply 457August 16, 2019 5:10 PM

Says the dame wearing a feather duster and bedroom slippers!

by Anonymousreply 458August 16, 2019 5:17 PM

I'm glad I was only a replacement and was spared witnessing Ted's vulgar toadying.

by Anonymousreply 459August 16, 2019 5:22 PM

Ladies, Ladies.... you ALL turned me gay.

by Anonymousreply 460August 16, 2019 5:22 PM

Was EBC hired purely for her name? Wasn't Hal Prince adamant that she never be allowed on as Sally?

by Anonymousreply 461August 16, 2019 5:22 PM

[quote]Ted isn't a fag and I'm the dame who can prove it. Now go kick your cat, Ethel. —Yvonne

Oh, Yvonne. You couldn't even make it through the "Who's That Woman" segment without losing your breath. Nobody believes you could go one round with Ted Chapin.

by Anonymousreply 462August 16, 2019 5:24 PM

[quote] Oh, Yvonne. You couldn't even make it through the "Who's That Woman" segment without losing your breath. Nobody believes you could go one round with Ted Chapin.

None of us could, Ethel. That was about the time in the show when you would let one loose in your adult diaper. We all held our noses and hoped for the best.

Except for Fifi. She's used to smelling shit.

by Anonymousreply 463August 16, 2019 5:29 PM

I can't imagine that Ethel Barrymore Colt's "name" had any cachet in 1971. And what was Prince's plan if Dorothy Collins ever had to call in sick?

Colt's replacement was Jan Clayton - now, she could definitely have played Sally.

by Anonymousreply 464August 16, 2019 7:01 PM

[quote]I can't imagine that Ethel Barrymore Colt's "name" had any cachet in 1971.

Well, Dorothy Collins was no Madonna either.

by Anonymousreply 465August 16, 2019 7:05 PM

[quote]Nobody believes you could go one round with Ted Chapin.

But I could! I would have loved to have gone one round with Ted Chapin, if he hadn't been so busy "taking care of" all those old broads.

by Anonymousreply 466August 16, 2019 7:05 PM

Ethel Barrymore Colt did some minor roles in a handful of Broadway plays in the 1930s. That was it for her "credits."

Dorothy Collins was a star of the Hit Parade, and had been working steadily in stock, regional, and TV throughout the 1960s.

by Anonymousreply 467August 16, 2019 7:09 PM

Why was EBC cast then? Was she Hal's dealer?

by Anonymousreply 468August 16, 2019 7:13 PM

[quote]Ethel Barrymore Colt did some minor roles in a handful of Broadway plays in the 1930s. That was it for her "credits."

She was a fucking BARRYMORE!!!!! They didn't need "credits". It's like saying Little Edie Beale needed "credits".

by Anonymousreply 469August 16, 2019 7:17 PM

For a modern musical play in the 1970s, the Barrymore name didn't mean shit. Colt's famous uncles had been dead for decades, and her mother had been gone for 12 years. The fact that she was in Follies in a minor role meant next to nothing as far as any glory or box office clout for the show.

by Anonymousreply 470August 16, 2019 7:33 PM

I know I'm from another generation, but the only time I've ever heard Ethel Barrymore Colt's name was as part of the Follies cast. But then again, I'd never heard of Ethel Shutta or Fifi D'orsay or Dorothy Collins. However, after researching them, I understand the casting. I still don't get EBC.

by Anonymousreply 471August 16, 2019 7:35 PM

R470 Drew was alive in the '70s.

by Anonymousreply 472August 16, 2019 7:37 PM

I guess there's nothing specific in the script about the time period of Hello, Dolly in terms of dialogue (besides the talk of money and the Harmonia Gardens), but it is weird seeing it take place in the 50s. Guess it's probably cheaper, though. Looks like a neat production though. I'd be interested to see a guy in drag playing Dolly. Looks like the creators have no issue with it since it's apparently been done several times.

by Anonymousreply 473August 16, 2019 7:47 PM

R361 clip of TICK TOCK is missing one important element that made the number really special. In the OBC of Company, the scene takes place on a series of rather steep platforms, with each couple in their "bedroom" on one of the platform levels. So Donna did the number up and down the platforms, dancing over each of the couples and seamlessly maneuvering the steps. The overall effect was spectacular. And of the trio that performed "You Could Drive a Person Crazy", it was Donna's big moment, matching April's "Barcelona" and Marta's "Another Hundred People".

by Anonymousreply 474August 16, 2019 8:37 PM

[quote] it was Donna's big moment, matching April's "Barcelona" and Marta's "Another Hundred People".

April's butterfly monologue. Barcelona is Bobby's song.

April does the monologue, Kathy does the dance, Marta does the song.

by Anonymousreply 475August 16, 2019 8:40 PM

You're right R475. I should have said that April's scene was the Barcelona one, Marta's was the Another Hundred People, and Kathy's was Tick Tock.

by Anonymousreply 476August 16, 2019 8:50 PM

The casting was all purposely second-tier for the show biz veterans, r471. EBC 's value was the Barrymore name (which fit in with the glory of the Follies' heyday), plus she was a trained singer.

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by Anonymousreply 477August 16, 2019 8:51 PM

Is there any nudity in "The Inheritance"? Which actor/role features this? Thanks.

by Anonymousreply 478August 16, 2019 9:21 PM

Lois Smith shows full cooter. Most of the second play is just her flashing the audience. It’s a real crowd pleaser.

by Anonymousreply 479August 16, 2019 9:24 PM

Was any nudity written into I Do, I Do for Rex Smith in that NJ production with Andrea McArdle?

by Anonymousreply 480August 16, 2019 9:27 PM

No nudity to speak of in The Inheritance, sorry.

by Anonymousreply 481August 16, 2019 10:09 PM

The guy playing Adam is nude several times in the play. Great body, looks amazing in tiny shorts then reveals a pretty nice cock

by Anonymousreply 482August 16, 2019 10:32 PM
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by Anonymousreply 483August 16, 2019 10:35 PM

Speaking of "The Inheritance":

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by Anonymousreply 484August 16, 2019 10:39 PM

How Playbills became social media must-shares:

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by Anonymousreply 485August 16, 2019 10:58 PM

LOVE these guys!

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by Anonymousreply 486August 16, 2019 11:00 PM

I saw Ethel Barrymore Colt on the Kenley Circuit as Madame Armfeldt in ALMN in... 1973? 4? She was terrific and got a huge laugh on "Not even figs/Raisins." Christ, I'm probably as old as her now as she was then.

by Anonymousreply 487August 16, 2019 11:59 PM

[quote]I guess there's nothing specific in the script about the time period of Hello, Dolly in terms of dialogue (besides the talk of money and the Harmonia Gardens),

Of course there is. There are lots of period-specific references, but more importantly, I really don't think there were any matchmakers operating in that way in NYC in the 1950s. And, of course, that's the WHOLE POINT of the show.

by Anonymousreply 488August 17, 2019 12:15 AM

Ms. Barrymore Colt died fairly young, in 1977 when she was 65. Her mom and Uncle Lionel lived much longer. John, of course, was only 60 when he died of alcoholism.

by Anonymousreply 489August 17, 2019 12:24 AM

[quote]Drew was alive in the '70s.

What's your point? Drew was born in 1975. She has nothing to do with the discussion of Ethel Barrymore Colt and Follies.

by Anonymousreply 490August 17, 2019 12:50 AM

Drew is a Sally.

by Anonymousreply 491August 17, 2019 12:53 AM

OH, BROTHER!

by Anonymousreply 492August 17, 2019 4:21 PM

r492 = Thelma Ritter

by Anonymousreply 493August 17, 2019 4:32 PM

Miss Ethel Barrymore Colt.

What a looker she was...

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by Anonymousreply 494August 17, 2019 6:43 PM

It's nice that the theater threads have turned into a " Let's try to remember " thread for theater queen fossils. It gives them a good mental exercise before senility.

by Anonymousreply 495August 17, 2019 7:16 PM

[quote]Was any nudity written into I Do, I Do for Rex Smith in that NJ production with Andrea McArdle?

Just boxers and black socks. In great shape for 62.

by Anonymousreply 496August 17, 2019 7:20 PM

So that's what McArdle wore, but what about Rex Smith?

by Anonymousreply 497August 17, 2019 7:45 PM

For no reason whatsoever.....

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by Anonymousreply 498August 17, 2019 7:59 PM
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by Anonymousreply 499August 17, 2019 9:23 PM

It's rarely noted that the one element that any revival of COMPANY is lacking is the original Boris Aronson set. It did wonders for the production.

by Anonymousreply 500August 17, 2019 9:33 PM

Hal adored Boris

by Anonymousreply 501August 17, 2019 9:43 PM

R500 the same is true for FOLLLIES.

Although the recent revival at the National Theatre in London was pretty amazing.

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by Anonymousreply 502August 17, 2019 9:45 PM

Scene from NTC FOLLIES production...

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by Anonymousreply 503August 17, 2019 9:54 PM

...another pic from the NTC FOLLIES production.

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by Anonymousreply 504August 17, 2019 10:01 PM

The NTC production was marred by those hideous costumes.

by Anonymousreply 505August 17, 2019 10:06 PM

R505 It was marred by Loveland being subpar and Imelda being a horror show. The rest of the staging was excellent.

by Anonymousreply 506August 17, 2019 10:14 PM

And the costumes. Especially the costumes of the females, not the showgirls but the older ladies.

by Anonymousreply 507August 17, 2019 10:21 PM

R507 Yes true, Phyllis and Sally looked fucking awful

by Anonymousreply 508August 17, 2019 10:36 PM

R508, She wore green the last time . . .

by Anonymousreply 509August 17, 2019 10:45 PM

Just came back from Hello Dolly! in Boston. Lewis Stadlen was the only actor giving a Broadway level performance. Granted, it was a collage of classic comedians: a little Jimmy Durante, a little W.C. Fields, a little Phil Silvers, a little Ed Wynn, but it worked.

Betty Buckley was odd. After her big reveal at the beginning of the show, I thought she was a chorus member. It wasn't until she came downstage for her monologue that I realized it was Betty Buckley. Throughout the show, I kept thinking of Elizabeth Ashley doing Dolly. (Granted a much thinner Elizabeth Ashley.) Not just because of the hoarseness of her voice, but because her performance was that of an actress who can carry a tune, move a little, but not actually dance. I am not musical, but my partner said she was constantly flat. It was clear that she cannot dance. There were several times that she was clearly supposed to do a simple dance step, but all she did was put her foot out. During the see-saw extended arm movements at the end of the Hello Dolly! number, she was way off (both times). Also, she did not or could not extend her arms out to the side. The fact that they were slightly forward, made her look like a drunken Frankenstein's Monster.

Everyone, except Stadlen, had trouble getting started. The first ten of fifteen minutes, everyone, including Buckley, was declaiming their lines and not connected to the character. Buckley would go in and out. She found her stride during the monologue that precedes Before the Parade Passes By and was great during that number. However, she went in and out during the second act.

As to her getting the laughs, the two times she really hit the mark, she delivered the line in a Carol Channing voice. The rest of the time, she may have hit the mark, but it was more of a bunt than a home run.

The costumes are horrible.

My partner loathed the new vocal arrangements with a passion.

by Anonymousreply 510August 17, 2019 11:26 PM

R510, I was debating whether or not to purchase a ticket. Thanks for helping me decide. After seeing Faye in Tea at Five last month, I don't want another disappointment.

by Anonymousreply 511August 17, 2019 11:34 PM

I should also add that there is no real passerelle for the touring company. They just paint one on the stage floor. Weirdly, the stage floor is red linoleum which makes THE red dress disappear.

by Anonymousreply 512August 18, 2019 12:13 AM

Unless the vocal arrangements are different from what was heard during the Bette-Bernie-Donna run, they aren’t much different from the originals. I can think of only one time when there was something I look for vocally and it was no longer a part of the arrangement. Same with the orchestration. It’s not that different.

by Anonymousreply 513August 18, 2019 12:52 AM

When is Betty’s last town?

by Anonymousreply 514August 18, 2019 12:55 AM

[quote]r511 After seeing Faye in Tea at Five last month, I don't want another disappointment.

But you witnessed what may be a landmark - Dunaway's last professional job!

by Anonymousreply 515August 18, 2019 1:01 AM

[quote]When is Betty’s last town?

Boston, where the show is now, is Betty's last stand. Carolee Carmello takes over next month in Kansas City.

by Anonymousreply 516August 18, 2019 1:14 AM

I hear everything's up to date there, r516.

by Anonymousreply 517August 18, 2019 1:29 AM

Yes, R517, they've gone about as fer as they can go.

by Anonymousreply 518August 18, 2019 1:33 AM

That was rather tasteless, R499.

And delightful.

by Anonymousreply 519August 18, 2019 1:47 AM

Bette trips and brings down the house and I love the train. I want to know how they do it. It takes up most the stage across yet the Shubert Theater isn't that wide on either side of the stage, but there it goes.

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by Anonymousreply 520August 18, 2019 1:52 AM

I'm catching up on all the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend numbers, r519.

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by Anonymousreply 521August 18, 2019 2:36 AM

Paula's turn....

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by Anonymousreply 522August 18, 2019 2:44 AM

After that clip in R520, I am shocked. Midler really could not sing her part in the song.

Was she that bad all the way through?

by Anonymousreply 523August 18, 2019 12:30 PM

R523, Listen to the cast recording, she avoids all higher notes.

by Anonymousreply 524August 18, 2019 1:16 PM

I never want to hear Midler attempt to "sing" anything, not ever again.

by Anonymousreply 525August 18, 2019 1:51 PM

It’s Broadway Massacre Sunday!

by Anonymousreply 526August 18, 2019 2:59 PM

What becomes of the theatre house staff when a show closes? The ushers and usherettes? Are they unemployed, or still drawing a salary? What do they do with themselves between shows?

I grew up here seeing shows with some stereotypically rude and nasty Bway ushers, but I've had nice experiences with a few of them, including a long subway ride uptown with an older woman whose whole family worked ushing, box office, backstage. She was one of the most enthusiastic and cheerful theatre fans I've ever met.

by Anonymousreply 527August 18, 2019 3:09 PM

[quote]r523 I am shocked. Midler really could not sing her part in the song. Was she that bad all the way through?

She really is awfully lackadaisical (!)

by Anonymousreply 528August 18, 2019 4:18 PM

Unemployed.

by Anonymousreply 529August 18, 2019 4:39 PM

Two cuties sing about what happens after a show closes.

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by Anonymousreply 530August 18, 2019 5:28 PM

[quote] After that clip in [R520], I am shocked. Midler really could not sing her part in the song. Was she that bad all the way through?

She earned her Tony. She was wonderful and sang it just fine. You think Carol Channing was a great singer?

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by Anonymousreply 531August 18, 2019 6:23 PM

Having seen two full performances of DOLLY! with Bette, and clips of several other performances, I would say she has reached an age where her voice is much better some nights than others. Nor surprising, especially since the voice itself was never that solid or special. She became a star because of her personality, her comic talent and energy, and her ability to sell a song.

by Anonymousreply 532August 18, 2019 6:28 PM

Too cute not to share....

[quote]Service dogs in Canada caught a performance of “Billy Elliot: The Musical” as part of their training last week.

And cute images of the pooches peering over the backs of seats at the Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario, are now going viral.

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by Anonymousreply 533August 19, 2019 2:41 AM

What would they have thought of Faye in TEA AT FIVE?

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by Anonymousreply 534August 19, 2019 2:43 AM

I assume they're not seeing CATS.

by Anonymousreply 535August 19, 2019 2:45 PM

Uh ... it says right there that they are seeing Billy Elliott, r535.

by Anonymousreply 536August 19, 2019 10:40 PM

[quote]What would they have thought of Faye in TEA AT FIVE?

Faye was one of the options, but we voted and no one wanted to see that old bag.

by Anonymousreply 537August 19, 2019 10:42 PM

Has Aaron Tveit resumed his habit of taking a stage door twink home with him?

by Anonymousreply 538August 20, 2019 12:37 AM

Yes. He puts them in a cabinet next to his Hummels.

by Anonymousreply 539August 20, 2019 12:42 AM

R536 = a Cats fan.

by Anonymousreply 540August 20, 2019 1:21 AM

Theater gossip threads don't seem to get much traffic these days. I guess there isn't much to talk about in August.

by Anonymousreply 541August 20, 2019 2:48 PM

No one wants to talk about "Caroline, or Change" and "A Soldier's Play" coming back?

by Anonymousreply 542August 20, 2019 6:02 PM

R542, Or how Moulin Rouge is a thrilling theatrical experience?

by Anonymousreply 543August 20, 2019 7:57 PM

For absolutely no reason......

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by Anonymousreply 544August 20, 2019 11:06 PM

How about a new musical about famous people who took LSD. Pity it's directed by James alpine. That kills it for me. Even with Tony Yazbeck as Cary Grant. I wonder if Ryan Cannon is a character and whether she'll be suing.

by Anonymousreply 545August 20, 2019 11:19 PM

James Lapine. But he directs like a tree.

by Anonymousreply 546August 20, 2019 11:20 PM

[quote] I wonder if Ryan Cannon is a character and whether she'll be suing.

Dyan Cannon? It takes place in the '50s.

by Anonymousreply 547August 20, 2019 11:29 PM

I never miss a Sharon D. Clarke musical.

by Anonymousreply 548August 20, 2019 11:49 PM

Dyan claimed she divorced Cary Grant because he forced her to try LSD.

by Anonymousreply 549August 21, 2019 12:13 AM

They married in 1965 after a 5 year courtship. Close enough?

by Anonymousreply 550August 21, 2019 12:35 AM

Link re: FLYING OVER SUNSET. The concept is so insane.... I really hope they can make it work.

It's coming to Lincoln Center after a couple of staged readings... on Martha's Vineyard.

Now that's balls.

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by Anonymousreply 551August 21, 2019 12:43 AM

Link re: CAROLINE, OR CHANGE.

I'm sure Sharon D. Clarke is wonderful in the role, and all. I'll be sure to check her out.

But there's something kind of depressing to see yet another iconic lead role in an American musical story created by American writers inhabited by a Brit actor... on Broadway. Again.

To me, at least. We don't do enough to nurture our own talent.

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by Anonymousreply 552August 21, 2019 12:52 AM

My last link, I promise (for now)... because there shouldn't ever be a shortage of POV on a theatre thread.

The NYT and Jesse Green get called out by one of the BROADWAY BOUNTY HUNTER folks.

Worth a read.

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by Anonymousreply 553August 21, 2019 1:07 AM

[quote]How about a new musical about famous people who took LSD. Pity it's directed by James alpine. That kills it for me.

Same here. A friend once described Lapine as talent-free, and I would say that's maybe only a tiny bit of an exaggeration.

by Anonymousreply 554August 21, 2019 1:56 AM

How to explain Sondheim's and others' love for Lapine? He's one of those anointed few who have been steadily employed in theatre for decades now, and seemingly adored by TPTB.

I don't think much of him as a director or a writer, but I'm not one of TPTB.

by Anonymousreply 555August 21, 2019 4:09 AM

The more successful someone is in theater the Queens hate them. Always remember a Theater Queen can always sing, act, direct choreograph, and paint sets better than any professional. Just ask one.

by Anonymousreply 556August 21, 2019 9:09 AM

Does this LSD show really need that huge Vivian Beaumont Theater stage? This seems on paper to be a tiny show.

by Anonymousreply 557August 21, 2019 9:10 AM

I would never, ever have thought of Tony Yazbeck to play Cary Grant, but I can kind of see it.

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by Anonymousreply 558August 21, 2019 10:23 AM

Let’s hope he gets naked while he’s tripping and Imagines that he’s having sex with Randolph Scott.

by Anonymousreply 559August 21, 2019 11:16 AM

John Behlmann for Randolph Scott!

by Anonymousreply 560August 21, 2019 11:26 AM

Betsy Drake was his 1950s wife.

by Anonymousreply 561August 21, 2019 11:47 AM

I love Annie Golden, but what is up with her choice in musicals? I just found my Mimi Le Duck promo CD. What a turkey that show was. Has she done anything good since The Full Monty?

by Anonymousreply 562August 21, 2019 11:54 AM

Her choice? She's a working theater actress. You think she has a choice to turn down work?

by Anonymousreply 563August 21, 2019 12:05 PM

R563, most actresses her age have a choice. They get a teaching job, have a husband, sell jewelry, do real estate, etc.

But since you apparently live in a bubble, she has been in Orange is the New Black since 2013.

by Anonymousreply 564August 21, 2019 12:27 PM
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by Anonymousreply 565August 21, 2019 1:19 PM

r552 = Tonya Pinkins

by Anonymousreply 566August 21, 2019 1:26 PM

[quote]But since you apparently live in a bubble, she has been in Orange is the New Black since 2013.

Oh I forgot about that million dollar an episode paycheck for being a twelfth billed supporting player on a streamimg channel.

by Anonymousreply 567August 21, 2019 2:13 PM

[quote]The more successful someone is in theater the Queens hate them. Always remember a Theater Queen can always sing, act, direct choreograph, and paint sets better than any professional. Just ask one.

Ah, that old nonsense line. You don't have to have the talent to write a play or direct one yourself to recognize if someone else can do it well. Lapine has minimal talent as a writer, and zero talent as a director. Despite disasters such as that ANNIE revival he "directed," he will always continue to be hired and produced because of the name he earned doing the Sondheim shows, even though those shows worked in spite of, rather than because of, his books and his direction.

[quote]I love Annie Golden, but what is up with her choice in musicals? I just found my Mimi Le Duck promo CD. What a turkey that show was. Has she done anything good since The Full Monty?

I liked a lot of BROADWAY BOUNTY HUNTER, but also, the role was written for her AND about her. I really don't think she was going to pass on that one.

by Anonymousreply 568August 21, 2019 2:20 PM

That song Annie Golden is singing is from "Starmania."

I wish she'd sing "Ziggy" from the same show.

by Anonymousreply 569August 21, 2019 2:31 PM

I didn't get to see Broadway Bounty Hunter, but if it was as verbose and unfocused at the blogpost R553 linked to, I'm not surprised it got middling reviews.

by Anonymousreply 570August 21, 2019 3:40 PM

Oh! This just came on. We shall see.....

Law & Order

TODAY, 9:00 AM ON BOUNC 34.3, 1 HR 1992 TV-PG

Season 3 • Episode 9 • Point of View

A murder probe by Logan and his partner, Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), leads to a suspect whose lawyer (Elaine Stritch) knows Stone from law school. Mary: Lisa Eichhorn. Scanlon: Alan North...

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by Anonymousreply 571August 21, 2019 4:11 PM

Lucy's suicide attempt. Starts at 2:00.

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by Anonymousreply 572August 21, 2019 5:32 PM

[quote]Ah, that old nonsense line. You don't have to have the talent to write a play or direct one yourself to recognize if someone else can do it well. Lapine has minimal talent as a writer, and zero talent as a director. Despite disasters such as that ANNIE revival he "directed," he will always continue to be hired and produced because of the name he earned doing the Sondheim shows, even though those shows worked in spite of, rather than because of, his books and his direction.

The twelve Tony nominations and three wins, ten Drama Desk nominations with five wins and not just for Sondheim shows plus the Pulitzer Prize might contradict you but of course you'll argue that the Tony, DD and Pulitzer committees are all wrong too. You proved my point.

by Anonymousreply 573August 21, 2019 11:08 PM

What point did I prove? I stand by my opinion that Lapine is virtually talent-free, and the things for which he has won nominations and awards for were mostly cases of reflected glory where he happened to be working with great talents. That even applies to shows like ACT ONE, in which case he worked with a great talent who has been dead for decades. You are free to disagree. You probably loved that ANNIE revival, didn't you? I know you did. Come on, admit it.

by Anonymousreply 574August 22, 2019 1:05 AM

How the hell was Lucy the third guest?

by Anonymousreply 575August 22, 2019 1:51 AM

They saved the best for last, r575.

by Anonymousreply 576August 22, 2019 2:04 AM

You save the best for last, r576.

by Anonymousreply 577August 22, 2019 2:05 AM

The Lehman Trilogy is coming in for the Spring rush. Going to be a tough one between this and The Inheritance come TONY time.

by Anonymousreply 578August 22, 2019 4:24 PM

I saw "The Lehman Trilogy" at the Armory. I thought that it was a bore. Great acting and a great set but the play was boring... It is all tell, tell, tell. Maybe if it had not been so darn long, I might have enjoyed it a little bit more. I also notice that the play is cast with more actors in italy and Spain....does anyone know the reason?

by Anonymousreply 579August 22, 2019 4:44 PM

I loved BROADWAY BOUNTY HUNTER and loved Annie Golden in it. It was energetic, fun, and mostly mindless in the best possible way. Broadway material? Not at all. But it deserved to find a bigger audience.

by Anonymousreply 580August 22, 2019 5:15 PM

I saw it with Anne L Nathan and I really enjoyed it too. Silly but fun.

by Anonymousreply 581August 22, 2019 5:51 PM

Alan Green is sexy and has a big hot ass.

by Anonymousreply 582August 22, 2019 6:26 PM

and not SLAVE PLAY R578?

by Anonymousreply 583August 22, 2019 6:36 PM

“Overt appropriation”? That’s a new one. Two prominent Jewish actresses call foul over the lack of Jewish performers in a production of Falsettos.

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by Anonymousreply 584August 23, 2019 3:31 AM

" Slave Play " is a piece of shit, but will be very popular amongst New York theater white apologists who believe that they are oh so much more intellectually advanced than anyone else. Expect to hear a lot of bullshit from white people who want to start discussion groups to discuss why all white people are inherently racist. A half hour of lecture, repeated over and over until you want to scream, " Stop!" Then you get to see a naked Paul Nolan and it makes it better. But, not enough to save this drivel.

by Anonymousreply 585August 23, 2019 3:50 AM

Miriam has never been a shrinking violet.

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by Anonymousreply 586August 23, 2019 3:52 AM

I hope Slave Play crashes and burns.

by Anonymousreply 587August 23, 2019 4:36 AM

Who's the guy to Miriam's left?

by Anonymousreply 588August 23, 2019 1:56 PM

British comedian Jimmy Carr.

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by Anonymousreply 589August 23, 2019 2:28 PM

Slave Play will be the subject of articles in the pseudo-intellectual publications and will be the favorite topic of the New York theater "intelligentsia" who will make it the topic of conversation at their boring society gatherings, theorizing about all of the subtle nuances of inherent white racism and decrying how terrible white people have been to blacks over the years. Then, they'll scream at their black maid for not supplying clean wine glasses and complain that the black butler had the nerve to ask for the night off so he could visit his sick mother, which would leave the party butler-less.

by Anonymousreply 590August 23, 2019 2:36 PM

I hate preachy, SJW screed plays as much as anyone, but I wouldn't say that SLAVE PLAY falls into that category. I found it very well done and thought-provoking when I saw it at NYTW.

On a somewhat related note, casting has been announced for the tour of FROZEN, and guess what? As on Broadway, the role of Hans, the gorgeous prince who turns out to be evil, is going to be played by a white guy, and the role of Kristoff, the sweetheart good-guy, is going to be played by an actor of color. Aside from the fact that a dark-skinned actor is distractingly incongruous in a show set in Norway, I guess this proves that, henceforth, black people will never be cast to play villains in anything, and the villain will always be played by a white guy. Good job, Disney.

by Anonymousreply 591August 23, 2019 2:40 PM

I don't see what's wrong about that, r591. You sound racist-ish.

by Anonymousreply 592August 23, 2019 4:09 PM

You can thank Tom Schumacher for that.

by Anonymousreply 593August 23, 2019 4:22 PM

Speaking of Tom Schumacher, whatever happened to the accusations of his abuse (of males) during the "Me Too" craze?

by Anonymousreply 594August 23, 2019 5:10 PM

Slave Play keeps failing upward. Yale hated it. The O'Neill hated it. NYTW hated it.

And now Broadway.

by Anonymousreply 595August 23, 2019 5:44 PM

We can't wait to hate SLAVE PLAY!

by Anonymousreply 596August 23, 2019 6:24 PM

Wow. And STILL this thread isn't over!

by Anonymousreply 597August 23, 2019 8:53 PM

White liberal guilt = Slave Play. "It was written by a black man from Yale, who says over and over again that whites are all racist, no matter how they treat blacks. Oh my God, that means I'm racist. What can I do to make up for my wrongdoings.. That means my black spouse and friends subconsciously hate me, but need to become woke to the truth. This play will do it." It's not thought-provoking as much as it should have been. It's bullshit.

by Anonymousreply 598August 23, 2019 9:05 PM

New Thread

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by Anonymousreply 599August 23, 2019 9:15 PM

Bajour!

by Anonymousreply 600August 23, 2019 9:18 PM
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