THEATRE GOSSIP #366: "The Overt Appropriation of Miriam Margolyes" Edition

Wasn't Miriam very much for gay characters not being played by gay actors?

Isn't it Marvin, Mendel and Trina and the little boy who are the actual Jews in the show? The article makes it seem like the whole cast is supposed to be Jewish and isn't.

Margolyes has a lot of nerve! Didn't she just spend a season playing a COE nun on Call The Midwife? Shouldn't she have allowed that role to go to a white Protestant girl?

Whizzer is half-jewish.

She also played Phryne's aunt on "Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries;" there was never any suggestion that anyone in that family was Jewish either.

The funny thing is that all these old hags, Margolyes and Maureen Lipman, can't audition for Falsettos. There are no yenta roles in Falsettos.

The Moulin Rouge Broadway cast recording is available for pre-order.

Don't be dissin' Miriam. She will cut you on tv.

Great title, OP.

Just read a column called Hollywood by Florabelle Muir (I ain't lying) in the January 11, 1967 NY Daily News.

Florabel reports that Andre Previn and Alan Jay Lerner are two thirds finished with the music and lyrics for the Broadway play "Coco".

Though Madame Coco the noted couturier and business woman, is a diminutive human dynamo five feet tall, it now appears almost certain that Rosalind Russell will return to the stage to star as "Coco" in fall of 1967.

"Coco" is scheduled for rehearsals after Roz completes her Universal Studio starring role in "Rosie" with a Samuel Taylor screenplay based on the Ruth Gordon Broadway play "A Very Rich Woman".

Well Roz made the picture with Sandra Dee but obviously almost certainly didn't star in "Coco" and the show wouldn't open until late 1969.

Margolyes is a North London Jewess and a VERY clever voice-actress but she's like the late Robert Morley in that she's physically too much of a caricature to play regular dramatic roles.

She's recently started playing up to dopey people and Graham Norton. She's been caught out telling lies about owning five houses and anecdotes which are patently false. I think she's edging into Alzheimers.

Rachel Brosnahan is doing Jewface as well, and no one seems to care.

How many black jews did Rita play?

Brosnahan’s mother is Jewish, dumbass/R12.

Well, she played my mom on my last series!

Most importantly, are there any handsome men in the London FALSETTOS?

Who is the younger guy sitting to the right of Miriam in that clip at r8?

Oliver Savile, who plays Whizzer, is very good looking r16.

He certainly has a good body.

R17 He's a wannabe comedian who does some panel show sitting behind a desk on British TV.

He makes obnoxious smart-ass remarks dismissing ordinary English people.

Any London DLers going to see Torch Song (with DL fave Dino Fetscher in a supporting role)? I think previews just started.

Jimmy Carr, R17

Jimmy Carr is an obnoxious Islington Luvvie who can only play to audiences who sound drunk.

That’s Jimmy Carr? I thought Jimmy Carr was that pudgy blond comedian who is often on Graham Norton’s show.

[quote]Rachel Brosnahan is doing Jewface as well, and no one seems to care.

It's revenge for Dorothy and Sophia Petrillo.

R24 That pudgy, bespectacled, acid-voiced queen is Alan Carr.

Alan Carr once dismissed Mike Nichols as a possible director for La Cage Aux Folles. Hence, The Birdcage.

There's an excellent documentary on Allan Carr on Amazon Prime.

I saw it, r28. It was good, I guess, certainly well done, but I came away from it really disliking Carr. Reading Arthur Laurents' letter to him about the whole Robert Stack/La Cage mess just made me really what a lucky pretender he really was.

The British pudgy, bespectacled, acid-voiced queen Alan Carr R24 is different from the American Allen Carr you (R27) are talking about

Mikes take was great

Saw a really good play at Lincoln Center last night about homophobia in Africa called "The Rolling Stone." Very well-written, well-acted and a million times better than the horrid "Fairview," which we saw just a few weeks ago.

Are you new? This is Datalounge, you're not supposed to like shows, but if by chance you do, never admit it.

I heard the story about the Robert Stack/Arthur Laurents debacle from a former Cagelle. After a mind-numbingly bad dress rehearsal .which was the first time Laurents actually saw Stack couldn't dance or sing, Arthur blew up. "You can't sing, you're not a dancer! What the hell are you doing?" Stack told Arthur to go fuck himself, and said "I could be laying in the sun at my beach house in California" and gave Arthur the bird, then stormed off. Arthur proceeded to have a mass meltdown in front of the entire cast and crew.

Roz Russell's film ROSIE is a guilty pleasure. Not good by any means, but great fun, with Roz as a Queen Lear, a wealthy woman whose evil daughters are trying to get her committed.

R35, And devoted granddaughter Sandra Dee comes to her rescue.

Rosalind shot the movie and it was released on November 22, 1967. "Coco" didn't open until almost two years later on December 18, 1969.

Roz knew a stinker when she heard the score.

Why didn't the Coco producers have Ginger Rogers replace Kate on Broadway rather than have her tour with the show?

Wouldn't she have sold more tickets than Danielle Darrieux?

The Allen Carr documentary was only OK, primarily because it didn't really get under the man's skin. He didn't seem to have real intimates. At one point a blond, long since twink, man recounts being, eh, treated by Carr. His life was built around what he could do for other people. There wasn't much more, or at least the documentary doesn't provide all that much more.

Is Slave Play at least a comedy or does it treat it really seriously? I could see it being a great concept for a comedy - an overly woke white person starts to feel like they might be racist to their black spouse. There could be a few laughs in that.

As much laughter as having a case of explosive diarrhea.

I think the rheumatoid arthritis and/or the cancer was her reason for backing out, r38.

The score didn't stink as much when actually sung, r38.

[quote]Is Slave Play at least a comedy or does it treat it really seriously? I could see it being a great concept for a comedy - an overly woke white person starts to feel like they might be racist to their black spouse. There could be a few laughs in that.

There actually is a lot of humor in the scenes where the couples are meeting with the two lesbians (pychiatrists? couples counselors?) who are overseeing the role playing. I think the play has its flaws, but I really got a lot out of it, and I did not find it preachy because it looks at the issues from various perspectives. And yes, not to be all superficial and whatever, but that sex scene at the very end involving a seemingly fully naked Paul Alexander Nolan and one of the actresses in the show (not sure of her name, I think it's Joaquina Kalukango) is absolutely worth the price of admission because his body is so amazing and the simulated sex is SCORCHING hot.

This latest production of Chicago in Australia looks pretty good. And yeah, there’s a hot guy dancer in “All That Jazz,” he’s just behind Velma’s left shoulder.

Those computers on the anchor desk look ridiculous,

Successful beyond anyone's expectation, a two week Encore run is still playing all over the world 25 years later I guess we'll never see a recreation of Fosse's version in my lifetime.

We got a brief glimpse of it, r48, in Fosse/Verdon, which recreated the very colorful physical look of it. Also, there’s some footage on YouTube of the tab version Chita did in Vegas (playing Roxie). To my surprise, it was based on the original, not the revival.

I had that the revival has become the template now.

Well, there's this, but it's so dark. Chita is nothing short of amazing in her Velma Takes the Stand at 4:00.

Even in the 70s we all thought the costumes were hideous.

And who all would you be representing, r51?

So why is Lightening Thief coming to Broadway? The tour was a total flop. Lost its entire investment. What makes them think it will work on Broadway, even in a limited engagement?

Is OKLAHOMA going to make it to January? I saw it last night and the house had a lot of empty seats.

That’s nothing compared to the empty seats they’ll be seeing if that tour really happens.

[quote]Is OKLAHOMA going to make it to January?

Damn, I hope not.

[quote]I saw it last night and the house had a lot of empty seats.

How sad. What a pity. (TEE-HEE!)

That OKLAHOMA made me start, and it was not the damn chili. Sooooooo baaaaaad.

[quote]Even in the 70s we all thought the costumes were hideous.

[quote]And who all would you be representing, [R51]?

I'm not R51 but he is representing anyone with eyes.

Kinda surprised to see his chorus work in "Chicago" being very reminiscent of Pippin. As if he was running out of ideas already.

Great costume but too bad it hides such a cutie.

OP, I know the reference is from the previous thread, but is your title also an around the way nod to The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake?

r59 is into furries.

It looks like the forthcoming Dutch revival of Annie will have a hot bitch playing Miss Hannigan (the fabulous Willemijn Verkaik) and a Daddy Warbucks who looks mixed race. The kid who’s playing the title role looks and sounds great.

The audience better not sing along when I see the Dutch premiere of Anastasia in October. The guy playing the male lead isn’t as hot as Ramin Karimloo but the girl playing the title role looks good enough.

Bobby’s back to being a guy again-well, at least he is in the Netherlands.

I saw “Chicago” in the 1970s, and I loved the whole look of it, including the costumes. Of course, I’m just speaking for myself. I wouldn’t dream of saying “we all loved the costumes” as if I were speaking as a representative for all the gay theatre goers in the 1970s.

The only costume in the current one that can match the original is Roxy’s black lace outfit.

R60, I am probably the only other person here to get that.

I got it.....does the leading lady make her entrance carrying a dozen packages that hide her face and start talking before the door is even open?

[quote][R59] is into furries.

Ha! Not quite, but I wouldn't mind being into that guy.

The Public has been sending me emails lately to renew my support. Is it terrible that I feel like, okay, as an aspiring playwright myself, I've sent them a few plays over the years that they rejected, so why should I give them my money to produce someone else's work? And believe me, I've been a supporter for years now and have seen some great plays there but have also seen a lot of shit, to which I walk out of saying "So they always turn me down but yet threw money at that piece of crap. Okay." And it's not even just about my work -- to make ends meet, I've also applied several times for office jobs at the Public (I've had other part-time jobs in the theater industry over the years) but never ever heard a word back from them about that either. Obviously, they're just not into me but then keep sending me emails asking for my support?

Perhaps I'll send them back an email saying "Go ask all of those playwrights you gave my money to these past few years. Thank you."

Don't they make enough from ticket sales, sponsors and revenue from shows like "A Chorus Line", "Hair" and "Hamilton" they debuted?

No, I got it too, r66 (thanks to “The Season”). And I’d kill to have that window card.

I follow Brent Barrett on IG and he's apparently playing Miss Hannigan (in drag, of course) in some regional production of Annie. Not sure where but he's posted several photos of himself in costume and he looks terrifying.

Glam Miss Hannigan!

R73, He looks like Raquel Welch.

He should do DRESSED TO KILL - THE MUSICAL.

I think he looks like Patrick Swayze in To Wong Foo.

Isn’t someone doing a To Wong Foo musical? Maybe Brent’s angling for the lead.

Maybe Brent is a tad too old for Wong Foo but the right age for Hannigan? Let's face it, he's 66.

62, actually, r78. When you're that ancient, adding 4 years is a big deal.

66. Trust me. We went to school together.

FROZEN offering huge discounts. Closing January 5th perhaps?

I’ve fucked Brent Barrett. His “official” birthdate, Feb 28, 1957, is actually the truth. He definitely was not 60 in 2013.

What’s also true is that he fucked up his looks by having work done a few years back. Up close, it actually looks pretty good, but it’s pretty obvious in pictures. However, he didn’t have nearly as much done as his old fuck buddy Davis Gaines did.

That’s pretty shocking that Frozen is not doing well at this point. Disney thought it was going to be their next “Lion King.” Instead, it was their next Tarzan.

In all fairness, Frozen is doing considerably better than Tarzan ever did.

[quote]In all fairness, Frozen is doing considerably better than Tarzan ever did.

Both are doing better than Spiderman Turn Off The Lights, which killed one or two people and paralyzed another one or two.

R82, Davis Gaines has a very impressive package. I saw him as Bobby in Company about 25 years ago in Boston. As he undressed for the Barcelona number, I saw from the second row that his boxer briefs had hiked up and were hugging his junk. It looked like he had a throw pillow stuffed in there.

[quote]It looked like he had a throw pillow stuffed in there.

He did!

SUNSET BLVD. Toronto Press Reel with Diahann Carroll, Rex Smith, Walter Charles, and Anita Louise Combe. I've seen almost every Norma Desmond, and IMHO, Carroll's mad scene was the best of the lot. Her Norma was much more vulnerable than Patti, Betty, or Glenn. And she was a real beauty onstage. The voice is solid for a woman in her 60s (she's 84 now).

R68 Tom Zohar describes himself as "Loud and Jewish and gay".

I suspect he is here among us.

Thanks for that R88. What a missed opportunity not having Rex Smith and his legendary cock in a speedo for the title number. And I had forgotten how many crappy songs are in that score.

Solid, r88, yes. But that score really isn't a good fit for her voice. She doesn't have a brassy belt. But.....neither does Glenn, so what do I know?

Did any of you see Chita do it in London?

Since when is Hannigan a glamour queen?

"Xanadu" going out with drag queens.

Ali Stroker singing the Star Spangled Banner at tonight’s opening night of the US Open Tennis.

After Ben Platt just shrieked through about 20 minutes of horrendousness wearing red, white and blue satin.

Diahann Carroll is a world class beauty and still looks great for her 80's. Rex still looks great for 62. For me, no matter who is playing Norma, the scene where she is sitting there and Hog-eye the spotlight operator says lets get a look at you and the music swells as he moves the light is just thrilling, every time.

[quote]Since when is Hannigan a glamour queen?

There’s a new girl in town, and she’s glam, darling! You think I’d suffer wearing heels to look like a frump? I’ve given her a back story , too. Miss Hannigan was a college beauty contest winner who lost everything except a few gowns and furs in the stock market crash, which is why she had to get a job. There! Makes total sense.

think virginia woolf will be any good with laurie (I don't care for her) Metcalfe? her hubby role is miscast too. soo many fun actors/actresses could hve been picked.

R99 As Eddie is now a trans woman does that men George is also a woman now? Or is Eddie taking cis mens roles?

Tom Hiddleston is very good in Betrayal. Charlie Cox is not. I was underwhelmed.

[quote]think virginia woolf will be any good with laurie (I don't care for her) Metcalfe? her hubby role is miscast too. soo many fun actors/actresses could hve been picked.

How are they miscast?

Isn't Martha described as (over)ripely sexual or something like that?

R102 Edward cannot act straight, as he is a woman, and Laurie is seemingly not slutty enough

Metcalfe need take a break, she been in shows every season....we bway buzzards tired o lookin at her.....izzard might be fun.

Metcalf as George and Izzard as Martha... that might be interesting.

ide go see that fer shure.

[quote]Metcalf as George and Izzard as Martha... that might be interesting.

For about 5 minutes.

[quote]Metcalfe need take a break, she been in shows every season....we bway buzzards tired o lookin at her

You may be joking or half-joking, but I agree with this. She has become overexposed on Broadway because she has been such a pig in coming back in a new production EVERY FREAKING SEASON, which only makes it more obvious that she uses the same bag of tricks in every role. I used to like her, and I probably still would like her if I saw her much less frequently.

Martha is in her mid-forties. George is in his late thirties.

This cast is about 20 years too old.

Metcalf is 64, which means she was about 44 years old when they started playing the game about the son.

That feels weird.

As a frequent theatre goer, I can not see yet another play with her in it. She the same in all of them, good, yet.....alwys a bit frantic.

She was hilarious in a supporting role in Making Mr Right, which is soon being broadcast on one of the substations

Who are these people forcing you to see her shows?

Martha is 52, and George a few years younger.

who would we want to see play George and martha?

chris crissley for martha, …. faye dunaway for George.

Why not give Charlize Theron a whack at it?

Nathan Lane as Martha, Neil Patrick Harris as George, Jonathan Groff as Honey and Tom Hiddleston as Nick

Hiddleston as martha…..hugh Jackman as honey....whoopi as nick......Roseanne as George!

[quote]Who are these people forcing you to see her shows?

Your question is beside the point. Of course, no one HAS to see Metcalf in anything. But maybe R111 and I aren't the only ones who would avoid buying tickets to see her in anything new at this point, just out of Metcalf fatigue, and that is obviously not good for the box office. Plus, the last play she did was a waste of time. And also, she has had some unfortunate plastic surgery in the past few years. If she could allow herself to look her age, she might be able to play some older, different types of characters, which might work against the impression that she plays every character exactly the same way.

Is there anyone Gaines didn't fuck?

Did anyone ever see Laurie Metcalf when she was doing shows at Steppenwolf? Did she have the same acting tics then that she has now?

geesh

major nosejob on her huh

we see Bernadette peters as martha….

[quote]we see Bernadette peters as martha….

She's a bit old now, but 20 years ago, I think she may have worked. I could see her being her father's pet and being coddled by a university administrator. I think Elizabeth Taylor gave that impression in the movie. I always thought that Uta Hagen and Elaine Stritch were always too hard in the role. You could never see them being coddled by their father because they were too much the hellion.

I was joking !!!! Bernadette should have been put out to pasture 15 yrs ago !!!!!

Hog-eye? Isn’t it Hawk-eye?

[quote] I always thought that Uta Hagen and Elaine Stritch were always too hard in the role. You could never see them being coddled by their father because they were too much the hellion.

I think we're supposed to think that Martha had a very different personality when she was much younger than the personality she has in middle age. The fact that her marriage to George and other life experiences has changed her greatly -- as many people are changed greatly by their life experience, often for the worse -- is a major point of the play

[quote]I think we're supposed to think that Martha had a very different personality when she was much younger than the personality she has in middle age. The fact that her marriage to George and other life experiences has changed her greatly -- as many people are changed greatly by their life experience, often for the worse -- is a major point of the play

While I agree with that, in the time period that the play takes place, it's a bit difficult to believe the UH and ES interpretations. They were coming from an era where women were petted and treated as objects. Their harsh demeanors in the role seemed too hard. Nobody changes personality that much.

I fear laurie will be too dainty, virginia is a mean nasty old drunk, liz taylor did nail that part of it, yes

loooooooved sandy dennis in that movie. she was/is the luminous icon that haunts the theatres of the TRUE DIVAS.

[quote]Hog-eye? Isn’t it Hawk-eye?

Hawkeye is correct, R126.

[quote]While I agree with that, in the time period that the play takes place, it's a bit difficult to believe the UH and ES interpretations. They were coming from an era where women were petted and treated as objects. Their harsh demeanors in the role seemed too hard. Nobody changes personality that much.

Why are you so insistent about this on no basis? Do you really believe that, in the 1960s, there were NO women who became hard, brash, vulgar, and loud in middle age? Plus you seem to forget the significant fact that Martha is supposed to be drunk pretty much throughout VIRGINIA WOOLF. Do you understand the play at all?

[quote]Hog-eye? Isn’t it Hawk-eye?

Glennie so garbles her words that it's hard to tell what the hell she's saying. That's why "Up With People" never gave her a solo and put her on the back row.

[quote]I fear laurie will be too dainty, virginia is a mean nasty old drunk,

She has been light years away from "dainty" in her recent stage appearances. I guess you missed all of those, which is surprising, because she keeps coming back year after year after year....

Bad Seed's Nancy Kelly did "Virginia Woolf" a lot. One would imagine she gave a well-thought out, carefully constructed performance. She was a respected actress, a Tony winner and an Oscar and Emmy nominee.

Sorry but it IS hog-eye.

Nance as Martha.....

When Nancy Kelly learned her love scenes in a car!

R135, Correct.

"When she actually gets onto DeMille's set, she ends up being surrounded by movie people who remember and admire her. Hog-Eye (John "Skins" Miller) turns the spotlight toward her for a second, and we (and Norma) briefly get a sense of the glory that once was."

Love that Confidential cover. "Why Liberace's Theme Song Should Be 'Mad About the Boy'!"

Why didn't anyone tell us that Meg Tilly played Martha in Virginia Woolf? Did anyone see her? She seems like a very off the wall choice.

Laurie Metcalf has become a classic case of oversaturation leading to irrational hatred. It happens to anyone who does too many plays or movies during a short period of time. Personally, I'd watch that woman read the phone book every season if she wanted to. She owns that stage whenever she's on it and I'd prefer to watch her than some bland chorus girl who lucked out into a lead role in one of the many crappy musicals I've seen in the past 15 years. Give me a great performer like Metcalf, LuPone, Peters, etc. any day of the week.

....

[quote]Give me a great performer like Metcalf, LuPone, Peters, etc. any day of the week.

Two out of three ain't bad. LuPoine isn't that great of a performer. She's great in loud, shouty roles, but she's never been able to pull it down and do nuance. Her acting ability is shouty and more shouty.

[quote] Who are these people forcing you to see her shows?

{quote]Your question is beside the point. Of course, no one HAS to see Metcalf in anything. But maybe [R111] and I aren't the only ones who would avoid buying tickets to see her in anything new at this point, just out of Metcalf fatigue, and that is obviously not good for the box office.

No, your point is in your world you are tired of Metcalfl and you would deny her a living.

Years ago I saw Glenda Jackson as Martha opposite Lithgow. Not as great as it should have been.

"Let's play hump the hostess . . ."

I think Patti has more range than Bernadette. If you want to see her be subtle, try and find the TV version of Mamet's The Water Engine. She's quite wonderful in it.

Bernadette is better at comedy. Patti can only do bitchy comedy. I thought Bernadette was even funnier than Bette in Hello, Dolly.

I saw Nancy Kelly as Martha at the Fisher Theater in Detroit. She was very good. Then I saw Shelly Winters do it in "summer stock" and she was wonderful.

Curious to know if those who have issues with Uta Hagen and Stritch as Martha actually saw them perform the role?

[quote]Curious to know if those who have issues with Uta Hagen and Stritch as Martha actually saw them perform the role?

I'm the one who had problems with them. The reason is that I found them a bit coarse. As a university professor's daughter, Martha would have to have some sense of decorum, even years later, even when blindingly drunk. I think Elizabeth Taylor was more believable in the role. You could really believe that she had to go to thousands of university teas and socials. Uta and Elaine were both too "fishwife" for the role.

And yet, Elaine was from polite society, was she not? It's not all that unusual for even rich families to have a member that "you can't take anywhere." Isn't Prince Philip that member in the British royal family?

[quote]I thought Bernadette was even funnier than Bette in Hello, Dolly.

Now you're funny.

I’m still having nightmares after reading about that German production of Hello, Dolly! set in the 1950s. Was that Dolly previously the She-Bitch of Buchenwald recently released from a POW camp who returns to her stomping grounds for the first time since those carefree days back in the 1930s?

R155, the production was Swiss not German. Pay attention.

I want to see Follies and WAOVW in rotating rep with the following double casting:

Ben/George

Phyllis/Martha

Nick/Young Ben

Honey/Roscoe

Please make this happen, DL

R156, you lost me at Honey/Roscoe.

Oops, I meant R157.

How many saw Bonnie Franklin as Martha? Dammit, George.

What about Joyce Dewitt as Martha?

Suzanne Somers as Martha with Pia Zadora as her understudy.

Joyce has "TV Mom" voice. It took the stakes out of her scenes as Rose in GYPSY.

Pia as Martha might be something, especially if she gets to use the hose on Honey (or Nick).

[quote]How many saw Bonnie Franklin as Martha?

Did she jog to the door when Nick and Honey arrived?

How many saw Bonnie in the Marcia Rodd directed Oh, Coward?

I always liked Marcia Rodd, there was something no-nonsense yet vulnerable about her...

She's very vulnerable to people pronouncing her name as "Marsha".

I think Edward Albee's play was rather boring and rather dirty. None of the roles in it are good vehicles for a star actor or actress.

There were no underlying themes which add to our humanity. All of Albee's stuff is less than Henrik Ibsen's oeuvre.

And, furthermore, I'm offended that the Americans should traduce my good name.

Fuck off, Virginia, and get back to eatin that Sackville-West pussy.

Never a Metcalfe fan, specially after her cornball shit on Roseanne.

I shall ignore R170's vulgarity.

I'm quite excited by the Encores! MACK AND MABEL.

Metcalfe's Martha will be very good and totally unsurprising.

What happened between Laurie Metcalfe and David Cromer during Brighton Beach Memoirs? She hated working with him.

he dared to stop her bitchy witchy ways.....

The entire cheap and ugly production under cut every valiant effort made by Joyce DeWitt to deliver Rose.

It's not her role, but from start to finish, she acquitted herself professionally. If she'd had any sort of proper production, she might have been just fine. But even Ethel Merman could not have prevailed over what the Bucks County Playhouse did to GYPSY.

For the poster who wanted the window card for The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake, it's available at Triton Gallery. Considering the show's legend, and that this appears to be an original, it's a steal for $206.25.

LuPone was very good in The Old Neighborhood r150. I liked her take on the character - damaged and broken.

Mar-cee-uh!

[quote]I'm quite excited by the Encores! MACK AND MABEL.

Is Laurie Metcalf playing Mabel? Her Mabel will show drug use a bit earlier in the show than normal productions.

[quote]LuPone was very good in The Old Neighborhood [R150].

I didn't like her performance in that. It's partly due to the fact that Mamet doesn't write good female characters. However, there was a point where she breaks down crying and it was the fakest thing I've ever seen.

Fakest thing you’ve ever seen? Did you see Patti’s wig in the jail scene in the last episode of Pose? It came down to her eyebrows.

[quote]The entire cheap and ugly production under cut every valiant effort made by Joyce DeWitt to deliver Rose.

Hate the snark some actors such as Joyce and Sally Struthers get. DeWitt is a terrific stage actress and has made a living as a working actress playing all over the country. Two of my "sophisticated" NY friends, who have seen the finest NY has offered has seen her onstage and she acquits herself nicely. And when they complimented her she was humble and turned the praise on the company she was a guest of. Could she handle "Medea" ? Who knows, she'll probably never have the chance but, but for musical comedy she's swell. My friends say they would see her again if the opportunity came up.

Metcalfe should do a week of shows in which each night is a different play to satisfy her voracious need to be SEEN

Or her voracious need to eat and pay the mortgage.

Joyce DeWitt has a Masters degree in acting from UCLA. She probably COULD play Medea.

Joyce could absolutely be a first-rate replacement in a Broadway show, or part of a first-rate opening ensemble. John Ritter did it. Joyce DeWitt could to it, too. If you put her in through the summer, she would sell like crazy to the tourists.

she could not play medea's butt wart if her life depended on it....

THE ONE FROM 3'S COMPANY?????

GOOD GOD

Did you ever see her on stage, R189? Ever?

I'm not her biggest fan, but the woman's last name is spelled Metcalf, not Metcalfe.

Shit. Is Joyce the new Patty Duke of DL?

Gosh r182 have you looked in the mirror?

r189 I've never seen her on stage - but let's remember that actors who get cast in sitcoms were actors before they got cast in sitcoms. A long-running lowbrow TV show is a really mixed blessing with fame and a paycheck but absolutely destruction of credibility. Even Metcalfe had to do a couple of shows after Roseanne to get her cred back. (My Thing of Love, anyone?)

It's not merely the fact of being in a sitcom. It's like Raquel Welch - she has a way of speaking that marks her out. It makes it hard to put her anything other than "light entertainment" as the Brits put it.

[quote]A long-running lowbrow TV show is a really mixed blessing with fame and a paycheck but absolutely destruction of credibility.

I dunno. Jim Parsons seems to be handling it ok. Being cast on Broadway in Boys In The Band, The Normal Heart and Harvey.

Now we know why Moulin Rouge tix are so expensive. Those music royalties must be astronomical.

Who's doing the City Center Evita? are they reuniting Lupone / Patinkin??

They don;t have the budget. They have to go with Ariana and Frankie Grande.

Struthers and DeWitt are rather good on stage and it's shameful to mock them for being in some less than brilliant productions. I actually saw Struthers in that cheap Hello, Dolly production she was in and she was excellent and had me laughing my ass off more than any other Dolly I can think of. It's not her fault that the production borrowed the set, costumes, and rest of the company from a slightly above average community theatre production.

My friend saw DeWitt as Rose and he's picky about productions of Gypsy. He said she was pretty good considering the shit storm surrounding her and it made him have a newfound appreciation for her. He still said it wasn't a perfect fit of actress and role, but she did the best she could with it and came out looking pretty good.

There's a video of Struthers on Youtube doing the title number of HELLO, DOLLY! I was reminded of the story of Merman attending a performance of Bacall in WOMAN OF THE YEAR: "Jesus christ, Betty. Pick a key!"

[quote]Even Metcalfe had to do a couple of shows after Roseanne to get her cred back. (My Thing of Love, anyone?)

Why does everybody keep spelling her name wrong? It's Metcalf. And though MY THING OF LOVE may have been intended to get her theater cred back, that didn't work out very well, because the play was one of the worst pieces of crap ever staged.

[quote]There's a video of Struthers on Youtube doing the title number of HELLO, DOLLY! I was reminded of the story of Merman attending a performance of Bacall in WOMAN OF THE YEAR: "Jesus christ, Betty. Pick a key!"

Sally Struthers sang the role of Dolly very well, better than some far bigger stars who've played the role. And you got the Merman quote wrong

Struthers isn't exactly a thrilling vocalist, but I saw her Dolly, too, and she was fantastic. The rest of it...

Getting back to Marcia Rodd, she was fired from the original Mack and Mabel as was singer Kelly Garrett. Champion felt he had a star in Garrett who had gotten great reviews in Words and Music but she couldn't act at all.

I saw Kelly Garrett as Sally Bowles. I don't really remember how she was. It was a long time ago.

Kelly Garrett had been on the scene much too long for Champion to only then find out she couldn't act.

Here's Sal.

A nice history/commercial for Dolly though I have no idea where a 7 minuted commercial would play.

[quote]A nice history/commercial for Dolly though I have no idea where a 7 minuted commercial would play.

In hotel rooms. I don't know if they do it now, but years ago in NYC, you would turn on the tv and there would be a channel that was nothing but advertising for NYC events. There were many long versions of Broadway commercials.

[quote] The Public has been sending me emails lately to renew my support. Is it terrible that I feel like, okay, as an aspiring playwright myself, I've sent them a few plays over the years that they rejected, so why should I give them my money to produce someone else's work? And believe me, I've been a supporter for years now and have seen some great plays there but have also seen a lot of shit, to which I walk out of saying "So they always turn me down but yet threw money at that piece of crap. Okay."

Stop giving them money. As an aspiring artist as well I can tell you they have zero interest in anyone new unless you are a homeless trans asian with one leg.

[quote] In hotel rooms. I don't know if they do it now, but years ago in NYC, you would turn on the tv and there would be a channel that was nothing but advertising for NYC events. There were many long versions of Broadway commercials.

They have these in some hotel elevators near Times Square. There's one in the elevator of the hotel where I regularly suck guys off.

[quote]There's one in the elevator of the hotel where I regularly suck guys off.

And what hotel would that be?*

*asking for a friend

Does anyone know if Rick Mckay's sequels to his Broadway documentary will ever be released? I know he died over a year ago...

I hope so. While not terribly cinematic, they were made with a passion and affection for theater of the past. It's a shame that as booming as the business of Broadway itself is, it doesn't seem to extend outwards. Playbill and Broadway/world.com barely get any traffic anymore, no one bothers with docs about theater, the NYT isn't even covering smaller Off and Off-Off bway productions.

I've seen Sally a few times up at the Ogunquit Playhouse and she is a trouper who delivers well-timed laughs with polish and panache.

R214 The recent documentary on Gwen Verdon was great, and Fosse/Verdon are up for many Emmys, (for some unknown reason), so not sure I agree with you.

R214 Also, Bathtubs over Broadway, Best Worst Thing , that excellent Evita doco, Six by Sondheim, the Fiddler doco opens this year, would actually say we get more docos on Broadway than there are on Hollywood

Good video at r208; where and when was that made and is the tour going on now?

The problem with Sally Struthers is that she became a punchline by doing those "Save the children" commercials while it was quite obvious she had Twinkie crumbs on the front of her dress. Nothing worse than an overfed woman talking about children who don't have enough to eat.

[quote] [R214] The recent documentary on Gwen Verdon was great, and Fosse/Verdon are up for many Emmys, (for some unknown reason), so not sure I agree with you.

[quote] [R214] Also, Bathtubs over Broadway, Best Worst Thing , that excellent Evita doco, Six by Sondheim, the Fiddler doco opens this year, would actually say we get more docos on Broadway than there are on Hollywood

I think you (both?) misunderstand what I was trying to say. I'm not saying there haven't been things made, I'm saying the interest seems to be very low in these sorts of things. The Gwen Verdon doc hasn't been released anywhere I can see. I think they're doing a self-distribution to try and cash in on any minor heat caused by Fosse/Verdon. I remember when the director did the press release last summer with the trailer on Playbill and BroadwayWorld, I tracked the views and they barely numbered 500.

Fosse/Verdon had anemic ratings, which dropped steadily throughout the series. Bathtubs Over Broadway, Best Worst Thing (I don't even know about an Evita doc) barely got released. The Fiddler doc did middling business this weekend, and I think they went more after (and got) the Jewish audience than the theater loving audience, but it was still a lousy gross.

I'm not casting aspersions on any of these projects. (Well, yes I am. Fosse/Verdon was garbage, and Bathtubs Over Broadway was stultifyingly boring, mostly because the director insisted on inserting himself into the film and ruining it.) I guess it just surprises me that the business of Broadway itself doesn't seem to carry over into a fanship, maybe? How does BroadwayCon do? I've never been, but I wondered what the ticket sales were like for it. They also hold it at the worst time, early January.

I would love nothing more than for there to be a lot more exploration of the history of theater in other mediums. Once these last vestiges of artists are gone, there won't be anyone left to tell the stories and so much of the work itself has never been preserved. I wish someone would get behind a crowdfund to get Rick McKay's two other films out there, but my concern is no one cares, and there's no market for it, which I find baffling.

Broadway has become about "properties" (Wicked! Phantom! Hamilton!). It doesn't surprised me that theatre history and the greats of yesteryear are of little interest to the GP or even the average Broadway attendee.

*It doesn't surprise me

What is the Evita documentary?

[quote] Broadway has become about "properties" (Wicked! Phantom! Hamilton!). It doesn't surprised me that theatre history and the greats of yesteryear are of little interest to the GP or even the average Broadway attendee.

I think the disinterest in history with this generation extends to more than just theater, but even current events, articles, stories, etc. don't seem to be getting much interest. I have a friend who writes for one of the big theater sites and she told me they get so little traffic these days that they're basically only posting press releases with very few exceptions. There's just no market or interest for it. I can understand a 22 year old theater queen maybe not being interested in Alfred Drake, but not even the current stuff- seems way at odds with how well business is doing. It also tells me that tourists are even less discerning about what they see when they come to NYC than I thought.

[quote]I can understand a 22 year old theater queen maybe not being interested in Alfred Drake, but not even the current stuff- seems way at odds with how well business is doing.

It's kind of hard to get excited about jukebox musicals.

I used to visit BWW, Playbill etc. but I don't anymore. I don't think the writing was ever good. I probably spent more time on the BWW theatre board (don't ask me why) than the main site. It's possible to bypass those sites and still keep abreast of what's playing or upcoming.

[quote]Playbill and Broadway/world.com barely get any traffic anymore,

Are you saying they used to get more traffic than they do now? When was that, and where do you get your figures?

[quote]That excellent Evita doco,

I'm unaware of an EVITA documentary -- and, apparently, so are other people in this thread. I looked it up and couldn't find anything. Can you elaborate?

I’d like to have seen Sal tackle a plate of schnitzel in the SWISS production of Hello, Dolly! set in the 1950s.

[quote]Nothing worse than an overfed woman talking about children who don't have enough to eat.

Maybe it's glandular.

[quote]Nothing worse than an overfed woman talking about children who don't have enough to eat.

Actually, being one of the starving children is worse.

I have to say, I'd rather watch Sally Struthers play Dolly and actually land some laughs than watch Betty Buckley manage to miss every single laugh in the same role. Her sets and costumes might have looked better and she might have been worked with more seasoned co-stars, but it didn't hide the fact that she was lousy in the role.

Poor old Betty did the best she could. The fault lies with the morons who cast her in a role that she is OBVIOUSLY ill-equipped to do.

What was the discussion like when Barbra Streisand played Dolly at 25? Sally Struthers, Bette Midler, and Betty Buckley are all in the early 70s playing the same part.

Babs seemed more like 50 but I don’t understand why she even wanted to play the part at that age.

[quote]Babs seemed more like 50 but I don’t understand why she even wanted to play the part at that age.

The movie was ready to be made (ie the investors wanted to make money) and Barbra was the only one in that time period who could do the score justice and deliver a watchable product. She wanted to do it because it was a huge project that secured her as a movie star and not just a one hit wonder funny girl.

Do the score justice? You're talking out of your ass with that casting requeirement assertion.

[quote]Do the score justice? You're talking out of your ass with that casting requeirement assertion.

At the time, there was no other actress who could do "Before The Parade Passes By" as well as Barbra did it.

Judy Garland was at death's door. Ethel Merman scared decent women and small children when her face showed up on the screen. Nobody was going to give it to Carol Channing. Angela Lansbury hadn't come into her "prime". Julie Andrews was too prim to play Dolly. And frankly, Marni Nixon was exhausted! There really was no competent actress who could play the role in that time period.

[Quote] At the time, there was no other actress who could do "Before The Parade Passes By" as well as Barbra did it.

Was Streisand known for "Before the Parade Passes By" before the movie?

[Quote] There really was no competent actress who could play the role in that time period.

Let me guess: Doris Day was too "sunny" to play Dolly.

[quote]I have to say, I'd rather watch Sally Struthers play Dolly and actually land some laughs than watch Betty Buckley manage to miss every single laugh in the same role. Her sets and costumes might have looked better and she might have been worked with more seasoned co-stars, but it didn't hide the fact that she was lousy in the role.

I'm sure you're 100 percent right about Buckley getting no laughs in DOLLY!, but there have been some conflicting reports. I kinda wish I had caught a performance to see for myself, although I suspect I would have hated her in the part.

[quote]Nothing worse than an overfed woman talking about children who don't have enough to eat

That comment is nasty, childish, idiotic, and not remotely funny. Please enlighten us as to exactly what's wrong about an overweight woman speaking on behalf of starving children? Should he have been expected to give the actual food she ate to those children? And what have YOU done to help children in that situation? P.S.: Please go to hell immediately.

I know they are in performance as waiters thrilled to see Dolly, but didn't it look like those guys in Sally's clip look like they really adored her?

[quote]et me guess: Doris Day was too "sunny" to play Dolly.

No she turned it down, Smartass, just like she turned down "South Pacific" and then everything else offered to her after her TV show ended.

Sally's great to have around when you're a chorus boy trying to watch your weight.

Betty Buckley is at her worst in anything where she must be funny or exude any warmth whatsoever. Her performance in Gypsy was equally depressing. She played Rose like she was in desperate need of a nap after taking too many anti-depressants. Maybe that approach could have worked in act two after Rose realizes her dream might not come true, but Rose has to be a bundle of energy in act 1 or the show doesn't work. Buckley wasn't scary or intimidating in the role, either. She was simply cold and lacking energy.

Betty is steely, not brassy.

Betty lacks energy in pretty much everything I've seen her in on stage. She's much better on film where you're almost required not to expend as much energy. I'm always surprised that she's known as this great Broadway star. She had a wonderful voice, but I've never connected with her on stage at all and I've seen her in a great many shows, but on film or TV, I think she's great.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Betty's most celebrated role on Broadway is essentially a cameo.

Aw c'mon. Betty's great.....in the right role.

did anyone here see her in Song & Dance?

I didn't but I've heard the audio. Not the role for her. Unlike.....say......

Her Margaret, from what I've seen and heard, seems like the best roles she's ever had on Broadway. A shame the show closed in about 5 minutes. I can't imagine her Fran in Promises, Promises which she did in London early in her career.

Lucy's screen test for Dolly......

Her singing voice doesn't lend the character much vulnerability, r250, but this is my favorite version of this song.

"Knowing When to Leave" seems a rather moot subject when that steely belt suggests she'll leave whenever she damn well wants.

The Verdon doco played on the BBC, got so/so reviews, I was glad to see her son get alot of time to talk , and Nicole get less, deluded cow she is.

Bathtubs is awful, wanna a self obsessed creep

The Evita doco was made for British TV, Evita, The Making of a Superstar, Hal is hilar, of course, and he chippie heiress is happily feted. You can watch here

She basically got to NYC and bam...she got this.

[quote]are they reuniting Lupone / Patinkin??

As what? Grandma and Grandpa Duarte?

I saw Pamela Myers play Fran Kubelik in stock. She sang the hell out of that song. And she didn't scare anyone while singing it.

[quote]I was reminded of the story of Merman attending a performance of Bacall in WOMAN OF THE YEAR: "Jesus christ, Betty. Pick a key!"

According to Lee Roy Reams, who was there and tells the story, he accompanied Merman to the opening night performance of "Woman of the Year." He said the moment Bacall began to sing her first song (the title of the song), Merman blurted out "Jesus CHRIST!," not "pick a key."

Hasn't Lee Roy Reams recounting been picked apart? Something about the chronology, IIRC.

[quote]Was Streisand known for "Before the Parade Passes By" before the movie?

No, she was known for "Don't Rain on My Parade."

Listening recently to Buckley's recordings from the start of her career, including PROMISES, PROMISES and 1776, I was struck by the fact that her pitch was far from secure even in those days. And since her voice was so steely, it sounds really painful when she veers even the tiniest bit off pitch.

I didn't see her in DOLLY! but I saw -- and heard -- a clip or two. The steely quality is still there, but now, of course, her voice has deteriorated with age. So it must have been very unpleasant to hear her sing the part, aside from the fact that she has little if any talent as a comedian. I can only imagine she was awful in the role, and maybe someday I'll get to see more clips as evidence.

[quote]just like she turned down "South Pacific" and then everything else offered to her after her TV show ended.

According to Wikipedia, Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza were supposed to do it, and then Pinza died suddenly. That's when they offered it to Doris. What doesn't make sense is what difference did Pinza's death make as far as Mary Martin doing the role? She had a much bigger movie resume than he did. It's not like he was the big box office draw and when he died, they had to get box office insurance for Nellie. It sounds like a variation of the (true) story of "The Pajama Game" - that it was going to be Frank Sinatra with Janis Paige repeating her Broadway role. When Sinatra passed, they went for Doris and let John Raitt repeat his Broadway role. (Janis got a nice consolation prize in "Silk Stockings," though. She was really funny and her pitch problems weren't noticeable like they were in "The Pajama Game.")

Bathtubs Over Broadway would be markedly improved if there were less of the director and more about industrial musicals and their creative teams. I gave up on Fosse/Verdon about three episodes in because -- and this is just me -- I wanted the series to be about their creative lives, not their personal ones, which I realize were very intertwined. I wanted to know how their shows got made, not who Fosse was making it with. That said, Michelle Williams was very good, although I would have liked to see her actually dance more. I'm looking forward to the Fiddler documentary.

I'd also like to see a multi-part documentary on vaudeville, a style of theater and performance we're rapidly losing (see also: English music hall). Who can do that style now? Judy Garland cut her teeth in vaudeville. Nathan Lane and Lewis J Stadlen are the only two I can think of off the top of my head (the latter is fantastic in the Dolly! tour and they were both fantastic in the vaudeville bits in The Nance, which were the best parts of that show) who can do the style now, although Bette Midler dabbles in it in her shows. Instead of yet another jukebox musical can we have a revival of Sugar Babies or A Day In Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine (not vaudeville, but close enough) or, I don't know, a brand-new show made up of vaudeville acts?

I’d like to see a documentary series about the dinner theater craze of the 1970’s. One episode would have to be about Betty Hutton having a nervous breakdown while appearing in Anything Goes at the Chateau DeVille Dinner Theater in Warwick, Rhode Island.

Jan had verve to spare, r262!

Don't forget this 6-part series on PBS......

Janis Paige is still with alive, well, coherent, and continent at the age of 96.

What is this "doco"? Does someone think that is a cute abbreviation?

Probably Variety-speak, r268.

Vaudeville died in the 1930s. I doubt there are any surviving vaudeville performers.

PBS did a good documentary about it and there are a lot of memoirs (such as Harpo Speaks) that evoke the period.

Plus all the vaudevillians that went on to do television and film. Look at their pre-1960 work. I saw all those old vaudevillians on television in the 1970s and they were terrible. They were too old and far from their vaudeville roots. Rediscovering their earlier film and TV work made me rethink them.

R267, Do we have verification on the continence?

Because I love you gals, here is Merely Marvellous - The Dancing Genius of Gwen Verdon.

The son seems well adjusted, and kinda dirty hobo hot

R272, Who fathered the son?

r272

Thanks, big spender.

R273 The drunkard first husband.

I just noticed this was on tonight:

Stagestruck: Confessions From Summer Stock TONIGHT, 10:00 PM ON KLCS-DT 58.1, 1 HR 2012 TV-G Recalling the summer stock experience at the Orleans Arena Theatre (1950-76) on Cape Cod, Mass., which was America's first "in the round" summer stock theater. The documentary features re-enactments, archival photos and remarks from the...

Hearing the Promises, Promises song made me wish that Bacharach wrote more for the theater. I wonder why he was one and done. I love the OCR of Promises; it would have been interesting to see what more he could have done.

Well, I thought their score for Lost Horizon was terrific. I never miss a Liv Ullman musical.

It wasn't for the theater, R277, but Bacharach and Hal David did do "Lost Horizon." I guess "interesting" would be one way to describe it.

I could totally have seen John Cullum in the Peter Finch role, Tovah Feldshuh in the Liv Ullman role, Janie Sell in the Sally Kellerman role and Tommy Tune in the Bobby Van role. With the Ernie Flatt dancers in the big fertility number.

[quote]Playbill and Broadway/world.com barely get any traffic anymore

In Playbill's case, I'm sure every other story being about "Hamilton" eventually began to turn people off. Even for people who liked the show (myself being one of them), enough was enough.

Fuck Miss Janie Sell, r280!

They apparently did a fund raising video.....

[quote]Listening recently to Buckley's recordings from the start of her career, including PROMISES, PROMISES and 1776, I was struck by the fact that her pitch was far from secure even in those days. And since her voice was so steely, it sounds really painful when she veers even the tiniest bit off pitch.

Wonder how you could hear her off pitch yet the people that actually wrote the music, the conductor, producer of the album, everyone in the booth during recording didn't.

And we've discussed this ad nauseam, but Buckley is the definitive Norma.

Finally listened to War Paint. Christine Ebersole is still fantastic. The score is definitely so-so with a couple of very good ones but mainly just passable. Although even that is 1000 times better than the best jukebox show.

We agreed that Elaine Paige was the best Norma, even though we're not Paige devotees.

Buckley had a wonderful voice. I never heard her far off pitch. Every singer has their off pitch moments here and there. Her real issue is her lack of humor.

[quote]Wonder how you could hear her off pitch yet the people that actually wrote the music, the conductor, producer of the album, everyone in the booth during recording didn't.

What a strange comment. Maybe they did hear her off-pitch but didn't have time for retakes to get her to sing on pitch. And, in those days, there was no Pro Tools or other programs like that to fix off-pitch singing on a recording after the face. In the case of PROMISES, PROMISES, there was some famously off-pitch singing from Jerry Orbach on the original Broadway cast album (not London), and for whatever reasons, they just let it go.

[quote]Buckley had a wonderful voice. I never heard her far off pitch. Every singer has their off pitch moments here and there.

I specifically said she wasn't far off-pitch, she was just slightly off-pitch, but it still sounds bad. Listen to the PROMISES and 1776 albums, and you'll be able to hear it if you have an ear for that. And as for her voice being wonderful, you must understand that while a lot of people liked that steely tone of hers, others found it very unpleasant.

Maybe with the high school theater dweebs she was.

With the public, she was known for "Happy Days Are Here Again." That was the song most closely identified with her. Then you can take your pick of songs featured in her early television specials.

She had two albums out and a string of national television appearances before FUNNY GIRL came along.

Was she known for "My Coloring Book"?

[quote] Are you saying they used to get more traffic than they do now? When was that, and where do you get your figures?

As I mentioned already, I have colleagues and friends who work at three of them and they've all said traffic is down considerably, to the point that 95% of their posts are regurgitated press releases.

[quote] They apparently did a fund raising video.....

And I'm going to guess it didn't raise too many funds considering it's had 298 views in the space of 8 years.

Did anyone watch Stagestruck tonight? Any good?

R224 Is Alfred Drake the one who married Linn Fontaine?

Alfred Drake fucked Nancy Davis.

betty buckley remains one of the most iconic stars of stage screen and tv.....voice that's one in a million.

I saw petula clark in the roadshow of Sunset Blvd.....embarrassing.

[quote]With the Ernie Flatt dancers in the big fertility number

Places for the big fertility number! Places for the big fertility number!

[quote]Alfred Drake fucked Nancy Davis

So did every man in Hollywood who wasn't a fag.

Hearing Buckley sing that song makes me appreciate Jill O'Hara all the more.

R295. Alfred Drake was rejected by Hollywood.

Maybe so, but all he needed was one night there to get in Nancy's panties.

Two odd things about that "Merely Marvelous" documentary: Twice, they refer to "Fosse's ex-wife, actress Joan McCracken." Actress? I mean, she was, but her primary fame was as a dancer. Not a mention is made that McCracken danced. Also, they tell the story of Gwen inhaling a feather during "Sweet Charity." It has to be true, because Helen Gallagher, who played Nicki, tells part of the story. But all I've ever heard is the story about that happening during "Chicago," which led to her surgery and Minnelli taking over for six weeks. (In "MM," they just refer to her "illness" during Chicago). So, did it actually happen a second time that Verdon inhaled a feather? If I were her, I'd never want to have a feather anywhere near me again.

Oh, also - interestingly, her inhaling the feather in "Charity" changed her voice - that's what brought on the raspiness.

R294, Afred Lunt was married to Lynn Fontanne. I don't know who was married to Linn Fontaine.

I just want to thank whomever started the description of Buckley as "steely". I wrote that her Dolly Levi reminded me of Elizabeth Ashley. That is the quality that I found in her performance. Also, the comment about low energy was spot on. He Dolly often seemed to drift about the stage.

The steeliness in her voice can be interesting and is always distinctive. Her voice is just perfect for "Walking in Space" in the movie HAIR. That piercing quality is terrific there.

But her bleating vibrato is always a deal breaker for me. I disliked her singing from the first time I heard her on the OBC for 1776. That was not quite actually in 1776, but very close. Or so it feels.

Well they seemed to love her, but of course the unwashed masses opinion could never top an old Datalounge Theater Queen.

Might be the worst bootleg ever recorded.

And don't you forget it, R308!

Buckley couldn’t land a single laugh on “Now GO” following “With One Look.” That alone dismisses any possibility of her being the definitive Norma. Elaine Paige more or less did a Gloria Swanson impersonation but had a thrilling voice and her mad scene at the end was really wonderful. For me she’s the definitive Norma-and yes, I saw Patti and Glenn play her, too.

[quote]Betty Buckley remains one of the most iconic stars of stage screen and tv.....voice that's one in a million.

Well, it certainly is a unique voice, I'll give you that....

[quote]The steeliness in her voice can be interesting and is always distinctive. Her voice is just perfect for "Walking in Space" in the movie HAIR. That piercing quality is terrific there.

But she doesn't sound "steely" on "Walking in Space." She sings it softly, and it sounds beautiful. Similarly, her voice sounds lovely in her soft, sweet rendition of "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" on the PROMISES, PROMISES recording, yet it sounds steely and unpleasant in most of her other tracks on that album.

[quote]They tell the story of Gwen inhaling a feather during "Sweet Charity." It has to be true, because Helen Gallagher, who played Nicki, tells part of the story. But all I've ever heard is the story about that happening during "Chicago," which led to her surgery and Minnelli taking over for six weeks. (In "MM," they just refer to her "illness" during Chicago). So, did it actually happen a second time that Verdon inhaled a feather? If I were her, I'd never want to have a feather anywhere near me again.

I've also wondered about this. I think one possibility is that Gwen didn't inhale a feather either time, maybe instead she was having major vocal problems due to smoking, or mis-use of her voice, or whatever, and the feather was used as a cover story. But yes, really weird to use the same story twice. Did they really think the public would buy it the second time?

Give 'em the old razzle dazzle, R312.

[quote]Maybe they did hear her off-pitch but didn't have time for retakes to get her to sing on pitch.

After watching the documentary about recording the Company album, I can believe this.

In the documentary, you see Sondheim trying to get Pamela Meyers back on pitch and you see him working with Beth Howland to actually sing her notes in "Not Getting Married." You also see an exhausted cast and an album that took all day and night to record.

Also, in listening to the original Gypsy OBC, there was that off note horn blasting during the Overture (which unfortunately they corrected with modern technology) and Sondheim's horrible reading of "You're not getting 88 cents from me Rose."

I can believe that the composers just let Betty sing and said, "If she's off pitch, that's they way it is." In the old days, they didn't spend much time correcting mistakes.

Miss Ashley is quite adept at comedy, r306, and certainly would have mined the laughs....

[quote]Also, in listening to the original Gypsy OBC, there was that off note horn blasting during the Overture (which unfortunately they corrected with modern technology)

Maybe you're thinking of the wrong album. I don't recall a wrong trumpet note in the GYPSY overture on the OBC album. There was the sound of that dropped drum stick, which has been removed.

The London cast recording of GYPSY with Lansbury has at least two flubbed trumpet notes in the overture, and I don't believe anyone ever bothered to correct those.

[quote]Maybe you're thinking of the wrong album. I don't recall a wrong trumpet note in the GYPSY overture on the OBC album.

Yes, there was a sour note on the original OBC in the Overture. I believe by the time cds came out, they had corrected it, so you may have never heard it. If I remember, it was in the Goldstone section of the Overture and you had to listen very carefully because there's a lot going on in that section and it just comes out of the stripper section and I imagine that the poor horn blower had just done all that intricate stripper music and just blew a wrong note.

R318, if you're right, I never noticed that on the OBC recording -- and I definitely had it on LP, long before CDs. Are you sure you're not thinking of the Lansbury recording? Because that's one of the places in the overture where there is a sour trumpet note, it's the first trumpet note right after the stripper music ends. Give a listen.

Pam Myers wasn't off pitch. She was singing the wrong note.

[quote]Pam Myers wasn't off pitch. She was singing the wrong note.

And that correction did take, because if you listen to the final take on the recording, that note is correct.

That MM documentary on Verdon was Completely Crap. Interesting that Nicole anti-fans dump on her again but she sounds very perceptive and informative, unlike Charlotte. No Reinking, McKechnie or Allen or almost any other female dancers except Candy Brown and Helen Gallagher. The inhaled feather from Sweet Charity was fairly well documented and Gallagher went on for her. But the fictitious Verdon/Fosse bio said she inhaled confetti in "Chicago" and it caused the callous on her vocal chords. She doesn't sound significantly different in the Chicago videos taken after the incident than she does on the OCR.

Also, they claim they wanted Verdon for New Girl because so many other female performers couldn't dance, yet Hal Prince said the concept was absolutely that Anna must not dance. It was a reason why Verdon wanted it. Yet, when they felt the show was getting slow or boring, they trotted out the Gwen Verdon dancing shoes and it hurt the show. Also no mention of her famous feud with George Abbott.

The documentary was a piece of shit but at least it's on YT so you can FF.

R322, what's your damage? I agree that Nicole came across well in the doc, but so did Charlotte. How many female dancers did you expect them to have talking about Gwen? And as for NEW GIRL, did they really say they wanted Gwen for the part because so many other stars couldn't dance? I thought SHE said she really wanted the part but, initially, there was reluctance to cast her.

Sorry you didn't like the doc, but to call it a "piece of shit" and "complete crap" is ridiculous. Please calm the hell down.

Curious as to why the marathon recording sessions for the cast albums. I understand they need to be done on the cheap because they don't sell as well, but with Company, for instance, they were there for something like 18 hours. Wouldn't the overtime costs run the same as hiring everyone for a 2nd day? (And with Company, they wound up having to come in a 2nd day anyway to get Elaine's vocals on LWL.)

Only Elaine and the conductor came in for a second day. She sang to an orchestral track that was recorded the night before.

[quote]Only Elaine and the conductor came in for a second day. She sang to an orchestral track that was recorded the night before.

Paula Pell is hilarious in the Stritch role of the mockumentary.

R324 . I'm a former songwriter and musician. Studios don't charge overtime the way you would think. When you book a studio or a band, you pay for a block of time, and you try to do as much as you can within that window. Every studio might be different, but it is standard to either book, say, 12 hours or 24 hours. If you go over, you don't get charged overtime, you just have to book more time, but, often, if it not available because someone has booked that time, which is why you try to get as much done as you can. I don't know what musicians charged then, but, now, it is typical to book them in four hour blocks. If they go over, you have to pay them for another four hour block, although it is not uncommon to have one or two musicians stay behind and overdub for a shorter period of time.

[quote]How many female dancers did you expect them to have talking about Gwen?

I agree that Charlotte D'amboise comes off well. It would have been great to have Reinking, of course, because of her importance to the Verdon story. McKechnie because she was the last Fosse-directed Charity. I would have preferred to hear her take on Fosse's last day rather than that woman they had (can't even remember her name). But they do get points for letting us hear extensively from Chita.

Re the "swallowing a feather," it's not made up - Helen Gallagher is quite specific about what happened, how they thought Gwen was having an asthma attack and took her to the emergency room and a surgeon brought out the feather. As has been pointed out, Gallagher had to go on for her. (Points, in fact, for having Helen Gallagher in the documentary). The point made in "Merely Marvelous" is that it was this incident, in Sweet Charity, that forever changed Verdon's voice. So when "Chicago" came around and the OBC was recorded, she already had the diminished voice, it wasn't the Chicago "confetti" incident that changed it. If you listen to the Charity OBC, recorded pre-feather, she still sounds pretty good. Obviously, she was 40 in "Charity" and the cigarettes were going to take a toll, but she sounds almost as good as she did in Damn Yankees and Redhead.

What really comes across in the documentary, from Charlotte D'Amboise especially, but also Gallagher and Chita, is how difficult that dancing was, and how remarkable it was that Verdon made it look so effortless. Oh, and hearing from Verdon's gay nephew Paul was great - the footage of her taking a tap class with him just a few months before she died is incredibly moving.

It's absolutely worth watching, but not nearly as wonderful as one would have wished for her.

Gwen always sounded like a granny to my ears. Ditto Ann Reinking.

What was D'amboise's importance to the story. With the exception of doing two shows, did she ever work with Verdon and/or Fosse?

R 329, listen to Damn Yankees. She doesn't sound like a granny. Nor does Reinking in "Goodtime Charley." By the time of Chicago, Verdon's voice had morphed, and by the time of the revival, so had Reinking's.

Charlotte D'Amboise met Gwen when she played Roxie in the first national company of the revival Chicago as Roxie (and she subsequently went into the Broadway company several different times). They became pretty good friends.

R327, I think he means overtime for the actors and musicians. Their work on the album is overtime so what does it matter if they do it in one day or two--they still get the same overtime pay?

Which is a very sensible question.

R327 the rules are completely different for recording cast albums. There are lots of union rules about how much the cast and musicians are paid.

R312 I head that it was confetti she inhaled during "Chicago"; I remember calling Lenox Hill Hospital when I was a kid to inquire how she was after surgery, but they wouldn't give me any information. I think Gwen otherwise smoked too much. She actually has some head voice in her one sung number in "Can-Can", "If You Loved Me Truly", belts wonderfully in "Damn Yankees" ("A Little Brains, A Little Talent" and especially after the orchestra dance break of "Whatever Lola Wants" when she sings "I always get, what I came for, and your heart and soul, is what I came for!". Her voice starts to sound a bit less sturdy on "New Girl in Town" and "Redhead" and on the "Sweet Charity" recording she still sounds fine, though a little insecure, which of course, suits Charity perfectly. Her vocals by the time of "Chicago" were pretty unsteady in "Funny Honey" and some of her other songs, but this is like 20 years of smoking after "Can-Can". Magnificent dancer and actress and actually a really fine singing actress.

I think Verdon actually had potentially cancerous polyps (sp?) on her throat and the confetti thing was a cock and bull story. Not many performers want any possibility of dealing with a life threatening illness spelled out in the press.

That's just a wild supposition on your part, r336. There has never, in 45 years, been any suggestion that Verdon had "cancerous polyps" on her throat. Nicole would certainly have wanted that dramatic bit of info added to "Fosse/Verdon" if it were true. It wasn't.

So has Richard Linklater already shot the “Our Time” sequence on the roof with Platt and Feldstein?

Well, eldergays, are you adjusting to the fact that you need to live till 2040 to be able to see the movie version of "Merrily We Roll Along"?

Wow, that was a swift response, R337/Nicole. I’m impressed.

Uhhhh...I heard the Verdon polyps story from an agent. Who doesn’t lie or make wild suppositions.

Oh, previously you said "you think" Verdon had cancerous polyps. Why didn't you play the "got the story from an agent" card from the get-go?

Verdon did have polyps (nodes). They were not cancerous. If they were, she wouldn't have been back in the show in five weeks' time.

Now come now, Datalounge, queens and queers, we have a member here actually confess...

[quote]I head that it was confetti she inhaled during "Chicago"; I remember calling Lenox Hill Hospital when I was a kid to inquire how she was after surgery, but they wouldn't give me any information.

You are all slipping, now can I get a loving MARY! for R335

Oh, Ben Platt is playing CHARLIE, not Frank. Okay. When I saw the first announcement, with just Platt and Beanie, I wondered how he was going to pull of playing Frank.

It'll be awkward if one or more of the main cast dies before completion of the movie. Or their career does... Imagine a Lindsay Lohan movie begun around the time of the Parent Trap or Mean Girls...

Well I called Nicole's house and asked to speak to Gwen the day after she died.

[quote]Well, eldergays, are you adjusting to the fact that you need to live till 2040 to be able to see the movie version of "Merrily We Roll Along"?

What if one of the principal actors dies before the movie is completed?

They should film every scene in one shooting period as insurance. If someone dies, they'll be able to age them in post. CGI will be even better by 2040 or whatever date near the release.

Interesting how everyone is asking this question about the cast but what if Linklater passes on before the film is completed?

Maybe the “Our Time” sequence was shot on the roof of Manhattan Plaza?

If the film and edit the whole movie, and then film and "drop in" the aged parts at a later date, it seems pretty doable.

R341, pay attention. I wrote that they were “potentially cancerous.” Of course they weren’t. If they were she’d never have returned to Chicago.

That is actually a great cast for Merrily, but why does he have to do it over 20 years? Can't they just use makeup and CGI to age the actors? Who knows if the world will even exist in 20 years?!?

You gotta get a gimmick.

Who for Gussie, though?

Ariana Grande.

People involved with that lousy Verdon biopic must be posting here.

Tweet by Mark Harris (Tony Kushner’s husband) just now:

Today a lot of people apparently learned from Richard Linklater that they're eventually going to die or, worse, age.

Filming it over 20 years feels like conceptual overkill and is completely unnecessary.

[quote]It'll be awkward if one or more of the main cast dies before completion of the movie.

Or transitions.

I would hate to feel like I had something hanging over me for twenty years.

I appreciate the person who posted the Gwen Verdon documentary here; there was some interesting footage there, but damn, couldn't they show some complete numbers instead of cutting from them with commentary? I'd have loved to have seen that "Erbie Fitch's Twitch" in color in its entirety. Plus from that Dick Cavett interview, she actually danced excerpts from nearly all of her shows, including part of the Adam and Eve ballet from "Can-Can". Couldn't they have put that in there instead of some of the other stuff? Also, it was the Apache Ballet that Gwen stopped the show finally that they had to recall her to the stage, not the can-can itself. Yes, "New Girl in Town" wasn't supposed to have dancing originally, bu they added more to the show when Gwen Verdon was hired. Nothing in the documentary about how the whorehouse ballet was a huge thing since director George Abbot hated it and though it was "just plain dirty". Also, that interview where Verdon seemed so happy and had no regrets about Shirley MacLaine dong "Sweet Charity" on screen was a master class in acting, since Gwen must have been so disappointed not to get it. But she was indeed a wonderful actress, in addition to being Broadway's greatest dancing star.

[quote]Who knows if the world will even exist in 20 years?!?

We'll all still be better off than having to sit thru "Merrily We Roll Along".

Will Ben Platt's father be around to bankroll him and promote him in 20 years?

I presume it costs more to show clips in full than to show just excerpts. Is that correct?

[quote]Interesting how everyone is asking this question about the cast but what if Linklater passes on before the film is completed?

With this shooting schedule, someone else could always complete it. Not so easy to replace one of the stars.

Sally Mayes starring in “Sidekicked,” a one-woman show about Vivian Vance? Why has this not been discussed here? Although the author loses points by referring to “the last night of taping I Love Lucy,” which of course was filmed, not taped.

I also saw the Cavett show in 77. Verdon danced with the American Dance Machine and did parts of Theres Gotta Be Something and also did the Charity dance at the beginning of the show. Showing that would have been better than the documentary but almost anything would have been better.

I think she essentially improvised the Garden of Eden ballet because they set the number to Satin Doll. I remember the opening because Verdon takes a bite out of the apple and then does a pelvic bump.

[quote]Verdon seemed so happy and had no regrets about Shirley MacLaine dong

Shirley had the biggest dong in Hollywood.

Some of that color footage of the shows was from that collection that Miles Krueger guards so jealously.

Your mother swings dong in hell!

[quote]I think she essentially improvised the Garden of Eden ballet

With Michael Kidd choreographing, I doubt she improvised much.

Culottes!!!

R371, I meant she improvised it on the Cavett show. She did two slightly different versions of the dance, one after the other but both to Satin Doll

My question about the MWRA movie is will they keep the 1950s-80s time frame or modernize it?

According to the article on Deadline, they have already completed the “young” part! Isn’t it strange that there has been NOTHING about it? They would hav had to prerecord the songs, among other things. It’s not even on IMDB yet.

The London "Company" is coming to Broadway with Patti and Katrina Lenk.

Vocal cord polyps, cysts, and nodules are always benign. Gwen’s couldn’t have been “potentially cancerous.”

Thank God that underwhelming limey isn’t coming here to play Bobbi.

I sincerely hope that someone on here who knows Mr. Sondheim will give him my idea about replacing "Randy/Andy" with "Oscar/Tony."

Katrina Lenk is not whom I would have pictured playing Bobbie. She's talented, but she always reads a little steely to me. I'm not sure that is right for the role, but I sure am looking forward to seeing it.

Why not just make Bobby in "Company" a gay guy? Is Sondheim not all right with this? Any reason why? Is it too close to home, like when he was mad for Lee Remick?

Moulin Rouge is available to stream. I bet the songs are better live, but I'm not feeling Aaron's voice.

Who is in the current cast of "Naked Boys Singing"? They never list anyone anymore. Any really cute guys worth checking out?

Wow, I think Katrina Leno is really good casting as Bobbi. Any other casting?

I hope they allow Richard Fleishman, who has started on Broadway before. He definitely needs to show off his well-packed briefs over here.

Maureen Lipman, ugh. Overrated, unfunny Jewish racist who thinks Jewish lives are worth more than Arab ones. Fuck this bigoted bitch.

^She is in Company?

But which of the half-dozen or so scripts of Merrily will they use?

Verdon never did a damn thing for me.....talk about steely, she came across as not really enjoying her work, jus getting thru it.

And she was not pretty...

Uhhhh, R379, in this case Wiki is not your friend. They didn’t know back in 1975 whether polyps were cancerous or not.

Katrina Lenk is a doll.

I wonder if it was Lenk’s casting that made Patti soften her attitude about doing it without Craig? I suspect she thought Lenk was great in The Band’s Visit and changed her mind.

Do we think Patti actually attends shows she’s not performing in?

Additional "Company" casting to be announced. I wonder whether Olivier Award winner Jonathan Bailey will repeat his role.

Isn't Katrina Lenk 50?

She's in her early 40s.

[quote]Maureen Lipman, ugh. Overrated, unfunny Jewish racist who thinks Jewish lives are worth more than Arab ones. Fuck this bigoted bitch.

[quote]^She is in Company?

Yes, they're going to have her dance Tick-Tock. And at her age, it will take on a whole new meaning.

R398, No, that role is Lesley Joseph.

"Wow, I think Katrina Leno is really good casting as Bobbi"

I concur.

Whatever happened to Anna Devere-Smith? She was hot for a New York minute with her documentary theater style, but she hasn't produced anything new in years. Was she a flash in the pan?

Didn't she marry some 90 year old millionair?

She’s done a lot of TV, r401.

This is stuck in my head - What song has the lyric “I landed right in a pot of jam”?

Is that a TV theme song... or a show tune, or what??

R404:

ADS gas two shows coming up at Signature.

[quote]R48 Successful beyond anyone's expectation, a two week Encore run is still playing all over the world 25 years later

Tho it cost someone their LIFE.

Thank you, R405

Interestingly (perhaps) i don’t even know that score. I must have seen MacLaine or someone sing it on a variety show!

PS: is landing in a pot of jam supposed to be good, or bad?

It is the sweetest, most glorious luck, R408.

Unless it's toe-jam.

Worked w/ Anna Deveare Smith in the mid-90s on one of her solo shows. She was one of the most difficult, nasty people I've ever had to deal with in theater.

That would explain why she does 1-woman shows.

Bacall and Biehn at the premiere party for "The Fan" in 1981.

Wouldn't even the most petite Broadway dancer shatter a pot of jam if they landed in it?

It's a rubber pot, Rose.

I just watched the documentary "Bathtubs Over Broadway" that a few people have mentioned on here. I thought it was disappointing. It seems as though he was more interested in the scarcity of the recordings, and not necessarily that artistry that went into the shows. I know a lot of collectors like that: what drives them is finding the obscure, being the ONE person who has it. It's a form of oneupmanship amongst collectors. I wish there had been more clips of the show, or at least some discussion on how the shows were created, in the documentary.

Someone must have started a thread already, but Valerie has left the building.

I haven't seen much of Lenk before, but the production has gotten raves and I don't think Bobby/Bobbi needs to necessarily be some big name star. I just hope she has a good personality. To me, I think that's the most important part of the role - they have to be affable and charming, like the best friend you always wanted.

I loved Valerie Harper in Thieves!

"Mama's Family" will cry tonight.

R419, Bobbie also should have a self-destructive edge to her which Craig really didn’t possess. I think Lenk’s a good choice for the role.

And for the smartass upthread who wondered if LuPone actually went out and saw other things-the only reason she agreed to do Company was because she saw Marianne Elliott’s work with War Horse and Curious Tale of the Dog in the Nighttime or whatever the fuck it was called.

The NYTimes said the Company transfer will have an entirely American cast, so no Fleeshman or Bailey. Let the casting games begin! (Gavin Creel for Jamie? Maybe he's a better Paul.)

[quote]Worked w/ Anna Deveare Smith in the mid-90s on one of her solo shows. She was one of the most difficult, nasty people I've ever had to deal with in theater.

My friend saw her one woman show "Twilight: Los Angeles" at the Cort Theater in NY and loved it. The Cort is off a side street and gets little foot traffic. He was waiting by the stage door before a matinee. He had her published book of the script of the show. He was the only person within the theater. She pulls up, sees he has her book, he politely asked her to sign it and she completely ignored him as if he wasn't there.

For all the aspiring actors on this board, 5 tips for a successful audition:

Benton is a hottie and a nice guy. I would eat his ass all night long.

R419, so are you saying that they should have gone for someone who was not as much of a name instead of Lenk?

Lenk manages to find a progression and a series of emotional changes in this song that I have never seen anyone ever do before.

I think it gives a sense of what her Bobbi will be like. The speaksinging at the beginning leading to fuller singing at the end--and digging into the insipid lyrics for something to hang an emotional progression onto.

Apropos of nothing, I sat next to Miriam Margolyes on a flight from Sydney once. She looked directly at me and burped into my face.

Chita and Liza interviewed by Liz Smith during The Rink in 1984.

Our Rose.

Here is a sequence from that Gwen Verdon evening at Dancers Over 40, that Harvey and Lee Roy hosted. This part has Donna McKechnie, who talks about meeting Gwen during "How to Succeed." But the best part, starting around 8 minutes in, is a performance from an American Dance Machine special. Lee Roy had mentioned to Gwen that they had worked together so many times, but never got the chance to dance together, so she choreographed a routine to "The Continental" for them to do, and it's lovely.

There's also "I'm a Brass Band," first as a sequence Gwen did on "Captain Kangaroo," and finishing with the dance from the Ed Sullivan Show.

Benton Whitley is gorgeous. Who's had him?

Which lyrics are you calling insipid, R428? Fiddler's, or Company's? I think Sheldon Harnick is unbeatable, so I hope it's the latter.

I think If I Were a Rich Man is a pretty dull song. It starts in one place....and ends in the same place. But the singer gets to make funny sounds, so it is supposed to be charming.

Avenue Jew. Much more entertaining.

Rich Man is unquestionably one of the great theater songs of its era.

R437, Only when performed by Zero Mostel.

R433- I'd say every actor under 30 who's ever gotten a role because of him.

My lesbian friends who knew from the Bay Area said she was referred to as Anna Severe Bitch.

I don't typically find her very effective as an actress (in films like Philadelphia), but in recent year she's done some good work, as the hospital administrator in Nurse Jackie and as Melissa McCarthy's ex in Can You Forgive Me.

Her approach to solo documentary theatre is one I feel ambivalent. Sometimes the close attention to pauses, vocalized pauses, intonation reveals useful insights into the character; sometimes it produces just a mechanical mimicry (including in her own uneven shows).

Plot wise, yes, "Rich Man" doesn't do anything. But it's a great piece of character writing, and like a three-act play in itself. Tevye begins comically about what it would mean to be rich, but by the middle of the song its starts to shift. He starts talking about being viewed with respect, and then also being able to be a reverent Jew, instead of having to work constantly. By the end of the song, he realizes his situation is what it is meant to be, even if he still holds on to the dream of what it would mean to be rich. The song comes early on, and completely solidifies the audience's bond with Tevye for the rest of the evening. The song that was originally written for the slot, "What a Life!," heard on the recently released Yiddish cast recording, is merely a comic gripe that would have been far less effective in that spot.

R428 your casual ignorance is extraordinary. And your taste is up your ass. Rich Man is as r441 mentions a great character song, truly inventive in its use of nonsense syllables, and far far far less insipid than you. Go back to listening to Waving Through a WIndow.

[quote]Only when performed by Zero Mostel.

Herschel Bernardi, whom the creative team thought was the best Tevye, did it better. So did Topol on the London cast recording.

I assume Waving Through a WIndow is that song from Hello, Dolly, which is even worse than Fiddler on the Roof. Musicals of the 60s were coasting on fumes. They are all pretty vapid.

Ben Platt as Dolly!

It's one thing to be a troll, R444. It's quite another to be an ignorant troll.

Let's talk about vapid when you look at the new Broadway movie remakes and bio musicals.

The wierd twist that Cabaret did was that it embraced the vapidity of musicals of its era, but upended it by presenting vapidity as a sign of encroaching fascism.

Of course the book songs, like Perfectly Marvelous and Meeskite are just vapid because it was Broadway in the 1960s--no commentary intended.

R448 keeps making idiotic comments for shock effect, hoping to get people to engage. It’s like masturbation. He just wants to get himself off by enraging people.

His use of the word vapid is projection.

oh dear... just no Raquel

R444/R448 doesn’t seem to have a clue what the word “vapid” means. How embarrassing for him.

r451, that rendition is the reason the phrase "Oh dear" was invented.

That Raquel clip sounds weird. It sounds like it's in a bizarre key that doesn't support Raquel or the song.

Why does Raquel change so much of the melody?

Songs in the key of "no."

Who cares? She has big tits.

yea anna D was a creepo in the bay area for years.

Raquel welch got that role HOW???

seems like musicals have lots less dancing these days...

anyone else find Fiddler to be quite depressing ?

A bad production of Fiddler can seem to go on for days (the last two Broadway revivals, for example). The new Yiddish production by Joel Gray is much more enjoyable and quite moving. And the actor playing Tevye is fantastic. He’s gay in real life too.

[quote]He’s gay in real life too.

He's gay on stage? An interesting interpretation of Tevye.

If they’ve done Oklahomo, I guess Fagele Fiddler is possible. Tevye does an intimate dance with a cute young Russian male, after all.

I always thought Tevye was just jealous of Chava getting with a hot Russian stud like Fyedka. It was clear to me when Topol played him in the film, anyway.

Steven Skybell has been a mainstay of New York theater for decades. I have seen him in dozens of shows, many of them awful, but he has never given a bad performance that I have seen.

Why has it taken so long for him to get a higher profile?

^^ his personality is somewhat cold.

^^I never met him. But that surprised me because people I know who worked with him really liked him.

[quote]If you listen to the Charity OBC, recorded pre-feather, she still sounds pretty good. Obviously, she was 40 in "Charity" and the cigarettes were going to take a toll, but she sounds almost as good as she did in Damn Yankees and Redhead.

Everything is relative, but I don't really agree with that. I think Gwen's voice sounds fairly husky and raspy on the SWEET CHARITY album, very significantly changed from DAMN YANKEES and REDHEAD.

[quote]My question about the MWRA movie is will they keep the 1950s-80s time frame or modernize it?

Of course they won't modernize it, because that would require a lot of rewriting and the cutting of one of the best songs in the show, "Bobby and Jackie and Jack." You're probably someone who thought Ben Platt would be playing Frank Shepard, aren't you?

[quote]The speaksinging at the beginning leading to fuller singing at the end--and digging into the insipid lyrics for something to hang an emotional progression onto.

Anyone who thinks the lyrics to "If I Were a Rich Man" are "insipid" should not be allowed to post here.

[quote]Of course they won't modernize it, because that would require a lot of rewriting and the cutting of one of the best songs in the show, "Bobby and Jackie and Jack."

Are you implying that Hollywood can be trusted to do right by Broadway musicals? Because their track record would say otherwise.

[quote]You're probably someone who thought Ben Platt would be playing Frank Shepard, aren't you?

What an incredibly stupid casting idea.

Still.

Here.

Wow, that was awful, r468.

[quote]Are you implying that Hollywood can be trusted to do right by Broadway musicals? Because their track record would say otherwise.

I would think that, given the limited commercial appeal of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG and the person who will be directing the film version, we can trust "Hollywood" do right by the material of the show in this case. I don't think there will be a lot of rewriting, and I'm pretty positive they will NOT cut the song "Bobby and Jackie and Jack," which means that the timeline of the movie will remain the same as the show.

On a related note, James Lapine has insinuated himself into rewriting and/or directing previous versions of MERRILY, even though the book is still credited to George Furth. Do we think Lapine will insinuate himself into the movie as well?

I hope R470 is correct about the adaptation.

But I'm not confident about Richard Linklater, the director: not confident that he understands musicals in a fundamental way. I find his movies naive, talky, and dull, and not very visually engaging. (He'll probably find a way to cast Ethan Hawke somewhere, muttering and smirking. And BOYHOOD was, ultimately, so overrated.)

There are any number of directors his age and younger that I'd trust more with a Sondheim musical.

PS: just noted that Linklater directed the movie version of SCHOOL OF ROCK (that preceded the stage version). And apparently there was an (unsuccessful) TV series based on the same.

Which changes my POV.... not at all.

This just in-Rob Marshall is directing the film version of Follies. He’ll be shooting the sequences including Young Ben, Young Buddy, Young Phyllis and Young Sally this coming winter and then in the winter of 2050 will direct the same performers (who are still to be cast) in the sequences set in 30 years later.

And everyone will watch in their local underwater cinemas.

I hope they put an intermission in, r474. I can't hold my breath very long.

[quote]I'm pretty positive they will NOT cut the song "Bobby and Jackie and Jack," which means that the timeline of the movie will remain the same as the show.

I was pretty sure Attenborough would understand that “What I Did For Love” was not a love song.

It was when Eydie sang it, r476!

[quote]I'm not confident about Richard Linklater, the director: not confident that he understands musicals in a fundamental way.

Well, of course, we have no idea yet whether he understands musicals in a fundamental way. But there was no reason to believe that Fred Zinnemann understood musicals before he directed OKLAHOMA!, or Robert Wise before he directed WEST SIDE STORY, or Carol Reed before he directed OLIVER!, or William Wyler before he directed FUNNY GIRL. Maybe Linklater will bring just the right sensibility to MERRILY and it will work well with the musical material.

[quote]Just noted that Linklater directed the movie version of SCHOOL OF ROCK (that preceded the stage version). And apparently there was an (unsuccessful) TV series based on the same. Which changes my POV.... not at all.

Really? I think SCHOOL OF ROCK is a very enjoyable film, and very musical.

[quote]I'm pretty positive they will NOT cut the song "Bobby and Jackie and Jack," which means that the timeline of the movie will remain the same as the show.

Oh good, r470 is pretty positive he knows what’s going on, so we can all relax.

In reality, no one knows anything. Whatever the final sequence is, it’s been shot already. The fact that news of this movie has taken everyone by surprise is proof of that.

[quote]But there was no reason to believe that Fred Zinnemann understood musicals before he directed OKLAHOMA!, or Robert Wise before he directed WEST SIDE STORY, or Carol Reed before he directed OLIVER!, or William Wyler before he directed FUNNY GIRL.

Or Attenborough before he directed A CHORUS LINE, or Rob Marshall before he directed NINE (okay, that one we had hope for, after CHICAGO) or Harold Prince with A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (really Hal?) or Nancy Walker or...

What Linklatter gets wrong is it is a musical for the stage, and people can act the twenty year age difference, that is one of the few fun parts of the show, seeing the actors 'de-age' the characters as the show rolls along.

There is exactly zero need to film them in real time, I find it a totally stupid idea, and totally ignores the theatricality of the piece

Steven Skybell and Jennifer Babiak Perform Their Moving "Do You Love Me" ("Libst Mikh, Sertse") From the Award-Winning Revival of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish...

for people who saw Company in London, What did they change with Joanne? Is she a lesbian? Does she try to get with Bobbi after Ladies who lunch?

Damn, there are a lot of assholes in this thread.

R479, first of all, I don't think there would be any point in making a movie of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG without "Bobby and Jackie and Jack," which is one of the signature songs of the score, in my opinion. But that's only one of many scenes/songs in the show that date the action to a certain time. The story ends (begins) with the characters on a rooftop, watching Sputnik go over, so they would have to rewrite that if they updated the time period. And there are lots of other period-specific references to the musical theater industry, technology, etc. Plus, of course, the score is written in a style that sounds like the late '50s through the late '70s, so they would have to completely rework all the arrangements and orchestrations if they moved up the action. All of that said, COMPANY has been stupidly updated and rewritten to focus on a female Bobbie instead of a male Bobby, so I guess anything is possible.

R480, what the hell is your point in providing a list of first-time directors of film musicals who failed (Attenborough et al.) to counteract my list of first-time directors of film musicals who succeeded spectacularly well (Robert Wise et al.)? My point was, the fact that a film director has not previously directed a musical doesn't NECESSARILY mean he doesn't understand the form, and we won't know until we see the movie. Get it?

[quote]For people who saw Company in London, What did they change with Joanne? Is she a lesbian? Does she try to get with Bobbi after Ladies who lunch?

I didn't see it, but I've been told that Joanne's line to the male Bobby, "When are we gonna make it?", has been idiotically changed so that Joanne's line to the female Bobbie is now, "When are you gonna make it with my husband?" Why they didn't have the courage to "go there" and suggest the possibility of a lesbian relationship is beyond me, but its just one of many things I've heard about this production that make me suspect I'm going to hate it.

R484 -- I saw a bootleg of the London Company, and it was brilliant. I thought that the gender swap would seem like a gimmick, but it really didn't, and it actually made more sense that a woman would be concerned about being over 30 and single than a man would. The staging of tick-tock illustrated the completely different directions her life could take with just one simple step. As for Joanne: I don't remember exactly what she said --- it might have been get it on with her husband? -- but it was definitely not about Joanne trying to pick up Bobbie. That could change, perhaps, with the NY version. I imagine they might make some adjustments..

[quote]Get it?

Yes, asshole, I get it. You’re an idiot.

Do you get that the odds against them doing any musical justice on screen are very low, just given Hollywood’s track record.

It’s possible that they’ll get it right, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

[quote]...but its just one of many things I've heard about this production that make me suspect I'm going to hate it.

I might have said the same thing to myself as I walked into the theatre to see Company last year in London. It's one of my top 5 musicals, and I was tired of people messing with it (yeah, That includes YOU, John Doyle). I left the theatre a true believer. It's hard to describe why it works until you see it. I am disappointed that they are not bringing over the entire British cast. I can't imagine Katrina Lenk being as good as Rosalie Craig.

[quote]I saw a bootleg of the London Company, and it was brilliant. I thought that the gender swap would seem like a gimmick, but it really didn't, and it actually made more sense that a woman would be concerned about being over 30 and single than a man would. The staging of tick-tock illustrated the completely different directions her life could take with just one simple step.

That all sounds great, but why didn't they just write a NEW show about an unmarried 35-year-old woman whose friends are always haranguing her to get married? The original show is VERY SPECIFICALLY about a male bachelor and his friends in 1970, and why bother going through the whole thing and doing massive rewrites to make it fit the new concept? I've heard some of the rewrites of the lyrics, and they sound pretty lame.

[quote]As for Joanne: I don't remember exactly what she said --- it might have been get it on with her husband? -- but it was definitely not about Joanne trying to pick up Bobbie. That could change, perhaps, with the NY version. I imagine they might make some adjustments..

I know it's not about Joanne trying to pick up Bobbie. That's what I wrote. Joanne's line, I am told, is now "When are you gonna make it with my husband?" What I'm saying is, it SHOULD have been about Joanne trying to pick up Bobbie. It would have been quite interesting, at the end of the show, for someone to suggest that Bobbie's "problem" might be solved by a lesbian encounter. But, apparently, no.

[quote]Do you get that the odds against them doing any musical justice on screen are very low, just given Hollywood’s track record.

I actually agree with this, for the most part, but the reasons for it are complicated, and I DON'T think they have much or anything to do with whether or not the director is a first-time director of a musical film. That was my point, which you failed to get due to reading comprehension problems.

I also can't imagine Lenk being as good as Rosalie Craig. Lenk has a lovely voice so it will be sung beautifully, but I just don't see her as Bobbie. I could be wrong; I couldn't imagine the gender switch would work until I saw it. As for Patti: I thought she was the weak link in the cast. I always envision Joanne to be an elegant UES woman, although I know Stritch was also far from that. Patti just seemed too coarse and old for the part. I can't imagine anyone being better than Jonathan Bailey in the part; I wish they were bringing him over.

Oh I see. We had to acknowledge your stupid, obvious point before you could move on with the discussion.

Okay, you have a (stupid, obvious) point. Can the grownups go back to our conversation now?

Lenk will be great Joanne in about a decade or so.

I loved LuPone as Joanne and I’m not always a fan. Craig had a good voice and an affable quality but that was it. She sang “Being Alive” onstage the same way she would at a telethon-it was all surface. I’ll be very disappointed if they don’t bring over Bailey-he deserves a NY success/Tony Award with that performance. Richard Fleeshman was adorable but I fo think it should be cast with an American now. And i really hope they change up some of the sets-the subway car was hideous looking (were there actually STRAPS in it? I think there were) and Bobbie’s apartment entrance/kitchen was fucking ugly. Her bedroom set was nice, though. I’d like to see Ana Gasteyer in the part played by Barbara Barrie.

[quote]Oh I see. We had to acknowledge your stupid, obvious point before you could move on with the discussion.

Damn, you're a nasty piece of work. I wouldn't have felt it necessary to make the "obvious" point that a first-time director of a film musical wouldn't necessarily do a bad job with it if other people weren't insisting otherwise.

Yawn

R481, you're comment makes it seem as if you are under the impression that Linklater is directing MWRA for the stage.

He is not. It is a film that he is making.

R495 No it doesn't, it is quite clear. You just get actors to act, there is zero need to wait twenty fucking years to age the actors up, it is indulgence and fucking stupid.

I think that acting age in the way you suggests demands theatricality. Theatricality is that is hard to pull off in film--because it is not theater.

If you do not make up the actors it looks weird. And if you make up the actors, you spend two hours looking at the make up. Or it becomes a fantasy film.

There is a reason why film tends to keep flashbacks and flashforwards pretty brief.

[quote]That all sounds great, but why didn't they just write a NEW show about an unmarried 35-year-old woman whose friends are always haranguing her to get married?

You mean like Neil Simon did with the female "Odd Couple?"

[quote]Damn, there are a lot of assholes in this thread.

Translation: "Damn, there are a lot of people on this thread whose opinions don't agree with mine, and that pisses me off!"

[quote] the odds against them doing any musical justice on screen are very low, just given Hollywood’s track record

Or given Sondheim's on screen track record. What happened to the scores of "Night Music" and "Sweeney Todd" was shameful, and Sondheim was complicit in that (and though I'm looking forward to the new "Company," it's Sondheim himself who "adjusted" the lyrics, a couple of which are unnecessary, and most of which are not very good changes).

[quote]I’ll be very disappointed if they don’t bring over Bailey-he deserves a NY success/Tony Award with that performance

Bailey is cast in Shonda Rhimes' new tv series - not sure he would be available for the NY run anyway.

What openly gay American actor in his early 30s will there be to replace Bailey?

Any of US?

You think anyone on this thread is in his early 30s?

Well, I myself have undertaken a marvelous new skin regimen - -

I have great expectations.

[quote]That all sounds great, but why didn't they just write a NEW show about an unmarried 35-year-old woman whose friends are always haranguing her to get married?

Because Sondheimites are nutz and would follow SS into the bathroom and give him a standing ovation for simply doing his morning constitution, so another version is just a "brilliant"and fills a theater for two or three months. Just read the other day one arguing that "Merrily We Roll Along" is now considered a classic, which is complete horseshit.

R502 Groffy, obviously, is perfect, but he needs his own show now,

You’re right, r507, Groff would be perfect, but he probably wouldn’t take a supporting role like that.

Gross isn't goofy enough. It needs someone like a younger Alan Cumming. Michael Urie, maybe?, although he's not a great singer.

R509 Jesus Urie is 159 and totally unfuckable, have you seen Jonty and Groffy, delicious, and can sing and act

Ah-HEM!

[qoute]Bailey is cast in Shonda Rhimes' new tv series - not sure he would be available for the NY run anyway.

Bailey needs to be cast in a prominent role in my sex life.

New Thread HERE

A new thread already?

The Shonda Rhines show only shoots until Christmas. Rehearsals for Company don’t start until February at the earliest.

Honestly - don't these top out at 500?

I thought they did -

R516 Liza Minnelli

Well, kids..... there goes THIS thread, then. Another openin', another show.....

Guess I'll dust off my tap shoes and time-step it over there.

Threads top out at 600, R513.

[bold]#ThankYOU

So, I rewatched the London version of 'Merrily' in preparation for the film, (yes, I am very organised).

Fuck, it is miserable. The woman screaming all her lines, like EVERY SINGLE LINE, does not help, but it is just so fucking endlessly unhappy. Hope the rewrite the script LOTS

^^ link, please.

(we need to fill this dead carcass of a thread up)

"Dead carcass" is a tautology, R523.

For all?

R523 I got it from the marvellous reddit that posts all the musicals

[quote]r524 How's that for filler?

Nice.

Here's a question: has there ever been a musical version of THE FORSYTE SAGA? I ask not because it's a property obviously adaptable for the stage or an opera house; but just because I believe it was hugely popular in print for quite a while. (My grandmother LOVED it.)

Wouldn't there have been an audience for an adaptation? Maybe especially in the U.K.?

TOOTSIE continues to slowly but continuously circle the drain: last week it grossed less than half its potential $$$ and at 70% capacity, is currently the lowest seller on Broadway.

Toot-toot-TOOTSIE.... goodbye?

In the mean time.... it's UNSTOPPABLE!

Such passion over mediocre shows like Follies and Merrily.....

wtf???

You may not like FOLLIES, or be sick of hearing other discuss it (welcome to DL)....

But it's hardly a mediocrity. A comment like that calls your basis for critical judgement into question by anyone who knows and loves musicals. What is a great show in your opinion?

MERRILY, on the other hand....

[quote]Such passion over mediocre shows like Follies and Merrily.....

Them's fightin' words 'round these parts. If it weren't for "Follies," we'd only be up to Theater Gossip #93 by this time.

Where's the passion for my [ITALIC]FORSYTE FOLLIES![/italic]

? ? ?

OMG. 66 more freakin' posts til this thread is done.....

Because some rocket scientist decided to start a new one. About 100 posts early.

I'm out. I'm a ghost here, call me Casper. Fuck it.

Meryl, Hee--We Roll Along

[quote]r563 I'm out. I'm a ghost here, call me Casper. Fuck it. — Karen Ziemba, nightcapping it

Dammit, Karen, you're supposed to be a PROFESSIONAL. [italic]And[/italic] we're supposed to be a team, here.

While the book for Merrily rather sucks, the score is probably the last traditional Broadway score Sondheim wrote. Some of the songs are among his best -- Not a Day Goes By, Old Friends, Like it Was -- and I would see pretty much any production to hear those songs live. What a shame that the book doesn't equal the beauty of the score. I agree with what someone upstream posted that said part of the play's appeal is the sheer theatricality of it, which will be lost in a movie version when the actors actually do age. For me, part of the charm is peeling back the layers and time, and seeing the kid inside the person we've been watching for two hours. Seeing someone actually 20years younger than the jaded adult just won't hold the same power.

Company is opening on Sondheim's 90th birthday.

Will he make it?

[quote]r539 For me, part of the charm is peeling back the layers and time, and seeing the kid inside the person we've been watching for two hours. Seeing someone actually 20years younger than the jaded adult just won't hold the same power.

Oh, I think it will be brilliant to see the aged, cynical characters literally bloom backwards into youth. Maybe their voices will reveal more purity in the later scenes, too.

I love it. And there will be plenty of stage revivals of the show in the next 20 years, so you'll still get to see the stage theatricality you personally like.

[quote]Oh, I think it will be brilliant to see the aged, cynical characters literally bloom backwards into youth. Maybe their voices will reveal more purity in the later scenes, too.

I agree, and I can't imagine why anyone would think that wouldn't be very powerful in a film, in a different way from the emotional wallop of watching actors play their characters progressively younger and younger on stage.

[quote]Toot-toot-TOOTSIE.... goodbye?

I’m sure they’ll keep it around till New Year’s, which will give it around 300 performances. Then it will close “to tour.”

R543, Are they avertising on NYC TV?

^advertising

All those twink blood transfusions will keep Sondheim alive until the opening. And the closing a year later.

Ginger's face looks so . . . shiny! As befitting a star. I wish she had chosen a different Eva Gabor wig, though.

Oh Ginger.....please won't someone....

Rosemary Harris in Plaza Suite???

Liberace's date was Millicent Martin! What a great couple! Sorry it didn't work out for them.

Millicent was probably just a fling for Lee, R551. As we all know, he never got over the heartbreak of his break-up with Sonia Henie, the true love of his life. It's the reason he never married.

Oh girls, DO try and keep current!

Oops, that should have been Sonja. Sorry, Lee.

Lies, R553! Liberace sued Confidential for libel and won, thereby proving he was a heterosexualist!

Was he in the car with Nancy Kelly?

Not in the car with Nancy, but I think he may have been in Row 35 of Grauman's Chinese Theatre with Maureen O'Hara.

[quote] Company is opening on Sondheim's 90th birthday. Will he make it?

Yes, but he probably won't make it to the "Merrily" movie premiere.

Maybe some of his biggest fans on DL can donate organs to keep him going??

He can have my Wurlitzer!

He can have my dick!

Patricia Routledge's big number from Darling of the Day. She also performed it with the cast on the Ed Sullivan Show, but it has never surfaced, unlike most of the other Sullivan Broadway clips.

Is Gavin Creel one of the two actors making out in this clip?

No, R564. I guess one of those actors bears a slight resemblance to Gavin Creel, but it's definitely not him.

Dick Cavett makes everything about him. "I was in the audience for 'My Fair Lady' in New Haven!" And then he just goes on and on and on about it. He really could be a twit.

There must be something about the rhythms of that era that we can't see now - Cavett's interviews seem choppy and awkward, and all his quips fall flat.

He certainly got an impressive lineup of guests, tho. I guess he was considered classy.

^^ I guess I should have written "that we can't HEAR now"

That had to do with the first time he met her, r567.

I understood that, R570. But it was still excessive. And to imply, even for comic effect, that she should have remembered a Yale student who attended a tryout performance in New Haven was insufferable. And when she asked him, at the beginning, to go ahead and tell her where they first met, he played coy and said he wanted to wait a while. He really could be an ass.

Well, it was his show.

She was a guest, there to shill. No more, no less.

Let's hurry up and close out this thread. We now have two new ones awaiting us. The premature one and a follow-up created in a fit of pique.

Idiots are why we can't have nice things.

Maybe when we start continuation threads, we put in the signature line the reminder "do not start new thread till 600"

I mean, if some here are going to bitch about snafus, maybe they should try being part of the solution?

How do all the old theater threads get closed? Does someone pm Muriel and make the request, or is it an automatic function after a certain number of posts? Or, does she keep an eye on these things all by herself?

[quote]Dick Cavett makes everything about him. "I was in the audience for 'My Fair Lady' in New Haven!" And then he just goes on and on and on about it. He really could be a twit.

Dick Cavett was the Julie James of his era.

R576, it is an automatic function after a certain number of posts.

[quote]Or, does she keep an eye on these things all by herself?

Aside from my weekly mani-pedi and buckets of passable riesling, I find I have more than enough time to manage this website for all of you pathetic losers.

Fucking asshat.

Cavett was considered a refreshing change from the Johnny Carson - Mike Douglas - Merv Griffin kind of host. Cavett could be fawning, but in a sophisticated way, and the rep of the show was that people were more likely to speak their minds or tell the truth with Cavett than when they went on the usual kinds of talk shows.

[quote]r579 Aside from my weekly mani-pedi and buckets of passable riesling, I find I have more than enough time to manage this website for all of you pathetic losers. Fucking asshat. — Muriel

Now [italic]really.[/italic]

Update: Theatre Gossip #368 (the one created in a fit of pique) has disappeared, and #367 has been grayed out.

R580, Cavett had Janis Joplin on his show fairly often and has inferred in interviews that they fucked.

r584 IMPLIED, not inferred.

R585, At least you didn't give me an Oh, dear!

A ten part miniseries of A Chorus Line for Netflix?

You go, Ryan!

Anyone know when American Son is airing on Netflix?

Link about A Chorus Line miniseries.

This was interesting in the Murphy article:

Hollywood, starring Patti LuPone and Holland Taylor, is set to premiere in May and will look take a “look at Hollywood and the sex industry, and how absolutely everything has changed and nothing has changed.”

I assume it starts filming right away, since Patti needs her spring free for Company.

Ewan McGregor as Halston? Well, that's.... interesting.

Of all (unlikely) also-rans, Alec Baldwin must be seething. He has been trying to get a Halston project made for big- or small-screens for decades now. He's entirely too old (and fat) to play the late designer now, who died of AIDs at 48, but might have been really effective about 15 years ago. He's kind of obsessed with his life story. Go figure.

Back to theatre talk...

A friend auditioned for the role of Rock Hudson in Murphy's HOLLYWOOD. Didn't get it, probably went to Finn Wittrock.

Or to any number of people from AHS or Normal Heart.

Wow, the Encores City Center Gala casting of Evita is...underwhelming. Was that nobody chorus girl they cast in Irma La Douce not available?

R594, Are they having a problem casting Che?

[quote]A friend auditioned for the role of Rock Hudson in Murphy's HOLLYWOOD. Didn't get it, probably went to Finn Wittrock.

Matt Bomer would make a good Rock Hudson.

Here’s the casting (yawn): Maia Reficco, award-winning Argentine actor and recording artist, will play Eva age 15 - 20, and Solea Pfeiffer (Almost Famous, Hamilton), last at City Center in Songs for a New World, will play Eva age 20 - 33. The cast will also feature Enrique Acevedo as Perón and Philip Hernandez as Magaldi.

Bajour!

Buttrio Square!