Theatre Gossip #403 - "Catch Our Act at the Met... In 2021! (Hopefully)"

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2020 Tony Award nominations preview: A slew of critically acclaimed plays take aim at top Broadway honors:

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From the last thread: What is the best 11 o'clock number?

Not to dwell, but from the last thread: here's Ann absolutely stepping on Bebe's right foot in the 1997 Chicago Tony Awards performance. It throws Ann slightly off-balance, but she recovers quickly and shoots a glance at Bebe, who probably screamed at her as soon as they got offstage.

Ann seemed to be having so much fun in the Encores b-roll. Why did she take such a different approach on Broadway?

Not an 11 o'clock number but an 8 o'clock one: Thanks heaps to whoever posted the video of the National Theatre's Carousel Waltz in the last thread. I saw that production at Lincoln Center, and it completely changed my mind about the show, which I'd been largely indifferent to before (blame Bustin' June and the Real Nice Clambake). Never mind the blurriness, it was great to see that opening again. (I may have teared up a little when the carousel appeared, even though I knew it was coming.) I'd love to know how long it took to rehearse that opening as there were so many (literal) moving parts -- surely it alone took up a whole day of tech.

Also: It's nice to be able to post in the Theatre Gossip thread again -- #402 was paywalled for far too long.

[Quote] #402 was paywalled for far too long.

Spamming the thread actually kills it, rather than giving it a bump.

R11 What do you mean, spamming the thread?

R8: she must’ve learned it from one of the orphans from [italic]Annie[/italic].

[Quote] What do you mean, spamming the thread?

Well, there's a well intentioned poster who posts video after video (I don't mean the person sharing links to NT Live etc. broadcast) in a short time when the thread gets slow. Muriel paywalls threads when that happens. It happened quite early last thread, I think around the 400 mark.

So glad to have a new, un-paywalled thread so I can ask Our Valens if he has a capture of the Renée Fleming/ Vanessa Williams Kennedy Center concert.

R14 Thanks. R15 Fuck, am still trying to find the solo Renee concert, so shall post both when I find them x

WE SEE YOU, WHITE PAYWALL

[Quote] WE SEE YOU, WHITE PAYWALL

You liked your own goddamned post, didn't you?

The greatest eleven o'clock number "Rose's Turn."

R9, Reinking was on a podcast recently and talked about replacing an unannounced star (Liza?) in the Encores concert shortly before rehearsals began. Perhaps adrenaline and relying on instincts created a different performance than one with an extended rehearsal period?

R18 uh, no.

Reinking was in complete control here. I don't think she was relying on adrenaline or quick decisions.

In contrast, it feels like she imposes a characterization on Roxie here. And she's too damn butch. It's almost like she should be playing the monologue with a big cigar. (That's partly why Bebe and Chita were wrong for Roxie. Both have a touch of butch.)

11:00 number. " Sit Down......"

Eleven o'clock number. Despite the terrible choreography, " Brotherhood of Man."

Reinking did an excellent Gwen Verdon impersonation when she took over opposite DL fave Lenora Nemetz -- with Jerry Orbach still in the show -- toward the end of the run of the original "Chicago". There seem to be a certain number of dancers and dance teachers who kind of affected the way Gwen talked; I don't know why. She was the original, and the biggest star female dancer.

Is Merle Louise still around? Always loved her, she was wonderfully daffy and had/has an extremely full life away from the theatre

Various "Rose's Turn". Who's your favorite?

So wild to see JK Simmons in that Guys & Dolls clip. I love that song, if not necessarily that production. It was classic Jerry Zaks; loud, funny, fast and one-note.

R16 You always come through for us!

And r23 and r24 are both from Frank Loesser shows.

Loesser is boetter at 11 o'clock numbers than most.

For the Rose's Turn video, I like Tyne.

Sit Down You're Rockin The Boat is not in any way an Eleven O'Clock Number.

Marry the Man Today is not exactly one either but it is closer.

Usually an Eleven O'Clock number is a solo. Usually emotional---often a turning point.

Looking for info, I see Wikipedia is way off on this one. The link below is closer to a traditional interpretation of what this term means.

Foe those who missed it on the last thread due to the playwall. That threads' Follies...

Pipeline.

Do we like Opera?

Elektra.

WE SEE YOU WHITE ELEKTRA

Does anyone have "The Day I Stood Still" by Kevin Elyot?

How many two handers and solo shows will come to Broadway when this is over? A lot, I would guess.

[quote]How many two handers and solo shows will come to Broadway when this is over? A lot, I would guess.

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster may have to give up on "The Music Man" and instead revive "I Do! I Do!"

[quote]Usually an Eleven O'Clock number is a solo. Usually emotional---often a turning point.

I don't believe I've ever heard that definition before. My understanding of an 11 o'clock number is it's any number that happens very late in the show, almost towards the end, and is a huge audience-pleaser for whatever reason.

R41, read the link above. It gives a more traditional definition. If you went to BMI or any of the musical development program you would hear Rose's Turn, Being Alive, Memory, Cabaret, What I Did for Love. The impact comes from the communion of singer and audience without depending on production elements or chorus.

I like the way Michael Musto described it: "An 11 o’clock number is a song that comes toward the very end of a Broadway musical, when a leading character has a fit of emotion and pours it out in music."

The idiots on ATC and Broadway World have eroded the meaning over the last twenty years.

So "The Miller's Son" isn't an 11 0'Clock number to Musto.

By that definition, Send in the Clowns is the eleven o'clock number from Night Music.

Ever notice that Charlotte, Anne, and Henrik don't sing a note in the second act? They should have kept Two Fairy Tales

I go back more than 20 years ago and always thought of it in terms of R41. Either solo or production number to get that about to slumber audience roused so they can get themselves home to the suburbs. Remember musicals started at 8:30 and could often be 3 hours. The audience members needed to be kept awake to see the end of the show and not be thinking that they had to get up early for work the next day.

The best Hot Honey Rag was Mariette Hartley and Gretchen Wyler. That was something to see. Fabulous!

In the 30s and 40s and even into the 50s, the 11 oclock number was usually by a character who was not central. But R&H really shifted the genre to a tighter focus and the number started going to a central character.

Memory is kind of old fashioned. Grizabella has no solo lines until Memory. This would have been more common in the past, but in the 80s it was a throwback.

R46 apparently they won some kind of shared award for it!!!

I heard Mariette would always step on Gretch's foot during the Rag. Naughty Mariette.

And I Am Telling You... is the 11 o'clock number to end all 11 o'clock numbers but it doesn't really qualify because it is at the end of the first act instead of right before the end of the show. Other than its placement, it is the quintessential 11 o'clock number.

I saw the original production of Dreamgirls the night after the Tonys. Holliday didn't stop screaming, the audience didn't stop screaming and I was thinking why are all these people screaming?

A young (and rather chunky) Bernie in DAMES AT SEA in 1973.

Still adorable.

[quote]And I Am Telling You... is the 11 o'clock number to end all 11 o'clock numbers but it doesn't really qualify because it is at the end of the first act instead of right before the end of the show. Other than its placement, it is the quintessential 11 o'clock number.

That's a very odd statement, since the term makes it clear that it's all about placement. An exciting number that comes anywhere else in the show but towards the very end is not an "11 o'clock number," it's just a really exciting number, sometimes called a show stopper depending on how big a hit it is with the audience.

And NEVER till till thread have I heard or read the definition that an 11 o'clock number can't be a production number and has to be a solo.

R46, Gretchen Wyler was Lauren Bacall's understudy in Applause, but she never went on.

Carol Lawrence was Bacall's understudy in Waiting in the Wings, but she never went on either.

R46 Bacall also never missed a performance of "Woman of the Year." I did, however, get to see DL favorite Louise Troy go on for Debbie Reynolds when Debbie collapsed. (Debbie was the third "Woman of the Year," following Bacall and Raquel.)

Encoresh!

Interesting that not a single 11 o'clock number I've seen proposed so far by anybody is by Rodgers & Hammerstein.

(And while we're here, "What I Did for Love".)

[quote]Bacall also never missed a performance of "Woman of the Year." I did, however.

Sums it up quite well.

A tepid, failed 11 o'clock number "All of My Life" in "Do Re Mi" tries to be a dramatic male version of "Rose's Turn" for Phil Silvers' character, but it's too dramatic in a musical comedy and doesn't really work. It didn't really work when Nathan Lane did it at Encores either. The rest of the score is pretty fine, though.

[quote] Interesting that not a single 11 o'clock number I've seen proposed so far by anybody is by Rodgers & Hammerstein.

How would "You'll Never Walk Alone" sound when performed by a woman in a wheelchair?

[quote]I’m also betting that Adam Rapp grabs a slot for “The Sound Inside.” He’s won acclaim for years Off-Broadway, and nominators will be eager to highlight his Broadway debut.

Doesn't this statement sorta rewrite history? The only thing I seem to recall about Adam Rapp's career off-Broadway was that his plays were often reviled by critics. (IIRC, Charles Isherwood even once declared that he never wanted to review any of Rapp's plays ever again.) But now, thanks to "The Sound Inside," they're making it sound as if he was this undiscovered gem who's finally garnering the recognition he deserves. So which is true?

R53, this may be a pre-1980s definition.

I have heard it described as the bookend to the "I want" song. That tells you where the main character wants to go. The 11:00 number tells you how pursuing that want changed them.

It is a bit surprising to see production numbers described as 11 O'clock numbers. Back in the day, when I was involved in musicals that was just understood to be something different. It is like the time a housepainter told me that green was a warm color. It is just not anything I ever expected to hear.

r60=Jerry Lewis

I don't know how Jerry Lewis couldn't see the irony of ending a Muscular Distrophy telethon, in front of many children in crutches and wheelchairs, and continued to sing his heart out "You'll Never Walk Alone"! He did this for years and years. I'm surprised those kids weren't bawling at this on camera. One of them should have smacked him.

That's because just singing the more appropriate "You'll never walk" doesn't fit in with the music.

What about amending the lyric to "You'll never walk anon" or is that too old-timey?

Maybe "You'll never walk again." It needs to be two syllables. "You'll never walk at all?"

I wonder if two of Jerry’s Kids did the Hot Honey Rag that they would warrant mid-song applause?

What about "Climb Ev'ry Mountain"? That would be even more of a feat under those circumstances.

We can't walk but we can cartwheel!

[quote]I don't know how Jerry Lewis couldn't see the irony of ending a Muscular Distrophy telethon, in front of many children in crutches and wheelchairs, and continued to sing his heart out "You'll Never Walk Alone"!

Over the years, I've heard some people make this childish, tasteless joke. Maybe the truth is that Lewis assumed or hoped that his audience was smart and mature enough to understand the lyrics of the song as a metaphor -- which they are even in the original context of CAROUSEL -- rather than being literally about "walking."

P.S. It's "dystrophy:"

Yuck. Metaphors are so 1992. 2020 is all about mind-numbing literalism.

You'll Never Wet This Ass Pussy!

Cardi B should have taken Taylor Swift's place in the [italic]Cats[/italic] movie. It still wouldn't be a good movie, but at least it might have sucked in a more interesting way.

"We Are The Children of Metropolis" -- Judy Kuhn

You are correct R45. Shows used to let out at 11:30 or thereabouts. That's why the number was called 11 o'clock. It came just about 15 or 20 minutes before the end of the show, usually as noted above, to rouse the audience and show off most of the company once more before the principals and supporting actors took over and finished up the story. Think "Get Me To The Church on Time" coming just before Higgins takes over for his final solo; "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat"; "Join the Circus" (Barnum), etc. Many shows opt to showcase either the principals or secondary characters, but the point is still to give the audience a bit of a break from the dramatic tension before the resolution of the story. Examples: "Buddy Beware" (Anything Goes); "My Mother's Wedding Day" (Brigadoon); "You're Just in Love" (Call Me Madam); "What Do The Simple Folk Do?" (Camelot); "Beggars at the Feast" (Les Miz). It's a little calm before the storm. The defining factors are not whether the number is big and splashy or an intimate solo or duet. It is the purpose it serves and its placement in the show.

""You've Got To Have A Gimmick" is the eleven o'clock number in Gypsy, NOT Rose's Turn, which is the climax and final number in the show.

The 11 o'clock number was always the big rousing number before the finale. "Oklahoma" is the quintessential 11 o'clock song.( In fact, ANKLES AWEIGH actually has an 11 o'clock number called "An 11 O'Clock Song.) It wasn't till Gypsy that it changed to be a dramatic song sung as a solo.

"I'm Going Back" was written specifically as an 11 o'clock number for Judy Holliday in "Bells Are Ringing" either out of town or in previews, where it was needed since apparently without it Sydney Chaplin was stealing the show. He must have been pretty good and also very hot, despite his Gertrude Lawrence-vocal unsteadiness on the OCR (and "Subways are For Sleeping" and "Funny Girl"), since he won the Best Supporting Tony in 1956 (in the year of "My Fair Lady", considered probably the most Golden Year of the Musical); Judy also ended up winning Best Actress over Julie Andrews.

[quote]You are correct [R45]. Shows used to let out at 11:30 or thereabouts. That's why the number was called 11 o'clock. It came just about 15 or 20 minutes before the end of the show, usually as noted above, to rouse the audience and show off most of the company once more before the principals and supporting actors took over and finished up the story. Think "Get Me To The Church on Time" coming just before Higgins takes over for his final solo; "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat"; "Join the Circus" (Barnum), etc. Many shows opt to showcase either the principals or secondary characters, but the point is still to give the audience a bit of a break from the dramatic tension before the resolution of the story. Examples: "Buddy Beware" (Anything Goes); "My Mother's Wedding Day" (Brigadoon); "You're Just in Love" (Call Me Madam); "What Do The Simple Folk Do?" (Camelot); "Beggars at the Feast" (Les Miz). It's a little calm before the storm. The defining factors are not whether the number is big and splashy or an intimate solo or duet. It is the purpose it serves and its placement in the show.

I basically agree with you, and thanks for explaining, but several of your examples come way too early in the second acts of those shows to qualify as 11'o'clock numbers. The term specifically and very clearly refers to placement of the number shortly before the end of the show -- often the penultimate number, or perhaps the one before that. "Get Me To The Church on Time" would be a perfect example of an 11 o'clock number if it occurred a little later in Act II, but as it is, there are three full songs -- and probably about 45 minutes total running time of the show -- after it, so I really don't think that's a good example.

[quote]""You've Got To Have A Gimmick" is the eleven o'clock number in Gypsy, NOT Rose's Turn, which is the climax and final number in the show.

I agree that "Rose's Turn" is not the 11'o'clock number in GYPSY, but I don't think "Gimmick" is either, because -- again -- it comes too soon in the act. If anything, the "Let Me Entertain You" strip sequence is that show's 11 o'clock number. For the umpteenth time, people: An exciting, rousing number that comes any earlier than in the final half-hour or so of a show cannot and should not be called an 11 o'clock number, no matter how rousing and exciting it is, because the original and actual meaning of "11 o'clock number" is quite specific in terms of placement.

[quote]"Oklahoma" is the quintessential 11 o'clock song.

Excellent example.

[quote]"I'm Going Back" was written specifically as an 11 o'clock number for Judy Holliday in "Bells Are Ringing" either out of town or in previews, where it was needed since apparently without it Sydney Chaplin was stealing the show

I have never read or heard that reason for "I'm Going Back" having been written. First of all, Judy was the star of the show, and I'm sure the writers felt from the beginning that she needed some sort of a big, rousing final number. If she didn't have that number in that slot, her final song would be "The Party's Over," which comes about half an hour or more before the end of the show. It's a beautiful song but not of the type you would want to be your star's final number. Also, though I'm sure Sydney Chaplin was charming and funny and great in BELLS ARE RINGING despite his deficiencies as a singer, his role was really not the sort in which anyone can "steal the show."

Ghosts with Leslie Manville.

Oklahoma at the Proms.

Jerome Robbins - Cock Sucker?

"Well darling, I really wouldn't know. He's never sucked my cock.”

I've read that the writers (who were, of course, great friends of Judy's) felt they needed something socko for towards the end of the show. Sydney was supposed to have been really good in the show, and it was felt there was an inbalance in their impact by the middle to end of the 2nd act. That's why "I'm Going Back" was written to give the star 'last licks" impact, which it did.

[quote]"I'm Going Back" was written specifically as an 11 o'clock number for Judy Holliday in "Bells Are Ringing" either out of town or in previews, where it was needed since apparently without it Sydney Chaplin was stealing the show.

I find it very hard to believe that Sydney Chaplin could have been "stealing the show" from the gifted and charming Judy Holliday in a musical that was specifically written for her and tailored to her talents.

He was making a big impact, and apparently a bigger impact than they wanted, thus the creators fixed the show by giving Judy Holliday a big 11 o'clock number. Both won Tonys - she for Best Actress, he for Supporting, so it worked out- plus they were dating/lovers for a while. But strangely, Sydney's dad Charlie, didn't like Judy. Perhaps he felt she was too much like a female Charlie Chaplin for comfort.

I'm on Charlie's side. I find Judy Holliday to be shrill, one note and overrated.

Team Judy here. Wonderful actress -- funny with real sentiment and heart. Things that had been used to describe Charlie. While Charlie's impact was mostly in silents (and his films were wonderful), Judy did them with great scripts by the likes of Garson Kanin and Comden and Green, and directors like Jerome Robbins, George Cukor and Vincent Minnelli.

Doesn't FOLLIES win because it has *4 count 'em 4* 11:00 numbers?

The audience was so old that they had to wake them up four times.

Surprised no one has mentioned “Superstar” from JCS. Certainly, the post-film addition of “You Must Love Me” to EVITA fits the bill as well. And while discussing ALW, “Unexpected Song” should be on the list, as well.

Does "Back to Before" qualify as an 11 o'clock number, or if not -- "Make Them Hear You"? ("Ragtime," for you youngsters.)

In A Chorus Line is "What I Did For Love" the 11 o'clock number or the spangled "One"?

Whar I Did for Love is the 11 oclock Number.

A most obvious (and effective) one...

Not quite the Hot Honey Rag. But... almost.

Is this an 11:00 number or a finale?

Only it’s not the 11 o’clock number. The 11 o’clock number in Mame is”That’s How Young I Feel.”

"You Can't Stop the Beat" is really a finale.

I disagree, r98. Walked is Mame's big solo number near the end.

[quote]Certainly, the post-film addition of “You Must Love Me” to EVITA fits the bill as well.

In the original stage version, would the "Montage" (which didn't make it into the film) be considered the 11 o'clock number? It's quite rousing and features the entire company.

For fuck's sake, the 11 o'clock number wasn't there to "wake people up". If your show needs a song to wake people up, then you have a shitty show. It's there to have a main character(s) express that they've finally figured out how to solve the problems in their life that have been holding them back (and thus creating the drama and plot of the show you've been watching for 2 and a half hours). It's there to start wrapping up the story and segue into the finale though sometimes the 11 o'clock song can BE the finale.

"Gotta Have a Gimmick" is not an 11 o'clock number. It's a fun comic number sung by minor characters in the show.

I think people are getting carried away. There is no rule about 11 o'clock numbers. Many shows do not have them and as I said before, they have changed over the years. Oklahoma had one, but Carousel did not. Musicals no longer follow the same pattern that they did in the 30's and 40's, when it was presumed that you had a big next to cloing number. And before that, Vaudeville had the same thinking. ("Next to closing on the bill" was the dreamed of slot.)

Who greyed out this thread?

I think "Eva's Final Broadcast" is EVITA's 11 o'clock number.

"For fuck's sake, the 11 o'clock number wasn't there to "wake people up". If your show needs a song to wake people up, then you have a shitty show."

Au contraire.

R103, vaudeville was different. Second to the last would be more equivalent of a finale. The last act in vaudeville would be a haircut act. The point was to be to be so bad as to drive people out of the theater, to provide empty seats for the next show. (It was called a haircut act because it would play to the haircut rather than the face.)

Theater did not have continuous shows and did not encourage to audiences to walk out before the show was over.

Dolores Gray was insistent that she get the third number in "Two on the Aisle."

Why did this OP start the thread on the 23rd? To stop anyone else from doing it? The other #493 has a better title.

[quote]There is no rule about 11 o'clock numbers.

There are two rules regarding an11 o'clock number: It HAS to come very close to the end of the show, and it has to be a big hit with the audience, whether it's a solo number, a duet, a trio, an ensemble number, a production number, whatever. For the last time, a number that comes more than a half hour or so before the end of a show cannot, by definition, be an 11 o'clock number, even it it's a show stopper.

[quote]He was making a big impact, and apparently a bigger impact than they wanted, thus the creators fixed the show by giving Judy Holliday a big 11 o'clock number.

What I'm saying is, regardless of whatever level of impact Chaplin was having with audiences, I'm sure the creators must have had it in mind from the beginning that they would write some sort of a big, 11 o'clock number for Holliday from the beginning. They would never have thought it would be fine to have "The Party's Over" be her last number in the show.

What was the last musical with 2 intermissions? Anyone Can Whistle?

I remember when I went to see the Chorus Line revival in late '96. It was my first time seeing the show. I had no idea there was no intermission and needed to pee so badly throughout the whole thing. To make matters worse, I had gotten myself front-row tickets and was seated in the center so had to wait for everyone else to clear out. Needless to say, I couldn't enjoy the second act.

I meant '06.

"The Apple Tree" had 2 intermissions during its initial run, I believe, but that was in the 1960s,

For EVITA, isn't now "You Must Love Me" the 11 o"clock number?

[quote]I had to be shaken awake four times during " Follies"

Pity they stopped shaking you.

As an apology for me starting the Hot Honey Rag conversation in the last thread, have Isaac Cole Powell's dick

Your bushy atonement is duly noted and appreciated r117.

If all those classic musical revivals started at 8:30 as their original productions did would audiences today be able to get through them without fading? Or would they be thinking two thirds of the way through My Fair Lady and Fiddler will this thing ever end? I've got to be up at 6 tomorrow morning. I hope to god it's got an 11 o'clock number.

Of course in those two musicals their hopes would be in vain and they would have to suffer through to the end. Unless you think Without You and Anatevka are 11 o'clock numbers.

[Quote] The other #493 has a better title.

That thread can still be used. It will be a while, though...

Oh, epic fail, R117. That's not his dick, as promised.

It is a mere photograph of his dick. Not the same. Not at all the same.

It's an unimpressive dick, so what's the diff?

Is that pic why Powell had a social media breakdown a while back. Someone posted about it on one of these threads but they didn't elaborate.

wow are we numb. r117 posted a seemingly authentic full-body nude of an extraordinarily well built and talented young Broadway leading man, and we went right back to the pedantry of debating 11 o'clock numbers.

The reaction to young Michael Arden's pee pee was much the same.

BAJOUR!

Isaac exposing his dick on stage would make a great 11 o'clock number. It could sing," I'm Still Here," delighting Follies fanatics.

Follies fanatics would be equally delighted if it just shut up and spit.

Any pics of Isaac on all fours?

R126 you’re a bit early.

I think it’s a nice dick R122

I'm fine with the dick. It just doesn't interest me. I enjoy the rest of him. Any wagging his tail to camera?

When young Mr. Powell presents hole, please post the photo.

Maybe it has more allure than his pedestrian penis.

Why does a somewhat successful Broadway actor live in such squalor? Dirty clothes and sneakers in a pile on the floor like a teenager, a bed and box spring on the floor with nacreous sheets barely even on it, an empty beer bottle... and what appears to be a visible bottle of lube sticking out of the basket on the nightstand with a stapler (?) on top. Nice body, though. Stupid tattoo. Oh, Mary, but c’mon.

Count me among those who think the classic purpose of the 11:00 number was to give the audience a wake-up nudge: Get Me to the Church on Time. Farmer and the Cowman, Shipoopi. Big D. Together. Wrong Note Rag.

But as someone said, not all shows adhere to that formula, especially more recent ones. Company for example, or Sunday in the Park.

I seem to recall that the recent London revival of Half a Sixpence was filmed for broadcast. Does anybody know about this?

I'm still at it, r116!

Any links to the Encores! "Me and My Girl" or "Mack and Mabel" would be greatly appreciated by this gay who has exhausted his Netflix watchlist and can't bear another minute of debate coverage.

But they got out before 10:30. (Company maybe not initially but still it got out before or by 11 in any case not needing one.

The 11 O'Clock number was performed in Elaine's dressing room.

R123 He goes on and off social media quite often. I think the big one was because he said something along the lines of 'white people need mental healthcare too' and so a bunch of people tried to cancel him as being racist.

Sondheim attended a drive-in performance of Assassins.

[quote]No one, not even Houk, got to meet or speak with Sondheim after the show. Ray did look over to this car and he smiled at her, she said.

I wonder if Sondheim has added electronic machinery to the dungeon. Twenty lashes at the press of a button etc.

Well, r135, maybe there should be a wake-up number *and* an 11:00 number, because I'd consider Accustomed/Face the 11:00 number.

If they did it at a drive in the stage had to be pretty high as the screens are so that people can look over the cars. And each car had one of those speakers that hang on the window that sound like AM transistor radios?

That Warner theater is a huge beautifully restored movie palace. What an odd place to plan to do a show like Assassins. Would it make any impact? Wicked or Aida maybe.

R133 Do you think he has a butthole?

I'm so glad Isaac Powell is cut! I loathe uncut dick

Well, we know his old cunt.

His name is Isaac. Of course he's cut.

R145 From the looks of it they didn't use the stage but had the singers on backs of old trucks facing the audience. Not sure what they did for sound.

I did not cut Isaac. I tried, but an angel stopped me.

I guess some people can't grasp the concept that an Eleven O'Clock Number should be performed around eleven o'clock (back when curtains were at 8:30).

"The Farmer and the Cowman" is the first number in Act Two. "Shipoopi" is the second number in Act Two. "Together" (assuming you mean "Together, Wherever We Go" and not "Together" from the revival of GOOD NEWS or some other song) is the second number in Act Two. "Big D" is in the middle of Act Two (in a three-act show) with nineteen numbers to follow.

oh yea, R152? What about matinee days? No 11 o clock number there!

Most second acts struggle. The 11 o'clock number has to focus the proceedings, tie some things together, and prepare the show - and the audience - for landing. How it gets done is up to the authors and the director. But the song is the foundation for wrapping up the sucker and sending everyone home.

OKLAHOMA! If your show sucks, put in " Oklahoma" as the 11 o'clock number and everyone will leave happy, except poor Jud. How can anyone not tap their toes to this classic?

Coming up at 11....

When my school did "Blood Brothers," they added "Tub Thumping" by Chumbawumba to perk up the prison scene. I don't recall how close to 11 O'Clock that was, though.

[R114]: The original production of “The Apple Tree” had two intermissions, because it had three acts, three separate stories. And the star, I’m sure, needed time to get ready in between.

I saw it. With Barbara Harris, no less. She was wonderful.

Bless you, R117. He (and it) are as beautiful as I imagined. Lucky, lucky Mr. Taylor.

[quote]Lucky, lucky Mr. Taylor.

You can add a few more 'lucky's in there too.

R125, can you please perchance provide a link to the pic?

Also, where's pics of Max Von Essen's alleged tinymeat?

Larry Kramer - Cock Sucker.

New York Philharmonic Celebrates Sondheim.

Sweeney Todd with Bryn and Emma.

Best 11 o'clock number ever: Never Met A Man I Didn't Like from the Will Rogers Follies. Fabulous photo montage by Tony Walton when Keith sang this number. Powerful message too. Thank you Coleman, Comden and Green.

^Such a good show.

Thank you, r164. I just forwarded it to Worst Pies to check out Emma. O.K., but I'm afraid the effort is showing.

Did Emma do any musical theatre after Me & My Girl?

That concert Sweeney Todd isn't all that, but I'm thinking Emma Thompson has a better Mrs. Lovett in her that a strong director could bring out.

What I saw, r169, was her effort in traversing the vocals.

WEHT to Our Miss Brooks? Carb loading in quarantine? Making more apologies for his past behavior and "who he was allowed to become"?

[Quote] Making more apologies for his past behavior and "who he was allowed to become"?

?

[quote]WEHT to Our Miss Brooks?

It was on TCM this morning!

(Oh--and it's WHET. We do have traditions here.)

Brooks Amantokiss was a METOO perpretator?

Wasn't it decided that Brooksie was the "fat jovial avuncular" actor who apologized for his past behavior in that long Medium post full of blind items earlier in the summer? I think it's since been deleted. It was published right around the time that someone on Facebook called out Brooks for being bitchy, two-faced, and a lil bit racist during THE CLOSET at Williamstown.

He's fond of retelling the Maggie Smith "the blacks" story?

Dick pics AND gossip? This thread is moving along nicely!

r173 - Thank you, Walter.

I never need to hear Emma Thompson "sing" again. In a stage musical or elsewhere, thanks.

Did Isaac post these pics to his social media? or were they hacked?

Isaac's pronoun is They?

R180 More than likely sent to someone he was trying to hook up with - either real or catfished.

I hope I'm not shattering any innocence over the idea he and Wesley may not be totally monogamous.

I miss the old DL anecdotes about Brooks getting his jollies during summer stock. Hell, I miss summer stock.

I din't know Brooks was that old. Did he do summer stock with Ellen Travolta?

I just noticed this on my Youtube line-up and it's probably already been posted...

The hair is very Merman here.

[quote]I guess some people can't grasp the concept that an Eleven O'Clock Number should be performed around eleven o'clock (back when curtains were at 8:30). "The Farmer and the Cowman" is the first number in Act Two. "Shipoopi" is the second number in Act Two. "Together" (assuming you mean "Together, Wherever We Go" and not "Together" from the revival of GOOD NEWS or some other song) is the second number in Act Two. "Big D" is in the middle of Act Two (in a three-act show) with nineteen numbers to follow.

Thank you. I don't know if people are being purposely annoying or honestly stupid in naming songs that occur WAY before the end of their shows as "11 o'clock numbers," but either way, this is getting ridiculous. One might assume the fact that the timing of the number is included in the description might clue people in as to what songs fit the category, but I guess not.....

P.S. to name "The Farmer and the Cowman" rather than the title song as the 11 o'clock number in OKLAHOMA! is not at all funny if it's intended as a joke, and incredibly ignorant if it's intended as a factual statement.

And on another note, re Isaac Powell: That's a very nice endowment, but to me, his body and face are so beautiful that the dick would never be the primary focus of interest.

I still don't understand why someone as beautiful and talented as Isaac Cole Powell is with such a sniveling toad like Wesley.

^ Love. He's doing it for love.

Impossible. Tay Tay is unlovable.

Loads...of love

Michael Arden’s penis was nothing to write home about.

Fräulein Desmond...

[quote]Love. He's doing it for love.

And we all know how well that worked out for Elle Woods.

Someone above mentioned they'd like to read DL tales of summer stock. Here's an old DL classic:

ALWAYS on DL if you post a nude photo of a man there's always at least a couple old cunty queens sniffing, "That's not much of a penis" despite the fact it's likely that said cunty old queen probably hasn't actually seen a live dick in many years. And, in 9 out of 10 cases, the penis in question is handsome and of considerable girth.

Mr. Powell is a very good looking, sexy young man with a deliciously well toned body and a pair of gorgeously long and supple legs. Oh, and a beautiful plump cock crowned with a magnificent halo of manly lush pubes. If he's not to your taste, then you have terrible taste and you should go die in a grease fire.

[quote] Michael Arden’s penis was nothing to write home about.

I like when people use their penis to write in the snow.

I guess this can't hurt his Broadway career, since there isn't a career to be had on Broadway right now anyway.

re: Isaac

In honor of tonight's full Harvest Moon, here's one of the greatest hits of the last century, Shine On, Harvest Moon. The song became a sensation when introduced by vaudevillians Nora Baye and Jack Norworth in the 1908 Ziegfeld Follies. (The song's also credited to them but that's highly disputed and unlikely.)

I know Bayes and Norworth recorded the song but surprisingly, I couldn't find their version on youtube. Instead, here's a nice lounge version with Der Bingle and Rosemary Clooney.

And here's a high kicking version with Gene Kelly and Miss Joey Heatherton.

Finally, here's Liza.

Spam

Does anyone else on here think You Can't Take it With You is one of the most overrated bores of a play ever written? I've seen the film version, the tv-movie version and I was just trying to make it through the 1983 Broadway revival that was filmed for Showtime w/ Jason Robards and I just fucking hate this play. It's filled with characters that are quirky for quirky's sake and who grate on the nerves almost immediately. Talk about a play that ought to be buried alongside Tobacco Road and Life With Father.

It wouldn't have been boring, had it had a better 11 o'clock number.

Honestly surprised that Wes has such a nice dick

R208 It's slightly annoying, even. Especially given his personality.

[quote]Honestly surprised that Wes has such a nice dick

I didn't realize Wes's dick pic had been posted. Anyone here have it to share?

Miss Ruth Etting

HAMILTON fans!

[quote]The cast got together to perform some new lyrics in partnership with When We All Vote. If you haven't registered to vote yet, time is running out. Need a little something to inspire you? Check out this video that Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of Hamilton put together in partnership with When We All Vote.

[quote]HAMILTON fans!

Almost no one on DL will admit to being a Hamilton fan.

I happen to think it's great, though.

R206, this may not make any difference to you, but I wonder if you realize that maybe the reason you hate YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU so much is that the basic situation and those types of characters have been copied SO many times, one of the most famous of many examples being THE MUNSTERS. I'm sure the whole thing seemed a lot fresher to audiences when the play premiered on Broadway almost 85 years ago. It's fine if you hate it regardless, but it's not the fault of the play if it has been imitated time and time again.

R200, what do you think there is about that photo of IP that would hurt his career in this day and age? Yes, he's completely nude in the photo, but he's not masturbating or having sex with anyone in it, and he doesn't even have an erection. If any of that other stuff were true, and especially if a photo or video leaked of him having sex with another guy, THAT might damage his career. But in 2020, I think a hot, nude photo with no sex and no erection can't hurt at all and, on the contrary, might only gain him some new fans.

R210 see R160

R204- Is the shadow on Liza's chest in that number really Isaac's erect penis?

In the selfie of Isaac, I think Wes is passed out under the pile of dirty clothes.

[quote]Does anyone else on here think You Can't Take it With You is one of the most overrated bores of a play ever written?

I've always disliked what Frank Capra did to the 1938 movie version. Great cast, but Capra turns it into his typical "triumph of the little guy" Capra-corn. I also dislike Capra's frantic movie version of "Arsenic and Old Lace." He sucked at adapting Broadway comedies.

Thanks R215. Didn't realize that guy with cum splattered on his chest was Wes.

[quote]Capra's frantic movie version of "Arsenic and Old Lace"

It's godawful. Cary Grant was directed to be a spastic ninny. He reminds me of Michael Crawford in Hello, Dolly!

The only Capra film I ever loved was IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (and yes, it's corny as hell). Nothing else he ever did comes close, despite working with some incredible talent of that era. (I particularly dislike the hamminess of MISTER SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and MEET JOHN DOE.)

Isaac has heard R134's criticism

I am so sick of everyone involved with HAMILTON feeling that they must teach the world how to live. It was just a show.

[quote] [R206], this may not make any difference to you, but I wonder if you realize that maybe the reason you hate YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU so much is that the basic situation and those types of characters have been copied SO many times, one of the most famous of many examples being THE MUNSTERS. I'm sure the whole thing seemed a lot fresher to audiences when the play premiered on Broadway almost 85 years ago. It's fine if you hate it regardless, but it's not the fault of the play if it has been imitated time and time again.

Yes, I understand the age of the play, but I can point at several other plays of that time that still hold up, even ones by Kaufman & Hart. So I wouldn't be so quick to blame age.

You Can't Take It With You - Jason Robards.

The Beaux Stratagem - with corrected sound.

Broadway and Jews - A Love Story.

I turned down the offer to see Sam Barnett's cock.

Eddie Albert replaced Jason Robards in the Ellis Raab "You Can't Take It With You." And he was better than Jason was in this role. It's much more suited to Eddie Albert. You could easily believe he went one morning to his Wall Street office, thought better of it and returned home. Jason is a wonderful actor and it was fun to see him give this a go. But it's not his natural territory. Eddie Albert walked in and smiled and owned it from then to the final curtain.

We've come this far without discussing that Lin Miranda got HBO to make an entire documentary ABOUT HIS FATHER

I believe he promised them house seats to HAMILTON.

There's no escaping the Mirandas, is there?

R230 ...the father who worked for Ed fucking Koch.

Is there a better opening number than this one?

Maybe this one?

Or this?

"A Funny Thing," "Ragtime,"" and "Kiss Me Kate" have great opening numbers.

Who has been enjoying Jason Danieley's mouthwatering cock since Marin left us?

The Jean Stapleton You Can't Take It With You was much better than the Jason Robards

For whatever reasons, YCTIWY has never really worked on film/video. But with a cast of really good character actors and a director who will move things along, it can still be very effective onstage. Even high school productions show this.

And I love that somebody else has pointed out that The Munsters is a ripoff of the basic plot.

more isaac!

I thought the Munsters were a rip-off of The Adams Family?

And The Addams Family musical ripped off the plot too

[quote]I thought the Munsters were a rip-off of The Adams Family?

The overall concept yes. The initial plot set up is ripped from YCTIWY.

^ The pretty, sweet, all American girl has concerns about introducing her boyfriend/fiance to her extremely weird family.

[quote]Yes, I understand the age of the play, but I can point at several other plays of that time that still hold up, even ones by Kaufman & Hart. So I wouldn't be so quick to blame age.

My main point was not specifically about the age of YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, but about the fact that the basic situation of the play -- an extremely weird and eccentric family interacd with normal people from the outside world -- has been copied to one extent or another by SO many subsequent plays, movies, and sitcoms, most notably THE MUNSTERS.

I am r240, r244 and r245. I am not r246, who I assume originally posted about how often the main plot device of YCTIWY has been copied over the years and brought up The Munsters. Just to note there is more than one of us who has noticed this.

Who cares?

Incidentally, Carolyn Jones was a much prettier/sexier Morticia than Anjelica Huston.

I can't see how you write off a PLAY because you hated the filmed adaptations you've seen.

Plays need to be seen live before you start judging them.

Back to opening numbers. Food, Glorious Food is a good number and great as Oliver!'s opening number. Sets the scene, tone and atmosphere of both the period and the show perfectly for the audience.

I couldn't find a good video of the stage version with the original orchestrations and staging but the film's version scored by Johnny Green and staged by Onna White is excellent in its own right.

[quote] I can't see how you write off a PLAY because you hated the filmed adaptations you've seen.

What difference does it MAKE if I watch the PRODUCTION live in the theater or a filmed TAPE of the production? Except for the CLOse ups, it's same thing.

[quote]I can capitalize words, TOO

Even INCOmplete ones r252.

[quote] What difference does it MAKE if I watch the PRODUCTION live in the theater or a filmed TAPE of the production? Except for the CLOse ups, it's same thing.

No it's not and you're an idiot or unseasoned if you think so.

I've been going to theater in NYC for 33 years. Whether or not I watch a production live or on (professional) tape is not going to alter what I think of the play's text. Sorry if you need to sit with a souvenir sippy cup and a playbill in order to figure out what you think.

[quote]I've been going to theater in NYC for 33 years.

I've been going to theater in NYC for 46 years. Does that mean I trump you for understanding the difference between a live performance and a filmed or videoed one? Or simply reading the text on the page? Or even a different live performance?

Those experiences can be minor or extremely major.

R223 They're so sanctimonious.

If anybody hasn't been going to theater for at least 50 years it means they never saw the original Follies and has no right to have an opinion on anything concerning the theater at all.

I saw Robards onstage in YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. I thought he was perfect. I don't know why he wouldn't be believable as a guy who impulsively ditched his Wall Street career. I didn't see Eddie Albert, but that might have been fine, too.

Robards was famous for playing the lead in A THOUSAND CLOWNS, stage and film both. A character with many of the same qualities as Grandpa Vanderhof in YCTIWY. He rocked the house.

Isaac Powell has a really gorgeous body and a full frontal nude selfie on the internet, and we're talking about Kaufman & Hart.

It just hit me that Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is kind of a minimalist redo of You Can't Take It with You.

R252, I worked on the Ellis Raab "You Can't Take it With You" and saw many performances with all the original cast and replacements. It was utterly charming and the audiences always loved it.

I also saw the video production.

The stage production was better by leaps and bounds. It just didn't translate well. You can't fault the cast. You can't fault the producers for trying. But that video is but a suggestion of what was up on stage for everyone to enjoy.

In light of earlier discussion, I must point this thread towards another DL thread headed BREAKING!!! WALTER REED DOCTOR TO MAKE 11:00 ANNOUNCEMENT!

Is this Trump's 11 o'clock number?

[quote] I've been going to theater in NYC for 46 years. Does that mean I trump you for understanding the difference between a live performance and a filmed or videoed one? Or simply reading the text on the page? Or even a different live performance?

No, it just makes you a prissy blowhard who always thinks he's right.

I just figured that dramedy posted here.

Please god no r266.

[quote]I worked on the Ellis Raab "You Can't Take it With You" and saw many performances with all the original cast and replacements. It was utterly charming and the audiences always loved it. I also saw the video production. The stage production was better by leaps and bounds. It just didn't translate well. You can't fault the cast. You can't fault the producers for trying. But that video is but a suggestion of what was up on stage for everyone to enjoy.

I agree, and I think that's partly because comedies in general tend to come across worse on video than dramas. Any good play is best experienced live in a theater, but comedies especially, because there's nothing equivalent to the community experience of sitting in the midst of a live audience that's laughing heartily and frequently at a comedy. Here's hoping we will all someday be able to do that again.

Isn't that second picture - where the dick looks so huge and his arm is obscuring his face - that's actually Wes Taylor, isn't it?

R269 Yes, me saying add another lucky was meant to be about him being lucky to have a dick that size. I obviously wasn't clear enough, sorry.

The Lion.

As You Like It with Rosalie Craig.

Waiting For Godik.

I'm not a fan of You Can't Take It With You or any of the K and H plays except for Once in a Lifetime. The movie is surprising faithful. Thank goodness it was made precode because it keeps the joke that got the biggest laugh when it ran on stage. My only regret is that the divine Jean Dixon who is incandescent in Holiday and My Man Godfrey didn't get to recreate the role she starred in when it opened on Broadway. She's probably the only person in the history of the world who could bring the house down on the last line. I wasn't there but I assume she did.

Wrong on two counts, R274. Frank Capra's "You Can't Take It With You" was released in 1938, so it is definitely not pre-Code. And it is also not very faithful to the play, turning Edward Arnold's character of Anthony Kirby into a typical Capra rapacious villain.

r274 is talking about the film version of Once in a Lifetime.

You Can’t Take It With You is loads of fun to perform, especially for high school and community theatres and audiences continue to enjoy. The recent Broadway revival with JE Jones, Kris Nielsen, and Annaleigh Ashgord was well-gone. I went back to my HS to see a production 50 years after we did. It’s a good choice for young actors—they can learn comic timing and stage business without characters too complex for them. What to with Donald and Rheba is a challenge. Ashen we did it in 1972, white actors were cast (we had an almost exclusively white student body) and they played them as country hicks (with s few changes in dialogue), when Ibsaw my high school’s production in 2012, a black student played Donalf, a Latina played Athena, and a Black student played Grandpa (this was before JEJ did it) and no one batted an eye—he was a talented and powerful actor and the production was immensely the better for his presence.

[quote][R274] is talking about the film version of Once in a Lifetime.

Yes, and if he was a better writer, that would have been clear.

One day the world will realize that Lynne Trans-Smell Esmeralda is an insufferably middle-brow blowhard.

Christ, R279, I loathe the guy too but you're literally trying to make "fetch" happen.

Always such fun when the unhinged LMM haters stink up the theater threads. "Trans Smell" is such a knee slapper, all 500 times it's been used in these threads.

When was that "In The Heights" movie supposed to come out? I saw a trailer of it around maybe the beginning of this year or was it like last holiday season? Miranda is all right, very over-rated as a writer, pretty bad as a performer, very effective as a self-promoter, but he tries to insert himself into all kinds of political things, and he adapted the Chernow book on "Hamilton", but he's not a historian like he is.

^ Heights has been pushed to next summer.

When his father worked for piece of shit Ed Koch, he did accomplish much for the Latino community?

R283 is that question mark an uncertainty?

R276 got it immediately. Perhaps if you had better reading skills R278 you would have understood it immediately as well. Also the references to the script and cast made it apparent. You should have known Josephine Hull and not Jean Dixon starred in the original cast of YCTIWY.

agree that r274 was perfectly clear and that r275 was out of line

[quote] Thank goodness it was made precode because it keeps the joke that got the biggest laugh when it ran on stage.

Spoiler Request: Can I ask what that line is?

"Nobody's Perfect!"

what's your favorite part of Isaac's bod at r117? For me, it's either the delts or the thighs. Or maybe the abs, very defined without being overdone, and perfect semi-treasure-trail under his navel.

PS nipples ever so slightly disappointing

Does the play of "You Can't Take It With You" have the rival of the Edward Arnold's character committing suicide after meeting in the office? I don't remember that from when I saw the play years ago.

Let's have James Lapine do another fucked up ANNIE revival! He can make it even darker and less fun than before!

Annie as a Trannie? Very woke.

[Quote] Annie as a T

It's been done.

WE SEE YOU WHITE TRANNY ANNIE!

No, R291. All that opening stuff in the YCTIWY film was Capra's addition.

In the play, Mr. Kirby is really just a straw man, a comic invention that works well in the big "dinner" scene without truly emerging as a human being.

I’m sure there’s still some fun left from [italic]Oliver![/italic] that James Lapine can drain from it.

[quote] Annie as a T [quote]It's been done.

And now Martin Charnin is dead. Coincidence, I think not!

[Quote] And now Martin Charnin is dead. Coincidence, I think not!

It was a parody so no autorization needed, I guess. They had to change the title though, as there was uproar.

*authorization

The Decades marathon this weekend is Cheers. I hadn't remembered that Lilith's mother was played by Marilyn Cooper.

A-Mezzo A-Malia.

Armelia McQueen has died. So sad. Just the sweetest lady.

Thanks for that, R302. Interesting... it's a very "cabaret" version of those lovely songs, not necessarily a bad choice.

Foley was/is an unusual talent, but I've always liked her voice. (And she can rock out, too.) She really should have had a bigger career. I recall her being a decent actress. (I know Lapine replaced her with Bernie in ITW, but that's understandable.)

What happened?

Was it coronavirus?

Very sad. 68 is too young.

[Quote] What happened?

She married a TV writer, I think.

She sort of fell between two stools. She looked like a prettier Liza Minnelli. But she had scrappy, character-ish energy. She was mostly cast in small parts and often not styled flatteringly. I can see how her career petered out.

Plus, Meatloaf aside, she seems mostly to have been bridesmaid or second choice in a lot of projects. She was credited with vocal arrangement on Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" but why wasn't she given the track to record? I guess her stock was too low. She sang on a Steinman album around 1990 (a version of Burt Bacharach's "Little Red Book") but she had to share the spotlight with a few other female singers. It looks like she never had a starmaker.

I actually think singing rock did a number on Foley's voice. She had vocal trouble when touring, I read. Here's an early, more legit version of "Heaven Can Wait."

When Pigs Fly.

Thanks to Valens (as always!) at R271 for linking THE LION. Highly recommended.

I saw it a year or two ago, having heard great things about the live show off-BWAY. I was dubious about a solo, autobio musical (having suffered through a few before), but Scheuer is the real deal. A genuinely talent as a songwriter and performer.

Samuel Beckett documentary.

Oh, it' actually titled "The Lion." I assumed that was a disguised title. I didn't click on the video.

Foley/Eagles.

The Life of Reilly.

Loving the Ellen Foley love!

More Ellen Foley

OMG....Rebecca thinks Harvey F. is the man she's going to marry???

No I won't give you the line because out of context it would be dead in the water. And the build up is long. Also it had a shock but recognition factor which it wouldn't have today which is why I said it could only be in a pre code movie. Watch the movie. It's delightful and pretty timely.

There's Helen Schneider as well, r304. She seemed to prefer being a big fish in a smaller German pond. Her only Broadway credit is Ghetto for a one month run in 1989. And like Ellen, she attempted a rock career.

Helen...

There's an interesting website called americanradiohistory.com. It houses pdf scans of old music magazines (Billboard etc.). I remember reading a brutal review of a Foley concert from 1980ish. She was supporting a male (of course) rock band.

R317, if you are talking about Once in a Lifetime, May does not have the last line in the play or the film....and it is not that funny in either.

[quote]All that opening stuff in the YCTIWY film was Capra's addition.

Capra didn't write the screenplay.

A German TV performance from the days when Helen played Sally Bowles in Berlin', at Theater Des Westens

"Maybe This Time" shouldn't be in CABARET. Helen is a talent. Glad she has had a good career.

r324 = Kaye Ballard. That was 1987 and a TV performance. I wonder if she actually sang it in the production. If she did, was it a performance song or a book song? Somebody get Helen on the phone.

Was "Maybe This Time" not in the London revival from 1986-ish? I presumed Not My Cassie sang it in the Broadway revival.

Schneider along with Kelly Garrett was a contender for the American Evita. She with Garrett and Jane Olivor were kind of the great white hopes of Cabaret singing when the form was just about dead. Maybe you could add Donna Theodore in there as well. Schneider was the one who got the mainstream publicity, while Olivor was darling of the gay set, although Schneider played multiple sold out appearances at WH's Studio One. Garrett had been around for at least a decade before landing on Carson numerous times but going no further. Olivor was in the gay soft core "Saturday Night At the Baths" singing "Pretty Girl" and she's fairly unbearable.

Garrett seemed like a mini Merman. Did she bring it down for a cabaret setting?

I had a Kelly Garrett. solo album once. Waste of money.

R328, Stephen Holden's review of her act answers the question succinctly.

"Ms. Garrett, along with Shirley Bassey and Vikki Carr, belongs to the louder-is-better school of pop singing. And during her 50-minute show at the club, a spacious old-fashioned theater-turned-restaurant on the ground floor of the Edison Hotel, she never let up. She has a big, chesty contralto with a buzzing vibrato that she applies with equal force -- and an equal lack of interpretive discrimination -- to country, pop and Broadway material."

How dreadful.

Kelly Garrett was no Karen Wyman.

Ugh. Enough of those untalented singers. Feh!

They're all just Lisa Minelli wannabees!

Jackass at R322: Capra's thirties movies were written by others at his direction. Robert Riskin was the author of the YCIWY screenplay, but first Capra told him how he wanted the story to go. The opening episode was his idea, not Riskin's.

R334, It's M-i- Double N-then E-Double L-I.

Tell them not me, r336. Back to Miss Foley...

Foley had a nice introduction with 3 Girls 3 but couldn't make any headway.

I don't think Foley has a very strong sense of herself as a performer. She had chops but... she went from Barry Manilow to the Springsteen/Post-Phil Spector of her debut album, to a Clash album with elements of cabaret, to an MOR, kinda sorta dance pop album.

I wonder how she and Patti would have worked together if the TV musical show (a different musical every week) had actually gone to series.

*Foley had

She should have cut a studio version of "Lightnin' Strikes" (7:35).

Question about that video of The Life of Reilly at R313. That's not the documentary, is it? (I've never seen it.) The doc was called The Life of Reilly, but the stage show (which I saw in LA) was called Save it for the Stage. I've always wanted to see the doc, but it's hard to find. Did they at some point start calling the show The Life of Reilly?

R342 Oh, no, that may be my fault. When I downloaded Reilly, it was three different pieces, the show, more of the show, and then more of the show. So, I could easily have mislabeled it.

That's cool, Valens, thanks. It didn't look professionally shot, so I didn't think it was the doc, but not having seen it, I wasn't sure.

Yes, he shouted a LOT. I'm trying to remember which theater we saw him at in LA. I think it was the El Portal, but maybe in one of their smaller rooms, because we were in the front row and he spit all over us.

R344 Here you go.

r344 I saw it at the El Portal, too ... I think it was at the Debbie Reynolds main stage.

Sally Ann...

Does anyone have any idea if the sequel to Golden Age was finished? Any chance of a release from the McKay estate?

thanks, R345!

Hey, R285 -- I knew what movie you were referring to, but what you wrote was not completely clear: "I'm not a fan of You Can't Take It With You or any of the K and H plays except for Once in a Lifetime. The movie is surprising faithful." Also, you screwed up "surprisingly."

I'd forgotten that Annie Golden was Cliff's girlfriend.

Annie Golden was in the first episode of Filthy Rich, but seemingly Juliette Lewis has replaced her.

Annie Golden: Somewhere That's Green and Suddenly Seymour

Faith's...

What is the origin of that clip at R339?

"This One's For You" is a perfectly charming little pop song, but not very complex. I love how Ellen Foley approaches it (along with the film crew) like it was some Edith Piaf or Jacques Brel ballad.

And no ill will toward Faith Prince. I've enjoyed her onstage....

But the idea of sitting around listening to that voice for the length of an entire album?

Shoot me.

[Quote] What is the origin of that clip at [R339]?

It's from 3 Girls 3, which was part variety show and part narrative about three young women trying to make it in show business. Foley's co-stars were Debbie Allen and Mimi Kennedy.

I remember watching it. They had "the singer", "the dancer" and "the comedienne".

R350 you should give it up. Everyone but you knew what I was saying. But if you insist on being an asshole the size of Brazil go for it.

Ladies, can't we settle this with pistols?

Maybe This Time preceded both the stage and screen versions of Cabaret. It was written as a one off for Kaye Ballard's cabaret act in the early 60s. When Fosse went looking for additional material for Liza in the screen version of Cabaret, someone remembered it and suggested it and there you go.

R361, Liza had even recorded Maybe This Time in the mid-60s.

Maybe This Time had become a cabaret staple by the time of the show.

I think Liza had recorded "Maybe This Time" at least a couple of times already, maybe one version was on a live album.

R361 Everyone stole from Kaye.

I stole "If You Hadn't But You Did."

I stole "My Coloring Book."

That makes sense. I had often wondered why "Maybe This Time" wasn't nominated for Best Song.

I stole her double headed black dildo.

I hit her follow spot.

Were Kander and Ebb ever a couple? Fred Ebb is a bit of a footnote in the real Looking for Mr Goodbar case, which I found interesting

I was astonished to read recently that the wonderful lyricist Fred Ebb was never out. Never open about being gay, not ever, through a lifetime of making musical theatre, hanging with LIza, Bacall, Chita, etc.

Can someone confirm? I realize he was part of another generation, but I was shocked nonetheless.

What about John Kander?

I remember reading an interview with them where Kander and Ebb said they were never a couple. Same with Comden and Green.

Due to Miss Armelia's passing, decided to rewatch the filmed-for-tv Ain't Misbehavin' last night. What a dynamite group of performers.

What struck me was how much material McQueen has compared to the other ladies. Sure, they all get a chance to strut and hog the limelight, but of the three McQueen seems to do the most - by herself and with the rest of the ensemble. She has so much stagetime that I think if the show were to be revived today, her track might have a good shot at a Lead nomination.

I did notice that McQueen's first big solo "Squeeze Me" was cut from the broadcast. Anyone know why? I'm assuming some combination of running time or Standards & Practices purposes. Having never seen the original production, I have no idea how the number was staged but can imagine it being a little too suggestive or "adult." The broadcast also notes "Nell Carter starring in" so perhaps someone at NBC pulled a Helen Lawson and cut the song as to not overshadow their new TV star?

I never saw the show other than the TV Broadcast and "Squeeze Me" was the number that made me fall in love with McQueen. Her giggling is just adorable.

"Squeeze Me" was performed very simply. She sang it pretty straight, as I recall, downstage, standing in front of the back of the piano. The little giggle she gives was for a moment when the spotlight closes in on her and appears to "squeeze" her. Just unfussy, smart staging and she just delivered the song, with no pyrotechnics. A lost art.

I went to check the televised Ain't Misbehavin' on YouTube. There's a good quality version that doesn't have "Squeeze Me," which is probably what you saw, R374, but it's in this version, around the five minute mark. The copy is not as good, unfortunately.

Brava, Armelia!

What a privilege it was to see the original company in the original production. During the finale was only time I've actually seen people get up out of their seat and dance in the aisles during a Broadway show. I wish I had been smart enough to join them.

Who replaced Irene Cara?

That whole original company of AIN'T MISBEHAVIN was truly magic.

Thank you for this R377! I did indeed watch the version with better picture quality and not chopped into segments. It cuts from "Honeysuckle Rose" to a shot of audience applause and then back to the Henderson's back at the piano for "Handful of Keys."

So glad to see this performance of "Squeeze Me." Armelia is in a word - adorable. Such wonderful phrasing and technique too.

R378, Charlayne Woodard took Irene Cara's role when the show moved to Broadway.

I can't quite imagine Cara playing what Woodard described as the stereotypical dumb/childlike black girl. Did anyone see Cara in the show?

Why did Irene Cara think going topless in "Fame" was a good career move?

Nudity was very common in the 1970s.

R383, I think Cara was a better actress than she was given credit for. She could have pulled it off.

Also, remember the role was built on Cara. I think Woodard was uncomfortable because as a replacement, she has less impact on shaping the material. But as the original, Cara would have had the part tailored to her. (There was no script---just a bunch of songs and performers.)

R384 I think there was a thread about her tits. Ain't Misbehaving, along with Piaf were the only Broadway shows released in my country. Watched them both so many times, was amazed at the talent. Would kill for a copy of Piaf now.

Anyhoo, Kiri Te Kanawa - 'I am not a car wash cunt'.

[Quote] I think Woodard was uncomfortable because as a replacement, she has less impact on shaping the material.

And probably because Woodard was an unambiguous, dark skin black woman. Those old stereotypes tended to be pushed with people who looked like Woodard, not Cara.

Yerma.

Woodard did a tv musical called "Cindy" which was a black Cinderella tale with Clifton Davis as the Prince, possibly Nell Carter was in too, not long before "Ain't Misbehavin' ". I remember it was cute, but no one ever brings it up.

Was that the same piece Cleo Laine did in the UK with... Elisabeth... Somebody.

Thanks R389, you continue to be the best thing of 2020.

Cameron Mackintosh - Cocksucker - Act One.

R393 A very literal LOL

r391, no. Cindy was an off-Broadway musical that produced an album I have somewhere gathering dust; it had an original score. Cleo's was CindyElla, whose score was made up of folk songs. Kind of a jukebox musical. And the Elizabeth was Elisabeth Welch. Something of a legend whose career began in the 1920s. That too produced an album.

Thanks, r395.

Are you sure it wasn't this version?

I saw the original cast in Ain't Misbehavin 11 times. I am so happy that it was filmed for people to enjoy. I didn't know it was done. 11 of the best theatrical experiences of my life. Very sorry Woodard feels the way she does. She was wonderful. And hilarious in a knowing way.

I saw the show several times as well and by the time they did the NBC taping, the cast had gotten too comfortable in the roles and didn't give us that unexpected flash. Too much had been hashed out already. Even the Tony Awards number is considerably better than what they did for the taping.

Not that I'm trying to horn in on Valens' turf, but here is Cindy w/ Charlaine Woodard.

Charlaine's one woman show had a bit where she talked about doing the revival of AM. She said that in the middle of "Keepin out of Mischief Now", she heard Nell say to one of the crew "who wants a chicken wing?"

I read an interview with the producer of the original cast album of Ain’t Misbehavin, and he made some comment that the more takes the cast did of a song the less energy each new take had.

Well I guess I'll keep clear of the tape. Who wants wonderful memories smudged? What year was it done? I saw performances that were better than the obc. The recording doesn't capture it at its best.

Weren't most cast albums recorded on the Sunday after opening back then? I wouldn't be surprised if the cast didn't have many takes in them.

I saw the last Broadway preview of Ain't Misbehavin'. It was electrifying fun, and the audience roared at the end. One of the best shows I've seen, and the OBCR brings it all back. (I, too, found the NBC taping to be less electric. Of course, it always helps to be in the actual audience.)

R400 Ha, go for it, darl. Good share.

Blithe Spirit with Noel, Betty, Claudette and Mildred.

Holy shit! Thank, r406.

Yes, thank you! Elisabeth Welch...

R408, Welch was in "Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood" and it was heralded as one of the great Broadway performances but she lost the Tony to Bebe for Sweet Charity.

R406 I KNOW! Took awhile, but got the fucker.

r406 - I imagine Marion felt herself in very starry company!

Please find the 1987 London FOLLIES !

I saw the 1987 London FOLLIES. Somebody please wipe it from my memory.

R412 Not out there, and I don't do handbags. One must have some standards.

The Follies bootleg must be out there if Aurora Borealis posted multiple numbers from it. Or is he that guy - Ethan Mordred - y'all sometimes talk about?

R415 I meant a real filming...am sure a handbag is out there.

Aurora Borealis, r415?

It's a thing of beauty, r417....

At this time of year?

Why not?

Broadway soon to announce its staying closed until Fall 2021...

Aurora has uploaded audio of Betty as the Witch in the workshop of ItW

Leslie Caron - Cock Sucker.

How about some really old gossip? I’m reading an interesting book about Fred and Adele Astaire, and in it Adele gave an interview where she thought George Gershwin was impotent. “George loved all the girls but absolutely I know he was impotent,” said Adele. “He never got terribly involved with anybody. He was a neuter. I would’ve had George except he wasn’t given to women. And he wasn’t given to men either. I think that’s what caused his brain tumor—something wasn’t getting stimulated.“

Sweeny Todd - starring Neil Patrick Harris.

Cameron Mackintosh - Still Sucking - Act 2.

R406 And this is Blithe Spirit with Betty and Noel.

Well, r424, if something wasn't getting stimulated, I don't think the tumor would have been on his brain.

I have heard some people suggest that George Gershwin was gay but deeply closeted, for obvious reasons. It would be nice to claim one of the greatest composers in all of history as gay, but of course, it doesn't really matter, and anyway, we have so many others :-)

If he was gay, then it does matter. We shouldn't have gay history?

They aren't having live concerts until 2022, so sadly, Fall of 2021 sounds optimistic for Broadway.

R425 you mean "Sweeny Todd starring George Hearn and Patti LuPone" -with Neil Patrick Harris

R432 I wanted to throw the little shit a bone. I am still in therapy after his Sondheim birthday performance.

Betty is really good in that Blithe Spirit. Was Mildred's wandering accent a character choice?

HI Valens, thanks for making the confinement bearable for so many of us. Do you happen to have Imelda´s version of Gypsy among your treasures? I really enjoyed Virginia Woolf, BTW. Thanks again!

[quote][R425] you mean "Sweeny Todd starring George Hearn and Patti LuPone" -with Neil Patrick Harris

No, you mean SWEENEY Todd.

She really was quite comfortable on the stage, r434. She was smart to go that route, like Angie. And they both had the discipline and stamina to do it.

R435 Sure, shall throw it up tomorrow. Is......interesting.

Someone should throw up an audio boot as well. It's instructive to compare.

R33- Sit Down You’re Rocking The Boat is the definition of an 11 oClock number. And I think it’s the best one. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

R439 You mean of Gypsy? As many here have said she was actually good in Gypsy, and the broadcast version was bizarrely not what they saw on stage, it would be cool to compare. To feel out what the truth is. Cause from what I saw, her mama Rose stunk.

[quote]Sure, shall throw it up tomorrow

Pics please.

Someone should throw up on Imelda.

r441 yes.

R441 I saw Imelda live. She was not good. But Lara Pulver's Louise was much much worse.

I saw Imelda on a two show day. She was way more than good. The rest of the cast I could take or leave.

Sorry, I've seen Imelda now in Gypsy, Virginia Woolf and Follies and she has stunk out loud in all of them. She is a terrible stage actress.

You saw her in recordings of stage performances. Not an ideal situation.

Broadway will re-open next summer.

Come Summer...

R448 face it, she sucks on stage!

[Quote] face it, she sucks on stage!

Your opinion doesn't weigh as much as you do.

Does anyone have a complete version of Bette in Hello Dolly?

Regarding the TV version of [italic]Ain't Misbehavin'[/italic], with all the money lavished by Columbia on [italic]Annie[/italic] (which Nell Carter would, of course, later end up in), you'd think their TV division would have enough money to clear the music rights in perpetuity, not just for one broadcast, so they could at least put it out on video. I have never seen a legal release in any medium.

Imelda was an excellent Baker's Wife in INTO THE WOODS. And she was a very fine Rose (saw it live) but missed the mark for me because the character she created lacked a certain charm.

The audience ate her up.

Imelda must have one of the most varied careers in musical theatre. She played Dorothy Fucking Gale on stage.

[quote] The audience ate her up.

Pics please.

No, wait. On second thought, no thanks

R457 in what?

Somewhere in the regions.

Gershwin died at the age of 38. He was popular, handsome and rich and came from a conservative Jewish background. And everyone knows Jewish men are the horniest. No girlfriends. No wife. And in that era not to be married at the age of 38? Yes I know Kitty Carlisle claimed to be a girlfriend but look who she ended up marrying. Who else? No one.

Adele Astaire said he was not a heterosexual. 'If he had been I would have known.' You can imagine all the women in showbiz of the era gossiping and trading stories about the men they were seeing and sleeping with. And there was no talk about THE most available bachelor of the day? She said as has been noted he was a 'neuter.' Which I assume she meant what we would today call a person who was asexual. In show biz? Not in a million years. This man was so closeted he was suffocating to death.

R460 Was Imelda the oldest Dorothy ever? Or does the title still belong to Diana Ross?

[quote]Was Imelda the oldest Dorothy ever? Or does the title still belong to Diana Ross?

Ahem.

[quote] You saw her in recordings of stage performances. Not an ideal situation.

One production, you may have an argument. Two, your cause is weakening, but go on. Three, the problem is obviously Imelda and not the recordings, otherwise there would be several other recordings where good people come off badly.

It's Imelda, hon.

Ben Gazarra and Barbara Bel Geddes are not so hot in that TV excerpt from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." I'm not going to deem them failures in their roles. I didn't see the production.

Didn't Ethel Merman allow Gershwin to finger her and that's how she was cast in Girl Crazy?

[quote] Didn't Ethel Merman allow Gershwin to finger her and that's how she was cast in Girl Crazy?

Sort of. She carried a piano in there. I wrote Rhapsody in Blue on it.

R467 Carried a piano, in her where?

Judging performances from a few minutes of video is foolish. I would have killed to have seen Bel Geddes and Gazzara live.

Would you like to see them dead?

Covita

I have seen Imelda many times on stage, Follies (2), Gypsy, VW, Sweeney Todd (3), Entertaining Mr. Sloane and, I think, maybe a couple other times. I did not care about her VWat the beginning but she was great in the third act. Her Lovett was the best I have ever seen. And she is always great. Yes, I am a fan. I also agree that I cannot watch 20 minutes of the Gypsy on video. But that happens with a lot of opera voices, on stage/live they are great, on tape/record, yowza.

RR/PL

The Lincoln Project is freakin' brilliant. Any thoughts as to who the singer is? (they haven't said, yet).

They are thugs, just like the thing they oppose. Don’t trust them; they are snakes in the grass.

sounds like Carolee Carmello to me doing Covida. Any other thoughts?

Imelda's Rose is brilliant. That stated, it needed to be dialed back a bit for the camera. But she is the first Rose I've ever seen who gives us a Trumpian-scaled child abuser and master manipulator. That's what it takes to go the distance with the story arc of GYPSY.

A characterization like we usually see in which Rose charm's folks to get things done doesn't really explain anything that happens in the show. Why the husbands all left. Why June leaves. Why Herbie leaves. Why even Mr. Grantzinger won't meet her. A seasoned producer, he knows an ego when he sees it. She's a raging narcissist who charms folks for a while. But only for a while. And once she is comfortable enough and provoked enough, out comes the real Rose.

She's cruel to those kids in the first scene. That's a big risk. But then she and the director built on it. The performance she delivers is full of wonderful detail. Beating her hand into June's letter while snarling, "I'm her mother and I made her" is breathtaking. She is equally strong in the dressing room scene with Louise late in Act 2. And she is consistently narcissistic to the end. Staunton gave Louise a mother to hate and to fear and to manage and to finally have to accept.

But, yes. I would have liked there to be more time to adjust things for the camera. Perhaps record it without an audience to get things better calibrated. But hands down, she is the best Rose. Only Patti Lu can compare favorably.

I don't think it even registered in the broadcast, that performance was done at such a clip, but I thought it was a brilliant choice for Imelda to seize up when Louise hugs her in the kitchen, before "Some People." The character to whom Rose shows the least love is the one who will never abandon her.

Imelda's "Everything's Coming Up Roses" was also the first time where it occured to me that her family are not scared of her so much as they are scared FOR her.

[quote]The Lincoln Project is freakin' brilliant

Just never forget that as soon as Trump is done they're going to turn those same tactics on Democrats.

A Rose without surface charm is not Rose. Songs like "Small World" and "You'll Never Get. Away From Me" are there to show how she manipulates people by flattering and flirting. If you think that Patti and Imelda were the best Rose, I'm guessing you didn't see Lansbury. And Merman. by all accounts, was full of charm.

Tommy Rall has died at age 90. No obit I can link to at the moment.

Dems have to learn how to be as aggressive politically as Repubs -- that's why those ads from Lincoln Project done the Repubs are so good.

The singer in that Lincoln Project “Evita” vid sounds like Laura Benanti to me.

R482 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Gypsy.

Agree about Lansbury, r481. She was sexy, scrappy, and she benefited from the addition of the continued bowing after the applause ended.

The Crucible with Richard Armitage - Act One.

The Crucible - Act Two.

And as I am sure nobody has seen it, for comparisons sake, Imelda in Follies.

Is R484 that horrible AndPeggy, who just posted the same thing to ATC?

Oooooo. We're comin' to get you AndPeggy!

Which reminds me, I can't remember the last time I went to ATC.

WE SEE YOU ANDPEGGY!

WE SEE YOU WHITE ANDPEGGY!

Getting my own back after being attacked by andPeggy on ATC!

We have ATCers in our midst?!

I doubt they are in our "midst" r497.

More like the dark and dusty corners.

I *was* an ATCer but they kicked me out of the club some years back. I joined soon after the turn of the century...

Da butt

OK, I'll bite, what is ATC?

Did you criticize the food?

All that Chat

If that's for me, r502, I had posted Youtube links that I thought were o.k. but they deemed bootleggy. They emailed me that if I did it again, they'd boot me. I rarely went to that email so I didn't read it. The next time I posted a link that I thought was safely within their perimeters...they decided it wasn't and booted me. I thought it all rather arbitrary and to them I said "What..ev...uh.

The Covita singer has been revealed to be Lisa Howard.

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

Ooooohhhh, that one.

R477, I agree with a lot of what you wrote, but my problem with Imelda in the GYPSY video is not that that there's too much anger or bitterness or narcissism in the performance, but that, on a purely technical level, she overacts ALL of her emotions, and/or one might say that she always seems to be indicating rather than honestly communicating the emotions. I'm guessing the performance would come across at least a little better if you were watching it live from the farther reaches of a large theater, but I have never seen her live, so I can't say.

I was just at the passarelle. I could have knocked Imelda over for some of the denizens of DL if I had wanted to do so.

The problem of the recording wasn't just the size, it was the speed.

Prom photos!

Oh FFS, how the hell does Plateface Rannells work so much?

r512 Have you not noticed that just about everything he does is for Miss Murphy?

Corden's in it? Hard pass. Saw it on Broadway and left at intermission.

[quote] A characterization like we usually see in which Rose charms folks to get things done doesn't really explain anything that happens in the show

And yet it’s extremely accurate to the real Rose Hovick.

[quote] A characterization like we usually see in which Rose charms folks to get things done doesn't really explain anything that happens in the show

And yet it’s extremely accurate to the real Rose Hovick.

Broadway announcement coming tomorrow.

Tony nominations being announced on October 15.

Lungs - socially distanced.

Next to Normal.

Nunsence with Rue.

What was Bernstein's relationship with Sondheim like? I recently watched the documentary about the making of the operatic recording of WSS with Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras, etc. In it, Bernstein credits Arthur Laurents with giving the Sharks and Jets their words, and doesn't mention Sondheim at all.

Betty in her full belting glory doing “And Eve Was Weak” from Carrie at Carnegie Hall.

Unfortunately, this scary/crazy portrayal is also how she played Rose in Gypsy.

Does anyone even give a fuck about the Tony nominations? Who even remembers the shows at this point?

In any case, if Jeremy O. Harris HAS to get a Tony, I'm glad it will be where no one is paying attention to him.

Pure, white hot steel r523.

Never heard another voice like that before or since.

R517 Broadway World and NBC News New York already reporting

BroadwayWorld doesn't "report" anything. So pathetic.

So when they say May 30, 2021, I assume that means the performers will go back in March or April so they can be ready in time for May? After over a year off, everyone is going to need time to get back up to snuff.

I don't think so R528. I think the date is just another date because nobody knows what might happen by then. If there is no vaccine or the numbers have dramatically plummeted, I doubt that we will go to the theatre in April. Remember when, back in March, we thought it might take a couple of weeks or a month, tops? And here we still are, entering fall and not looking good at all. I wish I could be more optimistic but I think we are so fucked. More than I could ever imagined at my most pessimistic. Shit.

[quote]What was Bernstein's relationship with Sondheim like?

From various books I've read, their relationship was good during WSS. Bernstein was originally going to be credited as co-lyricist, but most of Bernstein's lyrics didn't make it into the final show, so Bernstein generously (IMO) gave up his lyricist credit. He also offered to increase Sondheim's royalty, but Sondheim turned him down, a decision he later regretted very much. Years later, when Sondheim agreed to write new lyrics for the 1970s production of Candide, he said he would only do it if Bernstein was hands-off and didn't try to lecture Sondheim on how to do his job. The two of them later tried to collaborate with Jerome Robbins on a Brecht-based musical, but it didn't get very far.

I know for a fact that Sondheim was amused/irritated by Bernstein's inflated ego and preening in the latter part of the latter's career.

So I have it on good authority that the actual date of announcement WAS going to be Sept 2021, but when it got leaked, they rolled it back to May 30th, but that's just a placeholder. It will definitely be Sept of 2021 unless some miracle happens.

After COVID-19 Shutdown, 7 Broadway Actors Return to Their Theaters:

Glenn Close, Patti LuPone, and more stars teamed up for "The Great Work Begins: Scenes from Angels in America":

R533

[quote]Right after the pandemic started, I walked from my apartment in Hell’s Kitchen to the theater and put my hands on the stage door to bless it

Well, no-one ever said actors were smart.

That’s totally something he’d say. A meaningless platitude.

Is this worth watching? I can't imagine it wasn't discussed....but I don't remember. So many things...I don't...remember.

Viva Latino.

The Emperor Jones.

Gray Gardens.

This was such an oddball film...

Oddball it was....

Another AFT offering...

The Music Man not opening till early 2022 now.

[quote] What was Bernstein's relationship with Sondheim like?

Lenny was the bottom.

Which Betty, Bacall or Comden?

Betty Davis, Rose.

A Night Out.

Mood Music - Old Vic.

The Last Five Years - socially distanced.

Melba

My stars. That Stella Deems was really something back in the day...

Ha. I clicked on that link expecting to see someone black, that's how ingrained the insistence on casting Stella as a POC has become.

But apparently she is very lovely.

Dick & Elaine

Where are you, Phyllissss???

R552. Dyke, ya know.

The Importance of Being Earnest.

Hyde - The Ballet.

Song and Dance Man.

Translations.

Broadway Salute--Patti LuPone, Nell Carter, Sammy Davis, Jim Dale--1981 TV

^

Rainbow High at 28:20. She absolutely rips through it and at the end turns humbly demure with her thank yous.

Apparently before Glocca Morra, she touted 52nd Street....

More Ella...

Angie & Danny

Thanks for that socially distanced Last Five Years, R550. For me, nothing will ever top the original Off-Broadway pairing of Norbert and Sherie, but I always love seeing other actors in those roles. The ending always makes me cry. I know...MARY!

The Night before The Morning After.

The Boy Who Danced On Air.

June Moon with Steve Sondheim.

R570 Did you notice that Steve was wearing .... a HAT?

Stratas

Thanks, R572. That's one of the performances I wish I had caught in person. Love the score and the CD that was recorded with Julia Migenes-Johnson taking the place of Stratas, but every bootleg recording I've heard of Stratas in the role has been phenomenal.

New thread up.

Why are you putting a new thread up this early?

It was started as the new old thread, but some cheap cunt started a new one half way through the other one, as it was paywalled. So that one became a spare, which is now the new thread, incorrectly numbered, and people are using it already as this thread has now been patwalled and some people are really really fucking cheap and will not pay the 2 bucks.

I'll patwall you motherfucker!

Phyllis on Lost Horizon...

I would love to see Lost Horizon on stage.

R579, One of my better scores.

Oh dear...

Jonelle...

Agree R581. There are all these people in some of the online Broadway groups who love her but from everything (and HEARD) of it, Geraldine Fitzgerald's cabaret act was actually an act of terrorism.

I do find it interesting that the actress who played Bette Davis's best friend in "Dark Victory" (1939) was performing "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" more than 40 years later.

Performing is such a polite verb, r584.

Which is why I chose it, R585.

At least she is having a go.

Mary dubbing Maggie

[quote] Mary dubbing Maggie

Is that what they called rubbing the clam between the tongue and the top of your teeth back then?

^Ask Mary Martin.

R583, Fitzgerald was an OK actress when she was young but ended up a tiresome old hag who insisted on imposing her mediocrity for years before she finally croaked.

Stella is cockhungry. Always has been.

Bajour!

Aw hell, may as well pull out the Miss Nichols card...

Spill those Les Miz hate stories, Patricia.

Great show!

PATRICIA????

I want it all.

Bajour?

Bajour!