THEATRE #458 - Don’t Rain On BEANIE’s Follies

Beanie's "apologetic" attitude in that Funny Girl curtain call video just about says it all.

I was struck by how there was NO interaction between Beanie and Jane Lynch during the curtain call.

It seemed as if Jane was trying to get a reaction, but Beanie ignored her.

I see that Sarah & Matthew and Laurence, Sam and Darren are all going to be on Good Morning America this Thursday. The Jesses and Patrick from Take Me Out will be on Today's third hour on Thursday. But when can we expect performances from Miss Beanie or Mr. Billy?

Beanie looks ENORMOUS in that red dress during the curtain call.

Was thinking Beanie was going to enter from stage-right when she entered from stage-left a bit or did she mess up?

[quote]Was thinking Beanie was going to enter from stage-right when she entered from stage-left a bit or did she mess up?

It looked like a bit. She’s a “funny” girl, get it? Ha ha.

Decontamination bit. Probably it happens in the show too so this is a wink to that

Not decontamination. Definitely seems like a bit.

[quote]Beanie looks ENORMOUS in that red dress during the curtain call.

Not a good period of clothing for Beanie. As I noted in the last thread, Hilferty was a bit flattering in her sketches.

The show has made some adjustments to lyrics about skinny Fanny.

"If a girl's incidentals are not bigger than two lentils"

is now

"If a girl's incidentals are bigger than U-Haul rentals."

I was at the Funny Girl preview last night and, at the risk of getting totally flamed here, i have to say that I use sauce from a jar.

Who is the fucking idiot who started this thread and completely fucked the title up? I searched for Theatre Gossip #458 and it didn't show up. Guess why.

I know a lot of people find her likable and are rooting for her, but I just don’t get Beanie. She comes across like the poster girl for being born on third. She keeps getting cast in roles for which she is physically wrong (her Lewinsky was distracting because of her looks and size) and just seems mediocre in every way. I truly don’t get it.

Who's the idiot who started this? It's THEATRE GOSSIP! Moron...

I think we should abandon this thread.

[quote] Beanie looks ENORMOUS in that red dress during the curtain call.

She’s auditioning for the blood coming out of the elevator in Ivo's adaptation of The Shining.

Fuck your Funny Girl previews crap and enough fucking Follies for at least another thread.

So, will Beanie be playing the lead when American Buffalo extends?

^^ Somebody ^^ didn’t get laid last night. Again.

[quote]I was at the Funny Girl preview last night and, at the risk of getting totally flamed here, i have to say that I use sauce from a jar.

This joke was HIGH-larious, the first thousand times.

R11 Because you're an idiot who doesn't realise they can just search for "458"?

[quote]Because you're an idiot who doesn't realise they can just search for "458"?

r11 didn't fuck up the thread title, r19.

Beanie has a sweet, sweet pussy.

[quote] Because you're an idiot who doesn't realise they can just search for "458"?

If that was the case, then it would have shown up, shithead. Don't try turning your fuck up around on me.

Don't rain on my theatre gossip thread title

So which thread are we using?

From on of the posters over at reddit Broadway.

[quote]I was at the show and found it very enjoyable and fun, and the staging is beautiful. I would even go see it again! That being said… Her voice is barely acceptable for the role and idk if her charm/charism is going to be enough to balance it out. She had her moments when she was belting and it seems they took the approach of her singing the songs mixed with her nasally tone, and then sticking the landing with one big belt at the end. She has the voice of the girl in high school who would get the lead, not because she was the best singer, but because the teachers personally liked her the most.

[quote]Again, it’s passable and I think people who go will have fun and enjoy themselves as I did, but if we’re being real, the voice is not there and the show would overall be better with someone who could vocally carry the show. I think Beanie will improve as the run goes on, but her voice is what it is to an extent. I agree with the other user that not every Broadway performer needs to be vocally talented, but this is FUNNY GIRL, come on now lol

And a countering opinion from the same sub

[quote]I saw the show last night and definitely thought it was borderline awful. She is cute at times but it truly felt like watching a high schooler sing and act. The show is painfully long with lots of repetition but I’m sure they will figure out what to cut during previews. I just didn’t think she was believable as Fanny and her and Ramin are an odd pair, looks like a dad with his daughter. I hope they figure it out in the next month but oof. Rough stuff. I will say the crowd seemed VERY into it, which was confusing. But I guess folks are easy to please.

Some Ramin who strips down to skivvies as you scroll down.

[quote]Rough stuff. I will say the crowd seemed VERY into it, which was confusing. But I guess folks are easy to please.

Today's Broadway audiences would give a wet fart a standing ovation.

One more from reddit.

[quote]Her voice is barely acceptable for the role and idk if her charm/charism is going to be enough to balance it out. She had her moments when she was belting and it seems they took the approach of her singing the songs mixed with her nasally tone, and then sticking the landing with one big belt at the end. She has the voice of the girl in high school who would get the lead, not because she was the best singer, but because the teachers personally liked her the most.

[quote]Again, it’s passable and I think people who go will have fun and enjoy themselves as I did, but if we’re being real, the voice is not there and the show would overall be better with someone who could vocally carry the show. I think Beanie will improve as the run goes on, but her voice is what it is to an extent. I agree with the other user that not every Broadway performer needs to be vocally talented, but this is FUNNY GIRL, come on now lol

High School. That's immediately what I thought of too. R28 they really would.

She and Ramin look ridiculous together; Nick should be more average. And he has a scene with his shirt off...yeah, he's into Beanie.

Would that be considered beefcake or cheesecake, r27?

Have you a link for the reddit, please? Thanks.

How long before Beanie is on ‘vocal rest.’ I’m sure her standby has been rehearsed and is ready to go.

I actually thought Beanie looked as good as possible in that red dress. Or mumu, actually. Beanie’s red mumu.

[quote] Wasn't the point of Encores to do undiscovered lost scores? I

No one knows what the point of Encores is anymore. Best to forget it. It’s dead.

If they want a Lear to run Encores, get Richard Lear - he's dreamy!

Boy meets goil...

Heather in high school...

[quote]If that was the case, then it would have shown up

Yes, that was the point. And I'm not OP

Everyone seems to complains about the thread title on here. I mean, WHO CARES? Why doesn't anyone complain that who ever starts the next thread doesn't link the old one to the new one, so we don't have to search for it!

Actually, I like this title. And I complain frequently. But this title is cute, and pertinent, and it’s fun. OP, you did good.

Can't wait for all this Beanie obsession to end....Can we talk about how many shows are opening between now and the Tony cut offs. Financial carnage a'comin...

[quote] Actually, I like this title. And I complain frequently. But this title is cute, and pertinent, and it’s fun. OP, you did good.

You're a fucking idiot. Who cares what you think?

[quote]Can't wait for all this Beanie obsession to end

The first Broadway revival of "Funny Girl" just had its first preview. I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a while before the discussion turns to the fascinating topic of Tony cut-off dates.

R44 is a reminder of how many mentally ill people we have posting here.

You sound pleasant, r44.

Are you a loon?

It's already been pointed out that this thread doesn't show up when you search properly for it, hence the second #458 being started. So there is nothing cute, pertinent or fun about it, even before you factor in the trite title.

R48 has spoken! Unfortunately he’s such a cunt that no one will pay attention to him. You really need some anger management classes, r48.

Oh, I get it. R48 is the OP of the second r48, and he’s pissed that his thread flopped.

No, I'm actually not and you can see that by putting me on ignore, which I wish you would do.

“The “Musical version of Drive My Car is inevitable”

It’s a title for the ages! All hail that OP! And let’s hope he gets over his constipation soon!

The Beatles already did it years ago.

R27 nothing wrong with Ramin’s looks or voice but he is miscast in Funny Girl

From the tail end of the last thread.....

[quote]What’s weird about Judith Ivey was she hadn’t done a Broadway musical before or since. Why she decided to give it a “try” in a difficult Sondheim role, I have no idea. It’s just weird to go from Dorothy Collins, Barbara Cook, Julia McKenzie, Victoria Clark, Bernadette Peters…to Judith Ivey

A couple of years later Judith Ivey did Desiree in the LA Opera production of A Little Night Music. I was skeptical about her casting, but found her funny, earthy, charming and quite touching in the role. Thankfully, the powers that be at LA Opera realized they should cast the production with -- primarily -- Broadway performers instead of opera singers. It was a chance to see excellent Broadway performers with the production values (and orchestra size) of an opera company. Much better than those dreadful teeny, tiny London imports we got of so many Sondheim Broadway revivals --including that Night Music production with CZJ that should have been OFF-Broadway. If I'm remembering the LA Opera cast properly we had... Victor Garber, Danny Gurwin, Zoe Caldwell, Laura Benanti, Marc Kudisch, Michelle Pawk, Kristen Bell.

[quote] The first Broadway revival of "Funny Girl" just had its first preview.

Technically, there was a concert version in 2002. So this is the second revival.

Concert versions don't count, r56....why do you think they would?

OMG...just imagine when Beanie gets a Tony nod...and wins. What a travesty and an insult to past winners.

Especially since the concert version alluded to was a different Fanny for each song.

What about POTUS?

There are different fannys in that, too.

Can you imagine, r58, Beanie winning where Barbra did not?

Miss Murney talks about her Fanny experience (and song)...

Barbra had really tough competition her year. Unlike, say, Audra in quite a few of her wins. She lost a couple of times when she had some great performances up against her.

Does anyone have a link to Beanie's audio that they are talking about on BWW?

Oof, warn someone before you post a full frontal facial of Seth!

There was no way Carol Channing was going to lose the Tony to Barbra that year. The movie role, on the other hand…

Beanie's... 'Parade'. Who knows if this will get taken down. It's... serviceable.

Hello Dolly was BIG, r66.

There's a strange phenomenon going on now with the casting of young characters in musical comedies.

Like Beanie, I also thought her co-star Taylor Trensch as Barnaby in Hello Dolly was miscast. Instead of casting more classic sunny cheery type ingenues and juveniles (think Andrew Keenan-Bolger and Kara Lindsay, e.g.), they now seem to go for more awkward and glum, apologetic twerps. As though Loser types will win the audience's affections more these days.

Maybe this comes from some of the new musicals like The Prom where the young leads are written as awkward and glum, apologetic twerps but I hate to see the trend invading classic musical comedy revivals, too.

I found both Beanie Feldstein and Taylor Trensch anything but "glum" in the DOLLY revival -- they were both exuberant and charming. (BF's elevation to leading lady, on the other hand, doesn't seem the least bit apt to me . . .)

Beanie was hardly charming in Hello Dolly. Obnoxious and ear splitting is more like it.

Her Parade was better than I thought it would be. The audience loved her

Then you must have thought she was going to sound like Miss Piggy, R72

I liked Mollie Grigsby and Charlie Stemp much better than Beanie and Trensch.

The audience for a first preview is always enthusiastic: friends, family, investors, fanatics.

I don't know what the singing terminology is, but Beanie baby's low notes at r67 in the "cause I'm a comer" and "My heart's a drummer" are non-existent. She's either out of breath or has no lower register. She exhales the words but isn't making any sound, she's just implying they occur.

I've never understood the appeal of Trensch. Butt ugly and the personality of a wet mop onstage.

Beanie’s is a “well, it’s much better than I expected” performance, which is different from a “wow! She slayed it!” performance.

I would go see what is at R39.

BF really does sound like a very good high school performer. If it happened at the Jimmy Awards, we might be impressed.

Beanie sort of ran out of steam towards the end. The cheering from the audience was annoying. Let her finish the song for heavens sake. Nothing special.

may be of interest / re: 2004 production mentioned above

Okay, that Heather Headley clip at r39? THAT’s it. That’s an outstanding voice - even at 17-18 - that’s the kind of voice you want to hear singing those Funny Girl songs. Compare that to Beanie’s thin little belt - and it makes you cry.

Oh god, truthfully that Don’t Rain On My Parade was dreadful.

She hits the notes but there’s no style, no build, nothing.

I love PUSSY!!

[quote] The cheering from the audience was annoying.

I wonder if something happens visually that we aren't aware of, that they were applauding for

Beanie's girdle held up under the pressure?

R86. True. Maybe Beanie pulled out a bucket of KFC.

Fanny Brice singing My Man to the kernel is such a good idea for act two

[quote] to the kernel

oh, dear.

[quote] Concert versions don't count, [R56]....why do you think they would?

Because ibdb lists it as a revival.

Would you consider it a revival, r91?

oh r91 give it up.

What did Harvey change in the script?

How much did they pay those people to clap for her? Come on, that is high school quality. This is bullshit..

It was the first preview which is usually packed with friends and supporters

I have to agree, Beanie sounds like a talented but not extraordinary High School student performer. And I also have to agree that she was quite annoying in Hello Dolly. It was the first time I ever saw her and I thought, how did SHE get that part! I will say though, I've seen her in a couple of movies and she was fine in them.

I predict that Beanie will strain her vocal cords in previews and be a bit (more) ragged when the show opens.

On another Note of FUNNY GIRL. I worked with Maurice Levine on the original Lyrics and Lyricits series that he created. The subject of the show was Broadway Musicals that were made into movies and we were doing FUNNY GIRL. We were looking through the movie to show a song that Barbra did not sing there weren’t any. The mother scene was cut and so was the song. The only thing we could find was a one minute introduction sung by Omar Sharif sing “I Am Women” that went into Barbra singing the rest of the song.

Part of the soundtrack vocal of “Who Taught Her Everything She Knows?”has surfaced on YouTube. The number was recorded and filmed but ultimately cut. There are a couple of photos from it too.

[quote] I predict that Beanie will strain her vocal cords in previews and

… and regretfully withdraw, leaving the part to someone who can actually sing it. We can only hope.

That clip is astonishing in its mediocrity. What were they thinking?

[quote]On another Note of FUNNY GIRL. I worked with Maurice Levine on the original Lyrics and Lyricits series that he created. The subject of the show was Broadway Musicals that were made into movies and we were doing FUNNY GIRL. We were looking through the movie to show a song that Barbra did not sing there weren’t any.

There are two songs in the movie in which Barbra doesn't sing: "If a Girl Isn't Pretty" and the "Roller Skate Rag."

Does Beanie do anal?

You mean does Fanny take it in the Fanny?

R105 - That joke only works on this side of the pond. As I discovered when I told jokingly told Elaine Paige I was going to smack her fanny for going up on our lyrics in You're the Top.

The person at fault here is Michael Mayer. Why would he hire someone with such a mediocre voice to do such an iconic role?

Sheridan Smith was wrong for the part in a lot of ways, but she’s the real deal as a singer. She delivered the goods with the songs.

You shot me Fanny!

Wow. That was a weak, bland vocal.

I've seen Funny Girl once, in a local professional production here in Seattle (Issaquah actually) and our regional theater actress was way better than Miss Rising Broadway Star, Pork'n' Beans Feldstein.

Anyone taking on this role will be compared with Streisand - one of the greatest vocal talents ever who owns the role. Next!

I wonder why putting her in a 70’s era red Sue Mengers Mumu was the choice for curtain call?

Don’t wear red unless you mean it!

Years ago, I went to the first preview of the Damn Yankees revival and it was full of drama students from American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Julliard, NYU, etc. I’m sure it’s the same for Funny Girl. The audience is 18 year old drama students.

A poster on one of the theatre message boards rushed to defend Beanie and took everyone to task for only wanting Streisand-level vocals or a facsimile of that original performance. No one in their right mind would expect anyone else to sing it or play it like Streisand. But couldn't it have been someone who could sing it as well as Mimi Hines, Marilyn Michaels, Leslie Kritzer, or Heather Headley in high school? I think we all just want to hear the score's 4-5 great songs sung well.

Are there any boots or recordings of that LA Night Music? It’s the one production I’ve never seen anywhere.

Imagine the cast album

I don't think Michael Mayer "chose" Beanie. I think the producers chose her and hired Mayer to guide the production because he had directed it in London. He probably wanted the paycheck and perhaps thought he could work a miracle.

R116 I thought the same thing, but in the previous thread someone said Mayer had described Beanie as his discovery.

Those Heather Headley clips are really exciting. She’s good on stage and sounds fantastic and is very musical. That’s EXACTLY what the producers should have looked for. Do a national search and find a super talented kid.

So the current revival stays open for two months? Surely Beanie doesn’t get nominated?

The Broadway Funny Girl lead producers are the same ones who moved the show from The Menier and brought it to the West End: Sonia Friedman, Scott Landis (husband of Kathleen Marshall) and David Babani (AD of The Menier). And, of course, Michael Mayer directed the London revival.

So they all knew what the Broadway production would require in terms of a leading lady. Make of that what you will.

It’s really shocking…. she wouldn’t even get into a conservatory with this bullshit.

She sounds like a YouTuber singing in her bedroom

All jokes aside, it's really not cool. There is some incredible actress/singer kicking the air right now. It's not right.

There are comments on twitter like "Lea Michele could never". Bullshit. Whatever one thinks of Michele she has sung this song far better than Beanie. Beanie has a very average voice.

It's also crazy because she really doesn't have a huge fan group. It would be one thing if she had this horrible voice and a taylor swift level fan base so they figured she would make them money. But she's some overweight indie actress with a famous older brother.

I don't understand this.

My thoughts exactly, R124. It's a very strange situation, hard to figure out.

[QUOTE]Are there any boots or recordings of that LA Night Music? It’s the one production I’ve never seen anywhere.

r114 - someone recently (within the last year) had uploaded some extended clips (not a full bootleg), to YouTube, but I can't find it now. Perhaps it was "AuroraSpiderwoman" whose whole archive seems to have disappeared.

Sheridan Smith is only a passable singer.

[quote]Those Heather Headley clips are really exciting. She’s good on stage and sounds fantastic and is very musical. That’s EXACTLY what the producers should have looked for. Do a national search and find a super talented kid.

Except make sure she's white. Fanny was a white woman.

Well, Beanie has one thing over that Heather Headley...she is NOT a pretty girl. Let's face it...Heather could BE a "Miss Atlantic City."

[quote] Except make sure she's white. Fanny was a white woman.

And Jewish.............

^And yet, is buried in a non-denominational cemetery. Westwood Village Memorial Park, where Marilyn Monroe is also interred.

[quote] So they all knew what the Broadway production would require in terms of a leading lady. Make of that what you will.

They know, full well, that because of Bway's insane prices, to get an audience, Funny Girl would have to be an established star. NYC goes wild over even the grade Z Hollywood actors that come to Bway, so Beanie fit the bill.

She'll sell tickets so the show will have a healthy run no matter what her specific reviews.

Get ready for the greatest show in Broadway history!!!

If " Funny Girl" is going for the tourist trade, they certainly weren't helped by the casting. No one outside of NY theater circles knows Beanie Feldstein, Ramin Karamoo, or Jared Grimes. Jane Lynch is the only person whose name is recognized outside the island. If I'm a tourist and I'm coming to NY, I'm spending my money on seeing Hugh, not some dumpy girl and a bunch of unknowns.

Kids know Beanie

How in hell, r132, can BF sell enough tickets to make it a hit? She is decidedly NOT a star of the first magnitude.

R136, because she's movie star Beanie Feldman and NYC always goes ga-ga for anyone who has made an appearance, no matter how minor, in movies.

The producers made that calculation. No way they were going to hire an unknown no matter how good.

"Back in three weeks", r126...

The consensus from people who have seen the show is that it is pretty good, but Beanie, while likable, is amateurish and doesn't have the voice for the role.

Well who would have thought?

Isn't Harvey Fierstein a bit long in the tooth to be writing a comedy's book?

Considering that we have been, and will be, talking about Beanie for months, she’s certainly ginning up interest in the show, at least in certain circles.

I'm so over Beanie-palooza. Is there another show (NOT Follies) we can talk about? Doesn't Billy Crystal have his first show tonight?

Fanny Brice actually had a very womanly voice, who used a lot of dynamics and subtlety in some of her ballads. Streisand didn't sound like Brice, but she approximated and in her own way, tugged at your heart when she sang the wonderful ballads of "Funny Girl", plus she thrilled with her belting. Beanie is just doing the best she can with what she's got, but what she's got isn't enough. There were names -- AnnE Hathaway, while a soprano, could have done it; Lady Gaga; Lea Michele (ok, apparently a very difficult person to work with) -- or there are talented folks with great voices who could have been promoted as a new star. Christina Bianco did it in Paris, and she's funny and has a terrific voice.

What I don’t understand is Michael Mayer directed Lea Michele in Spring Awakening and “discovered” her, the obvious Glee connection to having Jane Lynch as her mother, she would be believable as having sex with Ramin, she’s Jewish, and she can sing the score well.

How did she get passed over?

R142, you seem to have the philosophy that "any publicity (or buzz) is good publicity (or buzz)," but while that's a well-worn aphorism, I'm really not sure it's true.

The comments on YouTube don't bode well.

It's time we had the talk:

"Beanie, it's not you. It's us, the people who have seen professional Broadway shows."

[quote]How did Lea get passed over?

She shat in the wrong person's wig.

William Wyler was right to substitute My Man for The Music That Makes Me Dance for the last number. Robbins should have done that for the show when he was brought in as the last minute show doctor..

[quote]William Wyler was right to substitute My Man for The Music That Makes Me Dance for the last number. Robbins should have done that for the show when he was brought in as the last minute show doctor..

I have read that, not surprisingly, Jule Styne adamantly resisted any such thing, and he had enough power at the time to keep it from happening.

They couldn’t get the rights to My Man for the show, r150. Barbra sang it after the bows on her closing night, but they did not have permission to include it in the score. That’s why “The Music That Makes Me Dance” was written, to serve as a substitute for Fanny’s famous torch song.

At least "The Music That Makes Me Dance" doesn't include lyrics such as, "He isn't true. He beats me, too." Streisand never sang them, of course.

I can't imagine most composers being OK with someone shoehorning a song that he didn't write into his score.

That seems incredibly not OK, especially in an era long before jukebox musicals.

Oh...Kaye...

Exactly, R154. In the golden age, musicals were expected to have original scores. The notorious flop "Breakfast at Tiffany's" certainly could have used "Moon River."

Exactly, R154. Again, I've read that Styne categorically refused to consider having "My Man" inserted into the score for the Broadway show. When the movie was made, he had far less control over the situation, so he couldn't prevent it from happening.

A lot of these Beanie stans are so thrilled that a “plus size” actress is playing Fanny.

Hey, Fatties: you can’t play everything. It’s not like color-blind casting. There’s no such thing as fat-blind casting, nor should there be.'

I wonder if Rachel Bloom was every considered for Funny Girl - she’s not a Streisand, but she’d have been at least as credible as Sheridan Smith (more so, since she’s Jewish).

The problem with casting an actress "with a good personality" is that it is totally unbelievable that the classically handsome, tall, fit leading man would even want to be with her once, much less pursue her.

I bet there is only brother/sister chemistry between them, if that.

All Broadway will be applauding MY Fanny!!!!

[quote]A lot of these Beanie stans are so thrilled that a “plus size” actress is playing Fanny.

Of course they are.

More like father/step-daughter, r160.

Some straight guys love big girls. Trust me, they do.

[quote] How did she get passed over?

Because Lea is incapable of being funny. They would have had to change the title to Dour Girl.

At least she would have sung the score well. They could have had the people around her doing funny things the way all Mary Tyler Moore's sidekicks were the real screwballs on her show, if need be.

[quote] Isn't Harvey Fierstein a bit long in the tooth to be writing a comedy's book?

What does that mean? He's too old to write funny or to freshen a 58 year old Broadway musical?

As they say in that video... "Y'all ain't ready. Y'all ain't ready."

Lea Michele is radioactive these days. Basically the entire cast of Glee (and I believe some members of the Spring Awakening ensemble) have gone on record that she is a malevolent asshole who went out of her way to bully co-stars, crew members and extras. Has she been in anything since Scream Queens?

"A Fanny so big she could moon Europe!"

[quote] Basically the entire cast of Glee

Half of whom are dead.

Judging from that YouTube snippet, this woman simply doesn't have the vocal allure for this role. It's not that she's no Streisand: she's no anybody.

This is the ascent of an actress of some (perhaps) gifts who is not suitable for a lead role in a musical. And everybody will be afraid to say so because she's fat and therefore--in the current touchy climate--uncriticizable.

Snippet? You mean you all haven't heard the full song yet?

Ye gods!

While Lea M can sing the notes with alot of belt--and she's been gunning for this role for a decade--her voice is incredibly boring. Every time she sings, I want to fall asleep

Sadly, Beanie has no belt. How is she supposed to be a Bway star without a belt?

Jaysis, I only made to "Don't tell me not to fly, I simply..." before shutting R173's clip down. No, just no. That's not even community-theatre level, that's middle-school level.

R173 If she were at an Equity EPA audition, she'd be stopped after about 32 bars with a polite "Thank you". She sings it without belting, and what's more, no emphasis on any words or differentiation between most phrases. In other words, she's not even acting it that well with her voice.

R177 yeah it sounds like amateur hour. Not worthy of the Broadway stage. Maybe a very good community theatre performance.

While Lea can sing (certainly better than Beanie), I remember being less than wowed by her "audition" of "Don't Rain on My Parade" at some awards show (Tonys?).

She put no soul into the song. It was like listening to a player piano. Yes, the notes were right, but it was lifeless.

[quote]Beanie has no belt.

In fairness, it's really hard to find one that size.

Beanie is NOT a movie star. She was in a couple of films, but she is not a name anyone who buys tickets would know.

Lea has the voice; however when she sang "Don't Rain on My Parade", she sounded very hostile and like she was grudge fucking the audience with her voice. Like "the role is mine, assholes, don't you see?" I think it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, especially after stories of how she acted around the set of "Glee" came out.

[quote] Lea has the voice; however when she sang "Don't Rain on My Parade", she sounded very hostile and like she was grudge fucking the audience with her voice.

She was trying desperately to mimics Barbra's thrust in that song. Barbra sounds like a character hungry for stardom while Lea sounds angry

I'm thrilled My Man was kept out of the Bway show. That gave us Music That Makes Me Dance, one of the great show tunes of the era.

Based on that performance they should call it The Music That Makes Me Gasp

Michael Mayer said - this was about a month ago - that he wanted to find someone likable to play Fanny. They he saw Beanie in Hello Dolly and thought “she’s very likable!” So he was pushing for her for three or four years.

Don't fool yourself. Mayer may be saying that, but he's covering for his producers. He would have been so much better off with Jesse Mueller who was his Broadway discovery. (As was Sutton Foster...). He knows real talent when he sees it.

[quote]He knows real talent when he sees it.

If true, that remains Mayer's sole talent. Cause it's not directing musicals.

In other news, LM Miranda is not yet an EGOT.

I'm fairly certain it will happen, though.

[quote] Sadly, Beanie has no belt.

She doesn’t need one. Her gunt holds her pants up.

[quote] In other news, LM Miranda is not yet an EGOT.

Unfortunately, submitted the wrong song from Encanto. That Bruno song would have won

Oh, swell. Bartlett Sher is directing Camelot at the Beaumont next season, and the show will have a new book by Aaron Sorkin. Can't wait to hear what Miss Porter has to say about that.

Sorkin screwed up Lucy and Desi -- who said it at the Oscars about writing about "I Love Lucy" without a laugh in the film! "Camelot" has a beautiful score and a rather boring book, except for a few scenes.

I can't wait to hear the cast reveal. Kelsey Grammar as Arthur. Ariana DeBose as Guenevere. Leslie Odom, Jr. as Lancelot.

[quote] I can't wait to hear the cast reveal.

Beanie is Guenevere.

Beanie is more of a Mordred.

Just who you need to rewrite a musical that already has too much talking in it; Aaron Sorkin.

A trans woman of color will play Guinevere or it’s literal violence.

It was boring when Richard Burton revived it years ago.

The Camelot book was always pretty crappy, but Sorkin will turn it into a 4 hour musical. Wasn't David Mamet available?

[quote]Wasn't David Mamet available?

In which Arthur would be portrayed as a "cuck". On the plus side, it'd be a 90 minute one act.

And Alec Baldwin could play Arthur.

It was Amy who made the crack about Being the Ricardos. Best line of the night for me.

Let the bad color blind casting ideas for Camelot begin.

Although Denee Benton’s not all that bad an idea.

[quote]Beanie is more of a Mordred.

Beanie is more of a round table.

Benton would be perfect.

May

Aren’t Michael Mayer and Michael Engler the same person?

[quote]Oh, swell. Bartlett Sher is directing Camelot at the Beaumont next season

Prepare for Kelli O'Hara as Guinevere. Other roles can be filled with colorblind casting.

Why didn't Sher cast Kelli in his My Fair Lady? I would assume he's over her.

And, frankly, they HAVE to cast a woman of color as Guenevere in 2022.

Kelli should do a revival of Light in the Piazza as Margaret.

Billy should do a revival of Light In The Piazza as Margaret.

“You Italians BETTER be knowing that my retarded daughter is also a trans sex worker of color! Now I need to get my ass back to America to go throw the first brick at Stonewall!” - Billy Porter, as Marsha P. Johnson in Light in The Piazza

Around the time that Lady Gaga was filming A Star is Born - wasn’t there buzz that she was thinking of doing Funny Girl on Broadway and Rosie O’Donnell would play Mrs Brice? Does that ring any bells?

Dominic West for Arthur?

It looks like the cast of Plaza Suite is on the red carpet before the performance. Odd.

Andrew Garfield for Arthur.

[quote]And, frankly, they HAVE to cast a woman of color as Guenevere in 2022.

It may well be a woman of color, but she may not be the color you expect. I'm told that the leads for the workshop for this production were Ashley Park as Guenevere, Matthew Rhys as Arthur, Ethan Slater as Mordred, and Jordan Donica as Lancelot

Anderson Cooper is Genevieve!

[quote] Don't fool yourself. Mayer may be saying that, but he's covering for his producers.

That doesn’t make any sense. Why would he “cover” for his producers? He thinks Beanie’s about to become a big Broadway star. He may know talent, but in this case he’s sold himself a bill of goods that she will be able to pull this off.

I don’t even think that Beanie clip is high school level. She doesn’t even sound like a singer. She sounds like a non-singer with poor placement who had the song pounded into her head by the Musical Director.

You don’t need an actress to play Fanny Brice though it would help. But it’s not Shakespeare. You do need someone who can sing the fuck out of the songs. Note to these producers: People is not a character song. Neither is The Music That Makes Me Dance.

The 2nd Act of Funny Girl makes the 2nd Act of Dreamgirls look like a masterpiece. It’s going to make Beanie look like a fool.

Whatever her looks, Streisand always thought she was sexy - she fucked Omar Shariff, ffs. Beanie not so much.

Streisand WAS sexy. She may not have had a conventionally beautiful face, but she had talent and a nice body and above all, star quality. I totally understood men wanting to fuck her.

But who will play Gwendolyn Verdon?

Then a brainstorm from Mayer: the comic actress Beanie Feldstein. He had seen her on film as a lovable sidekick in “Lady Bird” and “Booksmart.” She had shown she could sing in a supporting role in “Hello, Dolly!” on Broadway.

“This was someone you could really connect with,” Mayer said. “She’s funny and smart and self-deprecating.”

And she was a Streisand superfan, having seen the “Funny Girl” movie “hundreds of times.” She’d even seen the stage show in one of its relatively rare stagings: an English-language production at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris, where Christina Bianco — among other things, a well-known Barbra Streisand impressionist — played Fanny Brice to great acclaim in 2019-20.

Feldstein was asked to audition in early 2021. Sequestered alone in Los Angeles while filming her role as Monica Lewinsky in “Impeachment: American Crime Story,” she Zoomed with Mayer and the “Funny Girl” musical supervisor and director Michael Rafter to prepare. She taped herself singing four songs for the producers and the rights holders.

What a hog.

[quote]How is she supposed to be a Bway star without a belt?

Stretch elastic waistbands in her costumes.

She was chosen partly because she is "self-deprecating"? Hardly a quality you need for Fanny.

As for sexy, Barbra was styled for fashion and exotic sex appeal early in her career. After FG, she was photographed in high-end magazines looking great. Look at the Color Me Barbra special. None of that would work with mousy, lumpkin Beanie. Even her first name invites condescension.

Dare I say the casting that is being considered for Camerot?

"It’s dead."

Like the Oscars.

"That clip is astonishing in its mediocrity. What were they thinking?

Welcome to Broadway, 2022!

"they were both exuberant and charming. :

Said no one ever.

Beanie sound an awful lot like Laura Parsons in that clip above.

self-deprecating??

The Fanny Brice of FUNNY GIRL is NEVER self-deprecating.

r228, yes, please.

Ha! I had the exact same thought, R230.

[quote] She was chosen partly because she is "self-deprecating"? Hardly a quality you need for Fanny.

Precisely!

[quote] Dare I say the casting that is being considered for Camerot?

Is it the same as the workshop? Matthew Rhys as Arthur, Ashley Park as Guenivere, Jordan Donica as Lancelot, and Ethan Slater as Mordred? Or is there a new spin they’re considering?

There are so many people to blame for this mess

1) Idina for being attached then dropping out at the last minute

2) Lea for shitting in someone’s wig and being uncastable

3 The producers of Lady Bird for casting her and having Michael watch her

4) Harvey who should have known better

5) The rights holders who could have quietly said “No thank you” and moved on

6) Michael for being a shit director

7) The costume designer for putting the leading lady in a fucking MUMU for the curtain call

8) Ben Platt for reasons which are well known to him

I wouldn't blame Idina. If something came up in her life, or someone said she might be too old at about 50 to play Fanny, she didn't want to be mocked for that. But she could sing the shit out of the score though.

Cristina Bianco, who can do lots of impressions, not just of Barbra, has her own terrific singing voice. She's not known just for imitating Barbra.

Matthew Rhys can sing?

"Might be too old"??

I think Idina and Lea would have just as many detractors as Beanie has. I'm one of them.

At least with Camelot, the set should be magnificent, as were those for King and I, South Pacific, and MFL.

They would say, based on quips on casting possibilities for years in advance of a "Funny Girl" production: that Idina will sing it really well, but she's way too old and not funny. Lea, they would say could sing it, not funny and a very difficult, backbiting, colleague.

Idina might be too old but I’m always on her side. Just like Bernadette Peters. I’m always on her side when she is onstage. I’m not on Beanie’s side.

[quote] I’m not on Beanie’s side.

Spheres don't have sides.

I'm on her side.

You know who is self-deprecating? People who don’t measure up. They laugh things off to avoid the truth. Also if you read that NY Mag story, it was all pitched as Beanie “the underdog,” making some big woke advance because she was the type of girl who would normally not be cast. I guess that meant because of her size. And that’s what her her fans believe and will latch on to. She speaks “their truth” as the language of today goes. When in real truth, she has no vocal style, no belt and makes a ludicrous paring with Ramin. Oh well.

THR reviews "Plaza Suite":

Deadline:

Since the Funny Girl producers are obviously trolling their audience, why not Chrissy Metz as matinee Fanny?

Too old, too fat, too ugly, not ugly enough.

It’s always something.

Bianco

[quote]It looks like the cast of Plaza Suite is on the red carpet before the performance. Odd.

Tonight's the official opening.

[quote] Bianco

Her vibrato makes my teeth hurt.

I saw the original Funny Girl with Streisand when I was a teenager. I was already besotted with her and had all those first LPs as well as the FG OBC album. But I was incredibly dismayed to see her walking through all of Act I until she got to People, which she sang out thrillingly, and continued like that through the end of the show.

But what I can't remember is how does Cornet Man function to display Fanny's talent at Keeney's Music Hall? I mean, does she at first mess up the number as she does in the film with The Roller Skate Rag? Or does she take over the number though she's not supposed to? It's not apparent in the recording, she seems sensational and totally in control from the beginning of the song like she's the appointed lead singer in the number.

R15 THAT was the best I’ve heard in a while!

NYT review (Jesse Green)

The first thing you see when the curtain goes up on “Plaza Suite” is an aquatint image of that grand hotel in its antique glory. But when it comes to datedness, the faux-French pile that opened its doors in 1907 has nothing on the Neil Simon comedy — itself a faux-French pile — that debuted on Broadway in 1968. Despite the wearying efforts of a likable cast headed by Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, the passage of 54 years is more than enough to reveal the triptych of one-act plays as uninhabitable in 2022.

That may be why the creative team, led by the director John Benjamin Hickey, has taken pains to set the revival, which opened on Monday at the Hudson Theater, so squarely in its period. The grand but dowdy décor of John Lee Beatty’s champagne-colored rooms, along with Jane Greenwood’s transitional costumes (sometimes mod Pucci, sometimes seamed stockings) and Marc Shaiman’s groovy interstitial pop, put a velvet rope around the action to mark it off as a museum piece.

But it would need something more like a cordon sanitaire to protect the audience from the trickle of smarm that leaks from the play. Structurally it barely stands, the three stories joined only by the setting they share — Suite 719 — and the two stars playing the leads in each. Beyond that, if you were looking for a theme, you would have to conclude that Simon, still early in his record-breaking career, was mostly interested in demonstrating that men may bluster, but women — whether wives, mothers or sirens — are dopes.

The wife arrives first. In “Visitor From Mamaroneck,” Parker plays Karen Nash, a woman who does not know her age because she has not mastered basic arithmetic. (She’s 47.) On what she asserts is her 24th wedding anniversary but is really a day shy of her 23rd, she has arranged for a romantic evening with her husband in the suite she thinks they shared on their wedding night. But Sam Nash (Broderick) is in no mood for romance; as men in such stories always do, he has contracts to work on, with the audience meant to understand that by this he means having an affair with his secretary. (Molly Ranson gives the brief role more dignity than Simon did.)

If it’s hard to find the funny in this setup, it’s harder to buy the sad in its payoff; the evident affection between Parker and Broderick, who are married in real life, extinguishes the spark of fury needed to ignite both laughs and pathos. (The original stars were the far more tempestuous George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton.) Or perhaps Broderick alone is the culprit; he’s about as fiery as a frozen dinner. Parker fares better, occasionally spinning a line to show us that Karen is not as dumb as Sam and Simon think — but she’s pedaling uphill in a story that posits knowledge as a threat to womanly happiness.

At least it posits something. The second act, “Visitor From Hollywood,” evidently meant as a post-intermission palate cleanser, has barely any content at all, and what it does have is icky. This time the ditz is Muriel Tate, a New Jersey woman who comes to the Plaza to see, for the first time in nearly 17 years, her high school boyfriend, Jesse Kiplinger. Jesse is now a famous movie producer whose every film, we are told, makes money. And though Muriel from Tenafly, like Karen from Mamaroneck, is an innumerate homemaker — her three children, she says, are “a boy and a girl” — she has the saving grace in Simonland of being “extremely attractive” and thus available for mashing.

In the manner of a Benny Hill sketch or an off-brand French sex romp, “Visitor From Hollywood” is single-minded, its action consisting solely of Jesse’s escalating stabs at seduction. But when neither his extreme unctuousness nor a pitcher of vodka stingers quite do the trick, he resorts to the ultimate aphrodisiac: name-dropping. It’s finally the likes of Charlton Heston and Yvette Mimieux who get Muriel into bed.

That she eagerly falls for this transparent ploy is not the worst part of the story, which is meant as a satire of celebrity culture; Parker makes Muriel’s star-struck, suburban shallowness, if not exactly funny, then at least endearingly odd. And Broderick, in a hilarious wig and eye-bruising plaid pants, begins to thaw a little, intermittently attempting a New Jersey accent and emitting some lustful grunts.

But the possibility of responding to this ruttishness with a lenient giggle is forestalled by the ghosts of #MeToo stalking the play; when Jesse, painting himself as the victim of his unfaithful ex-wives, describes them as “three of the worst bitches you’d ever want to meet,” you may find yourself looking, on Muriel’s behalf or your own, for the exit.

Parker and Broderick as the increasingly frustrated parents of a jittery bride in the third one-act play, “Visitor From Forest Hills.”Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Alas, as the third act demonstrates after a pause, the doors in this kind of comedy tend to be locked. In “Visitor From Forest Hills,” Roy and Norma Hubley are at their wits’ end trying to get their daughter, Mimsey, who’s supposed to get married downstairs any minute, to leave the bathroom she’s bolted herself into. As a quasi-violent farce ensues, in which Roy (Broderick) tries smoking her out, screaming through the keyhole and turning himself into a battering ram, Norma (Parker) stands by simpering, contradicting and driving Roy to distraction.

The joke, not a bad one in itself, is that in their response to Mimsey’s jitters about the wedding, the bickering Hubleys exemplify exactly what’s worrying her. Will she and Borden, her fiancé, wind up fighting just like her parents? But the problem Simon actually dramatizes isn’t, as he seems to think, marriage: It’s men. The act’s punchline, in which we get a sour taste of the peremptory Borden, only underlines that inadvertent point.

You could, I suppose, investigate “Plaza Suite” as a catalog of male failings in midcentury America; certainly “The Odd Couple,” a Simon comedy from 1965, can support such a reading, even if its two female characters are birdbrains. In any case, that’s not what the current production is offering. Rather, it seems to hope we will look forgivingly enough on our benighted past to excuse it with a “that’s how things were” shrug and laugh.

But that’s not how things were, it’s just how Simon saw them, at least until he began to grant women some intelligence and agency a decade later, in “Chapter Two.” Looked at now, his “Plaza Suite” jokes, however well formed, keep dying on the vine. The past is not yet past enough to find such an unfair battle of the sexes funny.

Yikes! I thought the Plaza Suite reviews might be a little kinder (not because I've seen the show) but apparently not. I suppose it won't hurt business too much but maybe by late spring tickets will be more reasonably priced and discounts will even appear.

Idina Menzel might in theory sound (or have sounded) exciting in a handful of the FUNNY GIRL songs ("People," "Don't Rain on My Parade" and"The Music That Makes Me Dance," or at least portions of them).

But nothing that she's done onstage or -screen remotely suggests that she has (or ever had) the charm required to deliver the rest of the score -- "I'm the Greatest Star"? "His Love Makes Me Beautiful"? "You Are Woman"? "Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady"? (The mind truly reels imagining the hash she'd make of "Who Are You Now?")

If the choices are Menzel and Feldstein, I'd say let FUNNY GIRL stay unrevived.

I wonder whether Nina Arianda sings -- if so, she might have been spectacular.

I would’ve been truly excited to see Annaleigh Ashford in the role of Fanny Brice.

Ashford would be a great choice.

[quote]Then a brainstorm from Mayer: the comic actress Beanie Feldstein. He had seen her on film as a lovable sidekick in “Lady Bird” and “Booksmart.” She had shown she could sing in a supporting role in “Hello, Dolly!” on Broadway.

In "Hello, Dolly!", Minnie Fay sings literally one solo line of five words in one song, "Elegance." For the rest of that number, she sings along with four other people. She doesn't sing at all in "Dancing," and she only sings as part of the chorus in "It Only Takes a Moment" and the finale. So the quote above is laughable.

I'm trying to find out if her mentor, Kit Andree played Fanny, r259. I know she did a bunch of musical leads like Peter Pan, Mona Kent in Dames, Nellie Forbush, etc. She was Sally in the first production of FOLLIES that I saw.

Surprised to read the dismissals of Plaza Suite. I laughed a lot. It's old fashioned which today seems to be a crime.

I think the Plaza Suite reviews are as good as they could have been and Broderick, Parker and Hickey pretty much get let off the hook. It's Simon who has taken the brunt of every criticism. The reviewers are basically taking it easy on the actors because of the shitty play they're saddled with.

[quote]It may well be a woman of color, but she may not be the color you expect. I'm told that the leads for the workshop for this production were Ashley Park as Guenevere, Matthew Rhys as Arthur, Ethan Slater as Mordred, and Jordan Donica as Lancelot

Ashley could be an interesting choice, r218. She has a lovely voice.

Honest question... is there a low-level effort to see if Neil Simon's plays can actually "work" in 2022 or early 21st century?

The Broderick/parker choice of "Plaza Suite" is up and running and I'm going to see "Lost in Yonkers" in April in Hartford, CT and the show stars one of the former Mrs. Simons, Marsha Mason.

Anyone know if other theater companies are planning to produce other Simon plays?

Will Smith and Chris Rock are doing The Odd Couple.

[quote]Also if you read that NY Mag story, it was all pitched as Beanie “the underdog,” making some big woke advance because she was the type of girl who would normally not be cast.

And don't forget that the article was written by one of her friends. Which makes it even more ludicrous that they're trying to portray her as the underdog - underdogs don't have the pull to have NY Mag get their friend to interview them.

Sheridan Smith is barely passable R127.

Pamela Anderson Says Netflix Doc Is Two Parts “So Far,” Will Follow Turn as Roxie in ‘Chicago’

Ashley Park has a wonderful voice? That's another one I'd like to put on mute.

[quote]Ashley Park has a wonderful voice? That's another one I'd like to put on mute.

I said "lovely" voice, not "wonderful", r271. I'm not sure she has the acting chops for Camelot, but I wouldn't mind seeing her try.

A number of us predicted the PLAZA SUITE reception in earlier threads: the play was tired and irrelevant and bound to disappoint (after all the advance hype about SJP and Matthew), the reviews would reflect that.... and it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference at the box office. Their fans would/will turn out in great number, regardless.

I don't see this setting off some newfound appreciation of Neil Simon, though. Unless the Brodericks want to explore STAR SPANGLED GIRL.

THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 2012, "Newsies" opened at the Nederlander Theatre.

R272 Lovely, wonderful, whatever. Same shit. Either way, it's neither and her Soprano voice sounds awful. Her acting was ok in "The King And I" but she's not right for Camelot. Why don't they just cast Lin Manuel as the king again then. Haha. Really drive a nail through the coffin.

[quote]I think the Plaza Suite reviews are as good as they could have been and Broderick, Parker and Hickey pretty much get let off the hook.

I don't know. That New York Times review was far more brutal than I expected. SJP & Matthew can't be pleased.

And the star couple bears most of the responsibility for choosing to be in such an unfunny, problematic relic.

Ashley Park is becoming a rather big TV star on "Emily in Paris," for those of you who don't watch. And she's sung on the show several times.

She would definitely bring Emily fans (young, female, loud) with her to "Camelot" or any project she worked on.

"Emily in Paris" is for little teen dweeb girls and gay boys. Ah yes, the big TV star Ashley Park! And you think they wanna see CAMELOT? haha.

Any reports yet on the audience standing and cheering when Darren Criss gets slapped with a heavy metal object in American Buffalo?

Nobody besides sixtysomething theatre queens and seventysomething matinee ladies will go see Camelot without a big name playing Arthur, Guinevere or ideally both - like Gyllenhaal and Hathaway.

Plaza Suite added an Asian male and a Latina understudy before the opening. I guess they needed to add some wokeness to the production.

[quote]Nobody besides sixtysomething theatre queens and seventysomething matinee ladies will go see Camelot without a big name playing Arthur, Guinevere or ideally both - like Gyllenhaal and Hathaway.

Lincoln Center Theater is a subscription house, and a good production of "Camelot" would be perfect for their subscribers, even without star casting. That is, if they have any subscribers left after what they're apparently going to do to "The Skin of Our Teeth."

Oh Christ, I haven't seen it yet, but trying to put contemporary sensibilities on a play from 1968 is insane. This is like trying to put today's vision on "I Love Lucy," which everyone acknowledges was great in its own way, in its own day. Once again Jesse is losing credibility, following his pans of COMPANY and MUSIC MAN too...He seems to want to condemn the people who would enjoy these.

There is certainly a case to be made for how women are portrayed in late twentieth-century comedy, but it would better to be discussed in undergraduate theatre classes. Jesse G seems so completely smug, maybe he'd be better in academia too.

Peter Marks loved Plaza Suite. He was usually in agreement with Ben. Now he's always in disagreement with Jesse.

Plaza Suite has always been a dreadful play, one of Simon's worst. The first two pieces are just a fucking snore, and the last one is pretty much the Three Stooges.

I'm not for or against Beanie; I've only seen her in DOLLY and haven't seen any of her film or TV work. Listening to that PARADE clip, what seems to be missing, for me, is the Acting. She gets through the song but I don't hear any emotion behind it. Fanny's desperation, eagerness, love for Nick. Of course it is only the first public performance and she may find the right emotions. I hope she does.

I hope she doesn't. Undeserving fat juvenile pig.

[quote]There is certainly a case to be made for how women are portrayed in late twentieth-century comedy, but it would better to be discussed in undergraduate theatre classes.

Why do you say that? Even if you or I don't necessarily agree, I can certainly imagine that a lot of present-day theatergoers would have a similar reaction to Jesse Green's in regard to the content of PLAZA SUITE, not only undergraduate theater students.

R267. As the Pigeon Sisters?

Well, theatre students are important because they buy so many tickets.

There are "California Suite" and "London Suite" one-act plays, too. They really could have done the funniest, the third act play from "Plaza Suite" and chosen 2 better acts from the other of the Suite plays.

Nothing in California Suite is very good.

The one in the film with Maggie Smith and Michael Caine was good. Plus there's one with a prostitute who's drunk and wasn't ordered by the protagonist (a present from a friend), which got great notices when the show opened.

Well, TheaterMania likes PLAZA SUITE...for what it's worth...

[quote] She would definitely bring Emily fans (young, female, loud) with her to "Camelot" or any project she worked on.

After listening to those bootleg clips of Beanie and the audience screaming for her every misbegotten note, I think we should be actively working to keep young female audiences away from the theatre.

And the Oscar goes to...

One of the worst Oscar wins ever. Smith did nothing memorable in that role. Geraldine Page should have been in the supporting category for Interiors so she could have won there.

Hardly, r298.

Luckily for you you're easily pleased, R299.

The only role I think Maggie Smith ever disappointed me was in "Travels With My Aunt"; I think she was misdirected in that, even though it was by a famous director, he was losing his touch by then.

There are a ton of fat white girls who can sing. They had to develop their voices because they are, ya know, FAT. Beanie has slid by because she's from a very wealthy and connected LA family, her childhood best friend is Ben Platt and her brother is Jonah Hill. And she's been FINE in supporting roles.

I bet the fat girls who can actually sing are smart and self-deprecating and SUPER FANS too. It's just a shame Mayer couldn't hold a cattle call and find one who has those AMAZING qualities but can also fucking carry a tune.

Also, FFS, Beanie isn't THAT self-deprecating if she believes with that nasal flat voice she can carry the revival of Funny Girl. Give me a break. Self-deprecating my ass.

r298...Page only won an Academy Award for A Trip to Bountiful...she was nominated a total of 8 times, only winning once.

sorry r298...i read "there" as "three"

Bonnie Milligan or Keala Settle could have both sung the FG score. Acting, no idea...Milligan was pretty funny in "Akimbo." Low-key funny, but funny.

Keala Settle is doing a tour of the UK in Sister Act with Jennifer Saunders.

She was better than Kate would have been, r301...

Milligan was terrific in "Head Over Heels". Her vocals are certainly head over heels much better than Beanie.

[quote]The only role I think Maggie Smith ever disappointed me was in "Travels With My Aunt"; I think she was misdirected in that, even though it was by a famous director, he was losing his touch by then.

I totally agree. I know this flick has its cult of fans, but I just watched it recently--and it's an inexplicable mess. Cukor must have thought he was making some outrageously hip, glam, sexy movie of its time but almost none of it works. Poor Maggie (age 38 at the time) gives it her all, but she spends most of the time encased in mummified old-age make-up. Dull at some points, incoherent at others.

Keala is actually going into the London cast of "& Juliet".

Milligan made me laugh so hard in Akimbo. She had the whole audience genuinely laughing. And her voice was fantastic.

Milligan

More on Sorkin adapting the book of CAMELOT (courtesy of NY Post):

[quote]Sorkin also noted to THR that, while he hadn’t seen the play, he read the book several times and repeatedly played the cast album. The “Social Network” filmmaker wanted to erase any supernatural components from the story. Lincoln Center also previously described the show as being “reimagined for the 21st century.” “The story takes place in a real place at a real time,” he continued. “Arthur can’t change himself into a hawk and there’s no magic forest. Even the origin story of the sword in the stone gets questioned.” He also stated, “I like writing about heroes who don’t wear capes and I told Bart that I thought there was a powerful version of this story to be told that could give us a glimpse — ‘for one brief shining moment’ — of who we could be at our best, but the story had to take place in the real world. Bart looked frightened but he told me to go to work.”

Count me out. I predict: this will end in tears.

Mr Saturday Night starts previews tonite. Does anyone care?

^ Only about the score (by Jason Robert Brown and Amanda Green), which might actually be good. The cast is solid but not exciting.

[quote]“I like writing about heroes who don’t wear capes

Problem there is Sorkin always thinks he's the hero

Who thought it was a good idea to schedule Broadway Bares the same day as Pride?

Milligan was the best thing about HEAD OVER HEELS.

Is that really saying anything, r318?

[R272] Lovely, wonderful, whatever. Same shit. Either way, it's neither and her Soprano voice sounds awful. Her acting was ok in "The King And I" but she's not right for Camelot.

Well, they are two different words with different meanings, but since you don't think Ashley Park's voice is either, I guess it's a moot point, r275. I only know her from The King and I. I had no idea that she had /has been on a television show. I can't say I'm a fan, or that I'd by a ticket because of her, but what I saw of her onstage in TKAI? I'm not hating the idea of her as Gweneviere.

Ashley & Seth

[quote]Unless the Brodericks want to explore STAR SPANGLED GIRL.

Hey, I'm still available.

Despite finding injustice everywhere, this generation seems to have absolutely no problem with nepotism. The one and only reason why Beanie is in this role is because she had access. Access is everything.

She, unfortunately, might need the access to money that can buy expensive therapy, since on-line reports and what sounds like truths about her performance in reviews coming out might really seriously harm her. Didn't her casting people and producers who put her in the role think about this? Unless she gets a lot better, they should put in the understudy and build her up as a new star. There are Youtubes of her understudy Julie Benko. She's quite good indeed, and can even give like a jazz-tinged new kind of spin on a number or two of the songs to differentiate her from Barbra. In any event, I'd rather see the understudy when she's on (which might be embarrassing when people start to ask for tickets for when Beanie's out) than who they cast. Beanie might have been better served by losing out on the role and being disappointed than being savaged by critics.

Can one ask for a refund if one buys a ticket for when the understudy is supposed to be on and Beanie shows up instead?

[quote]Beanie might have been better served by losing out on the role and being disappointed than being savaged by critics.

Coincidentally, a similar situation to that of Beanie's bosom buddy Ben Platt in the movie of DEAR EVAN HANSEN (although I personally didn't have anywhere near as big a problem with him in the movie as others did). Outward appearances notwithstanding, that must have been pretty devastating for him. I'm sure he expected great praise for his performance, but what he received instead was mostly VERY sharp criticism (to put it mildly) for his performance and for the fact that many people felt he looked way too old for the role.

Beanie has some girlfriend who likely worships her and she has her rich family and her fancy friends and her fat frauling fans. I'm sure she will be fine - they will tell her not to read the internet and tell her she's amazing.

Ha! That happened to me with ANYTHING GOES years ago. I had been told on good authority that Patti would be out the night of a certain performance. I bought a ticket because I hated her. When she. appeared on the stage, I was furious.

I purposely waited for Glenn Close to leave Sunset Boulevard before I went to see it. I think she's awful onstage. Not sure why, because she's a very good actress, but she comes across poorly onstage.

[quote]Beanie has some girlfriend who likely worships her and she has her rich family and her fancy friends and her fat frauling fans. I'm sure she will be fine - they will tell her not to read the internet and tell her she's amazing.

Ah yes, it's SO realistic that she would ever be able to keep herself from "reading the internet."

Put a pot of spaghetti in front of her and that should distract her for 10 min or so.

Glenn's acting in "Sunset Boulevard" was great, but the singing was problematic, except for one or two of the numbers which she did well when I saw her.

Forbidden Broadway ripped Glenn to shreds for her awful singing in "Sunset Boulevard."

"i don't know why I'm frigh-[drop octave] TENNED!!!!!!

I don't know how she got cast in a Richard Rodgers show years ago. Didn't he usually like good singers in his shows for the most part?

Don't forget Barnum...

Yes, but Jim Dale is a trial to listen to when he sings a ballad as well. Cy Coleman wasn't as picky as Richard Rodgers usually. Dale was fine in the up-tempos, and Close mostly had uptempos in "Barnum" too. She was quite good in the show.

[quote]I don't know how she got cast in a Richard Rodgers show years ago. Didn't he usually like good singers in his shows for the most part?

Glenn's singing is -- or was -- fine when the role was within her limitations, which SUNSET was not.

Do we think Lucy would talk to Beanie? She hardly let Barbra get a word in...

The most useless things in the world:

The Pope's balls

A Nun's tits

AND - a good review in the Washington Post.

R310, she’s doing & Juliet for a limited run and then touring in Sister Act. She can be seen in photos on Jennifer Saunders’ Instagram.

LOL at the idea of Keala Settle playing Fanny.

At best, she'd be an ideal Mrs. Strakosh.

With all the rehearsals one would think the director and producers would have realized Beanie wasnt right for the role. They all have theater experience and know she doesnt come close to leading lady status. Something else is going on and its not nepotism.

[quote]AND - a good review in the Washington Post.

Peter Marks isn't the most discerning of critics, and he has a tin ear when he reviews musicals.

Couldn’t Beanie have lost some weight for the role?

[quote]Couldn’t Beanie have lost some weight for the role?

Would that have improved her singing?

[quote]With all the rehearsals one would think the director and producers would have realized Beanie wasnt right for the role. They all have theater experience and know she doesnt come close to leading lady status. Something else is going on and its not nepotism.

I think this is one of those cases where, even if the directors and producers did indeed realize Beanie wasn't up to the role during rehearsals, they would not be able to bring themselves to replace her, for any number of reasons. Instead, they would try very hard to convince themselves that she is doing a good job in the role, and/or they would hope that she'd somehow get at least some good reviews even though she's not.

Yes, r346, but its also about money. People have a lot of money invested. You can tell from the hype. I, myself would be panicking about now, especially after some of the comments on social media.

We DL-ers knew that her casting was a HUGE mistake the moment it was announced, long before rehearsals began. But did the producers or anyone else involved with the show listen to us? No, they did not. And now they must pay the price.

The thing that bothers me the most is the fact that it could have a very successful and profitable run. Not because of the casting, but because of the hype. Its unfortunate in the sense that they really could have created a star. And to disagree with someone above, No, this role was made for an unknown...a total unknown. If they really were thinking outside the box, thats the route they would have taken.

Just an observation that, IMHO, one of the FUNNY GIRL producers has no taste or artistic integrity whatsoever, so I guess that partially explains Beanie's casting.

There are understudies still available.

That Milligan recital on YouTube or whatever the fuck is horrific. No one is sitting through a show she’s headlining. She’s charmless and the voice is aggressive and unattractive.

[quote]The thing that bothers me the most is the fact that it could have a very successful and profitable run.

Of course, I could be wrong, but I REALLY don't think that's going to happen.

r353...I hope. If it does, we are going to see this kind of travesty take over Broadway.

On the upside, this will make Josh Groban's (ill-advised) revival of Man Of La Mancha seem like a stroke of GENIUS.

R355, is that a bad joke, or has this idea actually bee mentioned?

It's actually been mentioned R356. Groban's a fine performer and obviously has a great voice. But it's all wrong for the wizened Don Quixote. Not enough gravitas...especially vocally.

Are you bitches saying it's an impossible dream?

Groban could be a fun Sancho.

Replacing Beanie., who some know and some like, with a total unknown would not be the smartest of moves. Best to move forward and hope the disaster isn't total. Maybe Peter Marks will like her.

Isn’t Peter Dinklage going to be doing Man of La Mancha on streaming?

r360....the unkown should have been picked first. That horse is out of the barn now. Theyre stuck with what they get.

Kelsey Grammer seems like an odd choice too.

R352, I agree so much with you. I'd never heard of her before, since I'm not a huge Broadway watcher (just here for the Beanie commentary), and I made it through two of her three songs. Really not an enjoyable experience.

I guarantee you Lea Michelle is already off book and waiting by her phone.

I love Nicole Parker...

Nicole's Fanny...

Say what you want about Lea Michelle...she would have been great. Here she is singing for Barbra Streisand in a tribute. She would be great.

Some of the firsthand accounts of Beanie’s Fanny on TB are pretty brutal. Suddenly Lauren Ambrose doesn’t sound like a bad idea.

from someone named @borneback:

Unfortunately, much of what other posters have been writing is true. The show is a mess, fundamentally because Beanie Feldstein isn't actually a stage star. She has almost no real presence and as a result, you don't care about her journey. Now, much of it should be blamed on the piece itself. I had never seen it before and I thought, this show is a classic? It's a classic simply because of the score, and (as I write below), I was angry at the team for robbing us of the opportunity to hear the 4 famous songs sung by a real singer.

I have seen several posters say, give it some time. But I don't think anyone would walk out of these previews thinking, "She's freaking amazing...she just needs three weeks to settle into the role." That's not the issue - the issues are fundamental.

First, BF is positively unable to sing the show up to Broadway standards, especially the ballads. I was shocked by how unbelievably amateur her renditions of "People" and "The Music That Makes Me Dance" were. She has little to no musicality, and her phrasing is strange. I am not asking for someone to rival Barbra - who could? - but this singing does not belong on Broadway. Her voice is thin and nasally, and there's no way her tone will improve during previews. It also doesn't help that when Ramin sings a few lines of People in Act II, it soars and affects you. The woman next to me leaned over to her friend at that moment and said, "see, that's what that song is supposed to sound like."

Second, the leads have absolutely no chemistry. It's bizarre actually. The introductory scene in the club is supposed to be pure fire, so much that it sustains them to think of and yearn for each other for a year. This wasn't that. And BF comes across so young in the show that it sort of looked like a 16 year old trying to flirt clumsily with an older guy. The chemistry issue became even more apparent in Act II when much of the comedy goes away. I just couldn't find a reason to care about or root for them.

Third, and I think I am in the minority here, I didn't think Beanie was landing jokes as she should be. Now, I think she is absolutely hysterical on film, but here, it looked like the director had given her bits and beats to hit, and those bits should compel laughter, but they didn't for me. At first I thought i was just in a bad mood, but Jane Lynch hit so many zingers. It's as if BF has so much going on in her head that she's not nailing any of it.

The good - Jane Lynch is great. She's very funny, she gets the comedy, and she was the only person in the cast that made me feel something. She really demonstrated the affection she has for Fanny, and that was so needed. Jared Grimes' dancing - and the tap overall - is amazing. It's exciting and jolts the show. His tap solo in Act 1 got one of the biggest ovations in the show, and it's well-deserved. (However, I don't understand his point in the plot...Fanny keeps rejecting him and being dismissive of him. Why does he stick around?) Ramin's voice is absolutely gorgeous. I loved his songs, even though I didn't really know them. Also, I thought the set was interesting and slick, though I would have liked actual sets for the follies numbers.

I wish them the best of luck, and I hope that they will be able to turn things around during previews. I doubt that is possible.

Dolly Parton wants Kristin Chenoweth to play her in a biopic or Broadway show.

Don't know if Beanie has social media but if she does and she has a good number of followers then that is probably the reason they went with her. Social media is an important tool in casting these days, at least it is in Hollywood.

Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Danielle Brooks to Lead Broadway Revival of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson.

I wonder if Jane tried to give Beanie some comedy pointers, which wasn't appreciated.

Might producers try to get Jonathan Groff and Lea Michelle for replacement Nicky and Fanny? I expect Michele's team want to put a redemption arc into action.

[Quote] Replacing Beanie., who some know and some like, with a total unknown would not be the smartest of moves.

Didn't they try to do that with Streisand in London? I think the show closed within a month.

[Quote] No, this role was made for an unknown...a total unknown.

I disagree. Streisand wasn't an unknown. Neither was Mimi Hines.

Anne Hathaway is in no way an ugly duckling. Plus she's approaching middle age.

Beanie has 573K followers on Instagram, which is notable.

And to me, surprising. She was pretty good (but not brilliant) in BOOKSMART, which was far more of a critical darling than some monster hit--it grossed $24 million worldwide, which is not a lot. LADY BIRD was more successful, but that was Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf's movie, not Beanie's.

Beanie is not a star in any medium, not really.

[Quote] The problem with casting an actress "with a good personality" is that it is totally unbelievable that the classically handsome, tall, fit leading man would even want to be with her once, much less pursue her.

Is Fanny not a star when Nicky meets her?

She probably picked up a lot of her brothers followers too.

Streisand was pregnant during the London run and her understudy went on quite a bit much to the dismay of ticket holders. The engagement ended early but I don’t think Streisand was replaced.

I love the idea of Jane Lynch giving her comedy “pointers” backstage.

Meanwhile she can’t fucking sing the god damn score

[Quote] Sadly, Beanie has no belt. How is she supposed to be a Bway star without a belt?

Quite.

[Quote] Whatever her looks, Streisand always thought she was sexy - she fucked Omar Shariff, ffs.

I want to see a list of handsome men Streisand fucked BEFORE she became the biggest female star of her time.

Like others said, she wasnt ugly...and she had a killer bod. Thats what guys look for.

Is there another link for the Beanie "... Parade"? Tumblr, perhaps?

If this Beanie thing takes off some savvy Broadway producer should hire Lizzo for a stage version of Lady Sings the Blues.

Did anyone see that tour of Camelot a few years that that was designed, directed and re-orchestrated to give it a very Game of Thrones vibe?. I remember reading such mixed reactions to it.

I can't see someone who looks like Ramin playing at being wowed by Beanie. I can't quite even imagine Nathan Lane, when he's playing someone straight like in "Forum", playing opposite Beanie, though that's a bit more feasible. Plus they'd have to make that puffy shirt really puffy or change some of the lines about Nicky.

Beanie actually doesn’t have a ton of followers (573k) considering her age and demographic. Under 1 million isn’t impressive if you’re supposed to be a star who can carry a Broadway show.

For comparison purposes… Idina has 1.2 million Chenoweth has 1 million Kaitlyn Dever (other girl from book smart) has 643K Phillipa Soo has 787k Lea Michele has 7 million (damn) Ben Platt has 1.7 million

[quote]Maybe Peter Marks will like her.

With his tin ear? Count on it.

"Beanie has 573K followers on Instagram, which is notable."

Notable for what no-nothings follow?

"Only about the score ...which might actually be good"

Oh, my sides!

"Sorkin also noted to THR that, while he hadn’t seen the play, he read the book several times and repeatedly played the cast album. The “Social Network” filmmaker wanted to erase any supernatural components from the story. Lincoln Center also previously described the show as being “reimagined for the 21st century.” “The story takes place in a real place at a real time,” he continued. “Arthur can’t change himself into a hawk and there’s no magic forest. Even the origin story of the sword in the stone gets questioned.” He also stated, “I like writing about heroes who don’t wear capes and I told Bart that I thought there was a powerful version of this story to be told that could give us a glimpse — ‘for one brief shining moment’ — of who we could be at our best, but the story had to take place in the real world. Bart looked frightened but he told me to go to work."

Except for one salient detail: Alan Jay Lerner went through the agony of condensing and dramatizing the 639 page novel (in the paperback edition), and getting it on the page in the first place. So, enough with the condescension.

"is there a low-level effort to see if Neil Simon's plays can actually "work" in 2022 or early 21st century?"

No effort required. Watch the HBO production with Jerry Orbach and Lee Grant to see how Simon comedies can be played, not only for laughs but for the TRUTH.

[quote] Couldn’t Beanie have lost some weight for the role?

This is Woke Broadway. I'm sure the producers convinced her to keep her weight, as she was representing all of those women who have been body-shamed. " Do it for the big girls!" A different type of diversity.

Should have re-staged Streisand's TV special THE BELLE OF 14TH STREET, with its "beef-trust chorus" instead?

Playbill has an interview with Dianna Agron, plugging her Cafe Carlyle show. While I'm groaning at her refering to it as "Doris Day's 'Is That All There Is?'", I'm intrigued by her saying that Cabaret would be the show she would try for. What do we think? Could we see her as Sally Bowles, especially if that West End production with Eddie Redmayne transfers?

Dianna turns 36 this year, so this would presumably be her last chance at Cabaret ...

The only explanation is that her brother has a shitload of money invested in it. Otehrwise, they would have replaced her ages ago.

This really is lifetime television level absurdness that Ramin Karimloo would fall in love with Beanie Feldstein. Even Jane Lynch wouldn’t get anywhere near those beef curtains no matter how many comedy pointers she offers backstage

I can just hear Beanie wailing on the "CBS Sunday Morning" segment a year from now after she emerges from "self-imposed seclusion".

mlop sez:

[quote] On another Note of FUNNY GIRL. I worked with Maurice Levine on the original Lyrics and Lyricits series that he created. The subject of the show was Broadway Musicals that were made into movies and we were doing FUNNY GIRL. We were looking through the movie to show a song that Barbra did not sing there weren’t any. The mother scene was cut and so was the song. The only thing we could find was a one minute introduction sung by Omar Sharif sing “I Am Women” that went into Barbra singing the rest of the song.

The movie "Mr. Saturday Night" was a box office turkey; can it become a hit on Broadway 30 years later? I guess it worked with "Xanadu" ...

The difference is Xanadu developed a HUGE cult following in those 30 years. (And it still wasn't all that successful on Broadway.)

True. I guess "Xanadu" was more of a jukebox musical because everyone already knew and loved the music.

There are several posters over at ATC claiming the only explanation for Beanie's casting was her very wealthy and socially connected father (silently) investing a lot of his money in it. At first it seemed far fetched to me but the more posters expanded on that theory, the more it made sense. And I can certainly imagine fame whores Sonia Friedman and Michael Mayer going along with it.

Lea Michele would have likely been close to brilliant, but Ryan Murphy moved on and she fucked up her career by being a diva when she was hot. That said, I’d take Ryan Murphy’s production with Lea over whatever this nepotism nightmare with BF is… Lea and J Groff would have been amazing together versus (younger) fat chick who can’t sing and ripped (older) mi$ca$t Ramin.

[quote]And I can certainly imagine fame whores Sonia Friedman and Michael Mayer going along with it.

And David Babani, one of the oiliest, scummiest, most tasteless producers in the business.

Whatever else we think about a revised CAMELOT, let's not pretend as if it was ever considered a show with a superb book. The aforementioned "agony" that Alan Jay Lerner endured continued well past the show's opening, as he and Moss Hart continued to pare it down. Subsequent tours and Broadway returns kept the slicing going.

So when you pine for the "original" or clutch your pearls about its being revised, I ask you -- which "original" did you have in mind?

None of this guarantees that the Sorkin version will be an improvement. But he's not defacing the Mona Lisa here -- he's trying to find a workaround to present the beautiful score to contemporary advantage. I wish him well.

XANADU!

Peter Marks' tin ear got STRANGE LOOP a Broadway Theater....

If Lea were to do an Encores production with Jonathan Groff it would still sell out in hours. No one protested her being at the Spring Awakening concert and I’m sure she’ll be doing plenty of publicity for the HBO documentary when it comes out. She’s not as over as some people may think.

Damn. Now I really hate Beanie. She got y'all pining for fckn lea Michele. Smh.

I found out how Beanie was cast...Michael Mayer and Harvey Fierstein launched a production in London a few years ago, and lo and behold, a short overweight girl was cast as Fanny......go to 29:15 in the video below and it shows the London cast. I should have known Fierstein had his hands in it...he usually screws things up.

Its Sheridan Smith in the London production at r412

R411 Lea is not a kind person but her talent is far superior to Beanie and she doesn’t come from money nor did she have any connections to the industry. To see people celebrating Beanie, who has ZERO vocal talent, in this role while Lea is blacklisted for being “difficult” frankly sucks.

Well, yes and no.

By all accounts, Lea Michele really was/is an ubercunt to people.

One of the big rules in show business is, you don't generally PUBLICLY bad mouth other people (or projects) because it's not professional and it can actually boomerang back on you for "not being a team player". You only bad mouth in your old age when you write your memoirs OR in some cases, if you're really pushed to do so under circumstances.

If you're a relatively young actor and former colleagues are bad mouthing a relatively short time after working with you, it really says a lot.

And, it's not good.

If her awful behaviour fucked up her career, that's totally on her.

That said, I'd still rather see her play Fanny because the bitch can at least sing the damn score.

R404 Not only her father. Her brother is Jonah Hill. Plus her BFF is Ben Platt whose father sponsored his show and movie with lotsa dough. Friends of famous friends might have contributed, too in this crazy business.

[quote] Peter Marks' tin ear got STRANGE LOOP a Broadway Theater....

So the investors can blame him when their money is flushed down the toilet immediately?

Oh, whoops, too late.

Sheridan Smoth wasn’t fat when she opened in Funny Girl. But he father became gravely ill during the run and Sheridan had a nervous breakdown. By the time she came back to the show, she was a pudgette, but still not nearly as fat as Beanie.

FG will close by July.

You can tell by the thin orchestra, chorus and lack of sets that the producers don’t have any real faith in it.

Agree that Lea has. the voice, but is she ever. in any way "likable." You have to be charmed by Fanny as well as gobsmacked by her talent.

And as much as I love Mr. Groff, he is in no way a Nicky. By contrast, he's too likable.

Still, it would have been preferable.

All this talk about Lea Michele what the fuck happened to my turn?

No one knows who you are, Lauren.

Lea is a good (though not great) singer, but she isn't funny.

How do they accomplish the sight gag of the audience being shocked that Fanny, as the bride, is pregnant?

I mean, Beanie as Fanny already looks as if she's in her third trimester.

I can't imagine a pillow being quiet enough to pull it off.

Some people loved Lauren Ambrose in the MY FAIR LADY revival, but a lot more were underwhelmed by her singing, her acting, or both, after much advance hype about what a revelation she was. (Didn't she also miss a number of performances?) Her fellow cast members were dismayed when she pulled out of that production early (replaced by Laura Benanti, who some say was much better in the role).

MFL could have made Ambrose a star. It didn't.

[quote]How do they accomplish the sight gag of the audience being shocked that Fanny, as the bride, is pregnant?

Honestly, I've been wondering about that, too. Is it possible they've replaced the pregnancy gag with some other type of physical comedy joke?

R425, I could be wrong, but it seemed pretty clear to me that Lauren Ambrose was very disappointed and/or angry over the lukewarm reception for her Eliza, and yes, she did begin to miss a number of performances before she was replaced by Benanti.

The opening night Beanie reviews are going to be brutal. They’re not going to spare her. I hope she’s ready.

Because Fanny is so fat, the big reveal in the Bride number is not be that she is pregnant, but that she is actually two people attached at the waist.

We heard your amateur hour My Fair Lady, Lauren. You’ve been banned from Broadway musicals for eternity. You can come back for straight plays though.

No R427, I don’t think she was angry, I think she was overwhelmed. She found that the score was actually difficult to sing (surprise!) eight shows a week and promptly used her stardom and family as excuses to reduce the amount of performances. She didn’t “miss” performances, she altered her contract so I believe she was only do five or six a week like Evita and Sunset. Her understudy went on for the rest.

The remaining cast was understandably pissed because the media wrote it off as “spending more time with her family” when in reality she couldn’t do the role. Didn’t Dame Diana have something to say in the press? I recall she was somewhat not politic and seemed to be expressing the cast’s frustration with inexperienced Lauren. It was a big mess and LCT was not happy having to fuss with contracts, but Lauren is a (deserved) TV star and producers aren’t messing with that. Also, Bart supposedly “handpicked” her, and didn’t want the blame.

So she was allowed to quietly get through most of her run and then slink off back to Hollywood.

I saw Ambrose in the middle of her run and she was sensational. I Could Have Danced All Night got a huge response and the standing O at the end was mixed with cheers when she came out. I have no idea what the supposed controversy was about her performance. The character isn’t Elphaba and the only time she belts is to encourage a racehorse.

And R425, your ‘some say this and some say that’ only heightens the bullshit quotient of your post. There’s also a lapse in logic in what you wrote. If ‘as some say’ she was giving a lousy acting and singing performance, why would the cast ‘be dismayed’ when she was replaced by the luminous Benanti? Wouldn’t they be thrilled to have a real Broadway actress in the part?

r418....I didnt say Sheridan was fat...I said a short, overweight girl. She was hardly what I would call "fat". The point is that Mayer and Fierstein made that choice...and for some godforsaken reason did it again here.

R431, thanks for clarifying, especially the part about Ambrose having contractually reduced her number of performances per week. But, on top of all that, I still expect Ambrose was very disappointed and/or angry over the generally lukewarm reception for her performance as Eliza. I imagine she and Bart Sher thought the casting would make her a musical theater star overnight, but that really didn't work out.

Ambrose reduced her performance schedule to 7 shows a week and Benanti also played 7 shows a week. Benanti also missed a number of performances due to illness and concert obligations so her attendance record was no better than Lauren’s.

So, r434, you're basing that on your "expectations" and "imagination"?

Sheridan Smith is a wonderful singer and was a huge star in the UK with 2 Olivier Awards and a BAFTA at the time she did Fanny. There is no comparison to Beanie.

BF is even worse than your worst fears. I spent the entire evening praying for her to stop singing. Her tone is awful, and she can't act for shit. The whole production is pretty dumbfounding — Jane Lynch as a Brooklyn Jewish mother, you have to laugh. This may be the biggest Broadway trainwreck since In My Life.

Sheridan Smith only put on weight later. She wasn't fat when cast and initially playing Fanny. And she'd already had a musical stage success headlining "Legally Blonde." I think she also played Audrey in "Little Shop" as well. Smith has also had National Theatre straight play success. Smith's singing voice is not one of a kind. But she's not comparable to Beanie.

Benanti is super sensitive to anyone bringing up her missing shows after the Into the Woods debacle. I feel bad for her with what happened to her but she is very easy to anger if you even bring it up in polite conversation

Lea Michele is thoroughly unlikeable, both on screen and off. That quality isn't gonna change on stage. It shows how few singing, comic females there are out there that Michele is even being discussed. She killed her chances of opening a production as Fanny when she aggressively sang "Don't Rain on My Parade" on the Tonys.

It's truly mind boggling they put this production on as the first revival. Insane. Haha. I didn't know Harvey was involved. He does ruin everything with his "updates" and "revisions". Lea is done. No one likes that bitch and her talent isn't good enough to excuse her rancid attitude. Even though she thought it was. 🤣 And she was a child actor. She's just as bad as Beanie but with a really bad reputation. Oh and Groff sucks too. As bland as vegan vanilla ice cream.

Can MFL make anybody a star?

Nikki Renee Daniels will be playing Bobbie in Company for the first time at today's shows, if anyone wants to hear someone who can sing a score. I have no doubt she can handle it and look forward to the inevitable bootlegs. I didn't mind Lenk (and thought she was great as an actress), but Daniels should blow the roof off.

I don't really think of Bobby as a blow the roof off part.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

The Lenk haters complained a lot about her voice not being big enough. Whatever. Just meant to say I think Daniels definitely has the voice for it.

I hope Bobbie has bangs.

Nobody is comparing Sheridan to Beanie except in regards to the people who chose a short round person to play someone who wasnt. Its not the Totie Fields story. Its the same producers who chose Beanie. You can tell looking at clips that Sheridan performed rings around anything Beanie could do.

I think these are the first performances Lenk has missed.

A Facebook friend was at the Beany Feldman Show last night and promised to tell us what she thought.....nothing yet on her page.

Lea was likeable enough on Glee. And she is an actress. I wouldn’t write her off based on one TV show and behind-the-scenes gossip

Streisand's costumes didn't showcase body, for the most part. (And there wasn't much body to showcase.) The Parade outfit is pretty fitted but otherwise...

I think some of you are working overtime trying to put forth a case that Streisand and Brice herself were attractive. To most people, they weren't. No one who's even average would sing "His Love Makes Me Beautiful." Nick is slumming it with an unattractive woman.

Beanie has an unattractive singing voice. If she lacks the force of personality to win over audiences, she is truly sunk. Nothing needs to be said about (not) "sexy" Streisand or Brice.

[quote] Dolly Parton wants Kristin Chenoweth to play her in a biopic or Broadway show.

Kristin is going to have to eat a sandwich or two before she plays Dolly.

Dolly’s trademark is her big front and when they pad Kristin, the weight of that padding will make her look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

[quote]Streisand's costumes didn't showcase body, for the most part. (And there wasn't much body to showcase.)

Barbra had a lovely figure, r452 and wore the costumes well. Fanny and Barbra weren't conventionally attractive, but they had allure.

R451 haha. Are you kidding? Her character was obnoxious and that was all her. Did you see her audition tapes? She is an actress always playing herself with absolutely zero range. Everything she has done since Glee Season 2 has been a fail. Only thing she could get was that Spring Awakening reunion. Haha. This isn't 2009 honey. She's done.

The Lea hatred is psychotic. Someone is really going insane in their mother's basement.

Yes r456, but apparently the Beanie hatred is totally rational and sane.

No, I agree the Beanie hatred is also insane. This used to be a fun, gossipy site. Now it's just ugly

[quote] This used to be a fun, gossipy site. Now it's just ugly

And repetitive as never before. Lauren Ambrose in MFL was four years ago.

And repetitive as never before. Lauren Ambrose in MFL was four years ago.

Barbra willed herself to be alluring, and a handful of gorgeous straight men thought she was.

Barbra's Funny Girl gowns for People, You Are Woman, Music That Me Dance and even the bridal gown for His Love Makes Me Beautiful all featured her healthy cleavage.

Jesus, is Daniels playing Bobbi as an alopecia victim? Fix that fucking wig! She looks like Ed Asner.

According to Lenk herself she tested positive for Covid this morning and is awaiting further test results which is why she’s out today. Wishing her well......

That didn't stop her from futzing around with her boob pads, r461. It drove me crazy.

Half the cast of Company are understudies today

Neither the “Beanie hatred” nor the “Lea hatred” is out of synch with the way the theatre gossip threads have always run.

From the moment her casting was announced, DL has been surprised by the supposed inappropriateness of Beanie being Fanny. IF she had delivered an exciting, breathtaking voice, she would have waylaid her naysayers. Instead, she revealed that she is vocally completely unequal to the part. There are many first hand account from those who’ve seen the previews so far, and they pretty much all say the same thing. The girl is way out of her league as a Broadway leading lady.

As for Lea, nothing DL says comes close to what her former cast mates have said.

Though it’s fun speculating on who should have been cast in Funny Girl, the role belongs to Streisand the way Sam Spade belongs to Bogart or Margo Channing belongs to Bette Davis. The only good revival is no revival.

Bells belongs to Judy Holliday and Wonderful Town belongs to Roz.

Auntie Mame belongs to Roz, too.

Why some deranged queen seems to continually bring up alleged deranged gossip about Lea from a TV show that ended years ago, and she's never been on Broadway as an adult suggests there's some real weirdos out there.

[quote] Only thing she could get was that Spring Awakening reunion.

Both the reunion concert and its upcoming HBO documentary were executive produced by Jonathan Groff, who put together the money for it. So she was always going to be a part of it.

Regardless, the concert sold out in 3 hours and no one protested her being there. She really is not as hated as many people believe, and similar to a lot of other canceled white people, she will be given an opportunity for a comeback.

20 years old isn't an adult?

Sam Spade belongs to Bogart or Margo Channing belongs to Bette Davis.

Bells belongs to Judy Holliday and Wonderful Town belongs to Roz.

Auntie Mame belongs to Roz, too.

But tomorrow belongs to me.

MAME belongs to Angie. She's the *only* one who really made a splash in the role.

Auntie Mame not Mame. Two different animals.

[quote]Half the cast of Company are understudies today

Lenk tested positive for Covid, r465. She likely wasn't the only one.

In other news, I guess Bruce Willis won't be returning to the stage.

His cognitive abilities weren't too strong when he said yes to doing "Misery"

Rumor was he needed an earpiece to feed him his Misery lines. Probably already in decline then...

Isn't saying he has aphasia a more polite way way of saying he has some form of dementia?

Did I imply otherwise, r475?

Has everyone forgotten that Lea was Tateh's little girl in RAGTIME?

Have Peter Friedman, Audra MacDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell or Marin Mazzie ever said anything against Lea?

Poor Lea had to stand downwind of Judy Kaye.

Aphasia is a polite way of saying dementia in the same way saying a curvy Fanny Brice is the polite way of saying a fat fucked Fanny

[quote]Isn't saying he has aphasia a more polite way way [sic] of saying he has some form of dementia?

Aphasia is the loss or impairment of the power to use or comprehend words usually resulting from brain damage, so says merriam-webster, r479. It can be a result of many things, and there are many degrees of it. He did use an earpiece for Misery, so this could have been in the process for a while.

Are YOU ok?

R459 Yet, here are you two douchebags, still here with the rest of us. Stfu and enjoy phaggots.

I started to post above that Lea was charming and wonderful in Ragtime and a great favorite at curtain calls. I thought she would go on to become a huge star and never understood what happened.

Lea/Ragtime

Notice that Lea is on a leash in that clip.

Someone from RAGTIME did speak out about Lea Michele.

[Quote] saying a curvy Fanny Brice is the polite way of saying a fat fucked Fanny

Or saying small busted Streisand had a healthy cleavage.

^^^GO ON ..

[Quote] ^^^GO ON ..

Or saying a handful of gorgeous straight men thought Streisand was.

[quote]Margo Channing belongs to Bette Davis

Um…hello?

The leash was a plot point in Ragtime. Earlier in the show someone had tried to buy her for sex and after that Tata took pains to make sure she never escaped his sight.

The plot point about the leash was only introduced to explain why Lea was being forcibly restrained. It all started when she tried to shit in Evelyn Nesbit's wig.

[quote]Or saying small busted Streisand had a healthy cleavage.

She wasn't Loren, r490, but Barbra breasts were a nice perky size. Anyway, cleavage is created by foundation garments, Breasts don't create a shelf on their own.

[quote]The Lenk haters complained a lot about her voice not being big enough

I didn't. I complained that she's too cold and remote for the part. She did occasionally have trouble with the songs, but I saw a pre-pandemic preview in 2020, so I'm guessing she's improved vocally.

I assume this FG revival has a number of very very wealthy investors and it is some sort of tax write off plus they get to rub their shoulders with a few Broadway people. Maybe Beanie's father made money for them and they want to do him a favor. Or else he's paying for it out of his own pocket. What is 15 million for a gift to a daughter he adores when he has 100s of millions? Producers in the past would bankroll a production for their girlfriends. Now they do it for their children.

This may give you a better idea of what Sheridan Smith looked like when she opened "Funny Girl" at the Menier in 2015.

Prior to this she had had successes in "Legally Blonde," "Little Shop," and as Cilla Black in a TV movie. In 2019, she was the Narrator in the hit Palladium revival of "Joseph."

OT. but Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee bankrolled the Broadway musical My Lady Friends by selling Babe Ruth's contract to the NY Yankees. Frazee later produced No, No, Nanette and the popular but incorrect rumor is that it was Nanette that was produced by the sale of the contract.

Someone in the last thread said Rosie O’Donnell was an investor in Grey Gardens to make it go to Broadway and that there was a political person who donated a ton but that the person made changes which ruined the show. I have both cast albums what changes were made that “ruined” the show?

Yes Grey Gardens was much better Off Broadway. That person who insisted on the changes was a complete idiot.

They cut the raccoon dream ballet, r501.

Rosie did not invest in grey gardens.

[quote]Regardless, the concert sold out in 3 hours and no one protested her being there.

Whom did you expect would protest Lea being there? SPRING AWAKENING fans? Hardly likely.

[quote]She really is not as hated as many people believe.

That doesn't necessarily follow. Depends on what group of people you're talking about.

Maybe the person who made that dumb comment about Rosie and GREY GARDENS somehow confused that show with TABOO? Because, you know, those two shows are so similar.

It wasn't me!

I always get Boy George and Little Edie mixed up, r506.

I can't imagine GG being much worse than it was Off-Broadway, because there it was a fucking snore. Horrible show ONLY enlivened by the performances of the two women. the entire first act is useless and should have been jettisoned. We could have found out about their past in one musical number.

Lea Michele ratted out Garth Drabinsky.

What was she -- like 10?

I’m with those who think Annaleigh Ashford would have made a great Fanny Brice.

My non-binary pink haired nibling has tickets to see Funny Girl.and is very excited. She hasn’t seen the movie or listened to the OBC. She’s what you crusty aunties call “woke” but rolls her eyes when I tell her Evan Hansen is an ethically-challenged little shit. She totally fan girls Beanie. That’s Beanie’s fan base. Can they keep the show running?

R509 AGREED.

Nikki is not the first ‘black Bobbie.’ The West End understudy was black and she went on.

Like your comment r510, but Drabinsky got outed to the SEC after Michael Ovitz purchased a major interest in Livent and discovered Drabinsky was keeping two entirely different sets of books. He had never seen the real ones. There had already been rumors about Livent's shady accounting practices for years. SFX purchased the remains of the company on the cheap while Drabinsky and his partner Myron Gottlieb got prison.

[quote] She really is not as hated as many people believe,

Actually, yes. Yes she was.

[quote] Nikki is not the first ‘black Bobbie.’ The West End understudy was black and she went on.

She amended it to first on Broadway, as if it's been decades in the making. There was a black Bobby ages ago w/ Adrian Lester. It's not like they've been doing the gender swap all this time.

[quote] I’m with those who think Annaleigh Ashford would have made a great Fanny Brice.

If she's not Jewish, the SJWs will object and cause much squawking on social media, trying to cancel her or shame her.

Maybe Demi Lovato could convert.

To what, human?

With Sondheim's personal permission to waive the show's licensing rules, Billy Porter years ago played a gay black Bobby in a non-professional two week college production. He'd been invited to spend a semester as a guest artist and decided he wanted to direct and star in Company.

If they'd waited a few years, Porter could have been the first female Bobby himself.

Can we somehow keep Billy Porter and Daniel Fish away from classic musicals?

[r524] and Michael Mayer!

As a Jewish fellow…..

I would support annaleah Ashford. She’s a wonderful singer and great actress and funny and pretty/quirky

And she has a bit of TV Q.

Barbara Cook was Jewish?

[quote]My non-binary pink haired nibling

Wait, what?

Because of the whole Jew-face controversy, only someone Jewish will be allowed to play Fanny nowadays. That really limits the possibilities

As I said earlier, I think Annaleigh is too smart to do FG, knowing the shoes she's have to fill and the inevitable comparisons. but she'd be good.

[quote]My non-binary pink haired nibling

Pics please.

How old is Fanny in the show? Annaleigh is 36.

I think she’d do it if they had asked. She’s another Ryan Murphy favorite, for what it’s worth.

Speaking of Ryan Murphy... Matt Bomer had said he was headed to Broadway again right before COVID hit in 2020. What was he going to be in? Anyone know?

Time Out For Ginger, r533.

i was reading an old thread at BWW that began with someone asking whether it was true that Billy Porter turned down The Witch in the first revival of Into the Woods. Most of the replies said that Porter was the only source for the story and that although he was seriously considered after two excellent auditions everyone involved knew that they would have to have a much bigger name in the part.

[quote]How old is Fanny in the show?

Who knows?

In the show, she is a young girl who meets her first love.

In reality, Nicky was Fanny's second husband.

Someone waaaaaaay upthread mentioned Rachel Bloom. She could definitely sing it and she can do comedy and has some following from her tv show.

Oh, and she's Jewish. Don't know what kind of stage presence she has though.

[quote] Someone waaaaaaay upthread mentioned

[quote] As I said earlier,

Theme of this thread

Was Porter considered for Funny Girl?

Cole Porter I think had eyes for Jack Cassidy.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Bomer in Time Out for Ginger as long as the ginger isn’t Jessie Tyler Ferguson.

I doubt Porter was considered for FG but I bet you'd see something far more interesting going on on that stage if he had been.

[quote] The only good revival is no revival.

This is only true as long as they refuse to give a new talent a shot at the role. Put names in every other role but cast the right person for the lead. The greats are too old and some dead at some point we need to restock the talent pool with new faces.

They did a reality tv show to find a Maria for The Sound Of Music why not finding Fanny?

With 57 posts left of the thread, just a reminder: THEATRE GOSSIP #459 - (title). Also, it's not a bad idea to link to the thread ASAP, so there's less chance of duplication.

Since it looks like Company will have a longish run and Patti will probably leave at some point who do you think will replace her? Donna Murphy will be tied up with Gilded Age, Bernie probably isn’t interested, Betty Buckley probably is over the 8 show a week grind. So....who?

Beanie will be available by then r546

All these stars who will NOT be nominated for Tonys if the reviews and pre-opening chat are to be believed:

Beanie

Hugh Jackman

Daniel Craig

Matthew Broderick

Katrina Lenk

What's this about Daniel Craig?

All of these people will be nominated because the TONYs are desperate for ratings

[quote]All these stars who will NOT be nominated for Tonys if the reviews and pre-opening chat are to be believed:

Darling, since when are the bloody Tonys based on performances? Give me names, sweetie, NAMES!

It was announced today that the longtime musical director of Encores!, Rob Berman, is departing at the end of this season, and his official comment on his departure is very telling: in light of recent events “I believe it’s so important to celebrate the rich history of American musical theater and all of the great scores and orchestrations that have come before us,” Berman said. “It has been my great honor and privilege to conduct so many wonderful productions over fourteen seasons. I have loved every minute.”

Judy Kaye got a Best Supporting Actress Razzie for Diana The Musical.

and Ben Platt didn't?

Ben Platt wuz robbed!!!

It was only a matter of time, r553.

Billy Porter auditioned for the Baker for the ITW revival but the powers that be all felt he was too animated (I.e. gay) so suggested he audition for The Witch. He wowed them for the audition. It was down to him, Vanessa Williams and Jennifer Holiday. Sondheim and James Lapine actually wanted Porter, and Lapine has spoken about how he was in favor of a male witch, but the producers wanted Vanessa because 9/11 spooked everyone and they wanted a “name” who would see tickets.

Billy Porter was anything but a name back in 2002. As a matter of fact, he'd done the ensemble of a few Bway shows but no leading roles in anything of note.

Heather Headley would have been great casting for Bobbie in Company. She still could be - she replaced (and was revelatory) in Color Purple.

Rumors afloat that Miss AnnE Hathaway, DL fave, is replacement Bobbie. She's making a lot of noise on social media lately.

I don’t replace.

We need a revival of After Play.

I’d add Headley’s Into the Woods co-star Sara Bareilles as another one I’d think would be great as a replacement Bobbie.

DEH didn't win a single Razzie! But I agree LeBron was more deserving than Platt.

I'm just a teenager: there's plenty of time yet for my Razzie triumph!

I can see Anne Hathaway doing a limited run as Bobbie. It’s easier to replace in a hit than open in something new. And doesn’t she live in NYC?

Dame Diana Rigg dissed Lauren Ambrose in MFL.

"I'm flying the old flag for a generation of actors who performed even when they were at death's door," said the 80-year-old actor, who herself powered through a torn vocal cord during her 1994 Tony Award-winning performance in Medea.

I have called the producers (78 times) to tell them that I could replace Beaner and play her as a younger, slimmer, more glamorous Fanny.

I will provide my own wardrobe and Vaseline for the face-srims.

Please get that unfortunate beast's size 54 outfits out of my dressing room before I arrive.

Lea Michele is making her big comeback at this year’s Miscast.

I hate that word, r570. It's not a comeback, it's...a return.

Shoshana Bean would be the one I expect is off-book and waiting for the Funny Girl producers to call.

Producers should have hired Shoshana or someone at that caliber to standby for Beanie just in case she floundered badly early on and needed to be replaced.

I think Jenny Slate would have been a great Fanny Brice. She reminds me of Gilda Radner, is a “name”, looks great and would make sense to pine after Ramin.

Shoshana Bean is 44.

[quote]Shoshana Bean is 44.

Mary Martin was 45 when she first played a young postulant in "The Sound of Music." It's the magic of the theater!

Isn’t Shoshana in Mr. Saturday Night? Speaking of which, I saw Randy Graff in a Jule Styne tribute concert a few years ago and she did a marvelous job with “People”. At the same show, Kate Shindle did a spine-tingling “Don’t Rain On My Parade” which I believe she also sang as her “talent” portion of Miss America (which she won).

But Mary Martin could never get away with that today. Nor could Shoshana.

Jenny Slate is who again?

Murphy wanted Matt Bomer for Larry Kramer's plays, The Normal Heart and The Destiny Of Me, which Ryan wanted to run in repertory on Broadway. I'm assuming Bomer would have repeated his Normal Heart movie role, which could still work, but I think the whole project has been shelved. Bomer could definitely still pull off Felix.

The Destiny of Me deserves to be revived.

They should do a One Night Only Benefit concert of

*MAME*

Thomas Roberts is Mame

Don Lemon is Vera

Anderson Cooper is Gooch

Matt Gutman is older Patrick

Jonathan Capehart is Sally Cato

Sam Champion is Mother Burnside

Gio Benitez is young Patrick

Andrew Rannells is Gloria Upson

*Special Guest Star*

Ricky Martin is Beauregard

[quote]the producers wanted Vanessa because 9/11 spooked everyone and they wanted a “name” who would see tickets.

It didn't just "spook" everyone, it resulted in a substantial drop in tourism to New York and a substantial drop in Broadway attendance and profits for several months.

Get out your time machine. Who would you want to see in Sound of Music? Mary Martin or Florence Henderson?

Believe it or not, I saw Mary Martin in THE SOUND OF MUSIC. She was great. I also saw Florence Henderson a couple of years later in South Pacific. She sucked.

Could Matt Bomer effectively headline not one but two full-length plays? He's certainly no Ned, who is meant to be somewhat homely. I think of Bomer as a second banana, as he was in Boys in the Band.

R582. You forgot John Yang as Ito. (Yang is gay.)

Again, reminder: THEATRE GOSSIP #459 - (title). Also, it's not a bad idea to link to the thread ASAP, so there's less chance of duplication.

If you are so worked up over it r588, what the fuck are you waiting for?

My God, the praise for Beanie online at Broadway World is almost as deranged as the hate is here. We're doomed as a culture if these fat fly-over shut-ins think that is a good performance!

We'll see if they make good on their promise to go see her live the next time they load onto Spirit Airlines for a Magnolia fix.

Bomer had such a thankless part in BITB - he just stood there and looked beautiful and quietly reacted for 90 minutes. What a waste. His big scene at the end was him reacting to Jim Parsons having a meltdown on the floor.

The beanie fan shut-ins likely can’t afford to travel to NY to see the show. That’s my guess. Hopefully one of them will attend and film it and then upload it on YouTube under some weird code name for them. Most Broadway shows are on YouTube at this point under “slime tutorial.”

Florence H. did the first national of the original SoM.

We'll have a boot of Beanie within a week and then we can all decide if Beanie needs the boot

That's right R576. And FUNNY GIRL is exactly the kind of musical where Harvey could've added a 2-3 minute prologue with the character, older, walking down Henry Street humming a song and "looking back" and then whoosh with the speed of a stagehand we go to the beginning of the story. This would've facilitated an older actress in the role playing Fanny's younger self...LORELEI style or like the Debbie Reynolds MOLLY BROWN tour in the 80s.

But they don't need to do that for Beanie.

R589 The people who whine about thread titles never have the balls to create them

From ATC on Tuesday's FG:

There is a moment in Act 2 when Ramin Karimloo sings a couple lines from “People” and it’s so wonderful to hear a beautiful voice singing the score.

There is another moment in Act 2 when Ramin Karimloo sings a couple lines with a cigarette in his mouth and it’s so wonderful to hear a beautiful voice singing the score.

With all of this gloom, we need a pick-me-up.

r590, what Broadwayworld are you looking at? The one I'm linking to has been overwhelmingly negative on Beanie--maybe a bit kind on her comedic bits--saying she can't sing the score, was a complete mistake to cast, what were the producers/director thinking, etc. To the point where some scold showed up to take the commenters to task for being so mean, mean, mean to her. (Which they weren't. Simply blunt and to the point, but no one was outright mocking her. Or is the lack of mocking your idea of praise?)

New Thread

[quote]To the point where some scold showed up to take the commenters to task for being so mean, mean, mean to her.

If you are referring to FindingNamo, I suspect you are not familiar with his history.