THEATRE GOSSIP #474: The Tonys 2022 (and Mr. Todd, Too) Edition

Previous Thread:

Horrible, just horrible.

If Clay departs Company before it closes they should get Evan to replace him.

That would be an excellent replacement, R4!

Clay ain't going anywhere.

Where does one find the Jay Armstrong Johnson video?

Look! Its Winston Churchill!

Presenters for the 2022 Tony Awards Announced

Paris Jackson and Prince Jackson, children of Michael Jackson

Other presenters include Utkarsh Ambudkar, Skylar Astin, Zach Braff, Danielle Brooks, Danny Burstein, Len Cariou, RuPaul Charles, Jessica Chastain, Lilli Cooper, Bryan Cranston, Wilson Cruz, Colman Domingo, Anthony Edwards, Cynthia Erivo, Raúl Esparza, Laurence Fishburne, Andrew Garfield, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Tony Goldwyn, David Alan Grier, Vanessa Hudgens, Jennifer Hudson, Samuel L Jackson & LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Nathan Lane, Telly Leung, Judith Light, Josh Lucas, Gaten Matarazzo, Ruthie Ann Miles, Patina Miller, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bebe Neuwirth, Kelli O’Hara, Sarah Paulson, Bernadette Peters, Jeremy Pope, Billy Porter, Chita Rivera, Tony Shalhoub, Phillipa Soo, Sarah Silverman, George Takei, Aaron Tveit, Adrienne Warren, Patrick Wilson, Bowen Yang

Why isn’t the Beanster presenting? Does she have another wedding to attend?

[r10] she has Covid-19

I pray that Jesse Tyler Ferguson loses Sunday evening.

THE HISTORY BOYS had a magnificent cast on Broadway. Besides Corden, Tovey, Cooper and Jamie Parker there were the adorable Samuel Barnett (who I believe was the only other gay besides Russell T), and the beautiful BIPOCs Sacha Dawan and Andrew Knott (both of whom I've now seen in innumerable Brit miniseries). Add tp that the inimitable Richard Griffiths and Frances de la Tour and the hot professor Stephen Campbell Moore (married to The Crown's Claire Foy) and what more do you want?

I recently re-watched the film which is very close to the play. I highly recommend a re-visit.

Odds seem to be very even between the 2 TMO Jesse's winning so just watch them split it and allow Chuck Cooper to take the Tony.

[quote]Who Will Win? Who Will Lose?

You didn't finish it: Who was born to sing the blues?

Who, pray tell, is Tony presenter Utkarsh Ambudkar? And has he/she/they done on the Broadway stage?

[quote]R10 Why isn’t the Beanster presenting? Does she have another wedding to attend?

[quote]R11 she has Covid-19

She could present via a satellite hookup, like Mary Pickford, Olivia DeHavilland etc. used to do at the Oscars?

She is, after all, the new First Lady of the American Theatre.

[QUOTE] I pray that Jesse Tyler Ferguson loses Sunday evening.

I think Jesse Williams will take it. JTF just seems so…thirsty. It’s off-putting and voters have noticed.

The Tony nominators should all be sent out to sea for every nomination for "Paradise Square" and "Skin of our Teeth." They were both dreary and inept.

I can't wait to see what Isabelle Stevenson will be wearing Sunday evening.

Rob McClure could only ever be 50% of Dorothy Loudon.

R18, I just don't want to see a reaction shot of JTF's murdering husband wiping away a tear of joy if he should win.

R21, I see what you did there.

[quote]If Clay departs Company before it closes they should get Evan to replace him.

Clay Akin and Evan Hansen?

r22 You mean JTF's Tony-winning murdering husband

Has this been posted? Like the Phoenix from the ashes, The Palace has risen.

JTF’s husband has extremely aggressive eyebrows.

I believe DL fave Ben Barnes came to prominence replacing Dominic Cooper in The History Boys in London. Anyone see him in the role?

r16, Utkarsh Ambudkar is part of the Freestyle Love Supreme comedy groups, and his sole Broadway credit is as part of their show when it was on Broadway. Probably won't count for some around here, but there it is. The main reason he was probably invited is that he's one of the stars of the CBS sitcom Ghosts, which was a hit this past season, which makes him enough of a network celebrity to get him a presenter invite.

Ghosts is a sitcom?

***group, not groups. Don't know where the s came from. He also has a number of off-Broadway credits, and I didn't realize he was Aaron Burr in the original Vassar reading of Hamilton.

Deadline's picks and predictions

Variety's

The Tony's were so much more exciting when Cubby Bernstein was working the room for votes! Even our Patti got into the act!

Isn't Utkarsh Ambudkar Naomi Campbell's husband?

and, "a terrycloth bathrobe could die of loneliness in this theatre"

I'd forgotten how clever Cubby was...

Have fun Sunday guys!

Not that Naomi Campbell

R31, His name sounds like a skin disease.

Which will receive the longest/loudest ovation on Sunday, the tribute to Sondheim or Angela's honorary Tony?

I hear that some of the Sondheim letters posted on Instagram will somehow be included in the tribute.

Utkarsh was fired from Hamilton for being a big drunk, and not committing to the level required by LMM. It was covered in the the documentary on FreeStyle Love Supreme. There is a great scene with Christopher Jackson just evil eye balling him, with complete and utter contempt.

Dolls! I’m a huge Patti LuPone Queen and I’m a nervous Nellie she isn’t going to win the Tony Sunday.

Interesting. Glad to hear he's sober and doing so much better now.

If the NYT is paywalled

Patti cannot and will not lose. She the last of the great broadway voices.

There are still a few pretty sopranos around.....

In her autobiography, Patti wrote that she was sure she would win for Anything Goes.

R13-The 3 gay members of The History Boys cast all stayed in an apartment on 75th Street on the UWS together. I got cruised regularly while walking the dogs by all 3 back then.

Who was the third gay besides Russell and Samuel

R48-Jamie Parker.

Patti will lose to Jennifer and Sharon will lose to Mare.

Everyone get their paramount+ trial?

Donald Pippin dead at 95.

Among an impressive career, he did the vocal arrangements for Applause, which could not have been easy.

[quote]In her autobiography, Patti wrote that she was sure she would win for Anything Goes.

Well that that didn't go, did it?

It's not an autobiography Dear. It's a memoir. She had a contest to name her book and the winner was "Patti Lupone, A Memoir". I shit you not.

au·to·bi·og·ra·phy

/ˌôdəbīˈäɡrəfē/

noun

an account of a person's life written by that person.

"he gives a vivid description of his childhood in his autobiography"

Similar:

memoirs

life story

account of one's life

personal history.

LuPone was predicted to win for Anything Goes. She was also mostly predicted to win for Sweeney Todd.

This is why I’m nervous

Don Pippin was truly one of the greats. Such a dear, sweet man. So knowledgeable and fiercely protective of any performer (or musician) under his watch. I saw him on a panel a few years ago and while he was in his 90s, he sounded and looked no older than 70. A mensch! RIP.

Any word on casting besides Beth Leavel for Devil Wears Prada?

Shit.....The Devil Wears Prada, Trading Places, Almost Famous, Some Like It Hot.....will it ever stop? And I'm probably leaving a few out.

How do we know Patti didn't actually win for Anything Goes but Bernadette read out her costar and buddy's name instead?

R59 = Patti

Have you heard Bernadette try to sing lately? Or Joanna Gleason.

Patti always wins. Award or not, all our creators shine down on her. Her vocal talent is staggering. And she's a very good actress. Funny as fuck. So weird what some people think on DL.

Joanna Gleason was never known for her vocal powers. Her singing was serviceable as best.

What made her a star was her acting and comedy chops. It made her as the wife indelible and the gold standard.

She should have won featured Actress.

Patti should have won Lead Actress.

Judy Kaye would win her Tony later.

This would have solved everything

Curious why everyone is predicting Take Me Out to win Best Play Revival over How I Learned to Drive.

I'd love the latter to win if for no other reason than to see Paula Vogel rewarded. Richard Greenberg already won for the original production and this revival doesn't really measure up to it. Do people think HILTD is too much a carbon copy of the original to be seriously considered?

PS: I didn't see Trouble In Mind and it might well have been better than both (though based on the director, I doubt it).

[quote]and this revival doesn't really measure up to it

You sure about that, R63?

Jesse, accepting his award: "'Scuse me while I whip this out ..."

They have to give him two trophies.

Though not nominated, I'm surprised the Brodericks are not included among the presenters.

That's gotta be weird shit, r67, especially for SJP who even got pretty stellar reviews for her performance and probably cares about the validation a nomination would have meant. It's really puzzling why she wasn't nominated, as there are 7 men nominated for Best Actor. Can't blame her for not presenting.

Matthew, I would imagine, is in his usual fog and couldn't care less. I think ultimately there was a lot of resentment against the production and the fortune the box office is making.

Besides The Minutes, any other shows likely to close sooner than usual?

[quote] Which will receive the longest/loudest ovation on Sunday

Utkarsh Ambudkar, of course.

[r68] I know it sounds stupid but I really believe the press with Kim Cattrall hurts SJP in the industry. Fans don’t care, but the goodie too shoe routine doesn’t play well with show biz folk.

"goodie too shoe"?

tsk tsk

Say Goodie

Goodie

Say Booby

BewBe.

No, you're not getting it.

[quote]I think ultimately there was a lot of resentment against the production and the fortune the box office is making.

But why would it? Are people THAT petty and jealous?

Shut up, Steve.

Creative Collaboration Makes for Dramatic Changes on Tonys Night — and Beyond:

R74, The current and decidedly inferior revival of The Music Man is grossing $3,500 000 per week.

And in other news....

[quote] A contract worker at a nonprofit New York theater organization has filed a lawsuit saying that the institution’s diversity trainings were themselves discriminatory.

I’m not a fan, but what I like about Patti LuPone is that she gives a completely spontaneous performance 8 times a week. Nearly ever other performer on Broadway is giving carefully rehearsed line readings that don’t change much. Patti just goes on instinct.

I’ll be watching the Tonys on TV while I’m getting my twat eaten

How long ago did you see her r79? I heard from someone recently that the performance has gotten very big and broad, giving Patti vs Joanne (which was my criticism even before the pandemic shutdown, even more than before.

R78, hope the worker wins big.

Patti has been on autopilot for quite some time now.

R81, I saw her (in Company) about a month ago. She seemed subdued (for her), but my point is not the size or quality of the performance. She does each as though it is her first, which sometimes leads to bolder choices and sometimes not. Or at least she has convinced me of that - and I don’t really like her as a performer.

Still, I haven’t seen a better Joanne, but I think the role very hard to pull off now. Honestly, who else but Stritch?

Patti’s role is pretty small. She does a good job with it, but it’s only being talked about because she’s Patti

Yeah, no one EVER talked about Joanne in Company before Patti. R85.

R86, um, not really.

Joanne is a great small role for someone who gets the role, and that would be a very small group of women that no longer currently exist. Sophisticated UES NY women who know who Mahler and Pinter are are long gone. UES is now all mommyfluencers dropping off their rug rats while commiserating with other mommyfluencers about the lack of pull they have on Insta while daddy fucks the intern at his private equity firm currently dipping its toes into crypto.

Point is, Patti is not the person who gets the role. But really, there is no one else. Everyone I’ve seen in the role other than Elaine has pretty much failed miserably.

R87 is apparently ten years old.

[quote] Sophisticated UES NY women who know who Mahler and Pinter are are long gone. UES is now all mommyfluencers dropping off their rug rats while commiserating with other mommyfluencers about the lack of pull they have on Insta while daddy fucks the intern at his private equity firm currently dipping its toes into crypto.

And they wear unflattering-at-their-age Lululemon, not a fuh.

[quote]Sophisticated UES NY women who know who Mahler

Elaine Stritch thought it was a piece of pastry.

Please refer to item 3.

I've liked Patti in some things and I generally liked the new production, but I thought her Joanne was one of her lesser performances. All mannerism and attitude, plus she is costumed and wigged horribly. When it came to "Ladies Who Lunch," she was scooping, yodeling and screlting her way through it. Audience went nuts, but it's not Joanne. I also think Patti is done in by that scene that used to be Joanne asking male Bobby "when are we going to make it?" to her asking female Bobbie "when are you going to make it with my husband?" in the present version, which makes her sound like Larry's pimp.

thanks for that article r91. Had forgotten that Sondheim gives Lapine full credit for the Cinderella agency here:

[quote] Lapine came up with a twist that makes sense: The accident of leaving her slipper behind isn’t an accident at all; Cinderella chooses to leave it there.... She figures that if the Prince really cares to see her again, he’ll follow the clue she has left.” ... If there were no other reason to write this book, the opportunity for me to point out James’s insight would be justification enough.”

Yes, we know R91. Elaine was not UES, and she neither knew nor cared much about that type of woman. The point is, she intrinsically and instinctually knew how to play the role. The women who followed her didn’t, and Patti plays it almost as a parody.

Without giving Patti too much credit, who else has or could succeed in this role? Has she lived, I think Natasha Richardson would have nailed it, even though her aunt did not.

It's definitely tough. She's a little too old now (though younger than LuPone), but I think Christine Ebersole probably could have nailed it. Stritch was certainly an admirer of hers.

The weird costumes - and thus characterizations - are the reason I'll never like this Company. Who are these people and when would they [italic] ever [/italic] hang out together? I wish they'd had the insight and/or courage to portray actual NYC types instead of weird caricatures. All the industry's own pulled-and-stretched UES dilettantes who will be ponying up thousands for their co-producer statues next week could have been models for Joanne. None of them look like LuPone's Joanne.

I'll be pissed it if it wins.

Wendy Federman or Jamie deRoy are Joannes

Anita Waxman is Joanne

Well, for that matter, Daryl Roth is the perfect Joanne for today.

Patti seems to be channeling Jordan Roth. Or is it vice versa?

As a palate cleanser: here's Robert "The Music Man" Preston in the 40s, looking... hot.

Nice find, R101.

r100 did you come up with that all by yourself?

I don't know whether she has the pipes, but surely Baranski has the UES demeanour and the irony to do Joanne well?

Baranski has sung Mame and Mrs. Lovett, I'm sure she could croak her way through Lunch.

She may have “sung” them, but it was not to delight of those with ears.

To the person who was posting about it above, I think How I Learned to Drive is being under-estimated across the board.

I might be the only one still predicting Mary-Louise Parker to win.

And I sat through her horrible rendition of "I'm Still Here." My ears still hurt!

I've gotten more LIKES than you have, r97! :)

[quote] it was not to delight of those with ears.

While Stritchie's was SO pleasant to hear.

R110 wins.

The original run of HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE at the Vineyard was just stellar.

I wanted so much to love the Bway revival, but didn't love the production or Mary Louise Parker's performance. David Morse remains stellar.

The image of Mary-Louise Parker in that tight fitting pink sweater in the original production is burned on my eyes (and dick) forever.

[r113] a straight boy who goes to theatre, stans the star, and then writes about it 25 years later on a gay chat board.

Seems to be so

Patti LuPone is suited to play a fishwife in Canarsie and little else. She’s absolutely miscast as Joanne.

Patti was quite good as Moll in "The Cradle Will Rock" years ago, which is rarely commented on. Most of her co-stars, mainly from Juilliard, seemed to have left the business.

"seem", that is

I would love, just out of morbid curiosity, to see the percentages of Juilliard and Yale Drama grads who are actually working in the business.

Higher? Lower? Or identical to the percent of "general population" actors who are working (or not)?

Julliard and Yale would never want to admit but the bulk of actors that succeed would have succeed anyway. The only thing you get from those schools is prestige in NY theatre circles for equity cards.

Hollywood would give two shits if you go to Julliard

How many more broadway musicals does Patti have in her future? Probably none. If Company is her swan song then it would be nice to see her go out with an Olivier and Tony winning performance.

You get theater teachers to "tear you down so they can mold you" apparently at Juilliard, which was apparently some of their MO for years. You also get special agent showcases in your senior year if you haven't been dismissed from your class before then. Yale Drama might be similar -- though there's also a lot of catfighting and jockeying for roles -- most famously probably between Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep (with lots of other actresses there not mentioned). Music departments like the opera program and competition for roles in their opera productions are also notoriously fierce. But after first agents, if you haven't developed a following, most of the time, besides any connections you've made, you're up against other non-conservatory actors at auditions. But with a big student loan, too, unless you're from a wealthy family.

Out of 16 actors in my YSD class, 6 are currently still acting.

Make of that what you will.

[quote]How long ago did you see her [R79]? I heard from someone recently that the performance has gotten very big and broad, giving Patti vs Joanne (which was my criticism even before the pandemic shutdown, even more than before.

I saw the show again recently and I did not find Patti's performance especially big or broad, although I still feel she's miscast. I think R79's comment is correct, that Patti's performances tend to vary in terms of line readings, broadness or sublety, etc. from one show to the next, so she may well have decided to play the character "bigger" when your friend saw the show, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's playing it that way every night.

[quote] "tear you down so they can mold you"

Funny how the other place you hear about this kind of 'teaching' is the Marine Corps.

Baranski seems like such an obvious and natural Joanne - why hasn’t she done it?

And the ballet. You need talent. THEN they tear you down and remake you. A lot of artists require this. Too bad Gaga went to Tisch instead of Juilliard. She would be a much better performer and musician today.

The problem with Baranski as Joanne is that Joanne needs an underlying rage. In my view, that’s why Stritch and LuPone succeeded where others more appropriately cast did not. I enjoy Baranski, but she is not an emotional performer. I just can’t see her making the end of the song and the following scene work.

R126, yeah, a Juilliard education might have lifted Gaga out of obscurity 🙄

R99 Anita Waxman is not Joanne because Anita Waxman is an idiot. There's not a clever, shrewd, or smart bone in her body. She is merely wealthy.

[quote]Joanne is a great small role for someone who gets the role, and that would be a very small group of women that no longer currently exist. Sophisticated UES NY women who know who Mahler and Pinter are are long gone.

One of the many reasons why the biggest mistake of the current production of COMPANY is the awkward, unsuccessful attempt to credibly update the action to the present day.

I agree that it helps the character if Joanne has a lot of rage in her, and in that respect, LuPone is very well cast even though she very miscast in others. I do think Baranski would be great in the part even if she doesn't have that rage, and anyone who wonders whether she has "the pipes" for "The Ladies Who Lunch" knows nothing about music or singing, because of course she does.

Re-imagined CATS

[quote]Patti was quite good as Moll in "The Cradle Will Rock" years ago, which is rarely commented on. Most of her co-stars, mainly from Juilliard, seemed to have left the business.

Well, it *was* nearly 40 years ago. I saw it many times, r116. LuPone was wonderful. Henry Stram (Martin Moran's partner) and Tom Robbins worked on and off Broadway for many years. Brian Reddy had a healthy film career.

The entire show used to be on youtube, but I can't find it anymore. Here's the opening.

[quote] Out of 16 actors in my YSD class, 6 are currently still acting.

That's really excellent. 6 actors over 80 are still working.

Because we can’t let a day go by without Follies, here is “Losing My Mind”

[quote]R88 Sophisticated UES NY women who know who Mahler and Pinter are are long gone.

So are:

I’m afraid the Tony’s will try to be perverse and give the Tony to the trans actress and snub the shoe-in (Patti)

How I Learned to Drive was just okay. The performances were excellent.

The issue is that times have changed. Pedophilia is discussed all the time now. When the play first came out, I’m sure it was absolutely shocking.

“snub the shoe-in”

Oh, dear.

If there's any justice, Jesse W and JTF will both lose to Michael Oberholtzer, who's walking away with the show.

Baranski could certainly play Joanne. She has brittle hauteur for days, even though she is actually a working-class gal from Buffalo.

Lol it wasn’t r137

R54 Memoirs and autobiographies are similar but not the same thing.

Autobiographies are more formal than memoirs, because they emphasize facts. Autobiographies often tell stories close to or exactly how they happened, which means they often feature straightforward language and chronological narration. Facts are checked/cited to ensure accuracy.

Where autobiographies emphasize facts, memoirs focus on personal experience, intimacy, and emotional truth -- memoir writers often play with their memories and with real life in order to tell a good story. For this reason, memoirs are not bound to formal expectations around chronology or factual accuracy.

Something always seemed off to me about Baranski's hauteur. Then I found out she's a polish catholic from Buffalo. That explained it. She could only plaster it on. As opposed to an upper class catholic from Detroit who might as well be a WASP.

Immersive Guys & Dolls. How exactly will that work?

Adelaide will sneeze on you

You can gamble with Nathan and the Boys

You’re in the boat while it’s rocking

Maybe they rip your clothes off during “Take Back Your Mink”?

The problem with Baranski's Mame was that she's a Vera.

Pat Buckley! Nan Kempner!

Bacall could have done that role.

They'd have had to drop the key two octaves though.

Jan Maxwell could probably have done an interesting Joanne.

R142 do you feel better now ?

The trouble with Baranski as Joanne is that you know exactly how she'd sing "Ladies" without ever hearing her.

What is it with the Brits and "Guys and Dolls"? Every institutional theatre seems to haul it out whenever it needs cash. The National, The Donmar, now The Bridge. Why do the Brits like this so much?

R144 Their version of Midsummers Night Dream was excellent.

As for Patti "giving a completely spontaneous performance 8 times a week," you'd have to have seen her every single time.

Oh yes, in Broadway’s THE HISTORY BOYS, 2006. the hot young actor Dominic Cooper was quite electrifying several times in Act II. Of course the words were there to play, but as the young student Dakin, I never knew if Cooper was going to cross the stage over to the young teacher Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore) to taunt him or grope him or slap him or throw himself on him in a passionate kiss.

Of course as a serious theater-goer all I could do ihroughout Act II was imagine Cooper standing on stage there without his pants on, oh boy, those legs, as he had taken off his pants in Act I in the French brothel scene. White Jockey briefs padded? They say not.

Unmarried then, and still so, Cooper was tight with fellow in-the-play actor James Corden, still is, and introduced Corden to his future wife Julia, a long-time Cooper friend, and is godfather to Max, first of the three Corden children. Today Cooper is steadily working, is almost a staple of English nightly chat shows (Graham Norton, Jonathan Ross, Alan Carr), is totally charming. Not to mention a good-looking 44. They say he is straight, always “in a relationship” with an actress … there have been three or four, says Wiki and we well know Wiki, which you can add to yourself, does not lie.

My wildest dream today: I want to fly over to London and go at Cooper as Dakin did to Irwin, “Actually, forget the euphemism. I’m just kicking the tires on this one but, further to the drink, what I was really wondering was whether there were any circumstances in which there was any chance of your sucking me off. Or something similar.” Send me DL love and prayers I succeed and do not end up like Irwin in a wheelchair

I saw the History Boys on Bway after all the hullabaloo.

I didn’t get the hype

Breathe, r156.

I hope MJ doesn't win a single Tony. I hope it shuts down quick. I hope someone brings Jackson's accusers to the Tonys.

Fuck Broadway, fuck Playbill, fuck the whole community for embracing a pedophile and exhuming it for prophet.

I'm boycotting Broadway until MJ closes.

Why should I care if their 'midsummers' was excellent?

Prophet?

[quote]I hope MJ doesn't win a single Tony. I hope it shuts down quick. I hope someone brings Jackson's accusers to the Tonys.

Both performances are sold out today.

[quote]I'm boycotting Broadway until MJ closes.

You are punishing ALL of Broadway because of the content of one show? Well, ok, then. That'll show them.

Random Thoughts:

Dominic Cooper was so sexually magnetic in THE HISTORY BOYS that I jacked off thinking of him when I got home that night from the theater, and that was a play that was so good that there were other things to focus on besides his sexiness. Russell Tovey was also throwing off major vibes from the stage. The only other time I felt that much sexual energy coming from the stage was from Mark Ruffalo at a long-forgotten James Lapine play at Playwrights Horizons that had a sensational cast. The play wasn't terrible. Just not memorable. But Ruffalo's charisma filled up the space. Intense.

If I were a voter I'd not be voting for Patti for COMPANY. Not that she was bad. She's just miscast. Once that happens there's only so much you can do. I won't be upset if she wins, and she likely will, cause the competition in that category is underwhelming. But I'd vote for Jennifer Simard or Jeanette Bayardelle. And yes, Wendy Federman and Jame deRoy are perfect examples of real-life Joannes, and if Jan Maxwell were still alive, she'd be perfect in the part.

R159, I too think MJ is a colossal embarrassment for Broadway as a whole. I fear it is going to win for choreography, or maybe even lead actor. But I want that shit show to go home trophy-less.

I think A STRANGE LOOP might end up doing incredibly well, just like BAND'S VISIT did. When one show arises with critical acclaim from OB and the purely commercial shows all falter or are problematic (or both), a sweep becomes a real possibility. One of my friends was in BAND'S VISIT and he was stunned by the raves OB and the successive transfer. He and most of the cast thought the show was fine, good. Not revelatory.

What might keep LOOP from dominating tomorrow night is the love for Sondheim. And that's justifiable and understandable.

Do people not remember that Baranski played a cross eyed Polish dullard named Olga - who pushed around the inferior jews in the death camps in Playing For Time? She was very convincing as a cross eyed dullard. She's always been homely and basic as fuck. The rest of her career is all drag gestures and 'attitude.'

No matter how one might feel about either show, how bizarre is it that one of the top contenders this year is a musical about Michael Jackson and its chief competitor is a musical written by a guy named Michael R. Jackson. You can't make this stuff up.

The problem with Company isn't the material itself but the theater companies who insist on doing it as a contemporary piece.

It's a show firmly set in its time frame of 1970. It doesn't really work well outside of that time.

Idiot directors insist on making "present day" shows reflect NOW instead of the time when the show was created and first produced need to be punished.

A Chorus Line, Company, Follies...you can't just plunk them into 2022.

Same thing thing with Hedwig. It's all timed to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

And, Rocky Horror. It really needs to be early mid 70s.

[quote] It really needs to be early mid 70s.

So do I.

[quote]I saw the History Boys on Bway after all the hullabaloo.

[quote]I didn’t get the hype

I saw the How I Learned to Drive on Bway after all the hullabaloo.

I didn’t get the hype

How I Learned to Drive sounds like such a pretentious title.

[quote] xIf I were a voter I'd not be voting for Patti for COMPANY. Not that she was bad. She's just miscast. Once that happens there's only so much you can do. I won't be upset if she wins, and she likely will, cause the competition in that category is underwhelming. But I'd vote for Jennifer Simard or Jeanette Bayardelle.

I'm a voter - and voted for Simard. And was caught between Simard and Bayardelle. Fully expect Patti to win though.

How I Learned to Drive is an example of a show you only need to see once. It has a lot of dramatic power the first time you see it but subsequent viewings...not so much.

For me, the second time I saw it (5 or 6 years after my first production) it just felt icky. The gross family dynamic is just more apparent....and gross. Didn't need to spend any more time with this creepy family.

I've never understood the appeal of Christine Baranski in anything.

I don't like when gay males are allowed to play real men parts. Or Audra McDonald playing blonde girls in Carousel. Or anything to do with Cher. Not on my Broadway.

If Patti doesn't win I think it'll be highly unlikely that Simard will win as I imagine they'd be splitting a fair share of votes. Thus, I wouldn't be surprised if the trans person then takes home the Tony.

Didn't make the deadline for thread 473, so here are my belated responses:

Nothing is more illuminating about contemporary Broadway than this quote in the New York Times: "He was the natural choice to write the book . There was just one problem. He didn't know anything about musicals. 'I called my agent...and said, Now what the (expletive) do I do? I don't know how to do this." ..."You'll learn.";

Hey, you musical theatre writers with expertise, experience, craft and taste? Fuhgeddaboudit.

And on another front, a review in which a new musical score is described as having the disposability of 1980s television jingle…and th-a-a-a-t is the state of the a-a-a-a-a-a-rt!

Sorry NYTimes, no self-respecting theatre professional of any talent will sacrifice quality for being “nice.” You know what director John Ford said about “nice” people? “No point of view.”

Petra is no Sage of the Scandinavian Isles—why should she, of all people, be exempt from being a fool in ALNM just like everyone else (there are only 3 categories of folly)? There’s a scene in Smiles of a Summer Night where the cook chastises Petra for throwing herself at Henrik. Why does she do so? Because if she got pregnant by him, she’d be set up for life. So her aspirations are as foolhardy as the romantic illusions of all the other characters, pacem SS.

"I saw the History Boys on Bway after all the hullabaloo. I didn’t get the hype"

Come sit next to me. Great cast (for the most part), and it had its moments, but overall, the drama stretched credibility from start to finish. Griffiths on a motorcycle? Give me a break. Two gay plots? Yeah, right, whatever.

All The Jazz

And Richard Griffiths was driving that damn motorcycle with just one hand cause you know where his other hand was?!

Can you imagine the millions of DL posts enraged queens will write if Patti doesn't win?

Patti has made A LOT of enemies over the years (including a few backstage at Company). Just sayin'...................

I've rarely disliked Patti LuPone more than in the recent COMPANY, in which she projected nothing more than fag hag 'tude and could not have been less convincing as a moneyed matron. "Ladies Who Lunch" was a 1-note bray.

I bet that she's a shoo-in for the Tony and am already dreading her self-adoring speech.

Patti will not win. You read it here first,

Dominic Cooper Accidentally Exposes Himself - The Graham Norton Show....

Who are Patti’s enemies backstage at Company?

Everybody rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise! Rise!

How to Watch The 75th Annual Tony Awards This Sunday On TV, Streaming & On Demand:

If the hag fits, R180. You're sure the old white fag .

I like Patti, but I agree that she's not a natural Joanne. Baranski does seem more of a natural fit, but she's so busy with her TV show that I doubt it would have even been discussed.

Jan Maxwell really would have probably knocked it out of the park. Loved her Phyllis...minus the dancing. And just thinking of Natasha Richardson doing it gives me chills. She'd have been a great choice if she were still with us as well.

I could see Cate Blanchett pulling if off. Don't know if she can sing a note, but she probably has the sophistication and the anger required.

I think it’s interesting Patti wasn’t at Jennifer Simard’s caricature unveiling with the rest of the cast this week.

She also wasn’t at the Tony rehearsal.

I’m guessing things have already turned south backstage

Love the Patti talent, but she has roots, no matter the costume, she always comes across as a Long Island waitress.

There's no way A STRANGE LOOP is going to have the run BAND's VISIT had. No one is talking about how many people really don't like the show, and for now, its preaching to the converted. Even with a Tony win, it will be fortunate to make it to January. The explicit sex, the constant "N" word, and the navel gazing nature of the show makes it a no-go for any sort of non-theatre person.

I’m a devoted theater person, and I hated A Strange Loop. For me, it was as bad as Footloose, Metro and no doubt some other awful shows I’ve blocked from my memory.

If Patti isn’t going to win, who is?

Is The NYTimes writing woke articles on how outrageous and unacceptable this MJ musical is? Or is the Times being hyper hypocritical again? And considering how woke Broadway is why aren't there mass demonstrations and marches by the Broadway community demanding this production be shut down?

Honestly I haven't seen it but maybe it does deal in a forthright and unflinching way about him using his fortune to buy off parents to pimp out their children to be used for his deeply disturbed sexual fantasies and gratification.

[r192] there seems to be buzz with the trans lady.

[quote]She also wasn’t at the Tony rehearsal

Thought Tony rehearsal was the morning of. Saw "RENT" at the Matinee Tony Day and a couple of hours before a bus pulled up and the cast all came out in full costume, went to rehearsal, came back, did the matinee and off to the award show where they won. Maybe she missed the tech to avoid Covid chances.

They had a rehearsal a few days ago. Looks like they're doing the opening scene again (which makes sense, since everyone's in it).

I just saw Dominic Cooper on - who’s that Brit chat show guy? Miriam margolyes was also a guest and they verified that Miriam had seen Dominic’s penis. Per Myriam, it’s huge.

Lin-Manuel Miranda Promises “A Doozy Of An Opening Number” By Tony Awards Host And ‘Hamilton’ Alum Ariana DeBose:

Oh, I forgot that cipher was hosting. Zzzzzzzz.

This Dutch cunt (see thread on Dutch Can Be Cunty) Lone Roosendal would make a great Joanne AND a great Carlotta. The clip is from a soap she was on. She’s starred in Mamma Mia! in the Netherlands and Germany.

[quote]They had a rehearsal a few days ago. Looks like they're doing the opening scene again (which makes sense, since everyone's in it).

Well apparently maybe not Lupone.

Is Affoomabashkari Jackson presenting at the Tony’s?

Besides Patti, are there any other cunts/jagoffs in the Company cast?

No just fags and trannies.

Judith Light was a great Joanne in the LA Reprise version of company.

Umm, no she was NOT. People called her Judy One Note behind her back.

Despite the age jokes, CZJ could make a decent Joanne.

[quote]What might keep LOOP from dominating tomorrow night is the love for Sondheim. And that's justifiable and understandable.

Can you explain? In how many categories are both LOOP and COMPANY nominated?

[quote]I don't like when gay males are allowed to play real men parts. Or Audra McDonald playing blonde girls in Carousel. Or anything to do with Cher. Not on my Broadway.

It sounds like Broadway really isn't for you, then, Mr. Macho.

r205

who else was in that cast? Any vids?

r210

Based on r142's underrated post, Harvey Fierstein's book is most certainly a memoir, not an autobiography.

Sieber looked really good back then. This was around the time he was on It's All Relative, where I don't remember him looking this good.

R210, of that cast, only Jean Louisa Kelly as Amy and Amy Pietz as April were any good (and they were both marvelous). The worst member of the cast was Deborah Gibson, who absolutely butchered Another Hundred People, but Light was horrendous and Chris Sieber made absolutely no impression whatsoever. Also Cady Huffman was pretty terrible. I remember no one else's performances.

I'm rewatching the 1995 Donmar Warehouse production of Company. It's quite good - using the full script and directed as a much darker version of the story. It's set in 1995, and the update seems to work, including Bobby doing coke before going into a hyper Side by Side by Side. And Sheila Gish as Joanne is quite good as well. Overall, these are actors, not singers, and the focus is the book, not the music. That actually makes the music really stand out, because the story foundation on which the music is based is so solid. My only criticism is that the American accents are all over the place.

It's worth a look just to see big ol' Clive Rowe as Harry being tossed around the stage during the karate scene.

[quote]Sorry NYTimes, no self-respecting theatre professional of any talent will sacrifice quality for being “nice.” You know what director John Ford said about “nice” people? “No point of view.”

Spoken like someone who's never had a chair thrown at them at rehearsal.

I spent five years in NY theatre on the receiving end of too many stone-cold psychopaths to count. That article spoke to me deeply. I suspect it speaks to others.

The theatre world put up with psychotic behavior for far too many years. They don't have the luxury to accept that behavior anymore.

Any Tony leaks as far as rundown? Will the bulk of awards be presented on Paramount?

[quote]I'm rewatching the 1995 Donmar Warehouse production of Company. It's quite good - using the full script and directed as a much darker version of the story. It's set in 1995, and the update seems to work, including Bobby doing coke before going into a hyper Side by Side by Side.

No, COMPANY absolutely does not work when set in any time period except circa 1970. P.S., cocaine was around for a long time before 1995, and I seem to remember it being very popular in the mid '70s.

COMPANY was out of date even in 1970. No one in NYC then was concerned about a 35 year old man being unmarried.

The show really makes sense only when set in the early 60s when most of the sketches were originally written by George Furth, or even earlier. I'd love to see a production set in 1958-59.

r218 has no idea how opinions work

I think that’s too early. I think 1966-1967 would have been OK.

[quote]Patti has made A LOT of enemies over the years (including a few backstage at Company)

Well come on then, spill. Or is this another post like the one claiming *insert name here* is a tyrant backstage but never follows up with any details?

No, what R218 thinks, GOES! There is NO wiggle room. One must never disagree with R218.

r198 Apparently Darren Criss has written the opening number for the preshow. Nope, that's not a joke.

I hated A Strange Loop, too. And the trans person was utterly mediocre.

Most trans are.

Is heat Evan Todd and Patti LuPone had a dust up

Patti is in her 70s, plays 8 shows a week and has very little to do in the opening number. She can skip the Tony rehearsal.

I’d like to see Company set in the 1940s. Then the girls are just being quite honest.

[quote]The worst member of the cast was Deborah Gibson, who absolutely butchered Another Hundred People

For those who don't speak Sondhemite, it means she didn't sound exactly as the original cast album version. Which of course, is unforgivable

And considered to be as much of a crime as the literal mass murder of 100 people, R230.

Deborah Gibson: almost as bad as Hitler and Pol Pot.

Six months from now nobody will remember what won best musical.

I see what you did there.

People don’t know or care what’s up for best musical right now.

Is TONY LEAKS related. to NELE LEAKS?

Mr. Saturday Night!

Of all the Joannes-who-never-were, I nominate Joanna Gleason. Perfect choice I think. Even her multiple face lifts wouldn't be a deterrent for the character.

Sheila Gish in that Donmar production is also on the list of successful angry Joannes

According to my crew friend Jane Lynch is on set of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel tomorrow which would explain why she won’t be at the Tonys tonight.

R222, Patti’s behavior has been well documented.

During one performance of Evita, she came offstage and started screaming at the stage manager because she was hot and there were no fans she could stand in front of. She was so loud, the conductor heard her and after the show went out and bought a fan.

She hid in the theater during Les Miserables rehearsals because she didn’t want any extra work after Fantine died.

She was notorious for not wearing her tap shoes during Anything Goes. During the Tony performance, as she moved back to let the dancers take over, you can clearly hear her say, “Oh, God!” She blamed that on the sound guy not turning off her microphone fast enough.

During Noises Off, she made a big stink about not making an after show appeal from the stage for collecting for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (her point was that audiences had already paid a lot for the ticket and it was embarrassing to openly beg). The cast voted to make the appeal. It was agreed that one cast member would remain onstage after the curtain call to make the appeal. When it came time to make the appeal only Patti left the stage, the others stayed onstage. Patti started screaming at the stage manager and it could be heard by the audience.

Do you need more examples because there are plenty more.

I don't understand how that explains Lynch's absence but, whatever, Jane.

I wonder, are there any non-nominated BIG names who appeared on Broadway this season who WILL be at the Tonys tonight? Apparently, Jane, SJP, Matthew Broderick, Deb Messing, Beanie......am I forgetting anyone else? will not be appearing tonight. Will Ramin be there?

[quote]R218 has no idea how opinions work

Umm, yes I do. It's my opinion that COMPANY absolutely does not work when the action is set in any time frame other than circa 1970, but I don't think someone needs to state "in my opinion" every time they express an opinion. Do you ?

[quote]COMPANY was out of date even in 1970. No one in NYC then was concerned about a 35 year old man being unmarried.

I disagree. Yes, there was tremendous social change beginning in the mid to late '60s, but of course, that doesn't mean everyone's attitudes changed overnight.

Who is designing Billy Porter's and Jordan Roth's gowns?

[quote]Do you need more examples because there are plenty more.

Yes, I do, those from Company which is what r179 was talking about

[quote]She hid in the theater during Les Miserables rehearsals because she didn’t want any extra work after Fantine died.

And every Fantine since then has benefited and should be grateful to her for that.

r240

I would love to hear more

[quote]What [R218] thinks, GOES! There is NO wiggle room. One must never disagree with [R218].

No, the issue is that you can't stand it when someone disagrees with you. And, apparently, you hypocritically insist that any expression of another person's opinion must be prefaced by the phrase "in my opinion," even though I'm sure you don't follow that rule yourself.

r242 Stating it like your opinion is fact and telling people "no" when they express a different view just makes you sound like an asshole.

The concern was not that Bobby was a 35 year old man who was unmarried. The concern was that a 35 year old unmarried man was *g*a*y*. The gay concern fits any time period.

An unmarried woman was just thought of as being too unlucky or too ugly. And young women would often marry older men to avoid the shame of being a spinster.

An unmarried man was almost definitely gay.

[quote]Stating it like your opinion is fact and telling people "no" when they express a different view just makes you sound like an asshole.

Many people do that frequently, and I'm sure you're included. OF COURSE it's my opinion, not "fact," that updating the action of COMPANY doesn't work, which is why I didn't feel it necessary to use the phrase "in my opinion." Whatever, I apologize if I offended.

I couldn't believe Dean Jones was unmarried in "Company" since he was already married to Suzanne Pleshette in "The Ugly Dachshund". They were such a cute couple, too!

Why would Beanie be at the Tonys? She can't even attend the show in which she's the star.

Dean Jones was married to Sandy Duncan in The Million Dollar Duck.

R245, I love Patti but given that Fantine only has about twenty minutes of stage time early in the show and that all the other leads were assigned ensemble tracks except for Jean Valjean (who is onstage most of the show) and Javert (who’s has much less stage time but shows up every twenty minutes or so), she was being an asshole - especially in light of the fact that she was working with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

What’s hysterical about all of the Patti diva behavior anecdotes is that I agree with Patti in all of them. The Noises Off one being the worst. It made her look like an asshole that she left the stage, thinking everyone else would leave also, and then no one left.

I don’t think it was the stage managers fault though. That’s where she gets her bad rep. It was her shitty co-stars fault.

I'm not r214, but for r230, it looks like even the contemporary notices for Gibson were mixed (at best):

"The only weak link in the cast is Deborah Gibson. "Another Hundred People" may be the best song ever written about isolation and alienation in modern society, but Gibson sings it with a detached air; because she steps away from the meaning of the lyrics, her ensuing scene with Bobby loses many of its layers."

"Other performers could be special, but are hindered by awkward staging or musical direction. Nobody can deny Deborah Gibson's powerful delivery of "Another Hundred People," but the number is staged with Gibson standing on a balcony while another actor sits in half-light below her, stealing a good deal of the attention that should be totally on her. "

Although the LA Times was positive: "The show’s other bravura moment is its antic ode to big-city transience, “Another Hundred People,” which Deborah Gibson lends a commandingly brassy sound."

[Quote] I don't think someone needs to state "in my opinion" every time they express an opinion. Do you ?

Nope. There’s also: I think. IMHO. Maybe. I believe. I don’t feel that way. I disagree. Not to me. I doubt. For me. I don’t think so. Do you really think that? I’ve never seen.

Is Deborah Gibson a Sally or a Phyllis?

R116, what are you talking about? The production was in 1983.

That cast of Cradle seems mostly to be people who continued to work.

Randle Mell, Mary Luou Rosato, James Harper, Henry Stram, Casey Biggs, Brian Reddy, Gerald Guitierz, Laura Hicks, and Charles Shaw-Robinson all have credits up to the 21st centruy. I got tired of looking after that.

But that is more than half the cast working decades later.

Really, R241? Are you in this business? Lynch will have completed a full week of FG performances today. Tomorrow’s a Monday so it will probably be a 7 am crew call on Maisel so she’ll have to be in hair and make-up at around 6:30 am. It’s an Amy Palladino show so she’ll have tons of dialogue. And she’s using her day off from FG to do this show. Get a clue.

Actually, r262, I work in makeup and hair on Broadway and in film & tv and think Jane Lynch should be seen at the Tonys for her own good, representing FG and her presence in the show and working on Broadway.

She doesn't need to sit through it all, just make an appearance and be photographed pre-show. You know, be a pro. She can always sleep tomorrow night.

Jane Lynch should have been asked to host The Tony Awards.

Only on datalounge the morning of the Tony awards would the chatter be about Debbie Gibson singing Another Hundred People from the early aughts, and whether or not Jane Lynch (who’s NOT nominated) has time to fly from NY to LA in a day.

Patti is playing Patti. She doesn't deserve the Tony for that.

Maisel films in NYC. I have a good friend in the supporting cast. I'll get a Lynch update if they're on set together

Okay, once and for all -- does Hugh get the Tony tonight or not?

NO.

I predict this will be a wacky Tony show tonight, unlike others. Whether it will be wacky in a good way or a bad way....I'm not sure. But it's gonna be different.

Personally, I'd like a "zany" Tony show. Look! There's Patti LuPone on a unicycle!

Who will get slapped?

Jennifer Simard if she get’s out of pocket…

The Tonys were wacky several years ago when Patti LuPone appeared pushing a lawn mower.

The Tonys first became wacky when Joanna Gleason STOLE my Tony in a Tin Man from Wizard of Oz dress.

This year, there are far fewer voters than usual. It was very difficult for the voters to get to everything with various shutdowns and cast absences. I think it could upend conventional wisdom and assumed locks in a few categories.

R241, give me a fucking break. Lynch isn’t a young person. Her energy requirements are different. Tomorrow on the Maisel set she’ll no doubt have a shit ton to do. By skipping the Tonys she’s honoring her committments to both FG and Maisel.

[quote][R241], give me a fucking break. Lynch isn’t a young person. Her energy requirements are different. Tomorrow on the Maisel set she’ll no doubt have a shit ton to do. By skipping the Tonys she’s honoring her committments to both FG and Maisel.

Well-said, r277. Skipping the TONYS in order to be fully prepared and rested for a day of filming something that arguably exist in perpetuity is a no-brainer for a performer of any age.

"filming something that *will* arguably exist in perpetuity"

R263-Anyone in make-up and hair has no idea how draining doing 8 shows a week and then shooting on your day off, is.

After all, you're in make-up and hair.

So do we think Beanie really has covid or is it just a useful way to get a week off and avoid being embarrassed by having to go to the Tonys?

Good Grief! If Stritch had not done the original Joanne, nor recorded it, would we all be carrying on so about Jane Russel?

^No, Jane was a terrible Joanne. Blaine was better.

Maya Philips from the Times just said 'soundtrack' on NPR. CUNT. Heathen.

Dominic Copper for Joanne!

Everybody rise!

Maya also just said she never watched the Tonys until she had this job.

She cannot seem to say anything beyond "amazing," "dated," "incredible." Her only criteria for anything is whether it's current. Billy Crystal is dated but Shoshana Bean is amazing. Really lame.

Why am I not surprised she's black. 🤷‍♀️

Correction: June 8, 2022 An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Karen Olivo. Olivo uses the pronoun they, not she

So does that make them the Karen Olivos or the Karens Olivo?

Is Mary Lou Rostato related to mary Lou Rettan? Or Mary Lou Rizzitos?

Patti Patti, Patti …. Remember, Katrina is supposed to be the lead!

Is Beanis out of FuGi with Covids for good?

[quote] Patti Patti, Patti …. Remember, Katrina is supposed to be the lead!

Yeah, but she ain't nominated, doll. I AM!

Dominic in Mamma Mia

I have seen the Cooper penis at age 42. In a very non-gay situation, a very normal situation, showers on a tv shoot, and it is not huge. Again, NOT HUGE. It is nicely shaped, long enough to swing in a shower, shrivel up in a tub, is cut, and would stiffen up nicely into a good boner, but many here have had many better. What I liked best about looking at him was all angles about him still look firm and trim.

Dom's ass in Devil's Double

Speaking of Mary Lou Rosato, Patti and she engaged in quite a cat fight when they were in the their first year of touring in The Acting Company, just post their Juilliard graduation.

Women were still wearing hats in the 60s though it died out by the end of the decade so making the show earlier than '70 makes no sense and neither does making it later than '72. It is about the most time specific musical there is. You've got two years. Possibly three but that's stretching it. And yes people were concerned about a man not getting married if he was getting into his 30s. What is he a homosexual? No he's always going out with women. So what is wrong with him?

Jane Lynch for Joanne. Then you can put the "when are we gonna make it?" line back in.

[quote]So do we think Beanie really has covid or is it just a useful way to get a week off and avoid being embarrassed by having to go to the Tonys?

It's an interesting theory, but of course, she wouldn't HAVE to go to the Tonys even if she didn't have COVID. Because she wasn't nominated.

[quote]It is about the most time specific musical there is

FOLLIES is even more time specific, r299.

I like Jane a lot. But let’s face it: she has a lane, and it’s not that wide.

[quote] I have seen the Cooper penis at age 42. In a very non-gay situation, a very normal situation, showers on a tv shoot, and it is not huge. Again, NOT HUGE. It is nicely shaped, long enough to swing in a shower, shrivel up in a tub, is cut, and would stiffen up nicely into a good boner, but many here have had many better. What I liked best about looking at him was all angles about him still look firm and trim.

What TV show? Surprised he'd be cut being British and all. Stuffing the spandex in "Mamma Mia!"

[quote]Speaking of Mary Lou Rosato, Patti and she engaged in quite a cat fight when they were in the their first year of touring in The Acting Company, just post their Juilliard graduation.

I loved Mary Lou Rosato. Tom Robbins, and Gerald Gutierrez in Cradle Will Rock, r298. Wish I could find the 1983 PBS recording referred to upthread.

Instead, here's Patti again.

Question of the day: will there be an extended sobfest for Sondheim? CBS or Pay-to-See?

Will Angela Lansbury be presented her lifetime achievement award during a commercial break? And will she be there to accept it? The one time I was in the audience for the Tony Awards, the lifetime achievement award went to Tommy Tune during a commercial, along with the other "lesser" awards. I thought that was pretty insulting.

Maria Seldes was given her award during the pre-broadcast.

[quote] I predict this will be a wacky Tony show tonight, unlike others. Whether it will be wacky in a good way or a bad way....I'm not sure. But it's gonna be different.

One thing you can be assured of : Woke Broadway will make sure the awards are also woke. And tomorrow, the publicists will be praising Broadway for honoring "diversity."

r301 If she didn't have the covid excuse and didn't attend I think there would be some considerable side-eyeing going on. And with CBS's love of celebrity - no matter how inexplicable - you know they would've wanted her to present or something.

R302 You may be right but I'd say Follies could take place from the late 60s to mid 70s. But it's been a long time since I've seen it so I'm speaking of its atmosphere.

No show is more time specific than 1776.

[quote] No show is more time specific than 1776.

Agree to disagree.

You can't really do Dreamgirls outside of 1964-81, can you? Or do I not want to know?

R312, Titanic?

It's equal, R315. Not "more than."

You can’t modernize Evita. It’s very specific time period.

Kimberly Guilfoyle begs to differ, R317.

R312, New Faces of 1952 . . . Gotcha!

[quote]It's equal, R315. Not "more than."

"1776" and "Titanic" have the same book writer, Peter Stone.

How about “1491?”

[quote]R312, New Faces of 1952 . . . Gotcha!

Except that "New Faces of 1952" was given a movie version that was released in 1954 and called simply "New Faces."

For those here in the New York area and who have NY1, I was just scanning the guide and they will start their Tonys red-carpet coverage at 5:30.

R320, Not to mention Woman of the Year, my second Tony winning triumph.

In 2022 could you stage a revival of Evita on Broadway? Not woke enough?

R322, And your point is???

R325, only if you cast Alex Newell or Billy Porter as your Evita could it be woke.

He is not getting married today but he might get a Tony.

Bean Feldstein IS Matinee Evita, IS NOT Evening Fanny!

Oh, like anyone's going to ever let her near a theater again ...

That interview with Matt Doyle was really great. I’m rooting for him to win now.

Count me as another who was sitting in a puddle of my own cum watching Dominic Cooper onstage during The History Boys during its Broadway run. I'm not sure he ever lived up to that promise though he did do a Phedre with Helen Mirren that the National Theatre streamed in which he was almost as sexy.

Somebody needs to start a family with Matt Doyle, like, right now. He already looks like a total DILF.

Cinderella closed in the West End today - ALW wasn't there, and instead sent a letter to be read out. Probably a good decision given his name was booed by the audience several times, and you can see from the faces on the cast they don't disagree. From 7 mins at the linked video

Oh and to add, in the letter he says that in retrospect the decision to open so soon after covid was a "costly mistake" which everyone is now trying to twist into some kind of insult aimed at the cast, which seems quite a reach

Sad we won’t see LL Cool J and Carol Channing together tonight

Sad that we won't see an opening in which the camera immediately cuts to a reflective Bonnie Franklin sitting in the audience, who, while striking a "thinking" pose that's the very essence of "indicating," tells us, in voice-over, how she felt when she was nominated for a Tony.

r334 thanks for sharing that. Pretty amazing to hear the response to ALW's name. As well as to see that hot-bodied a West End cast of men - even if it is in a phenomenally ugly- (if homoerotic- ) looking show. The women all look like Disney cartoons and the men all look like After Dark hustlers.

There has been a lot of talk about Christine Baranski not being right and lacking the anger for Joanne. Does anyone watch The Good Wife? There are several episodes where Rita Wilson plays her old law school frenemie / nemesis. Rita Wilson could be an interesting Joanne.

Patti was a cunt to several people, including Faith Prince, during that Noises Off.

What did Patti do to Faith Prince?

BOO!

[r341] I will say that if Patti doesn’t win tonight, the Tony voters are vengeful people. She’s 73, performing in a musical during a pandemic that exposes her to a potentially fatal illness. Yes she’s vaccinated, but at what point does repeated infection do to a woman in her 70s?

But she does it and she does it well.

People above said she shouldn’t win because she is playing herself? Isn’t that what people are paying money for? I know I paid money to watch Patti LuPone sing Sondheim in one of his best shows.

This is likely her last Broadway outing. This is her last chance to be honored, and Broadway is mean enough to deny her her one last prize.

R343, Amen!!!

I really don't know why people are saying COMPANY will be Patti's last Broadway show. Though 73, she's at the height of her powers and is apparently enjoying the hell out of all her recent acclaim. I hear she's a terror backstage to the wardrobe and stage management crew (nothing new here, dolls!) but perhaps she's worth it.

If for no other reason Jane Lynch needs to make an appearance at the Tonys tonight to remind America what an old-fashioned cis-gender Lesbian looks like. Just about everything else will be on display.

But doesn't Patti keep saying she won't do another musical—until the next offer comes along.

I think I remember her saying around the time of War Paint that that would be her last musical - but I also think since then she got a hip replacement or something which may have reinvigorated her. I’d be thrilled if she does another big Patti starring role in a musical after Company. If not, she seems in great shape at 73 and I think she could definitely still do drama or television if not a starring role in a musical.

[quote]R343 if Patti doesn’t win tonight, the Tony voters are vengeful people. She’s 73

I want her to walk up there anyway if her name isn’t called, take the award, and exit with it.

(fingers crossed)

R345. it is because a few years back Patti said War Paint would be her last musical. She said that it was too much to do at her age.

Of course, then Company came along. I guess the justification was that it was a smaller part.

Any one watching The Tony Red Carpet? Where is this at Radio City Music Hall? Where are those stairs?

I guess there’s no need for a lighthouse keeper at the Tonys tonight.

DLers believe that Patti is entitled to the Tony just because she's old and does Sondheim. She can bellow and take any subtlety out of any song, so I guess that's what they want.

Is Patti going to be sitting maskless in the audience? Will someone yell expletives at her from the stage until she puts her mask on?

I doubt anyone in the audience will have a mask on since they’ll be tested before they enter the theatre.

Is Angela Lansbury going to be televised?

r351 It's just a thing they built

Tony thread here BTW

See you all after the show!

I stopped watching this agenda-driven farrago years ago. So much for "excellence in the theatre."

r342, the night after the flop TENDERLOIN opened, George Abbott called his team together and said, "I thought I had an idea. I was wrong." Were that there were more like Abbott and Lloyd Webber who were/are honest enough to tell the truth.

"Who will get slapped?" Oh, you made me snort vodka out of my nose, r272! I could think of a few I'd like to slap, fer sure!

I will be watching (from afar) ...

And now, the Gay Super Bowl.

I thought that was The Oscars. This is the Gay Rose Bowl.

What flavor pie did Beanie eat during the first part of the TONYs? I’m guessing pussy pie

This is the gay oscars

I love DuBose but the opening sucked. I couldn’t understand a word she sang.

LuPone was so lazy she didn’t even attempt an accent in Evita.

So, Mr. Saturday Night posts a closing notice, right?

What was weirder?

The guy who won Best Actor from MJ that waxed on and on about “strong black men who are absent fathers” ?

Lea Michele becoming trans racial from white woman to POC?

Bernadette Peters choosing to sing her well known song in a new key she hadn’t rehearsed or heard prior to the evening?

Billy Porter wearing a wig from the Joy Reid collection singing MyFair Lady as a song for the dead?

It was also plenty weird that Harold Hill and Marian Paroo had an entire number where they tap dance together What the actual fuck? Has Jerry Zaks lost his mind?

[quote]Were that there were more like Abbott and Lloyd Webber who were/are honest enough to tell the truth.

I can't believe you mentioned those two in the same sentence. ALW is a weasel. By the way, it's "Would that...," not "were that....."

[quote]Lea Michele becoming trans racial from white woman to POC?

Yeah, what was up with that? Makeup and/or a really dark tan?

I think Patti left the ceremony after she won. There’s no press photos of her with the Tony and after the company performance neither she nor her husband were back in their seats which was really fucking odd because I prepared a number to honor Steve and everything.

Don’t post the same shit on two threads bitch

When is Nene Leaked taking over as Joanne in Company?

[quote]r Yeah, what was up with that? Makeup and/or a really dark tan?

Lea Michele looked brackish.

Congrats to the Ferguson and Doyle stans who've been defending them so fiercely in the threads for the past few months. I said in the first Tony thread (sorry r374) that those wins will go down with Tveit's for me as examples of mediocrity being rewarded, but it is nice for some of you that your boy(s) won.

So Patti won! Take that, DL haters. If Patti was such a horrid person and so bad to work with the company of COMPANY would have voted for anyone else. If haters of her book were Tony voters, they’d have turned away from her. The win tells me, not a Patti fan, that her win was entirely justified. And then …… what nailed her win for me was when the COMPANY company did their opening ensemble number. Patti on board as she does nightly, no pulling of focus, no look at me a Tony winner, head snaps and hand gestures and movement meshing with the others, no standing out as a Star Performer. Just another ensemble character in the show, blending in and on target . No diva work here! Seeing het work so up close, so beautifully done, won me over. Yea Patti, good win!

Patti's Tony was a farewell gesture by the Academy, R 378, as she rides into the musical sunset, sounding the same on everything she sings a la Merman.

Here to the lady who lunch, chile

Oooh girl look at her munch, chile

It was nice to hear Patti thanking her dressers by name as well as the front of house staff and COVID safety monitors.

It’s amusing to think of the Patti haters discomfort at this win. Don’t know the woman but God she certainly triggers them. More power to her!

So Patti has three Oscars now?

Why were any stage managers that were introduced referred to with their first names only?

“Here is CHRIS, the stage manager!”

We accept your congratulations, R377. A fringe benefit of Ferguson and Doyle winning Tonys was imagining your head exploding when the announcements were made and the acceptance speeches were given. You can start cleaning up the mess now :-)

So many Oscars!

Ariana won her Oscar in a rather weak year for the category. Ruth Negga should have won but she wasn’t even nominated.

At least r383!

Does the Academy give out Oscars for theater now? I know they do with music and television. They just got done with movies. They'll be announcing the TV nominations soon. Next month, I think.

Any word yet on last night's ratings?

Gurl, the awful Tony ratings are not going to save Broadway. Anyone who thinks that people other than the most hardcore theaterophiles sat through all of that mess are delusional. We’re one to two years away from the Tonys being taken off air entirely and sent to Facebook live.

Nonsense. At worst they'll be relegated to Paramount +. Streamers need content.

[quote] No, the issue is that you can't stand it when someone disagrees with you. And, apparently, you hypocritically insist that any expression of another person's opinion must be prefaced by the phrase "in my opinion," even though I'm sure you don't follow that rule yourself.

You're arguing with two different people. Maybe the problem is you.

....and once again, Darth Grabinsky has produced a musical that won an important Tony. Congrats Joaquina on an amazing performance and win! Garth has extended his claim of Tony love on every musical of his that reached Broadway.

[quote]R378 Seeing het work so up close, so beautifully done, won me over.

Heterosexuals can look perfectly nice. Don’t be deceived!

The truth is Broadway isn't really back, yet. Those shows highlighted last night all look like low budget temp shows just holding the theaters open until real quality is ready. I have been seeing Broadway shows since I was a kid and this is the longest I have gone without seeing a show. Nothing I saw last night makes me want to return.

I hate to tell you, R396, but I don't think it's going to get much better.

Yeah it will, I lived thru the 70's in NYC where they were always predicting the end.

and r398 you're still here.

[quote]I think Patti left the ceremony after she won. There’s no press photos of her with the Tony and after the company performance neither she nor her husband were back in their seats

That’s because she had to go backstage and get into her costume and wig for the number.

God those admins at the Broadway Remembered are so easily triggered. Any post regarding Ariana DeBose, Billy Porter, or Beanie Feldstein that isn’t OVERFLOWING with praise they simply delete or disable commenting.

Seeing Patti get her award and then do the number made me question why she doesn't just use her own hair in the show. So much more human. I could see that woman being a friend, albeit older, of Katrina's Bobbie. WIth the wig, she looks so weird.

R401, is it more than one martinet asshole who administers the group, or only one? They blocked me from the group long ago, so I can't remember. Anyway, what a piece -- or pieces -- of work they are.

The omission of Liz McCann was awful. The Elephant Man, the Langella/Gorey Dracula, Piaf, etc etc

She was omitted in favor of Broadway legend Sally Kellerman

[quote]The omission of Liz McCann was awful.

What a great career she had. Strange oversight by the Tonys.

The "in memoriam" segment made sure to include lawyers and publicists but also ignored Joan Copeland, a longtime Broadway actress (she was Danny Kaye's wife in "Two by Two") who died in January at age 99. She was the sister of Arthur Miller.

But the 70s had a lot of stuff you wanted to see. It's just a very different Broadway and audience today. There is no core Broadway audience of New Yorkers and close by suburbanites who would go to see a show. Now it's overwhelmingly tourists and hen parties. Who else would sit through a badly cast The Music Man which has been done to death?

R402, I agree, but this is not the first time Patti has has an issue with hair. When she did GYPSY at Encores!, she had a hairstyle -- I assume it was a wig -- that was completely out of period. It wasn't till the show moved to Broadway that she got a wig in an appropriate style.

For those complaining about Elizabeth McCann not appearing in the In Memoriam, there's a very good reason for that. She passed away in September 2021, prior to the last Tony ceremony, and appeared in last year's In Memoriam. She can be seen at 3:45 in the below.

Wigs are much easier to handle. They can lacquer all that hair into place and the style stays in place. It can be styled off the actresses head and then bolted down for the performance.

Wigs are also necessary for style and color change. For example, in Evita, LuPone went from flowing mousy brown to slicked back blonde.

Thanks R410.

Is Bernadette Peters still going to be pushing those boobs up at 105?

Also, can we just have a memoriam without a performance? Hearing music in the background is fine, but I want to see the people we have lost and remember them, without looking at a performer and their costume , or their ridiculous hair.

[quote]Is Bernadette Peters still going to be pushing those boobs up at 105?

I assume no one else is gonna push 'em up for her.

On another note, more videos of Take Me Out have come out now that the show has closed, these taken from a different angle--house left and further back--so you have to wonder how many more are out there (and how many more there might have been if the first ones hadn't come out early and they hadn't tightened security). I have to give credit to Mr Weaks, who didn't seem that big when I saw the show but who multiple people have been gushing over. I don't know if there was shrinkage the night I saw it or what, but based on the video...damn, that's impressive.

just watching the Tonys now... THAT was the Sondheim tribute?

R414, or another way to do it would be for the cameras to be on the singer for the very beginning of the song but then, when the memorial names and images start, those would fill the screen, and the cameras wouldn't return to the singer again till the very end of the segment.

Also, mics and mic cords and even mic packs can all be concealed in a wig. Handy for scanty chorus girl costumes where there's no place to conceal a mic pack.

Though it's done with men's natural hair (not the mic pack, that's worn on an elastic belt under clothes.), it's harder to achieve with a woman's natural hair without upsetting the hairstyle.

A woman of Bernadette's age would have breasts halfway down her torso without surgery. Not unlike moobs on heavyset men.

r414 Especially given the whole purpose of having a performer - to stop people applauding until the end - never works and people just applaud the names they know anyway

Re Jesse Williams' Tony loss: do you think he was like, "I GOT NAKED FOR NOTHING?!"

Has it been reported why Jesse Williams stopped wearing his tux jacket after the evening got started? It looked so classless sitting in the audience and even worse when he appeared on stage with the TMO cast.

And I'm inclined to say that's NOT the one garment he should have removed.

I always watch the faces of the losers and I’m just gonna say the Drama Desk did Ruben Santiago Hudson no favors in making him think he was getting the Tony …

My one dying wish is that at my funeral I don't want the Gay Men's chorus to sing Mame.

I still don't understand how Hudson won the Drama Desk since he should have been ineligible.

I've had enough, I'm never again going to sit in a theater with a mask on for 2 1/2 hours.

What was so bad about it, R427? I'm not instigating, I'm honestly asking.

Hugh Jackman tested positive for Covid-19 and is out of Music Man this whole week.

I’m guessing last night was a superspreader.

Poor Bernadette. Hopefully she stays negative.

Patti is already negative and has nothing to do with Covid-19

Big week for the Doyle/Clayton household then. Matt got his Tony; Max will be on as Harold Hill for the week.

Will Max shave his beard off? Hugh doesn’t have a beard. Oh. Wait.

If I forget someone's pronouns, can I just get their attention by saying "say hey!" the way Willie Mays did? It worked for him all right and he was a POC.

R370 Eulalie MacKecknie Shinn really must have been serious about the art of Terpsichore because she somehow got Harold Hill and Marian to tap dance, even when it was "a thing" or "in style" back then. And she did it in one summer. The woman's a marvel I tell you -- just starting with Grecian urns yet!

There were pics of Matt at 7am this morning all over the place. If Max was with him, tonight's performance might be harder than expected.

Pity those poor CBS suck-ups who sat directly in front of the stage. Thanks, Hugh.

r434, there's no show tonight (Monday). He'll start tomorrow.

[quote]and [R398] you're still here.

Actually i was literally a pop culture/ movie/ Broadway/ TV obsessed kid. I would walk oblivious to the "flavor" of 42nd St and area.

[quote]I've had enough, I'm never again going to sit in a theater with a mask on for 2 1/2 hours.

Enjoy catching COVID. Again.

Hugh Jackman looked ragged at The Tonys because he had just finished eight shows, and has The Covid.

r439,

Is there a chance Hugh and everyone knew he was positive and didn’t want to skip the performance

The most delicious irony is if Patti came down with it.

Wow what an asshole thing to say

[quote]Is there a chance Hugh and everyone knew he was positive and didn’t want to skip the performance

Zero. None.

[quote]The most delicious irony is if Patti came down with it.

I have never meant this more: DIAGF

Didn’t Hugh [italic] just [/italic] have the COVID?

Not to be dense, but what did Patti come down with?

[quote]Didn’t Hugh just have the COVID?

Yep. A truly disturbing number of people who caught Omicron back in December/January are getting reinfected by the new BA.4/5 strain. Prior infection no longer provides "natural" immunity against Omicron.

Truly disturbing! Let’s never let go of COVID drama!

Covid is the "Perfect Crime" of New York theater.

Patti didn't come down with anything. The poster said "if" she came down with (covid).

Does anyone happen to know the name of Deirdre O'Connell's handsome Tony date (husband?)? Sorry not to link a photo.

[quote]Truly disturbing! Let’s never let go of COVID drama!

It's drama that I sincerely hope you get to experience first-hand.

With all of the disturbing things written on DL about people who have tragically died or suffered other misfortune, all of a sudden posters are disturbed about a post Patti?

Covid takes at least three days to show up as symptoms. He has it when performing on the Tonys

A photo for r451's question:

Thanks, r455! Anyone know him?

Nope, but Deirdre's 70 and looks great.

[quote]Nope, but Deirdre's 70 and looks great.

She could use a comb.

Deirdre’s messy hair had a “Can you believe I’m actually up here?” vibe. It was very endearing. I really didn’t care.

Deirdre's Tony date is her partner of 25+ years, Alan Metzger, Director of Production Unit, Academy for Careers in Television & Film (TvF) in Long Island City. She said they didn't have kids together, but she is stepmom to Metzger's grown children. Metzger was the cinematographer on "Andy Warhol's Bad" and the John Heard prison movie "On the Yard," among others, before he switched to directing TV movies and series in the 1980s.

Thank you, r460! He looks like a great guy for such a fabulous lady.

Is beanie back tomorrow? Wedding. COVID. What’s next. Bad yeast infection? Impacted wisdom tooth? Piles? (Piles of chicken wings?). Vapors? Impetigo ? Bieber paralysis? Vertigo?

Tietze's disease

I think it would be REALLY interesting if a male chorus boy from Music Man announced he had Covid and only and Hugh were positive.

There is one with an amazing ass

His cinematography, r460...

[quote] I think it would be REALLY interesting if a male chorus boy from Music Man announced he had Covid and only and Hugh were positive.

Please don't le tit be Aydin Eyikan

[quote]....she somehow got Harold Hill and Marian to tap dance, even when it was "a thing" or "in style" back then

Wanna try that again?

Will Neno Lekes go on as Howard Hill until Huge is back?

I think Beanie is scheduled to return on Thursday.

I missed the broadcast completely. And there are no good clips on YouTube. Annoying.

A question - what do you think are the 10 most important broadway musicals? I was wondering the other day but I'm honestly not sure...

I guess Oklahoma, Gypsy and A Chorus Line should be in there...but what else? Which are the most significant and influential pieces of musical theatre?

I mean I have my favorites but I don't know which are the ones that stand as pillars...

R471 FOLLIES!!!!!

R468 When it was NOT the thing or style back then. Mea culpa.

OKLAHOMA

GYPSY

A CHORUS LINE

SWEENEY TODD

WEST SIDE STORY

SHOW BOAT

CABARET

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

GUYS AND DOLLS

SOUTH PACIFIC

R462, Shingles.

R472 I also love Follies but don't think of it as a game changer...

R474 cool list! May I ask why each one made the cut for you?

I guess I'm trying to separate popular shows from the game changers, just to educate myself. Like....is Cats worthy of mention for being innovative (even if I find it annoying)? Hamilton?

I heard Oklahoma was huge because of how it integrated songs with plot...even if I don't care about the show LOL

Opinion piece on how the Tony audience was disrespectful to Sondheim’s memory. Is it true? Should more people have stood for his memory?

I think any list of game changers must include Show Boat. The scene where Bill cuts Julie’s hand to say that he has Negro blood was shocking at a time when most musicals were about pretty chorus girls showing their legs.

^^Oops, I mean Steve and Julie.

Name three Hammerstein musicals in which miscegenation is an important element of the plot.

[quote]Opinion piece on how the Tony audience was disrespectful to Sondheim’s memory. Is it true? Should more people have stood for his memory?

You don't stand for the dead.

Male chorus boys are my favorite chorus boys.

It's the Tonys, not a Sondheim tribute. Someone, anyone, produce a tribute and shut these Sondheimites up.

DONE

The Sondheim thing was totally overshadowed by the glorious sounds of me during the In Memoriam section. My complaint is that they didn't show enough of me and too much of the dead people.

R485, Billy . . . You should have sung it as "On the Street Where You LIVED".

That’s exactly what he sang, r486.

If you're singing a song in tribute to others, you really shouldn't choose a song that starts with "I".........

[quote] what do you think are the 10 most important broadway musicals?

Important how?

How they affected the artform? How much money they brought in? How much I liked them?

The Sondheim tribute was just stupid.

It was Bernadette literally screeching one song with interview bits of Sondheim. I would rather have had 4-5 prominent singers, each singing a snippet of his big songs to show WHY he was so great.

At least we were spared Ben Platt. Let us give thanks.

A memorial is not a time to prove someone’s greatness. It’s to celebrate it. One of his favorite performers sang about how we influence children and people around us while projecting his letters worked for me.

Anything to shut up the raging anti-Sondheim troll. So annoying. Shut the fuck up. How many times do we have to block your stupid ass?

I thought the Sondheim tribute was fine. As r492 said, we don't have to demonstrate his greatness. And I think he would have loved that the tribute celebrated his role as a teacher and mentor.

Pssst. Sondheim's dead, as were all of the other dead people in the memoriam. You should be talking about me and the way I stole the Tony show spotlight ( as I do with everything I sing).

Dream on, Billikins

Who else will test positive before tonight’s shows?

I'm grateful I have no expensive tickets for any Broadway shows in the next 2 weeks.

I assume that there were empty seats at the Tonys because those people tested positive prior to the show

R499, Nice try, but no.

Will THE MINUTES post its closing notice today?

Those were the seats reserved for the cast, crew, etc. of "Funny Girl."

What is everyone wearing to the Drama Desk Awards tonight?

The Bway glamour... it never stops!

Ratings up 40% this year.

Suck on THAT, haters.

The ratings were up nearly 40% from last year's broadcast which was the lowest rated Tony Awards. This year's was the second lowest rated.

Think how high the ratings would have been if there had been shows that people really wanted to see!

For all the wokeness there were still a lot of black and tranny asses that stayed in their seats when the winning names were announced.

Also, you have to consider that the 2020 Tonys kept being delayed due to Covid and when they were finally held over a year later, many people had moved on or weren't aware.

So last year' Tonys could have had equal or better ratings compared to this year's, which still isn't saying much.

[quote] Ratings up 40% this year.

That is what's called "Lying with Statistics"

Up from 10 viewers to 14 viewers!

That bellow-a-riffic "Burn it Down" song is the "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" of 2022.

R510-Except Dreamgirls ran for a few years.

Is "Burn It Down" a call for arsonists and pyromaniacs? She sang it really well, but not sure what the context of it is outside of the show.

When the Chicago tour hits the road again Emma Pittman will be Roxie.

She's no Penny Worth, r513.

Have we discussed ENCORES upcoming season? It feels like they were awfully quiet in announcing this. Are they course-correcting for THE LIFE & TAP DANCE KID?

LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA

OLIVER!

DEAR WORLD

FFS, what is it with Lear and children??

I'm resetting OLIVER at the Mexican border, with a cast of darling orphan immigrant children and agents from ICE!

So is Lear going to cast a developmentally disabled actress as Clara in ALITP? She’d better. Will Beanie be available by then?

I'm actually looking forward to DEAR WORLD, which is at least more in line with Encores' original mission statement.

Bernadette should star in a revival of the '71 revival of No, No Nanette in the Ruby Keeler role using the same Du Bois sets and costumes. With anybody but Jackie Hoffman in the Patsy Kelly role.

Still no Love Life? But Oliver? OLIVER? Yea, that's an old show that needs to be seen because it never gets done, any time, anywhere ever.

OLIVER? WTF?!?!?!?!?!

Agree that the continued cancellation of LOVE LIFE is frustrating.

They better hire a real ‘tard for Light in the Piazza.

And its message is relevant at present, r519.

I’m dying to see how "As Long As He Needs Me" goes over with the woke crowd. Will Nancy exit at the end of the song, through the house, before Sykes can kill her?

Where is Seesaw?

Wait..encores is doing The Life?

[quote]Is "Burn It Down" a call for arsonists and pyromaniacs? She sang it really well, but not sure what the context of it is outside of the show.

The song is called "Let it Burn." It comes towards the end of the show, when a lot of the main and supporting characters -- black people and Irish immigrants -- take to the streets to confront a mob that is planning to burn down their homes and businesses as part of the draft riots. Of course, they don't want their homes and businesses to be burned......but nevertheless, the main character keeps repeating "Let it burn! Let it burn! Let it burn!" as a strange way of making the point that IF everything is burned down, these people will still survive. In other words, the message of the song is quite muddled and confused, as is the whole show.

Bernie's tappin' days are behind her, r520.

"Let it Burn"

Copyright Jane Fonda 1978

She shoulda let that Oreo cookie on top of her head burn.

Nancy will be played by a non-binary, but they should let LuPone have another go at it. If you’re going to miscast a role, you might as well miscast with someone who has experience being miscast in the role.

Patti should play Fagin. Those orphans would steal the Hope Diamond to stay on her good side.

Patti ain't going near Oliver again.

Hadn't we heard strong rumors that LOVE LIFE would indeed finally be included in next year's Encores! season? It really is annoying that they seem to have totally lost interest in that show, and yes, of course they should absolutely do it before they do something like OLIVER!

Aside from the "As Long as He Needs Me" issue, OLIVER! has the Fagin issue. I imagine Encores! will try to "solve" that by casting someone who's obviously not Jewish and will not play the role as Jewish.

Did Patti hide in the basement during Oliver, too, so she wouldn't have to play ensemble?

Dear World

This is, for me, the quintessential “Let it Burn.”

Let it burn...

That revival of Oliver is what got Patti the role of Fantine.

I wonder if she was reading After Dark in her dressing room during Oliver and missed her death scene cue?

Patti will do Countess Aurelia in DEAR WORLD.

But it really should be Donna Murphy.

[quote]You don't stand for the dead.

Probably the only thing New York theater audiences won't stand for.

Oh, please not Patti. Enough Patti, already. Donna would be swell.

Cue the "Donna sings flat" troll.

She really does.

Fagin’s music and syntax are impossible to make not Jewish even if Billy Porter plays him …

I'm guessing Encores might be holding out on LOVE LIFE until Victoria Clark, who I believe was supposed to direct it (and maybe had a hand in some rewrites?) is available. As she's committed to KIMBERLY AKIMBO for next season, we might have to wait another year or two.

Mmmm, I love Victoria Clark.

But I don't think the Bway run of KIMBERLY AKIMBO will tie her up for too too long. Just a hunch.

Ruthie Ann miles is perfect casting for Light In The Piazza.

How about Chuck Cooper as Fagin in Oliver!

Donna IS starring in Dear World!

I think they could cast Patti as the Widow Corney in "Oliver!" and instead of singing "I Shall Scream", they could rewrite it as "I Shall Yell!". That's a fun song on the OCR, dropped from the film.

I like Ruthie Ann Miles, but it sounds like Light in the Piazza is the one they're going to rewrite, which dampens my enthusiasm a bit:

”Director Chay Yew (Cambodian Rock Band) and Tony-winning actress Ruthie Ann Miles (The King & I) embark on a deeply personal exploration of Adam Guettel’s Tony-winning musical, transmuting this lush, romantic drama of encounter across barriers of language, culture, and ability into something as essential as it is revelatory.“

Guess the original version wasn't essential, or at least not as essential as this one will be revelatory.

Oh god.

Nancy is going to be Trans-y, guaranteed.

Please not Billy Porter as Nancy. Nor do I want to see it staged with her shooting up.

If they need someone truly challenged to play having been kicked in the head by a horse, isn't Beanie a shoo-in? After all, it doesn't matter if she can sing the part, apparently.

Ali Stroker as Clara!

[Quote] a deeply personal exploration of Adam Guettel’s Tony-winning musical, transmuting this lush, romantic drama of encounter across barriers of language, culture, and ability into something as essential as it is revelatory.“

I miss really good solid revivals

When I saw the original Light in the Piazza, I honestly had no idea she was supposed to be mildly retarded until, half way through, some character mentions it.

DONNA DOESN'T SING FLAT!!!!

In the old days my vacuous look always covered the mildly retarded. No dialogue necessary.

Does Charlie Williams have a lifetime contract as a Tony Awards chorus boy? Not complainin', just wondrin'.

R583 He is dreamy.

When will Little Charlie Stemp come back to Broadway?

Who is the audience for a Broadway-priced revival of Topdog/Underdog? Was it successful the first time??

Ashley Park IS Clara

r567, I hope you're being genuine in your suggestion (who can tell around here?), because that's really good casting.

Patti's out of company tonight. Simard on as Joanne.

Next!

R544, people in Hollywood have been saying the same thing about Meryl Streep for years. Does that mean Patti is now officially the Meryl Streep of Broadway?

[quote]When will Little Charlie Stemp come back to Broadway?

When Cameron Mackintosh wants to start casting the Phantom REALLY young.

Jesus, that super-tight closeup of Hugh before the all-tappin', all-the-time excerpt from The Music Man probably frightened children across America.

How many fucking productions of Topdog/Underdog do we need? Has the past year taught Broadway nothing?

Oh, boy...The Public's season announced. Full. Woke.

R560 I don't think you're supposed to know off the bat. I've only seen the old movie and it wasn't apparent to me at the start, either.

We don’t need another revival of Topdog/Underdog, but we definitely need the Public to use its resources on the 4 millionth revival of Raisin in the Sun.

The Public Theater season sounds good. I would ordinarily not want to see another Raisin in the Sun, but Robert O'Hara is probably the only director who could make me want to see it again.

R563, I posted a similar comment on the Daily Mail this morning and it was removed within minutes.

Twenty minutes later, they reinstated it.

Are you saying that is a weakness in the script. R560. To be honest, I think dramas that depend on information hidden from the audience is usually weak.

I think if the audience did know, there would at least be suspense about if the Italian guy was going to figure it out.

I can’t help but think it would have been way more fun to watch Sutton Foster do a gender-flipped Harold Hill at Encores! (maybe opposite her original Broadway leading man Gavin Creel - with his buttermilky Midwestern vibe and lilting tenor, he would probably make a more natural Marian than she does) than this poorly conceived revival.

Certainly would have been better than The Life.

^^^ Meant for R573.

Must agree about Hugh Jackman at the TONYS.

He looked like The Cryptkeeper in close-up shots (and Sutton looked like Shirley Booth in that hideous wig and costume).

Just terrifying.

r583

fuck....

R583, I've seen healthier looking Stage 4 cancer patients.

Something is up with Patti LuPone. She left the Tonys after the Company performance and didn’t even stay to watch Matt Doyle win or the show win revival. She didn’t do backstage press after winning (there are no press photos of her with the Tony) and then she calls out the first performance after winning.

What is going on with her? Surely some Queen on here knows her and what is going on.

r587

someone in one of the threads said she had to go get ready for the company performance right after her win

[quote] We don’t need another revival of Topdog/Underdog, but we definitely need the Public to use its resources on the 4 millionth revival of Raisin in the Sun.

Nope, we don't need that, either.

How do they ever get investors for losing propositions like a Top Dog Broadway revival? Jamie DeRoy and those ladies who lunch must be made of money to lose. Is the shaky promise of swarming up on the stage of Radio City really all that much?

[r588] yeah but she left right after the performance and didn’t even stay to watch Compant get Best Revival and then went straight home

R583. Shirley Booth—in her current state of decomposition—would be a more interesting Marian than Foster—and I liked Foster in Drowsy

Patti was emotionally overwhelmed. Wasn't that clear from shots of her exiting the stage after her acceptance speech? She is 73, after all.

She’s a 73 year old woman who has had Covid recently. Who fucking cares why she left. She was probably exhausted.

[quote]Jesus, that super-tight closeup of Hugh before the all-tappin', all-the-time excerpt from The Music Man probably frightened children across America.

I can't believe anyone thought that was a good idea. What a horrendous mistake. I wonder how Jackman felt about it?

Is 73 considered old anymore?

Six cast members--Brown, Chamberlain, Letts, Freeman, Murphy, Pendleton--out of The Minutes tonight... Will there be enough of an audience to care?

Oh yeah. Horrible decision. Once Hugh is back, their grosses will probably dip from $3.5 million to $3.495 million. Poor things.

Hopefully someone has a good title for the next thread and starts it!

R598, no one suggested that the box-office of THE MUSIC MAN was going to dip because of that horrendous close-up of Jackman on the Tonys. Have you ever been in a production of THE WIZARD OF OZ? Because that's a prime example of a really stupid straw-man argument.

I wanna see more closing notices!

Is Billy Crystal showing up tonight?