THEATRE GOSSIP #478: The "Broadway Bores" Edition, featuring Tom Stoppard

Old thread

Well done, OP.

At least you didn't mention "Beanie" or "woke!" in your post.

R2 or Lucie Arnaz’s ALLEGED vibrato.

Not to get away from the topic of naked Broadway actors, a few other well-known actors were in "Oh! Calcutta!" -- Steven Keats and also Eddie Phillips Jr. , who originally performed "Who's Got the Pain" with Gwen Verdon in "Damn Yankees". B.J. DeSimone had been the original Chino in "West Side Story". I guess years after offing Tony in WSS, he felt like getting off his kit!

DeSimone was Chino in the City Center revival, but cast had well-known folks like Julia Migenes, Eliot Feld and Luba Lisa (she of the can't dance really "Chicken Dance" in "I Had a Ball" as Anita!)

The original Chino was Jamie Sanchez. B.J. DeSimone played it at City Center in 1964 and in Australia.

Was he cute? Did he and the others mentioned look good naked?

Was it considered a fall from grace to go into "Oh! Calcutta" from having been in good shows, or was it a vanguard of taking a risk and being, well, really seen?

Dancer bodies are always amazing to look at, but with rare exception, I find Broadway Bares not very sexy. I went once and never wanted to be there again.

Thanks r9. I watched about half of the opening number linked in the previous thread and it all seemed so lifeless, devoid of passion. Some very pretty asses, but free porn has even prettier ones.

[quote] Was it considered a fall from grace to go into "Oh! Calcutta" from having been in good shows, or was it a vanguard of taking a risk and being, well, really seen?

It certainly wasn’t a step up. It had programs in many foreign languages, especially Japanese, since a big swath of the audience were Japanese tourists. A lot of actors wouldn’t have it on their resumes. It was sort of the “Perfect Crime” of its’ day, a show that hardly anyone sees but somehow manages to run for years.

I think the actors listed on this thread were in the original Broadway company (from the late 60s to early 70s), not the later revival. The revival, which began a few years later in the 1970s lasted very much based on tourists, but the original I think played to a wider spectrum of audience.

Rather, they were replacements in the original, though the revival had some notable people in it as well.

There was a post in the last thread that said FOLLIES didn't need to be fixed, but if that's the case, why does it leave so many people so cold once they leave? I love the show and it's dense on a thematic level and certain moments work better than others, but there's a strange emotional hole in the center of the show. It's very hard to care about any of the characters. I don't think sweetening them up like in the 80's London production would help, but there's not an emotional center or main character to identify with. Sally is the first character we meet, so I assume she's meant to be the lead considering she's the only one in the show with any sort of tangible goal (to win back Ben), but she's usually played so deranged from the start that it's hard to relate to her. Yes, many of us can relate to pining for "the one that got away", but it doesn't seem like that's enough. She needs a few moments of relatability for us to warm up to her.

Sigh.

Now you've done it, R14....

Why not talk about FOLLIES? It sure beats the 5,000 posts about how the woke are killing theatre.

This thread could use some Donna Theodore...

I don't object to--or disagree with--your critique of FOLLIES, R16. I was merely thinking that now you've unleashed the wrath of the Sondheimites.

I love the score for FOLLIES. I love most of Sondheim's work. What keeps me from identifying with the tiresome Sondheimites is that I think 1) not all of his work is equally brilliant and 2) some of his collaborators' books for his shows are just not very good or complete. FOLLIES is one example. COMPANY, MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, and PASSION are others.

Just my two cents.

There is nothing new to say about Follies. Someone will end up commenting on the damn green dress, someone will take about Bernadette crying and being crazy from the start, someone will talk about Dorothy Collins not doing Do I Hear a Waltz, someone will talk about Jan Maxwell's dancing, someone will talk about Catherine Zeta Jones being too young ha ha for the next revival which will be trans anyway, someone will say Victoria Clark was better and made Ron Raines better, and so many of you will say you saw the original that it should still be running if that were true.

R2, Or my vibrato.

R3, ALLEGED, my ass. Whenever she attempts to hold a note, it sounds like she's doing a Katharine Hepburn impression.

Vibrato, vobratoh.

Lucie with a FOLLIES beginning...

In the latest episode of actor entitlement, the star of Tina in London decided to skip some shows so she could go sing with the Rolling Stones, and was then shocked to find she'd been fired and told not to return to the theatre - and posts on IG about how saddened she is that she's not being given a chance to work her last few shows.

Cold? I can't imagine discerning theatergoers not being moved by Follies both emotionally and intellectually, especially those of a certain age (although I, an old soul since birth, appreciated it at the tender age of 15), unless they simply refuse to face reality. Is it a sob fest like CAROUSEL or THE KING AND I or LA MANCHA? No--it's emotional punch is more rigorous and abstract, but surely no less powerful and poetic. How can anyone not identify with the characters' sense of rue for the "road not taken"...or the illusions/delusions of one's youth...or the loss of one's dreams or hopes...or the way of all flesh...or simply the passage of time, the meditation on which is one of FOLLIES' greatest motifs, woven all throughout the score? The show evolved a concept and executed it brilliantly. I grant you, I find the ending a bit facile, but in the face of exorcism, what CAN one do except "go on?" And it's certainly not without loss--Sally will never recover from the encounter.

Not to mention that the chorus boys in the various Lovelands have had some remarkable asses and bulges.

Agree with R2. Well done, OP.

Thank you R2 and R27.

BREAKING NEWS: Lucie Arnaz -- she of the wide vibrato, the hummingbird vibrato, or the barely detectable vibrato, depending on whom you talk to -- has canceled her upcoming gig at Feinstein's/54 Below due to what she describes as a severe knee injury.

Yeah, that's what singers with questionable vibratos always say.

Maybe she's in consultation with Johnny Mathis, whose trademark vibrato at least sounds great.

I love Lucie!

THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1924, "George White's Scandals of 1924" opened at the Apollo Theatre.

Lea Michel officially announced for FG. She will do six a week, and Julie Benko will do the other two.

The story

So Gawker claiming they have a source is "officially announced" is it?

‘The Minutes’ Is Latest Broadway Production To Continue Audience Masking Beyond July 1:

How stupid is it to announce Lea now. What are they going to do, close the month of August and September until she arrives? Who the hell will want to see Fat Ass?

Now we know why this production sucks. Because the producers are fucking idiots!!

We've known that all along, r38.

My interest in seeing FG has just shot up 100%. And I'm not even a Lea Michelle fan.

They haven’t announced Lea. They just escalated the rumor mill.

Another noted OH! CALCUTTA! alumnus (revival, not original) was Scott Jarvis, the Courier in the OBC of 1776.

Scott Jarvis had a big dick, but his glory was in bottoming

You do wonder if the producers of Funny Girl are contemplating some savvy (cagey?) options to temporarily close and reopen the production to treat it as a new engagement (hell, new production!) They did this sort of trickery back in the 60s...though I'm not sure how many were actually eligible for Tony Awards.

Seemingly, they could close -- reopen with some adjusted costumes and sets (because let's be honest, those costumes could use an overhaul!) and flip the script on a ho-hum revival.

Just finished watching ANGELS IN AMERICA: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES on National Theatre at Home. Some good performances, some less so, but what the hell with that awful set design? And with the crepuscular lighting I could barely see how bad the sets were.

I may watch LONDON ASSURANCE again as a palate cleanser. Yes, it's a very silly play, but the National's production has two gloriously hilarious, scenery-devouring performances by Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw.

Scott Jarvis is the 3rd person from the left with the big smile; the 2nd person from the right is Richert Easley, who played the Karen Black impersonator in "Outrageous".

R45, the design does get better in Part 2. There was a podcast where Elliot described the Angel as a virus like HIV who splits open the world. The design is never great, but the concept does lead to better design and a really terrific Perestroika. In this production, it is the stronger section and the scene in Heaven is actually a satisfying climax.

If they could nominate Larry Kert for a Tony for Company, they can nominate Lea Michele for Funny Girl...

Well there were at least two seasons in recent memory where the Tony committee seriously contemplated adding a 'Best Replacement' Tony. It was first considered for Reba's dynamite turn in Annie Get Your Gun but they ultimately dropped the idea.

It last was a serious contender in 2006 when Jonathan Pryce blew everyone's dress up with his incredible performance in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (replacing Lithgow). I seem to recall Howard McGillin having some heat too with the committee (as one of Broadway's most beloved lading men and longest running Phantom). This might have also been the season that Harvey came in for 'Fiddler'?? They again decided against it, fearing blow back from the community.

The arguments against giving out replacements are definitely sound (not having to take on the risk of a true rehearsal/preview period, merely stepping into established blocking, etc) That said, I could see Lea Michele being directed (even choreographed) wildly different than Beanie. So it'll be interested to see!

Okay, it was indeed a race between Pryce and Fierstein! Some fascinating insights into why it wasn't awarded (and perhaps why it should have been!)

r38, even if the producers had announced Lea now (which, as r41 pointed out, they have not), we already knew they were fucking idiots, since they hired Beanie in the first place, no?

R48, Funny Girl's eligibility season has already passed. Recasting the lead would not make the production eligible again.

If Lea pulls off Fanny and saves the investors' bacon, that will be worth more than a Tony for her career. She's in desperate need of a redemption arc and stepping into Funny Girl and doing a better job than flakey spoiled-brat Beanie would do it.

If she manages that, she'll get a shot at a Tony down the line.

Though there will always be wig jokes.

Even if Lea Michele is the Second Coming of Barbra in FUNNY GIRL, she cannot fix the weaknesses of the show, including Harvey's "rewrite" of the book. The poor direction. I can't imagine the producers ponying up for new sets, costumes, etc, but maybe they'll surprise me.

I think LM's best shot is to come in, wow some people, and sell some tix. It may even turn out to be profitable overall.

But it will still be an artistic misfire, starting with the wrong director, the lack of creative vision, and terrible casting (and I'm looking at you too, Jane Lynch).

TONY nominations? Not on your life.

Sorry wasn't clear, I don't mean Lea will get a Tony for Funny Girl, but that she'll get another show with a shot at a Tony down the line.

Surely, they've got to get new costumes for Lea--she's tiny and Beanie . . . isn't. And she gets a new mom, so they can fix any casting errors there.

I agree the book's not great--major second-act-itis, but with a star, it's survivable.

I say this as someone who saw the original Sunday in the Park with George and didn't realize just how nothing the second act was til much later. It's amazing what star power will do--thanks Bernadette!

Fuck giving Lea a Tony Award, just name a Broadway theatre for her and then, lock her inside it.

So who do we want to see as Lea’s mom?

I say Harvey should do it

[quote]So who do we want to see as Lea’s mom?

Barbra

{quote]I say Harvey should do it .

"Funny Girl" doesn't have the finest book but it isn't fucking "Hairspray" and shouldn't be cast as though it is. I'd rather see Jane Lynch than Harvey's tired shtick.

The Broadway marquees in the opening credits were technically impossible.

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The show carried different sets of opening credits over its five-season run. There is what we'll call the "Marlo Thomas stop sign version" and the "train tracks version." In the latter, Ann Marie trots giddily around Manhattan. At one point she ends up in near Times Square, as marquees for popular Broadway musicals flash on the screen. Well, they are a bit of an anachronism. The Star-Spangled Girl with Anthony Perkins opened on December 21, 1966. Philadelphia, Here I Come! had closed on November 26, 1966. Ann Marie would not have seen both signs on the same stroll.

"Well, they are a bit of an anachronism."

Who cares? It captured Broadway in an exciting and kinetic way. I know that, as a young 'un and aspiring theatre stripling, it whetted my appetite for NY theatre.

I just cut and pasted it, r61.

I'll bring the gasoline

I can’t believe no one has posted about Into the Woods yet on this thread

It only just opened, R64. Or re-opened, to be more accurate.

I loved the production at ENCORES. I may or may not see the limited run.

It sounds like a triumph.

It's weird how "Into the Woods" is certainly no better a show than it was when it had its original production, meaning it's okay, but people seem to love it more and more.

I thought it was a solid B , or really B- show, the libretto is sloppy and all over the place, but since EVERY theater actor has performed the show in drama school they have no idea how dopey it is in parts. The best thing in the show ever was the casting of Joanna Gleason and Chip Zien. The rest? Feh!

[quote] So who do we want to see as Lea’s mom?

Adele Dazeem, of course.

So Elliott Page is busily rehearsing in an ubdisclosed locatioN to take on the role of Billy Flynn in Chicago this fall? Should be interesting!

Come From Away closing in London in January.

I never got Come From Away. I still never forget when a poster on DL said that their Tony performance reminded him of something the cast would have done in a “Waiting for Guffman” outtake.

Come From Away is a terrible fucking show.

Broadway signs usually go up before a show opens and often stay up for a while after a show closes . . .

Into the Woods is not a slam dunk. It can be fun or it can be a slog. I enjoyed the orginal but I heard the revival wasn't great, and I hated the version in the park. (I'm looking at you, Donna Murphy!) So, I was not hopeful of the Encores version, but it was fantastic. Whether they can keep the momentum going with al those replacements, who knows. (I thought Neil Patrick Harris was irreplaceable, but D'arcy James is always good, so we'll see...)

The new Broadway INTO THE WOODS is the best production since the original. It's far better than it was at NYCC, especially without Neil Patrick Harris' loud desperation.

Hillary will be at BroadwayCon...what?

[quote]"Clinton will moderate a panel entitled "Here's to the Ladies: Hillary Rodham Clinton Live at BroadwayCon." The panel features Vanessa Williams, Julie White and LaChanze, and will take place on the BroadwayCon mainstage on July 8 at 1 p.m. Clinton will be on hand to help facilitate the conversation, which will touch upon topics including work in theatre, the accomplishments of the panelists, and looking ahead to the barriers that have not yet been broken.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Harvey played Mrs Bryce.

Apparently, Hillary Clinton has always been a big theatre fan (she especially loves musicals). Which is kind of adorable.

I don't remember the Clintons as big culture mavens when Bill was in office. The bar is quite low. Barack and Michelle Obama really helped elevate culture while in office, at least.

(r77) I beg your pardon.

Is Bill with Lady Bunny in the pic?

[quote]Barack and Michelle Obama really helped elevate culture while in office, at least.

Oh yeah, r77? Did they get Leontyne Price to sing her medley from "Meistersinger" and Margot Fonteyn to dance "Giselle"?

R80, No, but they got Paul McCartney to sing "Michelle" to Michelle.

[quote] Did they get Leontyne Price to sing her medley from "Meistersinger" and Margot Fonteyn to dance "Giselle"?

Together?

Leontyne Price never sang Meistersinger you cretin. And your point isn’t taken because you made such a dumb error.

R83, I'm afraid that reference went RIGHT over your head :-(

Yes, r83, you are the cretin as you didn't recognize a Sondheim reference. Be gone.

r83

epic fail, dullard.

Dear god you people are fucking retarded.

Lol. Unlike you morons I’ve actually worked with Sondheim. Drop dead.

Well...smell r88!

r88 was a dresser for Zero Mostel in the original production of Forum. He has been telling everyone about when he “worked with Sondheim” for sixty years.

R90 you’re a liar. Just making shit up.

Everyone knows Mostel murdered and ate all of his dressers

Maybe now that Camelot is cancelled, LCT can host the Tom Stoppard play and offer it as a subscriber ticket. Andre Bishop seems to have run out of ideas.

Andre ran out of ideas once he turned LCT into Summer Stock: South Pacific, King & I, My Fair Lady, Camelot. For this we need donors, foundations, and galas?

[quote]Well...smell [R88]!

Oh god. Oh god, do I have to?

R87, At least no one is discussing my vibrato anymore.

[quote]I wouldn’t be surprised if Harvey played Mrs Bryce.

I suppose it's possible. One more stupid idea on Broadway would just be coals to Newcastle.

[quote] One more stupid idea on Broadway would just be coals to Newcastle.

Just curious. What do you think the phrase “coals to Newcastle” means?

I think the only people who could find FOLLIES cold have only seen revivals, none of which came close to the original.

[quote] What do you think the phrase “coals to Newcastle” means? '

I'm not the person you're addressing, but I've always assumed that metaphor means to doing something that's completely unnecessary. In this case, I think R96 was saying that the last thing Broadway needs is more stupid ideas, because it already has so many of them. Did I interpret your post correctly, R96?

"Coals to Newcastle: used in reference to supplying something to a place where it is already plentiful. 'It might seem like carrying coals to Newcastle to truck beach sand to a beach.' "

[QUOTE] Apparently, Hillary Clinton has always been a big theatre fan (she especially loves musicals). Which is kind of adorable.

Hillary was at the same performance of “The Inheritance” (both parts in one day) as a friend of mine attended right before the pandemic started.

Wow.

The MERRILY lyric about Leontyne Price is an unfavorite of mine -- clever to fit MEISTERSINGER into a lyric, but it would have been a lot more clever had Miss Price actually sung any Wagner onstage. (Save your breath, Sondheim apologists -- I know the argument that he deliberately got the reference wrong to show the shallowness of the characters as satirists, and I don't buy it any more than I accept John Weidman's allowing John Wilkes Booth to misattribute the line "Attention must be paid."

Plaza Suite is now the 3rd highest grossing play revival in Broadway history, with $26.4 million in sales, behind only The Odd Couple and It's Only a Play (also Matthew Broderick vehicles)

Out of curiosity and as a not-fan of the current Company, I gave Rosalie Craig's Being Alive a listen. If that is indicative of what happened in the theatre, I could re-think the whole thing and buy it, at least way more than I did here. It sounds cathartic rather than strained, and it changes the whole things from poor Katrina's version.

[R103] I think that's a false comparison. Sondheim goofs up his reference for the sake of being clever, whereas Weidman is deliberately quoting and invoking Arthur Miller in Booth's meltdown to give it a kind of gravity.

R106, my point in pairing the 2 is that I think that in both cases the writer was being unnecessarily sloppy. Sondheim should have chosen another singer's name, and Weidman certainly shouldn't have had Booth say that the line is spoken at Willy's grave when it's not.

Benko has Covid and is out for 10 days. Will Beanie show up for 12 shows straight or will another understudy/standby get a shot?

Craig's Being Alive. Less strained, but annoying in other ways. I don't care for her voice, the gasps are grating, and it feels like she's overacting.

I will go on.

Lol her insta says mask up … which clearly did a lot to prevent her from getting it

Meg Ryan is in talks to join Funny Girl while Julie Benko recovers since no one can count on Beanie to go on every night

Leontyne Price never sang in "Wagner" and "Die Meistersinger" isn't an opera one can really take out popular arias or excerpts of -- even Senta's Aria, which a huge Wagner-opera loving friend of mine was one of the few places in the canon where applause might be tolerated in the middle of an opera, isn't known by the average opera-goer. This lyric was Sondheim having fun with on two levels -- at least Isolde's Liebestod is well-known or Brunhilde's "Yo-ho-To-Ho" from "Die Walkure".

That reminds me -- isn't there a line in John Guare's "House of Blue Leaves" where they mention an Academy Awards with presenters Mitzi Gaynor and Franco Corelli (very handsome, thrilling voice tenor from the 1950-60s who debuted with Leontyne Price at the Met in the same performance). Corelli was very glamourous and came along too early for the video age.

The "Meistersinger" rhyme is a whole lot of fun, full stop. Sometimes in musicals, at least in the old days, things are simply fun for fun's sake. It's not a Encyclopedia Britannica article on Leontyne Price. To call it "sloppy" is a serious case of needing to unclench.

Newsflash: "de-lovely" is not a word. Oh, that sloppy Cole Porter! He should have picked a real word!

They’re not talking about having seen Ms. Price perform Meistersinger. They’re imagining her doing it in the future.

Are there such things as “medleys” from operas in the first place?

[quote] Are there such things as “medleys” from operas in the first place?

Of course, silly

There are even medleys of Meistersinger

"Sondheim should have chosen another singer's name" For Sweet Gesu's sake, the number is a satirical throwaway about culture during the Camelot regime. Like West Side Story, it's not a documentary, but a gloss about a historical point of fact that allowed SS to play fast and loose with the idea and thrill with clever rhymes, et al, which is exactly what I'd expect burgeoning writers and satirists to do.

"Die Meistersinger" isn't an opera one can really take out popular arias or excerpts of.." If you're male you can: Am Stillen Herd, Morgendlich Leuchtend, Sachs' monologue...have appeared on many vocalists' albums as self-contained numbers with a little potchkying.

My god! I can't believe there's someone complaining about the lyric from Merrily. It's about one of the Kennedys spouting off about the cultural stuff they'll have in the White House, without having much knowledge about any of it. And the rhyme scheme is brilliant.

That Charlie Kringas, what a show-off.

Do we get our money back if Benko is out sick on her scheduled days and Beanie goes on in her place?

R118 Mea culpa. For some reason, I had "Flying Dutchman" in my head when I mentioned Senta up above. Yes, Walther in "Meistersinger' has 2 very fine, melodic arias and Sachs' monologue can be excerpted as well. Eva's, not so much.

Considering that “Bobby and Jacky and Jack” is a diegetic song written by one of the characters for his first cabaret, it a little specious to complain about historical fidelity.

"I'm Still Here"

Has any of you read Sondheim's own writing about his principles as a lyricist? I'm disappointed largely because he normally held himself to much higher standards than that. I suppose most of you would have told him to unclench as well.

Whoever mentioned HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES -- well, that's an absurdist play, which is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Anyone with half a brain would see that Sondheim is lovingly but sharply spoofing the culturally pretentious but clueless Kennedys.

All but one of us do, r126

[quote]I suppose most of you would have told him to unclench as well.

That would totally depend on how clenched he was.

Even granting the majority view about the Leontyne Price line, "Bobby and Jackie and Jack" remains a pretty fatuous number. If its sole point is to depict the characters performing it as sophomoric trolls, that's a shame -- a missed opportunity to show what the second act of MERRILY desperately needs to show, i.e. that the cynical adults of Act 1 were once bursting with youthful promise.

Fuck off r129. The song is charming and works perfectly in context.

Silly me. I should have noticed how many posts in this thread and the previous one dismiss Tom Stoppard as pretentious and boring. We've got a real brain trust here.

Ortrud-Maxwell's rentboi must have cancelled, causing he/they/it to lash out.

"Bobby and Jackie and Jack" is a slamdunk in every production I've seen. The audience eats it up. Considering how hard MERRILY is to pull off, it's one of the few moments the full audience is completely attentive to every word. It's an excellent breather from the plot.

LCT's CAMELOT is not cancelled, it is has been pushed to Spring 2023.

[quote] Silly me. I should have noticed how many posts in this thread and the previous one dismiss Tom Stoppard as pretentious and boring. We've got a real brain trust here.

So, if I have this right, your argument has been reduced to “everyone else is stupid, so I get to be stupid too”?

No, R134. It's other posters on this thread who have used that line of "thought." (Take R130 as representative.) But I realize that reading skills and logical argumentation aren't at a premium on the DL.

Nene Leaked will be Pellenore

And Billy Porter as Morgan Le Fay

[quote]They’re not talking about having seen Ms. Price perform Meistersinger. They’re imagining her doing it in the future.

No, the line is "We'll get Leontyne Price to sing her medley from Meistersinger," implying that she already has such a "medley" prepared.

Also, it's true that one seldom or ever hears about "medleys" from operas. That's because singers rarely string together bits of different arias from the same opera, and when one hears an orchestral "medley" from an opera, that's usually called a suite. For example, the CARMEN suite.

That’s it! Dig that Sondheim motherfucker up and let’s slap his corpse around!

[quote]Anyone with half a brain would see that Sondheim is lovingly but sharply spoofing the culturally pretentious but clueless Kennedys.

Talk about pretentious. Look in a mirror.

[quote]Even granting the majority view about the Leontyne Price line, "Bobby and Jackie and Jack" remains a pretty fatuous number. If its sole point is to depict the characters performing it as sophomoric trolls, that's a shame -- a missed opportunity to show what the second act of MERRILY desperately needs to show, i.e. that the cynical adults of Act 1 were once bursting with youthful promise.

Can we please go back to talking about Lucie Arnaz's vibrato?

Streetcar

[quote] Plaza Suite is now the 3rd highest grossing play revival in Broadway history, with $26.4 million in sales, behind only The Odd Couple and It's Only a Play (also Matthew Broderick vehicles)

Remember back when some of you were bitching that SJP was the draw and that she ought to have first billing because she's a TV star and no one is coming to see Matthew?

Sue me. I love Stoppard.

He doesn't speak highly of you, r144...

Allow me to try that again....

Cultural theorists agree that the Tom Stoppard episodes of JULIA were the best, if a bit challenging for some TV audiences.

I made them shine, r147.

I have to add r93, I thought that the LCT production of "The King & I" was one of the best things I'd seen onstage in about forty years. It was an incredibly fine production.

I saw the original cast as well as Daniel Dae Kim and Marin Mazzie who were superb as well.

Susie Essman for Mrs Brice

[Quote] It was an incredibly fine production.

Incredibly? Beyond belief fine? Oh please

LCT's track record for new work of late is not good.

FLYING OVER SUNSET comes to mind.

Is it the same two insufferably pedantic queens who keep sinking their talons into some arcane nit to pick over and over repeatedly to derail these threads? Santino Fontana, Lucie’s vibrato and other topics as tiny as their shriveled nutsacks debated by two of you as infinitum and nauseum? Please find some other graveyard to haunt. Preferably your own.

R153, the solution is obvious -- post your own, more interesting topics, and I'm sure that everyone else will take it from there. Or would you rather bitch about pedantry on Datalounge, of all fucking places?

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Has the Spring Awakening OBC become Broadway’s most annoying clique? It feels like they’re always together these days.

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I'd previously thought that Jessica looked interesting in still photos from STREETCAR, but, after watching that clip R142, it's no wonder that Vivien was cast in the film. (For which we should all be eternally grateful.)

I can’t imagine Beanie staying with FG much longer. Do they really expect her to play performances while the whole Broadway community is buzzing about Lea? Including many who are saying “the person who should have been cast to begin with.” And everyone points out Beanie’s bad reviews. I almost feel bad for her.

To the people arguing about Bobby and Jackie and Jack, I always understood the "medley from Meistersinger" part to be an additional joke. Wagner insisted that his works built organically and was horrified at the idea of taking "songs" out of their context, much less the mash-up the Sondheim lyric suggests. I don't doubt it has been done, but Wagner himself was dead against it, ergo it is another sign that B&J&J don't really understand the works of art they admire.

While we're on Merrily, has this been said before? (That's a Stoppard reference for Gertrude-Maxwell.) The song Charlie and Frank audition with, "Who Wants to Live in New York", which later becomes "Good Thing Going" -- I believe the real song that's based on is "What More do I Need?" from Saturday Night. I believe this based on nothing but having heard both songs. What does the DL think?

earlier or on an earlier thread someone posted a link to a UK Sweeney from BBC and now I can't find it. The page looked like it had lots of other stuff too. Does anyone still have the link or can remind me where it was? Thanks.

Here.

thanks r162

I was watching Ken Russell's The Boyfriend on TCM yesterday and was struck by the similarities of Sandy Wilson's "It's Always Nicer in Nice" to Sondheim's "Ah Paree!" I realize both songs are parodying earlier music hall style songs but does anyone know which ones? Was there a particular song from the 1920s or 30s?

Btw, the Russell film is pure genius. So under-appreciated in its time.

Thanks r164. Just added it to Amazon queue.

It’s saddening and disappointing that Beanie was not invited to lead Broadway Bares in this triumphant year.

This “Bobby and Jackie and Jack” conversation has led me to wonder what Sondheim would have done with Grey Gardens.

I finally caught up with Beanie in FG recently, and while she NEVER should have been cast in this role, I was very pleasantly surprised that she at least seemed to be giving her all. I had expected that, after those reviews and no Tony nom, she would pretty much be walking through the part, but this was not the case.

[quote]The Russell film is abhorrent. So accurately assessed in its time, by both the critics and the public, as a disaster.

There, I fixed that for you :-)

Dear R153: First of all, you don't seem to understand what "pedantic" means, and secondly, up yours.

[Quote] ostentatious in one's learning. overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, especially in teaching.

Thanks r170 I’m fine.

[Quote] Leontyne Price never sang in "Wagner" and "Die Meistersinger" isn't an opera one can really take out popular arias or excerpts of -- even Senta's Aria, which a huge Wagner-opera loving friend of mine was one of the few places in the canon where applause might be tolerated in the middle of an opera

[Quote] ostentatious in one's learning. overly concerned with minute details or formalisms

[quote]Ostentatious in one's learning. overly concerned with minute details or formalisms

And how does that apply to the Santino Fontana discussion, dear arbiter? Why don't you just admit it, you hate people discussing anything that YOU PERSONALLY aren't interested in?

Not the poster you address as your "dear arbiter" r173, but I am interested in discussing most things relating to theatre. I don't hate people discussing them.

Poor little Julie Benko OUT of FUNNY GIRL for 10 days with COVID.

Get well soon, Julie.

Beanie doesn't get enough credit, y'all...

Why did Sally Klein pronounce Galina Vishnevskaya’s name as “Vishnevskia” in “Bobby and Jackie and Jack”?

"I believe this based on nothing but having heard both songs. What does the DL think?"

Sure, why not? The entire show is a roman a clef anyway, with the characters as (arguable) stand-ins for their real-life counterparts.

Throwing it out there ... should we have a separate "Bitching About Vintage Theatre" thread? i suspect it will reach 479 iterations rather quickly.

"that the cynical adults of Act 1 were once bursting with youthful promise."

And what is more indicative of youth, promising or not, than taking on and satirizing sacred cows like the Kennedy dynasty?

[quote] It's weird how "Into the Woods" is certainly no better a show than it was when it had its original production, meaning it's okay, but people seem to love it more and more.

I run hot and cold on "Into The Woods." At points I think it's really brilliant. But there are also points where I think that Sondheim was just being "look how clever I am." And Forbidden Broadway was very on target when they spoofed it as "Into The Words."

In addition to Chip and Joanna, I think that Bernadette was well cast even though she's not a good actress. I love the look on her face when she joins the stepsisters to sing Ever After.

[quote] And what is more indicative of youth, promising or not, than taking on and satirizing sacred cows like the Kennedy dynasty?

In the show, the song is being performed in 1960. The Kennedys were not sacred cows at this point.

Part of the charm and bite of the song is how naive the characters are at this point. They have no clue what life is going to dump on them.

r179 I bet no-one will use it and they'll just continue to post here. After all, if that would work someone would've created a Follies series of threads by now. It's what makes me think that half the bitching is actually trolling.

All the bitching is trolling.

They’re not adding anything to the conversation, they’re just trying to piss people off.

Botching and bickering are different

Maybe Rosie will finally get to be Mrs Brice with Lea?

[quote]You, on the other hand, I hate.

Same here, bucko. It's easy to hate anyone who, like you, insults others just because they want to discuss things YOU are not interested in, whether it be Santino Fontana's track record or Lucie Arnaz's vibrato.

Bobby and Jackie and Jack is a take on Vaughn Meader's "The First Family"

[quote]Cultural Attaché makes the argument that someone had to be in the first revival of "Funny Girl" and Beanie Feldstein bravely went first

I'm not sure that "bravery" was the personality trait that was primarily involved here. Maybe more hubris and self-delusion.

[quote] In the show, the song is being performed in 1960. The Kennedys were not sacred cows at this point. Part of the charm and bite of the song is how naive the characters are at this point. They have no clue what life is going to dump on them.

Exactly, And while the song is charming, clever, and funny on one level, on another level it's very moving because, in 1960, the Kennedys also had no idea of the tragedies that would eventually befall them.

What does the “Oh God” at the end of Barcelona actually mean? Is Bobby or Bobbie pleased or frustrated or fed up?

[quote] Is Bobby or Bobbie pleased or frustrated or fed up?

Yes.

Plus scared and confused

He's irked that April called his bluff.

R190, since so much is made of Bobby/Bobbie's commitment issues throughout the show, I think the most likely interpretation of "Oh, God" is that, once his/her sex partner agrees to stay, s/he realizes s/he doesn't really want that.

I think "Oh, God" translates to "Oh, shit".

Although it's worth noting that, in one staging I saw, Bobby's "Oh, God!" was an exclamation in response to April apparently going down on him under the covers :-)

That all makes sense. Or it could be staged with the partner going under the blanket and going down on Bobby Bobbie who says Oh God with pleasure

R196, I guess we posted almost simultaneously. See my comment at R195.

Stoppard tried repeat his Julia success with Get Christie Love but the culture had changed and it wasn't the same.

Sunset Boulevard question:

Was Kevin Anderson supposed to go to Broadway from London like Patti?

I loved Tom's pilot for "Coast Of Utopia" starring Matt LeBlanc.

[quote]In the show, the song is being performed in 1960. The Kennedys were not sacred cows at this point.

The Kennedys weren't even in the White House yet in 1960, which is why I always found that song a bit, well, prescient to be spoofing their cultural ambitions before JFK had even been inaugurated. Note that the Vaughan Meader comedy album above is from 1962.

r201 Steve had already seen all those Chicago ballots

As an eldergay who was 11 years old in 1960, I can guarantee you that the Kennedy family was already very much in the news coverage and the culture and arts pages of 1960.

Okay, so COMPANY has those "Chris Harper pays my salary" mugs.

After that stupid article above (which Beanie's team is posting EVERYWHERE) FUNNY GIRL should get "Beanie took a bullet for Lea" mugs. Or maybe "SOMEBODY has to follow Barbra" mugs?

The Funny Girl grosses haven't recovered since Beanie came back - still the same 85% attendance which it was doing when Benko was going on.

Look for a major drop in the box office until Lea starts performances in FG. Then look for another major drop after Lea has been performing for a month.

If they were smart, they would announce Lea for 8 weeks, then say they're closing the show. And then if it sells well, they should extend Lea due to popular demand.

If they were smart, they never would have opened this half-baked production to begin with.

If they were REALLY smart they never would have hired Michael Mayer.

[quote]If they were REALLY smart they never would have hired Michael Mayer.

And would have hired an orchestra.

I just watched the Twilight Zone with Anne Francis and Leona Samish.

I think Kevin Anderson was supposed to come to Broadway too but his reviews from the US periodicals weren’t good. More than a few remarked on his body and overall looks which in their eyes made him seem miscast as Joe.

Kevin Anderson was hot. Hotter than that cipher Alan Campbell.

I have it on good authority that Glenn Close said, "I don't want Patti's Joe."

R211, that was one of my favorite TZ episodes.

[quote]I just watched the Twilight Zone with Anne Francis and Leona Samish.

THIS is a Leona Sammich.

Uh, the FG producers are not smart. Period.

Has the Anne Washburn-penned staged adaptation of The Twilight Zone received an US production?

I thought Kevin Anderson ended his association with the show out of loyalty to Patti. He actually left the London production before she did. But I can also see Glenn wanting Alan Campbell. Didn’t she also insist that her Joe, Max and Betty be brought over from the U.K. for the revival?

But they weren’t brought over, r219. Alice Ripley went into the Betty role because Judy Kuhn got pregnant, and the rest were the LA cast..

Alan Campbell and Judy Kuhn in Sunset Boulevard

Schwab's Drugstore

I think R219 is referring to the 2017 revival, R220. Joe, Max and Betty were all from the London production with Close.

Saw Patti and Kevin and they were both fantastic r213 - and yes Mr Anderson was mighty fine!

Does Beanie’s vibrato compare to Lucie’s? Whosis better?

Let it die, r225.

Will LOVE LIFE ever return to Encores? It was they one fucking show they had scheduled (before the season was killed by Covid) I wanted to see.

Yes, somebody had to go first. Somebody else--Idina Menzel 20 years ago, for example. Getting a major lead in a Broadway revival isn't what you call a sacrifice--unless you used family money and nepotism to get a part you weren't able to pull off.

Wonder if Rachel Bloom has the pipes for this? She's funny and, unlike Beanie, is a belter.

I love the article at R176, saying Beanie had the courage to perform in Funny Girl after Streisand, paving the way for others. Beanie is truly the Rosa Parks of musical theater.

Change the locale to West Covina...

To be honest, the producers of Funny Girl were smart to go with a girl who wasn't like Barbra so that comparisons would be lessened.

Beanie could play Bienstock in "Some Like It Hot" in stock, far, far away from NYC.

But they weren't now were they r231?

But r233, if Lea Michele opened the show, everyone would be saying, "She's just trying to copy Barbra."

But at least they'd think her vocals were good.

Bobby and Jackie and Jack is only peripherally about the Kennedys. What it is is a satire of the early 60s cabaret scene in NYC.

[quote]But at least they'd think her vocals were good.

She may be able to hit the notes, but her phrasing sucks! She brings no new interpretation to the lyrics.

AND SHE HAS ZERO COMIC ABILITY. This is probably the worst part. She's trying to copy Barbra's comic bits and not understanding why they don't work.

Lea Michele's mama should be Michele Lee!

Michele Lee is 80. Maybe Harvey can write in a part for Fanny's grandmother.

I said it before. They should bring in Peter Friedman as Lea's mother. Theater nerds will get the reference.

You know who sings a fantastic medley from Der Meistersinger? Lucie Arnaz.

Explain it for us, r240.

Ragtime, r242

[quote]Michele's costars famously came forward to share their experiences with the actor on set. In 2020, in response to a tweet Michele made about the death of George Floyd, former Glee costar Samantha Ware accused Michele of "traumatic microaggressions" that made her experience on the show a "living hell." Other cast and crew members also accused Lea of mistreatment and bullying while working with her. And in a statement on Twitter, costar Heather Morris said, "Was she unpleasant to work with? Very much so." After Samantha's claim, Michele shared a statement on Instagram, apologizing for "any pain" her behavior has caused.

[quote]Explain it for us, [R240].

In Ragtime, Peter Friedman played Lea's father.

I just worked with Peter Friedman. Very nice guy.

What's the next revival we can get Matthew & Sarah to star in? On Golden Pond?

The Gin Game

Private Lives

They're Play Our Song.

Edward Albee's Seascape

Titus Andronicus

[quote]What's the next revival we can get Matthew & Sarah to star in?

Gender swap "The Owl and the Pussycat".

Lesbian Vampires from Sodom

Speaking of Seascape, r251, Fred Voelpel very recently died. He was 95.

Fred's IBDB...

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf.

[quote]red Voelpel very recently died.

He was the costume designer for Oh! Calcutta! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

The robes were his idea, r258.

r213

When I saw SB on broadway, I thought... Alan C was the best they could do?(but I did remember him from Three's a crowd)

I actually think they’d be interesting (and possibly good) in “…Virginia Woolf”

Neither has the acting depth to pull off Virginia Woolf.

Matthew's perfect for George.

But they’re such good fits (shrew and nebbish) that they would hardly have to act at all

Friedman is busy right now on both The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Succession.

So the actress playing the lead in Tina in the West End thinks you can just walk away to do a better gig with no permission from the production and you'll be welcomed back? Such insane entitlement.

Beanie knows she still has "Merrily, We Roll Along: The Movie!" When that premiers in 40 years, she will win an Oscar.

[quote]To be honest, the producers of Funny Girl were smart to go with a girl who wasn't like Barbra so that comparisons would be lessened.

Because it was preferable to have all the negative comparisons heightened? Yeah, they were really smart to go with a weak singer for a role that's remembered primarily for its singing. Smart they ain't.

"Prisoner of 2nd Avenue" probably holds up better than most of "Plaza Suite". His wimpy usual performance would work.

I like Prisoner of 2nd Avenue. How come nobody does it anymore?

Because it's a piece of shit, R270.

I hear dire things about Richard III at The Delacorte. WTF is going on at The Public?

Oh, duh. Matthew & Sarah in ... Love Letters.

[quote]I hear dire things about Richard III at The Delacorte. WTF is going on at The Public?

They've been taken over by the woke crowd. Isn't Richard being played by a black woman?

My city's production had Richard being played by a short, big-hipped, waddling woman.

In this age of "Karen", Broadway needs to do a revival of "God of Carnage." Jazz it up by having one white couple and one black couple.

[quote] THEATRE GOSSIP #478: The "Broadway Bores" Edition, featuring Tom Stoppard

I have skimmed this thread but saw no reference to Tom Stoppard.

How about a Bob's Burgers musical?

Will The Devil Wears Prada succeed in its Chicago tryout?

I predict.....no. I'm betting it won't make it to Broadway.

[quote] In this age of "Karen", Broadway needs to do a revival of "God of Carnage." Jazz it up by having one white couple and one black couple.

Don't be silly. They both have to be interracial couples.

[quote] I have skimmed this thread but saw no reference to Tom Stoppard.

You do understand the way this usually works is the thread comes first, THEN the posts.

God of Carnage with one gay interracial couple and one straight interracial couple? If nothing else, it eliminates a Tony competitor for the remaining female.

[quote]What's the next revival we can get Matthew & Sarah to star in?

Equus.

SJP and Matthew should revive Sunset Boulevard with SJP as Norma Desmond and Matthew as Max

Based on "How to Succeed", she sings the first song in tune, then the rest flat.

I Do! I Do!

Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker starring in the Broadway revival of "Foxfire."

I got it. No Exit. Sign up Catrall.

The lead producer of Funny Girl is British Sonia Friedman. She should be shipped back to Britain and never allowed back on Broadway again. She's defines the "nasty woman," and is woefully, utterly clueless about what makes an American musical. She actually thought her tragic production of Funny Girl was a good idea.

Then there's British Chris Harper, he who pays the salary. Deport him too. He's being lauded as some sort of hero, but he's another idiot. A mincing weak-voiced queen who fancies himself God's Gift to Broadway. Another nasty human being who, of course, is going to kiss ass to La Lupone.

The British don't understand American musicals and should star far far away. Let them do whatever revisions they want with Blitz!, Moby Dick, and Lock Up Your Daughters. Oliver set in a girl's juvie prison? Sure! Just don't touch the American canon.

^STAY far far away.

Totie Fields for Fanny Brike

SJP and Matthew in VIRGINIA WOOLF would add a complete new resonance to Martha's "I do not BRAY."

With Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele as Nick and Honey

[quote]With Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele as Nick and Honey

I'd agree with Jonathan Groff. But Honey cannot be played by a Jewess. She's gotta be WASP.

Huh. Never thought of Jon Groff as Nick, but that would be quite marvelous.

Odd spin is that his ex, Zach Quinto, just played George (!) in Los Angeles!

Matthew and Sarah, Jessica, alternating in whose life is it anyway

OMG, r295, I'd forgotten that. How was Calista?

For those curious about the stage musical of DEVIL WORE PRADA......

First listen to Elton performing "Dress Your Way Up."

Paul Rudnick dropping out of Prada made it less interesting. And they should have gotten a bigger name than Beth Leavel for Miranda. But it’s a very diverse cast including a trans chorus member and that’s all that really matters these days.

I’m shocked they went with Beth Leavel also. She’s a fine actress but it’s a plum part in a plum musical and they went with…her?

Variety:

At first, this latest pairing doesn’t seem likely to yield any fresh revelations to such a familiar play, only to surprise as the duo offer their own take on these two characters — who share the names of America’s first first couple, the Washingtons. Quinto makes for a solid, relatively stolid George. Though described in the dialogue as weighing 108 pounds, Martha is nearly always played by a larger, more physically dominant performer, a “maneater.” Brittle looking but titanium strong, Flockhart’s not the same physical type at all, even if there’s never a moment’s doubt when she’s on stage that this formidable woman could devour any of her co-stars. With an Aqua Net-stiff, late-career-Marilyn ’do and impossible-to-pinpoint enhancements to her face, her Martha reads as a woman who still wants to be desired, which adds another dimension to the dynamic.

I really hope PRADA makes over-the-top design (costumes, yes, but also scenery, lighting, and props) an element of the stage show. Nothing will kill the "specialness" of PRADA as much as making it look like every other Bway musical, with slick, bland, personality-less design that feels cheap (but is probably pointlessly expensive).

[Quote] I’m shocked they went with Beth Leavel also. She’s a fine actress but it’s a plum part in a plum musical and they went with…her?

That gives an indication of the quality of the score and/or book...

[Quote] I’m shocked they went with Beth Leavel also. She’s a fine actress but it’s a plum part in a plum musical and they went with…her?

And yet the NT Follies was the best major production of it since the original...

Who would have been appropriate and box office, r301?

Any bootlegs of the Flockhart/Quinto Woolf?

Glenn Close!

I can die never seeing Virginia Woolf ever again.

[quote] And yet the NT Follies was the best major production of it since the original...

And it was the first major revival to go back to Goldman's original book (albeit with a few very minor revisions).

[quote] And it was the first major revival to go back to Goldman's original book

Only because they haven't given me a chance to ruin it yet!

[quote]What's the next revival we can get Matthew & Sarah to star in?

"War Horse"

Matthew and SJP in Never Too Late.

SJP might have been a decent, eh, nondancing Charity. Broderick certainly would have fit the John McMartin role.

We went down this road before with Marin Mazzie RIP in Bullets Over Broadway

[quote]SJP might have been a decent, eh, nondancing Charity.

Charity isn't a non-dancing role. So, no.

Nights of Cabiria, then!

Maybe they can do a Dream Ballet Charity Hope Valentine.

[quote] impossible-to-pinpoint enhancements to her face

Meow!

Who is the Nick in that Woof?

[quote]My city's production had Richard being played by a short, big-hipped, waddling woman.

I saw a production of " Jesus Christ, Superstar," which featured three people playing Jesus, a man, a woman, and a young boy. The explanation from the director was that it signified that Jesus is in all of us, no matter what the age or gender. However, a friend who was working tech told me that the woman was put in because she was the only person who could sing " Gethsemane," and the little boy was put in because the director decided that he wanted the cross to ascend during the crucifixion and anyone heavier than the child would not be able to be hoisted. I must admit that seeing a little kid being crucified and hanging on the cross was jarring and pretty disgusting.

[Quote] I must admit that seeing a little kid being crucified and hanging on the cross was jarring

This made me laugh out loud.

[quote]However, a friend who was working tech told me that the woman was put in because she was the only person who could sing " Gethsemane," and the little boy was put in because the director decided that he wanted the cross to ascend during the crucifixion and anyone heavier than the child would not be able to be hoisted.

Great story R321

With PRADA being cast with a black woman who's bullied by a white woman, won't there be . . . issues?

Is the Emily Blunt character a gay male?

I agree that PRADA will need spectacular design elements beyond fabulous costumes but none of the press releases on the show have announced who the designers are. I wonder if an actual fashion designer, someone like Zac Posen (god forbid!) will be designing the frocks?

Ugh, the show will never leave Chicago. Don't they begin previews there this month?

[quote]Who is the Nick in that Woof?

With Flockhart and Quinto? It's Graham Phillips.

More photos at the link.

Lips on Nick

In a radical but welcome change, the production of Virginia Woolf ended with Nick going down on them all.

The difference with Marin Mazzie in Bullets Over Broadway was there was hope amongst theatre queens that this would lead to Marin finally winning a Tony after three nominations.

Of course the whole thing backfired and she wasn’t even nominated.

Beth already has a Tony for Chaperone.

[Quote] With Flockhart and Quinto? It's Graham Phillips. More photos at the link.

Thanks.

Emily Skinner played Miranda in a workshop. Vanessa Williams might have been a good choice but Miranda is too close to her Ugly Betty character. Michelle Dockery from Downton Abbey would have been perfect.

Rachel York?

Oh yeah. I never miss a Michelle Dockery musical.

Dockery can sing.

Vanessa Williams would have been great.

1) she’s known for musicals

2) famous enough to sell tickets

3) chance to win a long desires Tony

4) woman of color

5) Boring on stage.

They clearly had to make do with Leavel.

It should have been Hannah Waddingham.

Michelle Dockery turned down replacing Kelli in King and I. She can sing and she has the sophisticated coolness a la Anna Wintour needed. And wasn’t Miranda a Brit in the book?

r339 for the win. Can sing, commanding on stage, the height would be hilarious, and a great publicity hook to make it not about Meryl.

R339. YES!

[Quote] It should have been Hannah Waddingham.

And The Drowsy Chaperone should have been Dolores Gray!

Nena Lekse should have been casted as Morinda Preistly

Other than a patented withering glance, Dockery can't act. She pales in comparison to Waddingham. IMHO she even pales in comparison to Leavel.

I'm looking forward to playing the Meryl Streep role when they do the Prada revival in 40 years.

Rula Lenska? I can see it.

I adore Beth Leavel but she's too down to earth for the role. You need someone whose cunt you can ice skate on to "Looking Through the Eyes of Love" while Robby Benson throws flowers at your feet.

Oh god. Hannah Waddingham. YES. It should be her.

Doesn't Waddingham have a TV show? Has it been cancelled?

The next season is going to be the last, so she would be free after that, but yeah, probably isn't available now. (Though I think they're still writing it, so she probably could be doing the Chicago run now, then could jump back on to the Broadway run in the spring.)

If Patti LuPone were 20 years younger and wasn't such a Long Island Waitress type, she'd be perfect.

Not elegant enough. I don't buy the inevitable "fishwife" comment (three.... two.... one.....) but she doesn't have 'of the manor born' as Miranda should exude

TO the manor born, you fat whore!

Oh, if Penelope Keith were younger (and if she could sing!)...

Jan Maxwell would have been perfect.

Waddingham's Last Midnight is one of my favorites, so any excuse to post it. (I like this concert version better than the onstage version where she does the revised "You're so pure" lyrics instead of "You're so nice...".)

TWELVE ANGRY MEN--THE MUSICAL!

Unless seven of the twelve "angry men" are trans women of color, then this production needs to be CANCELED!

R360 that joke getting hella tired

Too bad

All right, I'll say it: I never miss a Reginald Rose musical.

Suzanne Somers *IS* Miranda Priestly!

9 weeks only!

United California Bank

Take back your stink, r364.

Vivien Leigh & Peter Brook, 1954

RIP

Ariana DeBose should play Charity. Would be brilliant.

To promote greater truth in advertising and with a candid nod toward the leading lady's performance, the producers of a certain big, Broadway musical have shortened the title to simply "GIRL."

[quote]My city's production had Richard being played by a short, big-hipped, waddling woman.

So how was Beanie in that?

[quote]TO the manor born, you fat whore!

Common misconception. It's actually "to the manner born."

Oh god. Now comes the fifty posts arguing about “manor” vs “manner”

[quote]Oh god. Now comes the fifty posts arguing about “manor” vs “manner”

Sondheim, who wrote "Bobby and Jackie and Jack," would have known that "manner" is correct.

Even Sondheim would not have cared

Then ask Moose Charlap!

Ariana DeBose has zero vulnerability which the role of Charity demands.

Exactly. Playing Charity without vulnerability is a bad idea.

"do I smell a TONY?"

I smell something, alright.

[R372] they could go back to discussing goddamn Song Of Norway!

[quote] Oh god. Now comes the fifty posts arguing about “manor” vs “manner”

[quote]Sondheim, who wrote "Bobby and Jackie and Jack," would have known that "manner" is correct.

What show soundtrack is that on?

Sondheim was not "to the manner born." Not really.

Stephen Sondheim was the son of garmentos--his father was a retailer who was successful for a while, then became less so. His mother was a manic social climber who ensured that SS attended the right schools and met the right people.

He spent his formative years around people with a lot more money/social cache (including the Hammerstein family). You can see a preoccupation with class in a lot of his work: Sweeney Todd, Sunday In the Park, Follies, A Little Night Music, etc.

r377 Bebe was never Charity..; she won a Tony as Nickie.

[quote]they could go back to discussing goddamn Song Of Norway!

No, please, we'll behave. Just not that!

[quote] they could go back to discussing goddamn Song Of Norway!

I liked that Song of Norway discussion. Where else but DL could you even have such a conversation?

[quote]they could go back to discussing goddamn Song Of Norway!

Please do!

It's "cachet", r 381; "cache" is something else entirely.

And Sondheim's mother seems to have used him to gain access to the "right people." I doubt if she had any special interest in her son making the right connections for his own benefit.

Bebe was Debbie's standby, r382.

Bebe went on as Charity a fair bit, an was one of the Charitys in that iconic Lincoln Centre Sweet Charity in Concert performance in the 90s

[quote]Where else but DL could you even have such a conversation?

Not exactly a selling point for the place.

[quote] Bebe

CUNT!

I saw Bebe as Charity when she went on for Debbie Allen and in the Lincoln Center concert. Like I said, no vulnerability. She’s a Nickie not a Charity.

Bebe is a Vera not a Mame.

Bebe is a Martha not a Honey.

Bebe is an Evita not a Peron's Mistress.

Mamie is Mimi

Bebe is a Lilith not a Frasier.

Liza loves Chita. But not Rita.

[quote]Bebe is a Lilith not a Diane.

Fixted it for you, r394.

Class is also kind of a big deal in Saturday Night.

[quote]Class is also kind of a big deal in Saturday Night.

I remember class. What ever happened to it?

Beth Leavel unfortunately just doesn’t have the right dna for the role in PRADA, as a result the whole thing is already doomed.

Who would you cast (realistically), r399?

I also think making the Anne Hathaway character black radically alters the story in ways that the writers may not intend. The character is already an outsider looking in and trying to advance herself in an "insider" culture.

They could have/should have made the Miranda character or of the supporting characters black instead. Or make the entire cast mostly black.

The Brown Lady/Trans/Non binary 1776 gets a good review.

Though, it's sort of a non-review.

and, a not so positive review....overall, the reviews seem "mixed to good".

But, mostly mixed.

Why not make the whole cast black and have it take place at Jet Magazine?

Why did Sondheim write "We are the movers, we are the shapers"?

Does it not make sense to you, r405?

Liza loves Chita Not Rita

Patti loves Betty not Bernadette

Harvey loves Matthew not SJP

[quote] Why did Sondheim write "We are the movers, we are the shapers"?

First of all, he didn’t. He wrote “These are the movers, these are the shapers”

And he wrote it to rhyme with “papers”

Oh, R408 -- did you not get past "Rich and Happy" on the OBC?

In "Our Time," we do indeed get the lyric "Don't you know? We're the movers, and we're the shapers. / We're the names in tomorrow's papers."

[quote] To promote greater truth in advertising and with a candid nod toward the leading lady's performance, the producers of a certain big, Broadway musical have shortened the title to simply "GIRL”

Actually, out of respect to the trans community, they’re renaming it, “Funny Them.”

I was originally going to say something like "How quaint, the idea of people's impact being seen with newspapers," but really, that's just being snotty for snotty's sake.

Who is this character “Kayla “ in PRADA? Is she the replacement for the French magazine editor angling to replace Miranda? And how many Latino men are named “Nigel?” They easily could have conceived that role as a Black man since the character is based on Andre Leon Talley, no? Not really that impressed with the Elton clip either.

[QUOTE]Bebe went on as Charity a fair bit, an was one of the Charitys in that iconic Lincoln Centre Sweet Charity in Concert performance in the 90s

I was there! Then I met Bebe at the Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS Annual Flea Market and she signed my Playbill.

PRADA is doomed. And director Anna Shapiro is an entitled cunt of the first order so I'm gleeful.

These are also people who give you vapors....

Love Flo's "Walla Walla Boola" at the end of the "Coconut Girl" sequence from "The Girl Who Came To Supper" at about the 6:25 mark. Wonder how it was staged.

It's no Goona-Goona.

“Later, by the crater” is one of my favorite Broadway rhymes.

I feel like the more "obvious" the source material is for a movie to musical adaptation, the more tedious and reductive the final product—with "Hairspray" being an exception.

The great movie to musical adaptations, like "Nine" and "A Little Night Music," were adapted from non-obvious source material.

I guess it has something to do with the "obvious" movie to musical adaptations being spearheaded by creative teams and producers who want the path of least resistance, which is a path that leads to mediocrity.

The danger with "obvious" source material is that songwriters/bookwriters think they can just drop new songs into the existent structure (and even keep most of the dialogue). Versus rethinking and reshaping the material as a musical play.

It's how you wind up with GHOST. And PRETTY WOMAN. And SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. And so on.

And Tootsie

I’m also tired of the standard book musical structure.

Sing exposition number, talk, sing I Want song, talk, sing character intro song, talk, sing song that ends with a very long note, intermission. Then repeat in Act 2.

At this point, it’s just lazy.

And Mrs Doubtfire and Beetlejuice.

Christine Baranski could still pull off the lead in Prada. Beth Leavel is almost the same age.

R367 That photo was taken before he turned into an unlikeable, navel-gazing, pseudo-guru, ratbag fifty years ago.

And Back To The Future.

I cannot wait to hear a Miranda Priestly song from PRADA.

And "Groundhog Day."

[Quote] The danger with "obvious" source material is that songwriters/bookwriters think they can just drop new songs into the existent structure (and even keep most of the dialogue). Versus rethinking and reshaping the material as a musical play.

[Quote] And Tootsie

Tootsie ended up veering quite a lot from its source. To no avail

The score to TOOTSIE is quite bad, probably the weakest David Yazbek has ever written.

My Godc I have absolutely no interest in seeing a musical version of Devil Wears Prada and either does anyone else

And except for Meryl's performance, which we won't see in the musical, Prada is a very mediocre film. And the book is awful, saved only by a very clever title.

I think Nine and Night Music are also helped by most people's unfamiliarity with the source material. I've still never seen either films though I've seen the musicals numerous times, including in their original Broadway productions.

[Quote] including in their original Broadway productions.

La dee da.

Also both "Nine" and "A Little Night Music" didn't use the original titles of the films: "8 1/2" and "Smiles of a Summer Night."

Must every fucking movie be made into a Bway musical????!!!!!!

[quote]Must every fucking movie be made into a Bway musical????!!!!!!

Sometimes they're made into two different musicals.

.....and still don't/won't succeed.

Just because …. Shirley!

Actually, all the office scenes in the Prada film are great. It's all the home scenes that suck.

Is A Little Night Music the last musical to use a different title than its source?

…I meat Nine…

I MEANT Nine.

“Thank God It’s Friyay” with Jennifer Love Hewlitt in the Donna Summers roll.

[Quote] Hewlitt in the Donna Summers roll.

Oh dear X 3

Jesse Tyler Ferguson is a Tony award winner

Giving musicals adapted from movies a different title was the standard practice years ago, although there were exceptions, such as "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." I grew up near Boston and remember when the new musical "Holly Golightly" came to town for its pre-Broadway tryout. The title was changed back to "Breakfast at Tiffany's" for its Broadway run, which consisted of four previews. I guess it needed more than a title change.

Is Mr. Saturday Night differing that much from the movie? Unlike Tootsie, Beetlejuice and (sadly) Doubtfire, it has the star of the movie reprising his role.

[quote]Is A Little Night Music the last musical to use a different title than its source?

It used to be pretty standard. Carousel, Oklahoma, Sweet Charity, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, The Sound of Music, Gypsy are just a few that didn't keep the title of their source material. Cats shortened the title.

Sondheim's Passion cut the title short. The original film was Passione d'Amore.

[quote]Unlike Tootsie, Beetlejuice and (sadly) Doubtfire, it has the star of the movie reprising his role.

I did it first!

"Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812" used a new title, though it would have been bonkers to call that musical "War and Peace."

I'll be amazed if any of the songs in "The Devil Wears Prada" are as good as KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See."

[quote]Carousel, Oklahoma, Sweet Charity, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, The Sound of Music, Gypsy are just a few that didn't keep the title of their source material.

R448 wasn't Gypsy Rose Lee's memoir titled GYPSY?

If I recall, she insisted that the creators of the musical retain the GYPSY title.

[quote]wasn't Gypsy Rose Lee's memoir titled GYPSY?

Sorry, my mistake, you are correct. I was thinking the musical was based on June's writing. I shall turn in my gay card and slink off to the sidelines.

I never miss a Jennifer Hewlitt Packard musical.

June Havoc did have a part in the titling of the musical. The "A musical fable" part.

B@T's

"The Elephant Man" cut the title to "Elephant!"

Oh, Streetcar!

Maybe this horrible trend began with The Producers but what was the first Broadway musical unashamedly based on a lousy recent movie of the past 20 years? Was it Legally Blonde? Please add that one and Mean Girls to the definitive list upthread. And Dirty Dancing, which wisely has been out on the road for 15 years and doesn't dare open on Broadway.

Richard III, at III hours long, is as awful as expected. Half the cast is disabled, making for very limp production.

[Quote] Half the cast is disabled, making for very limp production.

Your writing needs to be taken out and shot.

In the head or the kneecaps?

Shaina Taub, who wrote the score for SUFFS and appeared in it, and co-wrote the score for PRADA with Elton John, wrote the score for a musical version of AS YOU LIKE IT, which follows RICHARD III in Central Park this summer.

Shaina Taub is having a moment, people!

Shaina Taub = mediocre meskite.

Is she a Fanny?

R400, in all honesty PRADA would need a Sharon Stone in the role, these big characters need “Star” energy. The movie to stage adaptations all fail, save for The Producers and Hairspray because they are “medium” level cast. All of the recent flops had a void in the heart of the big leading roles. Well liked, serviceable Broadway regulars just aren’t WOW enough for these iconic cinematic personalities.

[quote] Public Works’ acclaimed musical production of AS YOU LIKE IT returns to Central Park, bringing together its diverse ensemble of both professional actors and community members from across New York. Adapted by Shaina Taub and Director of Public Works Laurie Woolery, featuring music and lyrics by Taub, this ambitious work of participatory theater has been hailed as “thrilling & terrifically vital” by The New York Times. Forced from their homes, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind, and niece Celia are banished to the Forest of Arden. There, they discover a community of acceptance and transformational love, where all are welcomed and embraced. Laurie Woolery directs this magical adaptation of a beloved classic.

Expect the Forest of Arden to be overrun with trans, non-binary, the obese, and the differently-abled. The cast of London's LEGALLY BLONDE with the cast of Paulus' 1776 with the leftovers from RICHARD III.

[quote]June Havoc did have a part in the titling of the musical. The "A musical fable" part.

For what it's worth, I read Gypsy's memoir four years ago and the musical was surprisingly faithful to it, for the most part.

Off the top of my head: the "Stars and Stripes Forever" routine, "Baby June and Her Newsboys," "Dainty June and Her Farmboys," "Madame Rose's Toreadorables," "Rose Louise and Her Hollywood Blondes," Rose's cow dream, the 'Herbie' character, the 'Tulsa' character, Tessie Tura, Gigolo the monkey and their vast menagerie, etc. all were taken from the book.

June's beef should have been with her sister and her recollection of events, not with Arthur Laurents et al.

Finally getting caught up, and I have to disagree with r423. Beetlejuice doesn't really fit r420's description of a show that dropped songs into an existing structure and didn't rethink it for the stage. Beetlejuice the musical is significantly different from the movie--and almost all of the changes are for the worse. In the movie, Beetlejuice is almost a secondary character--he actually doesn't have that much screentime. The Geena Davis/Alec Baldwin/Winona Ryder characters are the leads. The musical brings him in right from the start and keeps him heavily present throughout, which some audiences eat up and others find unbearable, because he's annoying as fuck. The movie allows Ryder's character to just be a weird teenage girl, no explanation needed. The musical makes her dark personality nothing more than depression about her dead mother and gives her drippy songs to screech about it. The Catherine O'Hara character is turned into a dumb ditz; the father is made more sympathetic to allow for a predictable father-daughter reconciliation in the end. In the movie that doesn't happen because the Davis/Baldwin ghosts become Ryder's surrogate parents, fulfilling the needs the characters had. By making the father and daughter relationship the throughline, it makes the ghost characters superfluous...yet they're still there the whole time, pointlessly.

So...yeah. The Beetlejuice musical is a mess, but it isn't because they didn't rethink it for the stage. They very much did...and in nearly every instance stepped wrong.

r459, the Legally Blonde movie wasn't lousy, so no, it wasn't that.

Issues of gender, gender identity and gender role expectation have always been there explicitly in the original text of As You Like It. I'm not sure why anyone feels they need to transplain it to me now.

Part of the problem with adapting well known and beloved source material like a film is the fact the fans of the film tend to freak out if you leave anything out from the original. There's always someone who will screech, "They left out my favorite part!!!"

Or, in the case of something that already has beloved songs/music in the original, you better have them in the stage version. Like with the Willy Wonka musical....the audiences quickly let them know "we adore the old original songs and we don't really care for your new songs".

That's one of the (many) problems with "Bruce" the dumb musical about the making of Jaws that's playing in Seattle right now. They don't have the rights to use any dialogue or the John Williams score so....Jaws without the Jaws theme is pretty limp.

If the new Wonka songs were good enough...

SISTER ACT was one of the recent comedy movies that I've always thought could work on the stage, but as a Jukebox musical like the film.

Incorporate more Motown classics and other popular '50s/'60s tunes.

I did not care for Alan Menken's brand-new score, as much as I love him.

I wonder if you could get a good musical out of the premise (not necessarily the setting or characters) of Boudu Saved From Drowning.

R475 I don't think it would work. Boudu is wry satire...it works because of things left unsaid. It's all subtext. Musicals make you spell everything out.

Down and Out in Beverly Hills did ok adapting Boudu.

"I dialed 911!!!"

But, not as a musical. An entirely different kettle of fish.

[quote]Sondheim was not "to the manner born." Not really.

He was one of those terrible people who move into the neighborhood and expect one to take notice just because they are there.

Not to mention the incessant piano playing.

King Kong, which should never have been a musical

Rocky

Do Footloose and Fame count?

Bullets over Broadway, which gets a special raspberry for its completely random jukebox score.

[Quote] Beetlejuice is almost a secondary character--he actually doesn't have that much screentime.

Emcee in Cabaret is just a mention in the Isherwood, right? I’m sure they thought they were doing something like that.

Why [italic] none [/italic] of the lyrics actually rhyme is a different matter.

Broadway producers' meeting:

" Okay, we have to cast this new musical revival, so let's see which characters we can make black, which male part we can change into a female ( or non-binary, transsexual, or gay ) part. For God's sake, we need to change the casting or we won't be seen as cutting edge. What do you mean, everybody's doing it? We'll explain it better and tell everybody OUR concept is bold and forward-thinking, something never before conceived. Audiences will love it. Fuck an all-female 1776. We will rock their socks off with Billy Porter as Abraham Lincoln."

Here's hoping r482 isn't writing the [italic] Prada [/italic] book.

Here's hoping [R482] isn't writing anything but lame anonymous posts on the Datalounge.

It's Matt. He always write race/gender "jokes." Someone once linked to his sketch comedy, which involved him dragging up like a dumpy hooker. Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

As producers are focused on the tourist dollars, they are pushing jukebox and movie-to-stage shit, fit more for Las Vegas than Broadway.

Anything for a dollar

My Fair Lady is another show that changed the title from the source material.

Hillary Clinton is Vanessa Williams' neighbor in Chappaqua snd they are friendly, which is probably why she is moderating the panel on July 8.

R483 and R484,

"In this production, Richard is not disabled. Sure, he says he is, but O'Hara and Danai Gurira have no interest in portraying or pointing to any deformity. So when everyone continually rails against this "hunchback'd toad" for 3 hours, it means nothing. There is no attempt to help audiences with basic storytelling: I have acted in and directed this play before and I was having a hard time understanding who is related to whom, who is in which position of power at any given time, etc. Colorblind casting only muddles any understanding of families, lineages, etc. American Sign Language is employed sporadically throughout the evening ... the most galling gimmick I've seen in a while, because - and this cannot be overstated enough - the actual production is NOT accessible for deaf audiences. Certain characters are deaf (presumably because the performers are), but this is not used in any theatrical vocabulary: high queens are deaf, low murders are deaf, everyone seems to speak ASL, and yet we also have a translator character ... and there are still moments of untranslated/captioned text that goes signed back and forth for silent minutes. When people refer to "virtue signaling," this is what they mean.

This is not some anti-woke scree, because all these elements can (and have) been utilized together successfully in the past to elevate material and enrich with new meaning. It requires, however, extreme thought and careful consideration to implement as an additional design/direction component - a theatrical alchemy that is totally lacking here. Lots of ideas, zero execution. At the end of the day, everything rests on the intentions of the director; it's never once clear why O'Hara is interested in "Richard III." He has populated this world with people who have drastically different abilities with heightened text (Gurira is good; Ali Stroker is not), while getting in the way of the text at every turn."

[quote] Anything for a dollar

We hear this criticism of producers all the time. They're in business to make money, the sad stupid part is that they're so bad at it. Interesting inventive shows have made money - or at least operated at breakeven while lots of folks can continue to get paid - but now they think hit movies and jukeboxes are a shortcut - when the only path is producing a good show.

Cockneys don't pronounce Mayfair as Myfair.

Yeah, saying he used "shapers" to rhyme with "papers" is not an explanation. The well-known phrase is "movers and shakers". You can't just change the word from a well-known phrase because it will rhyme will something else. Morons.

A majority of musical adaptations of films are primarily brand extensions, produced by film studios to expand revenue streams. For the most part, they're branded, written, composed and designed to be mnemonics for the source material. The mistake that we're making is having hope that they'll be any good and that they'll justify their experience as live performances. These productions and have little to do with theatre art and have even less to do with musical theatre. And truth be told, commercial theatre has always been like this: it's just over the last half century we've also been lucky enough to live through a period when there were serious theatre artists who were serious about expanding and developing the form. And now they're all dead.

But in an age where Mrs Doubtfire/The Devil Wears Prada/Back to the Future can be instantly streamed for less than the cost of an interval drink (and during a period of high inflation and an ongoing pandemic), producers shouldn't be surprised if audiences are apathetic, irrespective of the supposed artistry of the product. It doesn't help that The Back to the Future Musical is a turgid pile of shit that exists only to remind the audience of scenes from a film with which they they are already familiar.

Often. the adaptations that do work are ones that are based on films that are less familiar to an audience, and which were small enough in scale that their dramas can be effectively replicated (and explored and expanded) through a musical idiom - I'm thinking of Once and The Band's Visit.

The original expression was indeed "movers and shapers" r492. It's always been misheard and repeated by morons like you.

Say what you will about Taub, but AS YOU LIKE IT was one of the best things I saw the year it played the park. Unfortunately, the TWELFTH NIGHT (which she did first but I saw after) was just a retread and not as good. It was a Public Works show, so had lots of big black women from local choirs, who were really fun to watch, I remember.

And as to those musicals that they keep shoving songs into and putting on Broadway, LEGALLY BLONDE was much better than most. The ones that truly sucked basically took a great moment from the film and sledgehammered it to death. Thinking of THE WEDDING SINGER and HONEYMOON IN VEGAS particularly. Ugh.

OMG, there really have been more of these awful recent film-to-Broadway musical flops than I remembered. The titles just keep coming. We've probably had 2 dozen of them in the last 20 years with 1/2 dozen still currently scheduled. Not to mention all of the failed attempts that had out of town tryouts and never made it to Broadway.

R468, what bothered June was that Gypsy's memoir is largely fiction and she worried that it would be given credence if it was disseminated in other media.

June's books didn't exactly tell the truth either. I went back and read her two books a number of years ago, and THEY don't even match each other. She apparently forgot what she had written in the first book when she wrote the second. COuldn't even keep her stories straight... :)

Did she mention her lady companions?

[quote] Yeah, saying he used "shapers" to rhyme with "papers" is not an explanation. The well-known phrase is "movers and shakers". You can't just change the word from a well-known phrase because it will rhyme will something else. Morons

Obviously Sondheim could. And did.

Sondheim was so concerned with perfect rhymes that he alternates the name of the location between “the woods” and “the wood” in ITW, depending on what he needs to rhyme with.

I’m not saying this is a bad thing, mind you. Sondheim’s obsessiveness produced some great art.

Coming up- Almost Famous, the musical Back To The Future, the musical Some Like It Hot, the musical The Griswold's Family Vacation, the musical

There was a First Wives Club musical that never made it to Broadway, despite a couple of attempts. Also several different productions of Ever After and Diner that didn't make it.

When does Terms of Endearment, the Musical, open? The "give my daughter the shot" production number, I hear, is genius!

Has The Wedding Singer been mentioned yet?

My god, DINER! I remember when that movie was hotter than blazes! Wonder if it holds up today.

R504 the saucy “Here Comes The Bride” number I also hear is fabulous

Koyaanisqatsi...the Musical

I thought Groundhog Day was pretty great. It never overcame the stigma of being a film adaptation, but the score and staging were extremely strong.

But adaptations can be truly horrible. For me, Tootsie, Beetlejuice, and Honeymoon in Vegas were almost physically painful. I also saw Diner, which was just kind of dull.

But it was already a musical r508.

Who was the lyricist, r510?

Well, since there was only one word I don't suppose it much matters now does it?

[quote]I thought Groundhog Day was pretty great. It never overcame the stigma of being a film adaptation, but the score and staging were extremely strong.

ITA. It was one of my favorites that year, with some great songs, a clever book, and really fun, inventive staging. The cast was terrific, too.

It certainly wasn't "the movie with songs dropped in", as so many other shows are, but really retooled and reexamined the material. In fact, one of the issues some people had with it was that it was [italic]too[/italic] different from movie, being thematically darker and jettisoning most of the rom-com elements to focus instead on the character of weatherman Phil Connors and the residents of Punxsutawny.

[R469] Excellent analysis of the glaring ineptitude behind the writing of BEETLEJUICE: THE MUSICAL. Wanna grab coffee?

Groundhog Day was too clever and dark for its own good. Despite its virtues, it was still messy enough to not be a runaway audience hit. It also could not shake its British drollery, which does not land with American audiences.

It also had the misfortune of being co-produced by a royal Grade-A Cunt named Lia Vollack. As her first major producing gig, she failed the show with her gross ineptitude and snarling arrogance.

please DL, don’t give the producers any ideas!

Interesting, R515. Tim Minchin has since implied that one of the reasons it flopped on Broadway was because of poor producing, and that whatever went down will one day come to light.

“Big” was one of the first “just stick some songs in it” movie to musicals. And it deserved to flop.

I’m actually surprised that they haven’t made either a Ghostbusters or An Officer & a Gentleman into musicals

Apparently, they did do Officer & Gentleman as a musical in Australia

Hugh Jackman should bring it to Broadway.

[quote]Interesting, [R515]. Tim Minchin has since implied that one of the reasons it flopped on Broadway was because of poor producing, and that whatever went down will one day come to light.

Minchin had some animated film he was writing for fall apart at the same time, r517. He performed an impromptu performance at 54Below and let loose. It was very intense.

He can be very darkly hilarious, but he isn't for everyone.

[Quote] It also had the misfortune of being co-produced by a royal Grade-A Cunt named Lia Vollack. As her first major producing gig, she failed the show with her gross ineptitude and snarling arrogance.

She is nasty, yes. Crazy too. But now has a hit with MJ.

R498, but they were HER untruths. She could live with those--just not her sister's.

She lost out on a lot because of her insistence on her own truth being accepted. A major director wanted to do Marathon 33 with a cast of college students, but it fell through because Havoc insisted on credit as co-director even though she would never be near the rehearsal room.

An Officer and a Gentleman is now touring as an 80s Jukebox musical. It's dreadful.

R497 but everything I listed at R468 is documented to be true.

What did June object to about the musical, specifically?

The only thing I can think of is that she most likely wasn't happy with her portrayal as a spoiled, precocious brat.

Also, she probably didn't like that the musical made it seem as if she spitefully ran off with her sister's love interest.

In reality, the character of 'Tulsa' was a composite of two chorus boys in the act -- the one June eloped with and the one Louise/Gypsy would watch practice his dance routines in the alley and pretend she was his partner.

However, Louise/Gypsy's crush did like June and Louise/Gypsy was momentarily crushed when she believed they ran away together but then became elated when she saw him still around and realized it was a different boy.

At any rate, the 1962 movie fixed this and made 'Tulsa' and June's beau two separate characters, like in real life.

There are musical adaptations of A Walk on the Moon and The Flamingo Kid out there, too. So far no luck getting close to Broadway.

And The Witches of Eastwick musical has been done everywhere but Broadway.

I much rather see all the woke theater the trolls whine about than another movie title with songs stuffed into it

Was it June's objections that caused them to change the characters of June and Tulsa's relationship for the film? I can't imagine a reason to do it otherwise as it kind of nicely ties up a couple of character arcs.

Let's ask June...

Isn’t it almost time a Glenn Close re-revival of “Sunset Blvd”?

^^ “for” a

June was pissed because they didn't tell the *true* story of Mama: she shot one of her lesbian lovers.

A decent capture of Groundhog Day. for anyone interested.

The term "movers and shakers" was coined by British poet Arthur O'Shaughnessy (1844–1881) in his 1874 poem "Ode", and is commonly used to describe powerful and worldly individuals and groups and those who make great accomplishments.

Pia Zadora as Mrs Brice with Lea

Don’t forget the musical version of Death Becomes Her that was announced a few years ago that was to have Kristi Dawn Chenoweth as one of the leads. I guess death became it because nothing has been announced about it since.

I just heard from a reliable source that DL fave Debra Winger is in negotiations to play Mrs Bruce opposite Lea Michele in the fall.

I think the time has come for a Pia Zamora comeback. Time has passed. We can forgive “Butterfly” and “Harold Robbins’ The Lonely Lady” now.

I’m not saying I want to see her Mary Tyrone, but…

ZAMORA?? How did autocorrect come up with that?

[bold]ZADORA ! ! !

The great movie to musical adaptations, like... "A Little Night Music," were adapted from non-obvious source material."

Not only that. The best adaptors (Hugh Wheeler, Alan Jay Lerner) either tease out themes and metaphors that are latent in the source material or impose their own concerns onto the piece. In the process, they distinguish the adaptation from the original and transform the property into something original, unlike the majority of today's woeful screen-to-stage transfers. Only Lerner could have brought his "serial romantic" sensibility to musicals like MY FAIR LADY or GIGI. Only Wheeler could underscore the sense of mortality beneath the sex comedy of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. Which is why the notion of writers "revising" librettos conceived by others from their own life experience usually ends in disaster.

I think they had to do the same with Ragtime. The non-white stories were brought to the forefront.

There should be a stage musical made from "O Brother, Where Are Thou?"

[quote]I think the time has come for a Pia Zamora comeback

I've been wondering where she is. Isn't that a song from "Finian's Rainbow"?

"Have you seen Pia Zamora . . . ?"

How are things in Pia Zamora?

[quote]How are things in Pia Zamora?

Doesn't fit the original melody. Fail.

She was in “Zamora, the Greek” but replaced in New Haven by Herschel Bernardi (of all people)

I liked that Alice clip when Lucy and Viv did it.

Ooops. Wrong thread.

How are things in that Zamora?

[quote] I think they had to do the same with Ragtime. The non-white stories were brought to the forefront.

This is an odd comment for two reasons

1) If we’re talking about musicals from movies, the movie of Ragtime is almost only the Coalhouse Walkers story, and has very little other than the “non-white” story. Both the WASPs and the immigrants were minimized to almost nothing.

2) If you’re talking about adapting the novel, the musical’s balance of stories is pretty close to the novel’s.

The musical is a much better representation of the novel than the movie was, but in no way could you claim that the non-white stories were brought to the forefront. The white stories were restored.

Pertinent to out, well, some people's, interests.

[quote]The score to TOOTSIE is quite bad, probably the weakest David Yazbek has ever written.

I can't remember any of Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels's songs. The only songs I remember belong to the best friend and to the ex-girlfriend.

What’s the difference between theatre gossip and insufferable gaysplaining?

Answer: gossip is fun to read

Here today, gone Zamora . . .

I loved Pia Zamora on The Real World! I'm sorry she died.

Whatever happened to Adrian Zamorad?

The only Zamora I know is this guy from the third season of THE REAL WORLD in San Francisco.

Very famous in 1994 when the season aired in the summer and then his sudden death in the fall.

Lots of news coverage.

Bill Clinton even intervened on his behalf to get his remaining siblings still in Cuba to be at his bedside when he died of AIDS.

Ah, R556 beat me to it.

R533, Groundhog Day! I forget that was even a production.

Just more shit Bway has hoisted on the public for a buck

I don't want to hear any Zamora about that show.

How come Howard da Silva is t on the 1776 recording? I used to know but I forgot

Was that Debra Winger FG post a joke? I really can't tell.

R562, Howard da Silva had a heart attack early in the run of 1776 and therefore missed the recording session. Happily, he got to preserve his performance in the movie version.

Debra Winger is toxic. Very few will take a chance and hire her.

What about the musical version of Sleepless in Seattle which was produced in London under the title Sleepless? There was also a musical version of My Best Friend’s Wedding (with a book by Beautiful Thing playwright Jonathan Harvey) which I think got disrupted because of Covid.

Zamora! Zamora! I love ya! Zamora!

Debbie Wings was fabulous as Nanette in the Bridgewater Playhouse production of No, No, Nanette in 2017

Ogunquit is doing this now....

Zamora zamerrier.

Zamora Gabora

[quite]Let's ask June...

Thanks for the link R5289, that was a fabulous hour. She seemed like a cool lady.

She had her own friggin' town *and* played Mrs. Lovett, r572!

The man with the big...

Taking over Sadie Thompson when Ethel dropped out.

From r569’s post

[Quote] AUDIENCE RESPONSE

“The show is an absolute delight! Go see it!” — Camille Carnell Pronovost

“The main character was EXCELLENT! Totally enjoyed it!” — Laura Cappello Fraser

“Loved the music. My entire family was blown away by the band!” — Lindsey Blake

“Spectacular performance. Dancers were super and the plot was superb.” — Nancy Klayman

“So entertaining. Love all the characters. Turning it into a musical was a great idea!!” — Marlene Feuer

“Exceeded our expectations. Great entertainment. We will recommend it to others.” — James Huddleston

“Dan truly appeared to be 2 separate people; the voice, stature, mannerisms. Perfect!” — Debra Arsenault

“Perfect for my 11 year old son’s first show. I’m grateful to introduce him to shows in Ogunquit!” — Theresa Oakes

The incredibly talented Christian Borle spotted on the street in midtown with....about thirty-five added pounds.

The original NUTTY PROFESSOR movie with Jerry Lewis was a hit, but that was 59 years ago. If the title is known to theatregoers under age 60+, they're probably more likely to associate it with the Eddie Murphy remake from 1996, which was a very big hit.

It's interesting that they appear to have cast the stage version with a Jerry Lewis type in mind and not Eddie Murphy.

thirty-five pounds of COCK

I'm sorry, r576, but Camille Carnell Pronovost is a crack whore and Marlene Feuer murdered her mother-in-law. I refuse to take their recommendation on anything.

[quote] Taking over Sadie Thompson when Ethel dropped out.

But did she take over Twigs? I think not!

Pssst, New York?

Betty Grable ADORES you!

wait a minute....

Helen Lawson was.... MAME?

[quote]We will rock their socks off with Billy Porter as Abraham Lincoln."

I will only accept thd offer if I am allowed to play Abe AND Mary Todd Lincoln.

Helen Hayward lost her voice early in the run and had to be replaced by Celeste Holm. It was a Vegas ‘tab’ version.

Was Carol Channing (gasp!) not a natural blonde?

She was wise to bleach her hair. The dark hair makes her look a little.... butch.

If I remember correctly, Celeste Holm came to Vegas and was bitchy as usual (like she acting like she was doing someone a favor), which didn't endear herself to Susan Hayward.

[quote]Was Carol Channing (gasp!) not a natural blonde? She was wise to bleach her hair. The dark hair makes her look a little.... butch.

Carol learned early in her career that gentlemen prefer blondes.

That pic of Channing is sublime. Her outside of her persona.

[quote]The dark hair makes her look a little.... butch.

That, and she had the voice of an Ice Road Trucker.

Bless her heart.

That Carol photo is like finding one with a frizzy, red-headed Patti LuPone.

It really is amazing how the platinum blonde transformed her look.

(It also may explain why she began wearing wigs frequently. Peroxide can destroy your hair.)

Carol Channing was a natural blonde, just not a platinum blonde, like the wigs she often wore in the last few decades of her life.

But she dyed her hair dark when she took over for Roz Russell in Wonderful Town, and wore a dark wig for Legends.

Pulled back hair did nothing for her.

Flo, she don't know how to sing pop.

Carol in Wonderful Town

new thread....

anyone brave enough to go for it?

Anyone else getting a Cindy Wilson vibe at R593?

BAJOUR!

Did Dolores Gray ever do Wonderful Town?