THEATRE GOSSIP #484: The Understudy's Understudy

Previous thread

The woods are just trees, except for the understory, where they tend more to bushes and ferns

I sorta hate it ask it, but can I lick your basket?

Haha

My college friend and I used to (drunkenly) sing that as, [italic] “I sort of hate it ask it, but do you stuff your basket?”

That was the title you rushed to bring us, OP?

I want to speak to a manager.

Benko taking over as full time for the first is very different. She can build a rhythm cuz she knows she’s going on every night. The dressing room is now 100% hers. She can invite the industry to come any day they want for the next month. She’s 100% in control of when she’s going on, I’d be thrilled to be in her position now.

Julie makes the town SMILE again!

This girl has captured Broadway’s heart.

R9 Wow, she is really going there.

Why hasn’t Beanie replied in the thread to wish her well?

[quote]Why hasn’t Beanie replied in the thread to wish her well?

Because she is a LOUSE!

r5 Go on then cunt, dazzle us with your wit and tell us what the title should've been

Will the producers have the press agents book Julie anywhere if they can, as the star is born story, or will they keep the publicity chill until Lea?

For those of you who have seen Benko in FG, is she really all that—a big star in the making? Or is it that she's just not Beanie? And that's good enough?

Also, will she understudy Lea??

How about a moratorium on FG until the bitches take over? There's nothing to say about it until September, anyway.

How fucking dare you

Linda Lavin's new play will not be on Broadway, it will appear at Roundabout's off-Broadway space, the Laura Pels Theatre.

[quote]Benko taking over as full time for the first is very different. She can build a rhythm cuz she knows she’s going on every night. The dressing room is now 100% hers. She can invite the industry to come any day they want for the next month. She’s 100% in control of when she’s going on, I’d be thrilled to be in her position now.

I know, and I agree with all that. I just meant to say that I'm guessing the audience response to her performance won't be all that different from when she went on as the standby all those times.

[quote]For those of you who have seen Benko in FG, is she really all that—a big star in the making? Or is it that she's just not Beanie? And that's good enough?

I would say she is a star in the making, but it's maybe not as obvious in this show as it would be in another, because this FG is so badly produced. And also, many people seem to agree that the show itself is not well written overall even though it has a few really famous, killer songs, plus anyone cast as Fanny Brice has to perform in the VERY long shadow of Streisand.

I hope Julie B has a great new production in the fall (Merrily, please!) and doesn't have to stay with FG as Lea's standby.

In case some of you missed the news, Julie will be playing one performance a week regularly -- Thursday nights, I think -- after Lea starts. She will also continue as the standby, at least for the beginning of the run. I have no idea how long she's contracted for. And there is also an understudy for Fanny, who has already gone on once.

Is Julie the right age with Groff and Radcliffe?

R22-You're right. I think they've signed Glenn Close.

They removed Beanie's caricature from the website and just have Julies photo. I wonder if they'll do a cartoon version of Lea - lips and all.

In Julie's defense, an understudy has to essentially perform the part as the star does, she can't take many liberties. Julie, now, can make it her own... at least for a month.

[bold] POTUS is being filmed!!!!! [/bold]

[italic] *for the Lincoln Center Library. Wah-wah.[/italic]

Just dreamt of Ramin sitting on my face during his break next week.

Julie Benko is common. As dirt.

[quote] In Julie's defense, an understudy has to essentially perform the part as the star does, she can't take many liberties.

I'm pretty sure no one in that company wants Benko to copy Beanie's performance.

r28 = Beanie

Speaking of homicidal pigs, THE BUTCHER BOY has opened off-Bway!

I thought Barasch was doing the National tour of Hadestown.

He was, but dropped out to do this instead.

He's quite good. The show itself..... well...

R32, in what role? I think he would be pretty terrible in the Reeve Carney role.

Don't contracts mean anything anymore?

Remember that glorious day when Jesse Williams leaked those videos of his huge dong for us?

And Jesse Tyler Ferguson MARY'd all over twitter about violation and consent and how dare any of you come to the show just for the nudity?

Seems like ages ago.

Get a grip, R36

Regrettably, I think R36 has a firm grip: on his privates.

‘Julie Benko, who became an overnight star on Broadway brings her Funny Girl across America!’

Tag line for the national tour.

r38 lmao

Who's Benko's U/S?

R36 if only some of our other favorites would leak photos of their dongs. At half mast, at least.

Let me draw up a list......

r41 Ephie Aardema

A reminder: It's only been four months.

Having been reminded recently that Karen Olivo now goes by "KO" (don't get me started), I'm wondering if we can let our minds wander and think up fun things those letters might stand for other than her actual name. I had an idea for the first letter, but the word I'm thinking of actually starts with a "c" rather than a "k."

Cacophony, r45?

[quote]Having been reminded recently that Karen Olivo now goes by "KO"

And she's a knockout!

A tour of this FUNNY GIRL would look even cheaper than the Bway version.

And that scares me.

[quote]Having been reminded recently that Karen Olivo now goes by "KO"

Who could take seriously someone with a name like that?

[quote]Cacophony, [R45]?

Ummm......yeah! That's it! Really!!!

We beg your pardon, r49?

[quote]Poncie Ponce & Pupi Campo

Both very fine names.

Shut up, Piccola.

I remember Frank Rich made fun of the late Mary Mara’s name, calling it “music hall-ish.”

It was like, oh god, don’t you have anything better to do??

The original Funny Girl does not look like it spent a lot of money on sets and costumes either except for Streisand's Sharaff wardrobe. The money seems to have been spent on the outstanding cast and the long tryout period.

But this one looks like a real cartoon. Much like Rudin's Hello Dolly.

Sad news.

But this one looks like a real cartoon. Much like Rudin's Hello Dolly.

The set and costume designs for the current FG are largely awful, but I wouldn't describe than as cartoonish. And the designs for Rudin's HELLO, DOLLY were wonderful and also largely patterned on the originals, so I'm surprised if you disliked them.

r54's post reminds me of the lovely actor Peter Frechette who seemed to appear everywhere in NY theater in the 1980s and, at least into the mid-90s. WHET? He and Danny Gerroll. Michael Countryman, Anthony Heald, Dylan Baker, Dennis Boutsikaris and Michael Cumpsty were in everything back then.

As were Nathan Lane and Boyd Gaines, but we know what happened to them.

What's taking The Music Box?

Sorry:

[quote]The original Funny Girl does not look like it spent a lot of money on sets and costumes either except for Streisand's Sharaff wardrobe. The money seems to have been spent on the outstanding cast and the long tryout period. But this one looks like a real cartoon. Much like Rudin's Hello Dolly.

The set and costume designs for the current FG are awful, but I wouldn't describe than as cartoonish. And the designs for Rudin's HELLO, DOLLY were wonderful and also largely patterned on the originals, so I'm surprised if you disliked them.

Is anyone going to review Benko?

Sorry, but IMHO Santo Loquasto's heavy-handed set and costume designs for the Rudin DOLLY mostly lacked the wit and whimsy of the Oliver Smith and Freddy Wittop originals.

The FUNNY GIRL revival designs are just depressing. Is Susan Hilferty color blind?

Say what you want about Liza in V/V - she looked adorable dressed as a man.

Not a great performance but she was helping out a friend. She looks great with her hair all slicked back. So cute.

[R54]'s post reminds me of the lovely actor Peter Frechette who seemed to appear everywhere in NY theater in the 1980s and, at least into the mid-90s. WHET?

He and his husband - and their cats - moved to Atlanta, but they are both very involved in entertainment, r58. Frechette will be playing the dual roles E.M. Forster and Walter Poole in a play by Matthew Lopez at ZACH in Austin next week. Peter is a very fine actor and a super sweet individual.

Let's try that again with the quote function:

[quote][[R54]]'s post reminds me of the lovely actor Peter Frechette who seemed to appear everywhere in NY theater in the 1980s and, at least into the mid-90s. WHET?

He and his husband - and their cats - moved to Atlanta, but they are both very involved in entertainment, [R58]. Frechette will be playing the dual roles E.M. Forster and Walter Poole in a play by Matthew Lopez at ZACH in Austin next week. Peter is a very fine actor and a super sweet individual.

He was an interesting Roy Cohn in AIA, too.

[quote] New World Stages isn't a bad space for smaller shows. Not great, but not bad. I can't imagine what the "backstage" conditions are like, though, as it really wasn't designed for live performances. It still lives on in my mind as the $2/$3 movie multiplex it once was in the early 90

Actually it was designed for live performances. The entire building was gutted, those aren't the movie auditoriums but built from scratch with dressing rooms etc.

It still lives on in my mind as the $2/$3 movie multiplex it once was in the early 90

"Moulin Rouge" is celebrating three years on Broadway? They were closed for two years.

Moulin needs to do something. They were robbed of the "BEST MUSICAL" energy/money because of the Fall Tonys and the Omicron filled December. It's looking like Moulin be another "Billy Elliot". They thought it would run for years, but it runs only 3.

I am speaking from photos. But the Rubin Hello Dolly looks like a garish eyesore. I love the photos from the original Broadway production. The sets and costumes look light and elegant. I actually did see it but I was a young boy. I just remember David Burns getting huge laughs, the waiters leaping over the orchestra pit(I didn't know it was ok to do that) and Channing coming out in white at the end as if it were the stargate sequence in 2001. Like the St James was going to explode. Unfortunately the rest is a blur.

Julie Benko is a goo age for MWRA. She’s 31, Radcliffe is 33, and Groff is 35-36.

I think FG would not want her officially reviewed before Lea gets her chance.

[quote]R61 Is anyone going to review Benko?

I want the marquee changed to FUNNY BENKO! for a night.

[quote]R70 Julie Benko is a goo age for MWRA

My bussy is goo aged - but looks 32

Do you expect the critics to see Funny Girl 3 times??? Once was too any times.

r64, r65, thanks for the info and link. Do you happen to know if Peter's husband is David Warren, former theater and, I think now, TV director? They were partnered together years ago when I knew them but I've lost track of both gents.

random question... Why did Norbert Leo take 2 weeks off during the original run of Wicked and Taye DIggs took over

R69, are you judging the sets for the Rudin Hello, Dolly! based on photos? That production was very tight on releasing images. And, apart from the Harmonia Gardens set not quite fitting on the stage, that set was flawless.

If you didn’t see that production live, it’s better to remain silent. In general, it’s wise not to comment on shows you didn’t see, but most of the appeal of that production was in the live experience.

[quote] If you didn’t see that production live, it’s better to remain silent.

Damn.

[quote][R64], [R65], thanks for the info and link. Do you happen to know if Peter's husband is David Warren, former theater and, I think now, TV director? They were partnered together years ago when I knew them but I've lost track of both gents.

You're welcome, and yes, r74. They married about 5 years ago. David does work in tv as well. I never really knew David, but I correspond with Peter a few times a year. We did some shows together. Generous, smart and very kind.

I don't recall the critics having anything negative to say about the sets of the Scott Rudin HELLO, DOLLY! Once again, only on DataLounge....

And P.S., I think it's very reasonable to suggest that people who DIDN'T SEE THE PRODUCTION not comment on the set designs "based on photos."

Benko publicity

So...svelte.

From that article

[Quote] Benko began imagining a career in musical theater after a production of “Fiddler on the Roof” at a local J.C.C., in which her father played the innkeeper

Who the fuck in the innkeeper in Fiddler?

Reb Mordcha - the inn is the setting for the 'To Life' number.

From r80 article

[quote] In an email praising Benko, Michele called her commitment to the production “a savior” to the show amid Covid and the casting transition.

I love how Lea Michele is already speaking for the company, about someone she’s never even met.

I saw the Midler Hello, Dolly and I thought the sets were cheap looking crap.

[quote]I love how Lea Michele is already speaking for the company, about someone she’s never even met.

Perhaps you can explain to us all what's wrong with Lea Michele praising Julie for sticking with the show as its full-time star for a month while Lea prepares over the take over the role, and also for agreeing to continue as a one-performance-per-week alternate as well as the standby thereafter? Julie's having signed on for all of that makes the transition much easier than if she had declined to do any part of it. Do you really feel that Lea needs to have met her to praise her for that? Or are you just talking out of your nasty ass?

It might have looked cheap because some of those actors were chewing on it big time!

[quote]I saw the Midler Hello, Dolly and I thought the sets were cheap looking crap.

That's because you have no historical perspective and no awareness of the fact that the sets were deliberately designed to look like relatively simple, old-time Broadway sets because of the style of the show.

[quote]It might have looked cheap because some of those actors were chewing on it big time!

Ha! There's some truth in that. If Beanie Felstein had cackled and screamed one more time in the smallish role of Minnie Fay, as part of her painfully annoying attempt to draw more focus, I would have started screaming back at her from my seat in the 10th row.

[Quote] That's because you have no historical perspective

No doubt you have plenty r88.

R75. I think Norbert was having back issues and either had surgery or took time off to heal so Diggs took over but I think it was longer than 2 weeks.

Julie Benko has been a savior and producers are lucky audiences love her. But she’s not doing anybody any favors by playing the role for a month and every Thursday after that. It’s her job.

Yes I do, R90, and I'm proud of it. But there's nothing wrong with lacking historical perspective unless one feels it necessary to express opinions that require it.

[quote]But she’s not doing anybody any favors by playing the role for a month and every Thursday after that. It’s her job.

Your point, r92?

Yes from the photos those sets do indeed appear to be cheap looking crap. And the costumes hurt one's eyes.

' relatively simple, old-time Broadway sets because of the style of the show.'

I was fortunate enough to see the sets of Oliver Smith, Raoul Pene Du Bois and Robert Randolph. They were better than what you are implying.

Lord almighty, Gertrude and Bertha are at it again.

[quote]But she’s not doing anybody any favors by playing the role for a month and every Thursday after that. It’s her job.

Julie was hired as the standby for the role of Fanny Brice, presumably with the idea that she would occasionally be going on for Beanie Feldstein. During Beanie's "run," she wound up going on almost as often as Beanie herself, which was not something anyone would have expected. Then, when Beanie chose to leave the show even before her contract ended, Julie agreed to take over the role for a month and then yield to a bigger name, at which time Julie would then become an alternate performing the role only once a week. She didn't have to agree to any of that, and that's why the producers and Lea Michele should indeed be grateful to her.

[quote]Yes from the photos those sets do indeed appear to be cheap looking crap.

But they weren't.

[quote]I was fortunate enough to see the sets of Oliver Smith, Raoul Pene Du Bois and Robert Randolph. They were better than what you are implying.

I saw the original Broadway production of HELLO, DOLLY!, as well as both revivals with Channing and one with Pearl Bailey, and I stand by my statement that the designs of the Rudin production were very much along the same lines. But also, I didn't make any negative comments about the original designs, as you would understand if you didn't have a problem with reading comprehension.

The sets and costumes for the Dolly revival were indeed garish and hideous.

What is the cause of death for Darius Barnes? Not listed anywhere. 🤔

There are “rumors that it was related to an illness,” whatever that means.

I have always found peter frechette hot as chips. Those big Roman noses really get me hard. And he is in Grease 2.

There was nothing cheap about the sets. You're just being a little bitch.

[Quote] problem with reading comprehension

Whenever Gertrude, Bertha or any other bitch starts malingering someone’s “reading comprehension,” we know we’re in for a long night. Please pass me my Harvey’s Bristol Cream.

It's certainly true that the costumes are cartoonish, though. I don't recall any men in The Gilded Age on TV wearing bright green or orange suits. It reads kinda like arrows pointing to the stage saying "It's a MUSICAL."

Thanks, R102. In particular, I remember the design of the drop seen in that thumbnail image being really gorgeous. Who are these frekazoids INSISTING that the designs of that DOLLY! were "garish," "cartoonish," and "hideous?"

Google is your friend, R75.

Oh God I meant 'maligning' not 'malingering.' Damn.

My first thought about Butz was the family tragedy, but that didn't happen until 2009.

[quote] There was nothing cheap about the sets. You're just being a little bitch.

You're arguing with at least three different people. I don't know why you think it's only one. Oh, yes I do. Because you think your opinion is the only one that matters.

[quote]It's certainly true that the costumes are cartoonish, though. I don't recall any men in The Gilded Age on TV wearing bright green or orange suits. It reads kinda like arrows pointing to the stage saying "It's a MUSICAL."

Were you confusing it with a documentary before that scene?

[quote]You're arguing with at least three different people. I don't know why you think it's only one. Oh, yes I do. Because you think your opinion is the only one that matters.

What makes you so sure the poster in question thinks he was arguing with only one person? I think we all realize there are multiple bitches in this thead. I know I do, and I'm not the poster you're addressing.

[quote]there are multiple bitches in this thread

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

Angelica Ross is going into Chicago as Roxie.

So, um, that pregnancy storyline....

Perhaps, acting?

That’s right, R114, she’s an actre…uhhh…actor so has the right to play any role at any time.

This is ridiculous stunt casting when there’s already the twist concerning Mary Sunshine.

The fat queen on the Facebook Broadway Remembered page has stamped his dainty hoof in anger again.

[quote] To make sure it is more visible: Beanie has been bullied off the stage by cruel "fans" who are no fans at all. Unfortunately, much of that has happened here, and despite countless warnings, has not even slowed down. This has led to the unfortunate decision we were trying to avoid to ban outright ALL discussion of Funny Girl and Beanie here. No more posts about either subject, POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE, will be approved, and people who post ANY cruel comments will be BANNED. This is your warning. We did not want to ban this outright because it is a great show and she is a talented actress, but enough is enough. She does not deserve this. Positive posts will not lead to a ban, but they will not be approved because the comments devolve when bullies feel the need to jump in. It happens every time. People who laugh about this post will also be banned.

If nothing else, it will certainly bring new meaning to "We Both Reached For the Gun."

R115- Wait until she takes over as the Baker's Wife.

[quote] has stamped his dainty hoof in anger again.

LMAO

R116, that "Broadway Remembered" warning post you quoted is so ridiculous that it almost seems like a parody, but alas, given my own experience during my limited time on that page, I know it's not without even bothering to check.

What's taking The Music Box?

[quote]To make sure it is more visible: Beanie has been bullied off the stage by cruel "fans" who are no fans at all.

How do these people even convince themselves that what they say is true? This is even dumber than the "it's anti-Semitic to say she got the role due to nepotism" line

Beanie was bad in the part. There. I said it.

R121-Tyler Maynard.

[quote]How do these people even convince themselves that what they say is true?

Honey, half this country thinks Trump is a great leader and want him back.

[quote]What's taking The Music Box?

Beanie Feldstein in a one-person production of Genet's "The Maids".

Tickets going fast!

Beanie in a one-person play Gertrude Stein: The Early Years.

Because, just...

Ah, so Connie Stevens was always old looking and awful.

How horrible that those wonderful dancers had to support Stevens' high gloss mediocrity.

[quote]The fat queen on the Facebook Broadway Remembered page has stamped his dainty hoof in anger again.

In the age of participation trophies, anyone who expresses even constructive criticism is a "bully."

Has anyone seen MR MISS AMERICA? Looks terrific. In its final week.

[quote] What's taking The Music Box?

How many times are you going to ask r59/r121?

Re r116, hell hath no fury like a ____________________?

I’m afraid to watch the R102 number, because it could be a Stealth Beanie Vid.

Is SHE in it?

What a weird performance - Connie Stevens singing and dancing a medley from George M in 1970! Was the show (which I loved!) still running on Broadway? Why would they bring Connie, who had absolutely nothing to do with it, on the Sullivan show? Talk about arbitrary. But 1970 was just that time when American culture was really at confused crossroads trying to figure out what audiences wanted to see. Kind of like now.

I don’t even think Connie Stevens is really singing - doesn’t that sound pre recorded?

How can a performer get excited about going on TV just to move their lips? It’s embarrassing.

"Black Theatre United has announced a partnership with Alexander Consulting Group to create a digital Unconscious Bias and Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Accessibility & Belonging (EDIAB) training program."

Oh god they've added another letter to this stuff too. Belonging my ass.

[quote] What's taking The Music Box?

Who's Kathleen Chalfant's GF?

[quote] Is SHE in it?

Speaking of hooves.....

Maybe she was trying to snag her role in the movie version of Star-Spangled Girl, r136.

[quote]What a weird performance - Connie Stevens singing and dancing a medley from George M in 1970! Was the show (which I loved!) still r0unning on Broadway?

"George M!" had closed more than a year before Connie's performance, which she did a couple of weeks before the Fourth of July. I don't think it was intended as a medley from the musical. By June of 1970, protests against the escalation of the Vietnam War had ramped up across the U.S., prompted by the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. In the spring of 1970, there were student strikes at colleges and universities across the country. The old-fashioned patriotism celebrated by Cohan songs would have looked pretty moldy and irrelevant to many people at that time. Connie's number may have been intended to reassure the "Silent Majority" that hippies were not, in fact, taking over t the country.

Oh yeah, Connie Stevens in her bell bottoms and sleeve garters would really make those Cohan songs so much less moldy.

Anyone see ORESTIA at The Armory? Was offered a comp for tomorrow night, but 3 1/2 hours....

What's taking The Music Box?

[quote]What's taking The Music Box?

A revival of "The Blonde in the Thunderbird."

[quote]Has anyone seen MR MISS AMERICA?

Is it about Anita Bryant's husband?

Because...oh...

R147. In a manner of speaking, yes.

It’s hard to convey how much I detest that number by Connie Stevens, especially her gleeful little cries of delight while kicking.

[quote]It’s hard to convey how much I detest that number by Connie Stevens, especially her gleeful little cries of delight while kicking.

Everybody's a critic.

[quote]R130 How horrible that those wonderful dancers had to support Stevens' high gloss mediocrity.

It should be labeled “Ode to White Privilege.”

Let’s all us darkies dance around the white lady, because she got a nose job and bleached her hair. THAT’S what makes a star!

A tribute to George M. Cohan, whose music had been made modestly popular again by the Broadway show. Not a direct nod to the show itself. He was one of the most popular songwriters of the first half of the 20th century and many elders still enjoyed his work tremendously at the time.

The funniest thing to me about Connie Stevens is she was under contract to Warner Bros. When they make MY FAIR LADY and WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF.

She campaigned mightily for the roles of Eliza and Honey. I don’t know which she was less suited to.

Beanie found a new job, y’all.

5K? Beanie? I'd buy a ticket to that (but not Funny Girl).

[quote]It’s hard to convey how much I detest that number by Connie Stevens, especially her gleeful little cries of delight while kicking.

She was fine, it was 1970 and the country was still patriotic.

^^ is her song prerecorded? If so, I just find that so tacky. I know some “artists” do that, but come on, Connie! Is it really that hard?

What's that Carole King song, r155...

Psssstttt shhhhhh Bette & Beanie

Connie was like Lola Heatherton: Singer! Actress! Dancer! Entertainer!...but mostly Entertainer!

I feel I need to come to poor Connie's defense. She's really was charming in her early TV shows. She was "Cricket" on Hawaiian Eye, and I loved her as "Wendy" in Wendy and Me. Unfortunately, she never really grew into more of an actress.

Connie gets a song on every damn Hawaiian Eye episode, r62 Sometimes they're cute, but they're usually a standard and she has neither the voice nor the style to do them justice. She gets to wear some really cute hats though.

^ r162

Where is her Phaedra? Her Lady Macbeth?

I found her Mary Tyrone to be beyond words, r165...

I hadn't seen Hawaiian Eye since the original broadcasts but I've watched a few episodes on MeTV in the past few weeks at 3 or 4 in the morning. Anthony Eisley and his pornstache were so hot!. A day or two ago there was a really hot pornstache victim on a Perry Mason rerun. I checked IMDB for his identity and it was Eisley!

I guess I don't have to say I'm an eldergay with a mustache fetish.

What *is* it with Eisley's mustache, r167? Why does it look fake? Is it just pale or sparse? It looks like they pencil over it.

[quote]The funniest thing to me about Connie Stevens is she was under contract to Warner Bros. When they make MY FAIR LADY and WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF.

If she'd gotten WOOLF Liz might have been able to warn her about Eddie Fisher, whom she married a few years later.

[quote] It should be labeled “Ode to White Privilege.”

This is exactly white privilege in action. Everyone is supposed to love and adore the mediocre white lady, while people with true talent are relegated to the background.

I will come to the lady’s defense cuz Miss Connie did a good album of Hank Williams material in 1962.

[quote]Is her song prerecorded? If so, I just find that so tacky. I know some “artists” do that, but come on, Connie! Is it really that hard?

In the old days of TV variety shows, the vocals of production numbers involving a lot of dancing and movement were almost always pre-recorded, for obvious reasons.

Connie Stevens (born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingolia; August 8, 1938)[1] is an American actress and singer. Born in Brooklyn, New York City to musician parents, Stevens was raised there until age 12, when she was sent to live with family friends in rural Missouri after she witnessed a murder in the city. In 1953, at age 15, Stevens relocated with her father to Los Angeles, California.

She began her career in 1957, making her feature film debut in Young and Dangerous, before releasing her debut album, Concetta, the following year. She subsequently had a supporting role in the musical comedy Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958) opposite Jerry Lewis, followed by the drama film The Party Crashers (also 1958) opposite Frances Farmer.

Stevens gained widespread recognition for her portrayal of "Cricket" Blake on the network television series Hawaiian Eye, beginning in 1959. She garnered concurrent musical success when her single "Sixteen Reasons" became a radio hit, peaking at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the UK Singles Chart in 1960. Stevens continued to appear in film and television throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as well as performing as a musical nightclub act.[2]

Stevens' later film roles include in the comedy Tapeheads (1988) and the drama Love Is All There Is (1996). In 2009, Stevens made her directorial debut with the feature film Saving Grace B. Jones, which she also wrote and produced, based partly on elements of her own childhood.

The whole Ingolia family were whores… men and women alike!

[quote] Connie Stevens

CUNT!

That is genius, R171. Thank you!

You all 100

Make your own damn Connie Stevens thread unless she did THEATER

Connie did do theater. She starred in The Star Spangled Girl and she was so brilliant that nobody has ever attempted to revive it on Broadway. Can the same be said for Barbra Streisand and Funny Girl?

Jesus fuck I can’t wait for Lea Michelle come in just so I don’t have to hear that nonentity understudy’s name ever again.

Connie Stevens was great as Salty Sanderson in Murder Can Hurt You

Connie got her reward via Eddie Fisher's massive cock.

r180, you're tired of hearing Ephie Aardema's name?

This is the first time I've been able to post since the site meltdown last Friday. In the last thread I mentioned that John Riddle (currently of Titanique, recently of Phantom) is a dreamboat, someone else agreed he's beautiful, and someone else said that if you're going to say someone's beautiful you should post pictures. I pulled some to post...and then the site melted down.

The thread can always use more photos, so here's Mr. Riddle.

Riddle 2

Trying that again

Singing

meh.

Blue label.

People acting like Lea will be some revelation are delusional, better than Beanie sure, but this replacement is not going to be on par with Reba in AGYG. That was lightning in a bottle, this is simply an improvement from someone who is horrendous. Lea will be good, Beanie is atrocious. Bernadette was great in the role, Reba was spectacular and took everyone by surprise, she was the toast of the town. Audiences and producers still want Reba to come back to Broadway. Lea will be forgotten by next January. Trust an old theatre queen.

R184 He has a big dick too

Reba was great as Annie but she was too old then and is very old now. She won't be coming back. She showed shoddy professionalism when she showed up at that otherwise very fine Carnegie Hall South Pacific concert unfamiliar with the book and getting some of the lyrics wrong.

I saw Reba in Annie Get Your Gun. Her singing was great, but in the book scenes, to paraphrase Sondheim, “she should have gone to an acting school that seems clear.” Still, she was miles ahead of Bernadette.

[r191] well…of course we want to know details of how that came to be known

R192 you mean the one where she had less than 2 weeks to prepare and Alec was reading ahead in the script and couldn't find his line immediately. He had to go back three or four pages in the script to find his line.

Remember when Alec tried to start an Encores for plays? I think he did Arsenic & Old Lace. I can’t remember the other two.

Reba's very thick country accent, which apparently she cannot control, disqualifies her from most roles. Many years ago, she might have been great as Molly Brown or as Ado Annie in OKLAHOMA!, even if her accent doesn't match those roles exactly. (Apparently, it didn't match the real Annie Oakley's accent, either.)

[quote]Remember when Alec tried to start an Encores for plays? I think he did Arsenic & Old Lace. I can’t remember the other two.

I don't remember but always thought that would be a good idea. What do you remember about it? Where did they do it?

R197 as if Bernadette or Susan Lucci did, with that mid-Atlantic baby voice and the old WASP whore voice.

Arsenic was done at City Center, same as Encores. I had forgotten that our Joanne had played one of the aunts.

I guess you have to buy the book to find out what the hell he's talking about

Lea Michele Shares Quick Sneak Peek Of ‘Funny Girl’ Rehearsals

Who knew?

R203, Geez that play had an “intimacy Director.” You know what that means? She’s going to be flashing her fanny.

Beanie IS

Lizzo! The Musical

It means you get a ton of money for saying don't show your tits on this line and don't get a hard on when you face the audience.

I guess you get a college degree for it.

[quote] Reba's very thick country accent, which apparently she cannot control, disqualifies her from most roles. Many years ago, she might have been great as Molly Brown or as Ado Annie in OKLAHOMA!, even if her accent doesn't match those roles exactly. (Apparently, it didn't match the real Annie Oakley's accent, either.)

Why couldn't one of the (wait for it) FOLLIES girls have grown up in the South and come to NYC to get into show business? There was a day years ago, in fact, when she just got here this morning. Three bucks, two bags, one her.

R208, another hundred people just got off of the train and the plane and the bus.

A lot of that stuff about Donna we already knew but it's always wonderful to read it again with a new tidbits thrown on. A comprehensive autobio would be volumes but I would love it. What a period of time it would cover and what a great talent she is. I must be one of the last people left alive who saw her in On the Town. What a great production that was making the most recent revival that many people loved look so cheap and mediocre.

R210, you think the last revival was cheap and mediocre, I had to look at Lea DeLaria in a dress!

My eyes! My eyes!

I was a boy when I saw that On the Town and I saw it at a packed Sat matinee. It played like a sensational musical comedy that the audience loved. A lot of laughs(the most recent one had none) and the production sets and costumes were lavish. The newer one looked like a cheap computer game. I was stunned when the '71 revival closed. The audience loved it and I was sad I would never see it again. Marilyn Cooper alone got such laughs.

Connie Stevens will forever be Scorchy to me, even though no one in the picture ever calls her that (she's JACKIE). At the end she gets shot in the pussy. Big downer.

No one cares R183.

The 'producer' at r201 is a nice enough guy but come on:

[quote] He is now a 13-time Tony Award-winning producer for some of Broadway's most successful shows: Spring Awakening, War Horse, Hair, Death of a Salesman, Pippin, All the Way, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Dear Evan Hansen, Angels in America, The Band's Visit, Oklahoma, Hadestown and Company.

I finished Paul Ford's book and I will half-heartedly recommend it for the 2nd half only. If you start at the Sunday in the Park section and read to the end, it's mostly a fun, informative read.

Buy it on sale.

R194 His nudes leaked years ago

What's taking The Music Box?

cannot find the video outside of this Playbill article but Devil Wears Prada does we're afraid, look like crap. Cheesy generic everything. Love Leavel but she doesn't look right here at all and perhaps the character defies living in a musical. We picture her as so composed and collected and silence and stillness speak volumes so why is she in a musical? Beth just looks like any upper class Upper West Side woman at Zabars

sorry my bad here's the link

r217

and where can we find them...

[quote] At the end she gets shot in the pussy

Beg pardon?

So what happened to Darius Barnes?

He be dead.

[quote]At the end she gets shot in the pussy.

What, r213???

"In short, Mr. Cornell, and Ah don’t want to have to say this again, leave me ay-lone!"

Connie Stevens originated probably among the most overdone woman's comedy monologue in "The Star-Spangled Girl", so she has definite stage cred, playing opposite Anthony Perkins and Richard Benjamin back in the day.

But is Connie a Sally? Or a Phyliss?

[quote] Or a Phyliss?

Oh, dear.

What's a Phyliss, r227?

How to stage fashion...

[quote]Remember when Alec tried to start an Encores for plays? I think he did Arsenic & Old Lace. I can’t remember the other two.

[quote]I don't remember but always thought that would be a good idea. What do you remember about it? Where did they do it?

Isn't that pretty much what Tony Randall tried to do with his National Theater? But most of his productions were mediocre to lousy. I think his Inherit the Wind was well received but I barely remember.

PRADA looks like to learned all the wrong lessons from DIANA.

Randall's National Theater tried to have limited but extended runs, or even open ended runs, not one week productions like Encores. But you're right, the quality wasn't there.

Also, Randall's productions were fully realized, not quickie rehearsals (and what Encores initially was like before they got all grandiose).

[quote]You all 100

And you have an IQ below room temperature.

I’d be very happy to see a picture of dreamboat John Riddle’s big dick.

The Tony Randall/National Actors Theater project that intrigues me most is a SEAGULL that opened in late 1992. Directed by Marshall Mason, its cast included:

* Arkadina: Tyne Daly * Trigorin: Jon Voight * Treplev: Ethan Hawke (understudied by Bill Camp!) * Nina: Laura Linney * Masha: Maryann Plunkett (understudied by Elizabeth Marvel!) * Dorn: Tony Roberts * Yakov: Danny Burstein

Frank Rich wasn't having any of it:

"The classics may be the mountains of the theater, but you don’t climb them just because they’re there. This is the lesson that seems sadly lost on the well-meaning but floundering National Actors Theater . . . the results achieved in this Chekhov production, as directed by Marshall Mason, are superior to last season’s only in the sense that mediocrity is superior to catastrophe . . . Neither [Voight] nor anyone else has been integrated into a mutually supportive acting ensemble . . . Daly is completely miscast . . . (Her matching costumes give new meaning to Arkadina’s line 'My wardrobe alone is enough to ruin me.') The connection, however frayed, between her and Mr. Voight is farcical rather than emotional or erotic . . . [Treplev] is acted by the promising Ethan Hawke with an arm-waving display of unfocused nervous energy . . . Laura Linney . . . may be the most commanding actor of the lot, but her bracing, unmodulated vitality, so appropriate to the mature Nina of the final act, seems out of sync before then . . . Maryann Plunkett . . . and Tony Roberts . . . offer sardonic poses whose potential for depth is left unexplored . . . The ambitions, now as then, are virtuous. But it is the night, not Chekhov’s view of disappointed lives, that grows long."

. . . but I'd love a report from anyone on DL who was there.

[quote]Directed by Marshall Mason

Was that Marsha Mason's name before she transitioned?

In case you can’t be bothered with r204 article, [bold] “Why Bob Fosse Held a 20-Year Grudge Against Donna McKechnie” [bold]

SPOILER: She refused to peg him.

r237 Obviously it needed Connie Stevens

I saw it, R237. FR's criticism is more or less correct but completely exaggerated.

He had this tendency to treat shows he didn't care for with an angry attack that seemed to want to use the newspaper's power to do harm. He was really hated by some theatre people I knew, because they felt he was truly mean-spirited but used a front of "I'm only giving my opinion."

Ironically, he didn't seem like this when you met him. He was a Jekyll and Hyde,

The show wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. An aficionado would be impatient with it, perhaps, but for your first Seagull it was at least functional. Tyne Daly was probably the weakest link because she was so miscast, but I don't remember it vividly.

BDF for sure

Anyone read Mary Rodger's new autobiography that's finally coming out eight years after her death?

Thanks, R241!

Here you go, r236, presenting hole too. Though I'm sure the usual poster will insist they can't possibly be him

That can't possibly be him.

Because it’s me!

R220 I hate it already. They’re selling the show with that dreadful song?

that cock

Thanks. I think it is most certainly him. I wouldn’t say it was a particularly big dick, but I would very happily sit on it all night long.

Beanie Feldstein final Funny Girl stage door...

Mary Rodgers' memoir SHY comes out on August 9. I have it pre-ordered on Amazon and expect delivery on Tuesday. Can't wait!

The Devil Wears Prada promo video was shot with the understudy for Andy. Taylor Iman Jones was sidelined with Covid for 10 days but she’s back.

That is most definitely not a big dick.

It's a Goldilocks dick

I'm usually one of the ones who calls out the deniers, and I called out the one in the last thread. But I have to admit I've never been convinced all the pics are him. I'm pretty sure some are, but I think someone else's got mixed in. In the one where he's holding his dick down with his thumb (3) , it's pretty clear the dick isn't long enough to wrap his whole hand around it, but in another one (5) his whole hand IS wrapped around it with length to spare. The shape is also slightly different. It really seems to be two different dicks, IMO.

There was also a video that was leaked, that looked like it was recorded from a snapchat or expiring video. No head, but full body. He was standing shirtless, rubbing his dick through his underwear, then pulling it out and slapping it against his hand. It matched the bigger one from the pics in size and shape.

You take all of this quite seriously r256.

What kindly, what about the Tyler Weaks video?

PRADA is dreadful, cheap, horrific pacing, BAD vocal performances and poor Beth is as miscast as our beloved Beanie. Really a stumble, a tough sit and worst of all, a boring effort.

I predict that the end of this thread and the bulk of #485 will be about Mary Rodgers' bio. (And not a minute too soon, frankly.)

Can whoever creates the next thread please title it, "Call Me When He's Dead!"

Paul Ford's book is messy, but it reveals lots of brutal truths about the industry. Some folks can't bear the truth. It's also wickedly funny with spot on insights that most DLers agree with. DLers who claim to hate the book are afraid of seeing themselves reflected. His bitchy, witty style thrives in these threads.

He is a dreamboat. His boyfriends are so lucky.

Just based on the Times feature today, I wonder whether Green was waiting for Sondheim to die before releasing the Rodgers biography.

It’s a great looking dick or dicks. Plenty big enough. Well proportioned and great head

All these dick pics - I mean, what does it matter? Believe what you want to believe, and jerk off to whoever you think it is. It's that simple.

In the Woodward/Newman doc, Linney talks of being in a disastrous production with Ethan Hawke, and that she went to Woodward for guidance. Now we know what the production was. I still think Rich was a great drama critic; at least one of the best writers in the field.

He was Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Shakespeare combined compared to Miss Brantley and Miss Greene. [Italic] Plus [/italic] Chekhov and Dickens too compared to Miss Maya

The National Actors Theatre was the Royal National Theatre compared to the wretched Mirror Rep. In one production its artistic director Sabra Jones gave one of the worst performances that I’ve ever seen.

Paul Ford's style is certainly bitchy, but witty? Not so much.

Ford's style was certainly bitchy, but witty? Not so much.

oops.

I liked Rich's movie reviews for "Time," and thought his theater criticism was even better. He's a good writer who knows a lot about Broadway history and legend.

Has he ever had cock in his mouth?

Yes. And in his ass.

Has he had Riddle's average to small cock in his ass?

Datalounge. Where men judge cocks but rarely get any.

R273-Not as many as you have.

Good one r277!!!!!!

To be fair, Cincetta had a #3 on the Billboard chart.

Concetta, dammit!

R233- Tony Randall's NAT was a mixed bag at best. The first season was an absolute mess. It didn't end very well, either. Saint Joan was masterful and Maryann Plunkett was mesmerizing. But director Michael Langham was a horrible man, a concentration camp survivor who took delight in traumatizing his actors. He scared Plunkett nearly to death, and she hated him for it. She cannot speak of it to this day. Michael Stuhlbarg survived his wrath, but just barely. Their Timon Of Athens was great, also directed by Langham, who after one rehearsal when Randall tried to give his own notes to the cast, picked Tony up by his arms and carried him out of the Belasco, then banned him from re-entering. Brian Bedford played Timon, and was astounding, matched only by John Franklyn-Robbins in power. Randall acted in The Government Inspector, and ruined it, even though Langham was responsible for staging it, (he was a great director but a terrible human being), he rarely spoke to Randall and it showed. Martin Charnin directed Odets' The Flowering Peach and sucked all the humanity out of it, the less said about Gentlemen Prefer Blondes the better. The school For Scandal was terrible, and then came Inherit The Wind with Charles Durning and George C. Scott. Scott was terribly ill with liver disease brought on by years of excessive drinking, and was replaced at many performances by the miscast Randall. The play had been revived too many times to carry much power back then. (We could do with a great revival right about now). The Gin Game with Julie Harris and Durning was quite enjoyable and was lovingly directed by Charles Nelson Reilly. The biggest success of all was the revival of The Sunshine Boys with Randall and a barely audible Jack Klugman. Their names alone made it a hit, but it was a pretty lousy production, and Tony had started to offend fans at the stage door by screaming at them to behave, and making rude remarks about the children accompanying their parents. Night Must Fall was pretty damned good, ran 6 weeks at the Lyceum, then moved to the Hayes Theatre, and was possibly the last time Matthew Broderick gave a good stage performance, but it was the actress Judy Parfit, making her Broadway debut, who stole the show. The whole enterprise on Broadway folded after a terrible adaptation of Judgement At Nuremberg, despite the presence of Maximillian Schell, George Grizzard, and Martha Keller. Randall had gotten terribly old and feeble by then, and tried to keep it going the following year off-Broadway at the Schimmel Center with a terrific production of The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui with Al Pacino in the title role, and surprisingly, Randall pumping up the show in one scene as a decrepit old actor hired to coach Pacino's Ui in public speaking. Great cast, a smash sell-out, it should have moved, but all the actors had prior commitments and the reviews were tepid. Two more feeble productions followed, Right You Are and The Persians, driving the final nails into Randall's vanity project. It was taken over by Tony's young wife, Heather, but another season never came to be.

It was a noble enterprise, but Randall's ego and lack of great directors did it in.

I was there for some of the productions r281 mentions and can testify he/she is absolutely giving a fair assessment.

It's a shame because I think Tony's heart was in the right place and he certainly put a lot of his own funding into it, but he was just too old and out of touch to understand how to make such an incredibly difficult and expensive proposition work,

Prada opens in Chicago on Sunday. How soon will we see reviews?

You forgot about both Three Men on a Horse and A Little Hotel on the Side, both of which were solid grossers for NAT (the former more than the latter).

I worked with NAT for 2 seasons, and went to college with Heather Randall when she was interning in the first season, and we were good friends. Tony had no business running the company. He had no idea what he was doing and should have turned most duties over to someone more experienced. Many people despised him. Lynn Redgrave was expected to be a long term member of the company, but hated Tony so much that she refused to come back. Plunkett also had a bad experience, but Tony promised her certain roles for the 2nd season to get her to stay.

Tony also pissed off the American Theater Wing by not providing comp tickets for Tony voters, saying he could not spare any comp seats, his subscription base was so robust. I personally think this somehow got miscommunicated, but Tony handled it poorly and they got nothing in Season 1 (not that they deserved anything, though one could make an argument for Redgrave in either A Little Hotel or The Master Builder, she was wonderful in both). Tickets were provided in the 2nd season, but the damage was done. Plunkett got a nomination for Saint Joan because she was so good, she could not be denied, but nothing else. By Season 3, fences had been mended with the ATW, but the company's reputation was such that the writing was on the wall.

I also remember that the cheapest season ticket subscription broke down to something like $15-$20 per show for seats in the balcony. If you've ever been to the Lyceum, you know that you need a sherpa to get up there. There is an elevator, but it's not open to the public. All the alter-cockers bought the cheapest tickets possible and then complained and bitched and wheedled themselves into better seats, so shows always started late on matinee days. The whole thing was a shit show.

I like cock

I saw several of the Tony Randall shows. He was way too old to be in The Government Inspector.

I also thought he had a lot of nerve calling it a national theater. The plays were never intended to be anything more than Broadway productions.

r257, isn't it silly to be so serious about something as inconsequential as penises? One should only be serious about things that matter. FOLLIES! Merrily! Little Me! Tony Randall's National Theatre!

The French Horn solo theme from Tony Randall's TV show!

R245, I don't doubt that those are pix of John Riddle, but my question is, how do you know it's him when there is no identification anywhere? Where did these pix come from originally?

[quote]I don't doubt that those are pix of John Riddle, but my question is, how do you know it's him when there is no identification anywhere?

It's a Riddle inside an enigma.

Inside a mystery - -

I wouldn’t mind a Riddle inside me

It’s a riddle inside of an enigma wrapped in cash.

I saw the Gin Game at the Lyceum. It wasn't good. For some reason, the balance was off. It just didn't work. The only time I saw Julie Harris give a disappointing performance.

Or an enema inside a Riddle wraps some cash.

I've seen a few productions/films of The Gin Game and I never understand why the female role is the one that garners all the attention and the awards/nominations. The male role is the better and is usually better acted.

“The myth of Abraham Lincoln is often perpetuated at the expense of people of color,” says Mason. “His self-made, rags-to-riches legend of ascent to leadership is an origin story for the contemporary, freedom-seeking white American man. But Lincoln’s life, and we, the people, are more complicated than the myth which emboldens our country’s power structure. Inspired by my Black queer experience, I dismantle this exclusivist tale from within and carve a new story of America for people who live and love like me.”

"I got the approval of Patti LuPone on my performance when I sent her my takes," shares Mitchell, whose other Broadway credits include Big River, Six Degrees of Separation, and The Secret Garden. "I asked her to play Hedwig once, when we were on Broadway and we were looking for the next people. She really loved it. She would come see it a lot, but we closed before she got to a decision. I think she might have. She always says her first love is rock but she never had a voice for it."

Has anyone ever been a bigger one trick pony than John Cameron Mitchell?

This vid is old old old -- but hot damn does Aaron T. look exceptionally gorgeous in it.

I'm a big HEDWIG fan (vastly preferring the original off-Bway incarnation to the later Bway version). I think the score is terrific and expected Stephen Trask (the songwriter) and Mitchell to have continued success in music theatre.

It hasn't really happened. Trask seems to work mostly in film.

And based on the clip at R298, Mitchell sounds... tired. He's 59 and no longer the East Village party boy. (Drag is a drag after middle age, kids.)

So we have a Playbill.com troll now.

Thanks, Wayman at r300. Keep that flame alive!

Tveit is a mystery. Voice for days, very good looking but the magic is missing. He only really got to me in Next To Normal - maybe Greif found the frisson or maybe the character's enigmatic quality was well served by Tveit's. It's not [italic] interesting [/italic] enigma, just somehow a blankness. Still hot. But no spark - on TV or onstage - and even any sexiness seems pasted on and is thus not really sexy.

[quote] So we have a Playbill.com troll now.

Apparently also a troll troll

[quote]But no spark - on TV or onstage - and even any sexiness seems pasted on and is thus not really sexy.

Tveit was so... adequate but unexciting on SCHMIGADOON. (No, it's not a good show. But another actor might have made more of the part.)

The only thing of note Trask has done since Hedwig was his bitchy farewell to Brantley, which I guess was caused by Brantley's review of This Ain't No Disco. But the fact there was a two year gap between the two just shows Brantley was the ultimate winner

Brantley was too kind to This Ain't No Disco, one of the worst pieces of shit I've ever had the misfortune of sitting through.

Patti LuPone as Hedwig?!?! Dear God. Among many, many other problems, she would have been visually horrifying in the finale.

The Hedwig that I wish had happened? Norbert Leo Butz. (He actually did "Wig in a Box" as an encore in his solo 54 Below show -- fabulous.)

[quote] “The myth of Abraham Lincoln is often perpetuated at the expense of people of color,” says Mason. "Inspired by my Black queer experience, I dismantle this exclusivist tale from within and carve a new story of America for people who live and love like me."

Hands up all those who would like me to show up for this one.

Regarding the Abraham Lincoln bit: God forbid anyone produce a good story, well told. Everything's mired in "theory" now.

r289, I'm not r245, but JR has a birthmark on one shoulder and a mole on the opposite pec toward the center of his chest. You can see them in the chest pics r245 posted, and here's one from his Instagram to compare. In the video that was posted elsewhere where his dick matched the 5th one r257 posted, the body was the same and the same marks were visible.

Another

I’m sure John Riddle reads Datalounge. I’m sure John isnt thrilled his dick pics are on the internet. I’m sure John has hot sex with his boyfriend and at the end of the day doesn’t care that ugly old queens (myself included) that he would NEVER give the time of day to cares about said dick pics.

Speak for yourself. I'm not old or ugly.

I'm pretty sure he had them taken down when they were posted elsewhere (L P S G?). So yeah, he wouldn't be thrilled to have them out there and if Imgur takes down r245's post, we'll know he's here or found us.

But he's hot and talented and seems to have a great life, so I hope he isn't bothered too much by the existence of those photos.

then wtf are you doing gaping at dick pics of people you don't even know?

[quote] I’m sure John isnt thrilled his dick pics are on the internet

How exactly do you think they got onto the internet in the first place?

Moving on (wrong show, but)... For some reason I had an urge to listen to Into the Woods, hadn't in a long while. So many thoughts.

The underscoring and motifs (motives?) are genius.

So many original cast characterizations indelible.

Also fun to realize how many SITPWG cast members reunited

Yeah, young and hot guys hate look at dick pics. Unless they know the person. Idiot.

Yeah, I think it's rude to repost someone's Grindr pics on the internet. Seems like a violation. Goes against the original purpose.

About new revival. Which FOJs (Friend of Jordan's) will he enlist for stints?

Have these been posted? Sorry if I missed them in the last thread, but all roads lead to Sondheim again eventually.

Lenk's final Being Alive at the Company closing performance. I didn't hate her performance as much as many people...but yeah, she just doesn't sound very good in parts of this. And it's not a matter of not belting; some of the sounds she's emitting are unpleasant.

Jordan doesn't have any friends. People are friendly with him because they have no choice. He's a nightmare.

Good recording of MMAL.

I wish! I wish Heather Headley was going to be on the recording instead of Patina.

[quote]R317 wtf are you doing gaping at dick pics of people you don't even know?

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Bobby conte gets a post company haircut

...and it turns out, R328. that he doesn't have a really pretty face underneath all that.

Did anyone think he did? We've seen him clean-shaven before.

He has a big thick dick but heavens knows we shouldn't be gaping at such things.

Saw Phillipa Soo's US in ITW and it made me wonder if anyone has ever been a brilliant Cinderella and owned the role the way Gleason did Baker's Wife. Everyone I've seen was fine, but not exceptional.

I don't think it's an exceptional role.

Kim Crosby was pretty but extremely bland.

Which was kinda the point.

Has any of you bitches read an advance of Mary Rodgers new book?

1) Does she elaborate why she hated Arthur Laurents so much?

2) Did she eviscerate Sarah Jessica Parker for ruining the legacy of Once Upon a Mattress?

From the last line of the NYT review:

[Quote] On the other hand, I never quite found out why she despised Arthur Laurents.

From Into the Wood’s instagram

[Quote] Backstage with Broadway’s favorite cow

How dare they. I’ve only been gone a week!

Broadway Baby isn’t available on Kindle yet.

Once one has experienced a Reichard, a McGillan or a Bart sized ride, a Riddle seems so....insignificant.

Pretty, but ultimately unsatisfying.

Katrina Lenk is rumoured for Into the Woods...

[quote]Broadway Baby isn’t available on Kindle yet.

What's Broadway Baby? The title of the Mary Rodgers book is SHY.

Many of the recent Company alumni could slide into ITW. Lenk for the Witch. Simard as Jacks mother and Fitzgerald as the Baker. Clay and Nick Rodriguez as the Princes. Chris Sieber as the well fed Baker.

God I hope Katrina Lenk isn’t the new Witch. Listen to her sing the score

Who would I play? I cut off all my luxurious tresses so Rapunzel is out of the question.

I'm playing one of the Trees.

Simard as Jack's mother??? Isn't that role usually played by a crone or fatty?

Julia Lester says she’s staying for the whole new extension through October. There must be others who aren’t leaving on Sept 4th.

[quote] I cut off all my luxurious tresses so Rapunzel is out of the question.

Why? Rapunzel’s the one with the hair, not her Prince.

[Quote] Julia Lester says she’s staying for the whole new extension through October

Where the hell else does she have to go ?

I like Bobby Conte's haircut, but then again, I go for that kind of man.

Lenk is actually good casting for the bakers wife

[quote] I like Bobby Conte's haircut, but then again, I go for that kind of man.

Homely?

Does anyone know where to get bootleg (for lack of a better term) of performances that have aired on PBS or NTSC versions British DVDs in the PAL format? TIA!

So I'm watching a doc with Harold Prince.

How is it the wonderful Reri Grist never got a Kennedy Center Honor? Did she turn it down?

“bootleg *DVDs*”, Jaysis…

I saw/heard Reri Grist perform Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at the old City Opera and she and the production were fabulous. The final scene was Bacchus and Ariadne singing hanging in a gondola from a large balloon in front of a cyclorama of sparkling stars, as written. It was breathtaking. The Met production, which was visually a series of big boxes, paled in comparison, despite the presence of Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle, who wasn't as good as Grist in the same part.

Reri Grist is a horrible name. What’s wrong with something like Amy Turner?

Reri Grist IS "The Rural Juror"

What’s wrong with something like Beanie Feldstein?

I've seen two Ariadne productions at the Met and I liked neither. I wish I had seen the one at the City Opera. I envy you having heard Grist live. She's still alive at 90.

Battle had the notes, but wasn't really quite at home in the stratospheric coloratura roles. Reri Grist was -- so much so that a friend said she was able to sing the fiendishly difficult role so well and that she could also do cartwheels during her performance. Still unsure if Battle was actually on mics at the Met; Marilyn Horne years ago mysteriously said that mics were being used there, but left it at that.

I didn't realize that Reri Grist sang Zerbinetta or indeed anything else at City Opera. When was that?

She did do a run of ARIADNE at the Met (5 performances in 1970, 1 of which was broadcast).

I'd say that Laura Benanti certainly made a strong impression as Cinderella in INTO THE WOODS' first Broadway revival -- quite early in her career, and she scored a Tony nomination. (She had a little help from the augmented ending of "On the Steps of the Palace.")

My sense is that most people dismiss that revival, but I saw it twice (the first preview, then later after it opened) and really enjoyed it both times -- especially for her, John McMartin (who made much more of the part than Tom Aldredge before him) and a surprisingly funny Gregg Edelman.

Grist sang Zerbinetta at City Opera in the late 70s or early 80s. It's too long ago, I don't remember anymore.

Her only equal that I heard was Natalie Dessay in the early to mid 90s at the Met. When she came back to sing it in the late 90s, the luster had already started to go.

Laura's Cinderella

[quote]R365 Her only equal that I heard was Natalie Dessay

Did your precious Reri slay ‘em in “Into the Woods,” tho?? Like I did??

Actually, Denée Benton, at City Center, was wonderful as Cinderella.

It seems difficult to find a soprano (especially a "creamy" soprano, as I think I recall SS saying he preferred) with quirks or personality

Benton was very fine. But wonderful?

[quote]My sense is that most people dismiss that revival, but I saw it twice (the first preview, then later after it opened) and really enjoyed it both times -- especially for her, John McMartin (who made much more of the part than Tom Aldredge before him) and a surprisingly funny Gregg Edelman.

That production certainly had its pluses, as you have mentioned. But it was pretty bad overall because it was directed by Lapine, who has near zero talent as a director even when working with his own shows, and has had a few successes only because he got very, very lucky (as with the original ITW). Also, specifically, Vanessa Williams was bad casting as the Witch even if she was that production's big star name.

[Quote] it was pretty bad overall because it was directed by Lapine, who has near zero talent as a director

I’m not a Lapine fan but how do you explain the original production? Just “very, very lucky”?

r332 I think Sierra Boggess did a memorable job as Cinderella in the Hollywood Bowl performance of ITW.

And I mean memorable in a positive sense. The few roles I've seen Sierra perform she has the ability to infuse a great deal of emotion into her characters. She's got a lot of heart and it comes through.

I appreciate you r359

So Cinderella is never memorable … except for most of the people who have ever played it 🤔

[quote]I’m not a Lapine fan but how do you explain the original production? Just “very, very lucky”?

Yes, exactly. First, he got lucky in hooking up with Sondheim at all, even though they're not in the same universe, let alone the same league. And then he got very lucky in the casting, some of which was almost an accident, for example Bernadette. As a director, he apparently couldn't fuck up a show with Joanna Gleason, Chip Zien, Bernadette Peters, et al., but with lesser talents and some miscasting as in the revival, the results weren't so happy. Just my opinion.

The original production was not well directed. As mentioned, it had some very fortuitous casting.

I'll agree that Benanti is very good there. Not sure I saw her though. Didn't she leave the production early due to an injury to her back?

I wonder if Katrina could be a good Baker’s Wife? She’s not a Witch.

Benanti injured her neck and was replaced by Erin Dilly. That injury fucked her up for years and she eventually had surgery.

She was injured multiple times during the pratfalls in ITW R378. People have been cunts about it ever since. She had serious life changing injuries that she’s had to have rehab and surgery for.

There’s audio on YT of Datalounge fave Betty Buckley in early rehearsals performing the Witch’s rap. I wish Paul Ford or some other generous queen would post the rehearsal audio of Buckley’s “Boom Crunch”

How was the original ITW badly directed? I don’t disagree, I’m just interested in what signals bad direction.

Lapine must direct on acid.

Billy Porter was runner up to play the Witch in that first revival. I think they went with Williams only because she was considered better box office. I think Sondheim wanted Porter.

No, Jennifer Holiday was runner up. Billy Porter was.... considered.

Will there ever be a Follies production where they restore the wig snatching, face slapping confrontation scene between Sally and Phyllis? Losing My Mind and Lucy/Jessie don’t seem to have as much impact when that scene is cut.

[quote] What’s wrong with something like Beanie Feldstein?

It's not enough to have no talent. You gotta have a gimmick, like a terrible name!

Opera is dead in the U.S. The Met has never been in worse financial shape, and the audience just isn't there anymore. All the regional companies are struggling and Santa Fe keeps cutting their budgets. Opera has moved from a form for one big, clear socia/economic group that consistently supported it, but now has lost interest, for a variety of reasons. Opera is now just a cult thing, and all the new money doesn't care anymore. City Opera going down was the bellwether for the whole thing.

We still don't know what's going into The Music Box. How am I supposed to sleep?

I like Billy Porter fine, but was he really any kind of "name" to play the Witch in the ITW revival?

I only knew of him at that time for a featured role in some gay indie movie.

You mean this scene, r387? I hate when they cut it.

Sally: Who are ya hiding from, Phyllis? The notices couldn't have been that bad.

Phyllis : The show just needs a little fine tuning.

Sally: Don't worry, sweetheart. If the show folds I can always get a part as understudy for my grandmother.

Phyllis : Thanks. I already turned down the part you're playing.

Sally: Bull! Merrick isn't that crazy.

Phyllis : You oughta know, honey, you just came out of the nuthouse.

Sally: It was not a nuthouse!

Phyllis: Look. They drummed you right outta Phoenix Little Theater! So ya come crawlin' back to Broadway. Well, Broadway doesn't go for booze and dope. Now you get outta my way, I got a MAN waitin' for me.

Sally: That's a switch from the fags you're usually stuck with!

Phyllis: At least I never had to MARRY one!

Sally: YOU TAKE THAT BACK.! [rips of Phyllis's wig]

[Quote] There’s audio on YT of Datalounge fave Betty Buckley in early rehearsals performing the Witch’s rap.

I wish! …you posted a link

Carlotta comes walking in.

Carlotta: This is between all of you.

Phyllis: It’s between you too now sister. How much did you have to put out to get in?

Sally: I didn’t know you two were sisters. That explains a lot.

How have we overlooked this story?

Are people masking at all at Broadway shows right now?

R395, it's neither about Sondheim nor opera. The average DLer isn't interested.

The Witch's Rap in ITW is a major cringe incident.

[quote]Benanti injured her neck and was replaced by Erin Dilly. That injury fucked her up for years and she eventually had surgery.

I seem to recall a news or gossip report that Lapine ran into Benanti in a restaurant after she had called out from ITW because of her injury, and he supposedly said to her something along the lines of "You'll never work on Broadway again." Which seemed like an awful thing for that asshole to say, because anyone with a brain would understand that an injury that might prevent Benanti from continuing to perform on stage, especially in a roll with pratfalls, wouldn't necessarily prevent her from sitting and eating in a restaurant.

[quote]How was the original ITW badly directed? I don’t disagree, I’m just interested in what signals bad direction.

To clarify: In my opinion, the original ITW was not badly directed, or didn't seem to be. But considering the ineptitude of Lapine's direction of other shows, including PASSION, the ITW revival, and that unspeakable ANNIE revival, I can only guess that he got lucky with the original cast of ITW and that those people relied on their own devices to give excellent performances that cohered with each other.

Are Gavin Creel and Taylor Trensch still a couple? And don't say a couple of what.

Isn’t Taylor with Ben Levi Ross?

r402 Yes, when were Taylor and Gavin ever a couple? Trensch's tastes have always been younger

Here she is boys!

Here’s Betty rapping about the special beans!

I'm watching Dopesick. Philippa Soo is in it and she's a terrible actress. And they slapped a dead muskrat on her head and called it a wig.

This should piss off a bunch of you harridans

Damn. Stockyard really avoid sustaining any notes in that clip. I wonder how she sounded in the ballads?!

Benanti was probably the best Cinderella I've seen. Beautiful voice, but enough quirkiness to give the role a little dimension. She was also the best Louise in Gypsy that I've seen which is another tough role. Her stock and trade seems to be adding personality to personality-free roles.

Stock-in-trade. And though I completely agree with you about her talent, I wouldn't say that either of those roles are "personality-free" on the page, even if you may have seen them played that way by other people.

Do you think that Patti LuPone’s brother, Robert, is jealous of her? On the one hand, he was in the original cast of A Chorus Line and had the privilege of being part of Broadway history. On the other hand, he didn’t get to flash his tits in a Spike Lee movie.

That's interesting r408 because I find Benanti comes across as a bit cold quite often and her voice is not always as on point as it should be. She does however score high in the looks department which gives her an edge in the 21st century of "style" over substance. Not a bad actress but not a great one either.

I've never warmed to any other Louises besides Benanti's. I thought she really sold the arc from shy tomboy to elegant stripper beautifully. You can see the moment she realizes that she has a knack for this during her embarrassing first strip when she gets an unintentional laugh from the audience while struggling with a glove and then goes "oh, they laughed. I can make them laugh. Maybe that my gimmick!" and she immediately straightens up and gains confidence. I've never seen anyone else sell that transition.

Benanti, cold? She was a wet dish rag in The Sound of Music Live. Never found her inner bitch.

She is good in funny parts, not traditional ingenue ones.

Agree she was an excellent Louise. Thought she was cold and unlikeable Eliza and Amalia

Her Cinderella and Louise were so good that I was shocked by how much I didn't care for her Eliza and Amalia. Those performances were a bit cold and odd.

Jeremy Jordan of Cuntface Laurents.

PC: Why so? He had quite a wicked reputation, of course. JJ: Well, you know, I think that the older that he got, the more his brilliance kind of got in his own way because he would have these new ideas and they would contradict the ideas on the notes that he gave you the week before and stuff like that. So, if you were on his sh*t list, it wasn't good - there was always one person in every single notes session who just got the sh*t ripped out of them. I thought it was - pardon my French - f*cking ridiculous myself because I think that is the exact opposite way that you should treat your performers because it doesn't garner their respect, it garners their disrespect. You might think, "Oh, at least they'll respect me because I'm this way," but I don't think it works that way - it just makes them loathe you; I think that's how most people felt about him, honestly.

Benanti was extremely funny in "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and as Melania on Stephen Colbert's show. She was very good as Eliza and Amalia, but, yes, I guess a bit cold and not terrific (her Higgins, Harry Haddon-Patton was superb and electric in his scenes). She should do some more over the top comedy -- that seems to be her forte.

R268,

Please tell us more about Sabra Jones' terrible performance that sticks in your memory.

I worked with Sabra once but never got to see her when she was actively working, so I'm curious, and I always wondered what happened to Mirror Rep.

[quote]the 21st century of "style" over substance

Because that's a totally new phenomena exclusive to the 21st century

Red beans, green beans and all the in-between beans

From the Buckley version above.

Ok so it’s hot out and I’m enjoying the cool at home and watching the Bette video above. She’s really quite good. Panache comedy and beautifully graceful expressive hands. A real skilled star performance

PS check out how she handles a misstep at 27 min 45 seconds. A pro.

She is a good actress (Benanti) but not good enough to be the plain-Jane needed for Amalia or Rosabella in Most Happy Fella.

However the understudy Cornelius seems as if he can’t wait to get to the big city to get gangbanged at the nearest bathhouse

[quote]She is a good actress (Benanti) but not good enough to be the plain-Jane needed for Amalia or Rosabella in Most Happy Fella.

If you think either of those characters are supposed to come across as "plain Janes," I don't think you really understand the characters or those shows. Amalia doesn't need to be a raving beauty, though she can be. Rosabella really should be beautiful, because we're supposed to believe that Tony fell in love with her at first sight when she waited on him in a restaurant, even though they barely spoke to each other.

[quote]r404 Here she is boys! Here’s Betty rapping about the special beans!

I love her. But she’d be better in almost any of the other roles.

r418, Agreed. Benanti was so great in Women on the Verge. I know the show had problems, but there was a lot to enjoy, and hers and Patti's big numbers were high points.

Benanti made me finally appreciate 'Gypsy' and I considerate it one of my favs now. And that was just a bootleg I watched. I wish I'd seen her live.

[quote]R358 Reri Grist is a horrible name. What’s wrong with something like Amy Turner?

Shut up with your Reri Grists or we’ll kill ya, milk or no milk.

R426, you think old men only fall in love with beautiful women? Is it not a more touching story if he loves her because of how she treats him in the restaurant---then it turns out that was just professionalism and she does not even remember his?

I think Wood's Louise in the film is one of the best things about the film and one of her best performances. And I don't really care for her all that much.

[quote][R426], you think old men only fall in love with beautiful women? Is it not a more touching story if he loves her because of how she treats him in the restaurant---then it turns out that was just professionalism and she does not even remember his?

No, I don't think old men only fall in love with beautiful women. But in this case, we are told that Tony and Amy (Rosabella) had virtually no interaction in the restaurant -- she says to Cleo, "You know me, I never notice a face or listen to a voice, I just hand them the menu." So his attraction to her must be based solely on her appearance, which is why I think the actress playing her needs to be physically beautiful. Again, if you disagree, I don't think you know the script as well as you think you do.

(shots fired)

Rosabella is probably supposed to at least be very pretty. Both Tony and Joey have have an instant attraction to her in the show. Plus lots of guys in the diner, I think including her boss, have made passes at her. So she's something of a looker. Amalia is kind of shy outside of the workplace, but she is probably considered a little nicer looking than average and probably pretty, if not beautiful. If she's really pretty, Kodaly would have most likely made a pass at her too.

have "had", that is

R428 Thanks for the clip, though I think the audio is sort of off. I could understand her lyrics clearly in the theater, but not quite that well in that copy. I do remember her wonderful walk-run that she employed during that number -- so funny!

Benanti played Amalia like an efficient secretary in a Madison Ave. ad agency. There was absolutely no poignancy to her demeanor.

Why oh why didn't she play Lili in Roundabout's Kiss Me Kate and Kelli O'Hara play Amalia in their She Loves Me? I'm not a huge fan of either lady but the miscasting in both productions is so typical of Roundabout and director Scott Ellis (who should be ashamed of himself since he perfectly cast his earlier SLM revival).

R438 That would have been better casting. Though I'm kind of tired of seeing O'Hara in so many things, as she's a bit generic -- very good, but not always the most memorable.

Well, I agree, r439, but she certainly would have been better in SLM than KMK.

James Lapine was also helped immeasurably by Tony Straiges' smart and gorgeous Tony Award-winning sets in the original ITW.

R348, I think O'Hara was in The King and I when Roundabout did the She Loves Me revival. (And Benanti was in My Fair Lady, which she has said was her dream role, when Kiss Me Kate started.) I'm sure O'Hara was their first choice. I saw her in the staged reading they did as a fundraiser in 2011 with Creel, Krakowski, and Josh Radnor. The latter three were all announced when they were going to do the revival, though Radnor was then replaced by Levi. If she'd been available, no doubt she would have continued too.

But yes, she was great. I think there's a recording of her "Vanilla Ice Cream" out there.

The King and I improved so much when Marin replaced Kelli. A tear for Marin..

Can't find just the song but here's a recording of the first act.

Act 2

I want to see death of a salesman with JK Simmons and Sissy Spacek

So is James Inglehart going to sing “so nu” ?

R419, it was actually in a fairly innocuous role in a 1920 Booth Tarkington play called Clarence. She gave a performance of ineptitude like nothing I’d ever seen. It’s like somebody had been kidnapped off Lexington Avenue and forced to play that role in the Citicorp building. I heard she runs a theater in the Carolinas or thereabouts.

Geraldine Page was also in that production. She might as well have taken out a knife and fork as she was chewing the (threadbare) scenery.

[quote]James Lapine was also helped immeasurably by Tony Straiges' smart and gorgeous Tony Award-winning sets in the original ITW.

Surely Phantom won for sets that year. Didn’t it?

r448, yes. Maria Bjornson won for Phantom.

Ugh...if you look up "Into the Woods" on Wikipedia it pullls up as;

Into the Woods Musical by James Lapine

How dare they?!?!?

[Quote] it was actually in a fairly innocuous role in a 1920 Booth Tarkington play called Clarence.

Did you have good seats?

I guess Tony Straiges won his Tony for Sunday in the Park....my mistake. Nevertheless, his sets for ITW were a major contribution to the success of the original production.

Wasn't Sabra Jones Geraldine Page and Rip Torn's daughter-in-law?

R433, I think you are trusting everything the character's say. What Rosabella says and how Tony saw it may be different. If you go with him just making his offer solely on the basis of sexual attraction, then he seems like a fool.

The 1990s revival with Sophie Hayden as Rosabella was extremely moving because she was a little bit older and just reasonably good looking. She and Tony seemed like lonely people grabbing at their last chances. She also seems to have slept with Joey because she was upset and he was younger and handsomer than she was used to. Joey seemed to have just fucked her because she was there, which was credible---especially given how he flees later.

It was an unusual reading that made for a very emotionally true production. The mistakes in judgement that characters made were painful to watch rather than annoying like in most productions. More ingenuish Rosabellas just seem either stupid or cruel. And the Tony's who pursue them seem like idiots looking to be taken advantage of.

r452...no...she was Lee Strasberg's daughter in law...

Brilliant assessment of the show, r454. That revival was glorious and while the two piano accompaniment carried the intimate production so brilliantly in the small Booth Theatre, it's a shame that the recording of it sounds so lame without a full orchestra. It doesn't give a fair idea of how special that revival was at all.

r452...no...she was Lee Strasberg's daughter in law

I'm sorry, I can't hear you! Did you say she was Lee Strasberg's daughter-in-law?

R454, thank you. Both Broadway and the audiences just seem unwilling to think anymore. That production took the script at face value and then figured out how actual humans would credibly be motivated to live through that story,

I liked the 2 piano version, and particularly, Sophie Hayden. Spiro Malas, on the other hand, had the wrong voice for it, and would scoop into notes constantly, eventually getting there. WHen I saw him a couple of years later Off-Bway in Milk and Honey, he was scooping even more, but sadly, never got to the right note. It was painful.

Fuck off r458...it said the first post didnt take so I posted it again, then the first post appeared two posts later.

"My college friend and I used to (drunkenly) sing that as, “I sort of hate it ask it, but do you stuff your basket?”

I used to sing to GREEN FINCH AND LINNET BIRD: "Larks never do you know when they're captive/ Hope my checks are retroactive (trill)."

"Has anyone seen MR MISS AMERICA? Looks terrific. In its final week." It’s very slender. But the author/lead is charming (and very attractive) I enjoyed it.

"Angelica Ross is going into Chicago as Roxie. " Who?

"Both Broadway and the audiences just seem unwilling to think anymore." In responses to the eviscerating Times review about MOST HAPPY, some brain trust wrote: "a play about a middle aged man and a very young waitress screams mid-century patriarchy at its worst." To which some gentle, sane soul rebutted: "The musical is about two lonely people finding love."

"the plain-Jane needed for Amalia" Nonsense, of course. Amalia is a sophisticated, attractive woman hired as a salesperson in an upscale European parfumerie in the mid 1930s. For all her talent and physical charms, the very contemporary Benanti was completely miscast as the mittel -Europa Amalia. As was almost everyone else in that crass production.

"Opera is dead in the U.S. The Met has never been in worse financial shape, and the audience just isn't there anymore. All the regional companies are struggling and Santa Fe keeps cutting their budgets. Opera has moved from a form for one big, clear socia/economic group that consistently supported it, but now has lost interest, for a variety of reasons. Opera is now just a cult thing, and all the new money doesn't care anymore. City Opera going down was the bellwether for the whole thing."

It's tragic. But I've said it before and I'll say it again: given the non-existent state of arts education, the abandonment of integrity of the recording industries in favor of the bottom line, and the mainstream maw of pop culture that consumes everything in its path ad nauseam, what else can we expect? The culture we get is the culture we deserve. Soon enough we'll all be gray little drones, going monotonously about our gray little lives in a gray little art-free world approved by gray little woke apparatchiks, only finding relief in the gray little hate rallies targeted at the latest gray little cancel culture victim.

[Quote] But I've said it before and I'll say it again

No doubt

I believe the arts died when you came up with that new green finch, and Linnet bird lyric

[quote]I didn't care for her Eliza and Amalia. Those performances were a bit cold and odd.

r416 I felt the same way and watching that clip of her Cinderella didn't change anything. Granted it's just a clip but I still saw the same things in her performance that bothered me. I also didn't think her voice sounded very good in that clip.

The one thing Lapine directed that I sort of liked was the film Impromptu. But that may have been the cast.

[quote]However the understudy Cornelius seems as if he can’t wait to get to the big city to get gangbanged at the nearest bathhouse.

Christian Dant White has an enormous penis. Here he is with one of DL’a most popular semi-closeted musical theatre men.

The latest from the NYTW production of Merrily: Jonathan Groff, who has signed on to play Frank although it still hasn’t been announced, booked a TV gig that begins shooting early next year, meaning he is now off the table for any Spring 2023 Broadway transfer the production wanted to make.

The creative team is upset as they’re now in a position where they will need to recast for a transfer if the workshop performs well, which they fully expect it will.

[quote]Ugh...if you look up "Into the Woods" on Wikipedia it pullls up as; Into the Woods Musical by James Lapine

No, it does not.

Is Julie Benko being considered for Mary?

GOD, I want that little upstart understudy to tie a can to Beanie’s fetid tail!

Christian Dante White was on Grindr in Hamilton Heights seemingly 24/7 for a spell. He was a vocal fem bottom, then worked out like mad and became a beefy vocal fem bottom, it was tough mounting him because he became a mountain of muscle. Very sweet and talented. Voracious in the sack.

R454, your interpretation of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA is quite odd, in my opinion.

First of all, there are MULTIPLE references throughout the show to the fact that that there is a very big age difference between Tony and Rosabella, so I don't know why you choose to ignore all that and keep insisting that the story is "more moving" if Rosabella is older. And, on a related note, I can't imagine why you feel that "a more ingenuish Rosabellas just seems either stupid or cruel." So if she's a little older and does the same things, she's less stupid and cruel?

As for your comments "what Rosabella says and how Tony saw it may be different," and "If you go with him just making his offer solely on the basis of sexual attraction, then he seems like a fool," you're not paying attention to the script. In the first scene, immediately after Rosabella finds the tie pin and the note that Tony left for her, she tells Cleo that she has no memory of the man -- which is why she is able to be duped when Tony later sends her a photo of Joe and represents it as a photo of himself. There's no reason to believe that Rosabella is lying to Cleo about not remembering Tony, which must mean that they had almost no interaction other than her having quickly taken his order and then brought him his food while paying almost no attention to him. That's what's written in the script, as opposed to whatever story you have in your head.

Too femme

Jo Sullivan Loesser was 29 when she originated the role of Rosabella, but she was no longer an ingenue. Those days were over with Threepenny. Sullivan had a slightly “hard” quality, which was just what they were looking for. Sophie Hayden who did the two-piano version, was almost 40. (Mary Gordon Murray, who filled in for Hayden during the LA pre-Broadway run while Hayden had her baby, was a few months older still than Hayden). It was an important point in that production that they wanted Rosabella to have a “been around the block a few times” quality. (Which was also the original conception of Genevieve in the similar “Baker’s Wife.”)

[quote]I wish! I wish Heather Headley was going to be on the recording instead of Patina.

What is Headley doing that she should couldn't move to Broadway for a few weeks? Neil Patrick Harris probably has TV work.

I thought Lindsay Mendez was doing Merrily?

Headley is/was shooting her Netflix series, Sweet Magnolias.

R472, I do not get your logic. So if Rosabella was professional with Tony, but he took it as kindness---that means she has to remember him? That is not how life works. What seemed significant to him was not that important to her.

And why would you think she is lying to Cleo about any of this? She has no reason to lie. She simply experienced the interaction differently. That is how life works. And it is a theme of both The Most Happy Fella and They Knew What They Wanted that different characters see events very differently than other characters do.

Also, Rosabella does not need to be 21 for there to be a significant age difference. Sophie Hayden certainly read as much younger than Spiro Malas.

As others have posted, that 1990 production made sense of play. As others have said, the character's actions had logic and their mistakes in judgement were understandable.

So here's big femme mountain of voracious hard-to-mount muscle bottom White wooing cold hard Benanti. I don't think it's gonna work out between them.

A haute mess, indeed.

Sounds like the best thing about the show will be Munoz's inevitable Twitter meltdown

They got Miranda's look all wrong. I'm actually shocked at how wrong.

[quote] The creative team is upset as they’re now in a position where they will need to recast for a transfer if the workshop performs well, which they fully expect it will.

Lol. That’s incredibly naive of them. It’s Merrily. It could star the reanimated corpses of Maria Callas and Laurence Olivier with musical direction by Sondheim and direction by Prince himself and it would STILL fucking flop BECAUSE IT DOESN’T WORK.

[quote] What is Headley doing that she should couldn't move to Broadway for a few weeks?

Heather Headley is a successful TV actress who is currently filming the third season of Sweet Magnolias, a Netflix show. Just she doesn’t appear in your tiny little gay cliche world at all times doesn’t mean she’s not working. She been working in TV for a long time.

From R480 review:

[quote]Every song is lousy, and there is nothing here worth fixing.

Oh my.

"You Prada be killing me" is an execrable line.

She looks like she’s wearing an off the rack Jones New York suit with matching pumps R482. It’s fucking horrifying. Anna Wintour wouldn’t be caught dead in that outfit.

If Amalia and Rosabella were as attractive as some of you think, they wouldn't have had to resort to the tactics—writing to an anonymous suitor and hooking up with a total stranger, respectively—that sets their plots in motion.

Miranda's outfit reminds me of Marci X

Let’s not forget that twat Wintour was very close with Harvey “Back Acne” Weinstein. Birds of a feather…

What the Devil Wears Prada needed was Michael Bennett.

It’s true that AIDS killed the best.

I try and tell you things but you silly queens never listen to the wise elder lesbians who have seen a thing or two.

So this is what it's come to...an article praising Diana the Musical, with a prominent link on the front page of the NYT website?

"I count the glitzy show among works that, pardon my youthfulness, “slay”: highlighting the improbable achievements of an underdog (usually a woman) with the subtlety of a six-foot sword, and twice its shine."

"As with many a critically reviled Broadway musical, those who loved it banded together, nicknaming themselves “Difanas.” They clung to the gowns, the belting, the insane boldness of an AIDS patient singing to the princess, “I may be unwell, but I’m handsome as hell.”

One such fan, Lizzie Milanovich (who uses they/them pronouns) designed a custom “Diana” sweater and then tweeted an offer, expecting a few inquiries. They wound up fielding 180 orders, they told me, including one for Hartrampf."

[quote]It was an important point in that production that they wanted Rosabella to have a “been around the block a few times” quality.

Well, I agree with you there. Whether Rosabella is 22 or 25 or 29, she is indeed supposed to have been around the block a few times. She has that line in the very first scene, "I guess I've helped a few fellas prove they were fellas." But bear in mind that THE MOST HAPPY FELLA was written in the mid' 50s, and whether the action is set at that time or in1927, as specified in the libretto, there is no way Rosabella should look older than 30 at absolute most, because that was considered much older in those days. Sorry, but Sophie Hayden was really too old for the part, aside from not quite being able to sing it properly, even in a two-piano production.

r471 knows the meaning of [italic] GOSSIP [/italic]

[quote] If Amalia and Rosabella were as attractive as some of you think, they wouldn't have had to resort to the tactics—writing to an anonymous suitor and hooking up with a total stranger, respectively—that sets their plots in motion.

Foolishness. Lots of attractive folks have trouble meeting people. If you were attractive, you'd know.

[quote] They got Miranda's look all wrong. I'm actually shocked at how wrong.

[quote] She looks like she’s wearing an off the rack Jones New York suit with matching pumps

I called it back at r219. Unbelievably [italic] off.[/italic] if a show about fashion doesn't even have an eye for fashion..............

I hate to quote the NY Post but--I also hate Kevin McCullum so on balance I feel ok:

[quote] the worst screen-to-stage move in recent memory. Considering the mind-numbing movie properties that have been cynically schlepped to Broadway the past few seasons, that’s an achievement worthy of the Guinness Book.

To be fair, it’s an incredibly steep hill to climb as a costumer. You’re dealing with THE person who has created THE fashion icons of the past three decades while becoming an icon herself. Meryl and the costumers for her Prada failed quite spectacularly as well. Meryl of course pulled it all off through force of personality, something that Leavel won’t be able to do. They probably don’t need costumers so much as stylists. And of course, high fashion is generally not meant to survive eight shows a week with all the attendant dancing, activity, sweat, makeup, and cleaning.

But still, they could do a lot better. Half the show’s budget should be spent on the clothes.

can't wait to read the rest. I haven't been this excited since FOLLIES

Could be wrong but I think PRADA's costume designer Arianne Phillips began as a fashion stylist costuming early Madonna videos. She was hired for all of her supposed contacts to the fashion world in the hope of acquiring freebies and bargains for the musical. What she lacks are theatrical chops that understand how to get the appropriate and fabulous looks onstage in a Broadway musical. The costume designer of the original PRADA film was Patricia Field, who designed, or perhaps styled is a better term, all those seasons of SEX AND THE CITY.

I really enjoyed the PRADA film version. But there was a lot of press at the time from fashion insiders about how the look of the movie was WRONG: none of the main characters would have dressed IRL the way they did in the movie.

It remains the chic-est Meryl has ever looked onscreen in recent decades, at least.

I saw POTUS over the weekend.

WHAT COMPLETE DRECK! It's an extended SNL skit and is just as humorless.

Humor is NOT lots of women just constantly yelling. Has Julie White ever played a character that isn't high strung and yelling?

Why was this filmed???

Yeah R500, what worked very well as a sort of fashion hodgepodge in SATC is not the world of Vogue.

[quote] I really enjoyed the PRADA film version. But there was a lot of press at the time from fashion insiders about how the look of the movie was WRONG: none of the main characters would have dressed IRL the way they did in the movie.

Do we have to have the it's-not-a-documentary-it's-fiction conversation again? It's even more pronounced in a musical.

Add The Butcher Boy to the list of screen to stage musicals that never should have never made it past a table read.

I know, r492, I know. An embarrassing, face-to-palm cringe read of the first order.

[quote]If Amalia and Rosabella were as attractive as some of you think, they wouldn't have had to resort to the tactics—writing to an anonymous suitor and hooking up with a total stranger, respectively—that sets their plots in motion.

I don't interpret it that way. Although we know that Amalia is unmarried, we have no idea of her dating history. She might have had lots of dates but just hasn't found the right guy for her. And as for Rosabella, she says "I guess I've helped a few fellas prove they were fellas," so we know she has had a fair amount of experience with men. P.S., to repeat, there are several references to how pretty Rosabella is supposed to be. When she first arrives in Napa. Some of the townspeople and Tony's workers comment on it, plus the name Tony gives her translates at "beautiful rose."

Some of you people are going to weird lengths to make your argument. I am not saying either of them has to be a raving beauty, but the stories of the shows don't work if they're unattractive or even just "plain."

What Does POTUS stand for?

To return to some earlier sources for some context:

The very plain but sweet Margaret Sullavan played Klara (later dubbed Amalia in SLM) in MGM's The Shop Around the Corner.

And the gorgeous Carole Lombard played Amy in RKO's They Knew What They Wanted based on Sidney Howard's play.

Put out the understudy.

R508-Actually, it's Put On The UnderStudy.

Devil Wears Prada's twitter handle is: @PradaBroadway

We'll see....

[quote] What Does POTUS stand for?

People Ought To Understand Stuff r508

Why did Frank Loesser set The Most Happy Fella in 1927? Photos from the original production really give NO indication, at least through the costumes, of the 20s. And his music doesn't ever really evoke the 20s, does it?

But I guess the idea of a mail-order bride was more acceptable back then? And, of course, the source material They Knew What They Wanted was written in the 1920s.

I wonder if Bob Mackie was even approached to design the costumes for the musical of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. I guess his style is maybe not 100 percent in accord with what's called for, but still, he's Bob Mackie :-)

Wouldn't any sane producer fold PRADA in Chicago and not bring it to to Broadway at this point? I mean, what are the chances of turning it into a hit without spending another several million dollars on it (and even that wouldn't guarantee a hit).

"They Knew What They Wanted" was written in the 20s and took place then, r514, and It won the Pulitzer Prize. It's based on that.

It sounds like the shitty book and score are the biggest problem with PRADA.

It's easier to redesign costumes, etc. And to recast.

But who's gonna fire Elton John?

Isn’t “sane producer” an oxymoron?

That's what I wrote, r517. Did you not read all of my post before replying?

Yes, thank you for the gossip, r467 and r471. For someone with so many shirtless and underwear photos out there, there's a disappointing lack of a rear view. But this is promising.

[quote]Heather Headley is a successful TV actress who is currently filming the third season of Sweet Magnolias, a Netflix show. Just she doesn’t appear in your tiny little gay cliche world at all times doesn’t mean she’s not working. She been working in TV for a long time

Oh pull the rolled up TV Guide outta your ass you old Queen, I know exactly who Heather Headley is, I've even met her. I didn't know she was on a TV show and currently filming. How you read malice in a simple question is a mystery.

[quote]You’re dealing with THE person who has created THE fashion icons of the past three decades while becoming an icon herself.

But Anna was never really a style icon herself. Christ, her style has barely changed in those three decades.

[quote]She was hired for all of her supposed contacts to the fashion world in the hope of acquiring freebies and bargains for the musical.

I can't believe that to be true, just because there's absolutely no way designer stuff would survive 8 shows a week

McCullum fucked up Doubtfire, and now Prada. I'm hearing the Notebook has been transformed from a slight, but moving film into a one-note, pc bland musical. Yes, he's a producer of Six, but that's an import job.

R365, I'd be really surprised to learn that Reri Grist sang Zerbinetta *anywhere* in the late '70s or early '80s. While she was still performing well in major venues in those years, I don't think she was doing anything that called for a high E any longer.

Who is Ariadne Philip’s?

r523, I agree with you about "designer stuff would not survive 8 shows a week" and yet producers are stupid and cheap enough to expect costume designers to go out begging for it. Believe me, I've been there.

"War Paint," which kind of covered similar beauty/fashion area, didn't do that well, and that had 2 stars in it. Leavel's very talented, but this doesn't sound that promising, based on those reviews.

[quote]Hamilton Heights

A neighborhood named after TWO LMM musicals?

r462 r492 Please learn to use the QUOTE function.

[quote]I'd be really surprised to learn that Reri Grist sang Zerbinetta *anywhere* in the late '70s or early '80s. While she was still performing well in major venues in those years, I don't think she was doing anything that called for a high E any longer.

What does that surprise you? Grist would have turned 50 in 1982. I believe there have been several sopranos who have retained very high notes at that age, including Sutherland and Sills, to name two off the top of my head.

R529 It's not called "Hamilton In the Heights". It's an alternate name for what is also the larger neighborhood of Harlem.

R531, Joan Sutherland was already avoiding high E in public as early as her first staged LAKMÉs. Even in the recording studio, her last high E was in 1971, a few months before her 45th birthday. And Beverly Sills turned 50 in 1979, at which point she hadn't sung a high E anywhere in years.

Probably thought up by the real estate industry by people who wanted to sell to people who were afraid of living in Harlem.

"Wouldn't any sane producer fold PRADA in Chicago and not bring it to to Broadway at this point?"

Lousy reviews didn't prevent the producers from bringing DIANA into town. And look: the Times just dubbed it an unappreciated masterwork!

Too bad about PRADA; It was one of the few movie to musicals that I thought might work. I liked Kate Weatherhead on Submissions Only, and Sir Elton certainly has the chops. Hope it can be fixed - but I'm sure most are hoping for a car wreck.

R536, what "chops" does "Sir Elton" have, musical-theater wise? A handful of fun songs in AIDA . . . a bland score for BILLY ELLIOT . . . total disaster with LESTAT . . .

Something called "The Lion King", which churns through lots of money every week.

With exactly ONE decent song....

R493, looking at the early productions of They Knew What They Wanted, the actresses playing Rosabella (or Amy) were all mid-thirties on up. The one exception was Tallulah Bankhead who played it in London, but even in her 20s she was noted for her world-weary quality.

Oh, please, R538 -- he's responsible for perhaps half the score heard in the stage LION KING, and it's not his name that's selling all those tickets.

When someone says that a composer "certainly has the chops," that makes it sound as if he's a accomplished theatrical composer with many distinguished stage credits. "Sir Elton" doesn't qualify, especially with his well-established reputation for staying far away from the actual creative process engaged in by his fellow "artists" on theatrical projects.

Arianne Phillips is doing Prada? I go back with her back to Tank Girl days.

She is not really a designer. She is a stylist. And she keeps failing upward.

It is no surprise that the look of the show is lacking.

[quote] "War Paint," which kind of covered similar beauty/fashion area, didn't do that well, and that had 2 stars in it. Leavel's very talented, but this doesn't sound that promising, based on those reviews.

Which makes one (well, me, anyway) think that Patti LuPone could nail this role -- obviously in an entirely different adaptation. She can be imperious, frightening, sly, withering, funny and make you cower with one spoken word. Don't flame me but it would take someone with that innate strength. Not just skilled a musical comedy craftsperson.

[quote] I know exactly who Heather Headley is, I've even met her.

Yes, but hovering at the Palace Theatre stage door with your rolled up AIDA Playbill clenched in your at-that-time-still-reasonably-tight asshole hoping for an autograph doesn't exactly count as "meeting her."

Lillias White is the new Hermes in Hadestown.

Chris Jones in the Chi Tribune:

[quote] the main problem with the bland and hesitant new musical version of “The Devil Wears Prada”... is that it has not yet found the guts to follow that same track, notwithstanding the huge satirical opportunity. More specifically, Weisberger’s sexy, self-aware satire has been given a moralistic tack, which Miranda would hate even more than cerulean sweaters.

Oh shit it's woke

proof Kevin McC is a bad producer

[quote] it is far enough from finished as to not have deserved so many coastal media judges in the Nederlander Theatre Sunday night, laying waste to the concept of the pre-Broadway tryout (very Miranda). As they say in every Zoom meeting: there is a lot more work to be done.

[quote] What Does POTUS stand for?

Just in case you still don't know: President of the United States

I learned a long time ago you can't blame actors for bad writing. The Prada cast deserves better.

[quote]War Paint," which kind of covered similar beauty/fashion area, didn't do that well, and that had 2 stars in it. Leavel's very talented, but this doesn't sound that promising, based on those reviews.

Call Beanie, she can save the day!

Elton John is notorious for being extremely lazy and resisting urges to do rewrites.

They can change the lyrics to his current melodies and whatever other trunk songs he sends them. (Just don't send r462 to do lyrics. "Hope my checks are retroactive," indeed.)

Poor [R541]. Is your air conditioning not working? Go ahead, take it out on Sir Elton.

Even if they recast and make it to broadway who wants to take over the lead in a turkey?

[quote] who wants to take over the lead in a turkey?

Hi.

r554 you owe me a beer!

[quote]And the gorgeous Carole Lombard played Amy in RKO's They Knew What They Wanted based on Sidney Howard's play.

Opposite Charles Laughton as Tony.

r551 The rumour is he's already checked out and has had very limited involvement in Chicago

[quote]They got Miranda's look all wrong. I'm actually shocked at how wrong.

R482 = Mary Haines

Stritchy was obviously the one and only Miranda Priestly for a stage version. Ah, what might have been.

[italic]LINE!

Maybe Madonna can be Miranda on Broadway.

Whether or not Elton has "the chops" I just can't imagine he sat down with a director, librettist and even a lyricist at the beginning of the creative process to develop a score. He's never struck me as a collaborator, which what making a Broadway musical HAS to be about. He strikes me as: "Here are some melodies....go at it! See you on opening night on Broadway!"

Paul Rudnick knew something all along. As he always does.

There are a lot of people at Steppenwolf Theatre right now rejoicing in Anna D. Shapiro's comeuppance.

R469 I fucked up...I meant to type "Google" and not "Wikipedia".

I could not have heard Grist as Zerbinetta before the 74/75 season because I didn't move to New York until then and I think it was a little later.

Oh, jesus....I see that "Prada" has perfect woke casting.

White Lady for bitchy villain Miranda.

Chubbly black girl for Andy.

Gay latino for Nigel.

Brittle Asian for Emily.

I'm guessing there's someone in a wheelchair somewhere in that cast.

According to the Met database, all of Grist’s Zerbinettas were in 1970.

At the Met. I saw her at City Opera.

[quote]R567 Oh, jesus....I see that "Prada" has perfect woke casting.

I haven’t seen anyone but you complain about this (tho I haven’t checked the Stormfront site.)

I'm not aware that Miss Grist sang anything at City Opera except CARMINA BURANA very early in her career. You must be thinking of another soprano.

Shut up R522, you ignorant cunt.

To be fair, the NYT review also points out one of the pitfalls of colorblind casting--when the producers don't consider the implications:

""And though magazines like Vogue have finally admitted a lack of diversity, the musical never acknowledges that everyone mistreated by Miranda, who is white, is a person of color."

So by casting everyone else as a POC, she's not just an icy perfectionist; they inadvertently turned her into a racist too. (They couldn't have had one white person for her to be mean to?)

Oh, my deepest apologies to r530

[quote]And though magazines like Vogue have finally admitted a lack of diversity, the musical never acknowledges that everyone mistreated by Miranda, who is white, is a person of color.[/quote]

Reri Grist wasn’t a City Opera singer her career in NY was at the Met, and she certainly wouldn’t have been engaged for Zerbinetta at NYCO while she was at the Met.

It must have been this production. How I could have spent the past 40 years confusing Gianna Rolandi with Grist gobsmacks me. They didn't even look alike. But everything else matches what I remember, especially the wonderful John Alexander. Sorry.

R567-Same casting director as Richard III at the Delacorte?

So which critic has used the term “Grist to the mill” when critiquing Reri. Surely someone has.

r578 Probably the same ones who used "Hold the Mayo" when reviewing Virginia's movies.

or waited for Jack Lemmon to have a flop film to pronounce it a "lemon".

Variety is also negative. Somehow the review feels less nasty than it should be, especially since it's saying nothing about it works.

Reri reprised Somewhere at Gypsy of the Year in 2007.

Wonder if any of the Elton-Rudnick songs still exist. Would love to hear Rudnick's stories about the experience.

RIP Olivia Newton-John. (This is the closest she got to Broadway, right?)

Someone on a previous thread about The Most Happy Fella - other than the highlight reel on You Tube - is there a full video of the Benanti version?

"I haven’t seen anyone but you complain about this"

We don't have to. The pandering conformity is self-evident.

Wasn't Rudnick only writing the libretto for PRADA? I doubt he was writing lyrics. Hasn't the lyricist always been Shaina Taub?

[quote]We don't have to

Then why did you? No need to answer. We all know.

r587, I was curious about that too after r583 said it. But yes, he was originally announced as doing the book and lyrics.

[quote] the new musical will feature music by John and book and lyrics by Rudnick.

I'm finding all of the reviews for Prada except for The NY Post to be inordinately kind, even when they're heavily critical. It seems like, as with Funny Girl, reviewers are now much more cautious with their venom. Has anyone else noticed this trend? Bad reviews used to be a lot more fun to read in the olde days.

Someone should start a new thread and post the link. I think someone suggested the Call Me When He's Dead Edition a while back.

Or if we've moved on from Rodgers' book:

The Most Happy Edition, starring Reri Grist (because who needs gossip when we can talk about 66 year old musicals and 90 year old opera stars)?

The Devil Wears Egg on Her Face Edition?

Interesting about Rudnick, r589. Had he ever written lyrics for anything else? Just goes to show producer McCollum's stupidity.

I notice in that very old press release that Elton John and Rudnick are the only creative team announced. Probably someone realized during their Covid break that they needed to get some women on the team, hence, Anna Shapiro, Kate Wetherhead and Shaina Taub, all making their Broadway musical debuts in this multi-million dollar fiasco.

Looks like it was a year later when Taub was brought on, so maybe Rudnick hadn't written enough lyrics for there to be any versions of the songs that were his.

Cannot imagine what the company meeting for Prada will be like tomorrow afternoon. I assume they have today off, and it's a good thing.

Surely someone is getting fired if this thing is going forward.

r590 Cinema reviews were the same for a while after lockdowns ended. I think critics are wary of hurting the industry too much when it's still in a relatively fragile state

God, that Shaina Taub is a MEESKITE!

Tell the truth, was I so much to look at?

God, that Variety critic is a MORON

[quote] John’s score has its moments, providing his pleasing, peppy pop sound amid a sincere effort to give voice to the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters.

Yes, because melodies can do that.

r598, I think critics are capable of being bitchy. It's just that the skill of writing a devastating put-down is lost these days. Most of them are lousy writers.

BAJOUR!