THEATRE GOSSIP #501 - Come Back, Little Reba

Previous thread:

The halfass prior thread

The really shitty 500 thread

A dream or a nightmare?

Broadway dreams end up in the gutter.

WaPo says AF stinks

Reviews are universally bad and scathing. Closing by February or before.

From the 500.2 thread:

Robbie Fairchild had a very serious fall, I believe in rehearsal at the Met, where he was going to appear as a lead dancer in their La Traviata. He hit his head, the kind of injury that killed Natasha Richardson, so this is no matter for joking. Fortunately, he has survived but what the long range prognosis is, is something I don't know.

Robbie announced on Instagram that he’s taking a break from social media to focus on healing. For what it’s worth he looks great. I hope he’s ok health-wise.

[Quote] From the 500.2 thread:

Is there really such a thing?

Re: the film version of "The Producers" -- it really suffered at the hands of the inexperienced Stroman at the helm. Had Mel directed it himself and revised the screenplay to 'open it up' a bit, it might have had a chance at working. But Anne Bancroft was quite ill at the time and Mel simply wanted Stro's Broadway version captured on film. And that's exactly what he got.

As Nathan Lane would later quip, "it was the most expensive Lincoln Center archive recording ever made!"

Also, kudos to the thread starter. A solid, simple title to kick off #501!

[quote]Had Mel directed it himself and revised the screenplay to 'open it up' a bit, it might have had a chance at working.

Weird comment. The stage musical of THE PRODUCERS didn't need "opening up" in being transferred to film, as it was based on a movie that was already very much opened up, with scenes in lots of different locales, including outdoors. The problem with that movie was NOT that it needed to be "opened up" further.

That said, I agree with you that if Mel had directed the movie himself, it would have had a greater chance at working. Although, aside from Bancroft's poor health at the time, maybe a large part of the issue was that Mel felt he was just too old to direct a big movie.

The Producers was only good because Lane elevated the material. The second he left the cast, the show suffered miserably. Stroman’s inability to put together a good Bway show becomes obvious.

THREAD CLOSED

Make sure you pee a couple of times / limit beverages before LEOPOLDSTADT. There is no intermission and it clicks in at around two and a half hours.

Hey can anyone explain the difference between a General Manager and a Company Manager?

General manager reports to the producer(s) and is responsible for all the management functions -- budgeting, payroll, accounting, etc... The Company Manager reports to the General Manager and works specifically with the cast and crew on all their financial and management needs.

Isn’t it almost time for KO to come out of retirement again?

In her triumphant performance AS Laura Osnes.

Who is KO?

Any truth to the rumor of a Mame revival next season with Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon?

Cynthia Nixon can’t sing and Christine Baranski is older than Lucy when she did it.

So of course this should happen!

r16 should probably go see a doctor

GO WOKE, GO BROKE.

BAJOUR!

Before I forget, happy one-month birthday, 1776 at the AA! And they thought it would never last!

I have a trans friend who got a trans discount to see 1776 and even they weren’t thrilled about seeing it but said they were keeping an open mind.

I saw Betty Buckley be an absolute cunt onstage to John Barrowman’s understudy at Sunset Boulevard in London. At one point she grabbbed the poor boy by the shoulders and hissed “I command your respect! I command your respect!” I knew that wasn’t in the script. My companion, who worked in the Dress Circle shop, said it wasn’t the first time Betty had treated the poor understudy like shit. She considered all understudies to be inferiors.

There was once some charity thing on a Saturday night and one sketch got its laughs by imagining how Norma could end up dead. Someone playing Patti ended up drowning, someone playing Elaine ended up getting stabbed and the one playing Betty ended up getting crushed by the set as it descended for the New Year’s Eve sequence. Betty was there and fled (with her dog), sobbing uncontrollably. When she arrived for Monday’s performance she declared to no one in particular “I’ve healed from the trauma imposed upon me on Saturday night.”

I don’t remember if I ever saw Betty Buckley on Broadway, but I didn’t see her perform at the Bottom Line and she was terrific. Eccentric, but terrific.

DID see her…

Broadway needs a revival of “The Whales of August.”

Betty was excellent (as was Lois Smith) in The Old Friends at the Signature Theatre. Betty played a raging alchoholic.

My friend and I went to see The Old Friends and the person I was with knew someone in the cast so we were outside the theatre waiting. Betty came out, and spoke to some people and then turned and saw us waiting. I suppose I must have smiled at her, as she came barrelling over as if we were waiting just for her and was, actually, lovely and acted like we were her dearest friends.

Was Robbie Fairchild once married to a woman or am I thinking of someone else? Regardless, hope his recovery goes well. Sounds like a very scary fall!

Is his sister still dancing? Never had the chance to see her in a ballet performance, but she danced BEAUTIFULLY in the On the Town revival.

Excerpts from Brantley's review of The Old Friends:

[quote]It doesn’t take long for a bleak, yawning silence to assert itself through the tinkle of ice in highball glasses and the percolating dance tunes. They may dress and talk fancier, but these people are as scared, lonely and thwarted as anyone Foote ever created. As embodied by a juicy cast that includes Betty Buckley, Lois Smith and Hallie Foote, the playwright’s daughter, they make you understand why the working title for “The Old Friends” was once “The Dispossessed.”

[quote]A tale of half-buried loves and jealousies that are exhumed when a hometown beauty returns to Harrison in 1965 after a long absence, “The Old Friends” suggests that Foote might have been dipping into the best-selling fiction of his contemporary Harold Robbins. Though this play shows characteristic traces of Foote’s beloved Chekhov — including an 11 o’clock scene that directly invokes “Uncle Vanya” — it is also a flashy soap opera about the filthy rich doing dirty by one another.

[quote]The dramatis personae have enough grudges and wayward passions to fuel several seasons. The recently widowed, heavy-drinking Gertrude Hayhurst Sylvester Ratliff (Ms. Buckley) has always been in love with her late husband’s brother, the honorable Howard Ratliff (Cotter Smith). But Howard still harbors a flame for the girl that got away, Sibyl Borden (Ms. Foote), who is moving back to Harrison after roving South America in search of oil with her ne’er-do-well husband, Hugo, who dies of a heart attack shortly before the play begins.

[quote]Gertrude is the grandmaster of such gambits. And, as written by Foote and played with unexpected restraint by Ms. Buckley, she’s a precise and cleareyed study in the arrogance of the entitled rich. The scenes in which Gertrude apologizes — sort of — for her drunken bad behavior are ruthlessly well observed. You realize that in Harrison, being rich means never having to say you’re sorry.

[quote]It is Mamie, though, who reminds us viscerally of the Harrison that was and of the attrition that informs and afflicts every life in Mr. Foote’s work. Ms. Smith, who was sublime in the 2005 Signature production of “Bountiful,” gives us a heartbreakingly tentative Mamie, made wary by loss and rejection and all too aware of the waiting grave.

[quote]When Mamie brings up pieces of local folklore that no one wants to hear — like the tale of the little boy who died while dressed up as a ghost — Foote fans will experience a reassuring warmth of recognition. In her rasping, fumbling way, Ms. Smith’s Mamie is trying to find the road that connects the past to the present, as if that might make her world seem steadier. That path runs through all of Foote’s plays, receding and coming into focus, and always a lonely highway.

I thought The Old Friends was a crashing bore.

R35, Megan is still dancing. You can read her bio on nycballet.com

Robbie was married to Tiler Peck.

There was a thread titled New York City Ballet Gossip.

R36, that’s an excerpt…?

This is a loon thread.

Don't feed the Loon.

I heard a rumor that Disney is bringing back....

MARY POPPINS!

[quote]This is a loon thread.

[quote]Don't feed the Loon.Also, kudos to the thread starter. A solid, simple title to kick off #501!

[quote]This is a loon thread. Don't feed the Loon.

r42 is right, r12

OP started this thread days before any other the #500 threads were close to finished and spammed all of them.

Bad OP!

The rest of us are over here:

R44 but you’re not, Blanche! You’re in this thread and ya ain’t never going to leave this thread!

If the loon hadn’t started it early you all would have rushed to start a next one and would have started seventeen 501 threads

Datalounge used to be Bitchy Gay vs Bitchy Gay, now what’s left of the gays here is Aspie vs Aspie in the Theatre threads.

R42 why don’t you WW yourself some more from your other sock puppet accounts?

Whoever started this thread deserves a punch in the face.

Thank you for finally using my suggested title from the earlier “good” thread. 🤙🏼

Will they turn out the lights for Aaron?

Maybe the odd blown bulb here or there r51

Robbie Fairchild and Tiler Peck virtually grew up together in ballet classes and then, as stars of NYCB, were fated to marry even though most friends and colleagues questioned Robbie's sexual preferences (which had been tamped down all his life in service to his art). No sooner were they grandly married and Robbie went off to star on Broadway, that he realized his mistake.

Tiler's career continued to flourish and she was wooed to star in On the Town but had already committed to Stro's dull Little Dancer project and the role of Miss Turnstiles in OTT went to Robbie's sister Megan. OTT was choreographed by Joshua Bergasse who's married to Sarah Mearns, who has become a bigger ballet star than Tiler or Megan. Or Robbie, for that matter.

What happened to Josh Bergasse's career? For about 10 minutes he was the new hope for the American musical...Where is he now?

[quote]Robbie Fairchild and Tiler Peck virtually grew up together in ballet classes and then, as stars of NYCB, were fated to marry even though most friends and colleagues questioned Robbie's sexual preferences (which had been tamped down all his life in service to his art). No sooner were they grandly married and Robbie went off to star on Broadway, that he realized his mistake.

That's how I heard the story, but really, are how can an adult male not realize his sexual orientation, even if his "sexual preferences" had been "tamped down all his life?" I think it's really too bad that he went ahead and married that woman, as apparently the breakup was extremely bitter.

If I had the energy, I'd post 545 BAJOUR!'s in quick fashion to get rid of this shit thread.

Or, R56, you could improve this thread by contributing something valuable to it, rather than doing the opposite, you turd.

The universe is grateful for your chronic fatigue syndrome r56.

R56 I would make seventy-three 502 threads and finally put this chain to sleep

Tiler eventually went into On The Town as a vacation sub for Megan. Can you imagine finding out your husband was in London fucking his understudy. I would be bitter, too.

¡Qué horror!

Some gossip about Nathan Lane and Betty Buckley that I wasn't able to include in the prior thread. There was a story that made the rounds about Betty going batshit crazy during "Triumph of Love" over something to do with her costume. And as for NL, a friend of mine says that he and another friend were talking to him at a gay bar in NYC (The Works) years ago, as Lane was trying to pick up one of them. Apparently, NL was VERY loose-lipped about his disdain for understudies in general and Victoria Clark (Faith Prince's understudy in "Guys & Dolls") in particular, coming right out and saying "There's a reason they're the understudy." Can you imagine a Broadway star saying something like that to some twink he had only just met at a gay bar? I guess we can assume NL was in his cups at the time, but still.....

Nathan was ALWAYS shit-faced drunk at The Works, but I never saw him leave alone.

I’m surprised that out of everyone it was Ashley Day he fell in love with. Ashley is cute…but…it just wouldn’t seem to be first choice.

[quote] I heard a rumor that Disney is bringing back....MARY POPPINS!

Oh, Jesus no! THAT was an overly-long bore

See MARY POPPINS VS. TARZAN, only on Broadway.

L'il Ab(n)er, which is Reba backwards, the other thread is still winning.

Battle of the DL Theater Threads >>> Battle of the Network Stars

Who is the bigger cunt: Lupone or Buckley?

R68 number 52 will be titled ‘Come Back, Little Renba’

Patti is a pain in the ass, Betty is an all-out toxic cunt.

Worst threads ever?

[quote] Worst threads ever?

There’s a reason we call OP “the loon”

Oh god, get over yourselves R73 R74

Projecting much? You’re on this site for losers too, therefore you’re both losers.

Patti is being relegated to Zoom concerts.

No dick-yanking during Patti's Zoom concerts or you'll hear about it.

Stage, TV and film writer-director Douglas McGrath, who earned a Tony nomination for "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" and an Oscar nod for the "Bullets Over Broadway" screenplay he co-wrote with Woody Allen, died Thursday. He was 64.

The death was announced by the producers of McGrath's solo off-Broadway show, "Everything's Fine," which opened last month. A show representative said the cause was a heart attack. McGrath had written and was starring in "Everything's Fine," and was directed by John Lithgow.

Just based on my own observation of their public behavior and things they have said and done over the years, seems to me that Patti is basically stable from a mental health standpoint but she's a narcissist who can become tremendously mean and bitchy when people aren't sucking up to her, whereas Betty is mentally unhinged.

When I was a teenager, I saw Patti in concert at the massive theatre at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. It was shortly before she was to go into rehearsals for Master Class. (in London, I think?) I was clearly a theatre geek because I somehow knew all this well before social media.

If I recall correctly, her series of concerts were a last minute replacement for a national tour of some musical which got canceled. I stage doored, gave her some flowers and wished her "good luck with Master Class in London", her companions (two men... not sure who they were) guffawed and parroted back "good luck" to me. I understand why they did -- it could have sounded insulting. But, Patti didn't take it that way. She ignored them, took the flowers, smiled warmly, and said "thank you, doll!" and then spent a solid five or six minutes engaging me in conversation, asking me if I had aspirations of working in the theatre (I, foolishly, did at the time) and giving me some advice -- I was so surprised that she would take the time to do that for some random kid. I grew up in the UK and she noticed I still had my accent, perhaps thinking I still lived there, and asked one of the men to give me a card and told me to call the number when I was back in London and she'd have house seats waiting for me.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure she absolutely can be a cunt. I have no doubt about that. And, as an adult, I don't really 'get' stagedooring or autograph seeking, but I do fondly remember her kindness that night.

Almost Famous played like shite this evening. It has no reason to exist. DOA

R80, I'm not remotely surprised that Patti was so nice to you that night, because why wouldn't she be? You were obviously a fan, you brought her flowers, and you wished her well in her next endeavor. But if you ever worked with her and if she ever felt, however irrationally, that you were a threat to her or competition for her, or that you didn't give her 100 percent of the respect she deserved, I suspect it would have been a very different story.

News flash -- even people who are basically bitches are very likely to behave like angels in certain situations, and vice-versa. Very few people are mean or lovely ALL the time.

I sat center orchestra for the tour for Betty Buckley’s Hello Dolly in Louisville.

It’s possible I was the only queen on the audience and so I gave her the admiration she deserved.

As such…she pitched a lot of her performance to me.

This is why Divas and gay men audiences are good for eachother.

R82 Why shouldn't people respect her, and her work ethic?

[quote] Can you imagine a Broadway star saying something like that to some twink he had only just met at a gay bar? I guess we can assume NL was in his cups at the time, but still.....

Lea Michele was calling understudies “roaches” in front of random twinks when she was a mere 19.

Lea Michele terrorized her understudy when they were both barely double digits.

[quote]No dick-yanking during Patti's Zoom concerts.

Somehow I don't think this will be much of a problem.

Any further word on the Sondheim memorial? I heard from someone in the know that it will be next week, at the SS theater, and will not include musical tributes. My source was someone who was invited. Any more info?

It's Monday, the 14th

No *live* musical tributes.

Will someone who's attending report back, pease?

Who the HELL do you think you are?

Is mlop invited to the Sondheim memorial? I'd love to hear her take on it.

Sorry, R84, my phrasing was poor. Of course LuPone deserves respect for her work ethic. What I meant was that, based on my reading of her own memoir, she could be extremely bitchy towards people and begin bad-mouthing them if they didn't fawn all over her or if she felt even slightly threatened by them, however irrationally, while they were working together. Again, HER OWN MEMOIR is literally filled with stories that support this view of her. Have you not read that memoir, which almost reads like a book-length enemies list? Because I can't understand how anyone who read it could not feel that she's a vindictive narcissist at heart.

I am not allowed to report back. Just know that it will be wonderful.

r95, is there an NDA? Who would know if you spilled the beans?

Patti Lupone is Madeline Ashton, except she doesn’t care if she looks old.

Patti LuPone is Madeline Ashton’s CHARWOMAN.

R94 Just finished the memoir. She hates amatuers and people who she feels are not committed to the work at hand.

And yet her Les Miz stint doesn't paint her as committed, coke fiend that she was.

[quote]Just finished the memoir. She hates amatuers and people who she feels are not committed to the work at hand.

I'm sure that's exactly what she wanted you to take away from that book, but some of us had a very different reaction.

[quote] "Broadway Marks Election Day 2022" by Playbill's Leah Putnam - "Four shows which normally hold Tuesday evening performances that will not take the stage this week are Into the Woods, Almost Famous, MJ, and SIX. The Phantom of the Opera will also be dark on Election Day, and every Tuesday following through December 13. Why is Phantom taking Tuesday nights off

Taco Tuesday?

They're adding Sundays at 5. Interesting.

Because of the Sondheim obsessive on this site, I thought you may find this of interest. James Lapine was invited by Christie’s to speak in relation to a very rare and important Seurat that is coming up for auction from the Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. He discusses a lot of what went into the creation of Sunday in the Park with George. The painting is gorgeous and it’s heartbreaking to think it will probably go into a vault in Saudi Arabia or Asia and not a museum where it belongs.

In other news, it turns out that Rob McClure and Lena Hall are SPECTACULAR replacements in Little Shop.

McClure channels Wilkof's original sweet but pathetic energy brilliantly and plays it straight. Hall is doing something entirely new with that part that I find sexy and thrilling and slightly unhinged. It's a shame McClure isn't going to be in it for much longer...

Yeah, we heard you when you said it the first time in the real thread, R106.

And I appreciated it both times r106. Thank you.

For Little Shop, Matt Doyle joins the cast on Nov 15 and is out Nov 17-20. What’s up with these actors treating their jobs like a hobby?

That Suddenly Seymour clip is wonderful. How fun to see a different take on Audrey that actually works. Love her accent.

Sorry, r107, I posted it on the other thread -- and I'm not r106. But thanks for playing. No need to be a jerk for no reason now, is there?

r108, keep on keeping on.

oh, and r107 I just looked through all your posts and you're generally pretty toxic and boring.

When Tammy Blanchard was in Little Shop she was out quite a bit. Not sure if she ever played 8 shows a week. Skylar Aston left early to do a tv series. McClure and Pinkham were in it for a hot minute. Hopefully Lena Hall will stick around for a bit.

I wonder where McClure is going. He's been in so many flops I presumed he would stick around and see what an actual run is like.

McClure is so skilled, but never quite convincing.

McClure is always working way too hard. Not interested.

R106, that clip is really great. Thank you.

Lena Hall is a wonderful performer. I'm not sure if this has been mentioned lately, but although I liked Tammy Blanchard as Audrey overall, the key of "Suddenly Seymour" had to be lowered a bit for her. Nice to have it back to the original now.

Is Little Shop the new Chicago with its constantly changing cast?

I went recently to see McClure and Hall. Both are very good in the show, though the hard-as-nails approach to Audrey flattens the comedy. The production is still leagues and miles better than the 2003 Broadway production, though I am beginning to think Ashman's original production can just never be topped, especially in how he managed the tricky tone of the show. Somehow, everything worked in the original, generating euphoria.

Thanks for the report r119. I can’t decide whether to go but I bet sales have been good since that video.

[Quote] the hard-as-nails approach to Audrey flattens the comedy.

But isn’t Michael Mayer a comedy [italic] genius [/italic] ?

[quote] Sorry, [R107], I posted it on the other thread -- and I'm not [R106]. But thanks for playing.

Good for you. The person I was addressing posted it on both threads at the same time. But thanks for playing.

[quote] But isn’t Michael Mayer a comedy genius ?

R120, I'd rate him as the third worst director in New York, just behind the Scotts - Ellis and Elliott. The production still largely works almost in spite of him - I think a testament to the strength of the material.

[quote] I'd rate him as the third worst director in New York, just behind the Scotts - Ellis and Elliott.

do you rate directors by how bad their worst shows were or how good their best were, or general averaged track-record? Mayer I think is the most overrated, although he did some good work. But the bad far outnumbers the good. I don't think Elliott ever did great work. Ellis seems middle of the road, rarely excellent, rarely terrible.

I think the worst irksome thing about Mayer and Ellis is how badly they murder classic musicals in their misbegotten revivals. Mayer with On a Clear Day and Funny Girl and Ellis with She Loves Me (his 2nd attempt), On the 20th Century and Kiss Me Kate, to name only a few from each of them. Oh, and Mayer's work at the Met is truly atrocious and taste-free.

Mayer really did some excellent work in the beginning. I have no idea what happened to him. Scott Elliott is a dreadful director, and has been since day one. And yes, Ellis is middle of the road. I've enjoyed a number of things he's directed over the years, though nothing recently.

I include Ellis in the unholy trinity due to his revival of The Boys from Syracuse for Roundabout. It remains, to date, the worst musical revival I think I've seen on any stage. Ugly, cheap, mirthless and inept.

I doubt it was as bad as ONCE UOPN A MATTRESS. That would be my pick.

Mattress was also horrible. But Boys from Syracuse was worse.

Although it's a fairly close contest, I would still say that Elliott is a significantly worse director than the other two in terms of overall rack record. I'm not sure that I've even seen a single good show directed by him. I've always thought that the only reason he still has any kind of a career is because he seems to be firmly ensconced as artistic director of The New Group and, for whatever reasons, it seems he cannot be removed even though he keeps producing and or directing one horrible show after another.

Encores did such a wonderful "Boys From Syracuse" with its superb Rodgers & Hart score, that it is truly amazing that someone was able to muck up another Broadway production when they don't trust the material.

[quote]Encores did such a wonderful "Boys From Syracuse" with its superb Rodgers & Hart score, that it is truly amazing that someone was able to muck up another Broadway production when they don't trust the material.

No one has yet mentioned this, but a major reason why that production was so putrid was that, aside from the inept direction, the book of the show was completely rewritten by Nicky Silver. This only very shortly after the Encores! production had proven that the show still plays beautifully with its original book, if it's well directed and performed. I'll tell ya, the inmates were really running the asylum in that one.

Remember the sets, R131, that looked like corrugated cardboard? And how poor Georgia Engel seemed humiliated by her cameo appearance?

Although when it comes to humiliating a cast, nothing compares with Scott Elliott's staging for the curtain call for The Women at that same theatre, where he made those poor ladies walk out in their underwear.

[quote]I'd rate him as the third worst director in New York, just behind the Scotts - Ellis and Elliott.

Hey, what about me?!

Rob Ashford has to be the WORST choreographer working in the musical theatre today. His overly busy, unnecessarily complicated choreography never has ANYTHING to do with the characters or storytelling happening on stage. How he gets these assignments is beyond me.

His "Brotherhood of Man" with Radcliffe is one of the most glaring examples. What the hell do any of those ridiculous arm movements have to do with Finch or any of those 1960 Mad Men types? It's not comedic, it's not even ironic. It's totally out of place and only serves to remind the audience "boy, those are a lot of intricate steps!" Total fail. Especially as compared to the original, or even Wayne Cilento's character (and period) driven choreo from the '95 revival. There's no joy, just a lot of work on display.

[quote]Although when it comes to humiliating a cast, nothing compares with Scott Elliott's staging for the curtain call for The Women at that same theatre,

"At that same theatre" being the operative phrase here. The Roundabout sure has had lots of stinkers over the decades, and that's mostly because their artistic director, while he may be perceived as a successful businessman, is a sheer disaster as an artist. So maybe he should have taken another title and let someone else make the artistic decisions all these years?

Scott Ellis gets a lot of credit for the first revival of She Loves Me. Everything else (including Tootsie, Drood, Steel Pier, Company, 1776, 20th Century, etc.) was terrible.

Gee, this thread is a turd.

I think that first revival of She Loves Me benefitted HUGELY from great casting (which as Mike Nichols was always quick to admit is 90% of directing). Howard McGillin was especially wonderful as Kodaly. I thought the most recent revival, even with Benanti, was plodding and pedantic. And Gavin Creel was hugely miscast...he's no comedic character lead!

I will say that I thought Ellis' production of DROOD in 2012 was quite excellent. Of course, it was aided by Rupert Holmes substantial tweaks and edits to his book and score which tightened and clarified things. The orchestrations however PALED in comparison to the Holmes/Starobin originals from '85. I think those DX7 synths in the original score added SO much to the proceedings (not to mention an actual string section!)

It must’ve been directed by one of the Scotts

Almost all (or maybe all?) of these Scott Ellis-directed grotesque misconceptions have been for the Roundabout. You'll notice commercial producers never hire him. What he must have over Todd Haimes is anybody's guess.

As for Scott Elliott, there was some production (or maybe 2) he directed off-Broadway in the late 1990s that got him loads of attention. I remember even a cover story in the Sunday NY Times magazine about him, though I can't remember what those shows were. Anybody? They led to Elliott getting the plum assignment of directing Frank Langella in that Broadway revival of Present Laughter that got rather mixed reviews, IIRC. After that it was all downhill for Elliott.

And finally, are NY producers now immune to Rob Ashford's meagre talents? He hasn't directed or even choreographed anything in NY in quite a while, right?

For me Stroman is, hands down, the absolute worst director. EVERYTHING she touches, sucks

Didn't Stro begin her directing career as Scott Ellis' assistant back in the 80s on And the World Goes Round and the Flora, the Red Menace revival at the Vineyard?

Makes sense.

Scott Ellis and Michael Mayer have done some excellent work, and I think even Mayer's failures can be interesting or thought provoking. Scott Elliott is just awful and I can't think of one show he's done that was any good.

But you're all forgetting the worst director currently on Broadway- Kathleen "Cruise Ship" Marshall.

I'd also like to point out that the execrable revival of THE WOMEN at the Roundabout was directed by Scott Elliott, not Scott Ellis.

R134, I agree. I hated the choreography to Brotherhood of Man. I love the show, but seeing that number on the Tonys made me lose interest in seeing the show.

I just noticed that David Hull, who played White Josh on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is in the ensemble in Brotherhood of Man on the front right side of the screen.

Link to some nice pics of David Hull.

[quote]But you're all forgetting the worst director currently on Broadway- Kathleen "Cruise Ship" Marshall.

Agreed, but her last Broadway credits was in 2016, and she doesn't have all that many credits, so I don't think she was ever considered to be all that.

Speaking of Rob Ashford, how did his star dancer Charlie W get so ugly? I barely recognize him now.

[quote] As for Scott Elliott, there was some production (or maybe 2) he directed off-Broadway in the late 1990s that got him loads of attention.

The gig that put Elliott on the map was Mike Leigh's Ecstasy. I thought it was quite a bore, but Caroline Seymour was fascinating. WHET her?

I'm not sure what you mean, R147. He looks fine in this video from a year ago.

Calling back to the topic of The Producers from the original #500 thread -- you can see Stro and her stage management (Zweigbaum and Carlyle) put the Australian production of the show on its feet in this great hour long doc. It goes from the casting/audition process through Opening with Mel.

Stroman seems pretty cold and calculating in her "directing"...especially around the 16 minute mark as she meets the company and gets "King of Broadway" up on its feet. The company energy until opening night is pretty on edge. These are major Aussie theatre stars and they all seem a bit "handcuffed" throughout the process. A fascinating watch!

There's also some great B-roll clips of Marty Short and Jason Alexander in the LA production at the beginning.

What’s David Hull doing now? Loved him on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and he had a small role in the first season of Insecure. Haven’t seen him since, sadly.

Kathleen Marshall was resident choreographer at Encores. She was the one who decided the Hair cast would not shed their clothes.

Hack!

Marshall also had a huge hit in London recently recreating her Anything Goes with Sutton F. I only saw it on TV and thought it was dreadful.

IIRC Kathleen Marshall was actually the artistic director at Encores for at least a few years, not just resident choreographer (does such a position even exist there?).

R147 Get the fuck out of here you blind, car wash cunt. Charlie is dreamy.

Ellis does well with plays. Take Me Out, 12 Angey Men etc. Elliott is the worst

Tyler Mount is exhausting. Not in a good way.

Ellis' direction of Take Me Out was nowhere near as good as Joe Mantello's in the original production.

Tom Kitt seems to turn up all the time. WEHT to Brian Yorkey and that partnership?

Tom Kitt is handsome, amiable and efficient. That goes a long way these days on Broadway. Does he ever initiate projects? I'm not sure, but he seems more like a composer for hire once a producer or writer has a concept or buys the rights to the original source material.

How many flops will he be allowed?

Very interesting regarding data and dish regarding the Phantom closing, it appears that the show REALLY was in bad shape the whole post Covid “reopen” with the foreign tourists awol, and that it was being kept up by Cameron to make it to the anniversary in January. He has no intention of opening a cheaper version, and Lord Andrew only wants to talk about Bad Cinderella.

Brian Yorkey moved into television, R159. He was behind Netflix' 13 Reasons Why and other YA series.

I wonder if that disastrous musical at the Public, was it called The Visitor, didn't break up Kitt and Yorkey forever? The one starring David Hyde Pierce that Ariel Stachel notoriously quit? Wasn't Yorkey banned from rehearsals or did he just walk away from it?

Phantom ain’t closing

"How many flops will he be allowed?"

Thank God someone is finally asking this of someone else.

Who will be the new Thursday night Fanny when Julie Benko leaves FG for Harmony? I’ve heard she’s leaving in January.

THE VISITOR was disastrous in terms of public relations, but as a piece of theatre, it was far from that. In fact, I'd dare to say it's better than many if not most of the new musicals that have popped up Off-Broadway since things reopened. I went expecting a colossal turkey and instead saw something quite good that had instead been destroyed by outside forces. I was floored.

I wonder if we'll ever get the full story of what happened.

[quote]How many flops will he be allowed?

I’m still trying to get an answer to that question

I resemble that remark!

Was Boyd Gaines the ideal George in She Loves Me?

[quote]THE VISITOR was disastrous in terms of public relations, but as a piece of theatre, it was far from that. In fact, I'd dare to say it's better than many if not most of the new musicals that have popped up Off-Broadway since things reopened. I went expecting a colossal turkey and instead saw something quite good that had instead been destroyed by outside forces. I was floored. I wonder if we'll ever get the full story of what happened.

I agree with you to a certain point. There was a lot in the show that was good, but much of it was so terribly bleeding-heart earnest and overly sentimental that it was very hard to take, at least for me. I do think what happened behind the scenes was awful, even though I'm not sure we got the full story. Whatever, Ari'el Stachel came across very badly from what was reported.

R171 No, Daniel Massey was. Gaines didn't sing it that well, and they cut "Tango Tragique", which still hasn't been restored in the last revival.

R173, do you really miss "Tango Tragique" so much? It's a weird song in very questionable taste.

Stachel seems to like sabotaging what little he has left of a career, he whined that cutting him out of Don't Worry Darling was racism

R174 It's the hardest song for George in terms of vocal range, and it's a big off-putting, but the idea of it is to gross Amalia out and start her screaming in the cafe.

Kitt is the epitome of mediocrity. And he does seem to have an inordinate number of flops.

a beautiful noise was.... something. The audience was so rude and tacky from minute 1. People really thought they were at a singalong, even during quiet ballads.

I'm not knowledgeable about Neil Diamond but liked the performance scenes. The rest was kind of cliche, Walk Hard level biopic writing. "Touring is hard on relationships/the crew is like family..."

The dancers, called The Beautiful Noise, were fun and I think captured the 60s/70s moves you'd see in old variety shows. They were pretty active throughout the show.

Will Swenson got a wolf whistle from one of the many drunks in the audience!

I felt like the Sopranos crew was commenting behind me. They were unintentionally funny in their ignorance. These old drunks couldn't stop playing w phones, talking in full voice during quiet scenes. Ushers were on top of it, but damn!

I think this is going to last awhile.

[quote]Was Boyd Gaines the ideal George in She Loves Me?

Cue the "Boyd Gaines isn't doing well" troll in 5, 4, 3 . . .

Is it true that the play coming in with Audra McDonald is only like 60 minutes long or so?

[quote] Is it true that the play coming in with Audra McDonald is only like 60 minutes long or so?

Girlfriend has to get to Chipotle before they close.

Now that it's been in previews a bit longer, I figure more of you have seen Some Like It Hot... what's the verdict?

[Quote] Cue the "Boyd Gaines isn't doing well" troll in 5, 4, 3 . . .

Don't!

[quote]It's the hardest song for George in terms of vocal range, and it's a big off-putting, but the idea of it is to gross Amalia out and start her screaming in the cafe.

In my opinion, that long, not particularly good or funny song is really not necessary to motivate Amalia making a scene in the cafe.

There's a Chipotle directly across the street from the theater she'll be performing in!

Bock and Harnick had it in the show originally, and since they've wrote "Fiddler" and "Fiorello", and had it on the album, I'd say their instincts are more pertinent.

R182 it grossed $539,593 the previous week. That's not good, is it?

The big hits are grossing over $1 million weekly. For instance, FUNNY GIRL grossed $1.6 million and was #5 for the week (after MUSIC MAN, HAMILTON, THE LION KING, MJ).

Jesse Green’s rave review for Kimberly Akimbo is actually very sweet, matching the tone of the musical. I hope the show finds an audience.

[quote] There's a Chipotle directly across the street from the theater she'll be performing in!

You obviously know nothing about our Audra.

She has to cross the battlefield, which some people call the “fans at the stage door.” FanBattle Fatigue sets in and by the time she pulls her wounded body up to Chipotle’s door, they will be closed. She should get a Purple Heart for bravery.

In today’s Broadway environment, you can’t expect performers to put aside their personal needs for their work demands.

I agree, R188 - it's a lovely review. And it hadn't occurred to me before that Kimberley is an echo of Clara in The Light in the Piazza.

But Jesse, please - we can do without the 'nerdical'. Call it a fucking musical. It's the Sixes and Moulin Rouges and the other tourist shit that deserve an apologetic misnomer.

[quote] FanBattle Fatigue sets in and by the time she pulls her wounded body up to Chipotle’s door, they will be closed.

Uber Eats.

I went to Phantom again yesterday after at least 15 years. I had forgotten what an entertaining piece it is. The production still looked very sharp, actually.

But, Holy Fuck, the guy playing Phantom, Ben Crawford, had the most masculine, sexy singing voice I think I’ve ever heard!

Is he gay? He made a few subtle gestures that made me think gay but maybe it’s just his take on the character—but wow was he hunky.

R184, in the revival, didn't Georg Nowack just speak the story instead of singing it?

Ben Crawford is very straight and married.

"How many flops will he be allowed?'

A charter member of the "failing upwards" club, fer sure.

"I hope the show finds an audience."

Now if it could only find a score.

[Quote] Ben Crawford is very straight and married.

So was Howard McGillin...

[quote]Bock and Harnick had it in the show originally, and since they've wrote "Fiddler" and "Fiorello", and had it on the album, I'd say their instincts are more pertinent.

"Pertinent?" Odd choice of word. Sorry, but my instinct is that it's just a bit too creepy for George to toy with Amalia by telling her a made-up horror story about a girl who goes on a blind date and ends up being killed and dismembered.

Bock and Harnick and Joe Masteroff were geniuses, but of course, even geniuses can make occasional mistakes.

I’ve got a big dick, too.

Sheldon Harnick also famously wrote these lyrics for Marie in "The Very Next Man" in FIORELLO:

And if he likes me

Who cares how frequently he strikes me?

I'll fetch his slippers with my arm in a sling

Just for the privilege of wearing his ring

Years later, Harnick realized those were offensive, so he rewrote them:

And if he sucks me, who cares how frequently he fucks me/I’ll tongue his asshole if he didn’t eat corn, just like the ladies do when they’re filming porn.

So last night I saw a completely unnecessary play called CAMP SIEGFRIED at 2nd Stage about 2 teenagers at an American Nazi youth camp on Long Island in 1938. Fascinating subject but dead directionless play.

Anyway, DL Broadway legend Barbara Barrie was sitting behind me and about 20 minutes into the play, after muttering constantly to her seatmates (who I don't think were actually with her) that she couldn't hear or understand understand the actors (I had the same issue), apologized to everyone in her row and got up because she said she had a "bathroom emergency." She huffed down the steps to the lobby only to be told by the fierce young usher at the bottom of the steps that she couldn't exit that way and, after arguing with the usher ("Do you know who I am?"), had to go all the way back up the steps to leave the house. It was the high point of the evening. She never returned. I wish I had followed her instead of watching this mind-numbing play.

"It's a weird song in very questionable taste."

Which is, of course, the whole point. But how anyone could find the deliberately silly song offensive is beyond me.

But to assuage the snowflakes who are triggered by it, it's omitted from the libretto licensed by MTI.

R202, no need to be so nasty. I find the song only very mildly "offensive," but I think it's a waste of time, and also, it paints a poor picture of George that he would say (or sing) those things to Amalia, even in jest.

I think we can assume that some or all of the writers eventually came to have the same opinion, or they would not have agreed to the song's removal from the licensed materials. So, do you consider the writers to be "snowflakes" as well?

[Quote] Ben Crawford is very straight and married.

Damn

R202, the "Tango Tragique" story is there but as dialog instead of a song.

THE VISITOR was one of the worst pieces of shit I've ever seen. Especially the 2.5 hour version of the show before they got down to 90-ish minutes. It was absolute hack work all around, and the audience was groaning throughout. I tried listening to the album and had to turn it off after just a few minutes, it's interminable.

I saw a very early, pre-pandemic workshop of THE VISITOR with Mandy Patinkin in the Richard Jenkins role and Haaz Sleiman as the young guy, a role he originated in the film, and Montego Glover as his girlfriend.

They were all quite wonderful, even Mandy who I don't usually love, but he gave a very modest, simple and sincere performance. I wonder why Mandy didn't ultimately do the show and if they even offered sexy Haaz his part?

Does anyone know how long ago Carolee Carmelo and Gregg Edelman parted ways? These Broadway divorces tend to happen so quietly compared to Hollywood...

Well, they'r barely famous, so...

What actually happened with The Visitor - the delayed opening, the replacement of the actor, etc?

Holy hell, KPOP was terrible. How did this make it to Broadway?

[quote]Well, they're barely famous, so...

Isn't "Barely Famous" the newest flop musical based on a movie?

Carmello & Edelman divorced at least five years ago; maybe more.

Someone should THE VISITOR and THE FUCKING VISIT in rep.

R213, they were divorced in 2015, but I don't remember how long they were broken up before that.

I remember Rex Reed reviewing the Joel Grey Cabaret revival and saying how Greg Edelman was not remotely believable as someone men and women would be throwing themselves at. I saw the show. Rex was right. But he does have a lovely singing voice and liked him in Wonderful Town.

And John Benjamin Hickey seems irresistible to both sexes?

Lea is out of Funny Girl tonite. Hurt her back. Doctors orders.

[quote] They were all quite wonderful, even Mandy who I don't usually love, but he gave a very modest, simple and sincere performance.

When Mandy dials it back, which is very capable of, he can give truly amazing performances. Saul on Homeland was quite wonderful.

not on stage.

Now do we have to see Kimberly akimbo? Valdemort triumphs

[Quote] Hurt her back.

We keep the wigs on a high shelf for a reason.

It's not like Greg Edelmann in "Cabaret" as Cliff has much to sing either, so not sure why he was cast. He has a lovely voice. His acting got better doing a character part in the last revival of " Drood" though, but then again with Chita's unknown/weird English accent, helped his part of the equation in that production.

It's always bothered me that no one has tried to do a version of Cabaret with Clifford being actually gay.

The "Clifford loves Sally" plot is so stupid and fake.

It's too bad Kander & Ebb didn't do an alternate version with gay Cliff. And, this way, Cliff could actually be an interesting character with songs to sing instead of the boring dull character he is now.

R223. Cliff sang DON’T GO in that revival. That and the extra cabaret numbers added for Grey made the show very long.

R225 I did the show years ago, as Clifford, (awful character), and had two songs, Why Should I Wake Up and the Telephone song, which is minimal singing. I liked, Wake Up, a good soar song, but made no sense being sung about Sally...

But there are some lines in the original script where Sally questions Cliff's sexual orientation, aren't there?

I've never really seen Sally and Cliff as a couple. The older couple are the lovers. The younger two need comfort/family and find it in each other for a little while.

R227 In the original musical....not that I remember.

Absolutely no way is Cliff gay!

I’m pretty sure Cliff kissed a guy in the long-running Roundabout revival

R226, doesn’t Cliff also sing the final verse of “Perfectly Marvelous”?

Cliff don’t go for clit.

The new London production cast a very gay Cliff

You queens are something. in Cabaret, the Cliff - Sally relationship is about what the rest of the show is about (because, it's well written, you know?). Cliff isn't a heartthrob or a sexy romantic lead. Sally and Cliff find each other because they're opposites, each seeking what the other has. He's in a foreign country, tempted by the seemingly exotic, and she's looking for stability and American simplicity so she can turn off the scary outside world.

Sure, the Edelman/Reed pairing was wasn't one of the show 's strongest, but it was all a vehicle for Grey that time around. Resnik and Klemperer were the surprises. But Hickey and his replacements in the original Mendes-Marshall Broadway production were just right.

PS Cliff is too uptight - especially in that world at that time - to be out-out gay. And it always played to me that he's clutching onto a relationship with Sally to suppress any gay feelings.

Cliff ain’t’ no faggot and I’m the dame that can prove it!

I think Christopher Isherwood’s time in Berlin was his time of experimentation. He was leaving his uptight British background, where homosexuality was illegal, and finding freedom in Berlin. It was his time of deciding whether he was bisexual or gay.

Cabaret is based on one of his many stories written in that time period. Obviously, the Broadway musical imposed a love story on the material even though it’s not in the original source material.

No meek closeted gay has ever fallen in love with an outrageous ugly or fat woman.

Barry Dennen was closeted once upon a time, wasn't he...

The original Cabaret stage script walked a fine line.

When Sally has her abortion, she says to Cliff, “You would have made a wonderful father.” He then slaps her. Why?

Straight women read the slap as Sally’s being a victim and deciding to abort.

Straight men suspect that Sally was sleeping around and the slap is because Cliff knows the baby wasn’t his.

Gay men just enjoy seeing people get slapped.

Lesbians don’t go to the theater.

R235, I agree that the show is brilliantly well written, but I really wouldn't say that Sally is "looking for stability and American simplicity so she can turn off the scary outside world." There may be moments when she THINKS she's looking for that, but.....no.

In the original Broadway libretto for CABARET there was absolutely NO indication, even subtextually, that Cliff, as played by the stalwart and very straight Bert Convy, was gay or even bisexual. He was just a standard leading man in the Rodgers & Hammerstein mold. At least, that's precisely how I remember him from my 4 viewings of the show when I was a precocious teenager in 1967.

Loved Jill Haworth btw!

the 80s revival has dialogue and action that infer that cliff may be bi at least

Thanks, I did seem to remember some suggestion that Cliff might be gay or bi in one of the productions I saw. Specifically, I think Sally had a line to Cliff that went something like: "Are you at all homosexual?"

r, 245, TBH that line may have been in the original production but only got an easy laugh because Bert Cony was clearly such a heterosexualist.

In the 80s revival it was clear that Cliff was bi. The character was bi in the movie and I guess the creators thought the audience could handle such a shocking revelation on stage. In the 90s revival it seemed like Cliff (who kisses Bobby one of the Kit Kat boys) is clearly gay but dabbling in hereto sex with Sally. It’s also implied that Ernest Ludwig is gay or bi when he makes an unsuccessful pass at Cliff. In the next revival Fraulein Kost and Fraulein Schneider will be scissoring.

[quote]In the next revival Fraulein Kost and Fraulein Schneider will be scissoring.

Pics please.

Next version of "Cabaret" will be inspired by the movie "Showgirls" with lots more tits and ass.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I thought the Mendes' revival was trying too hard to be shocking/provocative, and I found Alan Cummings cringeworthy. I rolled my eyes a lot.

[quote]Probably an unpopular opinion, but I thought the Mendes' revival was trying too hard to be shocking/provocative, and I found Alan Cummings cringeworthy. I rolled my eyes a lot.

You are not alone. I assume the main theory behind the concept of that production was that, in order to shock present-day audiences, certain elements of the staging, costume and makeup design, etc. had to be made over-the-top vulgar and explicit. But though there may be some validity to that concept, they certainly shouldn't have had all of that vulgar, sleazy, shocking stuff begin in the opening scene in the cabaret, because it left them nowhere to go. That was a big mistake, in my opinion. But of course, the production was extremely successful, so judging from that yardstick, the creators were right to dumb down the show in that way and to play all of the subtext on the top from the very first minute that the lights went up.

[quote]Lord Andrew only wants to talk about Bad Cinderella.

And Some Like It Hot, interestingly.

Bad Sphincterella Some Like My Twat Cuntbely Asskimbo

Speaking of Cabaret, will the latest West End production make it to broadway? Billy Porter IS the Emcee!

I see that 4th grade study hall has joined the chat.

Is Cast Party guru Jim Caruso a bossy top or a bossy bottom?

Either way, who cares? Yecch.

Strange Loop has cancelled today’s matinee due to non Covid related illness in the cast.

Tonya Pinkins wrote a diatribe scolding Jesse Green for his review

Tonya is really mad.

Does "global majority" just mean "not white"? Would the term "national majority" mean white?

Why do people keep hiring that fucking loon? She's not even that talented.

[quote]Tonya Pinkins wrote a diatribe scolding Jesse Green for his review

Not surprising. She is unhinged.

5689 words.

Sweet BABY Jesus that was A LOT!

[quote]Jesse, HELEN KELLER could have written a more accurate review of the production of A Raisin in The Sun we deliver at the THE PUBLIC THEATER through November 20, 2022.

This is like something that a nasty six-year-old might write. Pinkins should be ashamed of herself.

[quote]In your review of the production at THE PUBLIC THEATER you state is that the show is “not as good as Williamstown.” Did you see it a at Williamstown? You didn’t write the review. Your review contributed to the production’s early closure and thwarts any possibility of a move beyond off-broadway.

What the hell is she talking about? The Public production of A RAISIN IN THE SUN is not closing early. In fact, it was extended for a week.Your review says, “O’Hara concentrates his prodigious theatrical imagination on Walter Lee.” What play did you see?

[quote]Your review says, “O’Hara concentrates his prodigious theatrical imagination on Walter Lee.” What play did you see?

Green saw the same play - or rather, the same production of the play, which I guess is what the crazed Tonya Pinkins meant -- that I saw. Despite the inept director's insistence to the contrary, this production is focused very much on the character of Walter Lee rather than on the female characters.

Pinkins is absolutely correct.

The only problem is she goes on too long.

Oh shut up, Singapore/FuckinFling!

That Suddenly Seymour clip was terrible. Yikes.

She's entitled to express her opinion, but she's not entitled to force her many malapropisms on unsuspecting readers.

It reads like it might have been written by Professor Irwin Corey (only about 3 eldergays will get the reference)

[quote]That Suddenly Seymour clip was terrible. Yikes.

I think the music was enhanced for that clip because I don't remember the piano sounding that good in the theater.

[quote]Pinkins is absolutely correct.

If that's what you think you're as bat-shit crazy as she is.

When are they going to revive The Rink? It's time!

Tonya didn’t proofread. This is my favorite

[Quote] Playwright Jeremy O’Harris

He’s magically delicious

That's a lot of Bible verse citations.

There is so much crazy to unpack in that ridiculous Pinkins rant, but I would appreciate if someone could tell me what the fuck she is talking about when she refers to the early closing of A RAISIN IN THE SUN.

Tonya’s diatribe isn’t half as persuasive as she thinks it is, and clearly lacks the introspection to realise as much.

For the most part, even the most talented actors are not very bright.

The craziest part of the TP rant is that even the good reviews say that Walter Lee is at the center of this production. We saw act one (fled at intermission) but the Walter Lee character was definitely centered and I usually feel that the Moma character is the core of that play.

I wonder if perhaps this means there were talks to extend the run which got scrapped after the review?

"Fresh off celebrating opening night October 25, The Public Theater's Off-Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry's landmark play A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Robert O'Hara, has extended its run for a second time, with performances now set to continue through November 20. Read reviews for the production here."

As usual, nothing TP says is to be trusted.

[Quote] She ain’t sure what Walter Lee is gone be tomorrow.

I mean come on

There’s a reason Tonya Pinkins didn’t even get to be a day player attorney on The Good Fight. Audra and Christine know how batshit crazy she is.

[Quote] Where is the optimism in the play? Can you sight a line of text?

[Quote] My one and only year at Carnegie Mellon was filled with insult and injury from my instructors after Hal Prince cast me in the broadway production “Merrily We Roll Along.” I never received an “A” in a performance class.

What do we think of Broadway’s reigning hottest leading man Ramin Karimloo and his very recent major gains to play a professional wrestler in his side project, The Last Match? All natural or…?

[quote]Does "global majority" just mean "not white"? Would the term "national majority" mean white?

Yeah, why do liberals often use the term "global majority" when discussing people of color in the USA, which is around 60% non-Hispanic white and thus the "national majority," as you pointed out.

Not to mention that to them, POC usually refers to black people which are only 13% of the U.S. population.

Anyone think Jesse will have to respond to that letter?

[quote]The craziest part of the TP rant is that even the good reviews say that Walter Lee is at the center of this production. We saw act one (fled at intermission) but the Walter Lee character was definitely centered and I usually feel that the Moma character is the core of that play.

The gullible, shit-stirring, not-very-bright Tonya Pinkins THINKS this production is focused on the women because.....well, because her inept director TOLD her, and the press, that it's focused on the women. Hard to believe, but I guess said inept director honestly thinks that's where he focused the production even though everyone who sees the show feels otherwise. How untalented do you have to be to clearly place the focus of a show elsewhere than where you wanted it to be placed? I guess that's a question for Robert O'Hara.

Kimberly Akimbo got great reviews, but the show is still saddled with the worst poster and ad campaign ever. I can't believe they haven't changed it yet, given how low the grosses are. Why the fuck do they keep featuring those glee-type kids, and the yearbook bullshit? Are they trying to sell to the GREASE audience?

Smarty pants at r289, what scene/scenes from KA would YOU feature in an ad campaign?

Don't feature any scenes or photographs in the campaign , fuckhead. Come up with a smart, creative compelling image. Mamma Mia used the same fuckin bride worldwide because they knew the show didn't photograph well. Same with Moulin Rouge. And Phantom. Duh..

How about a poster that might appeal to a casual theatergoer, even if it doesn’t exactly replicate the show being advertised.

For you Ramin fangurls, he will be on Playbill’s Broadway in Alaska cruise July 21-28. Maybe if you discreetly lift your caftan, he’ll pay a visit to your stateroom.

Huh, R285? Ramin has been gym obsessed for years. He doesn't look that different to me.

Ramin could crush my windpipe, and I’d dutifully thank him.

Uh, Ramin has put on a LOT of muscle for the new side project, but he’s always been ripped, R294.

Sadly, the “hot Phantom” is the new way and it apparently didn’t work out since it’s closing after 35 years…

Billy Porter and Sara Porkalob in THE RINK!!!

Lol. Billy is waaayyy too an ambitious to work with some cunty blob who’s career just publicly ended.

Tonya Pinkins and Sara Porkalob in THE RINK!!!

R290 you’re awfully aggressive especially for an idiot. Most broadway posters don’t show “scene/scenes” from the show. Hell the famous Phantom mask doesn’t even resemble the mask in the show. R289 is right that the KA choices haven’t been smart to far- but again not as stupid as you

Steven Sater on TikTok is saying he manipulated casting auditions to have Groff and Michele always reading together to the detriment of some other female child actress who was favored for the part. Who was the other actress who lost out, and wasn’t Lea with the project longer than anyone else since the early workshop days? Wouldn’t it have been Groff who benefited from the pairing over Lea, she should have been more of a lock in the role then him?

and Sater is straight with children.

I'm sure KimAkim is really good but I just can't get excited about another show set in high school .

I've always felt that Why Should I Wake Up? is not about the "romance" at all, but about being lulled subliminally (and temporarily) into the orbit of Sally's moral obliviousness to the imminent catastrophe around her (which is the take-home point of Cabaret, I'd say).

In the meantime, none of the smartypants here have come up with a clever image to put on the KA poster to see the show.

For any of you who watch British tv, you might remember Paul Mescal in Normal People.

He will be doing A Streetcar Named Desire at the Almeida in London.

Can anyone of you Brits attend and report back? Personally, I don’t see this casting. I don’t see him standing at the bottom of the stairs and animalistically yelling, “Stella!”

[quote]Uh, Ramin has put on a LOT of muscle for the new side project, but he’s always been ripped

I'll second the opinion that someone else expressed -- to me, Ramin doesn't look any bigger or more muscular in that video posted above than he has looked for the past several years, and that's plenty big and muscular enough :-)

Steven Sater is the epitome of Lyle, the Effeminate Heterosexual.

& Juliet opens this week. I can't imagine the reviews will be that great.

Just saw Paul Mescal on the Graham Norton show. Can’t picture him as Stanley but who knows.

Paul Mescal was really terrific in the Actors Fund reading of This Is Our Youth. I thought he was an American because his accent was flawless and he was shockingly hot. (The clips I have seen of him elsewhere since are no where near as hot.)

He is young for it, but he could definetly work as a Stanley.

the evolution of Broadway poster design. Thoughts?

Dancin’ had two brilliantly staged numbers - I Wanna Be a Dancin’ Man and Sing Sing Sing. The rest was crap. The Yankee Doodle finale was cruise ship quality. The Dream Barre cunnilingus section was vulgar. The saving grace was the impeccable cast who worked themselves to death. Ann Reinking. Sandahl Bergman Vicki Frederick. Chris Chadman. John Mineo. Jill Cook. Pass.

Forgot to add Rene Ceballos who was stunning and gone too soon.

R312 , the original Dancin poster was hideous. It looked like it was for some dismemberment horror flick.

The new one is generic.

Any recent pics of Vicki?

I still don’t see how Ramin is so jacked, in his sexual prime, constantly working out, with his wife across the ocean, barley seeing eachother…and yet there are no rumors of him having any dalliances at all with any men or women. If he is 100% straight and never had a BJ from a dude, I can see that…but it’s still odd there’s not been anything really said about women either.

Ramin is not famous.

No where in her screed did Pinkins mention her civil rice.

Vicki Lawrence IS Dancin'!

[quote] No where in her screed did Pinkins mention her civil rice.

Nor did she mention her dirty rice.

But she implied it.

For those upthread asking about Scott Ellis at the Roundabout.

Remember when KA started out with the letter tiles? That got shitcanned pretty fast. From this point, they should just use the amazing quotes, the title and call it day. That's what they did with WICKED, PHANTOM, LION KING and CATS for years....And look how that turned out. It works.

Victoria Clark's role in "Kimberly Akimbo" -- so now Stockard Channing is finally the right age to play a high school student?

[quote]It reads like it might have been written by Professor Irwin Corey (only about 3 eldergays will get the reference)

I never miss a Professor Irwin Corey musical.

Is Ramin a Muslim? I know he’s Iranian-Canadian. Maybe his religion prohibits him from seeking sexual gratification from only his wife.

The other saving grace of the original DANCIN' besides the cast were the phenomenally brilliant, sexy and witty costumes of Willa Kim.

[quote]Lesbians don’t go to the theater.

If only they had named this the Subaru Center for the Performing Arts.

From the last thread:

[quote]I would seriously buy a ticket to see Tyler Perry as Madea playing Medea.

I'll wait for the Lavarious Slaughter production.

exciting news from 24 years ago r323

Did any eldergays on here see the original Broadway production of Beatlemania? Any recollections? I'm most interested in the projections that Jules Fisher did.

For that matter, did any of you see the musical they made out of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that played at the Beacon in 1974?

Debra winger should definitely direct a new play starring Tonya Pinkins.

[quote] Remember when KA started out with the letter tiles? That got shitcanned pretty fast. From this point, they should just use the amazing quotes, the title and call it day. That's what they did with WICKED, PHANTOM, LION KING and CATS for years....And look how that turned out. It works.

All four of those shows had dramatic logos as well, which is what KA needs.

KA needs an Evita logo.

They should have a free day where anyone named Kim can get free ticket if they have another paying customer.

"I'm smug and snooty, confident as hell!"

[quote] They should have a free day where anyone named Kim can get free ticket if they have another paying customer.

That’s one way to get the Asian community to see the show.

And said new play starring Tonya Pinkins and directed by Debra Winger should also be filmed for a behind the scenes documentary. Betty Buckley can also have a featured role

All publicity is good publicity

Am I allowed to admit I love the gayness of the KA rainbow?

Is Rainbow Brite going into KA?

[Quote] Am I allowed to admit I love the gayness of the KA rainbow?

But is the show gay?

[quote]Did any eldergays on here see the original Broadway production of Beatlemania?

It wasn't the Beatles, but it was an amazing simulation.

Gays didn't go to Beatlemania, just like they won't go to Almost, Famous. We stay away from the really dumb straight white guy shows.

[quote]They should have a free day where anyone named Kim can get free ticket if they have another paying customer.

I'm there!

[quote]Although when it comes to humiliating a cast, nothing compares with Scott Elliott's staging for the curtain call for The Women at that same theatre, where he made those poor ladies walk out in their underwear.

Horseshit, the lingerie and costumes were by Issac Mizhrahi and the ladies looked great. Full show with curtain call at 2:21

Apparently by these Queens here, every successful director on Broadway is a hack.

I'm gay and I went to Almost Famous. I thought it was terrible, but I loved the movie.

Should Almost Famous have a curtain call where the cast comes out in their underwear?

To R318, Ramin is "getting laid somewhere", he looks familiar to me.

It's like all the male soap opera actors in NYC in the 1990's, I remember 3 of them, Travis Montgomery, Walk Willey and the 1 who I cannot tell you. He's my secret!!

Vicky was out of KA last night. Hope it’s not you know what.

R352

Alzeimers?

Cholera?

The Palsy?

The Clap?

Get it? 👏

Maybe Vicki went to a wedding this weekend. It happens.

Close

this

thread

Bajour!

I can't stand a premature Bajour!

I agree, as a rule, r360.

The OP of this thread "Bajour"ed all of the 500 threads very early. Repeatedly. Good for the goose, etc.

Also interested in the new Streetcar.in London...I didn't think the actor playing Stanley fit at first glance but now after seeing in some pics I could sort of see it. He needs to beef up though.

Seems like they will have a younger cast in general which is actually kind of refreshing. Let's just hope the acting is up to par.

Light in the Piazza

Sorry, here's the link

FOLLIES!

Happy birthday to Carol Woods.

Happy birthday Jordan . Roth

[Quote] & Juliet opens this week. I can't imagine the reviews will be that great.

Saw in in London

Meh. Why bother

What do we think cost more- Jordan's blouse or the art director who found just the right matching shades of bookcovers to help stage the background?

Jordan Roth needs to just leave. It's getting exhausting watching everyone talk to him pretending that they like and/or respect him. His never-ending narcissism is embarrassing and gross. Remember when he was live casting "happenings" from his home. Jesus save me...

[quote]& Juliet opens this week. I can't imagine the reviews will be that great.

How did Tony winner Paulo Szot end up in this?

Is it a rethinking of "Me and Juliet"?

[quote]How did Tony winner Paulo Szot end up in this?

Maybe Paulo couldn't pass up the chance to wear a codpiece.

The codpiece is fine. His big ass in the skintight jeans is better.

R374 Now, I want anal.

Close

this

thread!

Goodbye girl

Chicago!

The musical

Rocky Horror

the musical

I had no idea this thread was around. It seems damaged.

Close

this

thread

Bajjour!

THREAD CLOSED

THREAD CLOSED

THREAD CLOSED

THREAD CLOSED

See how obnoxious that is, OP?

Smile

the musical

THREAD CLOSED

THREAD CLOSED

Thread 502

No No Nanette!

Listen to r397. I'll spam this thread with links til it's full.

R397, you're no better than the asshole who started this thread.

Parade!

The Tonys

Join us

Kimberly Akimbo

the musical

Victoria for the Tony!

Into the woods

On the View

THREAD CLOSED

THREAD CLOSED

THREAD CLOSED

r408, is Creel still in the show? If so, interesting they could get him to show up for the Today Show but not The View.

Banshee

clip

This thread is a winner!

[quote][R408], is Creel still in the show? If so, interesting they could get him to show up for the Today Show but not The View.

yes, he is in the show.

new thread

This thread is making me angry.

Ugh. The Loon is back.

Fuck this shit. I'm not dealing with this crap again.

Here's a fresh start:

There is no fresh start. There's something rotten in the state of DLmark.

What exactly is the problem with this thread? You all are bitching about an alleged rogue thread when you all started like seven 500 threads.

The real next thread 502

[quote]Join us

Leave your field to flower. Leave your cheese to sour. Come and waste and hour or two. Deedley-doo.

FFS let’s finish this goddamn thread first. And block the troll who kept on posting that “close this thread” shit.

What's with the meth head who keeps posting this close this thread shit? Just go away.

I wish they'd go to the bogus 502 before these start going down nonsense parallel paths for forever.

I posted about Shucked, the former Hee Haw musical in the other thread yesterday, but here's official coverage/the announcement from Playbill. I don't know who the audience is for this, but I underestimated A Beautiful Noise though too, so I know nothing.

This, though, makes me want to vomit: ""Shucked is about to turn Broadway on its ear and offer a kernel of hope for our divided nation."

R426 R427 I think 502 was started because of the schizo who has it out for this thread

R430 Eddie Izzard will return to the New York stage this December for six weeks only playing 21 characters in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, a classic tale of convicts, mystery, friendship, rivalry, unrequited love, revenge, and redemption.

International person of mystery, actor, comedian, and multi-marathon runner Eddie Izzard’s boundary-pushing career spans all of these with record-breaking comedy tours and critically acclaimed film, TV, and theatre performances.? But few know that acting was her first love. This show offers the chance to see Eddie’s solo performance of the master storyteller’s beloved epic, Great Expectations.

Running time is approximately 2 hours including intermission. The Greenwich House Theater is located at 27 Barrow Street, New York, NY 10014.

Do I really have to see Kimberly Akimbo?

I've come to the realization that I don't have to see every new show on Bway

What kind of a response do you expect for that stupid rhetorical question, R432? And what kind of a response do you think you deserve?

R433, I deserve love and understanding

K-Pop just seems like a money-grab from tourists.

Bway is the Las Vegas of the East

I thought K-POP could be energetic (mindless) fun and spectacle.

But I think I'll skip it, based on what I'm hearing (here and elsewhere).

R436, like a Kpop concert?

To the person claiming Ramin bulked up recently for some part. He may have earned on an screen role that requires him to show off his body, but he does not look dramatically different than in the past. I mean, this was him in Les Mis EIGHT years ago...

You're telling me he's more bulked up than this? Not seeing it...

Did Ramin bulk up in preparation for co-starring opposite Beanie?

Ramin looks more ‘ripped’ as the gym bunnies call it.

Do people not remember that Phantom and Valjean were cast with literal old men originally? What is this weird trend of casting voiceless character tenor gym rats in 80s popera? It’s fucking annoying. No wonder those shows are dead now.

Constantly clenching one's stomach to get through this number provides a hell of an ab workout.

[quote]Do people not remember that Phantom and Valjean were cast with literal old men originally? What is this weird trend of casting voiceless character tenor gym rats in 80s popera?

Maybe in some cases the powers that be feel that younger performers have more stamina for the rigors of performing those roles on Broadway. But honestly, I also think part of it may be that one or more of the people now running those ships are gay men who cast hotties whether or not they fit the roles and/or are the best performers available. That certainly seems to apply to the fellow who directed the recent MISS SAIGON and LES MIS in London and on Broadway and is also directing BAD CINDERELLA, which I hear had an ensemble filled with sometimes scantily clad male hotties in London.

Sounds like a winning plan for Broadway in my opinion.

She looked pretty good here.

Damn.

Sylvester Stallone *is* Old Deuteronomy in Broadway’s revival of C*A*T*S!

That type of casting has been going on a long time, r445.

R428, I don't know about this show, but I love me some John Behlmann.

P.S. Shane McAnally is an unfortunate name.

Only if you don't know how it's pronounced.

Shane McAnally has written a lot of huge country hits.

And Ray survived Elaine Stritch.

I’d forgotten how much Beanie Feldstein resembled Rodney Dangerfield until the poster posted the above photo

That’s what the chorus is for R445, not principals.

[quote]I’d forgotten how much Beanie Feldstein resembled Rodney Dangerfield until the poster posted the above photo

Even dead, I STILL get no respect!

Slowly but surely, the Broadway houses are filling up for spring.

Here is the website description of ^ the show above ^

[quote] Jodie Comer, the Emmy and Bafta Award-winning star of TV’s Killing Eve as well as Free Guy and The Last Duel, makes her Broadway debut in the American premiere of Suzie Miller’s award-winning play, Prima Facie which takes us to the heart of where emotion and experience collide with the rules of the game. Justin Martin directs this solo actor tour de force.

[quote] Tessa is a thoroughbred. A young, brilliant barrister who loves to win. She has worked her way up from working class origins to be at the top of her game; defending; cross examining and lighting up the shadows of doubt in any case. An unexpected event forces her to confront the lines where the patriarchal power of the law, burden of proof and morals diverge.

Huh?

R459 It was posted on the other thread. The London production.

But wait there's more

[quote] PS: any spelling, grammar, typos that keep you from getting “the message,” sit with them. Judgment, is your colonized mind. What else has kept you from completing or receiving. Perfection is a Devil

What an embarrassment! Lorraine Hansberry must be turning in her urn.

PRIMA FACIE A dynamic performance but a cop-out of a play. The power of theatre lies in metaphor, not statistics. Leave that to television—it does literalism best.

An excellent, intelligent, and necessary question, r432, given the steep tariffs and complacent mediocrity of contemporary New York theatre.

No disrespect, but apparently anyone who ever made a record gets his/her/their own jukebox musical these days.

[titleofshow]

Title of show was insufferable and is best forgotten.

[quote]Title of show was insufferable and is best forgotten.

Much like this thread.

Die, Vampire, Die!

Goodbye

It's the last midnight!

"Everything in life is only for now"

Maybe, just maybe, the casting of hunks Hugh Jackman as Valjean and Gerard Butler as The Phantom changed everyone's perceptions of those characters.

Kimberly Akimbo IS superior to Some Like It Hot, Almost Famous, KPOP, & Juliet, A Beautiful Noise, Bad Cinderella, and Back to the Future. Jury is out on New York, New York.

Which is the bigger flop, the return of Topdog/Underdog or the return of Take Me Out?

Lloyd Price made hit records, for a time. Perhaps a lesser known repertoire might even make a better jukebox musical.

[Quote] Jury is out on New York, New York.

Trial hasn’t even started.

[quote] Maybe, just maybe, the casting of hunks Hugh Jackman as Valjean and Gerard Butler as The Phantom changed everyone's perceptions of those characters.

Really? Into roles that don’t need to be performed by people with virtually zero vocal ability despite them being quite difficult to sing?

Sure, Jan.

Which is the bigger flop and why is it K-Pop?

A Beautiful Noise hit over a million last week, with an average ticket of $156. Broadway is dead.

And KPOP's average ticket price is $37.17. Jeff Mays' Christmas Carol's was $21.36

Last thought on last week's numbers - Broadway reporting is insane.

Take Ain't No Mo. It grossed $87K for 5 performances average ticket $26.89. However, it did have 3,249 attendees so the official "% capacity' was 63.77%.

They still aren't reporting gross potential - which doesn't mean anything anymore since variable pricing let shows play to 120% of gross potential, which was also bullshit - but it's all nonsense.

Saw Take Me Out last night, for free. Both Jesses out. JTF's understudy Tim Wright was excellent; think it might have been his first public performance. The cast applauded him warmly at the curtain call. The other Jesse was replaced by Blake Russell—tall, sincere, but pretty dull. (And, no, not hung.) Haven't seen the play since the first production. Don't remember it being so very long. I blame Scott Ellis.

Would it be more accurate to say Mr. Russell was not fluffed?

The Nora we didn't know Bway needed!

It takes two, alright.

But just... any two?

I like Jessica Chastain…but she’s not a compelling stage actress . She does better on film.

Some girls do!

[quote] The Nora we didn't know Bway needed!

New translation by Amy Herzog.

Expect Nora to be a strong, independent woman whose only fault is that she’s a woman who puts others ahead of herself.

Jessica Chastain in THE HEIRESS was a total waste of time, but that show was directed by the talent-free Moises Kaufman. Maybe Chastain will be better in A DOLL'S HOUSE because he's not involved.

r483, sounds like a young girl singing with her gay uncle.

After Lucas Hnath's A Doll's House, Part 2 and Laurie Metcalf's remarkable performance in it, is there really a need to see A Doll's House right now? Even in an Amy Herzog (who??) adaptation?

You know how people say they'd pay to see such and such an actor read from a phone book?

Well, Linda Lavin may well be one of those actors (yeah, I know she's never been a DL Fave), but I'd rather see her read from a phone book than sit through You Will Get Sick at the Roundabout's Pels Theatre again. Lavin pulls out all the stops but what a pretentious and juvenile evening of twaddle!

I don't get why the reviews weren't much harsher. After the first 10 minutes of some intriguing set-up, I was bored out of my mind and the rest of the 75 intermissionless minutes flew by like 3 hours.

Say Goodbye to the Sideshow.

R489, I largely agree. And I found the device of having a disembodied offstage voice read all or most of the stage directions aloud between the actors' delivery of the lines to be incredibly annoying and also pointless. I kind felt maybe that was done because, as it is, the running time of the play is less than 90 minutes, and without the stage directions being read out loud, the RT would probably have been only about an hour.

Oh god, yes, that interminable off-stage voice of narration drove me nuts and just came off as a lazy device by a young playwright who couldn't figure out how to dramatize those words by characters onstage.

And were those really the best young actors who auditioned for the supporting roles? Though perhaps with that material, no one would have made it work better.

R492, I wonder if the reading aloud of the stage directions is indicated in the script by the playwright, or if that brilliant idea (sarcasm!) came from the director of this production?

Playwrights don't write stage directions.

Tonya, thank you -- and fuck you.

You Will Get Dick is an awful play, although Linda Lavin works mightily to help lift the aeroplane.

Does she scat?

[quote]You Will Get Dick

I wouldn't mind seeing this play. Already sounds more appealing than the Lavin one.

[quote] Fantasia would probably kill as Effie... if she could be relied upon to show up.

old tired DL trope from 2007 when she was 23. she grew up and was excellent in After Midnight and missed like 2 performances if that and people there said she was a delight onstage and off and backstage

I would love to see Fantasia’s Effie screen test for the movie.

Fantasia was OFF THE WALL AMAZING in After Midnight!!

I was shocked when she wasn't nominated for a Tony while Adrian Lenox, who barely registered, was.

Robert Clary of "New Faces of 1952" has died at age 96.

He was also on Broadway in Seventh Heaven with Bea Arther.

I didn't know Clary had been in Auschwitz, nor his connection to Eddie Cantor.

Sound of Music

Did someone say scat? R497.

[quote]He was also on Broadway in Seventh Heaven with Bea Arther.

Oh, dear!

R501 - Yes, Fantasia was WONDERFUL in After Midnight. But, I don't think that's entirely fair to Adriane Lenox. I thought she was absolutely hilarious and the audience loved her the night I saw the show.

How long was Fantasia's run?

she was in it twice, 11/3-2/11/13 and then 5/13-6/8

r507 but lenox did 2 songs and fantasia did 4 or 5

Funny, I don't even remember Lenox in the show but Fantasia was unforgettable.

I'm here

Fantasia in "After Midnight"

Isn’t Pinocchio Barrino a big homophobe?

Bernadette Peters in Hello Dolly.

Fantasia was a special guest star, and special guest stars don't get Tony nominations.

We do not belong together

So beautiful. A show that has stuck to me like glue.

A little fall of rain

[quote] Funny, I don't even remember Lenox in the show but Fantasia was unforgettable.

Funny, I don't remember AFTER MIDNIGHT at all.

R513, Thank you! She’s spectacular!

Come to the cabaret!

Once before I go

I know he was supposed to be amazing in Boy From Oz, but he just seemed like a good gay actor in that to me.

Gays are so full of drama and he acted just like one.

Big whoop

The Last 5 years

The Boy From Oz also ran at the peak of Hugh's looks. We can't forget that, R524. The eye candy elevated a meh performance and double meh show.

Jesse on & Juliet—

[Quote]; “& Juliet” sometimes seems suspicious of its own intelligence, like a nerd invited to the cool kids’ party, only to get drunk and vomit in the pool.

But the review was very positive!

The current Phantom Ben Crawford is a fatty, saw him bounding down 8th Ave with a high water booty and a brewski belly popping out like an Eggo! How does he fit in that tiny boat?!

Phantom

2014

Barbour

r529, yeah, in the promo shots Phantom released to advertise their new vintage Ts it was pretty apparent.

It didn't help when he was standing next to Riddle, who is really lean, and really hot.

I hear ya, r533. At least Crawford owns his less-than-svelteness in your insta example.

Not sure why the Phantom needs to have a rockin' bod, anyway.

Overture

A sexier Phantom

I want Riddle in me quite deeply.

Masquerade

I really don't like the Raoul in that Phantom (though I do like Boggess). Even though this isn't proshot I still prefer this.

The Masquerade section in the final third of this is also fun.

THE ARTIST, the popular (and some would say wildly overrated) silent film from a decade ago, is now a stage musical!

Because, of course.

The point of no return

R541 A silent musical...?

Goodbye, Little Dream, Goodbye

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Tveit

What's next?

[quote]THE ARTIST, the popular (and some would say wildly overrated) silent film from a decade ago, is now a stage musical!

I can see it now: From a silent movie to a stage musical that you wish would just shut up already.

Carolee Carmello

I don't think Jackman looked hot in Boy from Oz. I found the actor who played the role in the Peter Allen TV biopic much more appealing.

[quote][R541] A silent musical...?

Sounds tailor-made for Beanie.

"Death is just around the corner"

Hamilton

A Little Not Music

Liaisons at 4:00

Was that whole production so dark and dismal looking?

Regina Resnik

Margaret Hamilton

Glynis Johns

[quote]Was that whole production so dark and dismal looking?

No, r556. It's a poorly recorded bootleg.

^ Is that all in reference to the ALNM with Angela and CZJ?

R560 is correct that it wasn't lit that poorly/dark, but it was a really underwhelming production design-wise. I saw it with Bernadette and Stritch and it was an ugly, cheap-looking thing onstage, despite a handful of wonderful performances.

I was actually disturbed by all of the black costumes. Seems counterintuitive to me.

Crawford was the best Phantom, the ghostly tone made the show special. Nowadays the character is played like a confused junior high school quarterback with a bad case of acne. Tragic!

More K-POP.... a montage!

A bit of wit from actor/writer Jesse Eisenberg.

Who's the audience for KPOP? And do they have the $$ to buy Bway tickets?

That pic at r564 looks like it’s from Frozen’s Broadway Bares act

A friend of mine predicts that KPOP will be a tremendous hit because it will bring a whole new audience to Broadway. Maybe he's right, but I remember another friend predicted that ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE would be a huge hit because Jimmy Buffet has such a huge fan base. Unfortunately for that show, they never showed up. So I guess we'll see if fans of actual KPOP groups show up for this Broadway show about KPOP.

Crawford was easily the worst Phantom.

brent barrett. one of the best phantoms

[quote] The current Phantom Ben Crawford is a fatty

Oh, I didn't care. His voice and what he does with it is stunning in the role

Are those Sierra Boggess Phantom clips part of a fully-taped performance that's commercially available?

[quote] Crawford was easily the worst Phantom.

You clearly did not see Robert Guillaume stumble through the role

[quote] Is that all in reference to the ALNM with Angela and CZJ? [R560] is correct that it wasn't lit that poorly/dark, but it was a really underwhelming production design-wise. I saw it with Bernadette and Stritch and it was an ugly, cheap-looking thing onstage, despite a handful of wonderful performances.

Yes, thank you for clarifying my awkwardly phrased post for me, r561.

Sincerely,

r560

Willy Loman has a sandwich, because Broadway 'marketing'

The salesman died from clogged arteries

[quote] "You would think that we were from polar opposite worlds, but it's two men who have dreams and ended up here on Broadway bringing Broadway back. Shelley and I have more in common than you know," Pierce said at the ceremony. "So, I am very proud to be here today. This is a celebration of the American Dream, while we saw the nightmare in my play, we the see the dream realized here today."

Attention must be paid to p.r. !

r572, yes, the show was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall for its 25th Anniversary. It's available on DVD/BluRay/etc.

[quote]A friend of mine predicts that KPOP will be a tremendous hit because it will bring a whole new audience to Broadway.

That theory is already being disproved because the show is not selling.

Is that true, R578? I rarely check the grosses, I only go by hearsay. Seems my friend may have been very wrong in his prediction.

[quote] [R560] is correct that it wasn't lit that poorly/dark,

r561 I recall the production being very very dark, probably to obscure the lack of a set. When CZJ first appeared you couldn't even see her.

I'm very petite, from being so young.

You should have worn green.

What sort of make-up or prosthetics did they use to “age up” CZJ in that production of ALNM? After all, Desiree is supposed to be “of a certain age.” Since she is only 33 now, she must have been only in her early 20s when she played the role 10 years ago.

Some DL tropes are Datalounge gems.

Some have only grown sad and tired.

Were they ever really funny, r584?

The original Broadway cast of The Phantom of the Opera were sublime, it was a different show that’s being presented today. Crawford was giving a thrilling star turn, anyone saying he “was the worst” either didn’t see him live in the role, or is just a dumb cunt. Mark Jacoby and Davis Gaines were exemplary in the role as well, it was forced to be over sung back in the earlier days of the production. Production supervisor and Cameron cuck Seth Sklar-Heyn, a shallow hack, has destroyed any subtlety and plastered on the hammy and the slammy, Hal would be disappointed…

^ “wasn’t”, sorry, rage tweeting.

[quote]Crawford was the best Phantom, the ghostly tone made the show special. Nowadays the character is played like a confused junior high school quarterback with a bad case of acne. Tragic!

Well here is an actual high school student playing The Phantom and is quite good for his age.

R588 he’s better than some of the past main stage Phantoms! He’s at the very least totally committed and organic, not robotic and screaming from the first note behind the mirror.

That production is high school??? Pretty good! And the sets and costumes are high quality!

[Quote] A friend of mine predicts that KPOP will be a tremendous hit because it will bring a whole new audience to Broadway.

KPOP was meant as a money grab and it’s failing to do what it was intended to do.

Cast is singular, not plural R586. Thus, “The original cast of The Phantom of the Opera [was] sublime…”

Thus

This

Thread

Dies

Nowhere

Near

Soon enough

One #502. >sigh<