THEATRE GOSSIP #521: "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Snatch" edition.

Previous thread

Thanks for the new thread, OP.

But continuing a long proud DL tradition: your title sucks. I mean, really really sucks.

[quote] Well, I hate [R584]'s title so much that I might suggest we use [R591]'s instead.

Who cares what you think?

Uh, both #521 thread titles are shite.

If you think the other one is really witty, then you have terrible taste.

Though, this one is really terrible, too. Sorry OP...it's painfully juvenile but not FUN painfully juvenile.

" Old Red Hills of Home."

I need to see Parade before it passes by

I thought Parade was great. About Camelot, I also think that the critics will be very kind. I am more positive than R581 in the previous thread, but not by much. The Morgan Le Fey scene felt like I had dozed off and started watching a whole different play.

So.....with the lack of enthusiasm for Sorkin's CAMELOT, is PARADE now the front-runner for Best Musical revival over all the Sondheim shows?

Dancin' is the one sure-fire loser in the Tony race. HAHAHAHAHA

R9 Let's not forget ITW....

I can't help but staring at the conductor's ass in the Parade video.

Camelot has never worked, and never gotten good reviews. Not the original, not the movie, not the revival, nothing. Julie Andrews herself said the audience enjoyed the show for awhile, but left unsatisfied and angry. It's got some lovely music, but very old-fashioned, even for 1960.

This new production doesn't solve anything, and it doesn't star Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, and Robert Goulet. It is doomed.

Dancin' is a boring abomination. The lighting is bad, the costumes are fucking hideous (really? A salute to the USA has the entire cast in black?), and the choices of numbers by Cilento suck. Hear You Come Again? What decade are you living in, Wayne? The women are completely forgettable, but some of the men are FIERCE. I could have done without the Eddie Izzard impersonator, but Manuel Herrera and Tony d'Alelio deserve major recognition by the Tony committee. And that's all this clunker deserves. What a complete fail.

I'm sure Parade will get it for the whole protest thing that happened at the opening performance. None of the other revivals have excited anyone, and ITW, for as praised as it was at City Center, died off pretty quickly on Broadway. They kept it running at a loss, trying to cycle miscast D-level theater names in it, but no one cared.

Which thread are we supposed to use? Who directed this fuckery? Susan Strohman?

Blame the guy who started the 2nd thread when he knew one had already been started.

This thread title is the reason the word puerile was invented.

Anyone going to see " Waiting in the Wings"?

Yes, it doesn't have the Algonquin Round Table branded wit of "Camelot is Camel-Not"

The best part of dueling theatre gossip threads are the arguments over which title is the best.

Who approved this?

I honestly don't care if people shit on the title. I've done my share of it. And let's face it, we've had much, much worse. What annoys me is the dueling threads. There was no reason for the 2nd thread to be started. That OP saw that one was already started and he was just being obstinate. If he was so entranced with the Camel-Not idea (and I can't figure out why), then he could have saved it for the next thread. The show isn't going anywhere. But having two threads is just a huge pain in the ass.

Good lord, r23. Don't you follow several threads on DL at once? Why is it so hard for you to follow 2 theatre threads?

Talk about white people's problems....

Then keep posting on this thread and keep it toward the top.

[quote] Talk about white people's problems....

I think we found the perpetrator of Camel-Not

I hope Parade wins best revival and, maybe, best actress? I would go see it again. Camelot does not work but Donica is a dream. I would not mind if Burnap wins also. Anyone but Platt.

Burnap will NOT win Best Actor. Hahaha, good one.

[quote]Yes, it doesn't have the Algonquin Round Table branded wit of "Camelot is Camel-Not"

How about, "New York New York" is "Lousy Lousy?"

So, I guess we're about 30 posts away from getting over which thread has the best title?

Unfortunately, r27, Platt has an excellent chance to win.

This hasn't been a very good theater year.

But, we've been saying that every year for about 10 years now.

As great as Platt is in PARADE, his role is surprisingly small for a lead.

So, how many nominations will the acting categories each have this year? Despite the lack of talent and good shows, they now cram each category with 5, 6, 7 nominees.

So, I'm sure every shitty bland performance will be recognized this year!

I'll be very curious to see if New York audiences, many of whom still remember Oscar Levant, will embrace Sean Hayes' caricature....I mean, performance.

R33 - that's what he said.

They remember him R35? Sure, some of Levant's film work at MGM from the 1940s and 1950s is still in relatively wide circulation as those things go, but he died almost 51 years ago and his infrequent television work stopped in the 1960s.

At best they may remember an idea of him, and I'm sure that clips will pop up to reinforce the show and give a frame of reference, but he's hardly on the tip of anyone's tongue. They'll have to sell it to people other than those who remember Levant to make a go of it.

It would be great to see Hayes have a real Broadway triumph. He seems like a nice guy.

Sean Hayes spent most of his backstage time at "Promises, Promises" whining to the other company members how hard this all was.

Not true r38. By all accounts, he was lovely and a real team player.

I remember being horrified as a child by Oscar Levant's cringeworthy TV appearances on talk shows in the early 1960s. He was grotesque yet unfailingly watchable. It was where I learned the word "hypochondriac" though he was an extreme case.

I guess there are lots of younger people who have seen him in The Bandwagon and An American in Paris though those films were made a decade earlier and he was apparently considerably cleaned up in those appearances. I don't think those films really show what he was like.

I'm not sure why anyone other than Sean's most rabid fans would want to see the play unless they have a fascination with Levant, like me. If the show's publicity machine starts offering clips of the real Levant...it'll be interesting to see how Sean fares.

A tiny handful of people under the age 60 know who Oscar Levant is.

And, they're all on DataLounge.

I think 70 would be closer to the age, r41, in regard to Oscar Levant.

A tiny handful of people under the age 60 know who Sean Hayes is.

You're probably right about Levant but wrong about Sean Hayes.

Will & Grace was first on 25 years so Millennials are very much aware of who he is.

Now, Gen Z...not so much, but they don't know (or care) who anybody is other than all 2,345 Pokemon in the world.

Platt, sadly, will probably win. Unless the guy from NYNY surprises, but I doubt that. I would rather see Groban, but his acting is too weak.

Sean Hayes already showed NY he can play the piano really well when a piano appeared on stage and he was playing Mr. Applegate in "Damn Yankees" at City Center.

If Ben wins another Tony, will he still be besties with Beanie?

Oh, r46, I'm sure he'll give her one.

I remember Levant on the Jack Paar show telling Jack about his favorite review of his piano playing: "Last night Oscar Levant left his contemporaries and his conductor far behind......"

Sean can play piano just fine, thanks.

I cringe every time I see that photo of Sean Hayes as Oscar Levant wearing those tacky fake fur bedroom slippers that look like they came out of a clear plastic tube from KMart. Oscar would have owned soft leather slippers from Brooks Brothers. I sincerely hope they've changed them since the Chicago run. On Broadway, we care about these details.

On Broadway, details don't matter as long as there are suckers to buy the overpriced seats. Things aren't what they used to be, when excellence mattered.

This thread is shit.

Fitting for the current state of Broadway, R52.

[quote]I'll be very curious to see if New York audiences, many of whom still remember Oscar Levant.

Considering the age of a typical Broadway audience, many of them likely dated him.

Oscar with Jack Paar.

Oscar on DL's favorite tv show.

I never thought Kyle Selig was straight.

DEAD THREAD.

I think Dead would be an exaggeration....it's a fine wine that takes its time.

Ready for " Rogers, the Musical"? How soon until it gets to Broadway?

SHUCKED!

[quote]DEAD THREAD.

Quick, CPR!!!

When a new revival of " Follies" is made in 30 yrs, what young Broadway stars of today should be cast in the roles?

Not all Broadway, but they have musical background:

Phyllis - Zendaya

Sally - Julie Benko

Ben - Platt

Buddy - Jordan Fisher

R63 As evidenced in Sweeney, Fisher is shit.

Well, circling back to Levant, I don't see Hayes pulling off that part, quite apart from just being able to play the piano.

Hayes did a reasonable Jerry Lewis opposite the wonderful Jeremy Northam's Dean Martin in a tv film years ago. Damn, why isn't Northam starring on Broadway?

Or anything, for that matter

Last I heard he was doing a bus & truck Last of the Red Hot Lovers.

Is The Secret Garden coming to Broadway?

Not after that disastrous LA production.

I enjoyed Good Night Oscar but it’s a pretty slight play. It could also use some editing in the beginning before Oscar arrives. It’s hard to imagine big demand for this subject but the audience did seem to really like it. Hayes was excellent but it was fun to imagine who else could do it.

The playwright David Adjmi went on Facebook months ago to say he had written an original play about Levant for Sean Hayes and Hayes and his production team pushed him out, somehow barring Adjmi from the rights to his own play (not sure how that would work), and then brought in playwright Doug Wright to write his version of a play about Levant.

From the Broadway Briefing:

[quote] A private reading of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie was held earlier this week featuring Audra McDonald, Jonathan Majors, Danielle Deadwyler, and Edmund Donovan. The reading was directed by Kenny Leon and produced by Franco Productions.

Unless Audra's singing, skip it.

Audra doesn't sell many tickets if it's not a musical.

Oh, goody, The Glass Menagerie. I was wondering if we'd actually have one season without it.

Is Kenny Leon the only director on Broadway? Is Audra the only actress?

Can you be fan of both and still say, “is there anyone else?”

Danielle Deadwyler is 40 years old. Unless they're going to have dueling Amandas, how is this going to work?

Kenny Leon has fans?

[quote] The playwright David Adjmi went on Facebook months ago to say he had written an original play about Levant for Sean Hayes and Hayes and his production team pushed him out, somehow barring Adjmi from the rights to his own play (not sure how that would work), and then brought in playwright Doug Wright to write his version of a play about Levant.

You buried the juicy part: If Adjmi wanted to complain, Douglas Wright is the head of the Dramatists Guild. Ouch.

Back in the day, would Good Night, Oscar have been on off-Broadway?

R79, I'm not sure Adjmi didn't take it up with the DG. But I'm not clear about that.

[quote]You buried the juicy part: If Adjmi wanted to complain, Douglas Wright is the head of the Dramatists Guild. Ouch.

And, if memory serves, Peter Stone was President of the Dramatists Guild when he rewrote the book for ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. I've always found that very ironic, even though the original authors were dead by then.

oh vomit

Holy shit, no one but NO ONE is asking for a film version of Joseph.

I am.

Of course, Zendaya will play the narrator.

Joey...Joey Joey

I can’t link on here but did anyone see Ramin Karimloos TikTok where he makes his work out buddy call him Daddy?

What was that about?

Can I be the lead in the movie of JOSEPH, Dad? Huh, can I?

R88, Ramin could call me Daddy any day he likes.

[quote] Sidney Brustein

Is this thread directed to only those who went to the right synagogue?

Ramin is not the one saying Daddy, dumbass.

Shouldn't ALL of the cast members of " Joseph" be Jewish?

Oh, sorry, I misread it, R92. What a sad life you must live if insulting people online is all it takes to make you feel important. I wish you well.

Nothing more refreshing than Datalounge Theatre Gossip Thread passive aggression!

r66 and r67 Jeremy is currently chained to a radiator in my basement. He sends his regards.

Jeremy's singing and acting as Ivor Novello was perfection in "Gosford Park". I'm amazed no one really capitalized on that and put him in a musical either in London or on Broadway.

Musicals are too trashy these days for the likes of a talent like Jeremy Northam. I can't think of a worst waste of a great actor.

Jeremy sings.

This thread seems to be stuck in the mud while the new 522 is filling up with shit faster than a wig in Lea Michele's vicinity.

Shameless plea for WWs.

Sigh. Jeremy Northam was soooooo dreamy.

He was/is prime fuck meat.

He doesn't look so bad nowadays.

Particular if "suburban dad/HS vice-principal" is your thing.

R104 The Honorable M.P. for Anal.

You are people are dickmatised.

Northam lost his looks.

His warbling did nothing to help sales of Novello's songs and shows.

(That American movie was a silly, disrespectful pastiche to English customs in which too many quality English thespians foolishly appeared)

Oh, dear. Someone has sand in her vagina. Looking at you, R106.

Northam had some sex appeal 31 years ago.

Jeremey Northam not only sings well and looks dreamy, he also used to do full-frontal in movies as well! What's not to love?

Blame the sand in R106's vadge, R109.

I'm trying to find when the last Novello show appeared on Broadway.

1936?

I still have my Playbill, R111!