THEATRE GOSSIP #597: The "Miss Piggy for Mame!" Edition

Here's the previous thread.

For fun, Che k out the seat maps for IZZY. She’s playing to 10% houses!

I miss seeing Jean as Izzy

Izzy made $56k last week. A puppet show depicting the Burning of Atlanta would bring in more money.

How embarrassing for her.

🤣 I saw the seating. It left a lot to be desired.

As did the play.

If Delta Burke did anything for film or stage, it would be an EVENT!

Delta Burke was a replacement Mrs. Mears in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE and Truvy in STEEL MAGNOLIAS, both on Broadway. Neither qualified as an EVENT.

Lawd, I saw Delta in Steel Magnolia's at The Ethel Barrymore and the audience prayed she'd break her knee and get off the stage. Besides, with Marsha Mason as Ouizzer, there was so little room for the rest of us anyway.

At least Steel Magnolias didn’t have a dirty toilet and 50 tickets sold each show!

Don't talk about my like I'm not here!

That Steel Magnolias was a dreary event on all levels.

What was fun at the little Lortel on Christopher St. 20 years earlier was not sufficient for Broadway. And wasn't it at the Lyceum Theatre, the one with all the pink velvet seats and the deadly upper balcony (not that anyone was sitting up there for this one)?

I feel bad for Jean. To come back to Broadway a star after all these years only to realize the material she chose doesn't interest anyone and then to have a terrible accident on the streets of NYC, in the hot sweltering weather no less and have to get around in a wheelchair or cane....well, that's all just too sad.

I imagine the show will post a closing notice before this coming week is over. She'll probably never come to NYC again, even to visit.

It just so happens that this week marks 20 years since that Steel Magnolias revival closed at the Lyceum.

R14 she is 75 and hadn’t done a play in 25 years.

She’s made her choices and need to live with the consequences

[quote]For fun, Che k out the seat maps for IZZY. She’s playing to 10% houses!

Yes, but Jean is only doing this because she's so dedicated to her work, and to her fans who bought that 10% of box office. There is no monetary gains for Jean to return to the stage with a bad knee and empty house - it's all about the dedication to this work. (Wink, wink).

All the same, r16, I hate that this has been such a hard and painful flop for her.

It's a shame that Alice Ghostley never played Mama Rose or Mame.

It's a shame no one knows who the fuck Alice Ghostley was. Move on.

Ghostly was a Gooch or Miss Cratchitt

[quote]Ghostly was a Gooch or Miss Cratchitt.

Alice Ghostly was a Miss Hannigan and an ugly stepsister.

[quote]For fun, [Check] out the seat maps for IZZY. She’s playing to 10% houses!

That is sad. It reminds me of HIGH a few years ago, a nightmare of a play by DL "fave" Matthew Lombardo, who infamously sued Harper for dropping out of his play LOOPED because she had Cancer. HIGH starred Kathleen Turner. It quite rightfully closed the week that it opened, but I don't think it ever dropped below 20%.

I don't think it ever rose above that either. It couldn't have happened to a better playwright, and clearly no one ever said no to Ms Turner.

She was a scenery chewing disaster.

Half Empty Houses La La La

R20 Speak for yourself, bitch!

[quote]Izzy made $56k last week. A puppet show depicting the Burning of Atlanta would bring in more money.

So, clearly, the wisest move for the producers would have been what several people here suggested: They should have closed the show while Smart was out with her injury, and tacitly blamed it on the fact that no one wanted to see the show without the star. Rather than having the star return to the show and it becoming clear that no one wanted to see it with her in it, either.

[quote] A puppet show depicting the Burning of Atlanta would bring in more money.

And beat Wicked at the Tonys too.

[quote]Izzy made $56k last week.

I thought this said, “Izzy made $56.00 last week”

! ! !

I attended the Stratford Festival last week and witnessed something I hadn't before,, except on Canada Day. Before the start of " Annie," ( I know, I know), the orchestra began playing "O Canada" and the entire audience immediately sprang to their feet and sang louder than I had ever heard. It was proud and defiant, much more so than on their national holiday. None of the other shows began this way, which made me wonder if it was because the show was set in the US.

^ and, of course, it was very anti-Trump and a declaration of national pride and defiance.

Apparently nobody told R20 that this is a theater thread, not a thread on superhero movies, and that many posters here certainly do know who Alice Ghostly is.

After a week in London..."Till the Stars Come Down" is pretty good. "Giant" and "Inter Alia" are just solid plays. But "Evita" is incredible. Zegler is the real deal.

R31 she was Dill’s Aunt Stephanie and Mrs. Singleman…two of the best movies of the 60s.

The newly redesigned tdf website is nearly unusable.

Frances Sternhagen was the only reason to see that dreadful Steel Magnolias. She was, as always, sublime.

Alice Ghostly was the first star I ever saw live (as a kid I saw her as Miss Hannigan.) It was exciting to see someone you knew from TV live.

You’re were in the special class at school, weren’t you?

[quote]Apparently nobody told [R20] that this is a theater thread, not a thread on superhero movies, and that many posters here certainly do know who Alice Ghostly is.

Not enough to know how her name is spelled...

[quote]So, clearly, the wisest move for the producers would have been what several people here suggested: They should have closed the show while Smart was out with her injury, and tacitly blamed it on the fact that no one wanted to see the show without the star. Rather than having the star return to the show and it becoming clear that no one wanted to see it with her in it, either.

This is what I was saying throughout the previous thread - close while she was out for two weeks (and I'm certain she and her agent had that discussion with all involved). But the Jean Smart stans on this forum insisted she was 'dedicated' and a 'professional' and would never let that happen. So here we are with Smart playing to 90% empty houses because she's a dedicated professional.

On another note, I'm surprised the theater is allowing this to run. The theater gets a percentage from the box office, and it's always in their contract that if the box office slips below a certain number (I believe the standard is 60%) the theater can have the producers end the run so they can make the space available to other potential shows. I'm surprised the landlords haven't tossed this show out yet (unless they have absolutely no other production interested in B'way space in the coming months).

R35 she actually didn’t get good notices. It was Lily Rabe as Annelle that got the only acting nomination for that piece.

[quote]I attended the Stratford Festival last week and witnessed something I hadn't before,, except on Canada Day. Before the start of " Annie," ( I know, I know), the orchestra began playing "O Canada" and the entire audience immediately sprang to their feet and sang louder than I had ever heard. It was proud and defiant, much more so than on their national holiday. None of the other shows began this way, which made me wonder if it was because the show was set in the US.

I remember going to a movie in Vancouver (probably back in the '80s or '90s where they played the national anthem before the film, and people stood up and sang. Very odd (to this American.)

[quote]I'm surprised the theater is allowing this to run. The theater gets a percentage from the box office, and it's always in their contract that if the box office slips below a certain number (I believe the standard is 60%) the theater can have the producers end the run so they can make the space available to other potential shows. I'm surprised the landlords haven't tossed this show out yet (unless they have absolutely no other production interested in B'way space in the coming months).

You answered your own question: It's very easy to believe that no other show is ready or wants to move into that theater in the middle of the summer, so the "landlord" -- namely, the Roundabout (feh!) -- might as well allow IZZY to keep running as long as the show's producers continue to pay the rent.

r39, I find it curious that you disparage Jean Smart for returning to IZZY.

Personally, I think she should be applauded for at least attempting to make some money back for her producers and investors. And perhaps to prove that she really was felled with a debilitating knee. It could have been an easy out for her to just go away but she chose not to take it.

She's a big enough name now that if the show closes with her in it, I believe it will not really affect her her TV career.

R41 That's been the case at various sporting events and the like since Trump's comments re: Canada. It's not surprising to hear that it happened at the festival, too.

[quote]I find it curious that you disparage Jean Smart for returning to IZZY. Personally, I think she should be applauded for at least attempting to make some money back for her producers and investors.

I didn't read that post as "disparaging" Smart for returning to the show, but rather, as expressing the opinion that it was a very unwise business decision. Because keeping the show open at the current grosses must actually mean that more and more money is being lost for the producers and investors every week.

[quote]And perhaps to prove that she really was felled with a debilitating knee.

Now, that I would say is a good reason for her return to the show, but you know what I think should have happened? It should have been announced that she would return for one week only, and then the show would close. That would have given everyone who hadn't seen her in the show another week's worth of chances to do so without dragging out the run till the middle of August when ticket sales are SO slow.

I'm certainly surprised IZZY didn't close and that Smart returned. It's not a hit - the show is DOA - and with her return it's dying a slow, prolonged death.

Apparently word of mouth on "Izzy" was not helpful.

Word!

I'm assuming Izzy is being heavily papered. Poor Jean.

Not heavily enough.

CALL ME IZZY is just a Lifetime movie on stage.

Thus, it has very limited appeal.

My god, the last Bway season was pure shit

Every show I saw at the Stratford Festival on a weekend in 1982 began with O, Canada. They've been doing it for eons.

But not for epochs.

There was a production of Arms And The Man at Stratford in the 80s that began with the Star-Spangled Banner and O, Canada, but it was an in-joke over the politics of the play.

Who's going to Twelfth Night at the refurbished Delacorte to see Sandra Oh, Lupita N'yongo, Peter Dinklage and Jesse Tyler Ferguson? I've long said I don't need to see another production of it, but I'd see this one for Sandra and Lupita.

R32, please refrain from putting in quotation marks when listing stage productions. It’s unseemly.

serious question... could they keep Izy open for tax purposes?

Nunavut.

YES! I’ve been clamoring to see that stage DIVA

*checks notes*

Sandra Oh make her grand return to the NY stage!

[quote]My god, the last Bway season was pure shit

I dunno. I LOVED The Hills of California and I liked Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending. I didn't get to see it, but people raved about English, too.

How can Sandra possibly compare with Kyra?

[quote]Personally, I think she should be applauded for at least attempting to make some money back for her producers and investors.

Quelle surprise.

[quote]serious question... could they keep Izy open for tax purposes?

At this point. it can only serve as a tax write-off for all involved - including the landlord. Everyone will write this off as a loss on their profit sheet on December 31, and the loss will set off any 'profitable' taxes.

IZZY has inspired a Datalounge TIZZY!

R61 has never driven the 5.

I’ve seen better hills of California from Mickey D’s in Kettleman City. Or was it Buttonwillow?

*smacks head*

I shoulda named the thread "The 'Miss Piggy for Izzy!' Edition."

It is interesting the way the conversation has gone from myopic focus on a certain OTHER leading lady's performance to all the Izzy chatter. I guess the bitchery can only handle one at a time.

It will circle back, for sure.

It will be swell!

R68 LOL!

I remember when I began posting on the Theater Gossip thread around 2018, someone stated that eventually all discussions become about GYPSY or FOLLIES.

They weren't kidding.

Dante’s circles …and just like that

[quote]Every show I saw at the Stratford Festival on a weekend in 1982 began with O, Canada. They've been doing it for eons.

Not since the 90s, except on Canada Day. And " Annie" was the only show where the anthem was played

Everything about the Izzy trainwreck is just so odd.

I haven't seen the play or read the script but apparently it's not good. Yet a bunch of people, including Jean Smart and a bunch of producers/backers with money thought it wise to bring a meh play to Broadway, in the summer, for an extended run, in a theater far too large for its audience.

It's always astounding when obvious terrible decisions are made by professionals.

[quote]Everything about the Izzy trainwreck is just so odd.

*Nothing* about this production is odd, r27, no matter how badly the clucking hens want to find scandal. It simply flopped. Flops happen in actors' careers. Injuries happen in actors' careers. We're in the summer doldrums and some posters are desperate to scratch and claw. The thing that surprises me is that it's being directed at Jean Smart of all people.

I do wonder how the relatively unknown Sarna Lapine came to direct IZZY. She's the niece of James Lapine but surely that didn't get her the job. Not that another director might have guided it into a hit.

[quote]R72 A bunch of people, including Jean Smart and a bunch of producers/backers with money, thought it wise to bring a meh play to Broadway

And yet she found THAT to be a fitting return to Broadway over the role of Phyllis in 2001.

Un-[italic]FUCKING[/italic]-believable!

R74 only Karen Ziemba could have made this a hit with a pantylees cartwheel

[quote]IZZY has inspired a Datalounge TIZZY!

Not to be confused with that lovable, laughable teenager.

Tizzy was no Emmy Lou.

[quote]It is interesting the way the conversation has gone from myopic focus on a certain OTHER leading lady's performance to all the Izzy chatter. I guess the bitchery can only handle one at a time.

Because the other leading lady's performance is terribly old news that has already been thoroughly debated, and now her super-hyped show is closing with a whimper and with steeply discounted tickets. This was definitely a case of pride going before a fall.

[quote] I'm assuming Izzy is being heavily papered.

Toilet paper presumably.

Would Audra's voice have been better suited for IZZY? Would Sondheim have approved of her in the role?

In the slow summer theatre season, would someone kindly educate me on the origins of the Karen Ziemba pantyless cartwheel story? I've heard about Tovah showing off her delicates as Mdme Rose, but I don't know about our dear old Karen.

Oh, dear! *I* brought it back to Gypsy. It really *IS* inevitable.

Summertime! You rang?

Fuck Audra.....THIS is the definitive " Summertime"!

Grosses are out. Miss Porter regrets, indeed. Average ticket was $92 for Cabaret, gross is down over $500k.

How embarrassing for Billy.

Do we think the producers of La Cage are having second thoughts?

R86-Despite a subscription to Encores, I won't be exposing myself, my friends, or anyone else to the embarrassment that is bound to be Miss Porter in La Cage.

All bets are on that 'Cabaret' will be closing much sooner than they announced - word of mouth with Porter in the lead has been awful.

I'm sure Miss Porter is drafting a statement as we speak, saying audiences don't want to see black performers in such iconic roles, and didn't appreciate his 'reimagining' the character as an expat, etc. He will never blame his lack of acting and singing skills, that's for sure.

A business associate of an acquaintance of mine, someone involved in CABARET on the production end, has recently been offering FREE tickets to paper the house and has had difficulty finding any takers. Think about that for a moment.

[quote]R87 Despite a subscription to Encores, I won't be exposing myself, my friends, [bold][italic]or anyone else [/italic][/bold]to the embarrassment that is bound to be Miss Porter in La Cage.

A threat ? ?

[quote]A business associate of an acquaintance of mine, someone involved in CABARET on the production end, has recently been offering FREE tickets to paper the house and has had difficulty finding any takers. Think about that for a moment.

I alerted Sunny Hostin to your post, and she's thinking about this, all right. She's really pondering this. She will release a statement about 'how racist' Cabaret audiences are, and will release it within 24 hours.

[Quote] dunno. I LOVED The Hills of California and I liked Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending. I didn't get to see it, but people raved about English, too.

I saw all of them and didn’t get the raves. Most were meh and will be forgotten soon enough. All it of it was middling stuff

Why don't Billy Porter and Jean Smart trade parts. It couldn't hurt.

Blue Moon

That all looked incredible ^^^^^^^^^^^^^except for Margaret Qualley's grotesque blonde wig. Why do they never get these period hairstyles right when there is so much primary research available? It can't be because anybody thought that was prettier.

I thought Hawke was too handsome to play Hart. Not the way he looks here! He could play Fosca in Passion.

R96. Not while I’m around!

Blue Moon is entirely set in NYC but was shot entirely in Ireland. Therefore it can go fuck itself.

Agree about Qualley’s hair. By the late ‘30s, women were wearing their hair longer with looser, softer waves and curls, it was a flattering look. Why make her hair look contemporary, with those segmented aborted sausage curls?

And why is Larry Hart given an important fag hag? Are they de-gaying him?

R99 probably so!

Worked for me and my story!

The trailer indicates its based on the letters of Hart and this woman. Have they been published?

[quote]Blue Moon is entirely set in NYC but was shot entirely in Ireland. Therefore it can go fuck itself.

You tell 'em, R98! Worse still, the movie was only made in the last couple of years, not in 1948 when it's SUPPOSED to be set!

^^^ Whoops! I mean, 1943 (I shamefacedly admit).

The Blue Moon trailer sent me down an R&H rabbit hole and I started listening to Allegro (1948) for the first time in ages.

Jessica Lange and Ed Harris shot a film of Long Day's Journey in Ireland a few years ago (even though the "action" is set in Connecticut) that still hasn't seen the light of day.

Hmmmm..........

R104, that’s fine IMO. It’s basically one set and a small amount of principal actors and that’s it.

Blue Moon has several locations with a lot of background actors in addition to principal actors. Quite a lot of it apparently takes place in Sardi’s on opening night of Oklahoma! Many opportunities for tri state area SAG actors were denied because they wanted to shoot it in fucking Ireland for cheap labor. Shame on them.

Does anyone know if a COMPLETE list of the Broadway Actors who populate the cast of The Gilded Age Season 3 exists online somewhere? I need to show it to my summer conservatory students and the lists on Playbill and Broadway World are missing names of actors on the show who have appeared on Broadway. Last year there was a very comprehensive list on BWW for season two, but they apparently left it to interns this year and its not complete. Before anyone flames me know I am right now grabbing the names off IMDB and putting them into IBDB and have found 4 names that they omitted, but my class is at 2 pm

r103 "Allegro" was Rodgers and Hammerstein, not Hart. (You did say "R&H" but this is Larry Hart thread.)

So, you basically want us to do your lesson plan for you? In exchange for what?

This seems like something AI could do in five seconds.

Just curious. Why would your students need such a list? Do they really care? Would they recognize most of the names?

R98/R105 the globalist Democrats (who run Hollywood and Broadway) don't give a fuck about American workers.

It's becoming clearer and clearer to everyone.

Also, "Miss Piggy for Mamet" doing glenngarry Glenn ross.

True, r107. Buut the movie takes place at the opening of OKLAHOMA! So wanting to explore another Rodgers and Hammerstein show seems logical.

Speaking of Glenngarry Glen Ross, there was substantial talk about it the all female cast coming in, did that die with Patti Lupone’s career?

I would hardly think that a masterpiece like Glengarry Ross would depend on Patti LuPone's casting to reach Broadway, especially in an all female production.

No thoughts here on the Maybe Happening Ending casting catastrophe?

Personally, I think it's ridiculous.

I hope Andrew backs out, the show closes and jobs are lost.

They should cast a black trans woman in a wheelchair in the role and shut them up.

[quote]I hope Andrew backs out, the show closes and jobs are lost.

That would be poetic justice, but I'm sure it wouldn't faze the ultra-woke idiots who have expressed their outrage at the casting. Because I think they would rather see the show close and all those jobs and all that money lost so long as their incredibly stupid standards are upheld.

Are Telly Leung or Jason Tam not as big box office as Andrew Barf Theldman?

R36, I know what you mean about seeing someone from TV on stage. Apparently many, many years ago, I was a complete Philistine in the theater. My parents purchased tickets to see a revival of "You Can't Take it With You" starring Jason Robards, with Colleen Dewhurst and other stars in the cast.

All of thta was fine... I knew who Jason Robards was... but then Nicholas Surovy walked out on stage and all I could think was, "oh my God, he plays Mike Roy on All My Children! He's a real actor!!"

Isn't that crazy? I'm watching a play with actors are truly famous for stage, film and TV work and I'm swooning over a soap actor.

R36, I know what you mean about seeing someone from TV on stage. Apparently many, many years ago, I was a complete Philistine in the theater. My parents purchased tickets to see a revival of "You Can't Take it With You" starring Jason Robards, with Colleen Dewhurst and other stars in the cast.

All of thta was fine... I knew who Jason Robards was... but then Nicholas Surovy walked out on stage and all I could think was, "oh my God, he plays Mike Roy on All My Children! He's a real actor!!"

Isn't that crazy? I'm watching a play with actors are truly famous for stage, film and TV work and I'm swooning over a soap actor.

WHET Nicolas Surovy? He was very hot back in the day.

He is (or was) the son of opera singer Rise Stevens.

[quote]Every show I saw at the Stratford Festival on a weekend in 1982 began with O, Canada. They've been doing it for eons.

From Chicago Tribune:

Settling in my seat for “Annie” at the Stratford Festival of Canada, I awaited with perennial pleasure the overture’s trumpet solo for “Tomorrow,” followed by the chirpy sounds of “It’s the Hard-Knock Life,” a masterful little combo that first argues for optimism at all times before empathizing with our daily grinds.

But it didn’t happen. Instead, the 1,800 people inside the sold-out Festival Theatre here rose to their feet and sang the music of Calixa Lavallée, not Charles Strouse: “O Canada, Our Home and Native Land.”

The moment was striking because in some 30 years of attending Canada’s most prominent theater festival every summer, I’d never heard the Canadian national anthem sung at a regular performance of a show. The Stratford Festival, founded by a British man, dedicated to a British playwright and popular with Chicagoans and other Americans for decades, had always existed within a kind of multinational, English-language detente. This year, surely as a reaction to President Donald Trump’s rhetorical campaign to render Canada the 51st state, it just felt a whole lot more Canadian.

[quote]R111 Also, "Miss Piggy for Mamet" doing glenngarry Glenn ross.

Is Miss Piggy a Sally or a Phyllis?

She's VERY much a Carlotta...if not a Hattie.

This thread has really went down the fucking tubes!

Why did THEATRE GOSSIP #597 go straight down the shitter?

[quote]r122 = He is (or was) the son of opera singer Rise Stevens.

The Risë Stevens recording was my introduction to Lady in the Dark.

Mr. Surovy is in his 80s. Hopefully he's happily retired.

[quote]Why did THEATRE GOSSIP #597 go straight down the shitter?

No one wants to talk about Audra or Patti anymore.