Which shows are performing tonight?
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | September 26, 2021 6:27 PM |
I think the big corporate interests will make sure Lion king and Wicked are all over this thing tonight...
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | September 26, 2021 6:34 PM |
I will be watching for the graciousness and the gowns.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 4 | September 26, 2021 6:41 PM |
The ticketing service screwed up and leaked the big story. SLAVE PLAY is returning for a limited engagement. They are the presumed Tony winner, so they're thinking they might find an audience this time. I can't believe all the investors put in more money after losing so much the first time.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | September 26, 2021 7:38 PM |
At least the title of this new thread sucks.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | September 26, 2021 7:39 PM |
[quote] The ticketing service screwed up and leaked the big story. SLAVE PLAY is returning for a limited engagement. They are the presumed Tony winner, so they're thinking they might find an audience this time. I can't believe all the investors put in more money after losing so much the first time.
Which ticketing service?
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | September 26, 2021 7:46 PM |
SeatGeek had it posted and then took it down. That's what Jujamcyn is using now.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | September 26, 2021 7:55 PM |
Oh, was Slave Play in a Jujamcyn theater last time? For some reason I thought it was at the Booth.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | September 26, 2021 8:11 PM |
That sounds exactly like something Jordan Roth would do, just to burnish his inclusivity credentials.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | September 26, 2021 8:17 PM |
Never realised Jake Gyllenhaal is a co-producer of Slave Play. Well, there's a reason to find him tiresome. As if another were needed.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 12 | September 26, 2021 8:21 PM |
Ha, oh god, if this rumour is true, then according to Twitter, it's going to be at the August Wilson. Because of course it is. Well, at least there'll be plenty of space for social distancing.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 13 | September 26, 2021 8:25 PM |
And another reason they will want to give Slave Play the Tony, so they can keep Jakey coming back to BroadWAY.
But Broadway doesn't go for men who don't wash their ass!
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | September 26, 2021 8:27 PM |
So what’s the play which was on Broadway in 2029 which is returning in 2022?
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | September 26, 2021 8:28 PM |
That twitter bitch thinks Slave Play was popular? Yeah, they couldn't give away tickets.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | September 26, 2021 8:29 PM |
R16 She's a producer of Pass Over, so in comparison, Slave Play probably did seem popular
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | September 26, 2021 8:31 PM |
Slave Play - It's unpopular with the populace
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | September 26, 2021 11:36 PM |
That would SUCK if it’s really coming back. Slap in the face to all the other Black plays trying to make a go of it.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | September 26, 2021 11:48 PM |
R19 it is coming back, it is showing up on the SeatGeek app
It lost all the Tony’s tonight lol
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | September 27, 2021 1:46 AM |
Most nominated to win nothing lol. How long until the accusations of racism?
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | September 27, 2021 1:48 AM |
Hard to accuse racism when so many winners are Black and Latin
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | September 27, 2021 1:55 AM |
Did it lose best play, too?
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | September 27, 2021 1:56 AM |
BWAHAHAHAHAHAH.. Attention-whore loser.
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | September 27, 2021 2:05 AM |
So do they still try and reopen it? How the hell are they going to try and market it now?
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | September 27, 2021 2:10 AM |
Some Twitter folks think Slave Play wux robbed.
HAHAHAHAHA.
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | September 27, 2021 2:11 AM |
I bet none of them actually saw it.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | September 27, 2021 2:12 AM |
I voted for Slave Play—but—there is no audience for it & bringing it back is foolish.
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | September 27, 2021 3:32 AM |
0 for 12 AND that pretentious twat’s play is coming back to Broadway where it will bomb…AGAIN!
Sometimes there’s God so quickly!
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | September 27, 2021 10:20 AM |
What a dick move to the other Black playwrights struggling this season.
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | September 27, 2021 12:28 PM |
The idea that there are other black playwrights would be a new one to JOH
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | September 27, 2021 12:52 PM |
My dislike of Harris is making me agree with Riedel.
In other amusing news, there's apparently a rule that once the awards are handed out, shows can no longer advertise themselves as Tony nominees.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 34 | September 27, 2021 12:57 PM |
Oh, Michael.
[quote] it’s supposed lack of diversity
[quote] since it’s beginning
Oh, dear.
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | September 27, 2021 1:20 PM |
r9, thanks so much for posting that clip of SAVED!
I loved that production at Playwrights Horizons and was disappointed it never got the attention it deserved. And Aaron Tveit was adorable in it, playing a Christian high schooler trying to come to terms with his homosexuality. Do you know if there are more clips of the show to view?
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | September 27, 2021 1:33 PM |
For those who read Humans of New York, there's a three part post featuring former chorus boy (and musical lead) Lee Roy Reams.
| by Anonymous | reply 37 | September 27, 2021 2:07 PM |
Ugh, I hate when I have to agree with Riedel.
| by Anonymous | reply 38 | September 27, 2021 2:24 PM |
So wait, Slave Play which lost all its money the first time is coming back to lose more?! Who is putting up the money for this? So this whole thing was they were assuming they would win "Best Play" and they didn't, and now they are screwed? I have several BIPOC friends who HATED this play. I don't think they ever fully found a true Black audience. It was very Seven Sisters the night I saw it.
| by Anonymous | reply 39 | September 27, 2021 2:38 PM |
I do wonder about the announcement of the return just BEFORE the Tony winners were announced. Did the producers, and the playwright, really have that much hubris that they were SURE they were going to win?
Part of the irony here is that, historically, the only Tony Award that has been proven to have a significant effect at the box office is the one for Best Musical, as apparently there are still lots of theater party groups (and, of course, individuals as well) who, if they only see one show a year, make it their business to see the Best Musical. The award for Best Play has been shown to have no similar effect.
| by Anonymous | reply 40 | September 27, 2021 3:02 PM |
It was probably Jordan Roth's idea, as part of his attempt to disprove those Medium articles wrong. I wonder if they planned to announce the reopening in the victory speech.
Harris must have some kind of hidden charms. The fact Slave Play made it to Broadway at all is bizarre, not to mention this reopening. And then him getting an HBO deal which came with them giving him almost a million to invest in small scale theatrical productions of his choice. Plus a glance at his Instagram shows him living quite a luxurious lifestyle for a playwright who claims to come from a family so poor they can't afford a Paramount+ subscription.
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | September 27, 2021 3:24 PM |
The Lipstick Alley thread is hilarious. Also contains screenshots of Harris's reaction, claiming he always knew it wasn't going to win (sure Jeremy, the reopening says otherwise), and that it changed culture!
And a nice selection of screenshots showing how outraged white people reacted to the loss compared to black people. I don't care for LSA, but their hatred for JOH is fun to read.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 42 | September 27, 2021 3:31 PM |
R41, I agree that the return is bizarre, but not the fact that the play made it to Broadway at all. First of all, it's a play about racism by a black playwright, so it's catnip for producers who would want to present it on Broadway in order to get "points" for doing so, plus they probably assumed (correctly) that it would get lots of Tony noms, and maybe awards for its subject matter alone. But also, on top of that, the play is filled with "sexual situations," including one of the most explicit simulated sex scenes I've ever seen on a stage, so I think it was assumed all of that content would sell tickets.
| by Anonymous | reply 43 | September 27, 2021 3:36 PM |
Latest rumour is the reopening is planned so they can also do a recording of the show like Hamilton, Diana, Come From Away, etc.
| by Anonymous | reply 44 | September 27, 2021 3:42 PM |
I really hope Harris got so shitfaced last night at Kenny Leon's place, he fell off the balcony and landed in a dumpster full of his bad reviews.
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | September 27, 2021 3:45 PM |
Danny Burstein and Lois Smith gave my favorite speeches.
| by Anonymous | reply 46 | September 27, 2021 3:50 PM |
The reason the show had no intermission is the that hundreds would have walked out. The night I saw it, there were about 10 people who walked out during. Half black, half white. One woman screamed NO during the dildo rape moment.
| by Anonymous | reply 47 | September 27, 2021 5:18 PM |
I just had a thought: Can you imagine if someone who was attending Broadway shows in the 1930s or '40s could somehow have had a time travel machine that allowed them to read reviews and comments on present-day shows, and can you imagine their reaction if they read: "One woman screamed NO during the dildo rape moment."
It's a new world, Golde!
| by Anonymous | reply 48 | September 27, 2021 5:24 PM |
Like the shocked faces in old movies and sitcoms when they go to >gasp< off Broadway!
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | September 27, 2021 6:04 PM |
So I looked up the plot of 'Slave Play' and if it had been a musical, I'd have definitely gone to see it. The premise sounds so bizarre, the only way I'd be interested is if everyone sang too.
| by Anonymous | reply 50 | September 27, 2021 6:09 PM |
Why does it matter so much that an actual non-binary performer play that role in Jagged Little Pill?
Non-binary means that the person claims to not be either male or female, right? Any "cisgender" person of any sexual orientation and either gender can play a non-binary person. I can't believe people are actually making this into a controversy.
Let the professionals create and cast the shows, ok Twitter? OK!? They know what they're doing, for the most part, and even when they fuck up, it's fun to see, talk about, or listen to those misfires. So just let the creators create, please?
| by Anonymous | reply 51 | September 27, 2021 6:48 PM |
[quote]Why does it matter so much that an actual non-binary performer play that role in Jagged Little Pill?
I'm available! Respect my pronouns and we'll all get along fine!
| by Anonymous | reply 52 | September 27, 2021 7:19 PM |
R50. I tried reading the script. I know some plays need to be seen onstage and font live well on the page, but I gave up 1/3 of the way in (and I tend to finish books)—I just found the writing unimpressive and the conceit uninteresting. Whatever its longeurs, “The Inheritance ” has heart and reach—I’m so glad it won.
| by Anonymous | reply 53 | September 27, 2021 10:24 PM |
It deserved to win for the coup d’theatre of the end of the first play alone.
| by Anonymous | reply 54 | September 27, 2021 10:44 PM |
I loved The Inheritance and I'm thrilled it justly won the Tony but I have to say I was a little put off by Matthew Lopez's acceptance speech in which he ranted about being the first Latine (his term) playwright to win that category and how there needs to be more Latine representation on Broadway....and yet, The Inheritance had not a single Latine character in it (and there were dozens of characters). The character(s) played by Samuel Levine could have easily been conceived to be Latine, not to mention any of several smaller roles.
I'm surprised I haven't seen any push back about that today in all the Tony criticism. Thoughts?
| by Anonymous | reply 55 | September 28, 2021 12:01 AM |
"The Inheritance" is third-rate gay telenovela. (even with the stunning part 1 ending) Which I guess is why it was so successful on B*R*O*A*D*W*A*Y.
| by Anonymous | reply 56 | September 28, 2021 12:09 AM |
Excellent point, R55. But we shouldn't be surprised, because so many of these aggressively "woke" folks are major hypocrites.
| by Anonymous | reply 57 | September 28, 2021 1:02 AM |
He also had to stress the Latin thing a lot to preempt cries of racism in not voting for JOH
| by Anonymous | reply 58 | September 28, 2021 1:39 AM |
There most certainly was a Latino character in the show, played by Arturo Luis Soria. He was one of the "Jasons" (the mixed race couple who were both named Jason).
| by Anonymous | reply 60 | September 28, 2021 3:30 AM |
Thanks, R60. I knew I recalled a Latino guy amongst the supporting cast but couldn't remember his name.
| by Anonymous | reply 61 | September 28, 2021 5:40 AM |
Any gossip on Andrew Burnap? I think he mentioned a "Mimi" in his acceptance speech, so I assume that's his gf? He was very good in "The Inheritance," so I didn't find his winning the Tony that hard to fathom.
| by Anonymous | reply 62 | September 28, 2021 5:44 AM |
In an interview with Glamour (!), Burnap refers to his "rather fluid sexuality," which seems to have become more fluid during the run of the show. Sure it did.
| by Anonymous | reply 63 | September 28, 2021 11:35 AM |
If it's "fluid" while claiming a girlfriend, well...
| by Anonymous | reply 64 | September 28, 2021 11:56 AM |
The NYT continues to push JOH as hard as they pushed Lena Dunham, this time as a pathetically sycophantic piece covered their losing party. He's pretending he knew all along he'd never win. Funny then about the whole reopening thing.
[quote]“I’m going to party until 5 a.m. I have two hotel rooms, one at the Edition and one at the Bowery. I’m going to choose which one feels the best to me,” he said. “And I might not sleep at all tonight.”
I think that quote answers OP's question.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 65 | September 28, 2021 1:32 PM |
Is Slave Play any good? From what I read, I had no interest in seeing shock theater. I did see both parts of The Inheritance - not perfect, too long, but ambitious, with moments of greatness.
| by Anonymous | reply 66 | September 28, 2021 2:21 PM |
Slave Play was a piece of crap, its only audience being a conglomeration of white-guilt "intellectuals," " social anthropologists, and female SJWs.
From " Colorlines":
"This is not to mention a nod from Roxanne Gay and attendance by luminaries such as Whoopi Goldberg, Steven Sondheim, Kehinde Wiley, Janelle Monáe and Rihanna, whose song “Work” is featured.)
I’ve seen “Slave Play” at its off-Broadway run at New York Theatre Workshop and then on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre. I expected far more from a play so polarizing, but I spent most of the two-hour, intermission-less Broadway version listening to the same variation of “White people are terrible” with nothing else going on."
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 67 | September 28, 2021 2:32 PM |
Just watched Jennifer Holiday grunt her way through that song on the Tonys. I’ve always thought she was terrible and was lucky enough to see the excellent Effie’s of Sharon Brown and Roz Ryan.
| by Anonymous | reply 68 | September 28, 2021 2:45 PM |
Please, R69, please tell me anything that you actually enjoy.
| by Anonymous | reply 70 | September 28, 2021 3:01 PM |
JOH in that Times article:
[quote] “If I’m hitting a nerve that people don’t like to be hit, there’s no reason for them to be like, ‘Now come, I’m going to give you a prize for that.’”
He of course can't fathom that he has to mature as a playwright and perhaps, we'll see if he's any good. Jury's out. Although one jury came back. He didn't not win because it hit a nerve; he didn't win because the play is immature and kinda bad.
Also Danny B didn't win until his 7th nom, and had more grace. every. single. time.
| by Anonymous | reply 71 | September 28, 2021 3:08 PM |
"Two hotel rooms" and he'll choose the one that feels best? Oh, for corn's sake, no one should say that shit out loud.
| by Anonymous | reply 72 | September 28, 2021 3:14 PM |
[quote]Danny B didn't win until his 7th nom, and had more grace. every. single. time.
Thank you.
What do you expect from a child whose attitude is, "It's okay for you to have your head in your phone texting during my play as long as you're a female African-American music star, because I'm all about the fame, not about the work. Plus I'm a big ka-WEEN who loves my divas!
| by Anonymous | reply 73 | September 28, 2021 3:16 PM |
Rihanna isn't African American.
| by Anonymous | reply 74 | September 28, 2021 3:17 PM |
i wonder what Melvin's advice to JOH would be.....
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 75 | September 28, 2021 3:18 PM |
Lillias White was a terrific Effie in "Dreamgirls" revival.
Melvin went full-frontal in the movie. and Damn! he was baaaaad! (in a good way).
| by Anonymous | reply 76 | September 28, 2021 3:20 PM |
R74, my apologies. "A big Barbadian music star." And of course, the main point is that JOH forgave her texting during SLAVE PLAY because of her fame. Though I wonder if he would have publicly forgiven a white male music or movie star for doing so.
| by Anonymous | reply 77 | September 28, 2021 3:23 PM |
Are you kidding? JOH loves the white meat.
| by Anonymous | reply 78 | September 28, 2021 3:24 PM |
[quote]Although one jury came back.
Actually, it's been a whole hell of a lot more, the Tonys being just the most recent. The only award it won is the Drama Desk for fight choreography. If you're feeling generous, you could add the Outer Critics Circle for best actress, but that's because they didn't actually have any winners, and just said all nominees would be honoured.
| by Anonymous | reply 79 | September 28, 2021 3:30 PM |
R78, maybe sexually, but in other ways?
| by Anonymous | reply 80 | September 28, 2021 3:30 PM |
[quote] the excellent Effie’s of Sharon Brown and Roz Ryan.
Oh dear.
| by Anonymous | reply 81 | September 28, 2021 3:34 PM |
R66-I think you meant to write "schlock" instead of "shock".
| by Anonymous | reply 82 | September 28, 2021 3:36 PM |
DL fave Seth R. hosted a reunion of Effies. It's on YouTube. I was surprised to see that quite a few Effies were very attractive women. Sharon Brown was probably the most glamorous. Btw, who did Sarah Dash of Labelle play in early workshop(s) fo Dreamgirls?
| by Anonymous | reply 83 | September 28, 2021 3:37 PM |
Lillias White, prior to going out on the first national tour, was secretly referred to by the creators as "the spider monkey", so you only imagine what they called Jennifer.
| by Anonymous | reply 84 | September 28, 2021 3:46 PM |
Lopez's speech was brilliantly strategic to deflect from the potential outage that might stem from Slave Play's loss. He basically played checkmate with all the identity politics bullshit, and used his heritage to cockblock JOH. "The Inheritance" was one of the whitest plays I've ever seen.
| by Anonymous | reply 85 | September 28, 2021 5:29 PM |
You were hoping for a black shop assistant?
| by Anonymous | reply 86 | September 28, 2021 5:32 PM |
[quote] And of course, the main point is that JOH forgave her texting during SLAVE PLAY because of her fame.
No, he thinks that’s the norm for theater. It should be more like a concert.
[quote] People got out of their seats to go to the bathroom when they needed, people spoke, people laughed loudly, talked back, people (mon dieu!) texted with their ringers off and screens turned low. And the whole room felt free.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 87 | September 28, 2021 5:37 PM |
I didn’t like Lillias White’s Effie because she did too much riffing.
| by Anonymous | reply 88 | September 28, 2021 5:40 PM |
My stars, who wants a riffy Effie???
| by Anonymous | reply 89 | September 28, 2021 5:42 PM |
[quote] My stars, who wants a riffy Effie???
Nobody when you got to pee and “And I Am Telling You,” an already long song, is stretched out even more.
You’re gonna lo-huh-huh-huh-huh-ve maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.
| by Anonymous | reply 90 | September 28, 2021 5:56 PM |
Opening night...Chicago...1984
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 91 | September 28, 2021 5:58 PM |
I've never cared for Lilias White. She's a screamer.
| by Anonymous | reply 92 | September 28, 2021 6:02 PM |
If Dreamgirls had been mounted ten years earlier, might Melba have starred?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 93 | September 28, 2021 6:07 PM |
Was this the actual tempo or has it been upped in post?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 94 | September 28, 2021 6:17 PM |
And I am Telling You is the reason the word *overwrought* was invented.
| by Anonymous | reply 95 | September 28, 2021 6:25 PM |
Jennifer Holiday’s grunting, grimacing and gargoyle face was truly one of the most underrated things of the twentieth century.
| by Anonymous | reply 98 | September 28, 2021 6:35 PM |
Just got this email from the Public Theater about their new Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey musical The Visitor: "Over the past 18 months, conversations and commitments around equity and anti-racism have deepened across our organization and our industry. Our production of THE VISITOR brings up important questions about race, representation, and identity, and we’ve taken the time as a company to listen to each other and discuss, to respond to these issues, and to continue to develop THE VISITOR with changes that reflect how our broader culture has grown. To do this work thoughtfully, we gave extra time to our process and have decided to delay our first preview by a week. Our first preview will now be on October 14."
The sound you hear is David Merrick spinning in his grave.
| by Anonymous | reply 100 | September 28, 2021 7:01 PM |
[quote]Lopez's speech was brilliantly strategic to deflect from the potential outage that might stem from Slave Play's loss. He basically played checkmate with all the identity politics bullshit, and used his heritage to cockblock JOH.
I tend to agree, but I found very offensive his strong implication that his being the first Latine (?) playwright to win a Tony is evidence of racism on the part of the Tony administration. Because, of course, the truth is FAR more complicated than that.
| by Anonymous | reply 101 | September 28, 2021 7:02 PM |
I loved Michael Riedel's comment in his column the other day: "Every time Jeremy O. Harris bought a new outfit, the Times wrote all about it."
| by Anonymous | reply 102 | September 28, 2021 7:03 PM |
Well, yes R69. Longtime Companion did indeed feature a beach party full of deceased gay men (and it made me cry when I saw it the first time), but it was hardly the first movie or play to feature the return of dead people for emotional effect.
| by Anonymous | reply 103 | September 28, 2021 7:05 PM |
Lillias White's riffing didn't add any time to "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going," so that was a smart-ass but dumb comment. And whatever riffing she did, I found all of it far more believable and organic that Jennifer Holliday's incredibly strange vocal mannerisms and that Frankenstein walk she did when she introduced the song in the original DREAMGIRLS.
| by Anonymous | reply 104 | September 28, 2021 7:06 PM |
I was at the theater the night that Jeremy O. Harris held the curtain for almost half an hour so that his favorite goddess Rihanna could arrive late at the theater with her posse and settle themselves down in house seats. Because there was a mirror at the back of the stage, all of us in the mezzanine could see her arriving late and then texting during the show...texting to J.O. himself as was later revealed. I have despised Harris ever since because he offered no apology and actually condoned (encouraged?) her crappy behavior.
Somehow, the other 800 or so of us in the theater managed to arrive on time and keep our phones in our pockets.
| by Anonymous | reply 105 | September 28, 2021 7:13 PM |
Whores used to roam audiences trying to pick up a john.
| by Anonymous | reply 106 | September 28, 2021 7:18 PM |
Incidentally, remember when Jennifer Holliday performed "And I Am Telling You..." from the roof of some building, while the red carpet for the 2007 Oscars was going on? It was kind of sad, really. An older woman reliving her former glory by singing her signature song, overlooking the party she was not invited to; on the outside looking in. Meanwhile, the younger woman nominated for playing the role she originated is in attendance and eventually won that night.
| by Anonymous | reply 107 | September 28, 2021 7:31 PM |
r100, that's interesting about THE VISITOR.
The original film it's based on was written and directed by Tom McCarthy who's gone on to much bigger efforts, including that latest Matt Damon thing set in Paris. I was initially somewhat involved with and happened to see an early workshop of the musical about 4 years ago and at that time, the leads were played by Mandy Patinkin and Haaz Sleiman (who played the same role in the original film). Haaz was wonderful....sexy, sympathetic and charismatic and nothing in the music, at least back then, to strain a smallish singing voice. I believe he's since been replaced.
Mandy, of whom I'm no particular fan, was actually brilliant in the role Richard Jenkins originated in the film. The character is very conservative and repressed so there were no moments for Mandy to overact or show off and he was the better for it. But I do wonder if that's what caused him to leave the project as I see his part is now played by David Hyde Pierce, who I fear will go all campy Niles Frasier on it...I don't think he can play serious roles any more.
Anyway, I do wonder about the "woke" tinkering they may be doing with it. It's not the most likely material for a musical.
| by Anonymous | reply 108 | September 28, 2021 7:36 PM |
R102 On their recap on Tony night, NY Times was referring to "golden-boy Jeremy O. Harris". WTF? Does some at NYT have a (undisclosed or disclosed) financial stake in his career?
| by Anonymous | reply 109 | September 28, 2021 7:40 PM |
[quote]Whores used to roam audiences trying to pick up a john.
Used to?
| by Anonymous | reply 111 | September 28, 2021 7:43 PM |
The New York Times sucks so much now! They have lost a lot of credibility within the past decade.
| by Anonymous | reply 112 | September 28, 2021 7:46 PM |
[quote] Nobody when you got to pee and “And I Am Telling You,” an already long song, is stretched out even more.
Imagine if you were in Karen Olivo's costume!
| by Anonymous | reply 113 | September 28, 2021 7:54 PM |
The Times's focusing its coverage on JOH instead of any interesting WINNER is ridiculous
| by Anonymous | reply 114 | September 28, 2021 7:58 PM |
Imagine if Karen Olivo had played Charity? She'd have peed in the closet every performance.
| by Anonymous | reply 115 | September 28, 2021 8:01 PM |
R87 That's the bullshit he came up with afterwards to try and excuse Rihanna's behaviour. After all, if that was really his intention, why didn't he say anything about it when the show opened?
| by Anonymous | reply 116 | September 28, 2021 8:01 PM |
I'd like the NY Times to write about Jagged Little Pill imploding in front of our eyes. There is a wild amount of toxic energy surrounding that show.
| by Anonymous | reply 117 | September 28, 2021 8:01 PM |
If only Diablo Cody was friends with Lena Dunham
| by Anonymous | reply 118 | September 28, 2021 8:05 PM |
R118, why? So she’d musicalize Girls with Ali Stroker as Hannah Horvath?
| by Anonymous | reply 119 | September 28, 2021 8:17 PM |
Diablo should write a piece about working with Madonna.
| by Anonymous | reply 120 | September 28, 2021 8:20 PM |
What happened at The Visitor is truly awful. And The Times won't dare write the true story.
| by Anonymous | reply 121 | September 28, 2021 8:22 PM |
Is theater under attack? Except it's coming from the left this time around.
| by Anonymous | reply 123 | September 28, 2021 8:24 PM |
r121 spill the tea if you have some
| by Anonymous | reply 124 | September 28, 2021 8:33 PM |
[quote] The Chita play?
That was originally my show, but Chita was more convincing as an old whore.
| by Anonymous | reply 125 | September 28, 2021 8:54 PM |
R119 My post was in response to the poster saying he wished the NYT would write about what's going on at Jagged Little Pill; my suggestion being that if Cody were friends with Dunham, then they'd write about her and her show as much as they write about Lena's friend JOH and Slave Play.
| by Anonymous | reply 126 | September 28, 2021 9:15 PM |
At The Visitor, one of the actors objected to another actor's skin color. And it all went downhill from there...
| by Anonymous | reply 127 | September 28, 2021 9:25 PM |
[quote]Paragraph I did not expect to read this morning: "Mr. Trump’s handlers designated an unnamed White House official known as the 'Music Man' to play him his favorite show tunes, including 'Memory' from 'Cats,' to pull him from the brink of rage."
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 128 | September 28, 2021 9:32 PM |
Ari’el Stachel is playing the part in The Visitor that Haaz Sleiman played.
| by Anonymous | reply 129 | September 28, 2021 9:43 PM |
Pity that music man was so woefully inadequate r128.
| by Anonymous | reply 130 | September 28, 2021 9:58 PM |
David Hyde Pierce replaced Mandy Patinkin, I guess.
| by Anonymous | reply 131 | September 28, 2021 9:59 PM |
If I heard "Memory" on a regular basis, I might well have turned into the worst person in the world too.
| by Anonymous | reply 132 | September 28, 2021 10:59 PM |
It's been said that Donald Trump's favorite musical was Evita. He saw it something like six times. Do you think he saw it while Patti was still singing the original score or did he wait until she got bored and started singing whatever notes she felt like?
| by Anonymous | reply 133 | September 28, 2021 11:03 PM |
If an off-Broadway revival of "Little Shop of Horrors" can be done, then someone can produce an off-Broadway revival of "Nunsense." And that's one show that they could cast all non-white.
Jada Pinkett Smith *IS* Sister Robert Anne (She's a woman playing a man playing a woman!)
| by Anonymous | reply 134 | September 28, 2021 11:07 PM |
Chita Rivera's awesome, and it's great that she played Anita on opening night 64 years ago in "West Side Story", but did she and others not also notice that on the big marquee at the Winter Garden is an upcoming revival of "The Music Man" which was the bigger hit back that year as well on Broadway?
Why didn't they invite Tommy Tune and perhaps Karen Akers, since "Nine" was the big winner 40 years ago over "Dreamgirls"? I guess it didn't fit in with their messaging.
| by Anonymous | reply 135 | September 28, 2021 11:26 PM |
[quote]I'd like the NY Times to write about Jagged Little Pill imploding in front of our eyes. There is a wild amount of toxic energy surrounding that show.
At least 2 cast members have announced their departure from JLP. And the SJWs on social media are calling for the show to close outright. They are asking for the Stage Manager (who allegedly ignored a cast member's medical emergency) to be nailed to a cross. Or fired, at the very least.
It is very, very bad. No one wants to be associated with this show right now, TONY wins notwithstanding.
| by Anonymous | reply 136 | September 29, 2021 12:33 AM |
How was JLP doing at the box office, pre-COVID? Was it a hit?
I want to see just one show flat out ignore whatever woke Twitter storm it ignites and just run without apology. Even if it’s a show I personally dislike. Of course that only works if there’s an audience for that show. Let the audience decide. I hope ultimately, that’s what Book Of Mormon does.
| by Anonymous | reply 137 | September 29, 2021 12:40 AM |
I don't think JLP was exactly a hit at the box office, R137. I had discounted tickets for March 2020 right before the shutdown, and the show hadn't been running that long: I think it opened in December 2019.
I have much less interest in seeing it now.
| by Anonymous | reply 138 | September 29, 2021 12:44 AM |
I stand corrected: JLP was actually selling at about 90% capacity up until the shutdown. I don't know what % of those were discounted.
So it was mostly a hit.
| by Anonymous | reply 139 | September 29, 2021 12:46 AM |
r135 what are you talking about?
| by Anonymous | reply 140 | September 29, 2021 12:59 AM |
I wanna hear more about the actor issues at the Public with The Visitor. It seems like this kind of dissension and agitation will be de rigueur for all shows now.
| by Anonymous | reply 141 | September 29, 2021 1:30 AM |
[quote] I stand corrected: JLP was actually selling at about 90% capacity up until the shutdown. I don't know what % of those were discounted. So it was mostly a hit.
Apart from holiday weeks, it had been trending downward since its opening. In the last full week of performances (week ending 3/8/20), it was at $800K and its average ticket price had dropped below $100 for a gross potential of 64%. These are not encouraging signs for a three-month-old show.
| by Anonymous | reply 142 | September 29, 2021 12:05 PM |
Why are concerts selling so well and Broadway shows are, well, not?
| by Anonymous | reply 143 | September 29, 2021 12:57 PM |
concerts are limited opportunities, you can always see the Broadway show you like later. plus concertgoers are more likely to be less covid-phobic I bet
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 144 | September 29, 2021 2:05 PM |
I have been buying tickets--both Bway and off-Bway--to about 5-6 events over the coming months.
But I have a lot of friends who will not attend theatre right now. They are all vaccinated. It's as much "I don't want to sit there in a mask for 2 and a half hours" as it is concerns about CV-19.
| by Anonymous | reply 145 | September 29, 2021 2:16 PM |
R144's link essentially says "People with brains fear Covid more than people without brains". Brought to you by the No Shit Sherlock Corporation.
The same people are also afraid of axes and semiautomatics in the hands of the people who are not afraid of them.
| by Anonymous | reply 146 | September 29, 2021 2:20 PM |
Or could it be that Broadway is just offering woke stuff that nobody wants to see?
| by Anonymous | reply 147 | September 29, 2021 3:34 PM |
Luckily, Slave Play is coming back. That'll save B'way for sure!!!
| by Anonymous | reply 148 | September 29, 2021 3:47 PM |
Once again, Broadway proving that they're un-American and hiring foreigners. Why are liberals so self-loathing?
| by Anonymous | reply 150 | September 29, 2021 4:43 PM |
That'll make people very aware of their diction when saying his co-star's name (especially if she's up for any awards).
| by Anonymous | reply 151 | September 29, 2021 4:49 PM |
Yes, r150, we liberals are un-American and self-loathing. That's us alright.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 152 | September 29, 2021 4:54 PM |
[quote]Or could it be that Broadway is just offering woke stuff that nobody wants to see?
That's a large part of it. We have heard reports that some shows, like THE MUSIC MAN, are selling extremely well.
| by Anonymous | reply 154 | September 29, 2021 4:58 PM |
Hugh Jackman in SLAVE PLAY probably would have sold well.
| by Anonymous | reply 155 | September 29, 2021 5:00 PM |
[quote]Hugh Jackman in SLAVE PLAY probably would have sold well.
If he played the Paul Anthony Nolan role -- the one that requires the actor to strip completely naked and engage in a very graphic, extended sex scene -- they could have charged $1,200 for all tickets and the damn thing would have sold out for a year.
| by Anonymous | reply 156 | September 29, 2021 5:13 PM |
Sorry, that's Paul Alexander Nolan :-(
| by Anonymous | reply 157 | September 29, 2021 5:14 PM |
R156 What if Hugh's not hung?
| by Anonymous | reply 158 | September 29, 2021 5:57 PM |
R158, people would still pay big bucks to see it :-)
| by Anonymous | reply 159 | September 29, 2021 6:00 PM |
I wonder how much money Jake Gyllenhaal has put into it.
| by Anonymous | reply 160 | September 29, 2021 6:01 PM |
I wonder if the same investors who lost money on Slave Play’s first Broadway run are investing again. Fool me once…
| by Anonymous | reply 161 | September 29, 2021 8:22 PM |
R161, and I wonder if any of the investors will want to and will be able to pull out now that the play didn't win the Tony?
| by Anonymous | reply 162 | September 29, 2021 8:32 PM |
[quote] Once again, Broadway proving that they're un-American and hiring foreigners.
Well, the last time an American tried Macbeth was Kelsey Grammer and the show ran two weeks. (I don’t count the Ethan Hawke version because that was Lincoln Center and they’re not as reactive to the box office as regular Broadway).
| by Anonymous | reply 163 | September 29, 2021 8:58 PM |
There was an earlier Broadway Macbeth in the late 1980s with Glenda Jackson ad Christopher Plummer that quickly sank and an even earlier one at Lincoln Center in the early 1980s with Philip Anglim and Maureen Anderman (who, who??) that was the biggest disaster of all and ruined Anglim's very promising career after starring as the Elephant Man on Broadway.
Will the Scottish Play break its bad luck history with 007? Just reminding you it willl be directed by the "hot" director that ruined King Lear with Glenda Jackson, pre-pandemic......
| by Anonymous | reply 164 | September 29, 2021 9:11 PM |
Maureen Anderman is a wonderful lady and a very good actress. She's been married to Frank Converse for a long time.
| by Anonymous | reply 165 | September 29, 2021 9:15 PM |
There was an, er...., interesting MACBETH at CSC a couple of years ago with Corey Stohl and his real-life wife. Directed by John Doyle.
It didn't really work.
| by Anonymous | reply 166 | September 29, 2021 9:20 PM |
r165, I meant no harm, I've actually worked with Maureen a couple of times and with Frank even more (lucky me!). I'm only surprised there are others here who know her.
| by Anonymous | reply 167 | September 29, 2021 9:31 PM |
Sam Gold has had his successes (FUN HOME, A DOLL"S HOUSE PART 2) and epic failures (THE GLASS MENAGERIE with Sally Field, the aforementioned KING LEAR with Glenda Jackson, et cetera). He seems to do better with new plays than classics, so that doesn't bode well for this new MACBETH.
| by Anonymous | reply 168 | September 29, 2021 9:45 PM |
Are people forgetting Patrick Stewart's MACBETH at BAM? That was well-received, as I recall.
| by Anonymous | reply 169 | September 29, 2021 9:48 PM |
Yes, the Patrick Stewart MACBETH was the only production I can recall in my theater-going lifetime that was well-received for the most part. As I remember it, the Ethan Hawke production wasn't raked over the coals but neither would I say it was praised.
| by Anonymous | reply 170 | September 29, 2021 9:55 PM |
The Anthony Hopkins - Diana Rigg production wasn't well received either, was it? Or was it Rigg and someone else?
| by Anonymous | reply 171 | September 29, 2021 9:57 PM |
There was a production of it in the spring of 1974 at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center, starring Christopher Walken (I guess he was sort of known by then) along with total unknowns Christopher Lloyd, Stephen Collins, John Heard and Peter Weller. Dan Hedaya was an understudy. Laura Esterman was Lady M. Joseph Papp never opened the production to critics. A few months later the notorious production of Richard III opened there, with Michael Moriarty mincing about to such a degree that it inspired the section of The Goodbye Girl where Dreyfuss’ character appears in an ill-fated production.
| by Anonymous | reply 172 | September 29, 2021 10:18 PM |
Aladdin cancelling tonight’s performance due to a “breakthrough infection in the company.”
Here we go.
| by Anonymous | reply 173 | September 29, 2021 11:18 PM |
[quote]“Aladdin” had been dealing with coronavirus complications in the run-up to its reopening performance. The raucous first night performance, with an audience that included Kristin Chenoweth and the show’s composer, Alan Menken, and librettist, Chad Beguelin, featured three understudies.
The hell is going on at that show that three leads called out of the reopening?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 174 | September 29, 2021 11:26 PM |
I was lucky enough to see Maureen Anderman sub for Vanessa Redgrave in Driving Miss Daisy. Very memorable performance and every bit as good as Vanessa who I also saw.
| by Anonymous | reply 175 | September 29, 2021 11:40 PM |
THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1934, the play "Merrily We Roll Along" opened at the Music Box Theatre.
| by Anonymous | reply 176 | September 29, 2021 11:51 PM |
West Side Story opened t the Winter Garden - I guess that was why they introduced Chita and mentioned it
Music Man was at the Majestic, and Nine at = I can't remember, either the St. James or the 46th Street.
| by Anonymous | reply 177 | September 30, 2021 2:04 AM |
[quote] that's Paul Alexander Nolan
Wait - so Paul Alexander Nolan appears completely nude in Slave Play = including showing his dick?
| by Anonymous | reply 178 | September 30, 2021 2:07 AM |
Maybe all those productions of the SCOTTISH PLAY you never speak out loud were doomed because they were fools and said the title out loud.
MacDOOMED!
| by Anonymous | reply 179 | September 30, 2021 2:09 AM |
Did Walken really play Macbeth in 1974? Quite young for that. I saw him as Hamlet at Stratford, Connecticut. Not good. Anne Baxter was Gertrude! Fred Gwynne was Claudius!
| by Anonymous | reply 180 | September 30, 2021 2:12 AM |
[quote] What a cast!
Lindsay Crouse can’t act.
| by Anonymous | reply 182 | September 30, 2021 2:32 AM |
[quote]Well, the last time an American tried Macbeth was Kelsey Grammer and the show ran two weeks.
OMG, the first production of Macbeth in which the audience actively barracked for Macduff.
I've seen many productions of the Scottish Play but never a really good one, no matter who was in it. Directors just can't seem to make it all come together impressively. Polanski came closest in his movie, and even that is hardly a masterpiece.
| by Anonymous | reply 183 | September 30, 2021 2:39 AM |
I saw that Richard III with Michale Moriarty twice! With two different boyfriends. I remember loving it though it was my first exposure to the play.
| by Anonymous | reply 184 | September 30, 2021 2:40 AM |
Yes, Sam Gold does wondrous things with new plays but always runs into trouble with revivals of classics from King Lear to Picnic to Glass Menagerie to Look Back in Anger. He never seems to trust the material and treats them like new plays that need his "dramaturgy."
| by Anonymous | reply 185 | September 30, 2021 2:42 AM |
Rhoda friggin' Penmark, r181???
| by Anonymous | reply 186 | September 30, 2021 3:00 AM |
Does anyone else think producing an expensive production of Macbeth (which will no doubt cost a small fortune to see on Broadway) is foolhardy when there'll be a big film of Macbeth at the same time? Foolhardy and unnecessary? I mean, Shakespeare wrote 35 other plays.
And there's also a production happening later this fall at London's Almeida Theatre with Saorise Ronan and James McArdle (that's actually the one I'd like to see).
| by Anonymous | reply 187 | September 30, 2021 3:04 AM |
It's being produced by Barbara Broccoli, so I'm assuming it's being done as a thank you to Craig for how much money he's made her, or maybe to convince him to stick around to help transition to the new Bond or something silly.
| by Anonymous | reply 188 | September 30, 2021 3:11 AM |
R180, yeah, it was the “young” Macbeth. Walken as Macbeth, John Heard as Donalbain, Christopher Lloyd (he was young once) as Banquo, Stephen Collins as MacDuff and Peter Weller as Lennox. The three “young and sexy” witches were Carol Kane, Neva Small (a few years after the film of Fiddler on the Roof) and Cecilia Hart, who later married James Earl Jones. The gorgeous Peter Burnell played Malcolm-he was on the soap The Doctors and committed suicide following an HIV diagnosis.
| by Anonymous | reply 189 | September 30, 2021 3:21 AM |
I think people are overestimating Daniel Craig's popular appeal re: MACBETH.
The revival of BETRAYAL with Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz was pretty successful, but that was 8 years ago. He's not really known for anything besides the tired James Bond movies. (I may be in the minority, but I hated everything he was doing in KNIVES OUT.) He's 53 and looks every minute of it.
MACBETH is scheduled for a 3-month run at the Lyceum. Let's see.
| by Anonymous | reply 190 | September 30, 2021 3:32 AM |
R177 And Dreamgirls was at the Imperial -- but if they're celebrating its 40th year, why not "Nine"?
| by Anonymous | reply 191 | September 30, 2021 3:37 AM |
R190 New James Bond film coming out --- well relatively new, as the studio has been holding it for over a year due to the pandemic. But still he'll be in the news and media all over again. Plus he's always liked doing the classics.
| by Anonymous | reply 192 | September 30, 2021 3:38 AM |
How long has it been since you watched...
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 193 | September 30, 2021 3:39 AM |
[quote]Anne Baxter was Gertrude! Fred Gwynne was Claudius!
Please tell me that Anne Baxter flounced around and camped it up as Gertrude, as though she were still playing Queen Nefretiri in "The Ten Commandments.:
| by Anonymous | reply 194 | September 30, 2021 3:48 AM |
R189, I knew Peter Burnell had HIV but I didn't know he committed suicide. We cruised each other and went to his apartment for sex a few years before the A.I.D.S. crisis.
| by Anonymous | reply 195 | September 30, 2021 3:50 AM |
In what is bound to go down in history as the most bizarre “special musical episode” in TV history, this year Riverdale has chosen to tackle, wait for it…Next to Normal! Spoiler alert, Polly’s mutilated body killed by a serial killer was found last week, and Betty’s mom has lost her mind in grief and descended into the cast album of Next to Normal that she and her girls went to see one Mother’s Day years ago. Songs pop up everywhere, many with considerable reworking of lyrics and shoehorned into jumping forward storylines to accommodate them.
Interestingly, Archie, who has been portrayed as a musician was given very little to do this year and the one musical star on the show Casey Cott was again only tossed a few lines despite headlining the Hedwig episode of last season. Performances were all over the map, probably the most cohesive singer remains Veronica, but there were only a few bites size chunks for her to sing. I’m really amazed they didn’t choose something more along the lines of Jagged Little Pill, or even Fun Home before Next to Normal. And with the Alice Ripley scandal I can only assume it was in the can before it happened and because of major plot line leaps they couldn’t cut the episode or have the money to remount it differently.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 196 | September 30, 2021 12:00 PM |
No one remembers the Ethan Hawke Macbeth? With the witches played by men? John Glover, Malcolm Gets, Byron Yorke? Directed by Jack O'Brien.
| by Anonymous | reply 197 | September 30, 2021 12:11 PM |
Peter Burnell lived with the writer Gerald Mast and was the great love of director Nicholas Martin's life.
| by Anonymous | reply 198 | September 30, 2021 12:18 PM |
Is Aladdin really the first show with covid breakthrough cases, or are American producers just not as willing/obliged to shut down like they’ve done on the West End?
| by Anonymous | reply 199 | September 30, 2021 12:45 PM |
I remember tat Ethan Hawke Macbeth and remember it getting horrible reviews, unlike the poster upthread.
| by Anonymous | reply 200 | September 30, 2021 1:14 PM |
Daniel Craig also played Iago in New York Theatre Workshop’s Othello.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 201 | September 30, 2021 1:30 PM |
The Macbeth with Kenneth Branagh at the Park Avenue Armory in 2014 was pretty great. Very atmospheric, with elaborately staged battles in dirt and mud. Alex Kingston was a ferocious Lady Macbeth. I also loved Erica Schmidt's schoolgirl Macbeth, and Brittany Bradford might have been the best Macbeth I've ever seen.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 202 | September 30, 2021 1:31 PM |
[quote]I’m really amazed they didn’t choose something more along the lines of Jagged Little Pill, or even Fun Home before Next to Normal.
Why? Do you really feel either of those other two shows would have been more appropriate in some way? And if so, can you explain?
| by Anonymous | reply 203 | September 30, 2021 1:47 PM |
London is going to get a concert of Gypsy with seven Roses...
[quote]The seven Roses will be Tracie Bennett (Follies), Nicola Hughes (Fairview), Keala Settle (The Greatest Showman), Rebecca Lock (Curtains), Samantha Spiro (Sex Education), Melanie La Barrie (& Juliet) and Sally Ann Triplett (Piaf).
Of all the dumb ideas...
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 204 | September 30, 2021 2:48 PM |
Equity has hired a transman lawyer to investigate the stuff going on at Jagged Little Pill. His bio specifically mentions him representing trans people against companies. I'm sure he won't be biased at all!
| by Anonymous | reply 205 | September 30, 2021 2:49 PM |
[quote]"Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra Jonas join Broadway producing team of ‘Chicken & Biscuits’" by Broadway News - "This play marks the Broadway producing debut for Jonas and wife Chopra Jonas, an actor and model. “Broadway has always had a special place in my heart, it helped launch my career. And after the last year and a half, Broadway is exactly what we need in this world,” Jonas said."
So there's two of the people to blame
| by Anonymous | reply 206 | September 30, 2021 2:50 PM |
Nick Jonas and Michael Urie worked together when they both replaced in HOW TO SUCCEED on Broadway. I guess they got along really well :-)
| by Anonymous | reply 207 | September 30, 2021 2:52 PM |
No mention of the Lady Macbeth of Blanche Devereaux?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 208 | September 30, 2021 3:10 PM |
I guess Bennett will get Rose's Turn.
| by Anonymous | reply 209 | September 30, 2021 3:15 PM |
Nick Jonas and Michael Urie were reunited in the film capture of Jersey Boys, shot this past summer, in which Nick plays Frankie Valli and Michael plays Bob Crewe. E. Clayton Cornelious, who is one of the lead producers of Chicken and Biscuits, was also an actor in that film capture, playing the roles originated on Broadway by Tituss Burgess.
| by Anonymous | reply 210 | September 30, 2021 3:22 PM |
Thanks, R210, I didn't know that about JERSEY BOYS, haven't seen the film capture.
| by Anonymous | reply 211 | September 30, 2021 3:27 PM |
The Jersey Boys film capture hasn't been aired yet. It also stars Andy Karl as Tommy and Matt Bogart as Nick, who both replaced in the Broadway production.
| by Anonymous | reply 212 | September 30, 2021 3:33 PM |
R280. A college friend played Ophelia in that production. She has nothing but positive and warm things to say about Baxter.
| by Anonymous | reply 213 | September 30, 2021 3:38 PM |
R199 there have been at least 2 other Broadway shows with breakthrough infections, and one tour. For the Broadway shows, I don’t know if the cases were isolated before they spread or not, but there definitely have been positive cases. The tour ended up cancelling a performance.
The League sent out an email 3 weeks ago warning about the Delta variant and urged producers to increase testing to at least 2 times a week, but I don’t know what shows are following that guidance. I know for certain some are not.
| by Anonymous | reply 214 | September 30, 2021 3:41 PM |
And Second Stage's play Letters of Suresh was shut down by Covid.
| by Anonymous | reply 215 | September 30, 2021 3:45 PM |
What the word on Chicken & Biscuits? Is it one of those plays I'll see and not remember the next day?
| by Anonymous | reply 216 | September 30, 2021 3:53 PM |
What is this "film capture" business? WHET taping?
| by Anonymous | reply 217 | September 30, 2021 3:58 PM |
Tape is no longer used, r217.
| by Anonymous | reply 218 | September 30, 2021 4:01 PM |
A close friend was in the ensemble of that Stratford, Ct. "Hamlet" with Chris Walken. The best stories he told when he came back to regular "day work" were the ones about Walken chasing young men around the property and "catching" a few inside the theatre. He tried it once with my buddy and was strongly discouraged.
| by Anonymous | reply 219 | September 30, 2021 4:03 PM |
Right, film is no longer used, either. "Video capture" would be the best term for what was done with JERSEY BOYS.
| by Anonymous | reply 221 | September 30, 2021 4:27 PM |
I'd like to see a capture of JERSEY BOYS, particularly since the Clint Eastwood-directed film version is one of the worst stage-to-movie adaptations I've ever seen. It's no longer even a musical, not really.
| by Anonymous | reply 222 | September 30, 2021 4:34 PM |
That worked for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
| by Anonymous | reply 223 | September 30, 2021 4:41 PM |
[quote]I'd like to see a capture of JERSEY BOYS, particularly since the Clint Eastwood-directed film version is one of the worst stage-to-movie adaptations I've ever seen.
I feel the same, and I'm sure the folks who produced this new video are hoping that lots of people share our feelings.
| by Anonymous | reply 224 | September 30, 2021 5:09 PM |
I call them “pro-shot” (adjective) or “pro-shoots” (noun), to differentiate them from bootlegs.
| by Anonymous | reply 225 | September 30, 2021 5:54 PM |
[quote] Nick Jonas and Michael Urie worked together when they both replaced in HOW TO SUCCEED on Broadway. I guess they got along really well :-)
Hold on…so, Michael Urie's a top?!?
| by Anonymous | reply 226 | September 30, 2021 6:13 PM |
Who is this?
[quote]She recalls a TV producer she knew in Manhattan who kept his wife and actor boyfriend in different apartments in the same building for several years. It was only when there was a changeover in concierge that he was busted.
[quote]“Could I get your boyfriend’s signature on this copy of his autobiography?” the overly enthusiastic new hire asked.
[quote]Unfortunately his wife was just exiting the elevator, and heard it all.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 227 | September 30, 2021 6:27 PM |
Could be so very many, r227.
| by Anonymous | reply 228 | September 30, 2021 6:42 PM |
R219, the Walken Macbeth wasn’t Stratford, it was the NY Shakespeare Festival at the Mitzi Newhouse at Lincoln Center.
| by Anonymous | reply 229 | September 30, 2021 6:42 PM |
[quote] And Second Stage's play Letters of Suresh was shut down by Covid.
Not shut down. They canceled 3 performances for the understudy to get up to speed, r215
| by Anonymous | reply 230 | September 30, 2021 7:06 PM |
Regarding “As If We Never Said Good-Bye:”
Though no one here seems to have mentioned it yet, this song was originally written by ALW and Tim Rice for a short 30 min. musical commissioned to celebrate the Queen’s birthday in 1986. ALW’s music for 2 songs ended up in this one. (3 other songs ended up in ALW’s score for “Aspects of Love.”)
“Cricket” was only performed 3 times. A complete recording has never been released. Reportedly, Rice is bitter about ALW using his music for other works, because it means it can never be recorded as originally intended. So far….
| by Anonymous | reply 231 | September 30, 2021 7:08 PM |
Surely Rice could have had Elaine Paige put it on one of her albums.
| by Anonymous | reply 232 | September 30, 2021 7:10 PM |
The Normal Heart at the National through Nov. 6.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 233 | September 30, 2021 7:24 PM |
r204 it's not that dumb. The Actors' Fund has done a few like that, like Funny Girl etc., it can be just fine
| by Anonymous | reply 234 | September 30, 2021 7:33 PM |
I'm not R204, but that list of "names" is really from hunger, though.
| by Anonymous | reply 235 | September 30, 2021 7:49 PM |
Some of the Jagged cast are now refusing to perform in scenes they had performed in before -- for months!
| by Anonymous | reply 236 | September 30, 2021 8:43 PM |
I know it won't happen, but god how I'd love it if the producers pulled a Cameron Mackintosh and fired the entire cast
| by Anonymous | reply 237 | September 30, 2021 8:48 PM |
Jesus Christ, the virtue-signaling, entitled, petulant, perpetually victimized WOKE are killing the arts with this nonsense. NO ONE, especially so-called progressives or 'liberals' (which the woke are decidedly NOT) should be prescribing the kind of plays a producer produces, the words a playwright writes, the strokes an artist paints or the roles an actor can play. They have a fundamental misunderstanding of 'art', thinking that it can somehow be democratized so as to ensure everyone gets a trophy.
Yes, let's make equality of opportunity THE THING. Diversity of talent and the discovery of new voices benefits all creative undertakings. But that's really not what these woke brats are advocating for. It's quickly devolving into a leftist version of McCarthyism. Yes, better virtues seemingly, but the methods are just as blunt and unforgiving.
Karen Olivo's nonsensical grandstanding is a prime example of this. Her initial skewering of Broadway and MR conflated and confused about half a dozen social justice issues. But woke Twitter and IG ate it up, no questions asked. As the more recent article (about pee breaks) revealed, it has everything to do with Karen Olivo's ego and sense of importance than any actual movement.
It's anti-intellectual, it's anti-creative and frankly, anti-progressive to make these manifestos and demands of creatives. If the cast of JLP doesn't want to perform the show they were hired to do, move the fuck on and let the other 98% of AEA membership have at the opportunity. Talk about ungrateful, entitled brats. This is NOT how progress occurs. This is not how you begin meaningful discourse when you have an issue. And this is NOT how you conduct yourself as a grown professional. Grow up and learn some GRIT.
| by Anonymous | reply 238 | September 30, 2021 9:14 PM |
Aaron Sorkin in Vanity Fair:
[quote]I’ll tell you that in a number of the follow-up stories that I read, you’ll see people quoted saying, “Everybody knew, everybody knew.” And that’s ludicrous. Everybody did not know. I certainly didn’t know, and I don’t know anybody who knew. First of all, I have my own experience with Scott, and it’s a higher class of bullying, but I get it. The stories that I had heard over the last 12 years were the kinds of things that—they could have been scenes from The Devil Wears Prada, there was no violence. There’s nothing physical at all in the stories that I heard. Had I known, there’s no chance I would’ve tolerated it, there’s no chance Bart Sher would’ve tolerated it, that Jeff Daniels would’ve tolerated it. So we didn’t know. And once we did, we did something about it.
So he went from he didn't know anything, to he knew about the verbal abuse but not the physical, to claiming he was being bullied too. If the latter was true, then why did you work with him for over a decade Aaron?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 239 | September 30, 2021 9:19 PM |
Just think of the theater that wouldn't have been created it writers and composers were shamed for taking on topics and cultures that were foreign to them: West Side Story, Porgy and Bess, Annie Get Your Gun, as well as most of the Rodgers & Hammerstein canon.
| by Anonymous | reply 240 | September 30, 2021 9:24 PM |
Sounds like there's an interesting exhibit and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The Lego aspect sounds ridiculous and looks shitty, but the archival material around it sounds interesting:
[quote]The six set models will be complemented with archival materials from the Library's collections related to each show. Boris Aronson's original Broadway and touring set models for Company, A Little Night Music, and Follies will all be displayed next to Lee's renditions. This will mark the first time both Company set models will be on view together. The installation will also feature video footage from the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), and set pieces from Evita and Sweeney Todd, as seen in Prince of Broadway. Photographs from the Billy Rose Theatre Division's unparalleled photography collection will also illustrate how the sets came to life on stage. Many of the archival materials on display will give visitors an opportunity to see selections from In the Company of Harold Prince: Broadway Producer, Director, Collaborator, which the Library closed early in March of 2020 due to the pandemic.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 241 | September 30, 2021 10:08 PM |
Will there be Lego Golden Girls wandering the sets?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 242 | September 30, 2021 10:25 PM |
Yes! Lego Follies! For the gaylings in your life, ages 8 and up.
| by Anonymous | reply 243 | September 30, 2021 11:47 PM |
THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1964, "Oh What a Lovely War" opened at the Broadhurst Theatre.
| by Anonymous | reply 244 | September 30, 2021 11:50 PM |
Bravo, R238. I dearly wish you were in a position of high authority at The Broadway League or Actors' Equity, but I'll bet anything that you aren't, because no one there would have the courage or intelligence to come right out and state what you have stated, even though it desperately needs to be expressed.
| by Anonymous | reply 245 | October 1, 2021 1:12 AM |
Sorkin really comes across as an ass-kissing sycophant in that Vanity Fair interview. In a nutshell, he's saying that the stories about horrendous psychological abuse of Rudin's assistants weren't THAT alarming because "there was no violence," but OF COURSE, as soon as a few stories of physical abuse came to light, THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!
| by Anonymous | reply 246 | October 1, 2021 1:18 AM |
Do you think Dorothy Collins and Alexis Smith ever dined together at Hawaii Kai? Did they invite Yvonne DeCarlo to join them?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 247 | October 1, 2021 2:17 AM |
One of the ensemble members from "Diana" has forced her producers and the Broadway league to hold a "summit" next week. This is getting nuts.
| by Anonymous | reply 248 | October 1, 2021 2:25 AM |
R245 How can someone really express some of these things to Equity when they've hired and given almost free rein in the last few years a woman who is basically Diversity Officer who seems to be appointed to get upset and raise a ruckus about everything that's been in place all at once, from how roles are described to convincing officers of the union (without taking a union vote) on opening Equity membership to anyone who can basically prove they've been paid somewhere (anywhere) for theater work. Longer and more crowded auditions (when they resume) be damned.
| by Anonymous | reply 249 | October 1, 2021 3:03 AM |
What is the DIANA kerfuffle about now? I know that when they filmed it the actors had William Ivey Long banned from the premises because of accusations of harassment.
| by Anonymous | reply 250 | October 1, 2021 3:19 AM |
Pull the plug on Pill. With all of this negative publicity will anyone want to see it? Plus, it’s a piece of shit.
| by Anonymous | reply 251 | October 1, 2021 3:44 AM |
Do any of these whiny actors think anyone's going to hire them in the future?
On another note, I hadn't been following the JLP thing closely enough to realise that one of the main cast members essentially trying to get Lauren Patten fired was Patten's understudy. I hope Spielberg and Kushner made Anybodys non-binary too, otherwise Ezra might decide to cause some shit for WSS too!
| by Anonymous | reply 252 | October 1, 2021 3:57 AM |
R450, for what it’s worth, William Ivey Long seems to have resurfaced. He was in a CBS Sunday Morning piece on DIANA where he touted his costumes, and he was at the Tonys. Also, the NYPost had some mention of a “sexy soirée” Tonys afterparty that he hosted at his studio.
| by Anonymous | reply 253 | October 1, 2021 11:44 AM |
[quote] Just think of the theater that wouldn't have been created it writers and composers were shamed for taking on topics and cultures that were foreign to them: West Side Story, Porgy and Bess, Annie Get Your Gun, as well as most of the Rodgers & Hammerstein canon.
It's complicated r240. At the same time as those masterpieces were being created, how many marginalized creatives had no platform at all to create and mount their work? There has to be a balance. Hoping the pendulum lands at the right spot.
| by Anonymous | reply 254 | October 1, 2021 1:18 PM |
r253, nevertheless, it will be interesting to see if William I vey Long is ever offered another Broadway show.
| by Anonymous | reply 255 | October 1, 2021 1:22 PM |
"At the same time as those masterpieces were being created, how many marginalized creatives had no platform at all to create and mount their work?"
A ridiculous argument. Most of the creators of the musical theatre canon started life as immigrants to this country, with no greater advantage (and probably more obstacles to overcome) than anyone else. Entry level show business is notoriously difficult and competitive for everyone. It's the free enterprise system: you want a piece of the pie? Work your ass off and make your own luck. Any work of art is a unique synthesis of an individual's singular life experience, and has no bearing on anyone else's output.
| by Anonymous | reply 256 | October 1, 2021 1:58 PM |
[quote]you want a piece of the pie?
I would like a piece of pie.
| by Anonymous | reply 257 | October 1, 2021 2:01 PM |
Hold on…so, Michael Urie's a top?!?
jHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA..Oh, my sides.
| by Anonymous | reply 258 | October 1, 2021 4:22 PM |
[quote] Hold on…so, Michael Urie's a top?!?
Giggle!
| by Anonymous | reply 260 | October 1, 2021 5:14 PM |
I'm not usually into fey, effeminate types, but I thought Michael Urie was so adorable on UGLY BETTY. I'm not a bottom, though.
| by Anonymous | reply 261 | October 1, 2021 5:19 PM |
R256 I"m all about working your ass off and bootstraps and all that. But were the Broadway theaters as locked up by three dynasties as they are now? (I legit don't know and am asking sincerely.) There were certainly more theaters then.
| by Anonymous | reply 263 | October 1, 2021 6:17 PM |
The Diana proshot gets a one star review in The Guardian
[quote]The lines of dialogue only get more deathless from there on in. Taken by the pompous and stuffy Charles to a cello recital by Mstislav Rostropovich, Diana sings: “The Russian plays on and on / Like an endless telethon / How I wish he were Elton John!” (“Telethon”? Really?) Charles and Diana begin their relationship to a background of press intrusion and royal sneering, while Charles keeps on seeing the worldly Camilla Parker Bowles. But soon Diana is pregnant with her first child, which results in Hartrampf’s Charles singing: “Darling, I’m holding our son / So let me say jolly well done!”
[quote]My own personal nervous breakdown approached when Diana’s second child is born, and she sings the following lines into his cot: “Harry, my ginger-haired son / You’ll always be second to none!” And I succumbed to complete gibbering collapse when Charles erupts in rage at Diana’s on-stage dance routine with Wayne Sleep, demanding changes to her behaviour: “How about for a start / Don’t act like a TART … Diana!”
It certainly sounds like it belongs on Netflix
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 264 | October 1, 2021 7:00 PM |
How does something with lyrics that sound like they were written by a ten year old get to Broadway? Judy Kaye must have big bills to pay to accent a job in such shit.
| by Anonymous | reply 266 | October 1, 2021 7:17 PM |
Did you expect her to hold out for Satine, r266?
| by Anonymous | reply 267 | October 1, 2021 7:32 PM |
I presume New York gigs have a knock on effect on Judy's quote.
| by Anonymous | reply 268 | October 1, 2021 7:38 PM |
If they're doing a revival of "Follies", Judy Kaye could sing Older Heidi, or mostly anything legit, if it were only produced. She can also do contemporary stuff and relatively graciously written for the voice rock stuff (that doesn't need screaming), so she can do something like "Diana" if she wants to work. She's always been versatile -- Lily Garland in "On the 20th Century" to Mary in "Jesus Christ Superstar"
| by Anonymous | reply 269 | October 1, 2021 7:51 PM |
Has she done the teacher in "Billy Elliott"?
| by Anonymous | reply 270 | October 1, 2021 7:53 PM |
That's a fun part -- I like her big number.
| by Anonymous | reply 271 | October 1, 2021 7:55 PM |
LA theatre is about to get even more insane than Broadway, with a literal blacklist
[quote]Inspired by We See You White American Theater, the list was created to provide L.A. theatre companies a list of concrete changes they can make to help create more equitable theatrical workplaces. The document asks adherents to “commit to reflecting the various communities of Los Angeles in your programming and honor the cultural specificity of the stories you tell,” [bold]and to ensure that “the majority of artists, production team, staff, and board will be BIPOC, with attention paid to intersectional identities such as gender, sexual orientation, disability, and those who are formerly incarcerated/systems-impacted.”[/bold] It also urges an end to unpaid work and high ticket prices, and recommends that each theatre write and implement specific anti-racism policies.
[quote][bold]Adherence will be monitored through BLKLST, a newly formed group that will collect data and manage the public accountability process. [/bold]The mission of BLKLST is to provide safety and equity for L.A. theatre workers who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color by supporting other anti-racist industry related organizations and people. BLKLST will create a list of Los Angeles theatre companies with stats and commentary that will help artists make informed decisions about where they wish to work.
It's actually beyond parody. Surely no-one can now genuinely argue this is no longer about equality and fairness, but about power and control.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 273 | October 1, 2021 8:52 PM |
Valens, any possibility of posting Anderson’s Streetcar?
| by Anonymous | reply 274 | October 1, 2021 9:07 PM |
BLKLST sounds a lot like Orwell's thought police
| by Anonymous | reply 275 | October 1, 2021 9:25 PM |
What are 'those who are formerly incarcerated/systems-impacted'?
| by Anonymous | reply 276 | October 1, 2021 9:28 PM |
R273 it is obvious discrimination against whites. Why aren't white liberals saying anything? Aren't they the majority?
| by Anonymous | reply 278 | October 1, 2021 9:31 PM |
R277 thanks. The left's glorification of criminals confounds me.
| by Anonymous | reply 279 | October 1, 2021 9:34 PM |
It was said that the far-right hid behind the flag to gain power, but the far-left is hiding behind anti-racism/social justice to do the same.
| by Anonymous | reply 280 | October 1, 2021 10:18 PM |
R280 But, they have power. And are wasting their time with utter bullshit.
| by Anonymous | reply 281 | October 1, 2021 10:45 PM |
Oooo, the evil Left, just as bad as the evil Right!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 282 | October 1, 2021 10:46 PM |
R273 - More marxist, authoritarian manifestos from the woke "left". No one is going to take this nonsense seriously. It's as ludicrous, impractical and illiberal as WSYWAT. And calling it the BLKLST? Way to go having some fun with ol Joe McCarthy's tactics from the radical left!
Dear wokesters, kindly fuck off.
| by Anonymous | reply 283 | October 1, 2021 11:38 PM |
Of course TCG supports this crap. The organization has been taken over by some real incompetent Wokesters and all they want is to burn it all down. The stories of chaos and fleeing subscribers at regional theatres that are shoving this shit down their patrons throats are real. Stories are leaking out, and boards are freaking out.
| by Anonymous | reply 284 | October 2, 2021 12:05 AM |
R282 Not evil. stupid, and misdirected.
| by Anonymous | reply 285 | October 2, 2021 12:15 AM |
R284 - Well and they're perpetuating a falsehood that the American Theatre is somehow inherently, irrevocably racist. Where's the evidence? Where's the burden of proof? Is it historical pain and suffering they're wanting the (white) theatre to atone for?
The theatre has historically BEEN the safe haven for those who didn't fit into mainstream society. Yes, still rife with racism, prejudice and barriers to entry, but despite the far left's protestations -- progress HAS been occurring and at an exponential rate, no less. There's no better time to be LGBTQ or BIPOC in the theatre. But these ultimatums, which read like McCarthy-esque witchhunts, quickly destroy ANY goodwill or allyship from those they need it from most.
But not unlike the radical Trans advocates trying to rewrite and redefine reality, these wokesters see this moment as an opportunity to put ALL white people and their institutions in their place. Whether it's justified or not. It's the core issue with CRT and the anti-racist movement...it's making broad assumptions about the 'group' regardless of whether it's an accurate representation of people's true feelings and actions. It's a reckless form of generalizing, which is the basis FOR racism and prejudice.
But the far left have all made it about group identity and perpetual victimhood based on your intersectionality. And people it doesn't require much thought or effort to part of it, the young wokesters jump on the bandwagon no questions asked! It enables them to stop growing, learning and developing any real world grit.
| by Anonymous | reply 286 | October 2, 2021 12:23 AM |
"but about power and control."
No, it's about psychosis and mass-steria.
| by Anonymous | reply 287 | October 2, 2021 12:28 AM |
Broadway will survive just fine. In the end, the audience decides what runs and what closes. They can revive Slave Play every season, no one will ever show up and a different show will eventually take its place each time.
But I really have to wonder what’s going to happen to the American regional theatre scene. Once the audiences stop showing up (and most of this prescriptive bullshit acts as audience repellent) what happens? How many years of financial losses can these institutions bear before they have to close?
There really is a problem of minority underrepresentation, especially in the non-actor realms. This was such a perfect time to do something about it. But this crap? You can’t diversify the theatre if there’s no theatre left.
| by Anonymous | reply 288 | October 2, 2021 1:00 AM |
So Aladdin will be closed from tonight until October 12th? Yikrs. Good thing it’s Disney.
| by Anonymous | reply 289 | October 2, 2021 1:21 AM |
I'm sensing there is subtext to r207 post but I can't quite put my finger on it.
| by Anonymous | reply 290 | October 2, 2021 1:27 AM |
The Emmy winning co star of Killing Eve, Jodie Comer will make her West End debut in Prima Facie.
She's not a trained actor so I hope she's up to the task, it's a huge order to start on stage in a one person play.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 291 | October 2, 2021 1:34 AM |
How many new members of Equity have joined up? Especially considering you need to pay at least partial initiation fee, bi-annual dues, plus there aren't any audition in person being held. Does Equity mention, btw, you can't work non-union anymore?
| by Anonymous | reply 292 | October 2, 2021 1:43 AM |
[quote]How many years of financial losses can these institutions bear before they have to close?
Plus, hilariously, this LA BLKLST thing is demanding that board members no longer have to donate money because, apparently, board members can offer benefits other than money to an organisation. Yeah, let's see how quickly the donations dry up when the ladies who lunch realise they aren't getting the recognition they want, while the board is filled with wokesters.
| by Anonymous | reply 293 | October 2, 2021 2:18 AM |
[quote] Valens, any possibility of posting Anderson’s Streetcar?
Why not just hit yourself over the head with a meat tenderizer? It'll do the job in 1/20000 of the time.
| by Anonymous | reply 294 | October 2, 2021 2:25 AM |
Most of America's regional theaters were struggling, many dying, before the pandemic and all this wokeness. I seriously believe several will not reopen and some that do, won't last more than a season or two more. Sad, as I made my career in some of the best.
| by Anonymous | reply 295 | October 2, 2021 2:38 AM |
Just a reminder to all those who subscribed to a free trial week of Paramount Plus to watch the Tonys, IT'S NOW TIME TO CANCEL!
| by Anonymous | reply 296 | October 2, 2021 2:44 AM |
So.....that DIANA, The Musical on Netflix is getting some of the worst reviews and social media blurbing ever.....does anyone else think it won't reopen on Broadway?
| by Anonymous | reply 297 | October 2, 2021 2:45 AM |
[quote] What are 'those who are formerly incarcerated/systems-impacted' - ?
Heck if I know.
| by Anonymous | reply 298 | October 2, 2021 3:11 AM |
You gotta pay for love, r298.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 299 | October 2, 2021 3:17 AM |
Patti demanding someone give her a house for the weekend on Fire Island
[quote]Oh, hello everyone. I have so much to say about the state of the world, but I'm so afraid to say it on Twitter. However, I will say... I've never been to Fire Island! Someone give me a house for the weekend (cause I'm in rehearsal weekdays). Go.
[quote]Dolls, I'm overwhelmed with such lovely offers! Ana - you are a gem. I love you. I'm excited to finally see Fire Island and share the best of gay NY with the British creative team of @CompanyBway! P.S. Keep the offers coming!
Why do I imagine a re-enactment of that story where Elaine Stritch berated some fan who'd volunteered to drive her around because Stritch wasn't happy with something about the car?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 300 | October 2, 2021 5:08 AM |
You also have to pay for drugs, Sara. With your OWN money.
| by Anonymous | reply 301 | October 2, 2021 5:08 AM |
Gore Vidal once said that whenever he heard "I love you" he instinctively reached for his wallet.
| by Anonymous | reply 302 | October 2, 2021 7:07 AM |
[quote]Just a reminder to all those who subscribed to a free trial week of Paramount Plus to watch the Tonys, IT'S NOW TIME TO CANCEL!
Paramount+, the latest victim of cancel culture.
| by Anonymous | reply 303 | October 2, 2021 7:44 AM |
DIANA on Netflix is the queen regent of dumpster fires. An unmitigated, jaw-dropping disaster. And yet endlessly more entertaining than DEAR EVAN HANSEN.
| by Anonymous | reply 304 | October 2, 2021 10:09 AM |
Any other good Diana review gems to quote here?
| by Anonymous | reply 305 | October 2, 2021 12:44 PM |
R256, not exactly. I think only Irving Berlin fits your description. Porter, Rodgers, Hammerstein, etc were not immigrants.
It is ridiculous to claim that non-whites had the same opportunities. Why are they not present in the cannon? Are black people less capable of writing musicals for some genetic reasons?
Sometimes they were let in as a one-off novelty. But what if Blake, Ellington, Joplin had been able to do more work in mainstream theater? Their freshman efforts were as good or better as the white folks first shows. But non-whites never got a second shot.
| by Anonymous | reply 306 | October 2, 2021 12:48 PM |
I do not get the hostility toward the LA Anti-Racist Standards. Some are a little crazy (like the land acknowledgement), most of them are pretty common sense.
The most controversial is probably the request that the majority of hires be BIPOC. But L.A. is 49% non-white, so maybe majority BIPOC is over doing it. But half-BIPOC seems reasonable for that city.
Again it seems pretty common sense for companies in LA to have these standards, given the demographics of the population.
| by Anonymous | reply 307 | October 2, 2021 1:01 PM |
[quote] It is ridiculous to claim that non-whites had the same opportunities. Why are they not present in the cannon? Are black people less capable of writing musicals for some genetic reasons?
The were not allowed in because they spelled "canon" with 2 n's.
| by Anonymous | reply 308 | October 2, 2021 1:06 PM |
On ATC, someone with the moniker Leon is calling out Singapore/Fling fairly regularly lately, and it's actually refreshing. He's managed to actually bother S/F, who is generally like Frank Sinatra apparently said of Kathryn Grayson "someone who lights up a room by leaving it".
| by Anonymous | reply 309 | October 2, 2021 2:51 PM |
[quote]On ATC, someone with the moniker Leon is calling out Singapore/Fling fairly regularly lately
Is it MY Leon???
| by Anonymous | reply 310 | October 2, 2021 2:57 PM |
He's also been calling out that other ray of ATC sunshine (eyes rolling as I type this) Mockingbirdgirl!
| by Anonymous | reply 311 | October 2, 2021 3:10 PM |
I want to know more about ryhog!
| by Anonymous | reply 312 | October 2, 2021 3:14 PM |
Ryhog seems to be some combination of John Simon, Arlene Francis and I think Ron Swanson.
| by Anonymous | reply 313 | October 2, 2021 3:48 PM |
You're giving him too much credit.
He's an enraged idiot, a combination of himself.
| by Anonymous | reply 314 | October 2, 2021 3:56 PM |
While Mockingbird Girl appears to a combination of Lens Dunham, Michael Riedel, and Suzanne Somers.
| by Anonymous | reply 315 | October 2, 2021 4:07 PM |
It makes absolutely no sense to re-open Diana: The Musical on Broadway when it’s already available to watch on Netflix.
I will, however, be going to see the musical Diana & Zonen (Diana & Sons) in Amsterdam in December. Because that one has Meghan in a central role in it. It’s in Dutch but I don’t give a shit.
| by Anonymous | reply 316 | October 2, 2021 4:13 PM |
R315 Somehow I don't think I want to see Mockingbirdgirl doing lots of nude scenes, nope, not even one.
| by Anonymous | reply 317 | October 2, 2021 4:26 PM |
R317-You'd have to contact Roundabout Customer Service for those.
| by Anonymous | reply 318 | October 2, 2021 4:36 PM |
I can definitely picture her in a 3-Way Poncho, r315.
| by Anonymous | reply 319 | October 2, 2021 4:36 PM |
[quote]It is ridiculous to claim that non-whites had the same opportunities. Why are they not present in the cannon? Are black people less capable of writing musicals for some genetic reasons?
[quote]Sometimes they were let in as a one-off novelty. But what if Blake, Ellington, Joplin had been able to do more work in mainstream theater? Their freshman efforts were as good or better as the white folks first shows. But non-whites never got a second shot.
It's a very complicated situation, but part of it that's hardly ever discussed is that it seems many people of color simply don't, or didn't, want to write plays or musicals, and put their efforts elsewhere -- for example, pop music, literature. Complicating the situation further is that, back in the day, non-white composers and lyricists may have felt that only a certain kind of music would be successful on Broadway, and they were probably right about that. So it becomes a sort of chicken-or-the-egg thing.
| by Anonymous | reply 320 | October 2, 2021 5:27 PM |
[quote]Why are they not present in the cannon?
Too dangerous?
| by Anonymous | reply 321 | October 2, 2021 5:33 PM |
I want to see "They're Playing Our Song" with Sara Gettelfinger and Tyler Maynard.
| by Anonymous | reply 322 | October 2, 2021 5:41 PM |
Sarah's understudy can be Amy Locane, if she can sing.
| by Anonymous | reply 323 | October 2, 2021 5:55 PM |
R320, I think this is a bit silly.
While the 1920s to the 1950s, may have had marginally better opportunities for black songwriters, musicals were still a huge part of the songwriting marketplace. To assert that the reason why there were no non-white Broadway composers and lyricists with a body of work was because they "did not want to write musicals" ignores history.
Similar arguments used to be made in decades past about the lack of minority representation in the ivy league and many industries. They did not apply because "they were not interested." But funny how when non-discrimination laws were passed and opportunities opened up, the non-whites suddenly became interested.
| by Anonymous | reply 324 | October 2, 2021 6:01 PM |
So, R324, you think that, during the first two thirds of the 20th century, there were lots of composers and lyricists of color who wrote musicals or wanted to write musicals, but they were all dissuaded due to racism? Maybe you're right about that, but I'm nowhere near as sure about that as you are.
As for Duke Ellington, it's too bad that he apparently stopped trying after BLUE HOLIDAY, BEGGAR'S HOLIDAY, and POUSSE-CAFE.
| by Anonymous | reply 325 | October 2, 2021 8:53 PM |
I'm the TigerHeat bouncers counting the cash in exchange for not checking IDs
| by Anonymous | reply 327 | October 2, 2021 9:09 PM |
Well I posted that in the wrong thread, apologies
| by Anonymous | reply 328 | October 2, 2021 9:13 PM |
R325, I think there for the first two-thirds of the 20th century there were almost certainly lots of composers and lyricists of color who could have and would have written musicals if it were not for racism.
It is odd that anyone would even argue that there were not. The only way it seems that you could get there is if you want to believe that there was the opportunity available, but people of color ran away from it--which is absurd.
| by Anonymous | reply 329 | October 2, 2021 9:23 PM |
R329, to repeat: I don't think they "ran away" from it, I think maybe a lot of POC writers just weren't interested in Broadway and, instead, focused their energies on writing pop songs. Of course, a great deal of that music eventually came to Broadway by way of revues such as AIN'T MISBEHAVIN', SOPHISTICATED LADIES, BLACK AND BLUE, etc., etc.
To put it another way, how do you suppose Charlie Smalls managed to get THE WIZ produced on Broadway in 1975? Do you think he was the very rare POC who somehow managed to work around racism in order to accomplish that? Or is it just that there were few other songwriters of color who cared about having a show on Broadway at all? The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, but if you want to keep insisting that it was JUST racism at work, go right ahead.
| by Anonymous | reply 330 | October 2, 2021 9:44 PM |
Personally r328 / r327, I found it to be a refreshing change of pace for this rather misbegotten thread.
| by Anonymous | reply 331 | October 2, 2021 9:49 PM |
I guess you two disagree.
| by Anonymous | reply 332 | October 2, 2021 9:49 PM |
There were quite a few "black shows" on Broadway in the 20th century, especially the second half. BUT, they were all produced by white producers and investors. That's the rub.
The Charles Strouse/Lee Adams flop called A BROADWAY MUSICAL was partially based on the real life story of a white producer who made his money producing black shows. That show was produced by Norman Kean and Garth Drabinsky - both whom had made/would make money from shows featuring POC (Show Boat, Ragtime, Me & Bessie, Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope, etc.)
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 334 | October 2, 2021 10:15 PM |
The 1970s saw a burst of black talent on Broadway which perhaps began with the Pearl Bailey Hello Dolly! and continued with an all-black Guys and Dolls, Raisin, The Wiz, Comin' Uptown, Eubie!, Ain't Misbehavin', and on and on for about a dozen years.
But there's been nothing like it before or since. Why didn't Scott Joplin write another musical after Treemonisha? How long did it take for Treemonish to reach Broadway? Why did Scott Joplin need white savior Marvin Hamlisch to resurrect his glory in a mostly all-white film (that really had nothing to do with Scott Joplin or the period he wrote in??
I don't think white people can truly understand how marginalized black people have been on Broadway and I'm white.
| by Anonymous | reply 335 | October 2, 2021 10:17 PM |
R330, so you really think that any non-white composer or lyricist that wanted to write for Broadway would have had the same chance that a white person would have? But they just chose not to.
Maybe you need to read a few biographies and history books to get a sense of where blacks stood in relation to Broadway. Read the lives of composers who did make it to Broadway during that time.
I would also recommend Prepare for Saints by Steven Watson and Alice Chidress's Trouble in Mind for easy works that give a sense of how Broadway saw people of color.
The idea that people of color are "not interested" has been used to justify every institutional barrier. We were told that was why blacks did not vote, why schools were segregated, etc. Using it in this contest is original. And honestly, I find it funny to read what you write. But it does show a shocking ignorance of the history of America and the history of theater.
Seriously, take a trip down to the Strand if you are in New York. There are lots of great biographies and memoirs that I am sure you will find entertaining as well as eye-opening.
| by Anonymous | reply 337 | October 2, 2021 10:36 PM |
In 1927 Gertrude Stein’s “Four Saints in Three Acts” appeared on Broadway with an all Black cast and directed by a Black chiral director and her choir. It would be revived numerous times during the 20th century.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 338 | October 2, 2021 10:37 PM |
Actually, R338, it appeared on Broadway in 1935.
Stein objected to the black cast because she thought they would sexualize the material.
Florine Stetheimer asked that they perform in white makeup because their skin tones were not right for her design palette.
But of course, the Broadway at that time was completely open to ambitious black artists who wanted to work there (if what others say above is to be believed).
| by Anonymous | reply 339 | October 2, 2021 10:54 PM |
"Simply Heavenly" is gone into some detail in Ken Mandelbaum's "Not Since Carrie" in the section of great scores (or great shows) that for some reason flopped. When I searched for recording of a CD years ago, it was very hard to find a copy.
| by Anonymous | reply 342 | October 2, 2021 11:43 PM |
Claudia McNeil had a really nice, pleasing voice. Thanks for that. I know her pretty much from the "A Raisin in the Sun" movie.
| by Anonymous | reply 343 | October 2, 2021 11:46 PM |
I wonder if she was considered for Raisin, r343. She was 8 years older than Virginia Capers.
| by Anonymous | reply 344 | October 2, 2021 11:50 PM |
[quote][R330], so you really think that any non-white composer or lyricist that wanted to write for Broadway would have had the same chance that a white person would have? But they just chose not to.
You really have serious reading comprehension problems. For the third time, I think the issue was PARTLY that a lot of songwriters of color did not want to write for Broadway, and yes, partly that there were barriers in their way. I can't say how much of the problem was due to one or the other, and neither can you.
I'd still like an answer to my question as to how Charlie Smalls managed to get THE WIZ produced on Broadway in 1975, but even though that show was a big hit, it was not followed by lots of other shows written by blacks and other POC. Was Charlie just so much more courageous and tenacious in fighting racism? Or was he one of few black songwriters who had any interest in Broadway?
| by Anonymous | reply 345 | October 2, 2021 11:50 PM |
Ethel Waters recreating her solo from Broadway’s 1933 production of As Thousands Cheer.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 347 | October 2, 2021 11:56 PM |
That wasn't her only one, r347.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 348 | October 2, 2021 11:59 PM |
[quote] I wonder if she was considered for Raisin, [R343]. She was 8 years older than Virginia Capers.
Claudia McNeil finally got to do the musical "Raisin," playing the character she created in "A Raisin in the Sun," when Equity Library Theater in NYC put on "Raisin" in 1981. I went just to see her, and she did not disappoint.
| by Anonymous | reply 349 | October 3, 2021 1:12 AM |
I saw Virginia Capers on tour and, to be honest, I don't remember a damn thing about it.
| by Anonymous | reply 350 | October 3, 2021 1:46 AM |
James Kirkwood had a story about Virginia Capers coming in to read for the team producing his play "Legends" to play the maid Aretha after actress Annie Joe quit midway through the tour. Capers came to the audition but refused to read. Kirkwood tried to persuade her, but she wouldn't budge. She was not hired. (Roxie Roker got the role.)
| by Anonymous | reply 351 | October 3, 2021 3:39 AM |
Annie Joe is a friend of mine. She has stories...
| by Anonymous | reply 352 | October 3, 2021 3:42 AM |
[quote] Annie Joe is a friend of mine. She has stories...
Then she best get to typing because we want to hear them.
| by Anonymous | reply 353 | October 3, 2021 3:49 AM |
Caterina sure was tops in taps...
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 354 | October 3, 2021 4:27 AM |
Did anyone here see the tour of Legends?
| by Anonymous | reply 355 | October 3, 2021 5:05 AM |
[quote]Did anyone here see the tour of Legends?
Worked on it.
| by Anonymous | reply 356 | October 3, 2021 5:14 AM |
[quote]Did anyone here see the tour of Legends?
I saw it in Boston. A friend had a small role in it.
| by Anonymous | reply 357 | October 3, 2021 5:15 AM |
Time to shut up, both of you, and go to bed.
| by Anonymous | reply 358 | October 3, 2021 5:42 AM |
Your friend in "Legends" used to post stories about that show and Ms. Martin and Ms. Channing usually whenever the subject came up on ATC. It was great to get her perspective on things, and they were very much appreciated! Hope she makes an appearance again, there and/or here.
| by Anonymous | reply 359 | October 3, 2021 5:44 AM |
Diary of a Mad Playwright is one of my all time favorite books. I've lost track of how many times I've re-read it. It's a comfort read for me at this point, because it makes me laugh so hard. I was a teenager in South Florida when the Legends tour hit there, but I was too young to even know anything about it. My theatre-queendom didn't blossom for a few more years, after I moved to NYC. For years I kicked myself for not knowing about it and seeing it. A few years back I scored a bootleg of the production that was surprisingly watchable for something that old. It was wonderful to finally see it. It stunk on ice, but I saw it! (I also saw the Linda Evans/Joan Collins production in Los Angeles back in the aughts, and that was a different brand of awful.)
| by Anonymous | reply 360 | October 3, 2021 5:50 AM |
A few minutes of the video has surfaced on the internet. Mary Martin is charming, but not in top form; Carol Channing is actually rather amazing and shows she could really act and do more than her regular shtick.
| by Anonymous | reply 361 | October 3, 2021 6:05 AM |
Anyone planning to check out the Broadway Flea Market today?
| by Anonymous | reply 362 | October 3, 2021 12:36 PM |
R345, again you put up a really strange binary, when you ask if Smalls was better at fighting racism or if other were not interested. It just is not applicable to human behavior.
The reason why The Wiz got little follow up was because its creation was so troubled (creatively and financially) and it was thought it was only the commercial that made it a hit. Pippin's commercial made a reasonably successful show a hit. The Wiz's commercials were thought to have turned a flop into a hit. So the television campaign was what was imitated.
| by Anonymous | reply 363 | October 3, 2021 12:37 PM |
Also: Gotta say it never hurts to base a Broadway musical on The Wizard of Oz.
| by Anonymous | reply 364 | October 3, 2021 1:06 PM |
R274, if you want to see Anderson's Streetcar it's on National Theatre at Home, which you can subscribe to for a month for less than half the price of a cinema ticket to one of their plays.
| by Anonymous | reply 365 | October 3, 2021 1:17 PM |
Also, people selling a project or trying to get a job are usually not conscious of "fighting racism." They are just trying to pay the rent.
And people do not lose interest in trying to write a Broadway musical. They just stop going after opportunities that never materialize.
| by Anonymous | reply 366 | October 3, 2021 1:47 PM |
I saw Legends when I was in college. I didn't know much at that point, but I knew enough to know this was a disaster with two real stars. I kept wondering "How could this be'? I do remember thinking Channing was this fascinating machine-like creature. Also, the male stripper made my emerging gay boy very happy.
| by Anonymous | reply 367 | October 3, 2021 1:51 PM |
I did think it was kind of fucked up that the Shirelles musical centred around Florence Greenberg. Did it show how damn cock hungry she was?
| by Anonymous | reply 368 | October 3, 2021 2:17 PM |
[quote]Also, the male stripper made my emerging gay boy very happy.
Eric Riley was his name, r367. Gary Beach was in Legends! too.
| by Anonymous | reply 369 | October 3, 2021 2:58 PM |
Keep in mind, the only reason "Raisin" was never revived on Broadway was a grubby, greedy white guy held on to the rights for the rest of his life. Now that he's dead, revival anyone? It's a damned good score.
| by Anonymous | reply 370 | October 3, 2021 4:11 PM |
[quote] So, [R324], you think that, during the first two thirds of the 20th century, there were lots of composers and lyricists of color who wrote musicals or wanted to write musicals, but they were all dissuaded due to racism? Maybe you're right about that, but I'm nowhere near as sure about that as you are.
r325 it's astounding how stupid you are.
Here you dumb ass.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 371 | October 3, 2021 4:18 PM |
[quote]There were quite a few "black shows" on Broadway in the 20th century, especially the second half. BUT, they were all produced by white producers and investors. That's the rub.
White people control everything, own everything, always has been that way since they took over this country. Black people, in most cases, still have to wait for white folks to allow us entry into the world they control.
| by Anonymous | reply 372 | October 3, 2021 4:22 PM |
I find the racists (and their endless racist rants) on these threads tiresome, but then I remind myself that most of them haven't been theatregoers in the past 30-40 years. They don't engage with contemporary culture, they merely resent it. They're too busy locked in their basements listening to their scratchy vinyl OCRs and awaiting the kiss of death.
| by Anonymous | reply 373 | October 3, 2021 4:37 PM |
Right. So common sense = Racism? Good luck, kid.
| by Anonymous | reply 374 | October 3, 2021 4:51 PM |
I'd much rather be dancing to a Duke Ellington/Fats Waller/Temptations/Smokey Robinson/Stevie Wonder type romantic song with a melody at a high school or college reunion than to "It's Hard to be a Pimp" or a rap song with indecipherable lyrics, with a basic beat rhythm unwavering, for the most part without even the use of syncopation to make it interesting, and a rap artist who is someone who can't sing (or maybe can sing, but finds it more commercial at the present time not to).
| by Anonymous | reply 375 | October 3, 2021 4:59 PM |
I don’t like the score for Raisin. “Sidewalk Tree” is cute. Did Michael Jackson ever record a cover. The lyrics aren’t all that great, either:
Man say “I got me a dream” A woman say “Pass the cream?”
| by Anonymous | reply 376 | October 3, 2021 5:11 PM |
[quote]awaiting the kiss of death
Ready to tongue kiss it myself.
| by Anonymous | reply 377 | October 3, 2021 5:20 PM |
Was Michael Jackson the black Donny Osmond or was Donny Osmond the white Michael Jackson? Donny's still around, saw him on some commercial recently, looking pretty good. Hopefully his Dad treated him and his brothers better than Joseph Jackson treated his kids.
| by Anonymous | reply 378 | October 3, 2021 5:21 PM |
Gary Beach stole the show with his stage business in "Legends". And what a sweet, talented man he was. So tragic that he's gone. (Though he hadn't looked very well the last 5-6 years of his retirement)
| by Anonymous | reply 379 | October 3, 2021 6:00 PM |
I just went online to see about buying a couple of tickets to LITTLE SHOP for this week only to discover that there are some available but they cost $400/each!
I guess if the producers can get customers to buy tix at that price, good for them, but how depressing for all the young people who should be seeing the show and can't afford it. I'm not young and won't pay that price for any show.
| by Anonymous | reply 380 | October 3, 2021 6:01 PM |
They should burn in hell. After everything theater claims about wanting to rally support and get people back, that is total bullshit to rape consumers that way. I hope no one buys those tickets and the shows learn a hard lesson. I work in the business and I'm really starting to hate it.
| by Anonymous | reply 381 | October 3, 2021 6:24 PM |
[quote]That show was produced by Norman Kean and Garth Drabinsky
Good old Norman Kean. Stabbed his wife to death, then took a dive off the top of his apartment building.
| by Anonymous | reply 382 | October 3, 2021 6:37 PM |
[quote]Gary Beach stole the show with his stage business in "Legends".
No disrespect to Gary, but talk about petty theft.
| by Anonymous | reply 384 | October 3, 2021 6:43 PM |
Man say “I got me a dream” A woman say “Pass the cream?”
MAN SAY is a wonderful song. And the lyrics throughout the show are characterful and equally as good.
"Was Michael Jackson the black Donny Osmond or was Donny Osmond the white Michael Jackson
Joseph Fiennes IS Michael Jackson.
| by Anonymous | reply 385 | October 3, 2021 6:49 PM |
[quote] I just went online to see about buying a couple of tickets to LITTLE SHOP for this week only to discover that there are some available but they cost $400/each!
Way too much for an off-Broadway show. But when you start casting names (Jeremy Jordan, Christian Borle) then you have to pay their salaries.
| by Anonymous | reply 386 | October 3, 2021 7:44 PM |
They aren't THAT big names.
| by Anonymous | reply 387 | October 3, 2021 7:48 PM |
Jeremy Jordan is a big name to white tween girl set, and they have loads of money.
| by Anonymous | reply 388 | October 3, 2021 8:14 PM |
The issue for LITTLE SHOP is being in a relatively tiny off-Broadway theater where there are so few seats to sell. Are any of the crews there in any unions?
| by Anonymous | reply 389 | October 3, 2021 8:18 PM |
Jeremy Jordan is not a big name by any stretch.
| by Anonymous | reply 390 | October 3, 2021 8:23 PM |
R389, if they are operating as an off-Broadway production they are using off-Broadway union contracts.
The union rates are tied to capacity, so they really should not have any more trouble meeting payroll than any other off-Bway show.
| by Anonymous | reply 391 | October 3, 2021 8:41 PM |
If anyone had the Blanchett Streetcar, that would be a much rarer commodity.
| by Anonymous | reply 392 | October 3, 2021 8:56 PM |
“Blanchett,” is that what they call her in the all Black production?
| by Anonymous | reply 393 | October 3, 2021 9:03 PM |
The Gillian Anderson Streetcar is bedeviled by an idiotic set, because it is played in the roung but the designer filled it with obstructions--tall ones--instead of keeping everything low. So the stage has to keep revolving so the audience can see at least some of the action.
In an interview, Anderson tried to pretend that the design is somehow tied into the psychology of the story. Bullshit. The designer is a moron and the director went along with it.
I saw it so long ago that I don't remember whether I liked it or not, but I thought Anderson is clearly a major artist, with presence and bite.
Blanche is a great role, and Anderson rose to the occasion, even if some won't think of her portrayal as the last word on the character. So it's worth seeing, even if you have to pay a little for it.
The Stanley, Ben Foster, is sexy, though defiled by many tattoos. But Stanley probably would be. He's a fierce player. I don't remember the others at all, I must admit. What stayed with me was that ever-revolving stage and all the doorways and furniture blocking spectators' views.
| by Anonymous | reply 394 | October 3, 2021 10:22 PM |
Anderson used a nasal whine as the play progressed. It was torture.
| by Anonymous | reply 396 | October 3, 2021 10:27 PM |
In the 90's, Glenn Close did "A Streetcar Named Desire" in London, I think maybe at the National. Everybody thought she was a drag queen, so it really was shocking when Stanley raped "her". But it was probably more in line with Tennessee Williams' world view.
| by Anonymous | reply 398 | October 3, 2021 11:40 PM |
Well, in the 1970s, Glenn Close played Stella in STREETCAR at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ. Luminous Shirley Knight was Blanche and young teen Eric Roberts played the Paper Boy. Oddly, I can't remember who played Stanley.....Tony Musante, maybe?
| by Anonymous | reply 399 | October 3, 2021 11:58 PM |
Lovely character actress Cynthia Harris has died. I'd post a link but her passing was only just announced by a friend on Facebook.
It seemed like she was everywhere in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, tons of Broadway and off-Broadway theater credits and films made in NYC. Though she was usually cast as well-heeled NY matrons, most elder gays here will remember her as the Duchess of Windsor opposite Edward Fox as Edward VIII in Edward and Mrs. Simpson (1979) and as Paul Reiser's mom in Mad About You (a well-heeled NY matron, IIRC).
RIP dear lady.
| by Anonymous | reply 401 | October 4, 2021 12:12 AM |
Thanks, r400! Yes, Kenneth Welsh, though I seem to remember some controversy in which he replaced the actor originally cast as Stanley. Maybe that was Tony Musante?
| by Anonymous | reply 402 | October 4, 2021 12:17 AM |
R401 She was a replacement Joanne for Company as well.
| by Anonymous | reply 403 | October 4, 2021 12:18 AM |
She didn't replace Barbara Barrie, r403?
| by Anonymous | reply 404 | October 4, 2021 12:20 AM |
[quote]The reason why The Wiz got little follow up was because its creation was so troubled (creatively and financially) and it was thought it was only the commercial that made it a hit. Pippin's commercial made a reasonably successful show a hit. The Wiz's commercials were thought to have turned a flop into a hit. So the television campaign was what was imitated.
It was thought it was only the commercial that made it a hit?" That makes no sense whatsoever. A hit is a hit, and if people didn't enjoy the show when they saw it, the commercial would not have helped in the long term.
Still no explanation as to why the big hit that was THE WIZ didn't cause Broadway producers to present other shows by black writers. Was that racism, because the producers thought THE WIZ was a one-off? Or was it just that most or all of the black songwriters were writing pop songs rather than musicals?
| by Anonymous | reply 407 | October 4, 2021 12:56 AM |
You make more money in the record industry and certainly faster than you do on Broadway. A hit has to run for quite a while to get anywhere near comparable returns for hit records.
| by Anonymous | reply 408 | October 4, 2021 1:07 AM |
That’s sad about Cynthia Harris. I worked on Law and Order with her once and after delivering her closing argument magnificently the entire cast and crew spontaneously applauded after they yelled Cut.
| by Anonymous | reply 409 | October 4, 2021 1:17 AM |
Yes, very sad about Cynthia Harris. As I recall, she made an appearance in the "Mad About You" 2019 revival series and did not look well. Talented lady. May she rest in peace.
| by Anonymous | reply 410 | October 4, 2021 1:28 AM |
R407, yes the commercial was credited with its hit status. The show was supposed to close out of town and was only propped up with a surprise investment . The reviews were bad. So no one thought the show made it on its own merits. A hit may be a hit, but usually credit is given somewhere--remember that producers are professionals and want to understand what makes a hit so that they can make more hits.
Sometimes credit is given to a name star. Sometimes to a director. Sometimes to the script or score. And sometimes to marketing as in the case of The Wiz.
There were a number of other musicals with black casts throughout the 70s (Raisin, .Purlie, Fewer with black composers (Your Arms Too Short to Box With God is the only one that comes to mind) . I guess it must be that blacks do not like writing for Broadway since it was a level playing field and they could have written for Broadway if they wanted to. [eye roll]
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 411 | October 4, 2021 1:40 AM |
For those of you interested in Black plays, from the National Theatre.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 412 | October 4, 2021 1:53 AM |
*THIS* is what saved The Wiz?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 413 | October 4, 2021 2:07 AM |
I think that was after the movie came out so they were emphasizing the show was live
| by Anonymous | reply 414 | October 4, 2021 2:43 AM |
I'm old and I saw Tony Musante's hot naked ass in the original Broadway production of P.S. Your Cat Is Dead by James Kirkwood. Hot stuff.
| by Anonymous | reply 415 | October 4, 2021 2:54 AM |
Helen's Losing My Mind...
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 416 | October 4, 2021 3:14 AM |
No, R413, that was for a revival in the 1980s. The style is from that period, with the the emphasis on "live" Most of the cast are clearly not the originals, and Mills is a bit older.
The original commercial was has that 1970s theater commercial style like you see in the famous Pippin "war" ad. Against a black background, Stephanie Mills and the Road performed a few seconds of Ease on Down the Road.
| by Anonymous | reply 417 | October 4, 2021 3:17 AM |
The Wiz wasn't saved by the commercial. Some idiot is confusing it with PIPPIN. The first thing that turned the box office around was the radio commercial. "Ease on Down the Road" was everywhere, and it worked. But it stayed a hit because audiences loved the show. It gave them real fun, and the music was/is terrific. The choreography and the design was fresh and alive.
| by Anonymous | reply 418 | October 4, 2021 3:17 AM |
This article describes the ad that "saved" The Wiz.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 419 | October 4, 2021 3:19 AM |
Here is the ad (abiet with an updated voice over) that was thought to have saved the show.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 420 | October 4, 2021 3:21 AM |
Again, a commercial can be major catalyst for ticket sales IN THE SHORT TERM, but if people don't enjoy the show when they see it, and word of mouth is not good, the show won't run for four years. Saying that there was no follow-up of other musicals by black writers after THE WIZ because everyone attributed the show's success only to the commercial is nonsensical.
| by Anonymous | reply 421 | October 4, 2021 3:27 AM |
[quote]The Wiz wasn't saved by the commercial. Some idiot is confusing it with PIPPIN. The first thing that turned the box office around was the radio commercial. "Ease on Down the Road" was everywhere, and it worked. But it stayed a hit because audiences loved the show. It gave them real fun, and the music was/is terrific. The choreography and the design was fresh and alive.
Actually, the DJs in The Grove (the Ice Palace) and The Pines (the Sandpiper) started playing out the house with Ease on Down the Road off the OBCR. That's when the song became a radio hit and the show itself became a hit. I saw The Wiz four weeks after it opened and the house was half empty.
It was a flawed show. The dialogue scenes were boring as hell. You sat there saying come on, give us the next musical number which were all overblown and fantastic.
But that was many years ago. I doubt that anyone would know.
| by Anonymous | reply 422 | October 4, 2021 3:31 AM |
I still am not buying that 2nd commercial posted here saved the show. It looks like high school theater. Super cheap.
| by Anonymous | reply 423 | October 4, 2021 3:35 AM |
So the crix are all loving SIX. Girl power!
| by Anonymous | reply 424 | October 4, 2021 3:37 AM |
I suspected SIX was going to be a huge hit regardless of the critics. And it is huge.
It doesn't seem like my sort of thing, but it's definitely registering with younger theatregoers in a way that I don't think MRS. DOUBTFIRE or GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY will.
| by Anonymous | reply 425 | October 4, 2021 3:44 AM |
Ease on Down the Road became a big early gay disco hit in Manhattan and Fire Island before other DJs picked up on it and the producers chose it for the radio commercials. It saved the show, which was struggling.
| by Anonymous | reply 426 | October 4, 2021 3:47 AM |
Pippin and Wiz were both unjustly savaged by the critics. The commercials put butts in the seats but word of mouth kept them running for years. They were both good shows.
| by Anonymous | reply 428 | October 4, 2021 3:57 AM |
[quote]Again, a commercial can be major catalyst for ticket sales IN THE SHORT TERM, but if people don't enjoy the show when they see it, and word of mouth is not good, the show won't run for four years.
Tell me about it!
| by Anonymous | reply 429 | October 4, 2021 4:17 AM |
Isherwood's review of "Six":
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 430 | October 4, 2021 5:31 AM |
Christ, it doesn’t even seem like a real musical, just a pop song cycle for the wives. With ugly-ass costumes.
| by Anonymous | reply 431 | October 4, 2021 5:39 AM |
r431 Welcome to the 21st Century Broadway Musical!
All gimmick and no actual substance!
And, you can forget about actual good tunes!
| by Anonymous | reply 432 | October 4, 2021 6:26 AM |
Speaking of Broadway show commercials, can anyone tell me why this very gay play commercial was on heavy rotation in south central Pennsylvania for many years in the late 1970s? I felt personally targeted! It is said this commercial was responsible for much of its successful long run as well.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 433 | October 4, 2021 6:41 AM |
Maybe Lincoln Center should have cut a commercial for “My Favorite Year.”
| by Anonymous | reply 435 | October 4, 2021 11:12 AM |
R421, you seem to have missed that there WAS a lot of follow up.
As was said earlier, there were a number of musicals with all-black casts in the 70s.
And as the article stated, the commercial kept The Wiz open long enough for word of mouth to develop.
| by Anonymous | reply 436 | October 4, 2021 11:50 AM |
That is what Broadway commericals looked like in the 1970s. Pippin, Sarava, all of them looked dated by the early 80s.
The exceptions were Your Arms Too Short, Threepenny Opera, and a commerical for an off-Broadway musical called Piano Bar. They were saved by good editing. But the rest were pretty flat and hokey.
| by Anonymous | reply 437 | October 4, 2021 11:56 AM |
[quote]That is what Broadway commericals looked like in the 1970s. Pippin, Sarava, all of them looked dated by the early 80s.
The Evita commercial was an exception. It was excellent.
| by Anonymous | reply 438 | October 4, 2021 12:01 PM |
How does Isherwood make a living? Not by what he gets from Broadway News, I'm guessing.
| by Anonymous | reply 439 | October 4, 2021 12:02 PM |
I think its sweet that Charles Isherwood is still writing, thinking that anyone would read his words and think they matter.
| by Anonymous | reply 440 | October 4, 2021 12:12 PM |
Is he the one who wrote a biography of Joey Stefano?
| by Anonymous | reply 441 | October 4, 2021 12:14 PM |
R423, the Evita commercial was 1979. It was a game changer in that it was produced as cheaply as the earlier commercials, but was just better.
I think the big change was most musical commercials tried to sell the production through medium and long shots. Evita went for the close-ups which made it look more like film or TV. A few had done it before, but Evita was just better and it raised the bar.
| by Anonymous | reply 442 | October 4, 2021 12:38 PM |
He was the one caught colluding with a Broadway producer, promising to give a show a good review. That's why he's no longer at The Times. He also bitched about being second string to Brantley for years, and it got so tiresome.
| by Anonymous | reply 443 | October 4, 2021 12:58 PM |
[quote] Again, a commercial can be major catalyst for ticket sales IN THE SHORT TERM, but if people don't enjoy the show when they see it, and word of mouth is not good, the show won't run for four years. Saying that there was no follow-up of other musicals by black writers after THE WIZ because everyone attributed the show's success only to the commercial is nonsensical.
Whenever someone starts a post with "Again," it means they've already made the exact same point and could instead choose to STFU
| by Anonymous | reply 444 | October 4, 2021 1:04 PM |
[quote] He was the one caught colluding with a Broadway producer, promising to give a show a good review. That's why he's no longer at The Times. He also bitched about being second string to Brantley for years, and it got so tiresome.
The Broadway producer was Rudin.
| by Anonymous | reply 445 | October 4, 2021 1:06 PM |
You queens are all enjoying critiquing the content of the commercials themselves and forgetting that the mere presence of the spots was giving the shows visibility and awareness they otherwise wouldn't have had. There were many fewer ad outlets (billboards, TV, radio, newspapers was about it, and just a few local stations to chose from), so heavy rotation on TV was (a) possible and (b) able to put a snippet of a song into the culture and (c) potentially effective. As r418 says, it felt like "Ease on Down" felt like it was everywhere, largely do to that commercial. Its other production values didn't matter. You're thinking about it from the point of view of today, when we already know the song. It was new then.
| by Anonymous | reply 446 | October 4, 2021 1:10 PM |
The Wiz looked really cheap and tacky onstage. I always marveled how much better it filmed than what the reality was.
| by Anonymous | reply 447 | October 4, 2021 1:13 PM |
I've always confused Gary Beach with Lee Roy Reams.
| by Anonymous | reply 448 | October 4, 2021 1:16 PM |
Has [italic]anyone[/italic] watched Diana on Netflix?
| by Anonymous | reply 449 | October 4, 2021 1:19 PM |
I still can't quite believe Lee Roy refused to stop dyeing his hair in order to play a role. Who does he think he is? Dietrich?
| by Anonymous | reply 451 | October 4, 2021 1:23 PM |
R449. We made it through the first half hour and gave up. Boring melodic lines, stupid lyrics with absurd end-rhymes, music video choreography. Not even bad in a funny way. Poor Judy Kaye, but a girl’s gotta eat (and it’s clear she does).
| by Anonymous | reply 452 | October 4, 2021 1:26 PM |
We started watching, and I thought, "It's not THAT bad" and then the fantasy rock and roll number started and my eyes almost fell out of my head. Then I turned it off.
| by Anonymous | reply 453 | October 4, 2021 2:05 PM |
Chris Ashley, who directed DIANA is an idiot. Not to mention Joe Di Pietro who wrote it. Crass with a capital C.
| by Anonymous | reply 454 | October 4, 2021 2:07 PM |
So it's not even as fun as those "Star Stories" comedies the UK Channel 4 used to do?
| by Anonymous | reply 455 | October 4, 2021 2:17 PM |
Yes, DIANA is pretty awful but is, somehow, entertaining. The poor dear playing the title role is a decent match for the real thing but minus any charisma and Judy Kaye is the meanest Elizabeth II you’ll ever see (why?). Nothing much in the music department but pleasant enough. Chorus is multi-purpose but often Greek. I came away humming David Zinn’s scenery. it’s no SPONGE BOB—which brought out his wackiest side—but the man has a beautiful visual imagination.
| by Anonymous | reply 456 | October 4, 2021 2:18 PM |
[quote]Chorus is multi-purpose but often Greek
So the chorus is anal vers?
| by Anonymous | reply 457 | October 4, 2021 2:19 PM |
I saw THE WIZ shortly after the commercial had begun to air. When the vamp for EASE ON DOWN THE ROAD started in the pit, you could FEEL the electricity surge down from the balcony through the mezzanine into the orchestra seats. It was the most extraordinary experience , one that I don't believe I've encountered in a theatre since. Even Sondheim has acknowledged that the show offered untrammeled "joy."
| by Anonymous | reply 458 | October 4, 2021 2:37 PM |
I'm not sure I ever experienced "joy" firsthand, but I've read about it.
| by Anonymous | reply 459 | October 4, 2021 2:40 PM |
Ashley got SO lucky with Come From Away. All he did was block it.
| by Anonymous | reply 461 | October 4, 2021 2:45 PM |
Don't block the blessings.
| by Anonymous | reply 462 | October 4, 2021 3:23 PM |
Chad, you're so milky white, you got cancelled. There's the Times Square Church in the old Mark Hellinger.
| by Anonymous | reply 463 | October 4, 2021 3:45 PM |
Has NPH frozen out Chad too?
| by Anonymous | reply 464 | October 4, 2021 3:49 PM |
Not to worry, Chad still has his Burtka dildo signed by NPH.
| by Anonymous | reply 465 | October 4, 2021 3:54 PM |
r461 you're so wrong. Ashley's "blocking" made instant sense of dozens of characters and locations with hardly any costume or set changes. He also did really well with the 2000 Rocky Horror and even Memphis, which was badly written by the same crew but well staged.
| by Anonymous | reply 466 | October 4, 2021 4:46 PM |
I'm not R461, but I'm another one who found Ashley's staging of COME FROM AWAY really... adequate. It was brisk, efficient staging, and yes, it helped move multiple storylines along.
But is that what passes for brilliant direction and stagecraft in 2021? Yikes.
| by Anonymous | reply 467 | October 4, 2021 4:50 PM |
Who said "brilliant," r467? It was really good. But there's a range between "just blocking" and "brilliant."
| by Anonymous | reply 468 | October 4, 2021 4:53 PM |
Like another famous director/producer whose name I won't mention because I'd ignite a firestorm, Ashley is a traffic cop.
| by Anonymous | reply 469 | October 4, 2021 4:55 PM |
Hmmmm. There are very few director/producer types. Are you suggesting Hal Prince?
| by Anonymous | reply 470 | October 4, 2021 4:58 PM |
I believe that ingrate Elaine Stritch once described Hal Prince as more or less a "traffic cop." R469, are you Stritch writing from the grave?
| by Anonymous | reply 471 | October 4, 2021 5:06 PM |
Let's use PARADE as just one example.
| by Anonymous | reply 472 | October 4, 2021 5:10 PM |
So, R472, your saying that on PARADE, Prince merely functioned as a "traffic cop" and didn't also, for example, discuss characterizations and motivations with the actors? Ah, yes, I'm SURE you MUST be right about that.
| by Anonymous | reply 473 | October 4, 2021 5:14 PM |
Stritch owed her career to Prince. She should have kept her mouth shut. Oh, wait...
| by Anonymous | reply 474 | October 4, 2021 5:19 PM |
I have heard that Prince wasn't great with actors, that he often left them to their own devices—but he must have dome something right! :)
| by Anonymous | reply 475 | October 4, 2021 5:35 PM |
r461 and r467 it may be that you don't know what directing a new musical entails. The entire look and approach to the staging of Come From Away could have gone a dozen different ways. You seem to be commenting on the amount of physical movement or some such bullshit. The style and execution of that material on stage feels perfect for the material and the storytelling, and I would go further to say that its transparency and ability not to call attention to itself is what is best about Ashley's work.
| by Anonymous | reply 476 | October 4, 2021 5:37 PM |
Still unconvinced.
And you're increasingly tiresome, R476.
| by Anonymous | reply 477 | October 4, 2021 5:40 PM |
R477 is probably the bitch supreme who, whenever he disagrees with anyone, labels them "tiresome" -- no matter how much good sense they make, as R476's post does.
I assure you, R77, there is NO ONE here more tiresome than you.
| by Anonymous | reply 478 | October 4, 2021 5:52 PM |
r478: thanks. r477: yawn.
| by Anonymous | reply 479 | October 4, 2021 5:53 PM |
I think that Prince was far more interested in the visuals of a show than in acting choices, so it may be that he let the actors figure things out for themselves. Of course, if that were true, I don't know how to explain his final choice of visuals for Merrily....
| by Anonymous | reply 480 | October 4, 2021 6:04 PM |
I think what's questionable about Ashley's talent is while he might have done a good job on Come From Away and a couple of other shows over 30 years, most everything else he's ever directed has been horribly staged. And just the fact that he'd choose to put his name on something as trite as Diana after his Tony win, shows very bad judgment.
And I've worked with him a few times over those 30 years. I've seen the incompetency firsthand. Well, let me take that back. I think on the rare times that Chris hires the appropriate collaborators, he's smart enough to know when to listen to them and let them guide the way. His biggest sin is he has terrible tastes in collaborators.
| by Anonymous | reply 481 | October 4, 2021 6:34 PM |
R478, good lord, are you such a simpleton that you think only one poster here uses the term “tiresome”? Smell YOU. Jesus.
| by Anonymous | reply 483 | October 4, 2021 7:21 PM |
ATC is currently having a meltdown over the likely casting of Rosie O'Donnell as Mrs. Paroo.
| by Anonymous | reply 484 | October 4, 2021 7:23 PM |
They're rewriting/revising/reinventing PAL JOEY... again.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 485 | October 4, 2021 7:35 PM |
From Singapore/Fling, r484:
"What a missed opportunity to give a BIPOC actor an actual part in this all-white-main-characters revival."
| by Anonymous | reply 486 | October 4, 2021 7:39 PM |
O'Donnell is PERFECT casting as Mrs. P.
| by Anonymous | reply 487 | October 4, 2021 7:39 PM |
Singapore/Fling is a brainwashed dolt - white guy with a black boyfriend pulling his strings.
| by Anonymous | reply 488 | October 4, 2021 7:43 PM |
oh, that's his story? explains a lot.
actually, much as I do not love O'Donnell, I think she's a fine choice for Mrs. P.
| by Anonymous | reply 489 | October 4, 2021 7:48 PM |
Why would Rosie take such a shitty little role?
| by Anonymous | reply 490 | October 4, 2021 7:59 PM |
New trailer for TICK TICK BOOM...
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 491 | October 4, 2021 7:59 PM |
Rosie and Beanie have an resemblance, so why not? Makes sense. Who's Mrs. Strakosh?
| by Anonymous | reply 492 | October 4, 2021 8:06 PM |
She didn't think she had the stamina for Satine, r490.
| by Anonymous | reply 493 | October 4, 2021 8:12 PM |
[quote]ATC is currently having a meltdown over the likely casting of Rosie O'Donnell as Mrs. Paroo.
I saw Rosie play Mrs. Paroo in a semi-staged concert version at the Kennedy Center in 2019, with Norm Lewis as Harold Hill and Jessie Mueller as Marian. Rosie was fine.
| by Anonymous | reply 494 | October 4, 2021 8:18 PM |
[quote] Rosie and Beanie have an resemblance, so why not? Makes sense. Who's Mrs. Strakosh?
Sweetheart, unless they'e doing a mashup of The Music Man and Funny Girl, what the fuck are you talking about?
| by Anonymous | reply 495 | October 4, 2021 8:20 PM |
I don’t want to hear Rosie screech “Piano Lesson” or “Who Taught Her Everything She Knows.” She can save that for her gay family cruises.
| by Anonymous | reply 496 | October 4, 2021 8:21 PM |
I've always suspected that much of the praise heaped on Ashley for his "Come From Away" direction should probably be given to Kelly Devine who choregraphed it. The show really only works because they created a tight book with compelling characters and strong emotional arcs AND because the show really moves....it has great momentum (which frequently feels a bit contrived, like being on a ride at Disney). And, since the show is pretty much all non-stop movement, it seems likely that Devine is the one who built most of that into the show, not Ashley.
I think the Brits figured that out...at the Oliviers, Devine won for Best Choreography but Ashley failed to win for Best Direction.
| by Anonymous | reply 498 | October 4, 2021 8:25 PM |
Look at what Ashley has done to ruin Paul Rudnick plays since "Jeffrey". Maybe he'll just retire with all his CFA money.
| by Anonymous | reply 499 | October 4, 2021 8:52 PM |
Rosie is not playing Paroo. The part is already taken. Google it.
| by Anonymous | reply 500 | October 4, 2021 8:56 PM |
[quote] Look at what Ashley has done to ruin Paul Rudnick plays since "Jeffrey". Maybe he'll just retire with all his CFA money.
Yeah, like Rudnick had nothing to do with ruining those plays.
| by Anonymous | reply 501 | October 4, 2021 8:59 PM |
Ashley also ruined Communicating Doors at the Variety Arts. Only Mary-Louise Parker emerged unscathed, but it was so much better in London.
| by Anonymous | reply 502 | October 4, 2021 9:04 PM |
Maybe it was so much better in London because when you saw it here, you already knew what was going to happen. It's a very funny play, but does not hold up to repeated viewings.
| by Anonymous | reply 503 | October 4, 2021 9:21 PM |
Loved Communicating Doors at the Variety Arts but would fully admit it was due to Mary-Louise Parker's performance as the funny prostitute in the gorilla coat and platinum blonde wig (was her name Poppy?). The rest of it was miscast, all due to Chris Ashley, no doubt.
| by Anonymous | reply 504 | October 4, 2021 10:37 PM |
Ohhhhh, r502. I loved the Variety Arts.
| by Anonymous | reply 505 | October 5, 2021 12:27 AM |
[quote]Welcome to the 21st Century Broadway Musical! All gimmick and no actual substance!
So what's your point, honey?
| by Anonymous | reply 506 | October 5, 2021 1:08 AM |
Jayne Houdyshell is Mrs. Paroo isn’t she?
| by Anonymous | reply 507 | October 5, 2021 2:16 AM |
Believe she is Mrs. Shinn, the Hermione Gingold role.
| by Anonymous | reply 508 | October 5, 2021 2:20 AM |
r482, thanks! I saw SHEBA, perhaps the worst musical ever. And many didn't believe me that there was a hula number involved. Now they will!
| by Anonymous | reply 509 | October 5, 2021 2:21 AM |
Irish actress Marie Mullen is Mrs. Paroo. How embarrassing for the original ATC poster, who blared he had a “scoop” about Rosie playing Mrs P. Someone else wonders if he got confused and meant Mrs. Brice, not Mrs. Paroo?
| by Anonymous | reply 510 | October 5, 2021 2:29 AM |
yes, it was Mrs. Brice...
| by Anonymous | reply 511 | October 5, 2021 4:11 AM |
So is that true? Rosie is playing Mama to Beanie’s Fanny?
| by Anonymous | reply 512 | October 5, 2021 10:10 AM |
[quote] So is that true? Rosie is playing Mama to Beanie’s Fanny?
If it is, that makes two principal cast members who can't sing the score.
| by Anonymous | reply 513 | October 5, 2021 11:05 AM |
Oh no, there's going to be a stampede to the box office for Funny Girl!
| by Anonymous | reply 514 | October 5, 2021 2:00 PM |
I see Rosie as taking on all of the great Kay Medford roles.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 515 | October 5, 2021 4:17 PM |
[quote] that makes two principal cast members who can't sing the score.
Yes, Mama Brice really needs to have legit vocal chops!
| by Anonymous | reply 516 | October 5, 2021 4:59 PM |
No, but Rosie cannot sing, period.
| by Anonymous | reply 517 | October 5, 2021 5:35 PM |
[quote]No, but Rosie cannot sing, period.
News flash: Neither could Kay Medford. See R515.
| by Anonymous | reply 518 | October 5, 2021 5:42 PM |
Actually, R517, Rosie's singing is not THAT bad, and I've always thought it could actually be pretty good if she ever took serious voice lessons. But I doubt she has the discipline for that.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 519 | October 5, 2021 5:43 PM |
Rosie was fine doing the small amount of singing she had to do as Mrs. Paroo in "The Music Man" at the Kennedy Center in 2019.
| by Anonymous | reply 520 | October 5, 2021 5:46 PM |
Jeremy O. Harris is in need of attention again. He's pulling Slave Play from the Taper and asking that a female playwright be put in instead.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 522 | October 5, 2021 8:00 PM |
I always thought Mame and Vera had dabbled.
| by Anonymous | reply 523 | October 5, 2021 8:00 PM |
Are JOH and Bowen Yang...you know...doing it?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 524 | October 5, 2021 8:04 PM |
Jesus, how do they fit through the door together with their massive egos?
| by Anonymous | reply 525 | October 5, 2021 8:07 PM |
I think Jordon Roth should pull Slave Play from its return until the L.A. engagement is back on. This is a really crappy thing to do to a theatre company that announced a show months ago. Particularly coming out of the pandemic .
| by Anonymous | reply 526 | October 5, 2021 8:21 PM |
I'll bet he's trying to negotiate a filmed version of the show and that's why he's being so "generous." This asshole never does anything that doesn't benefit himself first.
| by Anonymous | reply 527 | October 5, 2021 8:35 PM |
I hope CTG sues his ass and takes all his Hollywood money.
| by Anonymous | reply 528 | October 5, 2021 8:36 PM |
Or LA ticket sales are so bad he's trying to save face by pretending he made the choice to pull it
R524 Seems a good moment to remind people JOH claims to be a top. According to him people see him and just never even think he could be a bottom!
| by Anonymous | reply 529 | October 5, 2021 9:42 PM |
Also, what about the poor cast and crew of Slave Play who thought they were getting a few more months of work out of the show as well as the opportunity to be seen by all the Hollywood elite power brokers?
But, to answer the OP's astute question: Yes, Jeremy O. Harris did get MORE insufferable.
| by Anonymous | reply 530 | October 5, 2021 10:06 PM |
THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 2006, a revival of "A Chorus Line" opened at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.
| by Anonymous | reply 531 | October 6, 2021 12:08 AM |
John Legend has been added as a producer of Ain't Too Proud, which explains the Tonys performance I guess. That's a clever way to do it, let other producers and investors take the risk of actually mounting and opening a show, and then just add yourself once it's already established itself?
| by Anonymous | reply 532 | October 6, 2021 12:10 AM |
I can’t believe that CTG issued that sniveling statement. They don’t need to have the vile Mr. Harris parse their season programming.
| by Anonymous | reply 534 | October 6, 2021 3:53 AM |
Ramin has the music that makes Beanie dance.
| by Anonymous | reply 536 | October 6, 2021 1:37 PM |
and here's the link r534 should have included
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 537 | October 6, 2021 1:40 PM |
and it sounds like they have fucking nothing to apologize for. JOH should STFU and CTG shouldn't talk about its missteps because of a BS indictment by the big Tony LOSER
| by Anonymous | reply 538 | October 6, 2021 1:42 PM |
If course Eddie Ryan will be black. Of course.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 539 | October 6, 2021 1:45 PM |
Sarah Silverman can have another nervous breakdown about Jane Lynch playing Mrs. Brice. And I won't blame her. Stupid, stupid casting.
And Ramin is too tall and gorgeous to be remotely believable as someone with a hard-on for Beanie Feldstein.
Oh, I blame all this on Michael Mayer, a truly lousy director.
| by Anonymous | reply 541 | October 6, 2021 2:25 PM |
Welcome to DL R540/Tonya Pinkins.
| by Anonymous | reply 542 | October 6, 2021 2:39 PM |
Is Max Bialystok producing the Funny Girl revival?
| by Anonymous | reply 543 | October 6, 2021 3:16 PM |
I guess Eddie Ryan was Black Irish.
| by Anonymous | reply 544 | October 6, 2021 3:17 PM |
Everyone at CTG should be fired for that lame statement. The reply should have been "Get the full facts and see you in court."
| by Anonymous | reply 545 | October 6, 2021 3:57 PM |
Meanwhile, back at Diana...
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 546 | October 6, 2021 4:01 PM |
Sunset Blvd movie = dead?
"“I wish I could say it’s going into production tomorrow morning, but it’s not,” says Lloyd Webber. “Paramount has not wanted to go ahead with it. It’s not for want of trying. Glenn Close has been absolutely doggedly trying to get it made.”
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 547 | October 6, 2021 4:52 PM |
THR obit for Cynthia Harris:
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 548 | October 6, 2021 5:12 PM |
So both rumors about Rosie O'Donnell, that she was playing Mrs. Paroo, later corrected as she was playing Mrs. Brice, were false. All those people on ATC who were having conniption fits can calm down now.
| by Anonymous | reply 549 | October 6, 2021 7:13 PM |
[quote]“I wish I could say it’s going into production tomorrow morning, but it’s not,” says Lloyd Webber. “Paramount has not wanted to go ahead with it. It’s not for want of trying. Glenn Close has been absolutely doggedly trying to get it made.”
Both ALW and Glenn Close are completely delusional when it comes to this project. The movie of SUNSET BLVD. will go into production the day after the movie of GYPSY starring Barbra Streisand. That is to say, on the 12th of Never.
| by Anonymous | reply 552 | October 6, 2021 8:27 PM |
Just when you start to think that you can’t hate Jeremy O. Harris any more than you currently do…
| by Anonymous | reply 553 | October 6, 2021 9:21 PM |
I'm sure the producers of the Funny Girl revival were thinking- If the audience has to look at this fat meeskite for 3 hours, let’s at least give their eyes a break now and then, re: Ramin Karimloo's casting.
| by Anonymous | reply 554 | October 6, 2021 11:36 PM |
Thanks for the Cynthia Harris obit, r548. I knew she worked a lot abut had no idea her film and TV credits were quite so extensive. She must have made a small fortune in her lifetime, Good for her!
Now that she and Peg Murray are gone I guess Mary Louise Wilson can breather a little easier at all those auditions.
| by Anonymous | reply 555 | October 7, 2021 12:32 AM |
r554
Fat meeskite WITH A THIN, UNMEMORABLE AND SMALL VOICE.
| by Anonymous | reply 556 | October 7, 2021 2:04 AM |
How the fuck is Tony Roberts doing "Morning's At Seven" with dementia? Seriously.
| by Anonymous | reply 557 | October 7, 2021 2:09 AM |
Beanie, Ramin and that Funny Girl revival are going to keep things here very busy as we move into previews.
| by Anonymous | reply 558 | October 7, 2021 2:29 AM |
R558 And Beanie will be keeping the local restauranteurs very busy too
| by Anonymous | reply 559 | October 7, 2021 2:31 AM |
[quote]And Beanie will be keeping the local restauranteurs very busy too
And therefore keeping me very busy at the same time.
| by Anonymous | reply 560 | October 7, 2021 2:33 AM |
Are they going to change the lyrics to "The Music That Makes Me Gnaw?"
| by Anonymous | reply 561 | October 7, 2021 2:42 AM |
👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼
| by Anonymous | reply 562 | October 7, 2021 3:05 AM |
Would Bonnie Franklin have been a better Fanny Brice than Beanie? What about Anne Bancroft (the first choice)? Are Pia Zadora and Debbie Gibson still being considered? And Lea?
| by Anonymous | reply 563 | October 7, 2021 5:49 AM |
[quote]Would Bonnie Franklin have been a better Fanny Brice than Beanie?
Pretty much anyone would have been a better Fanny Brice than Beanie.
| by Anonymous | reply 564 | October 7, 2021 6:21 AM |
Some of the lyrics will need to be amended. "When a girl's incidentals/Are no bigger than two lentils" won't work.
I submit: "When she has a great big bra size/And her act won't even draw flies/Than to me that doesn't spell success."
You're welcome, Beanie. Call my agent.
| by Anonymous | reply 565 | October 7, 2021 11:56 AM |
That sounds like a [italic]Diana[/italic]-worthy lyric, r565. Congrats.
| by Anonymous | reply 566 | October 7, 2021 12:41 PM |
Still better than that poster who tried to re-write Ladies Who Lunch to include a reference to Bloomberg.
| by Anonymous | reply 567 | October 7, 2021 12:43 PM |
Why is Diana still opening after its already been dragged through the mud and labeled a flop? Tax write off?
| by Anonymous | reply 568 | October 7, 2021 1:37 PM |
[quote]Some of the lyrics will need to be amended. "When a girl's incidentals/Are no bigger than two lentils" won't work.
There's also a spoken line where Mr. Keeney tells Fanny that she has "skinny legs." Perhaps that line will need to be amended as well....
[quote]Why is Diana still opening after its already been dragged through the mud and labeled a flop? Tax write off?
My understanding is that some shows reopened specifically because they received pandemic relief funding from the government, and if they don't reopen, they lose it. When the producers of WEST SIDE STORY on Broadway announced that the show would not be reopening, they said they had received such funding and would now return it.
| by Anonymous | reply 569 | October 7, 2021 2:35 PM |
Either way, DIANA is gonna lose a shitload of dough.
| by Anonymous | reply 570 | October 7, 2021 3:09 PM |
DIANA has to open in order to get their SVOG funding, which is probably $6 million for their capitalization. There's no turning back.
| by Anonymous | reply 571 | October 7, 2021 3:47 PM |
The reviews have largely come from TV reviewers. When they open on Broadway they have to face the Jesse Greens of the world.
| by Anonymous | reply 572 | October 7, 2021 4:13 PM |
[quote]DIANA has to open in order to get their SVOG funding, which is probably $6 million for their capitalization. There's no turning back.
Thanks, that's what I mean, but I couldn't think of the SVOG abbreviation.
| by Anonymous | reply 573 | October 7, 2021 4:51 PM |
Passion starring Ruthie Henshall will be on at the Hope Mill Theatre next May. Those poor Mancunians.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 574 | October 7, 2021 5:05 PM |
Passion with Beanie Feldstein. That's perfect casting!
| by Anonymous | reply 575 | October 7, 2021 5:26 PM |
So, r574, Giorgio finally gives Fosca a sock in the eye?
| by Anonymous | reply 576 | October 7, 2021 5:32 PM |
"When a girl's incidentals/are much bigger than 6 Yentls...."
| by Anonymous | reply 577 | October 7, 2021 5:32 PM |
"Reenergize", r574? When the hell was it 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 "energized"?
| by Anonymous | reply 578 | October 7, 2021 5:35 PM |
[quote]Thanks, that's what I mean, but I couldn't think of the SVOG abbreviation.
Gee, I wonder why.
DL increasingly abbreviates everything.
| by Anonymous | reply 579 | October 7, 2021 6:18 PM |
They're Playing Our Song?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 581 | October 7, 2021 6:47 PM |
So that POS Daniel Fish production of OKLAHOMA! -- or something bearing that title -- is going to tour. Let the ticket buyer beware.
| by Anonymous | reply 583 | October 7, 2021 7:17 PM |
Barbara Walsh IS Aunt Eller
| by Anonymous | reply 584 | October 7, 2021 7:23 PM |
Actually looking forward to it r583.
| by Anonymous | reply 585 | October 7, 2021 7:23 PM |
R585, don't say I didn't warn you.
| by Anonymous | reply 586 | October 7, 2021 7:35 PM |
Will they still hand out Covi- I mean chili and cornbread?
| by Anonymous | reply 587 | October 7, 2021 7:36 PM |
First look of Beanie as Fanny
All those weird girls in the comments saying shit like "OMG she's such a star" - they really have no clue, do they?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 588 | October 7, 2021 7:45 PM |
THIS DAY IN BROADWAY HISTORY: In 1982, "Cats" opened at the Winter Garden Theatre.
| by Anonymous | reply 589 | October 7, 2021 7:49 PM |
Wow, that was really terrible. Someone break her foot and get Charlotte D'amboise to take over.
| by Anonymous | reply 590 | October 7, 2021 7:54 PM |
Doesn’t someone need to start a new thread?
| by Anonymous | reply 591 | October 7, 2021 8:37 PM |
It ain’t over til the Bajour! troll appears.
| by Anonymous | reply 592 | October 7, 2021 8:43 PM |
I hope the next thread will have a title as brilliant as this one was.
| by Anonymous | reply 593 | October 7, 2021 9:31 PM |
[quote] I hope the next thread will have a title as brilliant as this one was.
We can't wait to see what you come up with, shithead.
| by Anonymous | reply 597 | October 7, 2021 9:52 PM |
