JeanneH

I just found this fascinating 1983 interview with Gwen on YT. She is being interviewed by Rian Keating for a public access program. 36 years later Rian Keating posted it on YT (in March 2019). In the notes he wrote:

Lin-Manuel Miranda live tweeted the final episode with streaming video at commercial breaks. Nicole (and two sons) was watching the episode with him at his place, and was taking questions people had sent to him beforehand. One of them was what was Bob's reaction to her getting a part in that movie. She said he smirked and went "huh" (or some sound like that). The tweets and videos (there are 4 of them) are still up. @Lin_Manuel

from The Ringer (via Primetimer): ‘Fosse/Verdon’ Was at Its Best When It Was Doing What Bob Fosse Couldn’t Do Himself - FX’s expansive portrait of two showbiz greats thrived when it refused to genuflect at the altar of their history and let Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams cook There's a few interesting points made in the article, but the one I found most interesting concerned those countdown cards scattered throughout - I had never considered that they weren't counting down to Bob's death, they were counting down to the end of Bob and Gwen's partnership (yes, I know, one causes the other, but the show is named "Fosse/Verdon")

I love this version too. I was late to the song, so its use in the gut punch scene in the season 3 finale of "The West Wing" (shown in part here) I also like the version by The Canadian Tenors on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," when they got a little surprise mid-performance (shown in part here)

Lynn Manuel Miranda (apologies, I'm sure I mangled his name) was live tweeting every episode. Last night's was especially good as Nicole and two of her sons were with him. He tweeted some while it was on, then live streamed with Nicole during commercials and after it was over. Nicole seemed pretty cool, I thought. She choreographed (reconstructed) the father/daughter dance from ATJ. An excellent miniseries, and all the awards to Michelle!

Season 15 winner Chevel Shepherd sang "God Bless America" at the 2019 Indy 500 yesterday. She was wearing a near-stereotype country cowgirl outfit. Her former coach, Kelly Clarkson, was also on TV at the same event, singing the national anthem.

I read in one of the posted articles (I think) that it had been on YT but was taken down. As far as Gwen, I agree with VB68 and others - she was the emergency fill-in. NBC saw it as a casting emergency that needed quick resolution. And Gwen fit the bill - they could get in contact with her and get an answer quickly, she already knew how the game works, and (most importantly) she happened to be available (or could shuffle her schedule) for filming days.

According to Yahoo Entertainment, Adam was not popular behind the scenes, and was not happy with the recent rule changes that guaranteed equally sized teams. He also massively ticked off the PTBs at NBC with his "performance" at the recent network upfronts. The coaches performed there as a quartet, and while the others were into it Adam was all frowny and going through the motions. Adam Levine abruptly, mysteriously leaves 'The Voice' after 16 controversial seasons

Sally in stageCabaret is supposed to be a bad singer (at least in the original, pre-film release, productions). Judi Dench isn't a singer and she was the original Sally in the West End production (1968), so I would think the actress isn't (wasn't?) required to be much of a singer to do the part. But anyway, I think most singers do have a coach, if only to help keep their voices in shape. Can you imagine expecting to see Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera and getting Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera? Still, I bet some people were upset about it. The last time I saw a production on Broadway an announcement was made just before curtain of all cast changes for that performance ("during this performance the role of Doctor Watson will be played by Basil Rathbone") and there was a slip of paper inserted into the Playbill with the same info. Do they still do this? (do Playbills still exist? I heard they went digital)

Marsha Mason apparently had a small hand in the success of A Chorus Line. In Every Little Step, the documentary about casting the 2006 revival of ACL, Marvin Hamlisch (wrote music) tells a story that when the original version of the show was in previews they were having problems with the audience reaction. Things were fine throughout but when it got to the end the reaction was flat and the audience seemed a bit angry. Neil and Marsha attended one of the previews, and afterward someone (Bennett?) told them about the problem. Marsha said that she thought it was because after all she'd been put through, Cassie (Donna McKechnie) didn't get a job - the audience was a bit upset about that. So the ending was changed (solely on Marsha's input? who knows), a smash was born, and Chicago's Tony hopes were doomed for that year. This little tidbit is also in the Wikipedia entry about ACL, but I first heard it in the documentary.

Well good, so happy with this decision. Congratulations Maelyn! I wish we could find out how much vote splitting came into play among the Blake/Country fandom. Surprised at Gyth coming in 2nd - I didn't think he was the best singer on Blake's team, not i recent times!

Thanks for this. However this show really needs to take a page from DWTS and do a one series year.

Turner Classic Movies aired the movie "Hollywood Canteen" Thursday night. At about the 90 minute mark a dance act comes on stage to entertain the (WW2) troops, and there was Joan McCracken (playing herself), fresh from Oklahoma on Broadway. Wow, she was good! That movie will probably be available VOD or on their website for a week or two.

Again, unsure where this should go. Does this mean Kelly is done on The Voice? Kelly Clarkson's New Talk Show Is Officially Coming to TV—Here's What We Know

OK thanks. That's what I'm hoping for, just that it's not the country guy who wins. 🙂

Could someone refresh my memory? I'm vaguely remembering one final where it was 3 guys from 1 team and the 4th guy from another and the 4th guy won?

I believe Catherine Zeta-Jones was doing her own dancing. Didn't she start out as some sort of dancer?

I don't know if Williams has, but the original Broadway Sally (1966) was Jill Haworth, who had trained in ballet when she was a child, and the original London Sally (1968) was Judi Dench(!), definitely not a dancer! [1] I'd always thought of Sally as more of a singer's part, though Judi's version is vastly different from Liza's. Maybe because the film version of Cabaret is quite different from the stage version? [1] - even though she was supposed to be in the original (1981 London) cast of Cats, which is very dance heavy as we all know. Judi was to play both Jennyanydots and Grizabella, who sings "Memory". She snapped her achilles just before previews and was replaced by Elaine Paige. And yet in the coming 2019 Cats movie Judi will play a gender swapped Old Deuteronomy. She and Trevor Nunn are old friends.

Upthread not too far (previous page, I think) is a link to an article about Ann and Gwen's relationship. I'm not going to go spoilers, but it does say that Gwen thought one of the few things that was (mainly) true in All That Jazz was the depiction of the relationship between Kate/Ann and Michelle/Nicole. I guess they got to be like sisters, and Gwen even made a comment about playing mother to both of them at times.

Not quite sure if this is the right place for this... What with the new Sussex baby apparently having been born at home, I cam across an article that talks about what goes into a home birth in modern times, and what is and isn't available in a home birth setting that is for a hospital birth. Anyway, I thought it was interesting. Royal baby: What is it like to have a home birth?

According to Slate's fact vs fiction for this episode, Joan Simon died of bone cancer in 1973. If she had to pass from cancer I wish it hadn't been from that form. There's a link to her obituary in that article that just made me angry. If that's all they were going to write they shouldn't have bothered. IIRC it said her last win was 14 years earlier (which would have been for Redhead in 1959). spoiler edited

I bet Kelly is happy she sang this past week! Hours after hosting the Billboards, Kelly Clarkson has her appendix removed

Is this the correct clip? All I'm seeing is many people singing "Rose's Turn" from Gypsy.

What I found amusing (not quite the right word) about the above is that it starts they're talking about Sherry but from "She's good" onward they're talking about Ann. Sort of Gwen warning him that he won't be able to pull his usual crap with her.

Not intending to be spoilerific here. Near the end, there's a group including Gwen singing "Corner of the Sky," and when they cut off (Eagles belong where they can fly)... my gawd, the look on Gwen's face is just the definition of steely eyed, or maybe the literal look that kills. Or maybe it was just the cocked straw hat.