Theatre Talk: In Our Own Little Corner

[Silver Raven]

I see that Michael Arden is going to be directing a revival of Once on This Island.  I'm glad he's able find work as a director, but I wish he would get back into acting.

[aradia22]

Welcome @Snarryfan! 

[Milburn Stone]

@Rinaldo, thanks for taking the time to write those reviews for us. Very valuable. Oh, to live a manageable Amtrak ride from NYC!

[Scott]

I saw Sunday in the Park with George Tuesday night, and I must echo @Rinaldo's praise.  I'd only seen it live once before--the 2006 London production, before it came to Broadway.  But, like I'm sure many of us, I was familiar with the show through the CD and DVD (or, originally, the cassette and VHS tapes...yikes).  This definitely exceeded my expectations.

I also was amused by the sign over the bar upstairs.  (Sorry for the horrible photo--neon and mirrors--and I did ask permission before I took the shot.) :)

 

[Milburn Stone]

I do like that they made a special bar sign for the show. But tell me this wasn't one of those productions where they actually encourage people to take their beverages into the theater.

[JTMacc99]

I'm taking my kids to the Lion King soon. The tickets were a Christmas gift. I've seen the show, and I think this will be a really, really cool experience for them.  

[Scott]

1 hour ago, Milburn Stone said:

I do like that they made a special bar sign for the show. But tell me this wasn't one of those productions where they actually encourage people to take their beverages into the theater.

Don't they all, anymore? This one definitely did. 

[aradia22]

Quote

Don't they all, anymore? This one definitely did. 

The Scott Rudin shows have a rule. But I can't remember if it's no drinks or no drinks with ice. 

[ebk57]

7 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

I do like that they made a special bar sign for the show. But tell me this wasn't one of those productions where they actually encourage people to take their beverages into the theater.

They definitely let you take drinks back to your seat.  However, at this theatre, instead of the safe souvenir sippy-cup, they put the wine in an actual glass.  With a stem.  I was such a wreck worrying about spilling (and applauding...) during the first act that I didn't get a refill at intermission.  It seems like a nice, adult, classy move, but it's really not practical. 

The show was fabulous. The theatre is beautiful. 

[Milburn Stone]

6 hours ago, Scott said:

Don't they all, anymore? This one definitely did. 

God, I hate that.

[Rinaldo]

25 minutes ago, ebk57 said:

The theatre is beautiful. 

It is, newly restored and reopened and all. (Though I have to say that the "vintage" leg-clearance allowance of a century has been retained. As there was a gap to my left, I angled myself in that direction throughout.)

One nice feature, which I hope they find a way to take advantage of (Monday night private parties?), is that the bar on the Dress Circle (mezzanine) level, where I was sitting, is actually a whole separate room that can be shut off from the auditorium, essentially above the whole entrance foyer area, with seating and tables -- almost like a small club.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

At Berkeley Rep, they put cold drinks in clear plastic cups with a lid and a straw, and they put hot drinks in cardboard coffee cups with a plastic sippy lid. You'd think that since they just remodeled the smaller theater with the thrust stage (which is now the Peet's Theatre) in 2016 that they would have put cup holders in the armrests since they have been allowing drinks into the theater.

This season, the San Francisco Ballet just started a pilot program allowing drinks bought at the bar to be brought into the theater if they are in the approved compostable cups with lids.

It hasn't been a problem at Berkeley Rep, possibly because both theaters are newer and therefore a bit more spacious with the seats (including the amount of space between you and the seat in front of you). I haven't had any instances of people slurping loudly or spilling drinks near me. I have only brought a drink into the theater there once and that was because they gave everyone with a ticket to John Leguizamo's show a free drink. I drank most of it before the show started and then threw the cup in the trash afterward, but the worrywart in me is afraid that some people will leave half empty cups on the floor which will then accidentally be kicked by people as they're leaving and then spill.

On a related note, I am going to see Swan Lake and I'm super excited! It's my favorite ballet and luckily SF Ballet repeats their regular full length ballets frequently which means I get to see it often. They usually do Swan Lake two years in a row, take a few years off, and then do it two years in a row again.

Hee, ballet counts as theater talk, right? It's a show in a theater!

[Milburn Stone]

Here's my main problem with the relatively new scourge of letting drinks into the auditorium. My intention is not to offend anyone here who does this, but to attack the establishments who now permit/encourage it, which is practically all of them.

It's not the slurping noise, although that's bad. It's not the rattle of ice cubes or crinkling noise of plastic bottles, although that's bad. It's not the debris of half-empty cups left on the floor, although that's bad. It's that the stage is supposed to have our undivided attention. This is not a movie, this is not TV in a living room, this is not a nightclub act. This is people on a stage working in real time in real space to command our collective attention and collective respect. And the word collective is key. Theatre works best--you might simply say theatre works--when the collective engagement of an attentive audience, the full engagement of every heart and mind in the room, creates an almost spiritual two-way communication between audience and actors, between audience and creators. Collective engagement doesn't just intensify the experience--it makes the experience. It is what theatre is. When some people sharing the sacred space that is the theatre behave in ways to deny the sacredness of that space, it diminishes the experience for everyone. When the theatre becomes not a place for the collective full engagement of a fully attentive audience, communing fully with the actors and creators and with each other, but instead a place to have a drink while a show is happening, theatre isn't theatre anymore.

Edited April 1, 2017 by Milburn Stone

[bosawks]

On the glass 1/2 full side of the discussion when I've gone I've noticed less coughing fits and habitual throat clearing since this has started.

Although the guy who brought a tray of sushi to eat at his seat before Dear Evan Hanson I still consider a douchenozzle........

[aradia22]

Breaking News: Bianca Marroquin, Constantine Maroulis, Beth Malone, John Tartaglia & More Join the Muny's 99th Season!

The casting all makes sense to me but there's nothing I'm excited about besides Unsinkable Molly Brown. Anyone going?

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Breaking-News-Bianca-Marroquin-Constantine-Maroulis-Beth-Malone-John-Tartaglia-More-Join-the-Munys-99th-Season-20170329

Also, sorry for the hold up on reviews. My brain is not working.

[aradia22]

I need to start writing real reviews again but some quick thoughts on Come Back, Little Sheba. It's running until April 23 and given where tickets are showing up, I don't think it's selling that well so you could probably see it if you wanted to. I thought the production was fine. If you haven't been the Gym at Judson, it's like a long high school gym. Where Picnic was staged (not to get into it but I'm seeing it again in 2 days and I'll weigh in more then) with the actors having to run back and forth and the audience mostly facing them with some side seating, Come Back, Little Sheba is staged almost in the round. Picture a long rectangle. There's seating on both of the lengthways sides. The actors make their entrances and exits on the shorter sides but there's some additional side seating around those spaces. I liked where I was sitting, near the radio. I think the actors played to my side a bit more but you would have a fine view from the opposite side. Though at times the actors would have their backs to you, in a lot of cases it would just be that in two person scenes, you see one person's face instead of the other's. I thought CBLS was a better use of the space. There are three distinct areas, a kitchen set, a dining room, and a living room. The actors move from place to place fluidly and without transitions because the space is so long and sometimes they also hang out in the "wings" and throw their voices to serve as a patio, next door, etc. The costumes were fine. They didn't stand out as very period or particularly flashy (which wouldn't fit the story) but they were serviceable. 

As for the actual play, I need to sit with it a bit more. I thought it felt like the kind of play that would be good to teach in schools. It's not hard to follow and there's a lot of obvious symbolism (little Sheba, lilacs, dreams, etc.) that's easy to track that would make for good essays. The actors were all pretty capable (with some exceptions) but I can imagine it would difficult to imbue their performances with added layers. Everything is there in the script. Characters just keep reciting parts of their backstories and saying all their feelings. David T. Patterson was good as Turk. He made the most sense in the 2 shows in the roles of Hal and Turk. In CBLS he has less to do but he goes beyond just being eye candy to have a real sense of physical vitality. John Cariani doesn't totally fit his parts in either production but in this one, he manages to find some comedy in all his side characters and I appreciated having some levity. Heather Mac Raw and Joseph Kolinski were good as Lola and Doc but again, it's tough. Until the big alcoholism scenes, there's no call for histrionics so they play things quiet. Still, the dialogue keeps it from being naturalistic. Then when you get to the showy scenes, there's not much impact. I suppose perhaps there could have been a stronger sense of their relationship so his ranting would have had more of an impact but that might have felt over the top. I thought a lot of the Lola dialogue was tough, especially all of the "daddy" stuff. Heather played it very straightforward so she comes across as a friendly woman who is feeling a little lonely. I do think perhaps you don't get the sense of that deep loneliness she must feel until the phone call. And you don't really get a sense of her former coquettishness that provokes the jealousy in Doc. Hannah Elless was the weak link as Marie. I thought she was better in Picnic but in CBLS, she was back to how she was in Bright Star. She seems very artificial and not entirely comfortable being on stage. She's neither "performing" nor naturally inhabiting a character. It just comes across a little off and she doesn't deliver or react to lines quite right. I felt like I didn't get a complete sense of how that character functioned in the story beyond the basics. Jennifer Piech was fine as Mrs. Coffmann and she landed the humor well. 

If you feel like seeing the play, I thought this was a good production and it feels intimate because of the space and how close you are to the actors. I can imagine a better production but not a much better one as I think many of the issues I had were baked into the script. It's not that these subjects the play takes up aren't relevant anymore but the way they're handled in this play... it's not even that it feels dated because then it would be something of a period piece. It's almost not saying enough of anything to be dated or modern. I didn't dislike it but it had no impact on me. I do think different performance choices might have helped but again, not much.

I'm curious for those of you familiar with the play or the movie what you think of the story. Also, I thought perhaps there was some extra context with Mrs. Coffman's character that I was missing so if anyone could explain that, I would appreciate it. A neighbor Lola initially thinks might have poisoned the dog... she makes a comment on Lola not cleaning the house... she doesn't stay for coffee and goes home to clean... seven children... but she ends up being supportive... she later takes all her kids to the baseball game or track meet or whatever it is... In this production, she's played with an accent. I wasn't sure if there was something I was missing or she was just a generic neighbor character. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I was in the back of the dress circle at the ballet tonight. Before the show, I didn't see anyone in my entire section with drinks in the auditorium. After the first intermission I saw two people come back with drinks in cups. After the second intermission, the people sitting next to me came back with drinks in cups AND the cans that still had some of the drink left in them which made me wish that if they're going to allow drinks in the theater that they are going to make sure everyone actually has them in cups with lids. Berkeley Rep avoids this problem by only giving out drinks that have been poured into the cups.

Anyway, Swan Lake is my all time favorite ballet so I was really excited to see it tonight. The biggest bummer about buying season tickets to the ballet is that because the company is so large and has so many principal dancers, they have multiple casts for every show and the cast lists are not made available until shortly before the show opens. Swan Lake opened this week and they didn't put up cast lists for specific nights until last week. If you want good seats, you really can't wait until the week before to buy tickets so you just have to cross your fingers and hope for the best. Not that they have any bad principals, but if you have your favorites then it's just luck of the draw when you buy your tickets months before the cast lists are out.

Swan Lake has four different casts and they're all excellent dancers, but I was hoping to see Yuan Yuan Tan again. She is amazing and since she is now 40, every season I'm afraid she's going to retire. When the cast lists went up last week, I saw that the tickets I had for Swan Lake featured Maria Kochetkova (for anyone familiar with ABT, she is a principal there too) and Joseph Walsh. Yuan Yuan is dancing on Sunday (but weekend tickets are really hard to get this late in the game) and next Thursday so I bit the bullet and got tickets for that show too. I was somehow able to get decent seats in the dress circle, which is what I was hoping for. I love sitting in the orchestra section but (1) it's expensive and (2) for Swan Lake, I actually prefer to sit higher up in the dress circle/mezzanine so that I can see all the lines and formations when the swans perform.

SF Ballet does "meet the artist" talks before some shows so I got to hear Sofiane Sylve and Carlo Di Lanno talk about their experience with Swan Lake and with ballet in general. Sofiane said that one production she did of Swan Lake at a previous company had a round stage so they had 64 swans which is just crazy. Tonight's show had 30 and that was a lot!

Vanessa Zahorian (who has been a principal with SF Ballet since 2002) and her husband Davit Karapetyan (who has been a principal here since 2005) are retiring at the end of the season (they will be the joint artistic directors at the Pennsylvania Ballet Academy) so they are doing a special farewell performance of Swan Lake in mid-April. Neither of them are dancing it for the regular season so it's going to be exciting to see them dance it one last time!

I still feel like a crazy person for seeing the same ballet three times in one season!

[Silver Raven]

Today was the preview showcase for this summer's season of the Sacramento Music Circus.  They bring in performers that are going to be performing during the season, and give them a chance to sing.  Today there were four actresses who sang three songs each.  Glenn Casale, the Artistic Director for the Sacramento Music Circus, said that, after they went through all of the resumes (and I presume audition tapes?) they actually auditioned 3000 actors before settling on the actors who will be in the five shows of this season.

 

The performers today were Anne Brummel, who will be in 9 to 5; Jacquelyn Piro Donovan, who will be in Damn Yankees; Jen Cody, who will be in On The Town; and Shannon Warne, who will be in Beauty and the Beast, as Mrs. Potts.  I fell in love with Jen Cody.  She performed "Adelaide's Lament", and really did it justice.

Shannon Warne sang "I Dreamed a Dream", and I guess she was overcome with emotion, because as soon as she sang it, she walked off the stage without acknowledging the audience.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Awww, I love Adelaide's Lament! I find myself humming it whenever I get a cold.

[aradia22]

Oh my God, I cannot process this. Brian Stokes Mitchell is doing a 54 Below show for the first time. How much am I prepared to spend on this? The Lea Salonga and Marin Mazzie/Jason Danieley concerts are on Goldstar but then this isn't the first time they've done 54 Below shows so I don't know if I should hold out. Life is full of such difficult choices.

[aradia22]

Whoa. I'm generally not someone for whom staging takes precedent over writing and performances but this space looks really cool and different. Is anyone planning to see The Hairy Ape? I've been to the Park Avenue Armory but only to listen to opera in a much smaller room. It's a gorgeous building though from what I saw. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/theater/an-industrial-hellscape-with-you-at-the-center.html?_r=0

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Thought some of you might enjoy this Build interview with Mike Faist of Dear Evan Hansen:

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Moments like these make me appreciate that people record videos and take pictures at shows!

Jessie Mueller's final curtain call at Waitress:

[aradia22]

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Annaleigh-Ashford-Danny-Burstein-Stephen-Adly-Guirgis-Nikki-M-James-and-More-to-Channel-the-Bard-for-2017-Shakespeare-in-the-Park-Season-20170404

JULIUS CAESAR (May 23-June 18)

Initial casting for JULIUS CAESAR will feature Tina Benko (Calpurnia); Teagle F. Bougere (Casca); Eisa Davis (Decius Brutus); Robert Gilbert (Octavius); Stephen Adly Guirgis (Cinna the Poet); Gregg Henry (Caesar); Edward James Hyland (Lepidus, Popilius) Nikki M. James (Portia); Christopher Livingston (Titinis, Cinna); Elizabeth Marvel (Antony); Chris Myers (Flavius, Messala, Ligarius); Corey Stoll (Marcus Brutus); John Douglas Thompson (Caius Cassius); and Natalie Woolams-Torres (Marullus).

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (July 11-August 13)

Initial casting for A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM will feature Annaleigh Ashford (Helena); De'Adre Aziza (Hippolyta); Kyle Beltran (Lysander); Danny Burstein (Nick Bottom); Shalita Grant (Hermia); Alex Hernandez (Demetrius); Jeff Hiller (Francis Flute); Robert Joy (Peter Quince); David Manis (Egeus, Fairy); Patrena Murray (Tom Snout); Kristine Nielsen (Puck); and Joe Tapper (Robin Starveling).

[Scott]

So I just got back from a business trip last week to Jersey City for a tech conference.  As it happens, they only had evening events planned one day, so I was able to go into the city to see a few shows on the other nights.  I'm terrible at writing reviews, but I will try to at least comment on each.  Luckily nothing was bad...they ranged from decent to incredible.

Monday: I was arriving that day, so I didn't want to plan anything in advance, in case the plane was delayed.  Luckily, things were on time, so I made my way in and checked out TKTS.  Of course, on a Monday, there's not too much going on, but I did snag a ticket for Groundhog Day.  It wasn't anything amazing, but I enjoyed it--certainly some funny bits and some clever stage effects to indicate the repetition of time.  

Tuesday: There were classes scheduled that day, with the conference proper not starting until Wednesday, so I knew there wouldn't be anything that night.  That meant I was able to plan, and had bought a ticket for Sunday in the Park with George.  We already talked about that--definitely a highlight.

Thursday: Wednesday had the evening events, so I stayed in NJ.  Thursday night I trekked back to New York, with the intent of hitting TKTS again.  As I was walking from the subway, something possessed me to head over to the Shubert and see what was up.  Asked at the box office if they had anything available for that evening, and they did: orchestra, row K, couple seats off center.  Now the bad news: premium pricing--ouch.  But it's a darn good seat, and it's Bette Midler in Hello, Dolly!, so yeah, I snapped it up.  Even at that price, I'm glad I did it.  It really did live up to the hype.  She was great, DHP was great, the rest of the cast was great.  The audience was great, too--so into it, as you would imagine.  I was a little disappointed that Gavin Creel was out, but his understudy was absolutely fantastic.  Top pick of the week.

Friday: Conference ended, and I switched to a midtown hotel to spend the weekend in the city.  Again, I wasn't sure what time things were going to end, or how bad traffic would be switching hotels, so I had made no advance plans.  It was also cold and rainy and miserable, so while I went to TKTS, I kinda just asked for the first thing I thought of, which was War Paint.  I actually really enjoyed this.  The two leads are phenomenal, of course, and the show itself was more interesting than I thought it would be.  

Saturday: I was able to plan ahead for this one as well, and had a ticket for Sunset Boulevard Saturday night.  I was blown away at how good the orchestra sounded.  I know shows have been using smaller and sparser orchestras, but I guess I never really realized how much that can affect things until hearing how lush and powerful this one was.  They're certainly playing that up, too--the conductor was brought out with the leads to take a bow during the curtain calls.  I thought Glenn Close was perfectly fine--I realize I'm far from an expert, but her singing didn't sound off or anything.  The set was disappointing, basically just a couple of staircases that doubled as everything else.  As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, I didn't see the pre-Broadway production here in LA in the 90s, so I'm glad I saw this one now.

I thought about trying to do something else for the matinee on Saturday or Sunday, and there were certainly other shows I would have liked to have seen, but there were other things I wanted to do in the city as well, and I had kinda gone well over what I had intended to spend, so that was it.  Still, a pretty good theater week, if I do say so myself.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Scott
Just realized I called the audience "the crowd"...mixing sports and theater, I guess.

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, Scott said:

I was a little disappointed that Gavin Creel was out, but his understudy was absolutely fantastic.

The initial disappointment is understandable, but that understudy, Christian Dante White, has been getting a lot of attention for his performance. He had to go on without having been rehearsed in the role (put-in rehearsals normally have to wait until after the official opening) and apparently made a huge success of it in the 3 consecutive performances he did while Creel was out. Bette Midler reportedly gave him the final curtain call, well deserved by all accounts. I envy you having seen this!

[Scott]

14 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

The initial disappointment is understandable, but that understudy, Christian Dante White, has been getting a lot of attention for his performance. He had to go on without having been rehearsed in the role (put-in rehearsals normally have to wait until after the official opening) and apparently made a huge success of it in the 3 consecutive performances he did while Creel was out. Bette Midler reportedly gave him the final curtain call, well deserved by all accounts. I envy you having seen this!

Indeed she did.  I figured it had to be something major for her to do that, his first Broadway performance or something.  After reading your post and doing a bit more digging, turns out it was the third of those three appearances in the role, but still a pretty major deal.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Wow, @Scott! I am impressed that you made such good use of your conference trip! There was one conference I attended (in Florida, not New York) where they knew everyone wanted to take advantage of being right on the beach so there was a morning session (8am-12pm), a six hour break (12-6pm), and then an evening session (6-10pm), so the only thing to do after the conference was go to the hotel bar. LOVED that you only had to be at your conference for one evening and had all those other nights free to see shows. I'm totally jealous that you got to see War Paint.

[aradia22]

I love that Jennifer Holliday had a front row seat for the whole thing. Now, I don't think their voices are right for this (God bless Brandon Victor Dixon) but it was really fun to see so many actors I love have fun with this. 

[JustaPerson]

I guess you could say they're all...MisCast

[DisneyBoy]

Scott I totally hate you :) You saw exactly the shows I wanted to see (plus Groundhog Day). Sounds like you had an amazing time. I'm super jealous.

[aradia22]

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Breaking-News-The-Prince-Finds-His-Court--Emily-Skinner-Tony-Yazbeck-Janet-Dacal-Brandon-Uranowitz-More-Will-Star-in-PRINCE-OF-BROADWAY-20170406

The cast of Prince of Broadway will feature Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper (Caroline, or Change; Choir Boy at MTC), Drama Desk Award winner Janet Dacal (In The Heights, Good Vibrations), Tony Award nominee Nancy Opel (Urinetown, Evita), Bryonha Marie Parham (After Midnight, Porgy & Bess), Tony Award nominee Emily Skinner (Side Show, The Full Monty), Tony Award nominee Brandon Uranowitz (Falsettos, An American in Paris), Kaley Ann Voorhees (The Phantom of the Opera, Candide), and Tony Award nominee Tony Yazbeck (On the Town, Gypsy). One additional cast member will be announced at a later date.

Tickets for Prince of Broadway will be available to purchase exclusively to American Express® Card Members starting Monday, April 10 at 10AM. Audience Rewards members can buy tickets beginning Tuesday, April 18 at 10AM and the general on-sale date is Monday, April 24 at 10AM through Telecharge.com or by calling 212-239-6200 or visiting www.Telecharge.com.

Prince of Broadway will start previews Thursday, August 3, 2017 for a Thursday, August 24, 2017 opening night at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street).

[aradia22]

Producers of Off-Broadway's The Fantasticks have announced that the long running musical will close on June 4, 2017.

A new play THE CRUSADE OF CONNOR STEPHENS, will begin previews on June 17 in the Jerry Orbach Theatre.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/off-broadway/article/Off-Broadways-THE-FANTASTICKS-to-Close-this-June-20170321

[aradia22]

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Director-Designer-Performer-Resign-Over-Failure-to-Diversify-Casting-20170408

[Silver Raven]

Broadway Sacramento has announced its schedule for next fall through spring:

Beautiful - The Carole King Musical

Something Rotten!

Jersey Boys

The Book of Mormon

Finding Neverland

An American in Paris

I've seen Jersey Boys and The Book of Mormon, but I adore The Book of Mormon, so I guess I'll get a season ticket.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

SHN San Francisco announced their 2017-2018 season:

Something Rotten 8/15/17-9/10/17

An American in Paris 9/12/17-10/8/17

Aladdin 11/1/17-1/7/18

Book of Mormon 2/6/18-3/4/18

The Color Purple 5/1/18-5/27/18

School of Rock 6/27/18-7/22/18

On Your Feet 9/11/18-10/7/18

Waitress 10/15/18-11/11/18

[Rinaldo]

What does SHN stand for?

[ebk57]

As long as we're posting seasons - the National Theatre in DC actually has a decent one for the first time in about forever:

 

Mean Girls - the new Tina Fey musical in production this fall

Les Mis

Something Rotten

Waitress

and...if you buy the 5 show package, Hamilton at the Kennedy Center!

I'm actually tempted to buy a subscription.  But I won't. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

4 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

What does SHN stand for?

Shorenstein Hays Nederlander (founded by Broadway producers Carole Shorenstein Hays and Robert Nederlander). They own the Orpheum, Curran, and Golden Gate Theaters in San Francisco. 

[JustaPerson]

[Silver Raven]

Brendan Urie, lead singer of Panic! At the Disco, will be stepping into the role of Charlie in the Broadway production of Kinky Boots.  I wonder if he can do an English accent.

[betsyboo]

@deaja bringing you to our own little corner...

[aradia22]

Betsy Wolfe is going to be Jenna in Waitress. God damn. I can't see this show three times. Can I?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Lea Salonga discusses her musical theater career on Build:

Andy Blankenbuehler and Corey Cott discuss "American Bandstand" on Build:

Edited April 14, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Silver Raven]

Andy Karl was injured during last night's Groundhog Day.  After 15 minutes, he came back and finished with a cane, but he's out today.

[aradia22]

The View Upstairs is running through May 21. I saw it again tonight. You know it takes me forever to write reviews and I wanted to recommend it now. I think a combination of the cast settling into their roles and a stronger focus to the overall show (though I didn't notice any actual changes to the book, score... it seemed like just a tightening in pacing and that sort of thing) and a shifting of my own perspective (I think I saw it right after the election and it directly references it and the way it does so felt shallow when that was still so raw) has brought the show to a different place. It still totally has problems (weak story points, too much going on, lots of different arguments without resolution, some weak lyrics and poor choices in pastiche that don't play to the actors' vocal strengths) but now the good outweighs the bad and even though there are still those problems, you can walk away just having had a fun time. Also, full disclosure, the first time I went there was a medical emergency and that might have affected the momentum of the show. I know there are a lot of shows this spring, but if you can make time for this one, I think it's worth seeing. Nathan Lee Graham is magical. He was hilarious the first time but this time I was laughing so hard I was crying. 

[aradia22]

Look who's making that commercial money. Good for him. :D

[Silver Raven]

Apparently there are a number of problems with Groundhog Day.  They hurried to get production going by April 27 so it would be eligible for the Tonys, but they are having significant problems with their multiple rotating stages, which keep jamming.  And if Andy Karl isn't back by the 27th, will he be eligible for Tony voting?

[aradia22]

Quote

The New York Times reports that producers Scott Rudin and Roy Furman will revive CAROUSEL on Broadway next spring with Jesse Mueller as Julie Jordan, Joshua Henry as Billy Bigelow, and Renée Fleming as Nettie Fowler.

The revival is scheduled to open per the Times' report on March 23rd at an unspecified theatre. Three-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien is slated to direct. This season he directed the Broadway transfer of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. The production will be choreographed by Justin Peck.

Ooh... what? I still haven't seen a full production of Carousel. Not even the movie. I'm not crazy about Jessie and I know enough to know the story is problematic but Joshua Henry is wonderful so... count me intrigued. Renee Fleming is interesting after Living On Love and her supposed retirement. I'm not sure Broadway's the place for her but we shall see.

[Charlie Baker]

My understanding is Renee Fleming is only withdrawing from roles in full operas--there will probably be concerts and projects like this one.  (Other opera divas in similar positions have done the same, including the role of Nettie, I think.)

Yes, I think I would be in for this,