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Theatre Talk: In Our Own Little Corner

aradia22

By aradia22
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aradia22
aradia22

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/theater/stephen-sondheim-final-interview.html I am glad he got to see the opening of this revival of Company and seemed to be living his best life 'the the end,

aradia22
aradia22
Bethany
Bethany

Just read an article about how this has "sparked a debate about theatre going etiquette".  My mind is boggling that there even needs to be a debate about this.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

Lincoln Center - Carousel (2013) with Kelli O'Hara, Nathan Gunn, Stephanie Blythe, Shuler Hensley, Jason Danieley, Jessie Mueller, Kate Burton, John Cullum and New York City Ballet dancers Robert Fairchild and Tiler Peck

The Royal Ballet - Sleeping Beauty (2020)

 

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

On 6/20/2020 at 10:21 AM, ebk57 said:

Speaking of PBS, I recorded Ann last night and will watch it at some point.  I'm also pretty sure I've seen it, but can't say for sure. 

Did you end up watching Ann? I forgot to until the day after it was available. I did watch Gloria: A Life with Christine Lahti though!

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ebk57

ebk57

32 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Did you end up watching Ann? I forgot to until the day after it was available. I did watch Gloria: A Life with Christine Lahti though!

Not yet.  It's still on the DVR though, so I'll get to it and report back.  I haven't watched Gloria yet, either.  Did you like it? 

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Bastet

Bastet

56 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I did watch Gloria: A Life with Christine Lahti though!

I was scheduled to go see Gloria: A Life with Mary McDonnell (in Princeton) in September, but had to cancel my trip because of work.  (Something by which I remain irritated to this day.)

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Dr.OO7

Dr.OO7

Sadly, but not unsurprisingly, the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular is the latest casualty of the pandemic. 86 years and it took something like this to nix it. 

On a happier note, the 2019 Les Miserables concert is now available.

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DisneyBoy

DisneyBoy

(edited)

Can you guys help me identify two shows in this compilation please?

 

S'Wonderful, S'Marvelous is at 0:20 but I want to know...what show are they singing it in?

And then at 5:38, this Over The Wall song...which show is that from?

 

Edited by DisneyBoy
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ebk57

ebk57

1 hour ago, DisneyBoy said:

Can you guys help me identify two shows in this compilation please?

 

S'Wonderful, S'Marvelous is at 0:20 but I want to know...what show are they singing it in?

And then at 5:38, this Over The Wall song...which show is that from?

 

S'Wonderful is from An American in Paris.  Over The Wall is from Everybody's Talking About Jamie. 

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

So missing the theater has gotten me to dive into the past and look up the infamous Carrie musical. And hoo boy, what the hell were they thinking?! I'm not going to say making a musical from a horror movie isn't a good idea because we have Phantom, but this one?! All the tacky laser shows and the outlandish 80s disco outfits and the infamous final "stairway to heaven" bit in the finale that was meant to look artsy did. Not. Work. 

Not to mention the show tries to make Margaret White more loving and maternal (though still insane) than she was in the book/movie. NO. Just no. That didn't work in the 2013 remake, and it sure as shit didn't work in this.

Still I will give the production credit for a good cast, especially Betty Buckley and Linzi Hateley -- kudos on being the only version as of yet to portray Carrie as a chubby girl like she originally was in the book. I also liked the inclusion of Carrie's poignant "Jesus watches from the wall" poem from the book as a song. That was haunting.

I'll be generous and say the 2012 revival was better if only because they got rid of the crazier stuff. But still, why they felt the need to turn it into a musical is beyond me.

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DisneyBoy

DisneyBoy

(edited)

Yay! I love talking about Carrie.

(Oh and thank you ebk57!)

I've also been rediscovering it this past week - are we both getting the same YouTube recommendations LOL - and I'm finding myself loving the cheesy 80s elements more and more. Don't Waste the Moon, Wutta Night and Unsuspecting Hearts seemed like really dumb songs the first time I heard them. Now I'm developing a kind of fondness for them, even though I know they're dumb and don't help the show at all. The best numbers in the show were the ones between Margaret and Carrie, and even they could be improved upon from a lyrical standpoint. Unfortunately most of the writing in the show is surface-level at best.

I honestly think it's the over-the-top orchestrations and crazy concert lighting and this yes, the sets and costumes that kind of make the original show so fascinating to me. It obviously doesn't work at all, but then when I watch clips from the later revivals that tried to update it all and make it feel more realistic and give it more of a Spring Awakening vibe, I felt like a lot of the power of the original piece had been diluted heavily. There was something really effective about the melodrama of And Eve Was Weak when Linzi Hatley was being thrown around the stage and Betty Buckley was belting her face off. Watching other actresses like Alice Ripley or Marin Mazzie try to sing it more sweetly or less insanely just doesn't work for me.

I was baffled and fascinated by the stairway to heaven ending because it was such an interesting denoument to the destruction scene that had preceeded it. The laser lights and explosions didn't quite work but there was something delightfully abstract about the climax of the show and how it switch from this operatic almost religious music to this is cereal light floating heavenly melody as Margaret descended the stairs to murder her daughter. I don't think Carrie stopping her mother's heart made any sense at all though. I didn't even know that that's what had happened until I read about it online. I've never read the original book so I didn't understand that Brian De Palma had gone a different route for the movie version. But that staircase is pretty freaking cool, I think.

The bottom line is this could have been a boring mess and it absolutely wasn't. I think the show has been fondly remembered because it was such a bizarre combination of weird elements. The Debbie Allen choreography just boggles my mind. Why did anybody think all those legs kicks and pelvic thrust and leather jackets were a nice counterpoint to the heartbreaking child abuse scenes? 🤔

Edited by DisneyBoy
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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

@DisneyBoy yup I've been getting the same notifications too.

I still don't get why they dressed Chris like a flashdancer lol.

And I did like the cheesy "I'm Not Alone" number because it was a cute song and I did like Carrie having a bit of fun with her powers before it all went to hell.

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DisneyBoy

DisneyBoy

The dancing dress though....the dancing dress!! WTH was the logic behind that? It was like a scene from Sesame Street. Sometimes it felt like the show was trying to screw itself over. But you don't hate the song either, and I do agree it was nice to see Carrie actually happy for a little while.

I hope they take another swing at it but use more of the 80's orchestrations.

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theatremouse

theatremouse

Most people I know who have seen that musical didn't hate it enough to even want to complain about it. But nobody actually liked it. It's the epitome of "meh". It's completely unmemorable. I get the feeling Netflix was into the idea of streaming a musical and took whatever it could get.

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DisneyBoy

DisneyBoy

(edited)

Yeah, the reviews were tepid. So sad that now the filming of shows is being embraced.....when so many greats have come and gone.

Spartan, you are so right. The original score for The Destruction was perfect. They really ruined the high points by toning everything down in the revivals.

 

Edited by DisneyBoy
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aradia22

aradia22

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Again from Stage 6 Films, Yellow Rose will release on Oct. 9, 2020. The film is Diane Paragas' narrative feature debut, following a Filipina teen from a small Texas town who dreams of pursuing country music. The movie stars Eva Noblezada, a Grammy winner and Tony nominee, along with country music artist Dale Watson and singer Lea Salonga.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/the-last-shift-yellow-rose-get-release-dates

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

Cast members from various Rent productions singing Will I?


Participants:

Annaleigh Ashford- RENT Off-Broadway Revival Cast
Skylar Astin- RENT Hollywood Bowl Cast
Norbert Leo Butz- RENT Broadway Cast
Will Chase- RENT Broadway Cast
Adam Chanler-Berat- RENT Off-Broadway Revival Cast
Gilles Chiasson- RENT Original Broadway Cast
Wilson Cruz- RENT Broadway Cast
Eden Espinosa- RENT Broadway Cast
Joey Fatone- RENT Broadway Cast
Jordan Fisher- RENT: Live! Cast
Tamyra Gray- RENT Broadway Cast
Wilson Jermaine Heredia- RENT Original Broadway Cast and Film Cast
Rodney Hicks- RENT Original Broadway Cast
Brennin Hunt - RENT: Live! Cast
Adam Kantor- RENT Broadway Cast
Jeremy Kushnier- RENT Broadway Cast
Drew Lachey- RENT Broadway Cast
Telly Leung- RENT Broadway and Hollywood Bowl Cast
Caissie Levy- RENT National Tour Cast
Jose Llana- RENT Broadway Cast
Michael McElroy- RENT Broadway Cast
Aiko Nakasone- RENT Original Broadway Cast
Adam Pascal- RENT Original Broadway Cast and Film Cast
Anthony Rapp- RENT Original Broadway Cast and Film Cast
Jai Rodriguez- RENT Broadway Cast
Daphne Rubin-Vega- RENT Original Broadway Cast
Tracie Thoms- RENT Film and Broadway Cast
Tinashe- RENT: Live Cast
Aaron Tveit- RENT Hollywood Bowl and National Tour Cast
Byron Utley- RENT Original Broadway Cast
Fredi Walker-Brown- RENT Original Broadway Cast

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meep.meep

meep.meep

How sad.  She was very talented.  And every guy I dated in the 70's and 80's had a massive crush on her from the Avengers.

In my corner of the theater world, my daughter bought a ticket to Andrew Scott at the Old Vic doing a one man play - Three Kings.  Really great although we had to watch it at 7:30am.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

(edited)
On 9/14/2020 at 6:32 PM, theatremouse said:

Ugh not worth it.

I have no interest in going to a theater in TWO MONTHS. When SF Ballet said they were going to have performances beginning in January 2021, I was like uh, no thanks. As much as I miss live performances, I don't miss them enough to sit in an enclosed room with hundreds of people for 2+ hours. I'm not trying to die just so I can go see shows.

On 9/10/2020 at 4:52 PM, Silver Raven said:

I had a ticket for Come From Away last spring, but the show got postponed because of the shutdown.  I just got a replacement ticket today in the mail, for July 4, 2021.

I had tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in April 2020. After everything got shut down, they kept emailing me with instructions to send them three dates I would like for my rescheduled tickets. I was like uh, why? You have no idea when things will reopen so this seems pointless. They ended up sending me an email in June assigning a random date to me - in September 2020. I was like wow, you seem overly optimistic about how soon we will be allowed to gather in such large numbers. Then they ended up emailing me in July and rescheduling my tickets for May 2021.

I was also supposed to see The Band's Visit (June 2020), Mean Girls (July 2020), and My Fair Lady (August 2020), but those tours have been moved to next year so I'm supposedly going to see them in May, August, and November of 2021. They also think that they're still doing a full season of seven Broadway tours in 2021 (in addition to the three rescheduled shows). We'll see.

 

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
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theatremouse

theatremouse

To clarify: I meant specifically Six is not remotely worth it. I was EXTREMELY underwhelmed by that show.

That said, I also don't think live performances in indoor theaters even with contactless entry, masks and "distanced seating" are remotely safe enough, except probably if you're in New Zealand. 

But seriously, if I were going to risk it, it would not be for that musical. 

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

My theater's new season has been altered: Mean Girls and Jesus Christ Superstar have been cancelled/postponed for a future season. Pretty Woman moved to next September. 

So if things get better, my first show back will be Cats in May. I'd rather have had Mean Girls, but at least I still have Frozen and Dear Evan Hansen.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

On 9/16/2020 at 11:25 AM, Spartan Girl said:

My theater's new season has been altered: Mean Girls and Jesus Christ Superstar have been cancelled/postponed for a future season. Pretty Woman moved to next September. 

So if things get better, my first show back will be Cats in May. I'd rather have had Mean Girls, but at least I still have Frozen and Dear Evan Hansen.

Right now they're saying that our shows for the 2021-22 season will be Oklahoma, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Prom, Ain't Too Proud, Moulin Rouge, Hadestown, and an unnamed seventh show (this was supposed to be The Cher Show). They cancelled Spamilton and rescheduled The Band's Visit, Mean Girls, and My Fair Lady for 2021. I'm not holding my breath about any of this.

Realistically, with everything up in the air for the foreseeable future, I didn't bother renewing for the 21-22 season. I don't really want to fork over a bunch of money for shows that we might see two years from now (Hadestown is currently scheduled for June 2022). And of all the shows for the new season, I already saw Ain't Too Proud before it went to Broadway, Oklahoma is not a show I love, and I'm not overly enthused about the music from The Prom. That leaves Moulin Rouge, Hadestown, To Kill a Mockingbird, and an unknown show.

At this point, I'd rather take my chances trying to buy single tickets for three shows that I want to see than pay for seven shows, half of which I don't really want to see and might not end up seeing depending on all the COVID stuff. I am lucky that I am still employed but I don't know what will happen if this goes on much longer, and I don't want to be in a position where I've got tickets I may or not be able to use a year from now instead of $1500 that I could be spending on food and rent.

I had 17 shows cancelled on me this year because of COVID. Two gave automatic refunds. Two let us watch recorded versions at home. Seven were rescheduled for next year. Four were cancelled and we were given the option to donate the cost of our tickets to the organization (aka not get a refund) or apply the credits to next season. Two shows have been cancelled but we haven't been told we can get a refund/credit. In other words, I already have a bunch of tickets that I paid for and can't use for the foreseeable future so I'm not really looking to sink more money into that right now. I know the arts need support but I'm not exactly rolling around in Scrooge McDuck piles of money so I'm waiting before I commit more money to shows that may or may not happen.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

Met Opera Says It Won't Return Until Fall 2021

Quote

The Met added that it will not be able to resume performances "until a vaccine is widely in use, herd immunity is established, and the wearing of masks and social distancing is no longer a medical requirement."

In the meantime, the Met says it will continue streaming free presentations of previous productions online, as it has since March.

[...]

Approximately 1,000 Met performers and employees have not been paid in nearly six months. They also depend on the Met for health insurance.

The house's most vaunted star, soprano Anna Netrebko — who was scheduled to appear at the Met in two different operas in the 2020-21 season, including on its opening night — wrote on Instagram last Thursday that she was in the hospital with COVID-19 "and will recover soon." (She also noted that her husband, Yusif Eyvazov, has coronavirus antibodies.)

Two other Met performers, violist Vincent Lionti and assistant conductor Joel Revzen, have died of COVID-19.

The timing of the Met's announcement comes just two days after the New York Times published an investigative report showing that the opera company and its insurers paid its former, disgraced music director James Levine $3.5 million to settle acrimonious, competing court claims. Levine has publicly been accused of sexual abuse by nine men, and was fired by the Met in March 2018.

 

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aradia22

aradia22

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THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES streams live on Saturday, October 24 at 2pm EST and 7pm EST. A recording of the stream will be available on MIP's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/moliereinthepark) through Wednesday, October 28, 2pm EST. Viewing is free. Reserve at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/molieres-the-school-for-wives-registration-120285734871. Running time is approximately 90 minutes. For more info visit https://www.moliereinthepark.org/school-for-wives-online.
 

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Tonya-Pinkins-Kaliswa-Brewster-and-More-Star-in-Molire-in-the-Parks-THE-SCHOOL-FOR-WIVES-20200925

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

(edited)

Daveed Diggs is hosting a celebrity storytime as a fundraiser for Fairyland (which was the inspiration for Disneyland) tonight at 6:30pm! You can watch at https://www.twitch.tv/fairylandca

Kamala Harris, W. Kamau Bell, Boots Riley, Glynn Washington, Kathreen Khavari, Dave Cook, Erika Gonzalez, Jill Guerra, Sean Erick, Peter Limata, Meena Harris, and Tontra Love are just some of the storytellers scheduled to appear!

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
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