Theatre Talk: In Our Own Little Corner

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Some promos for the new production of Kiss Me, Kate starring Kelli O'Hara, Will Chase, Stephanie Styles, and Corbin Bleu:

 

 

[aradia22]

RE: Oklahoma!

I like some of the people involved but everything I've seen/heard makes it sound like a terrible concept for the show. I know old material should be allowed to evolve and be reinterpreted but it doesn't mean every artistic project has the same validity... or that I have to pay to see it. 

 

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Alice By Heart begins performances on Wednesday, January 30, 2019 as the first show in the Newman Mills Theater at The Robert W. Wilson MCC TheaterSpace (511 West 52nd Street), with an official opening night set for Tuesday, February 26, 2019.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Coverage-Meet-the-Cast-of-Steven-Sater-Jessie-Nelson-Duncan-Sheiks-ALICE-BY-HEART-at-MCC-20181217

Keeping an eye on this one. I don't love Spring Awakening but again, I do like some people in this cast. Anyone definitely planning to see it? I just checked and they do have an under 30 rush. 

Also, in looking up MCC I learned this.

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MCC Theater is proud to announce that School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play will be filmed by WNET-TV and will air on the public television program "Theater Close-Up" in 2019. Additional information will be provided at a later date.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-broadway/article/SCHOOL-GIRLS-OR-THE-AFRICAN-MEAN-GIRLS-PLAY-Will-Be-Filmed-for-WNET-TV-20181205

 

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Sara Bareilles, will return to Waitress in the role of Jenna, joined by Tony Award-winner, Gavin Creel as Dr. Pomatter for a limited engagement January 7 to February 3, 2019.

OH MY GOD. How dare they try to tempt me back so shamelessly? I haven't even bought my Laura Benanti My Fair Lady tickets yet.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Breaking-Sara-Bareilles-Will-Return-to-WAITRESS-on-Broadway-in-January-with-Gavin-Creel-as-Dr-Pomatter-20181207

[ElectricBoogaloo]

22 musicals in 12 minutes with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emily Blunt, and James Corden:

[PRgal]

Has anyone seen the current North American Tour of The Sound of Music?  There is an advisory on the theatre's website noting that it uses theatrical haze/fog and flashing lights.  I'm a bit sensitive to flashing lights if it's used continuously (like in a concert) due to epilepsy.  However, other than the thunderstorm scene, I can't think of a part of the show which has flashing lights?  I would be okay with that scene.  Does anyone know?   

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Just a reminder that the Kennedy Center Honors will air on December 26!

Edited December 25, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[SimoneS]

On 12/18/2018 at 12:08 AM, aradia22 said:

OH MY GOD. How dare they try to tempt me back so shamelessly? I haven't even bought my Laura Benanti My Fair Lady tickets yet.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Breaking-Sara-Bareilles-Will-Return-to-WAITRESS-on-Broadway-in-January-with-Gavin-Creel-as-Dr-Pomatter-20181207

Yes, it is damn tempting. I loved Sara in The Waitress last year. 

[Silver Raven]

On 12/24/2018 at 11:54 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Just a reminder that the Kennedy Center Honors will air on December 26!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Full performance of The Schuyler Sisters:

Interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alex Lacamoire, Andy Blankenbuehler, and Thomas Keil:

[Milburn Stone]

23 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

 

Anyone know the backstory? I don't know anything, but what I'm guessing is that KCH extended the honor to Miranda, and he insisted it be extended to his key collaborators as well. 

[aradia22]

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American Son is a dreadful play — and it’s not alone. When the alien archaeologists dig through the rubble of Manhattan and find mountains of fossilized season brochures, the museum they erect will feature a long, miserable exhibit on the Righteous American Issue Play, c. 2016 through … someday. Some of these plays are made in bad faith; many aren’t. But even those that have been written earnestly often seem to have been programmed or produced with a distressingly opportunistic mindset — a decision to emphasize a play’s topicality rather than encouraging rigorous development of the piece itself, thereby turning good faith into good art. These plays bank on their audience’s inability to disentangle content and form. They showcase horrible facts of our day-to-day existence and — in the bodies of flat characters engaged in shallow, often manipulative plots that employ cheap dramatic devices — they expect the gravity of their subject matter to carry the day. Because who wants to walk out of a show about black men being murdered by police, or women being harassed and raped, or any number of our country’s sickeningly self-evident truths, and say, “Well, that was bullshit”? Easier to crawl quietly away, murmuring to your dinner companions that what you’ve just seen was so real, so important — uncertain, if you’re honest with yourself, about what to do with any of it, but certain that you owe yourself a glass of wine and the world a little more guilt and shame. Barkeep, add it to the tab.

[...] Ambiguity is sacrificed to ham-fistedness as the curtain falls, and we’re left with — with what? Something we already know, given to us in a shoddy dramatic box, a box that trusts that the horror of its contents will render it artistically irreproachable. It does not — it must not. An advocate for American Sonmight argue that it’s important to have this story out there, but the facts of this story are out there every single day, and they are neither remedied nor rendered more terrible than they already are by being run through the mill of a hacky play.

Ooh, Sara is going in hard and I'm into it. I feel this about so many plays. They purport to tackle difficult topics but are ultimately packaged for a white, middle class audience they hope to not alienate or offend. They are safe and comforting when they should be challenging and destabilizing. And perhaps the authors just didn't have anything vital or productive to add to the conversation but wanted to write a play anyway. https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/theater-review-the-good-intentions-of-american-son.html

[aradia22]

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Social-Roundup-Broadway-Community-Reacts-to-Lin-Manuel-Mirandas-Purchase-of-the-Drama-Book-Shop-20190108

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Jez Butterworth's The Ferryman - the critically-acclaimed new play recently named to an industry-leading 25 Best-Of-The-Year lists - will welcome many new cast members beginning Tuesday, February 19, with Brian d'Arcy James leading as Quinn Carney.

Alongside him will be Holley Fain (Harvey, "Gossip Girl," "Grey's Anatomy") as Caitlin Carney; and Emily Bergl (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Plenty) as Mary Carney, with Fred Applegate (The Last Ship, The Producers) as Uncle Patrick Carney, Ralph Brown (Gemini Man, Withnail and I,"Turn") as Muldoon, Sean Delaney (Rabbit Hole, Labyrinth, The Ferryman in the West End) as Michael Carney,Jack DiFalco (Torch Song, Marvin's Room) as Shane Corcoran, Ethan Dubin(Bobbie Clearly, Rancho Viejo) as Oisin Carney, Tony Award winner Shuler Hensley (Oklahoma!, The Whale, No Man's Land/Waiting for Godot) as Tom Kettle, Terence Keeley (The Ferryman in the West End, Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe) as Diarmaid Corcoran, Collin Kelly-Sordelet (The Last Ship, Somebody's Daughter) as James Joseph (JJ) Carney, Ann McDonough (Admissions, Dinner at Eight) as Aunt Patricia Carney, Julia Nightingale (Because of Winn Dixie) as Shena Carney, and Graham Winton (Cyrano de Bergerac, The Tempest) as Frank Magennis.

This new group joins returning cast members Charles Dale (Father Horrigan), Fionnula Flanagan (Aunt Maggie Far Away), Matilda Lawler (Honor Carney), Michael Quinton McArthur (Declan Corcoran), Willow McCarthy(Mercy Carney), Brooklyn Shuck (Nunu (Nuala) Carney), Glenn Speers (Lawrence Malone), Glynis Bell,Peter Bradbury, Will Coombs, Gina Costigan, Carly Gold, Holly Gould, Trevor Harrison Braun, Bella May Mordus, Griffin Osborne, and four adorable babies who rotate in the role of Bobby Carney, with further casting to be announced.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/BREAKING-Brian-dArcy-James-Will-Lead-New-Cast-of-THE-FERRYMAN-Beginning-February-19-20190108

It's got a bit of a weird vibe to me. Feels almost like horror. I didn't expect it to look exactly like the movie version of Chicago but I expected something a little more similar. While it seems like it has high production values, there's something unmistakably TV about it. I do think that this is a weird edited trailer so it will probably feel very different watching the show properly and seeing actual dance sequences and not just quick clips. I will say they're not giving anything away to show off either of the leads flexing their acting chops.

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New York City Center today announced casting for the Encores! production of Call Me Madam as part of the 75th Anniversary Season. The production will feature Tony-nominee (Bright Star) Carmen Cusack as Ambassador Sally Adams, Ben Davis(Cosmo Constantine), Adam Heller(Congressman Wilkins), Carol Kane (Grand Dutchess Sophie), Stanley Wayne Mathis(Senator Borckbank), Brad Oscar(Senator Gallagher), Michael Benjamin Washington(Pemberton Maxwell), and Lauren Worsham (Princess Maria). Casting has not yet been finalized for the roles of Kenneth Gibson, Sebastian Sebastian, and Grand Duke Otto.

The ensemble includes Florrie Bagel, Daniel Berryman, Taeler Elyse Cyrus, Leslie Flesner, Ta'Nika Gibson, Christopher Gurr, Leah Horowitz, Javier Ignacio, Max Kumangai, Matt Loehr, Brandt Martinez, Skye Mattox, Timothy McDevitt, Harris Milgrim, Bethany Moore, Mary Page Nance, Robert Roby, Kathy Voytko, Sumi Yu, andRicardo Zayas.

Not terribly starry casting but it's definitely peaked my interest. I'll try listening to the cast album. 

[aradia22]

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/30-Rock-Star-Jack-McBrayer-Will-Play-Ogie-In-West-End-WAITRESS-20181221

Oh my God. If he does any TV appearances to promote the show, someone please post the video. I really want to see him doing "Never Ever Getting Rid of Me."

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, Jeffrey Seller, and James Nederlander bought The Drama Book Shop 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Last night was opening night of Hamilton's And Peggy tour cast in Puerto Rico!

 

 

[aradia22]

UPDATE!!! West Side Story movie casting

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According to Deadline, Rachel Zegler, a 17-year-old New Jersey High School student, will play Maria in Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner’s adaptation of the classic musical. The movie has also cast theater veterans in other key roles. Ariana DeBose, who got a Tony nomination for Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, will play Anita. David Alvarez, of Billy Elliot and On the Town, will play Bernardo. Josh Andrés Rivera, recently in the first national tour of Hamilton, will play Chino. Zegler will star across from perpetual movie teenager Ansel Elgort, who is playing Tonyin the movie, which also found room to give Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar playing Anita in the 1961 film, a new version of the character Doc.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/01/west-side-story-remake-cast-rachel-zegler-maria.html

[Silver Raven]

This is Rachel Zegler.  She has a lot of videos on her YouTube channel.

[methodwriter85]

I loved a comment that complained she's Colombian, not Puerto Rican. Man, some people will never be happy. LOL.

I do have to wonder though, in regards to them changing around Doc's character- I thought the owners to the estate were really, really big sticklers on maintaining a set standard for their adaptions because the bookwriters were pissed at how the original West Side Story movie changed things around?

[Rinaldo]

1 minute ago, methodwriter85 said:

I thought the owners to the estate were really, really big sticklers on maintaining a set standard for their adaptions because the bookwriters were pissed at how the original West Side Story movie changed things around?

The really big stickler was librettist Arthur Laurents, who would block all kinds of things (like a spoof of Gypsy in one of the songs in The Producers), while making changes himself when directing revivals. But, to put it bluntly, he's dead now. Sondheim and the Bernstein estate are watchful and protective, but not unreasonable. I don't know about the Jerome Robbins interests. I myself rather hope that they'll leave it largely intact, because it's such a well-written (including well-composed, and well-orchestrated) show, and I don't want the movies to obliterate that. I find myself feeling protective of it.

[methodwriter85]

My concern is that they're going to overshoot being "woke" (re: casting Latino and Latina actors, expanding Doc's character as a Latina elderly woman) and just completely dumb down the message of the piece, which is about racism.

[bosawks]

I’m taking my nephews to see King King on Saturday.

It should be interesting....

[Spartan Girl]

I'm seeing Anastasia on Sunday!  I'm so excited!  (Yes, I know what really happened in real life, but still)

[Inscrutable1]

On ‎12‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 10:35 AM, PRgal said:

Has anyone seen the current North American Tour of The Sound of Music?  There is an advisory on the theatre's website noting that it uses theatrical haze/fog and flashing lights.  I'm a bit sensitive to flashing lights if it's used continuously (like in a concert) due to epilepsy.  However, other than the thunderstorm scene, I can't think of a part of the show which has flashing lights?  I would be okay with that scene.  Does anyone know?   

I've seen it. There are 2 times where the lights are flashing - one for the thunderstorm and the other is when the Germans are looking for the family. The lights are shone through a screen but still pretty bright, however it is short - near the end of the play.

[bosawks]

On 1/15/2019 at 6:29 PM, bosawks said:

I’m taking my nephews to see King King on Saturday.

It should be interesting....

Well, the acting was ok, the dancing was like an In The Heights road company got rerouted, and the book was meh.

But that puppet, the puppet was insane!

Long live Kong!

[aradia22]

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the dancing was like an In The Heights road company got rerouted

LOL. What did you think of the cheerleaders/pom poms?

The rest of the year has the potential to be very strong after some quiet months. I'm trying to figure out how to budget seeing Waitress (Gavin/Sara), My Fair Lady (Laura/Danny), Choir Boy, Tootsie, Hadestown, Oklahoma!, and Moulin Rouge. I'm also flirting with seeing Superhero at Second Stage. I don't know if it's going to become a thing so I need to decide if I want to jump on those under 30 tickets now before they're gone. I'm also curious about the new production of By the Way Meet Vera Stark but I'm trying to hold out until there's some word of mouth. I feel like Waitress and My Fair Lady are not going to happen unless I just shell out for full price tickets.

Also, I saw Adriana Lecouvreur tonight with Netrebko, Beczala, and Rachvelishvili. It was GLORIOUS. It didn't quite hit the dramatic highs of Aida but it also lacked those stretches of tedium and the singing was just endlessly stunning. Goosebumps galore. Netrebko is just a goddess. The dramatic acting portions could have been more compelling but that's a nitpick. I can't remember being disappointed by the decision to go see her live. And I'm loving her pairing with Anita though again, I thought their pairing in Aida was more compelling. But then, I got to see a reteaming of Netrebko and Beczala after their gorgeously romantic Iolanta. I don't think they have the acting chemistry of Damrau and Grigolo but their voices blend amazingly well. 

I'm so happy they recorded that Aida. It's airing today January 20 at 12pm on PBS, if you're interested. They'll air Adriana in May. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I saw the national tour of Come From Away last week. I've been waiting to see this show FOREVER because a friend of mine saw it back when it was in its pre-Broadway run at the La Jolla Playhouse back in 2015 and he said it was the best musical he'd seen in years.

The cast was so talented. The show was funny and sweet and touching. I loved how specific the music sounded (sometimes with musicals I find some songs sound very generic).

[Spartan Girl]

My mom and I are hoping that Come From Away comes to us too!

We saw Anastasia today and loved it. Lila Coogan was Anya/Anastasia and her voice made "Journey to the Past" the showstopper it always is. But the ones that played Vlad and Lily really stole the show.

Honestly, I don't care that the story is a big lie. People embracing this story doesn't mean they're disrespecting the dead. What happened to the Romanovs was horrible: Nicholas might have been a crappy ruler, but what did the kids do to deserve to get murdered? It was all for nothing.

Anyway, while I do have a soft spot for the cartoon, I do appreciate that the show is more realistic and slightly more historically accurate (in terms of what happened to the Romanovs and how old Anastasia was when it happened). Gleb was also a better and nuanced "villain" than the cartoon Rasputin. I also caught some references to the 1956 Ingrid Bergman movie too, like the "How dare you smoke without my permission" line and Anya's white outfit. 

I loved all the costumes. Anya's opera dress looked like it came right out of the cartoon!

Edited January 22, 2019 by Spartan Girl

[ElectricBoogaloo]

@Spartan Girl, I get to see Anastasia in September so I'm really looking forward to it! I saw the cartoon version once (and it was ages ago) so I remember very little about it besides the song "Once Upon a December." I think that may work in my favor though because since I don't remember much about it, I won't be nitpicking any changes, which is what often happens when the newer version deviates from the previous version.

[Spartan Girl]

35 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

@Spartan Girl, I get to see Anastasia in September so I'm really looking forward to it! I saw the cartoon version once (and it was ages ago) so I remember very little about it besides the song "Once Upon a December." I think that may work in my favor though because since I don't remember much about it, I won't be nitpicking any changes, which is what often happens when the newer version deviates from the previous version.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Next for me is Miss Saigon in March. Hoo boy, that's going to be way more intense. It's harder to watch musicals where the main character gets screwed over: Kim in Miss Saigon, Ti Moune in Once on this Island, Huey in Memphis*, Fantine and Eponine in Les Miserables...those are immediately the ones I think of, but considering how many tragic musicals are out there, are there any others?

*Yeah, Huey didn't die, but he wound up losing everything just for standing up for what he believed in, and that sucks just as much.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Jason Gotay, Darrell Hammond, & Randy Rainbow join Carmen Cusack in Encores! Call Me Madam

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The complete cast is set for the upcoming Encores! presentation of Call Me Madam, starring Tony Award nominee Carmen Cusack.

Joining the previously announced roster are Jason Gotay (Bring It On) as Kenneth Gibson, Darrell Hammond (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) as Grand Duke Otto, and internet personality Randy Rainbow as Sebastian Sebastian.

The production, directed by Casey Hushion, musically directed by Rob Berman, and choreographed by Denis Jones, will run February 6 through 10 at New York City Center.

The company also includes Ben Davis as Cosmo Constantine, Adam Heller as Congressman Wilkins, Emmy winner Carol Kane as Grand Dutchess Sophie, Stanley Wayne Mathis as Senator Borckbank, Tony nominee Brad Oscar as Senator Gallagher, Michael Benjamin Washington as Pemberton Maxwell, and Tony nominee Lauren Worsham as Princess Maria.

Rounding out the ensemble are Florrie Bagel, Daniel Berryman, Taeler Elyse Cyrus, Leslie Flesner, Ta’Nika Gibson, Christopher Gurr, Leah Horowitz, Javier Ignacio, Max Kumangai, Matt Loehr, Brandt Martinez, Skye Mattox, Timothy McDevitt, Harris Milgrim, Bethany Moore, Mary Page Nance,Robert Roby, Kathy Voytko, Sumi Yu, and Ricardo Zayas.

The show, featuring a score by Irving Berlin and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, sends up political discourse as a socialite is named U.S. ambassador to the (fictional) country of Lichtenburg. The 1950 musical was first seen at Encores! during the series' second season in 1995.

Edited January 23, 2019 by ElectricBoogaloo

[aradia22]

I listened to Call Me Madam. I like some of the songs but I don't think the casting is enough to motivate a ticket purchase. There's suddenly so much to see. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 1/20/2019 at 2:32 PM, Spartan Girl said:

I loved all the costumes. Anya's opera dress looked like it came right out of the cartoon!

Coincidentally, I saw this article: How Anastasia’s costume designer honored what fans loved on screen in a fresh way

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One of Anastasia’s most beloved costumes, which elicits applause of recognition from the audience, was not originally in the production when it premiered at Hartford Stage last spring. The moment comes during a scene in which Anastasia (played by Christy Altomare) attends a ballet at the Paris Opera in the chance that she will be reunited with her grandmother.

In Hartford, Cho styled Altomare in a creamy, champagne-colored dress, a departure from the 1997 film where the character is depicted in a midnight-blue evening gown that evoked her royal lineage. “Fanastasias” spoke out during the out-of-town developmental premiere, saying that the dress was missed.

For fans of the film, Anastasia’s blue gown is equivalent to the classic princess dresses from the Disney catalogue. It signifies a transformational moment for the central character, much like Belle’s golden gown in Beauty and the Beast, or Elsa’s icy blue dress in Frozen. It is so beloved that it is often replicated among cosplay devotees.

When Anastasia transferred to Broadway, Cho granted fans' wishes, costuming Altomare in a stunning, deep royal blue gown, adorned with jewels and paired with opera-length gloves. Cho was inspired to create a full-circle moment to incorporate the gown into the show's visual storytelling, placing a bold blue ribbon in young Anastasia’s hair during the prologue.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Has anyone seen The Jungle? It's coming to the Curran in San Francisco in a few months and they just released tickets today so I was deciding whether or not to go.

I knew the presale was coming up (another pet peeve of mine - instead of telling us ahead of time when the tickets would go on sale, they sent an email a few weeks ago to "keep an eye out" for presale info and then today they sent an email that said "tickets are on sale RIGHT NOW"), so I hesitated yesterday when SHN announced presale tickets for the return of Beautiful and Rent. I ended up only buying tickets to Beautiful because I STILL haven't seen it!

Rent was one of the first musicals I loved so I will always have a soft spot for it. I saw the original Benny tour cast at the La Jolla Playhouse (before the tour officially launched in Los Angeles). Before I saw the show, I knew that NPH was starring in it because that was his first big musical theater role so it was being hyped like crazy. But I didn't know until I got to the theater and looked through the program that Wilson Cruz (Ricky on My So-Called Life) was playing Angel. I was SO EXCITED! Years later, someone gave me tickets to see a touring cast of Rent in SF but it turned out that it was a non-equity tour and it was...not great. I haven't seen it live since (unless you count watching the version that NPH later did at the Hollywood Bowl with Vanessa Hudgens - the less said about that, the better). I'm still not sure about buying tickets to see the Rent tour. I also don't know if I can bring myself to watch the Fox Live version this weekend!

[Silver Raven]

Norm Lewis and Jessie Mueller are in rehearsals for The Music Man at the Kennedy Center.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Joey McIntyre returns to Broadway as Dr. Pomatter in Waitress next month

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Mystic Pizza musical by Melissa Etheridge, Gordon Greenberg, & Sas Goldberg is in development

[ebk57]

I was planning on seeing The Music Man, but I'll be out of town.  Timing...  

 

Tomorrow I'm seeing Ain't Misbehavin' at Signature.  I love this show so much I wanted to see it the first week because if it's fabulous, I'll go back a couple of times.  And if it sucks, I can warn everyone.  I hope it's fabulous!!

[SimoneS]

I went to see Sara in The Waitress again. I am really glad that I decided to go. I enjoyed the first show that I saw, but this performance was much stronger overall. Sara was her wonderful as usual, but I thought her performance of "She Used To Be Mine" was more evocative which I think was due to the stronger supporting cast. Charity Angel Dawson was amazing as she was the last time, but Gavin Creel as the doctor and Benny Elledge as Cal really lifted the show to another level. Creel is a much better singer and actor than the previous actor which made Jenna and the doctor's affair much more heartbreaking. The duet they sing in the kitchen when he gives her the pie dish and she shows him how to bake the pie really drew the audience in. It made you root for their doomed relationship. Same with the actor who played Cal. In addition to being a better singer than the previous actor I saw, he was more menacing and childlike at the same time which made Jenna's plight sadder.

Edited January 26, 2019 by SimoneS

[Milburn Stone]

On 1/15/2019 at 2:06 PM, Rinaldo said:

The really big stickler was librettist Arthur Laurents, who would block all kinds of things (like a spoof of Gypsy in one of the songs in The Producers)...

As it was, Mel Brooks did a nod to "Rose's Turn" in Bialystock's soliloquy "Betrayed." I wonder if the parody was more pronounced at one time.

[Rinaldo]

Yes, it was. I thought Laurents had it cut entirely out, but there may be a vestigial remnant remaining.

[Milburn Stone]

The part that remains (and can be heard on the cast album) is about two-thirds of the way through the song, when Bialystock, in his moment of crisis, basically "recaps" the plot of the show by reprising short segments of the songs that underlay the plot points that got him there--much as Momma Rose did.

Come to think of it, my memory (which may be unreliable) is that when I saw the show pre-Broadway in Chicago, this was more of a "thing." But the vestige remains.

[Rinaldo]

It was indeed, by all reports, much more of a thing in in the Chicago tryouts. Then during Broadway previews, Arthur Laurents caught wind of it and intervened.

https://nypost.com/2001/02/07/taking-a-wrong-turn-producers-parody-of-gypsy-tune-pulled-from-the-show/

[methodwriter85]

On 1/25/2019 at 4:04 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Mystic Pizza musical by Melissa Etheridge, Gordon Greenberg, & Sas Goldberg is in development

Sas Goldberg's sketch about Aaron Tveit is gold:

Aaron Tveit and Jeremy Jordan have to be the most imminently crushable actors with theater groups in their age group. LOL.

[Milburn Stone]

4 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

It was indeed, by all reports, much more of a thing in in the Chicago tryouts. Then during Broadway previews, Arthur Laurents caught wind of it and intervened.

https://nypost.com/2001/02/07/taking-a-wrong-turn-producers-parody-of-gypsy-tune-pulled-from-the-show/

Thanks for this link, @Rinaldo. It confirms my sanity. :)

I've had this experience before, of feeling that when I heard a cast album, something was "off" compared to the performance I saw; but since I don't have what I guess should be called a phonographic memory (ability to retain verbatim every bit of musical information my ears have heard, based on one hearing), I could never be sure. 

For instance, when I saw Bounce at the Goodman Theatre, I could swear to you that "I Love This Town" and "The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened" were integrated with each other into an extended theatrical sequence nothing short of genius. But that's not how they appear on the cast album. (Diminishing both songs.) I wondered if my memory could just be playing tricks on me. (Or, more sinisterly, if I were being gaslighted!) :) But no, this appeared to be yet another example of a Sondheim show in which every revision made a show worse than it was before.

Edited January 27, 2019 by Milburn Stone

[Silver Raven]

Brennin Hunt (Roger) was injured during last night's dress rehearsal for tonight's Live Rent, unclear as to the nature of the injury, and whether he will be able to perform tonight, though the producers are saying they may broadcast taped scenes from the dress rehearsal.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Original Broadway cast of Rent singing Seasons of Love at the end of the Rent Live show:

ETA: One of the comments on this youtube video said, "Did not expect the 2005 film cast to come in Wow! I heard the movie wasn’t up to par with the broadway musical though." I couldn't bring myself to begin to reply.

Edited January 28, 2019 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Spartan Girl]

Definitely the one good part of the night. I know they had to use the dress rehearsal footage for most of the show, but other than Vanessa and maybe Daryl the cast was just meh.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I agree - that was the best one minute of the entire 2+ hour show.

Valentina, Tinashe, and Brennin were all consistently flat/off pitch throughout the show which made it hard to watch/listen. I felt like I needed to listen to a great OBC afterward just to cleanse my ears of it.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The producers of Jagged Little Pill officially announced the show will transfer to Broadway in the fall

[aradia22]

@ElectricBoogaloo

What the what? I feel like that's too many shows. It's possible this happens every year but I'm just checking in on Broadway news less often but I feel like there were a bunch of shows that "might" come in and then everyone suddenly started announcing (Tootsie, Hadestown, Moulin Rouge, Oklahoma!, Ain't Too Proud, Beetlejuice, Tina, etc.) and now Jagged Little Pill. Also, a bunch of plays I don't care about. I'll hold off to see how word of mouth is as it got very mixed reviews out of town with praise for the performers and a lot of criticism for the book. 

I feel like I'm still most optimistic about Tootsie and Moulin Rouge and I'll check out Oklahoma! to see what the fuss is all about. I may or may not check out Hadestown because I don't think I like the design updates but maybe the story has improved. 

I'm down to the wire but I'm trying to figure out if I should do rush or TKTS for Waitress with Gavin and Sara. Also, I need to stop sleeping on Laura/Danny in My Fair Lady but it's SO EXPENSIVE. When I'm less busy I might try TKTS. Love that they now post more detailed info on their website. 

[choclatechip45]

I finally saw Hamilton on Broadway last night. The show lived up to the hype, maybe not the ticket prices even though the ones I bought weren't extrodinary expensive comparing them to other dates and I bought them only a few days ago. The highlights in the cast were Ryan Vazquez (Hamilton), Denee Benton (Eliza), Daniel Breaker (Burr), Anthony Lee Medina (John Laurens/Philip), Carvens Lissaint (George Washington) and Euan Morton (King George). I did enjoy seeing Mandy and James Monroe Iglehart. I thought they were both very good. I know they have received some criticism. It might be because besides the soundtrack I didn't have anything to compare them too. My only complaint is that I didn't feel the emotional connection I had with some other shows after seeing them (Fun Home and Dear Evan Hanson).