Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
esparza 333
Broadway Star Joined: 7/24/07
#1Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/7/10 at 4:50pm
It's a wonderful show with a excellent score. I have always found the characters fascinating and is their a better tony performance then Let's Take a Glass Together??? While it is hard to imagine anyone else but Michael Jeter in that song especially who would you cast in a revival of that?? I would give my picks but I really struggled with this. Maybe it's because from what I have seen of the original production the performances are so perfect that I can't really see it with anybody else. Your Thoughts????
Current Avatar:The sensational Aaron Tveit in the soon to be hit production of Catch Me If You Can.
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#2Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/7/10 at 4:55pmJane Krakowski as ballerina Elizaveta mebbe?
With Irma you gotta do something!
#3Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/7/10 at 5:07pmI know Leigh Ann Larkin has expressed a desire to play Flaemmchen...I think she'd be great.
#5Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/7/10 at 5:33pmThis is a real struggle. The original cast was so wonderful in such a great show. The thought of David H.P. as Otto is a good one. Would Sutton Foster as the ballerina be too far-fetched? And as the Baron, perhaps, Jonathan Groff or Raul Esparza, who can do most any roll so expertly. I wish I could think of someone who could do Flaemmchen.
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#6Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/7/10 at 7:02pmChip Zien, a replacement Kringelien in the original, is now the right age for the role.
#7Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/7/10 at 7:05pm
Threads like this pop up all of the time and just give me false hope. Nothing would make me happier than a revival of Grand Hotel. I realize it was flawed, but the original production which I saw more than 10 times (between Broadway and the tour) was incredible and one of my favorite musicals of all time. Tommy Tune created a wonderfully fluid production filled with some great songs and brilliant dancing.
That said, bring on David Hyde Pierce and Raul Esparza. A revival really has the potential to be a star-filled extravaganza a la the revival of Nine.
actormcfamous
Stand-by Joined: 1/12/06
#8Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/7/10 at 7:58pmBrian d'Arcy James for the Baron. His "Love Can't Happen" would be stunning.
#9Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/7/10 at 9:03pm
I saw the revival of the show a few years ago the Donmar Warehouse - the cast was fine (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio isn't really a dancer but she made it work) but the production really missed the direction by Tommy Tune. If its revived, it either needs to be a recreation of his original (brilliant) work or needs direction that is equally inspired.
Sutton Foster wouldn't work as a 50 year old faded Russian ballerina...
#10Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/7/10 at 10:28pm
Is Bebe Neuwirth too cold for the Liliane Montevecchi role? People suggest Sutton Foster for the most ridiculous roles around here, someone actually suggested her for Anna in THE KING & I! I don't get it...then again, I still don't get her casting in ANYTHING GOES, especially when names like Donna Murphy and Catherine Zeta-Jones were initially considered, but that's a whole other conversation 
I know it sounds really cliched, but I can't imagine who could really do something as good with this show as Tommy Tune did, what director today has that kind of vision? This is not the type of show that say Barlett Sher would be ideal for, Jerry Mitchell and Rob Ashford don't have any of the creativity that Tune does, and I'm not even gonna mention Kathleen Marshall...Rob Marshall hasn't worked on a stage show in a while, I wonder if he could do something with this. Either way, it'd be great if Tune's direction/choreography was recreated.
I think Leigh Anne Larkin is perfect for Flaemmchen, I also wonder if Erin Davie could do something good with this, I had such high hopes for her Charlotte...and then I saw her.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#11Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/8/10 at 12:24am
I second Leigh Ann Larkin for Flaemmchen, and would love to see Chip Zien as Otto Kringelein. I agree on Bebe Neuwirth, and think that she would be excellent as Elizaveta.
As for the Baron, Raul Esparza is my favourite of the choices mentioned. I think he could act the hell out of it and could really look the part. Brian D'Arcy James would probably be my second choice.
Give me a bottle of bourbon and half a chicken and I'll conquer the world!
#12Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/8/10 at 2:46pmI think Ute Lemper would be a convincing Elizaveta -- I love Esparza and James but they are arguably both too old for the Baron who cleaims to be '29 years and 29 months' old..
#13Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/8/10 at 11:57pm
Michael Bennett, you do make a good point, but wasn't David Carrol 39 when Grand Hotel opened in 1989? Raul is only 40, older than the character, but only a little older that Carrol.
But, unless this happens in, well, the next year, both James and Esparza would be too old, however much I'd love either in the role.
Give me a bottle of bourbon and half a chicken and I'll conquer the world!
#14Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 7/9/10 at 12:34amI have posted several times on this board saying I want a revival of this show with Hugh Panaro as the Baron and Leigh Ann Larkin as Flemmchen.
<------ Me and my friends with patti Lupone at my friends afterparty for her concert with audra mcdonald during the summer of 2007.
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado
#15Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 2/4/11 at 6:55pm
Has anyone thought of Jason Daniely as the baron?
He has the right look and voice for it.
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#17Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 2/4/11 at 7:23pm
Was the show a major success the first time around?
I never had the chance to see it, would love for the Tune production to be restaged.
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
#18Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 2/4/11 at 7:37pmBarry Dennen is very old now, but I think he could pull off Kringelein nicely. It would be a very nice fit for him at this stage in his life... shades of Paul Muni in At the Grand, but minus the ego.
"There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from."
~ Charles M. Schulz
#19Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 2/4/11 at 7:45pm
I saw this in the original run with Chip Zien, and though I was fairly young, remember being impressed with him. Would love to see him do Kringelein again
Jason Daniely is PERFECT for the Baron.
Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#20Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 2/4/11 at 8:32pmYES! to Ute Lemper as Elizabeta!
Noel&Cole
Leading Actor Joined: 11/10/07
#21Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 2/5/11 at 12:05pmI would so love to see you a revival of this show. It's dark, sexy, and has so many great roles. I think Rob Marshall would be a great fit for the show. Perhaps he could try a film version, that would allow the assembly of a really exciting cast. Although I would hope it would be another CHICAGO not another NINE.
#22Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 2/5/11 at 12:09pmJason Danieley as the Baron would be perfect!
Perfectly Marvelous
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/16/06
#23Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 2/5/11 at 3:17pm
Hugh Panaro as the Baron. I think he'd be fantastic.
I've always wanted to hear Hugh sing "Love Can't Happen".
"I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and dreamer of improbable dreams." - Doctor Who
Updated On: 2/5/11 at 03:17 PM
"Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over, men recognize that the human race has been harshly treated but it has moved forward." - Les Miserables
Q
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/3/05
#24Grand Hotel Revival : Who would you cast???
Posted: 2/5/11 at 3:27pmRay - I think Stroman could direct it.
