Dream cast for LITTLE ME

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 1/7/14 at 1:32pm

Wow: Judy Kaye as older Belle and Rachel York as young Belle! Hope this one gets recorded (preferably in a studio and not a live recording like Pipe Dream). Would love to hear more of the dance music that didn't make it onto the original cast recording.

Updated On: 1/7/14 at 01:32 PM

[Demitri2]

Posted: 1/7/14 at 4:49pm

I love Rachel York but was kind of disappointed Megan Hilty wasn't cast as Belle. She was such a hit in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES and Belle and Lorelei are cast from the same mold. Also would have been fun seeing her work with Borle again. But if it wasn't Hilty, York would be my next favorite. Look forward to seeing her in anything.

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/7/14 at 7:43pm

Borle is wonderful, but I worry about Borle playing the original script. "Little Me" is not a solid, unchanging text. Every revival has been revised so that the central "clown" role is tailored to the performer at hand. While Belle young and old (or both) is relatively the same in most versions, it seems a little unorthodox to leave Borle to perform the Sid Caesar role in the manner of Sid Caesar, since he is unique and idiosyncratic in his own way, not in a Sid Caesar esque way. After seeing him in "Starcatcher," I could see Borle in the Martin Short script more easily than the Caesar script.

[yfs]

Posted: 1/7/14 at 10:12pm

But each subsequent version has been worse, script-wise, than the one before it. I'd much rather see Borle playing the original script and making it his own, which I'm sure he'll do. That original script is pretty damn funny.

[jayinchelsea]

Posted: 1/7/14 at 11:48pm

Saw the original many many moons ago, and it was great. And thrilled with the casting at Encores. Have never really liked the various rewrites of the show, very happy that Encores is doing this right. Can't wait!

[WOSQ]

Posted: 1/8/14 at 1:38pm

Little Me is a rare bird. I feel that the book is really a series of connected vaudeville-burlesque sketches with types rather than real characters. The show is meant to be performed and not acted.

If the director stresses this, the show will work.

The Music Fair tour in 1964 was full of performers: Jack Carter (from nightclubs), Kaye Stevens (a tall, busty, leggy nightclub comedienne-singer), (Ethel Merman's best friend) Benay Venuta and song-and-dance-man Harold Lang. It was also one funny show with plenty of good ad-libs by Carter and Stevens.

The one other show that fits this description of "meant to be performed, not acted" is Forum.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 1/10/14 at 2:16pm

I think this will be wonderful!

It IS a dream cast!

[somethingbypuccini 2]

Posted: 1/10/14 at 2:36pm

Any chance to see Rachel York is great in my book, but this is a perfect role for her. And the supporting cast is across the board excellent. Judy Kaye can do no wrong.

Posted: 1/10/14 at 3:46pm

It will be a travesty if this isn't released in some form. The original song-stack and arrangements are marvellous, and the cast sounds outstanding.

I read once that "I've Got Your Number" was a really long, sultry dance number, and the portion recorded on the album is only the song part. Does anyone who saw the original production remember that? I'd love to hear that extended dance music on record, and the rest of the unrecorded material.