Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN- Page 2
Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
#25Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/28/14 at 10:10pm
^^^Yes, it really is, Carlos. I just listened to it again last night. One of my all-time favorites!
goldenboy has the right idea; Bette Midler would have been perfect 30 years ago!
I have no idea who Nicole Parker is and, to my knowledge, this is the first time any poster has called Jessie Mueller "a great clown".
A vehicle show like FADE OUT requires not just a great clown and singer (and pretty darn good tap dancer!), it also requires a star to draw in the public. The star IS the show, despite the great score. Read about the history of the show: when Burnett left it prematurely, it closed--TWICE! There was simply nobody to replace her, even back in those days when slapstick still ruled television.
Updated On: 5/28/14 at 10:10 PM
#26Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/28/14 at 10:50pm
It was a treat to hear Tina Louise sing...especially since she didn't have any songs in Li'l Abner. She has a very nice singing voice.
I read that Betty Hutton replaced Burnett while she was recovering from injuries sustained in an automobile accident, then Burnett returned only to leave once again to do a television show her husband was producing. The show's producers threatened to sue for breach of contract and then just shutteted the show altogether.
Louise states with the show for a month and left when she was offered the role of Ginger Grant on Gilligan's Island.
#27Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/28/14 at 11:07pm
Nicole Parker is a former Elphaba in Wicked, but she was also on MADtv. She did an Obsessed! video with Seth Rudetsky that's very funny.
OBSESSED!
#28Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/28/14 at 11:37pm
Thank you. But can Parker fill the St. James 8 times each week?
Carlos, Betty Hutton was certainly lovable, but there's no way she had the skills to play the leading roll in FADE OUT. In fact, I shudder to imagine the performance that resulted.
(But if the show failed with Hutton (arguably a bigger star than Burnett at the time), it only proves the point that the piece requires not just a name, but a name specifically suited to the part.)
IIRC, the producers took the matter of Burnett's departure to Actor's Equity arbitration and the union ruled in their favor. That was when the show re-opened with Burnett.
She then withdrew again, claiming she was pregnant and the part was too strenuous. Accounts favorable to the shows and writers tend to view this claim with some skepticism, particularly because Burnett immediately went into her husband's variety show, THE ENTERTAINERS (per Wiki). In fairness, I've never read Burnett's side of the story. I don't know if she has ever commented on it in public.
Whatever the reason for her second (and final) withdrawal, she and Hamilton did indeed relocate to Hollywood and her legendary TV show ensued.
If a great Broadway show was lost, at least we got umpteen years of great TV as compensation!
(NOTE: Wikipedia's account varies somewhat from my recollection of the openings, closings and re-openings. I could very well be wrong.)
Updated On: 5/28/14 at 11:37 PM
#29Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/29/14 at 12:00amThe only person who could do this role in today's media climate would be someone like Melissa McCarthy, who as far as I know does not sing or dance.
#30Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 6/3/14 at 6:42pmJessie Mueller is great in Beautiful and quite talented but it needs someone loud and over the top and that just ain't Jesse Mueller.Maybe Bianca Del Rio
#31Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 6/4/14 at 6:16am
Melissa McCarthy is much more the right idea, darquegk. Not exactly right because while she is obviously willing to make herself look ridiculous, her comedy isn't specifically based on self-deprecation. At least in my view, even her crudest white trash characters have a sort of dignity because they are comfortable in their own skin.
The conceit in FADE OUT is that Carol Burnett has won a beauty/talent contest through error and everyone is too afraid of the studio head to point out his mistake. So she is turned into screen femme fatale, Lila Tremaine--a persona for which she is entirely unsuited--and she is the ONLY one who doesn't see it. She's not just wrong, she's obviously uncomfortable, but refuses to admit it.
And that's the basic joke: awkward Carol tries to turn herself into Lana Turner and fails and fails, succeeding only when she realizes she is actually the "girl next door". Maybe McCarthy could play that; she's certainly a step in the right direction. Or maybe it's just a pre-feminist stereotype that won't play anymore.
Do we still do comedies about how the girl is too homely to get the dreamboat guy?
Updated On: 6/4/14 at 06:16 AM
#32Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 6/4/14 at 7:50am
"Do we still do comedies about how the girl is too homely to get the dreamboat guy?"
Yes. But they cast Julia Roberts and give her heavier eyebrows.
Cheyenne Jackson tickled me. AFTER ordering SoMMS a drink but NOT tickling him, and hanging out with Girly in his dressing room (where he DIDN'T tickle her) but BEFORE we got married. To others. And then he tweeted Boobs. He also tweeted he's good friends with some chick on "The Voice" who just happens to be good friends with Tink's ex. And I'm still married. Oh, and this just in: "Pettiness, spite, malice ....Such ugly emotions... So sad." - After Eight, talking about MEEEEEEEE!!! I'm so honored! :-)
