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Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone

Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone

bdn223 Profile Photo
bdn223
#1Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 1/24/17 at 5:29pm

Is it just me or does there seem to be too much publicity for Beth Malone in the Unsinkable Molly Brown, for just a MUNY production.

Has anyone heard any buzz that this is looking to transfer next year?  Its the same revised book Malone did when it premiered in Denver in 2014 and with Marshall directing the production seems to be much larger then week long summer stock run at The Muny.

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Ado Annie D'Ysquith
#2Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 1/25/17 at 9:24am

You make a really valid point, but I suspect that Malone became so closely (and lovingly) associated with FUN HOME that people were waiting with bated breath to see what kind of role she'd tackle next. I guarantee that if they'd cast "any old" popular actress in the part, this'd be quieter.


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HeleneIsASlut
#3Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 1/25/17 at 9:41am

Wasn't her performance in Molly Brown very well received? I remember hearing about a possible transfer with it at the time.

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AC126748
#4Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 1/25/17 at 9:43am

I've seen two articles on BWW about this--one clearly a press release announcement, the other a short video. I don't see how that constitutes "too much press." The Muny is one of the most prestigious summer theaters in the country, and they're covered pretty regularly on here. I think the OP is reading too much into this.


"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

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uncageg
#5Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 1/25/17 at 11:05am

I saw it in Denver and enjoyed it.


Just give the world Love.

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Theater_Nerd
#6Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 1/25/17 at 12:08pm

Shouldn't we be championing theater instead of criticizing it and tearing it down? When did one press release and one BWW article constitute "too much publicity". 

 


You Can Disagree Without Being Disagreeable

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RippedMan
#7Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 1/25/17 at 12:15pm

*rolls eyes* 

It does seem that it is looking to transfer. I mean why else have Marshall put all this effort into a one week schedule? It's not like they're doing Shrek. 

bdn223 Profile Photo
bdn223
#8Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 1/25/17 at 1:17pm

Theater_Nerd said: "Shouldn't we be championing theater instead of criticizing it and tearing it down? When did one press release and one BWW article constitute "too much publicity". 

 
I did mean in anyway to criticize or tear down the production. It just normally MUNY usually just does one big announcement of all of their summer productions, with maybe one of them getting a secondary announcement that includes a list of relatively well known Broadway performers being involved with their various shows. I pointed it out because at least to me it seems rare that they would go out of their way to single out a specific performer in specific production to do a press release about.

Then there are the other details that made me wonder if anyone had heard any buzz about this being an "Out of Town Tryout". First is Debbie Reynolds passing seemed to bring revive interest The Unsinkable Molly Brown, as she received her only Oscar nomination for the role.  Then there is the fact that this is the same production that played Denver in 2014, which premiered with revised book warm reviews. Last an most importantly it will be directed and choreographed by 3x Tony Award Winner Kathleen Marshall, who does not do regional revivals.

With all of those points, I was wondering if anyone had heard anything on this production trying to transfer, and not in anyway trying to tear down the MUNY.

"

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haterobics
#9Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 1/25/17 at 1:20pm

bdn223 said: "Is it just me or does there seem to be too much publicity for Beth Malone in the Unsinkable Molly Brown, for just a MUNY production."

As this is the first time I ever heard about, I guess.... no?

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theaterdrew
#10Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 4/27/17 at 1:22pm

Justin Guarini is joining the cast, coming off of working with Kathleen Marshall in In Transit.  Most of the cast are hold-overs from the Denver production.  It doesn't seem too speculative that this is a pre-Broadway run.  Next spring?

 

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newintown
#11Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 4/27/17 at 1:29pm

This "revisal" has been kicking around so long, it can't help having acquired a reputation for being old, dusty, and tired. 

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Valentina3
#12Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 4/27/17 at 1:35pm

I can't help but hope this would happen.


Caption: Every so often there was a rare moment of perfect balance when I soared above him.

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deltatee
#13Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 4/27/17 at 1:51pm

I saw her in it back in 2014 when it was doing its stint in Denver.  I didn't think the show was in good enough shape at the time to transfer. But Beth Malone was really great in it.

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wonderfulwizard11
#14Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 4/27/17 at 2:00pm

I do want Beth Malone back on Broadway, but I can't see this show having any commercial appeal in 2017. She'd be a great replacement for Jenn Colella in Come From Away though. 


I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.

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HenryTDobson
broadwayboy223
#16Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 7/22/17 at 11:23pm

wonderfulwizard11 said: "I do want Beth Malone back on Broadway, but I can't see this show having any commercial appeal in 2017. She'd be a great replacement for Jenn Colella in Come From Away though. 

 

"

That's really brilliant casting 

Jarethan
#17Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 7/22/17 at 11:33pm

wonderfulwizard11 said: "I do want Beth Malone back on Broadway, but I can't see this show having any commercial appeal in 2017. She'd be a great replacement for Jenn Colella in Come From Away though. 

 

The lead in a big musical (that may well flop) or joining an already open ensemble show.  Unless she desperately needs the paycheck, why would she go for CFA ensemble vs. the leading role for which the originator won the Tony?

I know:

1.  Jean Colella received a Tony nomination.  IMO, it was a nomination for the cast, since there is no best ensemble award, and she had a solo.

2.  I know Tammy Grimes won in supporting. but that was due to stupid Tony rules, which is why Maureen Stapleton won supporting for The Rose Tattoo or William Daniels was nominated for supporting for the lead role in 1776.

 

Auggie27 Profile Photo
Auggie27
#18Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 7/23/17 at 8:01am

Those of us who love the score read about the script work. They (wisely, IMO) now frame the story from a flashback in the Titanic lifeboat, dispatching the obligatory scene at the top instead of waiting for a moment that iprovides a title but doesn't have a lot of tension (we know she survives, we know what happened to a lot of others).  It seems wise, and allows the more mature Molly to revisit rather than use the usual dirty-faced rough n'tumble ingenue trajectory.  But the show has always had 2nd act problems. Out of nowhere, a entire new cast of European characters appears and take up stage time. We are only so interested that late in the evening.  The 2nd act never satisfied, because that ending was a foregone conclusion, and the emotional/romantic suspense was nil.  It's a problematic story to tell, with too few surprises.  The secret is probably to let the character drive things a bit more, top to finish.  Once she floated around Europe, estranging her husband, we lost patience (I've seen the original book twice, including one with Grimes in a summer tour).  The score is a keeper.  I still love many numbers excised from the wobbly film. 


"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 7/23/17 at 08:01 AM

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nmartin
#19Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 7/23/17 at 8:08am

" They (wisely, IMO) now frame the story from a flashback in the Titanic lifeboat"

That is not a new idea. It's been done before. I vaguely remember there being a tour of this many years ago with Debbie Reynolds that incorporated the flashback frame. If anyone saw this, I would love to hear about it.

Auggie27 Profile Photo
Auggie27
#20Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 7/23/17 at 8:13am

I saw the Reynolds tour when it was in LA., and oddly enough, have no memory of that opening.  It didn't register.  The song written for Reynolds in the film was interpolated, and she lip-synched in at least two dance numbers. I was in the first row (Pantages, if memory serves), and it was obvious.  The show just barely told the story in that production.   


"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling

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Demitri2
#21Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 7/23/17 at 11:37am

I saw Reynolds at the Pantages too and don't recall a flashback opening either but as noted it was a long time ago so I too could be mistaken. I do remember it went downhill for me after the BELLY UP TO THE BAR BOYS  number which unfortunately was at the beginning of the show.

If you would Auggie27, can you tell us how Grimes was as Molly? I've never known anyone who saw her in the show yet from what I've read she was the glue that held the whole thing together. Without her remarkable performance it's believed the show would have probably closed after the box office advance evaporated. Was she really that exceptional? I did get to see her in HIGH SPIRITS and thought she was a wonderful Elvira.  

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nmartin
#22Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 7/23/17 at 12:23pm

The link is for a review that briefly mentions the Titanic opening scene from the Debbie Reynolds tour.

http://articles.latimes.com/1989-08-25/entertainment/ca-814_1_unsinkable-molly-brown

Auggie27 Profile Photo
Auggie27
#23Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 7/23/17 at 4:48pm

I saw Grimes when she returned to the role sometime in the 1973, at the Shady Grove Music Fair, MD, part of the Westbury circuit well known to most on this board. Howard Keel was her Johnny, and a lot of the OBC reunited with her (Edith Meiser, Mitchell Gregg).  It was in the round, and she was obviously a decade plus older than when she created the role (though at 39/40 younger than Malone -- it must stated: 40 in 1973 was not 40 today, not for a women in the entertainment industry. Perhaps enough said.)  Friends with me noted the deteriorating timber or texture of her voice, and attributed it to cigarettes (heavy smoker, Grimes, always).  I couldn't hear that, just that eccentric quality that was uniquely hers.  She barked a lot of it, scooping into notes, always very musically. If you like her singing, well, even when the voice is rusty it's still a delight. I heard the same Molly I grew up hearing on the OBC album. She wore a wig that looked like Streisand's in the "Dolly" film, once she acquired wealth, and it seemed enormous. She was a bit heavier, and danced very little.  But she had this strange gravitas.  She didn't waste a movement, not a gesture.  I remember thinking: "That's a character actor."  She approached the role like a character part, but never resorted to the sort of dialect Reynolds used. She had zero in common with this woman Molly Tobin, but used the Grimes persona in service of building someone entirely of her own making.  Speaking of Dolly, I bet she would've made a wonderful one.  The show, as noted above, just seemed to jump from scene to scene, the Willson score mostly there (I can't find my program).  That second act still a mess, unfocused and -- sorry -- water treading until she can be reunited with Johnny.   


"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 7/23/17 at 04:48 PM

rawrali
#24Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 7/23/17 at 5:00pm

I saw the show last night (with a very long rain delay at intermission) and the musical did not open with the lifeboat scene. Lifeboat scene was the 2nd to last scene. It opened with the miners in Leadville and then Molly arriving in Leadville.

It was a very light crowd, even before the rain. I think partially due to the immense heat and partly because of public unfamiliarity with the show. The show overall exceeded my expectations but I thought it still needed some editing, maybe 2-3 songs either cut or replaced. Beth Malone was great in the role. I also enjoyed Marc Kudisch although he seemed to flub a lot of lines in the 2nd act. It was their 2nd night and I'm sure the delay didn't help. Justin Guarini's role was pretty small but it made me think he'd be a good Fabrizio in Light in the Piazza.

Auggie27 Profile Photo
Auggie27
#25Unsinkable Molly Brown with Beth Malone
Posted: 7/23/17 at 5:20pm

Very interesting. They opened with the lifeboat scene in Denver.  I'm assuming this is (still) the Dick Scanlon book? 

Did they keep "Are You Sure?"  Usually near the end of the first act (it fits nowhere else). My favorite number, but one quick to be tossed. 


"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling