Valentina3 said: "Just realized I'll be in town on Sat 12/28 with a couple of friends who'd really love this show. Was looking at tickets and it's really pricey. Does anyone have a promo or discount code? Would really appreciate it."
I first fell in love with Light in the Piazza when I saw a recording of the PBS broadcast over a decade ago. It's been years since I've seen a production, so I was rather excited for this, especially considering Chris Jones's stamp of approval. I wish I shared in his admiration for this production.
Solea was out tonight (in the most bizarre understudy announcement I've ever seen, a man walked onstage with a handheld microphone and said that Ms. Pfeiffer "is indispo
Jordan Catalano said: "If dubbing were used in films for singing (like should have been done in most modern film musicals), I might say Julianne Moore would be an ideal Sally."
I had the same thought, but the lip-synching she did in Bel Canto just looked so obviously fake that I'd be wary. Julianne would act the pants off the part like nobody else. But there are so few stars with the soprano training for Sally. I hate to say it, but Chenoweth i
I would love a great film adaptation of Follies. And I quite liked Dominic Cooke's revival at the National, save for Imelda Staunton and the documentary crew device. However, his only theatrical film to date was On Chesil Beach, which I thought was rather dreadful. So this news doesn't excite me. And if you saw On Chesil Beach, I bet your excitement would be tempered as well.
Everyone who thinks Kelli O'Hara or Laura Benanti could be cast in
Lot666 said: "The Distinctive Baritone said: "She needs to stop complaining about the Evita score. ALW doesn't "hate women," she was just "singing against type.""
I always thought her "ALW hates women" argument was downright laughable."
I always thought that comment was meant half-heartedly?
Anyway, I don't want to wade too deep into this other than to say that both things can be true--LuPone
Maintenance rehearsals can (and should be) common in any long run--and, in fact, Hal Prince's frequent visits to his long running shows is one of the things I respect and admire most about him in his career. However, starting a rehearsal by comparing a group of actors to another group of actors is pretty insulting. The way you make a show better is by giving specific notes, not general shaming.
And yes, Patti felt isolated from the rest of her company and said so in her book.
Call me a diva-worshiper, but I kind of have to side with Patti on a lot of the Hal Prince stuff. Yes, the behavior she describes here was common in those days, but that doesn't make it acceptable. There are a lot of directors with big egos who like to flaunt their power. Yelling at an actress for changing the blocking instead of checking with stage management to see if he had changed the blocking in previews, telling the New York company that the LA company was better, all of this behavi
Miss Saigon is a problematic show which engages in stereotypes and the male gaze, but this article does a terrible job at explaining why and would not have convinced me had I not already agreed with the main argument. I remember in Nicholas Hytner's fantastic memoir Balancing Acts, he described how the musical's opening sequence only condemns the misogynistic behavior of the male characters after completely reveling in it for the first ten minutes
I haven't read anywhere that there will be an alternate for the role, did I miss something? It's not like the role is particularly taxing to sing, and it's not like Groff is some pampered movie star who's never done 8 shows a week before. Has there been an announcement or are you making an assumption?
^^I'm deeply curious about what that original ending was... when I saw it last week, there was nothing strange about the ending.
I have to say, Marian's singing was not very good, and that really ruined a lot of the evening for me. She had no power or control, especially in the high range. Other than her, I mostly really enjoyed the production and would recommend it to anyone who can get an affordable seat.
I was surprised to find very few of Mary Zimmerman's tricks
I hope they paid particularly close attention to the line about money being like manure in that it's not worth anything unless it's spread around, encouraging young things to grow. There's a lot they could have learned from this show, though I doubt they did.
It's impressively executed, but not in any way that tells a story. Yes, choreography in musicals must tell a story. To use examples mentioned in this thread, Turkey Lurkey Time tells the audience that people are having drinks and letting loose at the office Christmas party. Too Darn Hot tells the story that the dancers want to have a good time but can't because it's too darn hot. Are either situation particularly dramatically compelling? No, but the dancing tells the audience some
Joanie2 said: "Some theaters tell you when gunshots are used in a production but they never tell you when. I understand that "when"might reveal spoilersbut it doesn't help those of us with loud noise sensitivity. I often cannot see anything with a noise warning. Thank you for your help. It is greatly appreciated by me and many others."
Often, if you talk to a house manager or usher and bring up your concerns, they can give you more detailed information.
To me, the craziest part of this story was that the Times article that broke the news said yesterday that the production planned to announce the casting Sunday via a NYT advertisement and they declined to comment (the article now says they confirmed the casting on Friday [today]). It read to me like someone in Rudin's office submitted the ad without an NDA or embargo agreement, and the Times used that opportunity to break it as news, right? I can only imagine what went down in Rudin's
Vanessa Redgrave did the show in its world premiere at Hartford Stage early last year--I don't see why she wouldn't do it on Broadway if she could do it in Hartford. Plus, there's the meta aspect of the play being based on Howard's End and the fact that she was in the film.
ETA: My mistake--while the play was commissioned by Hartford Stage, that company did not produce the play.
I wouldn't say there were a few anachronisms, as it was clear to me that the whole production was set today. The costumes all felt modern, though mostly not distractingly so (apart from one character's bright red sneakers). Thankfully, they didn't have cell phones to drive this point in your face like you might see in a lot of modern-dress productions.
I found it to be a pretty middling production worth it only for the production values the Lyric could provide. Maria had a gorgeous voice, but her acting was embarrassingly amateur. Tony was a good actor but his singing was far too contemporary--he punched the consonants, preventing him from letting any line feel legato, and he even sang some incorrect notes. Anita was a great dancer but a sub-par singer and actor. Yes, it's great to hear the score played by 43 musicians, but at least at
Well, it was a very subdued and slow-moving production. Tempos were very slow, and many scenes had very long pauses. Lots of transitions happening in blackout. Some moments of real human connection, and a more naturalistic take (the set was far less abstract and much more of an actual house than the broadway production) made it worthwhile, but there were a lot of rough spots. It was also the least funny production I've seen. Too many emotional moments were staged far upstage, and actors w
I worked on a small production of the revised version a couple of years ago. Aside from a couple new songs, the main difference is that it's just a little tighter and more confident. The book isn't perfect yet, but it's solid enough that the show can really work. From what I remember, the problems in the original production seemed to primarily stem from the gargantuan design--they were trying to put a big, colorful, dazzling Almodovar film on the stage, and the story really got lo
