HogansHero said: "Yes of course, but what seems to escape some in this thread is that sometimes that choice is simply to cast the actor who you think will give the most thrilling performance, without loading it with subtext."
But that's really not good enough reason if you end up reinforcing racial biases in your audience. If you want to cast a black actor as Billy just because he's the best Billy you can find, go for it! But then recognize the problem in Bil
HogansHero said: "A Director said: "Oh dear! The phrase "color-blind" is so last century. Today, the preferred phrase in non-traditionalcasting. Color-blind casting implies you don't see the person as a person."
You are confounding two separate things, and "color blind" is neither dated nor disrespectful. (In fact, I would suggest it elevatesthe person qua person, rather than defining them in terms of their race, which is
Someone in a Tree2 said: "The above comment just reinforces Ol Blue Eyes’ thesis: most of those playwright’s works feature casts where African Americans are in the majority. Had they cast CAROUSEL with a chiefly African American cast, Billy Bigelow’s color would have ceased to be an issue, and the depiction of that character with all his flaws would have had nothing to do with race."
Thank you. I thought I had said the same, but appare
A Director said: " Pray tell, how did you feel about Audra playing Carrie in the previous revival of the show?
"
I didn't see that production either, but Carrie isn't a wastrel or a criminal and does not beat her spouse. She's a good friend, a busy mother and a loving wife; if these are stereotypes of black women in America, I doubt anyone objects.
Now as for the latest Broadway revival (which is beautifully sung on the OBCR),
I too saw Mark Ballas in JB and the phrase "stunt casting" never crossed my mind. And I wasn't particularly a fan of his on DWTS; I thought he tended to make sure HE looked good, even at the expense of his partners. In JERSEY BOYS he was actually playing the part and engaging with the ensemble.
As for Reba McEntire, she auditioned and won the title role in AGYG fair and square. (A friend of mine was one of her competitors.) I didn't see her in it, but she seemed to re
I usually say the original production of FOLLIES is "the best 2 hours I ever spent in a theater", because I can't exactly say it is the best show overall. The best show would either be GYPSY (with Angela Lansbury) or SWEENEY TODD (original Broadway cast).
My husband was Prince's associate casting director during the later years of EVITA.
I don't know what Mr. Prince himself thought, but the other members of the office did not speak well of LuPone. (Their dislike seemed personal; they may have loved her in the show.) So much so that my husband's view of LuPone is still colored today by the office gossip, even though he came in after LuPone had left the show.
Not that anyone asked, but I saw the Broadway version in
ethocmub said: "...The original musical is about assimilation, community, collectivity, but the restaging is "about" the unintended consequences of this politic...."
Don't buy into all the hype over the current revival. I don't mean the hype that says it is good; I haven't seen it but love the recording. I mean the hype that this production has found something that wasn't in the original.
OlBlueEyes, I trust none of us--let alone I--have made you feel that your posts are less valid because you don't have a degree in theater. I promise you I am not a snob in that regard.
Oskar Eustis, now artistic director of The Public Theatre, only has a high school diploma and a few credits of college work. Nonetheless, he is not just one of the smartest, but one of the best professors I ever had. He literally changed me by altering the way I think about theater.
Just to be clear, I was talking about a doctoral dissertation. It isn't an "article", it's a "book".
It's also pretty straight-forward, not some post-modern, "Lit Crit" intellectual excursion. But it does discuss with specificity OHII's politics in the 1940s and how they are reflected in the musical play. Nothing about how the Persian is a stand-in for a Jew, which, frankly, doesn't make much sense given that both Rodgers and Hammerstei
I agree with Hogan and add that playwrights are often not the best authorities on their own work. My entire graduate class (MFA in Playwriting), except for me, thought they should direct their own plays. Fortunately for them, they were not allowed to do so. (I was the lone dissenter because I had worked as a director and understood that it is a very different job.)
Speaking of graduate school, there's a very good dissertation in the UCLA library on the evolution of OHII's think
g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "I got your point, I'm just saying if it was to come, it wouldn't have come from him anyway. Part of the point of the thread was whether or not the show would move forward."
Indeed. Isn't this another way of saying the current arrest and the horrendous charges deserve their own thread? Child pornography is a long way past inadequate capitalization of a show in my hierarchy of crimes.
Hogan, Hogan, Hogan! Such a great post and yet it sounds condescending because you neglected to mention that the same is true for most memories held by all of us.
Would that have been so hard?
(As opposed to dreams, which you do acknowledge as a more or less universal experience.)
Well said, alovingfan. With all due respect (and that's a lot of respect in my case) to Hogan, I sometime wonder if I'm the only poster here with a scroll capability.
Re Jarethan's post above, if the primary issue were empty seats visible from the stage, then maybe the argument was about how discounted tix and paper were being distributed more than about the actual grosses.
At the theater where I worked here in Palm Springs, there was a strict policy that the u
SweetLips22 said: "One is a performer, one is his manager, and they are married, to each other.
A very strange arrangement where they are not equal partners. The distribution of wealth at divorce or death is a different matter but the reported situation is just weird, probably like the journal which I don't know anything about."
Manilow lives literally at the end of my street and up the mountainside. We are famous for strict community property laws
Roscoe said: ""Pretty much every choice made in how to present the plot, is designed to make us empathize with Evan and to take focus off of the harm he caused."
This. A thousand times, THIS."
The same can be said of every comedy written over the past 2,500 years.
Yes, Evan tells lies, some of which benefit him, but most of which are also misguided attempts to comfort others. Compare him to Harold Hill, an out-and-out con man who
Despite the impression I may have just given, I don't have a dog in this fight. On my budget, I wouldn't pay $150+ to see Manilow (or almost anyone else). I'd save that money to see a good book musical.
To me, Manilow's true genius lies in his arrangements for himself and for Bette Midler back in the day. It's a shame we don't recognize musical arrangement as a talent at least equal to those who hum a tune into a tape recorder for others to arrange and orchestra
David10086 said: "This was in the NY Post a few weeks ago, just before his show opened and the box office was already struggling to sell tickets past his opening weekend:
Manilow’s looming flameout has surprised a few insiders, who note that in April he extended a residency in Las Vegas after performing his 500th show at the International Theater at Westgate.
“The Vegas crowd is all tourists who will buy tickets or discou
