Pashacar said: "A Winter Garden usher posted in another thread a bit ago that the production has ordered them not to go into the aisles during the performance to stop people from texting, filming, etc.
At my performance some guy was repeatedly taking photos with his huge phone over his head and the ushers saw but did nothing. An idiotic policy like that is just going to breed more bad behavior like this."
Thanks JBroadway, BJR and supersam1026 for all your thoughts and recollections. It’s encouraging reading and a joy to watch an informative, creative debate unfold on here finally. Much appreciated.
Who was it who insisted on adding to the enormous list of EVERY show they saw in their footer throughout the year? By fall even their shortest post would take up the entire screen. I don’t miss that.
Falsettolands said: "... it really isn't that difficult a concept to grasp... I don't really see it all that ridiculous when people are disappointed that 4/14 of the cast members are identifiable as people of color... this is a valid casting concern where the opportunity has presented itself for criticism."
I don’t think the show was cast to fit any racial quota either way and conclude that the people involved are the best that auditioned
I’m genuinely confused by this comment. Are you suggesting that Marianne Elliott and the producers have an issue with casting non-white actors here or that they should have chosen actors who may not have been the best fit for the part purely because they were ‘of color’. Because surely THAT would have been tokenism?
SouthernCakes said: "It is interesting. I mean if we look down at West End musical theater stars why we do we constantly get them here? We don’t tend to send our queens across the pond, yet them seem to come here?"
This is hardly accurate. Patti, Audra, Idina, Chita, Kelli O’Hara, Marin Mazzie, Casey Levy (along with the entire Broadway cast of Hair), Donna McKechnie off the top of my head for the girls. Gavin Creel, Roger Bart, Michael Ard
Yes now THAT is exciting. Still keeping everything crossed for Phillip Quast as well though. But I’ll definitely be there in Melbourne now, after missing it the first time around (though I did catch Quast in the RSC production in Stratford). They’re both world class and you’d be a fool to pass-up seeing Anthony Warlow in anything.
Jordan Catalano said: "But you point out what a lot of peoples issues with her are - She’s brilliant on film but on stage plays everything like a coked out psycho."
She really IS fantastic on stage too but giving performances that were meant for the whole house not a camera closeup so they translated quite badly for the live taping. I find Angela Lansbury’s vaudevillian Mrs Lovett to be in the same vein when Sweeney was filmed on tour. Imel
I worked as stage crew at Phantom, London during an unbearably hot spell in August 2002 and there was definitely no AC in Her Majesty’s. We just sweated it out and then hydrated ourselves in the pub after the show. I assume we were a good 10 degrees cooler than Melbourne though. And that any electrical equipment you may have in Aussie will be suitably cooled to prevent it overheating inside the theatre.
