Replacements / Stunt Casting we’ll sadly never see. Oct 27
2021, 08:51:38 AM
Colonel Parker didn't turn down Tony in WSS for Elvis because the part was too highbrow. It was the opposite. The Colonel regarded Tony as a "juvenile delinquent" and didn't want Elvis to sully his image playing urban trash. Elvis didn't find out about the offer until the film opened and was furious with The Colonel.
Off topic, but when the film opened my mother wouldn't let me see it. The ladies at her beauty parlor told her the film was about juvenile delinquents in New York who h
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Remembering ANYA, the Other Anastasia Musical Oct 16
2021, 04:19:55 AM
So much pleasure there if you want to explore it.
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Remembering ANYA, the Other Anastasia Musical Oct 16
2021, 04:12:51 AM
Anya was a big misfire despite some great source material and such great talent in front of and behind of the footlights. Still glad to have the album. Glad that's on youtube despite the deplorable sound.
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Changes in shows? Jan 5
2021, 09:56:59 PM
I can't believe no one has mentioned the major, sometimes massive, changes made to productions of Show Boat, Candide, Camelot and Annie Get Your Gun over the years. Sometimes the changes involved going back to the original versions and reinstating previously cut material. If I started going into details, I'd be typing all night.
But as a brief example, AGYG exists in three major versions, the original, the first Lincoln Center revival and Berna
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RIP Nick Cordero Jul 5
2020, 11:35:45 PM
What a fine artist and what a sad situation. RIP.
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Best Cast of a movie musical ever, what's your favorite? Jul 4
2020, 05:55:54 PM
Seconding poisonivy. The 1936 Show Boat. What a treasure due to its cast, most of whom were repeating roles they had played on Broadway in either the 1927 original or its 1932 revival, and director James Whale. And Hattie McDaniel and Allan Jones had played Queenie and Ravenal in a 1933 LA stage version of the original.
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What Character in a Musical Most Resembles Trump? Apr 23
2020, 08:45:55 PM
JSquared2 said: "The horse's ass in the opening number of the recent Hello Dolly revival."
I think you win, JS2.
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What Character in a Musical Most Resembles Trump? Apr 23
2020, 08:21:53 PM
Impossible2 said: "Jarethan said: "Impossible2 said: "Dolly Levi
Anatol Kuragin"
Why Dolly Levi? She is a warm, lovable character."
She's a con woman and manipulative sociopath.
Sorry you fell for it too x"
Correct, Impossible2. Over 20 years ago someone posted on the old Usenet group RATM something to the effect of "The problem with Dolly Levi is that you never know whether you want to hug her o
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Apr 19
2020, 09:22:00 PM
^ Correcting myself already. I should have posted after checking google, not before. Anyway, David Shire put together Tick-Tock from Company, not the Bolero. It's another number that Sondheim allegedly dislikes and prefers omitted because he didn't actually write it. John Berkman was the dance arranger on Follies, so he was probably the person who put together the Bolero from a brief melody Sondheim sketched out, but other people on the show's musical staff could have been involved. Certain
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Apr 19
2020, 08:07:06 PM
I've heard several times over the years that Sondheim isn't fond of the Bolero and prefers it be omitted because he didn't write it. I think it was David Shire, at Michael Bennett's insistence, who put it together and did the dance arrangement based on a Sondheim theme. But I'm very open to correction on all this.
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Rebecca Luker Mar 21
2020, 12:25:49 PM
My post has a subtext.
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Rebecca Luker Mar 21
2020, 12:19:44 PM
Just saw her and her husband Mr. Burstein on an SVU rerun. I love them both so much. The first time I saw her was as a replacement Christine in Phantom in the early 1990s and visually she was a Pre-Raphaelite goddess and oh, that voice, that voice. I fell in love. She was was so, so good in Show Boat and replacing Errico on the Off Broadway Cast recording of Passion. Very sorry I missed her in The Music Man.
All my best and all my love to both.
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Broadway Musical Edits Mar 3
2020, 07:42:51 PM
Small changes were made to both the script and lyrics of the recent Falsettos revival. The changes weren't major but there were many, many of them. I expect the changes were made into the recent national tour but I have no idea whether they've made their way into the currently licensed version. Does anyone know?
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John Lithgow's Best Broadway Performance Feb 21
2020, 12:43:43 AM
The Changing Room. He got naked and was featured in After Dark. Changing room in US parlance is locker room. It's about a rugby team and he won a Best Supporting Tony. George Hearn and Richard Masur were among those who also stripped off for the US production, after originally being produced in Great Britain.
Yes, I'm cheap and crass.
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Broadway Actors on Tours Feb 21
2020, 12:28:42 AM
The Lunts, Katharine Cornell and most other major stars of their era toured their shows extensively. It was how they got national reputations before the age of TV and the internet.
But that was many years ago. I doubt that anyone would know.
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Diana A True Musical Story Feb 21
2020, 12:20:18 AM
Is it true that "Tunnel of Love" is the interpolated 2nd Act Finale?
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Not Nominated / Should Have Won Feb 20
2020, 11:49:20 PM
Helen Lawson as Mame. The famous opening night incident requiring the show to shut down until standby Angela Lansbury could take over, above the the title no less, was abominable and allowed Lansbury to steal Lawson's well deserved Tony. 
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SONDHEIM HYPOCRISY? Feb 19
2020, 02:27:20 AM
As for Porgy, "Bring my goat!" does not equal "Where's my cane?" Big and unjustified change of the original.
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Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre Feb 19
2020, 01:49:02 AM
Greensboro, NC. Early 1970s. Second rate bus and truck company of Applause starring Patrice Munsel and the then unknown Pia Zadora plays the War Memorial Auditorium.
During the title number or She's No Longer a Gypsy, I can't remember which, a couple of chorus boys turn their twerking backsides to the audience to reveal that their costumes have cut outs that reveal their actual butt cheeks.
I have never before or since heard such gasps and const
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Broadway Musical Edits Feb 18
2020, 10:04:40 PM
Neither Gower Champion nor David Merrick were really happy with the original song contest featuring Ambrose and Ermengarde at the Harmonia Gardens in the second act of Hello Dolly. The scene featured a song for the Harmonia Gardens' chorus girls called "Come and Be My Butterfly." It had some wonderful comic business for David Burns with the chorus girl Butterflies (“Watch those feelers, Miss!” ) and the song was an enjoyable late 19th century pastiche but Champ
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