Man of La Mancha with Paulo Szot would be glorious. Bart seems like such a great choice for that show and I think the Vivian Beaumont was it's original home actually.
I think enough time has passed for us to take another look at this remarkable piece of american musical theatre. And Bartlett Sher is the perfect visionary that could give the introspective journey that Eggbert has about his relationship with his father the earnest sincerity that it very much deserves.
Lincoln Center / Bartlett Sher now have a history of reimagining musicals that are already perfect, so naturally Something Rotten deserves to be on this list.
Man of La Mancha directed by Bartlett Sher is so perfect that I didn't realize that sooner. Plus I do know the fact that the ANTA Washington Square was built as the prototype theater for the Vivian Beaumont, very interesting stuff.
When Bartlett Sher was interviewed by Playbill on June 22nd, 2020, I submitted in a question asking him "Are there any other classic musicals that you have not directed that you'd love to direct one day?". Bart said "there are many" and that one of them was Man of La Mancha. (@5:13) https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=2700670860262345
Updated On: 10/21/21 at 08:22 AM
sinister teashop said: "A Lincoln Center/Bart Sher SHOW BOAT is a great idea."
Show Boat would be wonderful - a somewhat lesser-known work that would still fit within their recent pattern of finding ways to infuse modern sensibilities into a lavish production.
Floyd Collins, a show the really deserves to be seen by a much wider audience.
And while we don't need another production of it for some time, I'd be curious to see what Sher might do with Sweeney.
Updated On: 10/23/21 at 07:21 AM
When I saw the title of this thread I assumed that we were looking for another musical of the same genre as the preceding three.
South Pacific, The King and I and My Fair Lady are among the goldest of the Golden Age musicals. They have soaring scores of often covered songs, and they have subtle but important messages about race, class and gender. There are not a lot of musical that fit that description, and a number are off limits because they have been recently done or are about to be done. But I give you a musical approaching it’s Centennial in 27: Show Boat. It hasn’t been revived since the famous Hal Prince revival in the 80s that earned Rebecca Luker her Tony nomination. The Jerome Kern Oscar Hammerstein score has songs that soar and songs full of pathos. Show Boat set many rules about the depiction of race on stage both in cast and content. And for a director looking for a challenge, so much extra material has been written for stage revival and film that the director can take the second act almost anyplace he’d like to go.
Follies with Audra or Kelli and Laura Benanti would be amazing. LuPone should play Carlotta. Only about 5 years of gestation left needed.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000