There was a studio cast recording of Lady In The Dark with the late great Rise Stevens. I hope Encores will consider the part of Liza Elliot to be a soprano with an operatic range like Rise had. Perhaps Audra Macdonald. ? Someone who sings well like Barbara Cook and Julie Andrews had. Please.
They did Lady In The Dark in - what? the second season? - with Ebersole, Patrick Cassidy, Ed Hibbert, etc. It was fine. I don't think the role plays to Clark's strengths, but who really cares?
Herman truly believes all his shows are worthy and are going to get "first class" revivals like Dolly (and likely Mame will in a few years). He thinks "well, if we just fix the book a little" on everything from Mack and Mable to Dear World will make it a big success and doesn't want to weaken buzz on any of them by appearing at Encores when, if anything, it would do the opposite.
BWW's press release is a confusing mess. The lineup of Encores! shows is:
Call Me Madam (February 6-10), I Married an Angel (March 20-24) and High Button Shoes (May 8-12). Lady In The Dark is a separate event with MasterVoices and Victoria Clark.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
Really exciting to see these shows. It feels very true to the Encores! mission and I'm excited to be introduced to these shows in top-notch productions!
A Chorus Line is honestly underwhelming. Isn't it on tour right now? And it will be the original production restaged (as it should be, imo), but I was hoping for Ragtime or something where we'd see something brand new with it. Does any know what I mean? Just a little less exciting than Brigadoon was.
I said it when we were dreamcasting the Hollywood Bowl production, and I stand by it now. I think Julianne Hough would be a sensational Cassie. And if not Julianne, I'd love to see one of the other Dancing With The Stars pros do it like Sharna Burgess or Witney Carson. I know Sharna has a singing background.
Littleshopofcarrie said: "Sutton Foster as Cassie, please."
I think even Foster herself knows how horribly miscast she’d be as Cassie and probably has too much respect for dancers to take on the role. I hope they go the AMERICAN IN PARIS route and cast dancers who can pull off that beautiful choreography. I recall Megan Sikora doing some beautiful dancing in CURTAINS and APPLAUSE at City Center. Is she a trained dancer? I’d love to see her in this. In a way, Broadway musicals seem to rely on a different kind of choreography today that makes identifying the Donna McKechnies or Ann Reinkings of today a little more difficult. Hopefully those of you who are familiar with the great Broadway dancers of today can come up with some potential casting suggestions.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Even though Baayork Lee and Bob Avian are involved, I REALLY hope this CHORUS LINE has fresh elements and doesn't just use the actors from the recent revival/tours/regional productions that Baayork worked on. New York needs a new, fresh, vibrant production of ACL. It's one thing to use some of the iconic Bennett choreography and the gold costumes, but do we actually need another version with the original staging? I just want this to be better/different than the 2007 revival & subsequent spinoffs.