Get Joan Rivers back on Bway,Edna Perhaps?

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 4/5/05 at 5:42pm

I adore Joan Rivers, think she is one of the funniest people who ever lived. About 20ish years ago she was one of the hottest stars in the country. After being named the first ever and only "permanent guest host" for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, she was bigger than ever and her face was on the cover of it seemed every major magazine.
I loved her morning talk show that was on in New York in the late 1960s and loved the Broadway play she starred in and cowrote FUN CITY. The audience had a fabulous time. It was hysterical and I also loved that Rose Marie from the Dick Van Dyke Show and Gabriel Dell from The Little Rascals and Paul Ford, the mayor from THE MUSIC MAN film were all in the cast. I thought the play was a riot and Rivers was great starring in it.
She replaced Linda Lavin's Tony winning role as the mother in Neil Simon's BROADWAY BOUND and stayed with the show for almost TWO years. She got excellent notices. Her next Broadway outing, SALLY MARS AND HER ESCORTS (I think that is pretty close to the title) reaped her a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a play.
The woman is a true Diva. I would love to see her starring in a Broadway show. I think she would be a fabulous reverse gender bending Edna in HAIRSPRAY. Any other ideas for Broadway roles for Ms. Rivers?

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 4/5/05 at 5:45pm

she would be excellent as long as she doesnt have to sing or dance.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 4/5/05 at 5:49pm

She would be a fierce Yente.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 4/5/05 at 5:50pm

I adored her in SALLY MARR.

[Bobby457]

Posted: 4/5/05 at 5:50pm

Joan is a great lady....my BF did Sally Marrs and her Escorts with her...and said she was great to work with

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/5/05 at 5:52pm

Sally Marr was one of the crappiest shows I've ever seen and she was horrible in it. She only got the nomination because she was a well known name. She needs to retire.

[renthead2005z]

Posted: 4/5/05 at 5:53pm

idk about edna, but i think she might be able to be madame morrible.

[Joshua488]

Posted: 4/5/05 at 5:54pm

Anyone think Joan Rivers would make an hilarious Velma von Tussle? She wouldn't be able to sing a lick, but she'd be pretty fierce.

Posted: 4/5/05 at 5:58pm

Hmmm....Thinking of a role that requires no singing or dancing. No Acting skills to speak of...constant character breaking and lots of tired schtick...Am I the only one drawing a blank?

I can not see her as Edna, inasmuchas it would be hard to write in hundreds of thousands of dollars in plastic surgery for Mrs. Turnblad. How about Velma? If you cut her songs and dances almost all her lines? It would be fun to imagine the backstage conversation between Marc Shaiman and the woman who stabbed Carson in the back.

The only thing I could imagine is a one-woman show like Elaine Strich At Liberty. "Joan Rivers: Painfully Unfunny!"

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/5/05 at 6:03pm

Can anyone pinpoint the moment when her comedy turned from being funny to being mean-spirited? She's said some pretty nasty things.

[Joshua488]

Posted: 4/5/05 at 6:07pm

I think Joan Rivers is hilarious!

It still irks me when I think about the time when she stole my seat at Town Hall during a benefit performance of SCREEN DOOR. She wasn't in the show until act two, so she sat in the house for act one, and conveniently decided to sit in my seat when I left to use the restroom. It was Joan Rivers, for Christ's sake, so I couldn't tell her to move. Ugh.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 4/5/05 at 6:18pm

I couldn't resist posting after reading the topic since I believe credit is always due to those who demonstrate unnecessary acts of kindness. When I was attending college in L.A. I also bartended in a trendy restaurant. One night Joan Rivers came in and I felt obliged to congratulate her on something she had done. I also mentioned that my Mom and Aunt were coming out to visit me and we were looking forward to seeing her club act the following week. Well she lit up after the compliment and said " Got a pencil? Write this name down! Write this name down!" to which I replied "It's an easy name, I can remember it". She then started punching my arm and yelled, "NO,NO WRITE IT DOWN!"....lol. She then told me to mention the name to the host when I arrived at the club. Well...here I am with my relatives and before the show a bottle of champagne was sent to the table "Compliments of Ms. Rivers". Then after the show the host said, "Ms. Rivers would like to see you all in her dressing room." Needless to say there were celebrities in the dressing room and my mom and aunt were ecstatic to meet Joan and her friends and she couldn't have been warmer. I'll never forget her kindness to me, her sincere interest in what I was doing and most of all...it gave my Mom and Aunt a wonderful story to take back to New York with them....:)

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 4/7/05 at 2:10pm

Demitri2, thanks for the lovely post. Anyone who does not think Ms. Rivers is a fine actress.......I suspect they did not see her acclaimed starring performance in BROADWAY BOUND or her Tony nominated work in SALLY MARS. She is a gifted actress and clearly one of the funniest women who ever lived.