I know this has been discussed on this board before, but I forgot why LMK was not asked to do Mary Poppins on Broadway...I heard many conflicting stories, and was just wondering if any knew the truth?
Thanks!
"Now the best way to learn the theater, always, is to be a stage manager"
-Stephen Sondheim
The rumors in London were that LMK wanted to leave the UK production and have some time off prior to taking the show to New York, but the producers wanted her to stay right up until rehearsels for Broadway began. She wasn't willing to do that, left the show there, and that's history.
It could have been (and most likely was) an Equity thing. I doubt we'll ever know for sure..
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Also she was more interested in focusing on her new career as a pop singer/songwriter, which hasn't turned out to be particularly successful. So it might have been a wiser choice to stick with Poppins.
somethingwicked - it probably wasn't an Equity issue, because she was in Fiddler with no problem, and its not like she was the only actress capable of playing Hodel or something like that.
Equity was probably not the issue. After all, the original Burt from London is coming to Broadway. It would hardly have been the first time Equity let actors from other countries perform on Broadway. I mean, c'mon, they let practically the entire cast of The History Boys come over
My understanding was that Laura got into a bit of a squabble with Cameron Mackintosh, who then basically took the opportunity of coming with the show to the US away from her.
"I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about." - Oscar Wilde