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.
Is Denis O' Hare too old for the role? I'm not familiar with the show. I know he has said that he has sworn off musicals, but he also said he would do a musical if it had an edge to it, and I'm sure he would jump at the opportunity to do Sondheim.
Michael Arden would do really well with the show, I think, but he looks awfully young. (I mean, he is, but he really looks it.) His look would certainly be an advantage for where the show ends up, but could he believably do the beginning?
I'd love the opportunity to see Raúl do Merrily live. I wonder if he would do it again? He'd be forty in 2010. He doesn't look old at all, IMO, but to believably play a teenager, who knows.
We really have to know which way they are going to really guess cast. Because no actor can realistically play the ages required, you either go young or older.
But I believe Arden and Gallagher are good enough actors to pull it off as originally written.
Experience has shown the show is more successful if you cast actors in their mid to late 30's, since they are supposed to be around 40 at the beginning of the show. By the end, when they are supposed to be teens, the audience has accepted the convention of the show. Audiences will resist a bunch of 22 year olds acting sophisticated and middle-aged in the first scene.
Lapine has directed the show before with 30-40ish actors. I assume he'll repeat this on Broadway. Sondheim wasn't in love with the baby face actor concept and I don't think this has changed. Point is-actors as young as Arden and Gallagher lack the life experience to make the older age scenes believable both visually and emotionally.
And despite his Tony win, Gallagher could never sing a Sondheim show.
I'd love to see Raúl as well... I adore it when he sings Sondheim. Sadly, he may be too old. John Gallagher Jr. is a very interesting suggestion that may work. I'd be interested to see how he could handle Sondheim.
"As we all should probably have learned by now, to be a Stephen Sondheim fan is to have one's heart broken at regular intervals" - Frank Rich
Dearest, how can this be so? You were dead, you know. - Candide
Oh my god, this show has everything! Half naked guys and girl on girl action! - [title of show]
(My avatar? Why, yes! That is Laura Benanti making out with a chick!)
tellybox, Mara Davi is much more of a Beth than a Mary.
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.