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Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#31
Posted: 9/11/14 at 5:57pm
Audio of Joan doing the George Raft monologue has popped up on YouTube.
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessagemodern.php?thread=1035646&m=4186230&boardid=0
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Auggie27
Broadway Legend
Joined: 10/13/03
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#30
Posted: 9/5/14 at 4:02pmI saw her midway through her run, and she was acceptable in the first half, and quite wonderful in the bravura set piece at the end, the famous dance sequence with her son in which does does a paean to George Raft. In her book she comments on how much the company resisted her being cast and failed to welcome her in the early performances, only inspiring her dig in and prove her mettle. Which she did. I'd love to say it was a memorable night. It was just good enough. But she was an actor. A real one, and that certainly proved it.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
dreaming
Broadway Legend
Joined: 4/24/09
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#29
Posted: 9/5/14 at 3:24pmlovebwy-I am in 100% agreement. (I was hoping for tomorrow since I'm seeing something. If not, I can certainly make a special trip for the tribute.)
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#28
Posted: 9/5/14 at 3:19pmIf they dimmed the lights for Robin Williams they goddamned well better dim the lights for Joanie.
dreaming
Broadway Legend
Joined: 4/24/09
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#27
Posted: 9/5/14 at 3:16pmI'm sad if they're not going to. She was more of a presence as an audience member and performer than Robin Williams (and I thought he earned it as well). She would have been honored to be recognized by the Broadway community. That's rather sad.
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#25
Posted: 9/5/14 at 2:46pmWouldn't they have announced it today already?
dreaming
Broadway Legend
Joined: 4/24/09
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#24
Posted: 9/5/14 at 2:39pmNext week? I'd have thought tomorrow perhaps.
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#23
Posted: 9/5/14 at 2:25pmI hope they dim the lights for her next week.
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#22
Posted: 9/5/14 at 2:24pmI thought Rivers acquitted herself quite well in the role but I did not envy her having to follow the extraordinary Lavin, and Elizabeth Franz. I'm sure with a proper rehearsal period she could have found more but I recell her George Raft monologue being quite moving. I had a pal in the cast at the time and don't remember his mentioning the tensions other have referred to.
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#21
Posted: 9/5/14 at 2:22pmHe changed the story over in the RIP thread on the other board.
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Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#20
Posted: 9/5/14 at 2:20pmDon't piss Dollypop off. If you do, he'll send Elizabitch over to annoy you to death.
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#19
Posted: 9/5/14 at 1:49pm
I still think Dollypop was just making shIt up again.
DAME
Broadway Legend
Joined: 4/15/04
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#18
Posted: 9/5/14 at 1:31pm
I saw Broadway Bound early in the run and I though she was very good in it. Shortly after I went to see her do stand up at a club in NY. Same club where I had seen Mel Torme and Woody Allen used to play on Monday nights ( can't remember the name). The night I saw her do stand up her entire cast of Broadway Bound was there cheering her on. I also saw the play they cover in the documentary at the Geffen theater in Los Angeles. It was not very good. It was a big piece of shtick. When you walked into the theater they had the entrance set up like the red carpet with two actors playing paparazzi. The evening was fun. But it made you wish it was just her up there telling stories.
HUSSY POWER!
------ HUSSY POWER!
Updated On: 9/5/14 at 01:31 PM
Kevin Norte
Swing
Joined: 5/2/12
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#17
Posted: 9/5/14 at 1:21pmI remember seeing Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound at The Broadhurst in either August or September of 1988. It was a Thursday evening that the house was half full. It was the start of her comeback. In it she played Kate, the role originated by Linda Lavin. Her character was dealing with loss and if I remember it correctly, the character abandons her family. I thought Joan Rivers was chilling and she had the ability to reveal a darkness that existed in the Jerome household. It was a darkness that I do not remember seeing in Brighton Beach Memoirs. I was impressed. There was more to the woman and I was glad that I participated in her road to her Comeback.
Storefrontnyc
Stand-by
Joined: 2/17/04
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#16
Posted: 8/17/11 at 1:15amshe's sensitive about her work as an actress because, for fifty plus years, she's PLAYED the part of a comic. And extraordinarily successfully.
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#15
Posted: 8/16/11 at 11:58pmI saw Joan in BB in July of 1988. I remember she was very, very good and had some very touching moments. She got a standing O - very well deserved.
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#14
Posted: 8/16/11 at 1:17am
There are things I like and things I don't about Miss Joan Rivers. One of them is that she is so damned overly-sensitive while being incredibly vicious in her stand-up. I don't believe it's coming from a good place in her. "It's just a joke!" she'll say. But then, god forbid, anything be said about her.
And the way she snaps like a mean pitbull! When Terry Gross had her on to promote "A Piece of Work," Terry played the scene where the person in the audience calls her on her mocking of somebody's disability as if it was this astounding Joan Rivers success moment. To me it was just the worst example of how to handle a heckler. I guess she made a joke about being deaf or something and a guy in the audience tells her it's not funny when your kids is deaf and Joan, always wanting to have it both ways, calls him a son of a bitch, tells him it's a joke, and then for her final death blow, exclaims "My MOTHER was deaf!!!" So, so awful. She's bitching him out for playing victim and then tries to trump him. God, I hated her while listening to that moment, as I have so many times in her career.
Honestly, I thought she was just fine in the Simon play. And I truly believe if she is sooooooooooo sensitive about her acting it's because it's inconceivable to her that criticism (or a punchline) can come from anything but an angry and hateful position.
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Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#13
Posted: 8/15/11 at 2:09pm
Well if she wants to act, but won't because of criticism, then she is not truly an actress. Actresses are fearless and vulnerable when needed. No one is guaranteed good press. I didn't really understood how she separated comic and actress (i.e., I can take a critical beating as a comic, but not an actress.)
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#12
Posted: 8/15/11 at 9:51am
The impression I got from "A Piece of Work" wasn't so much that she was protective of the one woman show itself, but of her sense of herself as an actress. Her dream was to be an actress; it is at the core of her self-definition. She can take criticism of her comedy but is highly protective of anything she does that can be considered acting. She seems to believe NYC critics won't accept her as an actress.
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#11
Posted: 8/15/11 at 7:14am
I think Joan is a very good actress. Sadly, what she has done to her face would preclude her from most roles other than playing herself. I dont think she could emote.
It was sad to see her drop her one woman show due to what sounded like mixed reviews in her documentary " A Piece of Work." She was very protective of the piece and she seemed to not want to be that vulnerable in New York.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
Dollypop
Broadway Legend
Joined: 5/15/03
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#9
Posted: 8/14/11 at 7:22pmAccording to her book, Joan called the cast together after a week or so and reasoned with them. She may have even taken them out to dinner. From that point on, things changed. I recall seeing the show within days of her taking over the part.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend
Joined: 5/17/03
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#8
Posted: 8/14/11 at 6:49pmI saw some NYC based show there I thought it was Fun City. I stand corrected.
Poster Emeritus
Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?#7
Posted: 8/14/11 at 6:39pmI only saw the show with Joan in it after she'd been in it a while. I was not aware of any backstage tension and was surprised by her good work in the dramatic scenes.
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