bostonman

I don't know how they did the transformation in that revival (which I think was largely a sub-par production), but in the original, Bernadette had a stage double (both of them wearing hoods so you really couldn't see their faces clearly) standing in during the scene. You *heard* Bernadette say the lines, but you weren't actually seeing the real her the whole time. Until the reveal.

I worked with Jen some years back, in the Boston company of Nunsense in its last few years - she played Sister Amnesia. So funny, always. And a great lady also. I'm so thrilled to see where she has gone over time.

Her songs in "The Band's Visit" had a conversational quality that a number of Sondheim roles do also have - but not Bobby (Bobbie), who indeed really has to let it go and sing in a much more conventional "leading role" way. But I'd be intrigued to see Lenk play a role like Desiree, or Fosca. I think she'd be great in roles like that.

IMO, Patti needs to learn when to keep her mouth shut. This wasn't her cross to bear (she loves to take these things on herself when she really shouldn't), and I think she only made things worse by being so brash and making it a very personal thing. (I understand the talkback was stopped after this - which might not have happened otherwise. But who was in the mood after that????) I think, despite the testing protocols for the cast (which honestly haven't prevented them from getting infected even so), it would be a good idea for actors to be masked when doing these post-show talkbacks. It would go more with the intimate, equitable feel of the discussion (very different from the show itself), and in this case, it would have given the audience member even less of a fight. (To be fair, Patti may have been thinking on similar lines when she asked if she herself should put on a mask.) Tensions and tempers run high with all of this, and I know a lot of people support what Patti did. I do too, on basic principle, but I do wish she would find a nicer way to do it. She might have caught the fly with honey. She didn't even try. She just totally lost control, like Eva Peron on a bad day. IMO it kinda ruins the thrill of her climactic "Rise...rise...rise...rise...rise...RISE!!!" when all everyone will now remember going out of the performance is that she yelled "put on your fucking mask!"

They really shouldn’t say things like that. I do believe that some people would then continue to leave off their mask IN ORDER TO see if Lupone would actually stop the show.

Frankly, I can understand the hype for Hamilton much more than for Phantom or Dear Evan Hansen, neither of which I think are very good shows. (Phantom needs much better lyrics and a few less ballads and reprises, DEH needs much better everything.) I think hype is a winning combination of shrewd marketing and somehow tapping into the zeitgeist, especially for the younger generation. I think shows like Rent, Hamilton, and DEH definitely found that resonance with the younger crowds - and hype is born. I happen to like Hamilton a lot. But no one has to like it just because I do. Also, unrelated to that, the guy playing the title role on Broadway is a friend of mine lol.

This is one of at least 2 moments where the cast album gives one a completely wrong impression on how a scene actually works. The other is "One Night Only" where, on the album, the Dreams seem to "steal" the song from Effie right in the middle of her rendition - and it feels like a true theatrical coup. But unfortunately, in the show, there's a scene that happens between the two versions of the song, giving the scene a very different feel. (Whereas the actual show version makes more sense in terms of plot, the cast album adaptation has a certain theatricality/energy that I really love.)

I've rarely seen a standing O mid-performance in any show. I wonder if some people are taking Lupone too literally when she ends the song with "everybody rise...rise...rise..." etc, lol. And yes, standing O's are way too routine nowadays. But I will also say that the cliche of "the audience leapt to its feet" is never the case. In my experience, standing O's always start with a few people, and it gradually catches on - and for some people it's about standing only because they no longer can see in front of them, and/or they don't want to appear to be a party pooper when everyone else around them is standing. And invariably, there are some people who stand primarily because they want to be noticed. Much like the idiots who can't even wait for the last note of an aria in an opera to start yelling "bravo" - it's a part of an ego trip to be the first one to get there. Even if a "bravo" or a standing O are not really warranted.

I heard parts of the broadcast Monday night and it sounded very good. Looking forward to seeing the HD at the end of the month. And...one wonders if we will indeed see Netrebko back at the Met by then? (Even though Gelb has been rather cagey about exactly which Russian artists are not welcome there right now, I think bringing her in for the upcoming Turandot would be a mistake.)

Yeah - I find myself oddly drawn to that aspect - not usually, but somehow this time. But I think I'd rather have just the outward appearance of sketchy, lol, not the real deal. So I dunno...

I will never forget meeting Russ. He was wonderful. Aside from the session, one other moment still sticks with me. This wasn't my first hire, but it was the first time doing it on a business trip in a hotel in a different city, instead of an outcall at my Boston apartment, and I was a little nervous. I remember going up to my room with Russ, and fumbling just a little with my door card to get into the room. Then I felt a reassuring arm fold around me, from that adorable big strong hunk I had literally just met in the lobby moments before. From then I knew I had picked the right guy. :-)

With Erik and Ben both calling attention to their big feet (yum), I’m thinking I’m going to have to try this out when they make their way to Boston soon. Hopefully my budget can support that lol.

I keep checking this guy's ad out. His look intrigues me, but I'm just not sure. Anyone have any experience or thoughts? https://rentmen.eu/TimTheHammer

I wish I were into the facial hair - but it’s too much of it for me.

Me too. I finally had to block his number after his texting with me got very abusive. Then he texted me back on a 2nd number to tell me to google myself to find out I was blacklisted (which was phony of course). I blocked him for a 2nd time. That seemed to do the trick. Never again.

A relatively short time, considering its slogan, "now and forever." I've always had conflicting feelings about Cats. I don't mind the score - I think much of it is fun. It doesn't have the same edge that Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita had (which is at the time what had me loving Webber and Rice), but as the next Webber show, I was interested enough in his work to get to know it. What utterly baffled me was the visual production. Little did we know the the time that this was the start of the "mega musical" era - but it wasn't so much the sprawling size of the production (the Broadway version of Superstar had suffered the same fate), it was the sense that it was a cute and whimsical kids-oriented song cycle that seemed to think it was a horrid vomiting up of some nightmarish drug-induced amateur glam rock concert. And it took itself so god-damned seriously, instead of (IMO) embracing the whimsical nature of the poems. Personally, much like the intention of the original Joseph (before it, too, fell to the victimization of the mega-musical overtreatment), I think Cats might be a delightful concert piece, perhaps sung in true concert hall form with a symphony orchestra and without all the crazed junkyard/spaceship tire/glam rock stuff. if it were done earnestly, with a real sense of fun instead of the melodramatic bullshit, it could actually make a good show.

I would hope he is staying sober for this production.

It’s a tough thing. I’d love to hire a black guy with a big cock if he intrigued me in general. But all these self-proclaimed “BBC” guys tend to present themselves in very unattractive ways, personality-wise in particular. I guess there’s a big market for that, otherwise they wouldn’t do it. But I find it a big turnoff.

Different people mourn and commemorate in different ways. For a man who has had several heart attacks in his life, I'd say 91 is pretty damn good. And I would think he's led a pretty full life. But still, losing him is very sad. For me, extremely sad, as I've spent so much of my career with his music, and his work has influenced my life a great deal. Even as that legacy lives on, it's still hard to face the fact that he's gone. I'll be musical director for a production of Into The Woods this spring - it will surely be a bittersweet experience so soon after his passing. (Callback auditions are mid-January, not very long from now.) But I'm also extremely glad I get to spend a few months with that score again - it will be a great way to commemorate him. I'd say we not judge words like "tragedy" and just let people feel as they choose to feel. ` And of course, much as Hammerstein was a mentor to Sondheim, Sondheim was a mentor to the young Jonathan Larson, who was just shy of 36 when he died unexpectedly, just as his groundbreaking musical Rent started previews off-Broadway. "Sometimes people leave you halfway through the wood." In the case of Sondheim, we're incredibly lucky to have had his talents around us for so many years. But he was working on another show - which now of course we will never see. (Though hopefully a song or two will be leaked?)

Where? I can't imagine any theatre space off-Broadway that could hold that size orchestra and chorus.

I listened on Sirius, following along with the vocal score. LOVED it. I had seen Aucoin's opera "Crossing" when it was produced in Boston a few years back. I was very taken by the music, but found the story and libretto to be sub par. This time, I feel he has a really good match in Sarah Ruhl's libretto based on her own play. I'm looking forward to the HD transmission.

Look back at some of my posts early in this thread. I was intrigued by him at first, then I learned to stay the hell away from him.

Tea time???

He is a whole lot of trouble. He is also way beyond 22 at this point.

I have a regular who will sometimes use "Babe" with me and I find that kind of sweet. I'm allergic to "Hun" - I've had (female) clerks occasionally use that, and I find it weird. In my own professional life, as a college professor, but in theatre, where things often are much more casual than in typical academia, our students all tend to refer to us by first names, which is fine. But I love when I get emails from freshmen calling me "Professor" lol. (I tell them my first name is fine.) The oddest thing was a theatre director I worked with for a long time in a youth theatre company who often used to refer to me as "Mr. [first name]" - especially around the kids. It made me feel like a character on a kid's TV show or something.