edjames

Dusty Springfield. Ok, now I can claim total expertise on this subject.
I was called, in print, the greatest Dusty expert I the USA. My pal, Paul can claim that title internationally.
I was privileged to not only see Dusty perform live, but met her personally on a number of occasions.
She was an incredible performer, but alas, she suffered from bipolar disorder aa well as alcohol and drug additions.
She conquered drinking but drugs (prescription) were another problem.
Yes, she was gay and had many female partners. Her Irish Catholic background and the fact that she grew up in the '50's perhaps had a to to do with her closeted mentality, although there were times that she pushed the envelope, with quotes to the Evening Standard in 1969 like “I know I’m as perfectly capable of being swayed by a girl
as by a boy. More and more people feel that way and I don’t see why I shouldn’t.”
There have been a slew of movie scripts floating around for a biopic on her life. There have been at least 10 different stage productions, but in the end, the problem is that you can't replicate or come close to the voice. Right now, the rumor mill has it, Downton Abby actress Lily James may do a biopic. Madonna once had the rights. Adele is a great singer, but she is no Dusty, and Adele is the first to admit it. She was "attached" to one project, but that was in 2013. Even Kristin Chenowirth was once involved in a biopic.
Right now a new stage production is being presented in the UK and is on its way to the West End. This once has a bit more power and credence behind it, as it is being produced by Dusty best friend, Vicki Wickham.
The late singer's rise to fame will be documented in the production, which is being written by Sandi Toksvig after she was contracted by producers Vicki Wickham - who was the former manager of Dusty - and theatre mogul David Ian.
Vicki has admitted she's seen ''numerous really bad'' shows and scripts written about Dusty - who died from breast cancer in 1999 aged 59 - that haven't captured the true colourful life that she led, and she's determined to show a side to the blonde beauty that no one knows about.
She told the Daily Mail newspaper: ''I keep going to these and coming out going, 'Yes, the music's great - but it has nothing to do with Dusty!
''Dusty was extraordinary. Yes, she could drive you mad - all divas do. But there's such a lovely side to her that should, and will, be told.''
The musical - which is still yet to get a director and is currently without a title - will feature Dusty's most famous songs, such as 'Son of a Preacher Man', 'I Only Want to Be with You' and 'Yesterday When I Was Young'. Vicki has vowed the production will venture into the dark side of Dusty's personality but will end on a high note.
She said: ''I promise you, you'll come out happy and singing.''
Oddly enough, Vicki, along with author, Penny Valentine, wrote the warts-and-all bio of Dusty called "Dancing With Demons" which chronicled the sad, alcohol, and drug fueled events in Dusty's life.
Anyway, Dusty has been deceased for 19 years but she is not forgotten. She has her OBE and has been inducted into the USA and UK Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, her recordings of "The Look of Love" and her album Dusty In Memphis have been placed in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Once again, its all publicity. There are no biopics currently in the works, and certainly no actresses who have been cast as Dusty. Trust me on this one.

Seeing this on Thursday evening...

Review: Glenda Jackson Gets Her Queen Lear Moment in ‘Three Tall Women’
THREE TALL WOMEN
1 hr. and 45 min.
Closing Date: June 24, 2018
John Golden Theater, 252 W. 45th St.
 
By JESSE GREEN. MARCH 29, 2018
 
Her jaw thrust forward like a prow, her elfin eyes belying her regal bearing, her wide-screen mouth wrapping itself around those slashing, implacable consonants — they’re all exactly as you remember them and want them to be. Or if you’ve never experienced them, welcome to the pleasure. Either way, Glenda Jackson is back; even better, she’s back in a role that’s big enough to need her.
 
Aptly, the name of the role is A.
 
A is the oldest of Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women,” which opened on Thursday night in a torrentially exciting production that also stars Laurie Metcalf and Alison Pill. It not only puts an exclamation point on Ms. Jackson’s long-shelved acting career but also serves as a fitting memorial, which is to say a hilarious and horrifying one, to Albee, who died in 2016.
 
Though “Three Tall Women” won him his third Pulitzer Prize, in 1994, and marked his return from the critical wilderness after two decades of disrepute, this is the play’s Broadway premiere. Joe Mantello’s chic, devastating staging at the Golden Theater was worth the wait.
 
The wait for Ms. Jackson seemed less likely to be rewarded. A highbrow star of classy film and television in the 1970s, with two best actress Oscars and a handful of Emmys, she pulled the plug on her acting career in 1992 when elected to the House of Commons on the Labour ticket. That doesn’t mean she stopped performing, exactly,
. 
But by the time she retired from politics, in 2015, few expected the 79-year-old to show up onstage again. Then came an exhilarating “King Lear” at the Old Vic in 2016, announcing that Ms. Jackson had lost none of her power and verve.
 
So how do you top “King Lear”?
 
In a way, “Three Tall Women” — a comedy about decrepitude or a tragedy about survival, depending on how you look at it — is “Queen Lear” in a fun house mirror.
 
A is a rich old lady, 92 but vainly pretending to be 91: a fossil of the old guard with all the imperiousness, mischief and grit that suggests. She spends most of her time abusing the memory of a bad marriage and an even worse son — worse because gay. Still, you are never sure how much of what she says is true; her grievances, like her racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia, seem almost rote.
 
For A, hanging on to a sense of identity means maintaining the enamel shell of her narcissism even as she forgets what she once found so fascinating inside it. Ms. Jackson, in a lilac dressing gown and a marcelled silver wig, digs deep into that contradiction, producing huge laughs from the grim idea that awfulness is a damn good habit as death hovers.
 
The audience for her awfulness, in the first act anyway, consists of Ms. Metcalf as B, her fiftyish seen-it-all caretaker, and Ms. Pill as C, an uptight twentysomething emissary from her lawyer’s office, trying to bring order to a chaos of unpaid bills. Ms. Metcalf, spiky and floppy, is particularly mordant in this material, sometimes bullying and sometimes coddling A in an effort to get through another unpleasant day with minimal fuss. Confined to her employer’s grand bedroom, she is a visual joke, stomping around in gray pants and sneakers.
 
In the new configuration, with the whole cast dressed in coordinated purples — the superb costumes are by Ann Roth — the tone darkens even as the play remains raucously funny. You may never have heard a dirty story about a man’s anatomy told as Ms. Jackson does in the second act, but A, B and C, now a living time-lapse photograph, have more at stake in one another’s success, and more at risk in failure.
 
Perhaps that’s because they are all, in essence, Albee’s mother, who (he always said) bought him from an adoption agency for $133.30 and forever after hoped to return him. “Three Tall Women” is based, in part, on conversations she had with him about her life, marriage and unhappy parenthood. In more ways than one, Albee hovers about the action.
 
But unlike in much of his early work, he does not insist on dominating it. “Three Tall Women” is rigorous but also generous, even loving, to its characters — and audience. It honors the women’s flintiness and fear as C swears not to become B and B hopes not to become A. In doing so, it slips Beckettian existentialism through the commercial barricades by disguising it as comfortable mainstream entertainment.
 
Well, not always comfortable. By the end, when Ms. Jackson gives voice to A’s terror as her faculties wane, and considers the idea that death will be a relief, you may be struck, as I was most recently in the Signature Theater’s revival of “At Home at the Zoo,” by Albee’s willingness to go anywhere. Or rather, his unwillingness not to.
 
That doesn’t mean this is a perfect play. Given the Cubist structure, it’s not surprising that the themes eventually start to recycle with more panache than novelty. And C, as written, does not always stand for compelling.
 
Still, time has been good to “Three Tall Women,” and Mr. Mantello’s production further burnishes its insights and confirms its originality. The staging tricks enhance the ones that Albee built in, with Miriam Buether’s astonishing set design, at first so pretty and cozy, holding unexpected dimensions of alienation in store. The lighting (by Paul Gallo) and subtle sound design (by Fitz Patton) beautifully support the idea of a play slipping identities in the same way its characters do.
 
Finally, though, it comes back to the actors. Ms. Jackson’s history with us, and her aura of indomitability, mean that she is not merely a casting coup for A but a natural advocate for the play’s central themes. She is, politically and personally, the embodiment of not going gentle into that good night; death and Thatcherism are all the same to her.
 
And though Ms. Metcalf and Ms. Pill look nothing like Ms. Jackson, or each other, they bring more important skills and associations to their roles. Ms. Metcalf, once known for tragedy but now transformed into a peerless comedian (thanks to “Roseanne,” “A Doll’s House, Part 2” and “Lady Bird”), is thus a very Albee creature. And it is not irrelevant, seeing Ms. Pill’s just-holding-it-together C, to think of the devastated young woman she played, under Mr. Mantello’s direction, in the Off Broadway premiere of “Blackbird.”
 
Watching these three women in “Three Tall Women” means seeing the ghosts and echoes of many other women as well. They complete Albee’s imaginative leap into difficult souls, which of course means all of us. And they honor a play that despite its frailties and wrinkles has aged beautifully, into a burning, raving classic.

Dusty Springfield. Ok, now I can claim total expertise on this subject.
I was called, in print, the greatest Dusty expert I the USA. My pal, Paul can claim that title internationally.
I was privileged to not only see Dusty perform live, but met her personally on a number of occasions.
She was an incredible performer, but alas, she suffered from bipolar disorder aa well as alcohol and drug additions.
She conquered drinking but drugs (prescription) were another problem.
Yes, she was gay and had many female partners. Her Irish Catholic background and the fact that she grew up in the '50's perhaps had a to to do with her closeted mentality, although there were times that she pushed the envelope, with quotes to the Evening Standard in 1969 like “I know I’m as perfectly capable of being swayed by a girl
as by a boy. More and more people feel that way and I don’t see why I shouldn’t.”
There have been a slew of movie scripts floating around for a biopic on her life. There have been at least 10 different stage productions, but in the end, the problem is that you can't replicate or come close to the voice. Right now, the rumor mill has it, Downton Abby actress Lily James may do a biopic. Madonna once had the rights. Adele is a great singer, but she is no Dusty, and Adele is the first to admit it. She was "attached" to one project, but that was in 2013. Even Kristin Chenowirth was once involved in a biopic.
Right now a new stage production is being presented in the UK and is on its way to the West End. This once has a bit more power and credence behind it, as it is being produced by Dusty best friend, Vicki Wickham.
The late singer's rise to fame will be documented in the production, which is being written by Sandi Toksvig after she was contracted by producers Vicki Wickham - who was the former manager of Dusty - and theatre mogul David Ian.
Vicki has admitted she's seen ''numerous really bad'' shows and scripts written about Dusty - who died from breast cancer in 1999 aged 59 - that haven't captured the true colourful life that she led, and she's determined to show a side to the blonde beauty that no one knows about.
She told the Daily Mail newspaper: ''I keep going to these and coming out going, 'Yes, the music's great - but it has nothing to do with Dusty!
''Dusty was extraordinary. Yes, she could drive you mad - all divas do. But there's such a lovely side to her that should, and will, be told.''
The musical - which is still yet to get a director and is currently without a title - will feature Dusty's most famous songs, such as 'Son of a Preacher Man', 'I Only Want to Be with You' and 'Yesterday When I Was Young'. Vicki has vowed the production will venture into the dark side of Dusty's personality but will end on a high note.
She said: ''I promise you, you'll come out happy and singing.''
Oddly enough, Vicki, along with author, Penny Valentine, wrote the warts-and-all bio of Dusty called "Dancing With Demons" which chronicled the sad, alcohol, and drug fueled events in Dusty's life.
Anyway, Dusty has been deceased for 19 years but she is not forgotten. She has her OBE and has been inducted into the USA and UK Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, her recordings of "The Look of Love" and her album Dusty In Memphis have been placed in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Dusty Springfield. Ok, now I can claim total expertise on this subject.
I was called, in print, the greatest Dusty expert I the USA. My pal, Paul can claim that title internationally.
I was privileged to not only see Dusty perform live, but met her personally on a number of occasions.
She was an incredible performer, but alas, she suffered from bipolar disorder aa well as alcohol and drug additions.
She conquered drinking but drugs (prescription) were another problem.
Yes, she was gay and had many female partners. Her Irish Catholic background and the fact that she grew up in the '50's perhaps had a to to do with her closeted mentality, although there were times that she pushed the envelope, with quotes to the Evening Standard in 1969 like “I know I’m as perfectly capable of being swayed by a girl
as by a boy. More and more people feel that way and I don’t see why I shouldn’t.”
There have been a slew of movie scripts floating around for a biopic on her life. There have been at least 10 different stage productions, but in the end, the problem is that you can't replicate or come close to the voice. Right now, the rumor mill has it, Downton Abby actress Lily James may do a biopic. Madonna once had the rights. Adele is a great singer, but she is no Dusty, and Adele is the first to admit it. She was "attached" to one project, but that was in 2013. Even Kristin Chenowirth was once involved in a biopic.
Right now a new stage production is being presented in the UK and is on its way to the West End. This once has a bit more power and credence behind it, as it is being produced by Dusty best friend, Vicki Wickham.
The late singer's rise to fame will be documented in the production, which is being written by Sandi Toksvig after she was contracted by producers Vicki Wickham - who was the former manager of Dusty - and theatre mogul David Ian.
Vicki has admitted she's seen ''numerous really bad'' shows and scripts written about Dusty - who died from breast cancer in 1999 aged 59 - that haven't captured the true colourful life that she led, and she's determined to show a side to the blonde beauty that no one knows about.
She told the Daily Mail newspaper: ''I keep going to these and coming out going, 'Yes, the music's great - but it has nothing to do with Dusty!
''Dusty was extraordinary. Yes, she could drive you mad - all divas do. But there's such a lovely side to her that should, and will, be told.''
The musical - which is still yet to get a director and is currently without a title - will feature Dusty's most famous songs, such as 'Son of a Preacher Man', 'I Only Want to Be with You' and 'Yesterday When I Was Young'. Vicki has vowed the production will venture into the dark side of Dusty's personality but will end on a high note.
She said: ''I promise you, you'll come out happy and singing.''
Oddly enough, Vicki, along with author, Penny Valentine, wrote the warts-and-all bio of Dusty called "Dancing With Demons" which chronicled the sad, alcohol, and drug fueled events in Dusty's life.
Anyway, Dusty has been deceased for 19 years but she is not forgotten. She has her OBE and has been inducted into the USA and UK Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, her recordings of "The Look of Love" and her album Dusty In Memphis have been placed in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Dusty Springfield. Ok, now I can claim total expertise on this subject.
I was called, in print, the greatest Dusty expert I the USA. My pal, Paul can claim that title internationally.
I was privileged to not only see Dusty perform live, but met her personally on a number of occasions.
She was an incredible performer, but alas, she suffered from bipolar disorder aa well as alcohol and drug additions.
She conquered drinking but drugs (prescription) were another problem.
Yes, she was gay and had many female partners. Her Irish Catholic background and the fact that she grew up in the '50's perhaps had a to to do with her closeted mentality, although there were times that she pushed the envelope, with quotes to the Evening Standard in 1969 like “I know I’m as perfectly capable of being swayed by a girl
as by a boy. More and more people feel that way and I don’t see why I shouldn’t.”
There have been a slew of movie scripts floating around for a biopic on her life. There have been at least 10 different stage productions, but in the end, the problem is that you can't replicate or come close to the voice. Right now, the rumor mill has it, Downton Abby actress Lily James may do a biopic. Madonna once had the rights. Adele is a great singer, but she is no Dusty, and Adele is the first to admit it. She was "attached" to one project, but that was in 2013. Even Kristin Chenowirth was once involved in a biopic.
Right now a new stage production is being presented in the UK and is on its way to the West End. This once has a bit more power and credence behind it, as it is being produced by Dusty best friend, Vicki Wickham.
The late singer's rise to fame will be documented in the production, which is being written by Sandi Toksvig after she was contracted by producers Vicki Wickham - who was the former manager of Dusty - and theatre mogul David Ian.
Vicki has admitted she's seen ''numerous really bad'' shows and scripts written about Dusty - who died from breast cancer in 1999 aged 59 - that haven't captured the true colourful life that she led, and she's determined to show a side to the blonde beauty that no one knows about.
She told the Daily Mail newspaper: ''I keep going to these and coming out going, 'Yes, the music's great - but it has nothing to do with Dusty!
''Dusty was extraordinary. Yes, she could drive you mad - all divas do. But there's such a lovely side to her that should, and will, be told.''
The musical - which is still yet to get a director and is currently without a title - will feature Dusty's most famous songs, such as 'Son of a Preacher Man', 'I Only Want to Be with You' and 'Yesterday When I Was Young'. Vicki has vowed the production will venture into the dark side of Dusty's personality but will end on a high note.
She said: ''I promise you, you'll come out happy and singing.''
Oddly enough, Vicki, along with author, Penny Valentine, wrote the warts-and-all bio of Dusty called "Dancing With Demons" which chronicled the sad, alcohol, and drug fueled events in Dusty's life.
Anyway, Dusty has been deceased for 19 years but she is not forgotten. She has her OBE and has been inducted into the USA and UK Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, her recordings of "The Look of Love" and her album Dusty In Memphis have been placed in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Dusty Springfield. Ok, now I can claim total expertise on this subject.
I was called, in print, the greatest Dusty expert I the USA. My pal, Paul can claim that title internationally.
I was privileged to not only see Dusty perform live, but met her personally on a number of occasions.
She was an incredible performer, but alas, she suffered from bipolar disorder aa well as alcohol and drug additions.
She conquered drinking but drugs (prescription) were another problem.
Yes, she was gay and had many female partners. Her Irish Catholic background and the fact that she grew up in the '50's perhaps had a to to do with her closeted mentality, although there were times that she pushed the envelope, with quotes to the Evening Standard in 1969 like “I know I’m as perfectly capable of being swayed by a girl
as by a boy. More and more people feel that way and I don’t see why I shouldn’t.”
There have been a slew of movie scripts floating around for a biopic on her life. There have been at least 10 different stage productions, but in the end, the problem is that you can't replicate or come close to the voice. Right now, the rumor mill has it, Downton Abby actress Lily James may do a biopic. Madonna once had the rights. Adele is a great singer, but she is no Dusty, and Adele is the first to admit it. She was "attached" to one project, but that was in 2013. Even Kristin Chenowirth was once involved in a biopic.
Right now a new stage production is being presented in the UK and is on its way to the West End. This once has a bit more power and credence behind it, as it is being produced by Dusty best friend, Vicki Wickham.
The late singer's rise to fame will be documented in the production, which is being written by Sandi Toksvig after she was contracted by producers Vicki Wickham - who was the former manager of Dusty - and theatre mogul David Ian.
Vicki has admitted she's seen ''numerous really bad'' shows and scripts written about Dusty - who died from breast cancer in 1999 aged 59 - that haven't captured the true colourful life that she led, and she's determined to show a side to the blonde beauty that no one knows about.
She told the Daily Mail newspaper: ''I keep going to these and coming out going, 'Yes, the music's great - but it has nothing to do with Dusty!
''Dusty was extraordinary. Yes, she could drive you mad - all divas do. But there's such a lovely side to her that should, and will, be told.''
The musical - which is still yet to get a director and is currently without a title - will feature Dusty's most famous songs, such as 'Son of a Preacher Man', 'I Only Want to Be with You' and 'Yesterday When I Was Young'. Vicki has vowed the production will venture into the dark side of Dusty's personality but will end on a high note.
She said: ''I promise you, you'll come out happy and singing.''
Oddly enough, Vicki, along with author, Penny Valentine, wrote the warts-and-all bio of Dusty called "Dancing With Demons" which chronicled the sad, alcohol, and drug fueled events in Dusty's life.
Anyway, Dusty has been deceased for 19 years but she is not forgotten. She has her OBE and has been inducted into the USA and UK Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, her recordings of "The Look of Love" and her album Dusty In Memphis have been placed in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

It was never a secret in the entertainment world. (And for goodness sake, she went to Sarah Lawrence college! (LOL))
Taken too soon, by cancer, at age 68, she was a lovely lady. She was working on a Broadway musical of her life and music when she died.

"People that don't care much for theatre..."

Last weeks box office grosses were $32 million, and the 2017 total was over a billion dollars. That's a lot of seats and a lot of fans. Yes, higher prices have inflated gross receipts, however, the majority of shows have been running for many years and are still sold out (Wicked, Hamilton, Lion King, Dear Evan Hansen, Aladdin, Chicago, Kinky Boots, Book of Mormon, and others are difficult to get tickets to). As a result of the popularity of Broadway, NYC's tourism dollars on hotels, restaurants, and other tourist related industries, the money pours in. It never seems to fail that when I go to the theater (and I see a lot of it) I'm sitting near a bunch of ladies who are all "Y'alling" it amongst each other, not to mention the foreign languages being spoken...)
Awards shows are a snooze in general. Today, nobody cares for them except to watch who's walking down the red carpet, BUT "Best Tony" award, and others are a critical and effective advertising/marketing plan.

NYTimes review of the updated cast for Hello Dolly:
Review: The ‘Dolly’ Parade Marches On, Now With a New Star

Bernadette Peters, who is taking over the role of Dolly Levi in “Hello, Dolly!” from Bette Midler.
The hit musical revival introduced four fresh principals on Thursday evening. CreditSara Krulwich/The New York Times
A dimply new star has joined the cast of “Hello, Dolly!” and he’s delightful — oh wait.
 
Perhaps you weren’t asking about Charlie Stemp, the replacement Barnaby Tucker in the hit musical revival that introduced four fresh principals on Thursday evening.
 
O.K., then: A dimply new star has joined the cast of “Hello, Dolly!” and she’sdelightful.
 
And something more, too.
 
Bernadette Peters, who turns 70 next week, doesn’t need to step into anyone’s shoes at this point in her 60-year Broadway career. That she would take over the role of Dolly Levi from Bette Midler (and her alternate, Donna Murphy) means she was interested in the challenge, not the provenance. I imagine she understood that there was something she could bring to the part that no one else could.
 
That something is not a stage personality filled with gregarious high spirits. Ms. Peters is neither the hoyden type nor the winking type, at least not since her days as a self-parodying chorine. Where Ms. Midler wrung laughs from a line like “I’m tired, Ephraim, tired of living from hand to mouth” — sometimes even pretending to collapse in decrepitude — Ms. Peters doesn’t even go for a giggle. She makes it clear that Dolly is talking about real hardships: the anxiety of work and the loneliness of a widow.
 
Ms. Peters is in fact a widow. (Her husband died in a helicopter crash in 2005.) So is Ms. Murphy, who nevertheless seemed to revel, like Ms. Midler, in the role’s brightest colors. For all the thoughtfulness she brought to the character, Ms. Murphy was more than comfortable with Dolly’s swanning tours of the passerelle; she giddily partook in the loop of absorption and reflection that eventually whips the audience’s love into a kind of hysteria.
 
Ms. Peters gets all that, and returns it. She sings the Jerry Herman songs thrillingly, of course. But if her performance is more like Ms. Murphy’s than like Ms. Midler’s, it has an even darker underlay. I don’t mean that she isn’t funny; she is — though I’m not sure I really believed, in the famous scene at the Harmonia Gardens, that a woman so disciplined in her diet that she will eat just “three smiles of grapefruit” for breakfast would ever chow down on the giant turkey leg set before her.
 
Photo

 
The darkness is more of an aura or predilection. Ms. Peters seems most truly herself not in charm numbers like “I Put My Hand In” but in spoken or sung soliloquies like “Before the Parade Passes By.” In such moments Dolly, the old meddler, isn’t conning anyone; she’s being honest with herself. The final scenes, even as they bring her financial and marital woes to an end, are heartbreaking in the way all successful campaigns are if looked at closely enough.
 
That’s something you don’t really expect to see in a 1960s musical comedy, especially one as lovingly and successfully reincarnated as “Hello, Dolly!” is in Jerry Zaks’s revival. The explosion-in-a-Necco-factory sets and costumes (by Santo Loquasto) and the eccentric Gower Champion choreography, restaged by Warren Carlyle, continue to astonish; you actually gasp at the hats and postures.
 
But a gap may be opening up between the production’s style and Ms. Peters’s. Mr. Stemp and the other new principals — Victor Garber as Dolly’s intended, Horace Vandergelder; Molly Griggs as the milliner’s assistant, Minnie Fay — match the bright polish of the original cast, which has grown a bit zany with time.
Mr. Garber has a breezier take on Vandergelder than did David Hyde Pierce; the subtext of his bluster is never really in doubt. Ms. Griggs is charming and light as a bubble. And Mr. Stemp, as a 17-year-old clerk looking for adventure, doesn’t seem so much excitable as convulsive. Mr. Carlyle has given him some acrobatic new dance moves to make hay of his hyperkinesis.
 
Ms. Peters goes along with all this, to a point. But sometimes I felt she would rather observe the parade than be in it. (Showbiz was never her idea.) Personally, I’m a sucker for that: I think it gives this “Dolly” a fascinating new valence.
 
And “Dolly” can handle it. After all, it has accommodated actresses as different as Carol Channing (the original) and Tovah Feldshuh over the years. However peppy and farcical it gets, it is built on a strong foundation; Michael Stewart’s book draws heavily on the dramatic and real-world wisdom of its immediate source, Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker.”
 
That play, itself worth reviving, is filled with philosophical asides that the musical borrows almost whole. “The surest way to keep us out of harm is to give us the four or five human pleasures that are our right in the world,” goes the best of these asides, and as spoken passionately by Ms. Peters, herself one of those four or five human pleasures, it has never sounded so true.
 
“And that takes a little money,” she adds.
 
Also true.

It was never a secret in the entertainment world. (And for goodness sake, she went to Sarah Lawrence college! (LOL))
Taken too soon, by cancer, at age 68, she was a lovely lady. She was working on a Broadway musical of her life and music when she died.

It was never a secret in the entertainment world. (And for goodness sake, she went to Sarah Lawrence college! (LOL))
Taken too soon, by cancer, at age 68, she was a lovely lady. She was working on a Broadway musical of her life and music when she died.

Soon to be announced but a little news on the telecast...
 
Can hosts Groban and Bareilles stop a Tony ratings nosedive?
By Michael Riedel
April 19, 2018 | 7:59pm | Updated
 

Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles will host the Tony Awards on June 10.Getty Images
MORE FROM:
MICHAEL RIEDEL
 
They’re not going to sing and dance like Hugh Jackman or get big laughs like James Corden, but Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban just might expand the Tony telecast demographic beyond the Actors Fund Home.
 
Or so CBS and the Broadway League hope.
 
“Maybe they don’t have that old-fashioned Broadway sizzle,” says a veteran producer, “but they’re popular and pretty cute together.”
 
As co-hosts of the June 10 awards show, Bareilles and Groban come with built-in fan bases. Groban’s cornered the market on soccer moms, who buy tickets to Broadway shows, while Bareilles is popular with 30-something women who bring their husbands or dates to her concerts.
 
And both are bona-fide Broadway stars.
 
Groban propelled weekly grosses for last season’s “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812” to $1 million. Whenever he missed a show, those soccer moms nearly rioted in the Imperial Theatre lobby.
 
Bareilles has proved a major draw whenever she sang the lead in her show, “Waitress,” at the Brooks Atkinson. She also won raves and, with John Legend, attracted nearly 10 million viewers to NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar Live” on Easter Sunday.
 
Nobody’s expecting huge numbers for the Tony telecast, but if Bareilles and Groban can halt the downward drift, Broadway will breathe a bit easier.
 
Last year’s Tonys, hosted by he-who-must-not-be-mentioned (Kevin Spacey), drew just 6 million viewers.
 
CBS hopes to goose ratings with a performance by Bruce Springsteen, who’s racking up $2.5 million week in, week out at the Walter Kerr Theatre. The Tony Award administration committee meets next week and will likely vote to give him a special Tony Award for injecting some excitement into a lackluster season.
 
“We’re not idiots,” says one committee member.
 
Musicals are the engine of Broadway and the Tonys, but aside from Tina Fey’s “Mean Girls,” there hasn’t been a breakout hit this season.
“The Band’s Visit,” a terrific show, should pick up awards for Best Musical, Score and Actress (the marvelous Katrina Lenk), but it hasn’t penetrated popular culture the way “Hamilton” did in 2016 and Ben Platt in “Dear Evan Hansen” did last year.
 
If I were producing the Tonys, I’d kick off with Bruce to grab viewers and then hold them with a number from “Mean Girls,” since everybody knows the movie.
 
Bareilles and Groban should do a fun medley of Broadway duets, then have cameos by Fey, Platt and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
 
I’d also have Bareilles reprise her touching rendition of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from “Jesus Christ Superstar” and then, for good measure, I’d bring on Brandon Victor Dixon to knock out the title song.
 
Dixon stole the “Superstar” telecast right out from under Legend, and he’s on his way to becoming a major star.
 
Mark my words: He’s going to host the Tonys himself one day.
 
It sounds like a joke, but it’s not.
 
Actors’ Equity has voted to change the name of the “Gypsy Robe,” worn as part of a longstanding tradition on a musical’s opening night. Some members think the name is offensive to gypsies, so they’re polling for a replacement.
 
We’re not talking gypsies with crystal balls and caravans as in Maria Ouspenskaya in “The Wolf Man.”
 
Gypsies, as everybody on Broadway knows, has long been the affectionate name for chorus kids who go from show to show. It’s never been used as a pejorative.
 
This decision reminds me of what the late great Shubert leader Bernard Jacobs said of Equity: “It’s a union governed by a galaxy of lunatics.”

Why ‘Carousel’ was a problem before #MeToo
By Michael Riedel
 
April 12, 2018 | 7:22pm
 

 
 
“Carousel” is a great American musical. But it doesn’t come without baggage.
 
A first-class revival starring Jessie Mueller and Joshua Henry opened on Broadway Thursday night trailed by talk of how a show whose protagonist beats his wife would stand up in the #MeToo era.
 
As it turns out, the musical’s creators — Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein — had similar concerns back when they wrote it, in 1943.
 
“They would not have talked about it in the terms we do today, but they knew they were grappling with a hero who had many unsympathetic elements,” says Todd Purdum, author of “Something Wonderful,” an engaging new biography of the legendary songwriting team.
 
“Carousel” is based on Ferenc Molnar’s 1909 drama “Liliom,” about a carnival barker and his wife, Julie, who loves him even though he abuses her. It ends with a line no one could write today: “It is possible that someone may beat you and beat you and not hurt you at all.”
 
Rodgers and Hammerstein cringed at that line. But they took up the challenge to make a cad not so bad, by writing three of the most celebrated songs in musical theater.
 
Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan fall for each other at first sight, though neither will admit it. They deflect their feelings by singing, “If I Loved You.”
 
“It’s a masterpiece of spoken dialogue, underscoring and lyrics,” says Purdum. “They’re halting about their feeling, but there is no doubt they are in love. If he’s such a bad guy, how is he worthy of her love? And the song shows his vulnerability.”
 
Later comes the famous “Soliloquy,” in which Billy, learning Julie’s pregnant, imagines having a son. But should he have a girl instead, he vows to find the money he needs to support her, even if he has to “go out and take it, beg, steal or make it or die.”
 
“He grows up,” Purdum says. “He becomes a man.”
 
Purdum also says Rodgers and Hammerstein intentionally made Julie a stronger character than Billy. When a robbery goes awry, Billy kills himself rather than face the consequences.
 
“It is Julie who endures, who prevails,” Purdum says. “He is weak. She is strong.”
 
Hammerstein rewrote Molnar’s ending so that audiences would come to embrace Billy — flawed or not. After his spirit’s sent back to earth to redeem himself, Billy mucks up and hits his daughter.
 
When he does this in the musical, audiences gasp today as they did in 1945. But as Hammerstein has it, Billy’s overwhelmed by guilt. He appears and whispers to his widow, “I loved you Julie. Know that I loved you.” When the cast sings “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” there’s seldom a dry eye in the house.
 
Rodgers and Hammerstein knew what they were doing. One night, Mel Tormé stood at the back of the house with Rodgers and told him, “This song makes me cry.”
 
“It’s supposed to,” Rodgers replied.
 
“Carousel” followed Rodgers and Hammerstein’s smash — and optimistic hit — “Oklahoma!” And while there were concerns that audiences would resist a show whose protagonist wasn’t a hero, “Carousel” ran 890 performances and toured America for two years.
 
“The sting of Billy’s behavior is still there,” says Purdum, “more so than ever. But Rodgers and Hammerstein made him human, and the show endures.”

I agree Ben. many actors have been overlooked for their efforts.

I agree Ben. many actors have been overlooked for their efforts.

Actors Push for Two New Tony Awards: Ensembles and Choruses
By MICHAEL PAULSONAPRIL 11, 2018

Jane Krakowski and Christopher Jackson, at the 2017 Tony nominations announcement. The theater performers’ union is proposing new categories starting in the next theater season.
 
The union representing theater performers said on Wednesday that it was beginning a national campaign to persuade the Tony Awards to create annual prizes for ensembles and choruses.
The Tonys, which each year recognize work in plays and musicals on Broadway, currently honor performances only by actors in leading and supporting roles. But many regional theater contests honor the work of the rest of the cast — for example, the Jeff Awards in Chicago have an annual prize for the best ensemble.
 
“We feel like everybody onstage needs to be able to compete to receive recognition for their performance,” said Mary McColl, executive director of the union, Actors’ Equity, which represents more than 51,000 actors and stage managers. “There has been this wide swath of actors that have not had the opportunity to be rewarded that way, and for multiple reasons this seems like a very good time for us to make this request and have this conversation.”
 
Equity said it had already informed the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing, which oversee the Tony Awards, of its request, and that it would now press its case with an online petition. The union said it was hoping to see the categories added in the next theater season. (It is too late to add categories for this season, which ends in a few weeks.)
 
Equity is proposing two awards, one for the best ensemble — which it defined as the entire cast — in a musical or play, and one for the best chorus — which it defined as a group that sings or dances, or both — in a musical or play.
 
This season’s Tony Awards ceremony will be held on June 10 at Radio City Music Hall, and broadcast on CBS. Among the categories this year: best sound design, in a play and in a musical — categories that had previously been eliminated and have now been reinstated.

So? What does this have to do with the price of coffee in Brazil?
 
I only mentioned other productions as a reference that this was not my first My Fair Lady rodeo. I know the show. I know the score. I've seen good and bad.
My focus, as usual, is not in the past but in this current production at LCT.
Now when you get to the theater and you've seen the show, I'll listen to what you have to say.

Saw this production at LCT Friday evening and....I LOVED IT!
One of the best productions of My Fair Lady I have seen. Everything about this show is perfect.
Great music, great cast, great costumes, sets, choreography, and direction. Every minute was Broadway heaven.
If you loved LCT's past productions of South Pacific and The King and I, this newest will not disappoint.

I ventured over to HK last night for an off-off-Broadway show called Afterglow.
 
This show has been running for a few months and is advertised to take advantage of the nudity and provocative subject of production. Naked men, shower scenes, and threesomes all provide tantalizing fodder for a gay audience. And gay, it was, the audience, I mean.
A small and uncomfortable theater space, yet surprisingly filled to capacity, with gay men, in a 60 seat theater. It was very warm, bordering on hot and smoky. The smoke is used to induce a hazy erotic atmosphere. Personally it had an odor I did not care for.
I sat first row and had a view of, well, everything.
The plot is rather simple. 3 gay men. Josh, Alex and Darius. Josh and Alex are involved in a long-term relationship and in the midst of a surrogacy. Darius is a young masseur who they add to the mix of their open relationship. Josh is self absorbed and as described by Alex, "Like a puppy that constantly needs to be played with." Alex is a successful researcher who, at first, is relieved when Josh and Darius take up a casual relationship, grateful to be relieved of the stress of work and his relationship. Things get complicated when Darius and Josh become more seriously involved. This is where the story goes downhill, and well, 2 plus 1 doesn't add up to a happy threesome. It all ends sadly.
Ok, yes, lots of nudity, shower scenes and the constant rearranging of the set in various configurations. Penises, naked butts and Water sprays from the overhead shower. Clothes come off, clothes go on. After a while it became a bit tedious. Given the uncomfortablilty of the theater and the intermissionless 1 hour and 45 minute performance, I was relieved when it ended.
I saw it on a TDF ticket, so I didn't have to invest a lot, except time. Actor, Brandon Haagenson was not in the performance I saw and his understudy, Tim Young played the role of Josh.
 
 

 

RAVE REVIEW from NYTimes....Ben B called it "flat out fabulous" and the performances "vividly drawn, and magnificent."
I agree that it is a pretty large commitment of time, as the play is in two parts, so you have to invest at least two nights at the theater or one marathon day.
Still, this is a sure Tony winner for best revival and I cannot imagine that Mr. Garfield and Mr. Lane will not among the best actor nominees.
Closing date is June 30th, but I cannot imagine that they might extend and perhaps a new cast.
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/25/theater/angels-in-america-review-nathan-lane-andrew-garfield.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Farts&action=click&contentCollection=arts&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

Bournemouth, not London.
Located about 95 miles from London.

Bournemouth, not London.
Located about 95 miles from London.

NYTimes hated it!
 
Review: ‘Escape to Margaritaville,’ Where Work Is a Dirty Word
By JESSE GREEN. MARCH 15, 2018

Paul Alexander Nolan, center, as Tully, a resort-island singer with a passing resemblance to Jimmy Buffett, in the jukebox musical “Escape to Margaritaville.”
 
If ever there were a time to be drunk in the theater, this is it.
And the good news is that “Escape to Margaritaville,” the Jimmy Buffett jukebox musical that opened on Thursday, makes getting sloshed on Broadway easier than ever. The lobby at the Marquis Theater has been kitted out as an island-style thatched-hut alcohol fueling station, complete with margaritas for $12 (on the rocks) or $16 (frozen), as well as bottle openers, koozies and other drink-oriented paraphernalia.
 
The bad news is that you still have to see the show.
 
Or at least that was bad news for me, stone cold sober and with enough functioning brain cells to recall the past glory of musicals. If my twentysomething nephew liked “Escape to Margaritaville” better than I did, perhaps that’s because he had two drinks and no historical horror.
 
But if you’re not drunk or a Parrothead, as Mr. Buffett’s fans are called, you’re in trouble. Mr. Buffett’s denatured country-calypso ditties and horndog smarm seem awfully lowbrow, even in a Broadway environment debased for decades by singing cats and candlesticks. It’s quite a comedown in the sing-to-me-of-romance department from “
” to “ .” 
That charmer, along with Buffett hits like “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” and “License to Chill,” form the show’s spine and its ethos, in which rhymes are approximate and sophistication is suspect. Dopey fun is one thing, but “Escape to Margaritaville,” a paean to the pleasures of zipless debauchery, is pitched so low it will temporarily extinguish your IQ.
 


Lisa Howard, left, as Tammy and Eric Petersen as Brick pay tribute to the joys of a “Cheeseburger in Paradise” in the musical.
That may be its aim. The story, concocted from clichés that were already droopy when they appeared in almost every other jukebox musical ever written, does not require you to put your thinking cap on. Mostly it asks that you notice the winking way it sets up situations that will later make Mr. Buffett’s lyrics seem as if they were custom fitted to the yarn rather than the other way around.
 
So if the title song (“ ,” a hit in 1977) refers to sponge cake, lost saltshakers and a brand new tattoo, you can be sure that those items will force their way into the plot, the more bizarrely the better.

For the record, that plot goes like this: Rachel (Alison Luff) is an uptight environmental scientist; her BFF Tammy (Lisa Howard) is engaged to a jerk. Together, they take a one-week vacation to a rundown, Yelp-disapproved Caribbean hotel called Margaritaville. There, they meet Tully Mars (Paul Alexander Nolan), the laid-back, guitar-strumming on-site entertainer, and Brick (Eric Petersen), the dim but sweet bartender. Do you see where this is going?

That theme could make for an amusing scene or two, but Greg Garcia and Mike O’Malley, the authors of the musical’s book, have two hours and 20 minutes to fill. They are clever enough with the punch lines, but twists involving a volcano eruption, a buried treasure and a tap-dancing chorus of zombie insurance agents smell of general despair.
 
Worse, because even vapid jukebox musicals apparently require a moral these days, this one forces Tully to give up his toxic bachelor ways in favor of his singing career, which instantly takes off. And Rachel must realize that being ambitious about her work doesn’t mean she can’t have a man, especially one who has now become a star.
 
Did I mention that her work has something to do with potato power?
 
The story, too, seems to be powered by a tuber. How else to explain why a plot that spends most of its time selling the anti-establishment, no-strings lifestyle concludes like any old-fashioned musical with an island wedding and everyone ecstatically paired? Even the hotel’s tart proprietor (Rema Webb) and resident dirty old man (Don Sparks) are required to hook up. And though “Escape to Margaritaville” means to be feminist — Rachel name-drops Sheryl Sandberg as a hero — it’s a skimpy feminism at best. It utterly fails the Bechdel Test, no doubt thanks to a hangover.
 

With a “Volcano” about to blow, Andre Ward, airborne, as Jamal, leads tourists off the island.
As a matter of corporate promotion, though, the musical is totally on point. Tully is the perfect ambassador for the Margaritaville brand, which is built on the idea that you can rent hedonism by the week at a namesake resort or bring it home nightly in a can of LandShark Lager without working a day in your life.
 
Like all such branding, it’s a con, of course; no one but pirates can sustain that lifestyle. And no one with any ambition wants to. Mr. Buffett, Margaritaville’s prototype and mastermind, has a wife and family and 5,000 employees; he works nonstop.
 
That makes “Escape to Margaritaville” even more cynical than the usual jukebox musical, which merely promotes a catalog of songs, not an alcohol-based empire. The director Christopher Ashley’s lumpy, garish production can’t disguise that agenda; nothing could. If the show nevertheless feels basically genial, it’s a tribute to the cast, which is scarily comfortable selling this hooey. Is there nothing Broadway performers can’t do? Or won’t do?
 
Certainly the score is beautifully sung. Mr. Nolan than Mr. Buffett ever did, and Ms. Howard is, as always, .
 
It’s the songs themselves that are problematic. They may work well enough on the radio or in concert but, conscripted for theatrical service, grow quickly monotonous. Reverse engineered from a marketing concept, they seem catchy yet catch nothing; like the show itself, they’re all hooks, no fish.
 

I saw this new production last night and I'm happy ti say that I thought it was excellent. I've seen several productions over the years. The last was the Lincoln Center NYPhil version starring Kelli O'Hara and Nathan Gunn in 2013. That was hard to top, but this one certainly tries very hard. Yes, the casting is a bit odd. Black man, white woman but it soon fades away and wears off.
As with many Rodgers/Hammerstein productions there is a dark side to the story. “Carousel” tells the tragic story of carnival barker Billy Bigelow and his ill-fated marriage to New England millworker Julie Jordan, balanced against the comic romance of Julie’s best friend, Carrie Pipperidge, and ambitious fisherman Enoch Snow. Billy is abusive and has a quick temper. The musical was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine.
As Jigger Craigin, the rough ex-con who leads Billy astray, NYCB star, Amar Ramasar does not disappoint. His good looks and toned body, not to mention his excellent dancing skills, make you wish he had more to do.
Joshua Henry has a powerful and commanding voice. I'll be the first to admit that I was not familiar with his previous work. Jessie Muller is excellent as Julie.
Brittany Pollack dances the Act 2 beach ballet, detailing the unhappy life of Billy’s 15-year-old daughter, with sensitivity. In a nonsinging role, Margaret Colin is very good as Mrs. Mullin, Billy’s boss and sometime lover. It was good to see her back on stage.
The music is classic Broadway and the score is one of my favorites. The ballad "If I Loved You," is breathtaking. The choreography is very good. The sets are minimal.
All in all, a very fulfilling and entertaining evening of theater.