After Bette

[jerrybythesea]

Wondering if show will close( I think likely) once Bette ends her run in Jan in Hello Dolly. Donna Murphy, while really good, has not been selling out on days she fills in. Lady Gaga or Dolly Parton would certainly sell out for many months, but doubt they are interested. But time is very short for needed replacement rehearsals unless Bette extends her run. And there is always Barbra who certainly knows the show.

[kewtex]

Please allow me to direct your attention to this previous thread in which you were an active poster: https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/hello-dolly-after-bette.126835/

[bostonman]

And there is always Barbra who certainly knows the show.

 

You need to stop this foolishness. Period. She does NOT know the show. With all due respect you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, and I stand by that remark. Please move on from this inane Barbra fantasy.

 

It's fine to have a reasonable conversation about the current production, about the almost 50-year-old film, and whatever else. But your conjecture is far from reasonable.

[+ WilliamM]

Barbra uses teleprompter in her concerts, visible to everyone even vaguely close to the stage. How would that work in a musical? As others have written, Streisand would never agree to perform "Hello Dolly" on Broadway. Perhaps on the ground of her relatively new home in Malibu though.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Didn't we go over this already? Let's keep this in the ORIGINAL thread in which this same thought was posted.

 

I hear some insider friends say that Bernadette Peters hasn't said 'no' yet to the offer.

 

As for Streisand, just because she did the film a million years ago doesn't mean she's suitable for the stage role. She's not. She's a scared live performer. She can't even get through a concert without five large LED televisions surrounding her with 500 pt text of lyrics (edit: as already mentioned above, my apologies!)

 

A Broadway Dolly she ain't.

[kewtex]

She [streisand] can't even get through a concert without five large LED televisions surrounding her with 500 pt text of lyrics…

 

Now, Benjamin, no need to be catty. Still, I would love to see a photo of those digital cue cards.

[bostonman]

As for Streisand, just because she did the film a million years ago doesn't mean she's suitable for the stage role. She's not.

 

And - I know - we've been here before - but I just want to make the case clearer, because I think that jerrybythesea really doesn't get it.

 

1) The film was indeed a hell of a long time ago. There's no guarantee she remembers ANYTHING she did in the film. Do you remember anything you did 48 years ago? (If indeed you're even that old, lol)?

 

2) The screenplay is not the same as the book for the stage musical. The opening number was written newly for the film - she has never sung "I Put My Hand In," and at least one other of Dolly's numbers in the show ("Motherhood March") was not in the film either.

 

3) Obviously every single moment of the staging and choreography are different in this production than they were in the film. So by that fact alone, she doesn't know the physical side of the role at all. And in film, the camera often works around the performer (close-ups, etc), onstage is a different animal.

 

4) The musical arrangements for the film were redone to fit her voice and her style. Transpositions on Broadway are standard procedure, but they're not going to rewrite the style of the score for her. (I know for a fact, actually, that Herman wanted this production to sound as close to the original stage show as possible, even though the orchestrations were being touched up and slightly reduced in size.)

 

5) Films are almost never shot in sequence, and when a scene is done filming, it's not usually revisited. So, it is pretty certain that Barbra never played the role from beginning to end, ever, and she never had to do more than repeat moments of a scene at a time. Plus, even then she was probably reading much of her dialogue in the studio instead of memorizing it.

 

6) The songs were recorded before filming (this is standard - and it's why the Les Miz film made such a big deal that they were singing on the set - for all the good that it did...), so she never actually sang any of the songs in context of the filming - she may have sung along with herself instead of lipsynching, but certainly never full out.

 

7) Editing. Editing. Editing. Films are put together by editing. Only Sinatra, as far as I know, was adamant that he would never do multiple takes. (Which, by the way, is why he didn't do the film of Carousel, because they were filming each scene twice for different mediums.) So what you're seeing when you watch Streisand in Dolly is really an artificial montage of all the filming that was done. It is entirely possible that none of the scenes in the film were the product of one take alone. In other words, it's very possible that she never played any SCENE complete from beginning to end, let alone the whole piece.

 

8) It would seem to me that she's much more interested in filming Gypsy. I doubt that will happen either lol.

 

Conclusion: She has never come close to playing the stage role. She doesn't know the role in the way that she'd be required to do it onstage, and she doesn't know the show in the way that she would need to. And what she did do was 48 long years ago. And I don't think she would have the stamina, much less the interest, to play a weekly Broadway performance schedule. The last time she did that was Funny Girl. That was in the early 1960's, before the Dolly film.

 

Not happening.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

And - I know - we've been here before - but I just want to make the case clearer, because I think that jerrybythesea really doesn't get it.

 

1) The film was indeed a hell of a long time ago. There's no guarantee she remembers ANYTHING she did in the film. Do you remember anything you did 48 years ago? (If indeed you're even that old, lol)?

 

2) The screenplay is not the same as the book for the stage musical. The opening number was written newly for the film - she has never sung "I Put My Hand In," and at least one other of Dolly's numbers in the show ("Motherhood March") was not in the film either.

 

3) Obviously every single moment of the staging and choreography are different in this production than they were in the film. So by that fact alone, she doesn't know the physical side of the role at all. And in film, the camera often works around the performer (close-ups, etc), onstage is a different animal.

 

4) The musical arrangements for the film were redone to fit her voice and her style. Transpositions on Broadway are standard procedure, but they're not going to rewrite the style of the score for her. (I know for a fact, actually, that Herman wanted this production to sound as close to the original stage show as possible, even though the orchestrations were being touched up and slightly reduced in size.)

 

5) Films are almost never shot in sequence, and when a scene is done filming, it's not usually revisited. So, it is pretty certain that Barbra never played the role from beginning to end, ever, and she never had to do more than repeat moments of a scene at a time. Plus, even then she was probably reading much of her dialogue in the studio instead of memorizing it.

 

6) The songs were recorded before filming (this is standard - and it's why the Les Miz film made such a big deal that they were singing on the set - for all the good that it did...), so she never actually sang any of the songs in context of the filming - she may have sung along with herself instead of lipsynching, but certainly never full out.

 

7) Editing. Editing. Editing. Films are put together by editing. Only Sinatra, as far as I know, was adamant that he would never do multiple takes. (Which, by the way, is why he didn't do the film of Carousel, because they were filming each scene twice for different mediums.) So what you're seeing when you watch Streisand in Dolly is really an artificial montage of all the filming that was done. It is entirely possible that none of the scenes in the film were the product of one take alone. In other words, it's very possible that she never played any SCENE complete from beginning to end, let alone the whole piece.

 

8) It would seem to me that she's much more interested in filming Gypsy. I doubt that will happen either lol.

 

Conclusion: She has never come close to playing the stage role. She doesn't know the role in the way that she'd be required to do it onstage, and she doesn't know the show in the way that she would need to. And what she did do was 48 long years ago. And I don't think she would have the stamina, much less the interest, to play a weekly Broadway performance schedule. The last time she did that was Funny Girl. That was in the early 1960's, before the Dolly film.

 

Not happening.

 

 

*mic drop*

[jerrybythesea]

I hardly think B peters will sell out as the new Dolly. Many thought she was awful in Gypsy. I sadly predict many empty seats and a closing date by late spring. And the winter months can be cruel for ticket sales.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

I hardly think B peters will sell out as the new Dolly. Many thought she was awful in Gypsy. I sadly predict many empty seats and a closing date by late spring. And the winter months can be cruel for ticket sales.

 

It's a bit tough to judge Peters by her Gypsy run. Two totally different roles. Near polar-opposites, actually.

 

More than that, she did most of the Gypsy run sick. She's talked about this numerous times since, even admitting to being very sick when recording the cast album (you can clearly hear it). They never gave her the time she needed to heal, so she powered through the run with what I assume was a steady dose of prednisone.

 

She's since taken downtime. Her voice is indeed better sounding. She can play comedy. I have high hopes... Especially since I have friends in the chorus and I'd like to see them continue staying gainfully employed

[body2body]

It's a bit tough to judge Peters by her Gypsy run. Two totally different roles. Near polar-opposites, actually.

 

More than that, she did most of the Gypsy run sick. She's talked about this numerous times since, even admitting to being very sick when recording the cast album (you can clearly hear it). They never gave her the time she needed to heal, so she powered through the run with what I assume was a steady dose of prednisone.

 

She's since taken downtime. Her voice is indeed better sounding. She can play comedy. I have high hopes... Especially since I have friends in the chorus and I'd like to see them continue staying gainfully employed

I knew something was wrong when I saw Peters in Gypsy. Her energy level was off. Nonetheless, I think she was ill suited for that role. She can be a very capable actress, I still have fond memories of her in Mack and Mabel, where her portrayal of Mabel Normand was funny, romantic, and in the end heartbreaking. I've been attending musicals since the 1960s and that was a superb portrayal.

[bostonman]

More than that, she did most of the Gypsy run sick. She's talked about this numerous times since, even admitting to being very sick when recording the cast album (you can clearly hear it).

 

The same went for Tyne Daly when she recorded the show as well. Many people, including myself, don't love the way she sounds on that recording, but people who actually saw her in the show (which I unfortunately didn't), vouch for the fact that she sounded much better than that.