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Musicals (Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Others)
- Thread starter Princess Leia
- Start date
Thingamabob
Active Member
The musical that I would love to see if I can ever get to NYC is The Prom. It looks to have so much energy involved in the show. Has anyone seen this show and if so what are your thoughts of it?
BuddyThomas
Well-Known Member
The Prom is freaking amazing. Great music, great story, funny and very moving, a total crowd pleaser.
It didn’t win any of the Tonys that it was nominated for and it is struggling at the box office so I don’t think it is going to last on Broadway much longer, but Ryan Murphy bought the film rights, and he’s adapting it as a movie for Netflix.
Quinnmac000
Well-Known Member
BuddyThomas
Well-Known Member
Casting is completed for Disney's HERCULES, which will be presented at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park August 31 - September 8.
https://www.publictheater.org/Ticke...ollection/18-19-Season/Public-Works-Hercules/
https://www.publictheater.org/Ticke...ollection/18-19-Season/Public-Works-Hercules/
BuddyThomas
Well-Known Member
In honor of World Pride, happening right now, here are a few videos from Broadway Bares (all profits to Equity Fights AIDS). They Are a little (okay, a lot) risque, hard PG-13 ratings, but a lot of fun.
BuddyThomas
Well-Known Member
Tony winner Billy Porter sings HOME from THE WIZ at World Pride in NYC.
Heard on the radio today: "I'm surprised that the Elton John movie isn't doing as well as Bohemian Rhapsody".
It's really not that surprising??? Rocketman was R, Bohemian was PG-13. If Elton John wanted a PG-13 film of his life made, he would have gone in that direction. Instead, he wanted his life to be shown warts and all.
Anyways, I did finally watch Bohemian Rhapsody this week. I personally liked Rocketman more, but I still liked it!
It's really not that surprising??? Rocketman was R, Bohemian was PG-13. If Elton John wanted a PG-13 film of his life made, he would have gone in that direction. Instead, he wanted his life to be shown warts and all.
Anyways, I did finally watch Bohemian Rhapsody this week. I personally liked Rocketman more, but I still liked it!
Critics liked Rocketman better, too. Rocketman is ending up with close to a $30M profit. Bohemian wound up with $470M.
I feel like Bohemian had less box office competition. Rocketman had Endgame and Aladdin. Regardless though, Rocketman did turn a profit in the end, and that makes me happy.
BuddyThomas
Well-Known Member
Broadway Investors Set To Lose $100 Million As A Dozen Shows Close
https://www.forbes.com/sites/leesey...ZacMA5fgPwJTn7Qhb0pjWNePibblxgPU#4af43d6447d2
Broadway fans received grim news this week as two more shows announced their final curtains. Pretty Woman will be ending its run August 18, and the revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune is bowing July 28, a month ahead of schedule.
They're the latest in a deluge of notices from struggling ventures. By Labor Day, nine shows will have closed deep in the red, with three others wrapping in the black. That leaves 12 theaters vacant over a matter of weeks—one of the fastest, harshest turnovers in recent Rialto memory.
What the Hello Dolly is going on?
It seems that after last year's record-breaking boom, the Great White Way is experiencing a classic market correction: Prices are plunging as an over-saturated field sloughs excess product.
But the jargon brushes over deep cuts. The real fallout is that investors cumulatively are set to lose up to $111 million, according to documents filed with the SEC, with hundreds of artists, managers and musicians dropped back into the industry's meat grinder of a job market.
Here's the breakdown, with the capitalizations for each:
Musicals:
Plays:
To begin, of Broadway's 40 working theaters (one is under renovation), 14 are filled by long-running hits like Wicked and The Lion King. Add the non-profit venues like Lincoln Center, and commercial producers are left with 22 houses to scrabble for, owned by just three companies.
It's a seller's market, as the trio of landlords often have multiple shows vying for each of their plots at any given time. And even if you snag one, with the crunch, there's no guarantee it will be the right size for your product; many a chamber piece has withered in a cavernous 1,400-seat house.
So if space is always tight, and stakes are always high, what made this summer bloodbath so much more extreme than its predecessors?
First, the industry is coming off a staggering, multi-year box office boom. It started in 2016 when Hamilton became the first show to gross over $3 million in a single eight-show week. Then came a glut of heavy hitters: Hamilton, Harry Potter, Hello Dolly!, Frozen and Bruce Springsteen were all running at once, making 2018 Broadway's highest-grossing year, with $1.8 billion in sales.
More importantly, even the non-mega-hits were still selling well. A few closed here and there, but most commercial shows turned in solid box office receipts despite the crowded market.
Then came the most recent wave of hopefuls. There were scattered hits (notably To Kill a Mockingbird and Hadestown), but many were outright duds, or received such mixed reviews that no one expected them to make a lasting impression. And when the Tony nominators snubbed most would-be contenders, triage was swift.
Here's a telling snapshot: during the week of last year's Tonys, all but four shows grossed 60% of their potential or more. This year? Fifteen failed to hit that threshold. That's an enormous amount of money left on the table.
And that's the main driver of this summer's culling. Yes, when Springsteen finished his gig the industry's average ticket price dropped almost 10%, but the real culprit was a slate of new shows that failed to entice buyers at any sustainable pricepoint.
It is important to remember that not all these productions are total washes. Producers tend to only announce full recoupments, creating a false narrative that Broadway is an all-or-nothing game. The Cher Show, for example, has been bleeding money, but not hemorrhaging - its investors will likely see at least a partial return.
If that sounds like cold comfort, it is. With open-ended runs, Broadway ventures have potentially infinite profit margins (Wicked is famously the most lucrative property in Universal's catalog), but rare is the show that survives long enough to realize them, and many do lose everything. Even assuming partial returns of 10% across the board, this summer's closures will still amount to $100 million in losses.
What happens next? Given the backlog of properties waiting in the wings, these theaters won't remain empty for long. Still, 2019's box office numbers are unlikely to break any records - few announced shows are building the kind of buzz needed to make up for the summer's deficit.
Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill is one of them, as is The Inheritance, a two-part epic getting hyped as the year's Big Event, with the incendiary Off-Broadway smash Slave Play just announced today for its Rialto transfer. And Moulin Rouge is already selling like hotcakes. But most of the commercial roster is a wait-and-see affair, dotted with several oh-God-not-this-again revivals.
And you know what? That's okay. The industry is in fine health even if it isn't constantly breaking records. Hits like Hadestown and Mockingbird prove demand remains high for live theater. The summer turnover is simply a vivid reminder that quality matters, too. Buyers aren't willing to shell out just because a show's got a Broadway marquee.
Even at its best it's still risky. Frankie and Johnny got glowing reviews and stars six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald. Be More Chill had enough buzz for fans to stream its cast album over 200 million times. The Prom nabbed seven Tony nominations, including Best Musical.
There are no guarantees. The Great White Way is paved with headstones of critical darlings and junky jukeboxes alike.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/leesey...ZacMA5fgPwJTn7Qhb0pjWNePibblxgPU#4af43d6447d2
Broadway fans received grim news this week as two more shows announced their final curtains. Pretty Woman will be ending its run August 18, and the revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune is bowing July 28, a month ahead of schedule.
They're the latest in a deluge of notices from struggling ventures. By Labor Day, nine shows will have closed deep in the red, with three others wrapping in the black. That leaves 12 theaters vacant over a matter of weeks—one of the fastest, harshest turnovers in recent Rialto memory.
What the Hello Dolly is going on?
It seems that after last year's record-breaking boom, the Great White Way is experiencing a classic market correction: Prices are plunging as an over-saturated field sloughs excess product.
But the jargon brushes over deep cuts. The real fallout is that investors cumulatively are set to lose up to $111 million, according to documents filed with the SEC, with hundreds of artists, managers and musicians dropped back into the industry's meat grinder of a job market.
Here's the breakdown, with the capitalizations for each:
Musicals:
- King Kong ($36.5m)
- The Cher Show ($19m)
- Pretty Woman ($17m)
- The Prom ($13.5m)
- Be More Chill ($9m)
Plays:
- King Lear ($4.9m)
- Gary ($4.9m)
- Hillary and Clinton ($4.2m)
- Frankie and Johnny ($4.1m)
- The Ferryman ($6.7m)
- Burn This ($4m)
- What the Constitution Means to Me ($2.4m)
- Ink
- My Fair Lady
- All My Sons
- Kiss Me, Kate
To begin, of Broadway's 40 working theaters (one is under renovation), 14 are filled by long-running hits like Wicked and The Lion King. Add the non-profit venues like Lincoln Center, and commercial producers are left with 22 houses to scrabble for, owned by just three companies.
It's a seller's market, as the trio of landlords often have multiple shows vying for each of their plots at any given time. And even if you snag one, with the crunch, there's no guarantee it will be the right size for your product; many a chamber piece has withered in a cavernous 1,400-seat house.
So if space is always tight, and stakes are always high, what made this summer bloodbath so much more extreme than its predecessors?
First, the industry is coming off a staggering, multi-year box office boom. It started in 2016 when Hamilton became the first show to gross over $3 million in a single eight-show week. Then came a glut of heavy hitters: Hamilton, Harry Potter, Hello Dolly!, Frozen and Bruce Springsteen were all running at once, making 2018 Broadway's highest-grossing year, with $1.8 billion in sales.
More importantly, even the non-mega-hits were still selling well. A few closed here and there, but most commercial shows turned in solid box office receipts despite the crowded market.
Then came the most recent wave of hopefuls. There were scattered hits (notably To Kill a Mockingbird and Hadestown), but many were outright duds, or received such mixed reviews that no one expected them to make a lasting impression. And when the Tony nominators snubbed most would-be contenders, triage was swift.
Here's a telling snapshot: during the week of last year's Tonys, all but four shows grossed 60% of their potential or more. This year? Fifteen failed to hit that threshold. That's an enormous amount of money left on the table.
And that's the main driver of this summer's culling. Yes, when Springsteen finished his gig the industry's average ticket price dropped almost 10%, but the real culprit was a slate of new shows that failed to entice buyers at any sustainable pricepoint.
It is important to remember that not all these productions are total washes. Producers tend to only announce full recoupments, creating a false narrative that Broadway is an all-or-nothing game. The Cher Show, for example, has been bleeding money, but not hemorrhaging - its investors will likely see at least a partial return.
If that sounds like cold comfort, it is. With open-ended runs, Broadway ventures have potentially infinite profit margins (Wicked is famously the most lucrative property in Universal's catalog), but rare is the show that survives long enough to realize them, and many do lose everything. Even assuming partial returns of 10% across the board, this summer's closures will still amount to $100 million in losses.
What happens next? Given the backlog of properties waiting in the wings, these theaters won't remain empty for long. Still, 2019's box office numbers are unlikely to break any records - few announced shows are building the kind of buzz needed to make up for the summer's deficit.
Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill is one of them, as is The Inheritance, a two-part epic getting hyped as the year's Big Event, with the incendiary Off-Broadway smash Slave Play just announced today for its Rialto transfer. And Moulin Rouge is already selling like hotcakes. But most of the commercial roster is a wait-and-see affair, dotted with several oh-God-not-this-again revivals.
And you know what? That's okay. The industry is in fine health even if it isn't constantly breaking records. Hits like Hadestown and Mockingbird prove demand remains high for live theater. The summer turnover is simply a vivid reminder that quality matters, too. Buyers aren't willing to shell out just because a show's got a Broadway marquee.
Even at its best it's still risky. Frankie and Johnny got glowing reviews and stars six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald. Be More Chill had enough buzz for fans to stream its cast album over 200 million times. The Prom nabbed seven Tony nominations, including Best Musical.
There are no guarantees. The Great White Way is paved with headstones of critical darlings and junky jukeboxes alike.
Quinnmac000
Well-Known Member
Its happening
HoldenC
Well-Known Member
Will never be as iconic as the original film BUT seeing as CATS is my favorite musical and the one that lit my love for theater, I can't wait
BuddyThomas
Well-Known Member
Ummmmm.....errrrrrr........uhhhhhh......
Also this:
The Five Stages of Dealing with the 'Cats' Trailer
https://www.elle.com/culture/movies...f0hAw9_OL4DiEJjthVbZ7byjd2LGSCQVqa9gPNFWg1bhM
"Well. It happened. Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could watch the Cats trailer, they didn't stop to think if they should watch the Cats trailer.
Late today, the star-studded, digitally furred first glimpse of the conceptually bewildering film dropped. Directly on me. We all knew it would be a lot. I mean, it's Taylor Swift and Jennifer Hudson as cats singing on extra large furniture. We're not exactly talking mumblecore here. But the two minutes and twenty-three seconds of trailer that we were given are, without hyperbole, some of the most deeply disturbing images ever put on screen. Midsommar could never. Hereditary found dead in a ditch.
I am at a loss for words beyond, "WHY GOD, WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DESERVE THIS?"
Like, I know JHud sings that a new day has begun but—hear me out—what if the new day ended immediately? What if it was erased from my mind, Eternal Sunshine-style? What if I changed my name, moved to a deserted island, shed all my belongings, and spent the rest of my years trying, desperately, to forget?
Ninety seconds into the trailer I had already texted my psychiatrist and told her I needed to schedule an emergency session despite her strict "No screaming about movie trailers" rule. Whatever, Dr. Tuttle, just charge me extra.
How do I feel about the Cats trailer? How do you think I feel? Betrayed. Bewildered. I am trying to process. Dr. Tuttle says that I will experience the five stages of grief as I let go of my former life before I saw the Cats trailer. Let's go through them together.
Okay, absolutely not.
There is not a movie named Cats. The cats in the movie named Cats do not have some fur but also fur-colored skin and also fingers and maybe?? Nope. That is not a thing that is happening in this world.
The cats look like the alien that Joaquin Phoenix sees in Signs and therefore this is something that I just dreamt and not something that is happening in any way shape or form.
I mean let's be real: this is not a creature that my brain can make any sense of.
Is that Stitch from Lilo and Stitch? Is this Panic! At the Disco? Nope. It's not a thing. This isn't happening!
Anger
Serious question: where is the rest of Jennifer Hudson's head? Sis is going to win a second Oscar with part of her head digitally missing and I am furious! I am so furious I refuse to even make the obvious pun here. I WILL NOT.
James Corden, who I believe is playing The Penguin from Batman Returns spits on another cat and we're supposed to just roll with it. NOT ON MY WATCH.
ALSO! Idris Elba looks SEXY AS HELL and I am MAD about it in a way that is very confusing to me. Sexually!
Some cats wear coats and hats and some cats are naked and I want to throw a chair about this whole thing.
Bargaining
How can we make this right? If I stop holding a grudge about Russell Crowe's speak-singing in Les Mis, will Tom Hopper bury this trailer in the backyard like Carly Rae Jepsen's disco album?
What if I go see Cats on stage. And wait at the stage door for autographs? Will that help?
Should I buy a cat?! DOES THE CAT WANT TO PLAY WITH A GIANT BRA? WILL THAT APPEASE IT?
Depression
Taylor Swift is holding a bedazzled urn of catnip and that would normally send me into fits of camp ecstasy. But like Morales in A Chorus Line, I feel nothing.
WAIT. She's also wearing character shoes! The cat is wearing character shoes! Like she's auditioning to play Sheila in A Chorus Line. WHY? I am broken.
Acceptance
I'm going to see this movie literally 100 times."
Also this:
The Five Stages of Dealing with the 'Cats' Trailer
https://www.elle.com/culture/movies...f0hAw9_OL4DiEJjthVbZ7byjd2LGSCQVqa9gPNFWg1bhM
"Well. It happened. Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could watch the Cats trailer, they didn't stop to think if they should watch the Cats trailer.
Late today, the star-studded, digitally furred first glimpse of the conceptually bewildering film dropped. Directly on me. We all knew it would be a lot. I mean, it's Taylor Swift and Jennifer Hudson as cats singing on extra large furniture. We're not exactly talking mumblecore here. But the two minutes and twenty-three seconds of trailer that we were given are, without hyperbole, some of the most deeply disturbing images ever put on screen. Midsommar could never. Hereditary found dead in a ditch.
I am at a loss for words beyond, "WHY GOD, WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DESERVE THIS?"
Like, I know JHud sings that a new day has begun but—hear me out—what if the new day ended immediately? What if it was erased from my mind, Eternal Sunshine-style? What if I changed my name, moved to a deserted island, shed all my belongings, and spent the rest of my years trying, desperately, to forget?
Ninety seconds into the trailer I had already texted my psychiatrist and told her I needed to schedule an emergency session despite her strict "No screaming about movie trailers" rule. Whatever, Dr. Tuttle, just charge me extra.
How do I feel about the Cats trailer? How do you think I feel? Betrayed. Bewildered. I am trying to process. Dr. Tuttle says that I will experience the five stages of grief as I let go of my former life before I saw the Cats trailer. Let's go through them together.
Okay, absolutely not.
There is not a movie named Cats. The cats in the movie named Cats do not have some fur but also fur-colored skin and also fingers and maybe?? Nope. That is not a thing that is happening in this world.
The cats look like the alien that Joaquin Phoenix sees in Signs and therefore this is something that I just dreamt and not something that is happening in any way shape or form.
I mean let's be real: this is not a creature that my brain can make any sense of.
Is that Stitch from Lilo and Stitch? Is this Panic! At the Disco? Nope. It's not a thing. This isn't happening!
Anger
Serious question: where is the rest of Jennifer Hudson's head? Sis is going to win a second Oscar with part of her head digitally missing and I am furious! I am so furious I refuse to even make the obvious pun here. I WILL NOT.
James Corden, who I believe is playing The Penguin from Batman Returns spits on another cat and we're supposed to just roll with it. NOT ON MY WATCH.
ALSO! Idris Elba looks SEXY AS HELL and I am MAD about it in a way that is very confusing to me. Sexually!
Some cats wear coats and hats and some cats are naked and I want to throw a chair about this whole thing.
Bargaining
How can we make this right? If I stop holding a grudge about Russell Crowe's speak-singing in Les Mis, will Tom Hopper bury this trailer in the backyard like Carly Rae Jepsen's disco album?
What if I go see Cats on stage. And wait at the stage door for autographs? Will that help?
Should I buy a cat?! DOES THE CAT WANT TO PLAY WITH A GIANT BRA? WILL THAT APPEASE IT?
Depression
Taylor Swift is holding a bedazzled urn of catnip and that would normally send me into fits of camp ecstasy. But like Morales in A Chorus Line, I feel nothing.
WAIT. She's also wearing character shoes! The cat is wearing character shoes! Like she's auditioning to play Sheila in A Chorus Line. WHY? I am broken.
Acceptance
I'm going to see this movie literally 100 times."
Amateur deep fakes look better.
I hope, like Aladdin, this represents a rougher cut and there's a whole lot more rendering to be done.
I hope, like Aladdin, this represents a rougher cut and there's a whole lot more rendering to be done.
HoldenC
Well-Known Member
Atrocious
Couldn't they have used real costumes and make up from the stage production and then shrunk the actors down to size?! This is truly one of the most unsettling things I've ever seen.The casting choices are questionable too. Why are nobodies like T Swift, Rebel Wilson, and James Corden in the same room as the iconic Judi Dench and the talented Jennifer Hudson? Ooof all around tbh.
KBLovedDisney
Well-Known Member
Cats the movie...
I'll take Stitch's Great Escape part 2 Alex!
I'll take Stitch's Great Escape part 2 Alex!
BuddyThomas
Well-Known Member
This is pretty hysterical:
https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...Ss7GAnUno8U9Pmz-kgAWslvxf1-SJjn8b0yB9_E4cNtyE
I Watched the Cats Trailer, and I Have Some Questions
Earlier today, the fabric of the space-time continuum stretched and rearranged itself. The Cats trailer dropped. It prompted a handful of questions.
1) There are cobbles on the street. Is this Victorian London? There’s also a lot of neon. Is this Las Vegas? There’s also a person on all fours arching her back like a cat, even though she’s obviously human. But she has a tail. I don’t know.
2) She just turned around and, holy God, she has a human face, cat ears, a white leotard the texture of coir matting, and a forehead like Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. What is she? Am I high? Is she high? Is this the final glitch in The Matrix that ushers in the end times?
3) This sounds like Jennifer Hudson singing “Memory.” No one should sing “Memory,” apart from maybe Maude Apatow. There’s a neon sign in the background advertising a “milk bar,” which means we’re fully committed to the idea that these monstrosities are cats. Either that, or this is a trippier remake of A Clockwork Orange. A man in an extravagant hat just slipped through an iron gate, so I’m sensing the latter.
4) There are lots of cats now! One just arched his back menacingly at the lady cat, like real cats do. Then he took her hand. Which they don’t. Are they dancing? Do cats dance? Are Post-its engines? Is cream cheese avuncular?
5) Dame Judi Dench is here. Who would do this to Judi Dench? Why is she wearing a fur coat? And not a cat-fur fur coat, a fur-fur coat. She says, “I haven’t seen you before.” Why not? Dame Judi’s face looks like an albino peach. I don’t know what to do.
6) There are so many cats! All arching their back and adopting a catlike physicality! They’re doing something that I can only describe as “cavorting” in a sick-green bedroom. The most concerning thing is how small they seem to scale with the furniture. They are almost … cat-size. Are they actually cat-cats? Why are they dancing in pillow fluff? Why is the lady cat wearing a necklace? Is one cat a pearly king cat? Why does he look so concerned?
7) Jennifer Hudson has just appeared peeking out from behind a curtain and I think she’s a tabby cat? The graffiti behind her is distracting. Do cats like street art? How do they hold the spray cans?
8) I’m pretty sure the cats are now putting on a revue in the supermarket from The Handmaid’s Tale. Why?
9) James Corden is apparently in this. And Jason Derulo. And Idris Elba, although from what I can see he remained unblemished by cat hair? This is good and just. Sir Ian McKellen, by contrast, looks like he fell asleep on a radiator covered in pile fabric. Taylor Swift is wearing a unitard and high heels, which is unsurprising: I’m guessing she wears those things a lot. But can cats wear high heels? Can they fit their padded feet in works of leather or synthetic vinyl? If cats wore shoes made of animal skin, would that make them cannibals? Cattibals? Swift has a red sequined container labeled “Catnip” that she’s shaking and I don’t think we should go there.
10) Rebel Wilson is a tap-dancing marmalade cat who gets one of her hands, sorry, paws, stuck in a mousetrap. Why are there candles behind her? None of this fur looks safe around an open flame.
11) They’re all dancing and singing now. Jennifer Hudson is belting. How did Tom Hooper go from The King’s Speech to this? What screwed-up dollhouse are these cats living in? Why is one of them sitting down at a human table with a knife and fork? Is this Animal Farm? Four legs good, two legs completely bonkers?
12) I don’t know that T. S. Eliot would approve. But he did write The Waste Land. “He who was living is now dead / We who were living are now dying / With a little patience.” Yup, that about sums it up. It makes sense now. The end of the world is here, and Cats is showing us fear in a handful of digital fur.
https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...Ss7GAnUno8U9Pmz-kgAWslvxf1-SJjn8b0yB9_E4cNtyE
I Watched the Cats Trailer, and I Have Some Questions
Earlier today, the fabric of the space-time continuum stretched and rearranged itself. The Cats trailer dropped. It prompted a handful of questions.
1) There are cobbles on the street. Is this Victorian London? There’s also a lot of neon. Is this Las Vegas? There’s also a person on all fours arching her back like a cat, even though she’s obviously human. But she has a tail. I don’t know.
2) She just turned around and, holy God, she has a human face, cat ears, a white leotard the texture of coir matting, and a forehead like Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. What is she? Am I high? Is she high? Is this the final glitch in The Matrix that ushers in the end times?
3) This sounds like Jennifer Hudson singing “Memory.” No one should sing “Memory,” apart from maybe Maude Apatow. There’s a neon sign in the background advertising a “milk bar,” which means we’re fully committed to the idea that these monstrosities are cats. Either that, or this is a trippier remake of A Clockwork Orange. A man in an extravagant hat just slipped through an iron gate, so I’m sensing the latter.
4) There are lots of cats now! One just arched his back menacingly at the lady cat, like real cats do. Then he took her hand. Which they don’t. Are they dancing? Do cats dance? Are Post-its engines? Is cream cheese avuncular?
5) Dame Judi Dench is here. Who would do this to Judi Dench? Why is she wearing a fur coat? And not a cat-fur fur coat, a fur-fur coat. She says, “I haven’t seen you before.” Why not? Dame Judi’s face looks like an albino peach. I don’t know what to do.
6) There are so many cats! All arching their back and adopting a catlike physicality! They’re doing something that I can only describe as “cavorting” in a sick-green bedroom. The most concerning thing is how small they seem to scale with the furniture. They are almost … cat-size. Are they actually cat-cats? Why are they dancing in pillow fluff? Why is the lady cat wearing a necklace? Is one cat a pearly king cat? Why does he look so concerned?
7) Jennifer Hudson has just appeared peeking out from behind a curtain and I think she’s a tabby cat? The graffiti behind her is distracting. Do cats like street art? How do they hold the spray cans?
8) I’m pretty sure the cats are now putting on a revue in the supermarket from The Handmaid’s Tale. Why?
9) James Corden is apparently in this. And Jason Derulo. And Idris Elba, although from what I can see he remained unblemished by cat hair? This is good and just. Sir Ian McKellen, by contrast, looks like he fell asleep on a radiator covered in pile fabric. Taylor Swift is wearing a unitard and high heels, which is unsurprising: I’m guessing she wears those things a lot. But can cats wear high heels? Can they fit their padded feet in works of leather or synthetic vinyl? If cats wore shoes made of animal skin, would that make them cannibals? Cattibals? Swift has a red sequined container labeled “Catnip” that she’s shaking and I don’t think we should go there.
10) Rebel Wilson is a tap-dancing marmalade cat who gets one of her hands, sorry, paws, stuck in a mousetrap. Why are there candles behind her? None of this fur looks safe around an open flame.
11) They’re all dancing and singing now. Jennifer Hudson is belting. How did Tom Hooper go from The King’s Speech to this? What screwed-up dollhouse are these cats living in? Why is one of them sitting down at a human table with a knife and fork? Is this Animal Farm? Four legs good, two legs completely bonkers?
12) I don’t know that T. S. Eliot would approve. But he did write The Waste Land. “He who was living is now dead / We who were living are now dying / With a little patience.” Yup, that about sums it up. It makes sense now. The end of the world is here, and Cats is showing us fear in a handful of digital fur.
Dude, you got no Jellicle.
BuddyThomas
Well-Known Member
This is not a musical, but it's pretty fascinating.
Faye Dunaway fired from Broadway-bound ‘Tea at Five’ for slapping crew member
https://nypost.com/2019/07/24/faye-dunaway-fired-from-broadway-bound-tea-at-five/
Oscar-winning actress Faye Dunaway has been fired from the Broadway-bound play “Tea at Five” for creating a “hostile” and “dangerous” environment backstage that left production members fearing for their safety, several sources told The Post.
Onstage at the Huntington Theater in Boston, where “Tea at Five” was trying out, Dunaway was playing Katharine Hepburn. Backstage she was channeling Joan Crawford, the deranged, abusive film star Dunaway played in the 1981 movie “Mommie Dearest.”
The July 10 performance was canceled moments before curtain because Dunaway slapped and threw things at crew members who were trying to put on her wig, sources say. Enraged at the cancellation, Dunaway began “verbally abusing” the crew. They were “fearful for their safety,” said one source.
Dunaway was traveling in Europe and could not be reached for comment. Her lawyer did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
The producers of “Tea at Five” said in a statement they had “terminated their relationship” with the actress. They said the play, which was well received in Boston, would go to London in the spring and be recast with another actress.
“Tea at Five,” a one-woman play by Matthew Lombardo about Hepburn’s recovery from a car accident in 1983, was meant to be a triumphant return to the stage for Dunaway, who famously was fired by Andrew Lloyd Webber before she opened in the Los Angeles production of “Sunset Boulevard.”
Dunaway, who won her Oscar as the ambitious television producer in “Network,” was excited to return to Broadway for the first time in 37 years. (Her last appearance was in the 1982 play “The Curse of the Aching Heart.”)
“She seemed committed to the role, and fun to be around,” said a source.
But her behavior was unsettling at an early photo shoot. Someone gave her a salad for lunch and she threw it on the floor. She was watching her weight and said the salad would be better on the floor than in her hand.
She was frequently late for rehearsals, sometimes up to two hours, sources say. She refused to allow anyone to look at her during rehearsals, including the director and the playwright. Although she had the script for six months, sources claim she was never able to learn her lines. During the run of the play at Huntington she was fed lines and blocking through an earpiece.
One source says, “98 percent of the play came through the earpiece.”
While in rehearsal she left what one production source called “troubling, rambling, angry” voicemails to the creative team during the middle of the night. She also insisted that no one wear white to rehearsals because it “distracts me,” she said. When she was rehearsing on stage at the Huntington no one was allowed to move in the theater because that also distracted her.
As she was rehearsing, she began to lose weight. She looked so emaciated that a production member called Dunaway’s former assistant for advice.
The assistant said, “It sounds like she’s not complying with her medication.”
The producers were so concerned about her condition they called Actors’ Equity Association to see if it was “ethical” to put someone in her state in front of an audience, sources say.
Over the last weekend of June she had a full on “Mommie Dearest” meltdown and demanded that staffers at the Huntington Theater get down on their hands and knees and scrub the floor of her dressing room, sources claim.
She allegedly threw mirrors, combs and boxes of hairpins at the staff of the theater. She also pulled gray hairs out of her wig because she wanted to play a younger version of Hepburn than the playwright had written.
The producer knew they had to fire her when they had to cancel the July 10 performance because she physically and verbally abused several production members.
This is not the first time Dunaway has displayed erratic behavior in a show. In the early 1990s she toured the country as Maria Callas in Terrence McNally’s “Master Class.” She showed up an hour late for many performances. She had bellhops rearrange her furniture in her hotel suites in the middle of night because she didn’t like the “flow” of the room. Once, a theater in St. Louis sent her a white limousine, and she reportedly had a fit because she hates white. She demanded a rental car from the hotel to get to the theater. The limo company sent a black car instead, but it was too late — Dunaway was racing to the theater, trailed by both the white limo and the black one.
I managed to track her down back then and she was charming on the phone. “Your story sounds like a Fellini movie,” she told me.
I haven’t been able to reach her in Europe for this story. But I hope wherever she is there are “no wire hangers!”
Also, apparently, she has always been difficult:
Bette Davis on Johnny Carson about Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway fired from Broadway-bound ‘Tea at Five’ for slapping crew member
https://nypost.com/2019/07/24/faye-dunaway-fired-from-broadway-bound-tea-at-five/
Oscar-winning actress Faye Dunaway has been fired from the Broadway-bound play “Tea at Five” for creating a “hostile” and “dangerous” environment backstage that left production members fearing for their safety, several sources told The Post.
Onstage at the Huntington Theater in Boston, where “Tea at Five” was trying out, Dunaway was playing Katharine Hepburn. Backstage she was channeling Joan Crawford, the deranged, abusive film star Dunaway played in the 1981 movie “Mommie Dearest.”
The July 10 performance was canceled moments before curtain because Dunaway slapped and threw things at crew members who were trying to put on her wig, sources say. Enraged at the cancellation, Dunaway began “verbally abusing” the crew. They were “fearful for their safety,” said one source.
Dunaway was traveling in Europe and could not be reached for comment. Her lawyer did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
The producers of “Tea at Five” said in a statement they had “terminated their relationship” with the actress. They said the play, which was well received in Boston, would go to London in the spring and be recast with another actress.
“Tea at Five,” a one-woman play by Matthew Lombardo about Hepburn’s recovery from a car accident in 1983, was meant to be a triumphant return to the stage for Dunaway, who famously was fired by Andrew Lloyd Webber before she opened in the Los Angeles production of “Sunset Boulevard.”
Dunaway, who won her Oscar as the ambitious television producer in “Network,” was excited to return to Broadway for the first time in 37 years. (Her last appearance was in the 1982 play “The Curse of the Aching Heart.”)
“She seemed committed to the role, and fun to be around,” said a source.
But her behavior was unsettling at an early photo shoot. Someone gave her a salad for lunch and she threw it on the floor. She was watching her weight and said the salad would be better on the floor than in her hand.
She was frequently late for rehearsals, sometimes up to two hours, sources say. She refused to allow anyone to look at her during rehearsals, including the director and the playwright. Although she had the script for six months, sources claim she was never able to learn her lines. During the run of the play at Huntington she was fed lines and blocking through an earpiece.
One source says, “98 percent of the play came through the earpiece.”
While in rehearsal she left what one production source called “troubling, rambling, angry” voicemails to the creative team during the middle of the night. She also insisted that no one wear white to rehearsals because it “distracts me,” she said. When she was rehearsing on stage at the Huntington no one was allowed to move in the theater because that also distracted her.
As she was rehearsing, she began to lose weight. She looked so emaciated that a production member called Dunaway’s former assistant for advice.
The assistant said, “It sounds like she’s not complying with her medication.”
The producers were so concerned about her condition they called Actors’ Equity Association to see if it was “ethical” to put someone in her state in front of an audience, sources say.
Over the last weekend of June she had a full on “Mommie Dearest” meltdown and demanded that staffers at the Huntington Theater get down on their hands and knees and scrub the floor of her dressing room, sources claim.
She allegedly threw mirrors, combs and boxes of hairpins at the staff of the theater. She also pulled gray hairs out of her wig because she wanted to play a younger version of Hepburn than the playwright had written.
The producer knew they had to fire her when they had to cancel the July 10 performance because she physically and verbally abused several production members.
This is not the first time Dunaway has displayed erratic behavior in a show. In the early 1990s she toured the country as Maria Callas in Terrence McNally’s “Master Class.” She showed up an hour late for many performances. She had bellhops rearrange her furniture in her hotel suites in the middle of night because she didn’t like the “flow” of the room. Once, a theater in St. Louis sent her a white limousine, and she reportedly had a fit because she hates white. She demanded a rental car from the hotel to get to the theater. The limo company sent a black car instead, but it was too late — Dunaway was racing to the theater, trailed by both the white limo and the black one.
I managed to track her down back then and she was charming on the phone. “Your story sounds like a Fellini movie,” she told me.
I haven’t been able to reach her in Europe for this story. But I hope wherever she is there are “no wire hangers!”
Also, apparently, she has always been difficult:
Bette Davis on Johnny Carson about Faye Dunaway