06/25/04
If you want to see the trailer for yourself, check out Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 (which you should see anyway) or the tearjerker The Notebook, as it's playing before both films in most theaters. I recommend you see it on a big screen, but you can also find it online here. The Phantom of the Opera, which has already earned a PG-13 rating, will open in select cities on December 3. That's only 23 weeks away!
FOR THE (OTHER) BOYS
Essie Davis notwithstanding, Broadway does little in the way of offering fans of female nudity a little thrill. With hits like Love! Valour! Compassion! and Take Me Out, director Joe Mantello may have--dare I say it?--made the penis passé and Kathleen Turner did cause a mild sensation a few years back, but it's still rare that our female leading ladies are asked to disrobe for the throngs. Well, get ready boys and girls 'cause here comes Dracula!
Broadway was abuzz this week with rumors that both leading ladies will be showing some skin for their art in the in-rehearsals Goth tuner. The ladies in question are Tony nominee Melissa Errico (who dropped trou for her acclaimed turn in Sunday in the Park with George at the Kennedy Center a few years back) and Kelli O'Hara, best known for playing the sister of creepy John Lithgow in Sweet Smell of Success. At this stage of the game, I hear the plan is for Errico to pull a Marin Mazzie (i.e. go topless, like Mazzie did in Passion) and for O'Hara to go the full monty. Heck, maybe they'll both wind up clothed by the time previews start at the Belasco on July 26--I'm just telling you what I've heard!
"You will see a bare neck or two or three," Errico coyly offered when I reached her to ask about the rumor. "Currently rehearsals are fully clothed, so I'll have to get back to you on this!" As for her leading man, Errico was positively swooning: "Tom Hewitt is so incredibly sexy that every woman wants him to bite her in rehearsals!"
Who said summer on Broadway was a bore?
BLAST FROM THE PAST
I've received a lot of heat in the last couple of weeks for ragging on the Tony Awards opening number which did at least have the it-had-to-happen-sometime notion of bringing together the three girl groups on Broadway--the urchins of Little Shop of Horrors, the Dynamites of Hairspray and the Radio from Caroline, or Change. Clearly, these Sixties gal groups are all the rage with audiences, which may be the reason why Beehive, the long-running off-Broadway salute to such divas (that originally introduced ladies like Pattie Darcy, Alison Fraser, Jasmine Guy and Adriane Lenox to the world) is finally thinking about a trip uptown. Directed and choreographed by Debbie Allen, a three-week workshop of a heavily revised Beehive on Broadway (with a new book by playwright Jim Geoghan) will start in mid-July. No casting has been officially announced, but I've heard knock-out names like Orfeh (Love, Janis, Saturday Night Fever), Mandy Gonzalez (Aida, Dance of the Vampires) and Tracy Jai Edwards (Hairspray) are on the short list to star. Keep your fingers crossed and we may see Beehive on Broadway actually on Broadway in early 2005!
SPEAKING OF BIG HAIR...
At this point, I've completely lost track of how many times I've seen all or part of Hairspray: The gypsy runthrough... critics' night... opening night bows... terrif Tracy understudy Katy Grenfell's first time on... Marissa Jaret Winokur's teary final show... final dress of the national tour... last bow for Kathy Brier and the great Harvey Fierstein... You get the idea! Thing is, I never get bored with the 2003 Best Musical Tony winner and I probably never will. It's that delicious.
My latest trip to Baltimore occurred this past week, when I caught the mostly new company of the show along with most of Broadway's top critics, many of whom do not share my obsessive natures and had only seen the show once before. Like many of them, I missed Fierstein's irreplaceable spirit, but we can't cry over departed divas. Especially considering that new lead Michael McKean is such a game Edna Turnblad, confident and able to add his own touching moments to the evening. Still, without a transcendent drag performance at the center of the piece, you really can imagine the show working just as well with a Bette Midler or Lainie Kazan in the central part.
One of McKean's biggest fans is the newly eyebrowed Fierstein himself, who was on hand at last Thursday's opening night party at The Palm for the cast. "I love watching somebody else do that damn show," he joked before picking up a waffle off the plate of a passing waitress and shoving it in my mouth (literally!). "Edna was wonderful to me and I wasn't bad for her, but it's nice to move on." In case you haven't heard, Fierstein's moving on to a musical version of Paddy Chayefsky's A Catered Affair (which he's writing with composer John Bucchino) and the revival of La Cage aux Folles, which he won a Tony Award for penning back in 1984. He is, however, not rewriting the latter. "Why does everyone think that?" he queried. "The guy that wrote it 20 years ago did a really good job. I don't try to second guess him. I leave him alone!"
I just had to get to know 19-year-old Carly Jibson, the critically acclaimed spitfire now playing the lead role of hefty heroine Tracy Turnblad in the show. Turns out Jibson's had an interesting path, having dropped out of her Michigan high school and moved to Manhattan on her own with big dreams of becoming a star. "I was a horrible student," she admitted. "I never graduated. My mother doesn't think I should tell people that, but I like to be honest about it. We learn from our mistakes." Well mama, she's a big girl now--Jibson said that the past year on the road has taught her a thing or two about responsibility: "All of the sudden I had money and I had to learn how to take care of myself. It was a big change for me."
Jibson smiled when I asked her at what age she first performed in front of a crowd: "I was six years old and in elementary school. We were all onstage for a concert and this little girl had a solo and she freaked out and didn't sing. They just kept replaying the music over and over waiting for her and I was like, 'What's the deal? Is she gonna sing? I know it.' So I just started singing and my mother was like, 'Oh my God. What is she doing?' From then on, that was it!"
THEY DON'T KNOW
Even though it ran for 27 months and picked up six 2002 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie just never really felt like the big Broadway hit that it ought to have been. I've exhausted myself defending the show to members of theater community, who could speak positively about the work of the sparkling original cast (and shining star Sutton Foster) and the creative team but could rarely muster up genuine enthusiasm for the show. Even the final performance of Millie last Sunday, with an audience that felt like 80% tourists and 20% supporters, lacked the zing of such events. Maybe the show sat in the middle on the scale of Broadway success. If it had fallen victim early on to Ben Brantley's pan, it could have been the kind of show that had die-hard fanatics mourning its premature demise. On the other hand, if it had been a runaway hit that had somehow captured the imagination of the public, it would have been the legend it deserved to be.
I don't care what anyone says about Millie--for me, it will go down in history as one of the smartest and, yes, funniest musical comedies I've ever seen--on opening night and on closing night. OK, so I couldn't really warm up to final Millie Susan Egan, who wasn't able to convince me that she had just landed in Manhattan in the opening scene and registered as oddly bored throughout, but recently returned Tony winner Harriet Harris was still a scream as Mrs. Meers and Leslie Uggams remained perfection as Muzzy. Also deserving of my praise were takeover stars Christian Borle (Jimmy), Jessica Grové (Miss Dorothy) and Kevin Earley (Trevor), who were all terrific enough to make me hunger to see what they do next. And what about Rob Ashford's Tony-winning yet underrated choregraphy?! Can someone please explain to me why he's not attached to every upcoming musical in the Theatrical Index?
Rest in peace, Millie Dillmount. Don't worry--I'll keep reminding them just how good you were!
IN BOX
Dear Paul:
I love your column and all your recent thoughts about the Tony Awards. Tell me, when do you think the American Theatre Wing will catch up to this century and add the Tony category of Best Sound Design? Since the early 1980s all musicals, and practically all plays have had elaborate sound designs and I think it's long overdue. The sound designer is a very "un-sung" but crucial contributor to modern Broadway shows, don't you agree?
----Paul Schneider
----Los Angeles, CA
Dear Paul:
There are many folks in the community that would cheer for the addition of such a category. I get a bit concerned about adding such technical awards like the eight-year-old orchestrations prize or your proposed sound design category. In other awards, such as the Academy Awards, they ask people from certain industries to vote in the appropriate field. In other words, sound designers would vote for Best Sound Oscar and cinematographers for Best Cinematography. Since Tony voters place votes in all categories, it's fair to wonder if they're capable of judging something like sound design. Maybe its time for an entirely different technical division of the Tonys that could honor the unhonored: sound, hair, make-up, casting… Just a thought. Speaking of the Tonys, a reader cleared up some of my facts from last week's column…
Dear Paul:
Regarding your comments about the Tony for Score and Book of Musical... At the first Tonys, a Tony went to Kurt Weill for his score of Street Scene. At the fifth Tonys in 1951, a Tony went to Irving Berlin for his score of Call Me Madam. From 1962 to 1965, Tonys were given for Best Book and Best Score. The authors were still listed in the Best Musical category during this time. From 1966 to 1968, Tonys were given for Best Score. The authors were still listed in the Best Musical category during this time. In 1965, a Tony was given for Author of a Play--won by Neil Simon for The Odd Couple. It is the only time that category has been in existence. From 1962 to 1965, separate Tonys were given for Producing, though the producers were still listed on the Best Play and Best Musical.
----Scott Whiteley Carter
----Little Rock, Arkansas
Dear Scott:
Thanks for the extra info! To quote a friend of mine, you certainly can never get married to the Tony Awards rules!
Dear Paul:
I must be honest. Every week when I read your column I skim to find your latest blurb on Wicked, as I am a fan of the show. Last week's mention of the show as “cartoony fluff” left a bad taste in my mouth and although it is beating a dead horse, I'd like to revisit the Tony Award for Best Musical. I feel like the principal complaint against the show has been that leading ladies Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth carry the show, but haven't the fabulous understudies Eden Espinosa and Laura Bell Bundy proven that even without our two favorite divas, the show can and will go on? I am getting the idea that you possibly adore Menzel almost as much as I do. Don't you think it's about time that she gets her own official fan club? I think that you and I could run it. Cheers to the Chenoweth fan club, which has already raised over $6,000 for BC/EFA. In the name of Elphie, don't you think we could match it?
----Erin Weedon
----East Lyme, Connecticut
Dear Erin:
Oh no. Did I even have a blurb on Wicked this week? Was there anything for you to skim for?! I guess your letter will have to be enough. Yes, you've found me out—I do adore Menzel and have ever since that Sunday matinee in January of 1996 when I first caught Rent down at New York Theater Workshop. She certainly deserves (and probably needs) a fan club, but I'm afraid I'm a little busy to run it. But you can, Erin! Go for it!
That's it for now. Talk to you next week. Please e-mail me any of your questions, comments or critiques!
Paul Wontorek
Editor-in-Chief
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