Profile for EricMontreal22

Someone in a Tree2 said: "Eric, so nice to see your post, old friend. Yours is one of the voices I miss most when I see how few posters from the past still contribute toBWW these days. But I digress."

Thanks for those kind words!  And the feeling is mutual.

I really should stop commenting on this until I've seen the movie, but that is somewhat disappointing to me just because, as you say, I feel it does change a key element.

Again,

John Adams said: "

Although I’m familiar with the OBC recording of the musical, I’ve never seen the Broadway musical. I’m only familiar with the 1985 movie starring William Hurt, Raul Julia and Sonia Braga. I liked the script, but I absolutely hated the performances, especially William Hurt as Molina.

Roger Ebert gave the movie 3½ stars and praised Hurt’s performance saying, “William Hurt, who won the best actor award at

theatreguy12 said: "

In the movie, he seemed to be drawn in by Molina from almost the get go, so when it came time for them to come together, if you had never seen it before, you were like, well I saw that coming from over an hour ago. You could see how captivated and engaged Valentin was from almost the beginning. Again, Crivello played it as more resistant as I recall. But those who rememberthe original production with more clarity than I might be able to correct me if I

For what it's worth, I thought the score was pretty strong in Boston.  I admit, part of my enjoyment is it's simply nice to hear a Broadway score that knows what it's doing--lyrics that actually advance the characterization and action, etc.  But I'm also someone who absolutely loved Schwartz' Schikaneder in Vienna, so maybe I'm not the best at judging Schwartz scores.  Regardless, I still think it's in better shape than most of the upcoming musicals

DeBose in this role feels a bit like casting LuPone in the role--but after she became known for Evita.  Do we know which of these other names is playing Dominique?  A pretty large role not to have someone explicitly attached to.

I *love* The Baker's Wife.  I heard mixed things about this same production in London, but of course I wish I could see this.  That said, despite my love for it and the score, I do think the first recording, with four of the original

Tenor8674 said: "Always thought CSC or the Roundabout would be perfect to produce The Baker's Wife. I liked it a lot when the Papermill did it years ago. However, I am disappointed that Endless Delights has been excised from the licensed show."

Quite a few years back, when Stephen Schwartz was answering messages on his website, someone asked about Endless Delights and he said it would NEVER EVER be back in (I think this was shortly after the Paper Mill which cut

Lot666 said: "The mentions of Whistle Down the Wind reminded me of another ALW shows that I loved, but didn't last very long: The Woman in White."

...yeah I'm a fan too (though I think it has more problems than Whistle.)  I have to wonder if some of that is simply because I love Victorian sensation serialized novels (part of my MA was about them) and Woman in White is the key text in that genre--and of course a lot of my issues with the

fray3 said: "Whistle down the wind"

I get the most pushback from people when I tell them how much I loved Whistle Down the Wind in the Gale Edwards production in London--which I actually saw just because I knew about its troubles in the Hal Prince version that never got to Broadway and wanted to see a flop (it had just opened in London when I moved there.)  So my expectations were low, but I really loved the production (well... the Southern accents aside.) 

Chaz Hands said: "Promises, Promises and Tuck Everlasting for me.

The most recent revival of Promises was miscast, and they should’ve leaned more into the seriousness of the storyline versus playing most of it for laughs.."

Promises was such a massive critical and commercial hit when it premiered, that I have a hard time placing it here even if it's rarely revived, but I do think it's a better show than its given credit for.  The rev

Jonathan Cohen said: "
Lavin did great work on the show but I actually thought the last episode, which heavily featured Pamela Adlon and Richard Kind, was by far the best of the series.Adlon, who will replace Lavin if the show gets picked up for a second season, can more organically be woven into plots with the other three roommates. During the first 8 episodes, it was sometimes a struggle finding reasons for Lavin to hang out with her son's friends, which is less of an issu

I'm only half way through--and I can already tell there'll be a hole in the show when Lavin leaves, but it's working far better for me than I ever expected, and I think the best work from creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan (plus all the other writers) since the best era of Will and Grace, which admittedly given their track record may sound like faint praise.  The cast really has chemistry, for the most part the guest star cameos have worked for me and not overwhelmed the

yfs said: "I haven't read the article but in my one interview with Hal Prince he was very vocal about how much Love Life meant to him and how influential it had been on his thinking once he became a director."

Is that interview online anywhere?  I don't doubt you--and the article does make a much stronger case than I was aware of before for these influences--at least when it comes to Prince, Ebb, and Fosse, not so much Sondheim.  And I can't

From all I've read, I do see her point that playing up the kids sentimentalizes the show which maybe mixes its intention.

I found Steve Suskin's review interesting.  I know him mostly as a Broadway historian (his amazing but rather academix book on the history of Broadway orchestrations, etc) but he seems to have it out for Love Life in general calling it basically "a bad musical" I expected him to be one of the few defenders, and indeed he seems to think the

TheatreMonkey said: "

I get this. The briefest of synopsis makes you think it's some sweeping epic of America, told through the journey of one family. But it's really a product of it's time -- an operetta, interspersed with a few scenes, and various vignettes of commentary style. Yet it really doesn't feel like a fully-fleshed out book musical. (And this is just based on the recording of the recent UK opera production.)"

And I mean, a l