Profile for halfhourcheckwithmerman

This show is very much overdue for a revival and I think it would do very well with the right cast!

KMKJ said: "TheatreFan4 said:"Except that Morrible has been cast with many actresses who cannot sing. Rue McLanahan, Joanne Worley, Jayne Houdyshell, Miriam Margoyles, Carol Kane, etc."

small sidenote: Jo Anne Worley can definitely sing ;)"

Another small sidenote --- Jane Houdyshell can definitely sing :)

EDSOSLO858 said: "What a beautiful day."

LOL!!!

How right you are, Kad! 

SO THRILLED about this news. Shaw is so brilliant. Just thrilled. It feels like this position will have an air of credibility and authority again. Like it or not, I think it's very important to the industry to have a cultural bellwether like this --- with such a good writer with such good and thoughtful taste as Shaw, we are in very good hands. Wonderful!!

Thanks for making these! They're always a blast and I always learn something, too. 

okfromthetop said: "slightly disappointed if this means we're missing Joshua Henry's cooing to Coalhouse Jr! It was one of my favorite moments of this revival — watchinghim cross to the crib and pack a full arc of discovering, hesitating, and acceptingfatherhood in just a few lines of music."

Seconded!! My favorite moment in the show by far!

Not what you're asking, but I did digital rush and was all the way over to the right in Row M --- marked as partial view but I thought it was a perfect seat. (How rare to have good sightlines in the St. James!) 

Sarah Holdren continues to prove that she is the best critic in NY at the moment. (with the possible exception of Helen Shaw, but her longform stuff falls into a slightly different category.)

Whether Bentwood Chair is BroadwayFlash or not, I do appreciate the two frames of reference in their review being DEAR WORLD and THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES. I hope that every review of any show on this board from here on out first tells us how it compares to DEAR WORLD, and then how it compares to VERSAILLES. 

Some of these may be too niche --- some not niche enough --- but ---

My all time favorite Sondheim interpretation is Joanna Riding's "Losing My Mind." 

Then --- Raul Esparza doing the "Flag Song."

Bebe Neuwirth doing "I Never Do Anything Twice" (to me, Sondheim's funniest song ever. He always talked about the difference between funny songs and clever songs --- this is miraculously both, mostly because the cleverness is so ****ing filthy!). 

Christine Ebersole Mrs. Lovett. ("Is that just disgusting" --- OMG!). 

Marin doing Steps of the Palace --- are you kidding me? 

There's Always A Woman --- Carol Burnett / Ruthie Henshall. 

Also from PUTTING IT TOGETHER --- Carol / George Hearn "Country House". 

And is there anything better than Julia McKenzie doing "The Miller's Son"? 

How about Melissa Errico doing this gorgeous cut song from FOLLIES, It Wasn't Meant to Happen... a three-act play in song if ever there was one. 

I am a Donna Murphy superfan, so this is a little horrific to say --- but to me the Classic Stage PASSION recording is definitive, for Judy Kuhn, Rebecca Luker (who was not even in that production), Ryan Silverman, and the MARVEL that is Rob Berman conducting Tunick's reduced orchestrations --- another crazy take, but those reduced orchestrations are definitive to me and present the score much better, more clearly, and more grippingly than the original ones. 

Thank you, Auggie, for a very well written and insightful commentary on this show that seems to match my thoughts on the difficulty of this material to a T. 

I think that is the previous poster's point. They have avoided this pitfall. 

Yes!!

I thought this was pretty dreadful. A shame because I love Lipton's work, and love the play. It's three torturous hours. Everybody on that stage is working very hard, but in support of a book and score that is not supporting them. Maybe I'll elaborate later, but now I'm just tired. 

I loved the dinosaur. 

Stephen Schwartz has seven questions for writing a musical --- he says this in every talk / interview / panel / etc --- 

I know this won't happen for a hundred reasons, but it would be very funny if this show in particular hired a bunch of scabs.