Touring Season 2016-2017 Mar 22
2016, 11:59:44 PM
Cleveland's announcement also included a visit by the Kirkpatrick Bros who penned Something Rotten...Cleveland also noted they have 32,000 season ticket subscribers, the most of any Broadway Series in the country...That means roughly 12 perfs already sold out per show before single seats sold. Hard to get tix... compelling them to move to 3 week / 24 perf runs this coming year. http://broadway.playhousesquare.org/
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Gypsy Live at the Savoy Dec 30
2015, 12:56:36 AM
I found the show (and Imelda) fantastic - with my biggest gripe being the revised orchestrations (budget, smudget - you can't mess with legendary orchestrations...). I want all three leads to travel with show to Broadway... Nearly perfect. My college drama major daughter knew little of the show (but for lack of my trying...) and now realizes what the fuss was about. As did some above, I saw Tyne multiple times on Bway - and hers remains the pinnacle, as far as I'm concerned. Jus
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The Bandstand Previews Oct 19
2015, 09:29:07 PM
WiCkEDrOcKS said: "Well, these critics definitely don't agree with most of the negative notices on here
"
And imagine MY surprise, having seen and reported last week on a show that barely deserved to be on the Paper Mill stage 9 days ago when I saw it (and seemed an utter bore to the audience). Could they possibly have fixed it in that amount of time? I certainly have seen very positive comments/reviews in rece
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The Bandstand Previews Oct 11
2015, 11:08:48 PM
Osnes' character's name is "Julia Trojan" (not a misprint).. Several "rubber" jokes with respect to her last name during the night... Seems like her last name is that for the gimmicks alone. Needless. Distracts from the proceedings... As for the comment above about her having nothing to do, I couldn't agree more. Explaining further might give some things away, though the way the book is written, there is almost nothing to give away. Kept w
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The Bandstand Previews Oct 11
2015, 01:05:28 AM
Saw this tonight with my wife and theater-major college age daughter. Were so happy to score crazy-cheap $37 orchestra seats (prior to the show) - with the industry buzz already being fairly high on the show and with stars like Osnes and Cott. Hoped we'd be seeing a lightning in a bottle performance, as we have in the past with early previews of new ot of town shows like Ragtime (Toronto), etc... - or, at worst, some good/great moments to build on... Instead.... Oh, my.... Oh, my...
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Most glorious voices ever heard Mar 17
2015, 12:43:13 AM
I've always felt Judy Kuhn and Lea Sarongs have pretty much the perfect voices... Love Kerry Ellis. Loved Elaine Paige (in heyday).
On the male side, the voice I wish I had (as a baritone) is that of Ron Raines. Love his two albums, which are him singing all the male (mostly baritone) Broadway standards.
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Pippin Tour? Feb 20
2015, 11:40:13 AM
Saw the production last weekend in Cleveland (after having seen the revival OBC in NYC). Overall, the production was near-identical, physically to the Broadway version... and I've never heard such a pumped up sound system in my life - both orchestra and vocals... (not in a bad way...) - so the sound made certain the audience was into the show.
I enjoyed it - especially a wonderful Rubinstein (preferred to Mann), an appealing Molly Tynes (still on for Fastrada), the old pro Priscilla Lop
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Pippin Tour? Feb 5
2015, 12:06:45 AM
Evict: you ask about road grosses.. Unsure how the tour is playing everywhere, but here in Cleveland (where it opened Tuesday), it's an expected sellout during its two week run, in a 2,800 seat house.
Oh - and Sasha apparently was out tonight... The trend continues..
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Honeymoon in Vegas Reviews Feb 1
2015, 05:43:54 AM
So interesting to see the different takes on this show... This 40-something man, his 40-something wife and college-age daughter (her second visit) found the show a total, fluffy, inoffensive (in every way) delight, from start to finish when we saw it last weekend.
For those offended by the "sun illness" song, we found it to be an innocent, "are they really doing this?" hoot.. though can understand the angle you're coming from (though, as one who lost a father and grandfather to heart
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When you say Vegas...I say FUN Jan 26
2015, 05:36:51 PM
I capped off a great afternoon of theater on Saturday (after the final matinee of the absolutely stunning The Last Ship) with this super-fantastic, super-fun ball of fluff, Honeymoon in Vegas. Totally enjoyable. Totally winning performances.. And the audience LOVED IT from the first beats of the overture from the on-stage orchestra.
The pinnacle of musicals...? Hardly... A wonderfully crowd-pleasing romp? Absolutely. Can't imagine why they are not drawing or how the bulk of the audienc
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Idina IF/Then --tour... Jan 26
2015, 05:32:19 PM
A show like If/Then would seem risky at some tour stops, without Irina, but not at all. Here in Cleveland, we have a subscriber base of about 30,000 people currently (as of last Spring, the largest Byway subscriber base in the country...) The 7 or so shows each year generally run two weeks in a 2,800 seat house = 70% of the tickets for a two week run of this show/any shoo would already be sold before any groups or non-subscribers have even had a chance to buy. Add in big business in cities where
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Shows/Events/Occurrences that you were lucky enough to see/have Dec 3
2014, 12:28:52 AM
The 1990s Mandy Patinkin concert at the Shubert in Chicago, where he had laryngitis and warned audience he might cancel - and then whisper-sung his heart out for the on-edge-of-seat audience for two hours (he cancelled subsequent perfs in run)
The Will Rogers' Follies original Bway cast w/no prior knowledge - just brilliant staging and performances - blown away by the fun of it all
The Keith/Dee Will Rogers' tour in Chicago - where I noticed a very oddly named teen chor
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Better Valjean understudy Oct 20
2014, 08:11:43 PM
I saw Walpole in the role in Toronto - and he could not have sung the role better... Pretty great by any standard... (and opposite the all-time-great Javert, Earl Carpenter...)
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John Lithgow Stage Door Oct 2
2014, 01:32:53 AM
So glad to hear this... Such a good actor. Seemingly the perfect career - with so much to be happy about... A level of fame and respect from the public and others in business (but not to crazy paparazzi or can't go anywhere levels..). A sought out supporting player for films... Awards galore... And big TV money to make theater anytime he wants possible.
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What is the most underrated musical of all time Oct 2
2014, 01:28:25 AM
SUNSET BOULEVARD - there is just something about this show - the subject matter, the look of the original production, the great Normas that have played the role, the overall moodiness/Hollywoodness of it, that I can't get enough of. Elaine Paige (in London) gave the most memorable female leading performance I've ever seen. (Her small stature and overdone American accent actually made Norma seem even more a Hollywood creation.. and bad for talkies...
WILL ROGERS FOLLIES - This was a ch
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Most underated broadway Phantoms Sep 29
2014, 02:41:48 PM
Timothy Nolen... I saw him during one of his last performances - before Cris Groenendaal took over (after Nolen was allegedly bought out of his contract due to divided thoughts over this performance). I liked Nolen (perhaps you might even find a bit of him on YT....) - but story is that his voice was shot for some time thereafter. He's a baritone... and was obviously not singing a baritone role - so some of it was a stretch. (Hal Prince did end up casting him in Whistle Down the Wind a number o
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Understudies:biggest disappointments/best surprises Sep 17
2014, 09:17:53 PM
Two understudies I've seen have stuck with me for years... Janine LaManna - who went on for Chita in Spider Woman during its Chicago tour run, when Chita broke her leg(?), was fantastic. Didn't realize "no Chita" until the curtain rose... and she definitely won audience over (Carole Lawrence was soon brought in to finish run).
And Barbara Marineau was on for (the terrific) Betsy Joslyn in the Cincinnati run of the Into the Wood tour one night - and thought she was perhaps the best of
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Worst broadway shows you've seen Aug 16
2014, 07:57:49 AM
Though some people liked I couldn't stand:
Crazy for You (cheesy, schticky...)
Lion King (the fact people were in awe and I was bored/humored by its awfulness made it worse...)
But the absolute, true "worst" was the Bob Goulet Camelot tour of the mid-90s. From the (unintendedly hilarious and so lengthy "God's gift to us") Goulet bio, to the legendarily bad performances (unknowingly campy Goulet and wooden Steve Blanchard)..
I posted some video excerpts the show o
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re: Best Stage Door Experiences Jul 27
2014, 10:08:29 PM
I saw Richard Harris in the 80s tour of CAMELOT (in Indianapolis, at the now-gone Starlight Musicals...) I recall reading he was making something like $100,000/week on that as he owned the tour or something, But when we caught up with him at the stage door of the outdoor theater, he graciously greeted the small group of us (maybe 5-10) and signed autographs and answered questions until we had run out of them. Probably 20-30 minutes worth of almost one on one attention. Memorable - and showed ho
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2014-2015 Announced National Tours Seasons Mar 26
2014, 01:50:47 AM
I fully expect the new Phantom tour to hit CLE - as it'a already scheduled for secondary tour cities and would seem a big, standalone draw. Right now, however, Summer 2014 and 2015 are already booked with cities - one isn't CLE. That's surprising. CLE's PlayhouseSquare usually books a big Summer show - usually 3-4 weeks - sometimes two of them (last year Lion King and Book of Mormon..) and there's nothing announced for this Summer.. and next Summer just two weeks of Cinderella... Phantom tour cu
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