Profile for thestatisticianandi

according to gideon glick's twitter: the booth, previews starting feb 16th! 

https://twitter.com/gidglick/status/756613272955195393

 

Double post please delete

FYI to those rushing this week: danielle brooks is out for both shows wednesday 7/20 and on thursday 7/21:

https://twitter.com/thedanieb/status/753395388837756929

Xanadu!

I attended the 1st preview and thought that the show had all the problems every show has after its 1st preview: it's too long, the 1st act is much stronger than the 2nd act (which felt a bit rushed), and some lines didn't work/were overly cliche. But there is a very strong foundation here and Jessie delivers an amazing, nuanced, and surprisingly humorous performance.

I saw the show in May and noticed in the playbill that while Betsy's the standby, Ann Sanders (who is Asian-American) is the understudy. 

Although I am a big supporter of colorblind casting, I thought it was a little odd to cast an Asian-American person in a role where race is important to the story (unlike in, say, Next to Normal). Then I read an interview with Kelli in The Interval (http://the-interval.com/ints/ko/) where she states:

"I also read Bombay Anna [by Susan Morgan], which is a newer book about who the real Anna was; she was an absolute tour de force, badass. She was a woman who reinvented herself. She was not British. She was of mixed race, and she was a widow with no options. She grew up outside of India. Her mother was Indian and her father was a solider."

With this knowledge, casting an Asian-American woman such as Ann Sanders (not sure if she is mixed-race) seems to make a little more sense. I'd love to hear if Sanders ever gets to go on; I'm a big fan of hers. 

PS: On a similar note, when I saw the show Sam Poon was on for Prince Chulalongkorn. According to the Playbill, Poon also covers Louis Leonowens - I wonder if he goes on with Sanders? Seems unlikely that they would go to that trouble to put on a cover if Jake Lucas was available, but it would definitely be interesting to see an Asian Anna/Louis interacting with the King/Prince.

A couple of days ago, Broadway.com put out a video, "Predicting the 2015 Tony Award Races with the Broadway.com Editorial Staff," and the following comment stood out to me in particular about the race for Featured Actress in a Musical:

"There are three Fun Home actresses in this category. Emily Skeggs is the third. That could split the vote. I’m just going to pretend like I know how to do statistics, which I don’t. So if that splits the vote, I think Ruthie Ann Miles from the King and I has a really good shot."

This is something I've heard over and over about the race tonight here on BWW and beyond...and as someone who does know a little about statistics, I decided to look into the issue historically. I put together my thoughts on my blog that's focused on looking at theatre from a statistical standpoint: 

https://thestatisticianandi.wordpress.com

Do you guys think that the vote will be split tonight? 

Happy tony-watching!