Profile for Jonathan Cohen

ER765 said: "I really like her, but once again this casting makes absolutely no sense."

I was at a Q&A Melissa Barrera did for the obscure movie Your Monster back in 2024, and basically out of nowhere, she started talking about how much she wanted to be cast in a Broadway musical. 

Jay Lerner-Z said: "NYC. Will tickets sell out fast? How long do I have to make up my mind?"

The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center main sanctuary is cavernous and seats 2,500 people. It's not clear from the ticket if it will be held there, or a smaller room which would fit about 600 people. 

Liza Minnelli will be live in NYC with Michael Feinstein at The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, on March 23 at 7:30pm: Link 

Tickets are about $66 with tax, come with a signed book, and are general admission. It's also the exact same price to watch it online and get a signed book. It's  $150 for a reserved section ticket. 

Not cheap, but definitely cheap compared to the LA appearance. 

Getting rid of understudy slips really drives me nuts, not because I'm against it in a vacuum but The Broadway League is being really selective in what they consider wasteful. At least those slips are giving me information I'll look at. The full color inserts I often get in Playbills reminding me to turn off my phone I'm sure are more expensive to make and are pretty redundant, as ushers are paid to make the same point.

FANtomFollies said: "I found it interesting and hypocritical that they made such a big deal about how unfair it is to have to be a celebrity to be in a Broadway show, but then gave no credit to the (non-A-list) rest of the cast of Bug. Also no acknowledgement that Carrie being the partner of the playwright played a role in her getting the part."

Okay, this is the problem of criticizing what someone says in the context of a chopped up TikTok clip. CBS put the full 25 minute extended interview on YouTube, and it turns out it's a joint interview with Carrie Coon and Tracy Letts, primarily about their dynamics as a couple. 

She does talk about  Namir Smallwood. She does talk about how she got cast, which was basically Tracy saying I think you're old enough to play the part now. They also talked about how both Letts and Coon have both turned down work so the other can take a job. 

Realistically, Tracy Letts would play a big role in any part Coon took on Broadway, regardless of who the playwright is, for childcare reasons.

I saw this in March at Town Hall as Vape! The Grease Parody, where it was staged as a one-night benefit concert with people including Kerry Butler,  Rachel Dratch, Joel Perez, Jackie Hoffman and Ann Harada. I haven't seen the new Off-Broadway version, but I thought it was extremely stupid in the best way. I'd recommend it.

EDSOSLO858 said: "The full company performing "Prologue: Ragtime" on GMA this morning, pre-taped from the Beaumont:

https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/video/128105418"

They barely show the audience at all which is completely un-noteworthy unless you were at the taping. It appeared they hadn't come up with a plan ahead of time of where to seat the audience and a good chunk of time was spent reseating people. Including for shots that weren't used.     

In a vacuum this sounds great, but the combination of Death of a Salesman having just been on Broadway and not particularly wanting to support Scott Rudin, this is a pass for me.

Matt Duffer gave an interview in Entertainment Weekly, where he said no actor from the play will appear in Season 5, because only a few people will see the play, and they want Season 5 to make sense as a standalone experience. 

The explanation makes zero sense to me because say you're going to use a different actor to play young Joyce Byers anyway, it's no more or less confusing to the general audience if it's the same actress from First Shadow.

That's interesting. I thought it was extremely funny in the moment, but between the time jumps, and some actors playing different characters, breaking the fourth wall made it too narratively chaotic. I'm sure that's intentional, it just didn't work for me.

I just saw the Vir Das:one. I was hoping to see Ego Nwodim but it's ending tonight and sold out.

CJRochester said: "Morrible's powers are limited to controlling the weather."

If you have control of your powers to the point where you can summon a house from another dimension to land on a specific person (a ridiculously forced connection to Wizard of Oz), Morrible for sure could figure out how to kill Glinda.