Jeffrey Karasarides said: "When it comes to Broadway, audiences are paying more to see celebrities in person. So that's a different story."
True. That is a different story, but wouldn't there also be an inevitable comparison between her and Verdon? (i.e., it took less than 10 posts for both Rivera's and Williams' names to be mentioned in the Lopez Spiderwoman thread.)
To perform a role made famous by another actor, I think he/she has to be as good as, better than, or creative enough to make it their own. I don't feel like J-Lo has show she could accomplish that.
She can be coached, but she always looks coached. Nothing feels or sounds like it comes from within. She was the worst element in "Kiss of the Spiderwoman".
In the video above, the wind machine and her back-up dancers are creating the mood/emotion (imagine that they are not there and focus only on her). She is just standing there letting them carry the song. She gives absolutely nothing when she speaks, "You fool".
I don't have the means to go to NYC to see shows, so for recent shows, I have no idea what the sound quality is like live, in a theater. I can't imagine that a bootleg would sound better than a cast album that's engineered/mixed in a studio. Also, in a studio, the performers are giving their best performance. They have the opportunity for multiple takes.
To be fair, I've never heard an audio bootleg, so I have no yardst
I watched the filmed version of this on HBO Max this morning, with Jonny Donahoe as the Performer.
FYI: There is no worry regrading "spoilers" should anyone also choose to watch before attending the show. There are no plot elements per se, and I can easily see how the show could/would never be the same from one performance to another.
As I watched, I experienced a desire to be selected as an audience participant, and especially to have the opportunity to interact
I started subscribing to this podcast after Poehler won the first Golden Globe for "Best Podcast" earlier this year. It's always a great listen due to Poehler's warmth and humor as a podcaster. If you're interested, you can subscribe to her feed through your favorite podcasting app (mine happens to be "Overcast"), or you can view them in video format on her "Good Hang" YouTube channel @ https://www.youtube.com/@Good-Hang-with-Amy-Poehler
This week her guest was Jonathan Groff. Groff is so incredibly likable, and the conversation flowed so naturally with humor and ease. I laughed throughout, like I was 'buddies' in the conversation with them.
My favorite anecdote from Groff was how he first met Gavin Creel when he was in High School, at the stagedoor of "Thoroughly Modern Mille". It's not an exceptionally memorable or exciting story, but Groff relays it with such affability that it's hard not to be drawn into the tale.
Jeffrey Karasarides said: "As someone who liked this movie overall, I respectfully disagree with these takes. Especially given how (if you ask me) 1972's Man of La Mancha is literally one of the worst movies ever made. The only aspect that would makethat musical and Spider Woman comparable is that they both have similar basic premises: This prisoner is locked up and tells a story to his cellmates."
On May 1, 1517 — now referred to as Evil May Day — riots broke out in London as a response to an influx of immigrant workers. Eighty years later, a play was written that includes some of these events. The play, called Sir Thomas More, wasn't published or performed at the time, quite possibly because it was censored. This speech from the play is delivered to the rampaging crowd by Thomas More, who was sheriff of London at the time. Thomas More asks the rioters to imagine themselves in the shoes of the immigrants they're attacking.
Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise
Hath chid down all the majesty of England;
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage,
Plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation,
And that you sit as kings in your desires,
Authority quite silent by your brawl,
And you in ruff of your opinions clothed;
What had you got? I’ll tell you: you had taught
How insolence and strong hand should prevail,
How order should be quelled; and by this pattern
Not one of you should live an agèd man,
For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With self same hand, self reasons, and self right,
Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes
Would feed on one another.
[...]
Say now the king,
As he is clement if th’offender mourn,
Should so much come too short of your great trespass
As but to banish you, whither would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbor? Go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,
Nay, anywhere that not adheres to England,
Why, you must needs be strangers: would you be pleased
Stephen Colbert is using his remaining time on CBS very wisely.
Last night, he interviewed Sir Ian McKellen. Not only was the interview fascinating, but Sir Ian performed a Shakespearean monologue from a role that he (McKellen) is uniquely privileged to be the onlyliving actor to have originated in performance.
McKellen's performance is absolutely brilliant, and Shakespeare's text, although written 400 years ago, is topical, poignant, and (as performed by McKellen) completely unforgettable.
Where could, or will I ever see this unique combination of actor, role and playwright ever performed again?
The cracks in Trump's [whatever... fill in the blank] are really showing. He is losing (polling popularity, on the world stage, the coming mid-terms, with his base, his mental state, the list goes on...). He is losing and he knows it. He's admitted it, out loud: "You got to win the midterms, because if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just going to be — I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me".
joevitus said: "I really don't get trigger warnings in general. I'm always baffled by things that--whether we liked them or hated them--were such a matter of course we observed them with little to no difficulty now treated as dangerous to a given person's mental health."
I think that trigger warnings are a good thing, generally. I really like the comparison that was made to movie ratings. Perhaps, implementing a system similar to the ra
TheatreFan4 said: "It's Frankensteinining it. It's not that it's "icky", it's that it's just literally not her. Not her decisions. Its like saying it'd be able to create a Sondheim score! It could never! It could try and stupid people can be entertained, but he is dead. It's poor digital celebrity impersonation and that's all it can be."
Enough time will pass that the work of Sondheim, Garland, or Ebersole will no longer be front and center (or on "speed dial" in the public's memory. Most people's memory will become "hazy" re: their voices, or their work.
I think John Philip Sousa might be an example of that effect. In his time, his work was extremely popular with the general public. Today, I think most people would have a hard time naming any other of his works beyond, "The Stars and Stripes Forever". I also believe that Andrew Lloyd-Webber can use bits and bobs of Puccini in his work, without it generally being noticed, for the same reason. IMO, if Lloyd-Webber had been born earlier, and had written his work alongside Puccini’s, more people would recognize the similarities immediately.*
Technically, any AI impersonation can be brushed off as being, “in the style of…”. I do believe (as I’ve written before), that there most definitely will be a future where AI will be taken for granted just like our current technologies. Artists’ work that is currently recognized as attributable to a specific artist, may not be so in the future. Giving credit to the AI will be a non-issue unless there is an effort made by people not to be “stupid”. (Fat chance of that happening.)
* PS: Another example: I can remember when “Hadestown” first opened on Broadway, and there were posts re: Patrick Page’s performance as Hades. No one seemed to see (or be aware of) how strikingly similar his performance was to that of Ken Nordine’s Word Jazz recordings from the mid -late ’50s. When enough time passes, memory fades and can be replaced.
binau said: "Have the estates of the authors agreed to this?"
I'm curious about this, too.
The note that Fan123 quotes in their op changes any intention of "for translation purposes only" implied in BrodyFosse123's post to one of an intentional purpose re: "political correctness". Very different.
binau said: "At this point I’m turning into a cranky old grandpa but I don’t care. "
me, too. (I deliberately chose not to write that as a hashtag...)
There were at least (3) threads on this topic back in 2018 when AEA changed the name of the "Gypsy Robe" to the "Legacy Robe". I could only find two, but for anyone who wants to re-live the past (and save some time re-hashing), here 'ya go:
Merkin2 said: "Go listen to what Ben Affleck said about AI as it relates to writers."
I also took note re: what Affleck feels is the most common relationship humans currently have with AI.
IMO, if anyone wants to provide a continuous supply of data that AI can use to learn about expressing human emotion, adopt a bot as your friend. (begin at time stamp 14:36)
in the public's memory. Most people's memory will become "hazy" re: their voices, or their work.