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Member Name: John Adams
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Has anyone else noticed an increase in “nose breathing” by performers on Broadway?
 Mar 7 2026, 06:41:12 AM

Mary_Poppins said: "[...] why does Youtube shove this self-inflated MickeyJo guy in my face whenever I watch anything Musical related?"

He does come off as being pretentious. 

Would you consider him to be a "mouth breather"?


Loving You: The Untold Sondheim podcast
 Mar 6 2026, 07:24:36 PM

darquegk said: "It feels like there were three Sondheims: [etc.]

He reminds me much more than I would have expected of another cult hero,"

For me, I'd have stopped there.


Loving You: The Untold Sondheim podcast
 Mar 6 2026, 06:31:03 PM

Someone in a Tree2 said: "Help! How does one listen to thisseries? Explain it to me like the Boomer I am, thanks."

    1.    Download a podcast app from whatever app store you normally use. I recommend “Overcast” (a free app) if you’re on an Apple platform. For Windows or Android, I’ve read good things about “Pocket Cast”, but I have no experience outside of my Apple products. Another option is the Amazon Music app (cross-platform and free. Bonus: ad-free listening if you have an Amazon account). You can also access the podcast via Spotify.
    2.    Once you’ve downloaded your app of choice to your desktop or phone, download the podcasts you’d like to listen to. You can do this from within any of the apps. If the interface isn’t user-friendly enough for you, you can do a search using: a) the name of your app (e.g. “Overcast&rdquo, and b) keywords “tutorial”, “download” and podcasts”

EASIEST WAY: Click Here. (Make sure you have cookies enabled.)

PS: This is absolutely, amazingly interesting. I've always loved Sonheim's work, but I've never read any of the biographies, etc... Because I am a novice in regards to knowledge of any aspects of Sondheim's personal history, EVERYTHING in this podcast is a revaluation for me (I didn't even know that "Sondheim’s close friend, Martin Milnes, and his first love, Peter E Jones" (copied that from a website description) even existed.

I HATE spoilers, but this is not a spoiler. It's just a description- more of a "teaser" than a spoiler. But I'll put in in a spoiler frame anyway:

 
Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

One of my favorite moments in the first episode is an impersonation of Ethel Merman. You might think that, as a podcast, you might just get a description of the action.

Nope. You will hear an audio (apparently taped during a gathering of friends) of an actual Ethel Merman impersonation. 

I never dreamed I would hear this - ever. It never even occurred to me that it could be possible. Why would anyone expect it? But, there it is. And it's a pretty good impersonation.

 


'Kiss of the Spider Woman' joins many GLAAD winners, like 'Heated Rivalry,' at Media Awards
 Mar 6 2026, 06:05:57 AM

In spite of the elements I found disappointing in "Kiss...", I really appreciated the update to the story line that changed Valentin's motive for sleeping with Molina from quid pro quo (in the stage version) to one of authentic love.

I also enjoyed "A Nice Indian Boy" very much. It's available to stream for free with a subscription to Disney+/Hulu. I hope "Plainclothes" will also become available for free via pre-paid


Anyone starting to prefer bootlegs over cast recordings?
 Mar 4 2026, 06:49:05 AM

I would prefer a studio recording, but since that's an impossibility, I could be pacified by a bootleg of Katrina Lenk in "Company".


J-Lo Damn Yankees
 Mar 3 2026, 07:26:34 AM

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.


J-Lo Damn Yankees
 Mar 3 2026, 12:41:06 AM

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". 

In the choreography t


Anyone starting to prefer bootlegs over cast recordings?
 Mar 2 2026, 07:12:33 PM

Well... I prefer digital cast albums. 

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


Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film
 Feb 27 2026, 06:37:08 PM

John Adams said: "I'm anxious for "...Spiderwoman" to be released "for free", on a pre-paid streaming platform because I do want to see it."

Finally! It's now available on Disney+/Hulu - free w/subscription. I'm watching it tonight.


EVERY BRILLIANT THING Previews
 Feb 21 2026, 11:38:16 AM

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


Amy Poehler's "Good Hang" Podcast w/guest Jonathan Groff
 Feb 11 2026, 09:04:17 PM

The blooper YouTubes mentioned in the podcast:

Reporter Calls Blind Man Gay!:

 

Amy Poehler's "Good Hang" Podcast w/guest Jonathan Groff
 Feb 11 2026, 07:07:27 PM

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.

Here's a link to the conversation with Groff: Jonathan Groff | Good Hang with Amy Poehler


Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film
 Feb 7 2026, 01:24:46 PM

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."

TBH, I'm anxious for "...Spiderwoman&q


Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film
 Feb 7 2026, 07:59:34 AM

Scarywarhol said: "CarlosAlberto said: "I f*cking hate what they did with “Gimme Love”

What was Condon thinking?!?!?!

Worst stage to screen adaptation - it’s right up there with “Man of La Mancha”.



The more time that passes, the more I agree. There are worse movies but this was pretty uniquely heartbreaking to me.
"

"

The comparison of "LaMancha" and "Spid


Ian McKellen on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"
 Feb 5 2026, 11:35:12 PM
"The Strangers' Case" Speech from Sir Thomas More
 
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
To find a nation of such barbarous temper,
That, breaking out in hideous violence,
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed not nor made not you, nor that the elements
Were not all appropriate to your comforts,
But chartered unto them, what would you think
To be thus used? This is the strangers’ case;
And this your mountainish inhumanity.

Ian McKellen on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"
 Feb 5 2026, 12:13:55 PM

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 only living 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?

Ian McKellen Extended Interview


Trump Takeover of DC
 Feb 3 2026, 03:54:20 PM

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".

He is responding, l


Theatre supplies 'mental health first aiders' for audience members upset by harrowing play
 Feb 2 2026, 09:32:27 AM

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


Trump takeover of DC
 Feb 1 2026, 07:43:40 PM

ACL2006 said: "He remains a total a$$. Shutting it down because everyone is cancelling. Such a disaster."

Yup, I thought so, too.


Liza Minnelli, AI project
 Jan 30 2026, 02:19:58 PM

TotallyEffed said: "Take it back."

I know... crying

Equally saddening is the loss of Catherine O'Hara.

The good news is that digital audio/video will assist in counteracting the natural process.


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