Profile for The Distinctive Baritone

I dunno…I live in “the regions” now, and don’t get a subscription to the local touring house - I pick and choose. Having seen the “slime tutorial” of the brilliant and Simard, I’m not sure I want to pay almost $200 per ticket to see it live. The cast makes a difference to me, and does to other theater nerds too, but I suppose we are in the minority somewhat and most people won’t even look at the cast list 🤷

With all due respect to Kristen Beth Williams (who I’m sure is extremely talented), I’m surprised they couldn’t get someone with a little bit of Broadway name recognition for Helen, which is one of the meatiest female musical comedy roles of the 21st century so far.Hearing the SJB thing though I’m betting they approached several “names” and got turned down. Simard was also so acclaimed in the role that perhaps some ladies didn’t want to go through the rigor of touring only to have people say,...

I’m not sure how Nataki Garrett Myers’ angry, ranty essay is going to help anyone - including her. Yikes.Anyway, it seems pretty clear at this point that Hana Sharif was disliked by a lot of people at Arena from the board down to her subordinates. The company was also losing a lot of money. These two things combined will get most people in leadership roles fired from their job. Was the fact that she is a black woman a contributing factor to her being disliked by colleagues and donors? Maybe? ...

Nicole Parker was also allegedly joining the cast on Broadway before it announced closing. Wouldn’t be surprised if she and York end up leading the tour. Those are decent “names” as far as theater fans are concerned. Even if they don’t help the box office much, verbiage such as “led by Broadway veteran leading ladies…” will look good in local press pieces.

Jordan Donica is great casting for The Phantom, and Sierra Boggess doing Carlotta fifteen years later sounds like fun!

CoffeeBreak said: "When the full story comes out, the people who knee-jerk rushed to defend her based on optics are going to look really stupid.Exactly.Ensemble 95 (who enjoys the neutral name to not have much of a real identity)is a suspectedAI bot (see other posts) or a jerk who only goes after a select view people to elevate themselves while claiming racism etc (who don't know the real story). The reasons have nothing to do with race despite what people may want to claim.The truth will com...

Why the font change? I liked it how it was.

Fred Mason said: "The NYT said the show was intriguing yet unwieldy, said the score was solid, and praised Ghee’s performance. Overall the critics said there is much to enjoy about the show, but said it needed work. That doesn’t exactly sound like a dud.Reviews "Chicago theatre critics have gone extremely soft since the pandemic. Chris Jones is the only one with the balls to truly pan a show, so you have to read between the lines a bit. Overall, the reviews were mixed to negative and unanimou...

Kad said: "We understand that when somebody says “nobody wants to see this,” it’s hyperbole and not them telling you how you should feel, right?"I obviously meant "nobody" in a general sense. Should I have instead written "nowhere near a sufficient enough number of people want this?"In the old days of bombing out of town there wouldn't even be a discussion of whether or not this show would come to Broadway. It would be unquestionably dead. But now that millions of dollars have been spent on i...

There is no way this show is ever going to Broadway. Taylor Mac decided to center the story around one of the many supporting characters (Lady Chablis), presumably for both personal artistic interest in creating a non-binary leading character and to meet the moment when public interest in such a character was probably at its peak. But as the reviews stated in the kindest way possible, this was a colossal misfire, resulting in a disjointed pairing of the main story of the book (the Jim William...

He used to mostly leak info about casting, production announcements, etc., but has recently started acting as some sort of self-appointed moral compass for Broadway a la OnStage Blog and it’s really obnoxious. His hot takes like “Jellicle Ball lost the Tony because of racism and transphobia” are not “tea,” they are attention-seeking, rage bait nonsense. I used to enjoy him but not so much anymore.

Oh wow…Marla Mindelle really does sound like that singing the climax of “My Heart Will Go On.” The Tonys were not an off-night. I guess she is really great the other 95% of the show so this can be forgiven? Many considered her “second place” for the Tony so I’m very confused.Promo video (the high notes are at about four minutes in)

In regards to casting, NOTHING is set until the press release. I am sure that, for example, the producers of Damn Yankees have floated the idea of playing Lola to Julianne Hough’s agents, but that by no means will necessarily result in her playing the role.

I saw the Phoenix production. Based on reviews of the previous two pre-Broadway tryouts, not much has really changed in terms of the overall quality of the material. The score is mostly generic, tuneless mush with repetitive, overly simplistic lyrics, and the new book for the Rodgers and Hammerstein version already does the “feminist Cinderella” thing, but better. The cast was great (kudos to understudy Alexander Mendoza as Prince Henry for giving the best vocal performance of the evening), b...

And those theater kids on TikTok who can’t go to NYC to see Broadway shows will hopefully make the tour a success!

Well, on the bright side, this show is going to become a staple of regional theaters when the tour ends. It’s brilliantly written and a real crowd pleaser. It will stil be around, just in other forms.

“He gave us stars?” That doesnt even make sense.

Well, the majority of us (myself included) have either a mental illness or a personality disorder, so that’s implied.

No one publicly moralizes in quite the same way as theater people. What is it about our industry that attracts such insufferable prigs?We are not "excited" for the show to close. Jesus.

ACL2006 said: "Dumbfounded they haven't announced a closed date yet."I guess the producers hoping for some wind to come beneath their wings…