Profile for Renart

London Assurance at American Players Theater in Spring Green, Wisconsin. I love that place. Wish I could get back there.I was at one show, I think it was The Play's the Thing, and it started to sprinkle so they paused and removed the upholstered furniture. After awhile they started up again. It started to rain again and they stopped again. They came back and restarted again. When it started raining again, the actor onstage gave a good-natured exasperated sigh and turned to the few of us left ...

In about 1980 my parents and I went to see the local Catholic H.S. production of South Pacific and got to hear a high school Bloody Mary yelling, "Bastard!!!" The nuns sitting in front of us were not fazed. Meanwhile a few years later a different local Catholic H.S. put on Two Gentlemen of Verona, although they did make some changes to Thurio's Samba.

LxGstv said:"I think it’s worth noting again that Dominique Morisseau who wrote the book for Ain’t Too Proud actually retweeted the article in agreement, she wants the audience to participate in her shows."Interesting. The writer of the book encouraging audience participation during someone else's part of the show. I wonder if she would be as generous if people "participated" during the book scenes: "Booooooooring!" or "Stop talking and SING!"

Jean Valjean - forgiveness, redemption

Several years ago in a previous thread on this subject I had proposed any of the Ealing comedies, in particular Passport to Pimlico. I had specifically called out one of them as an exception, however, because it would be too difficult: Kind Hearts and Coronets, which we all know became A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. So that's my track record. Of course I could tell myself that someone read my post and took it as a challenge...

This just inStephen Sondheim, guilt-ridden after reading recent broadwayworld threads, admitted to being a talentless hack and that his success is totally due to his boyhood friendship with the son of influential Broadway composer and producer Oscar Hammerstein II. "I don't really have much talent, you see, and it was very important to have the support of Mr. Hammerstein in the beginning. He was like a second father to me, and I gotta tell you, I used that for all it was worth. Even years int...

Agree with many already mentioned.would addGirl Crazy (1930) - Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman and Jimmy Dorsey in the pit orchestra!

Jarethan said: "I would love it if they did a few of his driving along singing episodes -- whatever they are called -- say with Angela Lansbury and / or Barbara Cook, Patti Lupone, Bernadette Peters, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, etc., the greats only and things they are associated with...ideally any composers could at least carry a tune, if not sing well. (Bette Midler doing a few Hello Dolly songs, Liza Minelli...Kander and Ebb). Since it would be taped, it would also take the pressure...

My thoughts on casting/character: Divine's Edna was not intended to be "Gee, that's a man playing a women" so much as "Sheesh, that is one ugly slob of a woman." Then through the course of the film the audience realizes that, despite their appearances (which the audience pre-judged), the Turnblads had more class than just about anyone else in the story. I felt that was what John Waters was trying to depict. This is why I so disliked John Travolta's portrayal. He was made up to look "pretty" a...

LizzieCurry said: "I don't know The Wiz as a show very well at all (the one time I saw it live was a probably illegally truncated version with about 10 white preteens), " I think you and I must have seen the same show! "but what I suspected were newer lines from Fierstein really stuck out way too much." I completely agree. The dialogue scenes last night really ruined it for me.

The Guthrie in MPLS tried a Cole Porter jukebox version of Roman Holiday that wasn't successful. http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.php?thread=1046960#4298035 I might have been able to overlook the show's other shortcomings (or maybe not) if they had chosen better songs. It's like they went out of their way to pick the most unmemorable Porter songs they could and just shove them in wherever. The only ones from the song list that I remember are You Do Something to Me and Night and ...

"the woman actually freaking glows from within" She should have that checked.

I've not seen it on stage, I've only heard the recording, but would Meditation II from Shenandoah count as an 11:00 number?

By coincidence I was just in Manistee yesterday morning. US 31 runs right through it so it's hard to avoid unless you know the back roads, which I don't. Happened to drive past the community theater (9 to 5, Peter Pan, Rocky Horror this season). Seemed like a nice little town. But I guess everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.

Momma Look Sharp from 1776 The Letter from Billy Elliot Both are parent/child songs of loss. Very difficult to bear.

"all of which have won a Regional Theater Tony. Taht's FIVE. The next closest city (San Fran) has two." Minneapolis has three: Guthrie (1982), Children's Theater (2003), Jeune Lune (2005)

"I have always found that If I need to leave the line for a potty break or whatever, I tell not only the people next to me on line but also the monitor if he/she is there also. That way it is less likely to have a problem when I return." I just got an image in my head of those in queue saying to the line monitor, in Cool Hand Luke fashion, "Goin' potty, boss!" and a rifle-toting man in mirrored sunglasses silently nods his approval.

It's the fragment, not the day. It's the pebble, not the stream. It's the ripple, not the sea that is happening. Not the building but the beam, Not the garden but the stone, Only cups of tea and history and someone in a tree. My favorite line from "You're the Top" is probably You're the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire.

Do we realy need a new thread every time someone flubs a line in a show? It's live theater for cryin' out loud. When I "pay good money" to see a show, it's with the knowledge that I'm seeing a live performance where anything can happen. Wasn't there a thread a while back where people shared examples of mistakes they had seen on stage. It was lighthearted and not meant to point out the deficencies of the performers. But starting a thread specifically for one performance is pretty lame. Pascal ...

I saw a local production of this at a small black box theater in Minneapolis last fall and I liked it a lot. The style is very reminiscent of The 39 Steps (which I saw on Broadway and loved) wherein 1 actor plays the main part and the rest of of the small wacky cast plays everyone else. I'm glad to see this show made it to the big time.