MY FAIR LADY Revival Back On For Next Spring?- Page 14

[dianamorales]

Posted: 4/12/17 at 9:40pm

Celia would be PERFECT.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 4/12/17 at 9:51pm

Mulligan capably and hauntingly sang New York, New York in the film Shame. 

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/12/17 at 9:52pm

I also think Lara Pulver might be wonderful though I'm not sure if her range is right.  Did anyone see her in Parade in London or L.A.?

Updated On: 4/12/17 at 09:52 PM

[Soaring29]

Posted: 4/13/17 at 5:31am

bjh2114 said: "Musicaldudepeter said: "Why is everyone choosing to ignore the whole Kelli-at-the-Met thing…? She is due to sing the role of Despina in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte at the Met which opens on 15 March 2018, and finishes its run on 19 April. LCT's My Fair Lady reportedly previews from 22 March 2018 and officially opens on 19 April… "

To be fair, it's only 11 performances (one of which is on a Monday) over the course of 6 weeks.  She could absolutely still do the show and have her understudy go on for the 10 she would miss.  Especially if this is known in advance.  The can advertise "Kelli O'Hara will not be performing on [these dates]."  The only real issue is opening night, which could be moved a day fairly easily.

 

Again, not saying this is LIKELY.  Just that it's possible.

 

I completely agree with you- She was in official rehearsals for The King And I in January of 2015 when The Merry Widow was running and she's already played Eliza, so learning the role wouldn't  take as much time, although it will be a much different production then the one at the New York Philharmonic 10 years ago. We'll see! 

 

[Soaring29]

Posted: 4/13/17 at 5:50am

wonderfulwizard11 said: "Did Benanti have notable attendance issues during She Loves Me? Lincoln Center (and Bart Sher) have at least cast her once, in Women on the Verge- I can't see how much has changed since then. 

 

This is off topic, but did anybody hear any rumors of Kelli being offered the part of Amalia for She Loves Me? She said in an interview that “It’s one of those things where you do have to start making sacrifices. I could go right back into another show this season, and I really wanted to do it, but I couldn’t possibly do that to my kids, so it’s going [on] without me,” she said openly. “It’s heartbreaking sometimes.”(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-schonberg/broadway-star-joins-baseb_b_9519786.html.  

This leads me to believe it was She Loves Me: No other show really seems likely to me. She's not castable in Fiddler On The Roof even if Sher was the director of the piece  and no other show seems likely to me. Of course, she could have been talking about the 2016-2017 season, but I have a feeling she was offered the part. She did a benefit concert of it in December 2011 with Gavin Creel and Jane Krakowski, who both  reprised their   roles in  Roundabout revival. Thoughts?

 

Updated On: 4/13/17 at 05:50 AM

[CindersGolightly]

Posted: 4/13/17 at 6:10am

I'm sure Kelli was offered the role before Laura. In an interview with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, she actually thanked Kelli for allowing her to play the role, which I'm assuming is because Kelli turned it down. So I'm pretty sure Kelli was alluding to "She Loves Me" - I've listened to the concert recording. I loved them both dearly.

[Soaring29]

Posted: 4/13/17 at 6:11am

icecreambenjamin said: "Butter Broadway said: "She's a brilliant actress, and could take singing lessons. I think she would be perfect honestly.

 

"

I do like her as an actress, but Eliza is an incredibly difficult singing part that is hard for even trained voices.  I don't see anyone like Carey Mulligan or Anne Hathaway being able to sing this score 8 times a week.
 

I wouldn't say that the role is as vocally demanding  as you are saying- The songs aren't incredibly difficult, though definitely not easy and require a fully trained female singer to perform well, so Hathaway  and Mulligan(Although I've never heard her sing)  are out of the question in my book. But there are much harder songs out there then the ones Eliza sings in My Fair Lady.  It's the physical demands , the acting chops,   and  pulling  them off  as well as singing the role   8 times a week (or even less) that make the part so difficult: She has to be hugely expressive, bold,  loud, and entertaining  with a Cockney dialect  to boot ( Which,  needs to be authentic) and then transform into a prim and proper lady with not just an adequate english dialect, but a perfect one, all while showing a strong emotional journey and change  from  her former self to her new self and then to someone else entirely at the end. I would say that those are the things that make the role extremely challenging, not the singing, which trained singers wouldn't have huge obstacles to overcome with if they were just singing the songs outside of the context of the show. 

 

[BakerWilliams]

Posted: 4/13/17 at 10:55am

The score is deceptively exhausting on the voice. Andrews herself had quite a bit of difficulty with singing it for several months on end, if I remember my history correctly.

And you simply have to cast an ingenue. A recognizable Eliza is like an unknown Auntie Mame.

[HenryTDobson]

Posted: 4/13/17 at 10:57am

Laura Benanti or bust. After the She Loves Me revival, this is obvious casting.

[Soaring29]

Posted: 4/13/17 at 4:38pm

CindersGolightly said: "I'm sure Kelli was offered the role before Laura. In an interview with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, she actually thanked Kelli for allowing her to play the role, which I'm assuming is because Kelli turned it down. So I'm pretty sure Kelli was alluding to "She Loves Me" - I've listened to the concert recording. I loved them both dearly.

 

Thanks for telling me! I had a feeling!

 

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 4/13/17 at 7:09pm

So many brilliant choices in here for Eliza! Carey Mulligan, Cynthia Erivo, Denee Benton, Phillipa Soo, Lauren Worsham, Laura Benanti, Kelli O'Hara, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Laura Osnes. Can't we have all of the above? They can do a week each!

[Soaring29]

Posted: 4/13/17 at 9:37pm

Brave Sir Robin2 said: "So many brilliant choices in here for Eliza! Carey Mulligan, Cynthia Erivo, Denee Benton, Phillipa Soo, Lauren Worsham, Laura Benanti, Kelli O'Hara, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Laura Osnes. Can't we have all of the above? They can do a week each!

Love this!

 

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 4/14/17 at 1:18pm

In a recent interview with Broadway Box, Bartlett Sher had this to say about the casting of Eliza Doolittle:

"Oh my god. I don’t know yet. I honestly don’t. In the case of that one, I’m going to do one at a time. Once I find a Higgins then we’ll move to Eliza and go from there. I think the tree trunk of the show is Higgins, and I have to land what that part is and it will inform better who Eliza needs to be. I’m not the kind of director that says, ‘I need to have A,B,C,D,E.’ I’m the kind of director that knows the text and uses the opportunity of auditions to explore the piece, and in that exploration with different artists I’ll find if they bring more to me of what that text says than anyone else. Then I start to know."

http://www.broadwaybox.com/daily-scoop/seven-questions-with-tony-winning-director-bart-sher/

[Soaring29]

Posted: 4/16/17 at 5:02am

Well, maybe I'm wrong about Kelli playing Eliza , lol. 

[Valentina3]

Posted: 4/16/17 at 12:34pm

That is such a load of BS, very typical Broadway director spin. Both he and producers are going to cast someone who's going to do well in the role and at the box office. As successful as My Fair Lady is, it can still not succeed without popular leads in this day and age.

Updated On: 4/16/17 at 12:34 PM

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 4/16/17 at 12:48pm

Except this production is being done at Lincoln Center- the box office concerns aren't nearly the same because it's a non-profit with a built-in subscriber base. 

[Valentina3]

Posted: 4/16/17 at 6:09pm

Non-profits need money to survive too. There was no need for The King & I to be cast with stars and be a full-scale revival, but because it was - they are able to afford other experimental works from the money it brought it. As for built in subscriber base, I couldn't find numbers online. How many subscribers do they have? Beaumont alone is a 1100 seat theater, which makes for almost 9k seats a week.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 4/16/17 at 6:39pm

Not arguing that non-profits don't need money- otherwise the Roundabout wouldn't have brought back Cabaret. But your insistence that they simply have to cast stars in both roles doesn't apply in a non-commercial production. If they cast someone like Firth as Higgins, they'd be fine combined with the name of the show. Neither South Pacific nor King and I had a bigger name and those productions sold well. 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/16/17 at 6:51pm

Regarding My Fair Lady, is anyone seeing the lyric opera production later this month and in may?

[Soaring29]

Posted: 4/16/17 at 7:51pm

wonderfulwizard11 said: "Not arguing that non-profits don't need money- otherwise the Roundabout wouldn't have brought back Cabaret. But your insistence that they simply have to cast stars in both roles doesn't apply in a non-commercial production. If they cast someone like Firth as Higgins, they'd be fine combined with the name of the show. Neither South Pacific nor King and I had a bigger name and those productions sold well. 

 

Ken Watanabe is not a HUGE star per se, but he is most definitely a celebrity that  helped sell tickets, so I feel like The King And I is an example of a show that had a celebrity attached to it that helped it make business.  However, you do have a valid point in bringing up South Pacific which didn't have a huge name attached. But that show had not been revived officially on Broadway at all until 2008,   nearly 60 years  after  the original  production  opened.   That and the pedigree of LCT productions was enough to not cast stars that aren't household names. My Fair Lady? I don't know. It's long overdue for a revival, true, but this will be the fourth Broadway revival. Stars may still be needed to be box office draws, especially in this day and age.  Kelli's on her way to becoming a household name after winning her Tony Award, (albeit slowly of course- she'll need more television exposure and film exposure first) and is already a clear box office draw on Broadway: When she was out for King And I, many customers wanted refunds.   Firth obviously  would  be a box office draw if he is the one that is being cast as Higgins. But we'll see! 

 

Any ideas on when we'll know more about  the casting for this?  After the Tony's maybe? 

 

Updated On: 4/16/17 at 07:51 PM

[dianamorales]

Posted: 4/16/17 at 10:03pm

Now that I think about it, Jessie Mueller would be my first choice for this. Here's her head voice in case anyone hasn't heard it (I hadnt until very recently):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DEIDQLpyhE

And she could definitely act the part.

[Soaring29]

Posted: 4/16/17 at 10:46pm

Well now, she's Julie Jordan so no chance of that. 

 

If Kelli is in My Fair Lady next spring, will we be seeing another Mueller vs. O'Hara race for Lead Actress?

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 4/16/17 at 11:51pm

Soaring29 said: "If Kelli is in My Fair Lady next spring, will we be seeing another Mueller vs. O'Hara race for Lead Actress?"

Unless Kelli winds up doing Kiss Me, Kate.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/16/17 at 11:57pm

Kelli O'Hara is 41 years old. She is simply way too old to be considered for the part of Eliza Dolittle in MY FAIR LADY - and I'm not trying to be insulting it's just a fact. 

She's more appropriate for the role of Lili Vanessi in KISS ME KATE. 

[Soaring29]

Posted: 4/17/17 at 12:01am

Well, we could see Kiss Me Kate at the Roundabout next year- Although the RTC has announced four  shows for the 2017-2018 season, they have no dates for 2018 at all when you go on their website, even though they do list January, February, and March of 2018 on their calendar. Does that mean Kiss Me Kate could be on for next season?   

If we can, we could see Kelli competing against Mueller anyway- Just not for My Fair Lady.  Who knows? Maybe they'll both lose out to Laura Osnes or a newcomer playing Eliza. Again, we'll  just have to wait and see.