Rigby to Return to PETER PAN; Broadway in Summer 2012?- Page 2

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 11:20am

I would love to see Kudisch and Carmello in those roles somewhere.
I am sad that Tim Curry has only essayed Hook in the world of animation. I do think Jackman would be a delightful Hook.
Jessica Grove or Laura Osnes would be pitch perfect as Wendy and Natalie Cortez or return of Jessica Goldyn to Tiger Lily would be welcome.

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 12:36pm

"Jessica Grove or Laura Osnes would be pitch perfect as Wendy"

I'm thinking they might want to cast someone younger as Wendy. I'm still surprised Elisa Sagardia was still able to do it at the Pittsburgh CLO production in 2008. She must be over 30 by now.


Updated On: 11/23/10 at 12:36 PM

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 1:03pm

Neither are too old and both read very young on stage. Proper hair and make up only helps that.

As far as Elisa Sagardia, yes she is over 30, yes she still looks reasonably young, yes PCLO is a huge house, and yes can technically still play Wendy even though she has aged out of the role. Technically speaking, anyone can be cast in any role. Besides, Rigby never casts the show 'young' with the exception of Johns and Michaels.

The only gurantee so far as that it will be a painfullys mall cast with an even more painful understudy breakdown and at least 1/3 of the cast will be direct family members of Rigby and 3/4 of THOSE will have no desire to work in the industry are only there because Mom/Grandma/Aunty thought it would be a gas. I CRINGED at a quote from her daughter in the MGG program where the daughter said that she doesn't want to be in the business and hates being on stage, she just wanted to go on the road with her mother, who thought it would be fun. Said daughter was also one of the two (wow, she splurged there!) Wendy covers.


I must say that Norm Lewis would be a great Hook as well.

[denali.fire]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 4:37pm

Maybe they will use some of the spiderman flying gadgets for the new peter to fly about the theater. Peter Parker and Peter Pan Flight School....just a concept for aviation...
DF

[gypsy4]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 2:47am

I feel Robbed! as I attended the Farewell Tours Closing Performance they even did an emotional speech at the end.

[gypsy4]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 2:47am

I feel Robbed! as I attended the Farewell Tours Closing Performance they even did an emotional speech at the end.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 9:09am

I sort of can't believe she is still playing this part...I saw her on Broadway in the...late '90s I believe? It was one of the first Broadway shows and I remember loving her in it, but that was over 10 years ago and she's been playing the role even longer. I would love for the show to come back though, I grew up on it and I still love it now.

[Overkill]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 9:52am

You know what? I would LOVE for Rigby to return to Broadway, but not in Peter Pan. I wish she would do more. I've seen her in this, Seussical and Annie Get Your Gun and she was great in all three. She needs to move on to other things.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 10:16am

Let Taymor direct. Cathy can be flung around in the jerk-o-matic.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 10:27am

They should just shoot her ass out of a cannon.

[gypsy4]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 12:24pm

actually when I saw the show back in '06 which featured quite a few members who had been part of the company from the very beginning when the Project kicked off in '97 including elisa and theresa Mccoy The performance still felt fresh and Magical like they were performing it for the first time it was even better than the A&E TV production. accept I haven't been impressed with many of the set designs that rigby has currently used in her engagements they were up to shape in 06 but look to be getting torn and warn out. along with some peices getting replaced cheap looking projections.

[bk]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 12:40pm

Here's the deal - a farewell performance advertised as such is designed specifically to help the show do business. When that is an out and out fabrication then it smells bad, really bad.

Ms. Rigby, of whom I'm a fan, is sixty years old or thereabouts - enough. She was, by all accounts, a marvelous Mammy Yokum in the Reprise Li'l Abner. But she's been playing Peter not since the mid-90s but since the the mid-80s (I saw her first go at it, and back then she was just terrific). Pass the baton. A new, fresh production with a new star would be fantastic. In fact, I've had the idea for years to try and configure one much like the Peter Pan album I produced - using songs from ALL versions - Broadway, Disney, J.M. Barrie, Newley/Bricusse, all of it to create a whole new experience. The rights clearances would be a nightmare (not so for the CD - that was easy) but worth it, I think. Our CD of Peter Pan was one of the only non-Disney CDs that was sold at the Disney Store in the 90s - that's how popular it was.

[gypsy4]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 1:08pm

yes but they did a big dedication at the end of the show, telling everyone it was her last there even a big article which I can't seem to find that was in the Local Paper explaining how sad she was that the show was closing but she was excited to pass the role on to fresh new talent I'm guessing her and Tom needed an Pay check?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 3:58pm

gypsy4,
The "farewell" tour DID open with a couple of vets of the 1997 tour, however, most of those vets had left by the time the tour rwached MSG in 2005, so they wouldn't have been seen in 2006.
Elisa Sagardia was still touring, but Buck Mason (Rigby's son, who played various roles), Dana Solimondo (Rigby's daughter in law, who played Tiger Lily) and Janet Higgins (who played a twink and covered Rigby in all 3 major tours), the other 1997 tour vets to open the farewell tour, were long gone.
Additionally, Theresa McCoy never actually appeared in the 1997 tour. Theresa and Kaitlin McCoy - Rigby's daughters - were added into the production ONLY for the filming and telesion broadcast. Kaitlin made a cameo as an extra mermaid and Theresa assumed the role of Jane, which was played by the actress appearing as Tootles on the road.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 4:04pm

I thought Aileen Quinn was Jane on the video.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 4:28pm

Aileen Quinn originated the roles of Tootles / Jane in the 1997 tour, playin those roles on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre and during the return engagement at the Gershwin Theatre. At some point after that, when the show was continuing the tour, she was replaced by Hally McGehean in BOTH roles. The tour closed at the theatre owned by McCoy and Rigby - La Mirada, where it was filmed, incorporating Theresa McCoy into the role of Jane, added kaitlin mcCoy as an extra mermaid, and with Elisa Sagardia (Wendy) also playing Wendy Grown Up (replacing Barbara McCullough, who played Mrs Darling, the sole mermaid, and Wendy Grown Up for the duration of that tour).

[romgitsean]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 11:49pm

Not to echo what's already been stated, but I saw Rigby and t was one of my first Broadway experiences. It was truly magical. But, she's grown out of it.

You know what I'd really love? A male Peter Pan. Honestly. Didn't Jack Noseworthy play Pan? I'd love to see him do it in a full-scale revival.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 11/25/10 at 12:12am

huskcharmer - Wizard of Oz franchise higher grossing than PETER PAN? I doubt it.

PETER PAN has had ongoing stage productions since 1904. For over 100 years, there has ALWAYS been a production of PETER PAN playing somewhere in the world on a stage.

While THE WIZARD OF OZ (and if you want to count WICKED then include that, too) are also enormous successes, that story is most successful in the United States. It's safe to say that PETER PAN has the largest gross of any franchise not only because it's been around for over 100 years, but also because it is internationally beloved (and performed!).

[gypsy4]

Posted: 11/25/10 at 12:34am

I'm just going by what was said during the curtain call speech they said all though many of the actors and crew members although had been with the company from 6 months to 9 years they were all excited to be part of the magic most of the crew also came out on stage with bouquets of Flowers along with many tears shedded by several members of the cast and crew including Cathy. I was already framiliar with Elisa and theresa from the TV production so it was very special to see the Two Girls along with Rigby (who I had only seen 4 years before in seussical) Live in this production.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/25/10 at 1:01am

Well, numerous crew members worked both tours.. one of the actors from the 1997 tour was also a stage manger for that "farewell" tour, but very few of the ACTORS from the 1997 tour were in the cast of actors performing the show at the end of the "farewell" tour, though there was was significant carry over in the crew.. and the reference doesn't necessarily apply to people who specifically worked on both productions, considering that a VERY significant number of cast and crew were Rigby's literal family. Scroll the list of names in the Playbill. They may not all have the same surname, but you are basically reading the Rigby Family Tree.

Romgitsean,
While technically correct, it is not truly correct. While Pan has been essayed by males in increasing numbers in high profile productions, Noseworthy is the only male to play Pan on Broadway - but only for one song. her understudied Charlotte D'Amboise's Peter pan for the song "I'm Flying" in "Jerome Robbins' Broadway".

[gypsy4]

Posted: 11/25/10 at 1:31am

I found it quite weird when reading my Playbill how many members were family including those working in Merchandise.

[CSonBroadway]

Posted: 11/25/10 at 9:08am

This needs to happen.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 11/25/10 at 10:28am

After watching Robert Johansson cast himself as Peter in his vanity production of the show at Papermill, I'm convinced a male Peter just wouldn't work. But, perhaps it was just Johansson.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/25/10 at 10:56am

Male Peters work. Males are the predominant Pans in London and have been for well more than 15 years. Musical versions have been written for male Peters. Males have played Pan in the 'Broadway' musical VERY sucessfully - B.D. Wong and Francis Jue spring to mind immediately. Johansson is an entirely different matter. You just look at a production photo and tell that he is completely wrong and the production was ill conceived.

[bk]

Posted: 11/25/10 at 1:55pm

I should hope male Peters work - there are remedies, however, for those that don't.

This has been a public service announcement.
Updated On: 11/25/10 at 01:55 PM