ACL2006 said: "Jordan Catalano said: "Jay Lerner-Z said: "I can't see Cyndi Lauper playing a Londoner convincingly.”
and Annaleigh does? lol"
Annaleigh is as dreadful as Mrs. Lovett. How she got a Tony nomination is unreal. She's literally rolling around on the stage pandering for laughs. I blame the director for allowing that to happen.
FYI, the show is not extending. The Lunt is booked for the Spring."
I have not seen the show yet…October trip. I do know 7 - 8 people who saw it and thought she was the best part. Since she also won the Drama League Award for most distinguished performance of the season (and does not have the extensive list of credits that Sutton Foster has), I can only assume she took a high-risk interpretation of the role, which people in general seem to either love or hate.
Raul Esparza and Hannah Waddingham. He'd get theatre people excited to come back, and a West End star-turned Emmy winning sitcom star would draw in box office AND be a fabulous casting choice. I think they can get by with a "Broadway famous" Sweeney if they bring in a Lovett that is a more commercial name.
"I saw Pavarotti play Rodolfo on stage and with his girth I thought he was about to eat the whole table at the Cafe Momus." - Dollypop
Brave Sir Robin2 said: "Raul Esparza and Hannah Waddingham. He'd get theatre people excited to come back, and a West End star-turned Emmy winning sitcom star would draw in box office AND be a fabulous casting choice. I think they can get by with a "Broadway famous" Sweeney if they bring in a Lovett that is a more commercial name."
Only one issue: Raul Esparza doesn’t sell enough tickets to matter. He hasn’t been on Broadway in awhile and did not appear to sell tickets in the past. Unless they get a real name, they are probably right to close when Groban leaves. Despite being one of the all-time greats, ST has still depended on names to sell tickets on Broadway.
I would love nothing more than to see Esparza and Waddingham in SWEENEY together, box office be damned (I don't think she means as much as some people here think she does, especially not on the heels of Groban)
If they were planning on continuing the show without Groban and co, I feel like we would’ve gotten the new cast announcement by now. For comparison, the recent Hello, Dolly! revival announced Bernadette Peters(and Victor Garber) on September 05, 2017 when they weren’t due to start until January 20, 2018. Perhaps it’s apples and oranges, but when you are dealing with a massive start like Groban it’s hard to recast and it becomes even more difficult closer to their official end date.
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To be fair the show seemed to do well despite his vacations so perhaps there is demand there. But I’m sure it’ll likely close when they leave. It’ll tour for a year then a scaled down non-eq tour.
RippedMan said: "To be fair the show seemed to do well despite his vacations so perhaps there is demand there. But I’m sure it’ll likely close when they leave. It’ll tour for a year then a scaled down non-eq tour."
See I hope it’s not like hello Dolly that after bette bad Bernadette it closes. There was no reason for it close so quickly. With lists of replacements it was really quite sad
similar to this show and yet it’s difficult to find suitable replacements
I would love to see Hugh shed his goody two shoes image and surprise everyone with a really disturbing portrayal. I think he's done with Broadway for now, though, and, as we now know, he doesn't wish to be tied down at the moment.
It will never happen but Audra has said she wants to play Sweeney and Kieran Culkin was asked what role he’d like to play in a musical and his answer was Mrs. Lovett. While he may have been joking I would pay a LOT of money to see those two.
RippedMan said: "To be fair the show seemed to do well despite his vacations so perhaps there is demand there."
Vacations & sick days are kind of a different thing. Those shows also do ok because they can sell them at the booth and people who just want to see a good revival of SWEENEY will bite (similar to the nights Donna Murphy went on in DOLLY or Julie Benko in FUNNY GIRL)...but that's a finite number of people and that audience dries up quickly, especially when the name JOSH GROBAN is no longer above the title.
Impeach2017 said: "I would love to see Hugh shed his goody two shoes image and surprise everyone with a really disturbing portrayal. I think he's done with Broadway for now, though, and, as we now know, he doesn't wish to be tied down at the moment."
He could not sing the score. His voice gets unpleasantly nasal when he has challenging songs, many of which ST sings. Plus, after his MM triumph, it’s too soon and too high risk.
Impeach2017 said: "I would love to see Hugh shed his goody two shoes image and surprise everyone with a really disturbing portrayal. I think he's done with Broadway for now, though, and, as we now know, he doesn't wish to be tied down at the moment."