Legally Blonde Tour- Page 2

[fnyboi88]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 2:28pm

Rhode Island's Providence Performing Arts Center (Sept. 23-2, to be followed by Baltimore, MD (Sept. 30-Oct. 12); Rochester, NY (Oct. 21-26); Schenectady, NY (Nov. 25-30); Philadelphia, PA (Dec. 2-7); Hartford, CT (Dec. 9-14); Washington, DC (Dec. 16-Jan. 11, 2009); East Lansing, MI (Jan. 13-18, 2009); St. Louis, MO (Jan. 20-Feb. 1, 2009); Houston, TX (Feb. 10-22, 2009); Orlando, FL (March 10-15, 2009); West Palm Beach, FL (March 17-22, 2009); Greenville, SC (March 24-29, 2009); Clearwater, FL (April 7-12, 2009); Durham, NC (April 14-19, 2009); Charlotte, NC (April 21-26, 2009); St. Paul, MN (April 28-May 10, 2009); Dayton, OH (June 16-21, 2009); Nashville, TN (June 23-28, 2009); Kansas City, MO (June 30-July 5, 2009); Atlanta, GA (July 14-19, 2009); Dallas, TX (July 21-Aug. 9, 2009); and Costa Mesa, CA (Sept. 8-20, 2009), additional dates expected.

[karatekid1]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 3:03pm

Why is Los Angeles or San Diego not on any of these lists? I mean i thought LA would be a big market for this show. Is it because there is no theater to have it because of the pantages being taken by Wicked?

[fnyboi88]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 4:31pm

They might want to do a more than a one or two week sit-down.

[musicandtemiror]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 4:32pm

Any casting yet?

[fnyboi88]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 4:41pm

No

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 5:28pm

Yes.

Just not officially announced.

[donna_darko_23]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 9:47pm

I'm assuming that they mean St. Paul, MN and not St. Paul, MO as it is listed on this site and Broadway.com.

[FlyingMonkey1223]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 10:53pm

no San Fran or Sacramento?

[E.Davis]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 11:18pm

AH they are coming to Schenectady NY thats cool even though I have seen it twice. I guess I could see it again

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 11:29am

"Why is Los Angeles or San Diego not on any of these lists? I mean i thought LA would be a big market for this show. Is it because there is no theater to have it because of the pantages being taken by Wicked?"

No, WICKED is closing in January. LEGALLY BLONDE will the play the Pantages, but I don't know when that is.

[Harpz2006]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 12:34am

Cortney Wolfson of "The Battery's Down" was just cast as Serena for the national tour.

[stageishome]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 12:48am

Weird that Cortney Wolson is doing the tour – I thought she was doing 9 to 5?

[Harpz2006]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 1:03am

Oh, I had no idea about "9 to 5"-- there was just an announcement on the facebook group for MTCollege Auditions coaching from the coaching coordinator that Cortney just landed the role...

[outdamnwench]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 2:06am

Becky Gulsvig is Elle on tour.
She's the Broadway u/s and goes on most of the time when LBB is out.

[BrianS]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 2:20am

Casting is at least 90% done. It's a tiered contract, which I think is ridiculous because the presenters aren't going to be paying a smaller guarantee. I can't understand why AEA agreed to the pay cut (since producers are already combining/cutting tracks to bring costs down which IS understandable), but now I'm hearing that Equity is about to concede some major issues with Wicked LA when it transfers to San Fran so maybe Mark Zimmerman will just sit on the producer's side of the table during negotiations.

(off soapbox)

I actually think the tour will be more successful than the Broadway production. It's going to benefit from the TV show exposure and will have less competition in touring cities for their audience demographic than in NY.

[misto625]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 2:41pm

BrianS, can you elaborate about these concessions? I am curious to find out. I am surprised this is on a tiered contract as well and that they are cutting tracks. I would think that Legally Blonde would do great on the road and am interested in seeing it, but not a scaled down production. I didn't really think the sets were that large to begin with.

[broadwayboy522]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 4:10pm

What exactly is a tiered contract?

[BrianS]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 7:44pm

Basically, it allows the producers to pay the actors at a lower rate than a production contract. It's not uncommon to reduce the number of tracks for a tour (thus lowering the running costs), but a while ago Equity started to concede weekly salaries as well.

(simplified version)
Many actors have proposed a shared responsibility system where a show is audited weekly and if the gross is lower than expected, the actors would get a lower rate than production contract, but if a show exceeded a set amount, the actors would get a higher pay rate than a production contract. This helps insulate the producers (and in this case more likely the presenters) with taking loses while rewarding actors for sharing in the risk when things are going well. Neither the producers (and for some unknown reason, Equity's leadership) will go for the idea.

As for Wicked, it's too early to say, but basically it has to due with keeping turnover costs down with the transfer. The producers are asking Equity to allow them to lock the actors into a contract with no out (as opposed to the traditional 4 week out) with only a small weekly pay raise to compensate. It is a very bad precedent to set with a chorus contract since it takes away a great deal of an actor's freedom, but my guess is Equity will concede it without even asking for feedback from it's members.

Our show has had numerous cases where Equity suspended a rule based solely on what the producers presented them with without asking us if the actual circumstances matched the producers description of events (does that make sense?). I cannot understand why Equity wouldn't check in with it's members first to get both sides of a story, but it seems to be par for the course.

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 7:52pm

That's awful if Wicked in San Fransico won't allow 4-week outs. Choruc members of shows have so many wonderful opportunities with their outs, and I hope that Equity does not agree to it in the end. It would limit so much talent from pooling between shows.

[defyinggravity42694]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 7:57pm

There was no Legally Blonde tour in the past.

Here is a link to the article of the cities and dates of the first national tour...
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/116410.html


It has also been confirmed that Becky Gulsvig (current Elle Woods understudy) will be playing Elle in the first national tour.

[crzyray]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 8:06pm

not sure why it's not on playbill.com or anywhere but it's going to be in cleveland November 11-23 at the palace theatre... just throwing that out there since all these sites seem to not list that as one of it's cities!

[oohshizz146]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 8:11pm

Woo! Cortney Wolfson as Serena and Becky Gulsvig as Elle!
I'm so psyched it's coming to Boston!

[theaterdude87]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 8:37pm

Courtney as Serena sounds like a great thing.

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 9:27pm

I am so excited Cortney is Serena! Congrats to her!

[broadwayboy1017]

Posted: 5/11/08 at 9:58pm

Natalie Joy Johnson is Paulette!