Britney on Broadway...- Page 8

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 12:29am

The ones that DO become interested in theatre because of this will be far out-numbered by all the screaming fans and the people that have a morbid fanscination in witnessing this trainwreck. That doesn't help theater, it makes it a novelty instead of an artform.

[Roxie_Hart]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 12:29am

Well, all I have to say is thank God Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse are already dead, or they'd have killed themselves by now.

I'm not buying any of this "give her a chance" stuff. It was pushing the age factor to cast 33 (I think that's her age, anyway) year-old Applegate in this part... but to cast a 23 year-old in this role?! NO WAYYY. It's ludicrous. And, granted, Christina was never the best choice for this role and her voice isn't strong, but at least it has character and isn't some nasal, sexual moan... thing the way Britney's is. I don't dislike Britney -- in my middle school days, I was a fan of her music. But this is downright treason. *shakes head*

[Broadway_freak]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 12:30am

I think she would be amazing, and until she gets on that stage and finishes the show, we have no right to judge her.

[WickedScoundrel]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 12:42am

*shudder* That gives me chills...creepy scary chills

[ex_soldier1911]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 12:43am

Amen bway freak, I completely agree with you, I think this will open alot of doors for the bway world

[hot_brdwy_diva]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 12:51am

Yea, it's not really fair to make judgements so soon. What if it were you? How many cd's, tv shows and video's do YOU have?

I think she can do what she wants... and she is.

Face it, pretty much EVERYONE has heard of Britney Spears. Unless they've lived under a rock for the past 7 years.
I think it will draw alot of people and it was smart on the producers part.

I think behind all the pop stuff she has a good voice. But she has had to record what sells. Give her a chance.

And the 23 yr old thing... Applegate was 33... But did she really LOOK 33?

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 12:55am

ex_soldier, what do you mean by that? What doors? Doors to make completely inappropriate stunt-casting the best method for having a successful show? Doors to take musical theater jobs away from trained musical theater actors that have worked their whole lives to reach this level, only to give the role to some fading Hollywood star that thinks Broadway would be "fun" to try?

I've never like stuntcasting in ANY show, but this is just ridiculous. I don't need to see her trying to sing, dance and act onstage in this before I make a judgement; years of concert footage has shown me what I need to know.

Updated On: 11/19/05 at 12:55 AM

[ellenoshalom]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 1:00am

I love me some Britney Spears!!! The only concern I would have of her as well as I have for Whitney Houston is committment...will she be reliable in a Broadway production is my only concern.

[ellenoshalom]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 1:04am

What I mean about reliable is Britney couldn't complete a tour schedule without being distracted by the media's attention she grabs.

[ex_soldier1911]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 1:05am

allright orange, we can see you don't like britney, but she is gona do what she wants. If she is no good she will fail, if she is good she will succeed, and that should be good enough for all of us.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 1:14am

OK, people don't seem to get why we are so against Britney joining the show. Sweet Charity is a show created by two of the most legendary Broadway figures of all times, composed by one of the best creative teams, and it's just a great old-fashioned musical comedy that was daring enough to defy the typical romantic ending of shows of the time. Applegate was cast in this show because of her TV fame but at least she has had previous theater training, she is famous for being a great comic actress, and she is not one of those celebrities that try to be in the tabloids all the time, she takes her career and Broadway seriously; at the end, she proved to all of us that she was not only a trooper but that she was able to bring new things to the role, and make it her own despite her self-acknowledged limitations, when I saw her on stage she gave 110% and she could tell she has a great respect for her audience. Spears is not any of these, she doesn't even sing live in her concerts, she is not a good actress, she won't take the show seriously, and she knows she's a diva. Even Melanie Griffith had a great respect for Broadway and Chicago, regardless of her subsequent performance. It is so sad that the Weisslers will go that low to get some money, the main problem is that there are amazing performers in New York that live for the stage and that are not given a chance just because they don't have a big name, Charlotte D'Amboise herself, a great actress who has become the Roxie the Weisslers get when there's no one famous to fill in the role, is not being given a chance to play Charity just because she is not Britney Spears despite the fact that when the show opened in Boston she was singled out as pretty much the only thing that worked in the show according to the critics.
I was hoping someone with previous theater experience or someone with some respect to the community like Sarah Jessica Parker would replace Applegate.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 1:33am

ex_soldier, I happen to like Britney Spears's music when I'm dancing with my friends. I just don't like the idea of her on Broadway.

So, are you going to actually answer my original question, or just ignore me because I don't agree with you?

Updated On: 11/19/05 at 01:33 AM

[Conor]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 1:45am

i thought britney was on broadway as a child... she was like Sarah Michelle Gellar's understudy in something...i think. I know she definitly has theatre experience, i saw it on Driven or Behind the Music or Something. She also had a fairly decent voice, very powerful belt for such a young child, and I doubt that disappeared completely. I think she COULD do it, but I doubt she will, and i don't know if it would be good that she did.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 2:34am

I happen to enjoy Britney's music at a club or a party, not on a Broadway stage performing a role that such actresses as Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, Bebe Neuwirth, and Debbie Allen have honored before. She is just not meant to play this role, people might think this role is just comedy and that's it, but Charity is a complex role and it takes an actress who can sing to pull it off, not a singer who can act.

Updated On: 11/19/05 at 02:34 AM

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 2:57am

Sorry, Conor. You're WAY off.

When she was 10, she understudied Laura Bell Bundy in the OFF-Broadway musical, RUTHLESS.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 2:58am

ray, sorry, my previous post was in response to ex_solier's. I completely agree with what you said.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 3:15am

Sorry if I sounded bitchy, orangeskittles, I get sort of passionate sometimes. I wasn't bitching at your comment or anything, sorry if it sounded that way.

[Conor]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 3:16am

yeah I looked it up and Natalie Portman was SMG's understudy in a show, although the site didn't specify which one it was. SMG actually played opposite Matthew Broderick in an off-broadway production of "The Widow Claire". After awhile all those E True Hollywood stories just mesh together in your mind. anyways I vote no for britney, I think its just direspectful to the show and I don't know if it would do that well in terms of ticket sales, she doesn't really have a large adult fan base at all. but I think SMG should come to Broadway (straight play of course, although I think a musical rendition of Cruel Intentions would be amazing)

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 9:49am

Britney is actually a good choice for the role as far as "type," except that she's WAY too young for it (how can she play a aging dance hall hostess at 23?)... oh, and she can't act.

But other than that...

Maybe they'll replace the "Rich Man's Frug" with "Toxic."

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 10:12am

It's quite presumptuous to assume how much or how little respect Britney has for Broadway or this role or that she "won't take the role seriously."

We can go on and on about all the reasons people like or hate her - bottom line is, she's 20 years too young for the role. That's all that needs to be said, and that's what the producers and director should be considering. A 23-year-old cannot play Charity, period.

Updated On: 11/19/05 at 10:12 AM

[thtrteacher]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 10:14am

Atheists all over the world are saying I told you so.

[EadieWasALady]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 10:18am

Britney would be fabulous on Broadway in Sweet Charity. Does anyone know when she starts?

[MoonOnAstring]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 10:20am

Forbidden Broadway is going to have a field day with this.

[hannahshule]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 11:02am

this is just a rumor isn't it? I haven't seen any official link. (the one at the beginning said she was "in talks" to be in it) so to convince myself it's not true, here are some points
1. Britney has minimal if any talent(she can't sing, the back up track does
2. She doesn't have a broadway like prescence, and I don't want to give her a chance, as mean as that sounds
3. She has money, lots of it, and there's some new undiscovered talent out there who is getting her chance taken away from her
4. She's too weird, her family, child, it's just...too much publicity for a broadway show
5. Nobody would go to see the show anyway, they'd go to see britney, and if she was god awful, then nobody would go see it and it would close
6. Charity was in her 40's or at leats 30's, she's supposed to have life experience, 23 does not count as life experience.
7. Remeber Crossroads? Britney CAN'T act!

and finally,


8. BRITNEY SPEARS DOES NOT BELONG ON BROADWAY!!!! case and point, I don't need to give her a chance, I gave Christina a chance and she was fine, but's that's as far as this stunt casting should go. Broadway shouldn't beba place for burnt out artists to go and exlpoit themselves.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 11:05am

"Atheists all over the world are saying I told you so."

thtrteacher --- LOL!