is actively campaigning for the role of The Baker's Wife in the INTO THE WOODS film.
I had dinner with a friend tonight who works for one of the major talent agencies. She would not tell me the name of the actress (client confidentiality) but only said that she wants the role and she can sing and no it is not Sandra Bullock (she was my first guess).
She also told me there are a number of other A-List actresses who are interested in the part so nothing is certain.
As I was thinking through the recent winners for that list above, I thought of Melissa McCarthy. Not an Oscar winner, but I bet she would be interesting....and maybe amazing.
Melissa McCarthy would actually be superb. She has all the warmth, the humor, the quirkiness, the heart, and I can imagine her in Germanic style costumes (although that style probably won't be utilized in the movie).
Reese Witherspoon was the first person I thought of when I read this, and she'd be absolutely delightful in the role.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Reese Witherspoon just had a baby, if even plausible, could she really want to handle her stage debut in a big show like this so soon (assuming it's spring).
"Hey little girls, look at all the men in shiny shirts and no wives!" - Jackie Hoffman, Xanadu, 19 Feb 2008
Melissa McCarthy would be such a good Baker's Wife! I really wish they'd cast a comedienne in the role as opposed to someone who fits the Amy Adams mold like Reese Witherspoon. Witherspoon can obviously be funny, but I haven't seen her be genuinely funny--let alone actually invested in a role--since she won the Oscar. McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and Tina Fey would be much more interesting to me than pretty and conventional actresses like Witherspoon or Rachel Weisz. I think the problem with productions of INTO THE WOODS after the original is the Baker's Wife has been cast with a leading lady, where the role should be played by a character actress who can shine like the best leading lady, that's why Joanna Gleason won a Tony but Amy Adams was considered a disappointment (in his review Brantley even commented that Jessie Mueller and Adams should swap roles).
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
ray, I'd argue that Witherspoon is pretty quirky for a "leading lady."
Though I agree that her more recent work has been much more traditional, her performances in films like LEGALLY BLONDE, ELECTION, and SWEET HOME ALABAMA are far more character-based than would be typical of any other film star of her status. I get what you're saying about likening her to Amy Adams, but Adams is every bit the ingenue, whereas Witherspoon has never had that kind of career (with very few exceptions.)
In terms of Melissa McCarthy, even if she could sing, between her television series and the million film projects she has in development, she'd never be available for this movie any time in the next two years.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Anyone but Renee Zellweger please. I couldn't stand her in Chicago.
Speaking of Chicago, Catherine Zeta Jones does fit the description. I just don't know if she would be good or not. This is not my vote for who should get it. Just an idea of who it could be.
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005
"You can't pray away the gay."-Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy.
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