DeLaria will be Vera Charles opposite McArdle's MAME at the Media Theatre in Pennsylvania, according to her Facebook page.
Certainly... interesting casting to say the least. Completely preposterous and inappropriate, in my opinion, but definitely interesting.
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.
I think Delaria would make a great Mother Burnside or even Mr Babcock. She might even make a good Ito. Not even with the wildest imagination could she pretend to be the First Lady of the theatre. As for Ms.Mccardle. She's a great singer but a comedienne she is not. Best worst casting ever.
Are you sure this isn't a joke? I can't imagine any casting worse than this... one who can sing decently but can't act, and the other who... well, that describes them both.
PS to Ms DeLaria: Loud does NOT equal funny.
"What- and quit show business?" - the guy shoveling elephant shit at the circus.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
This wasn't the same theater that let Joyce Dewitt stumble through play Rose in Gypsy was it?
If we learned anything from Lucille Ball's Maimed, it's that the character of Mame needs some warmth of which Andrea McCardle has zilch.
Seeing Lea DeLaria play Vera Charles might be interesting if you could imagine Tom Bosley playing the role.
Maybe they could talk Jerry Seinfeld into playing Beauregard, Katherine McPhee to play Gooch and Honey Boo Boo as Young Patrick.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
I was going to see this with McCardle. Now that DeLaria is involved, I will pass on this. Boy will that theatre be sorry to have to deal with the likes of DeLaria. Very dificult to work with. To know her is to know she gives lesbians and thespians a bad name.
Are they really going to have Lea DeLaria sing "Bosom Buddy"?
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
^Delaria was a fantastic Hildy in the Park; her larger than lifeness couldn't survive On the Town's move to Broadway (nothing else in or about that production did either).
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This may in fact be a disaster, but I also have to say:
if this were early 1966, a great many of us would be screaming that the tough, vulgar, butch, "ethnic" giantess Bea Arthur was COMPLETELY, PATHETICALLY MISCAST as the grand dame first lady of the American theater, and that the hard as nails, B-list Hollywood "character actress" Angela Lansbury, best at arch and bitter roles (she was good in Anyone Can Whistle, superb in The Manchurian Candidate, but Mame? - WTF?!), was not only COMPLETELY, PATHETICALLY MISCAST as the warm, madcap, classy, patrician, loving, eccentrically maternal Auntie Mame but would, furthermore, never sell a single ticket.
That is until those legendary performances began and history was made.
My point - and I do have one - is that truly great and highly successful casting sometimes pushes the envelope, is surprising, and that all too often what people on bww seem to demand is the safe, the predictable, the commercially prepackaged and the boring.
My point - and I do have one - is that truly great and highly successful casting sometimes pushes the envelope, is surprising, and that all too often what people on bww seem to demand is the safe, the predictable, the commercially prepackaged and the boring.
I love this post. Very well said and I wholeheartedly agree!
I completely agree. But when it comes to Delaria, the last thing she should be doing is musical theater. She might be very talented in other areas, but this one ain't for her.
I thought Delaria was one of the few bright spots in ON THE TOWN. I was leery of her casting, and found her incredibly effective. And yes, her be bop/jazz shows are terrific. Her Ballad of Sweeney Todd is possibly my favorite version of the song.
I've worked with both of these women, and they were both lovely. I wonder if they need an Ito?