CONFIRMED: Audra McDonald-led GYPSY to begin previews Nov 2024- Page 4

[goldenboy]

Posted: 1/5/24 at 8:13pm

Um  Why? Do we need another Gypsy?

[missthemountains]

Posted: 1/5/24 at 10:16pm

I'm just wondering if reviving this story with an all-Black cast is productive. I'm so, so, so for "non traditional" and "inclusive" casting. But I think by retelling the story of Gypsy Rose Lee, a real person who was white, with a Black body, we get into erasure territory. Things were so insanely segregated back then. I mean, Black face was a form of entertainment in that period of time. Black performers certainly did break through, but it was far and few in between. Even Carol Channing hid the fact she was biracial until close to her own death.

However, it's not like there weren't EVER Black women who weren't like GRL--but at that point, it's a different story. I wasn't born off a turnip truck, I know that a story similar but with a Black woman would be an original work, original stuff doesn't sell, blah, blah, blah. I just think no matter how you cut it, if you're doing a piece based off a real person/public figure where the actor playing them is of a different race than the real person, it becomes a different story. And there's totally nothing wrong with that! It's just like, at that point, lean into that. Take the pieces of the figure you want to tell the story about and create something new!

I just think we're past the point of "colorblind" and this doesn't feel color-conscious to me, unless you'd make changes, and at that point, it's like...the show is 60 years old and none of the authors are alive. Just do something else. Especially this story. There have been so, so, many revivals of it. This and ITW are criminally overdone professionally.

[FranklinDickson2018]

Posted: 1/5/24 at 11:20pm

In terms of sheer vocal quality and timbre the "Rose's Turn" sounded completely wrong to me.  Both vocally and interpretively.  But this may have been the first time she had performed it?   Has Audra recorded any of the ballads from the show?  Are they better? But of course she could rework her vocal technique and dramatic approach as part of the rehearsal period of the show.  After Angela's revival, has a revival of "Gypsy" ever actually made money?  

[Jeff Tupolski]

Posted: 1/5/24 at 11:39pm

Valentina3 said: "Herbie is such a thankless role that anyone the caliber of Stokes would be a waste. Having said that, Raul Esparza has been away from Broadway for way too long and would be a great Herbie..."

I don’t really think Herbie’s a thankless role. I get why people say that, cause of the three central characters, it’s by far the least flashy showcase, but historically, this part has registered and registered positively. All but one of Gypsy’s Broadway productions saw Herbie’s actor nominated for a Tony, with Boyd Gaines winning for the last revival. How thankless can a role be when it holds the record for most Featured Actor nominations?

Anyway, I’m game for whatever Audra does, I’d love to see her Rose. I think my first picks for her costars would be Hailey Kilgore as Louise and Brian d’Arcy James as Herbie.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 12:55am

goldenboy said: "Um Why? Do we need another Gypsy?"


Do we need anything on Broadway? Silly question.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 12:58am

missthemountains said: "I'm just wondering if reviving this story with an all-Black cast is productive. I'm so, so, so for "non traditional" and "inclusive" casting. But I think by retelling the story of Gypsy Rose Lee, a real person who was white, with a Black body, we get into erasure territory. Things were so insanely segregated back then. I mean, Black face was a form of entertainment in that period of time. Black performers certainly did break through, but it was far and few in between. Even Carol Channing hid the fact she was biracial until close to her own death.

However, it's not like there weren't EVER Black women who weren't like GRL--but at that point, it's a different story. I wasn't born off a turnip truck, I know that a story similar but with a Black woman would be an original work, original stuff doesn't sell, blah, blah, blah. I just think no matter how you cut it, if you're doing a piece based off a real person/public figure where the actor playing them is of a different race than the real person, it becomes a different story. And there's totally nothing wrong with that! It's just like, at that point, lean into that. Take the pieces of the figure you want to tell the story about and create something new!

I just think we're past the point of "colorblind" and this doesn't feel color-conscious to me, unless you'd make changes, and at that point, it's like...the show is 60 years old and none of the authors are alive. Just do something else. Especially this story. There have been so, so, many revivals of it. This and ITW are criminally overdone professionally."


Good grief, suspend your disbelief a little. Haven’t you people ever heard of the THEATRE?! God forbid a six-time-Tony-winning actress play Mama Rose because she’s black and the authors of the show are dead.

 

Oy vey!

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 1:37am

It's also titled "A Musical FABLE." 

[Kad]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 9:59am

Gypsy is currently tied with 7 other shows for 10th place of most revived shows (source: Playbill) and the last revival closed 15 years ago. It’s produced more than a lot of shows, but not nearly produced as frequently as some people moan. We just happened to have the Bernadette and Patti revivals in quick succession in the 00s. 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 10:02am

I love Audra and will gets tickets for whatever she does but her Rose’s Turn did not sound maniacal enough. I’m not sure I want to hear her go gonzo but if she were going to go there, I’d much rather her do Lovett.  Anyway, I’ll still pray for a Piazza revival with Audra and Pfeiffer or Benton.

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 10:40am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Musicaldudepeter said: "It's Trevor Nunn directing."

I hope this is a bad joke!"

 

I'm out-of-the-loop. What wrong with Trevor Nunn? I think he'd actually be a decent choice for a revival like this?

 

[Ke3]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 11:06am

I do often wish we'd move beyond color blind casting simply because I feel that in theatre colorblindness has stood in for any attempt to make new stories about people of color. It's been more common to see non-white people on stage, but those people are often telling a white story. We can of course find different textures and subtexts through that casting but as a Black person that doesn't always stand in for something like Shuffle Along. A story where we can't just be slotted in and out when it seems convenient to liven up a known property.

In the last 20 years I can think of a handful of shows that deal specifically with Black people. Two that deal with the Asian experience. And one that directly deals with the experience of Latino immigrant and first gen populations. When Black theatre fans talk about Black shows we'd love to see revived the list is essentially the same as it would've been for people 30 years ago. What have we added, Caroline, Aida, and Shuffle Along?

But I also understand that we are in an era where it's incredibly hard to get new musicals off the ground. So everybody is essentially working with the canon and then adding a few more every year or so.

This is also not a new conversation. Black artists have for decades struggled with the idea of what "making it" looks like. There are some people who think the ability to take on historically white roles or roles that were not written specifically to be played by a Black actor is the ultimate mark of progress. And there are many people who think we should be rejecting that sort of surface level acceptance to focus on art that is about us. 

I don't think a Gypsy revival is the hill that discussion should be fought on as Gypsy (and frankly, Audra) is an incredibly specific case. 

Updated On: 1/6/24 at 11:06 AM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 11:21am

MikeInTheDistrict said: "I'm out-of-the-loop. What wrong with Trevor Nunn? I think he'd actually be a decent choice for a revival like this?"

I feel his musical output as of late in London and NY have been stodgy and overlong...Bridges, Night Music, Fiddler.

I'd personally prefer someone who would lean into the musical fable element and find new colors that we haven't seen in a GYPSY revival before. I don't know who exactly that person would be, but George Wolfe might be the best suggestion I've seen here.

Nunn could certainly surprise us at age 84, as Laurents did. But I just don't know. (And, to be clear, that was one poster who could be talking out their ass)

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 11:47am

missthemountains said: "I'm just wondering if reviving this story with an all-Black cast is productive. I'm so, so, so for "non traditional" and "inclusive" casting. But I think by retelling the story of Gypsy Rose Lee, a real person who was white, with a Black body, we get into erasure territory. Things were so insanely segregated back then. I mean, Black face was a form of entertainment in that period of time. Black performers certainly did break through, but it was far and few in between. Even Carol Channing hid the fact she was biracial until close to her own death.

However, it's not like there weren't EVER Black women who weren't like GRL--but at that point, it's a different story. I wasn't born off a turnip truck, I know that a story similar but with a Black woman would be an original work, original stuff doesn't sell, blah, blah, blah. I just think no matter how you cut it, if you're doing a piece based off a real person/public figure where the actor playing them is of a different race than the real person, it becomes a different story. And there's totally nothing wrong with that! It's just like, at that point, lean into that. Take the pieces of the figure you want to tell the story about and create something new!

I just think we're past the point of "colorblind" and this doesn't feel color-conscious to me, unless you'd make changes, and at that point, it's like...the show is 60 years old and none of the authors are alive. Just do something else. Especially this story. There have been so, so, many revivals of it. This and ITW are criminally overdone professionally."

Veronica Stern played Anya in the national tour of Anastasia and nobody seemed to be bothered by that.

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 11:58am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "MikeInTheDistrict said: "I'm out-of-the-loop. What wrong with Trevor Nunn? I think he'd actually be a decent choice for a revival like this?"

I feel his musical output as of late in London and NY have been stodgy and overlong...Bridges, Night Music, Fiddler.

I'd personally prefer someone who would lean into the musical fable element and find new colors that we haven't seen in a GYPSY revival before. I don't know who exactly that person would be, but George Wolfe might be the best suggestion I've seen here.

Nunn could certainly surprise us at age 84, as Laurents did. But I just don't know. (And, to be clear, that was one poster who could be talking out their ass)"

Of those, I only saw ALNM (with Bernadette), and liked it, although probably more for her performance and Stritch than the production itself. His Fiddler seems to have been well-received, but I'll take your word for it if you saw it. I can't imagine it being any worse than the Sher production. I think Nunn, is generally respectful of the material and can do a serviceable job with period pieces while still bringing some darker color to a piece (I think he's better at this than Sher), but I agree it would be nice to see someone like Wolfe bring something new to the work, especially as Laurents had such a stranglehold on how this material was produced for so long. I think it would even be necessary considering Audra is such an out-of-the-mold choice (in terms of temperament/personality and vocal color) for Rose, IMO.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 1:25pm

An immediate reaction from a friend who heard the Trevor Nunn rumor:

"If Arthur Laurents thought Sam Mendes was a bridge too far, Trevor Nunn would have him rising out of his coffin to judge mankind."

(My response, of course, was "He won't get out, though. I put a rock on the lid.")

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 4:41pm

I think we as a society need to really take seriously the possible threat of a Laurents zombie spat back to life out of sheer spite. 

 



 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 5:15pm

verywellthensigh said: "I think we as a society need to really take seriously the possible threat of a Laurents zombie spat back to life out of sheer spite."

Look what happened when Ivo Van Hove & Scott Rudin tampered with his beloved WEST SIDE STORY, it caused a global pandemic!

And then when Tony Kushner & Steven Spielberg took a pass at it, he killed off Steve Sondheim.

Coincidence??????!??!?!??!?!

Updated On: 1/6/24 at 05:15 PM

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 1/6/24 at 5:34pm

Guys, GUYS, I PUT A ROCK ON THE LID. WE'RE OKAY!

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/29/24 at 10:31am

Throwing out an idea of one Rose I'd genuinely like to see:

Lea Michele.

And before people say "she's too young," she's currently the age that the real Rose would have been at the end of Act 1 when June leaves.

But she and Michael Mayer seem tied at the hip, which interests me less.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 1/29/24 at 10:49am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "verywellthensigh said: "I think we as a society need to really take seriously the possible threat of a Laurents zombie spat back to life out of sheer spite."

Look what happened when Ivo Van Hove & Scott Rudin tampered with his beloved WEST SIDE STORY, it caused a global pandemic!

And then when Tony Kushner & Steven Spielberg took a pass at it, he killed off Steve Sondheim.

Coincidence??????!??!?!??!?!"

This gave me a laugh I desperately needed in the middle of a rough work day. Bravo.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 2/25/24 at 1:17am

Audra says no.

Audra McDonald Shuts Down 'Gypsy' Broadway Revival Rumor and Teases 'The Gilded Age' Season 3 (Exclusive)

https://www.etonline.com/audra-mcdonald-shuts-down-gypsy-broadway-revival-rumor-and-teases-the-gilded-age-season-3-exclusive

"Despite rumors to the contrary, McDonald tells ET's Nischelle Turner that she will not be returning to Broadway to take on the iconic role of Mama Rose in a revival of Gypsy premiering during the 2024-2025 season.

"Oh no, that was a rumor. I read about that many in the New York Post too," McDonald reveals to ET on the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet Saturday night. "You know, people talk, people talk.""

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 2/25/24 at 1:50am

But…but….the New Orleans flavor!!

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 2/25/24 at 2:00am

If she’s pulling out, it’s cause she thinks someone else is gonna win the Tony.  This was/is absolutely in the works.  

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 2/25/24 at 2:03am

That article says she has ten Tony awards.  Has she won for producing ?

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 2/25/24 at 3:38am

Audra has 72 Tony Awards, the most received by any.

I still say Sutton Foster is clearing the path for her to be the next Broadway Rose. It is beyond obvious. Her doing Lovett was the final nail in the coffin.