'Designing Women' on Broadway?

[richs52]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 11:15am

From Foxnews.com:

'Designing' May Be Broadway Bound
Thursday, November 17, 2005
By Roger Friedman


TV's 'Designing Women' May Be Broadway Bound

It's just a rumor, but it's pretty solid all the same.

I hear that Linda Bloodworth-Thomason is hard at work updating her hit TV series, "Designing Women," for Broadway.

And that's not all. The original cast — Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Annie Potts and Jean Smart — are said to have signed on to recreate their TV roles.

Burke was on Broadway recently in "Steel Magnolias," and Carter has been a regular on the cabaret circuit for some time.

The word is that producers Anita Waxman and Elizabeth McCann, two of Broadway's most venerable and successful "designing women," will put the show on the boards beginning next summer.

So what will the play be about? For one thing, sources tell me that Bloodworth-Thomason has updated it in real time, so the women will have aged the 15 years that it's been since they were last on the air.

But the play will also be topical, with room left for changes week-by-week, depending on the news of the day.

If this works — and it seems like a lock to do just that — my guess is we will soon see plays based on shows like "The Golden Girls," "Soap," "All in the Family" and other television classics. The audience is certainly built in, and people know what they're getting up front.

It's all good fun, but it does kind of make you wonder how fast Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neill are spinning in their graves.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 11:24am

I just threw up in my mouth.

[wickedobsessed]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 11:26am

Can't really see this as a broadway show.....

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 11:35am

Riiiiiiiiight ....... Designing Women live on stage for $90 a seat. I give it three weeks before it closes. Didn't they learn ANYTHING from the STEEL MAGNOLIAS revival the flopped recently, losing its entire investment? Heck, Delta Burke was in that one too. And that's the exact same audience that would be willing to pay to see this -- Fans of Lifetime (ie. Television for Women and the Gay Friends Who Love Them). This is the sort of thing that should star drag queens and play once a week at a gay bar with a stage like Barracuda, etc......

Ya know, if they really want to just throw away $3 million (or whatever this will be capitalized at), I could use a loan/gift right about now. They would have about the same odds of getting their money back as they would by producing something this stupid, but at least if they gave it to me, it would spare them the public humiliation of having a flop for Riedel to make fun of them for.

[BwayBaby18]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 11:37am

i won't lie, i would totally go see it on opening night

[Calvin]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 12:15pm

If this was a one night or even one week charity event or something, it might work. But Margo, as usual, is right. It won't last long otherwise.

Where the heck has Annie Potts been lately, anyway?

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 12:22pm

This is so weird. I was actually thinking about Designing Women this morning in the shower. You remember that one episode where a photographer comes around to shoot the girls for a magazine and they all get really offended when he wants them to be hot and sexy in the photos? Then Dixie Carter (as in every episode) gets on her soap box after the photographer makes her put the pearl necklace in her mouth? Oh, that was a good show.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 12:25pm

Good question. I know Potts was doing a lot of Lifetime movies and tv shows at one point, but I haven't seen her at all in a while. Haven't heard from Dixie Carter either for a while.

[Calvin]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 12:29pm

Dixie Carter was in a play with Hal Holbrook at the Alley Theatre in Houston a few months ago. I can't think of the name, but I think it was a new work.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 12:37pm

jean smart is an excellent actress. dixie carter has been doing the algonquin every year. she is not my favorite.

will anthony actually be gay this time?

i will refer to it mentally as:
the designing blonde in my life

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 2:03pm

Why "Designing Women" when "The Golden Girls" was a far superior series?

Then again, why ruin a good thing?

[cudramacat]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 2:04pm

ok, so I'm not ashamed....I think this is a cool idea! If I lived in NYC I would totally go see it:)

[cookie2]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 2:16pm

FOAnatic, sadly, A Golden Girls show with the original cast could never be as Estelle Getty's (sophia) health has deteriorated so with alzheimer's. In a recent interview with Rue McClanahan, she said that Estelle no longer even remembers that the Golden Girls ever existed. So heartbreaking.

Oh, and GarlandGrrrl, yes Jean Smart is fantastic. I saw her this summer in Lady Windmere's Fan at Williamstown. She was brilliant.

[shermanslave]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 9:23pm

that just seems weird that they would all want to do it. why not a tv movie reunuin kind of thing?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 9:26pm

It will work....it's gonna be the same as teh sitcom....it will work.

[shermanslave]

Posted: 11/17/05 at 9:29pm

really? you think it will work? I don't see it.

[WonderBoy]

Posted: 11/18/05 at 11:17am

I'll openly admit that I'm sure I would see it many times. I loved that show until Jean Smart and Delta Burke left then it went down hill fast.

[Flahooley]

Posted: 11/18/05 at 11:22am

I always felt the show had a play-like quality...much like ALL IN THE FAMILY. So, I'm a little intrigued by the idea. If it happens, I hope it succeeds, as I hope any well written, moving and funny piece of work succeeds.

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 11/18/05 at 11:24am

Maybe they can just make it a mixture of "Designing Women" and "Golden Girls" and call it "Golden Designing Girls." They could all move into the Sugarbaker mansion for financial reasons and it could be about hot flashes, Depends and throw pillows.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 11/18/05 at 1:01pm

cookie, I'm fully aware of Estelle's condition. I am a LONG time devoted fan of the show.

I didn't mean that there should be a mounting with the original cast, they're all far too old to play those parts anymore. I was thinking of a re-cast. But then I realized it would just ruin a good thing.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 11/18/05 at 2:42pm

I'm intrigued by the idea. I'm not at all familiar with the show. I guess its never interested me. But a live Tv-Show that changes weekly on stage? could be interesting? Although I doubt ppl are willing to shell out 90 bucks a week. I think it will also get hammered by the critics just because of the insaneness of the idea.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/18/05 at 3:04pm

There's nothing new and original about the idea of putting a sitcom on stage -- The Brady Bunch stage show ran for a long time with a cast doing a different episode every week. Happy Days also ran for a while with a similar format. But, in each case, those shows were done in bars or comedy clubs that charged a nominal entrance fee ($10 or so), so audiences were willing to go back week after week to see a new show. The economics of bringing back the original cast to play in a Broadway theatre, mandates charging $85 - 90 a ticket (the current top for a nonmusical straight play). Who's going to pay that for a sitcom they can watch for free several times a day? Even off-Broadway economics don't work for this, with its $70 top ticket price. Doing it in a bar with drag queens is, I'm afraid, the only way it makes financial sense.

Also, I think Designing Women's "moment" has passed. Perhaps if Jerry Seinfeld wanted to get the original cast of his show back together or the "Friends" wanted to reunite (yeah right) perhaps they could attract enough business to make it worthwhile. But, Designing Women? I love the show, but this is a dumb idea.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/18/05 at 3:08pm

Please note the Fox News qualifying language:

"And that's not all. The original cast — Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Annie Potts and Jean Smart — are said to have signed on to recreate their TV roles." Emphasis mine.

Are said, BY WHOM?

Consider the source and dismiss it.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/18/05 at 3:23pm

I do think a live version, a la Brady Bunch, could be a hit. Broadway is a big mistake (sounds like an ego trip for Bloodworth Thompson.)

I would like to hear some of the lines done by these ladies again, tho...(yes I have them all memorized....and what about Bernice?! She didnt seem too well on the televised reunion.)

...and I LOVED Jan Hooks after Delta and Jean left...it was Julia Duffy that ruined the show (along with the writing.)

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 11/18/05 at 3:38pm

Julia Duffy has ruined about anything she's been involved in. And I love Jan Hooks, but the big problem with her on Designing Women is she was still in SNL mode, so her acting was a notch bigger than is appropriate for a sitcom. She seems out of synch with the whole situation. I think she got better at her acting style as the show went along, but it was too late because the writing starting going downhill and the remaining cast members (who were quite talented) seemed to lose interest in the material.