Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
#0Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/14/06 at 7:04pm
It seems every time I've seen it discussed on this board, people hated it.
Personally I enjoyed it VERY much. I think Cynthia Nixon was a superb Mary Haines and the same can be said about Kristen Johnston and Rue McClanahan.
Also some great featured performances from Amy Ryan, Jennifer Coolidge and Mary Louise Wilson.
Not to mention the scenes that Mary Bond Davis and Julie Halston stole.
Yes, the show had it's faults...there were times when Hallie Kate Eisenberg just made me want to claw my ears out.
I loved the sets and costumes as well.
Overall I really enjoyed this show.
"I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about." - Oscar Wilde
popcultureboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/23/03
#1re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/14/06 at 7:08pmWhat about Jennifer Tilly?
Nothing precious, plain to see, don't make a fuss over me. Not loud, not soft, but somewhere inbetween. Say sorry, just let it be the word you mean.
#2re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/14/06 at 7:10pmI saw it on PBS and loved it. I've been looking for it on dvd ever since. any info?
#3re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/14/06 at 7:12pm
She was good...not great, but good. I don't know, I just felt she could have done so much more with the role. This may sound weird but she wasn't bitchy enough to me.
I'm trying to think of who would have fit the role better.
"I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about." - Oscar Wilde
DAME
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/15/04
#4re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/14/06 at 7:15pmLoved it on pbs
HUSSY POWER!
------ HUSSY POWER!
#5re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/14/06 at 7:21pmIt was terrible in the theatre. Sorry.
#6re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/14/06 at 7:21pmanything with Cynthia and Jennifer Coolidge would be good enuff for me!!! can i get the dvd online or something?
"People have their opinions and that doesn't mean that their opinions are wrong or right. I just take it with a grain of salt because opinions are like as*holes, everyone has one".
-Felicia Finley-
#7re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/14/06 at 7:23pmthats what I'm wondering muscle...terrible just in the theate, or terrible in general? i still love it, liked the movie too.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#8re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/14/06 at 8:00pmPerhaps I'd have felt differently had I never seen the classic film version, but since I had I couldn't help but feel the revival paled in comparison. I wasn't crazy about the direction or much of the casting. The sole exception for me -- Jennifer Coolidge was BRILLIANT in a small role ("What's that on the baby's nose?" "Oh, it's an ash"). Aside from Coolidge, I found the entire production mediocre.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
#9re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/14/06 at 8:29pmI only caught the second act on PBS but from what I saw I absolutely loved it. it would be really neat to have it on DVD... alas...
#10re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/14/06 at 9:34pm
I loved Jennifer Coolidge and also Heather Matarazzo's scene in the kitchen with the cook over Sylvia and Stephen's fight. The costumes and sets I also found wonderful. However, as Margo said, the show only paled in comparison to the classic movie version.
I'm sorry, but no one could play a more comical "love-to-hate" Sylvia than Roz Russell. And no one could play a bitchier Crystal than Joan Crawford. Also the little girl in the movie, forgot her name, was LEAGUES above Hallie Kate Eisenberg who couldn't act her way out of a paper bag and certainly couldn't make the best of that amazing monologue she has telling Crystal off.
I love every woman who was IN "The Women" on Broadway as an actress, but I didn't like most of them in their roles. Granted, I felt that with the right director they all could have been wonderful. I didn't hate it, it was more of a disappointment.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
#11re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 2:48am
I loved it too - JUNGLE RED SYLVIA!
(I DO wish I could have seen it done with Stritch, Marge Champion, Glo Swanson and Dagmar though, what a hoot THAT would have been!!)
"It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance." -
Elizabeth Taylor
popcultureboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/23/03
#12re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 5:54amHearing Elaine Stritch talk about the one time she WAS in The Women in At Liberty is priceless enough.
Nothing precious, plain to see, don't make a fuss over me. Not loud, not soft, but somewhere inbetween. Say sorry, just let it be the word you mean.
#13re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 6:35amI enjoyed Nixon, Tilly, Johnston and Coolidge. Everything else was forgettable.
cate_w
Stand-by Joined: 10/6/04
#14re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 7:45amI thought it was great! A very talented, funny cast and an engaging story. The night I was there, as I recall, the audience seemed to love it. I even enjoyed waching it on TV, and watching theater on tv is something I usually don't enjoy.
#15re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 10:53amJennifer Coolidge was great in that role, and I liked Rue McClanahan. But as much as I admire Cynthia Nixon, I found her completely miscast, and the direction and design of the show were very poor. I agree with Margo - perhaps it is because I have grown up watching the fantastic film version.
"I don't really get the ending,all i can go with is when after several months,Judith saw Pat sang,and later she kissed him on the toilet,after that the story back to where Pat went down from the stage after he'd sung,and he went to the italian lady.I just don't get it,what Judith exatcly meant when he kissed Pat that she had seen,and did Pat end up together with The Italian Lady?Please help me,thank u very much!"
Quote from someone on IMDB in reference to a movie he/she didn't understand. Such grammar!
wexy
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/19/05
#16re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 11:07amWhat I remember besides a naked Jennifer Tilly, was it was the first thing I saw post 9/11 and just being there was important
'Take me out tonight where's there's music and there's people and they're young and alive.'
#17re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 11:11am
I loved Jennifer Coolidge and also Heather Matarazzo's scene in the kitchen with the cook over Sylvia and Stephen's fight.
I think you mean Mary and Stephen's fight.
"I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about." - Oscar Wilde
#18re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 11:11amI agree that Jennifer Coolidge stole this show. It was an easy crime, however.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#19re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 11:15ami'm with margo. jennifer coolidge biting into that creampuff put me over the edge. the rest of the major casting was off for me. crawford could pass as a lady -- you could see how a guy like steven haynes might go for her. jennifer tilly came off like a gun mol the entire time. don't get me wrong -- i love her in the right role -- but the director made a big mistake. and,everybody seemed uncomfortable. maybe it's because they spent the show dreading the lingerie parade at the curtain call.
Mind is Mantra.
#20re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 2:14pm
I agree with Margo. It was excruciating live. I thought it would never end.
It made me wonder how Cynthia Nixon could be so perfect in Sex and the City and so wooden onstage.
#21re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 2:27pmi only saw it on pbs, but i really loved it. i didn't like the classic version that much, although it is perfect for it's day. kristen johnson and jennifer coolidge were wonderful, and cynthia nixon was good. jennifer tilly, i love her, but she just didn't do it. i loved entertainment weekly's description of her: "she speaks her lines like a drunk with a tommy gun." priceless.
#22re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 2:46pm
PalJoey---My dad had the same problem with Sidney Poitier back in the '50s on stage. Said he was "stiff, awkward and wooden." He didn't move AT ALL. I personally think this comes from years of TV and film acting. Hitting your marks and holding, etc. Keeping everything "small."
Some people can transfer mediums very well, and others can't. I still think Cynthia is terrific.
I actually saw her years ago, in a Los Angeles production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and she was wonderful. The leads were Glenda Jackson and John Lithgow, and Albee (mis)directed it. Some playwrights should NOT get hold of their own material, ya know? He tried to make it into a light comedy (as he always intended it to be) and drained any sense of relevance out of the piece. Dull, and ordinary. But Cynthia rocked as Honey.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#23re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 2:50pmNixon was also a solid (if a tad bit strident) Harper in ANGELS IN AMERICA. And she's doing some very nuanced and emotionally gripping work in RABBIT HOLE right now.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Thesbijean
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/9/04
#24re: Am I the only one who liked the Roundabout's THE WOMEN?
Posted: 2/15/06 at 2:56pmI loved this Revival. Very well done and a solid production. I taped the PBS Airing, and I lend it out constantly.
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