So I've started a blog focusing on theatre here in Seattle and in NYC. Seattle is quickly becoming a popular tryout spot for many musicals, with Shrek, Memphis, and The Bruce Lee Story all getting their tryout here.
So, the sad thing aboug Seattle Theatre is we haven't had many of the newer musicals mounted locally yet. I started a poll, featuring 5 shows desperate for their Seattle premiere.
The poll is on the left hand side of our main page! Even if you don't live in Seattle, please vote for your favorite! Thanks!
I know! Keep voting! I'm going to send the results to the local theatres in the area. They tend to shy away from musicals and our big space 5th Avenue is too large for some of these shows.
Oh good. I was afraid you were gonna suggest Lisa Estridge Gray. Don't get me wrong, I've worked in productions with her, and I love her, but totally wrong for Caroline.
Anyway, I just got the cast album for Caroline, and I'm just getting into it, but I'm really likeing what I hear, and would love to see it on stage.
Estridge would not be the right choice for the role. Fine actress but Caroline is a marathon role. Cynthia Jones, for me, is pefect casting. Estridge lacks the chops for the role.
I know that Estridge Gray would totally not be right, but she seems to be the 5th Ave's current go-to African American gal (I mean, she got to be Marta in Company AND the Witch in Into The Woods!!!).
I can't remember Cynthia Jones right now. Jog my memory, what else has she been in?
And are we two the only ones resurrecting the MIA Seattle board by this one thread? LOL!
Although we have are pride, we have been known to cast for food.
BERNARD TELSEY CASTING, C.S.A.
"One more outburst from you sir and I bludgeon you to death with this microphone"
The Wedding Singer
Honestly, I do not live in Seattle, never been there, and have absolutely no idea what Seattle audiences are like. However, I think NO audience in any place of the US should be left without seeing one of the most powerful American stories put to music in this decade: CAROLINE OR CHANGE. There is my vote. Probably my personal favorite musical (though I think it should be classified as an opera) along with FOLLIES and PASSION, which is also on there. There's my vote. You got some great choices there, Bobby :) Totally digressing here but I disagree that Lippa's THE WILD PARTY is a "mess" although LaChiusa's is my favorite by far out of the two. Had CAROLINE, OR CHANGE not been there I'd have voted for PASSION over either version of THE WILD PARTY though. Neither LaChiusa nor Lippa could approach the perfection of Sondheim's most romantic, heart-breaking, and (pun-intended) passionate score.
"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"
Thanks! Visit us often! New content is coming in all the time. There will be 2 reviews added tomorrow, of Dee Hoty in Mame and Alice Playten in The Imaginary Invalid, and we will continue our Top 10 theatre recordings of 2007 list...almost to NUMBER ONE!
My vote is for Caroline too. I hope we get many more votes. Wild Party and Caroline keep going at each other.
I will be sending the top choice to the major theatres in the area.