"Road Show is the new title of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's new musical — once known as Bounce — The Public Theater announced Aug. 12. The fall Off-Broadway production, directed by John Doyle, will star Michael Cerveris and Alexander Gemignani as the Mizner brothers.
This marks the property's New York City premiere. Performances will play Oct. 28-Dec. 28 at The Public's Newman Theater. Opening is Nov. 18. The production is expected to be a hot seller given the fact Sondheim is revered in American theatre; the Tony Award-winning songwriter famously changed the course of musicals with such groundbreaking work as Company, Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd.
Here's Road Show in a nutshell: "Spanning 40 years from the Alaskan Gold Rush to the Florida real estate boom in the '30s, Road Show is the story of two brothers whose quest for the American dream turns into a test of morality and judgment that changes their lives in unexpected ways."
The cast includes Cerveris (John Doyle's Sweeney Todd on Broadway) as Wilson Mizner; Alma Cuervo (Wicked national tour) as Mama; Aisha de Haas (Caroline, or Change on Broadway) in the Ensemble; Claybourne Elder (White Widow at Times Square Art Center) as Hollis; Colleen Fitzpatrick (Mother Courage and Her Children at Shakespeare in the Park) in the Ensemble; Gemignani (John Doyle's Sweeney Todd on Broadway) as Addison Mizner; Mylinda Hull (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on Broadway) in the Ensemble; Mel Johnson, Jr. ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") in the Ensemble; Orville Mendoza (Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare in the Park) in the Ensemble; Anne L. Nathan (Roundabout's Sunday in the Park With George on Broadway) in the Ensemble; Tom Nelis (Iphigenia 2.0 at Signature) in the Ensemble; William Parry (Passion on Broadway) as Papa; Matt Stocke (The Wedding Singer on Broadway) in the Ensemble; William Youmans (The Farnsworth Invention on Broadway) in the Ensemble; and Kristine Zbornik (A Catered Affair on Broadway) in the Ensemble...."
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.
"In the U.S.A.
You can have your say,
You can set you goals
And seize the day,
You've been given the freedom
To work your way
To the head of the line-
To the head of the line!"
---Stephen Sondheim
That's... really interesting casting. And an interesting title.
This is (hopefully) gonna be cool.
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
Who is playing the role that Gavin Creel originally played?
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
Now I'm even more excited, especially about this: Sondheim once called them "two divergent aspects of American energy: the builder and the squanderer, the visionary and the promoter, the conformist and the maverick, the idealistic planner and the restless cynic, the one who uses things and the one who uses them up…"
That makes it sound as though the show will be somewhat darker, which can only be a good thing (as I've said many times, Wilson Mizner has no business being let off the hook after all he puts Addison, and others, through).
And Sondheim is actually writing his book! WOO!
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
Yeah, I believe in the playbill.com interview Sondheim says that the character is gone. Now apparently the only principals are the Brothers, the parents, and a male love interest for Addison.
"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"
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
jfaifhgsdghsfjgjhsfkgjdfbn. Sorry, I am just so FREAKIN' excited I can barely type. I adore Cerveris and Gemignani. I will take any Sondheim, no matter how many different names it has, haha. And a book! Exciting Sondheim stuff to come!
"As we all should probably have learned by now, to be a Stephen Sondheim fan is to have one's heart broken at regular intervals" - Frank Rich
Dearest, how can this be so? You were dead, you know. - Candide
Oh my god, this show has everything! Half naked guys and girl on girl action! - [title of show]
(My avatar? Why, yes! That is Laura Benanti making out with a chick!)
I'm more excited about the book than about the show, really. I can't stand Gemignani, but I'll probably still go to see the show just because it's Sondheim.
"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"
I agree with Sondheim that the title BOUNCE really didn't express what the show was about. ROAD SHOW sounds like a promising title. And if it transferred I can't help but think a title like ROAD SHOW would spark more interest/curiousity than a title like WISE GUYS or BOUNCE. Updated On: 8/12/08 at 08:37 PM