Melanie Griffith in "Chicago"

Posted: 8/30/05 at 7:37am

I'm drunk in front of the television with my partner watching a dvd of Bebe Neuwirth in "Chicago" and we were wondering how in the hell Melanie Griffith kept up with dancing when she did it. Did they simplify the whole thing for her? Any ideas, anybody?

[Glebb]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 8:07am

I didn't see it.
I spent all of my time across the street.
That was the beautiful place to be.

Posted: 8/30/05 at 8:11am

"watching a dvd of Bebe Neuwirth in "Chicago""

Now, where did this come from?

[broadwaybaby77]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 10:33am

ooh! ooh! I know!

I saw it when she was in it. It was my first time seeing it on Broadway, sadly. She didn't dance. That's basically it. She kinda swayed and stood there. She did a couple of steps that were clearly easy to pick out, but other than that, she just stood still and sang and tried to pull the I'm-so-cute-I-don't-need-to-dance thing, but I didn't think it worked.

Posted: 8/30/05 at 4:14pm

The Bebe Neuwirth dvd isn't a full performance. It's just that Leading Ladies one from Carnegie Hall. So I guess if they do a sequel to it, Melanie won't be included...dammit, there must be some musical role suited to her, surely? Or maybe not.

[SallyBrown]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 4:15pm

Beerchild! Your..avatar...

Posted: 8/30/05 at 4:21pm

Melanie as Elphaba? She might look nice in green.

Posted: 8/30/05 at 4:32pm

A dvd of Chicago. I thought I missed a DVD release.

Posted: 8/30/05 at 4:36pm

Sorry about that. I wonder if it's something we'll ever see?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 6:56pm

Um...

Bebe played Velma. Melanie played Roxie. She did all of the choreography - basically. It was not changed for her...she just looked strange doing most of it.

And Glebb - I agree. Same here.

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 7:48pm

The choreography was DEFINITELY dumbed down for her. It's been stated many times.

There are also 3 different choreographed versions of ME AND MY BABY, and I'm sure she probally did a level 1, and that was probally even altered for her.

And Deidre Goodwin was Velma throughout all of Melanie's run. Updated On: 8/30/05 at 07:48 PM

[andyf]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 8:18pm

Yessssssssssssssssssss!!! My favorite stunt casting experience.

I saw Melanie and Deidre from standing room and it was easily the MOST entertained I have ever been for $21.25.

She didn't dance at all.

Her acting was (and I say this meaning no offense to any 7th graders) about as good as a bad 7th grader. She had confidence, but it was less than COMPLETELY unfounded because she was TERRIBLE.

I hope she was hopped up on something because at least then she would have an excuse. She just kind of stumbled around stage, bobbled-headed, delivering lines with no real semblance of inflection.

Actually, I take that back, every line (regardless of the emotion tied to it) was delivered with the same "I'm in middle school now, I'm a REAL actor, this is me talking with conviction!" inflection.

When she's on the ladder at the end of Act One, I swear to God I thought she was just going to fall off and land smack on the stage.

The Hot Honey Rag was the true crowning moment. I had actually just seen the movie, and I wasn't expecting THAT, but what I actually got was infinitely more entertaining: Melanie Griffith, trainwreck, and Deidre Goodwin, trained dancer, standing in one spot, center stage, bopping along with the music. BRILLIANT. Toward the end of the song they both walk toward the wings turn and do a cartwheel toward center stage. Deidre does fine, Melanie, however...

OK, you know when kids first learn how to do cartwheels and they try, but their legs are all bent and they just kind of fall out of them? Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah...well that's what I saw in a full-grown woman on a Broadway stage. By the time the show was over my friends and I were crying from laughing so hard.

To wrap it up, she was not at all good, in any respect, but to say that I was not entertained would be a complete lie.

Updated On: 9/2/05 at 08:18 PM

[Greekmusicalfan]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 8:23pm

I'd never pay even a cent to see that cow in ANYTHING (yes, that's how much I hate her) but a friend of mine, who was unfortunate enough to see her in Chicago, told me it was the most horrible experience he ever had in a theater !
And, andyf your post was hilarious !!!!

[CJR]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 8:17pm

Munk, the choreography WAS changed and dumbed down for Melanie. Quite a bit, as a matter of fact.

Andy, I love you, but I should hit you for loving Melanie in the show. That was easily THE most god awful theatre experience EV.ER.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 9/2/05 at 9:53pm

Naw, could she have been worse than Zsa Zsa Gabor in FORTY CARATS? Alas, that was years ago.

[CJR]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 12:07am

Ooooh andy's SOOOOO getting smacked the next time I see him

Secretly, I think he just WANTS me to smack him lol

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 12:14am

Someone was trying to tell me on the main board, that she got all rave reviews, and was well received in the role.

I knew it wasn't true. Only really Brantley raved.. and the fans hated her in the role.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 12:32am

At best, the reviews Melanie got for her Roxie were "polite".
The best reviews were here, though. There was a whole thread about how miserable she was in the part.

[CJR]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 12:51am

Yeah, I saw that lj... I couldnt even be bothered to comment. lol

[Broadwaylady]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 9:07am

My sentiments exactly Andy F. I saw Chicago after the first year it was out. Then I saw it again with Melanie Griffin. Having seen the first version of the show with professionals, her dance steps were definitely toned down. She is NOT a dancer, singer or actor!!!!!!!!!!! She was God awful. Her husband, Antonio Banderas, what he sees in her I will never know, was across the street starring in Nine. That was her way of being "with him". God, she was at his stage door all the time. (Yes, I saw her there). At the end of her last number when she did her pathetic cartwheel, she kind of tripped and blurted out "Oh SH*T". She is a consummate professional. CJR, I know, shares my sentiments. I can't wait until John O'Hurley plays Billy Flynn.

[Glebb]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 9:10am

It must have been hilarious and I wish I had seen it but every time I pulled my debit card out I was standing in the O'Neil box office.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 2:10pm

Brantley's review (excerpts):

"The steam of feverish activity is rising from the Ambassador Theater, where that little den of iniquity called 'Chicago' continues its long-running pursuit of illicit pleasure. The chorus is dancing to beat the band, the band is playing to beat the chorus, and performers of all shapes and ages are having a hot time stretching notes and jokes past the vanishing point.
But this buzzing hive has a still center: one slightly bruised-looking blonde with stairway-to-heaven legs and a cool air of come-and-get-me composure. That's the movie star Melanie Griffith, a virgin in the world of live performance, who has taken over the role of Roxie Hart and who sweetly hijacks the show from an army of hard-working Broadway veterans without even breaking a sweat.


Ms. Griffith's performance in this hit revival of the Kander and Ebb musical, still feisty after more than six years, has to qualify as one of the most bizarrely successful debuts in Broadway history. Ms. Griffith has only minimal command of the skills traditionally associated with musical comedy. She dances very little, and her well-known baby-doll voice has only a casual relationship with melody.

Yet Ms. Griffith is a sensational Roxie, possibly the most convincing I have seen. This doesn't mean that she gives the most electric or crowd-stirring interpretation ever of the aging jazz baby turned killer. How could that be, when her predecessors include Gwen Verdon (who created the role in 1975), Ann Reinking (the original Roxie of this revival) and Renée Zellweger (who deserved to win the Oscar for her portrayal in this year's film version)?

What Ms. Griffith offers is a powerful and instinctive empathy for the part, which she walks into as if it were a longtime lover's embrace.

_____________________________________________________________


Showbiz history is filled with examples of screen stars whose flame shrank and guttered onstage. Ms. Griffith, however, projects big, while doing what seems like very little. She is certainly the least kinetic of Roxies, wrapped in a languorous, protective mantle of self-absorption. She becomes the ultimate vague narcissist, unable to register anything that doesn't feed her ego or threaten her existence.

This gives Roxie newly organic depths of humor and pathos. When Ms. Griffith steps to the edge of the stage to confide, with a mix of bewilderment and resignation, 'I am older than I ever wanted to be,' it resonates as never before. This comes in the monologue in which Roxie, having made headlines for killing her lover, envisions a future as a famous person.

As she sees it, this is only her due. And when she summons chorus boys to lift her up and 'frame me' for the 'Roxie' number, that's pretty much how it works out, with only a few hip wriggles and sashays by way of choreographic contribution from Ms. Griffith. Why should Roxie exhaust herself dancing, when the perks of being famous include hiring people to do the tiring stuff for you?

This means of course that 'Chicago' has been retailored to Ms. Griffith's particular talents. The other Roxies in this revival have used that same number to show off fancy dancing. And unlike Ms. Zellwegger in the movie, who bravely wallowed in her character's mediocrity, Ms. Griffith doesn't try to emulate the pros.

She executes the modified dance steps in 'Me and My Baby' and the show's finale with almost indolent ease. And in song she doesn't belt or riff but lets her voice wander wistfully, beguilingly, conversationally and -- thanks to body miking -- perfectly clearly.

_____________________________________________________________

But it's Ms. Griffith who makes this 'Chicago' worth revisiting, even for those misguided audience members who prefer the movie. Her Roxie is one of the few fortunate examples of the penchant of this show's producers, Barry and Fran Weissler, for revolving-door replacement casting of famous people. (Only Reba McEntire in 'Annie, Get Your Gun' has offered comparable satisfaction.)

The vultures who were expecting to see Ms. Griffith stumble, in other words, will have to look elsewhere for their fix of schadenfreude. 'You're a phony celebrity, kid,' Roxie's lawyer tells her. Ms. Griffith, on the other hand, is definitely the real thing, with a persona that translates into a heartfelt presence onstage.


http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9800E0D6103EF937A3575BC0A9659C8B63

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 2:13pm

Andy's post on this thread made my day.

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 2:25pm

The Brantley review makes me sick everytime I read it.

I checked out some other of her reviews.. and they weren't nearly as nice.

Clive Barnes agreed she had stage presence, but he said she was probally the worst Roxie he's ever seen. And he saw Gwen and the OBC, so he knows what he's talking about.

[lildogs]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 2:26pm

Maybe Fran and Barry offered one night with Jarrod Emick in exchange for that review....hell, it's worth it for 15 minutes!