"APPLAUSE" AT REPRISE- Casting Rumors
"APPLAUSE" AT REPRISE- Casting Rumors
#0"APPLAUSE" AT REPRISE- Casting Rumors
Posted: 2/10/05 at 4:20pmHas anybody heard anything about the casting of APPLAUSE at Reprise in LA? I have high hopes after their wonderful casting of Pippin (Sam Harris, Michael Arden, Jean Louisa Kelly). I'm dying to know who will play MARGO (Christine Baranaski is one rumor I've heard so far).
#1re: 'APPLAUSE' AT REPRISE- Casting Rumors
Posted: 2/10/05 at 4:28pmChristine would make a wonderful Margo.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#2re: 'APPLAUSE' AT REPRISE- Casting Rumors
Posted: 2/10/05 at 4:38pmNot sure why they'd bother -- it's really not a very good show.
#3re: 'APPLAUSE' AT REPRISE- Casting Rumors
Posted: 2/10/05 at 5:15pmreally exciting overture, right Margo? But the most uninspired score! Bacall was thrilling onstage, but APPLAUSE is truly not a very good show.
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#4re: 'APPLAUSE' AT REPRISE- Casting Rumors
Posted: 2/10/05 at 8:59pm
I saw the TV version again last year and it was worse than I remembered it.
Christine Baranski seems to be the casting du jour for all those vehicles. Where are the LEGENDS??
#5re: 'APPLAUSE' AT REPRISE- Casting Rumors
Posted: 2/11/05 at 4:39amMight be the worst Tony-winning "Best Musical" ever. Steven Susskind once told me that only REDHEAD had a worse score for a "Best Musical" winner. The song "Fasten Your Seat Belts" is embarassing beyond belief!
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#6re: 'APPLAUSE' AT REPRISE- Casting Rumors
Posted: 2/11/05 at 7:49amThe problem with casting Margo is that being 40 isn't the same deal that it was even 30 years ago, especially in the theatre. 40 year old women today look half that age while people like Kitty Carlisle Hart have looked 40 for decades. I can't think of many 40 or even 50 year old actresses today who have the glamour and authority to play Margo: all the correct people (Carol Lawrence, Debbie Reynolds, etc.) are now unfortunately too old. Perhaps Stephanie Powers will put her hand up for another attempt?
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#7re: 'APPLAUSE' AT REPRISE- Casting Rumors
Posted: 2/11/05 at 8:56am
I love Strouse (RAGS) but this score is dreary, and if you put it in the mouth of a 'real' singer -- I saw Patrice Munsel (!) in the bus and truck in the early 70s -- it sounds kitsch. (Think of Margo's "Hurry Back!" with money notes and vibratto. Only Lypsynka can make it work.)
Aside from the score problems, what sinks the show is the ending drummed up for the character of Margo. She has a dreadful number, "Something Greater," the "something" anything but a life on the stage. Forget the fact that she and Bill Sampson are together BECAUSE she's an actress and he's a director... It's a bizarre ending for a show about the glory of being a theater star. The final message: give Margo a man and lasagne -- literally, she goes off to make lasagne. A 40 year old woman "finally" finding the love a man? And a domestic life?
Everyone keeps wanting Baranski in this role, but as much as I love her, she's really a brilliant character lady, not the glam diva. And frankly, she deserves a better vehicle anyway.
#8re: 'APPLAUSE' AT REPRISE- Casting Rumors
Posted: 2/11/05 at 9:14amBut there ARE a couple of fun numbers in the show - But Alive, being one of them. and Backstage Babble...
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#9re: 'APPLAUSE' AT REPRISE- Casting Rumors
Posted: 2/11/05 at 9:25am
Applause is one of the WORST musicals EVER. EVER. It's horrible. The songs are forgettable (they were written for Bacall so most of the time Margo's stuff has to be taken up a key or 500) and it's just so DATED. Based on a movie that took place in the 50's but the musical takes place in the 70's??? UGH.
And yes, it did win the Tony Award, but without looking it up, name the other shows nominated that year.
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#10But ... alive!
Posted: 2/11/05 at 9:28am
"...I feel groggy and weary and tragic, punchy and bleary and fresh out of magic ... but alive! I feel half Tijuana, half Boston! Partly Jane Fonda and partly Jane Austin ... but ... alive! ... I feel lazy ... as a clam! Frisky ... as a lamb! Crazy, but I AM ... alive!"
Yikes.
sparky310
Featured Actor Joined: 11/10/03
#11But ... alive!
Posted: 2/11/05 at 11:11ami agree and Reprise ought to give it a rest..i have seen several of their shows..and they are really ..well not good
#12But ... alive!
Posted: 2/11/05 at 11:17amauggie - believe it or not - I almost put that song in my cabaret act...it may be kitschy - but I think it's fun!
#13But ... alive!
Posted: 2/11/05 at 11:29amIn fact Reprise is on a roll right now. Both Brigadoon - with Marin Mazzie and Jason Daniely - and Pippin - with Michael Arden and Sam Harris - were solid. I'm looking forward to Applause!
robbiej
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#14But ... alive!
Posted: 2/11/05 at 11:35am
I haven't looked it up, so I could be very wrong...but didn't Applause beat Purlie which, with hindsight, is a rather odd victory.
Kinda like Millie beating Urinetown.
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#15eager and dizzy but not a bit frightened
Posted: 2/11/05 at 12:38pm
You're right, RobbieJ. PURLIE lost to Applause.
And redhot, why not? The lyrics' bald, let-me-get-out-my- thesaurus-and-figure-out-how-to-describe-my emotions makes them particularly ... unique. I'm partial to Eve's 2nd act reprise of "But Alive," with new words, called "One Halloween." ("Well damn you, daddy! Look at your little girl ...NOW! I'm wound up like a spring that's been tightened, eager and dizzy not abit frightened! etc. etc.) It actually used to be a popular audition song for young women.
#16eager and dizzy but not a bit frightened
Posted: 2/11/05 at 12:42pm
Michelle Lee would be a good choice for the role of Margo in APPLAUSE. Clearly, she would also be an exciting MAME.
As someone stated in this thread earlier, "ages have changed." Sixty is the new forty, etc. It is time to have the great Michelle Lee back on Broadway in a musical. I loooooooved her in SEESAW and in the film version of HOW TO SUCEED.......
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#17oh, that kaleidoscope of feeling!
Posted: 2/11/05 at 12:49pm"...this kaleidoscope of feeling .. whirls around inside my brain! I admit, I'm slightly cuckoo ... but it's dull .. to be! too! .. SANE!"
#18oh, that kaleidoscope of feeling!
Posted: 2/11/05 at 12:54pm
Augie27, we can only be thankful no one is posting the lyrics to that "lovely song" HURRY BACK from APPLAUSE.
IT STILL amazes me that this is from the same composer who gave us BYE BYE BIRDIE and years later ANNIE.
Is it possible Strouse and Adams were uninspired working with Comden and Green and Ron Field and Bacall and doing a musical based on ALL ABOUT EVE???? I have never understood. Perhaps the composers of the score were on bad medication at the time.
But again, APPLAUSE does have a surprisingly fetching OVERTURE.
#19oh, that kaleidoscope of feeling!
Posted: 2/11/05 at 1:01pmIt's a terrible score but it has a good Comden & Green book..and it's a nice opportunity for an aging actress to show off her comic chops.
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#20oh, that kaleidoscope of feeling!
Posted: 2/11/05 at 2:30pmHonestly, I would only go see this show if ONE person and ONE person only played Margo Channing (and she really isn't old) and that would be Michele Pawk. She could sing the phone book and I would buy a ticket. She would kick the crap out of Margo I think.
eslgr8
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/04
#21oh, that kaleidoscope of feeling!
Posted: 2/11/05 at 2:36pmReprise has been doing such good work recently. I'm really looking forward to seeing Applause!
#22oh, that kaleidoscope of feeling!
Posted: 2/12/05 at 8:51am
Sure, I can name what APPLAUSE was running against without looking it up: PURLIE and COCO. PURLIE should have won hands down. COCO had bad reviews even during its original run, and listening to its original cast recording (One of the worst cast recordings of all time) I can understand why.
Interesting note: There were a lot of musicals with one-word titles in 1970-71 (COCO, PURLIE, APPLAUSE, GEORGY, GANTRY, COMPANY among others).
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#23"where painted trees and flowers grow and laughter rings foritissimo.."
Posted: 2/12/05 at 12:01pm
WishIhadatony... You're so right about 'what went wrong?' because Strouse is one of the geunuinely gifted and versatile composers in post R&H musical theater. (RAGS and BYE BYE BIRDIE, poles apart in style yet each successful ... were written by this man!) The overture does suggest a better score -- its uptempo, late 60s "rock" (quotations appropriate) arrangements suggest a hip blend of theatricaly and contemporary idiom. But once you get into the numbers themselves, the weaknesss appear. Including, shockingly, a lack of craft. Even "Welcome to the Theater," which should be a formidable act closer for Margo, has a generic feel. The lyrics are a bag of cliches (Philadelphia critics, noisy stagehands, etc.) that have little to do with the friction surrounding Margo and Eve. Margo, suddenly opts to tell Eve about how nasty the grit of the theater is -- when that sort of reality check has zip to do with Margo being threatened by Eve's youth and eyes on Bill.
A great musical could perhaps be wrung from ALL ABOUT EVE, but APPLAUSE is memorable only for turning Bacall into a star--and in hindsight, perhaps, for introducing Penny Fuller, a helluvan actress.
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#24'where painted trees and flowers grow and laughter rings foritissimo..'
Posted: 2/12/05 at 12:08pm
"APPLAUSE is memorable only for turning Bacall into a star"
May I assume you mean 'on Broadway'?
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