Amy Spanger in Kiss Me Kate

[Annie Get Your Rose]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 11:10pm

I was just looking at nominees for the year Kiss Me Kate was revived and noticed Amy Spanger was not nominated. I saw the show and thought she was brillant. Why would she not be nominates?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 11:19pm

She was up against:

Karen Ziemba (Contact)
Laura Benanti (Swing!)
Ann Hampton Callaway (Swing!)
Eartha Kitt (The Wild Party)
Deborah Yates (Contact)

I thought they all deserved to be nominated more than she was (as, apparently did the Tony nominating committee). She wasn't helped by, what I thought, was the poor staging of her big number "Always True To You In My Fashion." Lots of walking up and down steps, but nothing about the staging had the wit that the number required. I believe the original staging once upon at time, just had Bianca standing there solo and deliver the number. That would have been better (if you don't have a good reason for the character to move, then don't throw in a lot of fussy blocking). As it was, it Spanger had a lot of movement and busy-ness that didn't aid her one iota (and somewhat detracted) from her delivering a number that has the potential to be a showstopper.

Updated On: 5/24/05 at 11:19 PM

[Annie Get Your Rose]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 11:22pm

As Always thank you for the answer Margo!

[broadway86]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 11:24pm

Awkward staging aside, I thought that Spanger was excellent in that show. Much more deserving of a Tony nod than Berresse. When I first saw the nominations, I thought it was odd that he was nominated and not her. Oh, well.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 11:28pm

I guess the nominators were impressed that he could climb that big set like it was a jungle gym. Whatever......

[broadway86]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 11:29pm

lol It seems like it, right?

[rKrispyt]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 1:07am

I have to say, I was incredibly impressed with her in that show as well.

I didn't see Swing, so...I have to say I was and still am surprised that the two women were nominated for that - didn't they just sing while the dancers danced? or was there more?

I realize that judgement is uneducated, hopefully someone can fill me in. I've just always thought it was weird to nominate a couple of the singers in a dance show rather than filling those spots with two actresses, one of which did triple threat duties, and wonderfully I'd thought, y'know?

Just curious...

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 1:09am

Nancy Anderson who played the role on tour and later in London was far superior in the role to Amy Spanger, who I thought was the weak link of the original leads.

[rKrispyt]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 1:48am

Woah - the woman on the DVD?

Man...I just remember seeing it with a friend and being so disappointed, I was like "I wish you could've seen Amy Spanger, she was amazing..." and was just not likin' that woman very much in that role (whom I now know was Nancy Anderson)...

more than anything she just looked so old - I assume she's not, I dunno why I read her that way, but I thought she was like 40 somethin'...

Obviously MichaelBennett, we just have different tastes, that's cool.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 2:20am

I guess the nominators were impressed that he could climb that big set like it was a jungle gym. Whatever......


what show does that refer to?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 3:14am

Michael Berresse in Kiss Me, Kate climbed the bars on the backstage ally set piece rather impressively towards the end of his act two number "Bianca". You can see his performance thankfully preserved on the Kiss Me, Kate London cast DVD. And I agree, Michael Bennett, that Nancy Andreson was a far superior Lois. Amy Spanger was not nominated because her performance was simply uninspired...

the nominees that year, I will agree though, were a little fu*ked up. no one from swing needed to be nominated. Eartha Kitt was only nominated because she is Eartha Kitt and both Karen Ziemba and Deborah Yates were in a play with music in it so I don't see what they're doing in that category at all... I mean calling contact a musical is false advertisement no matter how you slice it. I've heard some rather colorful language from patrons who went in expecting a musical. but I will say that as a play with music it was rather inspired non-the-less. even if they did just decide to categorize it as a musical I think it should be required for someone nominated in a musical category to have, at the very least, sung something in the show... Updated On: 5/25/05 at 03:14 AM

[Jon]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 8:19am

As I've pointed out many times before, the creators of CONTACT never called it a musical - it was originally billed as "A Dance Play". It was dubbed a musical by the critics - calling it "The best musical in years", saying it "Breathes new life into the tired old musical genre", et cetera.

Should it have been categorized as a play? They didn't have the "Unique theatrical event" catogory yet. And if they did have that catogry, Boyd Gaines, Deborah Yates and Karen Ziemba would not have been eligible for performance awards.

Regardless, Ziemba's performance was breathtaking - wioldly funny at one moment, absolutely heartbreaking the next. It's a shame the PBS broadcast was done after she left the show. Charlotte D'Amboise, while a great dancer, had absolutely no emotional depth. As those who saw her as Charity have said, there's just something missing there, and that's why she'll always be a replacemnt/standby.

[mikewood]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 8:26am

That Kiss Me Kate show had all kinds of crazy blocking and unnecessary movement. Hearing your actors hff and puff during their solos is never a good thing.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 8:28am

I loved Amy Spanger in KISS ME, KATE. She reminded me of a young Ann Miller. But I think Nancy Anderson is criminally underused in musicals today (I think she would have made MILLIE bearable) and would have loved to have seen what she would have done with Lois.

[romanov]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 8:33am

In reply to Margo's comment about the staging of Always True: A director once told an actor, "Don't just do something. Stand there." I've always loved that.

[mikewood]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 8:38am

Was Eartha Kitt really nominated because she was Eartha Kitt as someone said? Did people here see her performance?

I only ask because following that line of thinking, wouldn't Maureen McGovern received a nomination this year?

[DreamFlyer22]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 8:41am

"Don't just do something. Stand there." I LOVE IT! And it's so true.

Wow. The KMK revival goes back a few years for me in my theater "experiences"... it was only the second show I saw in New York, and the first with my parents. Plus, I had loved the music for so long that, I fear my viewing was a bit skewed. I definately didn't look at it as critically as I would now- and you're all right. Thinking back on it, there was an AWFUL lot of unmotivated hopping around. At the time, I guess I must have just thought it was exciting? *shrugs*

[Jon]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 9:05am

Watching Eartha Kitt in WILD PARTY was like watching a drag queen doing Eartha Kitt.

In that same show, Mandy Patinkin made all the FORBIDDEN BROADWAY parodies of Mandy Patinkin seem tame.

[judy_in_disguise]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 9:15am

I played Lois last year and found myself drawing a little from both Spanger's and Nancy Anderson's performances. I don't think I could choose one over the other- personally, I enjoyed Spanger more, but I do agree that Nancy Anderson was probably the stronger performer.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 9:22am

Blah. Re-reviewing the list of that year's nominees (And thinking about other women who were NOT nominated as well), I can say Amy Spanger was lucky to have the job at all. As stated by several here, I found Nancy Anderson FAR superior.
Now, granted, Amy completely redeemed herself in my eyes (in what I can only hope will be recognized with an Emmy nom) with her brilliant turn in the Showtime production of Reefer Madness.

[romanov]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 9:38am

Jon, your comments reminded me of something I've believed for a long time: When it comes to performers like Mandy And Eartha, after a while they become parodies of themselves. Think Carol Channing.

[Luke0827]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 10:39am

Kiss Me, Kate was overall a first rate revival; but much like the once popular, short-lived game show, Amy Spanger was "The Weakest Link."

Fortunately, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie has such enormous presence, that Spanger's weaknesses barely registered.

[Annie Get Your Rose]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 10:41am

IF Mazzie was a strong point then how did she not win the Tony again.( I believe she should have won it as Mother in Ragtime as well)

[broadway86]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 11:24am

Ugh... I loved Nancy Anderson in "Wonderful Town" but I absolutely HATED her as Lois. Her singing was torture, she wasn't sexy, and her dancing was incredibly stiff. Spanger was much better in all departments.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 11:47am

The staging, up and down the stairs, doesn't bother me when Anderson does it. Her performance on the Kiss Me Kate video is musical comedy perfection. Shoot me if you will, but I find Spanger very irritating and shrill.