Announced But Never Played- Page 4
Announced But Never Played
#75Announced But Never Played
Posted: 2/25/14 at 1:34pm
Michael Bennett wrote, "Glenn Close and Kevin Spacey were announced to replace Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman in the original Broadway run of LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES but the show ended up posting a closing notice. At the time, both were only semi-well known names -- of course that would all change within a few years and Close would get an Academy Award nomination for the film."
And Kelly McGillis was to take over as Madame de Tourvel. The producers must have kicked themselves for canceling. The production closed on September 6, 1987. On September 18, Fatal Attraction opened and Glenn Close got huge publicity. They might have had two weeks of iffy business but then they would have been packed.
#76Announced But Never Played
Posted: 2/25/14 at 1:52pm
Re Lansbury, Sondheim, Prince and Sunset Boulevard:
In the 1960s, Sondheim and Burt Shevelove were considering trying to musicalize the film. They had started very early work on it. (According to the somewhat unreliable Secrest bio.) Then Sondheim met Wilder at a party, and shyly told him about the project. Wilder replied that it couldn't be a musical, it would have to be an opera because "it's about a dethroned queen." Sondheim decided he was right.
In 1980, Lansbury was not interested in doing the Sweeney tour. Cariou had also decided not to do it. As early as January 1980, it was announced that Estelle Parsons had been offered the tour, and they were negotiating over money. In the end, for whatever reason, things did not work out with Parsons (who I don't think would have been much of a draw).
In September, shortly before the tour started, there was a big article on Lansbury in the Sunday Times. The article mentioned that in 1982 "there is the mouth-watering prospect of a new Stephen Sondheim-Hal Prince musical based on 'Sunset Boulevard.' Lansbury was quoted, "Hugh Wheeler has already written the outline, and it seems to me the most perfect subject for a musical: an aging 1950s musical comedy star desperately trying to make a comeback."
I was told a few years after that by someone that Sondheim never had the slightest intention of writing it, that they told that to Lansbury to get her to sign for the tour. Was that true? I don't know, but the Wilder story that Sondheim himself tells rather suggests it. It could be, of course, that he thought he'd give it another try, that perhaps if they made it about a musical-comedy star, it might work. But perhaps what I heard was true and he never intended to even seriously try.
For all of that, the Sweeney tour did not do very well even with Lansbury. But perhaps business would have been even worse without her.
ElphabaGoodman
Broadway Star Joined: 4/2/10
#77Announced But Never Played
Posted: 2/28/14 at 12:08amA while back on this thread, someone asked "What about Lone Star Love?" I believe there was actually a marquee for it at the Belasco.
#78Announced But Never Played
Posted: 2/28/14 at 1:28pmHow about Sweet Bird of Youth with Nicole Kidman and James Franco?
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