Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney? — Page 14

Bettyboy72 said: "I love this show, but I'm gonna wait until after previews start to buy. This could go either way. I love Ashford, but if she's gonna trot out the same old mugging, I'll pass. I'd really like her to continue to play against type for a bit. We shall see."

Agreed, and I'm also desperately hoping she's done some work on her British accent since Kinky Boots. Her vowel sounds on the recording of History of Wrong Guys still gives me an involuntary twitch. 

George Hearn is my friggin idol, but the man is 88 years old. I also saw him sing "Epiphany" live at a Sondheim concert sixteen years ago and it was pretty rough. Not his fault, most people's voices don't last into their 70's. But although he was possibly the greatest Sweeney of all time, I agree with him that taking on the Judge might not be such a good idea.

Interesting that Patrick Page might do it, as he has said in the past that Sweeney is one of his dream roles. He is too old for Sweeney now, so maybe doing Judge Turpin is better than never doing the show at all? It's also a lucrative Production contract and he's gotta be tired of playing Hades by now.

As for "going BIPOC," well, I hope that if Page is the Judge that they cast most of the other principle roles with non-white actors...except maybe Johanna. It always looks weird when a woman of color plays her and they stick a bright yellow wig on her head.

The Distinctive Baritone said: "George Hearn is my friggin idol, but the man is 88 years old. I also saw him sing "Epiphany" live at a Sondheim concert sixteen years ago and it was pretty rough. Not his fault, most people's voices don't last into their 70's. But although he was possibly the greatest Sweeney of all time, I agree with him that taking on the Judge might not be such a good idea.

Interesting that Patrick Page might do it, as he has said in the past that Sweeney is one of his dream roles. He is too old for Sweeney now, so maybe doing Judge Turpin is better than never doing the show at all? It's also a lucrative Production contract and he's gotta be tired of playing Hades by now.

As for "going BIPOC," well, I hope that if Page is the Judge that they cast most of the other principle roles with non-white actors...except maybe Johanna. It always looks weird when a woman of color plays her and they stick a bright yellow wig on her head."

Ah, yes -- but they can go with the alternative lyrics supplied by Mr. Sondheim, quoting dark hair -- sartorial problems solved!

Nope. It's a massive show and the scripts are being written now. They will go into production in a few months for the final season. 

While we are waiting on this production next year, an intimate staging is going on in a small Chicago theater right now in case anyone is traveling there soon.  Here is the Tribune 4-star review by Chris Jones.

Did we ever find out why the production is only doing 7 performance a week? 

That's what I'm wondering. Maybe it'll be announced with the full cast announcement. 

The alternate would likely be on Tuesdays, as there are no Tuesday performances after opening night. 

They haven't started shooting season 5 yet.

Maybe we can be lucky and get an alternate Mrs Lovett, too :)?

uncageg said: "The Distinctive Baritone said: "TheatreMonkey said: "Ah, yes -- but they can go with the alternative lyrics supplied by Mr. Sondheim, quoting dark hair -- sartorial problems solved!"

I didn’t know about this. I mean, her yellow hair is sung and spoken of like seventeen times during the course of the show and I’ve never see photos of a Johanna that isn’t blonde. That said, I agree that the lyrics and dialogue could easily be changed to accommodate non-white actresses. There’s no actual reason why Johanna needs to be blonde.

Re: Gaten, yes Stranger Things is filming the final season, so I don’t see it working out unless he does a pretty limited run."

And apparently if any filming is happening Gaetan may not be involved as I saw him attending a show this past week in NYC.

"

KA 😉

BCfitasafiddle said: "Are we possibly getting an alternate Sweeney for 1 day a week?"

I'd take Patrick Page or even Michael Cerveris as the alternate.