Applegate Out of Boston Run — Page 3

I remember those days of sitting outside the colonial and getting tickets. I was at the little building too. I rushed CHicago and I guess it's a weird twist of fate, I saw Charlotte as ROxie!!

:)

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Joe, it'll end up as a CBS movie of the week with Valerie Bertanelli as the ill fated Applegate who's career is struck short when a devistating accident causes her the use of her feet. Also starring Patrick Duffy and Meredith Baxter-Birney.

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The idea of having the darling Ms. D'Amboise rise to the occasion, get solid notices in Boston and open the show in NYC is titilating, to say the least. (As posted earlier - wishing no ill on Ms. Applegate). Having seen La D'Amboise in Chicago and Contact - she was mind-blowing - I am ready for her star to again shine.

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Ken: I have tickets for April 4th as well. I will be DEVISTATED if they delay the day that previews begin. However, I also have tickets for May 7th. So, if I see Charlotte on April 4th and Christina on the 7th, I will be a very happy guy.

Updated On: 3/14/05 at 08:35 AM

First of all, I'm not sure what the Tony deadline is but they'll open before or on it come hell or high water.

Secondly, as to the show being revamped from the original, Neil Simon is involved in this and I'm sure he's green-lighting everything which is going on. He's known as a chronic tinkerer. Blame him first.

Updated On: 3/14/05 at 11:35 AM

EslGr8,
You may be onto something. Charlotte opens, gets the critical notices....then after a few months...Applegate steps in and sells tickets. By George! It just might work.

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Here is a link to the story in todays Boston Globe.




http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2005/03/14/tough_break_for_applegate_nice_development_for_hospital/

That's looking more and more likely...

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I'm very very excioting to go see this show while it is in Boston, especially now with Charlotte d'Amboise in the lead!

However, I highly doubt that the Weisslers of all people would let their multi-million dollar star vehicle that they had spent tireless years trying to recruit a suitable marquee name for open with an unknown to the public. I'd LOVE to see Charlotte open the show in New York, but I think that at this moment, the Weisslers are probably scrambling to find another name that could potentially open the show in New York in the off chance that Christina cannot.

The extended pre-Broadway tour for a star vehicle revival with an unexperienced star is the Weisslers' tried and true formula. It worked brilliantly with Tyne Daly in Gypsy. But it gives me pause to think that the producers didn't cancel or postpone the Boston run. If the initial point of the extended tour was to give Ms. Applegate some practice with urban audiences, it is suspicious that they'd continue on without her. This points to the fact that the show may have other issues. In addition, they grabbed a Broadway pro, plucked her right from their production of Chicago on Broadway.

And there seems to be a lot of talk about Charlotte "lowering" her standards to being a standby and questioning why she wasn't credited before hand. First of all, a standby is not too shabby a job. You get principal status and pretty good pay as well. Likely, she wasn't credited because standbies usually do not accompany the production on their out-of-town stays because unless something like breaking a foot or intense illness occurs, it is a bit of a faux paus to miss performance in the month or so that the show is developing and changing and readying for New York. So having a standby just sit around backstage for a month and a half is a bit ridiculous. And if illness does occur, the understudies who usually perform in the chorus are there.

Then when you arrive in NY and settle down for a long run, standbies are usually hired for the long run because it is almost inevitable that the star will be missing performances. For a show like Charity, it is not foreign to have a standby that is a somewhat seasoned professional who is pretty well known among the theatre community. For in such a demanding role, having a complete unknown like Dylis Coleman perform would murder the box office reciepts. Especially putting her on for a whole two week engagement in Boston! Think of the seige on the box office! Now, with d'Amboise they can advertise a well-known Tony-nominated Broadway personality. To the average joe with a ticket in his hand, that sounds much more appealing.

With someone like d'Amboise it is much more likely that they will stick around to see her perforamnce. Hellen Gallagher, already a Tony winner in 1966, "stood by" (she played Nickie as well, but she was credited as a standby in 1966) for Gwen Verdon in the orginal production. Recently, in Wonderful Town it was reported that the Weisslers were preparing to hire Christine Ebersole or Bebe Neuwirth to standby for Donna Murphy (that is untiol they realized she wasn't staying for long and they secured Brooke Sheilds as a replacement).

Also, Ms. d'Amboise has said several times that Charity is her absolute dream role. The chance to play it in any capacity must be very appealing, especially on a Broadway stage rather than a small reginal theatre.

Very much looking forward to seeing d'Amboise in Boston. I am sure she will light up the stage. We'll see how this pans out.

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the show open on April 21st with a DIFFERENT person than anyone expected.

some good points made here about the possible outcomes. i wish i could see all the various "Charity" performers somehow. Croman is a wonderful dancer, to the level of MOVIN OUT on Broadway, one of the most demanding of the modern dance-centric shows. She also can be seen on the DVD of FOSSE doing a knockout solo. Whether she can act or sing to Charity's requirements would be interesting to find out. i have interest naturally both in D'Amboise and Applegate.

What this points to, along with the two previous "headliners" of this revival (Tomei and Elfman), is that it's very hard to find a triple-threat performer, male or female, who also has a good marquee name for tourists to NYC. It's a puzzlement!

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Updated On: 3/14/05 at 03:35 PM

Hey, maybe Harvey Fierstein or Donna Murphy will take over for Christina.

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double bump, kinda like a double-take

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Updated On: 3/14/05 at 06:55 PM