BUS STOP Headed Back To Broadway?
#2
Posted: 7/20/11 at 11:28am
Too bad Stritch can't reprise her original role of Grace!
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
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#3
Posted: 7/20/11 at 12:03pm
Well, this certainly came out of left field. Love this play though, so I'd be beyond thrilled. :)
"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman
#4
Posted: 7/20/11 at 12:08pm
I'd rather see Picnic because it's a better Inge play, but Bus Stop is good too.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#6
Posted: 7/20/11 at 1:12pm
"I'd rather see Picnic because it's a better Inge play, but Bus Stop is good too."
I'd rather see Picnic too. I like Bus Stop, but it is so much associated with Marilyn Monroe that it needs an excellent actress to make the part her own. But this is only a reading, so maybe they'll decide not to do it.
I'd rather see Picnic too. I like Bus Stop, but it is so much associated with Marilyn Monroe that it needs an excellent actress to make the part her own. But this is only a reading, so maybe they'll decide not to do it.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#7
Posted: 7/20/11 at 1:39pm
Hot September, a musical version of Picnic, closed on the road in about 64 or 65. Sinatra recorded one song from it called Golden Moment and another song, Show Me Where The Good Times Are, became the title song of a small musical later in the 60s.
There was an announced musical of Bus Stop to be called Cheri starring Paula Wayne and to be directed and choreographed by the late Tom Panko in maybe 67 or 68, but it came to naught. The only reason I remember is that they has a large billboard in Times Square saying "Coming Next Season".
The things that I remember....
I did see a very good production of Bus Stop at the Shaw Festival maybe 6-7 seasons ago. It revealed a bit more than had been in other productions. There was a hint of homoerotic subtext that is there plain as day once it is played.
Why doesn't Virgil go with Bo and Cheri to the ranch? Because Virgil has been silently in love with Bo and sees that now he has to let him go. Damnest thing.
Ben Walker is good casting for Bo. You've got to have Bo be a big and an open soul. If Amanda Seyfried isn't available, Nina Arianda would be a strong choice.
There was an announced musical of Bus Stop to be called Cheri starring Paula Wayne and to be directed and choreographed by the late Tom Panko in maybe 67 or 68, but it came to naught. The only reason I remember is that they has a large billboard in Times Square saying "Coming Next Season".
The things that I remember....
I did see a very good production of Bus Stop at the Shaw Festival maybe 6-7 seasons ago. It revealed a bit more than had been in other productions. There was a hint of homoerotic subtext that is there plain as day once it is played.
Why doesn't Virgil go with Bo and Cheri to the ranch? Because Virgil has been silently in love with Bo and sees that now he has to let him go. Damnest thing.
Ben Walker is good casting for Bo. You've got to have Bo be a big and an open soul. If Amanda Seyfried isn't available, Nina Arianda would be a strong choice.
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable."
--Carrie Fisher
Updated On: 7/20/11 at 01:39 PM
#8
Posted: 7/20/11 at 2:05pm
The movie was reconceived as a star vehicle for Monroe, where the play is more of an ensemble piece. The movie combinned the roles of the bus driver and the sheriff, and completely eliminated the role of Dr. Lyman, the drunken professor with a fondness for teenaged girls.
#9
Posted: 7/20/11 at 2:35pm
Benjamin Walker is an excellent choice for Bo.
I actually think Amanda Seyfried is a good actor who has been taking a lot of crummy jobs. I'd like to see her lending her talents to something of quality.
I actually think Amanda Seyfried is a good actor who has been taking a lot of crummy jobs. I'd like to see her lending her talents to something of quality.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#10
Posted: 7/20/11 at 4:04pm
I was cast as Virgil in a college production of BUS STOP and I brought up that something was maybe going on between virgil and Bo (even if it's in Virgil's head) and the director told me to not even think about that, it was a completely Wrong choice (I played it anyway, in my head).
I agree Benjamin is a great choice for this role. (in my head)
I agree Benjamin is a great choice for this role. (in my head)
#11
Posted: 7/20/11 at 4:26pm
LOVE Ben Walker for this! On the fence about Amanda....but I do think she's good, so I'm willing to believe in it!
And overall, I have a big "yes, please!" to Bus Stop. One of my favorites!
And overall, I have a big "yes, please!" to Bus Stop. One of my favorites!
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#12
Posted: 7/20/11 at 4:29pm
I would like to see Amanda Seyfried on stage but I don't see her as Cherie at all.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#13
Posted: 7/20/11 at 5:03pm
I don't think it's a "completely wrong choice" to think that there is some sort of unrequited thing going on between Virgil and Bo. One doesn't have to read heavily into the text to think so. I definitely would say that thinking it was reciprocated or that it was acted upon would be a problematic choice to make, though.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#14
Posted: 7/20/11 at 5:22pm
I think for this play to have a chance they're going to need a much bigger name than Seyfried.
#15
Posted: 7/20/11 at 6:32pm
Exactly Kad, but that was the late 60's and the homo-erotic undertones were not ready to be explored. After I read more about Inge it became even more clear that I wasn't that far off.
#16
Posted: 7/21/11 at 10:36pm
Wasn't there a second attemptaa musical of Picnic in the 70s?
I'm a huge Inge fan - he kinda gets forgotten as a second tier Williams (and their friendship, and then Williams' jealousy-particularly when Kazan decided to direct Dark at the Top of the Stairs instead of Orpheus Descending which flopped-would make a great play, leading to Inge's tragic suicide), but he has a lot of greatness in his own right. I actually think his rather bizarre, surreal, sex "comedies" from the late 60s deserve re-examining (just as some later Williams has benefitted from).
At any rate, Bus Stop is my least fave of his big four (Come Back Little Sheba, Picnic, Bus Stop and Dark at the Top of the Stairs - which I'd love a revival of, even the so so movie seems impossible to track down), but I'd welcome a revival. The movie, as mentioned, really is quite different in focus from the play.
(On the subject of Inge and Kazan, I'm surprised no one has tried, to my knowledge, to adapt his screenplay for Splendour in the Grass. Not that I think they should, it's perfect as a film, but just surprised).
I'm a huge Inge fan - he kinda gets forgotten as a second tier Williams (and their friendship, and then Williams' jealousy-particularly when Kazan decided to direct Dark at the Top of the Stairs instead of Orpheus Descending which flopped-would make a great play, leading to Inge's tragic suicide), but he has a lot of greatness in his own right. I actually think his rather bizarre, surreal, sex "comedies" from the late 60s deserve re-examining (just as some later Williams has benefitted from).
At any rate, Bus Stop is my least fave of his big four (Come Back Little Sheba, Picnic, Bus Stop and Dark at the Top of the Stairs - which I'd love a revival of, even the so so movie seems impossible to track down), but I'd welcome a revival. The movie, as mentioned, really is quite different in focus from the play.
(On the subject of Inge and Kazan, I'm surprised no one has tried, to my knowledge, to adapt his screenplay for Splendour in the Grass. Not that I think they should, it's perfect as a film, but just surprised).
