#1
Posted: 4/9/12 at 6:24pm
Didn't she follow Chita in London (or was it Toronto, when that cast moved to London)? Did anyone catch this and have any memories of her performance they could share?
Bebe Neuwirth in Spider Woman
#2
Posted: 4/9/12 at 6:59pm
Yes, she followed Chita in London. I know several people who saw her and their opinions vary wildly--everything from best ever to a train wreck. I didn't see her so I can't comment.
"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
#3
Posted: 4/10/12 at 8:34am
I saw Bebe twice in London; I remember she looked a little odd as she had a long wig (bit like Jessie J's hair) instead of the bob that (I think) all the other Aurora's had (although she had the bob in the pics outside the theatre). T remember not being too keen the first time I saw her, but mainly because I had loved Chita Rivera's performance so much and Bebe was quite different. Being considerably younger than Chita, there was no doubt that she danced it much better but she was a much colder, more distant presence on stage, coolly efficient and even sinister where Chita had been seductive and insinuating. Given that she was (to UK audiences at least) mostly famous for her role in Cheers and Frasier, I was also surprised by how she missed alot of the laughs that Chita and, later, Vanessa Williams got in the "Russian Movie/Good Times" section in Act 2. So, overall, she was fine but nothing special. Was she ever approached or considered to take over the role when the show went to NY? I remember that there was a certain amount of press coverage when she was doing the London show that she didn't exactly endear herself to her male ensemble dancers.....
#4
Posted: 4/10/12 at 8:51am
It sounds like she had some of the same problems here that she had when she played Lola in Damn Yankees: chiefly, that she's not easily believable as a seductress.
"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
#5
Posted: 4/10/12 at 12:01pm
I heard from a reliable source that Hal Prince was over her and that there was some incident where she threw her shoes and said "I cannot dance in these.
#6
Posted: 4/10/12 at 1:40pm
I saw her in London and was not impressed.
And at any age she will never be the dancer that Cheets is!
And at any age she will never be the dancer that Cheets is!
#7
Posted: 4/10/12 at 7:29pm
Saw both Chita and Bebe in London...I'm afraid to say that it wasn't Bebe's finest hour. I remember the long wig that got in the way..she looked very uncomfortable in the role. That said it was something special with both Spider Women and I'm very sad that the UK audiences didn't buy tickets and missed out on a great piece of theatre.
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