Beth Malone Lead UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN on Broadway with Roundabout?- Page 2

[adamgreer]

Posted: 11/28/17 at 10:56pm

Call_me_jorge said: "adamgreer said: "GeorgeandDot said: "DAMMIT SOMEONE REVIVE PARADE"

I love Parade, but that’s never going to sell."

Ben Platt is famous now.... Anna Kendrick wouldn’t be a bad pairing"

Platt is wrong for Leo Frank for a multitude of reasons, starting with the fact that he’s far too young. 

Anna Kendrick has a pleasant enough voice, but she could never sing Lucille Frank. 

Are you remotely familiar with the show at all? It’s not a pop score and requires strong singers. Anna Kendrick could never sing that score the way Carolee Carmello did.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 11/28/17 at 10:59pm

Jeremy Jordan and Megan Hilty would be great for Parade and would probably sell a limited run at Roundabout extremely well.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 11/28/17 at 11:43pm

adamgreer said: "Call_me_jorge said: "adamgreer said: "GeorgeandDot said: "DAMMIT SOMEONE REVIVE PARADE"

I love Parade, but that’s never going to sell."

Ben Platt is famous now.... Anna Kendrick wouldn’t be a bad pairing"

Platt is wrong for Leo Frank for a multitude of reasons, starting with the fact that he’s far too young.

Anna Kendrick has a pleasant enough voice, but she could never sing Lucille Frank.

Are you remotely familiar with the show at all? It’s not a pop score and requires strong singers. Anna Kendrick could never sing that score the way Carolee Carmello did."

Leo Frank was only 31 when he died, so if Ben did play him he would at least be closer in age, than Brent carver was. 

Also, I think Ben has already shown he can do more than pop. Have you heard him sing Georgia on my mind? Plus with I think Ben would nail the acting regarding being an outsider and whatnot. Regarding Anna, I think she can have a similar to sound to Lara Pulver and her performance in Last Five Years shows she’s more than capable of the score. 

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 11/28/17 at 11:49pm

GeorgeandDot said: "Jeremy Jordan and Megan Hilty would be great for Parade and would probably sell a limited run at Roundabout extremely well."

Too bad Roundabout only does smart programming every 3-4 years. 

[Vespertine1228]

Posted: 11/29/17 at 1:01am

Most of the Roundabout’s subscriber base is old enough to remember the Titanic sinking so a revival there makes sense to me. 

[uncageg]

Posted: 11/29/17 at 1:07am

This new version does not focus on the Titanic.

Updated On: 11/29/17 at 01:07 AM

[ggersten]

Posted: 11/29/17 at 2:15am

BWW Reacts to Muny Molly Brown

For reference, here is what some on this board said about the summer Muny production.  

[Kad]

Posted: 11/29/17 at 10:02am

uncageg said: "This new version does not focus on the Titanic so your attempt at being sarcastic is a fail."

Unless they've totally rewritten the life of Margaret Brown, the show is still about a woman whose sole major claim to fame to the public is surviving the Titanic.

[Vespertine1228]

Posted: 11/29/17 at 10:07am

Thanks Kad. Unless something truly major has changed, the culminating event of The Unsinkable Molly Brown is the title character surviving the sinking of the Titanic.

The point I was making is that there are only so many big classic musicals you can revive (She Loves Me, The Pajama Game, etc.) before you get into the next tier of titles. I'd be thrilled to see a revisal of this lesser known work that has a real reason to exist in 2017, but given the Roundabout's track record I'm understandably suspicious.

[theaterdrew]

Posted: 11/29/17 at 1:31pm

"revisal of this lesser known work that has a real reason to exist in 2017"

Yes, I think it does have a reason to exist in 2017, when you look at the real life person and discover that the musical reduced her to one pop culture moment.  This article explains why the real Molly Brown was a fascinatingly complex person with a deep list of accomplishments, and the revisal is seeking to capture that.  The second act of the revisal seems to have some problems carrying her story forward, but I'm supposing the recent reading was working on that.

Some excerpts from the article:

"Born to poor Irish immigrants — her father was a ditch-digger — she never forgot what poverty felt like. And there was plenty of it in Colorado mining towns, which drew men and sometimes whole families from around the world.

They came for the promise of work — dangerous, backbreaking work, but work nevertheless. But it was irregular, especially after the price of silver plummeted during the Grover Cleveland administration.

Molly (let’s just use the name we all know) responded immediately. She ran soup kitchens and set up literacy leagues. She also worked with a judge to set up the first juvenile court in the United States"

"Molly was a generous philanthropist who helped build a cathedral and a hospital in Denver. She was also committed to labor reform, women’s rights and human rights. A suffragist, she ran for the Senate even before women could vote. (She lost.)

After World War I, France awarded her the Legion of Honor for her efforts to rebuild the war-ravaged country, for her relief efforts for the wounded and for her part in establishing the Alliance Française."

 

[newintown]

Posted: 11/29/17 at 1:36pm

A life of good achievements doesn't translate ipso facto into an entertaining musical.