Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
Bruce Vilanch
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/20/05
it's been cast for a while, but I can't remember with who.
Bruce Vilanch
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
hohoho theatre diva!
I found it!
Hawaii's Loretta Ables Sayre. I don't know her and I don't think I've ever seen her perform.
Bloody Mary
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/17/06
Whoops, nomdeplume beat me to it.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
She's apparently a big star in her native Hawaii.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
Margo, she can't be a big theatre performer in Hawaii or I'd know her. Her background in those venues is as entertainer rather than actress. She doesn't have any strong Hawaii theatre credits listed in that article in Playbill.
Let us hope she also possesses acting talent to sink into her character rather than playing up the audience as an entertainer as the latter is boring.
I'm glad for some South Pacific excitement around here. Carousel is still my favorite of the R&H shows, but after listening to a few South Pacific recordings over the weekend, those songs just knocked me out all over again. Just one rapturous inventive melody after another. I can't wait to see what Bartlett Sher and his designers do with the material, and particularly if some of the klutzy short scenes in Act Two can be consolidated. In any event, it's the show I'm most looking forward to for the spring.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
Yes, looks like we have the hit of the spring after a somewhat lackluster year.
Keala Settle
She may not be old enough physically, but she would tear the pLace down!
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
Lilias White would have blown it away in that role.
Just the thought. Yowsa.
Let's just hope she is good. I enjoy this Movie too and an updated version would be welcome. It's the singing that is most important for this role.
It's the singing that is most important for this role.
Really? I disagree. Although the songs are beautiful, it is not as if she is Mother Abbess in Sound of Music.
Bloody Mary is a GREAT character and I think the acting is just as, if not MORE important than the singing.
The acting is definitely the most important part of the role, IMO. Who cares about a perfectly sung "Bali Ha'i" if we don't get a fully developed Bloody Mary? Her character is so enigmatic to me. Juanita Hall won a Tony for the role, let's hope Loretta Sayres does a great job with it.
I wish I were a bit more excited but Kelli O'Hara sounds like such a boring choice for Nellie. I will try to see this though.
If she is well versed in the Hawaiian Culture and has a traditional singing background, she should do fine. I really love the song and it would be sad to not hear it sung well. Unless on Broadway she has some fantastic dance number I haven't seen? That would be rather awkward. It doesn't look like too difficult a part to play unless you don't have this kind of musical background.
I'm not saying it isn't an important part, just that it does involve a song that is important to the show.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
From her bio she's mostly a vocalist/entertainer with a fringe of theatre.
She is not a theatre leading lady in Hawaii.
Loretta Ables Sayres
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
No idea.
Somebody caught her lounge act in Hawaii on vacation?
First of all, none of her names are Hawaiian; she may not have any Hawaiian or Polynesian blood or she may be a mix. Second, her role is Tonkinese, or Vietnamese, and while there is some Polynesian genetic mix left inland up in the hills in Vietnam, most would be Asian from there and it is NOT a Hawaiian or Polynesian culture.
I think you could cast Bloody Mary from a lot of races and mixes and it would be just fine. The question is whether she will have the acting chops and I look forward to seeing whether she does.
I wanna see her pic, but i can't find one.
OK I found one but I can't download it, she's pretty, light skinned, she has an official site.
Updated On: 12/11/07 at 06:14 PM
Got this one third-hand. Joe Langworth from Telsey was in Hawaii on vacation with his boyfriend, and he held auditions as a complete fluke. He discovered her there and convinced Lincoln Center to hear her. I heard she is amazing.
By the way, Margo Channing is completely wrong. She's not a "big star" in her native Hawaii. Making up stuff is so lame.
Updated On: 1/6/08 at 07:33 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
Whoa! Why the hell am I being attacked? I said she "APPARENTLY" was a star in her naive Hawaii and that's EXACTLY what Playbill implied:
"Acclaimed Hawaiian actress and chanteuse Loretta Ables Sayre will transport New York audiences to "Bali H'ai" this spring as Bloody Mary in the Lincoln Center Theater production of South Pacific......
Sayre is a prominent Hawaiian entertainer, who has performed at the Halekulani and Kahala Mandarin Oriental hotels, as well as in You Somebody at Hawaii's Diamond Head Theatre. Her credits also include Effie White in the Hawaii mounting of Dreamgirls."
It was Playbill that called her "acclaimed" and "prominent," -- in other words, well known in Hawaii -- not me, so if you have a problem with that, take it up with them.
JEEZ...........
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/111501.html
Sleeper 2,
If you are going to disagree with Margo on factual material, it's best if you have notarized documentation which has never been previously published.
If you are going to disagree with her opinion that's fine but it helps if you've read every play ever written and the source material.
But if you are just going to contradict her, well all I can say is good luck.
dented146,
If you are going to contradict Margo's statement on his gender, it's best if you have notarized documentation he's never seen.
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