Breaking News: Neil Patrick Harris to Star in HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH on Broadway - Spring 2014!- Page 10

[BwayBuff2]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 11:11am

Best12Bars - The thing about Hedwig is that it's a very in your face piece. Like....the audience needs to feel like the environment is charged, that they could be a target at any moment to the antics of Hedwig. You can't get that in a Broadway House. I just feel this show works much better on a smaller scale. Every time I've seen a production of Hedwig it's been in a small house that sat 100-150 people. Yes, Circle In The Square Theatre is the best fit IMO, but I feel like the essence of the show will even get lost in a smaller Broadway house like that. Just my two cents...

Regardless, I love this show and will be there to see it and support it. Who knows? Hopefully, I'll be pleasantly surprised and proven wrong :)

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 11:14am

I love that this thread is so long! It reflects the amount of interest and connection with the show and everyone involved with it!

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 11:15am

I was looking on iTunes at the recordings, since I've only ever owned the movie soundtrack (the movie being my first experience with the show) and noticed that the soundtrack is not available. They have the original Off-Broadway cast and an Australian recording. Even on Amazon the soundtrack is only available as a CD, no download option.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 11:16am

Yes!

[John Adams]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 11:25am

>. Oh John Adams, you've only had a momentary lapse of gibroniism.

No harm, no foul! "Thick skin", yadda, yadda, yadda...
Still, not quite sure how I got caught in the net with the nay-sayers, though. I thought I was being "conservatively optimistic".

[LJ2]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 11:41am

I don’t like NPH. In fact, I recorded his last two hostings of the Tonys so I could fast forward through his appearances.

Having said that, I think he’ll do a decent job in this role, even though I won’t see it, because I don’t like him.

[Rainbowhigh23]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 12:23pm

I'm not a fan of NPH but am interested to see how he will fare in the role. I saw it with John Cameron Mitchell at Jane Street Theater and then again with Michael Cerveris; loved it off Broadway. Can't wait to see what they do with it for Broadway.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 12:26pm

I don’t like NPH. In fact, I recorded his last two hostings of the Tonys so I could fast forward through his appearances.

Are you serious? You recorded the Tonys *just* so you could sit there and fast forward NPH's appearances? Why didn't you just not watch the show if you really dislike him that much? Seems like a very cray-cray thing to do.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 12:33pm

The thing about Hedwig is that it's a very in your face piece. Like....the audience needs to feel like the environment is charged, that they could be a target at any moment to the antics of Hedwig. You can't get that in a Broadway House. I just feel this show works much better on a smaller scale. Every time I've seen a production of Hedwig it's been in a small house that sat 100-150 people. Yes, Circle In The Square Theatre is the best fit IMO, but I feel like the essence of the show will even get lost in a smaller Broadway house like that. Just my two cents..

It's not like they are just slapping the off-Broadway production into a Broadway House, are they? When it was rumored last year it was said it was going to be revised, so whey can't they make it work for a Broadway theatre in the same way it was made to work for a movie screen (which people also said would be impossible)?



Updated On: 6/18/13 at 12:33 PM

[tazber]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 12:38pm

Even if they don't expand the piece there have been plenty of one man or woman shows that have been extremely successful.

It can play like a rock version of I Am My Own Wife.

"Small and intimate" and "Broadway musical" are not mutually exclusive. It all comes down to the material.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 12:45pm

^Exactly. And though I know the film and the stage show are different animals, I have only seen the film and certainly felt that kind of dangerous charge. I think with a performer dynamic enough- and Harris has proved himself to be- this show can be electric anywhere. And I, for one, cannot wait to finally see it live.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 1:03pm

I purposely don't use any words in my conversational speech that begin with "N" or "P" or "H," just so I'm not reminded of this vile human being sucking up oxygen on our planet.

I mean how DARE he?

[behindthescenes2]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 1:04pm

Great, one more drag show...I, at least they don't feel the need to fill that part by a straight actor - saw the original downtown, loved it, but off broadway is where it will always be successful, on Broadway - not so much, and it isn't a show or subject matter for a broad audience. Once the initial three months - if it last that long - is done then it will be a matter of true money coming in. It is a small show and should be because it is that type of show regardless of who does it.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 1:08pm

I want to see "I Am My Own Wife: The Musical"

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 1:14pm

I'll Chop You Last: A Chat with Hedwig Robinson (nee Schmidt) Updated On: 6/18/13 at 01:14 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 1:21pm

Great, one more drag show...I, at least they don't feel the need to fill that part by a straight actor - saw the original downtown, loved it, but off broadway is where it will always be successful, on Broadway - not so much, and it isn't a show or subject matter for a broad audience. Once the initial three months - if it last that long - is done then it will be a matter of true money coming in. It is a small show and should be because it is that type of show regardless of who does it.

This is what Broadway is coming to:

Only family entertainment.
Only big scale musicals that are suitable for kids and (maybe) adults.
Only shows they already know and are comfortable with.
Only subject matter that appeals to a broad, general audience.

Yay!

[LJ2]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 1:26pm

->Are you serious? You recorded the Tonys *just* so you could sit there and fast forward NPH's appearances? Why didn't you just not watch the show if you really dislike him that much? Seems like a very cray-cray thing to do.

I enjoy the Tonys, I don't like NPH. So I skip him and the commercials.Cray-cray if you want to call it that. I enjoyed the show without him.

[newintown]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 1:27pm

Updated On: 6/18/13 at 01:27 PM

[BrerBear]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 1:34pm

Best12Bars - The thing about Hedwig is that it's a very in your face piece. Like....the audience needs to feel like the environment is charged, that they could be a target at any moment to the antics of Hedwig.

No kidding, I sat front row in a small San Francisco production and came away with clothes spattered with tomato.
Don't think that aspect will translate to Broadway unless they give out Gallagher-style plastic sheeting.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 1:52pm

I didn't get hit with a tomato when I saw the movie, either.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 1:55pm

If you don't get splattered with tomato viscera, the show might as well not even be produced

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 2:56pm

Great, one more drag show...I, at least they don't feel the need to fill that part by a straight actor - saw the original downtown, loved it, but off broadway is where it will always be successful, on Broadway - not so much, and it isn't a show or subject matter for a broad audience. Once the initial three months - if it last that long - is done then it will be a matter of true money coming in. It is a small show and should be because it is that type of show regardless of who does it.

Or perhaps...just maybe...the creative team for this production will have a sense of imagination and creativity or even an open mind. Wouldn't that just be INSANE?!?!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 3:51pm

You're telling me this man can't play Hedwig?

[dreaming]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 3:57pm

PJ, I'm with you. I think Neil will be amazing and I love this show very much so I'm looking forward to this production!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/18/13 at 4:20pm

I purposely don't use any words in my conversational speech that begin with "N" or "P" or "H,"

It would be a drastic understatement to say this made me LOL. I guffawed. At the gibronis in this thread.