CAMELOT Returns to Broadway - Reviews Thread- Page 5

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 5/31/22 at 12:30pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "When I talk about "singers who act," it's referring to people whose main talent is singing, but can also act, just not as well. But my problem with Donica is that I don't find him terribly compelling as an actororsinger."

Having seen him in My Fair Lady and Into the Woods, I agree but maybe he'll surprise in a lead role (if he is cast as Lancelot). I still say Lauren Ambrose was Sher's most indefensible casting choice.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/31/22 at 1:08pm

I didn’t mind Ambrose as Eliza, but she just didn’t have the vocal stamina to handle the part 5-6 days a week — and Sher should have known better.

I still think MFL could have won Best Revival if it had opened with Benanti and Burstein, who were both vast improvements over their predecessors and also improved the performances of the other people around them.

[UWS10023]

Posted: 5/31/22 at 1:45pm

Someone else confirmed Jordon’s casting as Lancelot. What I liked about his Stars In The House appearance was that one got an insight to his personality. He and Gavin seemed to like one another. I might have chosen someone more muscular who was an unknown. Just my take.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/1/22 at 8:04am

Believe it or not, there's a 5 character versipn of CAMELOT that's in rehearsal to tour various venues on Long Island this summer. I just got a message asking if I was available to take over one of the roles. (I'm not)

[binau]

Posted: 6/1/22 at 11:39am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "The "singers who act" problem is especially prominent in replacement casting. They're not working with the original director and are being directed by an associate director & stage manager to fit into a mold created by someone else, generally in a shorter rehearsal period without previews.

The harsh truth is pretty much nobodyis going to be equally strong as an actor and singer (and dancer). This isn't a new phenomenon –– it was probably worse in the Golden Age. The vocal performances live on in our minds through cast albums and it's easy to enhance the memory of an acting performance in your head if the vocal is good and memorable....or to assume the acting was good if you never saw it in the first place. (And opinions of how "great" a performance was can also vary depend on your seat.)"

While I understand if you’re the 75th Elphaba Joe Mantello is not going to get out of bed for you, if you’re the 1st replacement in a production with a more artistic (vs theme park replication) sentiment, such as a Bart S LCT production, would the original director still not be involved? Eg I believe both Marin Mazzie and Bernadette worked directly with Michael Grief and Trevor Nunn when they were replacing. 

Updated On: 6/1/22 at 11:39 AM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/1/22 at 12:26pm

binau said: "While I understand if you’re the 75th Elphaba Joe Mantello is not going to get out of bed for you, if you’re the 1st replacement in a production with a more artistic (vs theme park replication) sentiment, such as a Bart S LCT production, would the original director still not be involved? Eg I believe both Marin Mazzie and Bernadette worked directly with Michael Grief and Trevor Nunn when they were replacing."

It entirely depends on the production. Someone like Bernadette is going to be given time with Trevor Nunn and Jerry Zaks if she is replacing. Sure, there will be some interaction with the director –– but a lot of the rehearsals are still being run by an associate and stage manager, and you're working within a blueprint created by someone else and stepping into an existing machine. (that's part of the Julie Benko problem in Funny Girl: she's performing not just in Funny Girl, but in a production of Funny Girl that has been tailored to Beanie Feldstein's strengths, and her's are quite different).

[AllThatJazz2]

Posted: 6/1/22 at 1:19pm

Does anyone have any idea of when casting or ticket sales might be announced for this yet? 

[jagman1062]

Posted: 6/2/22 at 2:11am

AllThatJazz2 said: "Does anyone have any idea of when casting or ticket sales might be announced for this yet?"

LCT subscribers renew our subscriptions every June with a deadline of June 30. My experience as a subscriber is that LCT usually announces fall productions in July after subscribers have renewed giving us the first opportunity to get tickets. Ticket sales to the general public happen at least a month later. Last year, subscribers could buy tickets to Flying Over Sunset starting July 26. I suspect that an official announcement and ticket sales for Camelot will follow this pattern.

[UWS10023]

Posted: 6/2/22 at 10:30pm

I hope they recreate the waterfall for If Ever I Would Leave You.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 9:32am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I didn’t mind Ambrose as Eliza, but she just didn’t have the vocal stamina to handle the part 5-6 days a week — and Sher should have known better.

I still think MFL could have won Best Revival if it had opened with Benanti and Burstein, who were both vast improvements over their predecessors and also improved the performances of the other people around them."

Don’t want to drag this off-topic, but must respond to two attacks on Ambrose. Bartlett Sher on casting Ambrose:

When she heard that Lincoln Center Theater was producing a revival of Lerner and Loewe’s “My Fair Lady,” which opens on Broadway on April 19, she asked to audition and landed the role of Eliza Doolittle, the headstrong flower saleswoman who trains to be a lady of society.

“She just blew everyone out of the water,” says director Bartlett Sher, who worked with Ambrose on “Awake and Sing.” “She’s just a great actress. She captures the depth, the warmth, the humor, the fire. She makes big choices. There were plenty of other people there. She was just head and shoulders ahead of everyone else.”

As for her singing, Jesse Green:

The big revelation of this production is that Ms. Ambrose has a stirring voice: lustrous and rich if without the bright ping of most Elizas. That turns out to be an advantage. She delivers her first number — “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” — very quietly and with an intense longing that digs beneath its surface charm to find its stillness and steel.

Lauren’s father was dying in a hospital in Connecticut during her run, and he did in fact pass away halfway through her final month. I’m sure that stress must have affected some of her appearances, and some people may be judging her off of that.

Laura Benanti has a cult following among the Broadway community. Her Eliza was very entertaining, and humorous, but it was just not Shaw’s Eliza. That guttersnipe had no self esteem. When possible marriage was mentioned, she returns “Married? Who’d marry me?” In her place Benanti does a good impression of The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Nice character. Not Shaw.

Another reason I’m not one of her best fans, that she is not the kindest person.

I remember Lauren Ambrose’s casting being met with vitriol on Twitter, particularly from Laura Benanti’s fans. Benanti, they reasoned, should have gotten the part instead, because she has more stage experience under her belt, she has the voice for it, and Eliza happens to be her dream role. Fans took to Twitter to mock the choice, announcing that they would not be seeing the show with this kind of actress as the lead. Benanti, in a show of unprofessionalism, publicly liked a few of the Tweets trashing Ambrose, despite the fact that none of us had ever heard Ambrose sing the score before.

[ElphabaGoodman]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 9:53am

I have heard that Ashley Park has been cast as Guenevere 

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 9:54am

I thought Laura Benanti's cockney accent was awful, and I saw her several months into her run, so, even though her singing voice wasn't nearly as strong, I preferred Lauren Ambrose, who acted the part better, in my opinion. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 11:10am

ElphabaGoodman said: "I have heard that Ashley Park has been cast as Guenevere"

I think Ashley Park has the potential to be very good for this part. Hoping she's in good voice, though...she's just okay on the K&I album.

Who's Arthur?

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 11:18am

I know the production has in recent weeks been 'looking' at some talent based in Europe for a couple of roles, including Guinevere. What I had heard was that they wanted that role to be played by someone quite young. Early 20s. It could have been purely exploratory - maybe Sher was curious what qualities an actual French/Welsh (Guinevere's supposed lineage) performer might bring to the role, but this seems very counter to the idea of Ashley Park.  Of course, Sher has famously had very different performer types in final callbacks for his shows.  The final three for Nellie Forbush were reportedly Kelli O'Hara, Celia Keenan Bolger and Victoria Clark - totally different types (and ages).

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 1:58pm

I hope they utilize the movie arrangement for "The Lusty Month of May" - all the "Tra-La-Las" in the original stage version get on my last damn nerve. 

[BCfitasafiddle]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 2:05pm

ElphabaGoodman said: "I have heard that Ashley Park has been cast as Guenevere"

So glad she'll be back onstage in New York. 

[ATerrifyingAndImposingFigure]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 2:07pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "ElphabaGoodman said: "I have heard that Ashley Park has been cast as Guenevere"

I think Ashley Park has the potential to be very good for this part. Hoping she's in good voice, though...she's just okay on the K&I album.

Who's Arthur?"

Apparently Mathew Rhys was Arthur in the last workshop, he sounds like a great fit.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 2:39pm

Call_me_jorge said: "Denee Benton for Guenevere?"

my first thought as well. 

Peter Dinklage as Arthur

 

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 2:46pm

henrikegerman said: "Call_me_jorge said: "Denee Benton forGuenevere?"

my first thought as well.

Peter Dinklage as Arthur

"

This...is...BRILLIANT !

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 2:49pm

I loved Ambrose as Eliza and find it hard to not say so again now that the subject has once more come up.  Indeed, I much preferred her to Benanti. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 2:52pm

CarlosAlberto said: "I hope they utilize the movie arrangement for "The Lusty Month of May" - all the "Tra-La-Las" in the original stage version get on my last damn nerve."

Wondering how the score will be handled for this revisal –– Any cut songs or additions of L&L "trunk songs"?New arrangements/orchestrations to go alongside the revised book?

I've always found "I Loved You Once In Silence" to be a complete dirge...but cutting it gives Guenevere little to do in Act 2 aside from Simple Folk.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 3:11pm

Would be very happy with Ashley Park.

[UWS10023]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 4:40pm

henrikegerman said: "Would be very happy with Ashley Park."

I think this is a rumor.

 

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 7:42pm

I should add that I thought Benanti owned the role of Amalia in She Loves Me. (Never saw Barbara Cook)

A lot of young talent in New York never gets a chance. Wish they would cast more 20 year-olds in the roles of 20 year-olds.. Julie Andrews, Barbara Cook, Streisand, Sutton Foster.

Full Many a Rose is Born to Blush Unseen,

And Waste its Sweetness on the Desert Air. 

Grey's Elegy

 

[thedrybandit]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 9:07pm

UWS10023 said: "henrikegerman said: "Would be very happy with Ashley Park."

I think this is a rumor."

I can't confirm that she's going to be in this production, but she was 100% in the workshop for it last year.