I think Helen should definitely have a deepish voice. when you think of stage divas of a certain period and age, you think deep. And I think of a brunette.
I was never so anxious to hear about a casting before!
1930s era Broadway grande dames had all manner of vocal registers: Miriam Hopkins, Helen Hayes, Lilian Gish, Elisabeth Bergner, Jeanne Eagels, Lynn Fontanne, Katharine Cornell, Ruth Gordon....
Judy Dench reminded me of Judy Davis. Judy Davis has appeared in 5 Woody Allen movies, maybe she was robbed of an Oscar for her performance in Husbands and Wives. I think I read somewhere that she started out as a singer- she played a singer and sang in a movie, High Tide. She's done stage work in Australia per Wikipedia, and there's something kind of theatrical about her. She can be funny. Maybe she's not well known enough or enough of a singer or the right age, but I can see her as Helen Sinclair.
Someone I haven't heard mention (who certainly doesn't have a healthy soprano) is Bebe Neuwirth, she'd be a riot and has the smokey voice. She's also worked with Allen before (she walks away with CELEBRITY) and can definitely play a diva.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
I believe they're waiting to see how the workshop goes in October before finalizing casting for the role of Helen.
Because of what happened with Marin Mazzie after the last reading, I'm guessing they've found someone who will be doing the workshop in October and want to wait and see how it goes before finalizing that actress for the actual production.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
I've been all over the place on this, most recently obsessed with the admittedly wild idea of Shirley Henderson as Helen, which I arrived at after watching her as Leonora in Topsy Turvy, reciting her lines in her dressing room mirror while sipping sherry just before we see her on stage singing the &*() out of The Moon and I.
When I read the casting breakdown and saw they wanted a soprano, I thought Rebecca Luker could be an inspired choice, and am holding out for that possibility.
I have a few people I'd really like to see play Helen, so I hope they cast one of them.
(Shirley Henderson would be brilliant, but that would never happen. Unfortunately.)
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
I want Donna Murphy to be in this so badly. I believe Somethingwicked said in another thread that Mazzie appeared in the workshop, but the creative team decided she (along with the actress who played Eden, not sure who that was) was not a right fit for the role, and that's why Eden and Helen were not announced along with the rest of the cast. I guess it makes sense they are waiting for the next workshop to see if the role works out, I'm sure they really want to get this one right.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"