Cate Blanchett as Margo Channing in ALL ABOUT EVE

[WayTooBroadway]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 8:27pm

https://twitter.com/BazBam/status/857723709444018177

Adaptation directed by Ivo Van Hove. Starts in London next year.

Color me excited (and praying to the gods that it comes to New York)!

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 9:21pm

I'll be the one to say it: just revive "Applause".

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 9:37pm

My interest is definitely peaked. Though I worry that with a possibly minimalist approach from van Hove and Blanchett's refined beauty, it might come across as too... cold? I feel like All About Eve needs a sense of melodrama and the characters shouldn't come across as too patrician. They're actors and journalists and that sort of thing... not people born to high society. I think it works better if you get the feeling that Margo could have been Eve. That way Eve's ascendance seems more in reach through talent and ruthless scheming.

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 10:14pm

A few months ago I told a friend that I would like to see a remake of this with Cate Blanchett as Margo and Rachel McAdams as Eve

Updated On: 4/27/17 at 10:14 PM

[Cat Guy]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 10:27pm

I will schedule next year's visit to London to coincide with this production.  DO NOT want to miss Cate Blanchett's performance.  There are few actors I admire more.

Updated On: 4/28/17 at 10:27 PM

[Speed]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 10:35pm

"All About Eve" is based on a play called THE WISDOM EVE.  Why not do that play?

[BakerWilliams]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 10:43pm

The two share a source material, and the play is written by the author of the original short story (also titled "The Wisdom of Eve" along with her husband Robert Denham, that played off-broadway in 1979.

[carnzee]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 11:52pm

This is one screen to stage adaptation I could see working. I'd like to see Rooney Mara as Eve. 

[jayinchelsea]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 2:21am

Hopefully this will die where it begins. The director is not the second coming, and why doesn't he pick on someone else, for example, Neil Simon? His work reminds me of theatre 20-odd years ago, when every "serious" play ended with deconstruction. Nothing really revolutionary, just pretentious. And no, Arthur Miller would not have applauded what has been done, and neither would Joe Mankiewicz.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 2:34am

BakerWilliams said: "The two share a source material, and the play is written by the author of the original short story (also titled "The Wisdom of Eve" along with her husband Robert Denham, that played off-broadway in 1979.

 

"

Her name was Mary Orr. I directed her in a production of LADIES IN RETIREMENT at the old Apple Corp Theatre in Chelsea, back in the 1980s. She was like a throwback to old time show business.

My favorite Mary Orr remark to me: "But I don't understand WHY I have to look at the other actors when I talk to them!" She was actually a nice lady, but as an actress, very "cheat out and declaim".

My apologies to those who look forward to a revival, but I don't see the point. The film is already a perfect realization of rather shallow material. There must be 200 better plays that Blanchett can do.

Updated On: 4/28/17 at 02:34 AM

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 8:12am

I saw a concert of Applause last year and there is a big structural problem. Margo doesn't carry the story yet the musical keeps her onstage with nothing to do.

Margo carries the first half of the film. Once Eve takes her part her story is done. The focus shifts to Eve's blackmail of Karen and her *** spoiler? *** clash with Addison DeWitt. Margo doesn't confront her again or plan any sort of revenge.

In Applause we keep going back to scenes of Margo arguing with Bill in her apartment. Bacall never got a duet with Penny Fuller. She had to settle for the bland "One of a Kind" and the terrible "Something Greater."

I'll be curious to see if the new play gives Blanchett more to do or if it takes the spotlight off of her for the final scenes.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 8:26am

I'm into it. Margo Channing is a fabulous part, and Cate Blanchett is a fabulous actor. Who knows what  Ivo will do with it, but if it sucks it's not like the movie will cease to exist. 

[theatregeek6]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 9:15am

fashionguru_23 said: "I'll be the one to say it: just revive "Applause".

 

"

Was thinking this yesterday!

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 9:31am

Because All About Eve is brilliantly constructed, singularly sparkling, has five great characters (Margo, Eve, Birdie, Karen, Addison) and four very good ones (Bill, Max, Lloyd, and Miss Casswell), and famously features some of the wittiest sophisticated comedy in the English language.

And Applause is, to put it politely, none of those things.

Updated On: 4/28/17 at 09:31 AM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 9:39am

By the way, Ann Dowd would kill as Birdie.

[Sondheimite]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 10:49am

jayinchelsea said: "Hopefully this will die where it begins. The director is not the second coming, and why doesn't he pick on someone else, for example, Neil Simon? His work reminds me of theatre 20-odd years ago, when every "serious" play ended with deconstruction. Nothing really revolutionary, just pretentious. And no, Arthur Miller would not have applauded what has been done, and neither would Joe Mankiewicz."

Listen, I know we all think their our opinion is the best opinion.  But you might want to pull back and reevaluate how highly you see your opinions if you claim to know what two dead people (who I doubt you ever knew little less knew well) would feel about something.

 

[BJR]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 2:21pm

Incredibly exciting.

 

And it's always funny watching people review a production that isn't happening for over a year. Even more so when they claim to speak for dead people.

[JSquared2]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 3:39pm

Speed said: ""All About Eve" is based on a play called THE WISDOM EVE.  Why not do that play?"

 

Because they're doing ALL ABOUT EVE  No one has ever heard of THE WISDOM EVE  Not a difficult concept to grasp.

 

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 4:05pm

Jayne Houdyshell would be a really fun choice for Birdie. 

[JBC3]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 4:47pm

Put me on Team Pretentious then as I was enthralled with A View from the Bridge and what van Hove did with Angels in America.

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 4:48pm

wonderfullwizard11 wrote: "Jayne Houdyshell would be a really fun choice for Birdie."

I was thinking the same thing...and Nancy Walker would've been great, back in the day.

[M.O.A.I.]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 5:04pm

Doubt someone like Houdyshell or Dowd would be cast, at least in the West End. I imagine the cast will probably be mostly British, with perhaps A-list American/Aussie stars under consideration for Eve and Addison.

[Public User]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 12:25am

This might actually be good, as the movie studio that had the rights at first refused the production of Applause the use of all material not directly related to the short story. Later, they relented, but it was too late.  Who knows what a new production could do with full use of all source material.  I'm intrigued. It's strange, though, that this work is so popular with gay men, in particular, as the main themes cast the homosexual characters (de Witt and Eve - implied) as evil, and the heterosexual ones as good and battling the aggressive manipulations of the former.  (I would quote source material, but don't have it on hand - yes, I do read).  

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 1:23pm

JSquared2 said: "Speed said: ""All About Eve" is based on a play called THE WISDOM EVE.  Why not do that play?"

 

Because they're doing ALL ABOUT EVE  No one has ever heard of THE WISDOM EVE  Not a difficult concept to grasp.

 

 

"

As I mentioned above, Mary Orr was very nice to me personally. But neither she nor her husband (we were doing one of the latter's plays) were Joe Mankiewicz. I haven't read THE WISDOM OF EVE, but I did struggle through another of the family's plays. Very thin stuff.

 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 1:30pm

MrsSallyAdams said: "I saw a concert of Applause last year and there is a big structural problem. Margo doesn't carry the story yet the musical keeps her onstage with nothing to do.

Margo carries the first half of the film. Once Eve takes her part her story is done. The focus shifts to Eve's blackmail of Karen and her *** spoiler? *** clash with Addison DeWitt. Margo doesn't confront her again or plan any sort of revenge.

In Applause we keep going back to scenes of Margo arguing with Bill in her apartment. Bacall never got a duet with Penny Fuller. She had to settle for the bland "One of a Kind" and the terrible "Something Greater."

I'll be curious to see if the new play gives Blanchett more to do or if it takes the spotlight off of her for the final scenes.

 

"

I too saw a concert version about 10 years ago and your analysis is spot on. (Though I think there are plenty of poorer songs in the show than "Something Greater".)

I would only add that in 2017-18, are we still asking whether a woman can have a career and a successful marriage? That dramatic question was pretty creaky even when APPLAUSE first opened.