Craig Bierko set for GUYS AND DOLLS Revival — Page 2

I just love people who play the race card every chance they get. I don't understand these people who practically carry a soap box around with them WAITING for the opportunity to get offended.

Oh dear, the grammar police are out in full force this evening.

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I love how the casting of Craig Bierko is so thoroughly uninteresting, that the thread is no longer even about him.

TonyaFanatic, I think you're jumping the gun on this.

Burgess's previous body of work is the reason people are concluding he is prone to singing that way, not his race.

In every show he has ever done (from GOOD VIBRATIONS to JERSEY BOYS to THE LITTLE MERMAID and everything in between,) he has used the same style of high riffs throughout. Whether you find it "appropriate" or not, it's a fact, so why wouldn't people assume he would do that yet again in GUYS AND DOLLS?

Besides, "alto riffing" isn't exclusively African American either, and your concluding so is just as "racist" as what you're accusing others of doing.

Look at Shoshana Bean, for example. She is not African American and utilizes the same high style of riffing that Titus does, which would make it equally as fair for people to assume she would sing that way in any project she does (because she has done it on every one she's done so far, like he has.)

To make this an issue of racism is completely and utterly ridiculous.

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Updated On: 11/29/08 at 10:48 AM

Thank you, somethingwicked. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

Anyway, best12bars, I hear what you're saying. I just played Sky in a summer stock production and although I'm 25 I read as early-thirties onstage. The three other leads were actually all older than me--in their late twenties/early thirties. It was age-appropriate casting, really. Sarah should be mid-late twenties, Sky should be early thirties, and Nathan and Adelaide should be maybe mid-late thirties (since they've been engaged so long). The funny thing about Broadway though is (and I guess this partly has to do with the size of the houses and how far away most of the audience is) people are ALWAYS playing characters younger than themselves. It's kind of weird. And it works a lot the time. For instance, even though Kate Jennings Grant is 38, from fifteen rows away she could probably pass for almost a decade younger. The same goes for many performers (Bernadette Peters was almost 50 when she played Annie Oakley). Most of the four leads in this production look younger than they actually are, so it should be okay (although why they couldn't just use younger actors is a bit of a mystery. I guess it takes a while to become famous enough to headline a show likes this!).

Then again Sally Murphy looks and sounds like she is 20. The first time I saw AUGUST: OC, I thought she was supposed to be a college-age daughter... I was a bit annoyed when they were trying to make me believe that she was 44. After the show, I realized that she is in her 40s indeed. I couldn't believe it. Good for her, she is lovely and was a great Ivy Weston, but I digress.
I wish age was the main issue with this cast. Talk about a lackluster, boring set of people. And add me to the group of people who can't stand Titus Burgess idea of "acting." His Sebastian makes me want to eat seafood...all of it.

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Sally Murphy does look about fifteen years younger than she actually is. And she is friggin gorgeous.

Have we forgotten that there was even an ALL black cast revival of Guys & Dolls.

Listened to it...not bad, but a legit soprano she is not. I do love her pop voice though.

Anyway, getting back to the topic of this thread...Craig Bierko is a fine choice for Sky. He will do well. It's just not the most exciting casting choice in the world.

Yes, the black cast of Guys and Dolls gave us the amazing Ken Page as Nicely-Nicely - BEFORE Aint Misbehavin' and Cats.

That production also had a very "mature" looking Sky - James Randolph.

Titus' Under the Sea makes my ears bleed.

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This might be a better example of Shoshana singing legit....she sings Glinda's part in No One Mourns the Wicked, along with most of Glinda's other songs in a condensed version of the show, with Megan Hilty doing Elphaba (quite well):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpMH5N4oRL0&feature=related

Unlike Katie Clarke's, right?

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