Deuce Pulls Out of Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Races

From Playbill.com "Deuce, the new Terrence McNally play that boasts the return to the stage of Tony Award winner Angela Lansbury, has decided to make itself ineligible for Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League races.

A spokesperson for the play, which will co-star Broadway royalty Lansbury and Marian Seldes, told Playbill.com, "The eligibility requirements for [Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League] awards asked that the nominators of the respective organizations be accommodated to see the show after only a week of performances. We decided that this was too much pressure to put on the cast and the production."

Letters were sent to Drama Desk president William Wolf, Outer Critics Circle president Simon Saltzman and Drama League president Derek Collard informing them of the decision.

The letter stated: "We regret to inform you that Deuce will not be able to meet your deadlines for eligibility for the [Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League] awards this season.

The deadline for Tony nominations is once again a week later than in previous years, and Deuce's opening date is May 6th. Our press performances, when we would ordinarily accommodate your nominating committee, do not begin until May 2nd, which is well past your nominating deadline. Deuce is simply unable to accommodate your nominators any earlier than our press performance dates."

Michael Mulheren and Broadway newcomers Joanna P. Adler and Brian Haley will join Seldes and Lansbury for Deuce, which begins performances April 11 at the Music Box Theatre. The "strictly limited engagement" of 18 weeks will officially open May 6.

The acclaimed actresses will play former doubles tennis legends reunited at a championship match in McNally's latest work.

The Music Box Theatre is located in Manhattan at 239 West 45th Street"

Margo...I'm pretty new to posting on here, but have read along for a good while. I read the headline on Playbill and headed here looking to see if anyone had any insight on this decision. Many thanks for that very logical reasoning. It makes a lot more sense to me now.

And P.S. I always do enjoy reading your posts...you rock my socks all the way down here in VA!

Ditto to Yankee.

It looks like they were working their entire schedule around opening as close to the Tonys as possible, and it backfired.

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You can be quite sure that McNally and Blakemore were fully on board with this decision (in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the decision actually came from McNally himself). McNally, after all, just went through a similar ordeal with his play SOME MEN, which was roundly panned out of town in Philadelphia before opening to mostly decent reviews a few weeks ago at Second Stage. He spent the intervening weeks between the two runs radically rewriting the play -- including cutting out two female characters entirely -- and those edits, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer reviewer who saw both productions improved the play by what he called "the dictionary definition of quantum leap". McNally also did a good deal of rewriting on his previous play DEDICATION OR THE STUFF OF DREAMS in early previews. Now again with DEUCE, he has a brand new play that hasn't had the benefit of an out-of-town try-out that he's putting up cold in front of a New York audience (and an infamous slate of reviewers). Given his track record, he knows that he's going to need the benefit of a full three weeks of previews in order to tweak, edit, rewrite and get the play into a state he would deem worthy to be appraised by the critics -- and that one week is simply not enough time to fix all the inevitable problems that are likely to come up once he sees it in front of an audience.

And also, before anyone starts wringing their hands at the sad plight of poor Messrs. McNally and Blakemore, let's recall that each of them has a fairly full mantel of Tonys, Drama Desks, and Outer Critics in their respective abodes from all the work they've done over the course of their 40+ year careers (I think they each have at least three a piece of each). It's not as if missing out on another one this year will somehow deprive them of their one big break and doom them to some sort of theatrical obscurity. They know that and one would presume that their commitment to presenting this play at its fullest potential and their own personal artistic integrity and reputation outweighs any desire to add to an already overcrowded trophy case.

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Not to threadjack, but I have a question:

Has Deuce sold out it's run, yet?

And, if not, why not?

This is Angela Lansbury we're talking about here people!!!!

If "The Odd Couple" or Julia Roberts can sell out before they ever open, I don't understand why this one hasn't...

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Well said, Margo.

Sondheim - it's selling well, but it's not sold out.

Angela Lansbury is of a certain breed - one of the greatest actors of our generation....who, despite an illustrious career in the major mediums (TV, theater, film), has never really skyrocketed to Julia Roberts-like fame.

Few people nowadays can sell out a run completely. Odd Couple only sold out because it was playing off the 'Producers' coat-tails. Three Days of Rain, Julius Caesar, Pajama Game, and Raisin in the Sun sold out because the people involved were worldwide stars. Yet most of those (3 Days and Odd Couple excluded) did not sell out in advance. Lansbury and Seldes, no matter what anyone says, are not worldwide stars in the realms of Connick, Puffy, etc.

Look at the people we have and have had performing this season - Lansbury, Seldes, Plummer, Dennehey, Spacey, Moore, Langella, Redgrave...

Out of all the legends this season, the only person who has come close thus far to selling out a run is Redgrave. 1 show out of, what, the 40 that will have opened by the Tony deadline?

Says something about the state of theater and the the bankability of the greats.

Updated On: 4/6/07 at 10:31 PM

Julia Roberts and Nathan & Matthew are the only ones I can think of who've sold out the entire run of a show prior to opening. Denzel didn't and neither did Puffy, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman, Kathleen Turner, Paul Newman, Redgrave, Dench, Fiennes, Lange, Whoopi, Jackman, et al.......

Lansbury will probably ensure solid box office, but not sell outs.

Maybe star power is overrated anyway. The only impossible-to-get (except through a broker or premium seating) tickets in town right now are for WICKED and JERSEY BOYS -- each with a bunch of "no-names" in the leads. Same with MAMMA MIA, LION KING, RENT, PHANTOM, CATS et al in the past..

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Updated On: 4/6/07 at 10:39 PM

[Edited] I myself am actually very glad that Deuce isn't eligible for the Tony. I myself actually wish that Deuce weren't eligible for the Tony.

I mean, look at it this way: Lansbury (and I think I won't make speculation on Seldes as I don't know much about her) will probably grab herself a nomination, if not the Tony itself, even if the only effort she makes is her little pinky's worth. If Deuce were ineligible, this would give other brilliant actresses a better shot at getting nominated and relieve the nominees of the pressure of competing against another living legend.

It is a bit disappointing, however (especially for the playwright, I'm sure), that the show itself cannot be nominated. If it's splendid, I am sure it deserves recognition.

Ah, well. If it's good, it'll be remembered by those who got to see it...

I'm choosing not to comment on the other awards. I don't know much about them (although I surely should).

[And god knows how I hope there will be standing room or something of that sort!]

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Updated On: 4/6/07 at 10:46 PM

Don't forget that this show can also fall into the esteemed category of "it looked good on paper."

It could completely suck, though with the pedigree, it'll be pretty hard.

Still something to mull over.

With all due respect to you, Margo and even more to Lansbury, this project has a scent of Legends about it to me. Everyone was so sure that Mary Martin's return to Broadway would be the comeback of the century and we all know how that turned out.
Now I don't know Lansbury's capacity for memorization at age 81, it may be fine for all I know, but I would venture to guess there won't be a huge amount of rewrites for her once the show begins previews.

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I thought McNally did a nice job with The Full Monty. I think a decade is too harsh. Maybe four years?

Seldes never misses a line. They are both incredible.
Personally, I am dissappointed about this but I am sure they will qualify for next season.
Marian Seldes is perhaps one of my favorite performers of all time. She is also one of the nicest people in this business.
I wish them well.

Seldes is a class act!

Updated On: 4/6/07 at 11:47 PM