Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town

[HamletWasBipolar]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#1

Posted: 2/2/10 at 1:46pm

Good lord, if this isn't the most hated soundtrack I've heard!!!

" I wish that the stage were as narrow as a tightrope wire, so that no incompetent would dare step upon it." -- Goethe (he wants you to go to my Myspace page www.myspace.com/jasonklemm

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#2

Posted: 2/2/10 at 1:48pm

You're back? Eesh.

[HamletWasBipolar]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#2

Posted: 2/2/10 at 1:53pm

Ha...for some reason I havent been on in AGES....I forgot my password to get back on, and Broadwayworld wouldnt send it to me...a hint?...then FINALLY they did...lol.....I wont even go into the hit and run accident on Queens Blvd I was involved in...lol

" I wish that the stage were as narrow as a tightrope wire, so that no incompetent would dare step upon it." -- Goethe (he wants you to go to my Myspace page www.myspace.com/jasonklemm

[sondheimfan2]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#3

Posted: 2/2/10 at 2:45pm

I like the OBC recording, and I enjoyed Donna Murphy's performance. I'm guess I'm in the minority.

[Gothampc]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#4

Posted: 2/2/10 at 2:59pm

Obviously you've not heard Tyne Daly's "Gypsy".

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

[muscle23ftl]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#5

Posted: 2/2/10 at 5:30pm

I also can't stand that CD, I hope you are doing well!

"People have their opinions and that doesn't mean that their opinions are wrong or right. I just take it with a grain of salt because opinions are like as*holes, everyone has one". -Felicia Finley-

[Auggie27]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#6

Posted: 2/2/10 at 6:28pm

She's just not funny in the role. Give me Roz.

"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling

[fashionguru_23]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#7

Posted: 2/3/10 at 11:39am

To be honest, it was her performance on the Tony's that made me go out and buy the cast album.

It was my first copy of Wonderful Town, but its hard for me, because I like the revival cast album because it is more upbeat, and exciting to me. But I will always go back to Roz for that voice.

BTW, IMO also wanted to note that the Donna Murphy album is SOOO much better than the newer version with Brooke Shields.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#8

Posted: 2/3/10 at 11:48am

I actually saw her in the show and thought she was fantastic, and I love the recording.

[sondheimfan2]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#9

Posted: 2/3/10 at 1:04pm

In fact, I thought Ms. Murphy displayed physical comedic talent. I remember the sofa bed bit and the dance with the sailors being very funny.

[D2]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#10

Posted: 2/3/10 at 1:08pm

You want to see a funny CONGA? Watch this.
Roz

Cheyenne Jackson tickled me. AFTER ordering SoMMS a drink but NOT tickling him, and hanging out with Girly in his dressing room (where he DIDN'T tickle her) but BEFORE we got married. To others. And then he tweeted Boobs. He also tweeted he's good friends with some chick on "The Voice" who just happens to be good friends with Tink's ex. And I'm still married. Oh, and this just in: "Pettiness, spite, malice ....Such ugly emotions... So sad." - After Eight, talking about MEEEEEEEE!!! I'm so honored! :-)

[fashionguru_23]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#11

Posted: 2/3/10 at 2:00pm

D2,

I love that video! I also love the one in the "related links" window of Bea Arthur performing that song.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#12

Posted: 2/3/10 at 2:13pm

Donna Murphy was notorious for the number of missed performances in Wonderful Town. I saw her in late preview and thought she "got through" it all right, but I want someone to more than "get through" a show when they're carrying the lead. My only first-hand knowledge of Rosalind Russell in WT was the television version done in 1959, which I treasure. I don't think anyone has mentioned that there are some clips of Russell from the original Broadway version in 1953 -- no sound, but the clilps are a potent reminder of what a fireball Ms. Russell was on stage. It was part of the tribute to Ms. Russell that was done on some PBS stations late last year and which is on sale through Amazon. I DID have the good fortune of seeing Ms. Russell on stage in the original Auntie Mame -- one of my favorite nights in the theatre, EVER. And I go back quite a few years.

BroadwayEd

[binau]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#13

Posted: 2/3/10 at 4:16pm

"Donna Murphy was notorious for the number of missed performances in Wonderful Town."

Posting on this forum, I'd never know.

Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#14

Posted: 2/3/10 at 9:20pm

Quo -- yes, Riedel commented on it every other column or so. It got to be a running joke about the confetti of white pieces of paper falling out of people's Playbills and I don't know how many people I knew who got burned by her no-shows. She subsequently fessed up about her poor attendance, claiming she had been ill during the run. When she did the Weill show with Cerveris, she started to do the same and apparently Hal Prince put his foot down and told her show up or ship out. She showed up.

BroadwayEd

[AC126748]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#15

Posted: 2/3/10 at 9:28pm

Having seen Ms. Murphy twice, I can attest that it was one of the best musical theatre performances I've ever seen.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

[rwlevin]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#16

Posted: 2/4/10 at 6:56am

I'm so tired of Riedel et al constantly making fun of her for missing so many performances. It was widely noted at the time that Ms. Murphy had the flu during previews and anybody who's had the flu knows it does a number on your body and your voice. I was very lucky. I saw the second preview right before she got sick and I thought she was wonderful. And while she is no Rosalind Russell, let's face facts-who is?

Waiting for tickets to Hair August 2008

[morosco]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#17

Posted: 2/4/10 at 1:04pm

Murphy's Law / mûr'f?z law
-noun
Murphy's Law is the facetious proposition that the performer you're hoping to see in a show will be out the night you attend said show.

[D2]

Donna Murphy's Wonderful Town#18

Posted: 2/4/10 at 1:22pm

I saw Murphy at both Encores and in the Broadway production. At Encores she was brilliant - she threw herself into the role with brilliant comedic energy and force.

On Broadway, (and very early in the run, too) she, as Ed mentioned, "got through it," playing it very, very carefully and never seeming to have the joyous abandon she displayed at Encores. That's why I preferred Brooke Shields in the role - she just went out on that stage and appeared to be having the time of her life.

Cheyenne Jackson tickled me. AFTER ordering SoMMS a drink but NOT tickling him, and hanging out with Girly in his dressing room (where he DIDN'T tickle her) but BEFORE we got married. To others. And then he tweeted Boobs. He also tweeted he's good friends with some chick on "The Voice" who just happens to be good friends with Tink's ex. And I'm still married. Oh, and this just in: "Pettiness, spite, malice ....Such ugly emotions... So sad." - After Eight, talking about MEEEEEEEE!!! I'm so honored! :-)