Encores announced their new Off-Center Season!
The Urchins will be played by the women who played the Radio in Caroline, or Change!
Press release
Darn. I was hoping it would be the Wolfe Wild Party
I like that the NY Times article just buries the Little Shop of Horrors announcement.
NY Times
The Little Shop announcement is the most exciting thing for me! (I mean, Jon Groff in A New Brain will be great, too).
Holy SH*T, Little Shop with Ellen Greene! I hope they find someone fun for the rest of the cast!
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
I hope Groff can fit it into his busy schedule filming all three of this season's episodes of Looking.
Snark failure.
Great shows, although it doesn't say what role Ellen will be playing, I love that show and can't wait to see it!
...She'll be Audrey.
"Ellen Greene, who created the role of the lovably ditzy Audrey both on stage and screen, will reprise that performance under the direction of Dick Scanlan."
Josh Henry is also in The Wild Party. I may have just puked out of excitement.
Sutton Who? Jonathan What? Ellen F*CKING Greene is playing Audrey again! I could care less about the other two.
**Although I do like A NEW BRAIN very much.
WHAT? I CANNOT WAIT!
That's cool, I just read the Times articles that stated "The third Encores! production will be a one-night run, July 1, of the cult favorite “Little Shop of Horrors,” featuring the original cast member Ellen Greene."
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/18/03
Unless she undergoes sex reassignment surgery and decides to essay Seymour, Audrey is the on,y role she can even remotely play... Age aside.
Yeah, at 63, I figured she would be playing Mrs. Luce! Ha. They have cast Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon as well.
What a terrific announcement to kick off the theatre week! Do you think they'll cast an older Seymour as well?
I hope it's Lee Wilkoff!
I hope not!
They should just cast Rick Moranis.
I mean honestly, as long as she sings "Somewhere That's Green" and I cry, I'm happy.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
This is one time I'm glad La Chiusa's Wild Party opened on Broadway, so it can't be eligible for this series. Thank you, providence! Of course, if had it been eligible, you can bet your bottom dollar that it would have been the first one shoved down our throats.
I guess they had to settle for second best and put on Lippa's instead. What a shame. Not that that one was any good, either!
As for the other two, Little Shop has been done to death, and A New Brain was absolutely abominable --- worse even than both Wild Parties. No mean feat, that! The most grueling feat of all was sitting through it!
Of course, heaven forbid they should ever choose to put on a fun show with beautiful music, such as Little Mary Sunshine ---- something an audience could actually enjoy! But then, I guess that would just show up the crap that we endure regularly for exactly what it us.
And that's a no-no.
After Eight, you know that these shows are for people who have never seen them, or those who have seen them and enjoyed them, right? There are plenty of people who like all three of those shows, and it is very easy to not go see those shows. I agree with you about A New Brain and Lippa's Wild Party (though not Little Shop), and I would much rather they do Little Mary Sunshine, or something like The Nervous Set, but these shows aren't being forced down peoples' throats, they're just being presented by a theatre company, and there's no harm in that.
I don't think LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is being done because no one's seen it. It's being done because Ellen Greene as Audrey for one night would be a very "special event" of a performance. Frankly, After Death, you have a good point. I'd much rather see more obscure pieces, too. Although I think A NEW BRAIN is far from abominable.
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