Encores! 2023: LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA with Ruthie Ann Miles, DEAR WORLD with Donna Murphy, and OLIVER! — Page 4

JSquared2 said: "If PICTURES FROM HOME is a short limited run they wouldn't be available --- but Nathan Lane or Danny Burstein would be great Fagins.''

If that show overlaps with Oliver!, and the creative team of the latter wants Danny or Nathan to play Fagin, the former could find a replacement to take over for the remainder of its run.

Was thinking about how wonderful it would be if they could get Rachel Zegler to play Clara in Piazza. She really needs to be onstage in New York soon!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN4DKvMrJAM

Any info / rumours on casting for Piazza (beyond Ruthie) or Oliver? The productions aren't that far away

Alan Cumming did an interview a month ago where he says he's been asked to play Fagin in Oliver and might do that 'next year.' As in 2023 or a year from Dec 2022? I know Oliver has been rumoured for the West End for a while now but could he be doing the Encores production? (2:30 mark)


https://youtu.be/pvj5Fi3DuPk

Updated On: 1/9/23 at 06:16 PM

So happy for Lilli’s career trajectory. Ever since Spring Awakening she has been a singular talent.

I am not the biggest "Oliver" fan but I will be there for Lilli and Raul. I have been waiting for him to return to the stage.

If they put Raul in a prosthetic nose and play into the anti-semitic tropes, I’ll never set foot in NYCC again.

Oh relax. They obviously will not be doing that.

Of note, Alisa Solomon (a leading scholar of Yiddish theatre and author of the book WONDER OF WONDERS) is consulting on the production, and the book will be adapted by Deborah Stein (who has written plays about the Jewish experience). In addition to the "Jewish issue" of Oliver, that also puts 5 women at the center of a musical with a complicated relationship with sexual assault.

Updated On: 2/23/23 at 10:45 AM

The character is deeply steeped in anti-semitism. A Jew did not write the source material. And the character has often been given a large prosthetic hook nose.

Considering what happened at PARADE on Tuesday, some of you shouldn’t be dismissing the continued erasure of Jewish actors from Jewish roles.

iluvtheatertrash said: "The character is deeply steeped in anti-semitism. A Jew did not write the source material. And the character has often been given a large prosthetic hook nose.

Considering what happened at PARADE on Tuesday, some of you shouldn’t be dismissing the continued erasure of Jewish actors from Jewish roles."

I am surprised they are not casting a Jewish actor, but apparently, they couldn't get who they wanted. Fagin in the musical is very different from Fagin in the novel (it's interesting to notice – during the current Roald Dahl's uproar – that Dickens himself cut down and removed *most* of the anti-semitic elements while he was still living – but your point absolutely still stands). No West End or Broadway production of Oliver! ever employed prosthetic noses.

Updated On: 2/23/23 at 11:19 AM