Hunter Foster and Jennifer Laura Thompson to star in LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE....

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/145967-Hunter-Foster-Dick-Latessa-Malcolm-Gets-Jennifer-Laura-Thompson-Will-Star-in-Little-Miss-Sunshine


Ew to Hunter. But JLT is wonderful. I guess Idina passed on it.

"Ew to Hunter. But JLT is wonderful."

Took the words right out of mouth.

But I love Finn's work so much I'll tolerate Hunter. Take the bad with the good I guess.

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I'm excited about most of this cast (Hunter being the obvious exception). Yay for Georgi James getting such a big break. And I sincerely hope that the material is good.

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Bradley Dean is in the ensemble? That seems odd. He's phenomenal in NIGHT MUSIC. I'd like to see him follow it up with a lead in something. What a talent.

Nice cast. Foster is fine, I suppose. A little young?

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What's with all the Hunter hate? I can't wait. I'm sure he'll be great, and the rest of the cast is fantastic. Malcom Gets playing a depressed gay guy in another William Finn musical is a bit odd, but he's great for the role!

Hunter's just a dick who doesn't have the talent needed to back it up where his talent would overshadow it.

This should be fun/good. I love that Lapine/Finn are making a musical adaptation that happens to have elements from several of their previous efforts. Isn't LMS essentially Falsettos hits the road? Then, there's a children's competition element, which we've seen them do before.

But, most striking, this is the second musical William Finn will write that casts a silent character. In Finn's Romance in Hard Times, protagonist Hennie's husband Boris is no longer speaking after feeling he's failed his wife. He takes part in a trio where one character sings to another, that character sings to the other, and the third just sits there. I'm interested to see how they make it work in LMS.

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Too bad Latessa was the only person retained from the workshop. I preferred Craig Bierko, Sherie Rene Scott and Marty Moran to this cast. That would have been a stellar, age appropriate cast

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I love JLT. I think that this is great casting! Although, I was hoping for Raul Esparza, instead of Hunter Foster. I don't hate Foster, He just seems too young for my liking.

Updated On: 12/18/10 at 10:17 PM

I figured it was obvious that Idina passed because of her new ABC show that's in development?

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I think the most obvious and effective route would be for him to be a completely silent character until that breaking point. Having him sing in internal monologues would completely take away that cathartic moment. It'd be like "Oh, big deal, we've been hearing this guy sing for an hour and a half."

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Bettyboy72, Eliseo Roman, Carmen Ruby Floyd, and Sally Wilfert have all been in every previous developmental incarnation of the show.

Most of the other people who've been involved were unavailable for the spring. Idina Menzel has a television pilot, Craig Bierko is working on a film, Christian Borle is doing PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS, Andrew Rannells is doing THE BOOK OF MORMON, Chaunteé Schuler is in THE LION KING, Etai Benschlomo is in WICKED, etc. There was a chance Sherie Rene Scott (who developed the show at Sundance) and Brian d'Arcy James (who did the last workshop) could have continued with the show, but neither WOMEN ON THE VERGE nor TIME STANDS STILL made definitive closing decisions in time for them to commit to other work.

I think this group is terrific, particularly Thompson. Here's hoping the full production realizes all the potential of the material.

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Updated On: 12/18/10 at 06:15 PM

I love the movie to death, and far be it from me to claim that James Lapine doesn't know what he's doing, but this just seems like such an odd idea. The majority of the movie takes place with all the characters inside a VW bus, and I don't really see how great moments like the pushing of the bus and "where's Olive?" will be accomplished on stage.

But I have faith in the material and the pedigree, and I'm eager to see what they do with the "Superfreak" scene and what beautiful song Gets gets to sing to Dwayne in place of the "do what you love and f*** the rest" scene.

This is almost definitely coming to New York unless it's an unmitigated disaster, right?

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Updated On: 12/19/10 at 10:24 AM