While not to the extremes Ms Hollliday has taken, Ms Headley has been guilty of vocal theatrics in the past, and she gave a stunningly subtle and nuanced performance as Shug. Maybe Doyle will be able to get Holliday to pull it back. She is more than capable. She just needs a firm hand to tell her to pull it back. And then pull it back some more. I hope that picture isn't a sign of things to come
Apart from extraordinary airbrushing going on in that picture, it does truly capture the essence of "Push Da Button". Count me amongst the ones who're very interested and "intrigued" to see Ms Holliday's take on the role.
Also, Jordan said it best - "oh please. you queens would be lining up see this."
Caption: Every so often there was a rare moment of perfect balance when I soared above him.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
That is actually what you asked. You asked if Doyle was "still involved". Having Assistant Directors is being involved. They are his surrogates who know and understand his vision and apply it.
Caption: Every so often there was a rare moment of perfect balance when I soared above him.
Valentina3 said: "That is actually what you asked. You asked if Doyle was "still involved". Having Assistant Directors is being involved. They are his surrogates who know and understand his vision and apply it.
I know how the process works. I wanted to know if Doyle himself is involved, since everybody keeps saying Doyle will be able to get a good performance out of Jennifer Holliday. A surrogate is different than the actual John Doyle. Unless of course they have a hologram.
Again, not what you asked. I'm sorry broadwayguy91 or myself didn't know what you "meant" when you asked something else.
I have a question though - why wouldn't you bank on director being at the show at this point? It's still his name on the program which is eventually at stake if the show is going to shambles. A person who hasn't seen the show in its first year of running doesn't care about how it was when it originally opened (which wasn't even very long long). Directors, choreographers, costume/ lightning / set designers will always have to be involved continuously, directly or through assistants/ managers. I know Joe Mantello and Hal Prince still drop by Wicked and Phantom from time to time to give notes to various people.
Caption: Every so often there was a rare moment of perfect balance when I soared above him.
Actually going to side with neon here, which I don't always do. A surrogate is very different from John Doyle himself. The surrogates weren't hired to direct the musical. Doyle was. They lack certain skills and experiences he does. Otherwise they would have serious careers as directors themselves. A director does so much more than just execute a vision, which obviously a surrogate can replicate. A director is responsible for making the actors feel comfortable in their roles but also laying down the hammer when push (da button) comes to shove. I have no doubt in my mind that a diva like Holliday would be able to walk all over one of the surrogates at The Color Purple. Someone with the esteem of John Doyle, however... now that's a different story. So no, that's not AT ALL what neon asked.
The very specific question asked was: Is John Doyle working with Jennifer Holliday? Not his proxies, not a stage director. Doyle just took over the artistic directorship of a major Off-Broadway company and is in rehearsals for their season-opening production. Chances are he's quite busy. I would not take it on faith that he's spending a lot of time at the Jacobs.
"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
Per a friend who works on the production, Jennifer Holliday auditioned for John Doyle and is being put into the show by John Doyle. And, yes, I'm going to night because I literally cannot help myself.
I'm guessing he had a drink or lunch with her to discuss the role a while ago, before or after she was cast. Music Directors and proxies taught her the bones/staging. Doyle likely was at one afternoon rehearsal of just Shug scenes and maybe the put in and gave notes.
Isn't it appropriate to wait until Holliday has actually started performing before judging her ?
I though that this place prided itself on having good theather criticism. jumping to the conclusion that this women is going to suck before even seeing her is not that!
I have trust in Doyle. He reinvented this show and gave us one of the most beautiful productions of a musical as a result. He is responsible for Jennifer Hudson's only good performance after Dreamgirls, and he gave us the magic of Heather Headley. I trust he knows what he is doing with Ms. Holliday, whom I think has the potential to do some great work here. If he can get her to actually listen to Ms. Erivo's Celie and Mr. Johnson's Mister and be present in the moment, the performance could actually work really well.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Sunny11 said: "Isn't it appropriate to wait until Holliday has actually started performing before judging her ? "
Not around here!
1. These are opinions based on who she is, what she's already done.
2. MANY of the folks here WILL go see her, and be honest should she get the job done. It's happened before....my favorite example was when Corbin Bleu took over in In the Heights, he was well trashed, and nearly everyone that saw him took back their statements, as he was pretty wonderful.
3. We're tough and opinionated, but we truly check things out.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
dramamama611 said: "Sunny11 said: "Isn't it appropriate to wait until Holliday has actually started performing before judging her ? "
Not around here!
1. These are opinions based on who she is, what she's already done.
She won pretty much every award available for Dreamgirls. Wouldn't logic mean that a positive outlook should prevail?
2. MANY of the folks here WILL go see her, and be honest should she get the job done. It's happened before....my favorite example was when Corbin Bleu took over in In the Heights, he was well trashed, and nearly everyone that saw him took back their statements, as he was pretty wonderful.
Why was he trashed in the first place. High School Musical was a hit and he was great in it.
3. We're tough and opinionated, but we truly check things out.
Not allways.
I have seen too many instances of " I knew they where going to suck, my fear has been realised" from people simply reading snark and who clearly hadn't watched them themselves.
really curious to hear how Holliday is. Anyone seeing the show soon?
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.