Jessica Lange as Mary Tyrone

[east side story]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 1:06pm

Playbill

 

All I can say is: "Finally!"

Updated On: 5/26/15 at 01:06 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 1:10pm

All I can say is "meh."  If they are going to revive this, I'd prefer someone like Cherry Jones.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 1:18pm

Most excited about John Gallagher returning to the stage as Edmund. Well done, RTC.

[gstrus2]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 1:23pm

We also learned all the theatres of the Roundabout shows. She Loves Me will be in Studio 54 with this in American Airlines right after Noises Off. 

[Kad]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 1:24pm

Yeah, I'm more excited about John Gallagher, Jr.

[little_sally]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 2:14pm

Count me amongst those more excited for Gallagher.

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 2:16pm

Well, at least she's returning with her only praised stage performance.

[CurtainsUpat8]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 2:23pm

I Loved Jessica Lange in American Horror Story, and she is a really wonderful actress. That being said, I remember seeing her as Blanche in Streetcar, which should have been a perfect fit, and I couldn't hear her or understand her. I don't know if she is a stage actress or just movies/tv.

[skies]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 2:59pm

Jessica Lange won the Olivier award back a few years back for playing Mary Tyrone in a West End production.   So I think it's a safe bet that she can successful transition to be a "stage actress" in the right roles.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 3:17pm

She lost the Olivier to Julie Walters.

[skies]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 3:31pm

"She lost the Olivier to Julie Walters."

MY bad, but the point is that from most accounts, her Mary Tyrone was a critical success in London; Whereas I hear her "Glass Menagerie" on BW wasn't as praised,  so like  many actors, it's more the specific role/direction than whether an actor is simply a "stage actor" versus a "TV/movie actor".

 

 

 

[gstrus2]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 3:47pm

Interesting that Ryan Murphy is attached to this. Could the Funny Girl with Lea Michele maybe be with Roundabout since now Ryan is producing this with them as well? Or is there no correlation? 

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 3:59pm

I love Jessica and much of her work, but her technique is very mannered and repetitive. She can either be intriguing or dull. She essentially played variations of the same woman on AHS-very camped up and mannered. Her Elsa was her jumping the shark IMHO-its a good thing she left when she did. 

Her performance in Grey Gardens was in impression. She would watch the scenes in the doc right before she shot and impersonate Big Edie. I'm not sure what was happening underneath. Her Big Edie was her biggest departure from form.

 

[JoeyEvans1206]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 9:25pm

I'm very excited for this revival of what I believe to be one of our best American plays. When O'Neill said he wrote it with tears and blood - he wasn't kidding. I think Lange is a fine choice for Mary Tyrone. It will be hard to beat the last Broadway revival with Redgrave, but this one is shaping up nicely. I'll guess I'll never get to see my dream production with Christopher Plummer as Tyrone. Can't wait to see who gets cast as Jamie.

Hopefully, Ryan Murphy will be a hands-off producer. I hate to see the Tyrone family dynamic turn into a public service announcement for tolerance and anti-bullying. 

[LightsOut90]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 10:00pm

so what Noises Off is going to have like a 7 week run ?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 10:14pm

I'm definitely hoping Ryan Murphy is just giving them money and has zero say in the creative direction of the production.

I feel there's about 5 more actresses I can think of off the top of my head whom I'd rather see as Mary Tyrone (indeed Cherry Jones is right at the top, Sally Field, Glenn Close, Sissy Spacek, and Deanna Dunagan are the other ones). But I couldn't agree more re John Gallagher Jr., how exciting to see him back on stage! His performance in SHORT TERM 12 made me want to see him tackle some of the great roles out there. Glad they got him. 

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 10:19pm

At least sound design has improved by leaps since 1992, right?

I saw Kathleen Chalfant do a reading of act two… splendid.

[Brick]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 11:11pm

"At least sound design has improved by leaps since 1992, right?"

 And also, Lange has been on the stage more than a few times since then. STREETCAR was truly a film actress taking a film performance to the stage. She's since turned in some beautiful stage performances.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 11:24pm

That's good.

[playbill-love]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 11:36pm

Ditto to everyone else excited for John Gallagher's return to theatre. I can't wait to see him in this.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/27/15 at 5:54am

A minority opinion here: I am delighted she's taking this on.  I saw her Blanche, which took most of the run for her to nail. But nail it she did (Julie Harris, no less, thought hers was one of the best she had ever seen).  And then her Amanda, to me, exquisite, was burdened with one of the worst productions of "Menagerie" I've ever witnessed, with bizarre casting everywhere, starting with Sarah Paulson (wonderful actor, miscast and misguided) as Laura, and framed by a summer stock-ish Tom of Christian Slater, a late replacement, bringing zero to the party, but mostly David Leveaux's extraordinarily bone-headed direction (lace curtains on travelers, racing across the stage).  Lange managed to carve out an Amanda that could've soared in other trappings.  She is now older, and make find even more in Mary.  Two friends saw it in London and said she was definitive.  

[LarryD2]

Posted: 5/27/15 at 5:58am

Auggie, I strongly agree that Leveaux's production really was the problem, not Lange's performance, which was quite skilled. When Lange went on to play Amanda in London -- in a different production, by Rupert Goold -- she earned rave reviews.

[LarryD2]

Posted: 5/27/15 at 6:04am

I didn't realize that the producers of the 2003 revival wanted Jessica Lange for that production. Brian Dennehy -- in a 2012 interview -- doesn't mince words:

The best Mary Tyrone he’s seen, Dennehy says, was Canadian actress Martha Henry at the Stratford Festival. He and Falls tried to get Henry for the Broadway transfer of the Goodman production, he says, but the producers wanted Jessica Lange, who had recently played the role in London. (Redgrave took the part after talks with Lange broke off.)

“Jessica really ****ed us over,” Dennehy adds, prompting Lane to interject in a baby-talk voice: “This is where we should turn the tape recorder off! ’Cause Daddy, Daddy can’t have any more merlot!”

Dennehy responds by leaning in to my recorder and clearly enunciating: “Jessica Lange is a B-I-T-C-H. Bitch, bitch, bitch. Put it in the ****ing magazine.” To which Lane replies, again, “Um, anyway…”

http://www.timeout.com/chicago/theater/nathan-lane-and-brian-dennehy-interview

[GreasedLightning]

Posted: 5/27/15 at 9:56am

I believe I read somewhere that Ryan Murphy has said that following their work together on AHS, he would go wherever Lange would go from here on out as long as he was able. I'm not surprised to see this collaboration effort and his name as a producer here. 

 

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 7/29/15 at 9:33am

Just keeps getting better: Michael Shannon as Jamie.

http://www.theatermania.com/broadway/news/michael-shannon-long-days-journey-broadway_73669.html?cid=homepage_news

 

Updated On: 7/29/15 at 09:33 AM