Joan Rivers in BROADWAY BOUND?

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 4:17pm

Looking at IBDB, I see that Rivers replaced Linda Lavin as Kate Jerome. Did anyone see her? Any memories to share?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 4:39pm

I saw it. Having previously seen Linda Lavin in the role, I was disappointed by the work Joan did. The whole performance was flat--even from others in the cast. In one of her books Joan explains that the cast was rejecting her for being a stand-up comedienne brought in for her marquee value. The tension showed on stage and ruined the performance.

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 4:42pm

Interesting (and very unprofessional, if that is indeed true). I'll have to read that. I think on paper she had the potential to be amazing in the part.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 5:47pm

I thought she was wonderful. She was obviously very funny, but she also brought an enormous depth and warmth to the role.

I also have a friend who was in the cast who has only great things to say about working with her.

When I was in high school, I saw her in a play called Fun City, which she wrote herself and starred in. It also starred Rose Marie, from the Dick Van Dyke show. I loved that play.

If she hadn't become a stand-up comedian, she could have had a great career as an actress.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 6:05pm

I saw Fun City but remember nothing of it. I think it played in a theater that used to be Billy Roses' Diamond Horseshoe in the basement of the Paramount Hotel

If she ever bring her stand up act to broadway she would have a sellout. Her daughter could also sell her jewelry during intermission.

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 6:18pm

FUN CITY played The Morosco.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 6:39pm

I only saw the show with Joan in it after she'd been in it a while. I was not aware of any backstage tension and was surprised by her good work in the dramatic scenes.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 6:49pm

I saw some NYC based show there I thought it was Fun City. I stand corrected.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 7:22pm

According to her book, Joan called the cast together after a week or so and reasoned with them. She may have even taken them out to dinner. From that point on, things changed. I recall seeing the show within days of her taking over the part.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 5:03am

Which book was that anecdote in?

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 7:14am

I think Joan is a very good actress. Sadly, what she has done to her face would preclude her from most roles other than playing herself. I dont think she could emote.

It was sad to see her drop her one woman show due to what sounded like mixed reviews in her documentary " A Piece of Work." She was very protective of the piece and she seemed to not want to be that vulnerable in New York.

[theaterdrew]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 9:51am

The impression I got from "A Piece of Work" wasn't so much that she was protective of the one woman show itself, but of her sense of herself as an actress. Her dream was to be an actress; it is at the core of her self-definition. She can take criticism of her comedy but is highly protective of anything she does that can be considered acting. She seems to believe NYC critics won't accept her as an actress.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 2:09pm

Well if she wants to act, but won't because of criticism, then she is not truly an actress. Actresses are fearless and vulnerable when needed. No one is guaranteed good press. I didn't really understood how she separated comic and actress (i.e., I can take a critical beating as a comic, but not an actress.)

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 1:17am

There are things I like and things I don't about Miss Joan Rivers. One of them is that she is so damned overly-sensitive while being incredibly vicious in her stand-up. I don't believe it's coming from a good place in her. "It's just a joke!" she'll say. But then, god forbid, anything be said about her.

And the way she snaps like a mean pitbull! When Terry Gross had her on to promote "A Piece of Work," Terry played the scene where the person in the audience calls her on her mocking of somebody's disability as if it was this astounding Joan Rivers success moment. To me it was just the worst example of how to handle a heckler. I guess she made a joke about being deaf or something and a guy in the audience tells her it's not funny when your kids is deaf and Joan, always wanting to have it both ways, calls him a son of a bitch, tells him it's a joke, and then for her final death blow, exclaims "My MOTHER was deaf!!!" So, so awful. She's bitching him out for playing victim and then tries to trump him. God, I hated her while listening to that moment, as I have so many times in her career.

Honestly, I thought she was just fine in the Simon play. And I truly believe if she is sooooooooooo sensitive about her acting it's because it's inconceivable to her that criticism (or a punchline) can come from anything but an angry and hateful position.

[nealb1]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 11:58pm

I saw Joan in BB in July of 1988. I remember she was very, very good and had some very touching moments. She got a standing O - very well deserved.

[Storefrontnyc]

Posted: 8/17/11 at 1:15am

she's sensitive about her work as an actress because, for fifty plus years, she's PLAYED the part of a comic. And extraordinarily successfully.

[Kevin Norte]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 1:21pm

I remember seeing Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound at The Broadhurst in either August or September of 1988. It was a Thursday evening that the house was half full. It was the start of her comeback. In it she played Kate, the role originated by Linda Lavin. Her character was dealing with loss and if I remember it correctly, the character abandons her family. I thought Joan Rivers was chilling and she had the ability to reveal a darkness that existed in the Jerome household. It was a darkness that I do not remember seeing in Brighton Beach Memoirs. I was impressed. There was more to the woman and I was glad that I participated in her road to her Comeback.

[DAME]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 1:31pm

I saw Broadway Bound early in the run and I though she was very good in it. Shortly after I went to see her do stand up at a club in NY. Same club where I had seen Mel Torme and Woody Allen used to play on Monday nights ( can't remember the name). The night I saw her do stand up her entire cast of Broadway Bound was there cheering her on. I also saw the play they cover in the documentary at the Geffen theater in Los Angeles. It was not very good. It was a big piece of shtick. When you walked into the theater they had the entrance set up like the red carpet with two actors playing paparazzi. The evening was fun. But it made you wish it was just her up there telling stories.

Updated On: 9/5/14 at 01:31 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 1:49pm

I still think Dollypop was just making SH*T up again.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 2:20pm

Don't piss Dollypop off. If you do, he'll send Elizabitch over to annoy you to death.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 2:22pm

He changed the story over in the RIP thread on the other board.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 2:24pm

I thought Rivers acquitted herself quite well in the role but I did not envy her having to follow the extraordinary Lavin, and Elizabeth Franz. I'm sure with a proper rehearsal period she could have found more but I recell her George Raft monologue being quite moving. I had a pal in the cast at the time and don't remember his mentioning the tensions other have referred to.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 2:25pm

I hope they dim the lights for her next week.

[dreaming]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 2:39pm

Next week? I'd have thought tomorrow perhaps.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 2:46pm

Wouldn't they have announced it today already?