Posted: 8/3/22 at 6:16am
I was there last night on TDF tickets. We had seats in center orch row P, first row on the aisle (101-104).
Posted: 8/3/22 at 8:46am
Can't we assume that a percentage of these early August seats were sold months or at least weeks ago, under the presumption that the former star would be playing Fanny? Remember the discussions about the Feldstein August absences, big topic, when many people rushed to buy seats for the Benko weekend. I checked August sales in June circa my own attendance, before the two departure announcements, and saw that the houses were mostly undersold. Which of course is part of the overall narrative about a dried-up advance. But most full price sales for August, one might assume, were purchased for the prior Fanny.
Posted: 8/3/22 at 2:11pm
Still no pics of the new marquee/theater exterior?
Posted: 8/3/22 at 2:35pm
The marquee was posted in the Lea Michele thread. It's the logotype/title in red on a black background.
Posted: 8/3/22 at 3:46pm
Huh. So does Benko get star billing anywhere? Did they even bother creating new Playbills?
Posted: 8/3/22 at 5:43pm
Nice profile of Julie in the New York Times.
Julie Benko Was the ‘Funny Girl’ No One Had Heard of, Until Now
Posted: 8/3/22 at 6:53pm
TDF today side orchestra
New playbills with Julie above the title in them!
Posted: 8/3/22 at 7:27pm
Say what you want about her social media posts during Beanie's run, but they were a big part of getting her to where she is today. She took the great word-of-mouth that she was getting from people that saw her in the show, and supercharged it by consistently putting herself out there online and connecting with fans, with her TikToks garnering millions of views. She hustled her tuchus off, and it's paid off in spades.
Posted: 8/3/22 at 7:50pm
TaffyDavenport said: "Say what you want about her social media posts during Beanie's run, but they were a big part of getting her to where she is today. She took the great word-of-mouth that she was getting from people that saw her in the show, and supercharged it by consistently putting herself out there online and connecting with fans, with her TikToks garnering millions of views. She hustled her tuchus off, and it's paid off in spades."
She's a savvy young woman. I noticed that there were no reviews this morning, so the producers haven't gone that far to issue invitations. Just notices and photos. Would be nice if, after seeing the Times article a few critics wandered by to catch her and maybe write a word or two. Guess that would be another whole can of worms.
Posted: 8/3/22 at 8:35pm
TaffyDavenport said: "Say what you want about her social media posts during Beanie's run, but they were a big part of getting her to where she is today. She took the great word-of-mouth that she was getting from people that saw her in the show, and supercharged it by consistently putting herself out there online and connecting with fans, with her TikToks garnering millions of views. She hustled her tuchus off, and it's paid off in spades." Julie Benko knows how to "play the game."
Posted: 8/3/22 at 9:56pm
She's a smart young woman and has prepared herself for the career she's chosen. She's 33, has a Masters (I believe) from NYU. In the meantime, did the auditioning, U/S and standbys, moving up the ladder since she was 19. So it's not the Eve Harrington business some have talked about here. She has paid her dues.
As for the social media - knowing the producers weren't likely to promote her - on the face, it wasn't in their best interests. She used the tools available - SM is still a rather new thing - imagine if Lainie Kazan had TikTok. Thing is no one stopped her. That's always been kind of a mystery. Hard to know what the producers thought (they didn't seem to think much) - since it seems they knew early on Beanie wasn't going to be there for the long haul. In that way, Beanie's purported sentiment about not getting support from them about Julie's self-promotion might have been on the mark. Maybe they wanted Julie to promote herself.
From the NY Times article, it seems she did her due diligence to prepare for this particular role once she auditioned and won the standby role. I remember an interview Sierra Boggess did on how she secured the lead in The Little Mermaid. She talked about "doing the work." Not sure the other leading ladies in this show, who are/were the star names did/will do the same. Knowing she had two weekends set when she would be going on, she was ready. Little did she know, or maybe she suspected, she would be going on for 26 performances and building up a following.
The game she played seems a lot like athletes training for the Olympics.
Posted: 8/3/22 at 11:01pm
Posted: 8/4/22 at 12:47am
Posted: 8/4/22 at 1:03am
Found this on YouTube - it's the 2014 Les Mis cast auditioning for Hamilton. Julie is somewhere in the middle, Ramin closer to the end. Hysterical.
Posted: 8/4/22 at 5:08am
It would be nice if/when they do a cast recording with Lea they let Benko record a bonus track of ‘don’t rain on my parade’ or something like that.
Posted: 8/4/22 at 6:08am
Penna2 said: "
Found this on YouTube - it's the 2014 Les Mis cast auditioning for Hamilton. Julie is somewhere in the middle, Ramin closer to the end. Hysterical."
This was much of the cast I saw when I saw that Les Mis revival. Ramin, Earl, Erika, Samantha, Wallace, Gavin, Rachel, etc. It still hurts a little seeing Kyle-Jean Baptiste in this video though, he passed just a few days after I got to see him in the show.
I may have seen Julie, but I have to check my Playbill slip for confirmation. I know for a fact I saw her as an understudy in Fiddler.
Posted: 8/4/22 at 8:12am
Has Lynch been back this week? Sunday afternoon was her first missed performance. Some were worried that she was Covid positive, since it's hit everyone else in the show.
Posted: 8/4/22 at 8:59am
The "how dare Julie announce her performances on social media?" viewpoint and the fact that Beanie felt unsupported when Julie went on (according to the Daily Beast article) is very odd to me, considering the fact that the production did nothing to support or acknowledge Julie in those early performances, even in her first scheduled weekend, while all other Broadway shows were heavily supporting and applauding their standbys/understudies. I believe the production's social media only officially acknowledged Julie when Beanie got Covid and they were suddenly faced with a string of Julie performances that had to be announced ahead of time. (Correct me if I'm wrong about this.)
Posted: 8/4/22 at 10:47am
Posted: 8/5/22 at 12:55am
I saw Julie tonight. Jane and the whole cast was in. Julie is delivering a fully realized exceptional performance. From the people around me who’ve seen it multiple times, they say she’s been even better this week since Beanie is gone. Every actor was at the top of their game. Jane was sensational nailing the humor and the pathos. The chemistry with all the actors and Julie was palpable.
Julie clearly did the work-researching and creating a character. What she trained for in school. She was sublime. Those who have said her vocals are “adequate” are delusional. She sings with power, conviction, style, great diction and sounds so lovely. She broke my heart at times. She wasn’t thinking about how to sing but singing as an extension of character. No one will ever be Babs, so the new Fanny needed to work on creating that fully realized character. Julie has done that. That’s how you reinvent Funny Girl. Beanie, who I like tremendously didn’t have the stamina, the vocals or the acting chops to deliver a new Fanny.
Had Julie opened the show she would have gotten a Tony nod. She’s so winning.
I will say I do have trouble seeing Lea and Tovah conveying the warmth and vulnerability I saw on stage tonight. But that remains to be seen.
I do get the sense that Julie saw the writing the wall during rehearsals and began planting seeds. I’m glad it worked out. She took risks that could have bit her. They are even selling her CD at the merch stand now. Bravo to her for capitalizing on this moment. She’s a true talent.
Posted: 8/5/22 at 8:20am
To BettyBoy72's point: we can assume that Benko has been freed of the task of duplicating the prior star's performance, beyond serving the staging and business. From the NY Times article, documenting her research and incrementally achieved characterization in rehearsal, we can assume she's moved past another actor's choices and now plays the role as she conceived it. She has an entirely different attack on the songs -- as BettyBoy astutely notes, an extension of character. If the score is know for its standalone numbers, Benko seems determined to help pave over the structural holes in the show by creating a more organic final product.
How is her "Music That Makes Me.Dance"? It's the number the egregious staging sacrificed the most when I saw the show June 1. I'm wondering if they've trusted Benko to simply sing without all of the bizarre sound board enhancements. It had a kind of echo reverb thing which didn't serve a torch song. As I noted in another thread, it felt like something out of Ken Russell's Boyfriend movie. Is Benko putting her signature on the (wonderful) song?
Updated On: 8/5/22 at 08:20 AM
Posted: 8/5/22 at 9:18am
Auggie27 said: "To BettyBoy72's point: we can assume that Benko has been freed of the task of duplicating the prior star's performance, beyond serving the staging and business. From the NY Times article, documenting her research and incrementally achieved characterization in rehearsal, we can assume she's moved past another actor's choices and now plays the role as she conceived it. She has an entirely different attack on the songs -- as BettyBoy astutely notes, an extension of character. If the score is know for its standalone numbers, Benko seems determined to help pave over the structural holes in the show by creating a more organic final product.
How is her "Music That Makes Me.Dance"? It's the number the egregious staging sacrificed the most when I saw the show June 1. I'm wondering if they've trusted Benko to simply sing without all of the bizarre sound board enhancements. It had a kind of echo reverb thing which didn't serve a torch song. As I noted in another thread, it felt like something out of Ken Russell's Boyfriend movie. Is Benko putting her signature on the (wonderful) song?"
I heard no embellishments of any kind. It was simply sung and it was glorious and heartbreaking. A beautiful moment for the actress.
Posted: 8/5/22 at 9:37am
Bettyboy, does “The Music that Makes Me Dance” still end without Fanny singing the last note of the song? That was my biggest disappointment when I saw Julie as an understudy, because the number was a high point for her. I was hoping they would change the ending of the number for her, or Lea when she comes in.
Posted: 8/5/22 at 10:56am
This could be the most inept production team in modern times. The morning reel on FG instagram is Benko mugging. Okay. Cute. But the soundtrack: Streisand singing “I’ve got 36 expressions.” What an unjust comparison. Here's a thought for the marketing team: soundtrack the cute reel with Benko singing the same line. Inept.
Posted: 8/5/22 at 3:07pm
Bettyboy72 said: "I saw Julie tonight. Jane and the whole cast was in. Julie is delivering a fully realized exceptional performance. From the people around me who’ve seen it multiple times, they say she’s been even better this week..."
I was there last night too and she was just phenomenal. Julie is so brilliant in the role. I was hesitant to return to the production after seeing it a month or two ago, but my god she is worth it. I do hope that they let her record a song or two if they do a cast album with Lea. Julie was just divine-I'm obsessed!
On another note, the show paused last night just after "Taught Her Everything She Knows" because the Pringles can of a set malfunctioned. Michael Rafter had the orchestra play that segue a few times and it got quite the laugh. Glad they were able to continue...but that cheap-looking set just makes me nervous.
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