LUPONE IN TALKS FOR 'DOLLY' - IT'S OFFICIAL

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 11:25am

I am so in favour of this!!!! Imagine - Finally a Dolly who can actually sing the **** out of the part.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Patti_to_Play_Dolly_in_HELLO_DOLLY_Revival_20101214

[Edna Turnblad]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 11:28am

So, um, darling, did you not see the large thread all about the Hello Dolly revival? If not, it covers this exact thing. Also, it's unlikely that an article from two days ago would not have been discussed on this forum, especially when it's something like this. Finally, did you not see the large question mark on the article's title?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 11:31am

Well that's one of the most outright deliberately nasty posts I've ever read.

[Edna Turnblad]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 11:36am

No, Jordan, not "nasty". "Helpful." Your post should read "Well that's one of the most outright deliberately helpful post I've ever read."

Am I being snarky today? I'm not meaning to be. I have no reason to be. Weird. Maybe I should go back to bed. Honestly, I was just trying to be informative that this had been discussed. Granted, it may have come off as mean. Anyway, back to doing what I do.

[bk]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 11:44am

Nothing is "official" if someone is in talks. The article quoted has a big question mark at the end of its header. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't. At this point, it is anything but "official." When it's official you will read a big press announcement, then more threads can be started.

[sally1112]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 11:45am

With an opening like, "um, so darling..." a snarky tone is usally to follow.

[Edna Turnblad]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 11:46am

True, sally, true. I use "Darling" far too often in my daily life. I need to stop using it so much. lol.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 11:49am

How sad that a lovely word like "darling" could ever have a negative connotation.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 11:58am

More threads can be started whenever anybody wants to start a thread. It's ANARCHY!

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 12:16pm

We could start using sweetheart, but that comes off the same way!

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 12:21pm

Will she really sell tickets?

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 12:24pm

I want to take a picture of her on stage in the "Dolly" gown!!!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 12:35pm

Hopefully it will go nowhere. Lupone's Dolly will be too old, too brash, too loud, lacking in humor or warmth and unsympathetic. But she'll be able to play the tuba really well.

[Edna Turnblad]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 12:40pm

If Patti would play the tuba in the revival, I would completely support it. I don't care how completely out of place it would be.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 12:54pm

Hitler won't be happy

[newintown]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 12:58pm

Wearing a tuba while descending the Harmonia Gardens stairs could be brilliant, and then she could pick it up again for the polka contest. And to bring it full circle, she can toot a bit during "So Long, Dearie," then upend the bell on Horace's head as a button.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 1:36pm

Gosh. Does Newintown approve of this casting?!

I would have thought that you would have considered it beneath Patti, since it's just a revival and she's not originating the part.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 1:53pm

I think it's good to have a new thread that's specifically about the possibility of LuPone in the role.

And I don't see how Patti can be "too old, too brash, and too loud" for a part originally written for the 56-year-old Ethel Merman.

[twinbelters]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 2:09pm

I'm with Reg. I was not following the Dolly revival thread, but this potential news-like information is something that makes me more interested.

[newintown]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 2:12pm

Diva, as the Mother Superior said to naughty postulant, "shut the f*ck up, my child."

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 2:47pm

Ever since Streisand was cast in the movie, the myth of the desirability of a "Younger Dolly" has been much overplayed. Yes, Dolly Gallagher was younger than Ephraim Levi when they were married, but she is no longer.

More to the point, the play depends on contrasts (and similarities) between the romantic desires of the younger characters (Irene, Minnie Fay, Barnaby, Cornelius, Ermengarde and Ambrose) and the older ones: Horace and Dolly.

The idea of an older widower wishing to marry a young girl was a staple of stage comedies going back to the commedia dell'arte. Just seeing an older man wishing to wed a young woman created an instant comic tension ("Oh, no! She should marry that nice young man who loves her!") that always led to a happy resolution.

It's the same young lovers/old lovers dynamic that can be seen in A Little Night Music...and hundreds of other romantic-comedy plots. But one group of lovers has to be YOUNGER and one has to be OLDER.

So if Dolly is young or sexy, the point is lost. Why should Horace want Ernestina over a Younger Dolly?

This was true going back to The Matchmaker, which starred the 59-year-old Ruth Gordon on Broadway and the 57-year-old Shirley Booth in the movie, and The Merchant of Yonkers, which starred the 55-year-old Jane Cowl. (Those ages were all reported as younger in a similar thread here a few months ago, but I just checked them.)

One has only to watch the amazing Pearly Bailey do the speech to Ephraim before "Before the Parade Passes By" to understand that the character of Dolly MUST be a middle-aged woman asking for a second-chance at happiness before she becomes an older woman.

And as for Patti being too brash, that's just silly. Horace refers to her as a "damned exasperating woman." They almost called the musical that.

There isn't an actress on Broadway woman more exasperating than Patti LuPone.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 2:47pm

It's a sad day when my opinion of Patty Lupone matches that of Hitler.

At least Mel Gibson doesn't go to musicals....

[ndrwmls10]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 9:58pm

I certainly hope your not comparing Patti LuPone to Hitler. That would be absolutely abhorrent.

[newintown]

Posted: 12/17/10 at 9:53am

I totally agree - utterly unfair to Adolf.

[ndrwmls10]

Posted: 12/17/10 at 10:02am

I truly hope your joking. I can appreciate (oh-preciate) jokes, but Hitler might be a step too far.