Posted: 5/23/18 at 1:17pm
enjoyable2 said: " couldn't sing the MFL songs"
We must have seen very different shows.
Posted: 5/23/18 at 1:22pm
Dancingthrulife2 said: "enjoyable2 said: "couldn't sing the MFL songs"
We must have seen very different shows."
The poster was refwerring to Ethel Merman. Chill out.
Posted: 5/23/18 at 1:38pm
Posted: 5/23/18 at 1:39pm
Seriously, are you deaf? There's nothing in Merman's voice that would have made her suitable for this singing role in any way whatsoever.
Posted: 5/23/18 at 1:48pm
Lauren is back for the matinee. Could not confirm tonight, but likely if she comes through matinee all right
Lord, I was scooped by 10 minutes.
Well, Ted Sperling is conducting the orchestra. How about that. And I think I just saw Ethel Merman heading for the ladies room.
Updated On: 5/23/18 at 01:48 PM
Posted: 5/23/18 at 2:02pm
I hope she's feeling better and her voice is in good shape.
I've been meaning to ask, has anyone else read the MFL novelization by Monica Dickens (descendant of Charles Dickens)? I picked it up off my bookshelf the other day and was reading through it again. It's one of those surprisingly good novelizations (because so many of them are unfortunately NOT very good!). There are little things in it here and there that bug me, like Eliza sometimes being called Elizabeth as she never was in the show, but on the whole, Dickens did a terrific job with the story. She fleshes out Eliza's backstory and gives her a rich inner life. It's great fun if you can find a copy, but as it's no longer in print, you'll have to look for Amazon vendors or used book sites.
Posted: 5/23/18 at 2:38pm
Posted: 5/23/18 at 6:04pm
Funny. Usually I catch sarcasm, today not feeling well, so perhaps that's why I missed it. Cheers.
Posted: 5/23/18 at 7:46pm
At the show and confirming that Lauren Ambrose is in tonight!
Updated On: 5/23/18 at 07:46 PM
Posted: 5/23/18 at 8:01pm
I thought both Ethel Merman posts were funny.
Posted: 5/23/18 at 9:01pm
A great Broadway.com Show People interview of Lauren Ambrose by Paul Wontorek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jPY0iE17Ks
Posted: 5/23/18 at 9:09pm
EthelMae said: "I was just making a joke about Merman, who never missed a performance. I wasn't suggesting Merman could play Eliza. Just. A. Joke."
It's a delicious image of mature Merman playing Eliza. In the film Anything Goes, though, she's thin and conventionally pretty.
Can't say a bad word against her after her hysterical cameo in the film Airplane!
Posted: 5/23/18 at 11:38pm
I really love that cool vibe Lauren Ambrose has in her interviews.
Posted: 5/23/18 at 11:54pm
Just got the new CD and am loving it! Ambrose sings like a dream and the rest of the cast is splendid. The cd is very theatrical! Lots of dialog. I have already played it through twice. And the booklet is gorgeous!!!! Really captures what I saw in the theater!!!! I got the understudy for Eliza but she was just amazing, and the show is truly a masterpiece from beginning to end. As I said to my friends I was with "a perfect performance of a perfect show."
Posted: 5/24/18 at 12:04am
BroadwayConcierge said: "A great Broadway.com Show People interview of Lauren Ambrose by Paul Wontorek:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jPY0iE17Ks"
After watching this all the way through, I can sort of get why Sher went with her for Funny Girl even if I'm still not convinced because Ambrose is sort of quirky and eccentric in a way. I really loved that interview as I felt she seemed much more comfortable than usual even though she still has that shyness. She really is cool, and I'm glad she was given this opportunity to really surprise people. I know I was.
FranklinDickson2018 said: "Just got the new CD and am loving it! Ambrose sings like a dream and the rest of the cast is splendid. The cd is very theatrical! Lots of dialog. I have already played it through twice. And the booklet is gorgeous!!!! Really captures what I saw in the theater!!!! I got the understudy for Eliza but she was just amazing, and the show is truly a masterpiece from beginning to end. As I said to my friends I was with "a perfect performance of a perfect show.""
Whoa! How did you get the CD this early? I'm so jealous.
Posted: 5/24/18 at 12:22am
JudyDenmark said: "At the show and confirming that Lauren Ambrose is in tonight!"
Glad to hear that Lauren is back! How was the show?
Posted: 5/24/18 at 1:20am
Broadway Fan26 said: "JudyDenmark said: "At the show and confirming that Lauren Ambrose is in tonight!"
Glad to hear that Lauren is back! How was the show?"
Wonderful! And you’d never know she had been sick by the way she was singing. There was one moment in the second act where she coughed the way we mortals cough when we’re trying to get over being sick, but besides that (which honestly made me smile with empathy), you’d never know she was under the weather. What a trooper. But the whole cast was fabulous! Count me in the camp of people who thought Freddy’s voice was gorgeous. And A+ on the set and costumes - I think I audibly happy-gasped when she put on that gorgeous red coat with her embassy gown.
Posted: 5/24/18 at 3:02am
Posted: 5/24/18 at 5:06am
Whatever caused Lauren Ambrose to miss four or five consecutive shows, it wasn't in evidence during her return performance at the Wednesday matinee. This was my second visit, with the first coming midway through the previews, front row center. This time is was center left, row K. I came to this production originally knowing not a thing about Lauren Ambrose, but I like her performance. I can't think of many areas in which her performance could have been improved. Certainly I'll always miss Julie Andrews' intense but grand fun "Show Me," but there are not many Julie Andrews around.
It is easy to overlook Harry Hadden-Paton, because he slides so easily into the role of Higgins. I don't think of comparing him to Rex. Harry is Higgins to me.
The Wednesday matinee audience was a little slow warming up to the show. Even the first climax of "Rain in Spain" and "Danced all Night" didn't bring the house down. Are Wednesday matinees known for older and more sluggish audiences?
It was actually Ascot that I think turned the matinee audience. That scene should win a lifetime achievement Tony for all who participated in staging it. The set, the costumes, The slow, refined movement of the company and the droll description of the races. And the introduction of Eliza with her very limited Ascot-suitable vocabulary. Dame Diana may be luxury casting, but her presence has its effect when made.
There was one element in the production today that puzzled me. I'm not sure if it was in the preview I saw, or even if I imagined what I heard. At the end of the first Act, when they were all leaving to go to the ball, Higgins was the last one to leave the house. One of the comments that he made revealed for the first time his affection for Eliza. I wish I could remember the details. It was, for example, calling out to them that he would be right out, because he was anxious to see Eliza again, but the end of the statement just tailed off so that he was just addressing himself, "I want to - then to himself with feeling - see Eliza again." But it wasn't that exactly.
It was so surprising to see that scene because Higgins did not pick up on it at all in the second act through "You Did It" to the confrontation with Eliza at his mother's house. Higgins, I do believe, did not again admit to having strong feelings for Eliza until "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face."
It's hard for me to take Higgins as a bad man. When he is singing his "A Hymn to Him" I suddenly thought that I was listening to John Cleese in the BBC comedy Fawlty Towers, endlessly blustering away at his persecution at the hands of his wife and all others, but no one is listening.
So will Eliza's determined departure from Wimpole Street be the end of Eliza and Higgins? Not likely. Neither of them has anywhere else to go. Eliza is too far above Freddy for marriage. And the new Eliza's sole friends, and very good friends, are Pickering and Mrs. Higgins.
But why obsess over this. I guess it must be fun. But, let's let Dame Diana have the last word (and she has played Eliza in Pygmalion):
That final scene proves that Henry and Eliza have a high regard for each other even though a full relationship is not possible. What happens next is not for me to say. Each member of the audience will have his or her own interpretation of where that relationship is going. That’s the wonderful part about it.
Posted: 5/24/18 at 11:23pm
Posted: 5/25/18 at 12:01am
CATSNYrevival said: "I’m curious to know the track list for the CD. Broadway Records is the only label that seems to keep their track lists a secret until release day."
Overture
Why Can't the English?
Wouldn't It Be Loverly?
With a Little Bit of Luck
I'm an Ordinary Man
Just You Wait
The Rain in Spain
I Could Have Danced All Night
Ascot Gavotte
On the Street Where You Live
The Embassy Waltz
You Did It
Show Me
The Flower Market
Get Me to the Church on Time
A Hymn to Him
Without You
I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face
Finale
(And it sounds amazing, thank goodness 
)
Posted: 5/25/18 at 3:58am
Posted: 5/25/18 at 7:18am
CATSNYrevival said: "I was hoping they’d include the entr’acte. Do they use the entr’acte in this production?"
For reasons that are apparent when you see the show, no they don’t. The act opens with the Embassy Waltz, unless they’be added it on to the beginning of that music.
Posted: 5/25/18 at 8:43am
schubox said: "Ambrose was in again tonight. I noticed her coughing a few tunes but I don’t know if that was an illness or a character choice. She was terrific throughout though "
I was there last night she and she was wonderful. She did cough once into the microphone. Other than that she held it until the microphone was off. Other than that her voice was terrific.
Posted: 5/25/18 at 1:29pm
ColorTheHours048 said: "CATSNYrevival said: "I was hoping they’d include the entr’acte. Do they use the entr’acte in this production?"
For reasons that are apparent when you see the show, no they don’t. The act opens with the Embassy Waltz, unless they’be added it on to the beginning of that music."
Oh! Thanks. I didn’t know they’d moved the intermission to the spot that it is in the movie.
