Madame Hortense in Zorba opposite Antonio Banderas

[goldenboy]

Posted: 5/5/10 at 1:11am

Now that Antonio Banderas has been slated to do the musical Zorba next season....
I was wondering who you thought could make a good Madame Hortense?
Maria Karnilova was amazing in the original.


Is Angela Lansbury too old?
How bout Chita Rivera?
How bout Debbie Reynolds?
Any other thoughts?

[jewishboy]

Posted: 5/5/10 at 2:24am

Louise Pitre or Donna Murphy.

[mshetina]

Posted: 5/5/10 at 3:48am

For some reason, I've always wanted to see Debra Monk in this role. Don't laugh. Okay, just don't flame.

But Rivera, et. al. are all far too old for the role. Donna Murphy as Hortense would be interesting.

[peerrjb]

Posted: 5/6/10 at 9:50am

Considering -- to me -- how wrongwrongwrong for the part of "Zorba" Mr. Banderas is (must confess I'm picturing "Zorpuss in Boots")... BUT...
....cast Madonna as "Hortense". She wouldn't have to act, seeing as how she and the character have had many of the same experiences. And as in the ill-fated "Evita", she would again get to die -- before the critics would have a chance to kill her.

Have Debra Monk or Donna Murphy play the "Leader" as a wise-and-funny overseer of the two leads, if only so there'd be someone onstage who has an old-school theatre belt, and can command the stage. How about Idina Menzel to play the "Widow" and Taye Diggs as an interesting take on "Nikos". This would be reasonable casting and bring a nice "How I Met Your (Almost) Mother" element to the show.

[Jon]

Posted: 5/6/10 at 11:32am

Christine Ebersole or Victoria Clark.

[JPB Fan]

Posted: 5/7/10 at 3:01pm

Since Antonio Banderas is much younger than Anthony Quinn when he played the role on Broadway in 1983, all of the roles seem to beg for a younger cast. I would love to see Deeana Dunagan, who won a Tony in 2008 for August: Osage County, in this role. She was fantastic.

[Jon]

Posted: 5/7/10 at 3:52pm

Deanna's singing voice is NOT pleasant.

[Eleah]

Posted: 5/7/10 at 6:04pm

I know that Chita Rivera is in this.

[choitoy]

Posted: 5/7/10 at 6:06pm

re: peerjb

As soon as you mentioned Madonna, I immediately remembered that she played a character named Hortense before. She was Hortense Hathaway in "Bloodhounds of Broadway", a movie musical based off the short stories of Damon Runyon. Now I have to dig up my DVD of it wand watch it again. (and why did I just have a thought of Madonna playing Adelaide? Well, if she had better acting chops when she was younger, she might have pulled that off...)