Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst — Page 2

#26

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 12:09am

I liked how when Grease was at the Eugene O'Neil they painted the whole facade... I would love to see them paint the theatre blue... Make it seem like the its the show's home both inside and out.

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"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "

#27

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 12:40am

3 signs facing the same way seem over kill to me? just me?

#28

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 5:04am

I take it Rebecca is definitely cancelled for the Broadhurst.

#29

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 11:25am

just wondering, this might not even happen at all, but when I saw the show back at the Winter Garden, I remember the overture and entr'acte being ridiculously loud. Would be interested to know if you can hear it over at Phantom since the stages back onto each other. Phantom has some very quiet moments and it is always distracting as is with sirens going off all the time outside in the street.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/27199361@N08/ Phantom at the Royal Empire Theatre

#30

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 11:33am

JustinD- especially considering the first 5 minutes of 'Phantom' are very quiet - the auction scene - while the overture is probably blasting away at Mamma Mia.

also - does anyone have a pic of the painted marquee at the Broadhurst for Grease?

#31

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 11:37am

I would love to see a pic of the Broadhurst's painted marquee for Grease. I am assuming you are talking about it's original run when it transferred over from the Eden downtown, no?

#32

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 11:52am

Justin - I know that with PHANTOM's opening auction you can hear their pounding overture from next door at the Jacobs during ONCE's quiet first scene after "Leave", but those theatres are on the same lot (as is the Golden.) The Broadhurst is at least in a separate building and hopefully less interfered with.

Also, going back to the marquee pictures, the pull quote on the Broadway-facing sign (which reads "Terrific fun!") definitely looked at a quick glance like it said, "Terrifying!"

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Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.

#33

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 12:25pm

I saw the show Sunday and was happy that its still a blast. Needs some tweeking but in good shape. Time for a new cast change though. I wish they would have started from scratch.

#34

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 12:28pm

Here_I_Go... how was the set compared to the Winter Garden? Did the dock still rise from the floor at the end, did the floor light up, any set automation?

#35

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 1:49pm

Personally, I've never heard of anything at the Broadhurst being overheard at the Majestic or the other way around. However, I have done SRO a couple of times at Once, and was able to hear the overture to Phantom as well as the cadenza at the end of the title song as well while in the Jacobs.

And, just to mention again, the Broadhurst was never painted for Grease. It would be too hard to paint an entire brick building blue for Mamma Mia for that matter. However, the Eugine O'Neil theatre (which has facade made of concrete and is easier to paint over) was for the 90's revival of Grease.

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"If you try to shag my husband while I am still alive, I will shove the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid little Cu**. That's a good dear" Tom Stoppard's Rock N Roll

#36

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 2:36pm

Mamma Mia's overture shouldn't affect Phantom, since the show will start 2 minutes after the posted time vs. Phantom's 5 minutes after. The overture will be finished when Phantom starts.

#37

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 2:45pm

Fosse, I'm fascinated by your last statement. Is there such a definite "start" time -- exactly 2 or 5 minutes after stated time? I've noticed that lately it seems every show I see starts as late as 7 or 8 minutes, even as much as 10 minutes after the stated start time. I assumed it depended on the house manager and the seating variances and varied from night to night. No?

#38

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/4/13 at 4:15pm

In regard to the new false proscenium, I think calling it downsized is not a fair statement. There is a big difference between "downsizing" a show (cutting actors, set pieces, etc - such as Beauty and the beast did) versus making a show fit within a new theater, while retaining all of the elements.

The stage at the Winter Garden is INCREDIBLY wide as well as deep. The dimensional false proscenium that Mamma Mia! used at the Winter Garden was designed to make the proscenium opening a bit narrower to fit the standard Mamma Mia! set while also enclosing the show's speaker stacks. That is not needed at the Broadhurst.

As far as the Playbill, I do appreciate it. The new design is more reflective of the Sophie wedding dress that was redesigned when Christy Altomare joined the cast as Sophie, so it reflects the show a bit better while still staying recognizable to the familiar Mamma Mia! logo that has been in use since 1999.

#39

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/5/13 at 1:01am

The Taverna Walls are sill automated and are the original shape. But they stay onstage the full performance now, instead of tracking offstage.

#40

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/5/13 at 7:22am

Well if anything, the walls staying on stage mean that the show is more faithful to the original design. The taverna walls moving off-stage was always the exception to the rule - the original Broadway set and Las Vegas were rare in using that scenic move. Original London, Toronto, North American tour, etc all had them stay on stage.

I look forward to seeing a new round of photos.
It seems as though the bulk of what MIGHT be different otherwise is the composition of the stage portals and perhaps the dimensions of the taverna.

#41

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/5/13 at 8:46am

I remember when we saw POTO while American Idiot was still playing (across the street) you could hear the audience go insane when Billie Armstrong would come out to meet the fans. It was always during the final scenes when it was just him singing "I gave you my freedom..."

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"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."

#42

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/8/13 at 6:11pm

speaking of original designs, first time I saw MM was in London at it's original home, they also had side steps leading down either into the pit or the house, but dont know why since they arent used in the show but were part of the set. Also the taverna was lugged around manually and I thought that gave some charm in a way to the show.

The MM proscenium is usually there just to conceal speakers and all that, it isnt really an essential part of the design. of all the places Ive seen the show my fav was Toronto. Somehow I loved the show more in an intimate setting

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/27199361@N08/ Phantom at the Royal Empire Theatre

#43

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/8/13 at 6:34pm

When the show moved to the Prince of Wales, they incorporated elements from the Broadway production such as automating the taverna and the lift. The current production at the Novello uses the curent tour set with no automation and lifts.

#44

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/8/13 at 6:59pm

Can anyone clarify if they still have the lift used during the MegaMix?

#45

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/8/13 at 10:45pm

there is no lift at all.... its missed but not that dramatic,

#46

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/8/13 at 10:55pm

Does that also mean the floor deck doesn't raise up in songs like Voules Vous/Name of the Game/I Have A Dream?

#47

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/10/13 at 1:06pm

So, essentially, the Broadway production is now like the tour was? No lift and the taverna stays on stage the whole time? But the scenery is still automated. I don't recall if the tour used automated scenery or not.

#48

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/10/13 at 1:18pm

The first national tour was, in every sense, almost identical to the Broadway / sit-down versions of Mamma Mia except for no elevator for the finale Dynamos reveal and the wings were square to the proscenium. The initial idea was for THIS set to be used on Broadway, but the tour was such a success, they kept it going.

The second national tour was slightly downsized when it opened. The deck was automated, but the taverna walls were slightly smaller, there was no elevated jetty, the floor did not have the lighting elements, the giant moon was now a projection and the finale light trusses were simplified.
Roughly 5 years into the second national tour, It was downsized. The automation was cut at that point (taverna walls were retrofitted with no ladders and handrails for this) and the new show deck was now also foreshortened to allow it to play on shallower stages. When the taverna walls were "open", they were almost against the back wall of the set.

#49

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/10/13 at 1:38pm

Is the current non-equity tour downsized even further or is it the same as the last one?

#50

Mamma Mia! at the Broadhurst

Posted: 11/10/13 at 2:36pm

I believe it is the exact same set. Mamma Mia is *very* strict about their standards (funny, considering that set( and there is nothing really left to be able to cut. If anything changed since the SETA tour, it would probably only be the deck. The SETA tour still had a deck - minimal such as it was. They could possibly have replaced that with a printed Marley dance floor (I think they did, but hard to tell. The last deck was about an inch thick), but the set was designed to do split weeks and one nighters in even the roughest of conditions and with minimal trucks. Each of those walls comes apart and fits onto a single rolling rack (assuming the pack is the same as I have seen elsewhere)