Michael Riedel and West Side Story Turmoil- Page 8

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 8/20/09 at 7:02pm

Here, Here, Auggie, that sounds like a wonderful program.

[byebyebaby12]

Posted: 8/20/09 at 7:26pm

If I remember correctly, Sara was out a lot in the time leading up to the Tony's because she sick. I remember her thanking Claritin in her Tony acceptance speech.

[dshnookie]

Posted: 8/20/09 at 8:05pm

adamgreer, I think it's because mostly everyone with the exception of Marcy and Rick (not including ensemble) have been in the show since day 1 and some even during its off-Broadway run.

It's as if everyone is clinging onto their job at the Richard Rodgers yet perhaps not showing up? odd.

In The Heights needs some new blood fast, and I hope none of them decide to hop on the tour.

Updated On: 8/20/09 at 08:05 PM

[flahooley2]

Posted: 8/20/09 at 9:20pm

Just for some clarification, Nathan Lane didn't just decide to "not show up". He was dealing with some serious vocal problems, including nodules on the cords, during the second half of the run in NY. Lane is a total pro, and does not miss performances out of whim. His record on Broadway speaks for itself.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 8/20/09 at 10:40pm

The attendance of the In the Heights cast seems horrendous as well. Every time I walk by the Rogers there is always a long list of names on that board.

They also list the ensemble swings on the board, so it can look just as atrocious with none of the leads out.

[sundaymorning6am]

Posted: 8/20/09 at 11:55pm

I think blaming this on the casts age is a load of sh*t. And Bettyboy, eff you and your generalization of the "millenials." I'm 23, have been at my current job for over 5 months, and have only taken one day off (and that was because I had to have surgery). I hate taking days off, and when I was in college, I never called in sick to work or any of my internships. So, again, f*ck you and you bullsh*t generalizations.

Here's something that a "millenial" wrote recently about their frustration with people and their opinions about millenials:

"Apparently people in their 20s are a bunch of entitled whiners. I also hear we?re afraid of hard work. And I?m rather sick of hearing it. Of course we have a sense of entitlement?we had an understanding with the older generation. We followed through with our half of the deal.

The word ?entitlement? has picked up a negative connotation it shouldn?t have. If you go to the bank and deposit $20, you are entitled to get your $20 from the bank. If you fulfill your half of a contract, you are entitled to the other party?s performance. Sure, its a problem when you feel you deserve something you don?t deserve?but there is nothing wrong with acknowledging a legitimate debt. So let?s ask why some people in their 20s might feel the older generation hasn?t kept its end of the bargain. Let?s talk a bit about generational justice.

Our parents told us a number of things. Stay in school. Study hard. Stay off drugs. Keep your grades up. Get into the best college there is. Be the best at everything you do. Learn. Research. Excel. For me, the all-nighters doing homework started in seventh grade. School followed by extra-curriculars would start a bit before 8:00 in the morning and, for some parts of the year, could run until 9:00 or 10:00 at night. Then I started studying. Through college, commitments might go until well after midnight. Do all of this now, we were told, and when you finally graduate there will be a job for you. It may not be easy. Nobody is handing anything to you on a silver platter and you might get some dirt under our fingernails. But we had an understanding. There is, we are told, a rational system, and if we are smart enough and work hard enough, things will turn out okay. Will you achieve all of your dreams? Realistically, maybe not?but you should at least be comfortable. So what happens after graduation?

Congratulations, graduate! Go out and take on the world. What? No job? Surely you applied? You interviewed? Maybe you?re being unrealistic. Have you considered temp agencies? Retail? They?re flooded as well? Have you called? Dropped in in person? Pounded the proverbial pavement? Have you tried working your network? Is that really a stack of a hundred rejection letters? You must be doing something wrong.

For those who just graduated, there wasn?t a job. That?s not technically true. There was a job?but somebody older has it and isn?t letting go. It turns out the whole system is rigged. Education and intelligence and everything we were told was important turn out to be worth nothing next to seniority and experience.

Maybe the system wasn?t rigged twenty or thirty years ago?but it certainly is now. Maybe there was a time, relatively recently when young job seekers could weigh different offers or meaningfully negotiate salaries. When things got tough, that was the first thing to go. As the economy contracts there is a larger and larger focus on protecting people who already have jobs?or those who have recently lost them. Extending unemployment benefits won?t help recent graduates. In today?s economy, seniority is more important than merit. And through all of this, the wealth gap keeps expanding.

Sure, the economy is tough. Nobody meant for this to happen. People screwed up. Accidents happen. Normally, if you bungle something up and can?t fulfull your end of a bargain, you would and try to make it right. You broke it? Fix it. Or at least look embarassed. That hasn?t happened. I turns out, we?re just whiners. We did everything that was asked of us ? and when the older generations don?t deliver their half of the bargain, it?s somehow our fault.

Take health insurance. Decades of pressure to lower wages for new hires and cut benefits means that the employer-provided system means that even if you can find a job, it probably won?t offer health insurance. Paying for insurance out of pocket is prohibitively expensive if you?re healthy and coverage is entirely unavailable if you?re not. And if you have a minimum wage job serving coffee, you?re still getting a chunk taken out of your paycheck to finance a program that won?t be solvent by the time you?re old enough to use it. But any effort to change this system is met with seniors screaming about communists taking away their medicare. And if 20-somethings back a legislative initiative that would help them obtain coverage, they?re slackers living in their parents basements. And let?s not even get into the individual mandate in the healthreform bill that will require the healthy and young to subsidize the healthcare of their older and generally wealthier parents.

Should twenty-somethings who have done everything asked of them their entire lives feel like somebody pulled one over on them? Probably?but bad things happen. And hopefully all those years of education taught us enough empathy not to be vindictive. Call us gullible?but don?t call us lazy or selfish. If some of us push for a few reforms that could help succeed even when our parents have dropped the ball?back them, and be thankful that we?re not talking outright revolution.

But most of all, don?t blame the twenty-somethings for their dissatisfaction. When some asshole like Reuben Navarette writes, ?We already knew they had a sense of entitlement from the narcissism they exhibit,? I can only think of one response:

F*CK you."

Source: http://squashed.tumblr.com/post/164976505/on-those-entitled-twenty-somethings

[DRSisLove]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 12:01am

"They also list the ensemble swings on the board, so it can look just as atrocious with none of the leads out. "
Which is the same deal with WSS... except every one of their ensemble tracks has a name. To an unknowing audience member, seeing five random Latin-sounding names on the board could look like every lead is out, when it really is just five ensemble members who don't have any lines.

[singtopher]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 12:03am

^True, but that has little to do with missing work for inappropriate reasons here. And I say that as a 24 year old.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 12:10am

sundaymorning6am, telling someone with an opinion different than yours to "eff off" in a public forum and using an expletive in a post that violates the boards rules and may get the entire thread deleted really shows your maturity. Ignoring board rules does not demonstrate entitlement at all. You're really stepping out of the stereotype. Kudos.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 12:12am

Sundaymorning6am, while all of that is very true (though the badmouthing of others doesn't help your case) and does apply somewhat to the topic at hand (I'm behind you 100% being almost 20 myself), we're all talking about the fact that, FOR SOME BIZARRE REASON, the cast of one of the biggest selling shows currently on Broadway seems to think it's a-ok to just skip out on work whenever they feel like it. It seems to be a frequent thing with young actors nowadays. Certainly not all of them, but it appears to be a growing trend. On Broadway.

As for the rest of the real world, I cannot say. I don't think such a topic should have been brought into the conversation. It's a battle that (seemingly) neither side will win if we go there. The matter at hand is that this cast is, on the whole, very irresponsible. Or very prone to illness and injury. And since there seems to be no other explanation for whatever is going down at the Palace, there needs to be some major changes. Maybe the supposed "talk" Arthur had with the cast worked and we'll see a major change in their morale. I pray it did. Because the last thing I want is to enter into a business where people of my generation are getting a bad rep.
Updated On: 8/21/09 at 12:12 AM

[sundaymorning6am]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 12:12am

Please, Betty, identify where in the 'rules' it says I can't say "eff off." That's pretty PG, if you ask me. It would probably be better if this thread got deleted altogether, so I'm doing everyone here a favor from having read more of your ridiculous verbal vomit.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 12:18am

Check the last two words of your post prior to the link. Thats a little more than "eff off." You're lucky you got a day off after only working 5 months. Most employers hold leave time for 6 months to a year. Sorry for the verbal vomit. I'll get some sawdust for the threads I posted in. :)

And actually I apologize if I offended you. I work on a college campus and "millenials" are heavily discussed by administration and at college conferences. Obviously literature and discussions do not apply to everyone. I thought that was a given. But we were discussing work ethic of younger performers, so I felt it was relevant. Again, no offense.

But you should delete the "FU" from the end of your post.

Updated On: 8/21/09 at 12:18 AM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 1:06am

"Entitlement" refers specifically to a feature often found in Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Within this context it means something quite different from being entitled to get your money back from a bank.

And that essay describes exactly what people refer to when they speak of it. No, there was no "deal" with the older generation. They didn't promise you a job when you graduated, they promised you a better chance of getting one. Which you do have. And the older people who work at a job have seniority, but the minute they lose that job they're back at square one because nowadays many of those positions only hire people with a bachelors degree. Which, you know, you have.

Or so says this 22-year-old, anyway.

Updated On: 8/21/09 at 01:06 AM

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 1:22am

slightly off topic... but I think that they shouldn't have slips of paper for understudies anymore... i think that Broadway should try to go green... printing inserts of paper is pretty costly and just adds trash... hey it could save money... and like someone said.. i've been to numerous shows where the slips are all over the damn floor! i honestly think they should just post something up front and do announcement... i think someone posted that equity states that they must do two things to show there's an understudy... and there's your two...

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 1:24am

Yeah, but I think they try to avoid the announcement thing so there isn't a collective groan among the audience. I have been to many shows and not once have I heard an announcement. They always have had the slips of paper and the understudy board.

[BroadwayBound115]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 1:32am

No Leading Lady Tonight from Forbidden Broadway: SVU! covers this quite nicely.

[byebyebaby12]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 1:33am

I think the annoucment is only used under extreme last minute circumstances.
Updated On: 8/21/09 at 01:33 AM

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 1:43am

The only time I have ever heard an announcement was one time when I saw SPRING AWAKENING and Alice Lee took over for Caitlin Kinnunen as Thea for the second act.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 2:19am

i remember when the RENT tour came to san diego years ago... the guy playing Collins was ill.. so in the second act they replaced him but they didn't make an announcement... it was weird seeing a Collins with hair to a bald Collins in act 2... haha