My Life In theTheatre: Donna McKechnie (Playbill.com)

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 8/1/24 at 8:51pm

https://playbill.com/article/my-life-in-the-theatre-donna-mckechnie  This was a marvelous journey of her life in the theatre.  

[joevitus]

Posted: 8/2/24 at 9:15am

Seeing McKechnie when she returned to A Chorus Line in the mid-80's is one of the highlights of my theater-going experience. That reference in the piece to "something horrific" she said to Sondheim and Prince to retain her role in Company certainly is tantalizing...wonder if we'll ever know.

[TennisFan4lyfe]

Posted: 8/2/24 at 10:08am

This was an enjoyable way to begin my day.  I loved the format with her leafing through a notebook filled with programs from her musicals.  So much fun hearing her reminisce.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/2/24 at 11:13am

Thank you for sharing this info. I saw the one Bebe Neuwirth did and it was beyond fantastic as is this one. Having attended one of Donna's Master Class talks about 20 years ago, her stories are fantastic. You can tell she could have rambled on but chose to keep things tight and moving here. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 8/2/24 at 11:44am

TennisFan4lyfe said: "This was an enjoyable way to begin my day. I loved the format with her leafing through a notebook filled with programs from her musicals. So much fun hearing her reminisce."

She's a treasure.

Check out the other videos in this series! They're all wonderful, especially when someone has as many stories as Donna does. Bebe Neuwirth's is particularly great. And always interesting when people don't discuss certain projects, as with Nathan Lane :)

[ACL2006]

Posted: 8/2/24 at 12:09pm

Donna has told the story about "Turkey Lurkey Time" being created overnight by Bennett and Bob Avian. But I never knew she was almost cut from Promises, Promises. Same for Company. Sondheim wasn't a fan of big dance numbers, so I'm not surprised to hear he wanted Tick Tock cut. But then to also hear he almost cut Donna from Company, too, is stunning.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/2/24 at 12:48pm

In COMPANY, Donna played the role of Kathy, so she was never on the chopping block. What was being considered to be cut was her “Tick Tock” dance number, not her role. She fought to save the dance number by having it restructured and the music re-orchestrated (it initially had a rock flavoring). 

[joevitus]

Posted: 8/2/24 at 1:16pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "In COMPANY, Donna played the role of Kathy, so she was never on the chopping block. What was being considered to be cut was her “Tick Tock” dance number, not her role. She fought to save the dance number by having it restructured and the music re-orchestrated (it initially had a rock flavoring)."

It still does, as much as any of Company does. And chopping block or no, there would have been no point to her remaining in the show without a dance number. She was a dancer. Wonder if her pay would have to be renegotiated down to a lower scale as well, making it pointless for her to remain.

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 8/3/24 at 1:16am

I've loved this series. I hope Playbill keeps it up.

[JBradshaw]

Posted: 8/3/24 at 3:36am

I’ll echo this, the Bebe one is very enjoyable. The Priscilla Lopez one is also great  


ErmengardeStopSniveling said: ". Bebe Neuwirth's is particularly great. And always interesting when people don'tdiscuss certain projects, as with Nathan Lane :)"

 

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 8/3/24 at 6:50am

It kind of breaks my heart for so many reasons that her arthritis prevented her from performing for almost 10 years. 

[ACL2006]

Posted: 8/3/24 at 4:02pm

I'm still disappointed she never got to go on for Chita in the Visit.