Next Eliza in My Fair Lady?- Page 2

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 3/26/19 at 6:19pm

OlBlueEyes said: "The dire statements because three years ago -- could it be three years already? -- we saw The King and I unravel so quickly when the box office was similar. We thought that it closed quickly because it was very expensive to put on and the losses were piling up too quickly.
I don't remember - naturally, I don't remember - what the source was, but at the time it appeared to be a reliable source that said that a broadcast was planned but the show just closed too quickly."


They had been trying to film the show during Kelli & Ken's return, but it didn't work out. Also, when it closed, there was no fall show planned for LCT: the Beaumont sat empty from late June through early March (Oslo). Attempts to get a rental in for the fall didn't work out. No idea what the numbers were, but in hindsight, perhaps it would have been financially better to keep King running a few more months, instead of 8 months of a dark theatre? There could be similar thinking behind Fair Lady if LCT doesn't have a Broadway play in their fall season.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/26/19 at 7:05pm

EllieRose2 said: "I doubt Uzo would sell tickets. Ashley Park would be perfect, but I do think it will close with Laura."

 

No offense to Ashley, But is there any reason she would sell more tickets than Uzo?

 

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 3/26/19 at 7:16pm

I would love to see her in the role and LC audiences are familiar with her. It doesn't matter though since it will probably close with Laura. Just dream casting.

Updated On: 3/26/19 at 07:16 PM

[Convoy2]

Posted: 3/26/19 at 8:03pm

Updated On: 3/26/19 at 08:03 PM

[Convoy2]

Posted: 3/26/19 at 8:20pm

That’s a fair and accurate assessment, Ol’ Blue eyes, but I don’t think that will be the case with MFL. We’re all entitled to opinions, but the majority of them, seem to lean too heavily on “feelings” and not logic.

[natashalost]

Posted: 3/26/19 at 8:40pm

Ashley Park is doing Hercules and will not be available to do My Fair Lady once Laura leaves, although I agree that she would be wonderful.

[\_(•_•)_/]

Posted: 3/26/19 at 8:52pm

Oh please. A lead in a hit revival or a six day “disney” run.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 3/26/19 at 9:53pm

SomethingPeculiar said: "No idea what the numbers were, but in hindsight, perhaps it would have been financially better to keep King running a few more months, instead of 8 months of a dark theatre? There could be similar thinking behindFair Lady if LCT doesn't have a Broadway play in their fall season."

Unless the grosses aren't actually covering the running costs, which is most likely what happened with The King and I. 

[7thbighero]

Posted: 3/26/19 at 11:26pm

I do have to imagine MFL’s expenses aren’t as high as King and I. There aren’t tons of children in MFL

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 3/27/19 at 12:14am

7thbighero said: "I do have to imagine MFL’s expenses aren’t as high as King and I. There aren’t tons of children in MFL"

True, I totally forgot about the kids -- 51 actors in K&I (plus tutors/child guardians), vs 37 in MFL.

[ZacharyC2]

Posted: 3/27/19 at 6:45am

I wish that Jessie Mueller would go into the show, she has a gorgeous soprano.

[magictodo123]

Posted: 3/27/19 at 6:55am

Denee Benton? 

Laura Osnes (kidding) 

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 3/27/19 at 9:53am

I am moved to enter a brief defense of Osnes. It is easy to take her lightly given the strange way that she arrived in New York, via some reality show, her perpetually sunny personality and her unapologetic love of fairy tales. Yet she was picked by Sher to replace Kelli O'Hara twice, maternal leave and final leave, and South Pacific ran for an additional six months or so with her in the lead.

Many, including myself, assumed that she could simply not play a tragic figure such as Julie in Carousel. Yet she played the role in Chicago opposite Steven Pasquale and she and the show were well received. Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune:

Osnes, who mostly has been stuck with one-dimensional ingenues and princesses thus far in her career, affords Julie a pervasive sense of melancholy.... [She] also offers a very striking window into Julie's determination to separate from her peers, manifest vocally through the exiting crescendo she constructs for such famous lyrics as "Round in circles I'd go," where the resilience in the musical swell undermines the lyrical expression of doubt. Julie is a tricky role — notorious in some circles for lines and lyrics that suggest an embrace of spousal violence and victimhood. But Osnes, and indeed this whole production, counter that archaic sensibility with a rich and foregrounded reliance on sisterly community in the face of male ineptitude.

The HuffPost:

As Bigelow’s reluctant love interest, Tony nominee Laura Osnes infuses Julie Jordan with a sweet and deep melancholy and sings like a dream. Much like Pasquale, Osnes delivers a measured, nuanced performance, which grounds this production in gritty, human emotion.

Isherwood, unfortunately for Osnes not writing in the Times, in his review of Bandstand offers up his repentance:

Osnes, too, deserves some major love for revitalizing what might be a plain-Jane ingénue role. She has become a reliably excellent musical theater actor, her gifts sometimes underrated or taken for granted. (Guilty as charged.) With fresh faces bursting onto Broadway every year, it’s easy to forget how rare her combination of talents is. She sings with beautiful purity and tone, acts with a fine simplicity, and here gets a chance to prove that her dancing chops are in fine working order, too. Osnes never pushes her character’s feelings on the audience; she reveals them slowly, as people do in life, allowing us to discover them for ourselves.

And that incorrigible John Simon, one of the last I would have expected to embrace sentimental shows with patriotism an integral part of the plot, or to embrace sweet corn-fed Christian ingenues from west of the Passaic River.

My last complaint is about the short shrift accorded to the musical Bandstand, which may not be outstanding, but is still superior to the competition. It won in only one category, for Andy Blankenbuehler's choreography.... Everyone, including Julia's mother, is eventually winning, with the added pleasure of Julia being played by Laura Osnes, one of out prettiest and most gifted performers.

That's all. Not ready to name a theater after her, but she deserves respect.

Updated On: 11/3/19 at 09:53 AM

[7thbighero]

Posted: 3/28/19 at 1:23pm

Any word on who’s taking over for Alfred? Danny is leaving the show much sooner than Laura and nothing yet 

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 3/28/19 at 1:29pm

It was announced yesterday that Alexander Gemignani is replacing Burstein as Alfred P. Doolittle.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 3/28/19 at 7:14pm

bekk99 said: "A friend at LCT hinted about a month ago that a name was coming into the show after Laura, take that for what you will."

Could it be Jessie Mueller?

[starcatchers]

Posted: 3/28/19 at 7:18pm

natashalost said: "Ashley Park is doing Hercules and will not be available to do My Fair Lady once Laura leaves, although I agree that she would be wonderful. "

Wait. How did I miss this? 

Jessie Mueller would be wonderful. I know they’ll need a name, but I would have loved to see Kerstin Anderson get to take it full time at some point. 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 3/28/19 at 7:25pm

I saw Kerstin last night and she was just splendid. I hope she goes out on tour with the show.

Really random side note: Michael Halling looked so much like Harry hadden Patton I nearly forgot I wasn’t seeing him. Has anyone else notice this?

[Convoy2]

Posted: 3/28/19 at 7:54pm

The resemblance on stage, isn’t the same as it if offstage.

[celeste3]

Posted: 4/2/19 at 10:46pm

Call_me_jorge said: "I saw Kerstin last night and she was just splendid. I hope she goes out on tour with the show.

Really random side note: Michael Halling looked so much like Harry hadden Patton I nearly forgot I wasn’t seeing him. Has anyone else notice this?"

YES! I’ve seen the show with both of them in it, and I was shocked to see Michael Halling onstage because of the resemblance. They sound very different, though, and i love HHP’s version of Higgins so much his still feels like the ‘original’ version (well, of the revival) to me