#1
Posted: 9/26/03 at 4:54am
- from today's Daily Mail (UK) by Baz Bamigboye
Michael Crawford has suffered a crushing blow - he has been turned down for the lead role in the West End version of Broadway's hit musical The Producers because, it is claimed, he's 'not funny enough' for the part.
Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman met with Crawford in New York but apparently deemed him 'unfunny'. Maybe it's a cultural difference thing. The backers of the London production urged Brooks and Stroman to see Crawford after first choice Robert Lindsay decided not to do the show.
The London executives consider Crawford a box office draw, but in New York it's a different story. Once a luminous presence on Broadway thanks to Phantom of the Opera, Crawford couldn't get arrested with his last show there, Dance of the Vampires, which - unlike The Producers' spoof play Springtime for Hitler - bombed big time.
Crawford's friends are putting it about that he turned down The Producers because he didn't want to work with comedian Lee Evans, who has already agreed to play the other main part.
Crawford, it is being said, felt that Evans' comic style was too similar to his own.
However, the word from across the Atlantic is that they said 'no thanks' to Crawford.
The show will still go on. Rehearsals start in July and the production will open next autumn at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, following the transfer of the National Theatre's exuberant Anything Goes.
My guess is that The Producers original stage star, Nathan Lane, will re-create the part of Max Bialystock in London if they can't find a British 'name' to play the role.
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The guy who wrote the article, Baz Bamigboye, is giving The Producers SO much press at the moment, literally every week or every other week his top story is about who will play who in The Producers. It's getting kinda boring.. He must really love the show and therefore wants it to be a hit in London. With all the dross London is pouring out at the moment, we really need a hit like this so I do respect him for that.
Jake.
Michael Crawford has suffered a crushing blow - he has been turned down for the lead role in the West End version of Broadway's hit musical The Producers because, it is claimed, he's 'not funny enough' for the part.
Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman met with Crawford in New York but apparently deemed him 'unfunny'. Maybe it's a cultural difference thing. The backers of the London production urged Brooks and Stroman to see Crawford after first choice Robert Lindsay decided not to do the show.
The London executives consider Crawford a box office draw, but in New York it's a different story. Once a luminous presence on Broadway thanks to Phantom of the Opera, Crawford couldn't get arrested with his last show there, Dance of the Vampires, which - unlike The Producers' spoof play Springtime for Hitler - bombed big time.
Crawford's friends are putting it about that he turned down The Producers because he didn't want to work with comedian Lee Evans, who has already agreed to play the other main part.
Crawford, it is being said, felt that Evans' comic style was too similar to his own.
However, the word from across the Atlantic is that they said 'no thanks' to Crawford.
The show will still go on. Rehearsals start in July and the production will open next autumn at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, following the transfer of the National Theatre's exuberant Anything Goes.
My guess is that The Producers original stage star, Nathan Lane, will re-create the part of Max Bialystock in London if they can't find a British 'name' to play the role.
-----
The guy who wrote the article, Baz Bamigboye, is giving The Producers SO much press at the moment, literally every week or every other week his top story is about who will play who in The Producers. It's getting kinda boring.. He must really love the show and therefore wants it to be a hit in London. With all the dross London is pouring out at the moment, we really need a hit like this so I do respect him for that.
Jake.
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