O'Hara & Pasquale lead 'The Bridges of Madison County' on Broadway

I guess a possible FAR FROM HEAVEN transfer is DOA. Too bad. But this is very promising casting news!

Oooh, child...

I'm excited for this! But am also kind of bummed that it probably does mean that a transfer from Far From Heaven won't happen since I won't have a chance to see it.

Maybe y'all should let her handle her business, given that you have no idea what kind of mother she is. I'm excited to see her return to Broadway, and further excited that there are so many wonderful musicals coming to Broadway this season.

I'm confused. Isn't the main character supposed to be more like Anna Magnani? A middle-aged Italian woman?





Kelli O'Hara?




I guess makeup, a wig, an accent, and a dozen years added to her would probably work. But she's not at all like the character in real life.

Unless they've completely changed the story.

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Updated On: 6/26/13 at 02:19 PM

Meryl Streep put on 30 pounds for the role, so she would look more like a frumpy Italian housewife in America.

Actually her whole behavior, body language, accent, everything was like Magnani's in the Rose Tattoo.

Is Kelli going to go the distance? If not, she's totally wrong for this part.

EDIT: You know who would have been great 15 years ago is LuPone.

Kelli is just too Doris Day for me. (Great for some roles, not so much for others, especially middle-aged, ethnic housewives.)

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Updated On: 6/26/13 at 02:29 PM

best12bars, Bartlett Sher has shown a consistent disregard for ethnically appropriate casting in favor of fair skinned white actors his entire career (see WOMEN ON THE VERGE, the doomed FUNNY GIRL revival, and even aspects of THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA). It's no surprise to me that this production isn't any different.

It's truly a shame.

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Updated On: 6/26/13 at 02:47 PM

Hey, Meryl Streep isn't Italian either. But she's willing to transform herself for a role, and that doesn't just mean put on a brown wig. She can play completely against her "type," which is why Meryl Streep pretty much has no type.

Is Kelli willing to go that far? Gain weight, change her walk, her posture, her voice (speaking and singing)? It'll be just as much of a stretch for her to play the part.

I suppose I look at it this way. If she can convince me (and audiences) that she's a middle-aged, frumpy (yes, that's in the story), Italian housewife, she'll probably get a Tony Award. If not, she's going to have a lot of people (like me) wondering what she's doing in the show.

Don't forget this was a huge best-selling novel before it became a Clint Eastwood/Meryl Streep movie. People know these characters. They will have expectations about them.

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This is how the team on THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA tried to make O'Hara look Italian when she played Franca in that show out of town. I imagine we'll see something similar here.

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At least she won't have to rush to work off the baby weight?

Americanboy, I don't think the performance will be shameful because as you said, the performance hasn't occurred, but the casting choice is disappointing in terms of other people who were passed over in favor of the very pretty, very conventional looking Kelli O'Hara. That doesn't mean she isn't insanely talented or worthy of consideration, or that there is anything wrong with looking conventional; however, she's already cast in just about every musical and she seems to be playing pretty much every role in the canon (Eliza Dolittle, Julie Jordan, Nellie Forbush, etc), so why not give someone who doesn't get cast in all those roles--because of looks, their accent, skin color, their age, etc--the chance to star in a show like this? And I honestly don't buy the idea that she was the only person who could have played the role. I'm sorry, but I do think that it's a shame when roles written for character actors or actors who are already a minority within the community, ie a woman of a certain age, a woman of darker skin, harsher features, or whatnot, gets passed over for someone like O'Hara.
This is a particular issue in light of what Somethingwicked has pointed out re Bartlett Sher. Why the WOMEN ON THE VERGE... turned out to have such a white cast will always baffle me. Sherie Rene Scott lacked any of the understanding of the sensibility that made Almodovar's film so hilarious and masterful, whereas Salma Hayek or Penelope Cruz would have captured that in an instant. Oh well, sorry for the rant, it's just something that I find particularly frustrating.

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Updated On: 6/26/13 at 06:05 PM

I find myself almost wanting to disagree with myself even so, as I still have trouble faulting casting one has never seen based exclusively on looks and nationality. I don't care who didn't get the role. This is still a show we've never seen and a role we've never seen played in the hands of a director and an actress who have proven themselves together in terrific ways in the past.

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