Posted: 6/30/20 at 8:16pm
Posted: 6/30/20 at 8:50pm
Rudin wants a star to sell tickets? Get Meryl!
Posted: 6/30/20 at 9:01pm
Posted: 6/30/20 at 9:04pm
Posted: 6/30/20 at 9:08pm
Gender-bending or "diversifying" wouldn't be a bad risk for Rudin to take at all far into the future, especially with the role of the Stage Manager. Options abound for stars to play this role!
This could be interesting as the months pass, especially if (yes, if) B'way ends up reopening Spring 2021 like the insiders hope. Let the coronavirus and its local/medical experts decide whether this revival even happens or not.
Posted: 6/30/20 at 9:20pm
Dollypop said: "Or James Franco"
I can’t tell if this is a joke or not but Franco also has similar allegations against him. And did his run on Broadway in Of Mice and Men sell well?
Posted: 6/30/20 at 9:24pm
Jarethan said: "I was unable to see the Cromer production. What was the coup de theatre??"
It was simply stunning. I'd always "appreciated" Our Town, but thought it was rather mundane. I cant even tell you why I chose to buy a ticket...probably the hype here. But it is one of my most beloved theatrical experiences - maybe in my top 5. I openly sobbed during the final act. Could not stop.
Posted: 6/30/20 at 9:28pm
Posted: 6/30/20 at 9:29pm
I would love to see this recast with Donald Trump. First socially-distanced rehearsal: 1/21/21
Posted: 6/30/20 at 9:57pm
Posted: 6/30/20 at 10:01pm
Posted: 6/30/20 at 10:02pm
Posted: 6/30/20 at 10:22pm
TotallyEffed said: "I can’t tell if this is a joke or not but Franco also has similar allegations against him. And did his run on Broadway inOf Mice and Men sell well?"
Not that I want to see him in this, but the revival of Of Mice and Men did do relatively well. Their lowest week they still cleared 80% of their gross potential (bringing in just over $750,000) and their capacity never dipped below 92%.
Posted: 6/30/20 at 11:07pm
I saw the Cromer production in Santa Monica. The best part of it was sitting next to Helen Hunt who played the stage manager. There were some great moments. Especially the reveal when Emily goes back was brilliant. I did not love Emily and George getting married in blue jeans. The production just looked flat. And my least favorite part was since they didn’t have an ensemble to play the smaller roles so they gave audience members lines to read and they were god awful.
They definitely should re-examine all the possibilities. A good number of years ago South Coast Repertory came out with a concept of Our Town being everyone’s town. They had an extremely diverse cast and I went in looking for a wonderful production. It was not. They had an African-American woman playing the stage manager which I thought was a great idea. However she forgot her lines and looked at the audience and said “I’m sorry.”. This production was in theory color blind because the families were diverse ethnicities. I would prefer more of a color conscious casting like in the recent Romeo and Juliet with Orlando bloom and Condola Rashad. Don’t cast Emily and George with actors in their 30s. Get some young 20 somethings years. It starts off they’re in high school. And they’re young married’s. So the majority of the play they are quite young. It is a beautiful script but the actors have to bring it.
Updated On: 6/30/20 at 11:07 PM
Posted: 6/30/20 at 11:16pm
in other words, the producers are betting that the cancellation of Hoffman two years ago isnt going to dissuade ticket buyers, even as it riles up twitterers and message boarders.
i think its a pretty safe bet- see, for example, the fact that the MJ Musical is actually going to be a thing. if that project is going fwd, really hard to see someone like Hoffman being problematic at the box office.
Posted: 6/30/20 at 11:17pm
RW3 said: "Scott Rudin wouldn't be able to read the room if his life depended on it."
Truer words...
Posted: 6/30/20 at 11:21pm
Posted: 6/30/20 at 11:26pm
Wealthy white man with troublesome reputation produces the 1000th revival of dead white man's Play, directed by white man, starring problematic white man, set to open during [insert date when nobody knows we'll be able to do anything but continually suffer through a pandemic], tickets to go on sale soon to pad the pockets of said wealthy white man.
Posted: 6/30/20 at 11:32pm
Jordan Catalano said: "Helen Hunt played it in the Cromer version."
Oh, wow, how did I miss that. I saw it with Michael Shannon.
Posted: 6/30/20 at 11:37pm
Posted: 7/1/20 at 2:12am
I love Sher, but there is just no way he can make this interesting. I thought Mockingbird (My all time favorite book having been from the South) was really poorly designed and executed. So I don't think he's going to make this very groundbreaking or eventful or interesting.
I'd love to see O'hara do this. Or Chavkin
Posted: 7/1/20 at 7:21am
I liked "Mockingbird" quite a bit and thought Sher's staging was effective and moving. He also did a brilliant "Joe Turner's Come and Gone", and I would think this would have been an opportunity to cast a major black latino, or asian artist in the role of the stage manager to give it a new vibrancy. That would be more reflective of American today, rather than a step back in time. If you're going to do it older (Newman was 77, Hoffman will be 84), why not think Morgan Freeman or Samuel Jackson, both wonderful stage actors. Or if you go younger why not a John Leguizamo or a Constance Wu. Ultimately, I wouldn't be surprised if this didn't happen with Hoffman...
Posted: 7/1/20 at 7:29am
I love Bartlett Sher, but I found Mockingbird to be one of his weaker jobs. Not a fan of Our Town as a play or of Dustin Hofmann, so I can't say I'm too excited for this.
Posted: 7/1/20 at 7:46am
Dollypop said: "Or James Franco"
Great...another predator.
