I would see this in a heartbeat. I think this is a great way to showcase these two amazing women.
Audra + Oprah in 'Night Mother
Marvelous.
YES YES YES!! Also exciting to hear that the West End production of THE COLOR PURPLE is still eyeing a Broadway bow!
Stand-by Joined: 8/19/13
Noooo!!!
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/8/12
I'll probably get some backlash for this but if the two actresses do this I hope that Marsha Norman updates the script with some Ebonics -- these are two lower middle class women (just a step above poverty) they shouldn't talk like Tulane graduates.
"I hope that Marsha Norman updates the script with some Ebonics -- these are two lower middle class women (just a step above poverty) they shouldn't talk like Tulane graduates."
Not every lower middle class African American speak "ebonics". You have a very narrow uninformed and uneducated idea of a certain type of person. I have done volunteer work for decades and it is very enlightening to see that race doesn't dictate how people speak or feel about specific things. I don't blame you for having this mentality because the media, hollywood, and other forms of "entertainment" have warped how society believes people speak, behave and feel.
Updated On: 2/6/14 at 02:26 PM
This is a great play for Oprah and Audra. WIth George C Wolfe behind it, this can be an extremely powerful night in the theatre.
That's one hell of an intense show. I hope Oprah can handle the eight shows a week.
But I'm sure this will sell out, and it's a good (but devastating) play.
Question...has anyone ever won a Tony in all the categories possible? Meaning, say, Best Actress Play, Best Actress Musical, Best Supporting Actress Play, Best Supporting Actress musical? Cause I could see McDonald actually pulling it off.
Question...has anyone ever won a Tony in all the categories possible? Meaning, say, Best Actress Play, Best Actress Musical, Best Supporting Actress Play, Best Supporting Actress musical? Cause I could see McDonald actually pulling it off.
I think, other than Audra herself, Boyd Gaines is the closest to that feat; the only award he hasn't won is Leading Actor in a Play.
Oh, wow. What a devastating night of theatre. I remember falling in love with the play in high school. I think it'd be much harder for me to watch now that I've lost someone to suicide.
I'm not sure how I feel about this. Anytime Oprah mentioned Broadway I always hoped she'd find a larger than life role. I've enjoyed some of her film work but I don't recall subtlety being one of her strengths. It's been years since I've read the play but I remember it sometimes requiring scenery chewing and other times requiring softer moments depending on Thelma's tactics in the moment. It will be interesting to see how Oprah's film experience and outsized public persona will be of use to her here.
A local theater company does readings once a month at a restaurant and they did this a few years back with an actual mother and daughter who are friends of mine. Most of the audience knew them so the atmosphere was so charged you could feel it walking into the bar. It's amazing what two people sitting on barstools with folders can accomplish.
I always really wanted to see Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson in this.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
Bad choice for both of them. 'Night Mother can be a tedious play even with the best actresses. Audra is too feminine for the daughter and Oprah is too sophisticated for the mother. Choose another title that plays to these women's strengths.
Lange and Paulson would be fantastic in this, but I'm really really really excited to see Oprah do something on the stage.
OMG i will buy tickets, die, be resurrected, see the show, die, be resurrected, and buy tickets again.
so yeah, i'm all for it.
I don't love the play, but this makes a lot of sense, artistically and financially. I imagine that available tickets would be few and far between and these actresses would knock it out if the park. But this play itself, ugggghhh.
This came up today on "CBS This Morning" and Gayle King (with a big smile) said, "I heard from a good source that it isn't going to happen." She also added, "If it ever did, I could get us tickets to the opening!"
I guess this would be OK if it happened, but the mere thought of Sarah Paulson and Jessica Lange doing this together has me even more excited. I can see the both of them going to that emotional "ugly place" better than Oprah and Audra (though granted, Lange and Paulson have gone to that place multiple times already in AHS seasons 2 and 3).
Any word on this actually happening or was it all just false rumors?
Seeing this show twice already is more than enough. The ticket prices will be stratospheric.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
But if Frank Wildhorn were to compose incidental music for the show, Roxy would be all, "It's not so bad! The critics had it in for this show! They don't know shinola!"
Things materialize and disappear all the time. Doesn't mean at the time of the rumor that it was knowingly "false'. But of course, people do make up sh&t all the time.
Do we really need yet ANOTHER production of this dreary, depressing play?
Let's go back to the NY Times review of the 2004 production, and I quote..."the uneasy realization that Ms. Norman's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, which opened in revival last night under the direction of Michael Mayer, is looking more artificial than it did two decades ago." I have a feeling Oprah would angle the whole thing toward a Super Soul Sunday rendition of a very dated work, barring commercials in between beats, of course.
So, time to move on and bring something fresh and new. C'mon Oprah...you could certainly foster a new, young promising playwright with a brand new play, right? Give George C. Wolfe a call...unless you don't want to hear the truth. Quite frankly, it doesn't seem to matter what you will do, as long as you are up there...it'll sell.
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