PAL JOEY Revival, any news?

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 1:33am

I hear Hugh said no, but they are going forward with two TONY winners.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 1:41am

All I know is that Jackman ended up turning it down. He'll be spending a week this month workshopping "Leap of Faith" opposite Kelli O'Hara and is apparently banking on making that his vehicle for a return to Broadway if all goes well.

Updated On: 3/4/07 at 01:41 AM

[CapnHook]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 1:44am

Jackman is the man to get. EVERYONE and their mother wants him for their musical - whether it be for TV, Film, or Broadway.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 1:46am

Hugh is not Joey...









...Christian Hoff is.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 2:01am

Go rent "Singing In The Rain." If Christian Hoff can DANCE like Gene Kelly, THEN he could be Pal Joey.

I get really pissed when so many people try to cast this show with singers or actors. It's a DANCER'S show. Kelly was a Broadway choreographer when he was cast. He was a fabulous dancer, even then. Watch the footage on the Broadway history documentary which shows him dancing in Pal Joey, onstage at The Ethel Barrymore Theatre, doing "Plant You Now, Dig You Later" with a groups of dancers who know, you can tell from the s**teating grins on their faces, they KNOW they are dancing with THE greatest dancer since Fred Astaire and they KNOW they will NEVER ever be in as great a number again in their careers.

If Christain Hoff, who has been in exactly two Broadway shows (the other was a chorus boy in Tommy in 1993) can dance like that, then he's Pal Joey.

If not, he's just one of Joey's pals.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 2:04am

I get really pissed when so many people try to cast this show with singers or actors.

I didn't cast it, Joe Mantello did!

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 2:10am

Actually, George Abbott cast it, brilliantly and these other wankers are trying to mis-cast it.

(having calmed down a moment I didn't mean our board members are wankers, just any director who would make such a terrible decision).

Updated On: 3/4/07 at 02:10 AM

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 2:11am

allofmylife- What are you talking about? I am talking about the planned revival of Pal Joey! George Abbot didn't cast Christian Hoff.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 2:17am

Sorry neddy, apples and orages. George Abbott cast Gene Kelly in the original production. There has never, ever been a better person to play the role. Some actors have done the book better but failed in the dancing (and the score is almost 50% dance music) and a few dancers have done the choreograpic portions brilliantly but failed to live up to Kelly's superb performance.

Read the riviews of the important revivals and they almost all have qualified comments about the person playing Joey. It's one of those almost-impossible-to-cast-roles.

What I guess I was saying was as the old saying goes, "There'll never be another Gene Kelly" So what makes any director think he can adequately cast this superb role with a lesser performer (and Mr. Hoff is no Gene Kelly).

And before you say they could cut back on the dancing, I would counter that would be as disasterous as casting a non-singer to play Eliza in "My Fair Lady."

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 2:18am

Wait, I think I'm out of something. Is this happening, or is it a rumour?

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 2:20am

And before you say they could cut back on the dancing,

was never going to say that. I was gonna say do we know that Christian Hoff can't dance?

This is happening, it just has not been officially announced.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 2:24am

"I hear Hugh said no, but they are going forward with two TONY winners."

We know Hoff is one. Whose the other?

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 2:29am

I am not sure but I could find out.

Edit: I know that Bernadette did a reading with the new script with Hoff (she was Vera, Cyndi Lauper was Gladys and one of the three Company girls- April, Marta or Kathy was Melba) Updated On: 3/4/07 at 02:29 AM

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 2:38am

I am pulling my hair out. The question isn't "Can Christina Hoff dance" because I'm sure he has probably taken a few dance classes. The problem is, he has done two Broadway shows. In one, he won a Tony for his singing and acting. In the other he was 2nd pinball boy. In 1993.

Doesn't sound like much of a dancing career to me. Certainly not one on par with Astaire, Kelly, Bolger or Champion. And those are the four guys I can think of who can play Pal Joey (and only two of them very authentically). Notice anything they all have in common?

I don't know, maybe Hoff can dance. His credits list playing George in "George M" at the Lawrence Welk Dinner Theater in Branson, Missouri....

Updated On: 3/4/07 at 02:38 AM

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 2:40am

Allofmylife- Who would you cast as Joey? All the people you have mentioned as Joeys are no longer able to play the role.

Updated On: 3/4/07 at 02:40 AM

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 2:50am

neddyfrank2, you have put your finger on our biggest problem on Broadway. There is absolutely nobody I would cast. There hasn't been since Joel Gray, who was so cold as a performer I just don't enjoy watching him but man, could he dance and sing and act, even if it was very chilly.

We just don't have anyone because, as they say "they don't make them like they used to." Where are the Gene Kellys? There are a few women - Sutton Foster in fact is almost all of them all by herself.

Those triple threats are few and far and unless we start working to solve this problem, shows like "Pal Joey" "George M" "Half A Sixpence" and the like will never be properly mounted again.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 3:00am

Exactly, but does that mean that there should never be a revival of those great great shows?
Updated On: 3/4/07 at 03:00 AM

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 8:57am

Michael Berresse?

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 9:57am

Basically, yes. If we don't grow another Gene Kelly, it's our own fault. Doing the show with a person any less talented is like accepting Porgy and Bess led by actors who can "carry a tune". We wouldn't think of doing that in opera so why should be any less particular in musical theatre?

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 10:01am

Michael Berresse? That was a joke, right? The guy who plays Zack in Chorus Line? The 45 year old guy? Playing a 23 year old?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 12:53pm

Donna Murphy did a reading when the Weisslers were attached, I remember Ken Mandelbaum reporting this on his Broadway.com column. I think she'd be a fantastic Vera (she played the role in Boston already). Bernadette Peters would be interesting as well.

[Josephine2]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 9:57pm

What about David Elder, Noah Racey, or Jeffrey Denman as Joey?

[keen on kean]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 10:22pm

Someone has to go to the New York City Ballet and pull one of the several gorgeous ex-pat Danes over to Broadway!

Posted: 3/4/07 at 10:22pm

The role of Vera in Pal Joey is even more often miscast. Reading that Bernadette Peters read for the part actually sickens me. She's no more right for that role than she would be playing Annie.

Listen to recordings and look at videos of the original (and the revival's) Vera, Vivienne Segal. That's who the role was written for and that's how it's meant to be played. Carol Bruce, Rita Hayworth, Lena Horne, and Patti LuPone have all managed to screw up the role. I'm not saying that there's no one who can play the role. There probably is.

[jewishboy]

Posted: 3/4/07 at 11:37pm

Since I don't have the knowledge to view the videos of Vivienne Segal's performance can you please tell us how she played the role? I do love her version of "To Keep My Love Alive," but to me her "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" is just kind of boring to me. Thank you.

On just instinct after listening to her rendition of the song again I could see Christine Ebersole perform it in that style (she also did an amazing Morgan Le Fay in Encores! "A Connecticut Yankee")