Please tell me someone is going to see JOYCE DE WITT in GYPSY...- Page 2

Posted: 5/24/05 at 4:29pm

She DID earn a Masters in Theatre. I'm curious, as well, why it's so inconceivable that she would do this. Florence Henderson will go down in history as Mrs. Brady, and yet she had a perfectly viable theatrical career.

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 4:30pm

omg. wow. too funny. I needed that, thank you!

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 4:33pm

I dont think any of the jokes are meant personally. Of course any performer deserves a chance to prove their worthiness in a role. But there is something inspiredly absurd about a summer stock theatre who's entire roster of "stars" reads like a who's who list of television has beens.

I think a lot of us are also familiar with the reputation of the Bucks County Playhouse. The casting is so typical of their mantra to get any star (for cheap) they can find. They'd let Paris Hilton play EVITA if they could get her.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 4:39pm

the entire summer stock circuit used to be that way, actually. It just depends on your personal definition of what a "marquee name" might be. i know the Bucks County reputation, of course...and it's changed over the years. So has everything else.

Updated On: 5/24/05 at 04:39 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 4:40pm

DGrant--I think she may be fabulous. The brilliant writing of the role often brings out hitherto undisplayed talents in the acresses who play it. Hell, it even did with Merman!

Several people who toured with JoAnn Worley's Gypsy in the 1980s told me, she sang it and acted it brilliantly--and I believe them.

I'm looking forward to Joyce DeWitt's Madame Rose--more than I looked forward to Bernadette's!

[SideShowMan]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 4:56pm

Along with Jacobtsf, i really will see this show. I live near the Poconos and I think one of us should go to report back to the others. Remember SCTV's skits on 3's Company?....She was Miss Joyce DE 1/2 Witt!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 5:13pm

Let's separate her acting ability from the role. As an actress, I think there are certain roles that she would be great in. Mama Rose is not one of them. It would be like watching Karen Ziemba do the role. She doesn't have the weightiness to pull off "Rose's Turn"

Speaking of Gypsy, I love what one of the London critics said about Bernadette Peters: It's like watching a child try to lift a piano.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 5:21pm

are we going to start another "aspects of Rose" discussion? because you can't get much different than Merman, Lansbury, and Daly in terms of style, track record, etcetera...and they all had their proponents.

and i'd be game to see Ziemba tackle almost anything. Even without the conventional wisdom of it being "appropriate."

Posted: 5/24/05 at 5:23pm

Goth - you seem familiar with Joyce's current state as a person and a performer. When and where did you last see her perform?

[Marquise]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 5:26pm

Hopefully Joyce DeWitt can pull it off. Her credits are impressive and she really shouldn't be judged for one role. No one here knows what she's really capable of based on watching her in one role on one situation comedy. I just thought it was funny that almost evry single one of the stars in the Bucks County roster was the star of a TV sit-com.

Posted: 5/24/05 at 5:32pm

It's how they sell tickets. Mame was done with Sally Struthers as Gooch out here and she knocked everyone's socks off.

[Marquise]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 5:57pm

Struthers is so underrated. I caught her in "Grease" a couple of years ago. She was the saving grace of that production.

[romanov]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 6:00pm

Some of you are taking this far too seriously. One of the joys of loving theatre is being a bit*h...especially about casting. Some of my friends and I used to play a game called Woefully Miscast. The object was to invent an awful case of casting. The one I loved the most was Carol Channing as Lady Thiang in The King and I. Just picture Channing singing Something Wonderful.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 6:18pm

My friends and I have an entire "theatre" in our head that casts nothing but "stars" completely wrong for the show.

My favorites: Karen Morrow as Magnolia in Showboat. Sarah Michelle Geller and Freddie Prinze Jr. in One Golden Pond and Enya as Rose in Gypsy.

[Marquise]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 6:23pm

Yeah Beaverhausen I know where you're coming from. Imagine, there's people out there that only equate Shirley Booth as "Hazel". They have no clue this woman was capable of playing more than just a maid on a TV sitcom. She gave wonderful performances in both "The Matchmaker" and "Come Back Little Sheba".

Too many people are quick to stereotype or pigeon hole a performer.

Juliet Prowse was an amazing dancer! I remember those L'eggs pantyhose commercials she did in the '70s when I was a kid! Coincidentally Joyce DeWitt and Barbara Eden also did some!

The thought of Carol Channing warbling "Something Wonderful" is frightening to these ears! LOL!



Updated On: 5/24/05 at 06:23 PM

[Marquise]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 6:29pm

Great to here Juliet got to do something she loved before she left us.

Posted: 5/24/05 at 6:30pm

Scary casting, huh? I think I'll go with Donny Osmond as Sweeney.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 7:12pm

Karen Morrow as Magnolia, Michael Bennett? I think I want to get drunk with you.

[romanov]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 7:20pm

Ethel Merman in The Belle of Amherst

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 7:33pm

Well, good luck to Ms. De Witt. She had some memorable acting moments on Three's Company (such as the episode where the ballet teacher tells her that she's talented in order to sleep with her). Hopefully she'll knock 'em dead. If not, at least she'll have tried.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 7:36pm

PAL -- I've got the Tequilla.

Perhaps we can take a swig while watching FAYE DUNAWAY in as Maria in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, or Faith Prince as Anita in WEST SIDE STORY.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 10:00pm

Or let's just have a Karen Morrow fest: The King and I, Carousel, My Fair Lady, Sally in Follies

Updated On: 5/24/05 at 10:00 PM

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 10:52pm

A little history lesson:

Both Buck's County Playhouse and Pocono Playhouse used to have "big-name" stars in almost all of their shows. In fact many Broadway shows came to Buck's before they went to NYC (sort of like the out-of-town tryouts of today). Then both theatres started to lose money and no real stars were in the shows anymore (except for Eddie Mekka who has been a Buck's/Pocono regular for YEARS). The theatres are now starting to make their money back. I truly believe this is for two reasons: 1) the children's theatre, which has always brought in A LOT of money (we joke that we pay the t.v. stars salaries), and 2) the work of Nicholas Adler and his wife Corina who have turned Pocono completly around in just 2 years increasing both mainstage ticket sales and the quality of the theatre itself.) I am not trying to be a SHILL but if you do get a chance you should come and see a show, have a couple laughs and go home happy (and if you come on Wed. nights I'll be your usher)

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 5/26/05 at 6:03pm

Goth - I would have agreed with your assessment of Ziemba some years ago, but I would beg to differ with it now. I daresay she'd kick ass as Rose and blow the roof off with Rose's Turn. She's grown immensely as a performer.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/26/05 at 6:08pm

"She's grown immensely as a performer."

I respect KZ as a dancer, I respect her as a singer, but I just don't think she is a good actress. Ask her to play anything other than girl next door and she can't hack it.