ROGER BART TO JOIN CAST OF 'THE FROGS' AT LINCOLN CENTER THEATER -- Page 2

[midtowngym]

Posted: 7/12/04 at 12:05am

One more time-Chris was dead wood! Can't act for the stage, can't sing-he truly did seem in over his head. Now I will have to see the show again-Roger Bart is a whole different lillypad!

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 7/12/04 at 1:02am

And to think, I JUST saw the show again on Saturday night (MUCH improved it was, even though Kattan was still the weak link)...now I'll be "forced" to see it AGAIN! Ha HA!

Even though I have tickets for September, I want to see Roger as soon as possible!! :)

Updated On: 7/12/04 at 01:02 AM

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 7/12/04 at 1:05am

I have tickets for Tuesday. Most likely the day BEFORE Roger Bart takes over. Gotta love my timing.... Guess I'll be 'forced' to pay a return visit, too.

[SamIAm]

Posted: 7/12/04 at 8:46am

take heart - the understudy is supposed to be quite good

[SamIAm]

Posted: 7/12/04 at 10:13am

"You can't-ah-have-ah-da-mango, Nathan!"

Something tells me that if Chris had EVER said that to Lane, he would have found his butt on the theater floor :)

[M J R]

Posted: 7/12/04 at 1:22pm

LOL - NO COMMENT!

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 7/12/04 at 9:44pm

I thought at some point Roger was going to be in Dracula?

[DJ Tifa]

Posted: 7/13/04 at 12:12am

Twas misinformation. Broadway.com lied on that bit of info. I asked Roger at the stage door of Producers one day, and he told me.

Sigh. Ah well. 'least he's in this now, so I'm happy.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/13/04 at 1:13pm

A little more info on the Bart/Kattan situation:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/theater/story/211635p-182295c.html

[Dolly_Levi]

Posted: 7/13/04 at 4:49pm

Thanks , margo. I found this passage from the Daily News esp. interesting ...

"On online chat sites, theatergoers have expressed similar sentiments. One commented that Kattan appeared "lost" and another called him "the weakest link." (In fairness, concerns also have been raised about the show's book, set and songs.)"

Could they be talking about BWW.com?

[Plum]

Posted: 7/13/04 at 5:37pm

I'm pretty sure I read the "weakest link" comment here. Way to go- this board is catching up to ATC in that department. Updated On: 7/13/04 at 05:37 PM

[SamIAm]

Posted: 7/14/04 at 9:10am

I hate to burst our bubble but, as someone who posts and reads both boards, I DID see the weakest link comment on ATC before I saw it here...I may have actually used those very words myself.

Oh MY GOD...I'm a STAR!!!!!!

Seriously, isn't it sad that the News and Post are now reading theater boards to get info for their columns?

[midtowngym]

Posted: 7/14/04 at 1:34pm

But it means we have POWER! (cue creepy music in background...) Don't f*** with us! HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE

[hawkeyemania]

Posted: 7/14/04 at 2:31pm

I think the way in which this was apparently handled was pretty bad. I mean you invite roger bart to the performance, and after he accepts tell Chris that he is fired from the show. Kind off seems wrong, but i love them both so there is my two cents.

Thanks,
Grant

[SamIAm]

Posted: 7/14/04 at 5:28pm

It wasn't quite as simple as Bart going to see the show and saying 'yes' and then Kattan being dumped.

a) the creative team had not been happy with Kattan and was looking at options.

b) they had talked to Bart and at some point (whether it was Bart or someone else) a decision had to be made. His appearance at the show was merely a formality to see the current production. He either was or was not going to step in.

c) Kattan had every chance in the world to improve and with his cavalier attitude it's a wonder he lasted as long as he did. I'm sure he was given fair compensation

d) It is NEVER easy and there is NEVER a good way to replace an actor. It's always painful for all involved. Look at Goodman in The Producers...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/15/04 at 12:45pm

I'm crossing my fingers for Roger tonight -- I'm sure he'll be great (I can only imagine the ad-libbing that'll go on between he and Nathan).

In today's column, Liz Smith features an interview with Kattan regarding his dismissal from the show:

"CHRIS KATTAN, let go from the Broadway-bound Stephen Sond heim-Nathan Lane venture "The Frogs," is out but hardly down.

Kattan, sounding a little tired, told us, "OK, I'll admit it, the phone call came as a bit of a shock. You usually know there's something wrong with a relationship before they serve you with divorce papers!" What, he had no inkling? "Well, I wasn't altogether happy. I thought a lot of the funny bits that I loved doing were getting cut; I was standing around a lot. I thought I'd been brought in as the wild card, the risk, to get the big laughs. But it seemed to me there was less and less a partnership, less of a connection. I wasn't from the theater, and they knew that, and I wasn't trained to project to the balcony. I wanted to connect to Nathan!

"But look, these things really do happen — and not just in show business. And I'm sitting here, and it's over, and I'm thinking, you know, this is not so bad. I still had this incredible experience. Susan Stroman [the director] and Nathan are amazing. I would work with them again in a minute. I have learned about the language of the theater, and I hope to learn more. And I still love the show. I'll go see it for sure!"

Next for Kattan, who found fame on "Saturday Night Live"? He says, "There are movies, 'El Romantico' and 'Adam and Steve,' in the works, but I'm going right out to L.A. to get together with Fox Searchlight, planning a TV series — I would have been doing that anyway, in October, so this just speeds it up. I'm very excited. I think I'll call it 'The Untitled Chris Kattan Project.' "

Theater mavens may not agree, but there is life after Broadway takes back its "Welcome to the theater."

[Corine2]

Posted: 7/15/04 at 12:55pm

I saw it with the understudy and he was very good.
Loved him.

[Plum]

Posted: 7/15/04 at 1:09pm

I don't think it's sad at all, SamIAm. If they want to know what theatergoers, and not just the creative team, think of a show, they could either try to interview people as they walk out the door (bad form), or they can look at postings here and on ATC.

However, I do think it's a bad thing- you shouldn't publish reviews of a show at all until it opens. The Frogs is a work in progress, and publishing reviews of it in a mainstream paper before it's frozen is unfair.

[SamIAm]

Posted: 7/15/04 at 1:37pm

don't work out. Audience evaluations for a show in previews would be a bit self defeating anyway (AND bad form, as you said) since the show is already an ever changing entity so how to capture and freeze comments would be a real problem.

I DO agree that previews should not be reviewed but I don't think that looking at ATC and BW is the way a creative team should choose to modify the show. This is a microcosm of a larger audience and our tastes (if you believe that board posters are more sophisticated then the average audience member would not necessarily be looking for the same thing in entertainment). This is what these people get paid to do and there are times when they have to trust what they know...and if they are wrong...they are wrong.

[MusicMan]

Posted: 7/15/04 at 6:39pm

It may just be face-saving at work but Kattan comes off as completely gracious in the Liz Smith interview. I haven't seen FROGS (yet) but I suspect Kattan is not entirely at fault. Like Boris Aronson show warned (in a heavy Russian accent), "Every show has a wictim. Don't be the wictim." Kattan, a theatre newbie, just might be FROGS' wictim. Updated On: 7/15/04 at 06:39 PM

[SamIAm]

Posted: 7/15/04 at 10:14pm

he wasn't a victim. He just couldn't cut it and you may want to consider that the reason he was so gracious in his interview was contractual...as is sometimes done to protect the show and the other players from the sniping of a sour grapes actor after he/she is fired.

[MusicMan]

Posted: 7/15/04 at 11:44pm

Or maybe, just maybe, he's a mensch. Nothing about his demeanor or mien suggests "sour grapes." He could have avoided saying anything but went out of his way to be complimentary (hardly 'contractual'). And if the show is any good, it doesn't need protection.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/16/04 at 10:56am

Check out the last Blind Item under "Just Asking:"
http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix_u.htm

[Plum]

Posted: 7/16/04 at 11:04am

*headdesk*

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 7/16/04 at 12:20pm

Goodness! A Snow white Christmas in July at LTC!