Riedel: LAST ACTS OF '06
Riedel: LAST ACTS OF '06
#1Riedel: LAST ACTS OF '06
Posted: 12/29/06 at 10:32am
TOP HITS, SNITS AND FAILURES ON B'WAY
BEFORE we uncork the champagne, let's take a quick look back at the theater in 2006, and relish, for one last time, the hits, the misses, the fits, the fights and the egos.
* YOU GOT TO KNOW WHEN TO FOLD 'EM
The flops came fast and furious, starting with Elton John's coma-inducing "Lestat" and ending with "High Fidelity," which posted a closing notice so quickly, the cast is still wandering around Times Square in a daze (read leading man Will Chase's blog to see just how unhinged actors can become when they have no place to go at night).
Twyla Tharp incurred the wrath of Bob Dylan fans with her ill-conceived "The Times They Are A-Changin'." Word was so bad after the first preview that a Joe Allen staffer, surveying the restaurant's fabled wall of flop posters, cracked: "The Space We Are A-Clearin'."
"Ring of Fire" made Johnny Cash's music seem so hokey, you would have thought the Man in Black had honed his songwriting skills on "Hee Haw."
Another loser - "The Wedding Singer" - was so unwatchable that, 10 minutes into the opening- night performance, a Tony Award-winning actor sitting next to me grabbed my arm and said: "I gotta get the f - - - outta here. I can't stand this."
Disney continues to run the wretched "Tarzan," although everybody associated with it should have been hanging by their necks from those day-glo green vines the morning the reviews came out.
The beating the musical took from the theater industry is still a sore spot for thin-skinned Disney execs. They'll try to save face by keeping the show on the boards in the new year. But the writing is on the wall, and it reads: F-L-O-P.
Read on...
Riedel: LAST ACTS OF '06
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#2re: Riedel: LAST ACTS OF '06
Posted: 12/29/06 at 10:37amI'd love to know who that Toyn winning actor is. I think it's Brian Stokes Mitchell. He's the only Tony winning actor I know that goes to every opening night.
#2re: Riedel: LAST ACTS OF '06
Posted: 12/29/06 at 10:40amIt's a damn smart Tony-winning actor, I'll tell you that.
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#4re: Riedel: LAST ACTS OF '06
Posted: 12/29/06 at 10:45am
"The best backstage feud of the year was between "Entertaining Mr. Sloane" co-stars Alec Baldwin and Jan Maxwell. In an e-mail to her friend, the flamboyant cable television show host Stephen Holt, Maxwell wrote that she quit the production because working with Baldwin "has just been hell," adding that the hot-tempered actor put his fist through a wall because the temperature backstage was too high.
Holt - as discreet and loyal a friend as you are likely to find in the theater - promptly forwarded the e-mail to The Post. And that's when the fun began."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
CurtainPullDowner
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
#6re: Riedel: LAST ACTS OF '06
Posted: 12/30/06 at 1:28pmBecause it fills space.
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#7re: Riedel: LAST ACTS OF '06
Posted: 12/30/06 at 1:32pmWill Chase's blog entry regarding the closing truly wasn't "unhinged" by any means. Bitter, sure. But unhinged? No.
Vespertine1228
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/30/05
#8re: Riedel: LAST ACTS OF '06
Posted: 12/30/06 at 1:32pm
I don't think any of this article is unfair, it just seems that way because Michael Riedel wrote it.
He does admit to being wrong about The Drowsy Chaperone, which a lot of other people aren't owning up to. His comments about various Broadway flops aren't anything we haven't seen on this board or anywhere else in the media.
I actually agree that Will Chase sounded a little weird and desperate on his blog about High Fidelity closing. That's probably because he was angry and shocked, but at the end of the day he was the one who posted his thoughts on the Internet and left himself open to commentary. No one else.
#9re: Riedel: LAST ACTS OF '06
Posted: 12/30/06 at 1:33pm
"It's a damn smart Tony-winning actor, I'll tell you that."
I'm with you on that Wanna Be A Foster.
#10re: Riedel: LAST ACTS OF '06
Posted: 12/30/06 at 5:03pmI'm a little surprised that the "Tony Award-winning actor" would have such a violent reaction to The Wedding Singer's first 10 minutes. "It's Your Wedding Day" is a pretty good number IMO, even if the rest of the show isn't to your liking.
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