TAMMY FAYE will transfer to Broadway in 2024-2025 Season — Page 10

Ke3 said: "All the reports I've heard about this said it was Elton's best score in years but that Shears lyrics were bad. And since melodies can't cover terrible lyrics it kind of killed any excitement I had for it."

I disagree about the lyrics being bad. Granted, they're not Sondheim clever, but they're also not completely obvious, that you see coming a mile off. Not that this is great standard to measure them by, but they're 1000 x better than his lyrics were for Tales of The City.

It will be interesting to see how well this does, given that a much larger percentage of the audience will have some familiarity with the characters in it. Tammy Faye, Jim Bakker, Jerry Fulwell, Pat Robinson, etc. I wonder if Jerry Fulwell Jnr might have something to say about his father being the villain of the story?

It's a shame there isn't more excitement for this opening, but it's gonna need to do smething big to be able to stand out amongst all the bigger, starier productions.

verywellthensigh said: "Question for those who saw it in London: How big is this show? Could it financially survive with no stars like Fun Home or Kimberly Akimbo?

If so, Hunter Foster as Jim seems like a no-brainer."

Well, Christian Borle is playing Jim. Also, Hunter Foster seems to have largely stepped back from performing and has a pretty busy career directing regionally.

verywellthensigh said: "Question for those who saw it in London: How big is this show? Could it financially survive with no stars like Fun Home or Kimberly Akimbo?

If so, Hunter Foster as Jim seems like a no-brainer."

As the previous poster mentioned, it will likely be much larger than it was at the 325 seat Almeida.

But not every show needs names (Book of Mormon, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen and a host of other shows did fine without them) but the show certainly has potential to make a huge star out of Katie Brayben who is a knockout in the role. She avoids impersonation in favour of capturing the spirit of Tammy Faye and with a voice that can knock the roof off.

Updated On: 6/29/24 at 11:54 AM

Broadway Flash said: "1648 seats now"

Didn’t realize they had lost seats.


And yes, Katie is phenomenal in this - expect the races to pour in for her and they’ll be very well deserved.

I don't think it is and that's why i think it will struggle at the Palace. At the heart of it is an intimate story between a hadful of people and supersizing the scale of everything you could lose that.

What was the reasoning behind taking The Palace? Because it's new refurb and opening? location? 1648 is a big number and as i recall, it's not the most intimate of theatres.

bway1430 said: "I can't agree with yourtake that it is an intimate story. Yes, the story focuses on the relationship ofJim and Tammy Faye Bakker but not just with each other. The bigger/mainstory is Tammy Faye's connection to the millions of viewers on PTL who adored her and sent cash donations by the truckload.

The greater part of the show was set in a television studio which is far from intimate. The Almeida was likely a chance to tryout the material which, although it has been revised, would not at all have been hampered with a larger stage and room for the dancers/ensemble to do more than practically dance in place"

I totally agree with you about the connection with the viewers etc, but what i meant was that it doesn't need a massive space to do that, nor a big cast. It doesn't need an all singing, all dancing kickline chorus to fill the stage. I disagree that the Almeida was just a chance to tryout the material. If it had transferred, that was the production that was going. It wasn't suddenly going to get a new set design or any big changes like that.

I don't think this production will be that different to the Almeida production. Yes there is 1 new song, but i suspect the majority of it will be the same script, design, costumes etc, just with a bigger budget.

I’m not sure how many seats are in the balcony, but they can always close that, no? If they’re not capable of selling 1600 seats a night, they should just close the balcony which we’ve been seeing more of recently. Illinoise closed the balcony, heart of rock and roll eventually closed the balcony, and the great Gatsby has closed off the rear mezzanine. They can always open it if the rest of the theatre is sold out.

Michael Cerveris is joining the cast

https://playbill.com/article/michael-cerveris-joins-broadway-transfer-of-tammy-faye

Updated On: 7/31/24 at 12:32 PM

If Michael Ceveris calls, I'm there.

That's surprising and exciting casting! A very different sort of project for Cerveris!

Wonder what happend with Borle since he was pictured with Elton? But much prefer this casting.

KING CERVERIS RETURNS!

Kad said: "RippedMan said: "Wonder what happend with Borle since he was pictured with Elton? But much prefer this casting."

Cerveris isn't replacing Borle, he's playing a different role (Jerry Falwell)."

Oh, touche. Thanks!