I'm in rehearsal for a production of this show right now. I imagine Rudetsky will make a good Vernon, and I suppose Foster will be a suitable enough Sonia. Scott seems to me a better fit, but for a benefit like this Foster will probably be fine.
Ah, well, Seth does have his little coterie, I suppose. But this is like casting Rip Taylor as Jerry in Seesaw. Or Paul Lynde as Arthur in Camelot. Interesting as a novelty.
Dear lord. This sounds about as appealing as an STD test.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Wow. I JUST heard about this. I LOVE Seth, but I can not see him pulling off straight well in this show. And Sutton is always hit or miss with me. I loved her in Drowsy Chaperone and really, that's all. I mean, I know Seth chooses the show every year, but he didn't have to cast himself. And Sutton seems to get cast in any leading lady part, and this part doesn't seem right for her.
Honestly, I think this would have been better with Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz reprising their roles. I always thought they could do a revival of the show, because it can work with both an older couple and a younger couple. Or they could have gotten someone like Dan Folger and Lauren Molina or Kate Wetherhead. I can see them in the roles. But not Seth. Sutton is just starting to be the same in everything.
I also saw him in Torch Song. I didn't think he was horrible. Of course, he was no Harvey, but for the production value and the rest of the cast it worked. Now, I agree that Seth's biggest fan is Seth. It's kind of clear when he casts himself like this.
There was a reading of THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG done earlier this year with Christian Borle as Vernon and Sherie Rene Scott as Sonia.
This particular concert for The Actors Fund was pitched by Seth Rudetsky directly as a vehicle for himself and Sutton Foster. It only came to fruition when she actually became available, so I don't think it would have been produced any other way (although the thought of them as romantic interests is certainly a bit puzzling.)
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
I enjoy Rudestky as much as anyone, I suppose, but he's not an actor. He has developed a persona so extreme, he makes Paul Lynde look like John Wayne. He is an entertaining personality, but he's too manic, mush-mouthed, and unfocused to be an actor. Still, for a concert benefit, who cares? His fans and friends will buy the tickets and have a perfectly fun evening, and the Fund will get some cash.
Vernon was based on that hunk of masculinity Marvin Hamlisch. Wiki describes the character thus: "away from his piano, Vernon is a bundle of neuroses."