Uggams in Anything Goes

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Uggams in Anything Goes

Posted: 4/22/07 at 3:45am

Did anyone see Leslie Uggams in Anything Goes? I was wondering what it was like. I did a search and found nothing, so if you saw her please let me know how she did replacing Lupone.

re: Uggams in Anything Goes

Posted: 4/22/07 at 7:28pm

So nobody saw her?

Well my memory of it is a bit fuzzy, but I did see her in the role.

She was a pleasant, amiable Reno Sweeney and certainly sang it well enough. The main thing I recall about her performance was that she broke character several times during the show to laugh at the antics of the actors playing Moonface and Billy, actually turning upstage, covering her mouth and shaking her shoulders while the audience laughed, thinking they were in on something. Whether this was a regular occurrence or not I have no idea (I HATE when stars "break up" just to garner easy audience laughs), but it happened enough where I thought what is UP with her?

Updated On: 4/22/07 at 10:00 PM

re: Uggams in Anything Goes

Posted: 4/23/07 at 12:42am

While Patti was a "tour de force" Leslie was just ok......

re: Uggams in Anything Goes

Posted: 4/23/07 at 3:04am

Didn't she start the national tour which was aborted due to the fact that the set was taking way too long move from city to city? Perhaps she came into the show when Lupone left as a way for the producers to honour their contract. Later there was another scaled down tour which starred Mitzi Gaynor.

re: Uggams in Anything Goes

Posted: 4/23/07 at 10:28am

Although LuPone was powerful it was extremely difficult to undersand what the devil she was singing. Of course, show business people know the songs but she was infamous for how she ran through a song lyric (even fodder for Forbidden Broadway). Also, the backstage was in turmoil and there were complaints brought to Equity about Lupone's behavior.

The cast was delighted when Leslie Uggams came into the show. She has one of the best reps in the business from the actors down to the stagehands. She brought calm and stardom without all the crap and turmoil. When she did the tour the cast was in love with her. So, she may not have been the "force of nature" Lupone was but she sang the hell out of the songs AND YOU COULD UNDERSTAND THE WORDS!!!!

re: Uggams in Anything Goes

Posted: 4/24/07 at 9:21am

I never saw LuPone in the part. I did see Uggams in the tour. Uggams sang the songs quite well, but I thought her acting was just adequate and the limited dancing she did was pretty clunky. While she was pleasant, she was a bit unenthralling and just never seemed to be quite dynamic enough to truly own the role. However, she seemed a veritable marvel compared to her dreadful leading man Rex Smith. Rip Taylor (who I was never a fan of) was the real surprise of the show in a tour-de-force performance. I did see Sally Ann Triplett as Reno in the British revival and she was amazing.

re: Uggams in Anything Goes

Posted: 4/24/07 at 12:37pm

Christoph I cudnt agree with u more about Sally Ann as being amazing as Reno, but I have to say her understudy Annette McLaughlin was WAY much more amazing than she is and that's saying ALOT!

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#10

re: Uggams in Anything Goes

Posted: 4/24/07 at 2:11pm

Did Leslie sing the "huggas and bajeebas" out of it?

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#11

re: Uggams in Anything Goes

Posted: 4/24/07 at 2:19pm

"Did Leslie sing the "huggas and bajeebas" out of it?"

LOL. I was wondering the same thing!

#12

re: Uggams in Anything Goes

Posted: 4/24/07 at 2:25pm

oh why is THAT not on Youtube?

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#13

re: Uggams in Anything Goes

Posted: 4/24/07 at 5:08pm

I agree Christoph...

Uggams was a bland, lackluster Reno Sweeney. Rex Smith gave one of the worst professional performances I've ever seen. Rip Taylor was, by far and away, the best thing in that production. Who'd have thought? He was totally terrific.

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