WILL BROOKLYN SUCCEED ON BROADWAY?? — Page 3

that is what i like about this show...virtually all unknowns

You have to freeze a show just out of fairness to the cast. During previews (and out of town beforehand), it's hard on actors having to learn new lines, songs, blocking, dance numbers, etc every single day and got out and perform the changes that night. At some point, the creative team has to decide that they're done, that the show is finished, so that the actors can then settle into the show and be able to perform the finished product as best they can. A show is frozen generally no later than a week or so before opening night, so the press office will set up the critics' preview a few days in advance of the opening. After opening night, the creative team scatters and leaves the show in the hands of the actors and the stage manager (who's in charge of brush up rehearsals periodically afterwards for the cast). Big directors have been known to literally have plane tickets and a vacation booked for the day after opening so that they aren't there for the fallout from the reviews (good or bad). Directors will generally pop in to see a show once every month or two for the rest of the run (the conscientious ones at least) to see the shape of the show and give notes to the cast, and then later oversee replacement auditions in the case of a long run.

The only exception I can remember to the above scenario was Michael Bennett and "Dreamgirls." Bennett was obsessed (in a good way) about tinkering and improving the show, which despite being a hit and receiving six Tony Awards, he was never fully satisified with. Even after the show was up and running to sold out houses, he was still holding rehearsals to restage various numbers (I saw no less than 5 different Act Two openings during the course of the original run). And when it was scheduled to open in LA, he restaged the entire show -- when the reviews came back raves, he then went back and restaged the Broadway production with the LA staging. He also came up with a simpler staging for the national tour that was less reliant on the state-of-the-art technology he and Robin Wagner had invented for the Imperial.

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Updated On: 9/26/04 at 10:11 PM

Billy,

Its a cast of 5, and Cleavant and Kevin Anderson are far from unknowns... thats 2 of 5

Actually, Amneris, I would say Brooklyn is part of the trend you deplore in your post because of the presence of one Ms. Espinosa.

And don't group Hugh Jackman in with those teeny-bopper heartthrobs. Please.

fair enough

Espinosa is known here for being Menzel's understudy. But this place is so completely Wicked-obsessed it really doesn't count. Nobody gets truly well-known for being an understudy who almost never goes on.

Seeing as Espinosa doesn't have a voice that sounds like an angry cat's, she probably was an improvement on Menzel.

And yes, I know exactly what angry cats sound like. There's tons of strays in Israel.

Sometimes I wonder why people ask a question, or series of questions, I sense they already know the answer(s) to.

Nice twist.

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"And don't group Hugh Jackman in with those teeny-bopper heartthrobs. Please."

Teeny-bopper heartthrobs??!!! They're ALSO extremely talented actors, singers and dancers.

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i want a sandwich. If you people don't put a lid on it, I will have Tara Rubin cast The Olsen Twins as Young Cosette in the les miz tour...

I love Jess. She's so sweet and sexy that I would do her husband.

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I would do him, too. At the same time. Now THAT would make a hot video.

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Shills take their coffe breaks from 8:30am until around 3pm when school gets out.

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