When did Broadway become a vehical for celebrities?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 7:49pm

I've been thinking about this for a while now and Joey Fatone going into Little Shop just made it worse. When did Broadway become all about celebrities rather than the shows themselves?

Joey Fatone..........Little Shop
Mel B..........Rent
The rotating Aida's
Antonio Banderas.....Nine
Hugh Jackman.......Boy from Oz
P. Diddy....Raisin in the Sun
.........to name a few

These famous people come in to sell tickets and overshadow the real, hardworking actors who struggle to pay the rent each month. Any thoughts?

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 7:52pm

Celebrities bring in crowds who wouldn't normally go to the theatre. So it means a better run for the show in which the celebrity performs and perhaps more theatre fans.

[NYCbabe3789]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 7:54pm

And then there's all the stuggling actors/actresses who work their butts off and have the talent but not the "status," and are rejected to make room for the celebs...

[jo]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 8:01pm

Hugh, while famous as an actor, has a solid theatre background. He has a drama degree, was in 2 Australian productions ( Beauty and the Beast and Sunset Boulevard) and earned an OLIVIER nomination for his role of Curly in the Royal National Theatre's OKLAHOMA! I'm sure he also struggled in the early days of his theatre career - so, he has paid his dues. He has carried THE BOY FROM OZ on his shoulders - and has demonstrated true theatre talent. If ( and when ) he wins the TONY, I think not too many will say that he has not earned it.

Antonio did have a theatre background and had struggled like any young actor breaking into roles - in his native Spain. While it is true that he is also a famous actor, his performance in EVITA ( the movie) spoke well of his ability to do musical theatre.

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 8:02pm

Yeah I have plenty of thoughts: This topic has been beat to death. "Stunt Casting" is hardly new, anyone who thinks it is must think the world came into existence in the past four years. Pointing out Banderas and Jackman, both who didn't miss shows and who worked their tails off, prove that you don't really even have a point, other than the typically inane and insecure fear of 'names' keeping Broadway from discovering 'new stars.'

You earn a reputation in the business for drawing money and/or working hard. Why ever cast someone more than once, then, if all producers are supposed to do is 'make new stars.' Don't cast Raul Esparza then because I'm almost certain other people have auditioned for his roles. Susan Egan? Sutton or Hunter Foster? Idina Menzel? Adam Pascal? Sorry, you got your one break, time for other people to earn a living, you're done. The first person to say 'well those people LOVE theater' should go back to Wonderland and bring back Alice while you're at it.

Not everyone gets a break, less talented people make lots of money and puppies get run over by cars. Life stinks. Wear a helmet.

There isn't even a point to this topic anymore.
Updated On: 5/13/04 at 08:02 PM

Posted: 5/13/04 at 8:11pm

Broadway became a vehicle for celebrities when Broadway ceased being of interest to most of the population of the United States of America....

I believe that REALLY kicked in around the time of the Vietnam War and was only acerbated by that composer who wrote chromatic music with esoteric lyrics meant for only a select handful to understand or enjoy and the theatrical communities complete inability to comprehend that times had changed and that they needed to change with the times...

You see, before, singers, movie studios and the like, always ran to Broadway for material, for songs, for talent, for shows to develop into films...

But that ended.... Again, all that began to change with the JFK assassination and when a generation of men died fighting a useless war and then... much later... the devastating rampage that AIDS wrought on this community...which it has never fully recovered from!

and...

And Broadway had no backup plan.... they never thought that people would...

JUST STOP CARING ABOUT BROADWAY !

And that is how Broadway became a vehicle for celebrities!
Updated On: 5/13/04 at 08:11 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 8:31pm

VoiceAnth, I knew I could count on you for something uplifting while I recuperate!

[Plum]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 8:38pm

that composer who wrote chromatic music with esoteric lyrics meant for only a select handful to understand or enjoy

'Scuse you?

[Albin]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 8:39pm

Dollypop? Recuperate? Finally had that sex-reassignment surgery did you?

[javero]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 8:48pm

It’s the same shyt everywhere regardless of occupation. I’m a 15-year mid-level manager in one of the federal bureaucracies. In that time span, the agency has had a revolving door policy of welcoming politicos that are nominated by the Prez (regardless of party) and confirmed by friends of that same Prez in the Senate. Do those politicos possess the institutional knowledge of the peons that are forced to cater to their every whim as they do their master Prez’s bidding? Hell no, but such is the way of the world! Accept stunt casting and move on. It will only get worse unless Broadway discovers away of becoming more accessible to the masses.

Updated On: 5/13/04 at 08:48 PM

[brdwaybaby17]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 8:50pm

While I am not a huge fan of this business, just because someone is famous, it doesn't mean they are not talented. How did they get famous in the first place?? Sure, I know it's not all talent, but some of it has to be... right?

[Plum]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 8:53pm

If you call poise a talent, yes.

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 9:39pm

Hugh Jackman's good!

[Kristie-K2]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 9:59pm

I didn't know who Hugh Jackman was until I saw him in OZ...Now I am a fan for life.....He is just toooooo devine

[broadway86]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 11:14pm

I really don't think that it is fair for critizing stars or Broadway for "making room" for celebrities.

If they have already made it in a certain area (music, film, TV) then I feel that they deserve the power to do whatever they want. It is a free country.

As long as they do a good job in the show (like, IMHO, Fatone, Banderas, Cox, and Jackman) I have no problem with it. If they don't... (Melanie Griffith).

[Jon]

Posted: 5/13/04 at 11:33pm

No one complained in the 1960's when the replacements in HELLO DOLLY included Betty Grable, Phyllis Diller, Ginger Rodgers, Martha Raye and Ethel Merman.

Do you think that when Carol Channing left the show, the role should have gone to her hard working understudy, Joanne Worley???

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/14/04 at 12:25am

It all began with Lucille Ball in Wildcat. Not long after that David Bowie went into The Elephant Man. And then Luke Skywalker followed the Man Who Fell to Earth in that role. Then of course there was Jerry Stiller from Seinfeld in The Golden Apple.

Would the revival of The Ritz have even played its one performance at Xenon were it not for Casey Donavan and Holly Woodlawn? Doubtful.

All of a sudden the mother from "Life Goes On" on ABC is a replacement Maria Callas in Master Class, just to have a big TV star dragging in her fans.

So in conclusion, blame Lucy.

Posted: 5/14/04 at 7:27am

I adore Holly Woodlawn!

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 5/14/04 at 7:34am

I am pretty sure Lucy is the big one - the biggest TV star of her time goes into a Broadway musical, almost on a lark, even though she could not sing or dance - and sells an avalanche of tickets on her TV celebrity alone.
Other Hollywood stars tread the boards (usually when they were either washed-up in Tinselown and/or hoping to get re/discovered by it), but they usually had a modicum of stage experience (either legit or in vaudeville) or could sing or dance.

Bette Davis is another instance (TWOS COMPANY) but was she before or after WILDCAT?

[magruder]

Posted: 5/14/04 at 11:01am

If there was anyone who understood the box office clout of celebrities on Broadway, it was David Merrick. Consider: Jackie Gleason starring (in what was ostensibly a supporting role) in Take Me Along, Lena Horne's star-power keeping Jamaica open for a year plus run at the Imperial (like a certain latter day star vehicle at that same theatre), and Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlain headlining the ill-fated Breakfast at Tiffany's (which I believe was one of the first shows to amass a then astronomical $1 million advance, which Merrick returned when he shut the show down in previews. Star casting has always been with us, whether it was good for the shows or not, or whether the shows the stars appeared in were any good or not.

Updated On: 5/14/04 at 11:01 AM

[brdwaybaby17]

Posted: 5/14/04 at 12:31pm

"the biggest TV star of her time goes into a Broadway musical, almost on a lark, even though she could not sing or dance"

Master, she started as a chorus girl, dancing was her strong point. So... I'm pretty sure she could dance.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 5/14/04 at 1:00pm

I dunno, bb...it was thirty years since she was a Goldwyn Girl, so I think Lucy was a bit rusty by the time she did WILDCAT!

[JakeB]

Posted: 5/14/04 at 1:09pm

Why shouldn't Broadway become a vehical for celebrities? I think this has been summed up in other posts, but brdwaybaby17 sums it up well enough; you have to have talent to get famous, unless you're a billionaire heiress and ..accidentily.. film yourself having sex.

"These famous people come in to sell tickets and overshadow the real, hardworking actors who struggle to pay the rent each month." I say this everytime, but do you actually think that the theatre industry is a secure, profitable business? No! Get real - if the actor loses out to a big star, do you think that the producer doesn't lose out when he puts an unknown in the lead?! Just because the performer is the one in the spotlight it doesn't mean that no-one else gets a look in. Without people like Hugh Jackman, Antonio Banderas, etc, then you've got hundreds of other people struggling to pay the bills.. right down to the ushers.

[davemills00]

Posted: 5/14/04 at 1:09pm

Other Hollywood stars tread the boards (usually when they were either washed-up in Tinselown and/or hoping to get re/discovered by it)

David Hasselhoff in Jkyll and Hyde comes to mind. Or should we say David Hasselawful!

[tpdc]

Posted: 5/14/04 at 2:31pm

Hasn't Broadway always been a vehicle for celebrities? Aren't MAME, DOLLY, FIDDLER, SWEET CHARITY, MAN OF LA MANCHA, GYPSY, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN and most of the "classic" musicals shows that featured a celebrity as their original star? Stars have always been used to sell a musical. The difference is that when these shows were first done, Channing, Merman, Martin, etc. could be household names just from doing Broadway shows and some TV guest spots. Now to get the same effect, you have to put in a TV series name or fading film star. Didn't Lansbury become a bigger star after MAME (or arguably after SWEENEY in MURDER SHE WROTE)?

Banderas and Jackman should not be lumped together with the Hasselhoffs and Linda Blairs.