Whoopi Goldberg starring in ANNIE at MSG- Page 2

[ACL2006]

Posted: 8/7/24 at 4:55pm

The View would likely go on hiatus beginning Dec. 21 and resume on Jan. 6. I still don't expect her to do all 8 shows a week.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 5:09pm

 

[singerunlimited]

Posted: 12/10/24 at 12:36pm

Eager to hear thoughts on this production, especially as Whoopi joins the cast tomorrow night. Whomever is going, please report back!

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/10/24 at 2:21pm

I wouldn't expect much from Whoopi in this. She even said she doesn't need to sing this role. When I saw her in Xanadu in 2008, she could barely keep up and remember her lines. Now 16 years later, all I would expect from her is to stand in one spot and say her lines.

[SmokeyLady]

Posted: 12/10/24 at 2:43pm

Don't set your expectations high.  But she should still be fun to catch in this.  

[RUkiddingme]

Posted: 12/10/24 at 5:57pm

the NY theater scene would survive without another Annie revival.

But those kids on GMA today sounded good!   Bet they sold a lot of tickets this morning!

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 12/10/24 at 6:19pm

I was DRAGGED to this production against my will with a free ticket (it did not sell well here) in Chicago and it was DELIGHTFUL. 

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 12/10/24 at 6:36pm

ACL2006 said: "I wouldn't expect much from Whoopi in this. She even said she doesn't need to sing this role. When I saw her in Xanadu in 2008, she could barely keep up and remember her lines. Now 16 years later, all I would expect from her is to stand in one spot and say her lines."

I worked at Xanadu and as LOVELY as she was to every person in the building she actually kept getting worse and ended up carrying note cards with the lines on them at one point (and it wasn't the beginning). I don't think she ever got her Ursula Andress line correct the entire run. 

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/10/24 at 7:14pm

i saw Whoopi in Xanadu and she had note cards at certain points in the show.

[FANtomFollies]

Posted: 12/10/24 at 9:24pm

ACL2006 said: "i saw Whoopi in Xanadu and she had note cards at certain points in the show."

Why is this actually making me want to see her in Annie? Can't wait to hear reports!

[RippedMan]

Posted: 12/10/24 at 10:16pm

Kind of agree. But also why is she doing it? 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 12/10/24 at 10:42pm

I hope she’s messy as she can possibly be. I can’t wait.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/10/24 at 11:54pm

has anyone seen this through TDF and know where the seats might be?

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/11/24 at 6:55am

RippedMan said: "Kind of agree. But also why is she doing it?"

Whoopi is known for not being good with her money. she makes about $8 million a year at "The View" but had to take out a loan to pay for her new place in Italy. Can't imagine she's getting all that much for this 4 week run in Annie.

Updated On: 12/11/24 at 06:55 AM

[Bwaygurl2]

Posted: 12/11/24 at 7:45am

Whoopi has got to be doing this for the fun of it right? 

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/11/24 at 5:38pm

Anyone going tonight?

[jlindsey865]

Posted: 12/11/24 at 8:21pm

Love Whoopi, but very unsure if she will be able to deliver in this role at this point in her career.  I watch The View daily, and she seems to be increasingly struggling as moderator on that show.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 12/11/24 at 8:30pm

At intermission. Earlier discussion makes me feel compelled to report. Not only is the production surprisingly good, Whoopi knows all her lines, is singing!, and is finding laughs. This is a nostalgic treat, having a grand time, more later. 

Updated On: 12/11/24 at 08:30 PM

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 12/11/24 at 9:29pm

Scarywarhol said: "At intermission. Earlier discussion makes me feel compelled to report. Not only is the production surprisingly good, Whoopi knows all her lines, is singing!, and is finding laughs. This is a nostalgic treat, having a grand time, more later."

At least you’re in the lively part of MSG today… Atlanta just eliminated the Knicks from this season’s NBA Cup.

Enjoy the second act!

Updated On: 12/11/24 at 09:29 PM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/11/24 at 9:40pm

Bwaygurl2 said: "Whoopi has got to be doing this for the fun of it right?"

Anyone at her level of fame and wealth is only doing the things she wants to be doing. She's got weird tastes. She gets offered a lot of things and this, for some reason, must have appealed to her. (I assume she's been offered Hannigan MANY times over the years)

[RippedMan]

Posted: 12/11/24 at 9:57pm

Glad to hear it!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/11/24 at 10:33pm

So…..I had a blast. It’s just a GOOD production of “Annie” which honestly I wasn’t expecting. And Whoopi is doing the kind of broad(ish) comedy she did in the 80s and for someone like me that grew up watching and living for it - it’s a thrill. I saw a lot of her Terry Doolittle in this Hannigan, actually. Was her singing the best? No, but she DID sing it all and it didn’t even matter (to me).  But (and I’m sorry i don’t have their names off the top of my head), the Annie was superb, Warbucks, fantastic and Grace just sublime, I thought. Again for something i expected to cater to 8 year olds this was a good old-school production of this musical. Worth every penny. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/11/24 at 10:42pm

It’s always sad when great actors, comedic or dramatic, develop reputations for being washed up or hacky in their twilight years. Whoopi has been a daytime TV punching bag for so long it’s sometimes easy to forget what a FORCE she could be in the eighties and nineties. I’d love to see a renaissance for her.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 12/11/24 at 11:18pm

Okay, here's more! I will echo Jordan about the actors...I have the playbill and those performers were Hazel Vogel (Annie), Julia Nicole Hunter (Grace), and Christopher Swan (Warbucks). All really honestly excellent.

The whole cast and production are enjoyable, and Whoopi picked a better and more supportive vehicle for a stage comeback than many might have suspected. Look, I don't want to be hyperbolic, but it was great to me to see her in this mode. Especially seeing some of the "old" Whoopi in the context of something nostalgic for the holidays. And I think she will get better, as she seemed pretty actively to be trying some choices out tonight, which was fun to see. She really sang Little Girls and I thought pulled it off! Yay for Whoopi. Fan of so many of her 80s/90s movies and original standup, but I didn't expect much from this other than to say I saw her. I left really happy to have seen her actually give a comedic performance. 

The set may not be super expensive-looking (this is a tour post-Covid) but I found it pretty classy and it has a nice forced perspective throughout. The pit sounded very good too. Having only seen the Lapine revival, I generally preferred this more modest production. I certainly laughed more.

The children were well-behaved, by the way, but there were some really terrible drunk and loud adults. Not enough to wreck the fun night. Insane getting in tonight with the Knicks game also going on. 

Updated On: 12/11/24 at 11:18 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/11/24 at 11:41pm

Oh Jesus don’t get me started on getting INTO the theater tonight. I thought people were going to be trampled. They had the people for Annie and for the game entering the same doors and they closed them off because of crowd size and made everyone gather on the street behind barricades and they finally moved them and it was like old videos of Black Friday where people started stampeding in. Then i had forgotten it’s basically airport security for every single person which takes forever. I honestly didn’t think we were gonna make it in on time. 
 

Point of the story - get there a lot earlier than you think you would probably need to.