Several comments here:
Um...Lea "Bitch" Michele auditioning for FUNNY GIRL in 2010. What a sad, pathetic attempt that was.
I also found Ricky Martin incredibly, um, spirited for Che in EVITA. Almost like he was a campaign worker for the Perons. I wish him well on his recently announced plans to stay in New York to work on Broadway, but I sure hope he doesn't play Billy Flynn like a charming, perky Boy Scout, which is likely to happen.
I have a love/hate relationship with Mary Testa. Some days, like the day I first heard the QUEEN OF MIST cast album, I thought, "Wow! What a great performance! She's fabulous and this is only the CD!" And then I think of her shameless mugging and ass slapping during "Sit Down Your Rockin' the Boat" (as seen on the 2009 Tony Awards) and think "Get this woman off the stage." And then I hear her sing "Set Those Sails" by Bill Finn and think, "God, she's great." And then I think back to her performance as General Cartwright. Very conflicted feelings right there.
There's Doug Hodge and his tone-deaf (and Tony winning!) performance as Albin, brilliantly captured on the Tony Awards in 2010. When Arthur Laurents called the production "homophobic" I thought, "How? How could a production of a big, gay extravaganza be homophobic?" Then I saw Hodge, who gave Albin a great deal of camp, when he should have given him a great deal of dignity. The whole production of the show was misguided and when the Cowardly Lion...I mean Raquel Welch...handed the Weisslers the Tony for Revival (To which they obviously responded, "This IS the best of the times!" How original Barry and Fran!) I cringed.
And darling Catherine Zeta Jones, who was looking for her friend Steve at the Tonys that night. Was she singing "Isn't he rich?" "Isn't he queer?" I mean, yes Mr. Sondheim has made some money in his theatrical career and is a gay man, Catherine. But he wasn't at the Tony Awards that year. "Send in the Chiropractor."
When you make Bernadette Peters extremely uncomfortable and make Hugh Jackman look like a future-TO CATCH A PREDATOR star, you don't sell tickets. At least not to me. I'm talking about GODSPELL's performance in June.
Updated On: 7/22/12 at 01:59 AM
