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| Danny LaRue stars as the title character in Hello Dolly |
The
Matter of Gender in Theatre
Although
rare, people can be played by the opposite sex than original
indicated. A more well known incident was when British Female
Impersonator Danny La Rue played Dolly Levi in the musical Hello
Dolly. He holds the distinction of being the first man to play the
female lead in a major musical. This production played for a few
months in London's Prince of Wales Theatre in 1982. He received many
negative reviews for his foray into musical theatre, but he stood by
what he did saying, “I think it's a very good performance.” Danny
LaRue also has the distinction of being the only man to take over a
woman's role in the West End Theatre when he replaced Avis Bunnage in
Oh, What a Lovely War!
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| Whoopi Goldberg replaced Nathan Lane in '97 revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum |
Another
instance where gender bending was used to great success was in the
1997 revival of Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the
Forum. Playing a role originated by Zero Mostel and replaced Nathan
Lane. “What am I going to do with an old white man?” Goldberg
ad-libs, then follows with the punch line, “I got one at home.”
She ad-libed and sang with her limited range which critics noted, but
forgave. The casting of Goldberg — as a slave who procures her
freedom by procuring a prostitute for her master — has transformed
this farce about dirty old men and leggy courtesans into something
hip and hilarious.
Orchestra in the Theatre
Modern
day technology may have been a blessing and a curse all in one. The
audience can hear the orchestra but that orchestra itself is
diminishing. The Golden Age of theatre where there was a sweeping
sound usually had about 26 players. Notably, the original pit of
Gypsy had 29 players. The minimum size of the Broadway orchestra is
governed by an agreement with the musicians union and the Broadway
League. For example, the agreement specifies the minimum size of the
orchestra at the Minskoff Theatre to be 18, at the Music Box Theatre
to be 9. After
a quick google research, this is what we are seeing now on Broadway
right now:
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| 2003 Musician's strike |
Aida
: 13 members, Urinetown: 5 members, Jekyll and Hyde: 14 members,
Kiss of the Spiderwoman: 19 members, Blood Brothers: 9 members,
Wicked: 16 members, Wonderland: 14 members, Spider Man Musical: 17
members, The Addam's Family: 12 members, Bonnie and Clyde: 8 members,
Rocky Musical: 18 members, Les Miserables 2006: 14 members, Pippin:
12 members, Kinky Boots: 13 members, Matilda: 14 members, Dracula
Musical: 8 members, Chicago Musical: 13 members
Most
notably, In 2010, producers of Leonard Bernstein’s classic 2009
revival of West Side Story slashed five musicians after 500
performances, and replaced them with synthesizers. In 2003 during
the musician’s strike the largest theatres that designated 24 or 26
musicians to create the fuller sound. Producers sought to reduce the
minimum size of orchestras by more than two-thirds across all
theaters. The producers were prepared to pump karaoke tracks through
the sound system. Both the actors and stagehands famously went on
strike as well. Eventually the producers gave in but not without
silencing Broadway for four days. After all-night negotiations,
parties agreed to reduce minimum requirements for musicians from
24-26 to 18-19, which would stay in effect for the next 10 years.
The Star in the Room: Stunt Casting
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| Molly Ringwald as Sweet Charity |
Nowadays
it doesn't seem to matter if you are a thespian of the theatre to
grace the boards of Broadway anymore. If you have sold enough movie
tickets then full steam ahead, you can star in a Broadway musical
show! People will still go see you even if you aren't exactly what
the role calls for. Take Molly Ringwald in Sweet Charity. What
seems like ideal casting for the good-hearted taxi-dancer who gets
dumped by life and every boyfriend. Ringwald received good reviews
for her 2001 stint in Cabaret, she's even from a musical family and
the go to actress of the 80s, Ringwald seemed like the perfect fit
for the 2007 touring show. Critics commented on her tenancy to sing
off key, harshly with little inflection. Everything down to
Ringwald's choreography was under the burner, one critic noting that
her dancing looked like “ the remedial version of the bold
Fosse-esque moves.” Everyone noted that she did have the charm it
took to play the role, but not the dance moves nor the voice to carry
a production. She was later replaced by Paige Davis for the last two
months of the tour.
We
are seeing this so often nowadays with such famous names as Brooke
Shields, Alan Rickman, Daniel Radcliff, Nick Jonas, Tom Hanks, Helen
Hunt, Jennifer Garner, Katie Holmes, Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts,
Orlando Bloom, Ashley Judd, Rupert Everett, and Jane Fonda. It seems
that producers, desperate for ticket sales, will throw just about any
known screen actor into a significant role in a play, despite their
lack of any discernible chops.
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| Madonna and Joe Mantegna star in Speed the Plow |
Something
of note is Madonna's appearance as temp. secretary to Hollywood
executive, Karen, in David Mamet's Seed the Plow. At this time
Madonna was fresh off her “Who’s That Girl?” tour and a year before
the release of her hit single, “Express Yourself,” and three years afte her film debut in "Suddenly Susan" she was cast in
the play’s sole female role. Originally intended to be played by
Elizabeth Perkins, although she withdrew a few weeks before
rehearsals began. Madonna then asked to audition. Producers noted,
"you can't take your eyes off her when she's onstage."
Receiving mainly negative reviews, Frank Rich from the New York Times
critiqued that she approached her role "with intelligent,
scrupulously disciplined comic acting. She delivers the shocking
transitions essential to the action and needs only more confidence to
relax a bit and fully command her speaking voice." With
worldwide interest in Madonna's theatre debut reaching fever pitch
and the Lincoln Center facing overwhelming box office demand for
tickets, the show began previews in April 1988 at the Royale Theatre
on Broadway. Madonna had her last performance on August 28th 1988.
The show received three Tony nominations, including Best Play.
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| Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane in The Producers |
Movies
on Broadway vs Original Musical
Rocky,
Matilda, Once, Kinky Boots, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Legally
Blonde, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, Hairspray, The Lion King,
Ghost, Big Fish, Bullets Over Broadway, Mary Poppins,Little Shop of
Horrors, Newsies, The Wizard of Oz, Sister Act, and
9 to 5.
All musicals that have originated as movies that have graced the
boards of Broadway in the past few years. Why not? It isn't as much
of a gamble, the audience is already familiar with the subject
matter. But occasionally a film just clicks on the stage, music and
dance giving it a little something more than celluloid ever did. A
few of them were so successful they earned Broadway's greatest honor:
being adapted into a motion picture.
One
of honor to mention is The
Producers which
opened in movie theatres in 1967 and opened at the St. James Theatre
in 2001. The winner of 12 out of its total 15 Tony Nominations this
was hailed as a hit! It become one of the few musicals to win in
every category for which it was nominated — it received two
nominations for leading actor and three for featured actor. In 2009,
the Broadway production of Billy
Elliot the
Musical received 15 nominations, tying with The Producers for the
most nominations received by a show. Producers
also
broke the record held for 37 years by Hello,
Dolly!
which had won 10. After the opening The
Producers broke
the record for the largest single day box-office ticket sales in
theatre history, taking in more than $3 million. It was announced
that Lane and Broderick would return for a limited run in December
2003 to April 2004. Sales for the show then broke its own record with
over $3.5 million in single day ticket sales. The musical version
out-shown the movie version, that only got two Oscar nominations,
with only one win with Mel Brooks' script.
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| The Book of Mormon was written by the creators of South Park |
On
the other hand, an original musical to mention is one written by the
writers of popular TV show "South Park." The
Book of Mormon
Parker and Stone co-created the music with Lopez, a
co-composer/co-lyricist of Avenue
Q.
The Book of Mormon has garnered overwhelmingly positive critical
response and numerous theatre awards including nine of its 14 Tony
Award nominations, one of which was for Best Musical, and the Grammy
Award for Best Musical Theater Album. An original Broadway cast
recording was released in May 2011 and became the highest-charting
Broadway cast album in over four decades, reaching No. 3 on the
Billboard charts. The producers have been able to charge as much as
$477 for the best seats for performances with particularly high
demand. High attendance coupled with aggressive pricing allowed the
financial backers to recoup their investment of $11.4 million after
just nine months of performances. The Wall Street Journal's Terry
Teachout called the show "slick and smutty: The Book of Mormon
is the first musical to open on Broadway since La
Cage aux Folles
that has the smell of a send-in-the-tourists hit." A film
adaptation has been rumored but not confirmed.
Musical Sequels Do Not Work
Although
rare, there are a few musical sequels out there that should have been
left alone. We all know and love the 1977 musical mega splash hit,
Annie. But do you know anything of it's musical sequel Annie 2: Miss
Hannigan's Revenge? What about the doomed sequel to Bye Bye Birde
which is in turn called, Bring Back Birdie. Also did you know that
even Broadway's longest running musical has a sequel that nobody
seems to mention all that much either, Love Never Dies.
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| Annie 2 received terrible reviews and never made it past its out of town production |
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| Love Never Dies is the flop sequel to The Phantom of the Opera |
Love
Never Dies is the sequel to Lloyd Webber's long-running musical The
Phantom of the Opera. Following a conversation with Maria Björnson,
the designer of The Phantom of the Opera, Lloyd Webber decided that,
if and when a sequel would take place it would be set in New York
City at the turn of the 20th century. One of his ideas was to have
Phantom live above ground in Manhattan's first penthouse, but he
rejected this when he saw a TV documentary about the Coney Island
fairground. After having the musical on the back burner for several
years, Lloyd Webber began working on the production in 2007, finally
opening in in 2010. The original London production received mostly
negative reviews, however, the subsequent Australian production
featuring an entirely new design team and heavy revisions was
generally better received. The planned Broadway production, which was
to have opened simultaneously with the West End run, was delayed and
then indefinitely postponed. The Times, critic Benedict Nightingale
gave the show two out of five stars. The London Evening Standard,
where critic Henry Hitchings wrote that "while Lloyd Webber's
music is at times lavishly operatic, the tone is uneven."
Hitchings also commented that the story "is largely predictable
– and flimsy. The chief problem is the book." The London
production closed on 27 August 2011 after a disappointing run of
fewer than eighteen months.
