What broadway play?

[Nitemare]

39 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

The reason I asked Is that my cousin who wrote the play that bombed in NY opened to raves in Boston .The play was A Prelude to Hamlet.

I have not seen that.  I find that sequels and prequels to Shakespeare plays that were not written by him are uneven at best.  I came to that conclusion after seeing Nathan Lane (who I love) in "Gary, a sequel to Titus Andronicus" a year or so ago

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, Nitemare said:

I have not seen that.  I find that sequels and prequels to Shakespeare plays that were not written by him are uneven at best.  I came to that conclusion after seeing Nathan Lane (who I love) in "Gary, a sequel to Titus Andronicus" a year or so ago

When I went to see my cousins play in Manhattan he gave me a seat next to the reviewer from The NY Times.At intermission the guy began to talk to me and when I said I was enjoying the play he said that I had to be related to the playwright.The play was not good.

[George C]

4 hours ago, Nitemare said:

I have not seen that.  I find that sequels and prequels to Shakespeare plays that were not written by him are uneven at best.  I came to that conclusion after seeing Nathan Lane (who I love) in "Gary, a sequel to Titus Andronicus" a year or so ago

We enjoyed Gary , really wasn’t sure if my wife would like it after reading the reviews but she laughed all thru the show , I also really liked it but it was a strange show. 

[lenquixote66]

On 7/16/2020 at 10:51 PM, George C said:

We enjoyed Gary , really wasn’t sure if my wife would like it after reading the reviews but she laughed all thru the show , I also really liked it but it was a strange show. 

I was never a fan of Nathan Lane.

[Nitemare]

On 7/18/2020 at 5:42 PM, lenquixote66 said:

I was never a fan of Nathan Lane.

We love Lane and I often have said I'd pay to see him read the phone book.  After Gary I have retracted that comment

[lenquixote66]

7 hours ago, Nitemare said:

We love Lane and I often have said I'd pay to see him read the phone book.  After Gary I have retracted that comment

I know many people who enjoy his acting.It is all opinions.😀

[George C]

Most of the plays we have seen had great casts but nobody I have ever heard of like cast of Come from away. But I do enjoy seeing my favorite actors like Kevin Kline, Glen Close , James Earl Jones and academy award winners like Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand , what are your favorite actors on broadway!

[lenquixote66]

3 hours ago, George C said:

Most of the plays we have seen had great casts but nobody I have ever heard of like cast of Come from away. But I do enjoy seeing my favorite actors like Kevin Kline, Glen Close , James Earl Jones and academy award winners like Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand , what are your favorite actors on broadway!

In the summer of 1966 my girlfriend and future wife saw a James Earl Jones in Hamlet In an outdoors park in Brooklyn.We never heard of him and were so impressed by his performance that over the years we have tried to see him in every play he has appeared in.Other favorites are Angela Lansbury,Kevin Kline and John Lithgow.

[lenquixote66]

We received a refund this afternoon from our Theater Club for Tina and West Side Story.

[markeb]

4 hours ago, George C said:

Most of the plays we have seen had great casts but nobody I have ever heard of like cast of Come from away. But I do enjoy seeing my favorite actors like Kevin Kline, Glen Close , James Earl Jones and academy award winners like Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand , what are your favorite actors on broadway!

 

This is a weird one for us. We've pretty much never seen an original cast, so we've rarely seen a major star on Broadway. And one of the times we did, it was a major disappointment (the previously mentioned Aadams Family with Brooke Shields), not so much her performance as the production itself just wasn't good. Tim Curry as King Arthur in Spamalot was amazing.

 

Two actresses I'd gladly seek out both played Beverly Bass in Come From Away. Jenn Colella originated the role on Broadway and was absolutely amazing (from one of those people everyone liked and admired in relative obscurity to Tony nominee). And Rachel Tucker had the role when we saw the show in the West End over the New Year holiday (and took over on Broadway right before it went dark). 

[Nitemare]

Brooke wasn't original cast.  Bebe Neuwirth was and she's great.  But the show itself (even Nathan Lane) just wasn't that good.  He was also in a remake of The Odd Couple, with Matthew Broderick, trying to recreate the magic of The Producers, and that one didn't work, either.

 

But speaking of Big Name Casts, how many members of the Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton were folks familiar with?  Maybe Groff, but there certainly weren't any BIG NAMES in that cast.

[markeb]

57 minutes ago, Nitemare said:

Brooke wasn't original cast.  Bebe Neuwirth was and she's great.

 

I probably didn't write that very well. I knew Brooke wasn't original cast, but she was one of the few big name stars we've seen on Broadway, in a very disappointing show.

 

Since we're not local to New York, we don't normally have good recognition of Broadway performers that haven't hit the movies or TV, and we kind of like that. Most of our favorite performances have been with casts, like Hamilton or Come From Away, that aren't well known outside the theater, and in some cases (like Jenn Colella) are having the role of their career so far.

 

I did just realize that we saw John Owen-Jones as Valjean in Les Miserables in I think 2017. I'd put him on the list of well-known actors we've seen live, and a good Valjean makes a Les Miserables performance!

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, Nitemare said:

But speaking of Big Name Casts, how many members of the Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton were folks familiar with?  Maybe Groff, but there certainly weren't any BIG NAMES in that cast.

 

Renée Elise Goldsberry was very well known to TV viewers -- in numbers that probably far exceed Broadway audiences.  I certainly knew her from her years on the "The Good Wife."  What was surprising to me was to learn (from "Hamilton") that she sings and raps!  (Although I guess fans of "Ally McBeal" already knew she's a singer.)   And Miranda, while not the household name he's become because of "Hamilton," had already won Tonys for "In the Heights."   

 

But yes, it's not like the OBC of "Hamilton" was:  starring HUUUUGE Name(s).   And it didn't need to, apparently.  🙂

 

I have been fortunate to see some great OBCs with "big names" --  several that really stand out in my memory are "Sweeney Todd" (Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou),  "Phantom" (Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman"), and "Les Miz" (Colm Wilkinson)  (those stars of the latter two shows of course coming over from the original West End casts).

[lenquixote66]

Many times in my opinion relative unknowns can be better than the lead actors.

[lenquixote66]

OOPS I posted yesterday that I saw James Earl Jones in Hamlet.I have programs from every show I have ever been to and it was actually Macbeth.A production of the New York Shakespeare Festival Mobile Theater.

[George C]

A little off topic , just saw a good movie Motherless Brooklyn and there was a scene filmed in a nightclub in Broadway area Feinstein 54 below , great small club that gets some big acts , went there last year.

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, George C said:

A little off topic , just saw a good movie Motherless Brooklyn and there was a scene filmed in a nightclub in Broadway area Feinstein 54 below , great small club that gets some big acts , went there last year.

I was never in Feinstein54 Below but I was in the building many times when my late friend Steve Rubell owned Studio 54..

Where did you see the movie ? I have several DVD’s of obscure movies about Brooklyn filmed in Brooklyn.

I saw a movie on Netflix a few months ago that was filmed in Bushwick.I may have told you about it previously .

[George C]

The movie is very recent 2019 with excellent cast it was on hbo for first time this weekend. I went to Bushwick high graduated in 1966 the month I turned 17. Had a few friends who lived across the street from bushwick hs. 

[lenquixote66]

3 minutes ago, George C said:

The movie is very recent 2019 with excellent cast it was on hbo for first time this weekend. I went to Bushwick high graduated in 1966 the month I turned 17. Had a few friends who lived across the street from bushwick hs. 

I know you grew up in Bushwick.I once told you that I went to a medical doctor in Bushwick.I went to Wingate HS.

[lenquixote66]

On 4/28/2020 at 1:36 PM, ams cruiser said:

I hope this is okay to post this here, so moderators, please delete if it is not. It is a question about ticket refunds.  We had tickets for Hamilton in S.F., and received a notice from Broadway SF on March 31st that the remaining shows were cancelled (Hamilton was schedule to run through the end of May), and that tickets would be automatically refunded.
 

Our refund has not been issued, and the response to an email inquiry was that this would be dealt with when the shelter-in-place is lifted, and staff can return to the ticket office.  There was mention of limited staff currently working, presumably from home?

We, ourselves, have been sheltering in place for 45 days, so the fact that the office is closed is not surprising. I guess that I (mistakenly), assumed that the "automatic" refunds would be more  -  automatic?

Just wondering if other venues, particularly on Broadway,  were handling refunds in a similar manner.

 

Thanks, and hope everyone is staying safe!  

Shows announced today that they will re-open between Spring and Fall 2021.

[ams cruiser]

31 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Shows announced today that they will re-open between Spring and Fall 2021.

Pretty optimistic.  Let's hope we can put this nightmare behind us by then.  

My sister has had season tickets at Broadway SF for years, and, when their shows were cancelled this spring, they were informed that their subscription was being transferred over to next year.  

It took a really long time to get our refund for Hamilton.  They didn't issue them until after the date of the actual show, long after it had been cancelled.  There was a fair amount of unhappiness on social media about the way it was handled. Perfectly understandable that they were dealing with a horrendous situation, but Broadway SF would have made it so much easier on themselves if they had been more forthcoming on their website about where they were in the refund process, and that they were actually not planning to issue refunds until after the date of your particular show.  One person posted that he had given up trying to get information from them, and had told them he was going to contest the charge on his credit card.  He posted the rather angry response he got from them, which said that, if he did so, his name would be removed from the queue, and he would never be able to purchase tickets from them again!

 

[George C]

Only possible bright thing is it may be easier to get tickets for Hamilton when things open up since many people have canceled and many people will fear returning. Can’t imagine how it is for all the unemployed actors , also hotel workers , restaurants workers , musicians in New York and rest of the nation. 

[lenquixote66]

2 hours ago, George C said:

Only possible bright thing is it may be easier to get tickets for Hamilton when things open up since many people have canceled and many people will fear returning. Can’t imagine how it is for all the unemployed actors , also hotel workers , restaurants workers , musicians in New York and rest of the nation. 

My wife’s sister has a close friend who is an actor,primarily stage who is a member of a Brooklyn theater that has been open 65 years.They refuse to close .They advertise that they hope to open in the a Fall of 2021.Normally the house actors appear in TV shows filmed in Manhattan .However,they have been taking regular jobs this year wherever they can find them.

I posted before that a theater located around the corner from my house closed permanently in March.

 

[lenquixote66]

The musical Diana scheduled to open in 2021 is airing on Playbill.com this week.

[George C]

RIP to Diana Riggs TV, movie and broadway star would have loved to have seen her on broadway she was in My Fair Lady before everything shutdown.