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re: Underwood and "Attempting"

Posted by: Zelgo 05:17 pm EST 12/06/13
In reply to: Underwood and "Attempting" - enoch10 05:13 pm EST 12/06/13

We have a stark choice to make: Do we want more TV productions of Bway musicals to expose Americans to the artform or not? If we do, we will have to accept big-name stars in the major roles.

Otherwise, no TV channel will risk millions of dollars to present these shows.


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re: Underwood and "Attempting"

Posted by: FriendofDorothy 06:04 pm EST 12/06/13
In reply to: re: Underwood and "Attempting" - Zelgo 05:17 pm EST 12/06/13

Yes, this is totally true. Had a Broadwayite been cast in the role, perfect though she might have been, we here at ATC would have been everyone that tuned in. Carrie Underwood gave the producers and NBC 18.5M reasons to do this again.


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re: how much would you want to bet

Posted by: SQ 06:11 pm EST 12/06/13
In reply to: re: Underwood and "Attempting" - FriendofDorothy 06:04 pm EST 12/06/13

That even if every role in last night's production was cast with Broadway people, one would still find just as many negative posts today finding fault with this and that.

The ATC crowd is pretty predictable.


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re: Underwood and "Attempting"

Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 05:22 pm EST 12/06/13
In reply to: re: Underwood and "Attempting" - Zelgo 05:17 pm EST 12/06/13

But, for the umpteenth time, there are SOME big-name stars who could cut the mustard in a TV version of a Broadway musical, with Anne Hathaway and Lady Gaga as only two examples. Although of course I have no way of knowing for sure, I suspect that both of those women might jump at the chance to star in such a show.


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re: Underwood and "Attempting"

Posted by: FriendofDorothy 06:19 pm EST 12/06/13
In reply to: re: Underwood and "Attempting" - Michael_Portantiere 05:22 pm EST 12/06/13

If Lady Gaga were cast in anything, I think I would need to switch from being a theatre queen to being into something else. Hathaway would be awesome in the right role (although, it should be noted, she would not be ideal casting for Maria).

I think the idea of casting a pop music person is that they will A) bring a lot of viewers who otherwise wouldn't tune in and B) sell some albums!

I still don't know who they could have cast as Maria that would have been better and as big a draw as Carrie was.


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re: Underwood and "Attempting"

Posted by: lowwriter 06:12 pm EST 12/06/13
In reply to: re: Underwood and "Attempting" - Michael_Portantiere 05:22 pm EST 12/06/13

Do you think Lady Gaga could have played Maria? And how do we know she can act?

I read somewhere online that Hathaway was the requested actress by the Von Trapp family to play Maria. I don't know if there's any truth to that.


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re: Underwood and "Attempting"

Posted by: MockingbirdGirl 06:16 pm EST 12/06/13
In reply to: re: Underwood and "Attempting" - lowwriter 06:12 pm EST 12/06/13

Do you think Lady Gaga could have played Maria? And how do we know she can act?

She can't.


-MBG, who actually saw Machete Kills :-o


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re: Underwood and "Attempting"

Posted by: LegitOnce 05:48 pm EST 12/06/13
In reply to: re: Underwood and "Attempting" - Michael_Portantiere 05:22 pm EST 12/06/13

Another thing you have no way of knowing for sure is whether Hathaway or Gaga could "cut the mustard" in the unique challenge of singing, dancing and acting a stage musical on live TV. Neither one has ever tried. It's fair to say that these two would seem to show great promise for such a project, but the point is that right now you are comparing an idealized imaginary experience to a real one, and naturally reality suffers in comparison to your fantasy.

People are being extremely rough on Underwood, mostly because she was (I think) essentially miscast in a part that needs a high level of charm and star quality to paper over what is otherwise a not very interesting character dramatically. But she didn't cast herself: she was offered the job by people who are experts in the field of musical comedy. Why should she doubt their expertise, after all: that's their job, and she really knows very little about the subject.

From my point of view, her acting was passable in the lighter scenes, her singing was solid if not particularly idiomatic, and she danced gracefully. She clearly needed more direction, but again, that's not her problem: she wasn't the director.


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re: Underwood and "Attempting"

Posted by: lowwriter 06:13 pm EST 12/06/13
In reply to: re: Underwood and "Attempting" - LegitOnce 05:48 pm EST 12/06/13

In the case of Hathaway, she has a lot of stage experience and I was impressed how she was able to do Shakespeare a few summers ago in New York. And having seen her in Carnival! at City Center I think she knows how to act and sing.


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re: Underwood and "Attempting"

Posted by: mikem 06:25 pm EST 12/06/13
In reply to: re: Underwood and "Attempting" - lowwriter 06:13 pm EST 12/06/13

Despite the whole "Carrie Underwood was our first choice," if Anne Hathaway had wanted to do it, we would have seen her last night. I'm sure she got some kind of informal feeler. Maybe from a career trajectory perspective, doing TV right after winning the Oscar didn't seem like the right choice for her. Or a million other potential reasons. But if Hathaway had wanted the role, she would have gotten it. I have no doubt about that.

As for Lady Gaga, I'm not sure she would have been any better than Underwood. Lady Gaga would have been much more inherently miscast than Underwood. A naive girl studying to be a nun doesn't exactly conjure up images of Lady Gaga. When she wore a nun's headgear on tour, that outfit also had bandages in an X over her nipples because the dress was see-through plastic. And despite Underwood's underwhelming acting, I don't think she was miscast. As with Fantasia in The Color Purple, Underwood COULD have given an amazing performance despite little experience. It was a gamble that only semi-paid-off, but I don't blame the producers for making that gamble.


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re: Underwood and "Attempting"

Posted by: Chromolume 08:24 pm EST 12/06/13
In reply to: re: Underwood and "Attempting" - mikem 06:25 pm EST 12/06/13

A naive girl studying to be a nun doesn't exactly conjure up images of Lady Gaga.

Besides, somehow, hearing "...and starring Lady Gaga as Maria" just doesn't sound right, lol. (Would she have reverted back to calling herself Stefani Germanotta, to sound more proper in this context, lol?)


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