| I think DOLLY 2017 vs. GYPSY 1989 are two very different beasts. | |
| Posted by: portenopete 11:34 am EDT 06/29/17 | |
| In reply to: qithout a star - dramedy 01:10 am EDT 06/29/17 | |
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| To equate the two productions seems off-base. Bette Midler is a massive star of both film and recording/concerts who- despite no longer being quite as current as she was a decade or so ago- is exactly the kind of magnet that would bring a Broadway audience in. She is one of the very few who can be accurately described as legendary, and the fact that she is making a return to Broadway after fifty years away is a major selling point. Also, HELLO, DOLLY! is a show that was a massive hit in its day and famous for its very long (record-breaking) run. It has been twenty-two years since it was last seen on Broadway and both revivals (in 1978 and 1995) starred its original headliner, Miss Channing. in 1989, Tyne Daly was the star of a successful TV series (maybe it had gone off the air by that point?) who seemed a very unlikely leading lady for a musical, given that no-one had really known her to be a singer. I always thought that part of the success of the second Laurents revival was how surprisingly good it turned out to be. (It was my first GYPSY-with Lavin- and I remember it as being superb on all counts.) As I wrote elsewhere, GYPSY had never been a big popular hit and no revival has changed that, despite the presence of luminaries like Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone. I don't know what the break-even for the current DOLLY is, but I would imagine that once Midler leaves the running costs will go down significantly. And if they can convince a few Big Ladies to take over, I don't understand why they couldn't run for a few years? |
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| Previous: | qithout a star - dramedy 01:10 am EDT 06/29/17 |
| Next: | re: I think DOLLY 2017 vs. GYPSY 1989 are two very different beasts. - JohnDunlop 11:52 am EDT 06/29/17 |
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