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re: The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies.
Posted by: GrumpyMorningBoy 12:30 pm EST 11/29/18
In reply to: The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies. - portenopete 12:09 pm EST 11/29/18

I posted a rather naive (or just plain ignorant) question here, about a year ago, asking if the recent crop of musical theater stars transitioning to TV / film success marked a kind of high water mark, thanks to the spillover from Broadway musical casts into the TV casts of "Glee," "Supergirl," "The Flash," "Younger," "Smash," and the trajectories of James Corden, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hugh Jackman, Anna Kendrick, all in mind...

... and I pretty much got a smackdown from people who named countless figures from the 70s and 80's who got their start in Broadway musicals.

To me, I'm almost more baffled lately about which Broadway stars *don't* seem to become TV or film stars. Audra, most glaringly. Her roles in TV ("Private Practice"), film ("Ricky and the Smash") haven't seemed to net her extra star wattage compared to what she earns in a live theater.

- GMB
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re: The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies.
Posted by: schlepper 12:55 pm EST 11/29/18
In reply to: re: The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies. - GrumpyMorningBoy 12:30 pm EST 11/29/18

Audra has been a regular on THE GOOD FIGHT for the last 2 seasons and is going into her third next year. It seems that every episode of that series is chock full of theatre people.
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re: The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies.
Last Edit: JereNYC 02:25 pm EST 11/29/18
Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 02:25 pm EST 11/29/18
In reply to: re: The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies. - schlepper 12:55 pm EST 11/29/18

Audra McDonald actually joined THE GOOD FIGHT in season 2, reprising a role that she'd originally played as a guest star on THE GOOD WIFE. She was not in season 1 at all.

She's terrific on the show, but I was curious about why the show basically ignored the strong, black, female character in the cast during the first season, only to replace that character with McDonald's, another strong, black, female character in season 2. McDonald quickly became a focus and held her own with the show's other leads, but the original actress was never even given a shot at half the material that McDonald got.

In any case, THE GOOD FIGHT has, so far, been McDonald's strongest work in film or television to date. I hope it gets her some attention, while also hoping that she's able to come back to the stage every couple of years or so.
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