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| How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? | |
| Posted by: bobby2 01:02 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| I noticed in an image online that she didn't even take above the title billing when her predecessors both had. I wonder why. | |
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| re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? | |
| Posted by: fredfrankg (fredfrankg427@gmail.om) 09:26 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? - bobby2 01:02 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| While I admired that Riverswhen went into the show to prove she was (still) an actress, the performanceI was disappointing. I'd been a fan of hers for many years, she really wasn't ready for this. Everything about her performance was uncharacteristically (for Rivers) very small. While this may have worked for the character who lived a mundane life of regret and disappointments, she needed to come alive remembering her youth, particularly when she danced with George Raft. Both Lavin and Elizabeth Franz (though I'd only seen video clips of their performances) brilliantly brought this to life, as she (they) stunned her teenage son when she demonstrated a few dance steps from another era for him. Rivers was way too tentative, and kept looking at her feet during this sequence, missing the joy and confidence required of the character in this moment. | |
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| I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. | |
| Posted by: GabbyGerard 10:42 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? - fredfrankg 09:26 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| Of course, it probably wasn't even considered because the Old Globe's production of Broadway Bound, which was performed in rep. with Brighton Beach Memoirs, soon followed the closing of the Broadway revival with Laurie Metcalf and a then mostly unknown Santino Fontana. It seemed to me the Globe programmed the plays to sort of right the wrong of the Broadway closure or at least finish the failed experiment. At any rate, in both productions, Ziemba delivered the best work of her already impressive career (I would also say the same thing about director Scott Schwartz, though his Lost in Yonkers at the Globe was also wonderful) and Uranowitz, long before Falsettos and An American in Paris, demonstrated that he was a STAR TO WATCH. As it should be, the scene where Kate recalls her experience of dancing with Raft was the emotional highlight of the production. Audience members who weren't familiar with Ziemba's life as a dancer (such as my then boyfriend) could be thoroughly moved by the scene, but, if you did know her work, it took on a whole new level of meaning. And, of course, the grace with which she danced was breathtaking, particularly because it was such a contrast to the workhorse physicality with which she carried herself at all other times in the production. I wish I could have seen Lavin, whom I think is just about the best stage actress of her generation, but it's hard for me to imagine the scene ever packing more of a punch than it did with Ziemba. |
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| re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 05:27 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. - GabbyGerard 10:42 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| I can imagine Ziemba being wonderful in the role. I remember when the production was done, and wishing I could see it. Just to clarify in case anyone doesn't know: Fontana played older brother Stanley in Brighton Beach Memoirs with Metcalf, and would have continued as Stanley had Broadway Bound started performances. Noah Robbins, who was terrific, played Eugene in Brighton Beach, and Josh Grisetti was to have played Eugene in Broadway Bound. |
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| re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. | |
| Last Edit: AC126748 09:04 am EDT 08/27/20 | |
| Posted by: AC126748 09:04 am EDT 08/27/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. - AlanScott 05:27 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| I've seen Ziemba give two superb performances in non-singing/dancing roles. One was as Ouisa in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION at the Old Globe. The other was as M'Lynn in STEEL MAGNOLIAS at Cape May Stage. (Ziemba and her husband are longtime summer residents of Cape May). Her Ouisa was far better than the two other actresses I've seen in the role, Allison Janney and Margaret Colin, both of whom on paper would seem more right for the part. And she really elevated STEEL MAGNOLIAS out of the realm of mawkishness. | |
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| That was the best Six Degrees I've ever seen. | |
| Posted by: GabbyGerard 12:14 pm EDT 08/27/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. - AC126748 09:04 am EDT 08/27/20 | |
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| It's the Six Degrees that should have come to Broadway rather than the Janney production. Both were directed by Trip Cullman, but the latter production was such a misfire while the Globe production was both laugh out loud funny (I can still see the chubby kid with the yellow walkman screaming, "You're an idiot!") and incredibly moving--I get goosebumps when I think of Ziemba's delivery of "It was an experience." I've seen three productions and she was the only Ouisa whom I didn't compare to Channing the whole time. She, Thomas Jay Ryan and the actor who played Paul were all sensational. I would love to have seen her M'Lynn. | |
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| re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 07:32 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. - AlanScott 05:27 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| I loved that revival of Brighton Beach Memoirs, and eagerly looked forward to seeing Cromer's take on Broadway Bound. It broke my heart that his production never got to see the light of day. | |
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| re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 09:16 pm EDT 08/27/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. - TheOtherOne 07:32 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| It was a rare case for me of preferring a revival to an original. And while I think that would have been less likely with Broadway Bound, that original production did have its problems, as well as greatness, so perhaps I would have. I didn't even like Brighton Beach Memoirs as a play in the original production, at least not with the original cast. There were some interesting replacements. But the Cromer production was so good that I liked it more. Oddly, it was reported that Metcalf did not like working with Cromer. |
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| Metcalf and the Simon Plays | |
| Posted by: DanielVincent 11:58 am EDT 08/28/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. - AlanScott 09:16 pm EDT 08/27/20 | |
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| I also heard from a fairly reliable source that Metcalf was unhappy working on the Simon plays. Her rapport with Cromer was one factor. I was told another factor was her relationship with Dennis Boutsikaris. Apparently, during their long history of frequently working together, there has been on again/off again romantic involvement. When they signed on to the Simon plays, it was on again; as the process continued, it careened to off again. | |
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| re: Metcalf and the Simon Plays | |
| Last Edit: TheOtherOne 06:01 am EDT 08/29/20 | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 05:57 am EDT 08/29/20 | |
| In reply to: Metcalf and the Simon Plays - DanielVincent 11:58 am EDT 08/28/20 | |
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| Quite likely. He appeared off-Broadway with her in The Other Place, but was replaced by Daniel Stern and then Bill Pullman two seasons later when MTC produced the play on Broadway. (Still my favorite performance of hers, for what it’s worth) | |
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| Me too! | |
| Posted by: GabbyGerard 10:54 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. - TheOtherOne 07:32 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| Metcalf, Fontana, and especially Robbins were really sensational. Maybe I'm naive, but I really think it could found its audience had it been given more of a chance to run. But, as someone sang in a DIFFERENT Ziemba show, "It's a business!" | |
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| re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 01:14 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. - GabbyGerard 10:42 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| Did Uranowitz also play Eugene in BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS? | |
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| re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. | |
| Posted by: GabbyGerard 01:48 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wish the production with Karen Ziemba and Brandon Uranowitz had come to Broadway. - JereNYC 01:14 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| Not really--he appeared briefly as Adult Eugene in an added prologue, a part of the scene in Broadway Bound when he and Stanley leave the house, which cast Brighton Beach Memoirs as sort of extended flashback. I don't remember the name of the young actor who played Eugene, but he was great. | |
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| re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? | |
| Posted by: dbdbdb 08:07 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? - bobby2 01:02 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| To my mind, it was a competent performance, but smaller than Linda Lavin's work in every way. This was especially true in the mother's big scene, her memory of dancing with George Raft, to which she brought a much more limited range. Oddly, she also didn't nail the big laughs that Lavin got. On the plus side, she did capture the character's innate sadness. But she also was a little bit hard to hear, probably not being used to projecting her voice in a 1,100-seat theatre. | |
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| re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? | |
| Posted by: AC126748 09:32 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? - dbdbdb 08:07 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| This aligns with my memory -- a professional, respectable performance, but not on the level of Lavin or Elizabeth Franz. I recall that in Leslie Bennetts' excellent biography of Rivers, Last Girl Before Freeway, she wrote that the cast was initially very cold toward Rivers. Apparently they felt that Elizabeth Franz, who was well liked, had been pushed out in favor of stunt casting. But Bennetts wrote that Rivers won the cast over with her professionalism and determination to give a good performance. |
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| re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 04:57 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? - AC126748 09:32 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| "a professional, respectable performance" Reminds me of how I felt about Elizabeth Taylor in The Little Foxes and Jane Fonda in 33 Variations, although Fonda was better than Taylor. Taylor particularly seemed like an understudy who was given very strict instructions to imitate the star. Fonda at least seemed like the understudy who was given a bit more leeway and had been playing it for a couple of weeks while the star was on vacation. |
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| re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? | |
| Posted by: AC126748 08:58 am EDT 08/27/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? - AlanScott 04:57 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| I agree with your assessment of Fonda's performance based on the first time I saw it, at a critics' preview. However, I went back and saw the show again in its final week, and by that point, she had fully come into her own. | |
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| Joan was also a "theatre critic" | |
| Posted by: DistantDrumming 07:19 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? - AlanScott 04:57 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| I enjoyed her appearances on Theater Talk | |
| Link | Joan, Critic |
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| re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? | |
| Posted by: champagnesalesman 11:46 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? - AC126748 09:32 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| I recall enjoying her performance alot but not as much as Lavin's and it was, smaller. It reminded me of Carol Burnett in FRIENDLY FIRE her first big dramatic role where she seemed to be holding back..I think for fear that anything too "big" would remind you of something she had done in a sketch over 11 years on TV. Rivers fared better in SALLY MARR. Did anyone see her in FUN CITY or LUV? |
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| I saw her in FUN CITY | |
| Posted by: Jax 02:54 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? - champagnesalesman 11:46 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| She was as broad as she used to be on the Carson show, no nuance, just hunting for laughs. The show, which she wrote, was terrible. An endless series of one-liners about how tough life in New York in the 70s was. Anyone who thinks that Neil Simon was a mere jokesmith, cranking out wisecracks, needs to experience FUN CITY. Simon's PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE was an actual play version of what Rivers was trying to do. | |
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| re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 01:19 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? - champagnesalesman 11:46 am EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| Based on that documentary that was released a few years before she died, Rivers fondest wish was to have been taken seriously as an actress, rather than just as a comic. She seems to have loved the theatre and attended productions big and small as much as her busy schedule allowed. It's a shame that she never seemed to achieve the success as an actress that she wanted, but that might have come had she devoted herself to it heart and soul, as she did her comedy career. Acting always seemed like a sideline and that's not a great way to get taken seriously. |
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| Rivers in The Swimmer | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 04:53 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 04:49 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? - JereNYC 01:19 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| You can see her in a smallish role in the very serious 1968 film The Swimmer, based (very freely) on a Cheever story, starring Burt Lancaster, directed by Frank Perry, at least officially. There were conflicts, and some of Perry's work was replaced, with one scene recast and newly directed by Sidney Pollack. Still, it's a strange and fascinating film. Rivers had already made a good number of TV appearances as a comedienne and personality, but I guess she hadn't quite yet become really famous when she was cast in a smallish but noticeable role in this very serious and intentionally odd and disturbing movie. Regarding, "She seems to have loved the theatre and attended productions big and small as much as her busy schedule allowed." She was seated behind me when I saw Urinetown at ATA before Broadway. Or was she in front of me? Now I can't remember. Henry Winkler was also seated near me and the friend I was with. When I returned to my seat during intermission, my friend was in a friendly conversation about the show with Winkler, who was there alone and had started the conversation with my friend. |
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| RIVERS -- at the theatre | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 06:56 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: Rivers in The Swimmer - AlanScott 04:49 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| I saw Joan Rivers twice at 2 different Broadway shows. The first time was in 2005 at the Broadhurst for 700 Sundays. My partner and I were in Standing Room. We noticed her as the usher led her to her seat. The second time was in 2008 at the Booth for Dividing the Estate. I was sitting in maybe the 4th or 5th row of the Orchestra and Rivers was in the same row, a few seats to my left. Before the play started, she pulled a package of string red licorice out of her purse, began munching away, and them offered some to everyone in our row. When the package got to me, I took a piece and handed it back toward her (I think I was on the aisle). It was quite tasty. |
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| re: RIVERS -- at the theatre | |
| Posted by: writerkev 08:39 am EDT 08/27/20 | |
| In reply to: RIVERS -- at the theatre - BroadwayTonyJ 06:56 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| Sure, I'll join in, what the heck. :^) I saw her at "Outside Mullingar" at MTC, and right after the play she was eagerly telling her companion they had to go back to visit the dressing rooms. I don't know if she knew Debra Messing or another of the actors personally, or maybe she saw that as part of her duty as a celebrity when seeing a play? |
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| re: RIVERS -- at the theatre | |
| Posted by: AC126748 09:00 am EDT 08/27/20 | |
| In reply to: re: RIVERS -- at the theatre - writerkev 08:39 am EDT 08/27/20 | |
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| I used to see her at the theater quite frequently. One time I remember was at a random Monday evening performance of DRIVING MISS DAISY, the Vanessa Redgrave/James Earl Jones revival, well into the run. I assume that because of her busy schedule she didn't always get to opening nights or press previews as most celebrities tend to do. I distinctly remember her wiping away tears during the final scene between Redgrave and Jones. | |
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| re: RIVERS -- at the theatre | |
| Posted by: AlexanderKat 04:46 pm EDT 08/27/20 | |
| In reply to: re: RIVERS -- at the theatre - AC126748 09:00 am EDT 08/27/20 | |
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| My turn...lol. Back in the seventies, I had arrived in Los Angeles and worked at a trendy West Hollywood restaurant. One day Joan Rivers came in and I was able to tell her how much I had enjoyed a recent TV movie she had written and would it be repeated. In her typical fashion, she shouted, "Write those network sons of bitches!" I mentioned I was looking forward to seeing her the following week at a place called Ye Little Club which she regularly appeared at. She told me to mention a name when I arrived. Then she actually punched my arm (lightly) and yelled, "Write it down. Write it down!" When I arrived I was seated at a ringside table and told Ms. Rivers was taking care of the check and would like to see me afterward. After the show, I was escorted to her dressing room where I was introduced to a warm Florence Henderson and an icky Roddy McDowell. Ms. Rivers refrained from talking to her visitors, sat me down next to her, and wanted to know all about me. She was incredibly gracious and comfortable to be with. To this day, she's one of the nicest people I've met. | |
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| re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? | |
| Posted by: tandelor 01:57 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How was Joan Rivers in Broadway Bound? - JereNYC 01:19 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| Seems sad that being regarded as one of the great comics of her generation wasn't enough. I say this as a huge fan of hers and with great respect. | |
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