| re: Angela Lansbury in "A Little Family Business" (1982) - Four on Å Garden | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 04:11 pm EDT 06/16/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Angela Lansbury in "A Little Family Business" (1982) - Four on Å Garden - Musicals54 03:29 pm EDT 06/11/22 | |
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| Sid Caesar replaced Barry Nelson out of town in Four on a Garden, a really bad sign. Why replace one of the most skilled and reliable Broadway actors of light comedy? Having said that, it seems like perhaps Channing and Nelson were in different shows, which was the reason given in the press. A couple of performances in Pittsburgh, the third of four tryout cities, were canceled, reportedly because Channing was ill. As these were the first performances in which Caesar was to have appeared, perhaps the real reason was that he was not ready. Or perhaps stress was taking a toll on Channing. Or maybe she just got sick. In the first two tryout cities, New Haven and Boston, critics noted that Channing was far from secure on her lines. Nelson, btw, had replaced Joseph Campanella during the Cactus Flower tryout. Campanella got good reviews, and the show itself got good reviews and was a smash out of town, so perhaps he and Bacall did not get along. But I can also imagine that Campanella was perhaps too right for the role, if you know what I mean. He seemed too much like a guy who would lie to a young woman and fool around with other women while keeping her on a string, while Nelson probably made the character more likably muddled. (Not that Nelson did not sometimes play darker characters.) Maybe it was felt that audiences would root more for Bacall to end up with Nelson than with Campanella, who audiences might have felt would just go on to cheat on her. Interesting note: Young Tommy Lee Jones (then known as Tom Lee Jones) was in Four on a Garden. He appeared in two of the plays, in one of them as a young man being kept by Channing. Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna reportedly doctored the script. |
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