It's almost like "Little Shop" two blocks away heard commenter Plank's "it ensures that unattractive actors, no matter how gifted, will not get roles" as a suggestion rather than a concern, and have upped the ante on this, LOL. The most nebbishy or nebbishes, Jeremy Jordan (!) as Seymour in March. It worked with Jonathan Groff and the glasses and posture and kidding around about it. It worked in LA last fall with George Salazar by adding five or ten pounds (which in L.A. theater is disfigurement akin to DeNiro's for "Raging Bull") but otherwise effectively left unattractive to the think system.
From what I hear, women find Jeremy Jordan so "hot" he could play the jacketless Rep. Jim Jordan in an impeachment drama, or even be in the "Moulin Rouge" chorus. Making him look nebbishy will probably be one of the greatest stage feat since Laurette Taylor in "Glass Menagerie." (Actually, I suspect it will an illusion of unattractiveness.)
PS. "Little Shop" revival parody - on the phenomenon of casting hunks as nebbishy Seymour.
"Stunningly Seymour "
https://youtu.be/cHJ4VABe1KU
Sounds like "PDQ Bach"'s "Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice", but with less inspired music and less bite.
1
I thought at the time that it was a poor movie. I was 22, studying law in London and it seemed to me the movie was aimed at the 30 plus generation whio were missing out on Flower Power and free love that we were getting and were directing their attentions to this movie and the opening of sex toy shop on Baker Street in London W1.
I attended "The Changing Room" in 1973 -- set in a rugby locker room, before & after a match. There was substantial male nudity, including John Lithgow in his Broadway debut (he won a Tony). I recall it wasn't viewed as a big deal except for several elderly ladies sitting around me. It's been 47 years, but I can still "hear" their audible gasps!
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The movie was a letdown to me as a teen when it was released.
Yes, the message was received: some fantasies can't be fulfilled. But a more entertaining movie like The Heartbreak Kid sold the message much better. Recall how the final expression on Charles Grodin's face makes him unsure of the value of what he's worked so hard to achieve...
@DD - regarding "But a more entertaining movie like The Heartbreak Kid sold the message much better. "
But The Heartbreak Kid was truly cruel, intentionally so and hilarious and brutally real though in how awful new love can make someone towards the spouse he discards, in a top-notch-Neil Labute way. The only decent main character is the new wife we're supposed to think of as a loser - so the two movies had very different approaches. (One thing that made it less unpleasant about the reality it presented was that Elaine May's own daughter was playing the part and she was giving a fabulous performance.)
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Shiek and Vega are talents too good to waste on a vastly overrated 50 year old movie. Brantley is far too generous, especially in contrast to his gratuitously nasty review of Grand Horizons.
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The invasion of Broadway musicals by composers who only know popular commercial music is a creative tragedy for the nation. And exploiting actors with required nudity on stage is the height of tastelessness. It ensures that unattractive actors, no matter how gifted, will not get roles. And enough of the tacky Broadway Bares benefits. Equating Broadway with nudity is rotten. How sad to have lost Jerry Herman, probably the last great master of musicals, and that includes Sondheim, whose mastery is long past.
1
@Plank - I find it interesting that the original production of "Passion" on Broadway had nudity, but the many times I saw the show after that, the actress playing Clara always seemed to be wearing something, or else the nudity wasn't as featured. I've wondered about "Take Me Out," where the nudity was somehow a ticket-seller back when before we knew just how fine the play was going to end up being - but these days with the play proven as a piece of writing, will the nudity be as prominent (almost said front and center, glad I caught myself.).
@Plank - as someone who has been all weights, and started watching because I feared one day becoming that 400 pound person Trump keeps talking about (OK, nowhere near that, but there are no outer limits to fitness) - it does seem that whether to stay in shape so someone can do hot romantic leads as well as character roles in much more in an actors' control than thinks like height being right for a part or even whether they are excellent singers vs. effective talk-singers. (All-time favorite pull quote was "Joe Namath sings better than Lauren Bacall" when they were both doing shows at the same time - yes, Joe Namath hit pitches and held notes better and more reliably by any objective technical standard, but stage charisma is beyond an actor's control in more cases than hitting the gym or dieting.
PS. This Conan bit, "Stagehand Complaints," where his "casting director" insisted on casting hunks who looked great shirtless in sketch after sketch as stagehands, even Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth, anything and everything , until Conan finally says enough is enough, they don't look like stagehands - is a classic on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwZAxVMfcno
Didn't we already do this once upon a time with, "I Love My Wife"?
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Enjoyable for what it was, this still reminded me of what would have been a musical flop in 1983. Light-hearted and filled with talent, but ultimately pointless.
@Mark W Or a hit in 1978? Called "I Love My Wife?"
@Mark W - In the 1980s, the new American musical had become such a tough sell, yet that paved the way for all those British imports that came here with good advances even before previews started. The Hellinger being sold seemed like a great business decision then, even though we now wonder what the heck were the Nederlanders thinking only with our "2020 hindsight." A jukebox musical like "Leader of the Pack" was considered vulgar (a hint at why in this Tony clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApJgpoqhUq0 - when Patrick Cassidy, ahem, seems to be making love to the whole audience toned down there at 3:20, there was pandemonium - as we joke by all genders - one of the times I saw it. What was vulgar in the mid-1980s, and of course the jukebox form which was a bit confusing then, is totally Ok today. I'm surprised that show hasn't;t been tried in this era, where a Broadway show is what can fill the stage and the house, no limits. (Strange to say, if there's a Brooks Atkinson era and a Clive Barnes era and a Frank Rich era, the lack of prejudging a genre may be the thing of what may one day be called the Ben Brantley era 1995 to the 2020s maybe even 2030s, not lower standards, but opening up. Could be.)
I remember two things about the original. First, I was 19 and the girl who went to the drive in with me to see the movie was curled up on the car floor, keening, during much of the film. We were sophomores at a Christian college. But I remember best the Mad Magazine spoof, "Boob, Carnal, Tad, and Alas."
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@Dan L - "But I remember best the Mad Magazine spoof" - I remember Alfred E. Neuman also in that bed with the words "occupancy of this bed by more than two people is a no-no." (I thought back then at 10, "why not?" since six of the children had been in bed with Maria in "Sound of Music.")
1
All you need to know: Its boring! Save for the three minute guitar / vocal solo by Zegen. Who knew he could do that.
1
Settings: Derek McLane
Costumes: Jeff Mahshie
Lighting: Jeff Croiter
Sound: Jessica Paz
1
I really love the movie, but this show just put me to sleep. I'm pretty sure that no one involved had any idea what the story is about. it's not about swinging, it's a satire about the foolishness of Esalen and the other "mind opening" cults of the 60s and 70s. Sure, the music is generically pretty in a late-60s Muzak kid of way, but it also toothless and nontheatrical, contributing nothing to the story or characters. So for me, this on was a complete fail for book, music, and lyrics.
5
Isn't this just a re-tread of the 1977 Broadway musical "I Love My Wife"--the production shot of which also figured two couples in bed, a la "Bob & Carol..."etc.? It also a band that commented on the action and occasional shared songs with the four leads. Surprised this wasn't called out in the review...
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@lmaslon Nope, you're wrong. Two completely different plots. The fact that the marketing materials are similar means nothing-have you even seen the film "Bob & Carol..." or the play, "I Love My Wife"? Smh.
2