All tagged Carolee Carmello
With the forthcoming Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! starring Bette Midler breaking records at the box office, we have to take a minute to think about who is going to fill the Divine Miss M’s shoes when she is not performing. We already know they are going to need someone to cover matinees, and God forbid Ms. Midler gets sick and needs an understudy to go on her place. It’s going to require someone of either star caliber or of great talent to fill these shoes, and the producers know that audiences are not going to accept just anyone to fill her shoes. With that in mind, here is a list of people I think could pull it off nicely.
A family musical with a sublimely talented cast, a story (taken from a beloved book) with a message about making the most of your time here on Earth, and a score that is both soaring and joyous, should have added up to a Broadway success (or at least a show that could run a season). Unfortunately, Tuck Everlasting barely survived a month on Broadway. The new cast recording from DMI Soundtracks would give no indication that this show was short-lived. In fact, this lovely CD will most likely make the case for Tuck Everlasting’s long term legacy in regional, summer stock, community and school theaters. I would not be surprised if, in a few year’s time, we see Tuck Everlasting being performed just about everywhere. It is by no means the perfect musical, but there is so much that is delightful, nostalgic, socially relevant and magical that it is bound to become a popular property when the masses hear this cast album.
With the recently-confirmed Lincoln Center revival of Falsettos set to bow at the Walter Kerr Theatre this October, and with original director and librettist James Lapine (once again) at the helm of this William Finn masterpiece, it is interesting to look at how the world has changed in the 23 years since its original Broadway production. Is Falsettos as relevant today as it was back in the early 1990s? This story of a gay man named Marvin who leaves his wife and son for a male lover, and then loses him to a spectral illness that is presumably AIDS, was cutting edge and timely musical theatre for 1992, but does that translate for contemporary American audiences where gay marriage is now arguably a societal norm and AIDS, despite its continued threat, has somehow become a marginalized disease that doesn’t inspire quite the same fear? The answer is an astounding yes, but for very different reasons than in 1992.
