December 16, 2008

Broadway Has a Devil of a Time Finding Angels (Ticket Buyers, Too)

By PATRICK HEALY
These are difficult days for Elizabeth I. McCann, the longtime theater producer, who has been able to raise only $3 million so far for the $6.5 million transfer of “Hair,” the ’60s musical that is scheduled to start rehearsals on Broadway next month. Even her most dependable investors, Ms. McCann said, are sitting on their money.

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:: massed flailing :: NOooooooooo. :(

GYPSY to Close Early on January 11, 2009
by BWW News Desk

The award winning, critically acclaimed smash hit production of GYPSY, originally announced to close on Sunday, March 1, 2009, will now play its final performance at the St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street) on Sunday, January 11, 2009.

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Will LuPone Gypsy Revival Be Filmed?

By Andrew Gans
December 1, 2008

A notice on the ticketing website Telecharge.com indicates that the current revival of Gypsy at the St. James Theatre, starring two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone, will likely be filmed.

When purchasing tickets for the final performances of the acclaimed production — which ends its run March 1, 2009, at the conclusion of LuPone's original contract — the following notice appears:

"IMPORTANT NOTICE: This performance of 'Gypsy' may be filmed for future purposes. Please be advised that stationary and moving cameras may be placed throughout the theatre as we attempt to capture this historic production on film."

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LuPone Gypsy to End Broadway Run in March 2009

By Andrew Gans
November 13, 2008

The current revival of Gypsy — starring Tony Award winners Patti LuPone, Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti — will end its run at the St. James Theatre March 1, 2009, at the conclusion of LuPone's original contract.

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Stephen Sondheim - The Story So Far podcasts

A companion to the Sondheim box-set (The Story So Far), these are the podcasts. :)

http://www.sendspace.com/folder/5k4w8i

of course, the box set is on sale at Virgin Megastore (15.99/box set), so instead of waiting until December, I pressed the ticky box button. ;)
August 17, 2008

Off the Stage, What's Behind the Music
By SUSAN ELLIOTT

YOU can hear the collective gasp from the audience as the stage of the Vivian Beaumont slides back to the opening bars of “Bali Ha’i,” revealing 30 formally attired musicians reveling in the lush, exotic hues of the overture to “South Pacific.”

The melodies that roll seamlessly by — “There Is Nothing Like a Dame,” “A Wonderful Guy,” “Some Enchanted Evening” — are all classic Richard Rodgers. But the instruments playing them, the elaborate counter lines, shifting harmonies and alternating rhythmic contexts, are the work of Robert Russell Bennett, his orchestrator. Mr. Bennett wrote the overture, too (as he did for virtually all of his clients, including Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Frederick Loewe), weaving together excerpts of the score’s famous melodies to create a seamless potpourri of its greatest hits. Similarly, Sid Ramin’s original orchestrations bring to life Jule Styne’s score for “Gypsy,” now playing with the full complement of 25 pieces at the St. James Theater.

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Balgord Is LuPone's Standby in Gypsy Revival

By Andrew Gans
June 22, 2008

Linda Balgord, who was most recently on Broadway in The Pirate Queen, is the new standby for the role of Rose — played by 2008 Tony winner Patti LuPone — in the acclaimed revival of Gypsy at the St. James Theatre.

Lenora Nemetz, who plays Mazeppa and Miss Cratchitt in the revival of the Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents-Jule Styne musical, had agreed to cover the role of Rose until a standby was hired; Nemetz played the role at one performance. Nemetz will remain in her other roles with Balgord as the full-time standby, according to a show spokesperson.

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2007-2008 Tony Nominations Announced; In the Heights Earns 13 Noms.

By Andrew Gans
May 13, 2008

The 2007-2008 Tony Award nominations were announced May 13 by Tony Award winners Sara Ramirez and David Hyde Pierce at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Nominees for Best Musical include Cry-Baby, In the Heights, Passing Strange and Xanadu.

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Gypsy Cast Will Head Into the Recording Studio May 5

By Andrew Gans
May 2, 2008

The cast of the current, acclaimed revival of Gypsy — including Tony Award winners Patti LuPone and Boyd Gaines and two-time Tony nominee Laura Benanti — will head into a Manhattan recording studio May 5 and 6 to preserve the Stephen Sondheim-Jule Styne score.

The CD will be released on the Time-Life Records label, according to a spokesperson for the company. An August 2008 release is currently scheduled.

The recording will boast songs cut from the original Broadway production of Gypsy: "Three Wishes for Christmas," "Momma's Talking Soft," "Nice She Ain't," "This Is Mother's Day," "Smile Girls," "Who Needs Him?," and an alternate version of "This Is Mother's Day," all featuring new orchestrations penned by Jonathan Tunick.

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THEATER REVIEW | 'GYPSY'
Curtain Up! It’s Patti’s Turn
By BEN BRANTLEY

Watch out, New York. Patti LuPone has found her focus. And when Ms. LuPone is truly focused, she’s a laser, she incinerates. Especially when she’s playing someone as dangerously obsessed as Momma Rose in the wallop-packing revival of the musical “Gypsy,” which opened on Thursday night at the St. James Theater.

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Sing Out, Laura. It’s Your Turn.
By CELIA McGEE

IT’S hard to cover a tattoo when there’s a striptease involved.

Night after night (and two afternoons a week), Laura Benanti’s makeup assistant spends quite some time masking the butterfly the actress has tattooed on her lower back so it won’t show in “Let Me Entertain You,” the eye-riveting number in which Ms. Benanti, as the gawky Louise in “Gypsy,” molts into the stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.

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Two Helpings of Pie From Broadway’s Fridge

By CHARLES ISHERWOOD

“SOUTH PACIFIC” and “Gypsy,” which both return to Broadway this spring, originally opened 10 years apart, standing neatly as theatrical bookends of the 1950s. The Rodgers and Hammerstein romance set in the Pacific during World War II had its New York premiere in April 1949, on the cusp of that fabled decade of American prosperity and self-confidence. The brassy musical inspired by Gypsy Rose Lee’s memoir first took a bow in May 1959, as the decade drew to a close and only a few shadows of the more fractious era ahead could be discerned on the horizon.

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Benanti and Gaines Will Join LuPone for Broadway Gypsy Revival

Benanti and Gaines Will Join LuPone for Broadway Gypsy Revival

By Andrew Gans
19 Dec 2007

As previously reported on Playbill.com, the upcoming Broadway revival of Gypsy — starring Tony and Olivier Award winner Patti LuPone as that stage mother of all stage mothers, Rose — will play the St. James Theatre.

After a limited engagement this past summer at City Center — the inaugural production of the Encores! Summer Stars series — the acclaimed mounting of Gypsy starring LuPone will begin previews at the St. James March 3, 2008, with an official opening March 27.

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NYT: Sondheim Dismembers 'Sweeney'

Sondheim Dismembers 'Sweeney'


Leah Gallo/Paramount Pictures
Jamie Campbell Bower, left, as Anthony and Johnny Depp as the title character in the film version of "Sweeney Todd."
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EEEEE!!! Patti :D

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/113118.html

Curtain Up! Patti LuPone Gypsy Is Headed to Broadway in 2008

By Andrew Gans
28 Nov 2007

After a limited engagement this past summer at City Center — the inaugural production of the Encores! Summer Stars series — the acclaimed mounting of Gypsy starring Tony and Olivier Award winner Patti LuPone will arrive on Broadway in 2008.

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Gypsy

Jul. 27th, 2007 01:32 pm
The City Center Summer Stars Encores! presentation of Jules Stynes and Arthur Laurent's Gypsy with Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti and Boyd Gaines is completing its limited run this weekend with the July 29th performance. I reaaaaaaaaally like Ms LuPone. :)

But below are some of the previous revival recordings - the latest with Bernadette Peters, and the 1989 effort with Tyne Daly (of Laverne and Shirley, and then Judging Amy) :)

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