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Post by maggiethecat on Mar 25, 2006 8:55:43 GMT -5
Hi, all! In doing some "housework" this morning, I noticed that the old thread is now veeeeeeery long. So here's Part II, starting with inuvik's posts moved over from the DVD release thread. P.S. A few of us--including yours truly--are going in August to see Doubt, but that is a long ways away. Are you all going back to New York? Or somewhere else this time? I think I remember someone posting that Doubt was going on the road. Will Ron still be in the cast in August?
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Post by rducasey on Mar 31, 2006 23:02:44 GMT -5
I just found a review of the movie Bastard Out of Carolina with Ron from 1996. And the young girl in the movie was Jena Malone. The very same Jena Malone who is starring with him in Doubt.
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Post by housemouse on Apr 1, 2006 17:51:26 GMT -5
I just saw on the Doubt website that the show goes on tour starting in September. That should mean all of you with tickets in August are safe! Wahoo!
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Post by bump on Apr 2, 2006 16:32:34 GMT -5
I just saw on the Doubt website that the show goes on tour starting in September. That should mean all of you with tickets in August are safe! Wahoo! I'm not familiar w/how Broadway works. How does the show going on tour in September guarantee that it'll be running through August on Broadway? Thanks! Becky
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Post by maggiethecat on Apr 2, 2006 18:53:28 GMT -5
I just saw on the Doubt website that the show goes on tour starting in September. That should mean all of you with tickets in August are safe! Wahoo! I'm not familiar w/how Broadway works. How does the show going on tour in September guarantee that it'll be running through August on Broadway? Thanks! Becky A national tour doesn't necessarily mean the Broadway show has closed -- a friend's daughter was out on tour with Mamma Mia! for a year, concurrent with the Broadway run. And Cats toured forever. So I think we just have to watch the Doubt site and see what happens.
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Post by bump on Apr 2, 2006 20:50:29 GMT -5
A national tour doesn't necessarily mean the Broadway show has closed -- a friend's daughter was out on tour with Mamma Mia! for a year, concurrent with the Broadway run. And Cats toured forever. So I think we just have to watch the Doubt site and see what happens. Thanks. I have another question, sort of the opposite of the scenario you presented: If a Broadway play does poorly, would they keep it running until the tour starts, or would they close on Broadway yet still do the tour? I'm thinking about theatre rental costs, profitability, and so on -- totally a business POV, which is what I know. Thanks! Becky
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Post by greenbeing on Apr 2, 2006 20:59:39 GMT -5
If a Broadway play does poorly, would they keep it running until the tour starts, or would they close on Broadway yet still do the tour? When I took playwrighting, we were taught that a lot of plays that are rehearsed for Broadway never make it to opening night. If they don't have enough advanced ticket sales and such. Some close on preview night if they don't show well. It may take a lot to get a play up, but apparently it costs more to keep it running, so it's more cost effective to close at the first sign of a downturn. We got to talking about it all in Playwrighting, using the Producers as an example. Remember Springtime for Hitler? They had planned the worst possible musical that would close before they opened, because then they could keep the money from the sponsors. If it ran too long, they would lose all that profit and have to pay back the people who backed the show. Sneaky, eh? So if Doubt started doing poorly in ticket sales, I'm sure they would close as soon as possible. I don't know how tours work, though. --GB
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Post by bjobsessed on Apr 9, 2006 13:17:22 GMT -5
I was just looking on the Doubt website and you can now buy tickets to Sept 10.
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Post by housemouse on Apr 9, 2006 13:38:43 GMT -5
I was just looking on the Doubt website and you can now buy tickets to Sept 10. Do they mean it will continue through September with the current cast?
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Post by bjobsessed on Apr 9, 2006 13:40:57 GMT -5
I was just looking on the Doubt website and you can now buy tickets to Sept 10. Do they mean it will continue through September with the current cast? I didn't see anything about that so I don't know, but it doesn't say anything about cast changes either. Cherry Jones is still the only one listed as going on tour.
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Post by maggiethecat on Apr 9, 2006 14:46:59 GMT -5
We got to talking about it all in Playwrighting, using the Producers as an example. Remember Springtime for Hitler? They had planned the worst possible musical that would close before they opened, because then they could keep the money from the sponsors. If it ran too long, they would lose all that profit and have to pay back the people who backed the show. Sneaky, eh? A minor point, but I picked up on it because I only have The Producers -- the classic film with Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel -- memorized. The basic premise of Springtime for Hitler was that it had to open, and have one gloriously bad performance, so it could be panned by the critics and close as a flop. The fraudulent profit would have come from Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom raising more money than was needed to mount the show, not from the show closing in rehearsal. If the show flopped, publicly, then none of the backers would expect to recoup their investment. If the show ran at all, the backers would expect their share of the profits. Max: How much percent can you sell of something? Leo: Max, you can only sell a hundred percent of anything. Max: And how much have we sold of Springtime for Hitler? Leo: Thirty thousand percent. That’s how the scam worked -- by raising more money than it cost to produce the show, and then keeping that money when the shop flopped.
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Post by anna on Apr 10, 2006 22:33:00 GMT -5
This was an interesting article that I had not seen. I have deleted some of it to save space. ============
Three new actors step into roles for prize-winning 'Doubt'
AP Worldstream; 3/10/2006; CONNOR ENNIS, Associated Press Writer 03-10-2006
Dateline: NEW YORK Eileen Atkins has a simple explanation for why she avoids replacing actors in established plays. "If something's successful," she says, "somebody else has got all the plaudits and you think, 'Why go on and be worse? Why put yourself through that?'"
At long last, Atkins has found a play that's made her break her own rule. In mid-January, Atkins, along with Ron Eldard and Jena Malone, joined the Broadway cast of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Doubt." In doing so, the three actors have walked directly into a circumstance that Atkins has long luded. "Doubt" has been a sensation since debuting at the Off-Broadway Manhattan Theatre Club in late 2004. . . .
"I had a couple of days where I said, 'Oh, no. Are we going to kill this thing?'" Eldard said. However, after weeks of rehearsal with Hughes and taking over for the original cast in mid-January, Atkins, Eldard and Malone--along with original cast holdover Lenox--have forged performances they believe showcase the undeniable strength of the play as well as the individual talents they bring to it. "We were very interested in avoiding the fallacy that you can replicate on three completely different people the performance of the three other people," Hughes said.
The transition was not without its bumps. Atkins, Eldard and Malone were scheduled to make their debuts on Jan. 10, but all were out with the flu. Eldard and Malone joined the cast the next day but Atkins--whose temperature reached 103--was out for several days before joining the production. "Better for us to get sick in the beginning and then get it out of the way," Eldard said. . . .
Eldard and Malone both saw the play with the original cast, and Eldard said that when he began rehearsals, he found himself sometimes trying to re-create the feeling he had gotten from O'Byrne's performance. He likened the process to one he went through several years ago when he played the part of Terry Malloy in a production of "On the Waterfront." On one of the opening days of rehearsal for that play, Eldard decided to simply perform the part as Marlon Brando so famously had in the classic movie. "I thought, 'Let's just get this out of the way now,'" he said. Once done, Eldard felt free to go about playing the character in the way that felt right to him.
Both Atkins and Eldard credit Hughes with encouraging them to explore their characters and trust their instincts regarding how certain scenes and moments should be played. Nothing related to performance was sacred from the previous production. . . .
And, fortunately for Atkins, Lenox has been open to the new interpretations as well. Lenox has just one scene in the 90-minute play, but it's a powerhouse. Playing the mother of the boy with whom Father Flynn has taken an interest, her appearance throws Aloysius and the audience for a loop as she questions just what exactly is in the best interests of her child. Of course, having performed with Jones for months, Lenox had to adjust to Atkins--who said she was "terrified of spoiling Adriane's performance."
She hasn't. If anything, the scene may now be the most powerful in the play, setting the stage for all of Aloysius' uncertainty that comes after. "My show has changed. If it was the same thing that I was doing with Cherry, I'd look stupid," Lenox said. "(Atkins') power is really more of a quiet, restrained kind of thing." . . .
"It's like Chekhov or Shakespeare," Atkins said. "You can play it a million different ways."
Copyright 2006, AP News All Rights Reserved
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Post by maggiethecat on Apr 11, 2006 8:39:44 GMT -5
Wonderful article, anna, and thank you. Loved the bit about RE playing Terry Molloy as Brando just once to get it out of his system -- not only a funny concept, but very smart.
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Post by Duchess of Lashes on Apr 11, 2006 17:20:08 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing Anna - I haven't seen that article before - (and thanks for the RE interview too - hadn't heard that one either!) I agree with Maggie - very smart to play it like it was and get it out of your system, then make it your own! With absolutely nothing else to compare his performance in Doubt too, I still think he was stellar - I know they say he played it very different than his predecessor, but isn't that the whole idea? I know he left me wondering and wanting to see it again.
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Post by housemouse on Apr 11, 2006 17:33:53 GMT -5
I just checked IMDB to see if Eileen Atkins was in a movie I thought I saw her in (it is called What a Girl Wants, and she was in it). Anyway, on IMDB has a movie called The Girl in Melanie Klien listed as "announced" It lists it as an English production. I wonder if that means anything with regard to her run in Doubt. Would she make a film and star on stage at the same time?
BTW, I also read on IMDB that Ms. Atkins co-created Upstairs/Downstais!
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