Special Billing
We laugh every time we see it. So this is what it has come to. Whatever it takes to sell a ticket. We came to grips, a long time ago, with the fact that the most important thing is "bums in seats, love, bums in seats". Yeah, sure you wanna sell tickets. It really doesn't matter to me if Broadway indulges in "Love Boat casting". There are some inalienable truths out there, m'dears: 1) Producers need to sell tickets 2) Actors need to work and 3) The public wants to see the celebrities. Oh, it is a wonderful thing when the celebrities are talented! It is a wonderful thing when the name selling the show is a Broadway artist! It's not the same as seventy, or even fifty, years ago when the stars of Broadway were the stars of the country. The Lunt Fontannes, Tallulah Bankhead, Laurette Taylor, Ben Gazzara, Elizabeth Ashley, Lee J. Cobb, Helen Hayes, Paul Muni, Kit Cornell, Ruth Gordon and, of course, the musical theater legends like Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Carol Channing, Alfred Drake, Richard Kiley...not to mention Gwen and Chita; these stars of the Broadway stage toured the country, taking their gifts to the adoring public, who turned out in droves to see them. Julie Harris always toured. It was, simply, the way to get to the fans, many of whom didn't travel to New York and couldn't see the legends otherwise. Nowadays, the stars of Broadway are stars here who get to work (if they are lucky) on film and tv from time to time. Those of us New Yorkers who know and love them are thrilled when our stage stars make the jump. From time to time we get to see Marin Mazzie, Denis O'Hare, Donna Murphy, Idina Menzel and Brian Stokes Mitchell in a movie or tv show; but it is actually quite rare when a Broadway star becomes a Hollywood star. Nathan Lane and Kristin Chenoweth have great good fortune in that department and what a thrill for those of us who saw them here and got to watch the rise!
They are, though, the exception to the rule in today's society. Gone are the days when the stars of Broadway became the stars of Hollywood.
Now it is the other way around...
These days the stars of Hollywood are coming TO Broadway. If you ask me, that's pretty cool. It's very validating that they would want to come to the Great White Way for some kind of artistic growth, for validation. Broadway is a place that welcomes all. Our street has caused the resurrection of careers for stars of the past (imagine...an MGM star on Broadway!), it has been visited by tv actors and rock stars; and the movie stars. We recently had Julianne Moore and Julia Roberts on Broadway. This year we had Jennifer Garner! We've had Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas. Sheena Easton has been here twice. We saw Huey Lewis and Chaka Khan; we even had some American Idols land on Broadway. TV stars like Brooke Shields, John Stamos, Jean Smart have been here. We've had the most wonderful actors from all different areas of show business, right here on Broadway. Cheryl Ladd! Reba! How wonderful. The producers really are making job opportunities for people working in show business, no matter who they are or what they have done in the past. I have read and heard many complaints about Love Boast casting - but it just seems like an empty compaint. The most important thing is the bums in the seats. It keeps the crowd coming and the shows open and the New York acting community working.
BUT.
The new marquee at the Ambassador Theater is the first time I have ever rolled my eyes.
John Schneider is an accomplished actor who has worked on screen and onstage in respectable projects -- not only in Los Angeles and New York -- he did MACK AND MABEL in London! He's Superman's dad, for God's sake! And yet... the ridiculous marquee says NOW STARRING SEXY TV ICON JOHN SCHNEIDER. I mean, really. We know he is sexy. I passed him on the street signing autographs - he's the same as when he played Bo Duke. And, yeah, he's a tv icon. Like I said BO DUKE and SUPERMAN'S FATHER. Still... the marquee is a bit cheesy. Maybe more than a bit.
It got us to thinking, though: why not give everyone in the world a title like that? Like, remember Josie Maron, who was on DANCING WITH THE STARS? On the first episode she was the first person to dance and she was being interviewed and she said "I'm Josie Maron and I'm a supermodel..."; Pat and I remarked that we had never heard of her, so she couldn't be THAT super a supermodel. Then her dance partner said that "Josie is suprisingly unfit for a swimsuit model". Now, thanks to those remarks and inspired by the CHICAGO marquee, we call her Josie Maron, the Surprisingly Unfit Supermodel. In fact, we think she should go into CHICAGO so that the marquee can read NOW STARRING SEXY TV ICON JOHN SCHNEIDER AND SUPRISINGLY UNFIT SUPERMODEL JOSIE MARON. After all, if we're going to use such descriptive marquees to get the bums in seats, let us all have one.
I'll start by composing my own: henceforth I will be known as FAILED ARTIST AND STRANGELY YOUNG LOOKING MIDDLE AGED HOMO STEPHEN MOSHER. I like it.
They are, though, the exception to the rule in today's society. Gone are the days when the stars of Broadway became the stars of Hollywood.
Now it is the other way around...
These days the stars of Hollywood are coming TO Broadway. If you ask me, that's pretty cool. It's very validating that they would want to come to the Great White Way for some kind of artistic growth, for validation. Broadway is a place that welcomes all. Our street has caused the resurrection of careers for stars of the past (imagine...an MGM star on Broadway!), it has been visited by tv actors and rock stars; and the movie stars. We recently had Julianne Moore and Julia Roberts on Broadway. This year we had Jennifer Garner! We've had Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas. Sheena Easton has been here twice. We saw Huey Lewis and Chaka Khan; we even had some American Idols land on Broadway. TV stars like Brooke Shields, John Stamos, Jean Smart have been here. We've had the most wonderful actors from all different areas of show business, right here on Broadway. Cheryl Ladd! Reba! How wonderful. The producers really are making job opportunities for people working in show business, no matter who they are or what they have done in the past. I have read and heard many complaints about Love Boast casting - but it just seems like an empty compaint. The most important thing is the bums in the seats. It keeps the crowd coming and the shows open and the New York acting community working.
BUT.
The new marquee at the Ambassador Theater is the first time I have ever rolled my eyes.
John Schneider is an accomplished actor who has worked on screen and onstage in respectable projects -- not only in Los Angeles and New York -- he did MACK AND MABEL in London! He's Superman's dad, for God's sake! And yet... the ridiculous marquee says NOW STARRING SEXY TV ICON JOHN SCHNEIDER. I mean, really. We know he is sexy. I passed him on the street signing autographs - he's the same as when he played Bo Duke. And, yeah, he's a tv icon. Like I said BO DUKE and SUPERMAN'S FATHER. Still... the marquee is a bit cheesy. Maybe more than a bit.
It got us to thinking, though: why not give everyone in the world a title like that? Like, remember Josie Maron, who was on DANCING WITH THE STARS? On the first episode she was the first person to dance and she was being interviewed and she said "I'm Josie Maron and I'm a supermodel..."; Pat and I remarked that we had never heard of her, so she couldn't be THAT super a supermodel. Then her dance partner said that "Josie is suprisingly unfit for a swimsuit model". Now, thanks to those remarks and inspired by the CHICAGO marquee, we call her Josie Maron, the Surprisingly Unfit Supermodel. In fact, we think she should go into CHICAGO so that the marquee can read NOW STARRING SEXY TV ICON JOHN SCHNEIDER AND SUPRISINGLY UNFIT SUPERMODEL JOSIE MARON. After all, if we're going to use such descriptive marquees to get the bums in seats, let us all have one.
I'll start by composing my own: henceforth I will be known as FAILED ARTIST AND STRANGELY YOUNG LOOKING MIDDLE AGED HOMO STEPHEN MOSHER. I like it.
posted by StephenMosher at 9:53 AM
1 Comments:
Very funny piece, Ste.
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