Boeing-Boeing at San Pedro Playhouse Cast List

My friend and stage manager of San Pedro Playhouse's 2010 production of Boeing-Boeing, Amy Dullnig announced the full cast list today for the super fun and sexy play written by Marc Camoletti.

The cast will feature Brad Adams (Bernard), Joel Crabtree (Robert), Haley Burnside (Janet), Rainya Mosher (Judith), Emily Spicer (Jacqueline), and Gloria Sanchez (Bertha).

The show will start performances May 21, 2010 and end its 5 week run on June, 20. From what I gather either Frank Latson or Kevin Murray (that could be very wrong) will be directing. I'll know more in a couple of days.

The Matthew Warchus-directed revival of Marc Camoletti's comedy was a London hit before the American production on Broadway was put together. The staging at the Longacre Theatre starred Mark Rylance, a holdover from London, who won the Tony as Best Actor in a Play for his daffy turn as a Wisconsinite caught in the middle of his pal's threeway infidelity. The production also won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play.

Take Me Out tonight at the San Pedro Playhouse's Cellar Theater

Tonight I'll be taking in the San Pedro Playhouse's production of Take Me Out in the Cellar Theater. The original play, written by Richard Greenberg, debuted on Broadway February 27, 2003 at the Walter Kerr Theatre and closed on January 4, 2004. The show had a successful run and even won 2003 Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Direction for Joe Mantello, and Best Featured Actor in a Play for Denis O'Hare.

The play is a well written piece commenting on social stigmas of homosexuality and America's favorite pastime, baseball. San Pedro Playhouse's Cellar Theater website offers this description:

This Pulitzer Prize nominated play took the nation by storm with its story of one superstar's coming out and the explosive repercussions which shook him, his teammates and "the great American pastime" to their very core. A shocker for its locker-room language, on-stage shower scenes and violence, it is nevertheless the most brilliant and frank exploration of the personal destruction of living a lie in a homophobic "don't ask, don't tell" world, the fallout from coming clean and the discovery that honor, integrity and true worth must be the benchmarks by which we live.

The Playhouse production cast includes Mark D. Hicks (Kippy Sunderstrom), Butch Anderson (Darren Lemming), Rob Barron (Shane Mungitt), John O'Neill (The Skipper), Rhys Sanchez (Toddy Koovitz), Ryan Ramirez (Jason Chenier), Ian Bunn (Rodriguez), Miguel Diaz (Martinez), Jonathan G. Itchon (Takeshi Kawabata), Vincent Contrell (Davey Battle), and Andrew Thornton (Mason Marzac)with direction by Frank Latson.

Mark Hicks, Rob Barron, and Ryan Ramirez are friends of mine and I'm looking forward to seeing their work. I had a chance to meet Butch Anderson recently after opening night at the champagne opening (which I totally crashed) and subsequently at a San Antonio theatre peeps party hosted by God himself, Steven Bull. Anderson is a newcomer to the cast apparently, but has been getting very good press for his performance. Also getting good reviews is Andrew Thornton as Marzac (but that could be because Marzac is by far the best written character in the show).

The San Antonio Express News and the SA Current have offered up positive reviews and tickets are apparently selling out fast. This is the final weekend for performances, so please get yourself downtown to catch the production ASAP.

I'll be there tonight and afterward I'll be upstairs catching some bubbly enjoying opening night celebrations of Sound of Music. Break a leg tonight to both casts!!!

Cast Announced for Psycho Beach Party at the Cameo in San Antonio

The Cameo Theatre of San Antonio has been home to some stellar productions in the area. Particularly well done was their 2007 production of Kander and Ebb's Cabaret. That production had the benefit of two strong lead performances by Anne Gerber as Sally Bowles and Rick Sanchez as the Emcee.

Rick has become an acquaintance of mine in recent months (we've even had the opportunity to party it up - a welcome pastime of mine). I have yet to actually work with Rick on a show (I had opportunities for the upcoming production of Sound of Music at San Pedro Playhouse and the recently closed Man of La Mancha. Unfortunately both shows I was unable to commit to because of work), however that hasn't stopped us from still being friends (we did go see Transformers 2 at a midnight showing along with other friends - thank God for alcohol.).

Now Rick will soon be directing a production of Psycho Beach Party at the Cameo Theatre due to open I think on August 14 (dates have been somewhat up in the air and sources still are conflicting a bit. I'll update as soon as I know for sure.). The movie and the original Off-Broadway play that it's based on are send ups of 1950s and 60s beach movies with a nod to 70s slasher films. The Cameo's website offers this description:

Summer, 1962. Malibu Beach. Imagine ‘Gidget’ crossed with ‘The Three Faces of Eve’ and ‘Mommie Dearest’. Sun, surf, sand, and ‘Chicklet’ Forrest wants nothing more than to learn to ‘shoot the curl’. Ride the waves. And who better to study under than the Great Kanaka? The macho king of the surfers, who rode the killer wave off the coast of Bali... handcuffed....But something isn't right...People are turning up shaved from head to toe by a mysterious assailant. The star of “Sex-Kittens Go To Outer Space” has disappeared from the set of her latest film. Surfers are coming out of the closet. And who, exactly, is Ann Bowman, the dominatrix who has risen to claim her birthright: World Domination? The big luau is only days away. Will our heroes thwart her evil scheme in time? Will Chicklet learn to surf? Will they still have time to prepare the finger foods? Will any of these questions be answered? Come see this bizarre hybrid of the best the Sixties had to offer: beach movies, bikinis, psychological melodramas, bikinis, surf guitar, bikinis, laughter, and... surfing. Not to mention the bikinis!

The movie is entertaining enough with the always fantastic Lauren Ambrose (Exit the King) cast as Chicklet. Rick has cast the show true to playwright Charles Busch's original intentions; that is to say he has cast major roles in drag.

My good friend Walter Songer - the Jeffy to my Hunter - (Side Show, The Pajama Game, and Vexed are the 3 shows we've worked on together) has been cast as the central female role of Chicklet. Other friends of mine cast include Chris Berry (A Christmas Carol, Frankenstein in Love, The Pajama Game) as Kanaka, fellow New Braunfels native Kate Miller as Marvel Ann, Chris Rodriguez as Yo-Yo, Paige Hansel as Bettina Barnes, and Cassie Moczygemba (who I worked with originally in Bye Bye Birdie and later Frankenstein in Love at the Overtime Theater).

The rest of the cast includes some people I don't know and a few others that I've seen in other productions. Judging from the production team and cast list alone, the show is gonna be a blast; at least it'll be fun for the actors. Lots of friends working together can amount to a lot of fun (it's also been known to cause lots of drama too, but I don't see that happening). I have a small regret of not auditioning; unfortunately work has gotten in the way of my Summer acting.

But nonetheless, with so many productions coming up, at least my Summer viewing will be plentiful. This Friday I'm stopping in at the San Pedro Playhouse to catch a final weekend performance of Take Me Out (with my soon to be going away to NYC buddy Ryan Ramirez) in the Cellar Theater with a brief stop upstairs in the Russell Hill Rogers Theater to catch the opening night celebrations of Sound of Music (gotta love champagne); hopefully by Saturday night I'll be able to get over my hangover and catch Cal Collins original revue titled Broadway's Best at the Brauntex Theater in New Braunfels; next weekend I'm looking forward to productions of Buddha Swings! at the Overtime Theater and the previously mentioned Sound of Music; and somewhere in there I'll squeeze in Seussical at Circle Arts Theatre in New Bruanfels, the Cameo's current production of I Hate Hamlet, and AtticRep's Blackbird.

Yay for local theater!

Theater Tidbits, or: an excuse for bullet posting

• To Be or Not To Be has come and gone. And nobody even noticed.
• Marcy Harriell begins her run as Vanessa in the Tony-winning musical In the Heights starting tonight. She's been in previews since the 15th.
• Tony Award winner Elaine Stritch will again portray the mother of Alec Baldwin's character Jack on the Emmy-winning NBC comedy series 30 Rock. The veteran actress will appear on the Dec. 11 episode, which is titled "Christmas Special."
• This is from the Nov. 11 episode of The View on ABC. I'm sorry, that Kiril kid is a fabulous dancer, but his singing is making me wanna take a poop on my television. Not to be mean-spirited.
• Get your DVRs ready!
  
• Two-time Tony Award nominee Jayne Atkinson has joined the cast of the eagerly awaited revival of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit as Ruth Condomine, which will begin performances at the Shubert Theatre Feb. 26, 2009. I guess my wet dream will not come true. :-( Oh and lest I forget, Christine Ebersole is nuts!! That's harsh. But she is.

Opening Night Reviews for American Buffalo, or: DidHeLikeIt? Not so much.

***My day was jam-packed yesterday and I didn't get a chance to post an opening night capsule for American Buffalo.

Last night marked the revival opening of David Mamet's American Buffalo at the Belasco Theatre.

Robert Falls directs Tony-nominated John Leguizamo as Walter Cole, Cedric the Entertainer as Donny Dubrow, and Haley Joel Osment as Bobby. The opening of the revival is also Cedric's and Osment's Broadway debut.

And while the reviews for that other Mamet revival currently treading the boards were mainly positive, American Buffalo seems to not be opening up to the same critical success. Here is a compilation of review capsules from DidHeLikeIt.com:


NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW: "Ssssssssst. That whooshing noise coming from the Belasco Theater is the sound of the air being let out of David Mamet's dialogue. Robert Falls's deflated revival of Mr. Mamet's American Buffalo - which opened on Monday night with the mixed-nut ensemble of John Leguizamo, Cedric the Entertainer and Haley Joel Osment - evokes the woeful image of a souped-up sports car's flat tire, built for speed but going nowhere.."


USA TODAY REVIEW: "Tenderness is not the first quality one generally associates with David Mamet. But really study his characters, and you'll find that many are drawn with sympathy and even affection."






ASSOCIATED PRESS REVIEW: "The four-letter words are intact but just about everything else is amiss in the slack, unsatisfying Broadway revival of David Mamet's American Buffalo."




VARIETY REVIEW: "When American Buffalo is done right, the profane poetry of David Mamet's dialogue can be bracing and the sad desperation of its three minor-league crooks -- playing at being players -- has a poignant sting. But in the three decades since the play was first seen, the influence of its speech patterns has become increasingly pervasive in films, cable TV and imitative theater, while humanized hoodlums have turned up everywhere. Maybe that's why this starry revival sits so flatly on its impressive set. Or maybe it's the lack of a connective thread among its performers. Either way, something isn't working."




AMNY REVIEW: "Now comes American Buffalo, Mamet’s first full-length comic drama, which focuses on three petty criminals who plot to steal a rare Buffalo Nickel. Ironically, the characters view themselves as hard-working businessmen instead of hustlers."

August: Osage County Film a Reality, or: The Weinstein Co. is at it again

It's nice to see many theater-related film projects coming through.

My previously posted story of In the Heights green-light has had me giddy all weekend long.

Possible prospects of Spring Awakening and Follies are giving me wet dreams.

The recent Nine cast promo pic is intriguing (if only for Fergie's tramp-ish look).

The film adaptation of Doubt is getting great buzz and will debut in limited release here in the US on December 12, 2008. If you haven't already seen it, here's the great looking trailer for the movie. I heart Amy Adams. :-)



And now, it looks like August: Osage County has acquired some big moneys in the form of the Weinstein Co. The film is scheduled for release in 2011 (ugh - so far away) and Tracy Letts himself will be penning the screenplay for his awar-winning opus (the Broadway show is one of the best theatrical productions I have ever seen in my life).

Many have already talked of their dream casting: Meryl Streep, Hellen Mirren, Laura Linney, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst being the ones mentioned mostly. I think the most inspired choice for the role if Ivey so far has been Michelle WIlliams. Just look at her Oscar-nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain if you have any doubt.



But for my money, the ultimate choice for Violet would be the goddess Angela Lansbury. Yes, she is much older than the 65 years that the Weston matriarch is supposed to be, but think of the wonders this glorious actress could do with such a meaty role. Lansbury has laready proven to be a stirring actress in roles that are not quite-so-lovely (Lovetts, Rose, Mrs. Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate - a role that should have won her the Oscar). Plus, Lansbury has never won an Oscar (-twat?!?) and in an interview with Turner Classic Movies, she has mentioned how much it would mean to her to win one.

***trying to find the interview. Apparently it's not on YouTube anymore. Grr...***


UPDATE*** Not able to find the Turner Classic Movie interview with Robert Osbourne anymore. But here is part 5 of a 7 part interview where she discusses her return to Broadway in Mame. SarahB take note :-) 10:53 is when she starts talking about it if you want to skip the rest of the interview. I highly suggest you take in all seven parts when you get a chance. Definitely worth it. You can find them here.***And for God's sake, the woman effing deserves it!!

Angela Lansbury in Blithe Spirit, or: how her (my) birthday (Broadway) wish came true

Happy birthday to Sweeney goddess Angela Lansbury.

Lansbury has performed in some of the greatest musical roles of all time (Nellie Lovett and Mama Rose!). And she is returning to Broadway in the Spring in, not a musical, but a classic Noël Coward comedy, Blithe Spirit.

Lansbury will play psychic Madame Arcati in the revival of the ghostly comedy. She will join the previously announced Christine Ebersole as the ghostly Elvira and film star Rupert Everett, who will be making his Broadway debut. Michael Blakemore, who directed Lansbury in Deuce, will direct at a Shubert Theatre to be announced.

It may be her birthday, but it is us who will be getting the wish we all want.

All My Sons Opening Night, or: seminolishly classic Katie Holmes?

Opening tonight at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre is the third Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's classic American drama All My Sons, concerning a business man, his past choices and their consequences, and his family during post-World War II.

The production began previews (which have been playing to very full houses) at the Schoenfeld Sept. 18. With an official opening of Oct. 16, the limited engagement is currently scheduled to run through Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009.

The production is notable for its highly prolific cast. Tony Award winner John Lithgow (as Joe Keller), Oscar winner Dianne Weist (Kate Keller), Broadway and Hollywood actor Patrick Wilson (Chris Keller), and Mrs. Tom Cruise herself - film actress Katie Holmes (Ann Deever) in her Broadway debut co-star under the direction of Simon McBurney.

Also featured are Becky Ann Baker, Christian Camargo, Michael D'addario, Danielle Ferland, Jordan Gelber, Sherman Howard, Clark Jackson, Lizbeth MacKay, Christopher Grey Misa, Danielle Skraastad, and Damian Young.

The production's official website offers this synopsis: "As timely today as the day it was written, the play was inspired by a true story about a successful businessman who knowingly sold the government defective airplane parts during World War II. A middle-class couple, Joe and Kate Keller, have lost their younger son in the war, but Kate cannot give up believing that he is still alive. Chris, their surviving son, falls in love with his brother's fiancée Ann and brings her home to tell them of their new relationship and their plans to marry. In the confrontations that follow, cracks begin to appear in everyone's stories, lies are exposed, and a secret is revealed that could destroy them all."

Chris saw the show early in previews and was not impressed, citing premature direction, lots of screaming, and an ugly set. My good friend Byrd (read his Little House on the Prairie review here) just saw the show last night and said it was fantastic, and that Katie Holmes was surprisingly good. He said he was swept up in the high melodrama and was emotionally engaged.

Perhaps the show has tightened up and really benefited from previews. If only To Be Or Not To Be would have done the same...

DidHeLikeIt.com Reviews, or: No he most certainly did not! (To Be Or Not To Be)

To Be Or Not To Be, written by Nick Whitby and directed by Casey Nicholaw, opened last night at the at the Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Here is an assessment of reviews compiled from DidHeLikeIt.com:







NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW: "If the producers of the walking corpse of a comedy To Be or Not to Be are feeling unappreciated this morning — and it’s a safe bet that they are — here’s a consoling thought for them. It took years for the Ernst Lubitsch film that inspired this play to get any respect."




ASSOCIATED PRESS REVIEW: "The fall theater season is still young, but Nick Whitby's To Be or Not to Be may turn out to be the most unnecessary Broadway production of the year."





VARIETY REVIEW: "Film critics have tried for the past 80 years or so to define the magic of the Lubitsch touch. Urbane humor, visual wit, sophistication, innuendo and charm were all factors, but subtlety was surely the key component -- that incomparable touch was unvaryingly a light one. So one of the most disheartening things about British playwright Nick Whitby's lumbering stage adaptation of To Be or Not to Be is the heavy hand that's been brought to bear on the 1942 comedy about a Polish theater troupe outwitting the Nazis in occupied Warsaw."

THEATERMANIA REVIEW: "In the Manhattan Theatre Club's production of To Be Or Not to Be, now at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater, ham actor-turned-reluctant hero Josef Tura exclaims: "There is nothing an actor can not do! For the actor, everything is possible!" I hate to differ -- but there is at least one thing actors can not do. They cannot pull Nick Whitby's inadequate adaptation of the beloved 1942 Ernst Lubitsch-directed film out of the fire."


NY DAILY NEWS REVIEW: "Long before The Producers and Hogan's Heroes goofed on the Gestapo, Ernst Lubitsch turned the idea into screwball comedy in his 1942 film To Be or Not to Be. Six decades later, the comedy about plucky Polish actors who outwit Hitler's honchos arrives on Broadway in a Manhattan Theatre Club production. Unfortunately, most of the laughs seem lost in translation in the adaptation by British playwright Nick Whitby. Though the play strives to be fluffy, it's about as airy as cement pierogi - and a late turn toward heart-tugging feels tacked on."

To Be or Not To Be Opening Night, or: do we really need another movie remake?

To Be or Not To Be, the new stage version of Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 film comedy about Polish theatre troupers trying to outsmart the Nazis, opens tonight on Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (formerly the Biltmore).

The production, which was originally scheduled to begin previews on Sept. 11, and then Sept. 13, began previews Sept. 16. The limited engagement plays to Nov. 23. There were two principal cast changes since rehearsals began, necessitating extra rehearsal time.

Nick Whitby has provided the stage adaptation for the Casey Nicholaw directed play which features Peter Benson, Robert Dorfman, Steve Kazee, Peter Maloney, Jan Maxwell, Michael McCarty, Kristine Nielsen, Brandon Perler, David Rasche, Rocco Sisto, Jimmy Smagula, Marina Squerciati, and Mark J. Sullivan.

According to MTC,

At the Polski Theatre in 1939 Warsaw, Josef (Rasche) and Maria Tura (Maxwell) are about to open yet another smash with their theatrical troupe. As the German invasion gets underway, the theatre is closed by the censors, forcing the troupe to face desperate times. But when a handsome young bomber pilot enlists their help to catch a spy, what is a group of actors to do? This hilarious black comedy is an ingenious commentary on the World War II era and an inspired tribute to the timeless joys of the theatre.

Early reports have not been good for the production. Citing everything from bad writing, bad acting, and bad directing, Michael Riedel has some disheartening insider talk over at his column for the NY Post.

The film starring Jack Benny and Carole Lombard is a complex and timely satire. Lubitsch is known for providing charming characters throughout all of his films. The approach lends itself well to his comedies and is known in film circles as "the Lubitsch touch."

This is particularly evident in his 1940 romantic comedy The Shop Around the Corner starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. This film is of special interest to musical theatre fans as it provides the first adaptation to the play Parfumerie by Hungarian playwright Miklos Laszlo, which in return provided the story for the wonderfully perfect musical comedy She Loves Me.

In the book Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise, Lubitsch called this film "the best picture I ever made in my life."

DidHeLikeIt.com Reviews, or: A Man for All Seasons Some Tastes

The first ever revival of Rober Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, starring consummate actor Frank Langella, arrived on the Great White Way last night. Here is an assessment of reviews compiled from DidHeLikeIt.com:






NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW: "Is it heresay to whisper that the sainted Thomas More is a bit of a bore? Even Frank Langella, an actor who can be counted on to put the pepper in mashed-potato parts, doesn't find much variety in the monolithic goodness of the title character of A Man For All Seasons."


AMNY REVIEW: "Decapitation: it's the fad of the fall of Broadway! Just as Sydney Carton mounts the guillotine in A Tale of Two Cities, Sir Thomas More is similarly led up the stairs to meet the axeman. But as it turns out, losing your head is not the equivalent of good theater."



NEWSDAY REVIEW: "With Broadway's first revival of A Man for All Seasons since its 1961 premiere, the Roundabout Theatre Company has tossed the hungry acting giant a big chunk of juicy sustenance. And Langella's gratitude becomes our own."



ASSOCIATED PRESS REVIEW: "Now, in the play's first Broadway revival, Frank Langella has assumed the mantle of Sir Thomas More, and it's a natural fit. With a strong, even mesmerizing physical presence, Langella slips easily into costume drama. And his fluid, mellifluous voice is perfect for the series of moral arguments he puts forth to justify his obedience to God, a duty that goes beyond his allegiance to King Henry VIII. The play itself doesn't wear as well in this stately, slow-paced revival, that the Roundabout Theatre Company opened Tuesday at its American Airlines Theatre."

VARIETY REVIEW: "The word "maverick" has been so thoroughly co-opted as a catchall credential by the Republican presidential campaign that it may be forever tied to that context. But for a true illustration of a staunchly independent dissenter worthy of that label, history is a better place to look -- for instance, to Robert Bolt's depiction of Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons. The 1961 drama about the martyrdom of the chancellor of England under Henry VIII is not without windy preachiness. But the Roundabout staging becomes more gripping as it proceeds, driven by a performance from Frank Langella as measured and naturalistic as it is majestic."

A Man for All Seasons Opening Night, or: Frankie is at it again

Tonight the curtain rises on the very first revival of Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons after starting previews September 12th.

The new Roundabout Theatre Company production at the American Airlines Theatre stars Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon, Fortune's Fool, Seascape, Dracula) as Sir Thomas More, the anti-Protestant Lord Chancellor of England during the time when King Henry — desperate for a male heir — sought to extricate himself from Queen Catherine to marry Anne Boleyn. The action of the two-act play is 1529-1535.

According to Roundabout, A Man for All Seasons "is a timeless exploration of politics, religion and power. Robert Bolt's classic drama is based on the fascinating true story of English Chancellor Sir Thomas More and his moral objection to King Henry VIII's plan to leave the Catholic Church."


The production will run through December 7th.

Frank Langella seems to be a busy man, what with this revival and his upcoming film version of Frost/Nixon. I hope he has a great end of the year.

Blithe Spirit to Play Broadway in 2009, or: Ebersole vs. McDonald... round 2

As everyone else in the blog world has already posted, Noël Coward's 1941 comedy Blithe Spirit will be making its way back to the Broadway stage in Spring 2009. The production itself is reason enough to celebrate, but even more reason to is due to the casting of the magnanimous Christine Ebersole as the ethereal Elvira.

The 2007 Tony Award-winning actress, who played the dual roles of Little and Big Edie in the musical Grey Gardens, will be directed by Michael Blakemore (Deuce) at a Shubert Theatre to be announced.

Playbill.com provides a blurb for the classic comedy of manners:

In Blithe Spirit, one of Coward's biggest successes, novelist Charles Condomine, living with his second wife, Ruth, invites a local medium, Madame Arcati, to his house. His intention is to do some research into the spirit world for his new book. But he gets more than he bargained for when Arcati conjures up the ghost of Charles first wife, Elvira. Caught between one live wife and one dead wife — both jealous of the other — Charles thinks matters couldn't be worse.

I fell in love with Blithe Spirit during my run as Dr. Bradford in my award-winning high school one-act competition production. I particularly enjoy the high antics towards the closing of the play with the medium Madame Arcati and objects flying off the walls and mantles of the Condomine's estate. The character of Madame Arcati was re-envisioned as a highly eccentric Asian gypsy with a short temper by my classmate Beeyah Ngyugen. And she was hilarious! After all of our competitive performances, every critique we had thoroughly expressed their joy and enthusiasm for that aspect of our production. I give credit to my high school theatre director April Cox for our success at a very challenging production (comedies of manners and high school actors hardly ever make for good entertainment). I still credit her for teaching me everything I know about acting and development. Thanks Mrs. Cox!

I doubt this new revival will have an Asian Arcati, but if rumors materialize into reality, we will have a real treat with goddess Angela Lansbury in the role. Apparently producer Jeffrey Richards is drooling over the idea. I don't blame him. Drooling is an understatement in my case.

Other casting dreams? I would love to see Audra McDonald as Ruth, Charles' current, insecure and temperate wife. McDonald holds a grace and elegance with her stage presence; and the chance to see her sparring with Christine Ebersole on the same stage would make for wondrous serendipity for me.

As I've previously written, I hold a dumb bias against the great Ebersole because she won the Tony for Grey Gardens over McDonald in 110 in the Shade. I still hold the belief that for once in history a tie would have been legit.

That casting won't happen (McDonald is far too busy with Private Practice [season premiere tonight]), but I can dream. And dream I will.

Any casting thoughts on the pivotal role of Charles?