Theater Criticism from Overheard In New York

[ceebeegee]

Woman: Yeah, but just because you can play a dying crackwhore in Rent, that doesn't mean that you can play a dying crackwhore in Les Miz--they're two different kinds of whores!

--Broadhurst Theatre

Comments

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not crazy about it on the one hand, because it trivializes how difficult it is to act/sing/dance on Broadway. People who go onto reality shows anyway always come out saying "I want to act" when what they really mean is--I want to be a celebrity. If you want to act, work your ass off, take a lot of classes, and learn the craft. Don't go on a reality show and then say vaguely "yeah, I wanna be an actor..." as though you have no idea what that actually means besides making red carpet appearances.

On the other hand, there's a pragmatic view--even if one or two "Average Joes" gets cast, there will still be a lot of real actors cast, so it provides work for them (and the other assorted artists/stagehands/musicians, etc.). Also, if these people are bad, either the show will fail, or (more likely, since Grease is a sure thing) their contract will expire and the roles wil be recast with actual performers.

But really, what they're going to get are a lot of undiscovered actors--that is, not "average Joes," just actors who see this as another type of audition, which is really what it is, no different from the highly publicized "Annie" searches, except that the whole thing is filmed.