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Not usually a sucker for these trailers, but that definitely got me curious

I know I've been brandished an ALW defender, and will readily admit my bias since I do love his music... there's not a day that goes by that one of his songs doesn't get some airplay from me. So that being said, 

I'm curious if this is another "If Only" for ALW.  Because he found doing the public workshop of School of Rock something of a revelation for him in refining and ultimately staging and opening the show.  I was under the impression he had done the same for Cinderella at The Other Palace (late 2019 perhaps?) which would've made sense prepping for a Spring 2020 opening.  Maybe that environment of collaboration that ALW enjoyed in School of Rock and seemed to be replicating for this was lost with the pandemic.  Maybe the insights for the creative team with some of the actors were lost and ALW thought he could maintain it with the zooms and distanced work they did instead.  It's a shame because whatever goodwill there seemed with him and CHF seems to have disappeared.  I was happy to see Zippel defending him (since Emerald has been silent about everything for some time)


Also it's really frustrating that people keep insinuating about some family crisis that is going on for ALW.  I caught the momentary slip in Lawrence's speech the other night, which was unfrotunate.  But others chiming in that they know of it, but then shut down or say "respect his privacy" should steer clear of mentioning it in the first place     

Some random thoughts:
- This audience was obviously a cast-supportive final audience - (Carrie fans, etc.) more so than Cinderella fans.  The fact that the boos started at ALW's name kind of made that obvious.

- ALW not being there, well, the TONY awards are tonight in NY - it will be interesting to see if he's here for them which could explain his absence

- the "If Only" reference, to me didn't come across the way it was intended.  ALW is indeed an older man with a mindset (as someone mentioned) on his legacy as one tends to do as they come to this later part of life.  And he was clearly jazzed and worked pretty damn hard during some crazy unprecedented times on this project.  Why that's the case is subjective.  For example, I personally enjoy the score of Cinderella (and never listen to school of rock at all, nor had any interest in ever seeing it)... so I'm sure for him, a lot of that COVID stuff was a far bigger stress that in hindsight caused more stress, tension and loss of focus creatively then can be handled with a new project (not to mention financially)  That's just a reality, whether it's politically correct to name that as a reason or not.  

   

I'm curious if ALW is so ticked off about all the snarkiness of this cast that he really doubles down in bringing this to NY hoping to vindicate himself and the show.  His initial plan had been to open Cinderella in NY first (prior to COVID if I remember correctly)

Now here's an actress I would love to see come to NY if the show does open here, not just because she's classy, mature and professional, I've loved listening to her on the recording and would love to see her live in person 

I think your spot on here Max.  Particularly when she's now turned on Evita.  Yet, she had a moment pause from her feud with ALW to sing DCFMA at the Grammys, only to resume her really pathetic and childish slights on him, most recently saying the most overrated shows are Cats and Phantom and that there should be a limit how long they run...

Look I get it that ALW broke the contract (and the video seems to have dug up different responses that I hadn't heard at the time, namely that Paramount said they had nothing to do with casting, etc.)  I've been a huge fan of ALW and Sunset since the debut.  But seeing those quotes, along with Broadway Bob's Sunset Project interview with Amy Powers on Spotify - ALW definitely comes across as a coward in terms of dealing with difficult situations.  So fine, call him out on that.   But Patti LuPone has come across as incredibly immature and unprofessional with her attacks on his creative works.  When she auditioned and competed for these roles and desperately wanted them... even to the point of jealousy that Streisand recorded them first (and there's a bit of a dispute about whether Patti had been offered the LA and NY premiere.  I remember reading at the time that she turned that down saying it would be too much of a circus going through three major openings so close together, since the plan was London Summer 1993, LA Winter 1993 and NY Spring 1994)  

This doesn't excuse his behavior, but Patti's hasn't made her sympathetic

^ 1000 %

At the time there was a flurry of cast absences and then people showing up on social media doing all kinds of other things other than being "sick" and all we've heard peddled since is that ALW was such an ogre by calling in the cast and laying into them.  At the time especially as the show had only been running for a few months after a lot of stop-go-stop-go because of COVID that was unprofessional.  "toxic environment" - perhaps of their own making.

If I remember correctly, "There is more to love" was a late addition to Aspects (not sure if it was there for the World Premiere or not) - which has always been one of my favorites not just from Aspects, but of all ALW's compositions. In subsequent productions (when I saw it on Broadway for example) it was a duet and there was a couple of reprises of it which were most welcome.

When I saw the Toronto/US Tour production, it was a bit startling that it started with the coffin (and I think torches) with an orchestral "Hand me the wine and the dice" which broke with Alex and Giulietta (with a revised "Love Changes Everything" - from "hands and faces, earth and sky" to "each beginning, each goodbye") which heightened the drama right from the outset.

There's lots in that score that it deserves a full-blown revival with a real orchestra. Sorry I'm not flying to the UK for two pianos. It seemed like the recent Australian production was a bit fuller one.

It's really surprising to me that there's only been one full recording of this - the Canadian cast was so wonderful and they had made changes to the score and lyrics at the time, that I had hoped that would've been recorded. I know there's a one disc Japanese recording that I've been curious about, but thought between it being such a limited recording and in Japanese, that it wasn't worth the expense

Honestly I wanted Unmasked 2 to get him on the record about EVERYTHING with Sunset finally, which honestly makes this whole "controversy" pale in comparison.  I feel badly for everyone who's affected, but honestly the hysteria about "how" they found out?  Would it have mattered all that much?  They'd all still be in the same position.  I suppose it's a way of channeling their energy and all, but it's just beyond tired at this point.


Sunset - now you had a leading lady contracted to open in NY - with a rival production opening to far better reviews and the whole stage was set for a blowout, which came as you expected, but you were still shocked.  And in the pre-Internet days this truly became an international incident that only grew more dramatic with the faye dunaway debacle (you know that somewhere there has to be a video of her singing With One Look, which almost 30 years later I'm still beyond curious to see)    

Her cousin also made the point that it seemed like there was rumors circulating yesterday and that this was a leak that went viral that they tried to get a handle on.

Also I appreciated that they didn't lay all of this on ALW.  I doubt highly he's involved in every aspect of these things, particularly when it comes to day to day operations.  It's just easier for people to criticize him than some random unknown executive at RUG

TBH - (at least in the West End) - it's hard to tell how well a show is doing, unless it's doing advances sales like Hamilton was pre-pandemic.

In NY I know Sunset Blvd revival often had a lot of tickets available up till an hour before curtain, but then when the weekly grosses came out, it was almost always in the "Millionaires" club. The days where tickets were sold way in advance here in NY (unless it was something like Hamilton) have been gone since 9/11. People aren't likely to make plans long in advance.

And looking at Cinderella's tickets for this coming week looks a lot better than I expected from people on this thread