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June 07, 2007
Slow Day
Except for a certain blonde apparently convincing the LA Sherriff's Dept that making yourself vomit is a get out of jail free card, nothing much happening today.
Defamer points to Army Archerd’s post about Cloris Leachman not playing Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein: The Musical, which will head to Broadway in the fall. As it turns out, a little research shows that the role has already gone to Andrea Martin, the glorious star of SCTV who appeared almost unrecognizably as a singing, dancing, little old lady in the film version of The Producers.
This is not the first big switch of expectations for the musical, as Wicked/The West Wing’s Kristen Chenoweth was pegged to play Teri Garr's Inga role (Which a few years back would have been perfect from another SCTV alum, Catehrine O'Hara). Instead, Sutton Foster, who won a Tony for the period Thoroughly Modern Millie and has been twice nominated for other period roles, will fill Garr’s push-up dress.
Roger Bart of The Producers, Desperate Housewives, and Hostiler will play the title role. (Marty Short = too manic, though Eugene Levy has the hair for it and a young Harold Ramis would have been perfect.)
The Monster will be played by Shuler Hensley, who won the Tony for playing Jud in the Susan Stroman directed revival of Oklahoma (opposite Hugh Jackman). In an slightly bizarre coincidence, Hensley played Frankenstein in Van Helsing (again, opposite Hugh Jackman). Typecasting, I guess. (Joe Flaherty... hmmm. Too bad Frank Langella is making a movie... Dracula and Frankenstein... whoa! He's be great.)
Will & Grace’s Megan Mullaly is now in for Kahn’s Role of Elizabeth. And apparently, relative newcomer Christopher Fitzgerald wil play Igor. (Again... Marty too manic!)
There is no indication of who will play Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friederich Kemp, which was played in the film by the brilliant Ken Mars. There was talk that Marc Kudisch, who was Tony nominated for playing Baron Bomburst in Broadway's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (played in the film by Gert Frobe aka Goldfinger) had the role, but that buzz has gone quiet. (John Candy would have been great here.)
Ken Mars also created the Franz Liebkind character in the original film of The Producers. Somehow I doubt that Will Ferrell will be going to Broadway this fall. The original Broadway Liebkind was Brad Oscar, who went on to become the Bialystock of choice following Nathan Lane and is currently in the role in Vegas. Will he follow the Mars road for Brooks? Who knows? Archerd actually has Brooks in Vegas this week, so maybe it all makes sense. (Tim Curry and Jim Broadbent must be too busy.)
Finally, I used Babblefish to translate the word “glue,” which Brooks has always said was “Blucher” in German. But I get “glue” as “kleber” and “glue factory” as “kleberfabrik.” Maybe someone out there has a better dictionary.
(Correction, 10:30a Friday - Shuler Hensley played Jud, which some of you will remember as the role Rod Steiger played in the film of Oklahoma. Hugh Jackman played the male lead, Curly. Sorry for the dumb error.)
Posted by poland at June 7, 2007 06:53 PM
Comments
Well, "relative" is a relative term; Fitzgerald was part of the original WICKED cast, and has other Broadway credits as well.
If Mel wants to keep it in the family, Gary Beach would make a swell Kemp.
I'll be sitting by the computer, AmEx card in hand, the day tickets go on sale. Not gonna make the same mistake I did with THE PRODUCERS; waited too long, and almost missed Lane & Broderick.
Posted by: Cadavra ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 7, 2007 08:37 PM
i thought that was andrea martin. i always loved SCTV, and when i saw the producers i was like 'is that andrea martin' and figured it couldnt be because why would she be in a role so small.
Posted by: anghus at June 8, 2007 04:20 AM
Oops - Shuler Hensley won the Tony Award for his portrayal of JUD in "Oklahoma!" on Broadway. Hugh Jackman was the ultimate Curly, albeit not on Broadway due to scheduling conflicts. Hugh played the role in the West End in London - with Hensley as Jud there as well. Thankfully, the guys' performances are preserved on DVD.
Posted by: RA at June 8, 2007 06:27 AM
Thank you, RA... correcting.
Posted by: David Poland at June 8, 2007 10:31 AM
Martin's been a Broadway regular of late, working with Hensley in OKLAHOMA! and playing Golde opposite Harvey Fierstein in FIDDLER. She's an outstanding choice for Blucher (whinny); with all due respect to the fabulous Miss Leachman, eight performances a week of a huge Broadway musical could wear out a much younger person.
Posted by: Cadavra at June 8, 2007 10:41 AM
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