#Mr Kringelein

[starkiddreamcasting]

Starkid Gypsy

Everything's coming up roses! It's the Starkid dreamcast for Gypsy! Had to skirt around the multitude of child actor parts but overall I think it went well. It's been a dreamcast that has been in my head for a while but it took a bit to fully click together, if that makes sense.

Jaime Lyn Beatty as Rose

Kim Whalen as Lousie

Dylan Saunders as Herbie

Alex Paul as Dainty June

Will Branner as Tulsa

Meredith Stepien as Mazeppa

Rachael Soglin as Tessie Tura

Jamie Burns as Miss Cratchitt/Electra

Kendall Nicole as Baby June

Angela Giarratana as Baby Lousie

Chris Allen as Mr. Goldstone/Pastey/Ensemble

Bryce Charles as Hollywood Blonde/Ensemble

Brant Cox as Kansas/Farm Boy/Ensemble

Corey Dorris as Uncle Jocko/Cigar/Ensemble

Denise Donovan as Hollywood Blonde/Cow/Ensemble

Mariah Rose Faith as Hollywood Blonde/Ensemble

Davis Hamilton as Bourgeron-Cochon/Farm Boy/Ensemble

Nick Gage as Weber/Phil/Ensemble

Arielle Goldman as Ensemble

Brian Holden as Little Rock/Farm Boy/Ensemble

Janaya Mahealani Jones as Renee/Ensemble

Lauren Lopez as Hollywood Blonde/Cow/Ensemble

Jon Matteson as L.A./Farm Boy/Ensemble

Alle-Faye Monka as Agnes/Ensemble

James Tolbert as Yonkers/Farm Boy/Ensemble

Joe Walker as Pop/Kringelein/Ensemble

Tiffany Williams as Hollywood Blonde/Ensemble

Standby: Lily Marks (Rose)

Swings: Julia Albain, Tyler Brunsman, Ali Gordon, Joe Moses

Understudies: Jamie Burns (Rose), Bryce Charles (Dainty June), Corey Dorris (Herbie), Davis Hamilton (Tulsa), Nick Gage (Mr. Goldstone/Pastey, Pop/Kringelein, Uncle Jocko/Cigar), Arielle Goldman (Mazeppa, Tessie Tura, Miss Cratchitt/Electra), Janaya Mahealani Jones (Mazeppa, Tessie Tura, Miss Cratchitt/Electra), Lauren Lopez (Lousie), Alle-Faye Monka (Dainty June), Joe Moses (Mr. Goldstone/Pastey, Pop/Kringelein, Uncle Jocko/Cigar, Phill/Weber), James Tolbert (Tulsa), Joe Walker (Herbie), Tiffany Williams (Lousie)

Make sure to leave any show suggestions or any questions on my casting choices so I can explain them.

[chipzien-tournament]

The tournament is officially starting!

the contestants are the following:

round 1, part 1: (february 22)

Alan Richman (Zoey's extraordinary playlist) vs Lenny Lefkowitz (Ghosts)

Otto Kringelein (Grand hotel) vs Charley Kringas (Merrily we roll along)

Gary Karp (Almost perfect) vs Mr. Bungee (A new brain)

Marvin (In trousers) vs Mendel (Falsettos)

round 1, part 2: (february 23)

Monsieur Thénardier (Les Miserables) vs Murray Steinberg (It shoulda been you)

Howard T. Duck (Howard the duck) vs Leo (Love, american style)

the baker (Into the woods) vs the mysterious man (Into the woods)

Mr. Stopnick (Caroline or change) vs the rabbi (Harmony)

round 2: (february 24)

Lenny Lefkowitz (Ghosts) vs Charley Kringas (Merrily we roll along)

Mr. Bungee (A new brain) vs Marvin (In trousers)

Monsieur Thénardier (Les Miserables) vs Howard T. Duck (Howard the duck)

the baker (Into the woods) vs the rabbi (Harmony)

round 3: (february 25)

Marvin (in trousers) vs Charley Kringas (Merrily we roll along)

the baker (into the woods) vs Howard T. Duck (Howard the duck)

round 4: (february 26)

Marvin (in trousers) vs the baker (into the woods)

[wordacrosstime]

Menschen im Hotel [Grand Hotel]

[Edition reviewed: Menschen im Hotel. Vicki Baum. 2007. Kiepenheuer & Witsch ISBN 9783462037982 // First editions: // Menschen im Hotel. Vicki Baum. First published 1929. // English language title: Grand Hotel. Vicki Baum. First published 1931, Doubleday Doran & Co. New York]

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO my esteemed friend and editor of Words Across Time, John Park, asked me if I could read and then review the original German-language version of this novel. Some of you may know that this book, originally published in 1929, was eventually made into an Academy-Award-winning film a few years later, as Grand Hotel. John told me that the English translation he read seemed a bit ‘flat’, and wondered if the original German novel (or roman, as it’s known in German) had a bit more spice to it. Since I am able to read German literature (not easily, but with perseverance and industry), I accepted the challenge. Fast-forward to today: I have finished the novel, and will give a brief summary of my impressions. Again, please note that I am referring to the original German version of this novel, and not a translation.

Menschen im Hotel literally translates to People in the Hotel. The name of the hotel is, in fact, the Grand Hotel, and is situated in this novel in the heart of post-Weimar Berlin. The first impression the reader feels when starting this novel is that appositeness of the title – while the novel does indeed deal with a number of loosely intersecting personal dramas and scenarios, the hotel is at the heart of it all. It might have just as easily been entitled Das Hotel mit Menschen – Hotel with People. Because just as all roads led to Rome in ancient times, in this story, all personal trajectories intersect with or impinge upon the Grand Hotel. There is the desperate industrialist whose latest deal is failing. There is the aging prima ballerina who believes that her time for true love has come and gone. There is the terminally-ill patron who nevertheless takes a broad observational view of what’s going on around him in the Hotel with a certain amusement and even wonder. And the list goes on.

It’s a fun and fascinating glimpse at the worldviews that pervaded Germany in the years following World War I, when the economy was collapsed and an entire society was at odds with itself and the rest of the world. And yet life must go on, as indeed it does in the Grand Hotel.

On the whole, I would say that this novel, while perhaps falling short of what we might call serious fiction in the modern sense (think authors like Kingsley Amis or Donna Tartt), is by no means a pulp fiction work. It falls solidly in the spectrum of writing exemplified, for example, by novels like Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, or Stamboul Train by Graham Greene. The German is quite typical of its era, and compares favorably with novels by truly giant contemporaneous writers of fiction such as Thomas Mann or Heinrich Böll, but doesn’t dive nearly as deeply into the recesses of the human experience. Rather, it treats the Hotel as a waystation for life as lived in multiple layers of socio-economic condition, age, gender, fame (or infamy), and experience.

While reading it, I remember stumbling on a passage that I thought truly exemplified the book as a whole. I will present it in the original German, and then provide a modest and approximate translation of my own:

Alles stellt man sich höher vor, bis man's gesehen hat.  Sie kommen da angereist aus ihrem Provinzwinkel mit verdrehten Ideen über das Leben.  Grand Hotel denken Sie.  Teuerstes Hotel, denken Sie.  Gott weiß, was für Wunder Sie erwarten von so einem Hotel.  Sie werden schon merken, was los ist.  Das ganze Hotel ist ein dummes Kaff.  Genau so geht's mit dem ganzen Leben.  Das ganze Leben ist ein dummes Kaff, Herr Kringelein.  Man kommt an,  man bleibt ein bißchen, man reist ab.  Passanten, verstehense.  Zu kurzem Aufenthalt, wissense.  Was tun Sie im grossen Hotel? Essen, schlafen, herumlungern, Geschäfte machen, ein bißchen flirten, ein bißchen tanzen, wie?  Na, und was tun Sie im Leben?  Hundert Türen auf einem Gang, und keiner weiß was von dem Menschen, der nebenan wohnt.  Wennse abreisen, kommt ein andrer an und legt sich in Ihr Bett.  Schluß.  Setzense sich mal so ein paar Stunden in die Halle und sehense genau hin: aber die Leute haben ja kein Gesicht!  Sie sind nur Attrappen alle miteinander.  Sie sind alle tot und wissen's gar nicht.  Schönes Kaff, so ein großes Hotel.  Grand Hotel bella vita, was?  Na, Hauptsache:  man muß seinen Koffer gepackt haben...

“One always imagines, until one has seen (for oneself). You journey here bearing your provincial views, with twisted ideas about life. ‘Grand Hotel,’ you think. ‘Expensive hotel,’ you think. God knows what sort of wonders you await at such a hotel. You will already note what is going on. The entire hotel is a stupid dump. Exactly the way it goes with all of life. The entirety of life is a stupid dump, Mr. Kringelein. One comes here, one remains a bit, one travels on.  Passers-by, you understand. For short stays, you know. What do you do in a big hotel? Eating, sleeping, loitering, shopping, a bit of flirting, a bit of dancing, what? Well, and what do you do in life? A hundred doors in one corridor, and no one knows anything about the people who live beyond them. When you travel on, another comes and lays themselves in your bed. Enough. Sit down like that for a couple of hours in the hall and look: the people truly have no faces! They are merely dummies with each other. They are all dead, and know absolutely nothing. Beautiful dump, such a large hotel. Grand Hotel beautiful life, what? Well, the main thing is this: one must have one’s suitcase packed…”

This novel captures the post-Weimar Republic zeitgeist in microcosm, and is worth reading for that alone, if one is willing to forbear the occasional existential soliloquy as exemplified above.

Photo credits: top: Vossische Zeitung, advertisement, 4 April 1929 / Vossische Zeitung, Anzeige, 4 April 1929 / thank you to Angela M Arnold, Berlin // middle: Portrait of Vicki Baum. Collection: Theatermuseum, Vienna / Porträt Vicki Baum. Sammlung: Theatermuseum, Wien. / Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Bilddatenbank / c 1930 by Max Fenichel  (1885–1942) // bottom; Berlin, memorial plaque for Vicki Baum, Koenigsallee 45, unveiled on October 4th, 1989 / Berlin, Gedenktafel für Vicki Baum, Koenigsallee 45, enthüllt am 04.10.1989 / photograph 15 March 2008 by and thank you to Axel Mauruszat.

Kevin Gillette

Words Across Time

18 December 2020

wordsacrosstime

[dreamcastingbroadway]

Dreamcasting Broadway: GYPSY

“Here she is boys! Here she is world! Here’s Rose!”

Dreamcasting Broadway: Gypsy

Audra McDonald as Madame Rose

Jasmine Cephas Jones as Louise

Brian d’Arcy James as Herbie

Dana Steingold as June

Jordan Fisher as Tulsa

Lesli Margherita as Mazeppa

Peppermint as Tessie Tura

Annie Golden as Electra/Miss Cratchitt

Alexandra Billings as Alt. Madame Rose

Sydney Elise Russell as Baby Louise

Avery Sell as Baby June

Adam Grupper as Weber/Phil/Ensemble (Mr. Goldstone/Pastey u/s, Uncle Jocko/Cigar u/s, Pop/Kringelein u/s)

Ahmad Simmons as Yonkers/Farm Boy/Ensemble (Tulsa u/s)

Alayna Martus as Balloon Girl/Ensemble (Baby June u/s, Baby Louise u/s)

Alexander Bello as Newsboy/Ensemble

Britney Coleman as Hollywood Blonde/Ensemble (Louise u/s)

Casey Garvin as Bourgeron-Cochon/Farm Boy/Ensemble (Tulsa u/s)

Eddie Korbich as Pop/Kringelein/Ensemble (Herbie u/s)

Eloise Kropp as Agnes/Ensemble (June u/s)

Gabriel Amoroso as Clarence/Newsboy/Ensemble

Gregory Liles as Kansas/Farm Boy/Ensemble

Julie Reiber as Ensemble (Mazeppa u/s, Tessie Tura u/s, Electra/Miss Cratchitt u/s)

Justin Prescott as Little Rock/Farm Boy/Ensemble

Kennedy Caughell as Hollywood Blonde/Ensemble (Louise u/s)

L. Morgan Lee as Renée/Ensemble (Mazeppa u/s, Tessie Tura u/s, Electra/Miss Cratchitt u/s)

Mary Claire King as Hollywood Blonde/Cow/Ensemble

Michael Graceffa as L.A./Farm Boy/Onstage Swing/Ensemble

Sam Middleton as Newsboy/Ensemble

Samantha Pollino as Hollywood Blonde/Ensemble (June u/s)

Scott Stangland as Mr. Goldstone/Pastey/Ensemble

Stuart Zagnit as Uncle Jocko/Cigar/Ensemble (Herbie u/s)

Sydney Mei Ruf-Wong as Hollywood Blonde/Cow/Ensemble

Camden Gonzales as Swing

Eliza Ohman as Swing

Stephen Carrasco as Swing

T. Oliver Reid as Swing 

[kevrocksicehouse]

Lionel Barrymore, who knows something about optimism, pessimism and absurdism, would have been 143. A few from the other Barrymore brother:                                 

Otto Kringelein in Grand Hotel. D: Edmund Goulding (1932). Lionel was overshadowed by his Brother John’s theatrical career but came into his own as a character actor in films, winning an Oscar as an alcoholic lawyer in A Free Soul, and giving the most likable performance in this Best Picture winner as a man with an incurable disease using his life savings to live it up at the hotel before he dies. He strikes up a fatherly friendship with a young stenographer (Joan Crawford) and when he gets to tell off his employer, played by Wallace Beery, it’s one of the great “You can’t fire me, I quit” scenes in movie history.

Paul Lavond in The Devil Doll. D: Tod Browning (1936). In this weird revenge story, Barrymore is a framed banker who escaped Devil’s Island and seeks revenge on the people who put him there. That revenge takes the form of shrinking people to doll-size with a process his cellmate came up with, dressing up as an old woman and selling them to his enemies so they can commit murders and robberies. Barrymore hams it up beautifully as a bizarro Count of Monte Cristo. Like his director (who also helmed Dracula and Freaks) he was unburdened by shame.

Henry F. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life. D: Frank Capra (1946). Mr. Potter is one of the movies great villains because he’s the most plausible, a millionaire who wants to destroy any business he doesn’t control is almost a definition of capitalist rapaciousness, and the way Barrymore expresses contempt for the people of Bedford Falls (“…a discontented, lazy rabble…”) makes him the direct opposite of Capra’s populism. He’ll listen to George Bailey eloquently defend his father’s stewardship of Bailey’s Building and Loan (“Well in my book, my father died a much richer man than you’ll ever be!”, wait a beat, and say “Sentimental Hogwash!”). Barrymore plays him as Scrooge without redemption and it makes thematic sense that, though an angel saves George Bailey from suicide, Potter (who stole the B&L’s deposit money), doesn’t suffer consequences. At movie’s end, he’s still out there smugly scheming. 

[spiderbird7-blog]

Gypsy Showcases the Ultimate Stage Mother

Porchlight Music Theatre Presents

Gypsy

Book by Arthur Laurents

Director Michael Weber

October 12 – November 25

Gypsy Showcases the Ultimate Stage Mother

The Marx Brothers, Drew Barrymore, Shirley Temple, Elizabeth Taylor, Brooke Shields, Dorothy Dandridge, Lindsey Lohan, and Kim Kardashian all had overbearing stage mothers dubbed as “Momagers” to push them to success. However, long before Kris Jenner hit the scene to do whatever it took to make her daughters famous, there was one legendary “Stage Mother” by the name of Rose Hovick, a woman who was a force to be reckoned with and would stop at nothing to make sure she and her daughters were in the spotlight.

If you haven’t heard of “Gypsy,” let us introduce you to this musical fable written by playwright Arthur Laurents. Gypsy was considered by many to be the greatest American musical. It is loosely based and inspired by one of showbiz’s unique personalities, Rose Hovick, and the 1957 memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist. Gypsy’s  mother, Rose, has become known as “the ultimate show business mother.”

Rose is the most profit-making “Stage Mother” of the mid-twentieth century, a star in her own right. The musical includes some standard favorites such as  “Let Me Entertain You,” “Some People,” “Together, “Wherever We Go” and the show-stopping, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”

“Gypsy” is set in various cities throughout the United States in the early 1920s to the early 1930s, where the world of big-time, family oriented vaudeville is quickly fading away to the adult-themed burlesque industry.

In this electrifying and heart-wrenching story of a woman who raises her daughters to navigate their dreams of stardom whether they wanted to or not, Mama Rose, a victim of her wander-lust for personal success, becomes the “Momager” from hell where agents and producers refuse to work with her.

“Gypsy” is an old favorite that hit the stage with several talented actors such as the unconquerable entertainer with the extraordinary gift to capture an audience, E. Faye Butler, who leads the cast in “Gypsy” as Mama Rose. Like so many before her playing the character of Mama Rose, she brought her feisty persona to life with a lot of zest.

Daryn Whitney Harrell, who played Louise, Mama Rose’s eldest daughter, was such a pleasant surprise to grace the stage. Louise comes out of the shadows of her younger sister June (Aalon Smith), the one Mama Rose invested so much in; Louise eventually rose to stardom as the sophisticated “Gypsy Rose Lee!”

This well-rounded cast also included Herbie (José Antonio García). His character fell instantly in love with Mama Rose as he waited patiently on her terms to marry her. He tried to add balance to her life as he became the girls’ official manager.

Director Michael Weber showcases this dynamic fast-paced musical as it follows the dreams and hardships of Mama Rose to raise her two daughters to perform on stage and it casts an affectionate eye on the struggles of business life during the vaudeville era.

Let’s Play “Highly Recommends” that you check out this amazing musical “Gypsy” at Porchlight Theatre where “everything’s coming up roses!”

The cast includes:

Faye Butler (Rose)

Daryn Whitney Harrell (Louise)

Aalon Smith (June)

José Antonio García (Herbie)

Honey West (Agnes, Electra/Miss Cratchitt)

Dawn Bless (Mazeppa)

Melissa Young (Tessie Tura)

Marco Tzunux (Tulsa)

Saniyah As-Salaam( Newsboy)

Larry Baldacci (Uncle Jocko / Mr. Weber / Mr. Goldstone / Pastey)

Tatiana Bustamante (Marjorie May)

Joshua Bishop (Bougeron-Cochon)

Elya Faye Bottiger (Agnes, showgirls)

William “Pierce” Cleaveland (Clarence)

Jared David Michael Grant (Georgie / Mr. Kringelein / Phil)

Michelle Huey (Dolores)

Jillian-Giselle (Baby Louise)

Hannah Love Jones (Balloon Girl)

Michael Jones (Pop / Cigar)

Marvin J. Malone II (Yonkers)

Desmond Murphy (Arnold)

Renellè Nicole (Gail/Renee)

Jeff Pierpoint  (L.A.)

Ariel Triunfo (Edna Mae)

Isabella Warren (Baby June)

Also On The Chicago Defender:

Source: https://chicagodefender.com/2018/10/30/gypsy-showcases-the-ultimate-stage-mother/

[niccongo0-blog]

Gypsy Showcases the Ultimate Stage Mother

Porchlight Music Theatre Presents

Gypsy

Book by Arthur Laurents

Director Michael Weber

October 12 – November 25

Gypsy Showcases the Ultimate Stage Mother

The Marx Brothers, Drew Barrymore, Shirley Temple, Elizabeth Taylor, Brooke Shields, Dorothy Dandridge, Lindsey Lohan, and Kim Kardashian all had overbearing stage mothers dubbed as “Momagers” to push them to success. However, long before Kris Jenner hit the scene to do whatever it took to make her daughters famous, there was one legendary “Stage Mother” by the name of Rose Hovick, a woman who was a force to be reckoned with and would stop at nothing to make sure she and her daughters were in the spotlight.

If you haven’t heard of “Gypsy,” let us introduce you to this musical fable written by playwright Arthur Laurents. Gypsy was considered by many to be the greatest American musical. It is loosely based and inspired by one of showbiz’s unique personalities, Rose Hovick, and the 1957 memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist. Gypsy’s  mother, Rose, has become known as “the ultimate show business mother.”

Rose is the most profit-making “Stage Mother” of the mid-twentieth century, a star in her own right. The musical includes some standard favorites such as  “Let Me Entertain You,” “Some People,” “Together, “Wherever We Go” and the show-stopping, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”

“Gypsy” is set in various cities throughout the United States in the early 1920s to the early 1930s, where the world of big-time, family oriented vaudeville is quickly fading away to the adult-themed burlesque industry.

In this electrifying and heart-wrenching story of a woman who raises her daughters to navigate their dreams of stardom whether they wanted to or not, Mama Rose, a victim of her wander-lust for personal success, becomes the “Momager” from hell where agents and producers refuse to work with her.

“Gypsy” is an old favorite that hit the stage with several talented actors such as the unconquerable entertainer with the extraordinary gift to capture an audience, E. Faye Butler, who leads the cast in “Gypsy” as Mama Rose. Like so many before her playing the character of Mama Rose, she brought her feisty persona to life with a lot of zest.

Daryn Whitney Harrell, who played Louise, Mama Rose’s eldest daughter, was such a pleasant surprise to grace the stage. Louise comes out of the shadows of her younger sister June (Aalon Smith), the one Mama Rose invested so much in; Louise eventually rose to stardom as the sophisticated “Gypsy Rose Lee!”

This well-rounded cast also included Herbie (José Antonio García). His character fell instantly in love with Mama Rose as he waited patiently on her terms to marry her. He tried to add balance to her life as he became the girls’ official manager.

Director Michael Weber showcases this dynamic fast-paced musical as it follows the dreams and hardships of Mama Rose to raise her two daughters to perform on stage and it casts an affectionate eye on the struggles of business life during the vaudeville era.

Let’s Play “Highly Recommends” that you check out this amazing musical “Gypsy” at Porchlight Theatre where “everything’s coming up roses!”

The cast includes:

Faye Butler (Rose)

Daryn Whitney Harrell (Louise)

Aalon Smith (June)

José Antonio García (Herbie)

Honey West (Agnes, Electra/Miss Cratchitt)

Dawn Bless (Mazeppa)

Melissa Young (Tessie Tura)

Marco Tzunux (Tulsa)

Saniyah As-Salaam( Newsboy)

Larry Baldacci (Uncle Jocko / Mr. Weber / Mr. Goldstone / Pastey)

Tatiana Bustamante (Marjorie May)

Joshua Bishop (Bougeron-Cochon)

Elya Faye Bottiger (Agnes, showgirls)

William “Pierce” Cleaveland (Clarence)

Jared David Michael Grant (Georgie / Mr. Kringelein / Phil)

Michelle Huey (Dolores)

Jillian-Giselle (Baby Louise)

Hannah Love Jones (Balloon Girl)

Michael Jones (Pop / Cigar)

Marvin J. Malone II (Yonkers)

Desmond Murphy (Arnold)

Renellè Nicole (Gail/Renee)

Jeff Pierpoint  (L.A.)

Ariel Triunfo (Edna Mae)

Isabella Warren (Baby June)

Also On The Chicago Defender:

Source: https://chicagodefender.com/2018/10/30/gypsy-showcases-the-ultimate-stage-mother/