Absolutely No Star Love For Rant-y QuaidReading
Michael Riedel's column in the
New York Post this morning was just too delicious for me not to comment on the bizarre antics of the now expelled Equity actor
Randy Quaid and his wife
Evi in the wake of their
Lone Star Love debacle.
You just can't make this stuff up:
All 26 members of the Lone Star Love cast brought Randy up on charges with Actors' Equity Association, claiming he physically and verbally abused his fellow performers and that his oddball behavior onstage and off forced the show to close, thus depriving them of their jobs.
On Friday, Equity handed down its decision. According to documents obtained exclusively by The Post, the union has banned Randy for life - life! - and fined him $81,572.
Seriously, go read Riedel's entire column and tell me if it doesn't bring a smile to your face. With all due respect to Quaid's fellow castmembers who allegedly had to endure the duo's physical and verbal assaults, it's the first belly laugh I've had in weeks.
Here's a thought. Turn
the whole blooming mess into a backstage, backbiting musical.
Maybe they could call it, "The Color Magenta."
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:No Star Love (September 24, 2007)
Evi-duh? (September 19, 2007)
Lone Star Joins Crowded Field Of Musicals (July 20, 2007)
Labels: Actors Equity, Broadway, Lone Star Love, Michael Riedel, Randy Quaid
Touring Productions: What's Fair And EquityThanks to Google alerts, I get theatre-related news from throughout the United States that I would never get elsewhere.
Take Alabama's
The Huntsville Times review of the current touring production of
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, in which critic Jon Busdaker eviscerates the show:
Beware. The box office is swindling hard-earned dollars from people expecting a Broadway-style show.
Keep your money close so you don't accidentally spend it on a ticket, because someone's playing the ol' "bait and switch."
I thought Busdaker was about to blow the lid off the fact that the
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels that's currently masquerading as the tour of the Broadway original is not only
not directed by the Rialto production's
Jack O'Brien, nor choreographed by
Jerry Mitchell, but the tour is strictly
non-equity and directed instead by
Philip Wm. McKinley and choreographed by
Vince Pesce.
The bait is advertising the show as the legit progeny of the Broadway original and switching it with a bastardized version that doesn't even have the guts to admit its use
anywhere of a non-equity cast.
While the show leaves Huntsville this afternoon for Fort Lauderdale, I see
nothing on any of the sites suggesting that this is anything but the real deal. What's more, at the
Broward Arts Center, they are still charging $65 for the show's top ticket. Perhaps not much compared with Broadway, but in line with ticket prices for other legitimate Great White Way tour offerings across the country.
As
I've cautioned previously with the touring production of
Hairspray, it's strictly
caveat emptor. Or, if you regularly check
Actors Equity's Web site, you can see that the following tours are but pale imitations of the Broadway originals:
Dirty Rotten ScoundrelsHairsprayThe ProducersThe Wedding SingerDirty and rotten? Absolutely, especially when
they con unsuspecting audiences in each city by not telling the dirty, rotten truth upfront about these shows.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Touring Hairspray Caught In Sticky Net (April 26, 2007)
Labels: Actors Equity, Broadway, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Fort Lauderdale, Hairspray, Huntsville, Musical, Touring Production
