Very happy for my theater pals Rachel York and Chuck Wagner setting sail with the Anything Goes Tour. There's a nice article about Rachel who will be taking her 18 mos. old daughter on tour. Google for that article.
Seeing this in November and I can't wait. I absolutely LOVED the revival when is saw it with Sutton Foster as Reno last year. Rachel York is going to be great.
There are already bookings for a second year and more are being explored. I would expect this to be a 2 year tour. Roundabout is the only producer and they will want to make every dime they can on this without handing it off to NETWorks or a similar company.
I can't see how this tour could do poorly. Rachel York is a fantastic triple threat performer, and the show is an easy a crowd pleaser. They are keeping the cast and orchestra the same size from Broadway, and while the set will be cut down and the lighting designer has changed, I'm sure the show will do fine.
SETA has nothing to do with what cities a show plays- in fact the small contract means the weekly guarantee is low so places that can't pay top dollar might be able to afford this one. Only time will tell if Equity screwed the pooch on this one. The cast might make more on overages on the SETA tier than they would have with a straight salary on a larger tier....
Last time I saw Chuck Wagner, he was in the Ringling Bros circus. Once as a family cast member and the other as ringmaster! Still in fabulous vocal form.
Somewhere on YT, there is a hilarious yet terrific video of him singing "Dancing Queen" during a circus rehearsal.
Thanks for the link, lovesclassics. I was hoping for a Philly stop too. Wilmington DE is about 31 miles from Philly and the closest stop.
Rachel should be wonderful in this! Nothing like a giant beauty with long legs and all that dancing...and yes Chuck still looks and sounds GREAT! The man has chickens and a garden at his Florida home. He's really something!
"Only time will tell if Equity screwed the pooch on this one. The cast might make more on overages on the SETA tier than they would have with a straight salary on a larger tier...."
Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but how would the actors making more through the overage participation than they would have if it had been full production show that Equity "screwed the pooch" with the SETA contract? If anything I would say that it shows that the SETA contract is pretty successful.
AEA....and you would be right. I said that I don't know what will happen. There are one or two shows out there on smaller contracts that sell so well that the actors make a ton on overage. I believe those are rare situations though. Unfortunately the company still has to put up with the lousy per diem on the SET agreement. Can't be in favor of cut rate deals on first national tours, even if a few shows get ahead here and there.
No this is not Chuck's recent headshot. If you are looking for recent candid shots of Chuck search him on Facebook. He's been posting a lot of fun shots now that he's back in NYC rehearsing for the show. He still look pretty good, imo.
Philly is a quick, easy, cheap commute to NYC. Many theatre people who would be interested in seeing Anything Goes in philly would gladly take the train into NYC for a day to see it on broadway.
Same goes for Boston.
But Wilmington, DE? And Schenctety? (sp?) Different story.
A friend of mine is from Wilmington, DE and is able to get direct transport from NYC to Wilmington when she goes to visit her family. It's not that difficult, and anyone who really wanted to see the show could easily get from New York to Wilmington via mass transit, as easily as you would get from NYC to Philly. It's a two-hour train trip.
^Exactly I'm very interested to add another signature to my Into the Woods playbill and the show isn't open anymore, so it's not like I can drive four hours to NYC and see it. I get that they want to expose the magic of theatre to everyone, but I think to show would make more in Boston or Philly than Bumhole, Arkansas.
joined:6/11/03
Posted: 9/7/12 at 09:26pm