Honestly Sincere

NBC has quietly announced a postponement of Bye Bye Birdie, which was to have been their "live" musical this Christmas. The stated reason is that Jennifer Lopez, who was/is to star as Rosie, is just too busy. I have no reason to think there is any other reason…but I do wonder if they're rethinking their choice of show.

Bye Bye Birdie has great songs but a not-so-great book, which was heavily changed for the popular movie version of the show. It's revived in regional theater a lot less than other shows which were made into popular films and the one attempt to revive it on Broadway, which was in 2010, closed after 117 performances, which is not an impressive number. The 1995 TV-Movie version starring Jason Alexander also didn't do so well.

Anyway, if they do go through with it, I hope they try to get Nathan Lane to play the Paul Lynde role. And I'm still hoping that one of these days, someone does Damn Yankees that way with Christopher Walken as Applegate.