{"id":95557,"date":"2026-10-11T22:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T05:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=95557"},"modified":"2026-10-11T22:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T05:36:15","slug":"gillian-and-groff-on-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2026\/10\/11\/gillian-and-groff-on-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Gillian and Groff On Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m getting ready for another one of my periodic trips to catch some theatre in London.  But I think I\u2019ll skip Who\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?<\/em><\/strong>.  It\u2019s a play I love but, frankly, I don\u2019t have 3.5 hours to spend on the wrong cast (lesson learned with Calista Flockhart <\/strong>and Zachary Quinto <\/strong>\u2013 check the video on BillyMasters.com<\/u><\/strong><\/a>).  I have no doubt Billy Crudup <\/strong>will be a great George, but what of Gillian Anderson<\/strong>?  While meeting a group of fans by the stage door, she was filmed seemingly chastising some who have come back repeatedly: \u201cYou guys cannot sit in the front row.  You cannot…I don\u2019t care.  You cannot sit in the front row.  It\u2019s so distracting.  You can\u2019t come 20 times and sit in the front row.  It\u2019ll drive me mad.\u201d  It should be noted that Gillian is laughing while saying this.  She explained, \u201cThe video doing the rounds is me talking with women I go back over 20 years with \u2013 so please don\u2019t say anything negative to or about them.  We\u2019re thrilled to be doing this show but for people in the front row, please be aware that in such an intimate venue we can all see you and sometimes, it can be a tad distracting!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"colorbar1\"<\/p>\n

Our own Jonathan Groff <\/strong>is wowing audiences in Stratford-upon-Avon with an all-male production of my favorite Shakespeare <\/strong>play, As You Like It<\/em><\/strong>.  Of course, this is nothing new \u2013 it\u2019s how plays were done in Will\u2019s day.  Back then, the men all dressed up like Tom Daley on a date with his hubby!  In fact, the female roles were typically taken on by teenage boys.  In this play, the gender of the characters is more layered since the leading lady, Rosalind, dresses up as a male at one point.  I\u2019m told Groff pulls off this whole Victor\/Victoria<\/em><\/strong> moment with aplomb.  The Royal Shakespeare Company<\/em>\u2019s production has been receiving spectacular reviews.  The Times<\/em> said, \u201cAmerican star Jonathan Groff made an accomplished Shakespearean debut as Rosalind\u201d.  Doesn\u2019t get better than that.  The show must close on November 7th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Groff\u2019s last Broadway <\/em>credit was as Bobby Darin <\/strong>in Just In Time<\/em><\/strong>.  His replacement was announced as Jeremy Jordan<\/strong>.  Except there was a brief hiatus between Jonathan\u2019s exit and Jordan\u2019s entrance.  Enter the multi-talented Matthew Morrison<\/strong>, who took over the role for three weeks.  At the time, I predicted he\u2019d be back.  Sure enough, he\u2019s heading back into the show starting on October 20th<\/sup> for yet another limited three-week run, prior to the curiously cast Nicholas Christopher<\/strong>.  Once again, I suspect this isn\u2019t the last we\u2019ll see of Matty in the show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m getting ready for another one of my periodic trips to catch some theatre in London.  But I think I\u2019ll skip Who\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.  It\u2019s a play I love but, frankly, I don\u2019t have 3.5 hours to spend on the wrong cast (lesson learned with Calista Flockhart and Zachary Quinto \u2013 check the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95558,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95557\/revisions\/95558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}