Leighton Meester - Curley's wife | Of Mice and Men on Broadway S&S #2: I am so incredibly humbled and inspired to help bring his world to life. ~ LM - Page 14

LittleღMermaid · 04-09-2014, 11:38 AM

It looks like she's enjoying her birthday on Broadway

Rachel Leigh · 04-09-2014, 11:40 AM

I know its so cute

I loved this tweet...

Quote:

Jim Parrack ‏@parrack120 1h
Happiest Birthday to a wonderful castmate and all around badass boxing aficionado, @itsmeleighton.... Hope it's a great day Miss Leighton

I just read a very detailed review from a very negative person that actually made me lol
He wasn't horrible to Leighton but felt that she didn't come across as the character the books. Thats the thing though...Anna didn't want Curley's wife played that way.
If you want to read the review heres the link http://vivalifestyles.net/2014/04/mi...-mice-and-men/

Now back to positive...

Quote:

We caught the show tonight & it was amazing. Chris O'Dowd brought a stunning performance and Jim Parrack was so great along with Leighton Meester and James Franco and the rest of the cast. Everyone was amazing. We'd go again if we lived here!

Quote:

LongAcreTheatre @miceandmenbway Amazing play. Fantastic cast. Gorgeous theatre. #Bro... http://ift.tt/1lQBE8y pic.twitter.com/lbmkwfn2Lp

Blairღ · 04-09-2014, 12:36 PM

This is so cute!

http://distilleryimage0.ak.instagram...c9c8f728_8.jpg (url because of a swear word

)

Quote:

On Broadway for my birthday. Couldn't get any better. @miceandmenbway

tranquility · 04-09-2014, 12:55 PM

Some people are total buzzkills

Cute tweet from Jim!

That's so cute!

Rachel Leigh · 04-09-2014, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Alex Morf ‏@Morfeus149 4h
Happy happy birthday to my onstage wife and offstage buddy @itsmeleighton . Let's do 2 shows to celebrate!

awww

LittleღMermaid · 04-10-2014, 03:19 AM

Sweet!

Oh geez who cares if the character didn't look exactly how the reader imagined the characters as long as they played the role well? You can be short and small and still be a tart

I heard Chris Evans was there last night

tranquility · 04-10-2014, 04:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LittleღMermaid (View Post)

I heard Chris Evans was there last night

What?

That tweet from Alex is so cute!

From Mickey Boardman, editorial director of Paper Magazine:

Quote:

Great cast, great performances by @jamesfrancotv @itsmeleighton #ChrisOdowd miceandmenbway Go see it! Instagram

x

LittleღMermaid · 04-10-2014, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tranquility (View Post)

What?

Quote:

Saw @ChrisEvans at @miceandmenbway tonight. Awesome to see the ultimate soldier at an American Classic #captainamerica #marvel

https://twitter.com/jffmiele/status/454087667073179648

clair carlyle · 04-10-2014, 10:14 PM

Man how time flies. It's opening in five days.

adambrodyrocks · 04-10-2014, 10:46 PM

Whoopi Goldberg
2 hours ago
Just saw Mice and Men with James Franco and Chris O'Dowd beyond brilliant - the entire cast spectacular. A word to the wise buy tickets ASAP cause in a couple of days they won't be available!

tranquility · 04-11-2014, 03:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LittleღMermaid (View Post)

https://twitter.com/jffmiele/status/454087667073179648

DEAD. I love Chris.

Whoopi! She's awesome.

Thanks for the tweet

Rachel Leigh · 04-11-2014, 09:12 AM

Wow thats great!

Jim Parrack...

Quote:

think I saw a picture of you doing that on your Instagram. I also saw that you've been catching up on your co-star Leighton's old show, Gossip Girl.
JP: [Laughs]. See, that’s getting caught. I don’t know if anyone has come in watching me shadow boxing to A$AP Rocky, but Gossip Girl is getting caught. Well, I met [Leighton] at the table read and thought she was just a sweetheart, so I was like, let me go just check this thing out. You know, I made fun of it through the whole [episode], but by the end I was like, I’ve got to get another one right away. I kind of did that with the whole first season . . . Leighton's really good on it. A lot of the other people, I don't know, but she's really good on it.
Read more at Jim Parrack and James Franco Are Opening an Acting School in Brooklyn

clair carlyle · 04-11-2014, 12:38 PM

I'm guessing the USA Today interview will be a separate one, yay!
Leighton Meester on her Broadway debut in 'Of Mice and Men' - Newsday

Opening week coming up. Lots of presssss.

LittleღMermaid · 04-11-2014, 01:37 PM

I hope so! We need some pics to accompany these interviews too!

tranquility · 04-11-2014, 02:27 PM

I really want to meet Jim one day

He sounds great.

Can't wait for all the press coming our way.

ETA: From The Hollywood Reporter

Quote:

'Of Mice and Men': Dressing James Franco and Chris O'Dowd in Depression-Era Denim

Costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb tells THR of making her Broadway debut with James Franco, Chris O’Dowd, Leighton Meester and Jim Parrack.

When Of Mice and Men officially opens at the Longacre Theatre on Wednesday, the star-studded spectacle will mark the Broadway debuts of James Franco, Chris O’Dowd, Leighton Meester and Jim Parrack.

But it will also be a Great White Way first for Suttirat Anne Larlarb, the costume designer tasked with dressing the film and TV actors for the stage adaptation of John Steinbeck’s iconic 1937 novella, directed by Anna D. Shapiro. Often collaborating with director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire and Trance on the big screen, Frankenstein at London’s National Theater), she branches into Broadway with the Depression-era tragedy of downtrodden field workers with high sights and heartbreaking backstories. To do so, Larlarb only studied the script, staying away from the book she had read in high school and the John Malcovich-Gary Sinise 1992 film she once saw.

Larlarb has Franco fronting the production in a button-down shirt, belted jeans and boots – a field workman’s uniform that casts George as an everyman. "He’s trying to operate under the radar, so he has to appear like everybody else, like he could fill any post at any time – there’s nothing remarkable about him," Larlarb tells The Hollywood Reporter of Franco, as George carries dreams of owning his own land and living a quiet but prosperous life. She normalized Franco’s features because of George’s ethos, but also to level his big-screen status for his Broadway-stage debut. The two last worked together on Boyle’s 127 Hours (for which she was also the production designer) and helped initiate him into the theater world as a familiar film face. "I love working with him – he finds a way into the character that has a lot of the backstory just riding underneath it. I think we have a really good shorthand now."

Alongside – and towering over – Franco is O’Dowd as Lennie, the gentle giant who is unaware of his own strength. To visually contrast the look of his best friend George, a bald and bearded O’Dowd is seen in a denim jumpsuit, simultaneously evoking his character’s childlike qualities while also wearing an overalls alternative that would’ve been worn by factory workers instead.

"It’s off just enough to make you tilt your head to one side," says Larlarb of O’Dowd’s Lennie. "He can’t help but all attention to himself – he’s so big, and having that big surface area that isn’t broken up by so many lines actually helps."

The male characters stick with a single costume throughout the entire production, marking the passing of time by accessorizing with jackets and hats. "From the beginning, we decided not to do costume changes for every new day – it just seemed frivolous given the context of the play, and the class and status of everyone," Larlarb explains.
Yet Leighton Meester – as Curley’s wife, the flirtatious farm beauty with broken dreams of movie stardom – is strategically equipped with three costumes, specifically made not only to ensure the Depression-era dresses could withstand the production’s rigors but also to highlight the journey of the forgotten face.

"In Steinbeck’s book, she’s more of a symbol than a character – she doesn’t even have a name in the play, which speaks volumes about her position," says Larlarb of Meester’s role. "Being the only woman, being a nameless woman and being seemingly the cause of downfall of everything in this play, I wanted to make sure she was living and breathing, and that Leighton achieve character status, rather than just play a pretty face."

Therefore, to introduce Curley’s wife "like a tart" to the male workers, she first appears onstage in a floral wrap dress "so that it could open ever so slightly," and then wears a red "siren" dress when she’s looking for trouble in the boys’ bunker. But it’s her third look (pictured below) that was the most important to Larlarb, as she enters the scene with a suitcase and plans to truly pursuing acting, but meets tragedy instead at the misguided hand of Lennie.

"I was almost working backwards – she was going to be dead and lie there on the barn floor, and when people discover her, they mistake her for sleeping, and I really took that to heart," says Larlarb of landing on a sophisticated light-green dress, demurely buttoned up to her neck. "I didn’t want to her to be in some tarty, hussy state of non-dress, but feel the most innocent so she appeared more like a victim…like a doll that he gets carried away with a little too much. And when she’s dead, she doesn’t look like a whore that nobody cares about."

Meester’s below-the-knee looks always include a hint of red, either on her dresses or in her shoes and makeup. "In a landscape of blue, utilitarian colors, she needed to feel like an alien in that world – Anna said she should come from a slightly different play," says Larlarb of the direction she received from Shapiro for dressing Curley’s wife. After signing onto the project due to a Yale alumni connection, Larlarb says she had a straightforward, trusting collaboration with Shapiro that she appreciated. “I loved hearing how she had digested, chewed through and analyzed the script before we started,” she said of working with the Tony-winning director. "She gave me what she needed from each character, and then gave me the space to interpret that."

Though Larlarb herself has yet to process her own Broadway debut yet – besides finishing films The Good Life with Reese Witherspoon and Corey Stoll, and Ten Thousand Saints with Ethan Hawke and Hailee Steinfeld, she also debuted this academic year as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University – she assures, "On opening night, when my family flies in, I’ll have a proper celebration with them about this new notch in my belt."

Of Mice and Men opens April 16 at the Longacre Theater and runs through July 27.


Fan Forum > Female Celebrities > Leighton Meester > Curley's wife \| Of Mice and Men on Broadway S&S #2: I am so incredibly humbled and inspired to help bring his world to life. ~ LM