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 8

tranquility · 03-23-2014, 01:27 PM

Theater attracts snobs. Can't have good things without a bit of bad I guess.

Rachel Leigh · 03-23-2014, 03:04 PM

Best I stay away from that board then

Elizabeth Gillies was in the audience tonight.

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Elizabeth Gillies ‏@LizGillies 13m
Skillfully ate a protein bar for 2.5 hours while trying not make any crinkly noises during Of Mice and Men. @BigBoyler you're incredible.

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Of Mice and Men ‏@miceandmenbway 1m
OM&M "got off to a great start on Wednesday. The stars played to a packed house & garnered rave reviews"- Daily Mail http://dailym.ai/Q5lhYN

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Amazing show @JamesFrancoTV @itsmeleighton #ofmiceandmenonbroadway

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It was amazin @jamesfrancotv @itsmeleighton

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@miceandmenbway was brilliant!! seeing my favorite story performed onstage was already great, but i love that its just as moving as the book

THAT PLAY WAS SO GOOD ILL NEVER GET OVER IT

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This show is actually amazing

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Of mice & men was very gud, @itsmeleighton @BigBoyler & @JamesFrancoTV killed it pic.twitter.com/MS3GNHMRfK

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Amazing show and performances tonight #chrisodowd #leightonmeester too cold to wait for @jamesfrancotv… http://instagram.com/p/l5sq5qOcRP/

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A show (excellent performance of @miceandmenbway - superb cast!) and dinner. Thus ends my NYC fun.

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he was so so good. Leighton Meester was gorgeous in person and a very close second to Chris O'Dowd in terms of acting.

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Wow Of Mice and Men was amazing

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Damn. @JamesFrancoTV, Chris O'dowd and Leighton Meester were amazing in Of Mice and Men. I just saw it and it was really good.

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Yas! Finally saw #ofmiceandmen from the orchestra seat (so close to the stage!) yesterday.
Their performance was beyond amazing.
@jamesfrancotv #jamesfranco #chrisodowd #leightonmeester made my weekend so wonderful. Thanks!!
#broadway #ny #nyc #ohlala
Everyone was too good

clair carlyle · 03-23-2014, 07:13 PM

Don't let a few bad apples ruin the batch

A few more.

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spectacular play & performances @miceandmenbway @itsmeleighton @JamesFrancoTV #ChrisODowd :-) #ofmiceandmenonbroadway bravo!

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Beautiful performance today @itsmeleighton Love ya! #ofmiceandmen pic.twitter.com/2OEucAOJ8M

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Of mice and men was an amazing production #jamesfranco #chrisodowd #leightonmeester #miceandmenbway

Best moment of my life #ofmiceandmen @itsmeleighton Instagram

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Leighton Meester, Chris O'Dowd, James Franco and Jim Norton...truely amazing!! #ofmiceandmen #sogood http://instagram.com/p/l6OLTvrwtm/

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Of Mice and Men was so incredible. Absolutely no words! @JamesFrancoTV @BigBoyler @itsmeleighton

LittleღMermaid · 03-23-2014, 08:16 PM

They can't rain on our parade. We get way more positive than negative critiques. I do think it's interesting that the ones that say they don't like her never give a reason why.

Aww Elizabeth Gillies is cute. I'm curious to see what other celebs come see it.

Thanks for all the tweets!

adambrodyrocks · 03-23-2014, 10:55 PM

thtas what matters, more positive reviews than some negative once,tweets are very positive too

Rachel Leigh · 03-24-2014, 12:11 PM

Thanks for the new tweet/reviews

Heres a pic from a scene with James and Leighton in the play...

.@vanessagormann | Of & @beccacivil #blairwaldorf #weloveblair #jamesfranco | Webstagram

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I think everyone should see this. It's Brilliant. Still can't believe I was able to experience this. #broadway #awardworthy #omam #miceandmenbway @miceandmenbway @jamesfrancotv @itsmeleighton @parrack120

tranquility · 03-24-2014, 12:22 PM

Thanks for all the new stuff.

I really like the set designs.

Rachel Leigh · 03-24-2014, 01:58 PM

Good News...

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‘Of Mice and Men’ Starts Well at Broadway Box Office

James Franco may have a new title to add to his multi-faceted, hyper-hyphenated resume: Broadway box-office draw.

The revival of “Of Mice and Men” starring Mr. Franco and Chris O’Dowd opened strongly last week, earning $688,832 — nearly 97 percent of its maximum possible gross — in its first six preview performances, the Broadway League, the trade group of theater owners and producers, reported on Monday.

In the race to the Tony award deadline, which has 13 productions opening between Tuesday and April 24, the news was mixed for other shows in previews. “A Raisin in the Sun,” a revival with Denzel Washington, and “If/Then,” a new musical starring Idina Menzel, both showed strength, cracking the cherished million-dollars-a-week mark.

Of the new shows already open, “Aladdin” crept closer to that threshold as well, earning $937,099 in its first full week after opening to mixed-to-positive reviews. Among the shows struggling to catch on: “Rocky,” which earned $799,879, about 53 percent of its potential maximum gross; and “The Bridges of Madison County,” which brought in $385,394, only 38 percent of its potential maximum.

LittleღMermaid · 03-24-2014, 07:36 PM

That's great news!

adambrodyrocks · 03-24-2014, 08:55 PM

amazing news,yay,leighton meester in the cast is also a great advantage

tranquility · 03-25-2014, 11:59 AM

That's awesome!

Thanks for the news.

clair carlyle · 03-25-2014, 06:23 PM

from GeeksofDoom:

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Two friends, George and Lennie, are traveling through California, looking for work at a farm or a ranch. Two friends who are just about as opposite as opposites can be, looking for that work more often than they care to. George is the smart, resourceful friend who takes care of Lennie, because well…Lennie ain’t quite right in the head. He has a hard time remembering stuff. He pets mice, pups, and ladies too hard. He can’t control his own strength sometimes. And George would have such a good life if he didn’t have to take care of Lennie, the “wine, women, and song” life…at least once a month. And George could settle in at a place, without Lennie getting in trouble and getting them run off.

What do you get when you mix Daniel Desario, Thomas-John, Blair Waldorf, Reverend Lowdown, Camel, Hoyt Fortenberry, and O’Neill? The cast of Of Mice and Men – PULLING IT OFF!!!

At first, you can’t shake the idea that it’s James Franco (George) playing a character. You almost expect to hear him say, “You can’t have my Milky Way! It’s my special food, I like it.” Ten minutes later you are immersed in 1930s ranch life. The sets are so authentic. The dilapidated bunkhouse, Crooks’ room, and the land 1/4 mile off from the ranch that begins and ends the play, have such attention to detail, the audience itself feels poor and disheveled.

Chris O’Dowd WAS Lennie from his first attempt at hiding the dead mouse from George, to his tragic end. He was big. He was clumsy. He was loud. He was Lennie. Although mainly known for her lead part in the now defunct CW show “Gossip Girl” and not for Broadway, Leighton Meester was perfectly cast as the flighty, shallow, man-chasing, Curley’s wife. Ron Cephas Jones as Crooks and Jim Norton as Candy, walked right out of the novel to greet us all. And after those first ten minutes of transforming from James Franco to George, Franco was able to have us feel how torn up he was between loving and hating Lennie for his current quality of life.

Previews of Broadway shows allow for forgivable mistakes, making small changes to script and direction, and to allow the performers to internalize their characters, before the opening night. Of Mice and Men could have just opened. It was THAT good.

Theatre Review: Of Mice and Men

LittleღMermaid · 03-25-2014, 07:03 PM

Love that review!

I want to read more of that.

Rachel Leigh · 03-26-2014, 11:07 AM

Thanks so much for the review

Heres what someone wrote about the show on their blog...

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"Of Mice and Men"

On Saturday night, along with 1086 other lucky ticket holders, we streamed through the doors of the Longacre Theatre, at 48th and Broadway, New York. Longacre Theatre named after Longacre Square (today known as Times Square) was built in 1913, in French Neoclassical style, by Harry Fraze, owner of the Boston Red Socks. Legend has it that Fraze sold his star player Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in order to fund completion of the theatre and that such was the anger of the Red Socks fans that they placed a curse on the Theatre, which unnerved many directors in the early days. There certainly was no sense of any such curse on Saturday night as we took our seats amidst a palpable air of great anticipation.

The first performance of Mice and Men on Broadway was in 1937 and there has only been one revival of it in 1974 but New Yorkers were well rewarded for their patience by the stellar cast lined up by award winning Director Anna Shapiro for her adaptation of the John Steinbeck play. Set against a backdrop of the Great Depression in 1930s California, Of Mice and Men follows the lives of two friends, Lenny and George, eking a living as itinerant farm hands, motivated through the drudgery of their days by their dream of saving enough money to one day buy a farm of their own. It is a tale of friendship, hardship and the cruel conflict between following ones own dream whilst maintaining the bonds of friendship and loyalty.

The curtains parted revealing Lennie (Chris), a simple minded giant with fiercely loyal friend George (James Franco) and as they sit and chat by a stream en route to their farmhand jobs at a new ranch, the audience gets a glimpse of the nature of the two characters and their friendship, which is the cornerstone of the play. Towering at 6ft 4inches Chris is an imposing figure on stage. His impeccable delivery of the slow, drawling accent fills the walls of the theatre and his physical manifestation of Lennie was simply enthralling to me.

Throughout he manages to hold the gnarled fingers, the bent foot, the tilted head and forward thrusted neck to such an extent that I would have no doubt anyone in the audience who wasn't previously aware of Chris, would believe that is his "normal" physical state. I would imagine there will be some Chiropractor bills at the end of this show.

Lennie has us a moment wanting to hold him and cuddle him and just as quickly being in fear of him and his immense strength and as we follow him through the show, and be in no doubt, it is he the audience are following. We see his behaviour cause George to fluctuate between loyalty and frustration throughout. Later we are introduced to more farm hands, especially Candy (Jim Norton) and his dog, and the delightfully feminine "Curleys wife" (Leighton Meester). I would dearly love her dressmakers number :-) There are not many set changes and all are painstakingly decorated. The acoustics are spectacular, to such an extent I was convinced there was a cricket on my shoulder during one outdoor scene. All together this adaptation takes the audience on an emotional roller coaster from hilariousness to heartbreak.

I certainly cannot claim to know Chris very well but I must admit that this Boyleonian felt the eyes moisten as I got to my feet with the entire audience to give a staring ovation at the end of a most spectacular performance. Boyle and Mr. Steineck can be very proud.

As we moved out onto the street after the show I was surprised to large crowds outside, with some barriers up to stop people spilling into the traffic and six of NYPDs finest controlling the situation and helping the traffic pass through.

I was trying to figure out what on earth was going on, when after a couple of minutes I realised to my amazement what all these people were chanting ... it was "Chris, Chris, Chris !!!!"

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Jim Parrack ‏@parrack120 29m
miceandmenbway @jamesfrancotv @itsmeleighton @bigboyler this is nuts. Middle of the work week 120… Instagram

Not surprised! The 2pm show is sold out! So is tomorrow nights show.

tranquility · 03-26-2014, 12:53 PM

Thanks for the reviews.

I saw that Instagram video earlier and went "holy crap!". Love hearing the words sold out.


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