It’s been a tough week to be a Broadway leading man Norbert Leo Butz, the star of “Big Fish,” left the show midway through Wednesday’s matinee.
I like to think he was suffering from Riedel-itis, which is an acute condition brought on by being zinged in my column. As I reported on Wednesday, “Big Fish” is already foundering — rather, floundering — at the box office and may not be long for this world. Butz got good reviews (as he always does), but, as I pointed out, he’s not a draw like Nathan Lane.
Butz told Broadwayworld.com he’s under the weather and will likely be out for a couple of days. The only known cure for Riedel-itis is to watch endless YouTube clips of me making a fool of myself on “Theater Talk.”
Trust me, it works.
Over at “Matilda,” Craig Bierko, who on Sept. 17 replaced the wonderful Bertie Carvel as Miss Trunchbull, is taking 12 weeks off due to a shoulder injury.
The injury has made it impossible for Bierko to hurl children through the air, as Miss Trunchbull is wont to do.
Twelve weeks seems an awfully long time to be out of the show, and I’ve heard there’s more to this story than the old “I hurt my shoulder” routine.
Bierko never got a handle on the role, production sources say. After several “put-in rehearsals” — that’s showbiz lingo for running the show with a new cast member — sources say Bierko was still having trouble with the choreography.
His comic timing was off as well. Based on Roald Dahl’s children’s book, “Matilda” is British to its bones, and Bierko is a nice boy from the suburbs of New York.
Another complaint: “He made no attempt to play Miss Trunchbull as a woman,” a source says. “The performance just wasn’t working.”
The official line is that Bierko will return after his 12-week hiatus.
But my sense is that the producers better start looking for a star to play the part. As much as I love “Matilda,” I’m afraid it’s a shaky hit that is going to need a boost in the new year.
The ticket just might be an old-fashioned, larger-than-life ham as Miss Trunchbull.
I’d love to see Frank Langella or Harvey Fierstein camp it up in the part. (Harvey already beat “Matilda” at the Tonys with his show “Kinky Boots,” so he can afford to be magnanimous.)
Richard Kind would be fun, too.
Or how about Rosie O’Donnell?
No padding necessary!
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My friend Chris Jones, critic for the Chicago Tribune, took issue with my charge, in that column about “Big Fish,” that out-of-town critics seem to be pulling their punches when it comes to Broadway tryouts.
He writes:
“Re your dastardly allegations of going soft today. This New York meme of higher standards drives me nuts. Did not y’all love ‘Lysistrata Jones’?” (Not me. But you certainly can lay that one on Big Ben Brantley!)
“I’ve no interest in writing so as to attract shows — they come to Chicago for their own reasons,” Jones continues. “I’ve written harshly about plenty of shows here. They change and morph. They get worse and they get better.
“The shows that need to be stomped or stopped out of town are the ones that are cheap, cynical and/or derivative. There are plenty of those. None of those adjectives applied to ‘Big Fish.’
“I will say this: I do think it’s only right to review out-of-town tryouts for what they are. Not done. Seems reasonable to make suggestions. I plead guilty there.”
Fair enough.