Harvey Weinstein begs: Please come to Boston, you ramblin’ columnist.
He took issue with my column last week about the Times’ Ben Brantley and Deadline.com’s Jeremy Gerard reviewing “Finding Neverland” during its tryout in Cambridge, Mass.
I thought both reviewers, especially Brantley, wrote fuzzy notices because the show is, as Captain Harvey says, “a work in progress.” Reading between the lines, I detected a lack of enthusiasm, and said neither critic would be quite so namby-pamby when the show opens in New York. “Finding Neverland” will need good reviews, and since Brantley and Gerard hardly threw their hats in the air, I pronounced the show “dead in the water.”
Captain Harvey objected to that phrase because I’ve yet to see the show. (True, but my column wasn’t about the show; it was about the critics’ response to the tryout.) He invited me to Boston, cheekily adding that if The Post can’t afford my train fare, he’ll launch a Kickstarter campaign to cover it.
Thanks, Harvey, but I think we can swing it. I may not be on the Acela, but I can catch the bus, which is called — happy coincidence! — the Peter Pan Express.
I’ll leave the actual reviewing to Post critic Elisabeth Vincentelli, who’ll have her say when the show opens in New York this spring. But I’ll nose around and see if I can pick up any backstage gossip.
Meanwhile, I have a question for you, Harvey: With Matthew Morrison being sprung from “Glee” at the end of the year, are you going to snap him up for “Neverland”? He was, after all, your first choice to play J.M. Barrie. Jeremy Jordan, who’s playing the role in Cambridge, is a fine actor, but Morrison’s a star.
Let me — and Jeremy — know when you can!
I received several e-mails from readers with thoughts on what to name the new theater the Shuberts plan to put up next to the Imperial. Harold Prince, Oscar Hammerstein II and Ethel Merman have a lot of support. And the great Bob Fosse’s name came up several times.
Scott Barall suggested The Shia LaBeouf Theater. And Michael James Leslie suggested The Stritch, after you know who.
But my favorite suggestion is The Morosco, which was the name of the great theater on West 45th Street that was demolished in 1982, despite protests led by Joe Papp, to make way for the Marriott Marquis hotel.
The Morosco. It has a nice ring to it.