The Tonys!

[London]

Pippin

http://youtu.be/wWIjfxmZXf4

Annie

http://youtu.be/LK838uSAyf4

Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella

http://youtu.be/yWFga2eqkKU

Motown

http://youtu.be/vBZRdrbR01w

Phantom of the Opera - 25th Anniversary

http://youtu.be/LdKblGpjWJw

Once (Shaky camera)

[EricMontreal22]

Yes that was great. Michael John LaChiusa, one of my fave current musical composers wrote the lyrics for that.

I agree. Cisley is amazing but from *everything* I've heard she is poorly directed in her play--Nielson has had nothing but raves.

[EricMontreal22]

I love the young songwriters behind Christmas Story, but have zero interest in seeing it--still always nice to see Caroline O'Connor (I think that's her name) on stage--she's such a big musical theatre star in the UK and her native Australia it's strange seeing her hardly advertised on this continent. (The same songwriters' score for the stage adaptation of Dogfight last year is much more interesting.)

Yes, it prob would be me who mentioned Hal Prince--one of the most important figures in musical theatre. As a young producer he was behind massive, and for their time, brave hits like West Side Story and FIddler on the Roof, then when he moved on to directing he was largely responsible for creating the adult concept musical by instigating (and directing) Cabaret and Zorba and then teaming up with Sondheim for their string of 70s hits where their names became paired together (over the names of whoever they had write the libretto for their plays) with Company, Night Music, Follies, Pacific Overtures and Sweeney Todd. His production of Kiss of the Spider Woman and Evita are also iconic, and honestly if he hadn't done the iconic staging of Phantom of the Opera I doubt it would still be running--as the horrible film he wasn't involved with showed.

Everyone I know has said that Pippin's apparent brilliance has not translated to any of their televised scenes, so I'll trust them. I will say, I used to think it was a show that could never be revived without Fosse's brilliant original production (which was filmed in '81) which is, to be fair horribly dated. The actual material, while I enjoy the music, is insanely slight. While they've kept his choreography, by all reports this new production does manage to work.

They've always had trouble presenting play excerpts but I wish they'd do a scene from them like they have in the past.

[EricMontreal22]

Have zero interest in Annie, but I will admit Lynch sounded great--I always assumed she wouldn't be able to sing live due to how rarely he sings on Glee and how processed her voice is on there.

[EricMontreal22]

Cyndi was in an ill-fated revival of 3Penny Opera a few years back with Alan CUmming. But first time for score. Ilove her,but on CD the Kinky Boots songs don 't sound very theatrical or plot specific, though they are catchy.

Yeah Spidey is actually making good numbers. Of course I think it'll have to run for eons to turn a profit, but...

[DRW50]

She sounded good, it's just odd seeing her take on the role. Annie could easily be adapted to modern life, people just have to read the early 30s comic strips to see that. Not sure why we're perpetually stuck with the cutesy adorable child.

Thanks for the rundown on Pippen. What is Pacific Overtures?

Ever since I heard it in one of the GH gag reels I've had "What I Did For Love" stuck in my head (I'd heard parts of the song before, but never the full song), so I enjoyed hearing the adaptation on the Tonys. I always wonder if any modern shows have songs people will remember 20-30-etc. years from now.

[EricMontreal22]

Annie is an odd creature in general. The comic was so anti FDR and his left wing politics, and yet the musical is ALL pro that, lol.

Pacific Overtures was perhaps Sondheim and Prince's most pretentious musical (and librettist John Weidman). From 1976, Sondheim joked at the time that the critics would bemoan "Oh no, not another kabuki musical!" It' a piece about the Americanization of Japan, told via kabuki techniques. It actually has a stunning score, and Prince's production is insanely theatrical (it was filmed or Japanese TV so unlike so many shows from back then we have a good record of it) but there's no way it was going to be a commercial success) but Prince and Sondheim had earned a reputation then for doing experimental work so people were willing to invest in them for the prestige (it won the best score Tony but up against Chicago and Chorus Line nothing else--Chorus Line swept the awards, slightly ironically given it was Michael Bennett's baby--he had started with the Prince/Sondheim team choreographing Company and then choreographing and co-directing Follies with Prince.) After Sweeney, the Sondheim/Prince team broke up in 1981 when their Merrily WeRoll Along was such a massive flop--one tat the critics gleefully pounced on s a sorta backlash to the Sondheim/Prince team (it didn't help that they chose to do previews in New York and not out of town and while the show was massively re-written in previews, the critics went against established rules and attended and gossiped about the show in previews.) Sondheim found artistic success later on teaming up with writer/director James Lapine with Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods and Passion while after a string of bizarre flops, Hal Prince of course became a hugely rich man with Phantom.

What I Did For Love was almost cut from A Chorus Line--as it as seen as the one song that didn't come purely out of character and story but reportedly Marvin Hamlisch fought to keep it since he knew, rightly, it would be a big hit -- of course by 1975 Broadway and pop radio had stopped having much cross over success as musicals started to work harder to integrate their songs, and as pop radio stopped featuring that kind of music (of course two years later Annie had a hit with Tomorrow and there were later ones like Memory from Cats, etc)

[DRW50]

Thanks for all those details. It all sounds like a rich time - I guess some of the critics at the time may not have realized how bad it would get later on.

I think of "One" as the big ACL number, but I like "What I Did for Love" more (and I think it sums up the life of a performer). I think the first song I heard from the show was "Tits and Ass", while flipping through cable and seeing a second of the film...I guess that's not exactly their biggest number.

[EricMontreal22]

It is funny--by the 70s the "Broadway is dead" rants were in full force--and of course New York was a mess at the time specially around the Broadway area--but in hindsight it seems like one of the richer eras (at least for musicals where the format was probably at its most grown up artistically while still delivering a few massive crowd pleasers like Chorus Line and Annie--major non musical hits had started to move more to off-Broadway and experimental groups and the trend of having a number of revivals which has dominated Broadway now did start in the 70s.)

One has certainly been used more in commercials etc (kinda ironic as it was meant to sound like a lightly bland, and generic Jerry Herman "Mame" or "Hello Dolly" type number--Bennett's original staging is quite amazing because it's both a huge crowd pleaser and kinda chilling--after getting to know all of these characters they are now relegated to being a nameless face in the Broadway machine.) I think Love was a massive hit though-- know in More Tales of the City Mouse mentions how that Summer I was the song you couldn't get away from, being played on the radio, by pianists in restaurants, etc, everywhere (like Send in the Clowns the year before--which of course is the one truly big hit Sondheim has had, most of his songs being too complex and integrated into the plot of his shows to work out of context).

Tits and Ass wasn't even allowed to be titled in the program as being too obscene--the producers made tem call it "Dance: Ten, Looks: Three" which the writers said worked to their advantage ultimately because the early audiences, anyway, weren't let in on the joke. (I hope you know that the film is one of the most infamously bad stage to screen transfers in history--re-writing it to be more of a love story--What I Did For Love is now a true love song whereas in the stage show it's about what they sacrificed for the love of performing--hiring British director Richard Attenborough who had no sense for dance or the story, getting the Flashdance guy to choreograph... Hideous. It's too bad, because Michael Bennett had a very clever plan to make the film a meta piece the way it is on stage--about the auditions for a film of Chorus Line but he finally let the film rights go because Hollywood was uncomfortable with the idea and he had moved on to Dreamgirls anyway).

[Khan]

All this talk of Michael Bennett, Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim puts me right in Heaven.

[EricMontreal22]

[Bright Eyes]

I just love this in depth talk about Broadway regardless. It's just lucky for me that A Chrous Line is my favouite musical ever and actually knowing a bit of what Eric is talking about because of the great documentary Every Little Step, which made me fall in love with Jason Tam (Markko Rivera, OLTL), is an added bonus.

[~bl~]

I read in one of my old soap magazines that "A Chorus Line" has a GL connection as the actress who played Katie Parker and her husband were dancers whose stories were shared. When I find the article, I'll post it.

[DRW50]

One of the early cast members of Loving was from ACL too.

[EricMontreal22]

The brilliant Pamela Blair who was the original Tits and Ass Val played Rita Mae Bristow on Loving (and according to IMDB in 1985 Maida Andrews AKA Ronda on AMC (a role I've never heard of) and Bonnie Broderick on AW in '94.

Here's a pretty hard to watch bootleg (recorded during the original off-Broadway workshop of Chorus Line) of her

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDNFyrfXnYw