broadway birthday MACK AND MABEL opened on Broadway 40 years ago tonight

Forty years ago tonight Mack & Mabel opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre on October 6th, 1971.

broadway birthday FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

The Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof opened 50 years ago today on September 22nd, 1964.

broadway birthday - FUNNY GIRL 50th Birthday

Funny Girl opened on Broadway 50 years ago today on March 26, 1964.

broadway birthday CARRIE opened on Broadway 25 years ago today on May 12, 1988

Twenty five years ago today one of the biggest flop shows in Broadway history opened.  Carrie, based on the successful novel by Stephen King, became a musical with music by Michael Gore, lyrics by Dean Pitchford and a book by Lawrence D. Cohen.  It would open on May 12, 1988 and close after 5 performances and 16 previews on May 15th, 1988 losing over $7 million dollars, an unheard of amount at that time.


Betty Buckley and Linzi Hateley as Mrs. White and Carrie


 While the show had some unsanctioned productions over the years including one at the Stage Door Manor Summer theatre camp and another at a high school in Europe, the creators of the show feared allowing anything official due to the mostly negative reviews the original production received.  They didn't want to re-live the experience they went through in 1988. 



Charlotte d'Amboise as bad girl "Chris" and the ensemble -
all clad in leather and spandex

 Fortunately some people close to the three men got them to re-think their views and a revised production of the show was mounted Off Broadway in February of last year.  This version was closer to what the three men had wanted the original production to be before the Royal Shakespeare Company, Director Terry Hands and Producer Friedrich Kurz got involved. 

The revised 2012 production not only received an official cast recording but the show itself got picked up by the prestigious Rodgers and Hammerstein Theatrical organization and is now available to be licensed for high school, amateur and regional theatre productions.  If you go to the R&H site you can find a production of this musical playing in a city close by.  There are currently over 20 productions of the show scheduled through the end of the year across the U.S.


Paul Gyngell and Sally Ann Triplett as good kids
"Tommy" and "Sue" - did high school kids in 1988
actually wear skin tight clothes like this?


I've written several posts about the show, including an analysis of the original Broadway production, a post about the upcoming Off Broadway revival where the creators spoke about the show, as well as reviews of the two performances we saw of the 2012 revival, so I won't add a lot more in this post since I've pretty much said everything I need to say about it.  Instead I will include some new pictures and video that I've found for your viewing enjoyment.





The Destruction scene from the 2012 production- awesome special effects, lighting and projection design.

Complete UK/Straford Upon Avon production - pre- Broadway 1988:

"And Eve Was Weak" - Betty Buckley and Linzi Hateley- audio appears to be from a different performance, but you still get a sense at how intense Buckley was in the role and how effective the scenes with Carrie and her mom were, even in the original production:

    
"In" from the regional premiere production of the show:

broadway birthday KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN opened on Broadway 20 years ago today on May 3, 1993

Twenty years ago today a musical that was based on a book, that also became a play and an Oscar winning film, opened on Broadway.  That musical Kiss of the Spider Woman had some controversial themes woven into it.  Plays with controversial material have always been welcome on Broadway.  While it isn't something that appears every year, there are also sometimes musicals like Cabaret that also don't shy away from controversial themes present in the context of the show.  So it is interesting to note that the composers of Cabaret, John Kander and Fred Ebb, were also the composers for Spider Woman.

In 1976, Argentine writer Manuel Puig published his novel El beso de la mujer araña that was considered a moderate success and in 1983 Puig himself translated the novel for the stage.  He wrote the play while he was in exile due to his leftist political views and an English translation of the play was produced in London in 1985 and starred Mark Rylance and Simon Callow.  Even though the original novel was initially banned in Buenos Aires, it got the attention of Hollywood and the book was turned into the Oscar winning film starring William Hurt and Raul Julia in 1985 with Hurt winning the Academy Award for Best Actor.



Chita Rivera as the "Spider Woman"

The plot of the novel, play, film and musical all focus on two men who share a cell in a Buenos Aires prison in the mid 1970's.  Molina is an effeminate window dresser for a large department store who has been incarcerated on a trumped up charge for corruption of a minor and Valentin is a political activist associated with a revolutionary group who is trying to overthrow the government.  The two couldn't be more unalike but together they find a common bond against their oppressors and realize that they are more alike then they originally thought.  Molina's love of films and his recollections of them are what help both men forget where they are.  Various other characters include Marta, the woman that Valetin is in love with, Gabriel, the waiter that Molina loves even though he knows Gabriel doesn't love him in the same way and Molina's mother.  


Brent Carver, Michael McCormick
Philip Hernandez and Anthony Crivello

 A character that was expanded for both the movie and the musical was the central role of the actress who starred in the films that Molina speaks about.  In the 1985 film that part of an actress in the dramatic films Molina fantasized about was played by Sonia Braga who also played the role of Marta.  But in the musical this character was a stand alone role, the film actress "Aurora," a star of large, lavish movie musicals.  She was now even more central to the action, especially in the role of "the spider woman" who was perceived as "death" to Molina, and the only character that Aurora played that frightens him.  With themes of homosexuality, political uprising and the torture that happens in prison, Kiss of the Spider Woman would seem very controversial, though those themes are what make the musical and the movie the play was based on into something greater especially when the fantasy film elements that Molina brings to life help counter or comment on the horrible situation the men are in.  

    

Carver and Rivera

The musical with a score by Kander and Ebb and a book by Terrence McNally started it's life in a "workshop" production in 1990 at the State Theatre of New York in Purchase, NY as the first in a series of new musical workshop productions.  It was directed by Hal Prince and choreographed by Susan Stroman and starred John Rubenstein as Molina, Kevin Gray as Valentin and Lauren Mitchell as Aurora.  It was only meant to be a tryout of the show, but I guess a new Kander and Ebb musical was too hard not to miss and some New York critics reviewed it anyway, and the negative reviews sidelined not just Spider Woman but the series of new musicals as well.

Fortunately Kander, Ebb, McNally and Prince were approached by Canadian producer Garth Drabinsky and a revised version of the musical was back on track and premiered at Drabinsky's Toronto theatre in the Summer of 1992 with Vincent Paterson and Rob Marshall taking over the choreography duties from Stroman.  For Toronto, Brent Carver and Anthony Crivello were Molina and Valentin and Chita Rivera was Aurora.  After Toronto, this production then moved to London, opening in the Fall of 1992 and then moved to Broadway opening twenty years ago today on May 3rd, 1993.  The London production continued on after the Broadway transfer with Bebe Neuwirth taking over from Chita as Aurora.

Kander, Ebb and McNally's use of Aurora to propel the story along and the decision to change her from a dramatic actress into a star of movie musicals only accentuated the decision to musicalize the novel.  And while some elements of the show that veered toward a more comical point, like the "morphine tango" number and the technicolor "happy" ending still didn't detract from the sensitive, dramatic story at the core. The musical went through a considerable amount of change since its unfortunate Purchase debut and almost all of the changes were for the better with the musical now receiving almost all positive reviews. 

the impressive set design by Jerome Sirlin

The musical opened right before the Tony deadline and received 11 Tony nominations and won seven awards including Best Musical, Score (which it tied with Tommy,) Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Book and Costumes (Florence Klotz.)  It also received nominations for Prince's direction, Paterson and Marshall's choreography, Howell Binkley's lighting and Jerome Sirlin for his set design.  The set design was especially impressive as it incorporated a series of jail cell bars that moved fluidly and changed into different set locations.  When combined with the lighting by Binkley and projections by Jerome Sirlin it also perfectly captured the settings of the various movies that Molina would bring to life for Valentin.

There are many great songs in the score including the title song, "Dressing Them Up," "Dear One," "I Do Miracles," "She's a Woman," "Gimme Love," "The Day After That" and my personal favorite, "Where You Are" which was written after the show moved from Toronto to London.   We saw the production in Toronto and on Broadway and also saw the first Broadway replacement cast which included Howard McGillin and Brian Stokes Mitchell as Molina and Valentin and Vanessa Williams as Aurora.  That replacement cast also got the rare chance to record a second Broadway cast recording of the show.

Kiss of the Spider Woman is a challenging musical with challenging and somewhat controversial themes but when done right it is a musical that can move an audience to tears as it did to me when we saw it in Toronto, on Broadway with both Rivera and Williams and also in the non-equity National tour.  I believe the reason the novel was turned into a play, movie and musical, and why the film and musical were so successful, is because the characters are rich portrayals of what could have been caricatures but turn out to be so much more than that.  Molina, at first is a flippant gay man, but you begin to realize that he redefines masculinity and takes many chances for the people he loves in his life.  Valentin is fighting for much more than just the revolution he constantly speaks of and even Aurora who serves in multiple duties in the musical isn't just "death" as Molina perceives here when she plays the "Spider Woman" character but is actually the "life" and willpower that makes Molina and eventually Valetin aspire to greater causes.  Carver, Crivello and Rivera were all exceptional in playing these parts and in helping us see these often caricatured roles in a new light.  

"Where You Are" performed at the 1993 Tony Awards:

Behind the scenes of the musical:

Chita sings the title song:

Vanessa Williams sings the title song:

trailer for the movie:

broadway birthday ROMANCE / ROMANCE opened on Broadway 25 years ago today on May 1, 1988

Romance is something that has always been alive and well on the Broadway stage.  In 1987 two pieces of literature from the late 19th century were turned into a musical all about romance called Romance/Romance.  With book and lyrics by Barry Harman and music by Keith Herrmann, this musical has a small cast of just four actors and uses the two leads to play four different characters, two in act one set 100 years ago, and another two in act two set in modern times.  The show focuses on the highs and lows of romantic relationships in both the late 1890's and today.

Act one is based on the Arthur Schnitzler short story The Little Comedy and is set in Vienna at the turn of the century and focuses on two wealthy people, Josefine and Alfred.  They both pretend to be poor in order to find a lover who doesn't have the same hang-ups as all of the other rich and boring people they are used to dating.  Alfred pretends to be a struggling poet and Josefine a simple working woman and after they meet they end up going away for a weekend in the country but aren't sure if they can continue their disguises once they fall in love before confessing who they truly are. The second act took Jules Renard's 1898 play Le pain de ménage, moved it to the Hamptons in modern times and had it focus on two couples.  The husband of one of the couples, Sam, and Monica the wife of the second couple, find themselves attracted to each other and aren't quite sure how far they should take their attraction while at the same time promising fidelity to their spouse.


Scott Bakula and Alison Fraser

The musical started Off Broadway in 1987 and moved to Broadway in the Spring of 1988, opening twenty fives years ago today on May 1st.  The production was directed by Harman with choreography by Pamela Sousa.  The two leads for the show were Scott Bakula and Alison Fraser who were both charming and irresistible and who both received Tony nominations for their work.  The musical was nominated for five Tony awards including Best Musical, Score and Book but came home empty handed as Phantom of the Opera swept most of the categories.

Romance/Romance had a modest run of nine months, closing on January 15th, 1989 after 289 performances.  Bakula would go on to star in the hit tv series Quantum Leap which premiered in the Spring of 1989 and meant he had to leave the Broadway production to shoot that show.   Bakula was replaced in Romance/Romance by his understudy Sal Vivano as well as Barry Williams, who is most famous from playing Greg Brady on The Brady Bunch.  In 1992 a regional theatre production of the show at the Cherry County Playhouse in Michigan was filmed for the A&E cable channel.  That production starred John Herrera and Susan Moniz in the lead roles with Deborah Graham recreating her role as the second female lead that she created on Broadway.

There are several great songs in the show including "It's Not Too Late," which is sung in both acts, "I'll Always Remember That Song," "Words He Didn't Say," and "Now."    Romance/Romance is a sweet and charming show that with a capable cast can be very successful.  We saw a production of the show at the Paper Mill Playhouse in 2007 that starred real life couple Matt Bogart and Jessica Boevers Bogart in the leads that was very well done.

Alison Fraser and Scott Bakula perform at the 1988 Tony Awards:


Interview with the creators and clips from the 2007 Paper Mill Playhouse production:

broadway birthday CHESS opened on Broadway 25 years ago today on April 28, 1988

Almost fifteen years before Abba front men Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus had a smash hit Broadway show that was based on their Abba hits, Mamma Mia, they tried unsuccessfully with an original musical Chess that unfortunately only managed a run of two months on Broadway.  Chess is yet another show that found success in London but when moved to the U.S. failed miserably.  Even with a successful and still running production of the show in London, the creative team decided to make drastic changes to the show for Broadway.  The changes included adding dialogue to what was previously an almost entirely sung through show, reordering the song order, changing one of the main characters to now be an American and completely re-designing the show's set.  The changes were either unnecessary or detracted from the show, all of which is a shame as the score of Chess includes some excellent songs.

Focusing on two chess players, a Russian and an American and a love triangle with the woman who manages one of them, Chess began in 1984 like most UK musicals at that time as a concept album.  With music by Andersson and Ulvaeus and lyrics by Time Rice, the recording featured Murray Head as Freddie the American player, Tommy Körberg as Anatoly the Russian and Elaine Paige as Florence, the manager and girlfriend of Freddie who falls in love with Anatoly.  Barbara Dickson played the part of Anatoly's wife Sveltana.  The album was extremely successful which even included one hit song from the show "One Night in Bangkok" reaching number 3 on the US Billboard charts in May of 1985.

Judy Kuhn and David Caroll

The London production of the show premiered in May of 1986 with Head, Körberg and Paige all reprising their roles from the concept album.  Dickson wasn't available so her part was played by Siobhán McCarthy.  Trevor Nunn who was just coming off of directing the smash hit Les Misérables was chosen to direct after original director Michael Bennett was no longer able to continue due to his poor health.  While the show was a success, it also happened to open in the same season as The Phantom of the Opera, which would go on to sweep all of the major awards for that year, leaving Chess basically empty handed.

For Broadway, besides the many changes I mentioned above, playwright Richard Nelson (who's latest, and excellent, play Nikolai and the Others is about to open at Lincoln Center) was asked to write a new book for the show.  The Broadway cast included David Carroll as Anatoly, Philip Casnoff as Freddie and Judy Kuhn as Florence.  The three leads couldn't have been better suited for their roles but even with all of the changes it was actually the rock music of the show that received most of the criticism and the show closed on June 25th.

The Original Broadway Cast did receive a cast recording from RCA Records and I believe due to that recording, the star making performances of the three leads, and a lot of the more Broadway style songs, the show has had continued interest.  Many revisions of the show have happened, combining elements of both the original London production and the Broadway version, but none seem to have been able to crack the issues at hand in order to make Chess into the masterpiece many people believe it should be. 

Several concert productions of the show have happened as well including a star studded one at Royal Albert Hall in 2008 that featured Adam Pascal as Freddie, Josh Groban as Anatoly and Idina Menzel as Florence.  Pascal and Groban had played those same parts in an Actor's Fund Benefit in New York in 2003.

I believe this is yet another show like Merrily We Roll Along that have superb scores and books that don't quite live up to them.  And while I don't believe the score of Chess is on par with Merrily, I do believe there are some great songs in the Chess score including "Nobody's Side," "Where I Want to Be," "I Know Him So Well," "Pity the Child," and "Anthem."   And while "One Night in Bangkok" was a commercial pop success I find it to be too pop heavy for the rest of the score.

Will Chess every be the successful musical that many people believe it will be?  I don't know the answer to that, but with an excellent score, I think people will continue trying to attempt it.

David Carroll sings "Anthem":

 

Judy Kuhn sings "Someone Else's Story" from a concert she gave:

 

Idina Menzel sings "Nobody's Side" from the Royal Albert Hall concert:

Elaine Paige and Tommy Körberg sing 'You and I":

Adam Pascal sings "Pity the Child":

"One Night in Bangkok"- music video from 1984:

 

broadway birthday - BLOOD BROTHERS opened on Broadway 20 years ago today on April 25, 1993

The smash hit British musical Blood Brothers opened on Broadway twenty years ago today. With a book and score by Willy Russell, what started out as a school play in 1982 would go on to with the Olivier Award for Best Musical in 1983.  After its initial London run, a 1987 UK tour was so successful that the show ended up back in London in a revival that began in 1988, though it would still take another five years before the show made its way to Broadway.  And while the Broadway run of the show was somewhat short, running just two years, the London revival production played over 10,000 performances and ran for over twenty years, where it closed last Fall on November 10, 2012.

Telling the story of a woman and her two fraternal twin sons who were separated at birth, Blood Brothers is an interesting musical in that it not only shows how the impact the decision to split them up has on their mother but it uses the class system in Britain as a way to show how it can affect the outcome of each twin, since one is raised in a rich household where the child becomes a well off council member and the other twin is raised in a poor one where he ends up out of work, depressed and spends time in prison due to his involvement in a robbery gone wrong.   The show also uses a Narrator to comment on the story, which is stepped in superstition, and he also plays several humorous parts in the show.

Single mother Mrs. Johnstone works for Mrs. Lyon as a house cleaner.  When Mrs. Johnstone finds out she is pregnant with twins she tells Mrs. Lyons that she can't afford to keep them both so Mrs. Lyons, who is desperate for a child but unable to have any, suggests that she give one of the children to her.  Mrs. Johnstone agrees though she later regrets it and even lies to her other children saying that only one of the twins, Mickey, survived.  When Mrs. Lyons fires Mrs. Johnstone as she feels she is paying too much attention to the child she gave away, Edward, she tries to give her money but also tells her that if children that were separated at birth learn they have a twin they will both die the same day.   This superstition and talk of the "bogeyman" are threaded throughout the show.  The twins grow up and become "blood brothers" when they learn they have the same birthday.

Mrs. Lyons then discovers that her son Edward's "friend" that he always talks about is actually Mickey and so she forces her husband to move the family away.  However the first act ends with Mrs. Johnstone's family being rehoused from the inner city to an outlying town that just happens to be where Mrs. Lyons and Eddie have moved to.   The second act finds the boys in their teen years meeting up again as they both fall in love with the same girl, Linda.  Eventually Mickey gets Linda pregnant and they get married but then Mickey gets fired from his job and then becomes depressed and addicted to anti-depressants due to time spent in prison as an accessory to murder.  When Mickey believes Eddie is having an affair with Linda he shows up with a gun to confront him and the show ends with the superstition coming true or is it "class" and not the superstition that is to be blamed?

Carole King as "Mrs. Johnstone"

The score is a somewhat simple, pop-rock themed one but also has some lovely ballads including "Easy Terms," "That Guy," "I'm Not Saying a Word," and "Tell Me It's Not True" as well as the rousing act one closer "Bright New Day."  And while the production used a fairly simple set and a small cast, a nice directorial touch was that the twins are played by the same two actors throughout the show, from about age 7 to their mid 20's.  And while this might seem a bad decision, having adults play children, I must say that the three times I've seen the show, twice on Broadway and once in London, the cast was extremely talented and completely pulled this off and found humor in playing young lads as well as pain and sorrow in their older selves.

The Broadway production ran for two years, closing on April 30, 1995.  It initially starred Stephanie Lawrence as Mrs. Johnstone with Con O'Neill and Mark Michael Hutchinson as Mickey and Eddie and Warwick Evans as the narrator.  All four played those roles in London with O'Neill winning the Olivier Award for his performance.  The original Mrs. Lyons on Broadway was Barbara Walsh.  Future Broadway star Kerry Butler made her Broadway debut as a member of the ensemble and an understudy for the role of Linda. 

Petula Clark made her Broadway debut when she replaced Lawrence and was joined with half brothers David and Shaun Cassidy as Mickey and Eddie.  The three of them would also record an "International" cast recording of the show with creator/composer Willy Russell as the Narrator.  Barbara Dickson was the original "Mrs. Johnstone" in the UK, with Kiki Dee playing the part in the London revival.  Other notable Broadway replacements included iconic 1960's pop singers Carole King and Helen Reddy.  I saw both Lawrence and King in the show and have to say that while Lawrence was excellent King was also exceptional.

"Did you ever hear the story of the Johnstone twins? As like each other as two new pins. How one was kept and one give away. How they were born and they died on the self same day."

Barbara Dickson, the original "Mrs. Johnstone" in 1983 sings "Easy Terms":

The Original Broadway cast peforms on the Tony Awards:

broadway birthday SHE LOVES ME opened on Broadway 50 years ago today, August 23, 1963

The sweet, charming and romantic musical She Loves Me celebrates it's 50th birthday today.  Based on the Hungarian play Parfumerie, written by Miklos Lazlos, the work had already been turned into two successful Hollywood films before it was musicalized for Broadway.  Those films were the 1940 The Shop Around the Corner that starred James Steward and Magaret Sullavan and the 1949 musical version In the Good Old Summertime that starred Judy Garland and Van Johnson.  The story would also be the basis for the hit 1998 film written by Nora Ephron, You've Got Mail, that starred Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

The story is a simple love story, so simple that it is easy to see why it has been used for the basis of three films and a Broadway musical.  Two co-workers who despise each other don't realize that they are actually pen pals who met through a "personals" ad in the paper and who are in love with the person they are exchanging letters with.



Daniel Massey and Barbara Cook in the Broadway production

 The musical starred Barbara Cook as Amalia Balash and Daniel Massey as Georg Nowack, the two co-workers who don't realize they are actually in love with each other through their letters.  The musical also featured Barbara Baxely and Jack Cassidy who also played co-workers at the shop Ilona Ritter and Stephen Kodaly but who had an unsuccessful romance.  The musical which was directed by Hal Prince would run on Broadway for 302 performances and close on January 11, 1964.  A London production that featured Rita Moreno as Ilona premiered in April 1964 but only managed a run of 189 shows.  A Broadway revival in 1993 that featured Boyd Gaines, Judy Kuhn, Sally Mayes and Howard McGillin would run for a year.  That revival production which featured a lovely set design by Tony Walton would also be mounted in the West End the next year, featuring Ruthie Henshall as Illona, where it would also have a year long run.

Barbara Baxley and Barbara Cook


With a score by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, She Loves Me was the fourth show the duo collaborated on and was their biggest hit after the team's very successful 1959 show Fiorello and would premiere just one year before their 1964 smash Fiddler on the Roof.   The score is rich with jewels of songs including "Vanilla Ice Cream," "She Loves Me," "A Trip to the Library," and "Will He Like Me?." And even though both the Broadway and London original productions and revivals didn't run that long all four would receive cast recordings.  The book of She Loves Me was by Joe Masteroff who would go on to work with Kander and Ebb when he wrote the book for Cabaret.

She Loves Me is a simple yet sweet and romantic musical and I never tire of the score and recommend anyone who enjoys musical theatre and romance to not pass up the change to see a production of this show if one happens to be presented in a city near you.

Diane Fratantoni, Sally Mayes and Boyd Gaines Tony Award performance:

the 1978 BBC tv version of the musical:

broadway birthday TOMMY opened on Broadway 20 years ago today, April 22, 1993

What started out as a double album from the rock group The Who, which the group would also later perform in concert, Tommy was turned into the ingenious Broadway musical that opened twenty years ago today.  It was one of the most creative Broadway shows and one of the first to incorporate video elements into its production. 

The musical is the story of Tommy who is traumatized by an experience in his youth and becomes a "deaf, dumb and blind boy."  After going from doctor to doctor searching for a cure and nothing seeming to work, he eventually becomes a "pinball wizard" playing by sense rather than sight which turns him into something of an oddity.  Tommy becomes fascinated with the mirror, as if he can see himself inside of it, and when his mother smashes the mirror in frustration it manages to break Tommy free.  He becomes something of a "pseudo" Christ like figure which only draws more people to him but he realizes that he doesn't want people to follow him but instead to be themselves, which only makes his followers turn against him since they believe him to be some type of higher power.

The Who had always said they had planned for their rock opera to become a theatrical show, so under director Dec McAnuff the show first premiered at the La Jolla theatre in California in the summer of 1992.  The production then moved to Broadway in the Spring of 1993 and opened at the St. James Theatre on April 22nd.

The original Broadway cast starred Michael Cerveris as Tommy with Marcia Mitzman as his mom and Jonathan Dokuchitz as his father.  Also in the ensemble were future Broadway stars Alice Ripley, Norm Lewis, Christian Hoff and Sherie Rene Scott.  The musical was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, winning five including ones for Best Director and won for Best Score (which it shared with Kiss of the Spider Woman.)  The energetic choreography by Wayne Cilento also received an award as well as the high performance rock concert style lighting from Chris Parry.  John Arnone also won a Tony for his ingenious set design that not only incorporated video elements as I mentioned above but also used several large moving panels that swiftly glided across the stage and quickly changed not only the scenes but the actors as well.

While the majority of the excellent score of the musical, which includes many classic rock songs, comes from the 1969 rock album and the 1975 film, the Broadway production did include an excellent new song that Tommy's parents sing entitled "I Believe My Own Eyes."  The 1975 film is most famous for Elton John's "Pinball Wizard" and Tina Turner's "Acid Queen" and the psychedelic film style of director Ken Russell.   The Who singer Roger Daltrey played Tommy in the film with Ann-Margaret as his mother. 

Clip of the Original Broadway Cast:

The Original London cast of the show performs "Pinball Wizard" -

London cast - "Smash the Mirror"

Press reel for the First National Tour:

The Who peform Tommy in concert:

Elton John sings "Pinball Wizard" in the 1975 movie:

broadway birthday OKLAHOMA! opened on Broadway 70 years ago today

Seventy years ago today on March 31, 1943 the first musical written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II opened on Broadway.  That show, Oklahoma! would run for over five years on Broadway, which a run that long was unprecedented at that time when most shows barely ran a year.

The show was based on a 1931 play called Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs and was originally called Away We Go! when it premiered pre-Broadway in New Haven, Connecticut in early March 1943.  Focusing on the rivalry between a cowboy and a ranch hand for the hand of a farm girl in the early 1900's, Oklahoma! is a somewhat simple story.  However, it is also set across a sweeping landscape of settlers and the various social events that take place in their simple lives.  Those events included a barn raising and a social dance that provided director Rouben Mammoulian and choreographerr Agnes de Mille plenty of big and elaborate stage moments to counter the more intimate and dramatic romantic ones surrounding the love triangle between Cowboy Curly, farm hand Jud and farm girl Laury.

What was somewhat ground breaking was how Rodgers and Hammerstein used the songs as extensions of the characters and the dialogue and thus a way to further the plot of the show.  Before Oklahoma! the majority of musicals had songs that were stand alone and didn't organically grow out of the story around the music.  This changed musicals forever.  There were also no stars in the show, something that was almost unheard of at the time as well as an elaborate and lengthy act one ending "dream ballet" staged by deMille to portray Laury's idea of the nightmare that might happen if she ends up with Jud.  In a less polished production that long ballet would have stopped the show cold.  But as presented here elevated the show into a groundbreaking success that would run for 2,243 performances in its initial Broadway production.

The Tony Awards did not exist in 1943, but I'm sure if they did Oklahoma! would have swept them.  Rodgers and Hammerstein did receive a special Pulitzer Prize for the show.  Several famous songs came from the score including the opening number "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin,' "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" the romantic duet "People Will Say We're In Love" and the showstopping title song.  The cast recording was the first to receive a complete recording as up to that time most shows received truncated recordings due to the space limitations of the discs or the recordings featured studio recording artists and not the original cast members.

A successful film version premiered in 1955 starring Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones and Rod Steiger and winning three Academy Awards.  The show has had three Broadway revivals with the most recent one in 2002 that starred Patrick Wilson as Curly and Andrea Martin as Aunt Eller.  This revival was based on a 1998 production in London that starred Hugh Jackman as Curly.

Four songs from the 1955 Movie version:

"The Surrey with the Fringe on the Top" from the 1979 Broadway revival:

Hugh Jackman sings "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" from the filmed version of the 1998 West End Revival.

broadway birthday INTO THE WOODS 25th Birthday

Into the Woods opened on Broadway 25 years ago today on November 5, 1987

broadway birthday -Happy 25th Birthday LES MISERABLES!

Les Miserables is one of those musicals that pretty much everyone around the world has heard of.  It officially opened on Broadway 25 years ago today on March 12, 1987.

The musical, based on the famous novel by Victor Hugo, opened tonight at the Broadway Theatre twenty five years ago after successful runs in France and the UK.

Happy 25th Birthday Les Miserables!

broadway birthday CRAZY FOR YOU -Happy 20th Birthday!

Twenty years ago today the Broadway musical Crazy For You opened.  It would go on to win the 1992 Tony Award for Best Musical and run for 1,422 performances.   Based on the 1930 musical Girl Crazy, Crazy For You was billed as the "The new Gershwin musical comedy" as it was a musical with a new book but interpolated many of the songs from the George and Ira Gershwin catalog including many from Girl Crazy like "I Got Rhythm."  It also included the hugely popular Gershwin songs "Someone To Watch Over Me" and "They Can't Take that Away From Me" which were from the Gershwin musicals Oh, Kay and Shall We Dance respectively.

With a book by Ken Ludwig, Crazy For You is the story of Bobby Child, the young, wealthy son in a banking family who just wants to sing and dance.  The show starts with him auditioning for Bela Zangler, the impresario of the Zangler Follies.  When he fails to impress Zangler, his mother who wants nothing to do with Bobby's dancing business sends him off to Deadrock, Nevada to foreclose on a theatre there. In Deadrock he meets Polly, the daughter of the owner of the theatre and he falls in love with her.  But when Polly learns who he is, the man who is there to foreclose on their theatre, she wants nothing to do with him.  So Bobby comes up with a plan, he will disguise himself as Zangler, get the Follies girls to Deadrock to put on a show to raise money to save the theatre and end up with Polly.  Happy Ending, right?  Not exactly, as the real Zangler shows up in Deadrock, and that's just the first Act!

Harry Groener and the female ensemble

The original Broadway cast included Harry Groener as Bobby, Jodi Benson as Polly, Bruce Angler as Bela and Jane Connell as Bobby's mother.  Groener, Benson and Angler were all nominated for Tony Awards.  The show included beautiful costumes by William Ivey Long, who would also win a Tony for his efforts and an imaginative set design by Robin Wagner.

Crazy For You was the first Broadway musical to combine the talents of director Mike Ockrent and Susan Stroman.  Ockrent previously directed the hit show Me and My Girl and together they would go on to create the Broadway shows Big, the Musical and A Christmas Carol as well as get married and work together until Ockrent died in 1999.  Stroman would win a Tony award for her spirited choreography for Crazy For You and go on to direct and choreograph Contact, The Producers, Young Frankenstein and The Scottsboro Boys.  Stroman has now won five Tony awards.

Benson and Groener

A London production of Crazy For You opened in 1993 and ran for almost three years.  A production at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse was filmed and aired on PBS' Great Performances in 1999.  While a Broadway revival has yet to happen a revival in London is currently playing, it opened last Fall after a successful Summer production in Regent's Park.  

A new Gershwin musical Nice Work If You Can Get It opens on Broadway this April.  It is an updated version of the musical Oh, Kay and will feature songs from that show, including "Someone To Watch Over Me" which was also heard in Crazy For You and others from the Gershwin catalog.  It will be interesting to see if there will be any other songs in this show that were also in Crazy For You and if Nice Work If You Can Get It will be as successful as Crazy For You was. 

So Happy 20th Birthday Crazy For You!


Harry Groener and the Broadway cast perform "I Can't Be Bothered Now" from the Tony Awards:

broadway birthday - MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG opened on Broadway 30 years ago today!

The enormously unfortunate flop Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along opened on Broadway 30 years ago today and ran for only 16 performances.  It was Sondheim's follow up show to his successful 1979 musical Sweeney Todd.

It was a somewhat daring show in that it told the story of three close friends but told the story in reverse starting in 1976 and ending in 1957.  It was an interesting idea but one that proved somewhat confusing to the audience.  That, along with the fact that the show seemed slightly on the low budget, less professional Broadway side, with the characters in the show almost all played by young college aged actors who wore basic t-shirts that said things like "best friend" to identify their relationship to one of the main characters, seem to be why it didn't run longer than 16 performances.  



Walton, Morrison and Price - note the t-shirt Walton
is wearing that says "Frank" on it and Price's that
says "Best Friend."

 It was also the last Sondheim show that Sondheim's long term director Hal Prince directed after many hits together.  They wouldn't collaborate on a show together for over 20 years after the failure of Merrily.

Fortunately the Sondheim score is rich with some of his most memorable songs. The fact that the score was preserved in a cast album made right after the show closed, by its completely energetic cast, was a godsend and a huge reason why the show has been revised and revived several times.

The story revolves around Frank, Charlie and Mary. They are three friends who met in college and over the years became successful in their own ways. When the show begins only two of them are speaking to each other and as the show unfolds, and we go back in time, we see what happened to fracture their relationships. We also see at the end of the show, which is when they first met, how young and hopeful they all were before fame and fortune took them on an alternate path sometimes far away from their original goals. The end of the show is especially heartbreaking, seeing how passionate, idealistic and hopeful they all are after we know what will ultimately happen to each of them once fame and ambition consume them.

The original Broadway cast starred Jim Walton as Frank, Lonny Price as Charlie and Ann Morrison as Mary. The cast also included Jason Alexander and in the ensemble Liz Callaway in her first Broadway show. The book was written by George Furth based on the 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart of the same name.  Famous songs from the show include "Not a Day Goes By," "Good Thing Going," "Old Friends," "Franklin Shepherd Inc," ""Like It Was," and "Our Time."  There isn't a single song in the score that doesn't add something to the understanding of the characters or the plot.  It is one of my favorite Sondheim scores.

Playbill for the 1994 Off Broadway production

In 1985 a revised version of the show opened at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego with older actors playing the characters.  That production also eliminated and revised some of the original book and starred John Rubenstein as Frank, Chip Zien as Charlie and Heather MacRae as Mary.  This production also included a new song, "Growing Up," that further fleshed out the character of Frank.  Another revised version happened in DC in 1991 with Victor Garber as Frank, David Garrison as Charlie and Becky Ann Baker as Mary.  Marin Mazzie was Beth, Frank's wife, in both of those productions.

In 1994 an Off Broadway production of the show opened with Malcom Gets as Frank.  It was a well received production that also resulted in a cast recording of the revised version of the show, including the song "Growing Up."   In the Summer of 2002, the Kennedy Center in D.C. produced it's "Sondheim Celebration" which included six fully staged Sondheim shows produced in repertoire over a few months.  That production starred Raul Esparza as Charlie with Emily Skinner in one of the supporting parts.  Other productions have also happened in the UK (a 1992 production there also produced a cast recording) and around the world as the Sondheim score is simply one that people can't stay away from even with the fact of its short Broadway run.

Poster for the 2002 D.C. production

Two interesting upcoming productions are planned for early next year.  In February, John Doyle who directed the recent Broadway revivals of Company and Sweeney Todd is directing a production of Merrily at the same place where his version of Company started, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.  But before that production, New York's City Center Encore's is producing their semi staged concert version of the show in February for a two week run, which is longer than the usual runs for its other concert productions. That production will star Colin Donnell as Frank, Celia Keenan-Bolger as Mary and Lin-Manuel Miranda as Charlie.  James Lapine, who directed the 1985 La Jolla production of the show, will direct the Encore's production.
Merrily We Roll Along is a show like many others where people will keep producing it in hopes to figure out and fix what was wrong or missing in other productions to make it into the hit show that so many know it deserves to be.

So Happy 30th Birthday Merrily We Roll Along, I know you'll keep "rolling along"!



Jim Walton performs "Growing Up" a song written for his character to sing that was written for the La Jolla Production four years after he appeared in the Original Broadway Cast.

Bernadette Peters sings 'Not a Day Goes By":

Raul Esparza performs "Franklin Shephard, Inc" from the 2002 Kennedy Center production:

the beautiful and heartbreaking end of the show "Our Time" from a foreign production of the show:

"Opening Doors" from a recent student production of the show: