No, No, Nanette
Robert Bouton
1925 show that, legend has it, helped curse Boston Red Sox. But thank
God this year included a genuinely entertaining show.
It's a trifle, filled to the brim with dance, but what dancers!
Michael Berresse, Shonn Wiley and Mara Davi all stepped with style.
The comic highlights were Angel Reda, Jennifer Cody and Nancy Anderson
as the mistresses. Old pros Sandy Duncan and Charles Kimbrough retain
some charm. I'm afraid I just don't get Beth Leavel. Her jazz
singing involves abrupt changes in volume that have nothing to do with
the lyric being crooned.
But nothing was as horrifying as the sack of slackness impersonating a
maid. She reads lines like a very bored prompter in an overheated
room. Her name is Rosie O'Donnell and I hope she never again darkens
a stage.
Steve Newport
From: mpro...@aol.com
-------------------------------------------
What percentage?
robert armstrong
>Encores broke its own tradition by mounting the
>1971 version of the 1925 show that, legend has
>it, helped curse Boston Red Sox.
Some truth to the "legend" I think, but -- holy cow, you just made me
think of something (no small feat):
Doris Day starred in one of the film versions of Nanette, and her
brother had been on a Triple A team being groomed by -- the Red Sox! He
got hit in the head and his baseball career was ended by epilepsy from
which he suffered until his death in his thirties. Doris was virtually
enslaved to touring with bands at a very young age in order to take care
of him and their mother.
It's that show...
Bob A
"Aside from that, Mrs. Kennedy, how did you enjoy the motorcade?"
Steve Newport
NANETTE. (Besides 8 songs from the London Cast.)
AndrewJ
> Bouton ecrit:
>
> >Encores broke its own tradition by mounting the
> >1971 version of the 1925 show that, legend has
> >it, helped curse Boston Red Sox.
>
> Some truth to the "legend" I think
Actually, very little truth. As Peter Filichia points out in his
column today:
"the ol’ story that its producer-director, H.H. Frazee — also then the
owner of the Boston Red Sox — sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees to finance
Nanette is untrue; he unloaded the Bambino years before in order to
buy five theaters, three in New York, two in Chicago."
For the record, Ruth was sold to New York in January 1920, several
years before Nanette was written.
Ed(NY)
Wednesday. I agree that Rosie O'Donnell fails to bring anything other than
her one-joke (?) style to her role, and you get tired of it pretty fast.
The rest is absolutely delightful - a smart, fast-paced production with
incredible talent and spirit that shows off the highly styled (and dated,
but in a good way) material.
Beth Leavel brought the house down with her blues number in Act 3, and the
evening was sort of a personal triumph for Sandy Duncan. And it was great
having Rob Fisher back at the podium.
"Robert Bouton" <mpro...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:63f1ddad-42e6-49f2...@p25g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
chromolume
> But nothing was as horrifying as the sack of slackness impersonating a
> maid. She reads lines like a very bored prompter in an overheated
> room. Her name is Rosie O'Donnell and I hope she never again darkens
> a stage.
"Ed\(NY\)" <e...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> I agree that Rosie O'Donnell fails to bring anything other than
> her one-joke (?) style to her role, and you get tired of it pretty fast.
So...why does she keep getting hired? Especially in this case -
performers at Encores are going to cater largely to the in-crowd
anyway, so it's not like they really need to rely non-theatre celeb
casting that much (do they?) - granted, Rosie has been incredibly
supportive of theatre, and the one thing I miss about her TV show was
the amount of time she spent promoting current shows and performers on
it -- but I can't imagine she's really that big of a draw for
knowledgeable theatre audiences.
I'd ask the same thing as to why they hired Fran Drescher for the
Camelot concert. Did concertgoers *really* want to see her in the
role? Or, did the NY Phil *really* think they'd get non-theatre fans
who love Drescher to spend a fortune on tickets to see her in what is
really a very minor role? If she hadn't been so miscast, it might not
be such a big deal, but she was, Blanche, she was...:-)
What exactly is the appeal of such low-class, annoying celebs? ;-)
Steve Newport
From: jongo...@msn.com (chromolume) Fran Drescher for the Camelot
concert: did the NY Phil *really* think they'd get non-theatre fans who
love Drescher to spend a fortune on tickets to see her in what is really
a very minor role?
I'm sure it was done with the TV audience in mind. Same with Christopher
Lloyd.
FrankL...@aol.com
Yes, it's the scourge of Idiot Box Celebrity. Names that are famous
from television steal parts from more talented, hard-working, well-
trained stage performers all the time.
Steve Newport
From: FrankL...@aol.com
television
Nothing new. Craig Stevens in HERE'S LOVE! comes to mind.
robert armstrong
>of the original NANETTE. (Besides 8 songs from
>the London Cast.)
But leave in I've Confessed to the Breeze, interpolated from another
show.
robert armstrong
>>the scourge of Idiot Box Celebrity. Names that
>>are famous from television
>Nothing new. Craig Stevens in HERE'S LOVE! comes
>to mind.
Or Robert Horton of Wagon Train, uh, fame. Nothing really wrong with him
as an actor, but re-inventing himself as a singer throughout the 60s was
a stretch (I don't know the show 110 but Steven Douglas in supporting
role?). Joey Bishop's absolutely insisting that he sing Impossible Dream
still puzzles me: that show I knew.
Steve Newport
From: ElB...@webtv.net (robert armstrong) Robert Horton of Wagon
Train, uh, fame. Nothing really wrong with him as an actor, but
re-inventing himself as a singer throughout the 60s was a stretch (I
-----------------------------------
The show had three stars above the title (Horton, Swenson, Douglass) and
Douglass had almost as much to sing as Horton. (Douglass also gets the
girl.) Horton sings well (way better than Craig Stevens) in a less legit
Dean Jones style. (Apparently Horton was startlingly handsome in person.
He was also the first choice before Jourdan, Linden, and Cullum for ON A
CLEAR DAY.) Horton had done musicals (IIRC, Tommy in BRIGADOON, among
them) before 110.
I think George Gobel made his Broadway debut in LET IT RIDE! (He sounds
great on the Lp, though.)
Abfou
armstrong) wrote:
>>It would be nice to have a more complete recording
>>of the original NANETTE. (Besides 8 songs from
>>the London Cast.)
>
>But leave in I've Confessed to the Breeze, interpolated from another
>show.
>
I think "I've Confessed to the Breeze" was written for the London
production, then added to the licensed score. Do you have other
information?
Abfou
Abfou
The widely-circulated tape of the 1986 Carnegie Recital Hall concert,
conducted by John McGlinn, is a delight.
Abfou
Steve Newport
From: abf...@gmail.com (Abfou)
production, then added to the licensed score.
I thought that was "Take a Little One Step"- sung originally by Billy
and Nanette. (Not Sue.) Lyric by Zelda Sears.
Abfou
Both songs were added in London.
Abfou
Steve Newport
From: abf...@gmail.com (Abfou)
NANETTE. (Besides 8 songs from the London Cast.)>>>
conducted by John McGlinn, is a delight.
Alas, it hasn't been circulated my way.
atsar...@hotmail.com
Caught the matinee entirely by chance (phone call, ideal ticket going
to waste, should have sold it). The show struck me as flimsy and I
missed Doris Day. and the rest of the movie cast. I also missed the
songs that WEREN'T cut: I didn't want them, and the fifteen-minute tap
numbers -- well, they felt like fifteen minutes -- added nothing to
the experience. I can drum my own thumbs.
Had it not been for Beth Leavel (and, in too small a part for her
enormous personality, Jen Cody) I would have been glazed and
petrifacted by the entire event. Sandy Duncan has a great dentist but
no otherwise discernible talent or charm. Rosie O'Donnell was
tolerable in comparison.
Two high points: Leavel and Berresse doing a duet that went through
four or five classy old dance steps, musical-theater cotton candy, and
Leavel's "Lost Hubby Blues" -- and best moment of the day, her spin on
the not-supposed-to-get-a-laugh line "Then why have I been singing the
blues?" But Jen Cody (Mrs. Hunter Foster)'s pint-sized bluesy "I Want
to Be Happy" had only one flaw: it ended. Give this girl everything
Kristin Chenoweth ever tried out for: she'll kill.
I wanted to rename the show Nano Nanette in her honor.
Jean Coeur de Lapin
Steve Newport
From: atsar...@hotmail.com
movie cast. I also missed the songs that WEREN'T cut. Sandy Duncan has a
great dentist but no otherwise discernible talent or charm.
You're right. You should have sold the ticket and watched TEA FOR TWO on
home video.
Steve Newport
abf...@gmail.com (Abfou)
<<<I think "I've Confessed to the Breeze" was written for the London
production, then added to the licensed score.>>>
----------------------------------------
Billy and Nanette. (Not Sue.) Lyric by Zelda Sears.
Both songs were added in London.
SN: Yes, I see that "Waiting for You" now in Act Three, was in that
first act slot in the original American production.