OT: News article about Mary Poppins heading for the London stage
Dave in Dallas
Poppins heading to the London stage. I've posted a few items about this in the
past, but this article seems to indicate that this is a definate go for this
show. Even with an opening date announced. Now I just have to convince my
partner that we need to go to London for Christmas next year.
**************************************
....A stage musical version of Mary Poppins - the classic 1964 Disney
film that made a star out of leading lady Julie Andrews - is heading
to the West End's Prince Edward Theatre.
Thomas Schumacher, producer for Disney Theatrical Productions, and
Sir Cameron Mackintosh today announced that they have joined forces
to co-produce a stage adaptation of the classic film musical Mary
Poppins based on the stories by P. L. (Pamela) Travers and the 1964
Walt Disney film. The production will open at the Prince Edward
Theatre on December 15, 2004, 40 years after the premiere of the film.
Announcing the team, the two producers said, "Everyone we talked to
about working with us feels the same, a sense that these characters
and stories are their own personal property. It is this deep-rooted
appeal which has enabled us to put together a dream team to write and
stage the musical."
The multi award-winning creative team assembled for Mary Poppins is
led by stage and film director Sir Richard Eyre. Co-direction and
choreography will be supplied by Matthew Bourne, with additional
choreography by Stephen Mear. Bob Crowley will design the sets and
costumes. Lighting design will be by Howard Harrison, sound by Andrew
Bruce, and orchestrations by William David Brohn.
Dave, Dallas, TX
"When all think alike, no one thinks very much."
Albert Einstein
disneyfan
I suspect I'll be in the vicinity of London sometime next December....
Mary Poppins - brought to the stage at last
An international alliance between two theatrical giants is set to
finally bring Mary Poppins to the stage. By Matt Wolf
It’s traditional, in the theatre, to think of the great partnerships
being on stage rather than off: Gielgud and Richardson, Finney and
Courtenay, Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn. But a recent Saturday found me
down in Somerset, in what was once a 13th-century priory, to discuss the
biggest behind-the-scenes theatrical pairing of our time: the first
collaboration between Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the British musicals
impresario, and Thomas Schumacher, the American head of Disney
Theatrical Productions.
What makes this important, you might ask. Because one can, without any
exaggeration, claim that these two men, between them, bestride the
theatrical world. Even Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, a glamorous West End
pairing though the Dames were last year, don’t represent such a potent
combining of forces, as theatregoers will discover when the first fruit
of the Mackintosh-Disney collaboration ripens at the end of next year:
the stage-musical premiere of Mary Poppins.
The story of Poppins’s belated stage birth is the one I have come to
Somerset to hear. And so I find myself in the spacious kitchen of
Stavordale, the seven-bedroom country estate (situated on 34 acres when
Mackintosh bought it just over a decade ago; the property now
encompasses upwards of 1,500 acres) that is the preferred one of the
producer’s multiple homes. With a personal fortune estimated by his own
office to be as much as £240m, much of it in land, Mackintosh, 57 last
Friday, need never start a new project again. He could live off the
continuing incarnations of the so-called Big Four — Cats, Les Mis, The
Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon — as they continue to blaze trails
around the globe. Last year, his company had a £30m turnover. But never
discount the power of individual passion in the theatre — the kind that
Mackintosh has, for a quarter of a century, harboured for Mary Poppins.
And in Schumacher — the 45-year-old American who joined Disney in 1987,
only to move over time from animation in order to devote himself wholly
to the conglomerate’s now crucial theatrical portfolio — Mackintosh may
just have met his theatrical soul mate. Like Mackintosh before him,
Schumacher is someone used to rolling out musicals around the world:
Beauty and the Beast, Aida and The Lion King, the last of which opens
its 10th production in Sydney tonight. And, as an employee of a company
whose total revenue for the 2002 fiscal year was £18 billion, Schumacher
is not exactly unaccustomed to thinking big or dealing with charismatic
people who operate on a large scale. The two producers, says Julian
Fellowes, who won an Oscar for his Gosford Park screenplay and is
writing the book for Mary Poppins, represent “rather an extra- ordinary
alliance; there’s showbiz history here, and, as the Americans say,
they’re on the same page”.
That’s where a shared desire to see a theatre adaptation of Mary Poppins
comes in, and it is what has brought Mackintosh and Schumacher together.
Still, why colla-borate? Simple: Mackintosh has long held the stage
rights to the author Pamela Travers’s Poppins books — three main texts
and several more collections written at her publisher’s behest. Disney,
of course, owns the hugely popular 1964 film, an epoch-making mixture of
live action and animation that brought Julie Andrews an Oscar as the
magical nanny (and preserved for ever her co-star Dick Van Dyke’s
distinctly dodgy cockney accent). If Mary Poppins were ever, therefore,
to come to the stage, it would have to arrive as some sort of theatrical
union.
Says Mackintosh: “Travers created the books, and Disney created the film
that turned everyone on to the books, and it is one of the most
wonderful films ever made. In my mind, there is no question that this is
part of the reason Mary Poppins is known by people in a way that I am
not. I hope I will be seen to have been the third person” — after
Travers and Disney — “who has brought something to it.”
Mackintosh first applied for the theatrical rights in 1978: “Like
basically every producer in the world, I had had the brilliant idea of
putting Mary Poppins on the stage.” But it wasn’t until 1993, when David
Pugh, the London producer of Art, arranged an introduction to Travers,
that things started hotting up, and various names even began to be
floated in gossip columns: Stephen Daldry as director, Emma Thompson or
Fiona Shaw as Mary Poppins. (“I’ve never heard Fiona Shaw’s soprano,”
deadpans Mackintosh.) The year is significant, as it was that same
autumn that Disney launched its theatrical division with Beauty and the
Beast, from which it was clear many more stage properties would flow.
Poppins, unsurprisingly, was in the mix relatively early. Says
Schumacher: “I have a memo that Michael Eisner (the head of Disney)
wrote in 1995, saying: ‘Let’s try to get this Mary Poppins thing tied up
in the next six months.’” What followed, instead, was a complex series
of negotiations. It wasn’t until the end of 2001 that Schumacher took
the initiative and arranged a meeting with Mackintosh. “I said to
Cameron, ‘Look, there’s all this deal stuff that is obviously never
going to work. But what nobody’s talked about is what the show could be.’”
Ah, the deal, that most salient of all words, whether you’re talking
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown or some of the partnerships entered, in
different ways, by Disney’s film-animation division — with Steven
Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, for example, on Who Framed Roger Rabbit,
or Tim Burton on The Nightmare Before Christmas. But the Mary Poppins
deal is different from the Hollywood norm. “Much of Hollywood is about
the deal,” says Schumacher, “because so little of it is about the
making, and so there are people who are producers because they can make
a deal, and then they drop by the set twice — and the deal is not the
making of something. By contrast, this Mary Poppins is about making
something, about coming back to the table again and again.”
For Mackintosh, Schumacher’s wholesale commitment to Disney’s theatre
division was the impetus the British impresario required. “Everywhere
else in the world, you have to deal with a group of producers. Look at
(the Broadway musical) The Producers — there are about a dozen of them.”
With Schumacher, Mackintosh finds “it is like dealing with another me:
the artistic process couldn’t be simpler”. And though the men had met
only once prior to Poppins — “Over a jolly lunch,” recalls Schumacher,
in St Tropez in August 1997 — it is clear that they speak the same
language. Says the designer Bob Crowley, who will work on Poppins,
having won a Tony for the Mackintosh-backed National Theatre’s Carousel
and another one for the Disney-backed Aida on Broadway: “Once Tom and
Cameron met up, as opposed to the idea of the Cameron-Mackintosh
organisation and the corporation of Disney, and it became personalised
as it has, I knew it would be a great marriage.” For that, Crowley
credits Schumacher, for breaking from what might be seen as the Disney
mould: “I knew that if this was going to work, it would work because of
Tom. He’s a man of the theatre, not just a man in a suit from Burbank.”
That it seems to be working so far can be judged from the buzz that has
built around Poppins ever since a rehearsed reading of the show on
September 15, upstairs at the Old Vic in front of an audience of about
50, Eisner included. At last, the production’s co-director and
choreographer, Matthew Bourne, and its director, Richard Eyre — the
latter making his own bid for the kind of international musical
franchise over which his National Theatre successor, Trevor Nunn, has
long presided — could hear Fellowes’s Travers-steeped book wedded to the
extant Sherman brothers songs (one of which, Chim Chim Cher-ee, won an
Oscar) as well as half-a-dozen new ones from the composer-lyricist team
of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, whose National Theatre entry, Honk!
The Ugly Duckling, won the 2000 Olivier Award for best musical over,
wait for it, The Lion King. (“I guess the judges couldn’t get tickets to
Lion King,” quipped Stiles and Drewe at the time.) At the reading,
Joanna Riding was Poppins, with Drewe himself taking on the Dick Van
Dyke role. Julia McKenzie, in a rare return to singing, played Miss
Andrew, a former governess of the Banks family who features prominently
in the books and not at all in the film, while Alex Jennings (winner of
an Olivier for Mackintosh’s My Fair Lady in the West End) and Claire
Moore played Mr and Mrs Banks. The West End production has yet to be cast.
Rehearsals start next July, followed by an out-of-town tryout —
Mackintosh’s first — leading to a December 15 London first night at the
Prince Edward, one of Mackintosh’s seven West End theatres. “We have to
give the audience a show that delivers what you hope will happen when
you come to see Mary Poppins,” says Schumacher, “not just ride on the
title.” But will the Disney-Mackintosh names by themselves sell tickets?
“Let’s put it this way,” smiles Mackintosh, “I don’t think we’ll put
anybody off.”
Mary Poppins opens on December 15, 2004, at the Prince Edward, W1
Matt Wolf is the London theatre critic for Variety
duchy
Wasn't sure how much interest there would be on here.
If you head for London next Christmas you just have to visit Rochester (home
of Charles Dickens). for the Christmas fair.......olde world town with
traditional victorian street sellers (hot chestnuts etc), snow falling (if
the real stuff doesn't oblige they provide it anyway)-Bob Cratchet costume
optional ;)
Rochester also has it's own castle and the biggest second-hand book shop in
the world.
duchy
"disneyfan" <disneyfa...@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:3F98C9B1...@sbcglobal.net...
Barry L. Wallis
several are involved in it professionally.
--
- Barry as TDC Sorcerer, Magical Manager of the Mysteriously Missing Main
Street Magic Shop
- "Got a fever, got the flu, come on in and we'll cure you."
- Dr. Benjamin Silverstein, Main Street, Disneyland
- DCA Pictures: http://members.cox.net/barry.wallis
"duchy" <duch...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Fm4mb.51$Z%1.79...@news-text.cableinet.net...
> > continuing incarnations of the so-called Big Four - Cats, Les Mis, The
> > Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon - as they continue to blaze trails
> > around the globe. Last year, his company had a £30m turnover. But never
> > discount the power of individual passion in the theatre - the kind that
> > Mackintosh has, for a quarter of a century, harboured for Mary Poppins.
> >
> > And in Schumacher - the 45-year-old American who joined Disney in 1987,
> > only to move over time from animation in order to devote himself wholly
> > to the conglomerate's now crucial theatrical portfolio - Mackintosh may
> > just have met his theatrical soul mate. Like Mackintosh before him,
> > Schumacher is someone used to rolling out musicals around the world:
> > Beauty and the Beast, Aida and The Lion King, the last of which opens
> > its 10th production in Sydney tonight. And, as an employee of a company
> > whose total revenue for the 2002 fiscal year was £18 billion, Schumacher
> > is not exactly unaccustomed to thinking big or dealing with charismatic
> > people who operate on a large scale. The two producers, says Julian
> > Fellowes, who won an Oscar for his Gosford Park screenplay and is
> > writing the book for Mary Poppins, represent "rather an extra- ordinary
> > alliance; there's showbiz history here, and, as the Americans say,
> > they're on the same page".
> >
> > That's where a shared desire to see a theatre adaptation of Mary Poppins
> > comes in, and it is what has brought Mackintosh and Schumacher together.
> > Still, why colla-borate? Simple: Mackintosh has long held the stage
> > rights to the author Pamela Travers's Poppins books - three main texts
> > and several more collections written at her publisher's behest. Disney,
> > of course, owns the hugely popular 1964 film, an epoch-making mixture of
> > live action and animation that brought Julie Andrews an Oscar as the
> > magical nanny (and preserved for ever her co-star Dick Van Dyke's
> > distinctly dodgy cockney accent). If Mary Poppins were ever, therefore,
> > to come to the stage, it would have to arrive as some sort of theatrical
> > union.
> >
> > Says Mackintosh: "Travers created the books, and Disney created the film
> > that turned everyone on to the books, and it is one of the most
> > wonderful films ever made. In my mind, there is no question that this is
> > part of the reason Mary Poppins is known by people in a way that I am
> > not. I hope I will be seen to have been the third person" - after
> > Travers and Disney - "who has brought something to it."
> >
> > Mackintosh first applied for the theatrical rights in 1978: "Like
> > basically every producer in the world, I had had the brilliant idea of
> > putting Mary Poppins on the stage." But it wasn't until 1993, when David
> > Pugh, the London producer of Art, arranged an introduction to Travers,
> > that things started hotting up, and various names even began to be
> > floated in gossip columns: Stephen Daldry as director, Emma Thompson or
> > Fiona Shaw as Mary Poppins. ("I've never heard Fiona Shaw's soprano,"
> > deadpans Mackintosh.) The year is significant, as it was that same
> > autumn that Disney launched its theatrical division with Beauty and the
> > Beast, from which it was clear many more stage properties would flow.
> >
> > Poppins, unsurprisingly, was in the mix relatively early. Says
> > Schumacher: "I have a memo that Michael Eisner (the head of Disney)
> > wrote in 1995, saying: 'Let's try to get this Mary Poppins thing tied up
> > in the next six months.'" What followed, instead, was a complex series
> > of negotiations. It wasn't until the end of 2001 that Schumacher took
> > the initiative and arranged a meeting with Mackintosh. "I said to
> > Cameron, 'Look, there's all this deal stuff that is obviously never
> > going to work. But what nobody's talked about is what the show could be.'"
> >
> > Ah, the deal, that most salient of all words, whether you're talking
> > Tony Blair and Gordon Brown or some of the partnerships entered, in
> > different ways, by Disney's film-animation division - with Steven
> > Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, for example, on Who Framed Roger Rabbit,
> > or Tim Burton on The Nightmare Before Christmas. But the Mary Poppins
> > deal is different from the Hollywood norm. "Much of Hollywood is about
> > the deal," says Schumacher, "because so little of it is about the
> > making, and so there are people who are producers because they can make
> > a deal, and then they drop by the set twice - and the deal is not the
> > making of something. By contrast, this Mary Poppins is about making
> > something, about coming back to the table again and again."
> >
> > For Mackintosh, Schumacher's wholesale commitment to Disney's theatre
> > division was the impetus the British impresario required. "Everywhere
> > else in the world, you have to deal with a group of producers. Look at
> > (the Broadway musical) The Producers - there are about a dozen of them."
> > With Schumacher, Mackintosh finds "it is like dealing with another me:
> > the artistic process couldn't be simpler". And though the men had met
> > only once prior to Poppins - "Over a jolly lunch," recalls Schumacher,
> > in St Tropez in August 1997 - it is clear that they speak the same
> > language. Says the designer Bob Crowley, who will work on Poppins,
> > having won a Tony for the Mackintosh-backed National Theatre's Carousel
> > and another one for the Disney-backed Aida on Broadway: "Once Tom and
> > Cameron met up, as opposed to the idea of the Cameron-Mackintosh
> > organisation and the corporation of Disney, and it became personalised
> > as it has, I knew it would be a great marriage." For that, Crowley
> > credits Schumacher, for breaking from what might be seen as the Disney
> > mould: "I knew that if this was going to work, it would work because of
> > Tom. He's a man of the theatre, not just a man in a suit from Burbank."
> >
> > That it seems to be working so far can be judged from the buzz that has
> > built around Poppins ever since a rehearsed reading of the show on
> > September 15, upstairs at the Old Vic in front of an audience of about
> > 50, Eisner included. At last, the production's co-director and
> > choreographer, Matthew Bourne, and its director, Richard Eyre - the
> > latter making his own bid for the kind of international musical
> > franchise over which his National Theatre successor, Trevor Nunn, has
> > long presided - could hear Fellowes's Travers-steeped book wedded to the
> > extant Sherman brothers songs (one of which, Chim Chim Cher-ee, won an
> > Oscar) as well as half-a-dozen new ones from the composer-lyricist team
> > of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, whose National Theatre entry, Honk!
> > The Ugly Duckling, won the 2000 Olivier Award for best musical over,
> > wait for it, The Lion King. ("I guess the judges couldn't get tickets to
> > Lion King," quipped Stiles and Drewe at the time.) At the reading,
> > Joanna Riding was Poppins, with Drewe himself taking on the Dick Van
> > Dyke role. Julia McKenzie, in a rare return to singing, played Miss
> > Andrew, a former governess of the Banks family who features prominently
> > in the books and not at all in the film, while Alex Jennings (winner of
> > an Olivier for Mackintosh's My Fair Lady in the West End) and Claire
> > Moore played Mr and Mrs Banks. The West End production has yet to be cast.
> >
> > Rehearsals start next July, followed by an out-of-town tryout -
> > Mackintosh's first - leading to a December 15 London first night at the
duchy
duchy
"Barry L. Wallis" <KRQSAO...@spammotel.com> wrote in message
news:RY9mb.33526$gi2.22461@fed1read01...
> > > office to be as much as Ł240m, much of it in land, Mackintosh, 57 last
> > > Friday, need never start a new project again. He could live off the
> > > continuing incarnations of the so-called Big Four - Cats, Les Mis, The
> > > Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon - as they continue to blaze
trails
> > > around the globe. Last year, his company had a Ł30m turnover. But
never
> > > discount the power of individual passion in the theatre - the kind
that
> > > Mackintosh has, for a quarter of a century, harboured for Mary
Poppins.
> > >
> > > And in Schumacher - the 45-year-old American who joined Disney in
1987,
> > > only to move over time from animation in order to devote himself
wholly
> > > to the conglomerate's now crucial theatrical portfolio - Mackintosh
may
> > > just have met his theatrical soul mate. Like Mackintosh before him,
> > > Schumacher is someone used to rolling out musicals around the world:
> > > Beauty and the Beast, Aida and The Lion King, the last of which opens
> > > its 10th production in Sydney tonight. And, as an employee of a
company
> > > whose total revenue for the 2002 fiscal year was Ł18 billion,
Dave in Dallas
disneyfan wrote:
>and this bit from this past Sunday's London Times.
>
>I suspect I'll be in the vicinity of London sometime next December....
Thanks for posting this article. I'm really excited about this mounting of
Poppins. Especially now after reading this article. I think I have to do some
finegaling to see if I can get to London next Christmas.
Dave in Dallas
>If anything relevent pops up in the London theatre pages I'll post it.
>Wasn't sure how much interest there would be on here.
I can't speak for anyone else on this newsgroup, but I know I'd be really
interested. Thanks!
>If you head for London next Christmas you just have to visit Rochester (home
>of Charles Dickens). for the Christmas fair.......olde world town with
>traditional victorian street sellers (hot chestnuts etc), snow falling (if
>the real stuff doesn't oblige they provide it anyway)-Bob Cratchet costume
>optional ;)
>Rochester also has it's own castle and the biggest second-hand book shop in
>the world.
The two times I've visited London have been during the Holiday season, and it
was a wonderful time. I couldn't have enjoyed myself more. But I didn't take in
any of the things you mentioned. I just didn't know about them. That and the
fact that there was just SOOOOooooooo much to do in London, itself. Wasn't it
G B Shaw who wrote "A man who is bored with London is bored with life" ? No
words have ever been more true.
duchy
London. There's so much very cool stuff that never makes a lot of the
guidebooks. If anyone is heading this way just ask for suggestions :)
BTW Dave I think it was Samual Johnson's quote-but still a great one :)
duchy
"Dave in Dallas" <dav...@aol.comnojunk> wrote in message
news:20031024123614...@mb-m29.aol.com...
M.C.Gordon Jr.
>I just read a little news article about the proposed stage version of Mary
>Poppins heading to the London stage.
Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the same city. Too much Fun!
http://www.chittythemusical.co.uk
Matt
The Mailbox is Locked To E-mail Just Un-Lock the Combination.
"God Bless America"
"If the Magic is done right it's still Magical even if you Know all the
Secrets."
Dave in Dallas
>Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the same city. Too much Fun!
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has been running in London for a few years now. When
it opened it got some really poor reviews. But the public doesn't seem to care,
as it's been doing pretty good business ever since it opened.
As much as I love London theater, I do have to keep in mind that London's West
End brought us such "wonderful" shows as Starlight Express and Casper, The
Musical. As well as decent shows like Les Miz, Phantom, Art and Noises Off.
The definition of a long running hit in London can be a real mixed bag at
times. Not that it can't be the same in NYC. After all Thoroughly Modern
Millie won a Tony for best musical. <bleah>
Barry L. Wallis
> M.C.Gordon Jr.
>
> >Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the same city. Too much Fun!
>
> Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has been running in London for a few years now. When
> it opened it got some really poor reviews. But the public doesn't seem to care,
> as it's been doing pretty good business ever since it opened.
>
> As much as I love London theater, I do have to keep in mind that London's West
> End brought us such "wonderful" shows as Starlight Express and Casper, The
> Musical.
I've missed these (never even heard of Casper). It doesn't sound like that is a bad
thing.
> As well as decent shows like Les Miz, Phantom, Art and Noises Off.
Except for Art, I've seen all these multiple times. I missed Art entirely when it was
in Los Angeles.
> The definition of a long running hit in London can be a real mixed bag at
> times. Not that it can't be the same in NYC. After all Thoroughly Modern
> Millie won a Tony for best musical. <bleah>
Have you seen this yet? Why do you say <bleah>? It is on my season in LA next year and
I would be interested in any comments.
Dave in Dallas
>I've missed these (never even heard of Casper). It doesn't sound like that is
>a bad thing.
You've never heard of Starlight Express. The A. L. Webber extravaganza about
choo-choo trains? Choo-choo trains played by people on roller skates? <shudder>
It bombed on Broadway but ran for years in London. Casper (Yes, the friendly
ghost) ran for a year or two I think. They tried to bring it to the US, but it
died in out of town try outs. It came here to Dallas, and even though it
starred Chita Rivera, I had no interest in seeing it. Even if the tickets were
given to me for free.
>Except for Art, I've seen all these multiple times. I missed Art entirely
>when it was in Los Angeles.
Rep companies are starting to jump on Art right and left. You should be able
to see a local production. It's worth seeing. A complex show, and very
involving.
>Have you seen this yet? Why do you say <bleah>? It is on my season in LA next
>year and I would be interested in any comments.
The New York Times review of this show put it rather aptly. They said the show
was like being trampled by circus ponies. I saw it on Broadway just before it
opened. Outside of Harriet Harris (Who was wonderful) it was a very ordinary
show. The cast was very high energy, but nobody really stood out as wonderful
other than Harris. It has moments, but nothing about it is brilliant. If you
enjoy the original movie, don't expect it to follow the plotline or use the
same songs. Only two songs from the original score are in the stage version.
The rest of the show is totally rescored, and totally unmemorable. In trying to
deal with some of the racist aspects of the original film storyline, they've
gone 180 degrees around and gone into the absurd. I know it was a fluffy
musical, but no matter how liberal Miss Dorothy's upbringing was I couldn't
accept that Miss Dorothy ended up with one of Mrs. Meers henchmen instead of
Mr. Trevor Graydon. It's the 1920s for heaven's sake, and social history is
still social history. Even in a musical. Am I sorry I saw it? Not really. But I
would never say to anyone it's worth every penny to get good seats. I think I
wouldn't be so against the show if it hadn't won the Tony for best musical over
Urinetown, which was a brilliant piece of theater. Urinetown is one of the
best, most creative musicals I've ever seen. It should have been the best
musical of that year over Millie.
Barry L. Wallis
> Barry L. Wallis wrote:
>
> >I've missed these (never even heard of Casper). It doesn't sound like that is
> >a bad thing.
>
> You've never heard of Starlight Express. The A. L. Webber extravaganza about
> choo-choo trains? Choo-choo trains played by people on roller skates? <shudder>
> It bombed on Broadway but ran for years in London. Casper (Yes, the friendly
> ghost) ran for a year or two I think. They tried to bring it to the US, but it
> died in out of town try outs. It came here to Dallas, and even though it
> starred Chita Rivera, I had no interest in seeing it. Even if the tickets were
> given to me for free.
You misunderstood me. I have heard of Starlight Express (and all the others except
Casper).
> >Except for Art, I've seen all these multiple times. I missed Art entirely
> >when it was in Los Angeles.
>
> Rep companies are starting to jump on Art right and left. You should be able
> to see a local production. It's worth seeing. A complex show, and very
> involving.
After we passed up the chance to get tickets, we were sorry.
> >Have you seen this yet? Why do you say <bleah>? It is on my season in LA next
> >year and I would be interested in any comments.
>
[... long review of Thouroughly Moder Millie snipped...]
Thanks for the review. If I remember, I'll let you know what I think when I see it
next year.
Dave in Dallas
>You misunderstood me. I have heard of Starlight Express (and all the others
>except Casper).
Ah. Sorry. I'm getting over an intestinal bug and my brain is as out of whack
as the rest of me right now
>[... long review of Thouroughly Moder Millie snipped...]
>
>Thanks for the review. If I remember, I'll let you know what I think when I
>see it next year.
My friends who've seen in NYC felt the same way I did about the show. They said
it was good tourist fodder, but not a great musical. Some saw the road company
when it came through Dallas this last summer and said that the show had
diminished considerably in quality. For what this is all worth. I hope you
enjoy the show. I'll be interested in hearing what you have to say about it.
Barry L. Wallis
This is sure to be an interesting season. Baz Lurhman's La Boheme followed by
Thoroughly Modern Millie followed by The Royal Family followed by something else (it
was going to be the pre-Broadway Never Gonna Dance, however a theater opened up in NYC
early and they decided to break their contract with the Ahmanson).
M.C.Gordon Jr.
>Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has been running in London for a few years now. When
>it opened it got some really poor reviews. But the public doesn't seem to
>care,
>as it's been doing pretty good business ever since it opened.
I have to agree, as long as they keep buying a ticket that's all that I care
about. It makes my job a lot easer Oh, wait it makes my job, Period. {:-)
>As well as decent shows like Les Miz, Phantom, Art and Noises Off.
I would have to put Les Miz in the "wonderful" shows column. Phantom would move
to "it's OK"
>The definition of a long running hit in London can be a real mixed bag at
>times. Not that it can't be the same in NYC. After all Thoroughly Modern
>Millie won a Tony for best musical. <bleah>
Makes you wonder doesn't it.
Dave in Dallas
>I would have to put Les Miz in the "wonderful" shows column.
You know, this is going to lable me as some sort of two headed freak, but I
HATE, and I mean really HATE Les Miz. I've seen it twice and I couldn't have
enjoyed it less either time. I really feel like such an outsider regarding
this musical because most of the whole world loves it. Maybe I really AM a two
headed freak and don't know it.
Derek Janssen
>
>>I would have to put Les Miz in the "wonderful" shows column.
>
> You know, this is going to lable me as some sort of two headed freak, but I
> HATE, and I mean really HATE Les Miz. I've seen it twice and I couldn't have
> enjoyed it less either time. I really feel like such an outsider regarding
> this musical because most of the whole world loves it. Maybe I really AM a two
> headed freak and don't know it.
(Uh, I thought it was finally *okay* to hate Les Miz after "Will Rogers
Follies" snubbed "Miss Saigon" at the Tonys?--
I remember everyone breathing a sigh of relief.)
Derek Janssen
dja...@rcn.com
Dave in Dallas
>(Uh, I thought it was finally *okay* to hate Les Miz after "Will Rogers
>Follies" snubbed "Miss Saigon" at the Tonys?--
>I remember everyone breathing a sigh of relief.)
I liked Miss Saigon just as much as I did Les Miz. I sat through that show
making origami animals out of my program. Anytime people talk to me about Miss
Saigon, all they can say is "The helicopter! The helicopter!" like that's the
only thing that happened on stage for over two hours. Well, then again, maybe
it WAS the only thing that happened on stage for two hours. I wasn't paying
close attention. Remember, I was making origami animals.
Barry L. Wallis
"Dave in Dallas" <dav...@aol.comnojunk> wrote in message
> M.C.Gordon Jr. wrote:
>
> >I would have to put Les Miz in the "wonderful" shows column.
>
> You know, this is going to lable me as some sort of two headed freak, but I
> HATE, and I mean really HATE Les Miz. I've seen it twice and I couldn't have
> enjoyed it less either time. I really feel like such an outsider regarding
> this musical because most of the whole world loves it. Maybe I really AM a two
> headed freak and don't know it.
No, just a theatrical heretic. :-)
vixi
>No, just a theatrical heretic. :-)
>
There was a musical theatre discussion going on and I missed it! *cry*
I am just going to add my two cents by saying "Chess is the greatest musical
ever, and Tim Rice is wonderful"
Ok.. I shall go now.
'` '*-,.__.,-*'` '*-,.__.,-*'` '*-,.__.,-*'` '*-,.__.,-*'` '*-,.__.,-*'`
Victoria Palmer * * http://www.escape.com/~juliet
OKW 12/02 - 12/09
Barry L. Wallis
news:20031101010118...@mb-m12.aol.com...
> >From: "Barry L. Wallis"
>
> >No, just a theatrical heretic. :-)
> >
>
> There was a musical theatre discussion going on and I missed it! *cry*
>
> I am just going to add my two cents by saying "Chess is the greatest musical
> ever, and Tim Rice is wonderful"
Chess is a very underrated musical and we enjoy it as well (we have three of the cast
albums). We saw a wonderful production at the Lincolnshire Marriott outside Chicago.
They did it in the round and the stage was a lighted chessboard.
However, I respectfully disagree about it being the greatest musical. If I were to
make a list of the greatest musicals I would include Showboat, Les Miserables, the
Fantastiks and Man of La Mancha.
vixi
>Chess is a very underrated musical and we enjoy it as well (we have three of
>the cast
>albums). We saw a wonderful production at the Lincolnshire Marriott outside
>Chicago.
>They did it in the round and the stage was a lighted chessboard.
>
>However, I respectfully disagree about it being the greatest musical. If I
>were to
>make a list of the greatest musicals I would include Showboat, Les
>Miserables, the
>Fantastiks and Man of La Mancha.
Hahah I went to a Christmas (work) party at the Lincolnshire Marriot in 97 :)
I saw a community production of Chess .. I think it was like The New Trier
Playhouse or something (it was at New Trier HS, but not a school play).
I also have all 3 cast recordings..
My top 3 musicals in no particular order.. Chess, Falsettos, and Godspell..
Although I must say I think I was one of the few people who liked Sunset Blvd.
Barry L. Wallis
> My top 3 musicals in no particular order.. Chess, Falsettos, and Godspell..
> Although I must say I think I was one of the few people who liked Sunset Blvd.
I liked Sunset Boulevard (not as much as other Lloyd-Webber shows, though).
As long as we are doing true confessions, I'm one of the few people who thought The
Producers was overrated (I saw it in LA with Martin Short and Jason Alexander). I
thought it was fun, but not the funniest musical I've ever seen (nor the best musical
comedy).
Dave in Dallas
>I were to
>make a list of the greatest musicals I would include Showboat, Les
>Miserables, the
>Fantastiks and Man of La Mancha.
Oh, we are gonna be long time friends if one of your top favorite musicals is
Showboat. It's an amazing work. One that I've done some personal study into
it's history. It really broke a lot of ground that often Oklahoma! is given
credit for. I also think Man of La Mancha is one of the most impressive
musicals ever.
Personal favorites are: Showboat, Music Man (For pure fun.), Man of La Mancha,
Sweeny Todd and Urinetown.
Runners up: South Pacific, Hello Dolly!, J.C. Superstar.
Dave in Dallas
>As long as we are doing true confessions, I'm one of the few people who
>thought The
>Producers was overrated (I saw it in LA with Martin Short and Jason
>Alexander). I
>thought it was fun, but not the funniest musical I've ever seen (nor the best
>musical comedy).
Interesting that you report this. From what I've heard, the Lane/Broderick
combination was what made the show. Nobody since has come close to the
chemistry that made that show what it originally was. Since they've left, I've
sort of lost my desire to see The Producers.
Michelle
Fab
The martini bar is OPEN! http://www.fabulousdisneybabe.com
"There was a lot of trouble yesterday that I have not had to-day, and there is
lots of troubles to-day that I did not have yesterday...Admission to the
Burning Ruins -10 cents" - Geo.C.Tilyou
Michelle
>combination was what made the show. Nobody since has come close to the
>chemistry that made that show what it originally was. Since they've left,
>I've
>sort of lost my desire to see The Producers.
I hear they'll be in LA soon.
Barry L. Wallis
> Barry L. Wallis wrote:
>
> >I were to
> >make a list of the greatest musicals I would include Showboat, Les
> >Miserables, the
> >Fantastiks and Man of La Mancha.
>
> Oh, we are gonna be long time friends if one of your top favorite musicals is
> Showboat. It's an amazing work. One that I've done some personal study into
> it's history. It really broke a lot of ground that often Oklahoma! is given
> credit for.
That's the reason it is on my list. It is the first serious American musical.
> I also think Man of La Mancha is one of the most impressive
> musicals ever.
Agreed. I wish I'd have seen it with Brian Stokes Mitchell.
Barry L. Wallis
news:20031102153901...@mb-m14.aol.com...
> >Interesting that you report this. From what I've heard, the Lane/Broderick
> >combination was what made the show. Nobody since has come close to the
> >chemistry that made that show what it originally was. Since they've left,
> >I've
> >sort of lost my desire to see The Producers.
>
> I hear they'll be in LA soon.
Really? When and what theater?
FabulousDisneyBabe.com
>> >sort of lost my desire to see The Producers.
>>
>> I hear they'll be in LA soon.
>
>Really? When and what theater?
I've heard in the new year. I hope it's true.
Fab
The martini bar is OPEN! http://www.fabulousdisneybabe.com
Discussion Boards, Archive-o-Matic, My Fabulous Life - the Blog,
Derek Janssen
>>>>I've
>>>>sort of lost my desire to see The Producers.
>>>
>>>I hear they'll be in LA soon.
>>
>>Really? When and what theater?
>
> I've heard in the new year. I hope it's true.
There were rumors that after Lane & Broderick closed the original NYC
run, they'd take their version to be "immortalized" on cable/DVD--
Don't know whatever happened with that, but this development looks
suspiciously promising.
Derek Janssen
dja...@rcn.com
vixi
>..not Assasins?
I love Assassins!@# Damn that should have been in my top 3..
vixi
>>As long as we are doing true confessions, I'm one of the few people who
>>thought The
>>Producers was overrated (I saw it in LA with Martin Short and Jason
>>Alexander). I
>>thought it was fun, but not the funniest musical I've ever seen (nor the
>best
>>musical comedy).
>
>Interesting that you report this. From what I've heard, the Lane/Broderick
>combination was what made the show. Nobody since has come close to the
>chemistry that made that show what it originally was. Since they've left,
>I've
>sort of lost my desire to see The Producers.
Me too.. Personally I don't find Martin Short funny in the least.. I wouldn't
mind seeing Lane/Broderick when they go back on Broadway..
Jason Alexander is ok.. I remember him vaugely in Disney's movie remake of Bye
Bye Birdie, as the Dick VanDyke roll.
Barry L. Wallis
news:20031102161915...@mb-m14.aol.com...
> >> >I've
> >> >sort of lost my desire to see The Producers.
> >>
> >> I hear they'll be in LA soon.
> >
> >Really? When and what theater?
>
> I've heard in the new year. I hope it's true.
That's interesting because the current radio ads for The Producers in LA say that you
need to get your tickets now because it's closing in January (here is the schedule:
http://www.producersla.com/promo/TPLACalendar.pdf). Also, the web site says that
Martin Short and Jason Alexander are in it for the entire LA run
(http://www.producersla.com).
I hope you are right and the web site just hasn't been updated.
Barry L. Wallis
> >From: dav...@aol.comnojunk (Dave in Dallas)
>
> >>As long as we are doing true confessions, I'm one of the few people who
> >>thought The
> >>Producers was overrated (I saw it in LA with Martin Short and Jason
> >>Alexander). I
> >>thought it was fun, but not the funniest musical I've ever seen (nor the
> >best
> >>musical comedy).
> >
> >Interesting that you report this. From what I've heard, the Lane/Broderick
> >combination was what made the show. Nobody since has come close to the
> >chemistry that made that show what it originally was. Since they've left,
> >I've
> >sort of lost my desire to see The Producers.
>
> Me too.. Personally I don't find Martin Short funny in the least.. I wouldn't
> mind seeing Lane/Broderick when they go back on Broadway..
If you don't like Martin Short, you won't like him in The Producers. Martin Short
played Martin Short playing Leo Bloom (mugging, pratfalls and all). I was disappointed
and was hoping for better acting. He overplayed his part when he could have used
understatment to great affect (need I say Gene Wilder is a master at this).
> Jason Alexander is ok.. I remember him vaugely in Disney's movie remake of Bye
> Bye Birdie, as the Dick VanDyke roll.
I've seen Jason Alexander twice on stage (the other time was in Accomplice by Rupert
Holmes) and I really enjoyed his acting each time.
FabulousDisneyBabe.com
>
>I love Assassins!@# Damn that should have been in my top 3..
>
It's one of my favorite guilty little secrets!
Dave in Dallas
re: Showboat
>That's the reason it is on my list. It is the first serious American musical.
Well, maybe the first American operetta. But there were many musicals that
preceeded Showboat that were definately American. Everything from Little Johnny
Jones, to Oh, Kay! to No, No Nannette. But I think for me why I resect Showboat
so much is that its the first musical to have serious content. The whole
misogyny subplot with Julie and Steve was pretty deep subject matter for a
musical in 1927.
Barry L. Wallis
> Barry L. Wallis wrote:
>
> re: Showboat
>
> >That's the reason it is on my list. It is the first serious American musical.
>
> Well, maybe the first American operetta. But there were many musicals that
> preceeded Showboat that were definately American. Everything from Little Johnny
> Jones, to Oh, Kay! to No, No Nannette. But I think for me why I resect Showboat
> so much is that its the first musical to have serious content. The whole
> misogyny subplot with Julie and Steve was pretty deep subject matter for a
> musical in 1927.
Exactly. That's just what I meant.
MichelleinAtlanta
"Dave in Dallas" <dav...@aol.comnojunk> wrote in message
with her when I was younger, specifically so we could discuss the racial
issues....(I think you mean miscegeny, not misogyny)
Michelle in Atlanta
Dave in Dallas
re: Showboat
>Exactly. That's just what I meant.
Note to self: Don't respond to posts after midnight when you are fighting
sleep.
Rereading your original post I saw the word "serious". I just read in my sleep
deprived stupor "First American musical". My mind skipped over the key word
"serious". DOH! <G>
Dave in Dallas
>I guess you guys are discussing the stage...My mom MADE me watch the movie
>with her when I was younger, specifically so we could discuss the racial
>issues....
Which version did you watch? The the 1936(?) Irene Dunn version deal with the
racial issue much more directly than did the 1951 MGM version. And the 1936
version is much closer to the original stage musical than was the 1951 version.
There is also a silent version, based more on the Enda Ferber book than the
Florenze Ziegfield stage musical which has yet another take on the issue that
is quite interesting. Speaking of the book, it's quite good. Very readable.
You might check it out sometime.
>(I think you mean miscegeny, not misogyny)
Damn spell check! DOH! Yeah, that's the word I was looking for.
Note to self: Stay away from "Big" words with more than two sylables.
Derek Janssen
>
> re: Showboat
>
> Well, maybe the first American operetta. But there were many musicals that
> preceeded Showboat that were definately American. Everything from Little Johnny
> Jones, to Oh, Kay! to No, No Nannette. But I think for me why I resect Showboat
> so much is that its the first musical to have serious content. The whole
> misogyny subplot with Julie and Steve was pretty deep subject matter for a
> musical in 1927.
(Er, believe you mean "miscegeny"--
If Steve was gay, THEN it'd be "misogyny".) ;)
Derek Janssen
dja...@rcn.com
Dave in Dallas
>(Er, believe you mean "miscegeny"--
>If Steve was gay, THEN it'd be "misogyny".) ;)
LOL!!! Just call me Mrs. Malaprop! <G>
Derek Janssen
>>(Er, believe you mean "miscegeny"--
>>If Steve was gay, THEN it'd be "misogyny".) ;)
>
> LOL!!! Just call me Mrs. Malaprop! <G>
Still, would be a new interpretation to o/`"We could make believe I love
you..."o/`
Derek Janssen
dja...@rcn.com
Dave in Dallas
>Still, would be a new interpretation to o/`"We could make believe I love
>you..."o/`
Ha! You got something there. After having just reread Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
last night, it makes me think this song could be used in a musical version of
that script as well.