With the success of the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, it's exciting to look forward to a revival of another Richard Rodgers musical Pal Joey opening in previews on Broadway November 14th, with the official opening slated for December 11th at Roundabout Theatre's Studio 54. This one, in collaboration with lyricist Lorenz Hart, includes Broadway songbook classics "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "I Could Write a Book", "The Lady is a Tramp" and "My Funny Valentine". The original Broadway production of Pal Joey with book written by John O'hara opened on Christmas Day 1940 and starred Gene Kelly as Joey Evans, a brash scheming song and dance man with dreams of owning his own nightclub. A 1962 Broadway revival, which was actually more successful than the original, starred Bob Fosse as Joey, with Frank Sinatra playing the lead in the 1952 film. The 2008 revival will star Christian Hoff winner of a Best Featured Actor in a Musical Tony Award for his role of Tommy DeVito in Jersey Boys. Also in the cast is "friend of The Matinee" Stockard Channing playing former burlesque stripper Vera Simpson, a rich widow the conniving Joey takes up with in hopes of convincing her to finance his dream of owning a night club of his own "Chez Joey". The role of Vera Simpson was played by Vivienne Segal in the original staging and Viveca Lindfors opposite Fosse in the 1962 revival, with Rita Hayworth in the role in the 1952 film. Stockard Channing, for your information, played Rizzo in the movie Grease and was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Six Degrees of Separation. Stage and film veteran Martha Plimpton, last seen on Broadway in Top Girls for which she was nominated for a Tony, and 35 films including The Goonies, Parenthood and Mosquito Coast, will star as Gladys Bumps, a chorus girl with a dislike for Joey. The role was played by June Havoc (Gypsy Rose Lee's real life sister "Baby June") in 1940 and Barbara Nichols in the film. The Gladys Bumps character was a minor one but has been tweaked to be more prominent by playwright Richard Greenberg's adaptation, including Gladys singing the song "Zip" which has traditionally been Vera's song.
A great show, great music, great songs to bewitch us all. Another feather in the heavy plumage of Roundabout's Artistic Director, Todd Haimes' hat. Kudos to his brilliance and vision.
Monday 18 August 2008
Tuesday 12 August 2008
The Long Awaited West Side Story Revival
It was announced this week that the long awaited revival of West Side Story will begin previews on February 23, 2009 with the official opening planned for March 19, 2009 after an out of town engagement between December 16, 2008 and January 17, 2009 at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. where the musical made its world premiere in 1957.
This is the second revival endeavor in the past two years for nonagenarian Arthur Laurents who was nominated this past year for a Tony for his direction of Gypsy.
Mr. Laurents has stated, “This show will be radically different from any other production of West Side Story ever done. The musical theatre and cultural conventions of 1957 made it next to impossible for the characters to have authenticity. Every member of both gangs was always a potential killer even then. Now they actually will be. Only Tony and Maria try to live in a different world." The fact that he can still speak so eloquently for a man of 90 is impressive, but to still have a vision and the spunk to want to take on such a daunting task of reincarnating this musical classic is very inspirational.
Laurents, for those few who don't know, wrote the books for both West Side Story and Gypsy. West Side Story's score was created by Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) in his Broadway debut. The show was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins whose original Tony-winning choreography will be recreated by Tony Award nominee, Joey McKneely (The Boy From Oz). This production with an onstage cast of 37 and 30 musicians in the orchestra pit, will introduce the unprecedented element of selectively weaving Spanish throughout the book and music.
The show takes Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the upper west side of New York City and the turbulence between rival street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds, the Jets and the Sharks in the 1950's. Two star-crossed lovers, Tony and Maria, find themselves caught in the middle of the rivalry. The Spanish dialogue will not only make the production more contemporary, but will emphasize the conflict and misunderstanding between the Sharks and the Jets.
The Bernstein/Sondheim score is considered to be one of Broadway's finest and features such classics of American musical theatre as "Tonight", "Somewhere", "America,"and "I Feel Pretty".
This is one to look forward to, even just to see what Arthur Laurents has up his sleeve and how well he can deliver. One good thing about West Side Story opening in the 2008-2009 Tony season, it won't have to go up against In the Heights (which won the 2007-2008 Tony award for Best Musical) with its very optimistic Latino perspective which could have had the potential of creating a whole new type of rivalry.
This is the second revival endeavor in the past two years for nonagenarian Arthur Laurents who was nominated this past year for a Tony for his direction of Gypsy.
Mr. Laurents has stated, “This show will be radically different from any other production of West Side Story ever done. The musical theatre and cultural conventions of 1957 made it next to impossible for the characters to have authenticity. Every member of both gangs was always a potential killer even then. Now they actually will be. Only Tony and Maria try to live in a different world." The fact that he can still speak so eloquently for a man of 90 is impressive, but to still have a vision and the spunk to want to take on such a daunting task of reincarnating this musical classic is very inspirational.
Laurents, for those few who don't know, wrote the books for both West Side Story and Gypsy. West Side Story's score was created by Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) in his Broadway debut. The show was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins whose original Tony-winning choreography will be recreated by Tony Award nominee, Joey McKneely (The Boy From Oz). This production with an onstage cast of 37 and 30 musicians in the orchestra pit, will introduce the unprecedented element of selectively weaving Spanish throughout the book and music.
The show takes Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the upper west side of New York City and the turbulence between rival street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds, the Jets and the Sharks in the 1950's. Two star-crossed lovers, Tony and Maria, find themselves caught in the middle of the rivalry. The Spanish dialogue will not only make the production more contemporary, but will emphasize the conflict and misunderstanding between the Sharks and the Jets.
The Bernstein/Sondheim score is considered to be one of Broadway's finest and features such classics of American musical theatre as "Tonight", "Somewhere", "America,"and "I Feel Pretty".
This is one to look forward to, even just to see what Arthur Laurents has up his sleeve and how well he can deliver. One good thing about West Side Story opening in the 2008-2009 Tony season, it won't have to go up against In the Heights (which won the 2007-2008 Tony award for Best Musical) with its very optimistic Latino perspective which could have had the potential of creating a whole new type of rivalry.
Monday 4 August 2008
Happy Talk About South Pacific
The first ever Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific opened on Broadway this year and it swept the Tony Awards winning Best Revival of a Musical, Best Actor in a Musical and five other Tony's. But I have yet to see it. It garnered mostly rave reviews with perhaps the most important being that of Ben Brantley, chief theatre critic of the New York Times who said, "I know we're not supposed to expect perfection in this imperfect world, but I'm darned if I can find one serious flaw in this production." Hm, the next available tickets are for October 21st. But will Brazilian opera singer Paul Szot, who won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Emile DeBecque, and Kelli O'Hara as Nellie Forbush still be in it? Who doesn't love a Rodgers and Hammerstein score. "Bali Ha'i", "Some Enchanted Evening", "Happy Talk", "There is Nothing Like a Dame", "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair", and "Younger than Springtime" have become worldwide standards. I adored all of the Rodgers and Hammerstein scores as a child and knew every word to every song and still do. So why didn't I buy tickets as soon as I heard it was being revived? In case you didn't know South Pacific is based on two short stories by James Michener from his 1948 Pulitzer Prize winning book "Tales of the South Pacific".
The original Broadway production production opened in 1949 and closed in 1954 after 1,925 performances. It was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won them all in 1950, making it the only show (play or musical) to win best musical, best direction and all four acting awards, Ezio Pinza as Emile DeBecque, Mary Martin as Nellie Forbush, Myron McCormick as Luther Billis and Juanita Hall as Bloody Mary with direction by Josh Logan who co-wrote the book with Oscar Hammerstein. (Mary Martin also starred in the original West End production which ran between 1951 and 1953.) It was a critical and box office hit and spawned many successful stage revivals as well as the 1958 film adaptation and a 2001 made-for-television movie.
The 1958 film starred Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor as Emile DeBecque and Nellie Forbush. Juanita Hall reprised her Tony Award winning performance as Bloody Mary. She also sang on the cast album but ironically her singing was dubbed in the movie. In fact, the only principal cast members whose own singing voices were used in the film were that of Mitzi Gaynor and Ray Walston who played Luther Billis.
In 2001 an Australian made-for-television movie was made starring Harry Connick Jr. as Lt. Cable and Glenn Close as Nellie Forbush. It was criticized for many reasons including changing the order of the songs, cutting out "Happy Talk" and casting Glenn Close who was felt by many to be too old to play the role of someone who describes herself in song as "immature and incurably green" in the song "I'm in Love With a Wonderful Guy".
I've seen both movies and the television film was okay but not nearly as good as the original 1958 film. Even though I'm a big Harry Connick Jr. fan, I just couldn't understand why they would remake the already wonderful film. Hopefully with Harry and Glenn in the movie, it turned viewers unfamiliar with Rodgers and Hammerstein on to the wonders of their music. Other than that, why bother?
If you listened to this week's Matinee show, you'll have heard my 13 year old niece, Mimi who's visiting from Tokyo, talk about how much she loved the show. Geeze, she came all that way from Japan and got to see it. How'd that happen? Really, I'm happy for her. She loves musical theatre as much as I do but I just have to see this show. As I've said here many a time, so many shows, so little time and money.
The original Broadway production production opened in 1949 and closed in 1954 after 1,925 performances. It was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won them all in 1950, making it the only show (play or musical) to win best musical, best direction and all four acting awards, Ezio Pinza as Emile DeBecque, Mary Martin as Nellie Forbush, Myron McCormick as Luther Billis and Juanita Hall as Bloody Mary with direction by Josh Logan who co-wrote the book with Oscar Hammerstein. (Mary Martin also starred in the original West End production which ran between 1951 and 1953.) It was a critical and box office hit and spawned many successful stage revivals as well as the 1958 film adaptation and a 2001 made-for-television movie.
The 1958 film starred Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor as Emile DeBecque and Nellie Forbush. Juanita Hall reprised her Tony Award winning performance as Bloody Mary. She also sang on the cast album but ironically her singing was dubbed in the movie. In fact, the only principal cast members whose own singing voices were used in the film were that of Mitzi Gaynor and Ray Walston who played Luther Billis.
In 2001 an Australian made-for-television movie was made starring Harry Connick Jr. as Lt. Cable and Glenn Close as Nellie Forbush. It was criticized for many reasons including changing the order of the songs, cutting out "Happy Talk" and casting Glenn Close who was felt by many to be too old to play the role of someone who describes herself in song as "immature and incurably green" in the song "I'm in Love With a Wonderful Guy".
I've seen both movies and the television film was okay but not nearly as good as the original 1958 film. Even though I'm a big Harry Connick Jr. fan, I just couldn't understand why they would remake the already wonderful film. Hopefully with Harry and Glenn in the movie, it turned viewers unfamiliar with Rodgers and Hammerstein on to the wonders of their music. Other than that, why bother?
If you listened to this week's Matinee show, you'll have heard my 13 year old niece, Mimi who's visiting from Tokyo, talk about how much she loved the show. Geeze, she came all that way from Japan and got to see it. How'd that happen? Really, I'm happy for her. She loves musical theatre as much as I do but I just have to see this show. As I've said here many a time, so many shows, so little time and money.
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