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My problem with the selections

Posted by: Marlo*Manners 04:39 pm EDT 04/01/14
In reply to: re: I'd Say Four Big Musicals - larry13 02:19 pm EDT 04/01/14

I felt that there were too many duplications of song types programmed back to back. For example the quasi-operatic ballad "Love Look Away" followed by "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" one right after the other. In the first half there were big leading man baritone showstoppers programmed back to back.

Frankly, given the time period you can't include everything and please everyone: there is just too much great material to choose from.

They could have used Marissa McGowan as Ado Annie in "I Cain't Say No" or moved one of the back to back baritones over to "Oh What A Beautiful Mornin'" and then moved a charm song or ingenue number in that slot.

Marlo Manners (Lady Barrington)


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re: My problem with the selections

Posted by: keikekaze 06:08 pm EDT 04/01/14
In reply to: My problem with the selections - Marlo*Manners 04:39 pm EDT 04/01/14

Or instead of programming anything from the admittedly wonderful (but a too-obvious pick for 1943) Oklahoma! score, they might have done something instead from One Touch of Venus, Early To Bed, or Something For the Boys. There are some great numbers in all of those, and they're less familiar.

I think the songs they picked from 1957, 1959, and 1960 are also all "too obvious," in the same sense. And for 1958, if it had to be Flower Drum Song (which it doesn't), I'd have picked "You Are Beautiful" or "I Am Going To Like It Here" over "Love, Look Away."


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re: My problem with the selections

Posted by: larry13 04:51 am EDT 04/02/14
In reply to: re: My problem with the selections - keikekaze 06:08 pm EDT 04/01/14

Agree with both you and the earlier poster about song selections. I also think it was unnecessary for the host to have announced from the stage--immediately after "Love, Look Away,"--that the show was one of R&H's "weaker" efforts, in contrast to(next up)SOUND OF MUSIC. No question the latter ran a lot longer but there were too many comments during the evening that indicated number of performances as the defining mark of value.


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re: My problem with the selections

Posted by: lowwriter 11:25 am EDT 04/02/14
In reply to: re: My problem with the selections - larry13 04:51 am EDT 04/02/14

Love Look Away doesn't have to be sung operatically to work. Malcolm Gets does a wonderful, more subtle version on his album.


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Various & Sundry (was re: My problem with the selections)

Posted by: Marlo*Manners 11:57 am EDT 04/02/14
In reply to: re: My problem with the selections - lowwriter 11:25 am EDT 04/02/14

I don't think the idea was to provide novelty - the usual BBTY concert focusing on one season does that in spades. They were doing a cavalcade of shows from the Golden Age. So "Oklahoma!" which along with "Show Boat" is considered a watershed turning point in musical comedy (the point where it becomes "musical theater") has to be there. They just could have picked a better selection with a more appropriate performer.

Scott Siegel has a good ear for talent for the most part - so I am not surprised that Deborah Tranelli actually can sing and well - or has until very recently. I heard the quality in the voice but the breathing, support and pitch were all over the place. Clearly Scott had heard her live earlier this year (maybe at that Triad show) and liked her. Here's hoping for greater success in the future.

As for length of runs being indicative of a show's total "success" that is tricky. Lots of mediocre shows had long runs and made money because of popular stars or feeding into then hot trends or fads. Shows like "Candide" which were flops have had a rich afterlife. But the big thing is that fifty, sixty, seventy or eighty years ago a show could run less than a year, pay back its investors and be considered a success. The monster economics of the current Broadway model means that a musical has to run for years with full houses or it loses a fortune. Result: less and less creativity.

How about non-operatic interpretations of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain"? I think it would work well as a folk or gospel ballad.

Marlo Manners (Lady Barrington)


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