The original tour turned into the bus-and-truck tour in December 1971 or January 1972. Chakiris and Stritch were replaced by Case and WIlson. Some of the other cast had already been replaced, and some of those replacements stayed through the change.
At the end of the tour, it played a three-week run in D.C., where it was filmed for TOFT at the closing matinee. Up till then, I think that TOFT had only filmed Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway shows.
By that point, Gary Krawford, who had played Robert for the final week on Broadway (after having played Peter on the tour and understudying Robert), had taken over as Robert on the tour. McKechnie rejoined the tour for those final weeks in D.C., possibly knowing that the filming was in the works. Perhaps it had also played some other longer engagements since switching to bus and truck.
The video, in black and white and with no closeups though with some medium shots, is still in the TOFT archive. The tour does not seem to have had the elevators at any point, and I think the projections were much simplified from what was seen in the Broadway production.
Nonetheless, the video at TOFT is a pretty fantastic document. Overall, I think that the closing tour cast was excellent, and they were clearly giving their all at that performance. Krawford is very good, especially in "Being Alive." Tandy Cronyn is the best Amy I've ever seen (including, forgive me, Beth Howland, whom I loved, but Cronyn is more moving). Husband and wife George Wallace and Jane Johnston make a very creepy pair as David and Jane. Julie Wilson is interestingly different as Joanne, nothing like Stritch at all.
At the link you can find much info on the tour. To see the complete credits, you can click on either "click here for more credits" at the top or on "See more" under the list of Top Cast Members. On the page with the complete cast list, if a character name is in red, you can click on the name to see info on replacements.
|