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| re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 10:10 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 10:02 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? - MarjorieMae 07:52 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| The book is so many levels below the iconic Joseph L. Mankiewicz screenplay. The dialog is flattened and stuffed with pale replicas of what was once sophisticated and highly specific. With the songs added, there's no room for character development, and the shorthanding is efficient but nothing more. You get the general story, but without that dialog, the attention to character, and with a Margo and her pals trapped in the ugliest of 70s musical arrangements. The music is third tier Strouse. And it has a dreadful far too era-specific pop feel. Plus, Adams did this one in his sleep, and the prosaic earnestness of everything -- spelled out, nailed down, drearily spot-on -- just, well, matches the melodies. The title song is great, to be sure. It's atypical of the rest. And "Welcome to the Theater" at least feels like something Margo might express. Still, listen to that canned overture, the aggressive up-tempo swing that sounds like "adult contemporary." Or something. (The "Promises" score that Bacharach wrote near the same time holds up better because it has much freshness). Strouse can put a youthful hat on well ("Birdie") but here, a decade later, and with this grown-up story, mismatches the tone of the material with the slickness of the shallowest parts of the decade it's set in. Ron Field's original staging planted Bacall at the center, moved her well enough, and with her presence the event, polished the show to a high gloss around her. Full disclosure: I saw Anne Baxter in the show, and she was actually quite vivid, and found humor Bacall lacked (at least in the dreadful TV edition; (she's less of a star presence but a better actor, IMO.). I don't see how this show could work now. Its ending still has that icky "no more acting, I have a man!" vibe, and it's even tethered to one of the worst songs in the score, "Something Greater." Listen to that, and imagine a revival. | |
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| re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 04:24 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? - Delvino 10:02 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| APPLAUSE is one of those shows that I wish someone would take another crack at one day. I don't really mean a revisal of APPLAUSE, but rather than a new team of writers might go back to the screenplay and/or the short story and just start again and write a new musical based on the source material. From all reports, there's just no fixing APPLAUSE, but it's still a great story. SUGAR and VICTOR/VICTORIA are other shows that I think this about. There might be great musicals in these stories...but the shows we got were not those great musicals. |
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| Of course they couldn't get the rights to the screenplay when Comden & Green first tackled it. ... | |
| Last Edit: flaguy 01:42 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| Posted by: flaguy 01:40 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? - JereNYC 04:24 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
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| Of course they couldn't get the rights to the screenplay for 'ALL ABOUT EVE' from 20th Century-Fox when Comden & Green first began to tackle this project. Which is why Addison DeWitt is missing. He wasn't in the original (slim) story by Mary Orr, which is what they had to use to base the musical on. Then, late in the process, 20th Century-Fox relented and gave them the rights, which is why the occasional line/song like 'Fasten Your Seat Belts' slips in. Anyway, they always wanted to make it more 'ALL ABOUT MARGO,' so I guess they were satisfied with what they had, minus Mr. DeWitt, etc. I missed Bacall, but saw Anne Baxter twice, and thought she was terrific. And I liked the show a lot, too. I also saw Christine Ebersole in the Encores! presentation, and felt she kind of did a 'Betty Grable' with it, which really didn't work for me at all. And the show is dated. Much like 'MAME,' I think it would take an awfully imaginative director and a GREAT STAR to ever bring it back successfully. |
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| re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 01:39 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? - JereNYC 04:24 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
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| Well, there certainly have been multiple attempts at famous stories in the past. In opera, for example, both Massenet's "Manon" and Puccini's "Manon Lescaut" are still in the standard repertory. Plus in musical theater of much more recent vintage there are the two dueling versions of "The Wild Party", plus Maury Yeston's version of "Phantom" vs. Lloyd Webber's behemoth. There was also apparently a full score written by Yeston for a version of "La Cage aux Folles" called "The Queen of Basin Street" which, to my knowledge, has never surfaced for some reason. So, yes, other writers have made attempts at famous properties, but it's a matter of financing and also, if it would even see the light of day for all their efforts in writing it. | |
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| re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 03:29 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? - PlayWiz 01:39 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| Since APPLAUSE, in particular of the shows I mentioned, has pretty much dropped out of the national repertoire, I would venture that most casual theatregoers have no idea that a musical adaptation of ALL ABOUT EVE even exists. So, if a new creative team got the rights and wrote a new adaptation, it would likely be perceived as something completely new (which, of course, it would actually be), so this new adaptation wouldn't have to bother competing with APPLAUSE the way the other shows you mentioned had to compete with their rivals. |
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| The gay culture in "Applause" | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 12:06 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 12:04 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? - JereNYC 04:24 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
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| Cutting edge maybe in 1972, but in a way, odd then. A really nitpicky observation: Why would this B'way star's hairdresser not want to go to the biggest night of HIS own life, the opening of Margo's show? He'd be invited, of course. Instead, he has a date to go to a disco, the type of thing he could do any other night in NYC. Margo comes along, and dances on a jukebox. Whenever I glimpse the CBS special version, that scene, literalized, is just weird. Field gave Bacall a lot of post "Lucy and Jesse" moves, mostly arms in that post-60s a go go style that was designed to make people over 40 looks hip on the dance floor. Bacall wore a dreamcycle orange dress with fringe and big pumps with straps over her ankles. It doesn't look like anything any star would wear at any time, let alone her opening night. I said, nitpicky. If it made sense to turn Birdie into Duane, the result isn't nearly as interesting as we expect. Duane has nothing interesting to say or do, save drag Margo to the Village. (Why does a hairdresser hang out at Joe Allen's with dancers?) Birdie is briefer, but more compelling by half. And threatened by Eve, albeit subtly. I'd rather see the show set in 1950, like the original film. The 70s are not exactly vintage for styles or pop cultural artifact preservation. Just looking at the stills from "Applause" is a reminder. |
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| re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? | |
| Posted by: jmill 02:04 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? - Delvino 10:02 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| I saw the original APPLAUSE, with both Bacall and Baxter, and did see the Encores production. It never was a great show, and the Encores production showed that it doesn't hold up particularly well. To be fair, Ebersole was under the weather for the Encores run; so, given that it is so much a star vehicle, maybe it wasn't the best situation for appraising the show itself. I agree with Delvino that the score is third tier Strouse. Interesting, though, that it is his second longest running musical, behind just ANNIE. He wrote far better scores for shows that didn't have long runs, especially SUPERMAN and RAGS. Of course, the success of the original APPLAUSE was largely attributable to the presence of Bacall, making her Broadway musical debut. |
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| re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? | |
| Posted by: Delvino 03:55 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? - jmill 02:04 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
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| Baxter was kind of terrific, no? I know Penny Fuller loved her Margo. Again, I thought it more of a musical comedy with Baxter. | |
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| re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? | |
| Posted by: bearcat 12:11 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? - Delvino 10:02 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| wow - this is very knowing, your succinct and vivid post shows you know your Applause and I thoroughly enjoyed reading your critique RE "Something Greater" - 1) you know the the B section, "I now there's something better, I know there's something greater" at this point, did LB replicate a bit of the 'magnificent frug' she did in Cactus Flower (per Life Magazine) this is so declamatory is almost assaultive 2) the orchestral break before LCariou comes in. sound like a soundtrack as some one is almost falling off a cliff before the hero arrives |
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| re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? | |
| Posted by: Delvino 04:00 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Could Applause ever work as a revival on Bway? - bearcat 12:11 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
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| “Being to your man...what a woman should beeeeeee-eee.” It’s just startling, but Bearcat, man, you know it better than I. I do know Cariou seems to arrive by parachute, no? Such an odd vocal entrance. |
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