Threaded Order Chronological Order
| re: Yeah, hopefully it will be better than ‘Sugar’ | |
| Posted by: JayBee 03:37 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| In reply to: Yeah, hopefully it will be better than ‘Sugar’ - jesse21 01:03 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| While I usually agree with your assessments, Jesse, I found Sugar to be a delight. The two times I saw the show, the audience was eating it up, laughing hysterically and clearly having a wonderful time. Yes, it is lower tier Styne, but that is still better than what is considered upper tier today, IMHO. Also, there's no director today who can better a Gower Champion staging. Finally, Robert Morse gave the performance of the season that year. No one has that kind of lovable, comic genius. | |
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| re: Yeah, hopefully it will be better than ‘Sugar’ | |
| Posted by: jesse21 05:16 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Yeah, hopefully it will be better than ‘Sugar’ - JayBee 03:37 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| - In all fairness, I saw only the pre-Broadway tryout in Boston. And I didn't think Elaine Joyce came within 1% of Marilyn as Sugar. But, please, I called the show a :so-so" which to me means that it probably was on a par as a musical comedy with a "Someting Rotten" but not in a league with a "Book of Mormon." - |
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| re: SUGAR casting ... | |
| Posted by: flaguy 07:34 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Yeah, hopefully it will be better than ‘Sugar’ - jesse21 05:16 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| "I didn't think Elaine Joyce came within 1% of Marilyn as Sugar." Yeah, Joyce was just okay, as I recall. But she certainly couldn't have been their first choice for the role. Probably not even their second choice. Didn't they initially want Bernadette Peters, but she wasn't available? I believe she played this part later on the west coast somewhere, and I suspect she must've been wonderful as Sugar. |
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| re: SUGAR casting ... | |
| Posted by: Pokernight 05:15 am EDT 05/15/18 | |
| In reply to: re: SUGAR casting ... - flaguy 07:34 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| I think they also thought about Goldie Hawn | |
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| re: SUGAR casting ... | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 01:09 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
| In reply to: re: SUGAR casting ... - Pokernight 05:15 am EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| If I were casting it today, I would seriously look at casting a non-white actress as Sugar, just to help get as far away from Marilyn Monroe, who will never be bettered, as possible. I've done the show twice and the actresses in that role tend to do variations to greater or lesser degree on Monroe because you just hear her voice in the writing. And it's also a bit underwritten for what is supposed to be a third leading role, after the two men playing Joe and Jerry. A non-white actress would help the audience make the leap and not spend the evening comparing the performance they're seeing to a screen legend whose performance is readily available to be seen nowadays in ways that it wasn't back in the 1970's. I wonder what Nikki M. James or Phillipa Soo are up to these days? |
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| I love the jazzy score | |
| Posted by: MockingbirdGirl 05:05 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Yeah, hopefully it will be better than ‘Sugar’ - JayBee 03:37 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| I think it would be a shame for it to go a more conventional 'pop' route, given that they're supposed to be jazz musicians. | |
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| 'Some' clips from Sacramento's 'Sugar' (2013) | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 07:25 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 07:25 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| In reply to: I love the jazzy score - MockingbirdGirl 05:05 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| Never saw the original, but these clips give a sense of Bob Merrill and Jule Styne's peppy, period-like songs. (The Tonys snubbed ''Sugar'' for Score, giving the 4th slot to Peter Link's incidental music to ''Much Ado About Nothing.'') At the Sacramento Music Circus, the cast starred Jason Graae, Brent Barrett, Elizabeth Stanley, Lenny Wolpe and Alix Korey. Love the idea that gangster Spats Palazzo's tapping should sound like machine-gun fire. |
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| Link | Sacramento Music Circus: 'Sugar' (2013) |
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| Gateway Playhouse's 'Sugar' (2005) | |
| Posted by: reed23 09:12 am EDT 05/15/18 | |
| In reply to: 'Some' clips from Sacramento's 'Sugar' (2013) - WaymanWong 07:25 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| The smashing Elizabeth Stanley first played Sugar eight years before the Sacramento production, at the Gateway Playhouse, before she was known at all on Broadway. Director-choreographer Scott Thompson was given the sets from the Tony Curtis national tour (most, but not all of which fit on the stage.) The production got solid raves and sold out; Mrs. Jule Styne came out to see it, with others of the Styne organization, and raved. Thompson fixed the original abrupt Act One finish with an all-new one bringing the entire cast to the stage in a mega-recap; and got permission from the estate to add back in the song infamously cut from the original Broadway production, "The People In My Life." Elizabeth Stanley knocked it out of the park. I always thought that song was musically and lyrically far better than "People" (or just about any other ballad from Styne, with or without Merrill) and would have been The Big Song performed and recorded by everyone, had it not been sadly chopped from original 1972 show. |
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| Link | Clips from "Sugar" at the Gateway Playhouse, 2005 |
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| Thanks! | |
| Posted by: MockingbirdGirl 10:13 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| In reply to: 'Some' clips from Sacramento's 'Sugar' (2013) - WaymanWong 07:25 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| Played in the pit for a production of Sugar ages ago. | |
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| I had a great time at "Sugar" | |
| Posted by: seeseveryshow 04:16 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Yeah, hopefully it will be better than ‘Sugar’ - JayBee 03:37 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| Saw it several times at the Majestic. Terrific production, great performances and songs. It had a solid run. | |
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| Many tours... | |
| Posted by: reed23 07:49 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| In reply to: I had a great time at "Sugar" - seeseveryshow 04:16 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| SUGAR toured for years on the bus-and-truck circuit – and it's had a solid representation in the regional theatres (no OKLAHOMA!, but solid.) | |
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| A tuneful of 'Sugar' ... with Robert Morse and Tony Roberts | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 07:06 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 06:56 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| In reply to: I had a great time at "Sugar" - seeseveryshow 04:16 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| ''Sugar'' (1972) got 5 Tony nominations, including Best Musical; Robert Morse won the Drama Desk, and it ran for 505 performances. In 1998, nearly a quarter-century later, Tony Roberts and Morse reprised their comic duo ''The Beauty That Drives Men Mad.'' It was for the ''Leading Ladies'' concert in 1998, and it's a fun number from the Bob Merrill-Jule Styne score. (I also love ''Doin' It for Sugar.'') In 2002-03, there was a revised tour version, called ''Some Like It Hot: The Musical,'' starring Tony Curtis as Osgood. Anyone see that? |
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| Link | 'The Beauty That Drives Men Mad' from 'Sugar' with Robert Morse & Tony Roberts |
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| re: A tuneful of 'Sugar' ... with Robert Morse and Tony Roberts | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 12:01 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
| In reply to: A tuneful of 'Sugar' ... with Robert Morse and Tony Roberts - WaymanWong 06:56 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| I saw the tour when it came to the Chicago area in 2003. Curtis was really bad, but the show itself was enjoyable. Lenora Nemetz was quite good as Sweet Sue and almost stole the show. | |
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| I thought there was some hope for "Bombshell" by Shaiman and Wittman- Is that on the back burner? | |
| Posted by: rossde 01:07 am EDT 05/15/18 | |
| In reply to: A tuneful of 'Sugar' ... with Robert Morse and Tony Roberts - WaymanWong 06:56 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| Will it ever see the light of day? | |
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