| re: Any more comments on The Day Before Spring at the York? | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 08:26 am EST 02/17/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Any more comments on The Day Before Spring at the York? - AlanScott 08:39 pm EST 02/16/19 | |
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| This show is interesting, as the book is really really mediocre - and that's being kind. The score alternates uncomfortably between 'by the numbers peppy musical theatre numbers, and some lovely Viennese operetta inflected numbers. The mind had a lot of time to wander during this piece, and it makes me think that the Lerner/Loewe ouevre is fairly limited. MY FAIR LADY is undoubtedly their masterwork, In 1944, they had a deserved flop with WHAT'S UP. THE DAY BEFORE SPRING lasted 20 weeks in 1945-46. 1947 brought BRIGADOON, which ran almost 18 months, a hit. Some lovely songs to be sure, but revivals are stymied by the book which hasn't aged well. PAINT YOUR WAGON stuck around for 9 months. They talked to the trees and named the wind. This score is bit of a mixed bag, and the less said about the book, the better. There have been several major rewrites done, and none have solved the show's problems. 5 years later - MY FAIR LADY. And 4 years later - CAMELOT. A great score, lumbered with a ponderous book. The legend i that Moss Hart wasn't well enough to help wretsle the book into shape with Lerner after its 4 hour plus opening in Toronto, I believe. The film of GIGI was kind of delightful, with some very good songs. And that's it. Lerner's work without Loewe was fairly mediocre as well. LOVE/LIFE with a good Kurt Weill score (one lyric was recycled in GIGI), but a book that failed in many of the same ways that Hammerstein's ALLEGRO book failed. Then, ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER, some lovely Burton Lane songs brought down to earth by a muddled book. And then COCO - I saw it - a leaden book (and a not very good score) which ran more than one night only because Katharine Hepburn and GEorge Rose were in it. Then he tried again with Burton Lane, creating the Sardi's wall worthy CARMELINA. Finishing in 1983 in a collaboration with Charles Strouse on the one night wonder CLOSE A LITTLE FASTER - I mean, DANCE A LITTLE CLOSER. Do we detect a theme? Lerner wrote one good book (MY FAIR LADY - much of which was directly from Shaw or paraphrased) and one pretty good screenplay (GIGI). Otherwise, every other Broadway show he worked in was sabotaged by its book. Any questions? |
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| Previous: | re: Any more comments on The Day Before Spring at the York? - AlanScott 08:39 pm EST 02/16/19 |
| Next: | re: Any more comments on The Day Before Spring at the York? - Michael_Portantiere 12:38 am EST 02/19/19 |
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