| re: 1776 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:18 pm EDT 07/04/20 | |
| In reply to: re: 1776 - Delvino 05:47 pm EDT 07/04/20 | |
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| Last year when we discussed this, I see now that I typo'd in my post, saying that the intermission went into the Broadway production on July 23, 1969, when I should have said 1970. Here's some of what I posted last time: Well, 1776 did open in New Haven with an intermission. At that point, it came after "Cool, Cool Considerate Men," but "Momma Look Sharp" was sung in the New Brunswick sequence, which opened Act Two. First, there was a scene in an inn, where the cut song "Encrease and Multiply" — yes, it was spelled "Encrease" — was sung, although it seems to have been cut immediately after opening night. This led Howard Da Silva to quit (it was not a solo but it was mostly sung by him), but he then changed his mind, apparently after Alfred Drake told him he'd be a fool to quit, it was the best role of his life and the show was going to be a hit. Then there was the scene on the field, which is where "Momma Look Sharp" was performed. At least in the pre-rehearsal script I've read, it was sung at the very top of this scene, with no dialogue introduction or explanation and sung primarily by a character we had not seen previously and did not see again. Peter Hunt remembers the New Haven intermission being at the end of the New Brunswick sequence, but not only the playbill for New Haven but also accounts at the time confirm that it was after "Cool, Cool." By the D.C. run, the New Brunswick sequence was gone, "The Egg" had been written and put in the show, and "Momma Look Sharp" was repositioned. Fast work. I don't know if there was no intermission at that point. Since I did see it early in the Broadway run, with no intermission, it makes sense to me without one. One problem is that, as with Follies, La Mancha and A Chorus Line, there really isn't a very good place for one. Placing it after "Momma Looks Sharp" gives you a very long first act and a decidedly short second act. Second acts of musicals are usually shorter, but this is an unusually lopsided pair of timings. But without an intermission, you've got a show that, if played very quickly, is still at least 140 minutes, a long time for a show without an intermission. I do think that after "Momma" is the best place, but even though the best place, it's still not a very good place for an intermission. One thing I remember from seeing 1776 on July 3, 1969, is that there was a pre-show announcement about 10 minutes before curtain time to the effect that there would be no intermission and so if there was anything you wanted to do that you might normally do during intermission, you'd better do it now, which got a small laugh but not many people got up. I know there was no such announcement at Follies, and I don't recall one at La Mancha or A Chorus Line, but I guess because 1776 had the longest running time of all those shows, they decided to do one. And then in reply to a post of yours, I posted this: The day of the D.C. opening — February 20, 1969 (following a few previews there) — Richard Coe wrote in the Washinton Post that it would be played without intermission, a change from New Haven that the creative team had decided on. Of course, we know the major changes that were made very quickly between opening night in New Haven and the opening in D.C. It's always possible that during the run in D.C., they decided to try putting in an intermission, and then they took it out again. Tryout playbills often have misleading info, although I would think that if there was no intermission in the playbill but they had temporarily added one, there might have been an insert in the playbill. But inserts fall out, and perhaps there wasn't one but just a sign in the lobby or an announcement before the show (as I well recall an announcement before the performance I saw on July 3, 1969, that there would not be an intermission). Or nothing. So you might have seen it with an intermission, and it would be hard if not impossible to be sure that you didn't. |
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