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| re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. | |
| Last Edit: singleticket 12:51 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
| Posted by: singleticket 12:50 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
| In reply to: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. - Charlie_Baker 12:19 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| This series is like a docent giving a tour of the Joe Allen "flop wall". But I'm not sure if I'm crazy about the way the Broadway flop folklore is constituted here. I keep thinking of Broadway shows like "Taboo" which were flops for a number of reasons other than deliciously enjoyable hubris. I guess we'll have to wait to see what the series says about SIDESHOW, a musical I didn't love but so many did. |
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| re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. | |
| Posted by: robert_j 12:38 am EDT 08/15/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. - singleticket 12:50 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| I saw Dance of the Vampires and Amour in the same weekend. The problem with Dance of the Vampires was that they made the mistake of making the vampire comic and the vampire hunter serious, instead of the other way around. If they had kept it more like the original it would have worked. But I guess Crawford wanted the laughs, and it felt like he really wanted to distance himself from Phantom. I still love the album of the German cast and wish that the Broadway version had been recorded. I think it would have been a sleeper hit -- for all the show's flaws, the music sounded great. So glad I got to see Crawford in a musical. And the rest of the cast was SO good. I can still remember Mandy Gonzalez and Max Von Essen singing "Braver Than We Are." So good. Amour was lovely -- it should have stayed open longer. The worst musical I ever saw was the first preview of "In My Life," and I would not trade that experience for anything. Simply epic! (Close second: Lord of the Rings, the Musical, in Toronto) |
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| re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 11:05 am EDT 08/15/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. - robert_j 12:38 am EDT 08/15/20 | |
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| "The problem with Dance of the Vampires was that they made the mistake of making the vampire comic and the vampire hunter serious, instead of the other way around. If they had kept it more like the original it would have worked." I don't know the original film or the German version of the musical, but why do you say it would have worked to make the vampire a serious character and the vampire hunter a comic character? That doesn't sound like a good idea to me at all. |
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| re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. | |
| Posted by: whereismikeyfl 12:36 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. - Michael_Portantiere 11:05 am EDT 08/15/20 | |
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| Why say it would have worked better? Maybe because the German production and the film, which were more successful, did it that way. | |
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| re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. | |
| Posted by: singleticket 02:59 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. - whereismikeyfl 12:36 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
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| I think that's largely true but the vampires in the Polanski film, as well as the other characters, all have comic elements. The vampire Count is indulgent in a worldly way of his vampire son's homosexuality and his need for a (very) longtime companion. I always liked that about the Count in the film. | |
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| re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. | |
| Last Edit: BroadwayTonyJ 12:20 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 12:17 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. - Michael_Portantiere 11:05 am EDT 08/15/20 | |
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| Making the vampire a serious character and the vampire hunters comic was the formula for the Abbott & Costello versus the Universal Studio monsters series in the 40's. It worked pretty well on film back then. Although there's no guarantee it would have worked in Dance of the Vampires on Broadway, I do believe it would have been better if Crawford had played the role as a serious vampire. It ended up being a very silly show, pretty much doomed to be a flop, but I didn't hate it -- the supporting cast made it somewhat tolerable. I went to see it because I had never seen Crawford before on stage. It was disappointing that he was so ridiculous in the show. I wish I could have seen him in Phantom on Broadway or Woman in White in London. |
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| re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 04:28 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. - BroadwayTonyJ 12:17 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
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| "Making the vampire a serious character and the vampire hunters comic was the formula for the Abbott & Costello versus the Universal Studio monsters series in the 40's. It worked pretty well on film back then." Good point, and I grew up watching and loving those movies on TV, but I do I think that's a very different kind of situation, and somehow I can't see a similar approach working in a stage musical. Maybe someone will try it someday, and we'll see what happens :-) "Although there's no guarantee it would have worked in Dance of the Vampires on Broadway, I do believe it would have been better if Crawford had played the role as a serious vampire. " Agreed, but to clarify: Since the score as it ended up on Broadway had some really campy, supposedly humorous numbers along with the more "serious" ones, and since the book as I recall it was jokey for very large sections of the action, I don't think any change in approach in Crawford's performance would have worked without major changes in the actual writing of the show. |
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| re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. | |
| Posted by: ARM25 04:56 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. - singleticket 12:50 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| I kinda, on some level, love every Broadway musical I have ever seen, however I would rank DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES as the "worst"... it really wasn't interesting/unsuccessful, just not interesting.... dull... bloated... a friend of mine was one of the producers and i saw it opening night with them, and it was like flat, warm sparkling wine... dullest opening night I've been to.... a pity. | |
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| I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC | |
| Last Edit: Leon_W 03:55 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
| Posted by: Leon_W 03:55 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Vulture series on Broadway flops takes on Dance of the Vampires. - singleticket 12:50 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| I saw the original London show many many times and loved it. It was so atmospheric in that tiny space with the actors in and around the audience. Whilst the book was far from perfect but the songs were often so beautiful or catchy and fun. It would have been perfect at Circle in the Square, somewhere smaller where audience interaction was easier to do as it was at the theater in Leicester Square. I saw the Broadway production twice and enjoyed it enough but it had been a little sanitized and with the additional polish they tried to do it had lost a lot of its charm. | |
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| re: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC | |
| Last Edit: singleticket 07:59 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
| Posted by: singleticket 07:58 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
| In reply to: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC - Leon_W 03:55 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| I only saw it on Broadway and liked it quite a bit. I don't remember the book being so bad and I loved the final ballad. My biggest problem were the Leigh Bowery outfits which I thought were dumbed down. I'm a huge Leigh Bowery fan. | |
| Link | Taboo - Come on in from the outside |
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| re: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC | |
| Posted by: 37Rubydog 03:18 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC - singleticket 07:58 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| It was a totally different storyline involving a Vivienne Westwood like character...Boy George and Leigh Bowery we’re not the central story. But Imo London was far superior to bway. | |
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| re: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC | |
| Posted by: Billhaven 09:24 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC - singleticket 07:58 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| I loved Taboo! Beautiful score. It was overproduced and complicated by Rosie's high profile. If it had played at NY Theatre Workshop first or in some funky downtown space it could have been "discovered" and then moved to Broadway. | |
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| re: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC | |
| Posted by: mattyp4 12:30 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC - Billhaven 09:24 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| Yes this would have been perfect. And a Broadway transfer to Circle in the Square-- as someone mentioned above-- would have been ever better. I still enjoyed the show when I saw it but yes, it was very flawed. And Boy George (the real Boy George....who played Leigh Bowery in the show) apparently stormed out of the theater before curtain the night I went b/c the cast had just been informed of the closing. Curtain was very late & there was no mention of an understudy. Kind of a bummer but at least I got to see it. (I still listen to the cast album a lot.) |
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| re: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC | |
| Posted by: 37Rubydog 03:22 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC - mattyp4 12:30 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
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| Boy George used to visit a playwright in my sister’s building...I suspect at the time he was having substance issues (she mentioned that his hygiene was less than one might expect)...but being upset isn’t a surprise...this was such a personal story and he had a lot of which to be proud. The score is beautiful. | |
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| the score as a whole is quite a bit better on Broadway, but the book... and direction... | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 09:40 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC - Billhaven 09:24 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| I adore the score, and the revisions/cuts/additions for broadway i think make for a quite notably better overall score and collection of songs. But the rest of the show... i wish it were better but it just isn't. | |
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| re: the score as a whole is quite a bit better on Broadway, but the book... and direction... | |
| Posted by: sf 02:07 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
| In reply to: the score as a whole is quite a bit better on Broadway, but the book... and direction... - Chazwaza 09:40 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| I didn't see the show on Broadway, but the Broadway cast recording gets the music quite badly wrong. British pop music of that era, including Culture Club, is characterised by a combination of slickness and artlessness. The Broadway arrangements are a little bit too smooth, too glossy. They take a score that in London did quite a good job of evoking the show's milieu and render it bland. And also the accents from everyone who isn't British are laughably appalling and the keychange-too-far that's shoehorned into the Broadway version of Talk Amongst Yourselves brings new meaning to the word 'bathos'. The London show wasn't perfect, but the Broadway album is almost unlistenable. |
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| re: the score as a whole is quite a bit better on Broadway, but the book... and direction... | |
| Posted by: Billhaven 02:32 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
| In reply to: re: the score as a whole is quite a bit better on Broadway, but the book... and direction... - sf 02:07 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
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| And yet I listen to it all the time! I never gave a second thought whether the British pop music sounds authentic or not . I just enjoy the songs and the performances. | |
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| yeah, I love the obc album and listen to it often. (NM) | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 05:08 am EDT 08/16/20 | |
| In reply to: re: the score as a whole is quite a bit better on Broadway, but the book... and direction... - Billhaven 02:32 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
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| nm | |
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| re: the score as a whole is quite a bit better on Broadway, but the book... and direction... | |
| Posted by: sf 03:17 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
| In reply to: re: the score as a whole is quite a bit better on Broadway, but the book... and direction... - Billhaven 02:32 pm EDT 08/15/20 | |
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| If I hadn't seen the London production before I bought the Broadway cast album - and if the early-to-mid 80s hadn't been my major period of pop fandom - I might dislike the Broadway album less. The voices are terrific, although they're not always matched well with the songs. It wouldn't be any easier to get past the dreadful accents, though. | |
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| re: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC | |
| Posted by: 37Rubydog 07:35 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
| In reply to: I wish the original London production of Taboo had come to NYC - Leon_W 03:55 pm EDT 08/14/20 | |
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| Agreed....in London it was so much fun. It was in a small venue and very sparse...except for Leigh Bowery’s get ups. Yes the book was rough, but what replaced it wasn’t better...and the bigger cast and even bigger dance numbers on bway made me cringe. | |
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