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Keeping score of Gary Geld & Peter Udell
Last Edit: WaymanWong 02:33 am EDT 08/21/20
Posted by: WaymanWong 02:18 am EDT 08/21/20
In reply to: re: SHENANDOAH: Thoughts and Memories? - StageDoorJohnny 04:59 pm EDT 08/20/20

I've always been curious about Geld and Udell. They wrote two hits in the 1970s: ''Purlie'' and ''Shenandoah,'' both of which earned them Tony Award nominations (and Udell even won the Tony for co-writing the book to the latter). Cleavon Little and Melba Moore won Tonys for ''Purlie,'' and a 1981 TV adaptation, with Moore, won a CableACE Award, and John Cullum won his first Best Actor in a Musical Tony for ''Shenandoah.''

Both shows have some nifty toe-tapping songs. I especially enjoy ''Walk Him Up the Stairs'' and ''I Got Love'' from ''Purlie,'' as well as ''Why Am I Me?,'' ''Next to Lovin' (I LIke Fightin')'' and ''The Pickers Are Coming'' from ''Shenandoah.'' Geld and Udell wrote one more Broadway show: ''Angel,'' a 1978 musical of ''Look, Homeward Angel,'' that closed after 5 performances. Did that flop cause Geld and Udell to break up? Udell would go on to write two more musicals with Garry Sherman: ''Comin' Uptown'' (1979) and ''Amen Corner'' (1983), but both were short-lived.

Does anyone know anything more about Geld and Udell? I couldn't find any footage of them on YouTube, and only about one interview in the N.Y. Times in 1975. They were pop songwriters (''Sealed With a Kiss'') and lamented about getting the brushoff from a number of New York critics.

(Anyone catch the 20th anniversary revival of ''Shenandoah'' at Goodspeed in 1994? The cast included Marc Kudisch and James Van Der Beek.)
Link N.Y. Times: The 'Shenandoah' Saga by John S. Wilson (1975)
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