(Sorry, bway1430, I know you didn't mention Redhead, but people do start naming it below, and in this long thread I've lost the place where it first comes up.)
Kismet is a brilliant piece of writing, both in the book and the score, and Redhead is more than good enough to ring the bell every time, provided you have the right leading lady. That last proviso, of course, is the problem for both shows. They're very difficult to cast properly, and that's the main reason that neither one gets revived very often: People might want to revive them, but they haven't got a Hajj, or a Lalume, or a Wazir, or an Essie Whimple, and they can't find one. (Will there ever be another Essie besides Gwen Verdon?) And since they don't get revived much, younger people tend to have forgotten them. But there's nothing seriously wrong with either one of them. |
