After Legs Diamond closed, Peter Allen agreed to speak about the experience at a Drama Desk luncheon, which I attended. He said something along the lines of this: "I wanted to do a show that was like a gritty black-and-white Warner Brothers gangster picture. But I also wanted it to be like a big Technicolor Vincente Minnelli musical." I always felt that comment spoke directly to the confusion onstage at the Mark Hellinger.
During previews, Legs Diamond had one of the oddest things I've ever seen in a musical: a full scene before the overture -- a cold opening, if you will. The curtain went up on the tenement apartment where Legs lives with his mother and brother. The scene was a prologue of sorts, establishing how he takes the fall for his brother's crime. As the cops were hauling him off, another character said something like, "Well, Legs, I guess that's the end of you." Looking directly out at the audience, Allen said, something like, "The end of me? I'm just getting started!" Then blackout, in came the show curtain, and the overture started. It was one of the first things to go. |
