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| re: "Charlie Girl" and "Salad Days" - both long West End runs - why not Broadway? | |
| Posted by: keikekaze 07:52 pm EDT 07/10/21 | |
| In reply to: "Charlie Girl" and "Salad Days" - both long West End runs - why not Broadway? - PlayWiz 07:47 am EDT 07/10/21 | |
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| If you're asking why Salad Days wasn't produced on Broadway in the Fifties, and why Charlie Girl didn't come to Broadway in the mid-Sixties, I think I can make some guesses. Salad Days is a very small musical with a very small--and terminally quaint--plot. It's about a magic piano that causes everyone that hears it to dance, with no very compelling consequences that I recall from the cast album. (I've never seen a staged production.) The score is pleasant and amiable. Perhaps the entire show is that, too. But on Fifties Broadway, a hit musical was Guys and Dolls or My Fair Lady or West Side Story--something that was a lot more than just pleasant and amiable, something big, bold, and with a very compelling story. Even off Broadway in 1958, where a show of its size belonged, Salad Days only managed a short run. I can't imagine it having been a hit on Broadway at that time. In my opinion, Charlie Girl is a stronger show, and there's no intrinsic reason why it couldn't have been a hit on Broadway in, say, 1966 or '67, right after the very British Half a Sixpence had just been a Broadway hit. I think the scores of Charlie Girl and Half a Sixpence are about comparable. But who would have played Charlie Girl on Broadway? The two leads are really the two middle-aged ladies who play the mothers of the show's bride- and groom-to-be (until that plan gets kiboshed). Anna Neagle of the London cast was not a Broadway star, and I doubt that this show would have made her one, as Half a Sixpence did for Tommy Steele. Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur might have been ideally cast--but they were otherwise engaged in 1966-67! ; ) Without surefire star casting, I imagine it was thought that the show just wasn't quite strong enough to risk the transfer. |
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| re: "Charlie Girl" and "Salad Days" - both long West End runs - why not Broadway? | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 11:16 pm EDT 07/10/21 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 11:08 pm EDT 07/10/21 | |
| In reply to: re: "Charlie Girl" and "Salad Days" - both long West End runs - why not Broadway? - keikekaze 07:52 pm EDT 07/10/21 | |
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| I was listening to the original London cast recording of "Charlie Girl" (up on YouTube with permission), and it's a very nice score, with a very catchy title song. The male top-billed star was a British Cockney popular music star, Joe Brown (who I wasn't familiar with); later on during the run the role was taken on by Gerry Marsden of the group Gerry and the Pacemakers, who had major hits in the US and UK on the pop charts during the 60s British Invasion. The recently departed Stuart Damon had a good supporting role as an American millionaire in it as well. The show sounds quite silly and fun and "daft", and frankly, something of a tonic for troubled times, and worth checking out. I'd love to see a production mounted somewhere. Since Cyd Charisse took Anna Neagle's role in the London revival, it might be tailor made for a more mature dancing lady who sings like Donna McKechnie, Sandy Duncan, Karen Ziemba, or, if she'd allow herself to play the mother of at least one daughter of marriageable age, Catherine Zeta-Jones. Perhaps some place like Paper Mill Playhouse for a possible run with or without an eye for Broadway? It's better than some of the stuff that's been written and produced in recent years, had a track record as a big hit in London, and it sounds like just a really fun show. |
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| re: "Charlie Girl" and "Salad Days" - both long West End runs - why not Broadway? | |
| Posted by: keikekaze 11:53 pm EDT 07/10/21 | |
| In reply to: re: "Charlie Girl" and "Salad Days" - both long West End runs - why not Broadway? - PlayWiz 11:08 pm EDT 07/10/21 | |
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| I agree that Charlie Girl sounds like it could be a lot of fun, and besides the title song, Charlie's establishing song, "Bells Will Ring," is a beauty too. That song would have graced any Broadway musical. And the American fascination at the time with all things "swinging London" would certainly have helped the show, too, in the mid-Sixties. Now, I'm not so sure that it could still be a Broadway hit, but stranger things have happened. (Hello, Me and My Girl!) Maybe some revival-minded group like Mufti or Encores should do a series of British musicals that never made it to Broadway, but are still worth a look. | |
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| re: "Charlie Girl" and "Salad Days" - both long West End runs - why not Broadway? | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 09:27 pm EDT 07/11/21 | |
| In reply to: re: "Charlie Girl" and "Salad Days" - both long West End runs - why not Broadway? - keikekaze 11:53 pm EDT 07/10/21 | |
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| Maybe some revival-minded group like Mufti or Encores should do a series of British musicals that never made it to Broadway, but are still worth a look. I guess it would have to be Mufti. Seems like the way things are now, Encores would opt for Oliver. :-) |
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| re: "Charlie Girl" and "Salad Days" - both long West End runs - why not Broadway? | |
| Posted by: keikekaze 11:17 pm EDT 07/11/21 | |
| In reply to: re: "Charlie Girl" and "Salad Days" - both long West End runs - why not Broadway? - Chromolume 09:27 pm EDT 07/11/21 | |
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| If not Cats! ; ) | |
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