sf already mentioned what I was thinking about mentioning, but here is something that may be of interest. When the show opened in Boston, ”Side by Side by Side” and ”What Would We Do Without You?” were late in the second act, the last numbers before ”Happily Ever After.” So the sequence was not originally conceived as the traditional second-act opening number.
At the first preview in Boston, the song before them was ”Another Hundred People,” which came after the song that was then titled ”Drinking Song.” As you may know, ”Another Hundred People” was cut after that first preview until someone — in this case Sondheim — came up with the solution, which was to put it in the first act in the place where we know it, interspersed in with the scenes with April, Kathy and Marta. Fortunately, he came up with the idea in time for it to be back in the show by opening night, after two previews. That probably could not be done this quickly nowadays. It would be too complicated technically to make those changes that quickly. One of the reasons — hardly the only one — why we have more previews nowadays. |
