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| Cy Coleman wrote many shows, about many kinds of people/professions -- but he is in great company if he's an artist fascinated by prostitutes | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 04:31 pm EDT 03/17/22 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 04:23 pm EDT 03/17/22 | |
| In reply to: re: This could well be the death of Encores. - AnObserver 12:12 pm EDT 03/17/22 | |
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| Many many writers and filmmakers and artists of all kinds have been interested in Sex Work as a subject and the people who do it and pay for it, etc. Cy Coleman wrote music for the following major musicals: Wildcat Little Me Sweet Charity Seesaw I Love My Wife On the Twentieth Century Barnum City of Angels The Life The Will Rogers Follies (and two that aren't major that aren't worth mentioning) While sex and entertainment were certainly elements in many of his shows, I think it's pretty unfair to say he "likes shows with prostitutes so much" when he wrote *10* major musicals and only 2 of them have prostitutes, if we're calling the working gals in Sweet Charity prostitutes, which I do think is fair. And City of Angels too has a storyline that leads to a character becoming a prostitute, but I don't think many would refer to or even remember that show as a "prostitute show" (I've seen it and heard the score a dozen times and I didn't even remember it was in there)... but he also didn't write the book to that, and it changed quite a lot in development with the writers who ultimately wrote it. Also... he wrote the just the music for Sweet Charity... Neil Simon wrote the book and Dorothy Fields the lyrics, shaped by Fosse, based on an acclaimed movie by one of the world's most acclaimed writer/directors. Two of my favorite of his 10 scores are in shows about hookers... and I've definitely been aware of that, and that they have music by him... but I still don't think I'd call him someone who likes shows about hookers so much. |
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| ALSO | |
| Posted by: standingO 07:31 pm EDT 03/17/22 | |
| In reply to: Cy Coleman wrote many shows, about many kinds of people/professions -- but he is in great company if he's an artist fascinated by prostitutes - Chazwaza 04:23 pm EDT 03/17/22 | |
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| It could be an artist trying to make sense of the world around them. Broadway theaters was surrounded by totally different neighbors in the 1960s-1980s than today. The dancing halls of Sweet Charity in the 1960s and then, the setting on which The Life is based. Or as Sam Harris said in his intro to the show's 1997 Tony performance, it was "before they made the streets squeaky clean for Mickey Mouse." Maybe Cy Coleman did or didn't have other reasons to revisit the topic, but I wouldn't dismiss this factor if we're retroactively dissecting his artistic motivations. In other Life news, Sam Harris is livestreaming Openly Gray from 54 Below as I type. And it's a nice watch. |
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| re: ALSO | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 08:19 pm EDT 03/17/22 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 08:03 pm EDT 03/17/22 | |
| In reply to: ALSO - standingO 07:31 pm EDT 03/17/22 | |
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| Absolutely. Sondheim also made sense of the world around him. I could easily say Sondheim loved writing shows about wealthy people. Especially if I only was familiar with Company Follies and A Little Night Music (forgetting of course that all 3 shows have non-wealthy characters too)... I mean, throw in there Sunday, and Merrily... both have wealthy privileged artists at the center (as well as non-wealthy people). But Sondheim, like Cy, wrote MANY show, Sondheim wrote 14 musicals (music & lyrics), about many many things and kinds of people. There are certainly repeated type and themes and things he writes well (after all, he was rich and privileged even from childhood... but let's not forget plenty of the world's great art came from people with massive wealth and/or privilege who had the time and resources to BE artists, it wasn't always seen as the detriment and death of art or the value of the art if that was the artist's actual life). But I could still say Sondheim loved musicals about wealthy people. |
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