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| Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Posted by: Zelgo 11:29 am EST 12/30/22 | |
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| In SHY, Mary Rodgers says she always hoped to revive Rodgers and Hart's JUMBO. Has there ever been a major revival? It's a show I know nothing about. |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Posted by: keikekaze 05:33 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - Zelgo 11:29 am EST 12/30/22 | |
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| Apart from the costs, the logistics, and the slight-book problems mentioned below, there's another consideration that would make a commercial revival problematic: Do people really like old-style circus acts any more, especially circus acts involving animals? | |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Posted by: stevemr 12:25 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - Zelgo 11:29 am EST 12/30/22 | |
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| In what form? Certainly not the original. Logistics aside, the cost would be prohibitive. The Durante material was tailored to Durante. I doubt it would work without him. More than half the cast were genuine circus acts. Look at the cast list on IBDB, linked below. Then there was Jumbo himself. An elephant!! The original production ran only 5 months. But the score is phenomenal!! | |
| Link | Jumbo -- original cast list |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 05:52 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - stevemr 12:25 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
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| Having seen the mini-production at York, I can say that the Durante material worked surprisingly well with Michael McGrath, who knew exactly how to do it. Not really an imitation but an effective and very funny evocation of Durante. Of course, there may not be that many people at any time who can pull off something like that. But, yes, hard to imagine even Encores! doing this. A studio recording of the score would be nice if enough of the original materials exist. |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 07:01 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 06:55 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - AlanScott 05:52 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
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| Maybe it could be done in coordination with something like the Big Apple Circus which performs in huge tents when they tour around the NY boroughs and elsewhere, but even they don't use animals much (if they ever did, it was pretty limited I believe) in their shows. But they do have some capacities for high wire acts and acrobatics. So something approximating the original Hippodrome might possibly be worked out if the economics of it could be. But then again, most circuses in the U.S. and most other countries especially have freed elephants and other big animals from working in them. Unless Jumbo's character was animated or in shadow form, there's no raison d'etre for its title character. But I'd love to hear the score with its original orchestrations. Maybe the show can be like Julie Taymor did with "Lion King" along similar lines in its representation of animals? | |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Posted by: tribefan 05:45 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - stevemr 12:25 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
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| I loved the way BARNUM incorporated Jumbo back in the day. Very clever, particularly with Tom Thumb sitting in his trunk. | |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Posted by: bmc 11:42 am EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - Zelgo 11:29 am EST 12/30/22 | |
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| the movie with Doris Day, Jimmy Durante And Martha Raye Is plain Wonderful(IMO) | |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Last Edit: BroadwayTonyJ 12:39 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 12:36 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - bmc 11:42 am EST 12/30/22 | |
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| The 1962 Jumbo is an enjoyable movie musical with delightful performances by Doris Day, Jimmy Durante, and Martha Raye. However, it only features two songs from the original Rodgers & Hart Broadway score, "My Romance" and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World". According to IBDB, the original 1935 score had 11 musical numbers. For decades AEI records claimed their label had a radio broadcast recording of the entire show featuring the complete score sung by the original cast. For years Ken Mandlebaum wrote columns about this upcoming release in ShowMusic magazine and other sources. Eventually the AEI owner passed away and his Jumbo recording was obtained by Harbinger Records. Unfortunately, (from what I have been told) the musical elements of that radio performance had various quality issues that have made releasing a commercial recording highly unlikely. I would imagine the best chance of a stage revival would be by an organization like Encores, which at least could do justice to the score (if not the incredible physical production of the original show). |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Posted by: Ludlow29 05:20 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - BroadwayTonyJ 12:36 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
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| The movie included more than those two songs. Also featured were "Little Girl Blue," "The Circus Is On Parade," and "Over and Over" (each a classic). Another Rodgers & Hart song "Why Can't I" (from SPRING IS HERE" was interpolated. | |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 06:04 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - Ludlow29 05:20 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
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| My apologies. You are correct. It's been many years since I've seen the Jumbo film. It does feature 5 songs from the Broadway score plus additional interpolated Rodgers & Hart songs and a new number by Roger Edens. I was basing the statement in my earlier post on the Wikipedia article about the film which said it included only 2 of the Broadway songs. I should have checked the song list from the soundtrack recording, available on Amazon. The film is delightful. | |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Posted by: Jackson 01:10 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - BroadwayTonyJ 12:36 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
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| The York Theatre Company did a very small-scale version of JUMBO a number of years ago. Hugh Panaro played the lead. J |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 02:13 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - Jackson 01:10 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
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| And MIchael McGrath played the Durante role, and he was terrific. Very funny. It was a nice but very small taste of the show. |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Posted by: jssteitzer 08:25 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - AlanScott 02:13 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
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| Well, there is this footage from a newsreel on YouTube which should give you an idea of just how big this show was. It's from Opening Night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXmv58tG-5s | |
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| re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? | |
| Posted by: castro 12:21 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - bmc 11:42 am EST 12/30/22 | |
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| I would love to see it as annual event at Radio City | |
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| Funny you should mention JUMBO… | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 05:10 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Any chance to see JUMBO revived? - castro 12:21 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
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| I spent years doing 1930s research—especially Larry Hart material—for my time travel novel, BROADWAY REVIVAL. And I started putting some of that to use in a nonfiction survey of the 1935-36 season (plays and musicals)…except the JUMBO chapter ballooned to 20,000 words. So now I’m doing a JUMBO book, it’s currently at 40,000 words. As said above, the Durante material was specifically tailored for him, and might sound odd to modern audiences. The book by Hecht and MacArthur was thin to begin with, and got cut even further by Billy Rose in favor of more and more circus/vaudeville acts. I have been exhaustively delving into iron-jaw artists, the “wingless Pegasus” named Doheos; Josie DeMott, a Barnum legend (and suffragette!) returning to the ring at 67; Nagafy the fire-eater; Charles De Camo and his brilliant dog, Cora; Jim Mandy, the man with the iron skull…and so many more! Laura in LA, still stuck in the thirties |
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| The Jumbo Fire Chief Radio Show | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 05:31 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
| In reply to: Funny you should mention JUMBO… - showtunetrivia 05:10 pm EST 12/30/22 | |
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| If you want a genuine taste of what Durante’s character “Brainy” the press agent was like, JUMBO was the first musical to have a concurrent radio show, with pretty much the same plot used each week, kind of paralleling the plot of the show. The offspring of two rival circuses are in love; her dad’s circus is in dire financial straits; Brainy, his press agent, tries schemes to help, but generally makes things worse. But you do get a lot of the songs, and Durante doing Texaco commercials as Brainy. The movie, made nearly thirty years later, had Durante (now playing the dad-circus owner), an elephant named Jumbo, and only two lines from the original script: “Where are you going with that elephant?” “What elephant?” Laura in LA, who has listened to every single one of these episodes for her sins….twice |
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| Link | Jumbo Fire Chief Radio Show |
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