Threaded Order Chronological Order
| re: NY NY Score/ Dorothy Fields for SEESAW | |
| Posted by: bmc 11:42 am EDT 04/10/23 | |
| In reply to: re: NY NY Score - Likeitlots 09:22 am EDT 04/09/23 | |
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| I remember it well, when GIGI won best score over SEESAW. I thought it was too bad that Miss Fields' last score didn't receive a Tony. Don't know if the 50% rule applied then, buy I'm sure that "Gigi" and the songs from the film were uppermost in voters' minds. | |
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| The GIGI Score | |
| Last Edit: BroadwayTonyJ 02:44 pm EDT 04/10/23 | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 02:42 pm EDT 04/10/23 | |
| In reply to: re: NY NY Score/ Dorothy Fields for SEESAW - bmc 11:42 am EDT 04/10/23 | |
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| To my knowledge, there were no stated rules or guidelines for the eligibility of a best score nomination in 1974. There was speculation by some theatre columnists that the Gigi score was eligible simply because the songs had never been sung in a stage show before so they were "new" to Broadway. Similarly, the score for The Who's Tommy was nominated and co-won the Best Score Tony in 1993 despite having been performed on various English and American stages for decades and in a film released in 1975. The score for the 1974 Gigi did feature around 6 new songs including "The Contract", which is a stunning musical number that is made up of several different parts. Also, I believe a couple of the songs from the film had some new verses written specifically for the stage version. |
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| re: The GIGI Score | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 06:32 pm EDT 04/10/23 | |
| In reply to: The GIGI Score - BroadwayTonyJ 02:42 pm EDT 04/10/23 | |
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| I just went searching for info about the rules in 1974, and I couldn't find any discussion of the Gigi issue in either the Times or Variety. Which surprised me. One thing I found, which I had forgotten, was that no one showed up to accept the Tony for Gigi, suggesting either that neither Lerner nor Loewe thought it would win under the circumstances or that they themselves were embarrassed that it was even nominated. It was a new situation, and I think you are right that no rules were in place. Also perhaps of interest is that it was initially announced that both Candide and Lorelei would be eligible for best musical. There were protests from various sources, and the decision was reversed. Btw, part of "The Contract" uses the music for "A Tojours," which is heard as underscoring in the film. If memory serves, the song was cut from the film, which makes sense since it was on that Evening With Lerner and Loewe two-LP set with Jane Powell, Jan Peerce, Robert Merrill and Phil Harris, released in 1959. |
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| re: The GIGI Score | |
| Posted by: Erik_Haagensen 11:16 am EDT 04/11/23 | |
| In reply to: re: The GIGI Score - AlanScott 06:32 pm EDT 04/10/23 | |
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| I do not believe that"A Toujours" was written as a song intended to be included in GIGI, Alan. I think Loewe wrote the waltz as underscoring for the ice skating sequence, and Lerner then wrote a generic pop lyric to it in the hopes of having a song hit. I have never seen "A Toujours" included in any Lerner script for GIGI, film or stage, and there is no prerecord of the song for the film, while other cut prerecorded vocal music does exist (deleted sections of "The Parisians" and one of the iterations of "Gossip" at Maxim's). In addition to using the melody of "A Toujours" in "The Contract," Lerner and Loewe also repurposed musical sections of "Katharine Receives Advice" in THE DAY BEFORE SPRING for it. |
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| re: The GIGI Score | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 05:15 pm EDT 04/11/23 | |
| In reply to: re: The GIGI Score - Erik_Haagensen 11:16 am EDT 04/11/23 | |
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| Thanks for the additional info, Erik! I thought there was another part of "The Contract" that went back to The Day Before Spring, but I couldn't remember specifics. And, as you know but this may be of interest to others, parts of the Gigi title song also go back to The Day Before Spring, specifically the "She's a child!" music is from a song titled "Where's My Wife?" |
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| re: The GIGI Score | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 03:46 pm EDT 04/11/23 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 03:41 pm EDT 04/11/23 | |
| In reply to: re: The GIGI Score - Erik_Haagensen 11:16 am EDT 04/11/23 | |
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| Erik: Alan says you pointed out that the 2015 ''Gigi'' revival features quite a number of rewritten lyrics that went uncredited. I guess I assumed that Heidi Thomas, who's credited with the ''adaptation,'' might've rewritten them. But if not her, who did it? And I wonder if that person didn't want the credit or if Lerner & Loewe's estates would've stipulated that no credit would be given. As for the 1974 Tonys, I looked them up on YouTube. Elliott Gould presented the category of Best Score. After reading the names of the nominees, he opened the envelope and announced: ''The winner is ... you got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative ... 'Gigi,' Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner.'' As the orchestra plays ''I Could've Danced All Night'' (NOT from ''Gigi''), the camera pans the audience for Lerner and/or Loewe, but they are no-shows. Gould looks baffled and then walks offstage, without even saying the perfunctory, ''Apparently, they couldn't be here tonight, so I'll accept it in their honor.'' (Also puzzling: Why is Gould quoting a Johnny Mercer lyric before announcing Lerner & Loewe?) Is there any record as to Lerner & Loewe's thoughts about the stage version of ''Gigi''? Did he discuss it in his ''The Street Where I Live'' memoir? |
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| Link | EntertainmentWeekly.com: Heidi Thomas Talks Vanessa Hudgens and Reworking 'Gigi' (2014) |
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| re: The GIGI Score | |
| Posted by: Erik_Haagensen 06:03 pm EDT 04/11/23 | |
| In reply to: re: The GIGI Score - WaymanWong 03:41 pm EDT 04/11/23 | |
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| Wayman, as to the consistently awful lyric rewrites in the 2015 GIGI, I reached out to the press rep, Jim Byk, to ask who did them, as I was planning to write about the cast recording in my column for BwayTunes. The official reply was as follows: "The lyrics are by Alan Jay Lerner culled from several sources, including his materials for the movie, and his 1973 and 1985 stage revisions. Some pronoun adjustments have been made for the current production and in the case of 'Say a Prayer,' an added verse has been written by Heidi Thomas." This was obviously the company line (Jim Byk is a lovely and trustworthy guy), so I assume the Lerner estate did not want billing for an additional lyricist. It did the same thing on that terrible CLEAR DAY revision. I have numerous scripts for the film of GIGI and the two stage versions, as well as other sources for checking. The fact of the matter is that only four songs in GIGI 2015 -- "The Parisians," "A Toujours," "She Is Not Thinking of Me," and "I Remember It Well" -- had lyrics completely by Lerner. Every other song in the score contained lyric rewrites. One of the biggest rewrites was "I Never Want to Go Home Again," probably because it was assumed that no one knew it, as it had never been recorded. I wrote a whole article just on this subject that my BwayTunes editor, Andy Propst, had said he would publish on his American Theatre Web site. However, it took a fair amount of time to fact-check all my assertions as to the changes, which the article spelled out in detail. By the time it was ready, the recording had been out for a while and the article was no longer timely, and Andy never published it. (It was much too long for BwayTunes, nor did it fit the purpose of the site.) However, if you match the lyrics for GIGI 2015 to what was published in THE COMPLETE LYRICS OF ALAN JAY LERNER, you can see what the changes were. Dominic McHugh and Amy Asch quite rightly did not include any of those rewrites, as they were weren't by Lerner. And they didn't rely on just my research; they did their own as well. It infuriates me to this day that people who listen to the cast album of the 2015 revisal think that those lyrics are all by Lerner. I assume that Heidi Thomas made the lyric changes, as she was credited with the added verse for "Say a Prayer." However, I have no way of knowing for sure. |
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| re: The GIGI Score | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 08:01 pm EDT 04/10/23 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 07:48 pm EDT 04/10/23 | |
| In reply to: re: The GIGI Score - AlanScott 06:32 pm EDT 04/10/23 | |
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| Trivia: Lerner and Loewe wrote ''Brigadoon,'' ''My Fair Lady'' and ''Camelot,'' but ''Gigi'' represented their one and only Tony win for Best Score. That's because the Tonys didn't start giving out a Best Score award regularly until 1962. (''Camelot'' was in 1961, and not even up for Best Musical!) However, ''My Fair Lady'' won Best Musical in 1957, and that prize went to Lerner and Loewe and producer Herman Levin. Getting back to ''The Contract'' in ''Gigi,'' I love that witty, nearly 9-minute number, and Agnes Moorehead's talk-singing is so delightful. What a shame the 2015 ''Gigi'' revival, starring Vanessa Hudgens, cut down ''The Contract'' by a third and rewrote some of its lyrics. Boo! |
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| Link | Agnes Moorehead in 'The Contract' from 'Gigi' (1973) |
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| re: The GIGI Score | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 07:53 pm EDT 04/10/23 | |
| In reply to: re: The GIGI Score - WaymanWong 07:48 pm EDT 04/10/23 | |
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| There was a good deal of lyric rewriting, uncredited, in that 2015 Gigi, as Erik Haagensen made me aware. All of it for the worse. | |
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