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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 11:15 pm EDT 06/04/23 | |
| In reply to: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - aleck 10:48 pm EDT 06/04/23 | |
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| I would certainly love to have seen all of those, but with the Lunts most of all in The Visit. I've read so much about their performances in that. Also, the original productions of Death of a Salesman (although I feel like the Nichols revival got a good deal of what I imagine its impact must have been originally, at least partly by using the Mielziner set) and Streetcar and the first Circle in the Square Iceman Cometh. I've never really loved Streetcar, and I have wondered if the original had things that have been missing from all the productions I've seen. One of those things would perhaps have been the Mielziner set. And, of course, the original productions of Carousel, The King and I and Gypsy. And the Jed Harris production of Uncle Vanya, and in England Jonathan Miller's production of Three Sisters. And this isn't even considering some of the famous Shakespeare productions of the past. And then there is Olivier in Oedipus Rex and The Critic. |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: lordofspeech 08:30 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - AlanScott 11:15 pm EDT 06/04/23 | |
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| I feel certain that there’s a television caprure of the Lee J Cobb, Mildred Dunnock Death of a Salesman. Do search for it. | |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:41 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - lordofspeech 08:30 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| Thanks for the recommendation. There is one, and I have seen it. I've also heard the recording of Thomas Mitchell, the national tour and Broadway replacement Willy Loman, with the original Broadway cast. Both are great, but the recording is abridged to 90 minutes, and the television production, which is also abridged, doesn't have Kazan, Mielziner or the original supporting cast. That Mielziner set was so amazing in the way it served the play so I think it must have been very special to see that original cast on that set (and with the projections of leaves), directed by Kazan. | |
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| You made an excellent choice... | |
| Posted by: Michaels 02:27 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - AlanScott 11:15 pm EDT 06/04/23 | |
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| As someone who saw The Visit with the Lunts (twice), it would be the right choice. The photos of the production are chilling and give you an idea of this mesmerizing production. | |
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| re: You made an excellent choice... | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:12 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: You made an excellent choice... - Michaels 02:27 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| How I envy you. You know, the Lunts wanted to do it on television, on Hallmark Hall of Fame, but Hallmark wouldn't sponsor it. I wish they had done it on Play of the Week instead. Decades later, in 1998, it was reported that Hallmark might do a television version starring Elizabeth Taylor. |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 11:29 am EDT 06/05/23 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 11:23 am EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - AlanScott 11:15 pm EDT 06/04/23 | |
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| Over the years I've confessed that the performance I'd most like to have seen was the original Skin of Our Teeth. I've always imagined that Bankhead -- so temperamentally and self-presentationally at odds with anyone's idea of a domestic employee -- sashaying out with a feather duster had to be one of the great launches for a comic play in Broadway history. Everyhing that followed must've been built on relishing the incongruity. I've never seen another Sabina that captured that element of genuine surprise, and I've seen some almost-successful ones (not a devoted fan of the Vivien Leigh's, which at least had the oddity of the casting working in her favor). Yes, I'm sure her Regina was for the ages. But we can likely imagine that performance. The synergy of Tallulah and Wilder's unlikely and unreliable narrator had to be a kind of artistic one-off. | |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: portenopete 11:09 am EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - AlanScott 11:15 pm EDT 06/04/23 | |
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| I laughed reading this as production after production occurred to you. I'm the same way. The list feels like it might be endless. I'd like to have seen Coward, Lawrence, Olivier and Jill Esmond in the first Private Lives. And Henry Irving in anything to see what the effect would be and whether or not there was something a 21st-century viewer could grab on to in terms of character and emotional life. And the opening of Playboy of the Western World at the Abbey and the Macready/Booth Scottish Plays inn the mid-19th century to experience the riots. With all of these- and hundreds more- is the idea of having no expectations going in is just so thrilling: "This one's got Noel Coward: do we know him?" I'm grateful to have seen things like Avenue Q and Spring Awakening and The Book of Mormon with very little hint as to what they were like, Or, as a kid, seeing Noises Off on Broadway and laughing my ass off, something I'd never known a play could bring about. I'm always interested in takeovers: Thomas Mitchell or Gene Lockhart in Salesman, Quinn or Palance as Brick in Cat (and Thomas Gomez as Big Daddy), Alfred Drake in King and I. I gotta stop...LOL. |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 05:45 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - portenopete 11:09 am EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| To my knowledge, neither Quinn nor Palance ever played Brick. They played Stanley, although was Palance perhaps only an understudy? Richard Kiley was also a Stanley understudy, perhaps a temporary replacement either on Broadway or a tour, and then he did play the role on the subway circuit. | |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 12:53 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - portenopete 11:09 am EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| First on my list is FOLLIES, and oh, how I envy you people here who saw it (or even saw it multiple times)! Next would be PORGY AND BESS. I managed to “see” a lot of the Golden Age classics, albeit through the eyes of my time traveler protagonist, and that was definitely one of the joys of writing the novel. It was even more fun (but considerably more work) to invent and cast shows that didn’t exist in our timeline. Laura in LA |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 11:09 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 10:55 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - showtunetrivia 12:53 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| REDHEAD with Gwen Verdon -- considered her biggest dance show in terms of how much dancing she did in the show, what with Fosse doing choreography and his first Broadway directing gig, he apparently went all out - I enjoy the OCR, but it's very tough to cast the lead role as originally conceived CAN-CAN - opening night with Verdon literally stopping the show, becoming a star, and having to be recalled from her dressing room to take a bow so the show could proceed MY FAIR LADY - Andrews and Harrison GYPSY with Merman - especially on a night with a celebrity friend in the house (when she was known to give even better performances) MAME (original cast with Lansbury, though I did see the revival) - some clips of the original show Lansbury really dancing a lot, literally working her ass off for long-awaited stardom FANNY - Pinza, Walter Slezak, William Tabbert and Florence Henderson - the long excerpt on "Ed Sullivan" looks wonderful ONE TOUCH OF VENUS - to see Mary Martin in this as well as SOUTH PACIFIC LADY IN THE DARK - to see Danny Kaye stop the show with "Tchaikowsky" then watch Gertrude Lawrence's competitive instinct kick in and top it with "The Saga of Jenny" BAREFOOT IN THE PARK -- Robert Redford, Elizabeth Ashley and Mildred Natwick - not too many folks here have mentioned comedies among the shows, which really does show how underestimated when someone is up for an award in a comedy vs. a drama. BORN YESTERDAY - seeing Judy Holliday in this and in BELLS ARE RINGING, even though she repeated them in the film versions. THE MUSIC MAN - Robert Preston and Barbara Cook -- and back then, plenty of people must have been utterly surprised how wonderful Preston was in musical comedy after being known mostly as a dramatic character actor in movies FUNNY GIRL - with Streisand, early in the run, when she wasn't bored or tired of the repetition KISMET - to see Alfred Drake in what Sondheim considered one of the greatest performances he ever saw, along with a great cast including Richard Kiley, Doretta Morrow and Joan Diener |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 08:59 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 08:56 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - showtunetrivia 12:53 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| I saw Follies twice, when I was 19, 20, about five months apart, August 1971 and January 1972. People ask: "Did you know it was special?" I must say, it's one of the few times I knew. I was in college, and had one desire that fall: to return to NYC and see it again over holiday break. And so I did. I saw the full original cast both times, other than Virginia Sandifer, who if memory serves had left to play Eve in Applause with Bacall on the road/LA. Young Phyllis was then Alexandra Borrie. And both performances were matinees, a steamy August Saturday, the NYC heat reaching the upper 90s, and then a Wednesday in early January, frigid (I saw Dorothy Collins hurrying into the Winter Garden, bundled up in a camel coat, and met Fifi exiting, after the matinee. She was in full make-up, and lovely to me.) What's powerful about that original production: every one since has the ability to remind us -- at odd moments -- of the first. | |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: schauspieler 01:16 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - showtunetrivia 12:53 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| I agree about FOLLIES. My number one would be FUNNY GIRL with Streisand in its first weeks. Others: VIRGINIA WOOLF, STREETCAR, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY with Hepburn and THE VOICE OF THE TURTLE with Margaret Sullavan. | |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: comedywest 12:58 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - showtunetrivia 12:53 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| I'd add the original (Sondheim) Merrily, the first preview and the last performance (and a few in between). | |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: bmc 02:08 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - comedywest 12:58 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| I DID see the first preview of MERRILY!!!!!!!.others i wish i could see were the OBC SOUTH PACIFIC, Golden Apple, tryouts of HOUSE OF FLOWERS< as well as the OBC, West side Story, Gypsy, Boston tryouts of Camelot, Sound of Music ..WHOLESALE Cabaret,Mame the last sat's 2 perfs (in Boston)of FOLLIES and Promises, Promises(when the eve perf was changed from the Matinees) and OBC of ACL on Bway and ALNM OBC and SEESAW tryout and on Bwy AND on tour w. Luci Arnaz........... (I'll stop now NM |
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| Original London South Pacific production -- complete | |
| Posted by: aleck 09:41 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - bmc 02:08 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| Here's a video of the entire original London production of South Pacific -- with Mary Martin and Wilbur Evans. Even discounting the quality of the video/audio, the sets look so privative (look for those traveler scenes), the staging is stiff and, frankly, I didn't care for Mary Martin in it. The Lincoln Center production with Kelli O'Hara is how I want to remember South Pacific. But maybe there are other opinions of this complete record of the original South Pacific since I assume the London production replicated the original Broadway production. |
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| Link | Original London South Pacific -- complete |
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| re: Original London South Pacific production -- complete | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 12:35 am EDT 06/06/23 | |
| In reply to: Original London South Pacific production -- complete - aleck 09:41 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| Though it is a valuable documentation, I would not judge the experience of seeing the show live in NY by this video. Mary Martin is the only original cast member, she and the cast are performing as though there is an audience in the house (there isn’t) and not with the intimacy of the camera in mind, plus, as Logan said in his autobiography, Martin felt pressured to live up to her performance’s legendary status and had lost much of her spontaneity. I’d still love to have seen it in NY. |
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| re: Original London South Pacific production -- complete | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 01:50 am EDT 06/06/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Original London South Pacific production -- complete - TheOtherOne 12:35 am EDT 06/06/23 | |
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| The other thing to remember is that after Logan had restaged some things a bit for the national tour because he felt that the tour performers were different and sometimes adjustments in the staging worked better for those people, Rodgers and Hammerstein forbade him from working on the London production. It was staged as a replication of the Broadway production, but without the creativity that Logan might have been able to instill. Nonetheless, Muriel Smith is quite good, I think, and it's a fascinating document. Interestingly in the London video, she belts "Bali Ha'i," which is not how she does it on the film soundtrack. On the partial London cast recording, her performance is rather in between the live performance and the performance on the film soundtrack. Also, the staging of "Bali Ha'i" is totally brilliant as far as I'm concerned. |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Last Edit: TheOtherOne 06:09 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 06:01 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - bmc 02:08 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| For the most part I am too grateful for the shows I did get to see growing up in New York to be sorry for those that I missed, but there are a couple of exceptions. I wish I could have seen the original production of "Picnic." The video of the original cast's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show is so preferable to the glossy film version that it's hard to believe the same man directed both. (By the way, Ralph Meeker was a replacement Stanley in "Streetcar." I know a few posters mentioned replacement Stanleys as Brick in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," but I believe Meeker actually closed the original run of "Streetcar" and that performance probably led him to the role of Hal.) Anyway, getting back to "Picnic," the dance to "Moonglow" in the film is a much revered cinematic moment, but the same moment as depicted on the Sullivan appearance, a much less deliberate seduction in which Hal and Midge are surprised by how turned on they are by each other, is electrifying. And I wish I could have seen the original production of "South Pacific." Logan again! But SP will always be a favorite. That gorgeous score, the seamless way its dialogue spills into its songs, especially as performed by that cast...yes, I wish I could have seen it. | |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: BillEadie 08:53 am EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - AlanScott 11:15 pm EDT 06/04/23 | |
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| Anything starring Ethel Merman, but Annie Get Your Gun in particular. I would love to have seen her powering her way over the orchestra to the last row of the theater without amplification. I often wonder how actors and singers are trained to be able to do that and not sound like they’re shouting. | |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 05:50 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - BillEadie 08:53 am EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| I think you'd have to go back to the 1930s to hear Merman completely unamplified, or maybe the earliest shows in the 1940s. There was some amplification here and there — in revues and in very large theatres — during the 1930s. I mean floor mics and area mics, of course, not body mics, although body mics were being talked about as a possibility as early as the early 1940s. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the original AGYG had floor mics. in Hello, Dolly! she was not miked (miced?) on the runway as she was not wearing a mic, at least according to the press at the time, although Brian Kellow's bio of Merman said she did a wear a mic. Anyway, I saw her in it, and she sounded completely unamplified on the runway. |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 01:13 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - BillEadie 08:53 am EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| I'd pick GIRL CRAZY to see if the Merman "star is born" legend is actually anywhere close to what the actual reaction was. It would be so interesting to see an audience react to Merman as a brand new talent that few of them would have seen or have heard of prior. And the bonus would be seeing a pre-Hollywood Ginger Rogers. |
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| re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen | |
| Posted by: huskyital 12:54 pm EDT 06/05/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Productions of the past I wish I'd seen - BillEadie 08:53 am EDT 06/05/23 | |
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| I saw her in the production of Annie get your gun at Lincoln center and I remember even after I ran out of an exit to go to the bathroom I could still hear her bellowing beautifully. The original recording of gypsy with Ethel is still thrilling to listen to. | |
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