pretty awesome "Tale of Two Cities" CD review from over on that other theater board
Apr 24
2010, 12:06:41 PM
Glad to see the score and performances finally getting a little shout out. Well deserved and long overdue IMHO!
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/sound/april2210.html
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Musicals for high school production (large cast)
Jan 12
2010, 05:19:13 PM
i'd recommend "A Tale of Two Cities" in a heartbeat. My daughter was in the first ever H.S. production of it last summer in Cherry Hill New Jersey. The show was great. The kids absolutely loved doing it and depending on where you're located, the writer actually came to two of the double cast performances and met all the students. It was fantastic - the kids were over the moon!
I know they've got an album of the music coming out soon but for now you can only get it through PBS websites as they just did a tv concert special of it. The other thing is that our school actually rented the Broadway costumes to use in the show and the producers are willing to do that for other productions.
Sam French website says it's not published yet but i know for a fact they are currently licensing productions all over the place so just inquire.
http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/index.php
Good Luck!
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re: Tale of Two Cities PBS Tonight
Dec 2
2009, 12:37:09 PM
re: "The Michael York bits are also very confusing, especially when he keeps reading his text from cards behind the camera."
That's Mr. York reading off a teleprompter which is how narration is always filmed for television (it's also how the President of the US and everyone else says anything to a camera that they haven't memorized.  pretty standard and i thought it was executed in the Tale show about as well as it's ever done. have to agree with you about the general editing though - could have been much better - looks like everything that was happening on the stage with the performers and the musicians was stellar but the tv people shooting and editing the thing - not so hot. - but still better to have some record of this show rather than nothing at all.
As for the 4 acts - public television pledge shows demand a certain format, 4 20 minute-ish sections with pledging breaks in between. So the Tale people had to cut down the show a bit and make it fit into that format - with hopefully big musical moments ending every break. That being said, i also think they did about as good a job working within the confines of that framework as they possibly could.
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re: A Tale of Two Cities???
May 15
2009, 07:12:47 PM
huh?
"If you fire than hire a new Director with some vision,
you have to listen to him.
Barbour and that mean lady should have been replaced with Actors, not posers. "
what director (with vision) was fired/hired and not listened to? are you suggesting that any director involved with the project wanted to replace Jim Barbour and "that mean lady" and wasn't permitted to? And praytell, who would you have replaced Jim Barbour with? what kind of crack are you smoking?
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re: Outer Critics Circle Awards?
Apr 21
2009, 12:28:21 AM
Just noticed that there is no award for Best Book of a Musical? what's up with that? does the bookwriter just get ignored - or is the bookwriter acknowledged as part of the Outstanding Musical category? I figured that would be the producers. Very confused! Anybody know?
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RE: If _____ had played the _____ theatre it would have lasted longer
Mar 11
2009, 11:49:17 PM
i was responding to Song and Dance saying Legally Blonde was playing to more people than other shows even though they weren't grossing enough to run - because he then somehow sought to contrast A Tale of Two Cities saying it wouldn't have run no matter what. And I'm saying it could have run with a smaller cast, orchestra and production costs. I was pointing out that it was actually similar to Legally Blonde in that regard. That's alls I'm saying.
Tale didn't get a big bump in their s
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RE: If _____ had played the _____ theatre it would have lasted longer
Mar 11
2009, 10:13:17 PM
actually Song and Dance Man,
Tale of Two Cities, despite the bad reviews and no advance, was still selling more tickets and making more money on a weekly basis than several other shows that are/were considered successful. And most weeks they sold more tickets than a Best Musical winner or two (or three) and a Pulitzer Prize winning Best Play. The bottom line for Tale was just that - the bottom line. The costs to run the show each week were too high. Unfortunately the reviews and other
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re: Book, Music, and Lyrics by One Person?
Mar 5
2009, 01:40:05 PM
No one ever remembers to mention George M. Cohan - perhaps because his inclusion (being arguably the single most successful and popular musical theater writer in Broadway history) completely annihilates the mistaken notion that "book, music and lyrics by" has any significantly higher failure rate than a collaborative show. I haven't done the math (since it would be an enormous history project) but I would bet - just from the knowledge that we know it's rarely done and we seem to be aware of mos
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re: IMPRESSIONISM first preview reviews?
Mar 1
2009, 01:00:37 PM
Sweden, don't be so sad for Aaron Lazar - he still has been cast in another role on Broadway despite what you might think of the previous one. And honestly, do you really need to blame "A Tale of Two Cities" for an actor's career choice or what you consider the terrible work of another playwrite? Brandi Burkhardt seems to be doing okay after "Tale", replacing a lead role in a sell-out musical. What's your explanation for that? Did you even like Aaron Lazar's work in "A Tale of Two Cities"?
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re: 'Tale' Closing 16 November
Nov 9
2008, 01:50:46 AM
just the facts maam. you can call it whatever you want but at least I know what I'm talking about.
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re: 'Tale' Closing 16 November
Nov 8
2008, 12:07:03 PM
You're wrong Mama. The producers made a painful but necessary decision to stop the bleeding in an economic situation that's only getting worse. If they'd listened to the people, that is the vast majority of the audiences who have seen the show and loved it, they would have used the money their investors offered them (more people who continue to love the show) and kept running the show, even at a loss, to continue building word, which was great. They were on the verge of resuming their advertis
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re: 'Tale' Closing 16 November
Nov 7
2008, 02:34:11 PM
Just got the official word - it's closing this Sunday November 9th. Those of you with tickets for next week should try to switch them if you can.
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re: 'Tale' Closing 16 November
Nov 7
2008, 01:46:48 AM
no decision has been made yet, wicked beast. i don't know where you're getting your information from. They will probably know tomorrow afternoon.
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re: What should I see?
Oct 6
2008, 12:35:27 AM
"A Tale of Two Cities". Great show and you shouldn't have any trouble getting tix on a discount. Try to sit front mezz if you can.
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re: Tale of Two Cities gets box office bump
Oct 3
2008, 08:41:37 AM
i've got to assume you saw it first in early preview and something major changed between the first and second times you saw it then? can you recall what it might have been that would have been so different it might have made you react so differently? I've noticed the sound is very different depending on where you're sitting for instance - which is a shame. The front mezz has the best sound in the house.
oh and if you were dozing off the second time, why go back for a third?
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re: Tale of Two Cities gets box office bump
Oct 2
2008, 05:50:09 PM
Yes, Rich did give the Broadway production of "Les Miz" a good review - but that was after the initial London critics mostly mocked and panned it. By the time "Les Miz" got to our shores it was a juggernaut, impossible to be stopped, and as often happens, the critics had already begun reversing themselves. It's interesting to note that the first positive critical response to "Les Miz" twenty years ago was mainly focused on the staging and the production and the cast. The score (and the book of
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re: Another TALE OF TWO CITIES review SPOILER within
Sep 3
2008, 01:49:36 AM
Holly, I really think you'll change your mind about these songs lacking melody once you've heard them a few times. There are a LOT of songs in ATOTC and many of the melodies are not repeated or not repeated with enough frequency to embed them in a normal theatergoer's brain after one listening. The myth of being able to hum songs you've never heard before is mostly that - a myth. Unless a composer chooses to repeat a theme ad nauseum during the course of an evening and/or the theatergoer has
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re: Another TALE OF TWO CITIES review SPOILER within
Sep 1
2008, 05:45:15 PM
SPOILER!!!!
you're right Eris. But the most important reason why the switch is believable is this: who would ever suspect that someone would switch places with a man condemned to die? It's actually more realistic in this version than in Dickens because in Dickens, since they are identical, how does the Seamstress alone know that he is not the same man? Charlie sort of dropped the ball on that one.
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re: A Tale of Two Cities First Preview
Aug 20
2008, 05:46:52 AM
please don't take this in the wrong way, Whizzer, because i'm just curious, but have you ever read the novel "A Tale of Two Cities"? i only ask because you comment on the rich characters that the musical might have drawn from and i've both read the book recently and seen the show down in Florida and actually found the musical fleshed out the characters far more than the book ever did. Also, if you have trouble with characters falling in love in two seconds (or even two minutes) i don't suppo
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Tale of Two Cities
Jul 6
2008, 01:27:06 AM
Nobody rescued a show that was stagnating. The producers quietly raised all of the money to come to B'way and were fully capitalized before the show even opened at the Asolo. And you can Google "Michael Reidel Asolo" if you're interested in a few of the reports that surfaced from the production down there. He's pretty accurate in a gossipy way. As someone who knows all the parties involved, please trust me, all things have worked out for the best - and in the best interest of the show.
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