Profile for Alm

Galveston2 wrote Have you read William Goldman's book, "The Season"? There's a great chapter there on "muscle" and how the person most in charge and most responsible may be a star (if it's Mary Martin), a producer (if it's David Merrick), or a director (if it's Harold Prince), etc. All depending on box office clout, standing with the critics, or manipulative behavior. I have read it (love William), but thank you for recommending it. Galveston2 wrote: Sondheim and Bennett were applauded, of co...

Gaveston2 wrote: I think its [Oklahoma's] appeal has more to do with how we feel about American unity than with nostalgia for small towns. That's an interesting idea.

Gaveston2 wrote: Point of order, ALM: the writers of a Broadway musical OWN the material; they can't technically be fired. True, of course. Thank you. In my defense, I'll say only that it isn't unusual to hear people talking about a member of a creative team being "fired" (say, John LaTouche in Candide or, more recently, Julie Taymor in Spider-Man), even though that isn't quite what happens. And that "fired" sounds more fun than "firmly asked to resign". Gaveston2 wrote: I'm sure Pal Joey kno...

Well, I'd argue that the fault can't lie entirely with James Goldman. It was Harold Prince's show; if he really thought Goldman's book was undermining the show, he could have fired him. And if Sondheim really thought Goldman's book was undermining the show, he could have begged Prince to fire him; and there's no indication that he ever did. (On the contrary, he's gone on record standing up for the book.) (Michael Bennett, of course, did hate the book.) I'm not saying that James Goldman's book...

Skip2 wrote: Of Thee I Sing Seconded. And it hurts me to say this, but another show that hasn't aged very well is Oklahoma. It can still be entertaining, but the power it used to have - the power to make grown men tear up in the theater - is gone; partly because we're not fighting World War II anymore; partly because since the 60s we've become much more suspicious of art that celebrates established traditions in general, or small town life in particular.

Re: henrikegerman Thanks for your reply. I agree that a show that merely manages not to bore you isn't a good show. But that's not quite what I was talking about. Put it this way: I submit that Follies is a great show; that it doesn't merely avoid being boring; that it's exciting, often funny, and ultimately very powerful. And I agree that all the great moments are in the songs. But I also submit that the songs wouldn't have the same impact if they were simply arranged into a song cycle. The ...

A Director wrote: "I wonder if Ms Parks took time to read the libretto? Based on her comments about "I got plenty of nothin'," I doubt it. In the libretto, Porgy enters and begins singing. After he sings, "Got my gal, got my Lawd, go my song," it reads: Women: Porgy change since dat woman come to live with he. Serena: How he change. The Others: He ain' cross with chillen no more, an' ain' you hear how he an" Bess all de time singin' in their room? Maria: I tells you dat cripple's happy now. T...

henrikegerman: "I've always said songs, 10, book 3 for Follies... I've always found Goldman's book to be shallow and predictable, with the characters coming to full life, only in song. Of course that's not unusual in musical theater, but the disparity between what the Follies characters reveal about themselves, their relationships and conflicts between their scenes and their songs is jarring." What do you mean by "disparity", if you don't mind me asking? If you mean that the characters show ...

RainbowJude wrote: The thing is, I've been following the news about this adaptation of PORGY AND BESS since the start and the early articles I read were very clear in articulating that this is an adaptation of the show that is geared specifically towards shifting the genre from opera to musical theatre. So it has always been crystal clear to me that this is not about '"fixing" a hoary old chestnut'. Somewhere along the line, this has gotten confused with rhetoric about this adaptation being a...

[delurks] This actually might not necessarily be a bad idea. The reason Dierde Murray gives (or at least the way she articulates it) is too stupid for words; but it might not be a bad idea. The problem with staging almost any pre-1960s musical (or, in this case, opera-turned-musical) today is that, for economic reasons, it simply isn't possible to hire a big enough orchestra. Even if they really, desperately wanted to be as true as possible to original arrangements, they'd have to downsize th...