Lolita, My Love

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 1:32pm

I was hoping someone might have some info on this musical. I can't seem to find who was in it, why it flopped, composers, etc. Do you all know anything?

[yipper]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 1:36pm

Years ago I was in a Tower Records in Manhattan. They had copies of a live cast recording in album form for something like $5.00. I am STILL kicking myself for not buying it.

Alan Jay Lerner wrote it. Brings new meaning to "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" doesn't it.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 1:49pm

Ew, funny, but creepy, yipper. I can't believe you didn't buy it. What were you thinking?

[yipper]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 2:41pm

I vaguely remember thinking that I would come back later when I had time and pick it up. Never did. The pain!

I remember the cover was white with "Lolita, My love" is that screwly "That '70's Show" kind of font. With Lolita, looking seductive on the cover... now that was CREEPY.

I think Dorothy Loudon played her mother. I only imagine how perfect she must have been. At the end of the First Act she run over by a car. I have a vision of the audience reaction similar to that of the audience in the Film "The Producers" after watching "Springtime for Hitler."

I spoke to a guy about six month ago in a record store here in Los Angeles who had a copy. Wonder if I should track him down...

Updated On: 8/26/05 at 02:41 PM

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 3:29pm

That scene in the movie is classic! Thank you for reminding me of it and cheering me up.

I think the idea of the musical is actually very interesting. Lolita is my favorite book, but I suppose I don't really see how it could have been a prudent idea.

[twogaab2]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 5:14pm

Hi, I have a copy of the musical. The score has many fine moments, the story line was just too much of a squrm factor for its' audience (as does pretty much any dramatization of this story)

If you can get your hands on a copy, do so. The music is worth it.

[yipper]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 6:31pm

Adapting Lolita into a stage musical is sooo intriguing. You just know that if you can make it work, it will be classic. Add Alan Jay Lerner in the mix and you can't help but get excited. Now I want a copy... Anyone, know where I can get it?

[roquat]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 6:36pm

A friend of mine actually worked as a rehearsal pianist on this show. Apparently the audience loved Loudon so much they couldn't bear it when she was killed at the end of the first act and they were left with John Neville (Baron Munchausen in the nineties movie and a prime Shakespearean actor) having an affair with Denise Nickerson (Violet Beauregard in the first "Willy Wonka" movie). Eww. The score and the adaptation were wonderful, it was just an idea that couldn't work. I believe Davis Gaines sings a song from it on one of those Carnegie Hall benefit recordings, but I don't know if you can get the actual recording any more.

[MisterRussell]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 6:37pm

Shoot before i moved I tried to GIVE it away on the traders site here. No takers at all.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 6:59pm

Maybe Footlight might have it

I have a tape I made of the album. It deserves to be on CD

Updated On: 8/26/05 at 06:59 PM

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 8:10pm

LOLITA, MY LOVE has a number of interesting songs (two of which can be heard on Brent Barrett's Alan Jay Lerner's album) but, ultimately, the musical simply doesn't work. Though LOLITA has had two stage incarnations (one by Edward Albee) and two screen adaptations, the novel, with its unreliable narrator and razor-sharp tragic-comic tone seems an unlikely candidate for successful dramatization. Its doubtful that ANY adaptation could capture the full scope of the novel's brilliant literary ambivalence.

Vivian Darkbloom
Ramsdale, New England

[yipper]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 8:41pm

I agree with you Enchanted, but with masters like Albee and Alan Jay Lerner, the attempt must be respected. It was the same risk taking combined with talent that turned Pygmalion into My Fair Lady.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 8/26/05 at 8:53pm

It was put out on LP by Blue Pear records. Recently on eBay, the Blue Pear catalog has been appearing on CD through a guy who does mail orders from Las Vegas. He's already released "A Joyful Noise", "Hot September", "Zenda", "The Body Beautiful" and "Hot Spot". I wouldn't be surprised if "Lolita, My Love" is forthcoming since it comes from the same source. I e-mailed him and asked if the sound quality would be an improvement over the LP'S which had terrible sonics. He answered saying that they tried remastering one of them but it didn't seem to help at all. He also stated, "You gotta remember, most these recordings were made by someone using a cheap cassette recorder using even cheaper tape". That answered that question so although they're fun to have and are mostly the only audio recordings available, the sound quality often makes them unlistenable..

[yipper]

Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:24pm

Thanks Demitri - I'm becoming very fond of you!
I know this guy. I'll e-mail him too. I've been meaning to order "Something More" from him.. I won't make the same mistake I made with Lolita, my love!

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:40pm

LOLITA MY LOVE is brilliant. The score is extraordinary. It of course is highly questionable source material for a musical, but it adaptation, its' superb

[Born2cthelightsofbway]

Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:54pm

I never knew that at one point, Lolita was turned into a musical, I always thought it would be a great musical, but oh well, I guess I was wrong. Was this on broadway?

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:57pm

"...but it adaptation, its' superb."

Not hardly.

Vivian Darkbloom
Ramsdale, New England

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:57pm

It closed pre Broadway in 1971. It was supposed to play the Mark Hellinger Theatre. The subject matter, as Nabokov, himself says, is difficult to capture in any medium, because what is erotic on page simply becomes unpleasant on stage. The story is after all about the relationship (sexual) between a 40 year old man and a 13 year old girl.


And HUNTER, you are of course entitled to your opinion, but have you read the script for the musical and heard the complete archival recordings not just what was issued on BluePear? I can consider the piece as a whole terrific. Updated On: 8/27/05 at 10:57 PM

[Born2cthelightsofbway]

Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:59pm

ewwwwww. the idea is creepy, but still, i think it could be a good musical.

[Flahooley]

Posted: 5/11/06 at 10:11pm

I just heard the complete recording of it. Wow! it is really good. Very creepy, but really well done. I can only guess it was the subject matter that turned this show into a flop. Some "hit" show should be as well crafted as LOLITA, MY LOVE.

[JackiesBroJoe]

Posted: 5/11/06 at 10:42pm

Is everyone talking about the soundboard recording? That's the only I've heard.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 5/12/06 at 9:35am

Makes perfect sense that this would be the follow-up musical from the man who wrote "Thank Heaven for Little Girls."

[MCfan2]

Posted: 5/12/06 at 11:41am

Yeah, I'm afraid so. Lerner's my favorite lyricist, but he did seem to have some weird obsession along those lines! (Professionally, I mean, not personally.) I think Mark Steyn touches on this somewhere.

I had to read "Lolita" as an undergraduate, and while it's very well written, I squirmed all the way through it. I can see why audiences wouldn't take to a musical version.
Updated On: 5/12/06 at 11:41 AM

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 5/27/06 at 1:02am

I have a photocopy of the final script. He did a job of adapting "Lolita" that is equal to the job he did on "Pygmalion". He did more than adapt it. He "channeled" Nabokov the way he did Shaw. Lines of dialogue that you would swear came from the original are actually his original creations! He never wrote so "adultly" (no pun intended) or with such guts before or ever again.

It's a pity that the show never came in as his libretto, John Neville and Dorothy Loudon would have won Tonys for their work. (It would have gone up against "Follies", so his and John Barry's fabulous score wouldn't have won, anyway.)

Much as I enjoy the recording of "Prettybelle" (another casualty of that season), I wish that someone would have gathered the cast together (at least Dorothy, John and Leonard Frey) and recorded this score.

It deserves a concert staging, at least!!!

[WalkOn]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 6:52pm

Does anyone think this well every get performed again? Say in concert version. It is so good.

Updated On: 10/12/06 at 06:52 PM