STATE FAIR revival?

I am a big fan of this show, while definitely nowhere near the perfection of South Pacific, Carousel, King & I, or Oklahoma!, I think it could do well in a limited engagement non-profit setting like LCT or Roundabout. The show was very well received on tour, and I'd like to think if it hadn't opened in such a stuff competition period on Broadway, may have cared better, but it was up against RENT, The Cabaret revival, & the Lion King... I'd be especially interested to see a Bartlett Sher revival... It might as well be spring is a perfect romantic ballad...

^Exactly! One of the only shows I have ever seen on Broadway that came off like a really good community theatre production. Andrea McArdle was out the night I saw it and her understudy couldn't sing for squat.

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Yeah, the last go-round simply didn't work and I seriously doubt that LCT would go to the bother and expense. On the other hand, how about LCT consider doing Show Boat? It's been almost 20 years since Broadway last saw it so there's a whole generation that hasn't had the opportunity to experience the stage show.

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"The Lion King was later. "

As was the Cabaret revival (same season as LK). New musicals in that season were- Victor/Victoria, Bring in Da Noise...., RENT, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Swinging on a Star and BIG


And ICAM with your assessment of the 1996 production.

I think the biggest problem with the Broadway production was the casting. John Davidson was just miscast as the gruff father, Donna McKecknie, Andrea McArdle and Kathryn Crosby were all too old for their roles. Scott Wise and Ben Wright were terrific. I saw a production a few years later with a great cast and the audience adored the show.

"John Davidson was just miscast as the gruff father, Donna McKecknie, Andrea McArdle and Kathryn Crosby were all too old for their roles."

And John Davidson was the best thing about the musical, that's how bad it was.

People who came to see John Davidson would have remembered him as a sexy star from the 1970s. It's uncomfortable to see your dream man playing an old farmer.

Donna McKecknie was a great dancer, but her role is supposed to be played by a sexy woman and Donna was too old to be believed as someone who draws all the men to her.

Andrea McArdle - oh brother! First, you don't hire a belter to sing "It Might As Well Be Spring". It's like Ethel Merman singing Ave Maria. Second, McArdle's character was the cute little sister. McArdle was never cute and it was a stretch to believe her as anyone's sister. Maybe a spinster aunt, but way too old for the ingenue.

Poor Kathryn Crosby got the worst of it. Jokes were made by the dozens about how ugly she was and her performance was dismissed as not worthy of Broadway.

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It's the world's most boring show. For two straight hours, nothing happens.

Better to revive "A Grand Night For Singing" if you want to hear a bunch of R&H trunk songs.

Jon, there was never a live hog in the show, even in Des Moines. From the outset it was written so as never to see Blue Boy. Tom Briggs, who wrote the stage adaptation, did an NPR interview where he said he never felt they could show the audience a hog as majestic as Blue Boy was made out to be and that it was better left to their own imaginations. And having worked myself with a pig in a production of Li'l Abner, I think it was a wise decision. Those animals are not good collaborators.

Ye gods, Dollypop, that picture of him is horrible. He looks like Eileen Atkins.

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He could play the Chief in Cuckoo's Nest!

You know he's now touring in WICKED, don't you?

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"It's a Grand Night For Singing" was exceptionally well staged in the Broadway production.

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