Steel Pier- Page 2

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 3/16/07 at 11:53pm

The STEEL PIER was a large entertainment pier in Atlantic City and it housed many dance marathons in it's time.

And a Diving Horse too.

[mattonstage]

Posted: 3/17/07 at 12:28am

Love most of the score, hate the book. And mayber I saw Karen Ziemba on an off night, but I thought she was the weakest in the show. I got no feeling from her whole storyline. There were also too many supporting characters. The Olympian, the young couple, the brother and sister, cut them. Personally, for me, Debra Monk and Gregory Harrison made it worth seeing. And the group choreography.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/17/07 at 1:45pm

I saw this show as part of my coverage of the 1997 Tony awards.

The cast was very good even and the show played well even though the first act had some saggy spots where they spent time in a futile attempt to flesh out the minor characters of the other marathon dancers. A larger problem is that the set up of the basic ghost story premise was clumsy.

Even with these deficiencies, it was a far stronger more cohesive book than THE LIFE and much better staged than TITANIC. Had the revival of CHICAGO not happened the same season, STEEL PIER would have probably done better at the 1997 Tony Awards. Coming away empty handed it was selling only 70% of capacity and closed at the end of June. The OCR arrived in stores in late July, too late to help the show.

Anyone who has heard the CD knows that this is another great Kander and Ebb score and one that they were both very proud of. In many ways the CD, like MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG has kept interest in the show alive and there have been a number of successful regional stagings.

It may not have been the season's best score (TITANIC was) but was far more entertaining and interesting than JEKYLL & HYDE, or THE LIFE. It got more favourable reviews (5) than TITACIC (1).
Ethan Mordden chooses it as one of the few interesting shows of the 1990's in his fascinating book The Happiest Corpse I've Ever Seen.

When you loo at some shows that are absoute garbage that have run for years, 12 weeks for STEEL PIER seems a bit unfair.

[jbdc]

Posted: 3/17/07 at 3:42pm

John Kander and Fred Ebb have said that in subsequent productions, they have recommended cutting the Prologue, where we find out that the pilot has died and is essentially a ghost/angel. Apparently, not knowing that adds a sense of hope to the plot, and the audiences cares more about the central relationships, because we don't know how it will end.
Also, even though the characters are complex and well-developed, the dialogue is terrible in places.
Kander and Ebb also have said on the record that Stroman's choreography was far and away better than Ann Reinking's, and Stroman should have won the tony.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/17/07 at 3:50pm

I especially remember the one with the dancing on the wings of the plane

Stroman should have won

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 3/17/07 at 4:36pm

people i have talked to who have seen the show all refuse to buy or listen to the CD, but the people i know who didnt see it all love the CD and cherish it - interesting, no?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/17/07 at 4:41pm

Why do most people rave about The Producers & others loathe it?

Go figure

[Jon]

Posted: 3/17/07 at 7:16pm

It's an excellent cast recording of a wonderful score. For me, the best parts of the score are the instrumental/dance breaks. "Rita's Theme" (the love theme) is just gorgeous.

The major flaws in the show - the book and direction - are not evident on the CD.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 1:36pm

I will have to get over to the Samuel French office and pick up a copy of the script. I am curious how much dialogue was written just for teh CD. I don't recall the book being that terrible. As noted, a bit clumsy at times and with some draggy spots in the first half. The Wednesday matinee crowd I saw it with really loved it.



There was no problem with the direction at all. Stroman's choeography was inventive, having to show the dancers becoming increasingly weary. Admittedly it's more fun to watch the lively energetic first dance sequence, "Everybody Dance" than the later routines where exhaustion sets in but as someone here said it made them feel like they had been through 3 weeks of non-stop dancing, which makes the show effective.

I was far more bored by the mess on stage that evening with JEKYLL & HYDE yet it ran 4 years!

[dramaqueen2]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 5:22pm

is there an available recording to this?
does anyone have it?

[purpleprince101]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 5:51pm

yeah the recording is amazing.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 6:16pm

FRC2,

Just go to the Reference Library. They have the script there.

Akiva

[jv92]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 7:13pm

The score is quite nice with the exception of the banal, stupid song Monk's character sings in Act IIto Pudgy McHappy or whatever the character's name was, something like that. The book was awful. I actually found it at the store near the St. James that has a lovely collection of scripts for sale. That night I read it and couldn't even get through it. It was complicated, boring and stupid. Susan Stroman's choreography was spectacular, the actors did a nice job, the production design was good. Just the book and that stupid song for Debra Monk in Act II. It 20 years, if Encores! is still going strong, it'd be a good choice.
JBDC- Don't put words in Kander and Ebb's mouth. Per Colored Lights, they said that Reinking's dancing was great, they were happy for Chicago, but felt Stroman should have won. They never said that her stuff was leaps and bounds ahead of Reinking's. I mean, can you top Fosse when it's done well?

[Jon]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 7:21pm

Monk's Act 2 song was "Somebody Older". I skip it every time I listen to the CD. The guy she sings it to is "Happy" - after he discovers that his girl "Precious" is cheating on him.

Happy and Precious? Where are Dopey and Grumpy?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 7:23pm

I love listening to that song. She performs it so beautifully.

Posted: 3/18/07 at 7:50pm

I initially resisted this CD because of the title and artwork, lame I know. Eventually, because of Karen Ziemba's version of Coloured Lights on - And the World goes Round, I had to have it. I love the CD, and find it very moving at times. I would have loved to see a production of this show.

I love Kander and Ebb's work, and even though this isn't one of their more commercial pieces, it's still a good score...

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 7:52pm

I may be in the minority but I enjoyed the show

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 7:55pm

Incognito -- sorry to tell you, but it's Karen Mason who sings Colored Lights . . . Ziemba sang It's a Quiet Thing and Arthur in the Afternoon . . . nevertheless, it's good you got the CD anyway.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 7:58pm

Colored Lights is from THE RINK. STEEL PIER wasn't written yet when AND THE WORLD GOES 'ROUND was staged.

Posted: 3/18/07 at 8:06pm

Well, thanks for that, trust me to get that wrong. I'm off to find out a little more about Karen Mason.

I only really started to get into Kander & Ebb in a big way in the last eighteen months, so the chronological order wasn't really applying to my haphazard buying - Xmas, Mothers Day, Birthdays.,

Faux paux, my middle name

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 8:10pm

Don't feel bad!!! At least you found Kander and Ebb.

Karen Mason has an AMAZING voice. She understudied Norma (several of them) in Sunset Boulevard (and I hear the nights she went on, the few people who remained in the audience LOVED her.

KAREN MASON


As Norma

Updated On: 3/18/07 at 08:10 PM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 8:12pm

Just hope we get to see the Unproduced K/E in the near future

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/18/07 at 9:31pm

I saw Mason in SUNSET (on purpose) - she sang the score magnificently - I preferred her musical interpretation/voice to Buckley's, and wish it had somehow been recorded. However, she has a very youthful exuberance that couldn't be reigned in, and so acting-wise, was very wrong.

[Nath]

Posted: 3/19/07 at 12:17am

I think essentially what si wrong with the show is what the show is about!
Esentially a dance marathon starts very exciting, then spiral down and down, becoming more stagnant and depressing, which is teh opposite of generally what a musical does, which tend to spiral upward to a climax. Has anyone seen the film 'they shoot horses don't they?'(the inspiration) painful yet addictive to watch.

I was part of the Australian premiere, and I fell in love with the 'heart' of the show. Needs a big re-write, cut some characters out, and focus the storyline and it could be amazing.

(ps for anyone interested some pics http://www.cloc.org.au/about/about_steel%20pier.htm )

[mallardo]

Posted: 3/19/07 at 4:13am

The score, to me, is one of Kander's and Ebb's best. The neo-Gershwin period style is carried through beautifully. The show has a SOUND, fully realized. Something which, sadly, is not true of Curtains.