Shuffle Along previews- Page 28
Shuffle Along previews
bear88
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/26/16
#675Shuffle Along previews
Posted: 6/3/24 at 9:58pm
The circumstances of this show, and its near-total disappearance once it closed (no cast recording, just a Tony Awards performance and a few YouTube clips) has always been disheartening. But I still remember parts of the show, which I saw in previews, vividly - including some things (the ensemble in chairs and gloves, Brian Stokes Mitchell's full Blackface number) that were cut. The suitcase dance remains my favorite dance I have ever seen. Adrienne Warren was a marvel. If Audra McDonald wasn't perfectly cast, her chemistry with Brandon Victor Dixon was wonderful and several of her songs were terrific. The end of Act 1 was a thrill and Act 2, while flawed in the version I saw, was always interesting and frequently compelling. There's something to be said for an ambitious, flawed but brilliant musical - and looking back, I appreciate it more than I did even at the time. Plus, that cast! It's probably the best cast I've ever seen.
My comment on this page from more than eight years ago was one of my first on this message board (I wrote it a day after I opened an account - heh).
#676Shuffle Along previews
Posted: 6/4/24 at 2:46am
I don't know where to find it so please don't ask, but it looks like there was a private release of a soundboard EP for Tony voters. Track list below:
https://castalbums.org/recordings/Shuffle-Along-Or-The-Making-of-the-Musical-Sensation-of-1921-and-All-That-Followed-2016-Original-Broadway-Cast/32709/
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#677Shuffle Along previews
Posted: 6/4/24 at 2:51pm
I actually just double checked (because I had planned to post it) and was reminded that our favorite YouTube account posted it several years ago. Enjoy all!
I am big. It’s the REVIVALS that got small.
NJGUY
Understudy Joined: 10/31/11
#678Shuffle Along previews
Posted: 6/4/24 at 5:18pm
I saw this on April 13, 2016 on my 60th birthday and the entire night I was mesmerized, and knew that I was seeing something that would never again be replicated. Whatever the reason (Audra being pregnanat,creedy producers), I don't know, yet anyone who has seen this show will have it recorded in their memory for life. Not the best show, yet because of of the cast and because everyone in the cast was on full throttle and gave it 100% one of the most unbelievably satisfying shows I have ever seen!
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