THE LIFE - did anyone see it?

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 4:50pm

So a couple of days ago I watched the Tony Award performance of THE LIFE on Youtube, and I downloaded the cast recording and think it's great but it's proving a little difficult to find further information on the show. Did anyone on here see the show when it was on Broadway/what did you think of it? The subject matter seems fascinating and I'd love to find out more about the show so if anyone has better luck finding information about it let me know. :)

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 4:58pm

I saw it. I remember not hating it, but not being all that overwhelmed by it. Lillias White was very good.

[D2]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 5:04pm

I remember it as an interesting evening - entertaining in its way but somewhat of a downer. There was one spectacularly staged moment when all the hookers were being booked, standing on a moving treadmill while going through the booking process. (Stolen by THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE a few years later). And PRS is right - Lillias White was very good. She brought the house down with "The Oldest Profession."

[uncageg]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 5:04pm

phyllis, I didn't see it but one of my best friends did and said the same thing. He couldn't stop singing the "My Body" song for months though! He said it was the best part of the show.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 5:06pm

I like quite a few songs in the score. The show has a whole .... eh.

"My Body" was a really fun number.

[Steve2]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 5:27pm

I saw it. Sam Harris and Lillias White were both out that night.

I believe that one of the critics said "it was the only show that had a pulse" that year. And you thought this year was a bad one for musicals.

Updated On: 6/8/10 at 05:27 PM

[newintown]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 5:28pm

I saw it. Cy Coleman's music was, as always, excellent. Lilias did well, but the vocal fireworks were stolen from her by Sharon Wilkins. Sam Harris was implausible as a straight hustler (is there really such a thing?), but was appropriately greasy.

The whole thing had a tackiness to it; it seemed as if a group of gross old white men got together and said, "Hookers! Let's write a show about hookers - we'll make sure that they have troubles, but they really kind of enjoy their life and make good friendships!" With tacky songs like "People Magazine" (in which an up and coming hooker-turned-porn-actress imagines that she'll become an A-list celebrity doing porn), and "The Hooker's Ball" (self-explanatory), it just seemed seedy (but not intentionally so).

And of course, there's the celebrated anthem "My Body," with that classic lyric "my body is my business, my business is my business, and nobody's business but my own," a sentiment that ignores the psychic damage inflicted by a life of prostitution.

The show was like that awful number in Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public in which the gross men of the chorus humped the beautiful girls in glass boxes on wheels.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 5:40pm

I saw it twice. The actors were much better than the material. Pamela Isaacs, Chuck Cooper and Lillias White were all fantastic.

The story was a real downer and at times bordered on the ridiculous (The Hooker's Ball was stupid beyond belief.) Also the story didn't quite flow properly. One moment Queenie is singing about how she's no good without her man, then literally the next song is a song about leaving him.

[tazber]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 5:43pm

I liked it. I remember loving the score (still do-HUGE Cy Coleman fan) and being really touched at the end when they go their individual ways (My Friend).

The only character I remember more than Lilias is the white girl who sings "People Magazine" with Sam Harris.

Oh, and the end of Act I with Hookers Ball. That was....unique.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 5:48pm

How was the Hooker's Ball number staged?

Also I'm assuming that they have it at the Lincoln Center archives, yes? I'd be curious to watch it.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 7:17pm

Some good songs, but an awful show. I was really surprised at the number of people who thought it deserved the Tony for Best Musical. I do think the authors did make an attempt to try and address some issues prostitutes face (profiling, disease, physical abuse and drugs to name a few), but it was constantly undercut by odd moments of cuteness and frivolity (the aforementioned People Magazine and Hooker's Ball definitely come to mind). Hooker's Ball was just plain stupid, but People Magazine was downright creepy with its decidedly light touch. It reminded me of that offending lyric in I Love a Cop from Fiorello (likes me/strikes me line), but as if an entire song were fashioned around that sentiment without a hint of irony.

It's interesting to note that when it premiered, The Life was addressed by many as the pseudo-sequel to Sweet Charity. Given the criticisms that had been discussed regarding Sweet Charity's frivolous portrayal of taxi dancers (the idea that they are thinly veiled prostitutes is a whole other kettle of fish), I felt like The Life was something of an attempt at contrition, but it always seemed to retreat to the safety of Sweet Charity when things got "too real".

Like others, I thought My Body was a catchy tune and looked rather fun on the Tonys. But in the back of my mind, I kept thinking it was more of a pro-choice anthem because...prostitution is illegal in New York. If it was intended to be a political statement that prostitution should be legalized, it wasn't made clearly. I think I would feel the same way about a "This is my pot and I can sell it to anyone I want" song. I know that is a poor comparison, but the song never set quite well with me. Like the show itself, I got mixed signals.

Updated On: 6/8/10 at 07:17 PM

[DCS]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 7:48pm

I liked Coleman and Gasman's score quite a bit and thought the performances were very good....not only Harris and White, but also Chuck Cooper and Pamela Isaacs....the major problem with the show was the book....it played like one of those old movies of the week from the 70s and 80s with hookers and pimps and was sometimes really laughable and overly melodramatic....it was a very odd season for new musicals with The Life opening within days of Steel Pier and Titanic at the very end of the season. I saw all 3 of them on successive evenings and do think the best show won the Tony that season.

[pushdabutton]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 7:54pm

I saw it and loved it. Particularly the score. Lilias White was fantastic and deserved the Tony award for that show in my opinion. I will never forget her singing The Oldest Profession. She sounded incredible.

[Sauja]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 7:57pm

I saw it instead of going to my junior prom in high school (I'm just that gay). What was good was great. What wasn't...well, it wasn't awful. But there were very real problems.

Sam Harris' entire character was pretty pointless and interrupted the story more then anything. Fleetwood's songs were all really slight and weren't saved by the actor playing him. Memphis' songs were also problematic, but Chuck Cooper could really put them over. But when the ladies took center stage, it had more heart and (sorry) life than most shows dream of. Lillias White slaughtered it--still one of my favorite performances I've seen. As someone else mentioned (much to my delight!), Sharon Wilkins lit up the stage like nobody's business. Though, if I recall correctly, she was inexplicably missing from Act 2.

I still listen to the score pretty regularly, but I admit that I skip A LOT of tracks. For me, it's a show that didn't work but that I would LOVE to see again. I know it's only about 14 years ago, but when the time comes, I think it would be PERFECT for Encores.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 8:39pm

Though, if I recall correctly, she was inexplicably missing from Act 2.

I remember reading an interview with her back then and I think it was felt she was such a joyful presence on stage in act one and that she'd seem out of place in Act Two. I'm not explaining it very well.

[chellie]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 9:06pm

I didn't see it live, but I "saw" it a few months ago (a la Ripley, I won't say "bootleg")...so my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt, but I liked it. It wasn't extraordinary but so much is lost between seeing something live and seeing it in other forms that I found myself wishing I'd seen it live, if only for Lillias White's performance.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 9:22pm

I saw it and pretty much liked the score. That was during the period when the big push was on to clean up 42nd Street. Its book was its biggest enemy, but while everyone seems to be touting Lillas White as the best thing in the show (and I definitely liked her performance), Chuck Cooper deserved just as many accolades. I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the pre-opening CD, Music from The Life: it had some top-notch people in it: Lou Rawls, Jennifer Holliday, Jack Jones, Lesley Gore, Liza Minnelli, Cy Colman and, in his last recording appearance, George Burns (singing, sort of, Easy Money -- but it's practically worth the price of the whole disk). I believe it came out about a year before the show opened and guess it's probably out of print by now (I may be wrong on that). IMO, it was, for all its flaws, the best musical in which the contenders were Titanic; Jekyll and Hyde; Steel Pier (a BIG disappointment at the time); and Juan Darien (wha??). I saw all of them (except Juan Darien) and believe me, that was an AWFUL year for new musicals.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 10:13pm

Great score, great cast, but the book really is that show's undoing. The first act is a frivolous musical comedy and the second act is a complete downer in contrast. Its tone is all over the place and as much as I love Mary's songs, could she be any more unnecessary a character?

[chrisampm2]

Posted: 6/8/10 at 10:18pm

I had a great time. The score is fantastic and the seediness was the point. The cast was spectacular. It just wasn't high concept. Nothing brilliant in its structure, dialogue, or design. Pamela Isaacs was great and has deserved a higher profile career. Pulpy fun. It needed a cool, edgy Fosse vision not a Michael Blakemore professional polish. Still, much fun and, except for Sweet Charity similarities, unusual.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/9/10 at 12:56am

I saw it the first performance after the 1997 Tonys. Agree the Coleman score was really good but the lyrics were all over the map..some too poetic for such lowlife characters and others too gritty. A rather brutal scene in Act Two where Memphis kicks the proverbial crap out of Queenie was too graphic and turned a lot of people off.

Someone asked about "The Hooker's Ball." It was a big lively dance number (cut down to barely 2 min on the OCR) culminating in Queenie's entrance where she ignores her (now ex) bf and chooses to sit with Memphius the biggest, baddest, meanest pimp you ever saw to shocked reaction from all teh others on stage. The the dance rsumed and the curtain came down.

Overall I liked TITANIC and STEEL PIER a lot more than THE LIFE.

[Brick]

Posted: 6/9/10 at 2:06am

The Hookers Ball is real. They didn't make that up. Now the song, on the other hand...

[mallardo]

Posted: 6/9/10 at 2:54am

I'm a huge Cy Coleman fan but I really think The Life is his worst score, by far. It felt like he just didn't connect to the material and come up a bunch of pastiche-laden songs that were all over the place. The "sound" of the show was never established. It felt and feels (when I listen to it from time to time) very INauthentic.

[AC126748]

Posted: 6/9/10 at 6:27am

I remember being blown away by Pamela Isaacs. Anybody know what she's up to these days?

[tazber]

Posted: 6/9/10 at 7:19am

Lol, I have that concept cd with Liza, Lou Rawls, etc.

It's pretty interesting.

[silversurfer2]

Posted: 6/9/10 at 8:50am

I have fond memories of THE LIFE. I really enjoyed the show, music and terrific performances.