On a Clear Day with Harry Connick Jr

[goldenboy]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 9:24pm

As most of you know, On a Clear day You can see forever is getting a revival with
Harry Connick Jr.

Daisy Gamble is now David Gamble a florists assistant. He is lovers with Warren who wants him to give up smoking so they can get married. He goes to a hypnotist/psychiatrist and conjers up a past life as a 30's flapper..
named Melinda... Name to be announced.

the new book is by playwright Peter Parnell.

The Director is Michael Mayer from American Idiot and Spring Awakening.

What to you think of this idea? Who do you think should play Melinda?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 11:45pm

Loretta Swit is in negotiations for the part.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 12:46am

I had the pleasure of seeing the workshop done at NYSAF this past summer, and let me say this new concept is BRILLIANT. I hope this production lives up to the workshop.

That said, I saw the dress rehearsal, so Anika Noni Rose was still in the show (she had to back out of the actual performances due to family matters), but she was breathtaking. I'm not sure if her schedule would allow, but I'd love for her to do it.

[newintown]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 9:48am

I also saw it at Vassar last year and thought it was utterly inept, witless, and dull. Melinda's story is a bore - she's a sassy gal who wants to be a singer; no one or thing opposes this goal, so - she becomes a singer! This reduces Melinda to a two-dimensional pretty lass who sings and no more.

there is also no tension between Davy and his shrink (unlike in the original); Davy half-heartedly muses on the idea of a crush on the doctor, but never actually develops one (because it's clear from the start that he and Warren are perfect for each other).

Everything remotely off-beat, quirky, or magical from the original or the movie has been beaten out, leaving nothing more than a bland paste of nice tunes, and a boring, aimless, meandering book.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 5:09pm

How on earth do they do "Don't Tamper With My Sister" if Melinda doesn't live in Regency England? How do they justify all those pseudo-Sullivanesque songs?

[MissAnneThrop]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 5:17pm

sadly, probably by cutting them.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 6:14pm

I thought with Connick attached they would go back to Daisy/Melinda. Makes more Hetro sense.

[newintown]

Posted: 6/16/11 at 9:12am

"Don't Tamper With My Sister" and "Tosy and Cosh" are both cut. "She Wasn't/Isn't You" is now a song for Dr. Mark; "Love With All The Trimmings" is a song for Warren. Since Melinda is now an early 20th century cabaret singer, her only songs are interpolated from the movie Royal Wedding, and have nothing to do with her character or the story, they're just performance numbers.

Some people loved this at Vassar; I found it irritatingly dull.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 6/16/11 at 1:23pm

Has any body else seen the workshop(s) at NYSAF or Vassar?
Would be interested in more opinions.
thanks

[c a show]

Posted: 6/16/11 at 2:32pm

Who is in the running to play David? Any rumors?

[Branson East]

Posted: 6/16/11 at 9:36pm

No question this show has a great score, I'd argue Burton Lane's best. A revival could work if its book stuck with the original ESP gag while incorporating Kardashian-style celebrity mania and a dose of People's checkbook "journalism" too. Alas, we know the drill: the producers will ruin it not only through what sounds like a stupid change in the characters but by mangling Robert Russell Bennett's magnificent orchestrations a la How to Succeed to suit Harry Connick's style. (Translation: Ol' Blue does ESP.) If so, it doesn't deserve to work.


Updated On: 6/17/11 at 09:36 PM