MERRILY....
MERRILY....
#1MERRILY....
Posted: 1/26/12 at 1:33pm
Is anyone else really excited that it's starting soon?
Does anyone know if they will definitely be using scripts on stage? It's a longer run, and I'm assuming they're having a longer rehearsal period.
Anyone know?
Updated On: 1/26/12 at 01:33 PM
#2MERRILY....
Posted: 1/26/12 at 1:38pmDo a search. There is already a discussion going on abou this.
Just give the world Love.
#2MERRILY....
Posted: 1/26/12 at 1:47pmWhere? I'm not asking about what version they're using. I am asking if they'll be holding scripts like a normal Encores! concert.
#3MERRILY....
Posted: 1/26/12 at 1:47pm
I'll see it, but I'm not particularly excited, having seen 4 full productions in my life already. I think Keenan-Bolger will be good, and the two men merely OK at best. I'm disappointed that they aren't doing the original version, since that's the one I've seen least, but I gather that George Furth was so scarred by the experience, he won't let anyone do that version.
Encores began with a mission to bring underheard scores to light; Merrily, a show that's done as much as Oklahoma it sometimes seems (that's hyperbole, to the literal-minded), hardly has anything in common with that mission.
It's also a musical (like most Sondheim shows) that suffers when the score is treated as something separable from the book, which is what Encores generally does, abridging or totally re-writing the books so that they only vaguely resemble what was originally written.
Fortunately for them, very few theatre-goers pay much attention to words at all (book or lyrics), as long as they find the singers attractive or sassy, and sufficiently loud.
Gaveston2
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/11
#4MERRILY....
Posted: 1/26/12 at 1:56pm
Just for the record, Firth died in August. So while his estate may dictate restrictions on his behalf, he is beyond letting anyone do anything.
This is not to quarrel with your basic point that Firth preferred the revised version. As far as I know, that is true.
#5MERRILY....
Posted: 1/26/12 at 2:03pmljay889, to answer your actual question, I have a feeling they're not going to have scripts in their hands, along the lines of the Summer Stars shows we've seen in the past. They have a twelve day rehearsal period for MERRILY, which is significantly longer than typical Encores! shows.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
#6MERRILY....
Posted: 1/26/12 at 2:07pmI actually thought the holding the scripts in hand was a requirement of the type of contract the Encores shows are presented under.
#7MERRILY....
Posted: 1/26/12 at 2:08pmI thought there were union rules about these things, and that they have to hold the scripts (even if they don't refer to them).
#8MERRILY....
Posted: 1/26/12 at 2:13pm
I believe those rules correspond to the amount of rehearsal time afforded to the production, which is why the Summer Stars series shows (which have a similar rehearsal period to what MERRILY is getting) haven't held scripts. Equity is also quite liberal about granting concessions for these types of things in the even of a specific petition on a case by case basis.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Updated On: 1/26/12 at 02:13 PM
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
#9MERRILY....
Posted: 1/26/12 at 8:04pm
NewInTown I've heard that unlike with Goldman's widow and Follies, the people who look over Furth's work have far less issue with what version is used. In the case of Merrily it very much seems that Sondheim himself is the one who insists on the revised version. While I think the revised version overall works better, I prefer a lot of the original and since this is a semi staged version it would have been an interesting chance to go back to that (particularly since, as you say, the point of Encores is to do little seen works and the revised Merrily is pretty easy to find decent regional productions of...)
Speaking of--I do find it a bit annoying that year after year Encores seems to get further away from their original concept to stage rare works. I know the shows with names people know sell bigger tickets and perhaps make for more enjoyable evenings, but some of their choices have been fairly ridiculous. I'm pleased to see they're finally getting around to Pipe Dream, which IMHO *does* fit the bill, this year though.
"Fortunately for them, very few theatre-goers pay much attention to words at all (book or lyrics), as long as they find the singers attractive or sassy, and sufficiently loud."
Ha! Though I wouldn't be surprised if quite a bit of the libretto was included in this Merrily...
#10MERRILY....
Posted: 1/27/12 at 12:26pm
http://v.playbill.com/services/player/bcpid600462874001?bctid=1418216360001&bckey=AQ%7E%7E%2CAAAAEX25ttk%7E%2CqVVep19cvaVZAEMRs-HbsEJrPTM4DX-P
Sounds Great!!!!!!!!!
#11MERRILY....
Posted: 1/27/12 at 1:07pmIs it just me or does it seems as though Lin-Manuel Miranda is doing a Lonny Price impersonation in that clip?
#12MERRILY....
Posted: 1/27/12 at 1:17pmI didn't get that impression at all from the clip. I more got the impression that he's still figuring out what he's trying to do. That said, they still have a week of rehearsal ahead of them, and it's hard to judge a full performance from a four minute video.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#13MERRILY....
Posted: 1/27/12 at 1:24pmWow! They are doing the full 1981 version of OLD FRIENDS. The Kennedy Center production used this one too. But it's not used on the London and Off-Broadway cast recordings.
SondheimFan5
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/10
#14MERRILY....
Posted: 1/28/12 at 3:39amI don't think Miranda sounds good at all. But they've still got a week.
SondheimFan5
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/10
#15MERRILY....
Posted: 1/28/12 at 3:42am
"NewInTown I've heard that unlike with Goldman's widow and Follies, the people who look over Furth's work have far less issue with what version is used. In the case of Merrily it very much seems that Sondheim himself is the one who insists on the revised version."
Eric, George Furth --- who was very much alive and well during the time of the La Jolla production --- clearly approved (and worked on) any changes made to the show by Sondheim and Lapine at that time. I am sure he, like everyone else, also had problems with the original production.
#16MERRILY....
Posted: 1/28/12 at 3:53am
From the clip I felt he was downplaying it--the complete opposite of Lonny...
SondheimFan I didn't mean to imply the changes to Merrily (or Company for that matter) were post Furth--just that nobody in the family still had a claim.
ck12
Swing Joined: 1/5/12
#17MERRILY....
Posted: 1/28/12 at 1:41pmyou all realize this was video footage of a rehearsal right? i love how people seem to know this yet it is still somehow judged as a performance. give them a break. personally, i am inclined to doubt some of their capability as actors in these extremely challenging roles more than i am their vocal quality. it's sondheim. not american idol. In REHEARSAL.
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