1996 King & I Recording - can someone clarify?

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 7:46am

On the 'Overture' track on the 1996 (and actually the 2000 London equivalent) cast recording of The King and I, there seems to be a lot of action going on in the background, shouting, yelling, can someone who saw the production explain how the opening scene of the show was done/directed/staged? On the ship as usual I imagine? Thanks!

[carousel94]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 8:00am

I was pretty young when I saw it, so I may be making things up, but I remember it as the ship pulling into the port of Bangkok with various other boats and merchants. It depicts the bustle of a large harbor and the production dives right into the action, cutting the majority of the original overture.

Hope that helps :)

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 12:49pm

Yes, it's the harbor as they are debarking. It actually reminded me of the opening of Miss Saigon. I expected the residents of Bangkok to look up at bombs going off and scattering.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 2:58pm

The track listed as "Overture" on the CD is not an Overture, but rather an introducion. (The full Overture can be heard on RCA's cast album of the 1977 revival with Yul Brynner.)

The Curtain rose showing the ship pulling into port and the reaction of the natives. That is what you hear re-created on the disc.

The director (Christopher Renshaw) is another in a long line of conteporary know-it-all directors who know nothing about classic musicals and seem to actually disdain them. He decided faily early on not to waste time with a 5-minute Overture, and the R & H office let him get away with it.

Modern directors seem to hate Overtures arguing that no one listens to them (neglecting the fact that the Overture was designed to quiet the audience and usher them into the world of the musical being presented.) I doubt audiences ever sat and listened the way one would listen to a symphony orchestra, but that does not excuse cutting them all together.

Nor do we need stage business as Arthur Lauren needlessly addded to the 1989 Tyne Daley GYPSY. Even the 2003 revival of OKLAHOMA! added visuals to an abridged version of that famous Overture.

So what you are left with on THE KING AND I disc is the opening bars of the original Overture segued into musical underscoring for the opening scene.

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 3:31pm

It was superb that Lincoln Center restored the complete original overture to South Pacific for their 2008 revival of that show.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 3:38pm

Not only did they restore the SOUTH PACIFIC overture they made it one of the production's highlights by giving the orchestra a "bow" in the middle of it. And the audience I saw it with sat and listened for the most part, and gave the orchestra prolonged applause at the end of it.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 4:36pm

Cinderella also uses it's overture and I heard from reports that people gave a warm applause at the end. The power of the overture isn't entirely dead, just not used as much as it used to.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 4:41pm

I was actually surprised at the enthusiastic response to the Anything Goes overture during the Chicago stop of the tour. People were cheering.

[algy]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 5:13pm

I love a good overture - in a show you don't know it flags up the tunes that you're going to come out humming and gets you thinking about what they might be used for. In a show you know it reminds you of the old friends you're about to re-encounter.

I know it's in the wrong ratio, but I was in the hall for this performance of the Gypsy Overture by John Wilson Orchestra:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww7kJiy2UqA

At that point, I'd never seen Gypsy and didn't get what all of you who love it over here were so mad about (sorry) but after hearing the overture at the Proms, when Curve in Leicester revived it last year with Caroline O'Connor I got myself down there PDQ (and was promptly disappointed that it didn't sound as good as the John Wilson version - which it obviously wouldn't because JW is doing it with all the bells and whistles of a full orhcestra with the extras and in this case reproducing the orchestra sound from the film).

Anyhow, my point is, how can you watch something like that and not get love an overture?