Should "Candide" be considered obscure theatre?

[Phan#24601]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 1:59am

What do you guys think about this? I think it's a curious question. I just saw Kristin Chenoweth at the Hollywood Bowl, and I was waiting all night for "Glitter and Be Gay", but she did not sing it. Just wondering if you guys think it would be because many people would not know the song, or maybe because she is just trying to change up her set list.

[binau]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 2:08am

I'm not sure but when she was at the Sydney Opera House she did not sing it either BUT THE MUSIC WAS THERE ON THE ORCHESTRA STANDS. It was quite frustrating. Maybe she doesn't sing it if she is too tired/sick or something.

[John J Mackay]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 2:27am

Yes it should, No one I know knows about it. It not like Guys and Dolls Oklahoma Sound of Music etc. But Kristin would be amazing in the role of Cunegonde and I would pay top price to see her in the role.

[Phan#24601]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 2:37am

You should watch the DVD recording from 2004. She played Cunegonde and Patti LuPone played The Old Woman...the other leads were really great too, but unfortunately I do not know their names off the top of my head. You might be able to find it on YouTube. By the way, Kristin Chenoweth was super fantastic!

[Smaxie]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 10:33am

How can it be considered obscure? The Original Broadway Cast Album has never been out of print. It has had two subsequent Broadway revivals. It had a successful City Opera production that was broadcast on PBS and has been revived there several times since. It had a major studio recording, conducted by Bernstein, and taped for television and DVD. There were major productions of it by the Scottish Opera and the Royal National Theatre, as well as the Théâtre du Châtelet version in Paris and a major revival just a few years ago at the Goodman in Chicago. The Overture, "Glitter and Be Gay" and "Make Our Garden Grow" remain concert staples. There are eight commercially available recordings of the score, and four or five DVD versions. It may not be known by the young and naive, but for anyone who goes to theatre, opera or concert stages with any frequency, I don't know how anyone would not have experienced at least some of the show's music, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

[Kad]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 10:37am

Anyone going to see Chenoweth in concert will most likely know at least some of the score.

[ARTc3]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 11:13am

Thank you Smaxie. Of course it's not "obscure". Musicals that have been on Broadway, now three times, aren't obscure. Perhaps, you mean, "classic". That I would agree to.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 11:16am

CANDIDE, obscure?!! Since when?

Posted: 8/25/13 at 4:13pm

What's Candide?

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 4:15pm

I do not think so. When I saw the title of this thread, I thought of theatre of the obscure (a genre in and of itself)!

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 4:22pm

I don't think "Glitter and Be Gay" is obscure, just very difficult. The last time I saw Barbara Cook she made it clear early in the evening that she would NOT be attempting "that song."

Can't say I blame her.

Updated On: 8/25/13 at 04:22 PM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 4:32pm

Come on Joe, really? You never heard of Candide Apples?

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 4:40pm

This may be blasphemy, but I once thought Candide would make a really interesting animated feature, with the sumptuous orchestrations of the '56 version, the book and song-stack of the '99 version, and the wacky off-kilter sensibility of the '74 version.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 4:47pm

Doesn't sound like blasphemy to me, although if you are going to put it on video, do you even need animation?

[ReggieonBway]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 4:52pm

Yeah, Glitter and Be Gay is a hell of a difficult song to sing. Her rendition is pretty definitive, but I couldn't see someone singing that and then doing an hour long set. Particularly mixing genres as she does.

That said - I think we need to define what "obscure" means in this context. I don't think it's obscure the way Bat Boy is obscure, but it is one of those pieces that save for the concert that Cheno did has been largely forgotten.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 5:04pm

Doesn't sound like blasphemy to me, although if you are going to put it on video, do you even need animation?

I just thought the picaresque world of Candide lent itself well to an animated form.

[all that jazz]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 5:15pm

It is obscure to the masses, in the same way that shows like Sunday and Grey Gardens are, but I would assume everyone attending a Chennoweth concert should be familiar with Glitter and be Gay.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 6:55pm

The overture is the background score for every PBS fund raising broadcast.

[bobs3]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 8:07pm

GLITTER AND BE GAY is a very difficult song to sing even for a 25 year-old singer. It's not surprising that a 45 year-old singer might not feel she could do the song justice.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 8:23pm

Regarding animation, I think that could be a way to really sell Voltaire's satire in a much more palatable way. As a culture, we accept animated characters rising up again and again after obviously being destroyed in freak accidents far easier than we accept the same with actual actors. Animation could create just that little bit of extra distance needed for a wider audience to really buy into the narrative.

As for obscurity, theater people know the show more than the general population. It's been produced more than most shows on Broadway and has the concert staging on DVD, but would most people recognize it in some way like Fiddler on the Roof or Peter Pan? I don't think so.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 9:27pm

First of all, I wouldn't think Chenoweth's decision to include "Glitter and Be Gay" in concert has much to do with how well known Candide is, but rather whether the song works in the context of the program.

No Candide shouldn't now be considered an obscure musical. A historical perspective:

1956 flop

1956-1973 obscure musical

1969-1975 "Glitter and Be Gay" heard nightly by millions as theme song for the Dick Cavett Show

1973 renaissance - the Chelsea Theater revival

1973-present - a fairly well known musical, neither a household name nor a little known show: somewhere on the middle of the scale of musical celebrity, neither a Phantom of the Opera nor a Pirate Queen.

[darquegk]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 9:38pm

Candide, I would say, is more famous as a piece of music than as a show. It exists in the public/artistic consciousness, but mostly on the reputation of "Glitter and Be Gay" and "Candide's Overture." An opus, not a musical of note.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 9:50pm

I'd add "Make Our Garden Grow" to the generally well known gems from the score.

Posted: 8/25/13 at 10:41pm

Wait, someone made a musical of Candide Camera? About damn time.

[justoldbill]

Posted: 8/25/13 at 11:08pm

The word "obscure" could be somewhat applicable in the sense that the show never seems to be performed, nor recorded, the same way twice. EVERYONE seems to have his/her own version. Plant a radish, get a radish, but never with CANDIDE.