The "Rebecca" Saga Continues- Page 3

[jonahke]

Posted: 5/16/15 at 7:28am

Please, just bring Pia Dauwes to Broadway for the part of Mrs. Danvers. She was stunning in Stuttgart.

Here is Pia singing the English version of 'Rebecca': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-8KBM45hPE

[letyourfreakflagwave]

Posted: 5/16/15 at 7:59am

"I think people overlook that this is a very good show of its kind."

 It really is. I saw it in Stuttgart three years ago and in its original version, it's a very high quality show. Both the book and the direction were pretty good the way they were in Germany so I hope they won't try to make too many changes to the material. 

Some songs might benefit from different orchestrations (which weren't bad in the original version, but might not really work everywhere outside of the German-speaking theatre world). I also hope the translation will capture the spirit of the show and that they won't try to "americanize" the show too much in its concept because most of it is already good the way it is. They tried that with Dance of the Vampires and we all know where that went. I still believe Dance might have been taken fairly well if they had left it in its original European concept. 

Visually, Rebecca is a massive feast. Here are many photos from the Stuttgart production which give you a good impression of the set, which looks spectacular in the flesh and is one of the greatest sets I have ever seen in a theatre. (Just click on musicals and then on Rebecca.) I heard that they hired a different costume designer for Broadway, but the set designer is still the same. Apparently, the stairs won't ascend from the floor in the Broadway set version for budget or venue reasons, but if the rest of the set design and technics remains then it will certainly be fantastic to look at:

"I don't know the type of voice would work best for Mrs. Danvers.  However, if it's not strictly operatic [...]"

I wouldn't consider it operatic. Here's a video of the title song from the original Viennese production with Susan Rigvava-Dumas as Mrs. Danvers, to give you an idea of the music and how this role is written vocally. 

The story around the show's way to Broadway is super intriguing, but amidst all the scandal, some people tend to overlook the show as such and should Rebecca actually ever open on Broadway, I hope people won't approach it with the preconceived idea that the show is bound to fail and can see beyond the scandal and judge the show for what it really is.  

Updated On: 5/16/15 at 07:59 AM

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 12:49am

According to Playbill today, there are new, unnamed, investors and Sprecher has issued a summary of the travails of the production to date, supposedly as part of disclosure requirements.
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/new-investors-found-for-the-would-be-broadway-musical-rebecca-365218

Does this sound legit - or more like laying the ground for another extension of his deadline to mount the production (of a show with few other prospects). I also wondered, if these investors are able to make up the full amount to mount.

Anyone with experience with producing and such rules care to comment?

Updated On: 10/2/15 at 12:49 AM

[Eurotrash]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 4:18am

Interesting. If I were Mr Sprecher I would try to cut back on the negative commentary, and accentuate the positives.

[newintown]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 7:47am

If I were Mr. Sprecher, I would go into haberdashery.

 

Cause the theatre isn't working out too well for him - 10 Broadway shows in 27 years, with an average run of 75 performances... it's not a track record that I would think would instill confidence in investors (except those looking to lose money, for some reason). His Off Broadway track record is marginally better, but the for-profit ventures there were all bombs, too.

Updated On: 10/2/15 at 07:47 AM

[broadwayboy223]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 9:36am

I'm so glad this show still working to come. I have no idea if it will be a success but I would love to have an English cast recording. 

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

Posted: 10/2/15 at 12:43pm

Eurotrash said: "Interesting. If I were Mr Sprecher I would try to cut back on the negative commentary, and accentuate the positives."

 

Because that's really going to work at this point.

 

At any rate... the fact that the article states that Sprecher's lawyer laid out the history of litigation related to the project in writing to the show's investors (presumably including these new ones) indicates to me this was probably something they had to do, not something they wanted to do. Note Sprecher's statement in the cover letter: "As the new investors we have identified continue their due diligence, a formal letter on the status of the litigation was required."

 

My opinion on the subject? I'm with newintown: pick a new job, Ben Sprecher. This one ain't workin' out for ya at all.

Updated On: 10/2/15 at 12:43 PM

[jonahke]

Posted: 2/11/16 at 1:12pm

Any updates yet?

[broadwayboy223]

Posted: 2/11/16 at 1:38pm

I would also like to know if there is any update. 

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 2/11/16 at 2:38pm

An update on what?

[newintown]

Posted: 2/11/16 at 2:44pm

Those seeking updates are advised to create Google alerts with no set ending date. But here's a tidbit - Ben Sprecher hasn't had a show on Broadway since the 2009 nine-performance debacle Brighton Beach Memoirs - remember that? It was intended to run in rep with Broadway Bound (which didn't even make it to a first preview).

 

People have bounced back from awful financial disasters before - will Sprecher?

Updated On: 2/11/16 at 02:44 PM

[HogansHero]

Posted: 2/11/16 at 2:45pm

stated differently, there is nothing to update because there is not there there, and no thing either. 

How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?

[mamaleh]

Posted: 2/11/16 at 3:46pm

That 2009 BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS may have been a financial debacle---although I still can't understand why---but it was a delightful, well-done production with top-notch performances, especially by Noah Robbins as Eugene, and Laurie Metcalf, Jessica Hecht and Santino Fontana.  Maybe the Nederlander curse?  Not counting RENT, of course.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 2/12/16 at 1:56am

broadwayboy223 said: "I would also like to know if there is any update. 

 

"

No sane investor would touch this with a ten foot pole. The negative publicity has been too bad. Sprecher and his bad choices have ruined any chance of this seeing the light of day on Broadway. There is no update because it is not ever going to happen. Besides, the sung-through pop-opera style is a thing of the past. Rebecca offers nothing new to the genre, and it would likely be a repeat of the disastrous Doctor Zhivago. That isn't to say it is a bad show, but it just isn't the type of thing audiences are craving right now.

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 2/13/16 at 4:20am

JimmyCurry01 writes: "the sung-through pop-opera style is a thing of the past. Rebecca offers nothing new to the genre,"

If you're including Les Mis and Phantom as sung-through pop-operas, I don't think they're obsolete yet. If Rebecca falls into this mode of story-telling it has a decent chance at being a hit.

Audrey

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/13/16 at 4:48pm

newintown said: "If I were Mr. Sprecher, I would go into haberdashery.

 

 

 

Cause the theatre isn't working out too well for him - 10 Broadway shows in 27 years, with an average run of 75 performances... it's not a track record that I would think would instill confidence in investors (except those looking to lose money, for some reason). His Off Broadway track record is marginally better, but the for-profit ventures there were all bombs, too.

 

"

I don't know if you are old enough to remember the 1960s, but there was a time when Alexander Cohen was mentioned in the same breath with producers such as David Merrick and Hal Prince. His track record? Nearly 70 Broadway productions from 1941 to 2000, and the two longest running were GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (ran nearly 2 years) and ANGEL STREET (3-year run), both in the 1940s.

 

I myself had to lend Cohen $40K of my boss' money to keep the national company of RAISON from being evicted from their hotels on Christmas Eve of 1976. (Obviously, I did so only at my boss' direction.)

 

So it seems a tad early to tell Ben Sprecher to give up show business. Even conceding that mistakes may have been made in raising the capital for REBECCA, I don't get the hate for Sprecher on this board. Despite recent financial successes, we don't have so many new Broadway musicals that we need to root against those who are trying to mount them.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 2/13/16 at 7:01pm

Gaveston, might I respectfully suggest that you do a bit of research on the remainder of Mr. Sprecher's track record?

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 2/14/16 at 12:01pm

AHLiebross said: "JimmyCurry01 writes: "the sung-through pop-opera style is a thing of the past. Rebecca offers nothing new to the genre,"

 

If you're including Les Mis and Phantom as sung-through pop-operas, I don't think they're obsolete yet. If Rebecca falls into this mode of story-telling it has a decent chance at being a hit.

 

Audrey

 

"

Les Miz and Phantom, while favorites of mine, are the last remaining relics of a time when the style was still incredibly popular. 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/14/16 at 7:26pm

HogansHero said: "Gaveston, might I respectfully suggest that you do a bit of research on the remainder of Mr. Sprecher's track record?

 

"

Of course, you may, Hogan, but I'm not sure how to begin. What I know of his career consists largely of LA TIMES articles calling him the "King of Off-Broadway" when he was in negotiations to take over the the Westwood (now Geffen) Playhouse. Those articles were all positive (and probably the product of Sprecher's press rep, I realize).

 

Do I google "Ben Sprecher f**ks up" or what?

 

Full disclaimer: as I mentioned in the original REBECCA thread, Ben and I were close friends when we were both starting in the business. I sublet his apartment for the first six months I lived in NYC. Our lives soon took different paths and I haven't seen him since the late 1970s, but I readily admit I''m not entirely objective here. During the years I knew him, I never saw him do anything dishonest.

 

That said, nothing I've read about the REBECCA irregularities surprises me. When I worked in theater management, I saw such antics all the time. The details of THE PRODUCERS may be fictitious, but there's a lot of truth in the general milieu.

Updated On: 2/14/16 at 07:26 PM

[HogansHero]

Posted: 2/14/16 at 10:59pm

google his name with Variety Arts Theatre, Promenade Theatre and Little Shubert Theatre. If he was the king of off-B, it was in the sense that George III was the king of the American colonies. Maybe someday Jon Groff can play Sprecher. I am not suggesting dishonesty. 

[Eurotrash]

Posted: 2/15/16 at 4:28am

What we have here, is a bit of a post-hoc fallacy. Just because he was conned by a con artist, doesn't prove this is a bad show, or that he would've done bad things with it, or that that there is no market for this show. We just don't know.

Updated On: 2/15/16 at 04:28 AM

[devonian.t]

Posted: 2/15/16 at 10:48am

From an outsider's perspective, it does look like an unfashionable show is being used as a stick to beat a producer who is on a bad run.  The bad luck could turn around.

 

That said, in the google-age, I wonder if any producer is able to bounce back once a bit of mud sticks.

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 2/15/16 at 7:13pm

No one will touch this but it's too bad... the bootleg on youtube is absolutely FANTASTIC... what a wonderful show with an amazing score! I have been hoping this would actually open. :/  I can't find the one I watched with translations but here is this one without: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMIZxDYa4Wo

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/15/16 at 10:29pm

HogansHero said: "google his name with Variety Arts Theatre, Promenade Theatre and Little Shubert Theatre. If he was the king of off-B, it was in the sense that George III was the king of the American colonies. Maybe someday Jon Groff can play Sprecher. I am not suggesting dishonesty. 

 

"

Thank you for the suggestions. But if we're not accusing Ben of corruption, what ARE we saying? The odds are stacked against every Broadway production. Any producer who gets his show open has accomplished something I couldn't do.

 

There are plenty of excellent theater workers who have never had a smash Broadway hit, including most of the best composers still writing for Broadway.

[Eurotrash]

Posted: 2/16/16 at 5:01am

Exactly. This show is also weighed down by the celebrated floperettas of recent years; Tale of Two Cities, Jane Ayre, Dr Z etc, which overlooks the fact that this has already been a much better received show - because it is a much better show. Also, plenty of big hit shows (eg Wicked) have one foot firmly planted in this particular sub-genre. It was reasonable of him to think he had a good chance of a hit. Shame it hasn't worked out that way so far, but good luck to him.