Could "Hello, Dolly!", "Gypsy" etc be successfully re-conceptualized?- Page 2

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 8/25/15 at 12:19am

I want to see Gypsy with Kris Jenner playing Rose. Or possibly Abby Lee Miller from Dance Moms with Maddie Ziegler as Baby Louise. Wouldn't have to change a word of dialogue, but the social commentary is right there.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 8/29/15 at 4:46pm

Wait, are Paulus' revivals of shows now considered "reverential"?  I mean Pippin certainly owes a lot and arguably pays homage to the original, but...  (Do I even need to bring up Porgy and Bess?)

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/29/15 at 5:20pm

There's a reason why HELLO, DOLLY! is so close to its source, Thorton Wilder's THE MATCHMAKER. The characters and story are very strong and tight, by any standard but especially for comedies. If it didn't require radical reconception in 1963, I see no reason why it needs it in 2015 (or 2023, by the time you raise the money). The primary addition was the title number which, as has been discussed ad infinitum, works because of some theatrical logic that nobody seems able to describe. Even the film more or less works once one ignores the miscasting (which I still say has more to do with lack of charm than lack of age).

 

If anyone reads SONDHEIM & CO. or other works about the making of GYPSY, one will find that Jerome Robbins intially INTENDED the show to be a sort of history of vaudeville and burlesque; doing so now would not really be a "new" concept. During rehearsals and out-of-town, the writers were more interested in the mother/daughter relationships while Robbins kept trying to tell the history of vaudeville. I think time has shown the writers were right.

 

Updated On: 8/29/15 at 05:20 PM