The Pajama Game

[shesings]

Posted: 10/5/04 at 7:42pm

I keep seeing that PJ Game is supposed to be coming to broadway directed, I believe, by Kathleen Marshall. The date seems to get pushed back each season. First it said summer 2004, then fall 2004, now I think it says spring 2005. Anybody have any info on this? And what do you guys think about it? Should it come to Broadway? Will it do well?

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 10/5/04 at 8:42pm

I have only seen the movie and it was "alright." Not good, not bad.........just "alright." Bob Fosse's choreography was the only REAL good thing about it

[MusicMan]

Posted: 10/5/04 at 9:02pm

Conceptually, it's love story between representatives of labor and management in a pajama factory is rather brilliant and the show as a whole is a rousing example of mid-century slam-bang musical comedy. Its score is full of inventive, characterful and often humorous songs.

[Marquise]

Posted: 10/5/04 at 11:34pm

it's love story between representatives of labor and management in a pajama factory

sounds like a barrel of laughs!

"pooooooooopsie..pooooooooooopsie"

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 1:32am

The songs are decent and all.. but the story isn't that strong. But whatever, it's cute as hell!

[gherbert]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 9:00am

I've heard that Richard Adler wants Rebecca Luker as Babe!

[MusicMan]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 9:17am

Oh, oh, oh, such a wonderful singer and such a dull actress.

[Aaron27]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 9:31am

It's a cute story. Nothing really substantial. It's a similar tone as Wonderful Town. It's fun, but nothing more.

[Janki]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 10:49am

I love Steam Heat they way it was done originally...See it on the Fosse dvd....hope the number will be similar in the new version!

[Plum]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 11:57am

Oh my goodness, MusicMan, I don't think we're ever going to agree on anything. :)

I simply didn't like The Pajama Game. Parts of the score were irritating beyond belief, and the book was typical old-fashioned musical comedy. Which is okay, if the performers play it straight and the score is really good. And as I said, in this case the score wasn't really good.

Maybe I'll borrow a recording of it some time to try again.

[Carl Magnum]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 12:07pm

See that's the problem with some of these older "Fosse" shows. Some of them are weak (sweet charity) and some haven't stood the test of time, like PJ Game. So now people remember the show for certain numbers or for his dances throughout. So now when they come back to broadway thats the problem. Do we recreate the dances so we have a selling point or do we reimagine the show and try to let it stand on its own? I think this is gonna be the problem with Charity, an incredibly weak show. They have taken the first step in at least enlisting an old Fosse dancer in Cilento to try and take some of the pressure off of the show itself.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 12:26pm

I personally have little, if any, interest in seeing Kathleen Marshall's "take" on "Steam Heat," "Hernando's Hideaway" or any of the other numbers. If they're not using the Fosse choreography, don't bother reviving it.

I don't think "Sweet Charity" is an incredibly weak show. Granted the book is merely functional, but the show boasted Cy Coleman's best score (a classic) and perhaps Fosse's greatest achievements as a choreographer -- "Big Spender," "Rich Man's Frug," "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This," and "I'm A Brass Band." While it was considered a "tired businessman's show" in its day, in retrospect I think it's a minor classic. I'm not optimistic about Cilento "re-doing" Fosse's masterpieces, though. Nothing in his previous shows suggests that his work can even approach the wit, innovation, style and creativity of Fosse at his best (I wish that Fosse had a foundation like Robbins does, that would protect his classic work from being tampered with by inferior talents).

Marshall's "Steam Heat"? Cilento's "Frug"? Oh, the humanity......

[gherbert]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 1:20pm

Margo, personally I think that however inferior these new talents are, they should not be barred from re-thinking and re-imagining classic pieces. Sure, they may not be as good as Fosse or Robbins, but if no one was allowed to try we might miss out on some wonderful new work. On the other hand I agree with Cilento. His work so far, especially in Wicked, has left me dry. I do wonder if he will be able to handle Sweet Charity . . .

[laactress]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 1:27pm

We did it last year at the high school I use to go to! I now volunteer there and it was so much fun to do the hair and make up for this show. It's a fun show.

[Marquise]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 1:56pm

i think there are a couple of stand out songs from the score:

"i'm not at all in love"

"hey there"

"steam heat"

"hernando's hideaway"

"seven and 1/2 cents"

even "once a year day" if it's not taken too seriously.

it's not beethoven but it is an entertaining score.


Updated On: 10/6/04 at 01:56 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 2:26pm

The Pajama Game is the first musical I ever saw and I still love it to this day. If properly staged, it can be a really fun show. I do think the book needs to beef up the comedy, but I love the score. I'm not really thrilled with Kathleen Marshall helming this. I found her choreography for Kiss Me Kate to be rather bland and uninspired. I would rather see Jack O'Brien and Rob Marshall come back and repeat their magic from the delightful Damn Yankees revival.

PS - I loved Wayne Cilento's choreography for Tommy, but I must agree that I don't think his style suits Sweet Charity.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 2:26pm

You forgot the opening number; "Racing with the Clock"

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 2:45pm

Gherbert,

I certainly agree as a general matter that today's artists should have the freedom to re-interpret older works for a contemporary audience, but I think it's sad that we don't honor the landmark work of our great directors and choreographers of the theatre, in the way that, say, the work of Balanchine, Ashton, MacMillan, and Pepita in ballet is honored and respected and remains part of the repertoire of every ballet company in the world. There are many fine ballet choreographers out there today, but when a company wants to perform Apollo or The Four Temperaments or Prodigal Son, they don't throw out the landmark Balanchine choreography so that a new choreographer can give his "take" of the material -- the new choreographer generally creates a new work altogether and builds his reputation that way. Ballet respects and honors the genius of Balanchine; musical theatre apparently could give a damn about the genius of Fosse, allowing just about anybody to come along and redo his classic pieces, even folks who've never shown that they have even a tenth of Fosse's talent.

I don't want to see another choreographer's "take" on Robbins' work in "West Side Story" and thanks to his foundation, at least in New York, I'll never have to. Bennett's work on "A Chorus Line" and "Dreamgirls" is similarly protected by his former lawyer John Breglio and his friend and collaborator Bob Avian, who jointly hold the rights to those two works and it's pretty clear that any revival of either piece will be very much in the spirit of Bennett's vision (if not exact replicas of the original stagings).

I'm not arguing that every work from the past should be so rigidly protected (and thought it was a shame that the Robbins estate didn't allow Mendes more leeway on the "Gypsy" revival), but certain landmark work should be preserved and sustained for future generations. Just as nobody should be able to freely rewrite Cole Porter's lyrics or Richard Rodgers' music willy-nilly (and thankfully we have copyright laws to stop them from doing so), no one should be able to toss out some of Fosse's most seminal work as if it were yesterday's garbage.

[gherbert]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 3:21pm

Point taken very well, Margo. I agree that the work of such choreographers should be documented and preserved, but I think producing revivals of shows that aim to be the exact replicas of the original production is boring and sometimes (never in the case of Bennett, Robbins, or Fosse) stale. I am not saying that anybody should just sweep in and re-imagine the choreography of our great choreographer, but rather making a point that revivals that aim to be their original production are pointless and unexciting. The sets, costumes, staging are all recycled.

Honestly, though, I am not a big fan of revivals. City Center used to provide the thirst for revivals, while Broadway was a place where new work was introduced. But now, here we are with very few truly new musicals (Mamma Mia!, Good Vibrations, The Boy from Oz, and All Shook Up are not and will never be new musicals). I mean, in the 1963-1964 season Broadway was introduced to Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly!, Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, Inga Swenson 110 in the Shade, Bert Lahr in Foxy, Angela Lansbury and Lee Remick in Anyone Can Whistle, Bea Lillie and Tammy Grimes in High Spirits, Steve Lawrence in What Makes Sammy Run?, and Carol Burnett in Fade Out-Fade In. Now what do we get? Some old stuff that producers are putting up to avoid having to write a show. We get recycled music because producers are too damn lazy to commission a new score. We stale ideas, stupid concepts, and adaptations of the latest hit film, no matter how unsuitable for a musical (Legally Blonde??). Broadway don't have seasons filled with thrilling performances, new, wonderful scores, and fascinating failures anymore. Where are the opening nights in Sardi's? When did Philly, Boston and Baltimo' become passe? Does it say something ABOUT Broadway that people flock to these revivals to capture what is left of the past??

Sorry for the rant.

I agree with you 100% Margo, just am a little upset about Broadway right now.

[Mythus]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 3:36pm

I've had kind of an unfair animosity towards The Pajama Game since seventh grade. I was ensemble. I had (at least) four costumes: a black outfit for Hernando's Hideaway (we all came out of the shadows upstage, sort of), some pajamas for the finale, a dress for Once A Year Day, and my work clothes. They all went missing on opening night. The year after, when we were cleaning out the green room (it was a mess), we found all my costumes, in their bag, under a huge pile of trash/old costumes. I was so angry.

Not to say that it wasn't a fun show to do, I just have bad memories of begging spare costume pieces from people. Racing With The Clock was a fun song to do, since it was choreographed with a lot of standing up and waving stuff around. It was weird, though, since I was in seventh grade and I was the probably the only girl in the cast who could sing the counterpoint (in Racing With The Clock).

*pause* But I digress. I can't say it'll be welcomed with open arms, but it'll be entertaining.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 3:39pm

Mythus,

Were you costumes accidently misplaced, or did someone take them and plant them there?

[Mythus]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 3:40pm

We thought they had just gotten misplaced, but they were buried under a lot of stuff. There's no way someone could've put them there if they hadn't purposely meant to lose them.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 3:43pm

That's just plain mean. Sorry it was a bad experience.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 3:45pm

gherbert,

I agree with everything in your post. And when I spoke of protecting certain work, I really was only referring to Fosse, Robbins and Bennett, each of whom infused their best work with a singular vision that went beyond just their direction and choreography -- all three were also intimately involved in the development of the book and score as well as all of the design elements of their shows. They ARE the shows they created and their fingerprints were on every aspect of their shows, on stage and off. To distort that vision is to undermine the core of the shows themselves.

The only thing that makes me excited and slightly optimistic for Broadway (and off-Broadway's) future is the success of the first NY Musical Theatre Festival. "Altar Boyz" has already been picked up for a commercial off-Broadway run next year, and rumor has it that "Trailer Park: The Musical," "The Big Voice: God or Merman" and "Caligula" (among others) may also be headed for commercial runs very soon. New shows with all new music by "new" composers and book writers -- and this was just the first year of this festival. Imagine what it could become and what it's potential could be for the future.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 3:48pm

The Pajama Game is a Broadway Classic (Over 1,000 performances in its original run.)

As already noted, the Adler/Ross score was TOPS.

It was Bob Fosse's first show as a choreographer and in my opinion, the "Steam Heat" number itself would have been enough to mark him as a top choreographer.

And what a cast! (John Raitt, Janis Paige, Eddie Foy Jr., Carol Haney, Reta Shaw, Thelma Pelish, etc.)

Note: The film version kept virtually the ENTIRE Broadway cast except for replacing Janis Paige with Doris Day, a practice unheard of with film versions of B'way shows in the 1950s.

Further Note: Pajama Game has ALREADY been revived on Broadway. In 1973, they rewrote the Sid/Babe romance as an interracial deal (Hal Linden & Barbara McNair) and Adler wrote one new song. Fosse was not involved in new production. The show received mixed reviews and closed before even hitting the 100 performance mark.