1970s Broadway- Page 2
1970s Broadway
1970s Broadway#25
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:22pm
Or: it is just as naive to assert that only generational observations account for differences as it is to hold that those differences are due to new-generation lameness. I want answers, damn it. I want someone to explain to me why anyone above the age of 5 would want to hear a Lloyd-Webber score. I want someone to tell me why anyone at all would not think that an all-black 'Streetcar' is an absurd proposition, given the story and characters. It's as plainly stupid as an all-black 'Song of Norway'.
I struggle. I do. Part of me wants to say that a score like 'Sound of Music' is just as crummy as any ALW, but it's not the same thing because, even in that awful show, there are moments where artistry can be heard. Not so with Andrew. And SOM didn't run for 13 damn years.
1970s Broadway#26
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:24pm
After8, when was the best of times? The 1920s?
When I said books often look down on the 70s as the twilight (not in a good way) of musicals, I'm thinking of Mordden, etc (though it's true he titled his book on the 80s as The Happiest Corpse I Ever Saw). I've always been baffled, just because it seems to be the era where so many of my favorite shows came from--the way the 50s and early 60s were for plays. I thought some of it was nostalgia for an era I never saw (I wasn't born until 1980), but I'm more convinced now that it really was an era of *commercial* Broadway musicals that pushed the boundaries.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
1970s Broadway#27
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:25pm
Jarndyce,
Yes, I agree that things have gone even further downhill since then-- but that decade was bad, bad, bad. In one respect, though, I found it even worse than subsequent ones because at the onset of the 70s I was expecting things to be as good as they had been. The disappointment to find that that was no longer to be was acute and protracted. Afterwards, I no longer felt disappointment because I no longer had any expectations.
Updated On: 9/8/12 at 10:25 PM
1970s Broadway#28
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:29pm
I saw FOLLIES and APPLAUSE on the same Saturday in May of 1971. I loved both!
But even in 1971, I was perfectly capable of seeing that the former was a masterpiece that advanced the use of music, lyrics and staging in the American musical. The latter was a smartly contrived presentation of a well-known, but musically limited, star. I feel precisely the same today, only more so.
A8 will disagree, but I don't think either view is particularly sentimental.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
1970s Broadway#29
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:34pm
"After8, when was the best of times? The 1920s?"
A very good choice.
Eric, there may be hope for you yet.
You're not a kid anymore, kiddo. Time to put your adolescent infatuations to rest.
1970s Broadway#30
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:35pmA8, here's what I gleefully admit to my own bias because your point is so interesting. It also supports that decade as a turning point. I don't quite know why you feel it was SO bad (we're talking only theater, not hookers, right?). Yes, it was my introduction and yes, I was swayed. At the same time, the decade gave us all that Prince/SS good stuff. New plays from Albee. And I remember liking a cynical edge coming into musicals other than Sondheim's, which countered the mawkishness of the 50s and the horror of the rock shows COMBINED with mawkishness in the 60s.
1970s Broadway#31
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:40pm
A8. Your real name isn't Cohan, by any chance? The 20s? OPERETTA???Dainty June in Vaudeville???
Seriously. Every decade had its theatrical nightmares. I just haven't seen any wonderful stuff in addition to the nightmares, since the 80s.
PS Well said about 'Follies' and 'Applause'. Re the latter, and more desperately so, 'Woman of the Year'. Egad. But it was a good show to take my mother to.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
1970s Broadway#32
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:44pm
"I saw FOLLIES and APPLAUSE on the same Saturday in May of 1971. "
I also saw them, but not on the same day.
One was a smart, stylish musical that represented the Broadway musical the way it was supposed to be.
The other was pretentious claptrap that sounded the death knell of the musical as it was supposed to be.
1970s Broadway#33
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:44pm
That's great that you saw all of those people in the 70's. In the 2000's I saw Bea Arthur, Elaine Stritch, Dick Van Dyke,Elizabeth Ashley, Linda Lavin, Juliette Binoche, Eartha Kitt, Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Patti LuPone, Kathleen Turner, Alan Rickman, Paul Newman, Whoopi Goldberg, Al Pacino, Bernadette Peters, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Dennehy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Danny Glover, Hugh Jackman, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, Alfre Woodard, Richard Dreyfuss, Frank Langella, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Swoosie Kurtz, Brenda Blethyn, Billy Crystal, Kathleen Turner, Denzel Washington, James Earl Jones, Leslie Uggams, Natasha Richardson, Julia Roberts, Ralph Fiennes, Christine Ebersole, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup, Richard Easton, Jennifer Ehle, Amy Irving, Marian Seldes, Kevin Kline, Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand, Marisa Tomei, Martha Plimpton, Daniel Radcliffe, Richard Griffiths, Kristin Scott Thomas, Katie Holmes, Diane Wiest, Stockard Channing, Jane Fonda, James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Hardin, Hope Davis, Jeff Daniels, Janet McTeer, Harriet Walter, John Goodman, Jude Law, Rosemary Harris, Bill PUllman, Laurie Metcalf, Catherine Zeta Jones, Scarlet Johannson and more.
So what's your point?
1970s Broadway#34
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:45pm
A8, I always find it amusing how well you know Sondheim shows. It must be fun to listen to Company while grinding one's teeth.
If I could time travel to a decade, 1940s Broadway would probably be my choice. But for an individual year, 1971 would be it (Company, Follies, Promises Promises, etc)
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/27/12
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/27/12
1970s Broadway#38
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:51pm
One was a smart, stylish musical that represented the Broadway musical the way it was supposed to be.
The other was pretentious claptrap that sounded the death knell of the musical as it was supposed to be.
"Now you've entered the asylum.
This profession's unique!
Actors are children
Playing hide-and-ego-seek."
Now everyone can guess whether this delicious quatrain comes from the "smart, stylish" show or the "pretentious claptrap"? (I know pulling 4 lines out of context isn't really fair, but when have these comparisons ever been fair, eh, A8?)
1970s Broadway#39
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:52pmask the entire question again, Gaveston. Poor AfterDeath can't be asked to remember something that happened 10 minutes ago.
1970s Broadway#40
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:55pm
You kind of make my point by listing Elaine Stritch.
Seriously, I get it and I appreciate that response. I know I was asking for it. But I look over those names and the length of the list obfuscates worth to me. Linda Lavin? Phylicia Rashad? Julia Roberts, who nearly got booed off the stage by critics who love her? My humble list was about actors of serious stature, not celebrities. I realize that opinions differ as to talent. I realize that any 'my actors are better than yours' is absurd. Still. My actors are better than yours because your list doesn't discriminate at all. Hugh Jackman has talent, but his ability to annoy is greater. Amy Irving is so talentless, it's scary. Alfre Woodard and Diane Viest are marvelous, but Jude Law should be shot and thrown into a ditch. Katie Holmes? Are we being playful, now?
1970s Broadway#42
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:57pmjarndyce, it's obvious you're new here if you're trying to engage AfterEight in conversation. Welcome to the cookie jar, though!
1970s Broadway#43
Posted: 9/8/12 at 10:58pmNow I have to have that nightmare where my phone rings and Bacall is singing, 'Hurry Back'.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
1970s Broadway#44
Posted: 9/8/12 at 11:00pmThe 1970's ended with the opening of "42nd Street" and the death of Gower Champion. The 80's brought AIDS, the British Mega-Musicals, and the start of the "clean up Times Square" movement. Nothing was ever the same again.
1970s Broadway#45
Posted: 9/8/12 at 11:02pm
How does that make your point? You listed "beloved" performers, I did the same. And please don't start that ridiculous argument about Julia being "booed off the stage" It was the critics chance to take a whack at one of the biggest movie stars to ever hit the Broadway stage and they did. It's an argument that's not worth having again. And yes, forgive me listing non serious "THEAT-UH" actors. I'm sure they don't care about their craft at all and are all just in it for the cash. Hacks like poor Kevin Kline, Marian Seldes, Angela Lansbury, Ralph Fiennes, Paul Newman, etc.
I love when people can't accept the fact that the Broadway that was there when they stepped off the bus from Bumfvck, IL isn't the same Broadway from when I stepped off that bus or anyone else. Your "Golden Age" is yours and it's not everyone elses. Great you saw Jessica Tandy. I'd give a nut to have seen her, but I didn't. But I did get to see Ellen Burstyn, Kathleen Turner, Jane Fonda, Morgan Freeman and a buffet of other performers who are every bit as talented as she was. Your list of dead celebs is awesome. In 50 years sadly, I'll have a list of mostly dead celebs that people will drop their jaw over (Yes, that does include Julia Roberts) but they'll have an entirely new list of actors that they've gotten to see that will be just as impressive.
Updated On: 9/8/12 at 11:02 PM
1970s Broadway#46
Posted: 9/8/12 at 11:05pm
Yee-ha, Jon. Bingo.
I can be very dense and it did not occur to me that y'all have histories. Forget the 70s - I'm back in the 90s and the AOL chat wars.
1970s Broadway#48
Posted: 9/8/12 at 11:08pm
How many people here are arguing that one decade or another is the "best"?
All I said was that Eric was correct that the 70s saw a lot of wonderful musicals, that what it lacked in quantity of hits it made up in quality.
I don't know how we got to "the decade when I turned 14 was the best decade EVUH!", but it's not the game I'm playing.
1970s Broadway#49
Posted: 9/8/12 at 11:10pmThe 70s had amazing musicals. So did the 80s. The 90s did, too. Come to think of it so did the 2000s.
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