70, Girls, 70
70, Girls, 70
#170, Girls, 70
Posted: 4/6/07 at 10:52pm
Alright, so I've heard a few songs from this musical and really, I don't think it's bad at all. The only information I've read is that it's about old people who steals furs for different causes.
What I really want to say is has anybody seen the show?
EDIT:
Or if they know of any music or reviews, or even their opinion.
What?
Oh wait, Call me. Frank.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#2re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 4/6/07 at 11:09pm
Here's a thread with a few impressions of last year's Encores production of the show:
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardname=bway&thread=892081
#2re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 4/6/07 at 11:16pm
I actually saw a production of this last week. The show is a lot of fun - with a very catchy score and a somewhat silly book (but always entertaining) book. Overall I think the musical works quite well, but then of course it really depends on the level of the cast - all of whom are senior citizans. Olympia Dukakis was by most opinions miscast and under-rehearsed in the lead role at Encores - and like any musical - the show is only as good as its leading lady.
The production that was done a few years earlier at Musicals in Mufti starring the very likeable Jane Powell was supposedly much stronger.
#3re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 4/7/07 at 2:07pm
The show is based on a play called A Breath of Spring which was made into a marvelous movie called Make Mine Mink. That movie, by the way, is showing on April 19 on TCM. Check for times. The Encores production was absolutely terrific, and I have convinced a local community theatre to produce it next season.
They need it in their playbill: their audience base is senior citizens and the show is right up their alley. Furthermore, we need to produce more shows for older actors. Enough of these constant revivals of the warhorses. Here in the Twin Cities we have sometimes had multiple productions of the same show in one year. One year, we had 7 Josephs, including the tour starring Donny Osmond and a production at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre. It's not unusual to have 5 or 6 Fiddlers, Annies or The Sound of Musics in a single year.
It's exciting to have a production of 70 Girls 70 coming up!
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#4re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 4/7/07 at 2:57pm
The original book has a bit of a half-hearted show within a show concept. As written, it wasn't just the story of a group of senior citizens stealing furs to buy and renovate their hotel, but it also has scenes and songs showcasing and highlighting the actors you are seeing performing that story. So songs like the opening "Old Folks," "Broadway, My Street," "Coffee in a Cardboard Cup" and "Go Visit Your Grandmother" are not plot driven, but are turns to feature and celebrate the eldery performers. The London production from a few years ago featured a revised book that attempted to integrate all of the songs, and remove the "actors performing a show" concept, to minimize the confusion factor.
That said, I worked on a production of "70, Girls, 70," using the original book, and the audience went berserk for it, flaws and all.
#5re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 4/7/07 at 3:31pmA great score and a wonderful cast album that I listen to often.
#6re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 4/7/07 at 6:51pm
This was the score that turned me into a Kander & Ebb fan!
Interesting bit of trivia, the song in the London revival "I Can't Do That Anymore" was originally written for a Frank Sinatra television special of the '70's which he performed with Gene Kelly.
You may now return to your everyday lives...
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#7re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 4/7/07 at 7:08pmI love this show, and would LOVE to see it live. I actually discovered it thanks to "Liza with a Z!" (And I wish her arrangement was available). Didn't one of the cast members die out of town onstage? Or am I thinking of something else?
#8re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 4/7/07 at 7:39pmThis was a show was a celebration of what old people could do. On a down note, popular Broadway actor and Tony Award winner David Burns died from a heart attack he had after performing the "Go Vis Yor Grandmother" number during a preview of the show.
#9re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 4/8/07 at 2:33am
70 Girls 70 has a terrific score. I have seen two productions of the show. The cast album is a favorite of mine. But the book is beyond horrendous and lacking in logic. The story just stumbles along and the audience goes "Huh?"
I saw the original production with Mildred Natwick and company and thanks to the wonderful numbers by Onna White had some excitement. Unfortunately the book --that clunky clunky book has got to be the most insipid thing ever written.
Goldie Shaw, Lillian Heyman, Hans Conreid (who replaced David Burns) Mildred Natwick worked their heart out.Tommy Breslin was a stand out too. But you can't save a sinking book. I do remember thinking (in my 15 year old mind) that one actress in the original cast looked like she was going to keel over any minute. I was very concerned for some of those actors. Meanwhile Follies, the other nostalgic old timers musical, openned a week before and was playing around the block!
I also remember thinking the opening number " If you want to see old folks.. you're in the wrong place tonite" as cute as it was worked against itself because the performers did indeed look old. The direction, by Stanley Prager was equally insipid. But those songs were fabulous.
About 5 years ago, they revived it in a staged reading in Los Angeles with Jane Kean, Marnie Nixon , Robert Marsdan and Charlotte Raye. The book fell flat once again and the only stand out performance was given by Jane Kean (who used to do those Honeymooner Musicals on the Jackie Gleason show as Trixis as well as a lead in Ankels Away)
The show, in spite of some great numbers, just does not work and will never work. The book is appallingly bad.
#10re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 8/12/20 at 6:28pm
I would love a revival with Bernadette Peters as Ida and other Broadway older vets rounding out the rest of the cast. Yes it’s absurd, yes it occasionally doesn’t make sense but this feel good musical comedy is what Broadway needs when it returns. Reading the scene where the police visit and they all play ‘old’ had me in absolute stitches. A director and cast can have so much fun with this show. And if they can get the right cast they might actually sell a few tickets this time.
#11re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 8/13/20 at 12:45pm
I've never read the revised version they mounted in, I think, the 90s in London (?), which I believe had a new book, but I've read the libretto for the original Broadway production and it's a mess. There are some terrific moments, the bit qolbinau mentioned where they "play old" is great (I also love the reveal of the upgraded hotel) but a lot of other scenes are just half-hearted slapstick and meandering vaudeville routines. I think part of that was meant to play into the concept of the show being a production put on by a bunch of old folks who've taken over the theatre, which is cute, but that's a tough conceit to pull off, and since they don't it's narratively disastrous.
IMHO it's a nearly flawless score and it's a wonderful showcase of Kander and Ebb in their prime, so the fact that it's not a complete piece is a tragedy.
Jarethan
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/10/11
#12re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 8/13/20 at 3:32pm
I saw this during its very short original run. I loved it. I was young enough (about 20) that I could ignore the book scenes and focus on the musical numbers if I had to, so I do not remember that the book was poor (apparently it was). Mildred Natwick was wonderful in the lead role...the warmth she always had as a performer was in abundance. I was very disappointed when it did not catch on for even a several month run.
The problem, of course, with BP playing the role is that she does not convey 'older but still in the game'. Can she do old? Will she do old? While the lead character becomes glamorous over the course of the show, as I remember she needed to be pretty old looking in the beginning. It is 50 years ago, so I may be remembering incorrectly.
#13re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 8/13/20 at 4:10pm
The Martha Swope collection has a bunch of pictures of the original production, if you want to refresh your memory!
Updated On: 8/13/20 at 04:10 PM
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#14re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 8/13/20 at 5:24pm
John Kander talking about David Burns on stage death during a preview performance:
#15re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 8/14/20 at 1:09am
I think it is unlikely that when theatre comes back, audiences will be clamouring to see a show about older white people that flopped in the 70's right away, but maybe in time it'll feel right.
#16re: 70, Girls, 70
Posted: 8/14/20 at 5:43am
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