A community theater FOLLIES.... — Page 6

It's also possible that MTI will authorize one of us to do an audiotape of CITY OF ANGELS, or they may actually send out their own spies. I've been to playhouses that were shut down without notice--cops and everything--because of this sort of thing. The audiences showed up and there was police tape across the front doors.

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Think what you want. I don't live to impress you.

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PRS-
I don't actually know about cops and tape, but I have heard about MTI sending people out to do things like that.

R&H is even worse about it.

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"It's also possible that MTI will authorize one of us to do an audiotape of CITY OF ANGELS, or they may actually send out their own spies."

MTI will do no such thing, not a chance in the world. Mainly because MTI does not control the licensing for City of Angels, Tams-Witmark does .

A director at my college made some line changes and cut a number from "Company", and it was reported to MTI. There was no legal action- it was a student-directed black box theatre production, which I guess doesn't count high on MTI's list of priorities (even though it was NYU, so it is slightly more reputable than community theatre)-- so I can't imagine the James Street Players will be facing much. They may send someone to see City of Angels, but they didn't do that at NYU either. The only thing that did happen was that the director actually received a LETTER from Stephen Sondheim (which despite its tone is now framed for posterity) to the effect of "Dear So-and-so, In the future, please reconsider before taking artistic license with the work of an author. If we had meant for the show to be done that way, it would have been written that way. Sincerely, Stephen Sondheim" and then he was asked to send a formal letter of apology to MTI.

So, James Street- you should probably think again before making any "corrections" or "improvements" on the libretto to City of Angels (if you could call adding a narrator to Loveland either a correction or an improvement...I would not)...but I don't think they're going to sue the pants off of you or anything,

This thread was interesting for a time, but I'm beginning to believe what some people are saying: that the whole thing was as real and Brendan Stryker's death.

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Im curious as to what NYU cut from Company.

According to You Tube, it was MTI that took the videos off. How can that be, when I've been told (in this thread) that Tams-Witmark controls the rights to FOLLIES?

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Updated On: 10/4/10 at 10:16 PM

The currently licensed version of Company is already such a bastardization of the original piece, I can't imagine why anyone would care what is done to it now. The book has major changes, the orchestrations and vocal arrangements have major changes, and the insertion of "Marry Me A Little" at the end of Act I just makes no sense.

Have you read the posts in this thread - yes, someone told Sondheim (me) and he did something about it.

The outcome is that people are gonna stop posting their shows on YouTube. It's common sense, but a loss for the masses.

Pal Joey: Exactly right. Steve hates this sort of thing, was grateful I brought it to his attention, asked for as much detail as I could give him, including the director's name, and then he obviously acted swiftly.