ARI: 1971 musical based on "Exodus" - anyone here see it?

[markypoo]

Posted: 11/1/17 at 1:12pm

We all have our favorites, and this one is my-favorite-flop-that-I-never-saw.
Other than the info. available in Theatre World for that season, and the opening night reviews, there is next to no documentation on this show, and precious few production photos.
I do have a few live audios, but the action is nearly impossible to visualize.
Anybody who saw it please chime in and hopefully inform.
Thanks!

[NJGUY]

Posted: 11/1/17 at 2:53pm

Saw it at The National Theater in D.C. prior to Broadway.  And even at age 15 I thought it was sort of flat.  My parents gave us a choice to our family of seeing that or No No Nanette in Baltimore, both Pre-Broadway.  We obviously picked the wrong show.

[Esther Blodgett]

Posted: 11/1/17 at 4:46pm

I caught the last preview in Philly which was probably the second performance. The previous poster used the word 'flat' and that about sums it up. It wasn't good, but it wasn't awful, but it wasn't good. It sort of laid there. Exodus is just not a good idea for a musical.

The cast was good although Ari probably torpedoed David Cryer's (father of Jon) career as a (very hunky) leading man, and also that of  Constance Towers. John Savage who did go on to a movie career of sorts was also in it.

If memory serves, one of the producers was Ken Gaston who was famous for not paying his bills. His career sank in the mid 70s when theatres wouldn't book his shows. In this case I am speaking of the road. I think he was on Equity's Defaulting Managers list for a while.

[NJGUY]

Posted: 11/1/17 at 6:08pm

We are going back 46 years, yet I remember it being lit very darkly (and/or the sets were dark) and there were a lot of cast members in on-stage meetings-behind desks and all that; telling the audience plot points, pointing to maps.  Very labor-some direction. Characters were very poorly defined and there was one song that was an attempted showstopper that they sang repeatedly. As an aside, the Ernest Gold theme from the movie was better than any of the music they delivered on stage.  Also, it had a stupid name; leveraging names like Mame, Dolly and other first names.  Ari just doesn't cut it.  I guess it really was awful if they couldn't get the Hadassah crowd to see it!

[antonijan]

Posted: 11/2/17 at 1:00am

For some reason...when a show is biblical

The religious complains that it is too secular

And the atheists complains it is too religious

When the perfect balance is achieved...then both sides can hopefully be happy

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 11/2/17 at 1:51am

...it wasn't a Bible story, though.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 11/2/17 at 6:40pm

I didn't see it, but have an audio as well. I agree it's hard to follow without the stage visuals. Towers and Cryer each sing a few ballads well, but other than that the score doesn't seem to have all that much to offer. 

Fun trivia: Rita Gardner was Constance Towers' understudy. 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 11/2/17 at 8:24pm

Esther Blodgett said: "...The cast was good although Ari probably torpedoed David Cryer's (father of Jon) career as a (very hunky) leading man, and also that of Constance Towers. John Savage who did go on to a movie career of sorts was also in it....
"

I worked with both Miss Towers and Mr. Cryer in the mid-1970s and their careers were doing fine. Towers spent years on the road and then on Broadway as Anna opposite Yul Brynner in THE KING AND I. Cryer was an excellent Mack opposite Lucie Arnaz in a re-imagined MACK AND MABEL, directly by Ron Link. Cryer then went on to spend 19 years in POTO (as well as being one of the founders of ACT).

That's a lot of work for stage actors in this country, but if they didn't live up to your expectations, it wasn't because they had one flop with ARI (which I never saw).

[markypoo]

Posted: 11/2/17 at 8:50pm

And one of the audios I have is from Phiily (?) with Gardner subbing for Towers.