Angela Lansbury - Alternative/Punk Superstar- Page 2

[Sluggy]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 4:05pm

Wow! Thanks for the summaries! I bet Lansbury was just killer in the role!

[Tirso de Molina]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 4:22pm

I'm wondering if Prettybelle would work nowadays onstage! surely if Urinetown and The Goat can be appreciated on Broadway, then Prettybelle would have a chance.

Who would take on the title role, though?! Thoughts, anyone? maybe Joanna Gleason?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 4:27pm

Oooh good casting choice!

[jv92]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 4:34pm

For more information on the show and its staging read "Before the Parade Passes By", the biography on Gower Champion.

[OOTI2004]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 6:28pm

wow...
That sounds pretty interesting. I really wish I could see this show.

[pengwendolyn]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 7:18pm

Tirso de Molina: As soon as I get a chance, I shall do just that.

[Flahooley]

Posted: 1/15/06 at 4:54pm

Thanks for the heads up Jv92.

I can see Faith Prince doing the role.

The book would have to be revised and the "rape" song removed, but I think it could be done.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 2/21/06 at 2:38pm

I don't know if it would be more palatable than it was in the 70s. I never saw it and haven't heard the music, but the premise itself sounds so, well, godawful bordering on offensive to a lot of people. This isn't to say that I wouldn't go see it because I would SO be there. After reading about it in "Everything Was Possible," I ached because I knew I wouldn't ever see it.

[My Strongest Suit]

Posted: 2/21/06 at 3:49pm

what is prettybelle about? i've never heard of it before.

[Flahooley]

Posted: 2/23/06 at 9:31pm

It is they crazy-ass satire on the American South.

Prettybelle is a southern lady who goes crazy upon realizing that she has benefited from and indirectly supported the South's tradtion of racism.

The story is told in flashback. Prettybelle recounts how she came to see the hypocrisy and injustice around her and how her reaction to the lead her into an insane asylum. Fun stuff.

I has one of those great Jule Styne scores.

[Tirso de Molina]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 1:33am

Strongest Suit --

go to the previous page for a couple plot summaries.

I still think that if a show about a man having a love affair with a goat can make it on Bway, then so can a show about an alcoholic Southern woman on a quest to be raped by as many black and Mexican men as she can find!

Updated On: 2/24/06 at 01:33 AM

[Urban]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 2:40am

I just had to put in on after reading this thread. "I Never Did Imagine" cannot be removed! It is needed in the show to show how twisted the entire concept is and how made the widow (err... Prettybelle for lack of any name) was going (or had already gone I suppose) crazy.

If the show wasn't offensive it just wanting bloody work.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 7:12am

You know what I love about this thread? When the same question is asked for a third time, despite being answered twice already.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 9:26am

angie's cover of minor threat's classic filler will down in history as one of the greatest performances ever.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 10:32am

Prettybelle is one of my most beloved flop recordings. "I Met a Man" and "How Could I Know" are on my fave playlist.

I think this would be a great Encores! selection, but I think they only consider stuff that actually open on Bway.

This was so far ahead of it's time and the score and Angie are amazing.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 10:59am

Prettybelle without "I Never Did Imagine" would not be Prettybelle!

As far as casting for a revival or concert, I think the vocals and the humor of the role would come easily to Sally Mayes.

[twogaab2]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 11:01am

I can't imagine this ever being revived (even at Encores or Mufti). By the time it closed out of town, the show had already been literally cut to pieces. In spite of the numbers mentioned (all great), the rest of the score is mediocre. Even if it were doctored, the main thrust (no pun intended) of the script, would still be considered offensive (if not even more so-because of political correctness).

Lansbury was incredable in the role.


Just my opinion, I may be wrong.

Updated On: 2/24/06 at 11:01 AM

[Tir Na Nog]

Posted: 2/24/06 at 12:26pm

"Prettybelle" was replaced by "Follies" in Boston. $20 says Angie secretly wished she was playing Phyllis!

[JackiesBroJoe]

Posted: 2/26/06 at 7:44pm

ooh I love Prettybelle. The cast recording is wonderful, and so is the soundboard recording I discovered a few years back.

[Flahooley]

Posted: 2/27/06 at 5:59pm

Great call, Smaxie! Sally Mayes would be ideal.

After some thought, I must change my opinion on I NEVER DID IMAGINE. You are correct, it PRETTYBELLE wouldn't be PRETTYBELLE without it.

However, there are real problems with that song. I say just hand over a dozen Tonys to the director who can pull of a toe-tapping number about a European-American women who lives in heart of Christian and racist culture and allows herself to be "raped" my Latino-Americans and African-Americans in the pursist of cleansing her soul. Good luck.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 4/7/06 at 8:33pm

Just when you thought it was safe to peruse the BroadwayWorld boards, the Prettybelle thread is back!

C'mon! Where's the Prettybelle love? Won't someone meet me down at the No Tell Motel?

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 4/7/06 at 9:21pm

Have you ever read any of Ethan Mordden's fiction?

(And if you haven't read his books about musical theater, do so immediately!)

In his book "Buddies", in one story, the narrator recalls being in a leather bar and watching these two tough looking leather-men deep in conversation. He wanders over to them, expecting to hear tips on whips and spankings and he hears one to say to the other, "Barbara Cook can play Sally and Angela could be Phyllis..."

I actually have a copy of the libretto to "Prettybelle", an early draft (before "Manic Depressives" was written) and it reads pretty much the way you would expect it read based on the score. Interesting, but scattered all over the place. And the scene in the strip bar, where the guy assaults the stripper would still be squirm inducing.

Now a show that also folded in Boston that same season (and also had a sex in a motel song in it) that really be revived is Alan Jay Lerner and John Barry's "Lolita, My Love". A fabulous score with some of Lerner's best lyrics, post-Lowe (try to track down the bootleg recording put out in the early '80's, or offer to clean the apartment of someone who has it and can make a copy of it for you) with terrific music. And Lerner's libretto is head and shoulders above the stage version that Edward Albee wrote.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 4/7/06 at 9:24pm

>>>I don't know anything about Prettybelle, so I was just wondering what it's basically about.<<<


It's dreadful.

(And if you haven't read his [Ethan Mordden] books about musical theater, do so immediately!)

They're as execrably written as PRETTYBELLE.

Tootie 'The Most Horrible' Smith
St. Louis, MO
Updated On: 4/7/06 at 09:24 PM

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 4/7/06 at 9:40pm

Doodle, I giggled a bit over your Encores thought. IT's not that they only consider past Broadway shows, but rather shows they feel will open on Broadway NOW.
MUFTI would seem a better fit for this piece, anyhow, and, frankly, I'd now love to see it.
Howzabout Carolee Carmello for Prettybelle, Bobby?

[Smaxie]

Posted: 4/7/06 at 9:45pm

Well, TheEnchantedHunter MUST love Lolita, My Love.