Anne of Green Gables (Charlotte Town)

[ChiChi]

Posted: 7/25/11 at 11:24pm

Okay, so I know there's some official inquiry to prove that this is REALLY the longest running musical in History. But does anyone else think it's just bad? Maybe it is its age, but I just don't find the score to be that good. Everything is Up beat and the whole story is not an up beat one.

On the flip side of the universal, I found the off-broadway musical to be horrid and I even had a friend in it.

I think the Anne story offers a lot to musical theatre, I just wonder if it will ever be done well.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/25/11 at 11:40pm

Lord...that's been playing forever...I saw it on my honeymoon a hundred years ago. (Well, 16 years ago....and it had been playing forever then as well.)

And yes, I remember the score being terrible.

The Anne books, and the PBS movies with Meghan Fellows (I think that was here name) were some of my favorites growing up -- but I really couldn't wait for the musical on PEI to be over.

[ChiChi]

Posted: 7/25/11 at 11:45pm

I've always been obsessed with the story because I'm a little gay boy who pretended I was Anne all of the time. The lyrics are bad too:

"We clearly requested a boy"

[allofmylife]

Posted: 7/26/11 at 12:24am

My first professional theater paycheck came from The Charlottetown Festival.

"Anne of Green Gables" opened in 1964, with, if I remember correctly, Gracie Finlay as Anne. The show is not meant to be anything more than exactly what it is: summer fun in a summer place.

The original musical, by Norman Campbell and Donald Harron (sorry about the spelling but it's been 45 years...) was a television special on the CBC. Donald, BTW was on Hee Haw for years as Charlie Farquharson.

The music is not bad, it's of it's time. Like "The Fantastics" it is sweet and innocent and some of the melodies are quite cute.

But don't think for a moment that the show doesn't pack an emotional punch because it does. The death of Matthew makes grown men bawl like babies at each performance. I know this. I saw it happen night-after-night for three years.

Anne also played in London and for a few weeks on Broadway. It is absolutely beloved in Japan, where "Red Haired Anne" is practically a member of the Imperial Family (when you see the reverence Japanese tourists show when visiting the real-life Green Gables.

After all these years, I myself get a little dewey eyed when I remember

"There is a golden summer,
Waiting for you.
Spinning a dream by sunset.
Til it comes true..."

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 7/26/11 at 1:05pm

The Kevin Sullivan productions of Anne of Green Gables & Anne of Avonlea (that third movie can just go away) are among my all time faves and started my obesesion with Megan Follows.

They are some of the best done TV films ever made.

[ChiChi]

Posted: 7/27/11 at 1:15am

That's a nice story ALLOFMYLIFE. I've spent my whole life waiting for an experience like yours and it will probably never happen, so I am always very happy for people it has happened for.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/27/11 at 5:39am

The Kevin Sullivan movies (well the first two, I never even bothered with the recent third one that apparently didn't even bother using the novels as inspiration or the prequel with Shirley Maclaine), were huge faves of mine when I was a kid. I actually didn't realize they aired on PBS in the US or even had much US success, but it makes sense--I remember the spin off series Road to Avonlea aired in the US on the Disney Channel, but by then I felt I was too old and never really watched it.

I think the musical is pretty awful (I remember we had to learn Ice Cream in elementary school choir)--I agree that it needs some darker music. And yes, everything Anne is massive in Japan--there'sa very good, very faithful, anime tv series from the late 70s that was done by Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki (before they jointly formed Studio Ghibli five years later and did all those great films like Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies, etc, etc).
Updated On: 7/27/11 at 05:39 AM