Posted: 5/11/20 at 2:40am
Hey guys! How did the cut song "There's Always A Woman" function in the show? I know it's been put in some concert productions, but was there a scene that was cut that explained why the song was taking place? Any insight would be appreciated!
Posted: 5/15/20 at 6:24pm
Don't quote me, but I believe it was a break in the action during the Cookie Chase- the show was so crazy anything's possible. It might have ended up delaying the progress of the show to its detriment. That's just my theory.
Posted: 5/15/20 at 11:36pm
ETA: THE POST THAT FOLLOWS CONCERNS A DIFFERENT SONG, "There Won't Be Trumpets." I misread the original post and several people kindly corrected me. It goes without saying that I regret the error.
*****
No. It followed soon after Nurse Apple's big Act I monologue. (Forgive me, but I'm too lazy to go and look up what she says, but it's a long and very funny rant about the treatment of her "Cookies".)
In SONDEIM & CO., Sondheim says Lee Remick was getting applause at the end of the monologue, but was struggling with the song. Having both seemed to kill the momentum of the scene, anyway, so they cut the number.
ETA *I* believe--this is me talking now, not Sondheim or anyone else with the production--"There Won't Be Trumpets" was intended as a sort of anti-"I want" song in the R&H (as defined by Lehman Engel) tradition.
Cutting the song has always seemed problematic to me, in theory, since the entire piece ends with (SPOILER) the blowing of a trumpet. But now I can't recall whether they put the song back in the one time I saw the show (at the York Theater in the early 1980s). I knew the song from SIDE BY SIDE..., but didn't know ACW well enough to have missed it.
Updated On: 5/16/20 at 11:36 PM
Posted: 5/16/20 at 12:44am
Sondheim talks about this song a little in his book of lyrics. Basically it was meant to be an 11 o'clock number towards the end of the show during the Cookie Chase. This was the only time the two female leads were in the same scene. Fay was also disguised as Cora at this point in the show, so the women looked the identical. It was funny, but not funny enough. Or as Sondheim says "It wasn't even a ten thirty number, more like a ten fifteen." So it was yanked.
Posted: 5/16/20 at 1:09am
GavestonPS said: "No. It followed soon after Nurse Apple's big Act I monologue. (Forgive me, but I'm too lazy to go and look up what she says, but it's a long and very funny rant about the treatment of her "Cookies".)
In SONDEIM & CO., Sondheim says Lee Remick was getting applause at the end of the monologue, but was struggling with the song. Having both seemed to kill the momentum of the scene, anyway, so they cut the number.
ETA *I* believe--this is me talking now, not Sondheim or anyone else with the production--"There Won't Be Trumpets" was intended as a sort of anti-"I want" song in the R&H (as defined by Lehman Engel) tradition.
Cutting the song has always seemed problematic to me, in theory, since the entire piece ends with (SPOILER) the blowing of a trumpet. But now I can't recall whether they put the song back in the one time I saw the show (at the York Theater in the early 1980s). I knew the song from SIDE BY SIDE..., but didn't know ACW well enough to have missed it."
Uh, no, that song would be "There Won't Be Trumpets." A friend who claimed he saw the show in previews and after opening said the song worked well in that spot.
"There's Always a Woman" was part of the Cookie Chase, indeed.
Posted: 5/16/20 at 2:14am
joevitus said: "Uh, no, that song would be "There Won't Be Trumpets." A friend who claimed he saw the show in previews and after opening said the song worked well in that spot.
"There's Always a Woman" was part of the Cookie Chase, indeed."
OF COURSE, OF COURSE, OF COURSE!
Looks like my reading comprehension skills are declining along with my fragile grasp of reality.
Everything I said above was with regard to "Trumpets".
DUH! The 1985 benefit concert with Bernadette Peters and Madeleine Kahn has "Always a Woman" after the Cookie chase, just where it belongs.
(It also has the monologue that was kept as well as "Trumpets" that was cut.)
Thanks for the correction, guys.
Posted: 5/16/20 at 9:14pm
GavestonPS said: "ETA: THE POST THAT FOLLOWS CONCERNS A DIFFERENT SONG, "There Won't Be Trumpets." I misread the original post and several people kindly corrected me. It goes without saying that I regret the error.
*****
No. It followed soon after Nurse Apple's big Act I monologue. (Forgive me, but I'm too lazy to go and look up what she says, but it's a long and very funny rant about the treatment of her "Cookies".)
In SONDEIM & CO., Sondheim says Lee Remick was getting applause at the end of the monologue, but was struggling with the song. Having both seemed to kill the momentum of the scene, anyway, so they cut the number.
ETA *I* believe--this is me talking now, not Sondheim or anyone else with the production--"There Won't Be Trumpets" was intended as a sort of anti-"I want" song in the R&H (as defined by Lehman Engel) tradition.
Cutting the song has always seemed problematic to me, in theory, since the entire piece ends with (SPOILER) the blowing of a trumpet. But now I can't recall whether they put the song back in the one time I saw the show (at the York Theater in the early 1980s). I knew the song from SIDE BY SIDE..., but didn't know ACW well enough to have missed it."
A production at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London 10 years ago included There Won't Be Trumpets but not There's Always a Woman. Both Fay's monologue and Trumpets worked together as a great character introduction (and were performed excellently by Rosalie Craig). Plus Hapgood was introduced with trumpets, so the song also gave him extra context and helped to keep you questioning.
I've wondered how There's Always a Woman fit into the show. From what I remember of the show following the Cookie Chase, a song like that probably would have destroyed the urgency of that part of the story. And as entertaining as the song is, there wasn't any significant conflict set up between Fay and Cora. It was all indirect and ideological, whereas the fun of the song is the personal rivalry.
Posted: 5/16/20 at 10:54pm
IM, now that my Alzheimer's episode has passed, I can report that the 1985 Carnegie Hall recording has all the songs discussed here (plus Faye's monologue). Angela Lansbury narrates the book scenes, but you can hear the songs in order and get a sense of what each adds (or doesn't add) to the narrative.
It's still available from iTunes. I wouldn't push it on a casual musical comedy fan, but Sondheim lovers (and fans of the late Madeleine Kahn) will want it, I think.
Bernadette Peters, Madeleine Kahn and Scott Bakula are the leads.
Posted: 5/17/20 at 2:48pm
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't "There's Always a Woman" part of the original show, even after it opened? I was under the impression it wasn't cut, it just isn't on the OBC album because of space contraints.
Posted: 5/17/20 at 5:19pm
The 1986 Theater Factory St. Louis production included the song "The Lame, The Halt, and The Blind" (sung by Schub, Cooley, & Magruder) between "Miracle Song" and "Simple"
I don't remember any other specific changes or additions (I saw this a long, long time ago) ("There's Always a Woman" and "There Won't Be Trumpets" are not listed in the program)
The program notes that the previously unperformed and unpublished material was included with Mr. Sondheim's permission
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