BEACHES The Musical (or, musicals that replaced the composer & score)

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/23/24 at 10:50pm

I noticed that BEACHES: THE MUSICAL –– currently running in Calgary featuring Kelli Barrett & Jessica Vosk –– made the unusual decision to replace its composer after its first two out-of-town engagements in 2014 and 2015:

For those two productions, David Austin was the sole credited composer. Now, 90-year-old Mike Stoller (of Lieber & Stoller) is the sole credited composer. Interestingly, Iris Rainer Dart has remained as lyricist and bookwriter (and source material author) throughout all 3 versions of the show. She and Stoller previously collaborated on People in the Picture. The show also had a change in director: Eric Schaeffer originally, now Lonny Price.

The show was previously announced to be opening on Broadway in 2016, but obviously that didn't happen. The Calgary production has a lengthy list of commercial producers attached to it, so perhaps they will get it to Broadway if the response is rapturous and the money is there.

Was the score really that awful/unsalvageable that they had to start again from scratch after two different out-of-town engagements and the announcement of a Broadway production? And, for those who've seen it in Calgary and elsewhere, is it significantly better now?

Aside from Harvey Weinstein's antics on FINDING NEVERLAND, what are other examples of shows that replaced the score after a full production of the show?

[Meyerschultz]

Posted: 5/24/24 at 12:17am

“A Christmas Story” was produced at Kansas City Rep in 2009 with a score by Scott Davenport Richards. He was replaced with Pasek & Paul when the production was mounted in 2010 at 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle. 

[Owen22]

Posted: 5/24/24 at 8:40am

I'm unsure if this is apocryphal, but I remember hearing "Little Women" was a composer/lyricist generated show, but when a producer picked it up he fired those original writers from their own show and hired Dickstein and Howland.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 5/24/24 at 9:58am

Owen22 said: "I'm unsure if this is apocryphal, but I remember hearing "Little Women" was a composer/lyricist generated show, but when a producer picked it up he fired those original writers from their own show and hired Dickstein and Howland."

It's not apocryphal, it's true.

"Producer Randall L. Wreghitt (The Beauty Queen of Leenane) has replaced the songwriting team of the new tuner five months before its Boston tryout. Little Women, a Richard Rodgers Development Award-winning project, had been shaped for years by lyricist Allison Hubbard and composer Kim Oler, who apparently initiated the project, but producer Wreghitt replaced Hubbard and Oler with composer Jason Howland and lyricist Mindi Dickstein following a March-April workshop and reading."

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/24/24 at 10:50am

Didn't know that about Little Women! Howland's score is fine, it's the book and lyrics that are the huge problem (and the bookwriter never changed, according to that Playbill piece).

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/24/24 at 12:41pm

That video they put out for this looks insane, almost like a parody. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/24/24 at 1:10pm

Jordan Catalano said: "That video they put out for this looks insane, almost like a parody."

This song is awfully generic and the lyrics don't really match the music!

The video of the authors isn't much better (in which Iris describes girls coming up to her and saying "she's my Beaches" about a friend).

I'm usually of the belief that authors of any age can create a compelling musical about characters of any age and in any era. BUT. On paper, this is a property that BEGS for a woman under the age of 40 as a writer or director. Not an 80-year-old female bookwriter/lyricist and a 90-year-old male composer (who have never written a successful stage musical), alongside a 65-year-old male director. Maybe it's actually magical and wonderful in person, I'm only going by the press materials and show's rocky production history.

Updated On: 5/24/24 at 01:10 PM

[Shubert Alley Cat]

Posted: 5/24/24 at 6:04pm

Saw the out of town tryout in Chicago years ago and it may be one of the worst musicals I have ever seen.  Shoshana could not save that ****.

[Theatrefanboy1]

Posted: 5/24/24 at 8:02pm

Does anyone actually think this will make the transfer to Broadway?   I don’t know. I think it’s quite “under realized” or maybe it just doesn’t work as a musical.  Like the stuff that I’ve seen coming out of this version has been unfortunately lacklustre.  Yet I think. Somehow they are going bring it and it’s going to tank

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 5/25/24 at 2:08pm

Jessica Vosk as Chappell Roan as CC Bloom

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 11:47am

Gretchen, stop trying to make Beaches happen, it's not gonna happen.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 12:21pm

This is a show that simply will not die.

[JSquared2]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 12:34pm

Also, WHY would they name the Barbara Hershey character (named Hillary in the movie) "Bertie"??  Is she also Margo Channing's backstage dresser?

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 2:33pm

JSquared2 said: "Also, WHY would they name the Barbara Hershey character (named Hillary in the movie) "Bertie"?? Is she also Margo Channing's backstage dresser?"

It was a novel first, genius.

If this show is touring, it will be panned all around. It's that awful.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 4:17pm

Seems obvious that this would go the non eq/tertiary market route, right?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 4:38pm

Not quite the same thing, but producer Sam Gesser was obsessed with mounting a musical of Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.  Initially he had Richler write the book and (here's they are again!) Leiber and Stoller write the score, with Lonny Price in the lead, and it would start with a Canadian tour given the source material.  But apparently the mix of score and book didn't work--nothing worked except Lonny--and it died in 1984 before even getting to Montreal, where it's set.

He then hired Alan Menken and David Spencer to write a new score, and ultimately Austin Pendleton would adapt Richler's book and direct.  Lonny was back but it had a ton of issues out of town (including producers wanting a new happier ending) and never made it to Broadway, closing in 1987 in Philadelphia.

Over the years Menken and Spencer sporadically worked on trying to revise the piece and finally in 2015, with a new book by Spencer himself, and a score that they claim was 3/4 new (I've never sat down to compare it directly with the 1980s demos) but Pendleton was back as director (Gesser had passed away in the meantime) where it played to great reviews in Montreal.  And although I don't think it's had any real regional life since (which is a shame) we did get a great cast album out of it.

And ALSO not the same thing, but famously there's the case of Wonderful Town.  George Abbott was so frustrated with the score he had, lyrics by Arnold Horwitt and music by Leroy Anderson (who would write the score for the later flop Goldilocks) that with a month before rehearsals had to start, he called up his On the Town collaborators, Bernstein, Comden and Green, and asked if they could help out.  They wrote the bulk of the score in three weeks and the rest in out of town tryouts.

[BETTY22]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 4:38pm

I love their passion to keep pushing forward. Never give up.........

[Shubert Alley Cat]

Posted: 3/20/25 at 11:40pm

When I saw this in Chicago many moons ago it was hot flaming garbage … and I love the film … but this was just BAD.

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 3/21/25 at 12:45am

Eleven years and two mediocre productions (with talents like Shoshana Bean and Jessica Vosk) later, and they’re STILL working on this? Wild. 

[hyangsoo]

Posted: 3/21/25 at 12:03pm

Is it common for shows to tour before they've had a proper staging in the US? Wondering about the strategy for this.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 3/21/25 at 12:16pm

hyangsoo said: "Is it common for shows to tour before they've had a proper staging in the US? Wondering about the strategy for this."

It's definitely not common, but it's also not unheard of and there are no rules.

It's the type of show that could probably make a lot more money on the road than on Broadway.

I'd be surprised if this is playing top-tier markets, and I'd be surprised if it is Equity, despite being billed as "pre-Broadway." (Everything is pre-Broadway until it isn't)

Movie adaptations like THE BODYGUARD and FLASHDANCE went straight to touring. LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE also toured but didn't go to Broadway. A show premiering in Canada vs a U.S. regional vs London doesn't really matter.

Updated On: 3/21/25 at 12:16 PM

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 3/21/25 at 12:29pm

Looks like Beaches is going to be the First Wives Club of Mystic Pizzas. 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/21/25 at 6:00pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "

Movie adaptations like THE BODYGUARD and FLASHDANCE went straight to touring. LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE also toured but didn't go to Broadway. A show premiering in Canada vs a U.S. regional vs London doesn'treallymatter."

Right--both Six and Hadestown played in not Calgary but Edmonton, Alberta, on the way to Broadway.

 

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/21/25 at 9:24pm

Smile had a totally different score and lyrics during pre-production, then pivoted to a Hamlisch/Ashman version, THEN threw out about half the material and rewrote the score for the licensing version. It's the rewritten one that's on the studio concept demo with Jodi Benson, though the bootleg version that circulated for years had a few tracks from the pre-Hamlisch and Ashman version tacked on at the end.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 3/22/25 at 12:00am

The continued development of this and Bull Durham is just so funny to me. They’ll have to give up at some point, right? I’d love to see someone give another crack at First Wives Club, though. I thought it’s Chicago tryout was almost good.