Ballroom Revival?

Does anyone else think this would be a good idea?
I know the show didn't do all the great the first time around and the score isn't particularly amazing, but I would like to see this done.
Especially since the public is getting interested in ballroom dancing again, shown by the popularity of Dancing with the Stars.

If so who could play Bea(Dorothy Loudon's role)?

It would never sell, but I would LOVE to see Encores do it. I'd love to see Stritchy in the Loudon role. Or Bea Arthur, although Bea did "Fifty Percent" in her one-woman show and it wasn't all that impressive.

I've love to see it get the Encores treatment someday (with a top rank middle-aged actress in the lead), but we'll never see a full-scale revival of it on Broadway. There all sorts of shows that were hits the first time around (Mame, Funny Girl, On the Twentieth Century, Promises, Promises) that are seen as too big and expensive a risk to bring back, so I doubt there's a long line of producers anxiously waiting to sink $10 million into a show that was a huge flop in its first incarnation. Unless, someone can talk Bette Midler into coming back and doing 8 shows a week again for a year on Broadway -- good luck with that -- Ballroom won't be revived.

And anyway, who's around these days who could fix it? I mean, if a genius like Bennett at the top of his powers couldn't figure out a way to make it work, I shudder to think what someone like Wayne Cilento might do to it.

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Tyne Daly did it a few years back and was AMAZING as Bea, so for an Encores or Musicals in Mufti production, it would be possible...Bea Arthur is a bit too old now, I think.

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Yes, Mame came back with Lansbury in 1983 and only lasted a month, due in part to several factors -- they stuck it the wrong theater for the show (The Gershwin was way too large for what was essentially a touring production and it swallowed up the show); the marketing was either mishandled or nonexistent, depending on who you talk to; it was a mistake to bring it in at the end of summer. Lansbury was terrific, but the production seemed lackluster. It was the wrong production at the wrong time at the wrong place and it never had a chance.

There was talk of bringing in the Baranski Kennedy Center production last summer, but with lukewarm reviews, a theater shortage and Baranski's lack of box office appeal, it was eventually scuttled as being too risky financially. It probably will only come back again in the future if a MUCH bigger star name gets attached to it.

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Updated On: 3/27/07 at 07:26 PM

Margo, what top-of-the-rank middle-aged actresses do you think would be good for an Encores! staging?

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Bernadette would be an interesting choice (she can do both the comedy and the vulnerability).

Harriet Harris' singing voice isn't the best, but I think she could nail the role.

Dana Ivey? Judy Kaye? Judi Dench (yeah right)?

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Ellen Greene

Not a huge name, but I'd be there opening night. Would be pretty fierce.