best 11 o'clock number — Page 4

what exactly is an "11 o'clock number?"

look it up.

yeah i think i know. thanks broadwaygirl

If that's the case, I add "No Good Deed" to my list.

So would the transformation from Jekyll & Hyde be a godd example? It's around the climax of the show?

Do you mean "Confrontation?"

oh yeah that is what i meant. lol i guess it was that Beauty/beast thread earlier.

Based on that definition, then ONCE BEFORE I GO makes this grade, too.

It was brought in later in the previews to replace the penultimate number ( Tenterfield Saddler, which was the musical number before the finale in the Australian production of The Boy From Oz). It worked out very well and an almost routine standing ovation now greets this song after it is sung by Hugh.

Thank you.

I stand corrected, my apologies. But if that's so, then what *is* the phrase associated with the last-minute number that comes in and saves the show? I always considered that the "11 o'clock" because, as I understood the mythos behind it, that's the time the composer and lyricist started working on it to present it to the producer and director the next morning. So what's the label for something like "Comedy Tonight"?

Great things about boards like these is that you can always learn something in the process. :)

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Isnt Comedy Tonight considered an opening number.

Is there a special term for that? If so, I don't know it. While there are dozens of examples of shows being fixed on the road at the last minute, it's very rare that all it took to turnaround a failing show was the addition of just one song -- most shows in trouble need much more help than that. Typically it's about adding several songs, reordering and rechoreographing numbers, firing the leading lady, bringing in a new director or other such drastic measures.

Usually when a show doctor (Robbins, Neil Simon, Fosse, Bennett) would come in, he would make a list of suggestions to fix the show. When Robbins came in to fix "Forum" his only (or at least MAIN) observation was that they had forgotten to tell the audience from the beginning that it was a comedy, so Sondheim went back to his piano and the rest is history. "Forum" is a unique case -- with addition of just one song, the ripple effect through the show was amazing, so suddenly all the laughs were landing, everything else worked and nothing else needed fixing -- that almost never happens.

"A Comedy Tonight" may be the only number which was able to, by itself, turn a flop into a hit-- since I think it may be the only time it's ever happened, there was never a reason to coin a special term for it.

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Updated On: 7/4/04 at 03:25 PM