Breaking News: Encores! 2016 Season to Feature CABIN IN THE SKY, 1776, DO I HEAR A WALTZ?
Posted: 5/10/15 at 12:09pm
Isn't "1776" a little off their mission of producing "rarely seen" Broadway musicals?
Otherwise, great choices.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Posted: 5/10/15 at 12:18pm
I don't care...1776 has the greatest set of musical theater charts ever written. (But a completely mediocre score, the orchestrations save the show.) I cannot wait to hear Eddie Sauter in all his glory.
Also, paging Victoria Clark and Paulo Szot for ...WALTZ.
Updated On: 5/10/15 at 12:18 PM
Posted: 5/10/15 at 12:28pm
Outstanding choices. I know 1776 doesn't seem to be the most obvious choice for Encores, but I'm so excited to see it.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 12:53pm
1776 may be a bit outside of their general mission statement, but a great choice nonetheless. Every once in a while they do a show like that, usually for the best. I have fonder memories of their Bye Bye Birdie from 2004 than I do of the lackluster revival Roundabout gave us a few years ago.
And who knows, maybe it will lead to a full-scale revival of the show if it's received well enough?
Posted: 5/10/15 at 1:08pm
It's about time they do Waltz.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 1:54pm
I wish they would do shows that don't have a cast recording out so people could hear a score for the first time, like back when they did Sweet Adeline, Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, Face The Music, etc. I really want to see them do a whole bunch of Jerome Kern shows, especially Very Warm For May.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 2:25pm
So Victoria Clark is practically a guarantee for WALTZ, right? Right?... I hope so. I wouldn't mind it if another Sondheim favorite, my beloved Donna Murphy, played the role but this seems to have Clark written all over it.
And I know it's not a big role but I'd kill to see Jessie Mueller sing "He Plays the Violin."
I'd never heard of CABIN IN THE SKY before. Did anyone here see it or is familiar with it?
Posted: 5/10/15 at 2:35pm
ray, I only know Cabin in the Sky from the movie, which was the directorial debut of Vincente Minnelli. It's an A-list, all-black cast, headlined by Ethel Waters, Lena Horne (both fantastic), Eddie Anderson, Rex Ingram, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Butterfly McQueen, and many others. Waters and Ingram reprised their original Broadway roles.
A great score, but several of its best-known songs were written for the film, including "Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe," by Wizard of Oz team Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. I wonder if it will be included in the Encores version.
I actually like the plot a lot, which you can read about on the Wiki Page.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Updated On: 5/10/15 at 02:35 PM
Posted: 5/10/15 at 2:58pm
The film of CABIN IN THE SKY only retained maybe three songs from the stage musical. There was no original cast recording, although Ethel Waters recorded a couple of numbers from the show, and Capitol had recorded a short-lived off-Broadway production. A good choice for Encores. High-pedigree score with probably Vernon Duke's best loved song. Highly un-PC book makes it unlikely otherwise for revival.
Well, maybe the following season, Encores will do LOVE LIFE.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 3:02pm
I would love to see Love Life
Posted: 5/10/15 at 3:05pm
I'm actually pretty underwhelmed. I'm sure they'll be great, but Do I Hear A Waltz, and especially 1776 are far from "rarely produced musicals". I think there's a bit a million more exciting choices. Clark and possibly Audra are probably shoe-ins for Waltz, I'd assume.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 3:44pm
Audra's doing Shuffle Along. I'm happy about these three shows, especially CABIN IN THE SKY.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 3:45pm
DO I HEAR A WALTZ? is rarely produced, believe me. This'll be its first time back in New York in fifty...well , next year it'll be fifty-one...years. 1776, I agree, but to hear those glorious orchestrations...! I don't care.
I was hoping they'd do LOVE LIFE one of these days. Apparently, the Kurt Weill estate isn't really interested in it getting done, though.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 3:51pm
"DO I HEAR A WALTZ? is rarely produced, believe me. This'll be its first time back in New York in fifty...well , next year it'll be fifty-one...years."
I stand corrected--the last major production was at Papermill in 1966. I must have gotten it confused with PUTTING IT TOGETHER, or one of his other revues. But based on the synopsis alone, still doesn't thrill me.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 4:14pm
jv92, Do I Hear a Waltz was presented at the equity library in 1975, so this will be 40/41 years, not 50/51
Either way, I saw the show in 2014 at 42nd Street Moon and thought it was pretty great. The lyrics are surprisingly bad, but that's what happens when you try to mesh Sondheim and Rodgers, but the score is beautiful and the book is charming. In terms of quality, I'd say it lands somewhere around Juno in terms of old shows that are really good, but don't (and shouldn't) make it into legendary classics.
Updated On: 5/10/15 at 04:14 PM
Posted: 5/10/15 at 4:56pm
I was only adhering to the press release Encores! put out. Didn't know about Equity Library. In any event, it'll be nice to see it again. I don't think the lyrics are bad, either. Some of the music, however, is plodding.
I think it's a cute, sweet show-- not a masterpiece, not even a minor-piece-- but it'll be fun to hear/see, especially if they cast if well. Ralph Burns' orchestrations are very good. It could have been really interesting if Rodgers had stepped out of his comfort zone and taken Sondheim's suggestion of NOT having Leona sing until the end-- when she "hears a waltz." But it's a nice little musical comedy.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 4:59pm
A critical edition of the LOVE LIFE score is being readied, according to the Weill Foundation website. (www.kwf.org)
http://www.kwf.org/kurt-weill/weill-works/by-title/28-weill-works/weill-works/175-n4main
Maybe that could be the reason why Encores hasn't done the show yet. Lerner apparently had reservations about allowing it to be revived, but I doubt his heirs are preventing it from being done. It's an important piece -- it may be the first "concept musical" -- but, for a variety of reasons, remains pretty obscure.
With all the enthusiasm for Eddie Sauter, how about another show he orchestrated, LOLITA, MY LOVE?
Posted: 5/10/15 at 5:02pm
Lerner's estate REALLY doesn't want LOLITA MY LOVE done. I know the York has tried to do a Mufti of it, to no avail. I would LOOOOOOVE to see that show done somewhere. It's my flop obsession.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 5:14pm
"Also, paging Victoria Clark and Paulo Szot for ...WALTZ. "
Renato's music in Do I Hear A Waltz is rather more suited to a tenor voice.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 5:15pm
Transpose it!
And yes, you're right about the vocal range. He just FEELS so right, though.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 5:19pm
Shortly after composer John Barry died, the BBC aired a retrospective. Apparently, after the Broadway opening of LOLITA was cancelled, Lerner approached Barry about going back to work on LOLITA. Barry's reported response was hilarious. Maybe Barry's heirs don't want it revived.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 5:20pm
Barry probably just didn't want to work with Lerner again. Nobody did after working with him once. And Fritz Loewe wrote seven shows with him.
Updated On: 5/10/15 at 05:20 PM
Posted: 5/10/15 at 6:58pm
Do I Hear A Waltz is the show I'm ready to buy a ticket for now. I don't know anything about Cabin in the Sky.
Posted: 5/10/15 at 7:09pm
I wonder if they'll be abridging the lengthy book scene in 1776?
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