"A casting notice for a revised revival of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's mystical musical, Brigadoon, is very much in the works for a Broadway future.
Bill Haber and Liza Lerner (Alan Jay Lerner's daughter) are the producers attached to the revival, which has a new book by John Guare, based on lyricist-librettist Alan Jay Lerner's 1947 original, about two American hunters in Scotland who happen upon a centuries-old Scottish village — which is still stuck in the old days.
According to the casting notice, "rehearsal and opening dates for this production have not been set.""
www.playbill.com
"In the U.S.A.
You can have your say,
You can set you goals
And seize the day,
You've been given the freedom
To work your way
To the head of the line-
To the head of the line!"
---Stephen Sondheim
This would be great, I would love to see Brigadoon on Broadway.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
If this comes in for the 2008-2009 season, we'll already have four revivals to fill out the Best Revival category:
GODSPELL PAL JOEY WEST SIDE STORY BRIGADOON
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
MMM a rock score about a bunch of pacifists who didn't want to live in a world torn by war! How about a jam band score so we can all toke up and let the good times roll!
http://theaterfag.blogspot.com/
Reviews and the like
Because it's one of the few post-war musicals that I've never seen ANY production of (the other's On the Town), I'm glad to have the chance. I'm not so sure I'm looking forward to any heavily-revamped book, however. I assume people are joking when they say get rid of the score.
It's weird. It's a hoary, but solid script. I directed a production of it in 1976 and the script gets the job done, but in a sort of Republican America old-school sort of way.
I remember there was a thread where someone mentioned the names attached to this, but can't remember who it was. Was it Jason Danieley?
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
There was a TV version with Robert Goulet and the book was changed to having a group of robbers and theives coming as the reason Brigadoon would fade away except for one day every 100 years. It SUCKED and did not work.
Leave the book alone. And a new score is rediculous. This is one of the all time classic shows.
The book does have its challenges (particularly the "Lundie one act" right toward the end of Act One, which bogs down the forward moving plot with a lot of exposition); I'd love to see what a talented playwright like Guare can do with it, particularly if it's based on original ideas the first time around that may have been removed.
"Brigadoon" is an absolutely magical, wonderful show....beautiful songs. It's about time that this show comes back to Broadway.
No changes required. The key to the magic of the show, is a brilliant Mr. Lundie. When he tells the story of Brigadoon, that scene is so pivotal to the story. You need a brilliant, loving and sensative actor.
Now if we could get a revival of "Mame," that would be great.....
I would love to see Brigadoon come back, it's a great show. I am just worried that moving up the disappearance date will change it too much and take away from the story and the show.
There's a lot bigger change in culture and in culture shock between the 1740s and 1940s that there is between 1939 and now.
I'm not necessarily upset that they're fixing up the book, just with the advancement of the story 190 years, I think it may take away from the story some.
Then again, I could and hope to be pleasantly surprised.