Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/08
I just watched those clips, and I have to admit that I LOVE "Honestly, Sincere". I thought Nolan was very sexy and sold the song really well... but "The Telephone Hour" was hellish. The staging made absolutely no sense and the kids were atrocious. Was that the best they could come up with? Really? It's been 50 f*cking years!!!!
I like the IDEA of "Telephone Hour". I think those... colorful door-block-telephone-wall things have a lot of potential for inventive staging.
Instead they just sit in lines for most of the time.
JoeKv99, to answer your question, I liked the gawkiness and silliness of it, something that seems very fitting, considering. The set pieces and phones had a playfulness about them. And for myself, I loved to see real kids cast in those parts instead of young-looking adults.
I loved the original 'Telephone Hour', but I've seen it done ad nauseum. It's nice to see it re-explored, and the choreography had a wit and charm about it.
I'm not familiar with Bye Bye Birdie, so maybe it's supposed to be sung that way, but is "The Telephone Hour" supposed to sound so strained? To me it sounded like dying cats more than teenagers singing.
It should sound like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKhR8QtQ4do
UGH! I just watched "TTH".
HOLY BADNESS, BATMAN!
It's not even good-bad... like FWC... its just bad-bad, to paraphrase Whoopi.
P
the choreography had a wit and charm about it.
Or what passes for wit and charm...
The worst thing about these lousy revivals--like Pal Joey and West Side Story and Guy and Dolls and this one--is that they give a new generation a very mediocre idea of what Broadway can be.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/20/05
If you liked Kudish in the TV movie, you should have seen him in the stage version with Tommy Tune (done about five years previously). No one knew who he was going into the show and no one forgot him after seering it.
I'm not of the younger generation by any means, and I've seen Birdie many times. I like the clips.
Stand-by Joined: 1/16/08
I liked the staging for "the telephone hour" though the vocals were atrocious.
and honestly sincere was just bad. Nolan had no presence. The choreography wasn't terrible, but it was nothing special. And I agree about the reactions of the teenage girls in that scene. That was just bad acting.
The choreography wasn't terrible, but it was nothing special.
Then it doesn't belong on Broadway.
Shows like West Side Story and Bye Bye Birdie were created by gifted artists who could give a show an identity by the way it MOVED.
If you haven't got that talent--and I'm talking to YOU, Mr. McNeely, and YOU, Mr. Longbottom--then go back to summer stock and leave the Gower Champion and Jerome Robbins shows to grown-ups.
cast recording wise, I like the TV Version better. The vocals are top notch!
This community theatre (or college?) performance is WAY more energetic than the one from Roundabout
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK8H0G7epd0&feature=player_embedded
The orchestrations on the TV soundtrack are atrocious.
Anyone seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHjBIJKzRc
I don't get why they used Honestly Sincere for the video clips? You would think they'd use the title song!
The worst thing about these lousy revivals--like Pal Joey and West Side Story and Guy and Dolls and this one--is that they give a new generation a very mediocre idea of what Broadway can be.
Applause.
Videos