City Lights from THE ACT

[robinycus2]

Posted: 10/5/09 at 11:06pm

Liza's got nothing on Kristina... and performed on a church alter!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOp4KfIh9sI
Updated On: 10/5/09 at 11:06 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/5/09 at 11:11pm

I need some cocaine.

STAT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC_jEDJfynk

Updated On: 10/5/09 at 11:11 PM

[Pgenre]

Posted: 10/5/09 at 11:28pm

Marty? Is that you Marty?

P

[Scripps2]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 2:36pm

Of the two, I definitely prefer Frankie Kein.

And his vid of Arthur in the Afternoon is fun as well - presumably the original choreography.

[robinycus2]

Posted: 10/6/09 at 7:16pm

then of course, there's the original at the Tony Awards that year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPfZKFbpcmQ

[BdwyOpal]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 1:07am

Does anyone know what year that was from?

[allofmylife]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 2:16am

Robinycus2, that is an absolute masterclass in what makwes a star. I remember seeing The Act (at Christmas of 1977) and being the seemingly the one straight man in a sea of gay men screaming with applause at the end of that number. Boy does that bring back memories - both great and sad. Liza and I were so young and it was so long before AIDS. Studio 54 was the rage and Bruce Willis was still a bartender. Interestingly enough, I looked up the cast a few years ago and with the exception of Wayne Cilento and my old friend the late Arnold Soboloff, hardy anyone did more Broadway. It was a unique and talented cast.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 2:19pm

I'd love to hear any stories about the tryout and all the various directors/doctors! A number of people "advised" Scorsese and some eventually replaced him as director... Michael Bennett, Gower Champion, Ron Lewis, etc.

Let's just say it seems EVERYONE involved had ONE thing in common...

P

[Scripps2]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 2:33pm

I didn't realise there were gay men in 1977.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 3:12pm

One of the advisors/writers was Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way. She was Scorcese's wife and the mother of his daughter.

Oh, there were lots of us gay men then--lots more than there were 10 years later. It was a very different world.

[robinycus2]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 3:37pm

I was only 14 years old at the time and living far upstate NY (didn't see my 1st Broadway show until a few years later) but I remember listening to this cast album and LOVING it. Wrinkles and gray hair aside, it's for reasons like this that I wish I could have been born earlier. It's also why I love YouTube.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 4:06pm

When I think carefully I do know there were gay men in 1977.

I just have to look at the OLC of Side by Side by Sondheim and see that photograph of David Kernan with his shades and fake-fur jacket.

What further proof do I need?

(seriously though - I don't want my flipancy to overshadow the much more serious point that PJ makes)

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 4:11pm

Maybe we should start a thread about how mean the English posters are.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 4:36pm

Of course there were gay men in 1977. Ask The Lady Liza herself. She was on Gay Husband Number Two at that point.

The Act opened in Chicago pre-Broadway under the title Shine It On. The title was changed because no one knew what it meant.