Coco: Did anyone see it?

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 7/8/07 at 12:30pm

Was just watching Broadway lost treasures and they had a piece on this Musical.

Did anyone have a chance to see it, good, bad, indifferent?

Was there a cast recording and more so do i want to own it?

Katharine Hepburn as Coco Chanel, i am sure even if it was the worst show ever, how much of a joy it would have been to see her on stage.

[OtherDaryl]

Posted: 7/8/07 at 5:45pm

There is a site out there with the Tony number on it, BlueGobo.com. There was a cast recording. George Rose was a treat, best I can tell from that.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 7/8/07 at 5:54pm

I thought the Tony performance was one of the longest, most boring things I've ever seen.

[MisterRussell]

Posted: 7/8/07 at 6:03pm

I never saw the show, but i have the Cd and whether you'll ike it is totally up to you. I love it, but several posters in here hated it. The sound quality is spotty, several segments that were filmed onstage were merely incorporated into the cast album so there's a tinny, otherworldly quality to the songs, but overall, it's Hepburn's performance you want to get it for. Can she sing? God, no. Can she sell a number? With the best of them. Remember, this is Alan Jay Lerner, who practically invented musicals for actors who can't sing.

[jennyish]

Posted: 7/8/07 at 7:07pm

My grandparents saw it--I've inherited the playbill.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 7/8/07 at 7:25pm

I saw the show and was bored by it. The cast recording is one of the worst jobs ever sone to a musical's score--the whole album sounds as though it was recorded in a tin can.

A while later, I saw Ginger Rogers do the show at the Westbury Music Fair and realized that there's nice music in the show--Kate Hepburn's acting and vocalizing made the Broadway version unbearable.

[alterego]

Posted: 7/8/07 at 10:56pm

The sequence shown on the Tony's and that which appears on Broadways Lost Treasures is a fashion parade in which all the women are wearing red. It is well documented that Coco Chanel hated the colour red and wouldn't never use it in her designs. lol. So much for accuracy!

Coco Chanel was told Katherine Hepburn was playing her. She liked this idea but she confused Audrey Hepburn with Katherine Hepburn. She was brought into the original press announcement but kept away from her star. The first she saw of her was when they announced Katherine Hepburns name, expecting to see Audrey she was more than shocked. Later she went on record as saying Katherine Hepburn was way too old to play her.

Years ago I bought the cast album (vinyl), when I played it I thought my turntable was spinning fast as Katherine Hepburn sounded like Donald Duck. I later read that the whole recording when transferred from tape to disc was indeed sped up in order for it to fit onto the disc. Updated On: 7/8/07 at 10:56 PM

[Wicked63]

Posted: 7/8/07 at 10:58pm

The Cd and the clip from the Tonys is enuf dontya think?

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/8/07 at 11:00pm

Also, a young Ann Reinking was one of the models in the show and...Michael Bennett did the musical staging/choreography for COCO.

Cover art for the 1970 Original Broadway Cast Recording:

[cturtle]

Posted: 7/9/07 at 12:01am

i love the OCR ... but only because KATE and RENE are on it ... the material itself is not so great. (although some of it grows on you after a while!)

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 7/9/07 at 12:18am

I love that cover art.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 7/9/07 at 12:23am

The cover art is great.

Do you think it could work again, if say encores was to give it a shot or is it one of those shows that should never see the light of day again..

But than again reading some of the replys here kind of answer my own question..

Funny you should say that Alter, about the color Red, the person i was watching it with said the same thing!

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/9/07 at 12:31am

I thought you were talking about Sutton Foster on Flight of the Conchords tonight.