College Production: Floyd Collins or Little Fish?

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:32am

Floyd Collins or Little Fish?

What do you guys think and why?

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:34am

bad bad and bad all around.
Unless you're doing it as an experimental production, neither is likely to go over well at a college.

As shows, though, I like them.

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:37am

Though I love Floyd Collins, I wish colleges would stop boring audiences. It's hard enough filling seats. I can't wait to see college versions of Tarzan.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:40am

mejusthaving fun and Bway singer - I so agree.

Why don't you look into something fun, Iluvtheatre, that people don't do - that's age appropriate. How about HENRY SWEET HENRY?

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:43am

Heck, if you want to do something off-kilter, why not pick something that still might be silly fun and give your cast a chance to do something they'll likely not do elsewhere, like Zombie Prom?
(that's just the first thing that popped off my head. I don't know that Zombie Prom is high quality since I've never seen it).

[WOSQ]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:43am

Floyd Collins is a better show.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:55am

I'm not, nor have I ever been, that kind of guy. A lot of people here are rooting for THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL. That kind of theater tends to bore me. It doesn't excite me. I don't really feel like spending months at a time so close to it.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:56am

Actually, Zombie Prom is wonderful. Fun, and I think dempsey and Rowe are one of the best writing teams going.

Collins wont fill the seats, even though I adore that score.

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:56am

What about Batboy?

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:57am

So a lot of people wanting to do Trailer Park merits no consideration? I get the feeling you're looking for blanket approval here but the simple fact is that Floyd is a difficult show to navigate (as is Little Fish) and you can argue for "stretching your cast" over and over again but you're going to tax your audience by putting up a show that is musically and textually difficult - or involves complicated themes - and not having a cast who can give it 150%.
So go for Trailer Park.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:57am

Batboy is done so often, that I'm almost bored with it.

We actually perform in a small blackbox that holds (depending on the setup) 40-50 people and almost always sell out our runs, even with little-known works.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:58am

My problem with TRAILER PARK isn't that I'm not considering it - I have for a while now. But it's not something I would direct well. I tend to miss the point in shows like that, if there is one.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 12:00pm

Floyd Collins is one of my favorite shows, but I'll also weigh in to say that I think it would be a poor choice for your venue. It's a great score with a so-so book that can bore audiences to tears if they aren't invested in the show's themes, and it's also a fairly demanding production, physically and in terms of casting.

Little Fish has a much smaller cast, of course, but you'd better have a heck of a gal to pull it off. LaChiusa's name and score aren't going to pull many people in either.

While there are a lot of other great choices, I'll also throw in my two cents re: Zombie Prom. It's a fun show, catchy score, and I've never seen a production of it that didn't work. I'm frankly surprised it isn't being done to death already.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 12:02pm

I have several incredible ladies worth considering to play Charlotte. That's definately a factor I agree with, Ourtime.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 12:06pm

LITTLE FISH wasn't even good Off Broadway. Why would you really want to spend months close to that show? Audiences hated it.

Picking this show is actually a really good lesson-in-waiting, trash, if you think you might like to have a career as a director or a producer of a theatre. You need to have a pulse on what "people" want to see: and in the case of a university setting - what your cast wants to perform. Their energy can help carry your excitement, but if you pick a show audiences dont care for and your students don't get - its not going to be a great show, no matter how much you love the material.

What I often do is narrow the selection down to two or three shows that I want to do and let the audience (or in your case, students) vote on what they most want to see. Most theatres do this in some form because its not only a good gauge of interest but a good PR move for generating buzz on the production.
Updated On: 10/12/06 at 12:06 PM

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 12:37pm

My grad school did a lot of off-kilter pieces or shows that were trouble. Granted, my professor had a professional/personal relationship with scores of writers and composers and was always given approval to "revise" the production by the authors, but she made a name for herself as a respectable show doctor and fixer of problems.
The upside was that it was fun to do a show we might not otherwise do. The problem was that it becomes about making a problematic show work. A show like Floyd Collins not only asks your cast to work overly hard, it asks the audience too as well. So does Little Fish. If your cast isn't up to it, you risk a giant, massive flop of a production.
On the other hand, a show like Trailer Park is the kind of show being produced in NYC right now. It's a good lesson in perfecting stylized comedy for your actors, a great way to teach them how to develop a stereotypical "type" that can still have depth and reach - and it will (hopefully) entertain your audience without demanding that they come along for a ride a cast might not be able to give.

[BluCat500]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 12:54pm

For the record, I'd go see Little Fish with bells on...

Well, maybe not actual bells, mayhap metaphorical bells...

Updated On: 10/12/06 at 12:54 PM

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 12:58pm

I of course love Little Fish and would love to do it, but I would never do it anywhere other than NYC. It wouldn't feel right.

I do have to agree with what's been said.

Although LF is such a black box-y show.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 1:01pm

I think TRAILER PARK is a hard show as well. Comedy is really hard to pull off. Most great comedic actors just have that "it" that makes them such great performers. The score is pretty up-beat and it would give a more people a chance to perform where as the other two shows are smaller casts.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 1:03pm

Some plays are also pretty director-proof.

"A gifted director couldn't even hurt it." ~ DEATHTRAP

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 1:47pm

I actually really love the score and libretto of LITTLE FISH and wouldn't mind spending a great deal of time with it. I've been in contact with the composer, too, for quite a while now - which might be a nice addition the production.

A lot of people here root for the same old shows, but whenever our director does something off-kilter everyone falls in love with it.

One can only hope the same thing would happen had I tackled something, no?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 1:59pm

I can't imagine everyone falling in love with a Michael John Lachiusa piece - certainly not the parents who are going to have to come see it. But if you do like his work - I'd say HELLO AGAIN is more interesting than LITTLE FISH.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 2:01pm

I am also interested to see how SWIWS will be recieved without Idina. It seems college age people took to it because of her.

I wonder if some Idina fan mounts a school production of it, what will happen.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 2:41pm

See What I Wanna See is pretty good. For some reason I can't really get into it that much, but I like bits and pieces of it. I think it will be done by many collegs because it's very "hip" and "edgy." I think Floyd Collins would def. be a challenge and a pain in the ass to do, but more power to you. It's a tough score for anyone.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 5:49pm

I actually thought about the possibilities of SWIWS but the first act wouldn't really work as well as the second act here.

I've done a lot of thinking and decided to go with LITTLE FISH.

Thanks for all your help!