Crazy Concepts of Classic Shows- Page 5

[strummergirl]

Posted: 12/13/09 at 2:25am

I kind of imagine Sweeney Todd being a traveling group of gypsies who tell an old legend to a small group of people and the story unfolds with a bunch of actions left to the imagination. Basically no blood, perhaps a narrative describing the grisly details.

It ends with a beggarman walking across the stage repeating the lines of "Patty Cake".

Yeah, there would be suing going for messing with the book.

Amanda Palmer would make a fine Sally Bowles. But I just cannot suspend reality of the emcee being nothing but male. That being said I don't get turning Emcee into a Nazi. I always considered him to be sent to the Concentration Camps hence ending the show with what Germany has become and why their show has ended.

Speaking of AFP, since she did sing "What's the Use of Wond'rin'" on her solo album perhaps a modern, urban adaptation of Carousel. We go from early industrialization to post-industrial wasteland with the only thing keeping the town's spirit alive is the Carousel. Playing into the beaten woman's syndrome with the paradox of how Julie's inner-circle and Julie switch their opinions on the matter before and after Billy's death.

Spring Awakening in post- World War II Middle America. I just see too many parallels with the eras. Okay the music may seem more out of place since it is not "ZOMG devil's music!" rock'n'roll. The characters names will be slightly americanized.

[SweeneyPhanatic]

Posted: 12/13/09 at 3:00am

Does "Amadeus" count as a classic? I've had a vision in my head for a while of a somewhat minimalist take on the show. I would prefer a thrust stage for this, by the way. At the top of the show, we see two ladders, one USR, another USL. A large, white-ish cloth hangs between them. DSR is a small piano, DSL a small table and a chair. The Venticelli would spend most of the show on stage, watching the action from the ladders. When Salieri takes us back in time, the Venticelli release the white-ish cloth to reveal an intricate, golden proscenium arch. This arch would be used throughout the play for entrances and exits, and as a window to see the "audiences" watching the "operas." The ladders, table, and chair could all be easily rearranged to represent different locations throughout the play. All of the characters would be dressed in very basic, black pants, skirts, and shirts, except for Mozart and Salieri, who would be in full period attire. Other actors would add accessories for their characters as needed. At the end, when Salieri finally returns to reality, and attempts suicide, the proscenium arch would fold away, the table and chair would be removed, and one of the Venticelli would lock the piano, the idea being that once everything has been taken away from him, our last glimpse of Salieri is his withered body left all alone in a lunatic asylum. With so little on stage, such a production would make GREAT use of underscoring and lighting to enhance the scenes.

I'm toying with the idea of having actors use the ladders as doors by going under them, but my superstitious side is telling me that that might be a bad idea.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/13/09 at 7:32am

Gypsy with Mama Rose as a stay at home mom who has no interest in Gypsy's career .

[tim10086]

Posted: 12/13/09 at 10:23am

I just saw the Australia tour of CHICAGO.

I had seen Chicago in about 2001 in New Zealand (which I believed was the 'official' production) with pared back staging, a scaffold set and simple black costuming, and I loved it.

I now realise that the actual 'official' production, which I saw a version of in Australia just now, is actually EXTREMELY concert-like, with the band taking up 3/4 of the performance space, confused staging of almost every number and a very strange "sense" to the whole evening. I could tell that the audience was as confused as I was...really disappointing.

How has this production run for over ten years in NY and London? People are paying for a musical but not getting that. It should be called Chicago in Concert.

Tim

[Weez]

Posted: 12/13/09 at 11:05am

I'm doing My Fair Lady at the moment, and the director has thus far spent half the time banging on about what an incredibly strong book it is, and the rest of the time talking about how terrible our venue is and how tricky it'll be to stage it there. Which makes me think: why not Peter Brook it? If the book is that strong (and he's not wrong, it really is), then strip the set back to the bare bones and rely on the relationship between actors and audience to put the point across.

Why are amateur productions round here always done so literally? Wonders could be done if only someone had a great concept and was bold enough to see it through! (And I'm off directing for the moment, at least until I've forgotten exactly how much work goes into it. XD)

Updated On: 12/13/09 at 11:05 AM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/13/09 at 11:11am

To the poster that suggested Bobby is gay:

About 5 years ago a good local theatre produced Company. Like most community theaters they have the their 'regulars' and most of their men are gay....and often stereotypically so...physically and vocally. The man cast as Bobby, was indeed "a bit light in his loafers" and I turned to my companion and made some sort of comment like: No wonder none of the women he dates are the "one"....Bobby's gay!

Afterwards, and the more I thought about it, the more I really LIKED the concept as a reality for the character...no more DENYING to himself WHO he is. ACCEPTANCE. PEACE

Without ever really studying the script to find out, I think it could definitely be worked out.

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 2/20/10 at 10:31pm

Our college was gonna do a modernized version of Woods, similar to what was mentioned earlier. The only difference i can think of is that Rapunzel would be an heiress type (think Paris Hilton), who had nothing to do but obsess over her hair and appearance but was sheltered. Our director had a correspondence with James Lapine though, and I think something in those conversations changed his mind on the idea.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 2/21/10 at 2:57am

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Kennedy Centre or the Reprise production of "Company" have a male sing 'You Could Drive A Person Crazy' along with the three girls? I know somewhere did this, but I can't remember where. It was to suggest an undertone of Bobby possibly being bisexual.

Also, the concept discussed about "Into The Woods" being set in a modern time was "loosely" used in London for the "loose" adaptation of "Into The Woods" called "Into The Hoods". Here is a small piece about the show from Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Hoods

[lotiloti]

Posted: 2/21/10 at 7:24am

Some years ago the Bridewell in London, did 'Sweeney' Where the whole room was the set.No seating & the audience moved around with the action. Great fun

[romgitsean]

Posted: 2/21/10 at 1:35pm

WARNING: LONG RESPONSE!

Wow. Some REALLY fantastic threads on here... I don't even know where to begin.

ON SONDHEIM:Any Into the Woods or Sweeney: Sorry, no. The shows are SO perfect as they are. The point of Into the Woods is really about the themes of morality and growing up, and most importantly, parenting, which people don't think about in fairy tales, and to modernize it would be trying to spell it out WAYY too much.

ON GENDER NEUTRALIZING PRODUCTIONS: I think there would be plenty of productions that I would love to stage as concerts, taken completely seriously, as totally gender-switched or all-female or all-male casts. I think it would be ironic to see Carrie: The Musical in concert, taken completely seriously, with an all male cast. Just the actors all in black. Because, the story relies so heavily upon female roles, it would just be so interesting. I'd also love to see an all-male Woman in White.

ON CHILDREN'S THEATRE: I've always wanted someone to use Richard Kelly's screenplay for Holes and turn it into a stage play. It's VERY dark and post-apocolyptic, but it would take a really ambitious, risque group. I would have my community theatre troupe do it, because we do plenty of weird, accletic productions, but we don't have enough people. Holes is very common among children's theatre, and I would love to see someone take a new stab at it.

At my school next year, since it's both a middle AND high school, we're talking about doing Peter Pan...but we're doing the Douglas Irvine version licensed from Children's Theatre Company, which only asks I think a six-person cast with shadow puppetry. I'd love to play around with as much shadow puppetry and puppetry as I could. Really minimalist set, I see a lot of weird things on the set: Lots of christmas lights, scrap metal...looking very eccentric and acclectic. Sort of a dark fantasy kind-of setting.

I was in a production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I was thirteen that was TOTALLY concept. It was beautiful. I was Augustus Gloop, one role I am TRULY proud to have played, and the production came out shortly after the new Tim Burton--but my director borrowed none of his ideas. Basically, the Narrator was a creepy janitor who cleaned the factory, Charlie lived in a trailer, and his grandparents were all creepy and weird, except Grandpa Joe--(Grandma Georgina was like a former model and was trying to relive her glory days, but she had dementia and would end up smearing lipstick all over, and she looked creepy as hell) and Willy Wonka was a retired rock star that decided to take up a career making children's candy. The Beauregardes were trashy guidettes from New Jersey, (which was ironic, seeing as the production was IN Jersey), Veruca was emo, and her Dad was a businessman still, Mike Teevee's mom was a southern belle ex-Beauty Queen pageant winner, the Gloops were tacky tourists from Germany (I wore a Tinkerbelle t-shirt, Mrs. Gloop wore an N'Sync t-shirt). The Oompa Loompas were all punked out little boys...and the set had lots of checker boards and mirrors...and it was implied that all the kids who made "mistakes" (i.e, Augustus, Mike, Violet, Veruca) died, and when Wonka handed Charlie the factory, he did this evil laugh--and the lights were killed.

But changing up children's shows can be genius or awful. I saw a HORRIFIC production of Alice in Wonderland recently (a show I've wanted to direct for years), and it was trying to portray non-existent undertones of the French revolution. It was also trying to play up Victorian society, but it was completely non-sensical. Alice was a teenager with a tight dress (her tits popping out), and most of the costumes very very minimalist, and so was the set. The Queen of Hearts killed everyone in the end, Alice fell in love with the Jack of Hearts...it was a MESS. It would've been fine if the costumes were Victorian and there weren't drug references galore...and the fact that Alice was molested by the Cheshire Cat and raped by the Dodo made it worse. It was so painfully pretentious--and the fact that it was an all-teen cast and director made it worse.

I was going to direct Hansel & Gretel for a one-act festival, but it was played out like a trashy slasher film. The whole show had a table with a tape recorder on it, and the entire show would be pre-recorded on this tape recorder, that was recorded by Gretel, because before her mother died, she was given a tape recorder, and when she died, Gretel decided to record EVERY event on it. Hansel & Gretel lived in a trailer, their Stepmother was a pushy b_tch who worked four jobs, their father was an alcoholic with a gambling addiction, and came home drunk one night and spent all their money. Hansel and Gretel ran away in seek of their Aunt and Uncle who lived a few towns over, and had to walk through the woods to find them. In the woods, they hear someone following them, but ignore it. They came upon a drug-pusher running away from the cops, who calls himself "The Troll" who gives them food and helps them out, but the next morning, H & G wake to find him dead, and carved into his arm is a message that reads: Leave these woods. They keep walking, and then they are both struck by stones and marked unconcious.

They awake in a woman's basement. The woman has a surgical mask on and gives them candy. Since she has the surgical mask, Gretel calls her a witch, because she's afraid of her strange apperance. She then leaves, and we fast forward to weeks forward on the tape. They've been locked in the basement for an estimate of about a month, they've been sitting in their own feces, piss, body odor and throw-up, and the Witch finally lets them out into the kitchen, where she tries to make Gretel get a cake out of the oven. She slams Gretel's head in the oven, and she falls to the ground. Hansel and the Witch get into a fist fight. Hansel pulls of the Witchâ??s mask, to reveal that she has slit mouth. and the Witch grabs a knife from the drawer and slits Hanselâ??s throat. He falls to the ground. Gretel gets up and reaches for the drawer and gets a gun and shoots the Witch twice. The Witch falls to the ground. Gretel then goes to the oven, gets the cake out and digs into it, and begins to eat it, but realizes it's posioned and falls to the ground.

A Police officer reveals he's found the tape and the Witch was an escape mental patient, who was a squatter in a home of a family that she had murdered, and the bodies had been found mostly eaten, in her bedroom.

OTHER MUSICALS I'D LIKE TO CHANGE :

Dolly: I've been meaning to make a version of Hello, Dolly that sets it in modern day with same-sex couples (Cornelius and Barnaby, anyone?). Still an idea that's been in the works for FOREVER now, I've yet to get it off the ground.

Beauty & The Beast: Whoever said minimalize it--I'm with you. I was in it this summer, and wonder if it could be entertaining and practical. The story relies so heavily on special effects. I have a friend whose directing a Disney cabaret soon, and she wants the Aladdin and Jasmine singing "A Whole New World" to be dressed a little like scene kids. I think the idea isn't the best, but she didn't want to go all-out gothic, but she wanted a little something.

Pippin: I'm directing Pippin at my school next year, and we are using the traveling circus idea. We're probably going to add some things into it. With permission a la MTI. My idea for Pippin: The Leading Player is going to draw names out of a hat for who will be playing what part during this performance of Pippin (it will be heavily implied this show had been performed over and over again). And he'll draw everyone's names, and they'll all look excited that they haven't played these roles before, except the Leading Player will skip over the actress playing Catherine and assign it to her. And Catherine will complain she's played the role a million times and that it's not fair that he's not giving her another chance to play something else, and he says "Well, you'll play it a million and one times then." And at the drawing, the Leading Player will call the upon a member of the audience to play Pippin, and the actor playing Pippin will be a plant in the audience, and he'll be assigned a script which he'll be reading off of for most of the show--and that's why in the Finale when the Players want him to die, it'll be such a surprise to him that they want to kill him off, and ask questions such as, "Did I do a bad job? I don't understand..." etc, etc.

So, any thoughts? Sorry this was so long.

Updated On: 2/21/10 at 01:35 PM

[romgitsean]

Posted: 2/21/10 at 1:54pm

Also, in regards to Amanda Palmer in theatre, I love her to death.

The Emcee might be a stretch, but I think it would be SO interesting to see her play Margaret in Carrie. Just imagine her doing it--and with her non-conventional voice type? Or as Chris, if she wasn't so old. I mean, she's not old, but it would take a hell of a lot of convincing to see her play a teen. I'd love to hear her sing Somewhere That's Green, actually. Maybe her as The Leading Player? I like that idea.

I also knew someone who was going to do Mockingbird but reverse the races (black roles played by whites, white roles by black), because she felt it would be more powerful. However, she didn't reverse-race cast it, and won like, best production of the year in North Carolina or something o_o

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 2/21/10 at 6:45pm

A production of SUNSET BOULEVARD where all of the characters EXCEPT Norma are in greyscale, black-and-white make-up and black-and-white costumes, playing on black-and-white sets (She's living in her own movie).

[tellybox]

Posted: 2/21/10 at 6:47pm

I would jump at the chance to see that production of Sunset.

[noradesmond]

Posted: 2/21/10 at 7:36pm

First of all, this is NOT my idea but one that was described to me by a so-called professional. They claimed to have staged this but I am dubious.

SOUTH PACIFIC, in their words, "updated to the 40s" that takes place entirely in a nightclub called Bali Ha'i. Bloody Mary is the proprietress and her daughter Liat is a drug addicted whore. The sailors are all patrons. I forgot the rest because it was so ridiculous.

[choitoy]

Posted: 2/22/10 at 2:05am

This sounds CRAZY though, worse than what happened to the last BWay revival!

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 2/22/10 at 4:08am

Stephen Sondheim and George Furth have both addressed the Bobby-is-gay scenario and they think it's a cop-out. If Bobby were gay, he still wouldn't have an excuse to be avoiding commitment, especially these days when domestic partnerships are common place and we're slowly inching towards legalizing gay marriage.