Cutting songs from a performance

Not because of a performer's power, but in last year's famous Company revival, which everyone but me loved, the understudy for Bobbi was black so when she was on they just cut the entirety of Tick Tock (it was staged with a sudden influx of Bobbi lookalikes and so they only that many white women). I love diversifying casts and understudies but you have to ensure you can still do the show as intended, guys. It was pretty bad. 

temms said: "Not a whole song, but when I saw THE PRODUCERS with most of the OBC (Matthew was out, but at this point you usually got only one lead or the other), the black male ensemble member was also out, so they cut the “Credits all de mornin’/And I debits all de evenin’” section of “I Want To Be A Producer”."

Honestly, while I understand what it's meant to reference, I've always felt sort of uncomfortable about that bit; that's one change they maybe should have stuck with.

There's the famous story about the chaotic tryout of the musical Chu-Chem, when a cast member turned to the audience at one point and said, "There was a song here, but you'll be better off without it."

I Streisand would perform a shorter version of FUNNY GIRL at certain matinees later in her run. This version trimmed verses of songs. Streisand hated doing a frozen version at every performance so these abridged performances kept her fresh. Only the FUNNY GIRL frequenters knew about these as the regular audiences had no idea they were seeing an abridged version of the show.

Also, Gwen did not enjoy performing “Where Am I Going?” as the song had quickly become a standard so major artists (most notably Streisand) had their versions being performed on their records and TV appearances so she knew her interpretation of the song would be judged.  When she wasn’t up to it, the song would be out of that performance.  

Re: The Producers

Honestly, society needs to just quit finding ways to feel uncomfortable and be offended.

The genius of Mel Brooks is that he goes for everyone.  It's funny.  It's humor.  Laugh at yourself, as it's always being done as a caricature.  The Producers (as well as his other films) is brilliant when done by a cast who knows how to sell the jokes.

 

Javi said: "I saw the Gwen Verdon documentary and it was mentioned that at certain performances, she would decide to cut Where Am I Going?

Im guessing nobody today would cut a song on Broadway? Or does it happen?

Who were other performers who had the power to cut songs on a given performance? I believe Yul Brynner did that in The King and I. Have you been to a performance where a song thats usually in a show was cut?

"

(Emphasis added.)

What would Brynner have cut? The King only sings one song, one reprise and a bit of "Shall We Dance? I suppose the reprise might be skipped, but I don't see the point. It's not like the role requires a lot of high notes.

Still, I should say I worked with Brynner on one leg of a K&I tour. A lot of his demands were nonsensical.

I have read that during Brynner's last tour or so that he was unable to sing the song due to his advancing lung cancer, which sounds logical. Whether it goes deeper than that and he skipped the song before the lung cancer became a hindrance I do not know.

I believe that he died only a few months after his last tour with The King and I. With a little better timing they perhaps could have had him actually die at the end of his death scene. That would have been one for the ages.

Honestly, no. (Not for any politically correct reasons; just not a fan of Showboat. And before you start, yes, I know its importance, but I'll live just fine without having seen it.)

g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "Honestly, no. (Not for any politically correct reasons; just not a fan of Showboat. And before you start, yes, I know its importance, but I'll live just fine without having seen it.)"

If you understand the importance, I wonder why you are offended by the producers line paying homage to it.

rjm516 said: "Not because of a performer's power, but in last year's famous Company revival, which everyone but me loved, the understudy for Bobbi was black so when she was on they just cut the entirety of Tick Tock (it was staged with a sudden influx of Bobbi lookalikes and so they only that many white women). I love diversifying casts and understudies but you have to ensure you can still do the show as intended, guys. It was pretty bad."

Are we sure that was the reason? Could it have been that they didn’t think they could perform it with a cast member down? (Given the understudy would typically appears in that scene).