DAMES AT SEA to Set Sail on Broadway in 2014; Directed and Choreographed by Randy Skinner- Page 2

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 6:24pm

Why will this be a revival? It's never been on Broadway before!

Get ready for this question to start popping up all over again.

[macnyc]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 6:27pm

This would have been a good one for Encores' new off-Broadway series.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 6:29pm

Even the artwork on the website seems a bit derivative of the recent Anything Goes revival artwork. It's sort of the same style illustrations.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 8:08pm

NoName is right; DAMES AT SEA is a spoof of Busby Berkeley's 42nd STREET (including the "You're going out there a chorus girl, but you're coming back a star" speech) and FOOTLIGHT PARADE (the one with Jimmy Cagney dressed as a sailor and doing the production number, "Looking for my Shanghai Lil"). (Of course all of the above were more or less concurrent with ANYTHING GOES (early 1930s), so the comparison is not unreasonable.)

But DAMES AT SEA is far funnier than ANYTHING GOES.

Posters are also right that it should be done with 7 actors in a theater with no more than 500 seats.

Once upon a time, I was hired by a high school to direct a production with a chorus of 40. The show still worked, but it stopped being a parody and just became a stage version of Busby Berkeley's aesthetic. Still popular, but not fall on the floor funny.

7 people trying to do a typical Berkeley production number is a riot!



Updated On: 8/20/13 at 08:08 PM

[ACL2006]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 8:57pm

I have no doubt that Skinner's choreography will be amazing, but I've always considered this show a poor man's version of Anything Goes.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 10:21pm

What production did you see, ACL? DAMES AT SEA is a Feydeau farce compared to ANYTHING GOES.

Is the score as good as Cole Porter's? Of course not. But that's not really the point.

DAMES AT SEA is a very affectionate parody. How do we even begin to compare that to ANYTHING GOES, except that both shows sometimes use art deco design?

[ACL2006]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 11:19pm

Dames At Seas just seems like a step below Anything Goes, IMO.

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 8/21/13 at 3:01am

Love the score to this show and agree with Mister Matt, the website art looks great.

It is billed as "Broadway's Biggest Little Musical" so maybe they will play in a small theatre?

45 years ago since it played the Theater De Lys - wow!

How cool if Bernadette was starring in a show next year too!!

[newintown]

Posted: 8/21/13 at 9:27am

"Posters are also right that it should be done with 7 actors in a theater with no more than 500 seats.

Correction: 6 actors - one man doubles as Hennessy the director (stage manager?) and the Captain, as Hennessy is only in Act I and the Captain is only in Act II. Some amateur groups cast two actors in those roles (to spread the love, I guess), but it diminishes the fun and the feeling of a small, tight ensemble. There is actually no good reason to cast two actors - it improves nothing.

I don't think Peters has the vocal chops for Mona - it's a role for a powerhouse singer with a strong belt as well as a super-strong soprano range. And she really ought not to be a senior citizen...

Additional thought - to me, putting Dames At Sea on Broadway in a glitzy commercial production (with an added extraneous chorus?) would be very similar to putting the Charles Ludlam plays on Broadway. If you never saw Ludlam's own productions of his plays, you can be forgiven for not knowing that the shoestring was an integral element to the fun of his shows - seeing sets made of cardboard, costumes fashioned from repurposed everyday items of kitsch, obvious and slightly awkward attempts at stage illusion - these added to the magic of those shows, just as camp seediness did for the original Dames At Sea. Part of the intrinsic spoof is the fact that this is a tiny, cheap attempt to pay homage to those big Warners musicals.

Take away that element of camp, and you're stuck with a cutesy, run of the mill imitation of 42nd Street, something that doesn't rise above aiming to sell a few tickets to bored tourists devoid of wit. Updated On: 8/21/13 at 09:27 AM

[Jon]

Posted: 8/21/13 at 9:45am

Playbilly - Bernadette actually did play Betty Boop in a sketch on SNL. It was a parody of an army training film warning soldiers of the danger of venereal disease. Shot in black and white, complete with Bernadette/Betty jumping out of a giant ink bottle.

[newintown]

Posted: 8/21/13 at 9:49am

"Johnny, Keep Your Gun Clean" was the title.

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 8/21/13 at 10:25am

Did Laura Osnes just find her new project?

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/21/13 at 10:27am

Here's the video of Bernadette as Betty Boop performing the PSA "I Wanna Be Loved By You" on the November 14, 1981 episode of NBC TV's SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE:

http://ivegottobethere.tumblr.com/post/30293336311/bwaybabs-bernadette-peters-sings-i-wanna-be

[Mike Barrett]

Posted: 8/21/13 at 10:37am

If they're thinking a small theatre isn't the Booth perfect for this assuming Glass Menagerie isn't still running. And I agree with ucjrdude that I totally see Laura Osnes leaving Cinderella for this show.

[newintown]

Posted: 8/21/13 at 10:43am

If they're doing the Tunick orchestrations (as rumored earlier), the orchestra would have to phone into the Booth from home.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 8/21/13 at 4:49pm

Randy Skinner's Choreography blew me away for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I said to myself (i always have these conversations with myself) why isn't this guy choreographing on Broadway?? And Voila!

Very happy for this talented man. Now if they find a small Broadway theatre this could work fine. Just avoid the big ones.

And for god sakes please don't put Jessie Mueller in it cause I won't go.

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 8/21/13 at 5:11pm

Personally from what I've read and gathered this would be perfect for Osnes and since she's basically out of the SOM revival it would be a fun new project.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/21/13 at 8:46pm

Thanks for the correction, newintown. As I said above, I did direct a school production and we probably split the doubled role so as to have an extra speaking part.

***

ACL, as always I highly respect your opinion, but here you are comparing a parody to what is being spoofed. It's like saying LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE is no STUDENT PRINCE, or GOLDILOCKS is no BIRTH OF A NATION! Absolutely true, but kind of beside the point, don't you think?

[charliebrown5]

Posted: 8/22/13 at 1:24am

Randy Skinner directed and choreographed this show in Annapolis in the summer of 2012 and it received great reviews. I'm excited to see this production.
Interview with Randy Skinner in 2012 discussing Dames at Sea and other shows.

[Jon]

Posted: 8/22/13 at 4:19am

how about Skinner's old dancing partner Karen Ziemba as Mona?

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 8/22/13 at 5:19am

newintown - I wasn't meaning that Bernadette should be involved in the revival. I agree with you, she doesn't have the vocals now for Mona.

I was just wishing Bernadette was starring in a production (Helen Sinclair - Bullets Over Broadway) to show that Ruby did indeed become a Star... and here she is 45 years later still wowing audiences.

Silly I know

[pamb1210]

Posted: 9/23/13 at 3:50pm

NOTE: Dames at Sea is a valentine to the early 30s Busby Berkeley movie musicals. It must not be “sent up” or played for camp. All actors must have period style and keen comic sensibilities. This production will be a tap dancing extravaganza – all the more clever, as there are only 6 actors in the cast.
________________________________________
With all the talk of the show being a parody, I thought you would be interested to see the note that was posted with the casting notice (above)! And it appears there will not be any additional ensemble?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/23/13 at 8:18pm

It IS a parody, but it's an affectionate parody like GREASE, with a great deal of regard for the form it spoofs.

And as with GREASE, it plays best when played sincerely, as if the actors don't know they are in a parody.

***

Re Megan Hilty reference above: she'd make a better Mona. Ruby (the Bernadette Peters part) is literally just off the bus from Utah; she's supposed to be 18.

[hockeynut2]

Posted: 9/23/13 at 8:33pm

Here's my interview with Randy Skinner when they produced the show at Infinity Theatre in Annapolis.

And our review on DCMetroTheaterArts:

http://www.dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2012/07/16/dames-at-sea-at-infinity-theatre-company-by-amanda-gunther/
Interview with Randy Skinner on Dames at Sea on DCMTA

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 9/24/13 at 8:59pm

I hope this is a success but I honestly don't see how it can be without a big star. Does anyone outside the theatre community even remember what Dames at Sea is?