Do-Re-Mi Encores! Revival?

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 2/16/07 at 1:27am

I LOVE this show, but I didn't see the Encores revival in '99 starring Nathan Lane and Randy Graff. I have the cast recording and it's great, but I wanted to know how was the show received? Did it get good reviews? Did people like it? Did anyone on here see it?

[allofmylife]

Posted: 2/16/07 at 2:14am

Obviously, my favorite show. When I was a kid, my parents wanted to see it but we saw Gypsy instead. Good choice, obviously, but still.....

[jewishboy]

Posted: 2/16/07 at 7:11am

Yes, it was very well recieved esp. Nathan Lane, Heather Headley, and Brian Stokes Mitchell. The review is somewhere on the NY Times website. My parents saw it and it is my Dad's favorite Encores! show.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/16/07 at 8:33am

Nothing beats Nancy Walker's "Waiting for Hubie.'

[mallardo]

Posted: 2/16/07 at 8:42am

I only know the show from the Encores recording - it seems to be a pretty uneven piece. "Make Someone Happy" as sung by Mitchell and Headley is fabulous. But then there's stuff like "What's New at the Zoo" and the Senate Committee scenes at the end which feel lame at best - although Lane pulls off a great tour de force in "All of my Life". I really can't see this ever being revived.

[jewishboy]

Posted: 2/16/07 at 9:56am

You know, I have never gotten around to listening to the OBC even though I love, love, love Nancy Walker. How does the rest of the original cast compare to the Encores! cast? I agree that a revival is very unlikely and will only be done in concert staging, like Encores! I think that both Mitchell and Headley are gorgeous on the recording, and I actually like "What’s New at the Zoo?" a lot. And although their rendition "Make Someone Happy” is too dramatic for their own good it never fails to send shivers down my spine (But I don't think that is the intent

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/16/07 at 9:58am

This would have to be a Roundabout production if it were ever revived - and it would have to have some serious star power behind it to make it to their lineup. But not impossible...

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/16/07 at 10:26am

I enjoyed the Encores production very much. It was the kind of 1950s musical that I like, it's there for sheer entertainment.

Any major production of this show has to have the right leading man. He has to be a great comedian in the vaudeville tradition and a decent song and dance man. Unfortunately, Broadway has moved away from the comic song and dance character, so there aren't many around anymore.

The song "Late Late Show" is a tour-de-force and requires the actor to play multiple characterizations in a split second.

Updated On: 2/16/07 at 10:26 AM

[Smaxie]

Posted: 2/16/07 at 10:31am

In the Encores Do Re Mi, Marilyn Cooper made me fall out of my chair with laughter during an audition sequence in the middle of Act One. I don't even know if I can describe it.

Do Re Mi might be seen as a second tier musical these days. But I think it does exactly what it sets out to do. The authors created roles expertly suited for the comic personas of their two stars (Phil Silvers as the schlemiel with a dream, Nancy Walker as his long suffering, slow burn wife). The score has its brassy pleasures (including "Waiting," perhaps the strangest opening number of any musical), as well as a genuine hit song with "Make Someone Happy". There are other truly excellent pieces of musical comedy writing with "Fireworks," "Adventure," "Ambition," "The Late Late Show," "Take a Job," and "It's Legitimate". What more could you want?

Lane, who is perhaps the only one around these days who understands that burlesque style of the great clowns like Silvers, Jackie Gleason, Bert Lahr, et al., was sublime in Do Re Mi. He nailed the laughs, and of course, brought more voice to the proceedings than Silvers is able to do on the OCR. Graff might not have been able to erase the sound of Nancy Walker in my head, but she was very good, and the arc of the relationship of those two characters sneaks up on you. You end up caring about them more than you think you will.

All told, a well crafted 1960s musical comedy, with some laughs, fine songs, and two great star parts. What's not to like?

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 3:30am

I really wish they would revive it. I know it could only be like a Roundabout revival. Maybe starring Nathan and Andrea Martin? They have a great chemistry.

[DDdirector]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 10:19am

I played HUBIE last spring at local four-year college that prides itself on doing these "lost" musicals that aren't done all that often (right now i'm in rehearsals for playing Henry Williams in "Whoopee").. anyhow.. DO RE MI has it's strong points... some of the music is very catchy and a lot of fun (Waiting.. Waiting.. I still think is one of the best numbers in the show along with "Adventure") but the book is terribly dated and would need some major tightening and updating. If that's possible.. along with Nathan Lane/Andrea Martin in the lead roles.. I could see it playing Roundabout easily.
-Dan

[Shiloh]

Posted: 2/18/07 at 12:48am

This was my first time seeing Heather she blew everyone away with her singing. Encores productions are alway top notch. sometimes the shows are just OK. I think it's the cast and all the hard work that goes into them really shows in the productions.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 2/18/07 at 3:47am

This show was a pure vehicle for Phil Silvers who was, at the time, perhaps one of the biggest stars in the world because of a very, very successful television series and several huge hits on Broadway (High Button Shoes and Top Bananna) which he toured all over America. People nowadays only have his turns as "Honest John" on "The Beverly Hillbillies" to remember him by unless they catch the Bilko show on TVLand or late at night on some local channel. It's then that you really begin to see what a fabulous comedian he was.

If you haven't listened to the OCR, I highly reccommend that you do. Silvers doesn't have pipes like Nathan Lane, but he owns every song on the record and just breaks my heart every time he sings "All Of My Life." (small wonder it's my handle).

One of the highlights of the original show was a curtain that was made of two dozen working jueboxes that lit up. bubbled and changed records. That sounds cool.....

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 2/18/07 at 10:37am

Well, since the OCR is out of print, and cost a lot of $$$ on Amazon, I most likely will not get to listen to it anytime soon.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/18/07 at 8:04pm

I saw the Encores! production. It was excellent. The best thing I've ever seen Nathan Lane do. However, there is no substitute for Nancy Walker. I saw her in the original and she was fabulous as always. Randy Graff couldn't compare, but then who could?