Does "City of Angels" have enough heart?

Sorry, I agree with that statement. It was clever, and the color and black and white transitions are what I recall most about it. I saw it the same day as Grand Hotel. Together, I thought they made great musical theatre, but neither one, on its own, completely worked for me. The humor and pathos of City teamed with the choreography and old-world charm of Hotel would've been a superb production, aptly titled City Hotel (or even Grand Angels).

Thanks for the conversation. Actually there does seem to be a few productions happening out there- I am directing a production of C.O.A. in the Cleveland area that opens in March (www.cityofangels.freehosting.net) and I was recently contacted by another director doing it in California. I think what seem to be potential technical nightmares - multiple set locations, a movie within a play, etc. - make people shy away from what really is an interesting observation about a flawed writer and his relationships with his wife,his producer and his characters, many of which do the things he can't. I think if theaters would dig past the gimmicks of the piece to the simple story of it - they would find the heart in it. Our production is very stripped down technically...with the exception of multiple video and sound cues there are no walls or rooms, just a few wagons that act as multiple locations. This allows our great performers to hopefully tell the story that is at the heart of this piece.
City of Angels

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if you do it, it has to be GREAT.

and to make it GREAT, it requires a sh*t load of time and talent and money and energy... it's not that it's a huge blockbuster show that requires extravagant sets and what not.

it's the fact that the music is extremely challenging, the color vs. black & white is SO specific, and the constant transitioning is a biitch.

got to have a really devoted technical team as well.

I think it has heart. when it's in the "Color" world. lots of relationships and conflict and emotional content, in my opinion. it just gets buried under the entire concept and movie part of it.

I think everything about the show is brilliant.


Never really understood what exactly "not having heart" meant, but
I think it's a very emotional show. "Funny" is a great show-stopper and "You Can Always Count On Me", "It Needs Work", and "You're Nothing Without Me" always give me chills.

That, to me, is heart.

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It seems to me COA is done quite often regionally. I've seen two quite good productions in LA within the last three or four years and if you look at the videos on the site-that-shall-be-nameless you'll see all kinds of productions - a lot of them from high schools!!

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The talented Kay McClelland was in the original cast of City of Angels ("With every breath I take"). She was also one of the evil stepsisters in the OBC of "Into the Woods."
Anyone know what she is doing these days?

Updated On: 1/27/09 at 03:29 PM

This book, 'Backstage on Broadway: Musicals and their Makers' by Marty Bell (http://www.amazon.com/Backstage-Broadway-Musicals-Their-Makers/dp/1854592262/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233050428&sr=8-1) includes a chapter on Kay McClelland. The focus of the chapter was a different role of hers, but she did mention City of Angels in passing. She criticised the fact that her character's story - the real-life, husband and wife relationship - should have been the part of the show that the audience cared about, but that the show hardly gave any attention to it at all. Maybe she just wanted more stage time, but anyway, that's one explanation.

Updated On: 1/27/09 at 05:05 AM

Agreeing with many posters here: A brilliant show, but in several respects an unusually difficult show to do well.

I remember when I was in college the undergrad musical club did City of Angels. Though the acting was well done, it was clear that it was so "technical" - getting the music right, the sets etc. The impression I left with was they just had to try too hard. I had seen another regional production years before and enjoyed that, but don't remember too much of it other than it spurred me to get the CD. It's one of my all time favorite scores and the lyrics are some of the best in the entire musical theater canon. I think the show is just too DIFFICULT to do well without, as someone said, insane amounts of tech rehearsals and very well rehearsed singers.

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For what little it's worth, I saw the original. Because I generally like Cy Coleman's work, I was really looking forward to it. But this one didn't do it for me. I am inclined to agree that it's a "cold" show -- very slick, very professionally done, but I just didn't end up caring about the characters nor did I feel the score was anything extraordinary (okay, go ahead and shoot). Part of my trouble may have stemmed from having seen Grand Hotel previously -- a show which I adored and saw 9 or 10 times. It's interesting that, for the most part, both shows have vanished from the radar screen, apart from an occasional little theatre or college production of COA.

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Smaxie - you hit the nail on the head. I've always considered "It Needs Work" to be the PERFECT lyric. That song is absolutely genius - I've always wondered why it doesn't get more credit than it does, but the contrast with "You Can Always Count on Me" makes a lot of sense.

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