Dream Revivals? — Page 4

Billy Elliot set in the round.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Les Mis

I'd like to see Cabaret make a return, with someone like Eric Sciotto (after seeing him as Tick in Priscilla, he has to get a lead sometime!) or Max von Essen as Emcee and Sutton Foster as Sally.

Emma Stone as Charity? Sign me up for that one! I adore her. She's got the spunk, now lets just see if she's got the dancing. I know a lot of people complained about Christina Applegate, but I thought she was phenomenal. She was hilarious and touching. It was the production that stunk. It just looked and felt so tacky.

Sunday in the Park With George with Brian d'Arcy James and Christiane Noll

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Do you really need to be able to dance to play Charity?? I mean i know it's Fosse and Verdon originated the role, but there isn't THAT much dancing in it - not as much as Velma or Cassie or anything.. I think it's more an acting role than anything.. You need a lot of depth to play that part, and we haven't seen any actress do that yet. So Stone could be great

I still can't get over the idea of Emma Stone as Charity. I think she would be perfect. I saw the tour with Pagie Davis, and she was AWESOME! I love the score for this show, and a revival with Emma Stone would be a dream come true for me!

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I have actually just started listening to Bells Are Ringing and would really love to see a revival of it on an actual Broadway stage. They did the revival at Encores and I think Kelli O' Hara would still do a fabulous job, maybe Nina Arianda as well, or an interesting choice would be Celia Keenan Bolger for Ella!

Thoroughly Modern Millie and Sunset Blvd. are two shows I would LOVE to see revived.

Updated On: 7/11/12 at 03:03 AM

Hello, Dolly! with Christine Ebersole, Nathan Lane, and Jeremy Jordan

I'd seriously go nuts from excitement at a faithfully reproduced production of the original Evita. I've already seen a very well reproduced production of it twice with Raul Esparza as Che in the late 90s but can't get enough of those thrillingly staged Hal Prince and Larry Fuller moments.

I'm crazy about Les Mis but that show needs a time out after numerous mediocre 'revivals' and anniversary editions. It would be a dream come true to have a production every bit as good as the original one at the Imperial that actually celebrates its iconic, innovative staging instead of hyping up century old staging and scene changing techniques seen in the current tour to compensate. Imagine that, a revival where a production of a musical is celebrated instead of beaten down and original creative team shunned, eh? Sort of like the recent A Chorus Line; why shake things up when shaking them up for the sake of it is the definition of "misguided" and leads to mediocre shadows of great shows? Akjdfbawurgieioejh9r.

As for Dreamgirls, the recent revival tour I enjoyed but was blown away by grainy footage of the original that I found online after seeing it. I had seen a version close to the original but not quite as elaborate. The version I saw (late 90s) had all the original designs, lighting, staging, and choreography but the physical production was simplified for touring much like that one 1987 Broadway revival that featured cast members moving the smaller light towers around. It was thrilling nonetheless, even if the cast was a mixed bag and I don't recall being blown away by the choreography as I was watching those grainy original cast clips on YouTube.

The recent tour was actually very similar to the original, which actually made it more frustrating--it was essentially the original production 'tricked-out' and given a shiny, sparkly American Idol-like aesthetic that got monotonous and uninteresting after about half an hour. Even more frustrating was bits of highly effective original blocking and movement were replaced by far less effective variations for the sake of being different, it appeared.

For example, the way "And I Am Telling You..." is staged is nearly identical as in the original with the same concept of the audience having a point of view as if looking through behind their dressing room mirrors. It had the same blocking. Even that cinematic, zoom lens effect of the entire dressing room set suddenly moving backwards with Effie holding her arm out was in the recent revival, except, they had Effie stand center stage as the set behind her moved backwards and disappeared. Then Effie, alone on stage, 'runs' backwards while holding her arms out as the Dreams come in and take over.

Why they did not have her sitting on the dressing room unit, and have her disappear along with it as in the original, creating that awesome zoom lens effect, I'll never know as it was 100 times less effective.

Sh*t like that, although seemingly minor, are anything but, and are the reason why I've lost faith in these recent "reimagined" versions and prefer something more time-tested and proven rather than ambitious and misguided.

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Updated On: 7/11/12 at 12:36 PM

After watching Dance Moms last night, I want a revival of Annie with Abby Lee Miller as Miss Hannigan...

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^I would pay lots of money to see Abby Lee Miller play Miss Hannigan.

I would also love to see THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE with:
Millie - Laura Osnes, Leigh Ann Larkin or Anneliese van der Pol
Jimmy - Aaron Tveit
Miss Dorothy - Erin Mackey
Mrs. Meers - Ann Harada
Muzzy - Capathia Jenkins or Da'Vine Joy Randolph
Peg Flannery - Patti LuPone (just for kicks)

I'm just going to add that at some point in her career, in some way of other, Sierra Boggess should play Julie Jordan in CAROUSEL.

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