Evening Primrose?

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 9:31am

I bought The Frogs/Evening Primrose studio cast recording back in December. I really like the 4 songs that are on there from Evening Primrose, but I have no idea what the show is about, how it ends, etc. Can anyone help me out? Is there a full cast recording of the show out there?

Thanks!

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 9:41am

Well, first of all, that IS the full show recording, because it was written for television. It's not your typical dozen-song show.

As for a synopsis...

http://www.tv.com/abc-stage-67/evening-primrose/episode/217300/summary.html

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 9:48am

Oh, thanks for the link! I had no idea. I thought it was a stage production, and I figured since it was Sondheim there had to be more to it. lol.

Thanks!

[Piercemn]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 9:49am

Evening Primrose is available for viewing at the Museum of TV and Radio. It was presented on ABC Studio 67 (I think that was the title of the program). It's based on a macabre short story. Anthony Perkins plays a writer who decides to move into a department store as inspiration for writing. He learns that most of the mannequins are really people who also live there. Dorothy Stickney plays the head of the group.
He falls in love with a young woman who was abandoned there as a child, and when they decide to move to the outside world (Take Me to the World), they are caught and turned into real mannequins. It is less than an hour long, but Charmain Carr, Liesl from the Sound of Music, is the girl. I saw it a few years ago, and it's a real shame it's not available on dvd, because it's really something and shows Sondheim's fascination with the macabre and strange.

I don't remember the name of the author, but if you look for it on imdb.com, it will tell you.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 9:58am

Wow. Now I REALLY want to see it! lol. Sounds interesting.

Thanks Piercemn.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 11:31am

There has been talk of a full stage production. A press release came out last year, saying they were doing it in England somewhere, but I haven't heard anything since. They need to put this on DVD. I love this weird little movie.

The first recording of the show after the film was on Unsung Sondheim with Gary Beach and Liz Callaway.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 11:36am

I hope they WONT do it as a stage production. It's short by its very nature, and to make it any longer would just pad it out beyond any reason. But it would be fun to see it as a made-for-TV remake, especially since mannequins have become more and more creepily realistic.

[folkyboy]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 11:48am

Mandy Patinkin does it with Bernedette on one of his CDs as well. the album title has left me right now but i have it at home somewhere. i enjoy it.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 11:55am

But who could be as sexy/creepy as Anthony Perkins?

I love him in the old version.

[bk]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 11:56am

It's not on Unsung Sondheim - it's on Sondheim At The Movies - and I have a full synopsis of the show in the booklet. There was a privately issued LP (Sondheim pressed them himself) sent to friends of the composer - it has everything, the songs, the incidental music, and the reprise of Take Me To The World.

I talked to Steve about this at the time we did the recording - the thing in the UK was a reading, not a staged production, as far as I know. Prior to that, the John Collier estate (Collier being the author of the marvelous short story on which the show is based) would not allow it to be done - don't know the reasons, and don't know if that's changed. At the time, I was interested in doing two one-act musicals - Primrose and something else that I was going to find as a companion piece.

It's a wonderful little musical, and I'm very fond of the performances of Mr. Beach and Miss Callaway on our recording.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 12:00pm

According to Sondheim, the John Collier estate controls the rights to teh story and have prevented any further stage adaptation or a release on video. I did see this at the Museum some years ago. The muscal sequences are fascinating but the book scenes are slow going and lack the tension of a really good Twilight Zone.

[NBC]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 12:18pm

I saw this at the Museum of TV and Radio...I do enjoy Anthony Perkins.

I do wish they'd release this on DVD, or at least on cd...I remember reading about a possible cd release of the tv version awhile back, but it never happened...probably because of the author's estate.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 1:00pm

The TV soundtrack recordings are supposed to be in the new Sondheim boxed set from Sony/BMG - IF the company ever gets around to releasing it.

[stonewall2]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 1:05pm

The music is hauntingly beautiful by itself. My D uses one of the numbers for an audition piece.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 3:15pm

I really wish they'd release this on DVD. I'm very interested in seeing it now.

Where can I get the CD with Gary Beach?

Updated On: 2/23/07 at 03:15 PM

[WalkOn]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 3:18pm

I thought there was or was going to be a concert version of the piece in the UK? I memory was...say about a year or two ago.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 6:07pm

Sondheim at the Movies is readily available on the internet.

I really would love to hear Charmian Carr singing "I Remember," it must sound beautiful.

Posted: 2/23/07 at 6:10pm

A privately released soundtrack album was circulated and a few of us managed to get copies I know--there's more to it actually than on that CD--the brief part where he memorises musically the night watchman's schedule and a lot of IMHO great incidental music by Sondheim largely scored for clarinets (actually I prefer the original orchestrations in general). The recording all in all is prob 30 minutes or so (I guess it wasn't deemed as somethign that would sell since the Bacharach/David musical also from Studio 67, On the FLip Side did get a commerical soundtrack as did I believe the Canterbury Ghost musical by Bocka nd Harnick)

ANyway a CD was meant to come out of the soundtrack ove rthe past year but I guess is on hold somewhere along with the DVD of Pacific Overtures--I hope both still happen.

As for the show itself it's very low budget but I find it pretty effective actually--it's too short to actually be slow IMHO--although the actual Collier story (many of his stories ended up on Alfred Hitchcock Presents) is more satisfying.

E

[bk]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 7:21pm

Canterville Ghost did not receive a commercial recording release. The other Stage 67 that did was Richard Adler's Olympus 7-000. I recorded a song from Canterville Ghost on Prime Time Musicals, an album of songs from musicals written expressly for television. Also one from Getting Married, another Stage 67 show by Jule Styne and Comden and Green.

[Ohlee]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 7:22am

Maybe someone here can help me. We had the idea of producing a german version of Evening Primrose as an event inside of a shopping-mall. We also found out ´bout the rights, but you can´t get anything of the score (like the orchester-material) or the dialog sequenzes in germany. Do you know whom we´d have to ask?

(Excuse my English)

[Guillermo Ugarte]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 4:38pm

Patinkin has done several of the songs on his CDs. Neil Patrick Harris has also recorded one or two of the songs.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 9:18pm

I actually saw a staged version of it at a performing arts college recently as part of an evening of one acts. Someone had dutifully transcribed the dialogue from the tv show. It didn't really work. O.k., it was done in a basement, black box theater and none of the actors were over the age of 22.

The main problem is that the show ends with a rather exciting chase through the store, leading up to the surprise ending and you can't successfully do chases onstage ("Sunset Blvd." and "Sugar" come to mind).

On a side note, did anyone read Charmain Carr's "Forever Liesel" expecting her to write something about "Evening Primore" and annoyed that she didn't.

I mean, she only did two things of any interest in her career. Would a page or two about the other interesting thing she did have killed her?

[Julian2]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 9:31pm

Sondheim pressed a limited number of Lp's of the songs and instrumental passages for his friends. That may be floating around somewhere, but I don't think it included dialouge.

[iliketheater]

Posted: 6/22/07 at 12:07am

I've always been fascinated by this little film. "I Remember" is one of my favorite songs, that melody is so haunting and beautiful.

Posted: 6/22/07 at 4:33am

I mentioned the vinyl pressing in my post (from months back)--it has no dialogue. but the incidental score (which I believe is all by him) is gorgeous, scored largely for clarinets--all in all the recording is a little over 30 mins. The instrumentals remind me a lot of the incidental music from the play Invitation that bk recorded on the Unsung Sondheim album (which is also great)

I do really hope the CD finds a release

E