Favorite/least favorite changes and cuts to shows

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 6/20/13 at 7:17pm

I have been listening to the London cast recording of Sister Act, and it got me thinking about shows that make changes and cuts from one production to another or during previews. What are your favorite/least favorite changes shows have made? Here are mine...

Favorites
- Annie revival reinstating the overture after not having it at the beginning of previews
- Women On The Verge moving Madrid to the beginning of the first act
- Lion King cutting Morning Report
- Addams Family changing the opening from Clandango to When You're An Addams
- Spider-Man adding A Freak Like Me
- Jekyll & Hyde revival reinstating Bring On The Men
- Jekyll & Hyde revival cutting the repeats of Facade
- Shrek changing Donkey Pot Pie to Forever

Least Favorites
- Women On The Verge cutting Shoes From Heaven
- Women On The Verge cutting My Crazy Heart as the opening number
- Spider-Man making cuts to Arachne's character (especially Think Again)
- Sister Act getting rid of the Prologue when it came to Broadway
- Jekyll & Hyde revival cutting No One Knows Who I Am
- Beauty and the Beast tour cutting No Matter What
- King and I revival shortening the overture

[gchris11]

Posted: 6/20/13 at 7:23pm

Favorite: Dumping the Magic act in Kinky Boots.
Least Favorite: Lyric changes to 2 songs in Pippin.

[Younger Brother]

Posted: 6/20/13 at 7:30pm

Least favorite:
* Cutting "Tattletale" from 9 to 5 between Los Angeles and Broadway.

[SuperSecretBoyband]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 2:53am

I prefer Miss Saigon's original finale (The Sacred Bird on the OLC) to the current one.

[After Eight]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 6:45am

Least Favorites:

Cutting the extended "Anne on My Arm" dance sequence after the Boston tryout of La Cage Aux Folles.

Replacing "Having Someone There" with "I Belong Here" in previews of The Grand Tour.

Cutting the best song in Titanic, "I Give You My Hand," in previews.

And the unkindest cut of all: cutting "From This Moment On" from Out of This World.

[ullabelt]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 6:48am

Bywayphreak that's funny because I loathe 'No Matter What' I never understood why the quirky inventor would sing a ballad. I would have loved the tour! Ha

[ullabelt]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 6:48am

Bywayphreak that's funny because I loathe 'No Matter What' I never understood why the quirky inventor would sing a ballad. I would have loved the tour! Ha

[Inigomontoya]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 10:46am

Least favorite: The little mermaid cutting "all good things must end" I thought the song was really cute, anyone knows why it was cut?

[ARTc]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 10:53am

Just about everything re-imagined with Spider-man. The show was so much better before the changes. Yes, it took way too long for Julie Taymor to get the show in shape, but where she was going - and almost got to before stopped - was brilliant compared to the dull version that is now so popular.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 11:32am

I was so mad they cut the last song Benny sings in In The Heights when it moved to Broadway. It was a great solo number and it broke up the pace of Act Two. When Christopher Jackson sang it at the reunion concert, was I so excited, then mad again that they cut it.

[Thparkaly]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 11:52am

Updated On: 11/8/17 at 11:52 AM

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 1:36pm

When Ragtime was in Canada Evelyn Nesbit and Harry Houdini had a song called The Show Biz. I can't remember if it was in place of Atlantic City or if both songs were in the show then, but it's a great little number and it's on the Canadian recording.

[NoName3]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 1:58pm

The Show Biz was cut either in previews or very soon after the show opened in Toronto and replaced by a different song for Evelyn and Houdini called I Have a Feeling. By the time the show opened in Los Angeles (still pre-Broadway), I Have a Feeling was gone, replaced by solos for Evelyn and Houdini in Atlantic City. If I remember correctly, the last significant change made to the show before the New York opening was a rewrite of those solos.



Updated On: 6/21/13 at 01:58 PM

[theatregeek6]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 2:07pm

Least favorite - the change of "Grease" from the more adult original version to the PG13 movie version. Can we revive the original at some point?

Favorit - the Scarlet Pimpernel 2.0 version rather than the 1.0 Updated On: 6/21/13 at 02:07 PM

[IronMan]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 2:52pm

Favorite:
AMERICAN IDIOT: adding 'Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)' as the curtain call. I thought it was a cheesy idea when I heard about it, but when I saw how it was done, I loved it.

Least:
INTO THE WOODS: cutting the revelation that the Narrator is the grown son of the Baker.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 3:05pm

Least Favorite - the Scarlet Pimpernel 2.0 version rather than the 1.0

[CJ N2N]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 3:06pm

I still hate how they cut the trio during the Wandering Child scene in PHANTOM.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 5:12pm

I hate that they dropped "Why Should I Wake Up?" from Cabaret. I've always thought it belonged in the party scene right before Tomorrow Belongs To Me.

[jackieoh]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 8:15pm

Even though "Maybe" is definitely the superior piece, "Everything" in NEXT TO NORMAL had some beautiful lyrics that I wish had made an appearance after they cut it. I especially loved "this normal they sell you is no special deal / and no one should tell you the way you should feel / or what's real" AND "I know that in time you will sing a new song / and I will be nearby and humming along"

Also dealing with "Maybe", I like the 'devil you know' verse and it took me a few viewings of the show on Broadway to realize they had cut it. I spoke with someone close to the production and they said it inspired laughs during previews when people made the connection between Alice and the Side Show lyrics.

[jwsel]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 8:33pm

I also wish The Show Biz had been left in Ragtime. On the other hand, I think they made a great change from LA to Broadway by moving Til We Reach That Day from the beginning of Act II to the end of Act I. It worked better as a powerful end to the first act.

A change I hated was the addition of the framing sequence to Leap of Faith between LA and Broadway. They changed the opening so that it begins with Jonas leading a revival in New York that then transitions into a flashback telling the events that took place in Sweetwater a year earlier. Only those events ended with Jonas choosing to stay with Marla and Jake in Sweetwater and quitting the revival. So how the hell can he be leading a revival one year later? Are we supposed to assume things with Marla failed? It's utterly baffling.

[justoldbill]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 9:11pm

A day without "Tick Tock" is like a day without sunshine.
A day without "Bolero D'Amour" is like a day without "Tick Tock".

Updated On: 6/21/13 at 09:11 PM

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 10:38pm

I never noticed the devil you know lyrics being cut from Maybe. What replaced it?

[jackieoh]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 12:25am

It just went straight into "Maybe I'm tired of the game..." after Diana sings "I'm dancing with death I suppose, but really who knows?"

I think I saw it three times before I noticed it and it apparently happened within the first couple of previews. I do think it was a silly reason to change it, but it was a hardly-noticeable cut. I'm glad its on the recording though.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 1:36am

I wish Sondheim would leave INTO THE WOODS alone.

I hate the alternate lyrics to 'Last Midnight' & the 'Lament', and having Little Red & Jack enter at the end of 'On the Steps of the Palace' robs Cinderella of that moment IMO.

Also 'Our Little World' is a terrible, terrible song.

[jackieoh]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 1:38am

Costco is great! I also loved Growing Up Unstable. Kitt performed it at the Times Center in August 2010 when they were holding events to introduce the new cast. It's more angsty than anything else Natalie has in the show but I missed it.

There were lots of little pieces of the show that were cut when it transferred, definitely for the better. The off-Broadway soundboard has a lot of fun little exchanges in the beginning of the show with Diana and her family. In My Psychopharmacologist and I, there's a little flashback and Diana's says "Happy 21st birthday, Dan Goodman! Guess what your present is okI'lltellyou. We're going HELICOPTER SKIIING! They take you up and they drop you on a mountain and you ski down... And I know we don't know how to ski but how hard can it be?" Alice played crazy well and just her vocal affectations when delivering those lines makes me miss them. The off-Broadway version was a little lighter and showed a playful essence of Diana when she was manic but when they cut things like Costco and those silly exchanges, it made her illness more potent and obvious. The emotional intensity of the Broadway incarnation of this show still blows my mind.