Fish! Gesundheit! — Page 2

ME TARZAN NAH NAH NAH NAH

I love it thats my favorite part!

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I knew about the transformation in the song of Ruth, but I didn't see that happen on the Tonys. I found the number to be somewhat bland. It could've been so much funnier. Listen to the original recording with Rosalind Russell. Now THAT'S funny!

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haha..yah I was very impressed with this number as well. I had only ever heard a couple songs from WT and I wasn't very eager to see it but I crack up every time I watch this. The physical and vocal comedy in it is great and I really wanna see the show now!

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You also have to take into account that the Tony version was a shortened version of the song. So it was like they fast forwarded through the transformation a bit.

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ya know--I can TOTALLY understand one's wanting to stick up for a show. I can also understand one wanting to give a fair critique of a show. But I do not understand the out and out NASTY comments against a show or a performer. Those exhibiting this behavior need to grow up and learn how to be respectful.

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And the opinion of most every pundit. Assassins' being placed in Revival hurt WT's winning, LSOH's getting a slot, and allowed Avenue Q to win its awards.

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Updated On: 6/16/04 at 01:31 AM

I thought the number a bad choice for the Tony's. I doubt if anyone would race to the Martin Beck on the strength of that song/performance. I would have thought that Conga! might have created a little more interest.

I agree with MisterMatt. I just played the Rosalind Russell version to prove to myself that it can be amusing.

i don't find the coughing fit extremely funny, for some odd reason...
-d.b.j-

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Tho I passably liked this revival of Wonderful Town, I felt the pilot light of the entire production, represented by SWING on the Tonys, was turned down way too low. And that is strictly a directorial problem. Obviously, the actors are playing the truth of their characters and situation but don't seem to have been instructed to also crank the 'truth' up a notch and 'sell' the laughs in what is after all, a slam-bang musical comedy. It's part of the all-pervasive trend in musical theatre to make everything "serious" or 'truthful' or 'real' at the expense of the style of the piece and the audience's enjoyment, like trying to turn FLOWER DRUM SONG, a lightweight, second-rate musical comedy romance, into a socio-historical-cultural tract. Pretentious and dumb. It's another sad example of how Broadway practitioners are forgetting (if they ever learned) the essential style and craft of their own indigeneous art forms. And, yet, of course, EVERY choreographer fancies him/herself a director. Most I have met, however, have no idea how to talk to actors or speak with any critical intelligence about a script. And so it goes.

Updated On: 6/16/04 at 10:52 AM

Amen!

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In the case of Flower Drum Song, it is probably the one R&H show with the distinction of have much more light than dark (with the exception of State Fair, but that was written for the screen). I think there was a definite attempt to create a balance that did not really exist in the first place. The show was much more frothy than their others and the stakes were not as high (as with the unsucessful Allegro and Me and Juliet). Not to mention that with the sky high level of PC occurring in the country, it could not be replicated in its original form without offending more audience members than not. It was a valiant effort that didn't hit the mark, but it wasn't altogether dismissed either. With permission from the estate, anyone can tamper with R&H as they choose. The critics and audiences will decide if they like what they see.

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Re; Flower Drum Song: "I think there was a definite attempt to create a balance that did not really exist in the first place."

Precisely. And the second-rate R&H material couldn't bear the weight of such interpolation. Poor judgment calls on the part of Hwang and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. But that's a much lesser offense than allowing the brilliantly eccentric and characterful choreography of Agnes de Mille, who was the guiding sensibility of OKLAHOMA! in its inception (ask Rouben Mamoulian), be sacrificed to the drivel of the ever-vulgar Susan Stroman in the most recent revival. If the theatre community had a brain in its head, it would have risen up in violent protest against such shenanigans.

Yes, every musical should use the original choreography only!! Same for film adaptations. Damn that Bob Fosse for not using Michael Kidd's choreography for Cabaret!!

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