Ron Field choreographed the original stage Cabaret, but my word, did my mind race when thinking of what the stage choreography would have been like had Michael Kidd choreographed Cabaret! "Two Ladies" alone would have had more contortions than the Kama Sutra.
OMG lol--what was I drinking last night!? Same difference that durn Fosse for not using Field's choreography--it never works to rethink something!!
I saw Wonderful Town this past Saturday for the first time and was very impressed. Donna Murphy was terrific and the orchestra was spectacular. I purchased the new Broadway cast recording of the show ($13.99 at the Virgin Records Store Times Square) and look forward to listening to the Fish!Gesudheit! line often!
By the way, the consensus amongst the 4 theatre goers in my group was that although we loved Idina Menzel in Wicked, we thought that Donna Murphy's performance was more worthy of the Tony Award than Idina's was.
AMEN to that!
I love De Mille's choreography, but I also love Stroman's. Her work in Crazy for You was brilliant. Rexploration of material is part of what theatre is about. Adapting plays, novels, or films for musicals. Or revinventing musicals for revival. This includes direction, scenic, costume and lighting design, orchestrations, and book. It's a creative process that, like a new musical, sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, but to stifle it is to stifle creative exploration.
I LOVED Wondeful Town when I saw it; everyone in the cast was spot on, the orchestra was fantastic, and I love the music in that show, not to mention the ensemble is one of the best currently on Broadway. Donna Murphy did do a spectacular job, but I think this year was Idina's. I was rooting for her all the way. I also think that Swing! was a good choice for the Tonys...obviously a lot of people liked it. And it's one of the funniest numbers in the show.
Although Wrong Note Rag was a good choice as well; because it features Donna AND Jennifer, but Swing really shows off their star, which is what it's about.
"By the way, the consensus amongst the 4 theatre goers in my group was that although we loved Idina Menzel in Wicked, we thought that Donna Murphy's performance was more worthy of the Tony Award than Idina's was."
Maybe so, but Donna had two things working against her: she already has two Tonys (and Tony has been honoring 'new talent' recently) AND she missed an awful lot of performances.
Those things simply shouldn't matter when it comes to voting on who has given the best performance in that catagory. Who cares how many Tonys a person has or how many performances they missed? If the performance they give is outstanding - it should win. Period. (Idina's performance was good, but combined with the poor writing, it is definitely not an outstanding performance by any stretch of the imagination.)
I'm not saying it is justified, I was just saying that, fair or not, it's how many Tony voters think (and vote).
Correction: the number of performances missed was blown out of proportion--yes, she missed shows, but not as many as it is made to sound.
When you produce a play or musical, you can recreate as much as you like (assuming you have the right to--and in some cases (Jerome Robbins) you have no choice). But, anytime you produce a play or musical, you are given the right to make the artistic choices in involved in designing, directing, choreographing, and acting YOUR production of that play of musical. And, if it flops--oh well. If a musical or play is indeed good, it will stand further exploration and a few crappy productions of it.
Absolutely, 100% Donna should have gotten that Tony. She may have been out often but the constant excellence of her performance should have completely blown away Idina's good day/bad day performances.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
the Tony's being my first introduction to Wonderful Town, i found this song to be a fabulous first impression. i simply loved the "Fish! Gesundheit! Don't mention it." only on Broadway...
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