"Forgotten" musicals that mean the most to you? — Page 2

If/Then. I know, I know. It's widely hated, but I actually loved it when I saw it and still often listen to the recording.

soulmistin said: "If/Then. I know, I know. It's widely hated, but I actually loved it when I saw it and still often listen to the recording."

I'm with you. I loved it and the timing of it and where I was in life--fit me perfectly.

Esther2 said: "CATSNYrevival said: "I'll go with Barnum. I know there are several cast albums and even a DVD with Michael Crawford but it has never received a revival on Broadway. The score is delightful and now it will likely forever be overshadowed by The Greatest Showman. And we'll likely see The Greatest Showman on Broadway before we ever get a revival of Barnum."

I loooove Barnum!!! I saw it on one of my week-long trips in the summer of 1980 and I loved it so much, I went back later in the week. Fell in love with Jim Dale.

Another show I still love listening to is I Love My Wife. A slight show, but I had fun seeing it, and I just love the cast recording. The band being part of the show was wonderful."

Don't agree with you on Barnum...I just thought it was okay; but I totally agree with you re I Love My Wife. What a wonderful show. Unfortunately, I suspect that it is very dated at this point at this point and would probably never be revived. The show was a hit and won 2 Tony's. In fact, in competition with Annie, it won the Tony for Best Director of a musical. Despite assuming it has aged badly, given the source of its humor ('almost' wife swapping), I would love to see a production somewhere.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. One of my all time favorite contemporary musical theatre scores.

VivianDarkbloom2 said: "Lolita my Love" (it's a great score), "

I think LOLITA MY LOVE is a fascinating show with a mostly wonderful score. The York production in 2019 was quite good, and it was brave of them to attempt it in a moment filled with such histrionics. I think Lerner has gotten a bad rep as a misogynist junkie (And I often chuckle and gasp at the ridiculous, horrifying Dr. Feelgood stories. So bizarre.) and I hope that people focus on other aspects of his work someday. There’s a lot of great stuff there.

Yes, MY FAIR LADY is about a misogynist. Yes, LOLITA is about a pedophile. That’s the point. They can be written about. I don’t think Lerner was cheering them on.

Off the soapbox...

Did they go with "It was all a dream" or something? Dolores turns out to have been 18 all along and just pretending to be 10? lol

Never heard the score, but the idea of turning Lolita into a musical isn't bad, at all. Need to listen to the OCR sometime.

"This hews very close to the novel's use of Humbert as narrator and pseudo-confessor, where you literally have to struggle against his wit, charm, and agile obfuscations to see through to the actual horror story."

I was about to type this when I got to this place in your post. I don't get how people can miss this--and even the Kubrick movie is controlled by Humbert's voice over (as A Clockwork Orange is by Alex's). Nabokov makes very clear that he's employing an unreliable narrator, and of course there's the prologue by "John Ray, Jr."

"Humbert is kind of a sly, black-comedy stand-up comedian, but slowly the audience turns against him until he literally loses control in the road trip number, where Lolita escapes and the score becomes cacaphonous." I think this is the perfect way to deal with the characterization.

joevitus said: "Did they go with "It was all a dream" or something? Dolores turns out to have been 18 all along and just pretending to be 10? lol."

Actually, he stuck with Humbert as the emcee and all that you and Kringas have discussed, but at the, er, point of no return, after he's dosed her with pills... well, let me copy-paste (I still have the draft):

(Lights down on QUILTY. HUMBERT returns to the room and approaches the bed quietly. He stares at LOLITA. After a moment he presses down on the mattress a few times to see if it wakes her. Bounce - Bounce… Nothing. He turns on the radio and slowly increases the volume up and down… Nothing. He picks up the radio and holds it above her head… Nothing. He takes off his coat and begins to unbutton his shirt. When he suddenly stops. The following P.V.O. [pre-recorded voice-over] begins. He sits down beside her on the bed. He replaces the last two buttons he undid, closes his eyes, and slowly glides his hand over her without touching her.)

Music Cue No. 15 – “Tell Me”

HUMBERT (P.V.O.): The corner of my eye caught the singular friendly ray of moonlight that peered through the filthy window, setting the downy hairs on her arm ablaze in an angelic aura. My pulse increased to a speed beyond measure. I was actually here. I had finally returned to the moment I had lost 23 long years before. Every detail, every plan I had labored in my demented little mind had transpired without deviation. And here, once all the stars had magically aligned, whaddya know folks…

HUMBERT: …I just couldn’t do it.

To quote my previous post, "It dealt with the main problem the general public would have in about the only way one could; people would call it a cop-out, but hey, if it gets a good score presented..."

joevitus said: "Wow. Direly bad ending."

Agreed. I mean if you feel like you have to change the story in such a crucial way, just pick something else to adapt. And it's just the sort of chickensh*t thing you would expect a musical of Lolita to do.

joevitus said: "Wow. Direly bad ending."

I stumbled across this post and felt I had to correct the record, even though I posted this script on here 11 years ago.

That wasn't the ending that g.d.e.l.g.i. posted. What he posted was a scene near the beginning of act two where Humbert drugs Lo in the hotel and SA's her. As with most of his unreliable narration, he spins it for the audience to make it look like she seduces him (which we just don't buy, of course, because she's a child).

My concept of Lolita My Love was to present the show as though Humbert was dead and in purgatory (a bit of a tongue-in-cheek jab at musical theatre for people who hate it and think it is in fact purgatory!). The whole show was his attempt to justify to the fates judging him (the audience/jury) that he's not a monster. The production would be scaled down to 5 actors total (Humbert, Lolita, Charlotte, Quilty & Vivian Darkbloom), in mostly dark liminal space with photograph like projections & minimal scenery. The first act primarily centers around Humbert, Lolita & Charlotte with a brief appearance by Quilty & Vivianne as other characters. The second act, since it happens after Charlotte's death and when Humbert has absconded with Lo on the road, Quilty and Vivianne play multiple characters so as to imply that Quilty and Vivianne are following Humbert everywhere he goes.

There was also a twist I kind of liked where Humbert initially presents himself with the actual appearance of Quilty (tall, dark, handsome, movie star good looks), and presents Quilty as he actually looks (paunchy, balding). At the end of the show the actors actually switch roles as the facade Humbert establishes throughout the show crumbles around him and he's left alone and guilty. I picked that out of the subtext in Nabakov's book - something that not many people caught on to, and certainly haven't portrayed it in the musical, opera or 2 movies.

The focus of the show was demonstrate how someone who is monstrous can twist via narrative and presentation into a sympathetic character - it's not really a story about pedophilia, as with the original book - though of course that's a focal subject. This narrative applies to many different types of horrible people who have people side with them (women who fall in love with murderers, politicians, cult leaders, et al).

Anyway - the version I posted was over bloated and needed re-tooling and trimming. I haven't done anything theater related in 11 years so it along with other projects I did (an original musical called "the Ship that Shamed the World" and a retooling of Kander & Ebb's Steel Pier) have just gathered dust. And honestly, after experiencing the Trump era, I don't think we need a retooling of this show like I did it - I wouldn't want to spend 2 hours in a theater listening to an unreliable narrator try to justify his monstrous acts, no matter how good the music is.

I just recently learned that Mufti presented Lolita My Love in 2019 - which looked interesting. I'd like to know more about how they did it. As with what other posters on her said - it's a show with fantastic music, but the subject matter (beyond Nabakov's original text) is nearly impossible to present live. He admitted as much when he wrote the script for Kubrick's movie (which is also an interesting read).

Dom P said: "StardustsChild said: "What shows from the footnotes of theatre history have a special place in your heart?
I've been taking a lot of pleasure in introducing my friends to Dance of the Vampires over quarantine - it is a campy chaotic mess, but it makes me laugh harder than almost any well written comedy these days. "





Saw these two shows in tryouts during my younger years:



Lovely Ladies,Kind Gentlemen with Kenneth Nelson and David Burns. At Shubert Philadelphia The show obviously now not p/c

Jimmy with Frank Gorshin,Anita Gilette and legendary Julie Wilson. At Forrest Philadelphia

Later, saw the tryout of "I love my Wife" with Lenny Baker, Joanna Gleason. At Forrest Philadelphia. Now I mentioned it I'm going to be humming "Everybody today is turning on" all day.

James Naughton also in "I love my Wife"



Also Barnum with Jim Dale and Glenn Close.

And only because I got to see Bette Davis and Liv Ullman on stage do I mention "Miss Moffat" and "I Remember Mama". The shows,neither were particularly memorable or good.


Additionally, a quirky little show that was a big hit in Chicago and Philadelphia, but misguidedly made its way to the Simon(Alvin) "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up" with tunes like Like Friends,the best of","Thank God we'll never be the same again". It goes trashed by critics and lost in the Alvin. And finally, "Eubie","Bubbling Brown Sugar","Sophisticated Ladies" and "Rasin " with Ralph Carter,Debbie Allen Virginia Capers and Joe ( John Sayle's "Brother from Another Planet)Mortons


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Updated On: 8/6/23 at 08:06 AM

Owen22 said: "I love the multiple mentions of I Love My Wife. What a score! (It went the Joseph route with each song from a specific pop musical genre). I'm actually surprised this hasn't been revived (off-Broadway?) really sending up the 70's look and feel. The show was a well written situation comedy already, just the right direction could tip it into fun satire."

Lenny Baker was fantastic in this. Lots of very good tuned. Now I'll be humming "A Movers Life" for a while. Lol