GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

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GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 4:36pm

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

Updated On: 7/29/13 at 04:36 PM

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 4:50pm

One of my favorites....I grew up listening to my mother's album...

I played the overture and opening number over and over again growing up....

SOMEONE NEEDS TO DO IT!! Thanks for bringing it up... Great memories with those songs...

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 4:51pm

Only if Kelly Bishop reprises her turn as the showgirl with the white feather boa!

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 4:52pm

And the Faux-sse choreography!

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 5:07pm

This is hands down my favorite Tony clip ever! I'd love to see this show performed to see if it's as weird as it sounds... Steve Lawrence plays Larry, a widowed Vegas huckster with a 10-year-old son, Ally, and is trying to scam the boy's aunt Judy (Eydie Gorme) out of $5000 to save his casino.

From the OCR liner notes:
"Ally, wise to his old man's designs and now truly fond of Judy, tries to talk Larry out of his intentions. But Larry will have none of it, especially since he's just been served with eviction papers. In desperation he slaps Ally, telling him to stay out of it. (I'VE GOTTA BE ME)"

THAT'S what that song is about? I've gotta slap my son when he tells me I'm wrong? Ah, the 60s...

"What- and quit show business?" - the guy shoveling elephant shit at the circus.

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 6:02pm

Saw this show when I was 12 with my p[arents. We both loved every minute of it. I still play the cast recording. It is a good musical that critics loved to hate. (you know it had Steve and Eydie and they werent really Broadway people)

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 6:23pm

"Harnick shook his head sadly and said, 'The trouble with washing garbage is that when you're done, it's still garbage.'

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 7:01pm

^^^^^Exactly. Everyone should read William Goldman's chapter on the show in THE SEASON.

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 9:41pm

I've always loved the songs, but thought the plot sounded really dumb.

#10

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 10:00pm

^^^^Goldman explains why. It was an adaptation of A HOLE IN THE HEAD, a film that had starred Frank Sinatra very successfully. But in adapting it for "Steve and Edie", they made changes that erased all the conflict.

Per Goldman, by the time it opened, it was basically just Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme's nightclub act--with "break ups" built into the comedy material.

As for plot, the original is about a single father who's rather a deadbeat and the question is whether his brother and sister-in-law will successfully win custody of the father's son.

In the musical, in order to have a love match between Steve and Edie, they make HER a single woman trying to take the child. As Goldman says it, not even in 1968 was a court going to take a kid from his biological father and give him to some strange, UNmarried woman!

Updated On: 7/29/13 at 10:00 PM

#11

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 10:20pm

it was basically just Steve Lawrence and Edie [SPELL THE DIVA'S NAME CORRECTLY, PLEASE!!!] Gorme's nightclub act

As if Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme's nightclub act was naything less than pure gold!

Steve and Eydie sing two songs from GOLDEN RAINBOW

#12

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 10:39pm

I saw it and it was enjoyable even though they screwed over the movie in the process. It moved from the Shubert to the 54th Street. In the process it lost a number sung by Gorme as she was apparently tiring of the show.It ran based on advanced sale. They kept it alive. Gorme was alledgedly difficult to work with.

Poster Emeritus

Updated On: 7/29/13 at 10:39 PM

#13

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 10:40pm

I don't know how someone could NOT love this OBCR! The plot does sound ridiculous, but the songs and performances are oh so good!!

When Eydie revs up to the end of "How Could I Be So Wrong" with:

I trus-ted him,
beeelieved in him,
my love, my life,
it was all for him,
what's WRONG with me,
HOW COULD I BE. SOOOOOOOOOOO. WRONG!

it send chills all over my body, haha.

The absolute highlight for me though is "For Once In Your Life." There is so much energy and sheer exuberance it makes you want to get up and dance. When she sings about Avon calling it always makes me chuckle. (There's also a goof near the end of that number when someone comes in early and they didn't bother to take another take or edit it out!)

They should totally do this at Encores.

Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco. Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!

#14

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 10:53pm

Back in 1998, Debbie Gravitte and her husband Beau did songs from it (as Eydie and Steve), in a Scott Wittman-produced evening of 1968 flops at La Mama.

Broadway '68: Flops Reexamined at NY's La MaMa, Feb. 12-28, 1998

Updated On: 7/29/13 at 10:53 PM

#15

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 11:13pm

"It was an adaptation of A HOLE IN THE HEAD, a film that had starred Frank Sinatra very successfully"

A Hole in the Head was a play that was later turned into a film.

As listed in the credits in the Playbill, Golden Rainbow was based on the play.

#16

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/29/13 at 11:31pm

PJ, that clip was glorious!!

#17

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/30/13 at 1:07am

Marks also did Bajour which could also be @ Encores

These were the only 2 major scores he did. Bajour had Chita as a gypsy. Need I say more.One of her numbers was simply called "Mean" . Finally had her sign the Playbill over 40 years later.

Poster Emeritus

#18

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/30/13 at 8:55am

GR was my very first Broadway show. I was 11. I was smitten and hooked.

#19

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/30/13 at 10:59am

Did they really utilize a golden rainbow in the show?

I always confused this show with FINIAN'S RAINBOW.

#20

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/30/13 at 11:26am

If I remember correctly they had it over a set of the hotel which was nothing to write home about.

Poster Emeritus

#21

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/30/13 at 6:31pm

it was basically just Steve Lawrence and Edie [SPELL THE DIVA'S NAME CORRECTLY, PLEASE!!!] Gorme's nightclub act

There's no need to shout, PJ. I appreciate the correction and will try not to make the same mistake again.

***

My point was not that there was anything wrong with Steve and EYDIE's nightclub act, just that it wasn't a book musical.

***

For the record, I was quoting Goldman. I haven't seen the show and only know Steve and Eydie from television, where they were very, very good indeed.

#22

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/30/13 at 6:35pm

A Hole in the Head was a play that was later turned into a film.

As listed in the credits in the Playbill, Golden Rainbow was based on the play.

Thanks for the correction, After Eight. Goldman discusses the musical almost entirely in comparison to the film. I've never seen GOLDEN RAINBOW and only know of it from THE SEASON.

(Of course, as with THE KING AND I, RAINBOW wouldn't be the first musical that borrowed heavily from a film version without paying for the rights.)

#23

GOLDEN RAINBOW, anyone?

Posted: 7/30/13 at 8:35pm

In researching GOLDEN RAINBOW I found that the original source play, A HOLE IN THE HEAD and it's film version were both written by Arnold Schulman. It's fair to say GOLDEN RAINBOW used both these sources.

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