GRIND!

...as in GRIND, the 1985 musical flop at the Mark Hellinger starring Ben Vereen... and directed by Hal Prince!

I've been listening to this CD lately, and been trying to acquire all the knoweledge I can on the show. I've learned fascinating things so far from the liner notes, as well as Ethan Mordden and Ken Mandelbaum's respective books.

Did anyone on the board actually see the show? Please come forth!

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I saw it. What are you looking to know about it?

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Great CD & sorry never saw the show

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Speaking of flop 80's musicals, has anyone seen "Got Tu Go Disco" starring Irene Cara that played at the Minskoff? I know one of the cast members, and she said it was a disaster, but I have never asked her to elaborate. Anyone see this?

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One of my best friends (from back then) was in it--- Steve Owsley.

I heard a lot of back stage stories, but my GOD it's been so long I doubt I could remember much of that.

He was mostly happy just to be in his first Broadway show. I know there were a LOT of rewrites and changes. It was written initially to be an original FILM musical (aka, it was an unproduced screenplay). I'm not sure if I can remember much else. He loved working with Ben Vereen and Stubby Kaye. It had a great cast.

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How was Irene Cara?

I'm told that she was so on drugs at that point, she was a huge mess.

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Physical production was quite extraordinary. There were four or five units on a revolve, and after the opening number, the first revolve happened, and you saw the entire backstage of the burlesque theatre at once, dressing rooms, stage door, etc. It was as if you saw a cross section of what was happening backstage at once. Audience was pretty floored at the first reveal.

Also, the Florence Klotz costumes were pretty stunning. One of the fashion mags (Vogue?) did a piece on them at the time.

The whole thing was lovingly put together, and the show, at its core, has a great idea - life at an integrated burlesque house in the Depression. But Act Two suddenly got awash in subplots, and too much ended up going on at once.

A lot of care and professionalism went into it, and the show looked and sounded great. (Terrific orchestrations from the late Billy Byers. The woman who sat next to me was very encouraged by the Overture, until the show proper began).

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I wish I had seen it. I do remember one sentence from Frank Rich's review, "Like ants in an ant farm." He must have been talking about the backstage view just discussed in a previous posting.

I think it is better I do not. I still have the Playbill however

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It is in a storage facility which I can only get to on weekends

PM me so I will have it as a reminder but I will do it

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Do you happen to know if GRIND had an out of town or did it just open cold in New York?

Come to think of astounding Hal Prince productions, let's not forget his other Larry Grossman show, "A Doll's Life", which was according to some reviews at the time considered to be quite revolutionary too. Totally different score though.

smaxie- thanks for your description! you're very lucky you got to see the show and p.s. i'm not familiar with the Mechanic Theater in Baltimore... have other shows done out- of- town tryouts there?

A Doll's Life sounds fascinating too, especially from "Harold Prince and the American Musical Theatre"...

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