Grand Hotel Question

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 11:52am

So this has been bugging me for a while. I Love Grand Hotel and I have been listening to the recording alot latly. I am aware that Brent Barret replaced David Caroll when he removed himself from the cast because he was dying of AIDS. But the show opened in 89 and he died in 1992. Why is it that Barret is the Baron on the recording and not Caroll. Did they wait a couple years to record it or was Caroll just way too sick?

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 12:04pm

The delay in the recording of the OBC Grand Hotel was the fodder for heated discussion for over two years. I was fortunate to be able to access a house tape of the original cast doing the entire show -- with the magnificent David Carroll and in good sound. I think the issue was partially finding a company that wanted to chance a recording and, by the time the deal was made, David Carroll had long left the show. What you get on the commericial recording is David doing Love Can't Happen that was taped during his one-night-only cabaret act. I saw GH ten times and David was in the first two performances that I saw. What some people seem to forget is that David did return to the show briefly during the run -- but he was definitely performing below par when that happened. The second time I saw him, however, he was astounding -- just blew the roof off. This was definitely a career that had just begun to get into high gear when he became ill. A truly great loss the the American musical theatre.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 12:36pm

And, "Grand Hotel" did not open as a hit. It got a lousy review from the New York Times and it ran for a while, by the skin of it's teeth. The producers decided to use the money that could have been used to produce a cast album to keep the show running.

Eventually, word of mouth and the Tony Awards for Tommy Tune and Michael Jeter, gave it a much needed boost at the box office, but it still took a while for the producers to raise the money for a cast album and I think even then some of the performers waived the salary that they should have gotten for the recording.

Legend has it that they knew that David Carroll was literally dying when they doing the recording and brought him into the recording studio to get his tracks down before they brought the other singers in, but he was so weak that they weren't able to get anything usable from him. He, in fact, died before the date that the rest of the cast was scheduled to record the rest of the album.

And that's why it's Brent Barrett on the album.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 2:01pm

Didn't Carroll die after one of his sessions in the recording studio? Or is that urban legend?
I've read before that one of the reasons the show took so long to record was because of the legal issues that ensued with Maury Yeston who was brought in by Tommy Tune to fix the Wright and Foster score.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 2:45pm

If my memory serves me correctly, David Carroll died during a recording session of the OBC album. I think the idea was for him to do his takes prior to assembling the rest of the cast.

On a related note, a memorial service was held in his honor at the Gershwin, where GH had transferred for the rest of its run. Michael Jeter, another AIDS casualty, spoke of the time when he (accidentally) became aware of David's health problems (prior to the show's opening) and was sworn to secrecy by David. Judy Kaye and Barbara Cook also spoke, with Kaye remembering what how wickedly funny David was and Cook decrying the effect of the AIDS epidemic on the theatre community.

[Jon]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 3:01pm

I actually saw David Carroll in a non-singing role - in the national tour of DEATHTRAP opposide Brian Bedford. The cast also featured the late Kathlkeen Freeman as the medium.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 3:40pm

He was also in the revival of Cafe Crown with Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson and Fyvah (sp?) Finkel that started at the Public and transferred to Broadway. I believe it was in 1988 -- after Chess and before GH. I strongly recommend the Broadway recording of Chess -- David's singing of Anthem is stunning and brought the house down when he sang it on stage.

[once a month]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 3:48pm

And let's not forget oh! Brother!

[EugLoven]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 4:11pm

You guys, I just wanna thank you so much, particularly Ed_Mottershead and SondheimBoy2, for your concise and informative posts to this thread.

I'm part of the new generation of gay boys who grew up hearing about the AIDS crisis, but weren't directly affected (I was born the year the virus was given a name). I just can't wrap my head around it... What it must have been like. You lived it. I only read about it in history books. How frightening.

As a member of the NYC Gay Men's Chorus, from watching Broadway documentaries and from lingering around older Broadway junkies in the depths of Marie's Crisis, I am learning all of these tragically beautiful stories through story-telling like this.

It's a respect that must be gained and deservedly earned... and MUST be passed on TO people like me FROM people like you. It must have been such a drama during the late 1980s when a cast of 30 chorus boys could be reduced in-half each month...

I "discovered" the Grand Hotel album last year and cannot stop listening to it. What I would have given to have seen the original production in-person, with my own ears eyes and soul. I can't imagine how utterly astounding an experience it must have been for you all to see it. It's sotry-histories like this that just don't happen anymore.

A revival (Roundabout?) would be beautiful... but would still feel only half-sincere to what the original must have been like to FEEL
Updated On: 7/18/08 at 04:11 PM

[jewishboy]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 4:17pm

I could listen to Carroll's "Love Can't Happen" over and over again for the rest of my life.

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 5:47pm

Not that Barretts is bad by anymeans jewishboy but I hear agree his has this heart to it thats just incredible. I wish I could have seen the show but I was 1 when it opened. I hope for a good revival one day, like a lincoln center or roundabout revival.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 5:57pm

I just can't shut up about this. When I saw it in early preview, the first 15 minutes were like a piece of musical theatre heaven. The recording of this number is truncated and doesn't begin to give you an idea of the buildup. And David Carroll was the most dashing of all Barons -- I fell in love with him on the spot and haven't stopped mourning his loss ever since he died. It didn't hurt that they had Karen Akers, Liliane Montevecchi, the very young Jane Krakowsi and the superlative Michael Jeter.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 5:57pm

Updated On: 7/18/08 at 05:57 PM

[D2]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 6:14pm

Tommy Tune's staging, like his staging of the original production of NINE, went a long way in making the show watchable. The material, aside from some gems in the score, is weak and the production was not as good as I think you'd all like it to have been. As I said, Tune and the incredible cast were what made it better than it really is. Sorry.

[jewishboy]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 7:12pm

Theatreboy49, Brent Barrett is one of my favorite Broadway Musical Actors (in the top two along with Mr. Kudisch). But, there's that unique, yet thrilling quality Carroll has with his belt. And he's also capable of being so romantic... Brent Barrett has a more "standard" Broadway voice.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 11:17pm

One nit-picky correction. It isn't that the producers were pouring money into keeping the show going. The problem was the music publication rights.

Wright & Forrest who had written the original score of AT THE GRAND were upset not so much with the Maury Yeston interpretations but with the fact that Yeston re-wrote some of their songs. The Wright-Forrest songs were published (in their original unaltered versions) on one folio and the Yeston songs in another. Apparently Wright & Forrest wanted the score recorded the original way. By the time that was all sorted out most of the labels had lost interest. The album was done in April 1992 and landed in stores about a month AFTER the show had closed. It was rushed, there are a lot of wrong notes and sloppy edits. And for an RCA release it had the skimpiest of booklets. No notes. Just a reprint of the musical synopsis that was in the playbill.

Like Ed, I had gotten a copy of the tape of the soundboard recording and had memorized it by the time the CD came out so I knew where every cut was made. (I was sorry that I loaned that tape out. Of course, I never got it back!)

I met the guy who worked the stage door at the Martin Beck and he game me and my friend a full tour after the performance. What a sweet guy!

But the show was stunning. It may not have been assembled from the best parts, but Tune’s staging was sheer theatrical magic and it elevated the songs. And, you know, the more I listened to that score the more I liked it.

[elphiesmagic]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 11:29pm

This was a wonderful show. I saw it twice, both times with Carroll.

D2, I don't understand what you're "sorry" for?

Updated On: 7/18/08 at 11:29 PM

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 11:31pm

I have a 'tape' of 'At The Grand' recorded at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. I must seek it out and get it on CD!

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 11:32pm

AT THE GRAND only played the west coast in 1958.

The tape you have may be GRAND HOTEL's Boston try-out?

[morosco]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 11:39pm

I think the cast recording was funded by the show's brilliant orchestrator Peter Matz.

Updated On: 7/18/08 at 11:39 PM

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 11:50pm

Its clearly labeled 'At The Grand'!!!! Boston Colonial 1987.

[morosco]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 11:52pm

Apparently the Tommy Tune production was originally named "At The Grand" when it played out of town.

But then again your program is from 1987 and the show opened on B'way in November of 1989. I think it went straight to Broadway after Boston.

Updated On: 7/18/08 at 11:52 PM

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 12:00am

Thats what I have, the Broadway tryout just weeks before it changed its name. Its a pretty good show even then.

Updated On: 7/19/08 at 12:00 AM

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 12:23am

As we all know, tapes and dates are very flakey, epsecially on out-of-town try outs.

[Patash]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 9:12am

Kind of unrelated, but I saw Grand Hotel on July 3 (1990?). When I opened my program the understudy announcements fell out like confetti. Of the 7 principals, only 1 was performing -- Rex Smith, whom I believe had only recently taken over in his role. I was kind of upset (mainly about missing Michael Jeter), but enjoyed the show.

A couple weeks later I picked up a People magazine and there was a picture of most of the cast at a big Fourth of July bash at Tommy Tune's on Long Island. That's when I realized where everyone was the night I saw Grand Hotel.