Grand Hotel - anybody see it?- Page 2

[JoizeyActor]

Posted: 5/23/07 at 12:19am

What was his last project? The only thing I can think of is Dr. Doolittle. Didn't he do some kind of Doolittle tour?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/23/07 at 2:50am

According to a playbill article he is working on TURN OF THE CENTURY along with the JERSEY BOYS bookwriters.

[scooter38432]

Posted: 5/23/07 at 7:56am

"It sounds to me that we need Tommy Tune back on Broadway, with an original musical, pronto!"

PLEASE GOD, if this happens, let him be the director and NOT the leading man.

Did anyone see Dr. Mary Doolittle?

Posted: 5/23/07 at 8:06am

I saw the tour in Vancouver when I was 10 or 11 and I remember being blown away by the fluidity/cinematic/non stop dancing of the staging and loving it--but it's not a score I listen to much at all so for me prob would be a much less successful show without Tune's staging (Of course the score has a huge convulated history--the non Yeston stuff being written in the 50s or 60s I believe)

One moment of staging no one has mentioned yet was that amazing transition to showing us the Baron (I think--God my memories of the show are pretty faded) climbing up the facade of the hotel. Amazing stuff.


Updated On: 5/23/07 at 08:06 AM

[Shakespearean]

Posted: 5/23/07 at 9:05am

All around, an amazing show. Michael Jeter's performance was stellar, and the staging was terrific. I wouldn't want to see a revival without Tommy Tune at the helm though!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/23/07 at 7:50pm

I liked it & also liked some of the Forest/Wright songs that got cut

I liked the original song that was replaced by Love Can't Happen . I missed Crescendo & sorry it got cut

It was staged great & I wound up sitting in the first row. The second time I saw it someone gave me a ticket. By that time, it was in the Gershwin with Cyd Charisse. I do not want to say I was high up but I could not make out any details of the actors

[Patty3]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 12:05pm

I didn't see the Broadway cast but I saw a version our local high school did.

I agree, I would like to see Tommy Tune back on Broadway in some capacity!


Updated On: 6/4/07 at 12:05 PM

[morosco]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 12:55pm

Wow. That High School did a great job.
Updated On: 6/5/07 at 12:55 PM

[Patty3]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:21pm

Not my favorite Tommy Tune show. I prefer Nine and The Will Rogers Follies. Updated On: 6/4/07 at 01:21 PM

[morosco]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 2:04pm

Updated On: 6/5/07 at 02:04 PM

Posted: 5/30/07 at 5:17pm

to be fair that's a common prob with amateur and HS productions--youtube has one set of TONS of clips from some hs in New York state I believe who did shows like Follies, etc and it looks as close as youc ould imagien to the original productions squeezed onto a high school--I commented sarcastically on how they deserved some credit (the originals) and the director of the program who posted it got VERY bitchy with me.

but seriously, with the COmpany clips it was almsot like he was restaging the cast album from his mind

[morosco]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 5:36pm

Updated On: 6/5/07 at 05:36 PM

[WestVillage]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 5:58pm

I did not particularly enjoy Grand Hotel, but it did have some fine moments, Jeter especially, and the staging was quite good. Forbidden Broadway's spoof (Grim Hotel) was so much better than the material it was spoofing.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 5/31/07 at 3:33am

I have a copy of the souvenir program for "At The Grand" which was Wright and Forrest's first run at the show with The Los Angeles Civic Light Opera in 1958. Paul Muni played Kringelein. The LACLO originated "Kismet" and "Song of Norway" and Wright and Forrest were basically the house composers. They tried all sorts of shows, often starring Alfred Drake, including "Zenda" and I believe "Kean" and perhaps "Gigi". Most flopped but they kept trying. You have to give them credit for that.

The Civic Light Opera mounted shows from 1937 to the early 70's, in conjunction with the San Francisco Light Opera (four weeks in each city). They were absolute copies of the Broadway shows. The shows were paid for by hundreds of sponsors including Walt Disney and Earl Carrol and many prominent members of LA society. I have a program from 1940 with young Gwendolyn Verdon in the corps de ballet.

They ran a season which always included the hit shows of the current Broadway season.

For those interested in pure trivia, they hired Zeke Colvan to mount the shows and he stayed with them for years. He directed the dialogue in a little show called "Showboat" on Broadway in 1926.

Updated On: 5/31/07 at 03:33 AM

Posted: 5/31/07 at 7:25am

I'm pretty sure that LA/San Fran deal between the companies was meant to play a part with Follies opening in 1972 in LA and then planned to move to San Fran (it closed in LA)

I never knew there was a show called Showboat the year before the famous Showboat opened in 1927 though

Morosco I agree--it was just this guy's attitude that got to me on his youtube postings "our school did it the way I saw it in 1970..." etc... With him still getting all credit and it seemed lamos tliek he was teaching peopel to copy his memory

[allofmylife]

Posted: 5/31/07 at 11:48am

Oh blow eric, of course you're right. What was I thinking?

I did some research into the LA/CL and found out they were done in by the Music Center. They had a huge subscription list when they performed at The Biltmore and The Civic Aud but Edwin Lester, the company's emprasarrio was determined to be part of the new Music Center. Eventually the huge costs overwhelmed the company. Lester, a fixture on the scene since the 30s was replaced by some unknown suit and the Civic soldiered on for a few years then died.

I remember someone mentioning Follies so you're probably on the money there.

[Leo]

Posted: 6/3/07 at 12:05am

ERICMONTREAL:
To set the record straight, I was the bitchy one, NOT the director.

Updated On: 6/5/07 at 12:05 AM

[Leo]

Posted: 6/3/07 at 12:09am

I recently worked on a local production of GH. I went "in" not particularly liking the piece, in fact - I disliked it.. but after a few full rehearsals [when I started to fully understand it] I now love the show. First of all the music is magnificent. And, 5 [or more] story-lines intertwine around each other to form a very neat and tidy "package." It's like an episode of "Love Boat" on speed [forgive me for writing that] but infinitely better! Some of the sub-plots deal with death, dying, fading away, corruption.. which I relate to as I am an old fart. Other character-plots are full of youthful life. Very uplifting, especially the ending, where a new born basically "replaces" a dying Otto who has decided to experience one more thing before it's too late. "Life goes on" at the Grand Hotel.
Updated On: 6/5/07 at 12:09 AM

[Leo]

Posted: 6/3/07 at 12:18am

I hope that I didn't sound too "sappy" in my last post!!!
Updated On: 6/5/07 at 12:18 AM

[morosco]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 12:41pm

Updated On: 6/5/07 at 12:41 PM

Posted: 6/4/07 at 4:58pm

No--I did speak to Leo thru email and I think I came off too harsh here (I didn't call you a bitch though I just said you did bitch :P ) I stand by a lot of what I said though I don't think it's a problem really for a high school and I do think lots on those lcips is pretty amazing to see.

E

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:14pm

A buddy of mine gave me the souvenir program for At The Grand when it was in L.A.

The strange thing about it is that it looked like a hybrid of the Grand Hotel (as we know it now) and Nine.

It was set in Rome and had all these lovely ladies wearing high end italian 1950's fashion.

[Joelbeans]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:23pm

I did Grand Hotel with a community theatre company here in ST. Louis, and loved doing it. I played the Baron, and we tried to do the blood thing on the shirt and we never could get that to work. we tried running a tube from my hand to my chest and put a syringe filled with blood on the end of hte tube, but the blood couldn't make it up my arm. Then we did the same thing with one of those things that you suck babies snot out of their noses, and that didn't work either. So when it was time to shoot me, the stage went black and I rushe of stage and they would put blood on my chest. FUNNY THING! One night when we did the blood, my best friend who would stray the blood on me, the blood got stuck in the syringe, and to get it out he had to hit the syringe as hard as he could. Well not only did I get blood on my chest but, up my nose, in my eye, everywhere. The directors mom said I really looked deat with all that blood on me. My friend had to come and carry me out on the gurrny after the song and he had no idea what he had done, and he was scared of me. It was one of those moments.

[Leo]

Posted: 6/5/07 at 5:12pm

Just an aside... It has always intrigued me that, as Madame Grushinskaya explained thru her dialog, guests at the hotel are speaking in their native tongues, yet we - the audience - are hearing it all in English. I cannot think of another show that makes a point to tell the audience that the characters are all speaking "foreign" [to us] languages.
Weird concept.. but it works well!!

[vinnylin]

Posted: 6/5/07 at 8:04pm

I saw GH twice on Broadway during its first year, and rather enjoyed it. I think the Broadway show was an absolutely terrific production of a so-so show. I wouldn't say it had a particularly strong book or score (City of Angels was far superior on both counts), but the production was something to write home about. (Don't get me wrong, there were individual songs that I did quite like.) Tommy Tune created a flowing piece, and the use of the chairs was quite entertaining. I thought the original cast was uniformly good, but David Carroll and Michael Jeter stood out for me. (It is very sad that we've since lost both of these two talented actors.) Jane Krakowski did not make a tremendous impression on me when I saw her, but I appreciated her more the second time I saw the show, when I saw her understudy. (That said, she didn't stand a chance against Randy Graff for the Tony that year--Graff was phenomenal in City of Angels; besides Krakowski got her due in Nine for a far more memorable performance). Ultimately, though, this production was about Mr. Tune.

Thanks for this thread. A fun stroll down memory lane...