Grand Hotel: 24 Years Ago Today- Page 2

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 11/12/13 at 2:27pm

I got goose bumps watching that Tony Awards clip. It has everything I love about Broadway.

[JRybka]

Posted: 11/12/13 at 2:45pm

I was so blown away but this show I saw it on a Friday then went back Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening. I have always loved the movie too. Please bring it back.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/12/13 at 2:47pm

The MGM movie is great. One of the best ever (which is saying a lot) for Joan Crawford and Lionel Barrymore. Everyone in it is good, but they are outstanding as Flaemchen and Kringelein.

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 11/12/13 at 4:10pm

The "Grim Hotel" parody on one of the Forbidden Broadway CDs is also perfect. As the doctor introduces all the characters, he says something like this: "Ah, and Kringelein, a bookkeeper dying of terminal symbolism."

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/12/13 at 4:15pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wcf64hp_54

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/12/13 at 4:19pm

Twice more. Not three times or four.

Two more times.

LOL

[devonian.t]

Posted: 11/12/13 at 4:38pm

Agreed there was only one David Carroll. Thank goodness there is that one bonus track of him singing in concert.

That Tony performance has to be in the top 3 best.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/12/13 at 4:55pm

I met David Carroll the summer after Grand Hotel, at the O'Neill Center. He was intrigued by a musical I was involved with, and we took a walk together by the Thames River one early evening, as the fabled O'Neillian fog was rolling in.

Having heard the tape only once, David proceeded to sing the score with astonishing accuracy, his glorious high notes soaring in ways we had not even imagined. I was simultaneously smitten and filled with hope: The musical would somehow make it to Broadway--and David Carroll would play the lead!

Two years later, the musical was abandoned and David was dead. When I heard he had died, I wept for him and the musical and so many other talented people gone, and for every wonderful thing that would never, ever happen.

I still cry sometimes just thinking of David Carroll. Here he is singing "Anthem" from Chess, for anyone who doesn't know how talented he was.

http://youtu.be/fUDUIRTpnmY

It's so beautiful, you could just bust.

Updated On: 11/12/13 at 04:55 PM

[devonian.t]

Posted: 11/12/13 at 5:42pm

a beautiful memory

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/12/13 at 10:28pm

Seth Rudetsky deconstructs David's rendition of "When Love Comes" that was included on the CD of Grand Hotel.

http://youtu.be/s3anJ6bQXtI

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 11/13/13 at 8:14am

PalJoey, thanks so much for that link. It led to all sorts of other David Carroll You Tube treasures. God, the voice that man had!

[BrerBear]

Posted: 11/13/13 at 4:44pm

I can't believe how lucky I was to see this show with the original cast, and on a high school field trip, even.

The only cast album I came across was a poor bootleg many years ago. Is there any official version still available? (Edit: Nevermind, looks like it is on iTunes now. Hooray!)
And a revival would be great.

Updated On: 11/13/13 at 04:44 PM

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 11/13/13 at 6:20pm

Although I saw Chess on Broadway, there isn't much I remember about it.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/14/13 at 5:43pm

This thread inspired me to watch the Oscar-winning movie again. I think I had forgotten how fantastic Joan Crawford is in it.

She steals the movie away from Garbo by a mile. I think it's the best of her "ambitious shopgirl" roles. In fact, I would rank it second only to Mildred Pierce as her best film role. And it's made all the more special because it's 1932, when most film acting was still very muggy and overdone. Joan's eyes and expressions are astounding. It's not in the dialogue. It's in everything that goes unsaid.

What a movie star!

EDIT: I have to say that I got tears in my eyes when the baron (John Barrymore) dies. And his dog is waiting for him on his bed, and Garbo keeps ringing his room, ready for him to join her.

Even with the heavy-handed acting, it's a powerful story, told extremely well by the biggest stars at MGM. It deserved to win Best Picture.

Updated On: 11/14/13 at 05:43 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/15/13 at 8:14am

One more interesting tidbit I discovered yesterday while Googling around ...

Grusinskaya's "devoted companion" (her assistant) was called Suzanne in the original (straight) play, and Suzette in the MGM film. The actress who played her, incidentally the only performer to appear in both the play and the film was Rafaela Ottiano.

In the Broadway musical, the character's name was changed to Rafaela Ottiano, honoring the actress who played her originally.

I'm not sure of the reason, but I think it's a cool way of honoring her.

Also of note: Rafaela Ottiano played Mrs. Lovett on Broadway in the straight play version of Sweeney Todd in 1924.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/15/13 at 8:19am

Six degrees of Rafaela.

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 11/15/13 at 8:25am

Another favorite exchange from Grusinskaya to her "devoted companion" in Forbidden Broadway's "Grim Hotel": "Get off me, you big dyke. I have tutus straighter than you!"

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/15/13 at 9:56am

Maybe if they revive the musical on Broadway, they can change that character's name to Karen Akers.

[Pawnee Bill]

Posted: 11/16/13 at 1:47am

Actually, the musical changed the spelling of both her names very slightly, calling her "Raffaela Ottanio," I assumed for legal reasons (though the actress was long dead by then).

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/16/13 at 6:46am

I'll bet it was legal reasons! Thanks for sharing that.

So in the revival, she can by Karin Akyers.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/17/13 at 12:49am

If she was already dead, there would be no legal issues, unless her name was trademarked. In the US, you can say whatever you like about the dead.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/17/13 at 12:49am

If she was already dead, there would be no legal issues, unless her name was trademarked. In the US, you can say whatever you like about the dead.