Hunter Foster Responds to Urinetown Mess! — Page 3

Hunter is an idiot for getting into this fray. What an ego!

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Updated On: 11/17/06 at 12:59 PM

Have you guys ever met John Carrafa? What a d**k!

I hope he doesn't see a dime.

Updated On: 11/17/06 at 01:09 PM

Hunter is certainly right that anyone who wants to do Urinetown at their local theater anytime soon is now going to think twice about it.

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Yet again, no one knows what she did and what she didn't. You are going by a production photo and John Carrafa. If you google images from any prodcution of Urietown that's been done in the country and you will see the same kind of photos. No one can make a judegment until it is proven. Period.

I just googled Urinetown images from around the country and they all look the same: Bobby in overalls, Little Sally sitting on Lockstock's knee, the poor waving flags and pictures of Bobby, Caldwell with bunny slippers on his hands...Come on people!

Oh my god--we're not JUST talking about the director here!

What is it you don't understand about intellectual property?

If ANY show copied the original, then THEY stole too--maybe the reason that he's raising hell is because one of his cast members used her experience in the show to profit from his staging. It's not just about Cody here--this is about "directors" and "choreographers" who restage, and designers who copy. If you are copying someone else's work, then you are NOT directing or choreographing AT ALL.

Yes, the street artist may be able to paint a Van Gogh, but it's still not HIS painting.

Those are brief homages to other shows, Diva, and it's disingenuous for you to not differentiate. One is restaging something already created IN ITS ENTIRETY--the references to Fiddler, WSS, etc are inside jokes that not everyone is going to get--it's the difference in quoting Shakespeare in a play and doing a Shakespeare play and saying you wrote it.

If she staged it on her own, all she has to do is simply show her book to Carrafa and be done with it. My suspicion is that she was hired because of her connection to the show and her ability to recreate the original.

The producers chose to hire her at what is almost certainly a lower fee than Carrafa would charge and still get the same show. Saving money is what they do.

This is SO not about Jen and Hunter--this is about how directors and designers work.

Legally, you may be right--ethically and artistically, you're not.

Sounds good to me, showinoff...

My problem isn't with Cody or Foster or anyone else in this specific instance--it's the larger question of what a director/choreo/designer does.

I guess I don't understand WHY any theatre artist would want to outright copy someone else's designs or work, especially with a relatively unknown show.

I always thought the fun in directing, designing, etc. was coming up with your own ideas that fit your particular production. Feel free to be inspired by someone else, but leave it at inspiration.

This thread has me scratching my head. Just a few weeks ago I remember a Chorus Line thread where everyone was sniffing that all productions should use the original dance moves, or it sucks. I was in a fantastic production at the Woodland Opera House that was all new choreography. It didn't suck at all. The same choreographer did a great Forum that we added tons of dance to. All the other Forum casts (it was done three times in town that year) came and smack talked us for not doing it the way it's always done, and guess who won the awards that year? Us. Their productions weren't even nominated.

However, most shows tend to look the same. There's usually a "way" that things are done, and if you don't do them the expected way, people give you grief. I don't understand why such a stink is being made.

Oh yeah, I think the original Urinetown guys ripped off The Fantasticks, too (in addition to the others already mentioned). I'd like to see a list of all the things THEY copied from other shows. Grrr. I don't know. This is really stupid.

All Josephs look the same.
All West Side Stories look the same.
Surely it's to be expected that all Urinetowns will look the same.

LMAO!!!

Yeah. And when I saw it in Sacramento... it looked exactly the same.