If "A Star Is Born" ever became a Broadway Show...who would play Vicki Lester?- Page 2

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/12/12 at 2:22pm

So here's a question, then, beyond who would be cast...

Every reimagining of "A Star Is Born" has had two things to showcase: a great diva in the female role, and the absolute best professional songwriter of the day.

Judy had Harold Arlen, author of SO many standards and showtunes it's hard to pick the most exemplary one, and Judy's usual go-to guy. Barbra had the great (and sadly underappreciated) Paul Williams, singer-songwriter and composer for hire behind The Carpenters' biggest songs, as well as the Muppets song turned standard "The Rainbow Connection."

Who is today's songwriter du jour who not only deserves a showcase piece like this, but can give the world at least one lasting song, to stay relevant like "Evergreen" or any of Judy's songs did?

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/12/12 at 2:34pm

So I'm assuming you want to put this in a modern setting? The music would all depend on what aspect of show biz ... in the original Gaynor film, she was a non-muiscal movie star. In the Garland remake, she was a musical movie star, and in the Streisand version, she was a "rock star." (LOL)

If she's still in the music world as a recording and concert artist, then I would use appropriate music for today. But if we're talking Hollywood, there aren't any "big musical movie stars" anymore, so it could be a musical with any style music to tell the "modern" story of a girl going to Hollywood.

[North2009]

Posted: 1/12/12 at 2:42pm

Of the two attempts to put this on the stage, that I am aware of, one had the film score plus additional trunk songs, and the other a mostly new score by Cy Colman and David Zippel. So both being very musical theatre and both being based on Garland film.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/12/12 at 2:45pm

So was Vicki Lester in Hollywood at all, or was she a Broadway musical theatre star?

[North2009]

Posted: 1/12/12 at 2:51pm

The first one I mentioned was all Hollywood. Not sure abouot other one. And come to think of it awhile back Andrew Lloyd Weber was mentioned to be working on his onw version of the film - and again using a few of the film songs. A lot of this was around the years that Theatre Week was being published.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/12/12 at 3:03pm

It's got a lot of potential, no question about it. It just need some serious tweaking here and there.

But I could see an adaptation of it becoming a big hit, with the right people involved.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 1/12/12 at 8:18pm

I definitely think you can have sad, depressing, gut-wrenching stories ... including the love of a bottle, which is only the vice for whatever the real problem is.

Apparently, I should have been clearer, Best. I don't mind characters being drunks or drug addicts per se, when, as you put it, the chemical abuse is a symptom of something more interesting.

And my view has nothing to with being sad or depressed. Stories where characters do nothing but surrender to the bottle have no conflict and no point of interest for me. (Yeah, there's a lot of drinking in WHO'S AFRAID... but I hardly think that's the point of the evening.)

I think everyone has the right to drink himself to death, but I see nothing to be gained from watching.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/12/12 at 9:22pm

^ Exactly. I agree with all of that.

[random person 112]

Posted: 1/12/12 at 9:24pm

I repeat if only Donna was younger she would have been perfect.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 1/12/12 at 11:04pm

As for composers, I realize Paul Williams had some skill in his day, but I would never put him in the same sentence.

With Harold Arlen.

As for a new stage version, I think I'd make the Maines Broadway stars and look to somebody like Marc Shaiman as composer/lyricist. His music is "popular" in the broad sense (if not in the iTunes Top 40 sense) and, since the Maines' relative popularity is an issue in the plot, I think you want a score that makes them believably likable as performers.

I realize Shaiman has specialized in musical comedies, but I think he has a dramatic score in him (look at his serious arrangements for Bette Midler and others). I'm afraid that if you hire somebody like Adam Guettel, you'll end up with beautiful music, but no sense that Norman and Vicky are popular entertainers.

Andrew Lloyd Webber should be kept away from this project at all costs. Even if it means we declare war on England.

[ggersten]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 6:53pm

For some odd reason, I was thinking about A Star Is Born and even odder thought to cast it with Lea Michele and John Travolta.
And even more odd, I hadn't been drinking or ingesting any mind altering substances.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 7:53pm

I think this would be the perfect vehicle to showcase Leslie Kritzer.

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 7:58pm

Months later, thinking of the Paul Williams connection to "A Star Is Born," it seems to me that "Phantom of the Paradise" is almost a super-camp nightmare version of the same story... only Swann and Winslow are both Norman, and Phoenix is Vicki. Plus, superheroes and the Devil.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 9:30pm

Loretta Swit and Harvey Fierstein