If you could choose next year's ENCORES! Series . . .

[gherbert]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 5:52pm

Hey! What three shows would you choose if you had the perogative to pick next season's Encores! seires.

My roster:

1. Love Life
I'll admit: I have never heard the material because the score, while not lost, has never been given a recording. The plot however, is fascinating for a 1940's musical, that of a married couple's life from 1791 to the present (namely 1949) and the deterioration of their once blissful partnership ---- while they never age! Nanette Fabray and Ray Middleton starred in the original production with music by Kurt Weill and a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, taking a break from his then usual partner, Frederick Loewe. This is a title long rumored for the seires, but still not done. I'd love to see Donna Murphy and Brian Stokes Mitchell in the leading roles. A wonderful thing about a concert version would be the benefit of perhaps FINALLY getting a recording . . .

2. High Spirits
A delightful show that would allow a top notch comidienne to display her ample talents. And who could that comidenne be? I vote for Elaine Stritch, recent Emmy-winner, to fill Bea Lillie's shoes as the lovable kook, Madame Arcati. I'd love to see Kristin Chenoweth by her side as Elvira with Laura Benanti as Ruth. And as the man that ties them all together, Charles, I vote for Terrence Mann.

3. The Unsinkable Molly Brown
A wonderful, fun, underrated show that deserves another look. The title role is a hard cast, but I trust Encores! that they would find the right woman to fill the ample shoes of Tammy Grimes. Meredith Willson has yet to be honored by Encores! and although it seems that his contribution to Broadway only consists of The Music Man, his only smash, he wrote a total of 4 musicals, and carried his distinct style of music, derived from his marching band days blended with the sounds of Broadway, into all of them. He deserves to be honored with this underrated show.

The Best of the Rest

1. Seesaw
Great score by Cy Coleman, yet to be honored by Encores!, and Dorothy Fields, plus a great showcase for a man and woman.

2. Anyone Can Whistle
Sondheim's only show really qualified for an Encores! presentation (the other's too familiar or modern or recently revived) with a killer score, directly pointing to his triumphs in the early 1970's.

3. It's a Bird . . . It's a Plane . . . It's Superman
Supposed to happen in 2002, but didn't. One wonders if the talk of blowing up Metropolis City Hall will keep this from getting done, but I certainly hope not!

4. Subways are for Sleeping
A WONDERFUL Jule Styne score, one of his most underrated in my opinion. It would be a great vehicle for Melissa Errico and Peter Gallagher as the reporter and her story piece turned love interest, respectively.

Now it's your guys turn! Have fun!
Encores! Website

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 5:53pm

I absolutely agree with Anyone Can Whistle.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 5:55pm

Gherbert,

Elaine Stritch as Madame Arcardi? Can't you just see her taking her bows in all those different ways after "Talking To You" :)

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 5:58pm

Do I Hear A Waltz?
70, Girls, 70
The Grass Harp

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 6:09pm

Rags
Mack and Mabel
H2$

[gherbert]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 7:39pm

Yeah. Can't you just see it, Mary_Ethel???

Joeyjoe: ALL good choices. Do I Hear a Waltz? and 70, Girls, 70 especially. The reason I did not include Do I Hear a Waltz is because Sondheim doesn't like it. He views it as an outright failure because of his poor working relationship with Richard Rodgers, who was said to have slammed a new lyri he had written on the ground at the Shubert Theatre, New Haven in front of the entire company, exclaiming, "WHAT IS THIS [bleep]????" But what he doesn't see is what a wonderful score ensued.

70, Girls, 70 would be fun, too, if just to coax some lovely ladies of Broadway's yesteryear to strut their stuff big and loud once more!

[Carl Magnum]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 7:43pm

Pippin
Saturday Night (not sure if they've done it yet)
Merrily We Roll Along
Company
(yeah ok I like sondheim just a little)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 8:10pm

I love your choices. I don't know LOVE LIFE, but everyone (especially Mandelbaum) has been championing it for a wile, so because of that, I'm curious to see it. I know that when Reba McIntyre had her big sucess with ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, many were pushing for her to spearhead a revival of MOLLY BROWN, but nothing came of it because of her sitcom (and apparently she wanted a less "obvious" vehicle for her next Broadway project -- I hope she retrns someday because her Annie was amazing).

ANYONE CAN WHISTLE has been a rumored Encores pick for couple of years -- either they or Roundabout are going to almost have to bring it back sometime soon. After reading about Bennett's doctoring of SEESAW, I'd be curious what a bold production of it would look like (the score's great). SUBWAYS helped put the delightful Phyllis Newman on the map (not sure Errico is ideal, but a great role for somebody).

I still have the cast album for SUPERMAN somewhere (I have "You've Got Possibilities" going through my head right now).

[Corine2]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 8:19pm

Dream Girls
Pippin
Candide
Carousel
Sound Of Music

[gherbert]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 8:19pm

Thanks, Margo!

I thought of McEntire, but truthfully, she is too old to play Molly. Molly needs to be youthful, innocent, and rambuncious. Tammy Grimes was in her twenties when she played it. Reba is nearing 50. Not saying that is a bad thing in ANY way, but at any rate I think McEntire is just a tad too, I can't put my finger on it. Karen Ziemba? More rambuncious, but something missing there, too.

I hope Anyone Can Whistle goes into Encores! instead of the Roundabout. While the scre is wonderful, there ARE problems witht the show. It didn't fail for no reason and Sondheim and Laurents KNOW that. I'd rather have an Encores! production with an all-star cast (Christine Baranski as Cora Hoover Hooper, anyone?) and the original book and orchestrations than a revival from the Roundabout that would likely revise it and hire an OKAY cast for a limited run.

Not ideal for Melissa Errico? Maybe Rebecca Luker?

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 8:32pm

nice choices.
i'll throw out a few:

Anyone Can Whistle
Promenade
Do I Hear A Waltz? (wonderful!)
The Tap Dance Kid
Applause
a Kander/Ebb piece would be a nice tribute -
maybe The Happy Time or 70, Girls 70.
...and i'll third Seesaw

[timote316]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 8:36pm

Okay cast? I'm not too familiar with Roundabout (I'm still a semi-Broadway newbie), but if Assassins is any indication, I can't see them picking any kind of Okay cast.

Everytime I listen to the CD, I think that the voices are perfect...

[gherbert]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 8:53pm

Not saying the Roundabout picks okay cast for all its shows. Just look at Cabaret and Nine and Assassins, but what I am saying is that their musicals are done on a smaller scale with reduced orchestrations and I am sure they would ask Arthur Laurents to move are and revise some things to make the show acceptable for today's audiences. Just don't want it to end up like The Boys from Syracuse (blah!).

I want to see an all-star cast with the original book and original orchestrations. Encores! is really the place to do that.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 9:19pm

"Coco" starring Dixie Carter

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 9:45pm

Roundabout's record over the years is very spotty to say the least with their revivals (and theor productions in general). They've had many many more second rate disasters than successes (After the Fall, Look of Love, Little Me, Boys From Syracuse). They like big names, whether or not the casting is appropriate and their directors are often hacks. Remember that CABARET was already a successful production that Sam Mendes had done for the Donmar Warehouse in London and all Roundabout did was import the whole thing over (including Alan Cumming), recasting some of the leads.

As for SUBWAY, when I think of Phyllis Newman, a great comedianne as well as singer, I don't think of Errico to play one of her signature roles (and certainly not the charm-free Luker). How about Jennifer Laura Thompson?

Corine--
The rights holders for DREAMGIRLS have already licensed the show for Broadway for a revival to happen this season or next -- so Encores is out. And they would NEVER EVER give rights to do the show at something like Encores -- the show is still too big for that (not to mention it already had an all star, non-Encores, concert three years ago).

SOUND OF MUSIC, CANDIDE and CAROUSEL have all been revived on Broadway in the last 10 years. Encores' reason for being is to do concerts of shows that have been forgotten or unappreciated and/or have never been revived. Those three don't qualify.

PIPPIN is getting an all star concert next month, so cross that one off the Encores list as well.

[gherbert]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 9:53pm

Margo,

No I know why me and you are not seeing eye to eye at all! I am suggesting Rebecca Luker and Melissa Errico for the part that Carol Lawrence played, that of Angie McKay, the reporter who pretends to be homeless to get a soty for her magazine, but instead falls in love with her story, Tom Bailey, who I suggest Peter Gallagher for. For the secondary couple of Martha and Charlie, the roles played by Phyllis Newman and Orson Bean, I am undecided. Perhaps Nancy Kathryn Anderson and Christopher Fitzgerald?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 10:02pm

Ahhhhhhhh..... sorry, I don't know the show that well (other than having heard a few songs from the cast album a long time ago) and the thing I remember most about it was Phyllis Newman -- which is why I couldn't see Errico in that part. But, she'd be perfect for the Carol Lawrence role.

[gherbert]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 10:04pm

Okay. Thought I was losing my mind for a second. I suggest getting the recent reissue of the CD. Great bonus tracks and STELLAR liner notes from Peter Filichia.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 11:46pm

BY JUPITER is certainly one show that would juice things up at Encores!, in my opinion.

Rarely performed. Adult, sophisticated, witty and musically rich.

[lvpblues]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 3:45am

Me and Juliet
Pipe Dream
Very Warm For May
Love Life
Fanny
First Impressions
The Golden Apple
Kean
The Grass Harp
Juno
Two By Two
Kismet (w. Marin Mazzie as Lalume!)
The Girl Who Came to Supper
Sail Away Updated On: 10/12/04 at 03:45 AM