Interesting Facts You Didn't Know About Your Favorite Shows..

What are some interesting facts you didn't learn about your favorite show(s) until recently?

For me it is Chicago..

Out of town they had a character who was Velma's agent. He had a big song called "Ten Percent." I knew about this, but what I didn't know is that... after out of town..when the show was starting to rehearse for Broadway. The creators had to make a tough decision. Cut the role of Velma's Agent OR Mama Morton! Obviously they chose to cut the agent. But I couldn't believe Mama was almost cut. I think she is a very strong supporting character; the show wouldn't be the same without her. It would almost be like cutting from Carlotta from Follies. I was shocked to hear this from John Kander on the 10th Anniv DVD of Chicago.

So is there anything you didn't know about your favorite shows until recently that suprised you?

Updated On: 10/10/06 at 05:00 PM

The agent was a male. He sang, as ljay said, "Ten Percent", an absolutely wonderful song that ranks with "When You're Good to Mama" as the best written for the show. Fred Ebb's performance on the recent special edition CD set is absolutely wonderful. I never saw David Rounds in the part, but from the demo, Fred should have done that part!

In the original production of Sweeney Todd, the wood for Pirelli's wagon was made of wood from a junkyard. The wood had woodlice and they had to infiltrate the costumes and sets.

I didn't find out until relatively recently that Trekkie Monster from Avenue Q was original created as a "Trekkie" down to the original puppet who wore the Star Trek uniform and had Spock ears

That in a way original draft of RENT, Maureen was HIV positive too.

All the choreography in The Witches of Eastwick is about control - the townspeople only dance when they are being directed by Darryl or Felicia, and music for each borrows and corrupts the other's themes. Also, the score for the Witches of Eastwick demo CDs makes much more sense (musically) than what ended up on stage in London.

i like this thread very much....

and not so much my favorite show...but still interesting:

comparing la boheme and rent you get some pretty awesome stuff that larson put in there. it seems like after i haven't listened to the OBCR for a while, i always find something new that i didn't correlate to la boheme before. there's the obvious stuff, but the more subtle stuff is pretty impressive.

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I didn't know that Jersey Boys was originally titled "Oh What A Night" until I read the program.

In Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, there was more to the balcony scene then there was in the show. Supposedly there was suppose to be a some sort of pantomine thingy between Andre and Muriel before they started to speak. Norbert thought it was hilarious and was very curious when Jack O'Brien took it out. But supposedly Jack want it to be funny but not over the top.

Also, the opening song n the tour is different from the one on Broadway because David Yazbek didn't think "Give Them What They Want" was the best he could have done. But after hearing how people don't like the new one, I think he should have just stuck with the old one. It was fine.

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Elphaba doesn't really fly or cast spells. It's all make-believe.

"That in a way original draft of RENT, Maureen was HIV positive too. "

As was Joanne, actually, Mark was the only one without HIV.

And the bit in Without You where Mark and Roger fight was reversed, Mark was insulting himself and Roger defending him. "Perhaps it's because you're the only one of us to survive"

Oh, the interesting things I have left over from my short lived RENT obsession...

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"Defying Gravity" parody.

Glinda and Elphaba: Why are you happy, my dear frieeeend.

*guards rush in*

Glinda: Ew, who are you. Get your paws off!! Oh my GOD! It's Elphaba you want, not me you hounds. Go for the ugly one, not the one dressed like a d*mn princess!

Elphaba: Shut up Galinda!

Glinda: It's Glinda thanks you your little sheep friend Mr. Dillamond.

Elphaba: It's Dr. Dillamond and he's a goat!

Guards: Ok, which one of you is the witch?

*Glinda and Elphaba point to each other*

Glinda: Nooo!! The one with the silly black hat.

Elphaba: I thought you said it was pretty during the dialogue of "Dancing Through Life".

Glinda: I lied...deal with it!

*Half of guards rush to Elphaba, half rush to Glinda*

*Guards throw Glinda off stage and into audience*
*Guard is about to stab Elphaba when!...his ADD kicks in and he forgets to put the spear into Elphaba, watching Elphaba fly off of the ground*

Elphaba: Alright! It's meeeee!!!

*guards all simultaneously trip and fall in slow motion*

Elphaba: So if you wanna find me, look that way. That crook says I should fly, but since I'm flying solo, since I've been set free, I'm gonna murder those who'd ground me. Take that message back from me!!! Tell yourselves how I'm flying. Yeah that's right! Defying Gravity! What are you gonna do about it??? Soon I'll match them in renown. And what does renown, me-he-hean, also no a*shole that there is or isn't....is ever gonna f*ck with MEEEEEEE AGAIN!!!!!!

Glinda: I hope you die-eye.

Crowd: Look at her, she's ugly.

Elphaba: Don't F*ck with me-he-heeee!!!

Crowd: Her flat chest blinds our eyes!!!!

Elphaba: OHHHHHHHHHHHHH (my period)!!!!!

Crowd: Bloooodd!!!

*Elphaba drops broom*
*Glinda screams*
*Elphaba cackles*

----END OF ACT 1----

Re: the ruby/silver slippers in Wicked:

The slippers are supposed to be silver. They're silver in the original book. The only incarnation of The Wizard of Oz that ever had ruby slippers was the MGM movie, and that's just because they wanted to have fun with the brand-new technicolor technology.

Yes, I know all kinds of random trivia bits on TWOO. The part of the Wicked Witch seems to be cursed. The first woman cast in the movie (I forget her name) quit because the makeup was too ugly. The second woman, Margaret Hamilton, who played her in the movie, was severely burned during her exit from Munchkinland once. I think she also fell off her broom during one of the flying scenes. Then, if you add in Elphabas, Idina fell through the trap door and broke a rib and the first tour Elphaba (sorry, I forget who it was) suffered an injury that delayed the start of the tour.

Yep, part's cursed. I'm just glad I escaped it when I played the Witch in junior high. :-p

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