Interesting Facts You Didn't Know About Your Favorite Shows..- Page 2

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 2:28pm

That whole Elphaba getting her period thing just made me crack up. Thank you for that.

[actor]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 5:25pm

hehe

[actor]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 5:29pm

"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."

Corrections:
1. The first Wicked Witch was fired because she was too pretty for the role of a witch.
2. The second Wicked Witch quit because she didn't want to become ugly like a witch.
3. The THIRD Wicked Witch was Margaret Hamilton
4. Margaret did not ever fall off of her broom. Her stunt double NEARLY fell off of the broom during the flying scene. This was because the broom exploded. You see Margaret during the flying scene on the movie however, the stunt double's skit was never shown.
Updated On: 10/12/06 at 05:29 PM

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 5:45pm

"1. The first Wicked Witch was fired because she was too pretty for the role of a witch.
2. The second Wicked Witch quit because she didn't want to become ugly like a witch."

You are thinking of the same person. The woman originally considered for the part of the Witch was Gale Sondergaard. She and Mervyn LeRoy originally envisoned a glamorous witch, just like the one in Snow White (which was a huge box-office smash the year before.) But studio executives protested, sayng you can't have a glamourous witch, she has to be ugly. So LeRoy had the make up artists give Sondergaard the ugly treatment, bue Sondergaard was not going to be ugly for the movie, so she quit. Then Margaret Hamilton was hired.

[bwayondabrain]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 7:27pm

sorry, i mentioned this before, but Gwen Verdon went undercover as a taxi dancer to learn more about her role for SWEET CHARITY

that intrigues me for some odd reason...

[Pippie_Poppins]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 9:19pm

Maybe OT, but "Somewhere over the Rainbow" was cut from "The Wizard of Oz", I can't remember who through a fit to get it put back in. Apparently, no one at the studio liked it and it didn't test well.

The fit throw-er would be Judy Garland. Bless her heart.

Posted: 10/12/06 at 9:28pm

Amen, Pippie.

Les Miz's turntable made over 200, 000 revolutions by the end of the Broadway run.

[SahDu]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 9:38pm

On the opening night of Oklahoma! the finale (the song Oklahoma) was given 14 encores. I love that fact.


Updated On: 2/15/14 at 09:38 PM

[Kringas]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 10:14pm

The fit throw-er would be Judy Garland.

Source?

[allofmylife]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 10:52pm

Actually, the sheet music publisher for MGM Studios (Harms?) was the one pushing to dump the song "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and the reason? Because the song was so long that they would have to publish and extra one page insert in the sheetmusic. Once he began talking up dumping the song, it began to snowball. The person who threatened to quit was not Judy Garland (get real, she was a frightened, insecure 16-year-old girl who was being told to lose weight) No it was the nascent producer Arthur Freed who threatened to quit if the song went (and it tested fine).

[FinallyAmember]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 10:58pm

Its not my favorite show but someone already mentioned Rent. I head a while back that "Without You" was originally a duet between Joanne and Maureen. Interesting, it could have worked. Anyone else hear this?

[TheaterAddict7652]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:04pm

Yes, "Without You" was originally a duet between Maureen and Joanne during the 1994 NYTW. You can look at the libretto for it at link below.
Rent NYTW Libretto

[actor]

Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:06pm

After checking my sources again, I found that you were correct WonderfulWizard11. Thank you.

[Broadway Matt]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 4:51am

Most of this comes courtesy of Ken Mandelbaum via his 2 excellent books:

- in early performances of CHORUS LINE, Zach would "cast" different people on different nights- an idea of Bennett's to increase the tension of not knowing who would be chosen. after a little while they had to set it in stone due to the logistics of the quick change into the "One" outfits

- Barry Bostwick was originally working to create the role of Zach but was dismissed for "being too sympathetic". The next choice was Chris Sarandon, but he wasn't enough of a dancer- so Robert LuPone was bumped up from the role of Al, which he played in workshops

- ACL lyricist Ed Kleban absolutely hated "What I Did For Love" and considered it one of the worst songs he had ever worked on. His will included express instructions not to have it performed at his funeral

- JEKYLL & HYDE went through numerous incarnations before reaching Broadway, with many songs coming, going, and morphing. "Someone Like You" was at one time a duet between Lucy and Jekyll and "Good & Evil" was sung by Simon Stride, who ran the whorehouse at the time

- the JH "Confrontation" went through several changes. originally a different actor (Dave Clemmons) would come out of a mirror as Hyde and fight Jekyll. this was replaced on tour by the projection of a big green head that sang the Hyde parts

- Lynn Ahrens is the voice of "What Would You Do For A Klondike Bar?"

- David Yazbeck was an early writer/collaborator of vocal group Rockapella

- speaking of Rockapella, curly-headed tenor Kevin Wright played Joly and understudied Marius in LM on Broadway, dating Deborah Gibson for a time

- ill-conceived but well-written flop LOLITA MY LOVE starred Denise Nickerson in the tile role. She is best known as Violet from the original Willy Wonka movie

- well-conceived but poorly-written flop DOONESBURY featured a young Gary Beach as Duke

- Tim Rice considers CHESS to be his best work

- Marvin Hamlisch considers SWEET SMELL his best score

- in the Japanese production of LES MIS, the young girls were played by actual children while Gavroche was played by a small woman. child labor laws only allowed minors to work until about 9 PM, so Young Cosettes were safe but Gavroche's scenes fell too late in the play

- George Bush, Sr is the only US President to have invested in a Broadway show. He put up money for a 1952 5-performance flop, then played a hand in Neil Simon's "Come Blow Your Horn" a decade later

Updated On: 10/13/06 at 04:51 AM

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 6:07am

It wasn't a wardrobe person but was Franne Lee, the show's costume designer, who decided that the way to distress Angela Lansbury's costume just before the first preview of Sweeney was with a plate of spaghetti. Lansbury said, "So right before I went on the stage, the sweater came up to me, all dried up and stinking of romano cheese and tomato sauce and old meat. And I nearly threw up. I couldn't believe she'd done this to me."

Regarding the title song of Oklahoma!: I'd think that if it was encored 14 times on opening night, that would be mentioned in Max Wilk's book on the show and it's not. I don't think I've ever read it in any account of the opening night. So I kind of doubt that happened. Do you remember where you heard or read this?

About WSS: That must have been in early drafts. I don't think that ending ever came close to making it to rehearsals because Arthur Laurents said (in a group discussion of the show with Bernstein, Robbins and Sondheim all there) that he wrote Maria's final speech as a dummy lyric for an aria that never got written. And Bernstein said that he tried four or five times to musicalize it and never could. This was clearly all some time before rehearsals.

About House and Garden: Ayckbourn actually wrote additional material as cover in case some scenes run longer than usual and actors can't get to the other theatre in time.

[algy]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 7:36am

House and Garden was performed at my local theatres a few years ago - it was written for Aykebourne's home theatre in Scarborough which has two theatres ajoining. My local theatre (I believe) is the only other one in the UK where it can be performed like this.

I only saw Garden but that was very good. My Parents saw both halfs and said that it was a good play on it's own without the gimmick, and that after a while you forgot that there were two plays going on because everyone arrived on cue so well.

The only real problems were at the curtain - it was difficult to time because of audience response.

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 10:10am

Maybe OT, but "Somewhere over the Rainbow" was cut from "The Wizard of Oz", I can't remember who through a fit to get it put back in. Apparently, no one at the studio liked it and it didn't test well.

The fit throw-er would be Judy Garland. Bless her heart.

The story I heard was definitely not Judy Garland.

I just found a story on the BBC site that recounts the story and they said it was Yip & Harold that went over the directors head and appealed to Louis B Mayer. The story I heard also had them calling Ira Gershwin to help them in their appeal.

Updated On: 10/13/06 at 10:10 AM

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 10:23am

Stunt double! Yeah, I knew it was something like that. Thanks, actor.

[carolinaguy]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 11:22am

"Wicked":
--The whole melting scene is done behind a scrim because MGM owns the rights to the image of a pigtailed girl named Dorothy in a gingham dress. To have made the character look different would have been kind of confusing and required too much exposition.
--Originally, every song title was to have had either "good" or "wicked" in it. There are still vestiges in "No One Mourns the Wicked", "For Good", "No Good Deed", "Thank Goodness".

"Miss Saigon":
--The 2nd-act song for the character of Ellen went through about a zillion incarnations, including a country-western ditty called "What If He Doesn't Come Home Tonight?"
--Originally, the helicopter scene was to have included bits of debris being blown into the theatre, but the creative team was afraid it would get lodged in the instruments. No word on whether there was concern over debris getting lodged in patrons.

Not sure how well-known these are, but I just recently read about them again and I had forgotten: "Your Daddy's Son" was a last-minute addition to "Ragtime" to give Audra more material; "Bring Him Home" was a late addition to "Les Mis" to give Valjean more 2nd-act material. "Turning" was also added to give the women in the cast something to do in Act 2.

[Jon]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 11:32am

"Anatevka" was originally written as a lively comedy number to open Act 2 of FIDDLER.

Danny Kaye was originally offered the role of Tevye. Well, actually, the producers talked to his wife/manager Sylvia Fine. She turned them down, saying Danny would never play a man with three grown daughters. Mr. Kaye never even knew he'd been offered the part. A few years later, he returned to Broadway in TWO BY TWO, playing Noah, a 600-year old man with three grown sons.

[BreakingTheCircle07]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 11:57am

I'm sorry that I don't have anything to contribute, but I LOVE this thread

[deloverly]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 12:01pm

Paul Newman screen tested for the role of Curly in the film OKLAHOMA but the role went to Gordon MacRae. How cool would that have been?

[lildogs]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 12:34pm

Thanks, nobody--I actually thought it was the costume designer but didn't want to commit....was that from the Zadan book?

[allofmylife]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 6:08pm

You are right ErinDillyFan. Judy Garland was a kid of 16 at the time. She had no power and never threw any fits during the filming. She was a sweet kid, intimidated and at the same time in awe of the three men playing her co-leads. She was still pretty innocent. What happened later, well, happened later....

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 7:13pm

Does anybody have any facts about OLIVER!?