Interesting Facts You Didn't Know About Your Favorite Shows.. — Page 3

I have a copy of the OPENING NIGHT program for "Cantebury Tales" which is a full musical based on Chaucer's Tales. Not once, anywhere do they mention ONE THING about the music. There is no list of the songs, or who sung what. At first glance, I thought it was a straight version of the story, until I compared dates and cast. The composers and lyrisists are mentioned, but nothing about their work (and all pages are intact). Strange.......

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For Contact, there was to be only one story(the third/main one with the girl in the yellow dress). Susan Stroman thought the show needed to be longer and thus they added the first two parts.

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Yeah, lildogs, that's from Zadan.

A bit more about the genesis of "Anatevka": Originally, the music was for a song titled "A LIttle Bit of This," which was for a different situation. A peddler comes to Anatevka and when he's leaving, the people try to persuade him that it's a wonderful town and he should stay.

In the Dramatists' Guild discussion of the show among the authors it's a little unclear just how it became "Anatevka" because they don't make clear when they're talking about the version of the number with the peddler and when they're talking about what seems to have been a happier song, using that melody, that was for the moment when they finally sang the song we know as "Anatevka." In the discussion, it sounds like the melody was first used for the number with the peddler, then was moved to expulsion scene but was still uptempo (with the villagers using pots and pans and household utensils and tools as instruments), then finally was slowed down and became "Anatevka." But I'm not sure this is quite correct. I think that the Altman book on the show may be clearer about all this, but I don't have a copy.

Robbins was very concerned that there should be dancing in the second act. Originally, the "Chavaleh" ballet went on for about 10 minutes, with Tevye reeling about the town in agony. It was a big sort of nightmare ballet.

Anyway, about Oliver!: Barry Humphries (who can be heard singing "That's Your Funeral" on the original London cast recording) also did the show on Broadway and understudied Fagin. Years later, he did a stint as Fagin in the Mackintosh-Mendes production.

Lionel Bart later had terrible financial problems and sold his royalties to Oliver! for a flat fee just to get some money immediately. Mackintosh supposedly made sure that he got royalties for that revival anyway, which was good of him.

The original London production used about 12 musicians. The Imperial had a minimum of 25. Merrick didn't like the sound of the score with 25 musicians, so musical director Don Pippin just never had all the musicians play at once so that it was always the same number of musicians as in London at any single moment, but over the course of the show they all got to play.

The team for 110 in the Shade wrote somewhere along the line of, like, 100 songs for the show- I believe.

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[Quote] 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? [/Quote]

I apologize for the lack of specificity. This was the London production in 1947, not Broadway.

"When he played Curly in "Oklahoma" the audience called for 14 encores and the curtain call of this stage musical lasted nearly one hour."

http://www.dailynews.lk/2006/06/08/fea15.asp - Scroll down to the part about Howard Keel. There are various other sources online. Again, I apologize for the confusion!

Updated On: 2/15/14 at 09:12 PM

Thanks for the clarification, SahDu.

The touring Elphaba that was injured in a technical run was Stephanie J. Block. So they flew in the NY understudy (ensemble member) and she filled in for a show (or two). Then Jenna Leigh Green was Elphaba for a time. Something like that.

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I like the fact that "Tomorrow" from ANNIE was initially in the Charles Srouse musical CHARLEY AND I (or and ME or something based on Flowers for Algernon) But it was taken out of that because it wasn't working and shoved into ANNIE... now one of the most well known songs of all time (if I had to guess)

In several productions, it is common that the title song to "The Phantom of the Opera" is not sung live...

Can someone remind me of that actress that was in two shows at once and ran from theatre to theatre?

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Yes, Cynthia Nixon was in Hurlyburly and The Real Thing simultaneously. She had just one scene in the latter and the timing worked out.

Back in the summer of 1972, Richard Dysart and Charles Durning would head up to the Delacorte to play the gravediggers in Hamlet after they were done in That Championship Season, and Raul Julia would run up to play Osric after Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Never heard that about Gene Kelly and fhe film of Carousel.

What is definite is that Frank Sinatra was signed to play Billy and walked off the set, I think on the day that he was to begin shooting. His stated reason was that he didn't realize that every scene was going to have to be shot twice, once in 35mm Cinemascope and once in a new 55mm process, and he refused to shoot two movies while getting paid for one. But many people believe that this was just an excuse, that he realized that, despite how well he could sing "Soliloquy," he would be miscast as Billy Bigelow.

oh, i heard that thing about Anne Hathaway for the POTO movie
she wouldve done great as Christine!!!

:)

Phantom of the Opera facts
1.The title song is lip synced (it's true)
2.They need a Phantom and Christine doubles for the boat scene so that the other Phantom and Christine can get to that scene by going backstage. that is true and that doesn't make any since to me one bit!

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