It Looked Great - On paper — Page 2

#26

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 4:24pm

Nick and Nora

All the right ingredients, but just didn't work. Charles Strouse of "Annie" fame, Aruthur Laurents of "Gypsy" and "West Side Story". Great cast that included Barry Bostwick, Christine Baranski, Joanna Gleason and Chris Sarandan (those two met and fell in love on this show--one good outcome!). The dog got the biggest applause so they kept giving more stuff to him. Including the biggest curtain call.

Great idea, should have worked...

EDIT: I forgot, Faith Prince played the dead body and got a Tony nom.

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Updated On: 7/18/06 at 04:24 PM

#27

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 4:26pm

CARRIE on paper looked about as good as a musical version of THE EXORCIST.

#28

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 4:30pm

In my Life....ok i can't even type that with a straight face.

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when ducks grow thumbs then maybe my opinion will change.

#29

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 4:35pm

Tarzan

I remember going to the Group Sales Preview last year, and it looked like it was going to be THE MAIN EVENT on Broadway this past season. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

#30

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 4:36pm

SEUSSICAL should have been a classic, given the source material.

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"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie [http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/] "The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney

#31

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 4:38pm

<=== MB, Pazuzu sings, just a bit raspy.

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#32

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 7:27pm

Sunset Boulevard, Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince were supposed to musicalize the film with Angela Lansbury playing Norma Desmond, Billy Wilder said that it'd only work as an opera so Sondheim gave it up. Then Andrew Lloyd Webber finally musicalized the film, huge advance sale, but at the end he didn't deliver and the show was both an artistic (in my opinion) and financial failure.

#33

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 7:28pm

Possibly financally but the score was on of ALW'S best

Superman looked great on paper, was entertaining & got fairly good reviews. It just did not catch on

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Poster Emeritus

Updated On: 7/18/06 at 07:28 PM

#34

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 7:44pm

I was thinking Little Women- with America's obsession with the book, it could have been a big hit. I know people who went to see it because they love the story. They didn't know anything else about it. Oh well.

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"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife

#35

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 8:10pm

It's not a mean-spirited thread. I hate people who are way too "Life is Great - everything's great" - that's stupid. Not every show on Broadway is good, not every show can be successful. It's just business, it's how the world works. It's called being realistic. It's true, most shows have at least one positive, but that doesn't mean we shoudl celebrate the show.

#36

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 8:16pm

STEEL PIER - Kander and Ebb, Karen Ziemba, Gregory Harrison, Debra Monk, Kristin Chenoweth, and glorious sets.

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Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson

#37

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 8:20pm

Margo-
Seussical did work. It was just staged poorly and featured an ensemble full of a bunch of hyper, smiling morons. The book and score are fine to me.

#38

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 8:26pm

In reference to "Nick & Nora": I recommend reading the chapter on that show in Steven Suskin's book "Second Act Troubles," where you will learn why that show was doomed to fail. Fascinating information.

#39

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 8:35pm

You mean other than the fact that the author was directing the first production of his own show?

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Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson

#40

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 8:41pm

That was just a part of the problem. Mr. Laurents does not emerge at all admirably in the post mortem of "Nick & Nora."

#41

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 8:46pm

Does he ever?

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Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson

#42

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 9:01pm

PAZUZU
Let Jesus f*** your mother
Your sister and your brother
Come on, Father Karras,
Just join us here, bare aSs

As a rap, of course.

#43

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 9:05pm

EponineAmneris--

It's not meanspirited to comment on how bad a show was. If people didn't like it, it's their right to say so.

That said, The "Phantom" filmed sucked. Big time. Joel Schumacher made it look very pretty, but his casting simply killed it. I'm glad you liked it, but I think enjoying that film would be impossible for anyone who knows what good singing sounds like.

#44

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 9:13pm

Joel Schumacher's casting isn't what killed PHANTOM, it was his unimaginative film making and slavish fidelity to the original stage production. Much the same for the films of RENT and THE PRODUCERS. I mean I think they are all poorly cast, but simply swapping out better leads wouldn't have saved those movies.

#45

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 9:17pm

"Pazuzu sings, just a bit raspy."

I can't believe someone else knows Pazuzu!

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"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
To Kill A Mockingbird

#46

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 9:28pm

TomMonster: Faith price did get a Tony nomination (and win) that year, but it was not for NICK & NORA - it was for GUYS & DOLLS.

NICK & NORA's only 1992 Tony nomination was for Best Score.

#47

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 9:36pm

"I can't believe someone else knows Pazuzu!"

I used to have my wallpaper as Pazuzu. Until my roommate and I had a fight...one night he was carried off by locusts during the Spring.

Then I knew. Those Summerians had it right.

#48

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 9:43pm

"Joel Schumacher's casting isn't what killed PHANTOM, it was his unimaginative film making and slavish fidelity to the original stage production. Much the same for the films of RENT and THE PRODUCERS."

How true. Is there a Director out there who knows how to adapt and re-imagine a Broadway show for the screen?

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#49

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 9:46pm

The Goodbye Girl
Music by Hamlisch, lyrics by Zippel, Book by Simon, Bernadette Peters and Martin Short starring, Graciela Daniele choreographing

Smile
I guess it doesn't look that good on paper other than Hamlisch and Ashman, but I still really love the show

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#50

re: It Looked Great - On paper

Posted: 7/18/06 at 9:47pm

"Is there a Director out there who knows how to adapt and re-imagine a Broadway show for the screen?"

Rob Marshall (sorry, couldn't help myself)

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