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It's My Body and My Body's Nobodys Business But My Own — Page 2

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#26

re: It's My Body and My Body's Nobodys Business But My Own

Posted: 4/17/07 at 12:41pm

'The Life' was a great show written about not so popular subject matter. Asking an audience to find compassion for a bunch of prostitutes trying to find their way out of the 'business', and away from Pimps was risky to say the least. But I think they pulled it off pretty well. The score is great and the cast was phenomenal. Chuck Cooper was BAD ASS! He gave me the creeps everytime he walked on the stage, not to mention when he opened his mouth to sing.

Love the show, wish it was done more often regionally. But honestly without a world class cast AND director, this show doesn't have a chance in hell of being successful.
"If you've got something to say, say it, and think well of yourself while you're learning to say it better." - David Mamet
#27

re: It's My Body and My Body's Nobodys Business But My Own

Posted: 4/17/07 at 12:46pm

Well, honestly, it wasn't given a "world class" staging on Broadway either...

The show has been done regionally a few times and is available for licensing through Tams-Witmark. It's just not a very good show for most community theatre/summer stock audiences.
#30

re: It's My Body and My Body's Nobodys Business But My Own

Posted: 4/17/07 at 2:18pm

"The Life" is one of those albums I listened to once, but that was basically because of the lyrics. They aren't all that great. My favorite part of the score is the overture.

But, did Cy Coleman ever write a completely poor score for a show?

I haven't "Welcome to the Club", but I have a demo of "Home Again, Home Again" (Lyrics by Barbara Fried, closed out of town in the late '70's) and it is delightful
"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music "Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70 "Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba
#31

re: It's My Body and My Body's Nobodys Business But My Own

Posted: 4/17/07 at 2:44pm

As is often the case, I must dissent.

The Life is one of the few shows that I can become truly incensed about. A friend summed it up best when she described The Life as "a fantasy by three old white guys". I found the show to be dishonest. The anthem was about it being 'my body' when the reality is that their bodies belonged to just about everybody BUT themselves.

Yes, even whores can say no, but it is tough to do that when you're alone in a car on 12th Avenue.

Prostitution is an honest though not very glamourous way to make a living. However working the streets like these women did is the lowest, most dangerous form. If these pimps were so concerned about their girls, why didn't they open a house or at least try to get the girls work in one instead of out on the West Side Highway?

The men in The Life deserved to be pushed into the river wearing cement shoes, and the women needed some victim-intervention. Women (and men) who emotionally devalue sex often have abuse issues. A friend worked in a house in the 70s and said that was the one thing all the girls had in common.

No matter how catchy the music is, I still think of The Life as a black mark on Cy Coleman's (et al) record.

PS - Chuck Cooper was good, but he won the Tony because the producers of Chicago messed up which category Joel Grey was submitted. Joel would have won Featured in a walk, but was listed as Lead and didn't even get nominated.
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable." --Carrie Fisher
#32

re: It's My Body and My Body's Nobodys Business But My Own

Posted: 4/17/07 at 3:49pm

"If these pimps were so concerned about their girls, why didn't they open a house or at least try to get the girls work in one instead of out on the West Side Highway? "

Umm I don't knwo the show too well but I thought the pimps weren't good characters in the piece...

i do agree that the whole "it's my body" "You go girl! and sell it to whoever you want" simplistic message is a bit much, but...
#35

re: It's My Body and My Body's Nobodys Business But My Own

Posted: 4/17/07 at 9:30pm

The opening number wasn't over before I thought the show was dated. Not sure why I had that reaction but I did.

Still, I couldn't complain with all that eye candy bumpin' and grindin'.
What great ones do the less will prattle of

Updated On: 4/17/07 at 09:30 PM

#37

re: It's My Body and My Body's Nobodys Business But My Own

Posted: 4/18/07 at 6:09pm

"He's No Good" and "I'm Leaving You" are stunning songs. Pamela Isaacs was brilliant.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#38

re: It's My Body and My Body's Nobodys Business But My Own

Posted: 4/18/07 at 9:13pm

As someone who never felt and still doesn't feel particularly nostalgic about the old Time Sqaure, (Yeah, it's become one huge theme park, but I'd rather see stores selling toys and CDs than porno joints.) I found The Life to be completely uncalled for in 1997. The Theatre District, by that time, was in wonderful shape. We didn't need a memento of what it was like 8 to 10 years earlier. Had the show opened a few years, later I would have probably been less offended by it. And honestly, with the exception of a few songs, it's not that great of a show.
I thought Steel Pier's book was a confusing bore, but I loved the score. If anything should have won score that year, it was Steel Pier. Titanic had some lovely Yeston songs, but they lacked the thrill of Nine's songs and even the songs he wrote for Grand Hotel. (I must admit, the choral work on Titanic was stunning.)
#40

re: It's My Body and My Body's Nobodys Business But My Own

Posted: 4/20/07 at 8:26pm

My favorite part of the score is the overture.

This MUST be a joke...because there is no Overture to THE LIFE.
Just the opening number "Check it Out" and that is not an overture.

Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!

I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com

#41

re: It's My Body and My Body's Nobodys Business But My Own

Posted: 4/20/07 at 8:59pm

I just had to add, that I saw this show with a friend when it was on Broadway, and all I really remember...is that it seemed dreadfully long, and dull. Lillias was great, but my friend and I were just wishing it would end.

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