Jerome Robbins' Broadway
Jerome Robbins' Broadway
Jerome Robbins' Broadway#1
Posted: 2/14/14 at 4:13pm
It's hard to believe that it has been 25 years since Jerome Robbins Broadway was in the midst of previews at the Imperial Theatre. I just bought the cast recording on iTunes as it was one of the last long playing cast albums I purchased originally. I never replaced it with the CD. Upon listening, I was instantly reminded how much I loved this production, and yet, I only saw it 2 times in the year and a half it played on Broadway. The orchestrations are wonderful to hear, and I keep hitting replay on "On a Sunday by the Sea" (High Button Shoes). With the exception of the original production of Ragtime never have I seen such a large cast in a Broadway musical.
It was a show that introduced me to Jason Alexander and Faith Prince. Just listening reminds me as to what a beast it must have been performing this show 8 times a week.
I always wanted Andrea McArdle to replace Debbie Shapiro when she left just to hear her sing Mr. Monotony.
Any one else like to share their memories?
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
Jerome Robbins Broadway#2
Posted: 2/14/14 at 4:15pm
Yes! The production values, could anyone afford to do a tribute like this anymore? And the cast was flawless.
It was one of those things you had to be there to believe it was real.
Jerome Robbins Broadway#2
Posted: 2/14/14 at 4:26pmAnd the show-stopping highlight for me was Debbie Gravitte just standing there in her gorgeous form-fitting black gown, singing the hell out of "Mr. Monotony." The audience roar after she finished was comparable to the reaction of the Encores audience after the return of "Chicago" at City Center.
Jerome Robbins Broadway#3
Posted: 2/14/14 at 4:33pmAs a teenager falling in the process of finding and loving live theater I was totally in awe of being able to see famous moments of shows that existed long before I was alive. It was a fantastic show.
Jerome Robbins Broadway#4
Posted: 2/14/14 at 4:37pm
It lost a lot of money, didn't it? And couldn't tour?
That said, I've seen "live" videos, and it is thrilling to see these amazing moments, mostly fully staged. This really is something that should have been commercially filmed for PBS, as a historical document alone. The video I have isn't great but really stood out were numbers that up until then I had no knowledge of--I mean I had always read how great the High Button Shoes number was, but didn't expect Billion Dollar Baby's Charlestan to be equally ingenious.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/04
Jerome Robbins Broadway#5
Posted: 2/14/14 at 4:43pmI remember reading in the playbill the staggering number of folks working backstage. The show had something like 25 dressers.
Jerome Robbins Broadway#6
Posted: 2/14/14 at 5:18pmI saw it when I was 15 and I remember being really turned on by those hot Jet boys. The Dance at the Gym was pretty electric and sexy.
Jerome Robbins Broadway#7
Posted: 2/14/14 at 7:07pm
I hate to dissent because then and now I appreciate the historical value of the recreations.
But while I was watching it, I thought it was only the best high-school musical I'd ever seen. Especially by the time Jason Alexander came on as Tevye.
It should be telling that in a show devoted to recreating choral song-and-dance numbers, everyone here is raving about a solo where the singer stood still.
Jerome Robbins Broadway#8
Posted: 2/14/14 at 7:09pm
Hey I raved about the Charlestan. :P And someone else commented on the Dance at the Gym.
For me, again on a poorly shot video, the reason WAS to see the choreography--the partially new partially reconstructed (as it had been lost) On the Town stuff, the Bathing Beauties ballet, etc.
Jerome Robbins Broadway#9
Posted: 2/14/14 at 7:11pmHere is, what I assume is, the cast performing the Billion Dollar Baby number on some TV special. It's HORRENDOUSLY filmed though, you can't make out the patterns, etc, which make the number. Sigh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb2cktaem4Q
Jerome Robbins Broadway#10
Posted: 2/14/14 at 7:13pm
Seriously, they filmed the entire thing in facial close ups or from a side diagonal view. Bizarre.
Here's Gravitte's Mr Monotony. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeBMFDzFnDc
Jerome Robbins Broadway#11
Posted: 2/14/14 at 7:15pmMuch more interesting is a quick bit of Robbins rehearsing some of the dancers... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp7utF1ScRY
Jerome Robbins Broadway#12
Posted: 2/14/14 at 7:19pm
I suppose part of the problem for me was that in preceding years, I had seen Robbins' choreography recreated in revivals of FIDDLER, GYPSY and WEST SIDE STORY (all on Broadway or in pre- and post-Broadway tours).
Yes, I appreciated the material I had never seen (such as the number from HIGH BUTTON SHOES), but at least half the show was material I knew well.
Jerome Robbins Broadway#13
Posted: 2/14/14 at 7:51pmSaw the show in the fall of 1990 at the old Shubert Theatre in Century City, Los Angeles. I believe it played there from October through early 1991. Most of the Broadway cast was in the show except for Tony Roberts replacing Jason Alexander. It had one of the largest casts I'd ever seen in a show. The highlights for me were seeing the dance numbers from "Billion Dollar Baby" and "On The Town" which I had never seen before. They were excellent examples of Robbins' inspired choreography.
Jerome Robbins Broadway#14
Posted: 2/14/14 at 8:00pm
I get that, Gaveston--makes complete sense.
Many people complained about (the far cheaper) Fosse, but it was still thrilling for me. I saw it in Toronto, and then with a slightly different line up of numbers on tour in Vancouver, and just to be able to see these numbers live (some of which I knew and worshipped--like the Frug, some which I didn't like much of the Dancin' material) was thrilling enough for me. But I could see someone who knew most of these numbers backwards and forwards would be disappointed (and most of them were quite well known--I wish Little Me's Rich Kid's Rag had stayed in, for example because it's less known but it did introduce me to the gorgeous Bob Hope Special trio.)
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
Jerome Robbins Broadway#15
Posted: 2/14/14 at 8:06pm
Holy crap, EricMontreal22! That is NOT the Broadway cast NOR is that Jerome Robbins' choreography for the "Charleston"
From my personal archives, here is the original Broadway cast of JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY performing the ENTIRE "Charleston" number from BILLION DOLLAR BABY in the actual show:
http://vimeo.com/43257543
Jerome Robbins Broadway#16
Posted: 2/14/14 at 8:09pmHa that's how I remember it. Well they seem to be doing some of the same moves... *sigh* It was so poorly filmed I couldn't tell (and I thought Jason Alexander sounded like the announcer...)
Jerome Robbins Broadway#17
Posted: 2/14/14 at 8:31pmWow. That Charleston number is brilliant! And so many well known Broadway gypsies, too! I assume Jerome Robbins did all the choreography for Billion Dollar Baby as opposed to Peter Gennaro's uncredited work in West Side Story?
Jerome Robbins Broadway#18
Posted: 2/14/14 at 10:49pm
I hate to dissent...[but] thought it was only the best high-school musical I'd ever seen.
Oh, Gaveston, really. Must you always be so jejune?
Jerome Robbins Broadway#19
Posted: 2/14/14 at 11:04pmWell this was my introduction to most of Jerome Robbins' choreography, so this particular show was such a treat. Wish I could see the number from High Button Shoes as it's bringing back lots of memories when I listen to the recording.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
Jerome Robbins Broadway#20
Posted: 2/14/14 at 11:32pmThe High Button Shoes Mack Sennett ballet used to be on YouTube (or some other site), but it went away, alas...
Jerome Robbins Broadway#21
Posted: 2/15/14 at 12:56pm
I've got to jump in on this one.
I saw it twice, once early in the run, and then I was at the final performance, a Sunday matinee. A friend had joined the cast and it was great to hear his stories of how grueling his rehearsals had been, though they were nothing like what the original cast had gone through. Scott Wise, Tony winner and Broadway's leading chorus boy/dancer of the era, had hurt his ankle and did not perform, though after the show I saw him carrying his stuff from the dressing room and loading up his car near the Imperial stage door on 46th.
Yes, the cast was huge. The Prince "Show Boat" a few years later had a slightly larger cast, I think, but JRB's cast was the largest Broadway had seen in quite a long time.
The show was thrilling for aficionados of Broadway history, but only less so for the general public. I mean, it had great numbers, and not just big production numbers. They were all delightful and could be enjoyed on their own, even if you didn't know the history of what was being recreated. The solos, duets and comedy numbers were lovely. But yes, the dancers had been rehearsed within an inch of their lives, and it showed. Even the last performance, with covers shuffling things around, was tight, tight, tight.
Didn't the show play Los Angeles after it closed? I seem to remember that.
RCA Victor gave the OCR a lavish packaging. I worked in a record store here in Chicago at the time, and I bought both the LP and CD versions. It came in cassette as well. And I own what I take to be a rare collectible, a pair of "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" RCA Victor cast album suspenders, designed to be worn by record store employees promoting the album. I never wore them (oh, please), but I tucked them away for safekeeping. They're in a box under my bed.
I have one of the show posters framed in my home office, where I am right now. There were several different ones, I recall. I have the one with the ten different pictures in boxes.
And, whether it's correct or not, an apostrophe goes after the word "Robbins," with no second s. JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY. Multiple Tony winner. Legendary. Beautiful. Amazing.
Jerome Robbins Broadway#22
Posted: 2/15/14 at 2:09pm
According to the Chicago Manual of Style, the title of the show should have had the extra "s" after Robbins--i.e, "Jerome Robbins's Broadway"--because only Greek and Latin names that end in "s"--like Moses and Jesus--take an apostrophe with no "s" at the end.
But I guess Jerry Robbins was something of a Moses and a Jesus himself, so it was Jerome Robbins' Broadway.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
Jerome Robbins Broadway#23
Posted: 2/15/14 at 2:36pmI saw a production in San Francisco. Alas, I do not recall if it was at the Orpheum or the Golden Gate. I have a playbill somewhere (but am away from that location presently) so I don't know who was in the cast. What I most remember is Mr. Monotony being the highlight and the confusion in the audience as the bows came out with few people realizing these were the bows and the performers were coming out in groups for applause - which was not forthcoming.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
Jerome Robbins Broadway#24
Posted: 2/15/14 at 3:32pm
The High Button Shoes Mack Sennett ballet used to be on YouTube (or some other site), but it went away, alas...
I'm the one who posted that, along with several other entire number clips from the original Broadway production of JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY. They lasted a full year before YouTube removed them. I should repost them on Vimeo like I did with the "Charleston" number. Hmmm...
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