Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012??
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012??
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/28/08
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012??#2
Posted: 5/19/10 at 1:09pm
An industry reading of a new version of 1978 tuner 'Ballroom,' now titled 'Queen Of The Stardust Ballroom', has sparked talk of a 2012 Broadway run for the retooling of Michael Bennett's short-lived follow-up to his mega hit, 'A Chorus Line.'
Jerry Mitchell is attached as director-choreographer of the project, which takes the original score by composer Billy Goldenberg and lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman and adds a jolt of fresh tunes from Marvin Hamlisch.
Original book writer Jerome Kass, who also penned the 1975 teleplay on
which the tuner is based, is reworking the book.
No production plans are firm, but early word forecasts an out-of-town
tryout in 2012 with an eye toward a Broadway berth that spring.
The reading, held a couple of weeks ago in Gotham, starred Tyne Daly as central character Bea, a widow who begins a romance with a mailman she meets at a dance hall.
Keith Carradine, Lucie Arnaz, Rondi Reed and Julia Murney were among the cast.
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012??#2
Posted: 5/19/10 at 1:32pm
I could see this being more successful than the original.
Not that the choreography would be better--Jerry is not Michael--but I could see the disconnect between the book scenes and the dancing working better today, and Jerry would attract the best older dancers to make the ballroom scenes work.
Not crazy about Tyne singing Dorothy Loudon's songs. I'd prefer one of the older women who still have killer voices, someone able to make you clutch your heart AND climax a song vocally, like Loudon did here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXUdWPsRjtw&feature=related
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012??#3
Posted: 5/19/10 at 4:08pmI agree. Without a star who can really sing (as opposed to carry a tune lightly, as Daly does), and without a brilliant director/choreographer (instead of a competent one, like Mitchell), what's the point?
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012??#4
Posted: 5/19/10 at 4:42pm
Goldenberg's tunes NEED a fresh jolt from Marvin Hamlisch. And I personally would prefer Tyne Daly to Dorothy Loudon whose vibrato drives me nuts. In the 1989 GYPSY, Tyne Daly was no Ethel Merman, but she successfully navigated the score and Daly's acting is always superb. I can see her in the part.
Is Kaye Ballard a possibility, or is she too old?
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012??#5
Posted: 5/19/10 at 4:59pm
This really needs to be done Off-Broadway. I don't think there's enough market to fill a Broadway house.
50 Percent needs an actress who can break your heart. Is there anyone who can equal Loudon?
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012??#6
Posted: 5/19/10 at 5:27pmKaye Ballard was born in 1925.
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012??#7
Posted: 5/19/10 at 5:40pmI can't see it. The show is so badly conceived - half the songs go to the singers at the ballroom. The male lead gets, I think, one song? It would need a whole new approach and really, is it worth it?
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #8
Posted: 8/24/11 at 12:54pmHas this been abandoned?
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #9
Posted: 8/24/11 at 1:30pm
Abandoned? Was it ever real? It was never really having a tryout or coming in - just the usual hopes.
And Tyne Daly did the show many years ago in Long Beach. I saw it. The book songs were put back in for that production, but it was a horrible production.
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #10
Posted: 8/24/11 at 1:32pmBeth Leavel is the first name that comes to mind that could really do the character and the score justice.
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #11
Posted: 8/24/11 at 1:42pmSaw the original and although I loved Loudon and I adored the Overture, I felt it went straight downhill from there. The music merely so-so, no number was theatrical heaven although 50 percent is on my IPod. Great poster I had to buy and fram! I'd never consider re-visiting this property no matter who starred.
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #12
Posted: 8/24/11 at 3:17pm
Pity.
Not sure how Tyne would compare to Dorothy Loudon, but she does have a certain similarity to Maureen Stapleton from the original movie, which I loved.
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #13
Posted: 8/24/11 at 5:14pm
Kaye Ballard lives and performs semi-regularly in my town. She is still very much worth seeing in concert.
But, yes, much too old for Ballroom.
***
I suppose discussion of a revival of Ballroom was inevitable, given the TV success of Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, etc. But much as I loved Dorothy Loudon in the original, I thought there was a fatal problem with the original staging. All that "swirling" in the ballroom numbers (as the dancers go around and around doing the fox trot or whatever) leaves the audience on the "outside" of the circle.
Very different than the usual Broadway dance number choreographed so that the performers face the audience. For me, Ballroom was like watching a musical somebody was staging in the next room.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/04
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #14
Posted: 8/24/11 at 5:18pmMy dream Bea is Lainie Kazan.
Leading Actor Joined: 5/17/06
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #15
Posted: 8/24/11 at 5:20pm
Alan and Marilyn and Marvin? Can't Barbra just be persuaded to do it.
Updated On: 8/24/11 at 05:20 PM
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #16
Posted: 8/24/11 at 5:35pm
^ Why didn't Babs do "Fifty Percent" on her new album?
My pick above anyone else is Donna McKechnie.
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #17
Posted: 8/24/11 at 5:58pm
I don't know if she still dances, but Lainie Kazan could be great.
And Donna McKechnie would play the hell out of the part. But the story concerns a woman who doesn't learn to dance until she's 50. I fear our knowledge of McKechnie's past might hurt her in the role. Probably shouldn't be that way, but I think we'd be waiting for McKechnie to burst out and do "Music and the Mirror" or "Tick Tock."
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #18
Posted: 8/24/11 at 6:11pmKeep in mind that Dorothy Loudon was 46 when she originated--pretty much everyone that's been suggested in this thread (excepting Leavel) is north of 65.
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #19
Posted: 8/24/11 at 6:56pm
Some WAY north of 65. WAY north :)
I think Beth can do anything. I just worked with her and adored her so much.
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #20
Posted: 8/24/11 at 8:06pm
Why not just cast Donna Murphy in an Encores! production? She may not be the first person to come to mind for the role, but she's definitely age-appropriate, would stop the show with "Fifty Percent" (after listening to her mind-blowing version of "Losing My Mind," I can only imagine the things she'd do with "Fifty Percent"), and she'd bring a completely different sensitivity to the part than Loudon rather than trying to imitate her or attempt to do what Loudon did with the score which IMO cannot be replicated.
Leavel is great but I wish the last thing I had seen her in was not BABY, IT'S YOU, I have to see her in something else now to forget about that hot mess.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #21
Posted: 8/24/11 at 8:34pm
I thoroughly disliked the original. Both the book and score were terrible. Even the choreography ended up being boring.
This is one sleeping dog that should be allowed to lie in slumber.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #22
Posted: 8/24/11 at 8:41pmI saw the original and did enjoy it. It had more of an audience than. I doubt it could succeed today no matter what they do to it.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/03
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #23
Posted: 8/24/11 at 8:51pmI think it would work but it needs a star with a capital S for it to work.
Jerry Mitchell Directing BALLROOM on Broadway in 2012?? #24
Posted: 8/25/11 at 12:08amThe show didn't work on many levels when it opened. Never made up its mind what it wanted to be. I do like the songs 50 Percent and the opener, There's a Real Nice Crowd and a Terrific Band. The rest of the score is a yawner.
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