I am really interested in this flop. It would be amazing if someone knows where a bootleg or more info could be found. Eternally grateful as always, myshikobit =)
"There are only two worthwhile things to leave behind when we depart this world of ours: children and art."
-Sunday In The Park With George
Unfortunately... video bootlegs didn't start getting made until the late 70's when the primitive camcorders became available to the general public, so don't expect to find videos of shows from the 40's, 50's, 60's and practically ALL of the 1970's. Not sure if any soundboard audio survives, which is possible as these type of recordings were being made as early as 1959. The show didn't have a long life, so its doubtful.
Bernadette Peters as Gelsomina:
The original window card:
LA STRADA
Produced by Charles K. Peck, Jr. and Canyon Prods.
Music by Lionel Bart; Lyrics by Lionel Bart; Book by Charles K. Peck, Jr.; Based on the film by Federico Fellini; Additional lyrics by Martin Charnin; Additional music by Elliot Lawrence; Musical Director: Harold Hastings; Music orchestrated by Eddie Sauter; Dance arrangements by Peter Howard
Directed by Alan Schneider; Choreographed by Alvin Ailey and Joyce Trisler
Scenic Design by Ming Cho Lee; Costume Design by Nancy Potts; Lighting Design by Martin Aronstein
The Cast
Gelsomina -- Bernadette Peters Zampano -- Stephen Pearlman Mother -- Anne Hegira Mario -- Larry Kert Elsa -- Lisa Belleran Eva -- Mary Ann Robbins Sophia -- Susan Goeppinger Castra -- Lucille Patton
Here are the Musical Numbers:
Act 1 Seagull, Starfish, Pebble -- Gelsomina The Great Zampano -- Gelsomina and Zampano What's Going on Inside? -- Zampano Belonging -- Gelsomina Wedding Dance -- Entire Company I Don't Like You -- Gelsomina Encounters -- Gelsomina and Entire Company There's a Circus in Town -- Mario You're Musical -- Mario and Gelsomina Only More! -- Gelsomina
Act 2 What a Man -- Gelsomina and Mama Lambrini Everything Needs Something -- Gelsomina Sooner or Later -- Mario Sooner or Later (Reprise) -- Gelsomina Belonging (Reprise) -- Gelsomina The End of the Road -- Entire Company
Played at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre Total Previews: 12 Opening: December 14, 1969 Closing: December 14, 1969
LA STRADA is a musical with lyrics and music by Lionel Bart, with additional lyrics by Martin Charnin and additional music by Elliot Lawrence. It is based on the 1954 film of the same name by Federico Fellini. Bart wrote the score in 1967 and made a demonstration recording, although the musical was not produced until 1969. The musical's book was written by Charles K. Peck, Jr., who also produced it on Broadway.
The musical follows the story of the original film. Gelsomina, a young girl, is sold by her impoverished mother to a brutish circus strongman, Zampanò, to be his assistant. She shows her abilities as a clown and soon becomes the star of the show. She falls in love with Zampanò, despite his abuse of her. But tragedy strikes when she befriends a circus clown (Mario), who gives her advice and friendship, and Zampanò kills him in a jealous fit. Zampanò eventually leaves Gelsomina, who still loves him, to die on the road.
After 12 previews, LA STRADA opened on December 14, 1969 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway. The show was directed by Alan Schneider, with choreography by Alvin Ailey and Joyce Trisler. The show closed the same night, losing $650,000.
There was a studio cast "concept album" produced in 1967 by Lionel Bart and Chris Curtis, with Madeline Bell in the Gelsomina role. In 1994, Bayview Records re-released this recording. Only two or three songs remained in the final play as produced on Broadway. In discussing LA STRADA's problems, Steven Suskin wrote that Lionel Bart apparently did not go to the United States to assist during rehearsals, and neither the director (Alan Schneider) nor the choreographer (Alvin Ailey) had done a Broadway musical. Bernadette Peters confirms that Bart never worked on the show in New York in this interview: "The script really wasn't ready, and Lionel Bart was never coming over. Marty Charnin and his partner at the time [composer Elliot Lawrence] rewrote it."
Ken Mandelbaum wrote about LA STRADA in his book, "Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Flops". During try-outs, the original strongman, Vincent Beck as Zampano, was replaced; and he discusses the replacing of all but three of the original songs. Furthermore, "...it followed a relentlessly bleak, tragic screenplay, it emerged as one of the most depressing musicals ever... Bernadette Peters, in her first Broadway lead, did not let the show down...The score was not bad, particularly Peters haunting opening "Seagull, Starfish, Pebble" written by Lawrence and Charnin..."
There is definitely an audio from the show, not sure if it's from the out of town try-out or the very brief Broadway run, either way it's not great quality but it's better than nothing. Peters' opening number is beautiful and haunting, she's great.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
I happen to have the original tape copy from which people have gotten tenth generation copies (what happens when you do someone a favor and they PROMISE not to give it to anyone - it's immediately everywhere). It has pretty decent quality and I'm quite fond of some of the score. No one, of course, has mentioned that I recorded the best song from the show, Gelsomina's opening number, Starfish, on the first Unsung Musicals album with Judy Kuhn doing a wonderful job on the vocal. It's orchestrated very close to the show version. I spoke to Marty Charnin about maybe recording it and he seemed very gung ho, but then certain things happened that made it impossible to explore it further. There's also one other record that has, I believe, two of the other Charnin/Lawrence songs on it - sung by Laurie Beechman and Larry Kert (who was in the show).
Well, it seems at least possible then that the copies some people have didn't come from the one you had. Unless you did get the "original," which, admittedly, is what you wrote.
But it sounds like you got a copy of the original. If so, it seems possible that other copies made from that original may have been given out.
Thanks for all the details on this Brody. Fascinating.
It's one of my favorite foreign films ever, mostly because of Giulietta Masina's brilliant performance.
And bk, I'll have to dig out my Unsung Musicals CD and give that track a listen again. I don't recall the song, honestly, but it's been a long time now since I've heard it.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Nobodyhome, guess I'm not being clear - I have the original, a tape made by someone connected with the production. No copies had ever been given to anyone at any time prior to my getting the tape, and I only gave it to one person who, of course, promised never to give it out - obviously that promise wasn't kept. Charnin didn't even have a copy. And I'm not certain that I gave this guy everything on the tape - can't remember, but I think it's not quite as complete.
I enjoy the song on bk's Unsung Musicals recording and bought the commercial release of the demo of the Bart score to see how it compared. I have to say I was very impressed (and didn't expect to be) with Bart's original. The music is much better than a lot of the work he did in the 1960s and I wondered why so much of it was dumped in the actual production. If he didn't come over to work on the show that probably explains matters, and I guess this was the time in his life where he was at a personal low, both financially and health-wise.
If I'm remembering the story correctly, he did come over to work on the show, and his personal problems got in the way and I don't want to say what those were, but they got him in trouble and he left.
There's also a real curio that was released on United Artists Records - organist Sir Julian playing Bart's score - it's sort of fun in an organ sort of way.
Insider: Fellini Flop by Ken Mandelbaum August 6, 2004
LA STRADA
Early in her career, Bernadette Peters had a Broadway success in the Joel Grey vehicle George M!, then got her break-through part, spoofing Ruby Keeler in the acclaimed off-Broadway musical Dames at Sea. Thereafter, though, she had a harder time of things on Broadway, with her first three musical vehicles all flops. There was the very good but short-lived 1971 revival of On the Town and the promising but disappointing Jerry Herman musical Mack and Mabel (1974).
But the first of her Broadway musical flops was La Strada. Like the earlier Sweet Charity and the later Nine, it was based on a film directed by Italy's Federico Fellini. Like Charity's source, Nights of Cabiria, Fellini's 1954 film La Strada had been created as a vehicle for his wife, actress Giulietta Masina.
By the late '60s, Lionel Bart was the foremost composer-lyricist of the British musical, having had international success with the stage and screen versions of Oliver! along with West End hits in Lock Up Your Daughters, Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be, Blitz!, and Maggie May. With the musical version of La Strada, Bart would be writing his first show directly for Broadway.
Hired to direct was Alan Schneider, who had had considerable success with the plays of Albee, Beckett, and Pinter, but had no experience staging musicals. Alvin Ailey was the choreographer. Handling the book and producing the musical La Strada was Charles K. Peck, Jr., co-author with Pearl S. Buck of the script for the flop musical Christine.
La Strada was saddled with one of the bleakest stories ever put on the musical stage. In the '50s, the thuggish Zampano travels through Southern Italy with his strong-man act. He buys from her family the simple-minded Gelsomina to be his assistant and concubine. Overcoming her shyness, Gelsomina's winsome clowning makes her the star of the act, and she falls in love with Zampano, even though he treats her brutally. When they join a circus, Gelsomina finds someone she can confide in, Mario the Fool. A jealous Zampano kills Mario, and Gelsomina is inconsolable. Zampano abandons Gelsomina on the road, leaving her to die, as he moves on.
Hired to play Zampano was the little-known Vincent Beck, who was replaced during the Detroit tryout by his understudy, Stephen Pearlman. West Side Story's Larry Kert played Mario. Patricia Marand (Wish You Were Here, .....It's Superman)'s role of Mario's assistant was eliminated during the tryout.
Bart's personal demons, which included drugs and alcohol, seem to have prevented him from taking an active role in the developing production. As a result, Elliot Lawrence, a musical director and orchestrator, and lyricist Martin Charnin began composing additional songs for the show, while more and more Bart numbers were dropped. By the time La Strada opened on December 14, 1969 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, only three Bart songs ("Belonging," "The Great Zampano," "A Circus in Town") remained. Lawrence and Charnin had composed a virtually new score, even though the title-page credit still simply stated, "Music and lyrics by Lionel Bart." (A note inserted into Playbills cryptically read, "At this performance, additional music and lyrics by Martin Charnin and Elliot Lawrence.")
None of this was a sign of a healthy show, and, sure enough, La Strada opened to mostly negative reviews. Clive Barnes in The Times said, "the book is weak, and the music and lyrics are undistinguished to the point of Muzak-like oblivion." Brendan Gill in The New Yorker perceptively noted that those involved in the musical "lifted everything from the celebrated Fellini movie except the one thing that matters and that is obviously incapable of being lifted-the sensibility of the maker." Only Richard Watts in The Post had some good words for the show, calling it "a superior musical drama," noting "a brilliant first act followed by a second that is a serious letdown."
Arriving in such a state of disarray, it was no surprise when La Strada closed on opening night, losing $650,000. It was no fault of Peters, who supplied one of her most enchanting performances. The material was relentlessly depressing, and the show lacked the beauty and tragic quality Fellini was able to impart to the story. Too relentlessly gloomy for Broadway, La Strada would surely have been better suited to operatic treatment.
The score that the Broadway opening-night audience heard was not bad, with several of the Lawrence-Charnin songs adeptly emulating Bart's haunting sound. (Judy Kuhn can be heard singing the opening Lawrence-Charnin number on Varese Sarabande's Unsung Musicals Volume One.) But given the one-night run and the fact that the real authors of the score weren't officially billed, it was no surprise that La Strada received no Broadway cast recording, even if live tapes exist from Broadway previews. (Note that United Artists briefly released an LP of Bart's La Strada score, but it was an untheatrical instrumental treatment, the melodies conducted by "Sir Julian.")
Bayview has already reissued on CD the London cast albums of Bart's Fings, Lock Up Your Daughters, and Maggie May. The label's new La Strada release is a forty-six-minute, ten-song 1967 demo, lavishly produced and featuring a twenty-five-piece orchestra. The only soloist identified is pop singer Madeleine Bell, and also credited are the Michael Sammes Singers.
This wholly unexpected release, licensed by the Bart estate, offers the chance to hear many of the songs Bart composed for La Strada, only two of which ("Belonging," "Zampano the Great!") made it to the Broadway opening as is. The melody of the song here called "Hullo and Goodbye" was, with a new lyric, recycled as "A Circus in Town." And the melody of another, "If Her Mother Only Knew!," also sounds familiar.
The material here is attractive, although far from Bart's best. The better tracks include a stirring overture; the march "To Be a Performer," which was still included at the La Strada preview I attended; "Belonging," even if the vocal can't compare to Peters' on that song; and a "Something Special" trio. Near the end, Zampano has an ambitious, seven-minute solo aria, "Tan-tan-ta-ra! Farewell!"
One cannot, of course, be sure how some of these songs might have sounded with stage performers and theatre arrangements and orchestrations. Like most show demos, this one features some generic vocals and some renditions that lean toward pop. The Gelsomina (presumably Bell) fails to convey the character's extreme vulnerability and child-like quality. Still, hardcore Bart fans like myself will find this an intriguing chance to collect a good chunk of Bart's original score.
"Nobodyhome, guess I'm not being clear - I have the original, a tape made by someone connected with the production. No copies had ever been given to anyone at any time prior to my getting the tape, and I only gave it to one person who, of course, promised never to give it out - obviously that promise wasn't kept. Charnin didn't even have a copy. And I'm not certain that I gave this guy everything on the tape - can't remember, but I think it's not quite as complete."
No, you were pretty clear. I was just doubtful that the person who gave it to you gave you the original and his only copy (unless he gave you the original and made a copy for himself before giving it you). Of course, I don't know the specific circumstances and it's none of my business.
It does seem possible that another recording was made by someone else and has circulated. (Unless you're certain that the one that's generally out there is the one you have.)
In any case, the one I've heard has very good sound for something of that vintage recorded from the audience.
"No, you were pretty clear. I was just doubtful that the person who gave it to you gave you the original and his only copy (unless he gave you the original and made a copy for himself before giving it you). Of course, I don't know the specific circumstances and it's none of my business.
It does seem possible that another recording was made by someone else and has circulated. (Unless you're certain that the one that's generally out there is the one you have.)
In any case, the one I've heard has very good sound for something of that vintage recorded from the audience.
Thanks for the info."
Nope, all the copies floating around are off my original - and the person who gave it to me did not keep a copy. It does have very good sound for what it is, and I play it still quite often (I recently had my mastering engineer to a really incredible cleanup of the reel-to-reel tape and it sounds great).
Hi! Is there any way I could have a copy of this recording? I love this show and want to hear the full thing, or at least whatever the recording has! (:
I obtained an audio sometime between 1973 - 76. It came from a gentleman in Rome, NY, who informed me it was a 2nd generation copy. It is of fair-to-good sound quality, and runs about 45 minutes . It could be of the opening night performance.
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