LaChiusa/Hal Prince's Petrifed Prince

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 7:14pm

Did anyone here see this show? All I remember was it opened around 1994 when I was first starting to really pay attention to Broadway press and reviews. I remember I already as a 13 year old knew Prince's name and someone on the old Sondheim mailing list had recommended I check out Hello Again (which I instantly obssessed over while also I think enjoying at that age how sexual it seemed) so I was starting to know LaChiusa. I also remember there was some controversy--it was based on an unfilmed Bergman libretto (Prince even made some A Little Night Music comparison in one intereview which doesn't seem to have added up to anything) and apparantly for an offBroadway production it was VERY expensive and elaborate with a large cast--I think many were kinda unhappy that it even was being done Off Broadway

I also know J Brown was the conductor which is how he met Pricne pre Parade. And that critics seemed to call it over the top campy (which makes me wanna see/hear it all the more) and then it disappeared--I can't find any descriptions, any fo the music (even for an unrecordedLaChiusa score it seems forgotten and never revived), no pictures....

So anyone have any memories, or pics, or descriptions of the music (I'm a massive LaChiusa fan) etc?

Even among the cult LaChiusa fans out there Prince seems to be very little remembered or known (the unrecorded scores people always talk about are the more recnet Nutcracker, Lovers and Friends, Little Fish and Yellow)

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 7:17pm

I would love a CR!

is it really based on a Bergman script? how interesting. not to mention Bergman's one of my favorite directors

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 7:36pm

Yeah it is! Some largely negative but still interestign press I found:

Review: http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?_r=1&res=9C03E7DC1338F93AA25751C1A962958260&oref=slogin

And a fascinating article I hadn't seen before by Canby on the closing of the show: http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=990CEEDB1238F932A35752C0A963958260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fP%2fPrince%2c%20Harold

The librettist of the piece Ed Gallardo, had the above and below pics on his page Updated On: 4/19/07 at 07:36 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 7:38pm

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 8:22pm

Overall, it wasn't good. Some of it was awful, with some particularly lame attempts at comedy, but some of it was pretty good and the score had some excellent things in it. I remember one critic complaining that Daisy Prince's number, surrounded by animals to which she sings on a ship, was sick in some way, which I didn't get as I thought the number was totally delightful.

I wish there had been a cast recording, but the show wasn't good. I wish I could remember more about it, but it's been a while. I only remember bits and pieces at this point.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 9:45pm

Yeah it sounds liek a mess but still oen that woul dbe fun to see--I wish there were some pics that gave an impression fo the set as all the critics mention how delightful it is. And I can't believe any LaChiusa score would be without its moments of interest (and probably improve on relistens) so I agree it would be nice to be recorded.

Storywise it seems like it probably suffers from the same probs many productions of Candide do--the satire mixed with sentiment, the almsot mythocal setting etc, etc--but even more so.

If these LaChiusa scores don't get recorded (I don't even knwo fo decent bootlegs for most) I wish at least someone at Ghostlight or Shh, or wherever, would record an album of some of his unrecorded songs... Though his scores are hard to excerpt

E

[wickedfan]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 9:47pm

I thought that Hal Prince got in contact with JRB for Parade after his daughter Daisy directed Songs For a New World.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 10:01pm

I think that's how he was reminded of Brown but they first met doing Prince which Brown conducted from Tunick orchestrations

[mallardo]

Posted: 4/20/07 at 2:54am

One or two songs from it were included in Hotel C'est L'Amour in the LA production last year - I don't have my program handy so I can't say which ones. I didn't know anything about it until this thread! Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 4/20/07 at 9:30am

Actually, compared to some other composers, LaChiusa has fared pretty well in the recording world. He's currently got 6 recordings out I think. 3 more I know exisit in the illegal realm. 1 more was broadcast on the radio and was subsequently recorded by many people (I don't think that's necessarily illegal). There's actually more of his work recorded than not. Frankly I could always use another LaChiusa score. I want The Highest Yellow (which is actually a beautiful score) recorded.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/20/07 at 5:38pm

I'll have to track down those illegal ones :P What was the radio one? I know of Audra's 7 Deadly Sins concert for which he wrote *one* song but...

Highest Yello whas 3 numbers on a web concert--I'm still most interested in Little Fish myself (the fact it wasn't recorded seems a big oversight). It's true that he has 6 recordings out now which is pretty good although pre 2006 it seemed for a while he was getting ignored again by the recording industry.

So out of his major works he did music AND lyrics for (he did many early shows with just lyrics) still unrecorded we have:
Petrified Prince
Broken Sleep
the opera Lovers and Friends
Nutcracker
Little Fish
Highest Yellow
and Send

E

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 4/20/07 at 5:43pm

He also has a lot of workshop scores and whatnot.

One day he will get his due and recording companies will knock down his door to record his shows. One can dream, right?

LOVERS & FRIENDS is crazy. Such a great opera.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/20/07 at 5:47pm

This was just a huge mistake. I admire both LaChiusa and Hal Prince but this was one of the worst things I've ever seen, the only redeaming factor was Candy Buckley. Everything else should just be swept away and forgotten. It wasn't campy - it wasn't a fun flop - it was just wretched.

[Dover]

Posted: 4/20/07 at 7:58pm

I saw it, but I was about the same age as you, 13 or 14, so my memories are a little fuzzy. It was not a particularly good show, and while I remember images from it, I don't have a clear recollection of even what it was about. I remember Candy Buckley being good, Daisy Prince was in it, and there were puppets. That's about it. I went because I greatly admired Prince (and still do), but I was disappointed with the show.

Most exciting to me that day was that on the way up to the theatre, I was in the elevator with Garth Drabinsky, which I thought was pretty cool.

And I do remember the controversy about how Broadway was dying because it's too expensive to mount a new show and all the Broadway artists would be moving to Off-Broadway, which of course never happened.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/20/07 at 9:13pm

Has Miyamoto's Nutcracker even been done outside of Japan? that seems to bve the hardest one to find info on as there aren'teven online reviews in English (Miyamoto is an itneresting guy--he's apparantly a big LaChiusa fan, hence the commision and of course is nuts for Sondheim)