Marketing the A CHORUS LINE revival. Color or black and white?

[morosco]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 5:12pm

When the original production played Broadway most of the photography related to marketing the production was in black and white, at least in the early years. I guess it related in some way to the 8 x 10 black and white resume photos. And the set itself was black and white (not counting the finale). During the original run it was startling to me to see a full color photo from the show unless it was the finale. I wonder if the revival will follow the same tradition. (Or am I just imagining all of this black and white stuff?)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 5:25pm

I'm pretty sure you're right. I remember the marketing all being black and white, too, but then again newspapers only had b&w ads back then.

Not sure how they'll go with the marketing for the revival. I've always thought the original photo was sheer genius. The pose, body language and facial expression of each actor precisely captured their character's personality. You could stare at that photo for hours and each figure told a story (was that a Martha Swope photo? Is she still around?).

Perhaps it would be wrong to simply have a photographer (even Swope if it was her) replicate that photo with the new cast -- as perfect as it is. While I'm happy that most of what made the original production a masterpiece is being replicated for this new production, maybe the marketing (and the original costumes) should have a fresh approach so that the show doesn't come off as a complete museum piece.

[morosco]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 5:40pm

Yes. The previous photo is a Martha Swope. Follow the link to an article announcing an award she won a couple years ago. And I think Joan Marcus might be her protege?
Playbill

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 6:00pm

I'm pretty sure in keeping with the planned "recreation" of the show, they will keep not only the original costumes, but also the original character "poses" as well. Those stances are notated in incredible detail in the "ACL BIBLE" and if you look at photographs of any Broadway/touring/Interntaional casts of the "Line" - you'll see them duplicated pretty exactly.

Though I'm not completely convinced of the validity of doing a museum piece ACL, like it or not, I'm pretty confident that is what we will get on Broadway this fall.

I wouldn't be surprised if Martha Swope took the photographs this time, or if her work is duplicated as well. The pics though are all going to be in color this time. Black and White just doesn't sell to today's audiences, and I think the only reason the originals weren't in color is because, as Margo says, most magazines and newspapers in 1975 published only black and white photographs.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 6:20pm

Think they might try something along the line of the Warhol lithos, the repeats overfilled w colour? Would allow similar staging and style but also a classic "retro" colour punch.
Just thinking out loud...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 6:25pm

I personally love that the Bennett staging and choroegraphy will be recreated for this production. It's among the finest ever invented for the musical theatre and I'll be happy to see it again and am grateful that the generation that has come of age in the 16 years since the original production closed will get to see one of the most magical, dazzling, electric, ingenius stage presentations in history in its original form.

However, even I would be more than happy to see a completely new marketing campaign for the show and costume plot that is, while in the same 70s Danskins spirit, perhaps tweaked a bit (by Theoni Aldredge herself if she's interested). I also wouldn't mind if Avian would adapt a few steps here and there in the "Music and the Mirror" number to better suit the unique talents of D'Amboise (he and Bennett certainly changed the choreography of that number at various times during the original run to better accentuate the gifts of Reinking and one or two others). Subtle changes that better fit this particular collection of performers would not be a bad thing at all -- if it's going to be 99% the same as the original every other way, who could complain about a few minor changes that would make for a better show (apparently the lighting design for one, is being altered to reflect the many improvements in technology in the past 30 years).

I guess it's fine if every single thing is recreated exactly -- if it ain't broke why fix it, right? But, for those of us who've been around a little while, it'll be odd to see that same bright full color ad with the gold lame' costumes again (that will surely be trotted out at some point). And while that photo of the line was brilliant, maybe there's a better way now to sell this show to a 21st century audience.

Updated On: 2/12/06 at 06:25 PM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 6:43pm

I completely agree Margo, and the truth is that if Michael Bennett were still alive, I doubt very much he would want to do an exact recreation of what was done thirty years ago. The costumes in particular are not as flattering as some of the styles that came a little later. Every Shelia in history has bitched about that leotard, for one. I would think they could keep the feel without so visually making it a period peice.

I'm not sure how the original McKechnie choreography is going to look on D'Amboise. McKechnie's trademark as a dancer was her "torso" work and the movement of her arms and head (don't pop the head Cassie). D'Amboise is probably more like Reinking (legs). Hopefully, they'll modify it for her.

And I don't think actually the advertising will be "verbatim" - but I'm sure they'll keep the logo and that photo layout.


Updated On: 2/12/06 at 06:43 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 7:08pm

Ya know what's really really sad? If Michael Bennett were alive today, he'd only be 62 years old. Isn't that CRAZY??? He'd have at least another decade or more of fertile creative years left.

And we can't even begin to imagine the masterpieces he would have created in the past 20 years. Every aspect of the American Musical Theatre (and the theatre in general) would be totally different. Someone once asked Donna McKechnie how Bennett might have fared in the 80s and 90s in the face of the massive popularity of the British mega-musical and she responded with a laugh, "Oh, Michael would have eaten them for lunch." I totally agree.

With him pumping out new hit after hit, would the revival trend have even happened? Would we be seeing every new show being based on a movie or a pop song catalogue? I doubt it. And most importantly, he'd have been developing new directing and choreographic protegees (Tommy Tune was one of them) and helping them create their own new shows, passing on the lessons of how to create new musicals (as Hal Prince helped guide him) to a new generation.

If Bennett were alive we most assuredly would not even be seeing a revival of A Chorus Line next season. He would never have allowed it. He HATED revivals and believed only untalented hacks did them (which is still pretty much true 90% of the time). He would still be creating new shows and not looking back -- not even to his greatest success. Hell, he very well might have come up with a new show or two that topped ACL in success -- remember he was only 32 when he did ACL after all and didn't live long enough to make it to his prime years as a director.

Anyway, sorry for the digression. But, "what might have been" is a very sad thing to ponder in this case.

Updated On: 2/12/06 at 07:08 PM

[sabrelady]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 7:17pm

I'd like to agree w you Margo. BUT money is money. When they sold it to the movies- he & the other creators/producers knew what would happen. So given the length of time since the shows closing - Bennett might have been willing to consider a revival. Time changes everything.(joke) But in a similar line as yours"
"the saddest words of tounge or pen
Are these, "it might have been.""

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 7:18pm

Through mutual friends, I've heard many stories about Bennett's work on "Chess" in London from people who were working on that production. This was the show he was developing when he became too ill to continue and had to be replaced ultimately. I have heard only a few detailed examples of what he was planning on doing with that production, but they were brilliant directorial strokes. It's so sad that when the new director stepped in, they scrapped Bennett's work to that point and started over.

It does make me wonder what might have been, with "Chess"... and beyond.

[morosco]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 7:20pm

"...apparently the lighting design for one, is being altered to reflect the many improvements in technology in the past 30 years..."

Color changers! I remember the original had many lighting instruments but each was capable of providing only the color of it's one gel! (You can see the lighting plot in my fan photos.) So now with color changers instruments can be much more versatile. But I wonder if the end result, what the audience sees, will be identical to what audiences saw in the original run?

[morosco]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 7:24pm

"...And we can't even begin to imagine the masterpieces he would have created in the past 20 years. Every aspect of the American Musical Theatre (and the theatre in general) would be totally different..."

I still think DREAMGIRLS was the last musical to ever do anything to advance the art of musical theatre as a whole.

And sadly, when Bennett passed....the bar was forever lowered on what is considered imaginative, creative, and spellbinding.

[boxers7]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 7:25pm

MB - What's the A Chorus Line Bible?

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 7:47pm

Margo,

Interesting that you mention Martha Swope, because I was just wondering if she is still around. Looking through almost any Broadway history book her name pops up as a credit to almost 1/3rd of the photos. She certainly knew how to capture the essence of each moment.

Akiva

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 7:50pm

I've also heard several stories about that CHESS production from people who worked on it and they all describe his work as "visionary" and totally unlike anything anyone had ever attempted on stage before. It was by all accounts brilliant. Then, with his health failing, he was forced to withdraw. He returned briefly to New York, packed up his apartment and then moved out to Arizona where he died a short time later.

In the mean time, Trevor Nunn took over the reigns of CHESS, keeping some of the broad outlines of Bennett's directorial plot, but he just couldn't figure out how to make all of those apparently groundbreaking ideas work. So he simplified everything, kept some things, discarded others, added his own thoughts and in the end, it was mostly a mess.

And my only point sabrelady was that, you generally only start doing revivals of your old work, when you run out of ideas for new work. Had he been producing a new show every two or three years for the past 20 -- and I know this is all pure speculation -- there would be no reason to revive ACL just 16 years after the original production closed. He'd probably have two or three shows running right now so what would be the point of trotting out ACL so soon. MAYBE in 2015 at the 25 year mark (for a 40th anniversary revival), but now?

Look how the Robbins estate takes care of West Side Story. While it's constantly done regionally and in high schols and colleges (and is touring as we speak), it hasn't been on Broadway in 25 years. There's a rumor it'll return in 2007 for a 50th anniversary production, which I'm sure will be first rate top-to-bottom, if it happens. They treat it like the masterpiece it is, like a true special event. And if Bennett were alive, I doubt we'd be seeing a revival of ACL at this point.

Updated On: 2/12/06 at 07:50 PM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 7:58pm

I'd like to hear a little more about Bennet's vision for CHESS. I've actually never heard the particulars (And is it true, LuPone was supposed to be in it and quit - thus making herself available for LES MIZ?)

The "A Chorus Line Bible" is the term used for the phonebook sized handbook put together by Baayork Lee, Tommie Walsh and I think a couple other dance captains (Trish Garland maybe?) detailing not only the choreography and staging of ACL but line readings, costumes, character background, character ticks, costume change layouts - EVERYTHING about the show.

On one hand it preserves absolutely everything about Bennett's original creation, but it also keeps subsequent productions from infusing much new creativity.

[morosco]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 8:07pm

I assume Tharon Musser is still with us? Has she simply retired?

Posted: 2/12/06 at 8:14pm

I would love to see an updated or new vision of A CHORUS LINE> I know it is tried and true and I love the show. It WAS the first show I ever saw in NYC but I would love to see how someone could re conceive it and make it fresh and new

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 8:16pm

Tharon Musser is alive, but retired, though she is officially credited with the lighting design for this revival.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 8:22pm

I find this topic fascinating. A part of me wants to see almost a carbon copy of what the original was, simply because I never saw the original production. Then another part of me feels that they should try to update things a bit. Just because it doesn't seem like it's been a long enough period of time for the same A Chorus Line practically everyone saw.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 8:26pm

Well if you want to see a virtual carbon copy of the original, you only have to see a major regional theatre production of it. Virtually every professional production of ACL has been a virtual recreation of the original staging and design.

Which is one of the reasons reviving the show on Broadway is not a sure thing - why pay 100 dollars to see something on Broadway when you can see "virtualy" the same thing at Casa Manana in Ft. Worth, Texas for 35?

[BrianWilsonFan]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 8:36pm

I don't know, i think there is a standard on Broadway
that is pretty well unmatched anywhere in the world.

That's the thing about A Chorus Line, it gave me an
insight into what American dancers particulary, give
to their art,

I saw A Chorus Line five times in the late seventies
at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane London (i'm a Brit)
the three times the American company and twice the
British Company and i have to say it was a completely
different ballgame comparing the Broadway chaps and
chapesses who were so far superior it was laughable.

I also saw a touring version at Bristol six or seven
years ago with Adam Faith as Zac but dignity and decorum
prohibit me from describing the awfulness of it.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 8:40pm

Well yes, the "saving grace" of charging Broadway prices is one would assume a cast of talent you wouldn't be able to assemble anywhere else in the world. But most of the cast assembled so far individually aren't "above" doing the show regionally. Hopefully, collectively they create the same kind of magic of the originals - otherwise, frankly, its just not really worth (for me) top dollar ticket price.

[Princeton78]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 8:43pm

I wonder if in the age of ascending tires, falling chandeliers, gazelles mounted on heads, singing candle sticks, witches on cherry pickers and flying cars if the sparse, simple, elegant staging of A Chorus Line will fly with the out of town crowd?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 8:45pm

If it doesn't fly with crowds though Princeton, I don't think you can blame the show's simple elegance - the truth is that most revivals these days (perhaps luckily for the art of musical theatre) aren't really doing that well. People are happily much more interested in seeing something new.