Marquis Theatre: Future Venue for Two Cities?- Page 2

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 6:59am

I'd love to add Walton's designs for Grand Hotel, the original Chicago, and especially the House of Blue Leaves and A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, if I could find them online. All superb designs.

The appearance of the set in Blue Leaves to Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra was like a musical showstopper. And I've never heard an audience go more berserk in a theatre than when Walton's Act Two Night in the Ukraine set was revealed.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 7:57am

Here is a great article on his design work for Grand Hotel. The next best thing is my imagination I guess.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEEDB143BF933A15752C1A96F948260

[Neverandy]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 11:47am

I think that no matter what, this show will appear on Broadway.
It's been through such a long gestation and Luck certainly hasn't been on its side. I think the Creative team is going to move heaven and earth to get it here.
Two years ago the show was booked for its out of town pre-broadway tryout at the Cadillac Theater in Chicago. There was the final workshop of the show in New york. Unfortunately The director of the piece had a heart attack and withdrew from the production. The official stated reason was personal reasons. Apparently he didn't want his health issues publicized. A director withdrawing for "personal reasons" of a "Broadway-bound" mega musical was fatal blow to the show. People who didn't know the real story thought the obvious reason was that he had no faith in the production.Nevertheless, The Cadillac Theater production was canceled and the show retreated back into development.
Then,Les mis was announced, and again Tale was faced with impending disaster. The producers didn't want to open it in the same season as Les mis, and suffer the inevitable comparisons, so again it was pulled back.
I think that now is the best time for the production to make a go for the main stem. There is a lot of excitement from the Florida production. There was good word of mouth. From what I've been told, the physical Production of Sarasota (costumes props, etc) is Broadway quality. There is a lot of money behind the show. Les mis is closed. All they really need is a theater.
Whether or not it's a success, I can't say. But I do know that we have seen much worse over the last few years (In my Life, Times they are a'changin, lestat, Pirate Queen, etc.)

[J.J.]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 1:57pm

And which Shubert house will it take then? The Plymouth?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 2:18pm

With its low running costs, A CHORUS LINE isn't leaving the Schoenfeld (nee Plymouth) anytime soon, not to mention it's probably too small for TALE, which sounds epic sized.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 3:37pm

It sounds epic sized, but it played the tiny little theatre in Florida for it's "out-of-town tryout." I doubt they'd want the the Belasco, but it's open.

Son-of-a-gun: Everything we say is our opinion. I don't see why we need to put "I Think" before everything we say. It's like they tell you in grade school, you don't need to preface it with "I think" or "In my opinion" because we already know it's your opinion.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 3:40pm

The Belasco isn't open, Passing Strange is starting there in February.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 4:01pm

why don't the producers just burn a pile of money?

[bare_nakedlady]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 4:20pm

I saw 'A Tale of Two Cities' in Florida and thouroughly enjoyed it. While it did play in a small theatre, the set did seemed cramped. I would love to see this on broadway in all of its grandeur. Tony Walton's sets are phenomenal and shouldn't be missed. He deserves to be appreciated.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 6:54pm

Yeah, but sets don't make a good show. (And I'm sure many people will find flaws in that statement, but I stand by it) And I didn't know about Passing Strange - Now that will be a hard sell. A show with no stars, that no one has heard of, in a theatre off the beaten path. Hm...

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 7:00pm

I agree with you Rentboy,

the fact that the best praise someone who supposedly LIKED the show can come up with is "the sets are phenomenal" is a telling statement on the show

[Eris0303]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 7:30pm

"the fact that the best praise someone who supposedly LIKED the show can come up with is "the sets are phenomenal" is a telling statement on the show"

The sets WERE phenomenal and deserve every bit of praise they have been receiving. I think the reason people keep going back to it is because it was so grand and almost imposing (in a good way).

But there are other points that should be discussed:

Anyone who has read the book knows that it can be slow and plodding at points. Michael Donald Edwards's direction keeps the show moving and a good pace without the lulls found in the book. Jill was able to weed out the unnecessary bits that Dickens threw in (because he was paid by the word) and form a coesive and well-spun tale. The show is rather heavy at times with bits of humor here and there but the humor blends very well with the serious moments. They don't jar you away from the story.

Natalie Toro and James Barbour both gave Tony-worthy performances. They commanded the stage in way I don't think I've ever seen before.

David Zinn's costumes were great and fit within the time period without feeling "old".

There's more but I'm running a fever right now and just can't seem to put together any more sentances. As it is I know this is full of spelling errors lol

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 9:14pm

Only time will tell.

[johnnyg]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 1:14am

hey Yankee Fan -
gotta ask - are you by any chance a not so distant relative of "theaterisok" over at all that chat? You two both keep trying to come off as having some inside scoop on what's happening with this show. And yet I know a bunch of people involved with it on both the producing and creative side and you are very obviously not really informed at all. So what gives?

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 1:26am

If you dont know the names Tony Walton, Richard Pilbrow or Thommie walsh then you really know very little about musical theatre!!!

[B3TA07]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 4:10am

"the fact that the best praise someone who supposedly LIKED the show can come up with is "the sets are phenomenal" is a telling statement on the show"

I think you're twisting the situation so that you can be a bitch. She/He clearly mentioned the sets specifically because they, and their designer, are the topic of discussion this thread has steered towards.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 8:42am

Smaxie. This is the best I could do for the picture of the Grand Hotel set. It's not great, but it is better than nothing.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 6:23pm

That is pretty, but I just can't get into the Grand Hotel score. I love Maury Yeston, but I just can't get into his other works - like NINE and Grand Hotel.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 6:36pm

Grand Hotel was not about the score, although there are some very attractive songs. The staging was what carried that evening.

Oddly, that season had a brilliantly written and directed show that could maybe have used a bit punchier musical staging (City of Angels) and a sort of middlingly written show with absolutely brilliant musical staging (Grand Hotel).

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 7:10pm

I'm in the minority but I adore the GRAND HOTEL score but can't get through a few seconds of the CITY OF ANGELS cast recording without turning it off.
Maury Yeston's songs for GRAND HOTEL are, for the most part, what makes the score so good. I know Wright and Forrest were pretty displeased but Yeston's songs added a lot to the score.
Example, "Flaemmchen" can't compare to "I Want to Go to Hollywood."
Speaking of GRAND HOTEL...when are we getting a revival?

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 8:34pm

Would it work as well without the original staging? Perhaps Tommy Tune could rework some of the aspects of the show he felt didn't work out so well. He really is what brought the whole show together.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 8:38pm

Wait, so the whole score isn't Maury Yeston?

What made the staging so unique? The set is beautiful, and I like the use of no stage curtain, but instead some chandaliers and the logo - it's a classy touch.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 8:50pm

It was generally agreed from what I can find that it was Tune's imaginative staging that made a flawed show shine bright. And Tune fired Robert Wright and George Forrest and hired Maury Yeston because they were too attached to the original source material and wouldn't adapt to make the show fit his vision of what would work on Broadway. I know he also brought in Peter Stone to work on the book by Luther Davis though he doesn't receive official credit.

Updated On: 12/21/07 at 08:50 PM

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 9:00pm

No. Wright and Forrest of Kismet/Magdalena/Song of Norway/Kean and Anya fame wrote a complete Grand Hotel musical called At the Grand which opened in LA in 1958. It never came to New York at that time, and closed I think in San Francisco. Almost 30 years later, Wright and Forrest decided to take another look at it, and Tommy Tune got involved. But (prior to? during the?) Boston tryout, when the show wasn't working so well, Tune brought in Maury Yeston to compose some new songs for the score, including replacing several of the Wright/Forrest numbers. The acrimony this generated between the two sets of writers ended up causing two separate vocal selection books to be published, as well as delaying the recording of the cast album, I think almost two years after the show had been open. The original cast members came back for the recording, including the gravely ill David Carroll, who died at the recording studio - sad that he never got to preserve the role on record, though Brent Barrett is excellent.

Quite like the Bennett staging of Dreamgirls, the suggestive but non literal set for Grand Hotel made possible a constant fluidity in movement. The staging just never stopped. I'm not sure the show would be quite as exciting without Tune's contribution and the work of his designers, but perhaps someone who has seen Grand Hotel in another staging can weigh in.

Updated On: 12/21/07 at 09:00 PM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/21/07 at 10:05pm

I would love to see a revival with Tune's original staging. Don't bring any Kathleen Marshalls or Wayne Cilentos to ruin it.
Maury Yeston's condition to coming in to write some of the score was that he had to write a song for each of the major characters.
I know Jane Krakowski said she was heart-broken when "Flaemmchen" was cut because apparently that was a big showstopper for her out of town, but that she agreed with Tommy Tune that Yeston's "I Want to Go to Hollywood" served the material much better.
There's some interesting info about AT THE GRAND in Ken Mandelbaum's brilliant NOT SINCE CARRIE, including the fact that Paul Muni played the accountant (forgot his name) and was hated by the rest of the cast.