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

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.

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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.)

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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.

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

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.

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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

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Only time will tell.

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

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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

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.

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