Martin Guerre

[Twilight]

Posted: 9/6/04 at 4:10am

I just read the book "How to make it on Broadway" and there were several mentions of the musical Martin Guerre, and how it was a complete flop. Can anyone tell me why, I'm curious. I've heard a few (2) of the songs, and I liked them.

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/6/04 at 4:25am

I noticed that too (in the book).. I have no clue though, sorry!

[leeinlondon]

Posted: 9/6/04 at 6:09am

I saw Martin Guerre many times..

Basically ti had too major rewrites in London and the third version turned out to be excellent in my opinion. a really lovely moving piece with wonfderful songs and music.

They completely reworte the show for the tour version which made it to the states, they kept only most of the music and invented new staging to go with the completely new lyrics.

If you have any specific questions let me know but it flopped because it did not seem to capture the imagination of the theatre going public in the same way that Les Mierables and Miss Saigon clearly did.

[POLisPOL]

Posted: 9/6/04 at 6:12am

I saw the show when first opened in london a few years ago...
it was a regular show, a little bit long, with a few of nice songs. Not bad at all, but not a GREAT show...
The response of the critics and the public was very cold, and in a few months the creative team rewrote a lot of scenes, changed songs and they even changed the posters of the musical. But the musical had no succes even with this.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 9/7/04 at 12:18pm

Oh, poor troubled Martin Guerre. I had been following this musical for years, and have both recordings.

LeeInLondon is right about the show having too many rewrites in London; when the show initially opened, they received poor reviews, so they closed it for a few weeks and tightened the storylines, characters, and music. When it reopened, it received great reviews, but the bad press it had previously received had already set in, and the public shunned the show, which is why it closed. Ironically, it won the Olivier Award for Best Musical thanks to the rewrites (a feat not even Les Miz or Miss Saigon accomplished). There is a cast recording that was made between the original and the rewrite (1996 - red cover), and the recording is a midsection of the two.

After the show closed in London, an extremely rewritten and reworked version was mounted for a UK tour. This production featured a new creative team (new director, set designer, even new co-lyricist/translater for Boublil). Much of the music was reworked and moved around; song that were in the original production would find themselves in a completely different place in this new production, with new lyrics and a new context. There were also a number of new songs, most notably "Live with Someone You Love" and "How Many Tears".

The UK Tour production itself was distinguished by being much more scaled-back, more minimalist and smaller than the London production, which some said suffered from being too overblown in production values. There is a recording for this production, too - sometimes called the 1999 recording (black cover).

The UK tour was moderately successful and received very positive reviews, so Cameron Mackintosh intended to bring it to Broadway after a tour. Again, a slightly revamped version was mounted and toured around the US. It received mixed reviews, but a stellar cast.

The reason it did not make it to Broadway is a strange one: all the Broadway theatres were booked solid that season, so Martin Guerre couldn't find a Broadway venue to house it. I remember when they announced it wouldn't be coming to Broadway after all, and I was devestated because I really wanted to catch Schonberg-Boulil's third work. Since they couldn't get a Broadway theatre, and couldn't wait another season while scrambling to find tour dates in other cities, they eventually had to end the tour. And since the show was such a huge headache for Mackintosh, I guess he decided all these troubles were a bad omen and decided to just close the project.

It's very true that Martin Guerre did not capture the public's imagination as Les Miz and Miss Saigon did. But it was a different breed of show; not the epic sweep of Les Miz and Miss Saigon, but an intimate story of three individuals being suffocated by their village's plight.

Updated On: 9/7/04 at 12:18 PM

[tpdc]

Posted: 9/7/04 at 2:53pm

MARTIN GUERRE didn't open on Broadway for several reasons. I think the appeal of the British sung through musicals was starting to fade. The revised prior to Broadway touring version made the story both silly and confusing. Though there are some nice things in the score, it is not the authors best work. But most of all, the reason the tour didn't open on Broadway was because it was a really poor production. Stephen Buntrock, Hugh Panaro and Erin Dilly were all miscast, lacked star charisma and were downright awful in the leads. Only Jose Llana's over the top villain and Michael Arnold's over the top idiot made any impression. I am glad to have seen the leads do fine work after this mess. From the terrible reviews and the weak box office, Mackintosh was smart to end it out of town.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 1:22am

tpdc...sorry I won't comment on the casting because well, you know where my loyalities lie. He he! But I have heard that Martin Guerre never made it to Broadway due to poor marketing and the fact that it reminded people too much of Les Mis, but with less emotional impact. Plus, a musical director I know said that the musicians in the MG orchestra thought that the score was laughable.

But I do agree that MG does have some memorable songs, especially "Someone You Love".

~Rosalynn

[Musetta1957]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 2:31am

Martin Guerre gets a disproportionate amount of mentions (that one would expect, anyway), because it appears that Jodie Langel had talked mostly to people she worked with. (And remember she was the unofficial Bertrande alternate on the tour.)

I'm not saying that's good or bad, but no one had mentioned that yet...