Most neglected composer?

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 11:01am

Cy Coleman seems to have been mostly forgotten at least outside NYC.

I have been monitoring over 100 theater groups within 150 miles of me for about 10 year and of his shows, only "Little Me", "Sweet Charity" (Nat tour came through town), "Barnum" and "City of Angels", and "The Will Rogers Follies" have each of been performed once and the others not at all. And I missed "City of Angels".

What a shame...

Why are theaters reluctant to produce his shows?

Wildcat
Little Me
Sweet Charity
Seesaw
I Love My Wife
On the Twentieth Century
Barnum
City of Angels
The Will Rogers Follies
The Life


Updated On: 9/3/13 at 11:01 AM

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 11:16am

Don't forget Wildcat!

[morosco]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 11:17am

An incredibly versatile composer I think.

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 11:24am

Hey, look me over!

good catch After Eight

[Kad]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 12:18pm

On the Twentieth Century is such a fantastic score. I really do hope that revival happens.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 12:36pm

Sweeet Charity is one of my favorite musical comedy scores; I hope we get a good revival with some bite to it over here someday. The Menier Chocolate Factory production, which played the Haymarket on the West End, was very good. It felt less shrunken than most of these recent British revivals of American musicals, and it had a grimy honesty to it that I really liked. Christina Applegate is charming, but the revival that was built around her was just too sterile.

[tazber]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 12:40pm

He is one of my top 3 favorite composers. Ever.

I am so saddened by the fact that he had at least 3 unproduced musicals that we probably won't ever hear.

Hell, I even liked his score to the god awful Welcome to the Club!

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 1:39pm

I LOVED The Life. I enjoy the Wildcat CD. Barnum has been an absolute favorite CD of mine for years and I am SO wishing for it to be revived.

Grateful I was able to briefly meet him as he exited a charity event at Lincoln Center. He was very happy to sign several CDs for me.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 2:10pm

The Life really was everything. Saw a regional production in Boston. The book was laughable, in my opinion, which made the score shine through. It's just so sexy and cute and satisfying.

Also love City of Angels... one of my favorite.

[DeNada]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 2:31pm

Barnum's just had a major revival in the UK and sad to say the book just doesn't hold up. You've just had Pippin do the whole circus thing properly - any production of Barnum would have to top that, and it's an even weaker show.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 2:51pm

So many of his shows suffer from weak books that led them to obscurity, are difficult to cast, or extremely expensive to produce well. He's one of my all-time favorite composers as well as one of Broadway's most prolific and versatile composers, but the majority of his shows are either difficult to produce or not well known enough to attract audiences in non-repertory regional/amateur theatres. So you end up with endless productions of Sweet Charity. Chicago recently had a run of Barnum but given the location of the theatre and low public awareness of the musical with one-off independent production, they couldn't give tickets away.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 3:00pm

'You've just had Pippin do the whole circus thing properly'

I actually kind of disagree with this statement. Pippin certainly had a European 'cirque' feel to it, which was entirely appropriate. But the American circus championed by PT Barnum is an entirely different animal. From the (very) few clips of the recent London production I've seen, all I could think was 'Wrong circus, a$$holes.' But, that's based on clips, and I could be totally wrong about that.

I've also been surrounded by people who love THE LIFE lately. I thought that show was one of the tackiest things I've ever seen. The score, while tuneful, simply didn't fit into the setting (late 70's/early 80's hooker street life in NYC). The Hooker's Ball was simple a vaginal Jellicle Ball. And My Body is the strangest feminist rallying cry to ever be written. But I laughed. Oh, how I laughed.

That said, Cy Coleman ranks with Frank Loesser as the most distinctive and rangy of American musical composers.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 3:16pm

I've also been surrounded by people who love THE LIFE lately. I thought that show was one of the tackiest things I've ever seen.

To quote Lee Adams: Uh-PLAWZ, Uh-PLAWZ, Uh-PLAWZ!!

God, that show was heinous. I could never figure out the love that was heaped on that show when it opened. Yes, it has some catchy tunes and gave us Lillias White sassily delivering Coleman's last female comedy song, but to call the show "tacky" is to be far too kind. It was grotesque. The whole thing looked like it was commissioned by the Lifetime network.

My Body...what a fun song to strut and belt in your living room. But can we talk about that choreography? Strike a pose and flash your hands! Now switch your pose and flash your hands! Fat girls run down center and jiggle your junk as hard as you can!

That was when their bodies became my business and I closed the store.

[jv92]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 5:34pm

Echoing Mister Matt--

I wouldn't call Coleman neglected. Most of his scores are preserved on cast recordings. There have been major revivals of LITTLE ME and SWEET CHARITY (and hopefully ON THE 20TH CENTURY someday). Unfortunately, with the exception of CITY OF ANGELS and probably ON THE 20TH CENTURY, most of the scores are attached to unworkable books. (LITTLE ME has a good book, but it's difficult to cast, which is a different problem I suppose.) I don't understand the obsession with SWEET CHARITY as a show. It has a wonderful score, but the book is quite weak, and no single production can seem to figure out how to fix the ending.

Neglected, though? Hardly? I'd call someone like Marc Blitzstein a neglected composer.

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 5:44pm

What I remember most about The Life (aside from the tawdriness already mentioned) was Pamela Isaacs' beautiful performance as Queen. While White and Chuck Cooper got the showiest material, Isaacs provided a real center with the show's only credible, three-dimensional character. Anybody know what she's up to lately?

And of course I can't watch Scandal these days without remembering Bellamy Young in next to nothing as the eager young hooker fresh off the bus.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 6:10pm

Bellamy Young.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 6:33pm

For neglected composers, I was thinking more along the lines of Vincent Youmans, Vernon Duke or Ray Henderson.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 8:59pm

I think After Eight's list speaks for itself: despite containing a lot of good songs, what a list of mediocre musicals (with the possible exception of SWEET CHARITY)!

"So many of his shows suffer from weak books that led them to obscurity, are difficult to cast, or extremely expensive to produce well."

After about 8 or 10 such shows, I fear we have to ask the composer to share the blame.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 9:07pm

And yet so many of Wildhorn's groupies ask you to go against that, and your own common sense and good logic, and pretend like he writes in a vacuum... "all of those musicals couldn't possibly be a flop because of Frank!!! He just writes the music!!!"

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 9:09pm

True, Headband, but I am not among them. It's still a collaborative art form in my mind. And, yes, Coleman wrote a lot of great numbers; whether he wrote a lot of great shows is another matter.

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 9:30pm

"I think After Eight's list speaks for itself:"

It was not my list. It was ErinDillyFan's list.

Give credit where credit is due.

And thank you, ErinDillyFan, for reminding us of a wonderful composer's body of work.

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 9:51pm

One need not be hugely successful in performance, or even have tons of canonical works, to be considered brilliant.

Coleman is very good at what he does. The fact that not many of his shows work hugely well in performance rarely has to do with his score. Besides, I believe his greatest merit was as a jazz songwriter, and his standards are often better known than the shows they were from.

Besides, how many other theatre composers can say they inspired one of Family Guy's most notorious pastiche songs?

[adam.peterson44]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 11:01pm

I think City of Angels is a great show and would love to see it performed more often. It has a score that I can listen to over and over again without tiring of it, and has some of the best lyrics and melodies that I have heard in musical theatre, but that don't necessarily work outside of the context of the show since they are so character-driven and situation-specific (e.g. It Needs Work, the Double Talk songs, Funny, You're nothing with me/i'm nothing without you, What you don't know about women - okay, that one might work out of context).

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 11:16am

I've always loved LITTLE ME -- saw it in previews in Philadelphia, twice on Broadway, and the (unfortunate) 1982 revival with James Coco and Victor Garber. Coleman wrote two or three new songs for that version, some of which were recorded on an old Kaye Ballard LP (Don't Ask a Lady was my favorite). The 1999 revival with Martin Short was fine only because of Martin Short, but they messed with the book and having Young Belle and Old Belle played by Faith Prince did not enhance the show. It has a VERY funny book and in the hands of an ace comedian the show still works. IMHO, the score is one of Coleman's very best and I still play the OBCR. Let's hope that Encores! does the show justice.

[jv92]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 11:18am

LITTLE ME is probably my favorite Coleman score, with a truly DAZZLING set of lyrics by Carolyn Leigh.