Musical VERONA replaces MIDSUMMER at the Delacorte

[robbiej]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 4:43pm

Do you KNOW how many times I've seen MIDSUMMER??? I mean...I love it...but come ON!

VERONA premiered in '71 when I was a mere itch in my daddy's pants. I'm VERY excited for this.
It's What Beat FOLLIES

[mikewood]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 4:44pm

Midsummer is a bit ....overdone.

[robbiej]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 4:46pm

To say the least!

But I really wasn't expecting to see TWO GENTS anytime soon...especially in a full production.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 4:49pm

GREAT News!

[devonian.t]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 5:18pm

I've listened to the cd. It's not wonderful. And it beat FOLLIES??? What were voters thinking?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 5:23pm

This is all heresay, as I have never seen a production of TWO GENTLEMEN, but from historians like Ken Mandelbaum and people I know who did see it...

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA was apparently a much more satisfying theatre experience to audiences in 1971. FOLLIES may have had the greater score, but GENTLEMEN apparently was rioutsly funny, superbly performed and incredibly timely. Audiences reacted to it like they were at a rock concert. They loved it.

And Steven Suskin in his book "Opening Nights on Broadway" comments that TWO GENTLEMEN was one of the few musicals of the 1970s to receive universal rave reviews from the NY Press.

Whether lighting will strike a second time with this musical in the park remains to be seen. But by all accounts, the OBC recording is not a very accurate representation of what the "experience" was seeing the show live. And apparently it was indeed quite an experience...