New takes on old shows
New takes on old shows
New takes on old shows#1
Posted: 12/11/10 at 2:42pm
My rainy day bordem has me doing what I always do on rainy days... listening to Sondheim.
This has gotten me thinking about how I would like to see some shows approached and you all are my victims. Lucky you!
For the upcomming production of Follies or a future revival I would love to see projections utilized to blend the lines between memory and reality even more. I envision it something like having videos and images projected haphazzardly onto ragged curtains and stretches of broken-down theatre pieces. The images would be a mixture of pictures from the ladies glory days, images and videos of cultural events that lend to the narrative, clips of Carlotta's varied career, newspaper clippings of Ben's hay day in politics, and family pictures/home movies of the women after the magic of the follies has left their lives.
The shuffle on my I-pod has also led me to wonder if Merrily We Roll Along could be updated. I know it's a strange thought but I think that the idea of Broadway artists selling out and letting go of their dreams/expectations is perhaps even more timely in the age of spectacle theatre, juke box musicals, and Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark.
Are there any shows you would like to see reimagined?
New takes on old shows#2
Posted: 12/11/10 at 2:52pm
I would also like to see a revival of Me and My Girl with the action moved to 1920's New Orleans with a white family learning an unknown mixed race son is set to inherit the family plantation. Again not sure it would work but the numbers I'm familiar with seem like they could be reworked with just a handfull of alterations...
God, I need a life...
New takes on old shows#2
Posted: 12/11/10 at 3:01pm
I've always wanted to see Once Upon a Mattress done with a man playing Winnifred. I think that would be interesting.
Also, I've always wanted to see a much darker Into the Woods. There's always the underlying rape metaphors, in Little Red's scenes, and how screwed up she was after it all. I don't think that they ever play that enough. Also, I think the Witch has a very disturbing obsession with Rapunzel. I don't see it as a mom who doesn't want her daughter to grow up. She's obsessed with her beauty, because it's something she had never had (at least not for a while) and something she would never have again. She's in love with her. These are just character things I'd like to see explored more.
New takes on old shows#3
Posted: 12/11/10 at 3:06pmI'd like to see a new version of Wicked where the curtain never goes up.
New takes on old shows#5
Posted: 12/11/10 at 3:12pm
I always thought they could take a chamber musical -- say, like COMPANY -- and really strip it down. No orchestra! Instead, we give everyone in the cast an instrument, and...
Wait. No. That's a moronic idea...
Okay, seriously, if we're talking serious re-imagining here, I'd love to see a well-thought-out modern-day adaption of LYSISTRATA (I know! Shock! Horror! NOT A MUSICAL!!!). God knows, almost anything by Aristophanes remains topical to this day, but LYSISTRATA has the advantage of mixing war with sex, and it just dont get better than that. Throw it in the Middle East, where women are more or less bound to do what the men tell them to do; add in the American adversaries, whose take on women is much like that of the opposing army in the original play, and it might make for an interesting evening.
BTW: if you ever want to see an audacious piece of theatre, check out the revival of CANDIDE done in Paris a few years back. Hysterical, timely, beautifully performed. The "six kings" scene alone is worth the ticket.
New takes on old shows#6
Posted: 12/11/10 at 3:26pm
Just another thought, since we're playing "Wouldnt it be keen if...":
An all-male production of COMPANY. It would need a little rewrite, but wouldnt it be cool.
New takes on old shows#7
Posted: 12/11/10 at 3:28pmSweeney Todd...in drag.
Next On The List :: Clybourne Park, Once, Streetcar, BOM
New takes on old shows#8
Posted: 12/11/10 at 4:51pm
Into The Woods: The Baker and his Husband! The character would dress in drag but it would not be a man playing a girl but an actual Gay Couple, It Takes Two would be taken to an entirely new Level I can just picture it.Instead of them bearing a child they could be granted with one wait it's fairy tale anything could happen.
Updated On: 12/11/10 at 04:51 PM
New takes on old shows#9
Posted: 12/11/10 at 4:57pm
SeanMartin, I actually think that a gender-switched production of Company would be really cool.
Bobby = Bobbi
Amy = Andy
Joanne = Joseph
Harry = Mary
etc.
New takes on old shows#10
Posted: 12/11/10 at 5:09pm
SeanMartin-
There is a modernized version of Lysistrata, formerly Give It Up!, but now Lysistrata Jones.
New takes on old shows#11
Posted: 12/11/10 at 6:34pm
^ Yeah, and this is what I mean by a thought-out one. It's easy to just change the set and costumes to any ol' era you want -- the Met Opera does that all the time -- but to really think through the concept is a little more rigorous and demanding, and I dont think anyone's really done that yet.
@Bwaylvsong: Exactly. I mean: the whole trauma of turning 35 (and no longer hot -- supposedly -- but needing to prove it more and more), the fear of commitment, the rush of actually going through a marriage ceremony, the stumbling act of living together with someone you love... these are not unique to heterosexual couples.
New takes on old shows#13
Posted: 12/11/10 at 8:00pmSean_Martin, did you hear of Give It Up? It was a musical based on Lysistrata... It was written by the guy who wrote Xanadu... It played in Dallas earlier this year, and I thought it was hilarious! The music was good too.
New takes on old shows#14
Posted: 12/12/10 at 11:00amSomeone did an all-male Company a few years ago in NYC.
Wanting life but never knowing how
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