Next Chita Guest Star — Page 2

The most famous example of post-opening tinkering with a Broadway musical has got to be the original production of Camelot.

The show open to mixed reviews and was fast running through its advance sale. There were dozens of walk-outs every night. Moss Hart, having recovered from his heart attack, went back and tightened up the show, including removing one musical number. The audience now was staying put but there was no way of getting the reviewers back into the theatre to re-review the show.

Then, fate smiled down on Camelot as Ed Sullivan devoted his show's entire hour to Lerner and Loewe, on the occasion of My Fair Lady's 5th anniversary. L&L convinced Sullivan to showcase their 'new' show Camelot. (For those of you too young to remember Ed Sullivan, his show was must-viewing on Sunday nights so this was a big deal). Anyway, the next morning there was a line outside the Majestic Theatre, stretching down 44th Street. Word of mouth for the revised show was quite positive and the show went on to run another 2 years.

So, yes, shows have been known to have been altered after the opening.

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I thought I'd read some "not-so-nice" comments as well, but the ones quoted above wouldn't fall into that category in my opinion. All that stuff she was true, and beyond Liza's control. I thought her big concern was Liza's rampant drug use at the time.

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Updated On: 1/28/06 at 02:22 PM

I think it would be amazing if they got Carol Lawrence to sing "A Boy Like That" with Chita. When I talked to Chita at the door about how much I love WSS and such and I showed her a book I had, Carol Lawrence was on the page and she asked if I ever met her or saw her perform live and I said sadly no, and she said I really should she's incredibly talented and a sweetheart. God, to see the two of them together again, I'd die.

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Hello, chita33. Kisses.

/threadjack>

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Updated On: 1/28/06 at 02:29 PM

Speaking of tinkering with musicals after opening:

Gower Champion did quite a bit of tinkering with HELLO, DOLLY! after it opened. Originally Ambrose was involved in the "singing competition" at he Harmonia Gardens. Neither Gower nor Jerry Herman were happy with the number about butterflies that was part of the floor show at the restaurant, so they went to work on the show. AMbrose eventually became a dancer and a polka contest was inserted in place of the butterfly number.

If you have the OBC of DOLLY! in "Sunday Clothes", Carol Channing sings "Ambrose, let me hear that tonic chord". After the revision, the line became "We haven't missed the train yet, thank the Lord", which is what Pearl Bailey sings in the "new" Broadway Cast Recording.

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Nathan Lane was featured in MERLIN. How about Chita and Nathan together?

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Updated On: 1/28/06 at 02:53 PM

Whomever asked: No, Liza's "Dancing" days are long gone.

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It's not about losing "IT", but when you are on 2 hip replacements and knee jobs and goodness knows what else there are things that you wont be doing. Minnelli cannot dance anymore, sad but true.

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Updated On: 1/28/06 at 03:36 PM

Thank you Dollypop, for solving one of those nagging questions. I have the original issue OBC of Dolly and, while I knew the photo of 'Come and Be My Butterfly' with David Burns was from a cut number, I never knew where the 'tonic chord' line came from. Now it makes sense!

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Lol, ain't that the truth Chita!

If Gwen Verdon was a guest star...wow.

Candy Brown and Pamela Sousa ...... maybe

Totally diggin' some dead legends.

But it'd be interesting to bring in a real solid male counterpart. Now, this is just purely outta my imagination (seeing as how I'm nowhere near NYC), but what about Brent Carver -- he's *amazing* and they did "Kiss of the Spiderwoman".

Well, I guess that'd have to happen after he finishes helping the halfings defeat Sarun.

~Sam

Did I really type something with a word in "*"?
~Flushes self down the toilet~