On The Town — Page 3

"The 1970s revival got *bad* reviews."

It was a thousand times better than this one. That one had charm and innocence. This one is crass and charmless.

"I think the show also felt, arguably, more dated back in the early 70s."

You do? How would you know what felt dated or not back in the 70s? You were there?

What happened to you After Eight? There are skilled professionals who can do wonders helping people get over severe sexual trauma, or whatever.

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^

Yet you took the trouble to read and respond to my thoughts on Hamilton.

Why, I have no idea.

I'm grateful you blocked me, though.

I wish more people would do the same!

As for the subject of this thread, I saw a wonderful production of On the Town at Paper Mill a few years ago that, unlike this one, got it right. But I don't know if it would have fared any better on Broadway than previous revivals or the present one. The public just doesn't seem to be interested in the piece.

Updated On: 2/12/15 at 06:59 AM

It was in 2009. Cast and creatives in Variety review linked below.
On the Town at Paper Mill

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I thought I had him blocked as well but appeared the other day. Not sure if something happened with settings but had to add him again. One can only look at so much negativity.

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That one had charm and innocence. This one is crass and charmless.

That's not even remotely true. The 1971 revival was completely campy, as was the style at the time. There was nothing at all innocent about it.

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"I don't understand this. Nearly 500 performances was still seen as a big hit by the time On the Town premiered."

462 performances definitely was a hit, but here are the longer runs of other shows from the same time (On The Town opened December 1944):

Oklahoma, March 1943 - 2,212 performances
Ziegfeld Follies of 1943, April 1943 - 553 performances
One Touch of Venus, October 1943 - 567 performances
Carmen Jones, December 1943 - 503 performances
Follow The Girls, April 1944 - 888 performances
Song of Norway, April 1944 - 860 performances
Bloomer Girl, October 1944 - 654 performances
Up In Central Park, January 1945 - 504 performances
Carousel, April 1945 - 890 performances
The Red Mill (revival), October 1945 - 531 performances
Call Me Mister, April 1946 - 734 performances
Annie Get your Gun, May 1946 - 1,147 performances

Not making any particular point, except that some shows that were more (maybe only slightly more) successful than On The Town are never revived now, and are almost entirely forgotten. For some reason (perhaps because of the popular movie), producers believe that On The Town is a good candidate for a financially successful revival (despite all evidence to the contrary).

The same thing happens with Jesus Christ Superstar, too.

Newintown--I would suggest both OTT and JCS (if we can lump them together,) have scores that have endeared and that surely is one of the reasons they are revived. (I know that's probably obvious, but since you didn't mention it :P )

I found this production much more rewarding than the '71 revival. As much as I admired Ron Field, Bergasse's choreography is more dynamic and the casting is more appropriate. Bernadette Peters was no more a Hildy than Donna McKechnie was an Ivy and only Remak Ramsay stood out among the leading men. I agree that some of the sexiness is overplayed in this production to diminishing comic returns but it has a big heart and innate energy the '71 revival lacked.

Ron Husmann was wonderful in the '71 production, as was Bernadette Peters. In fact, the entire cast was superior to the current one.

There was plenty of energy in that production. And style. But there's a big difference between energy and pushing too hard, as there is between good taste and a lack thereof.

PJ,

You're absolutely wrong.

About that revival, and about me.

What the heck does "basic friend" mean?

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Oh. So you insult a "friend" because their tastes don't coincide with yours. You must be a joy to be around, considering you have only one person to beg for theater company. Why not just go to shows alone; it'll be much more fun, and apparently plenty of people here do it.

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