ON THE 20th CENTURY

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:03pm

I loved this show. Saw it maybe 4 or 5 times in its original run. Comden and Green are always terrific. A couple of years ago I saw a community production in Salt Lake City, UT. It was just as much fun, if not more so. The community players were having a fantastic time on stage...and not being NYC...there was a full 30/40 piece orchestra in the pit!

Your opinion please, if you care to share?

[tpdc]

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:09pm

I loved this show. I saw it near the end of its run. John Cullum was brilliant and Imogene Coca was her wonderful self. I liked Judy Kaye as well. The set was amazing. The score and book are just delighful. Hal prince did a wonderful job blending all these great contributions and adding great moments of his own. I am looking forward to seeing Ken Ludwig's adapation of the original source play next month at Singature Theater in Virginia.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:16pm

I saw it right after it opened. Standing room. At the time I didn't like it for two reasons. 1) It wasn't A Chorus Line. (Stupid, I know, but I thought ACL was awesome and amazing and it would take me some serious growin up to realize that you didn't have to pledge your undying love to a show. A SHOW! Not that my love for ACL has died... but you know what I mean); and 2) because the set had been given such a buildup, particularly the train "coming at the audience," that I had this mental image of people ducking down at a 3-D movie and was disappointed by reality. (How ironic, I know, that the Starlight Express tour would do this 30 years later and the only thing the thought of that makes me want to duck from is the flying dungus.)

I'd like to see it again, and am sure I would appreciate it with a grown-up's taste and with sophistication I may have gained over the years. What I did love was getting to see Madeline Kahn live onstage, and the young Kevin Kline, who was so dashing. I didn't appreciate Imogene at the time, but I am also grateful I got a chance to see her, in retrospect.

I declare that if, as the future Mame once sang, I could turn back time, I would watch that original cast of On the Twentieth Century again, with what I know now.

Updated On: 8/24/03 at 11:16 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:24pm

Madeline was indeed comedic and exquisite. How can one forget her "Veronique?" Kevin was simply brilliant and totally slapstick. John Cullum was ruthlessly vain and dashing and maniacal. I was less fond of Imogene (eventhough many years before I used to watch her faithfully as "Grendel" on Sunday nights and was always laughing). But she grew on me as I watched the show so many times.

Now I enjoyed both OT2C and ACL in very different ways and for different reasons. I don't recall that I preferred one over the other, they were different shows with different perspectives. Each spelled B-R-O-A-D-W-A-Y.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:37pm

Right, see, you were smart. Somewhere I got the notion that you had to "pick" a show. That's why I hated Chicago without seeing it the first time around (duh!) because I saw it as "competition" for my beloved ACL. Which is just so wrongheaded.

And, I can't help but thinking that people who see shows into the hundreds and hundreds of times are falling victim to the same phenomenon that I did, feeling as if they have to "vote" or "support" a show and keep it open forever. I'm glad I grew out of that.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 9:39am

There is a production of On The Twentieth Century currently playing at The Shaw Festival in Ontario. It is scaled down but works without the spectacle. The production is good without being great. If you haven't seen it, its worth a visit.

It plays in rep through October I think, in a 325 seat house without any microphones.

Happy End is the other musical at the Shaw Fest this season.

[TEACHEROFTHEATER]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 2:00pm

I loved this show. Beginning with the stunning poster (I have had the giant version, framed in my home for about 25 years) and the dazzling overture complete with the "train's smoke" being bellowed into the orchestra level to delightful effect.

I adore the score, but don't think its Coleman's best. I never saw Madelyn Kahn, but I saw Judy Kaye, John Cullum, Imogene Coca and Kevin Kline twice.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 3:31pm

the recent LA Reprise version was not well-received critically, and some of the response was about the material and some about the casting. i think it would take a very good cast of names to enliven the book as they did the first time. All the original features were true "personality performers" and those are few and far between these days. But i would like to see Coleman have a major revival; we have seen little since THE LIFE and i'm a fan of CITY OF ANGELS and BARNUM as well.

[tpdc]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 3:40pm

Comden and Green's book is truly witty, one of their best. The performers don't really need to fill it with shtick. The original cast didn't. Only Kline embroidered his role with his phyiscal antics and the authors and Hal Prince encouraged him to do so.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 3:46pm

i'd just like to point out there is a huge gap between what most people think of as "schtick" and the comic style that Coca and Kahn provided for most of their careers. Even Cullum has a comic sense all his own that has nothing to do with worn-out cliches. Never meant to fault the book writing, but come on: even PRIVATE LIVES plays better with those "larger-than-life" personalities instead of standard, albeit talented, comic actors.

[tpdc]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 4:57pm

Oh I agree with you! Cullum, Kaye and Coca were larger than life but they played the wit in the book with real style not "tricks" learned on a sitcom or playing to the audience vaudeville "shtick". If the actors trust the material and the director coaches them toward the larger than life approach, then the whole thing soars. I hear that the non-musical version now at Signature Theater in Virginia has got the right approach. I'm seeing it next month.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 5:25pm

let us know how that version is. i've been waiting for Ludwig to have another hit. Have you seen that very interesting "Moon Over Broadway" video of the mounting of his "Moon Over Buffalo" with Carol Burnett and Philip Bosco? to me, nothing has quite lived up to the promise of Ludwig's LEND ME A TENOR. i know playwrights hate being expected to repeat successes, but there are so few good farce or libretto writers, we keep looking at the "contenders".

[DofB5]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 7:19pm

I just want to say what a wonderful thread this is! What a pleasure to read your posts here with no fighting, no little jabs. Just a very pleasant conversation. I don't want it to stop, so please, let me back out and you gentlemen go ahead and talk. I only want to read more like this.

D

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 7:35pm

Always a pleasure to hear from you d DofB5.

BB

[alterego]

Posted: 8/26/03 at 9:02am

I too loved this show. Sadly I didn't see Madeline Kahn, I saw the always excellent Judy Kaye. This show must be ripe for revival.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/26/03 at 9:08am

A GREAT, GREAT show..much greater than anyone I think knew back then...

....and what a score.......

The "Sign Lily" Sextet is pure operetta in all it's glory...and yet better because it's so funny...

Would kill to have this mounted again....

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/26/03 at 9:14am

May we nominate proposed victims of your homicidal tendencies?

[Oscar Jaffee]

Posted: 8/26/03 at 7:10pm

As you can tell by my ID, "On the Twentieth Century" is my favorite musical. I know it's not the best ever written, but it's still my favorite. I saw it on Broadway when I was 15 with Kaye instead of Kahn. I thought everyone was wonderful! I have a collection of memorabilia from the show in my bedroom. It's kind of like a shrine. I was so thrilled to scroll down the message board and see someone else other than myself posting a thread concerning this musical. Thank you very much. Now, let me ask a question. If "On the Twentieth Century" is revived on Broadway, who would you recommend for the roles of Oscar, Lily Garland, Letitia Primrose and Bruce Granit?

[tpdc]

Posted: 8/27/03 at 12:38pm

Kevin Kline (the ONLY choice for Oscar), Kristin Chenoweth, Carol Burnett and Matthew Morrison.

[Oscar Jaffee]

Posted: 8/28/03 at 9:53am

tpdc, your choices are wonderful! I agree that Kline would be the obvious choice to play Oscar! He has all the qualities needed for the role — charisma, over-the-top theatrics, charm, presence. I also think Andrea Martin would be a wonderful choice for Primrose. Your choice of Carol Burnett is also a good one! I never thought of her as a possibility before.

[tpdc]

Posted: 8/28/03 at 12:53pm

Andrea Martin would make a great Primrose as well. She reminds me of Coca somewhat.

[MagicRoy]

Posted: 8/29/03 at 12:54am

I would have to say Brian Stokes Mitchell or Nathan Lane as Oscar Jaffee. Or Kevin Kline. They would all be excellent. Different, but excellent. Nathan Lane would have a totally new Oscar Jaffee, probably more like Max Bialystock than like John Cullum....which Jaffee can be. Mitchell has the voice. Kevin Kline is my favorite actor, and, IMO, the most versatile actor out there today. He could play any role.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 8/29/03 at 1:00am

Well the musical revival won’t be happening for a while because they are doing a revival of the straight play with Alec Baldwin. Or so I think?