Paul Chihara's score for SHOGUN THE MUSICAL

[morosco]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 7:24pm

I know this is a long shot but does anyone have the TheatreWeek magazine where Paul Chihara referred to his score for SHOGUN as the finest (or greatest) score since SHOW BOAT?

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 7:27pm

god i wish i could find a recording of Shogun...

[romanov]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 7:29pm

I could have sworn I had it but I can't find it. Did he say Show Boat? I thought he compared it to Porgy and Bess. I did find the copies about Legs Diamond and Annie 2.

[morosco]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 7:32pm

I think you're right romanov. Finest score since Porgy and Bess. Glad you remember it too. I would love to find the exact quote.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 7:33pm

You can't help remembering a show that has a song about a dildo. It's a masterpiece. That and Bring Back Birdie. LOL.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 5/24/05 at 8:04pm

SHOGUN had one of the most beautiful effects I've ever seen onstage - horses running through the snow - glorious

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 10:10am

I've heard the score and it's pretty forgettable, though I would have loved to seen the production just for the visual effects. I've heard from several that it was visually stunning.

Posted: 5/25/05 at 1:05pm

A lot of it was visually stunning. But there was one of the worst choreographed pieces of crap in it- Some dumb song about butterflies. It was like something Wayne Cilento would have done. I don't remember who the Shogun choreographer was.

[Thenardier]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 1:25pm

http://ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4624

Must have been a great time for struggling Japanese actors.

Posted: 5/25/05 at 2:12pm

that was it... Fireflies...so laughable! Michael Smuin did the choreography. I wonder what happened to him???

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 2:21pm

It's the greatest score ever....











...to feature a song about a dildo.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 3:00pm

What a terrible show, but the costumes and June Angela were terrific. Oh, yeah, and Frances Ruivar as the Shogun was great. I think he led the troops thru that snowstorm and it was stunning!

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 3:19pm

Does this show have a cast recording? (legal or otherwise) What was the name of the dildo song? I LOVE flops, but had never heard of this one until today.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 3:25pm

dont know of any recording, but there is probably a bootleg out there somewhere.

[morosco]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 4:04pm

"Shogun, The Phallic Symbol"

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 4:14pm

I do have that playbill somewhere...and recall that there were many notes, a synopsis, a dictionary, etc so that you could follow the plot...it didnt work

[WOSQ]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 4:16pm

I remember precious little about this stinker except that it was an over-produced stinker. The sort-of eleven o'clock number had costumes that blocked the dancer legs! They could have been step-dancing under there for all we knew. They made the actors all look like the Infant of Prague.

This is also the show where during a critics' preview the leading man got conked on the head by a pipe and knocked out, and the show was called. The poor critics had to go back and sit through three fourths of this bomb again. For once everyone felt bad for them.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 4:19pm

WOSQ, I forgot about that conk on the head...it was Philip Casnoff. He was pretty bad, I thought, and the vocals were way too high for him...he screamed for 3 hours.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 4:26pm

I have only heard SHOGUN and there is one nice duet "Born to Be Together" but a lot of its pretty forgetable.

I didn't see it, but a friend did and says what he remembers more then anything else was the leading actress's Long Red Manicured Nails. In Japan, mind you....

[Songsstresss]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 6:57pm

Wow! I freaked out when I saw this thread! Paul Chihara was my music theory professor at UCLA these past few years. I sang "One Candle" from Shogun for a master class with him. The song was actually really pretty. I think he played some of the rest of the score for our class at some point, but I don't remember. He's a very sweet and generous man. We all called him our music theory Yoda! (He's a short, endearingly wrinkled Asian man and looks like Yoda.)

Posted: 5/25/05 at 7:01pm

Philip Casnoff was awful, as he was in Chess- basically screaming every song The score was way to high for him.

[tpdc]

Posted: 5/25/05 at 7:24pm

When you had the dancing waves during the shipwreck at the beginning of the show, you knew it was going to be a classic. Other than the nice production design and Frances' performance, the only thing of note was the impressive horses in the snow scene.