Platinum

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 2:43am

What can people tell me about this 1978 flopperoo? I have the collector's album and I adore the show. It's such a gulity pleasure of mine.

Does anyone know if any pictures of the production exist? For those of you who saw it, what did you think?

[Scripps2]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 4:29am

I'd be interested to know too. I've also heard a recording and understand there was a revised version off-Broadway in the 80s with Tammy Grimes.

[After Eight]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 7:06am

I have to say it was pretty bad. The songs were so-so, and the book worse than that. I guess the major problem was that the premise didn't fly. I didn't believe it for a minute. Alexis Smith was excellent, though.

The revised version with Tammy Grimes was presented off-Broadway under the title of "Sunset." It was recorded, and it's on cd.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 10:13am

^ Sunset was it's original title as well.

And for the curious, there is at least one picture (and I feel like I've seen others) in the 1977-1978 TheatreWorld, page 219.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 11:21am

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 12:28am

Me no see picture

[morosco]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 1:49am

Saw it at the KenCen during it's D.C. tryout. All I remember is an onstage hot tub and a quick glimpse of Richard Cox's Cox.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 1:50am

It's such a guilty pleasure for me. I love listening to it.

[fgreene1938]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 2:18am

Alexis Smith received a Tony nomination for her performance, but the show's failure meant that for the remainder of her career (she died in the mid-'90s) she was relegated to touring and stock productions....shades of her Platinum role. The score has some fine songs interspersed with...egads, disco boogies! Only in the '70s.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 8:39am

All I really remember is feeling let down.

There was no joy for me in seeing flops on Broadway in those days. (Or now.) If only Alexis Smith had gone from Follies to originating a spectacular star turn on Broadway, it would have been exhilarating. Even if it had been something like Applause...

I left Platinum missing Follies even more.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 8/9/09 at 1:17pm

^ Didn't she tour Applause?

And, she did open the First National of Whorehouse, which ain't nothing to shake a stick at! (I think she was also the first non-Texan to play the role)

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 1:54pm

PJ, you saw it? For some reason I didn't think you had.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 2:34pm

Me miss a Lisa Mordente musical?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 2:34pm

Me miss a Lisa Mordente musical?

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 2:52pm

I saw it twice during its tryout in Philadelphia. Loved the music (That's why I saw it twice). It is a guilty pleasure. Chita Rivera's daughter Lisa Mordente was in it. On the second night I saw the show, Chita Rivera came flying through the lobby in a red kaftan. She didn't see me and knocked me and my cup of coca-cola to the floor! I remember looking up from the floor and seeing her leaning over me apologizing and offering to help me up and replace my drink. I declined both. I was just excited that Chita knocked me to the floor!!! lol

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 3:21pm

Hilarious. A gal like that/will spill your soda.

[morosco]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 4:03pm

Here's something else I seem to recall. I think that when the show was trying out in D.C. there was a musicians strike at the time. I seem to recall that the orchestra consisted of just a handful of musicians. Did the show normally have a big orchestra?

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 4:07pm

I love that Chita/ soda story!

[morosco]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 4:15pm

I also just read that PLATINUM was the first Broadway show to have financial backing from a Hollywood studio.

L.A. Times September 12, 1978
Last October, Michael Eisner, president of Paramount Pictures, arrived in Buffalo during a fog that nearly kept his plane from landing to see tryouts of a Broadway possibility--a new musical called "Sunset" starring Alexis Smith. "Someone told me it was good so I went and I said, "This is good, let's do it.'"

[morosco]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 4:18pm

And a headline from Google's news archives during the show's tryout in D.C.

Watergate Theft a False Alarm; Alexis Smith's Jewelry Found

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 4:23pm

LOL! I remember that about her jewelry!

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 8/10/09 at 6:43pm

What happened to her jewels?

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/11/09 at 2:17pm

Too funny Phyllis!

Phyl and Infinite, it still stands out as one of my favorite "theatre experiences"! Imagine being momentarily encased in a red kaftan! (That you weren't wearing!)

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 8/11/09 at 6:13pm

A few years later on one of those PBS "Showstoppers" specials, Alexis Smith did the song "Nothin' But." Good song, but hardly a showstopper.

[maia3]

Posted: 8/11/09 at 8:06pm

I found a Platinum window card on Ebay! I am thinking of getting it! It would go nice next to my carrie window card.