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Play revivals - why do certain plays get revived??

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#1

Play revivals - why do certain plays get revived??

Posted: 4/5/08 at 8:32pm

Is a revival of "Boeing-Boeing" really necessary? "The Country Girl"? "Old Acquaintance"? (this one pains me because I adore Margaret Colin), "The Ritz"? Do we need color-blind casting for "Come Back, Little Sheba" (I adore S. Epatha Merkerson) and "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof"? (for me, this is just my opinion, big daddy and big mama have to be white, as far as the writing is concerned - do we get an all white version of "Fences"? Would it make sense?).

"Top Girls" makes sense to me, and Shakespeare can always be interesting ("Cymbeline" and "Macbeth"). "Cyrano de Bergerac" can be interesting, "The Homecoming" is a provocative choice...

But why don't more political shows ever get revived? (I've read these plays; too young to have seen them!) I would LOVE to see a revival of Jules Feiffer's "The White House Murder Case". There was an amazing period in the late 1960's - early 1970's where very political (Vietnam era) plays were produced, but today's producers seem to play it safe, or just get weird in their choices. What do y'all think?
#2

re: Play revivals - why do certain plays get revived??

Posted: 4/5/08 at 8:58pm

I think it has to do with the interest of the director and producers, and also if they can get the rights to the show. Unless they specifically made a show themself, I do believe there are lots of legal things they have to go through to be able to put on a show. I know for high schools, the rule is there can't be a production of the same show withing a 100 mile radius, including Broadway. That's how we lost out on Oklahoma my junior year because we didn't beat Broadway with their revival. We ended up doing Once Upon A Mattress as a last resort. It was cute, but I think the director was hoping for something better.
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005 "You can't pray away the gay."-Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy. Ignored Users: suestorm, N2N Nate., Owen22, master bates
#3

re: Play revivals - why do certain plays get revived??

Posted: 4/5/08 at 9:06pm

Well, sure, producers want to play it safe. It is all about making money, right? Of course, quality counts, but it comes down to the almighty dollar. This is, after all, a commercial enterprise. Nobody wants to lose millions.

Wow - I had an argument for this, but then started contradicting myself as I continued to type. Three Days of Rain sold piles with Julia despite the reviews (yes, there was the advance) and it was pretty obscure. And yes, I hate to see regional productions and such get trampled because of revivals that pop up and rights are revoked!
#4

re: Play revivals - why do certain plays get revived??

Posted: 4/5/08 at 9:21pm

I truly believe that CYRANO DE BERGERAC & THE HOMECOMING are sure-ins for Best Play Revival Category. I saw THE RITZ & OLD ACQUAINTANCE - its cute but quite forgettable!

J*

Updated On: 4/5/08 at 09:21 PM

#5

re: Play revivals - why do certain plays get revived??

Posted: 4/5/08 at 9:24pm

I loved Cyrano...but I even ask to question myself if it was for star power (and Syndey Bristow's...I mean Jen Garner's...and Kline's performance) would I have felt differently?
#6

re: Play revivals - why do certain plays get revived??

Posted: 4/5/08 at 9:24pm

Plays produced by non-profits (Roundabout, MTC, Lincoln Center) are non-commercial enterprises.
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#7

re: Play revivals - why do certain plays get revived??

Posted: 4/5/08 at 9:30pm

For two, and only two, reasons:

1. Someone important (star actor, director, producer/AD, etc.) wants to revive it. Maybe because he/she thinks that there's something important or interesting about the work itself, or something important or interesting that can be done with it.

2. After step 1, the people putting up the money believe that enough audience members will want to see the revived work (and, if appropriate, the star or director's contribution to it) to create a profit (or its nonprofit equivalent, "not annoying the subscribers"). Sometimes, the people putting up the money overlap with the person who wants to revive the show, in which case these two steps can collapse into one.

(And, of course, sometimes they're wrong, leaving us scratching our heads and wondering why anyone would feel the need to revive that play.)

Sorry if that seems tautological and simplistic, but that's how I see it.
#8

re: Play revivals - why do certain plays get revived??

Posted: 4/5/08 at 9:40pm

Re political drama: the problem with political drama is that it can seem so thoroughly tied to its moment as to seem incomprehensible to audiences removed from that moment.

A while ago, I read Lorraine Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, and realized that while its overall themes speak do not necessarily become dated, the specific details that give life and depth to the characters and situations made no sense to me. They're the sorts of things that, if they're not instantly recognizable, they lose their power. (It's like having to explain a joke.)

And some plays, while not overtly political, speak to their time and place in a way that mirrors the political. I recently saw a production of Christopher Durang's Laughing Wild. Funny, to be sure, but that play speaks perfectly to the paranoia and desperation that characetrized New York (and, in particular, the New York theatrical world) in the late 1980s. I saw this play in the mid-2000s, over a thousand miles from New York, and it was clear that this aspect of the play never occurred to anyone in the production - they just saw it as one of Durang's absurdist jokefests.

Not every political play gets to be Henry V. Most of them, I suspect, work best in their moment.
#9

re: Play revivals - why do certain plays get revived??

Posted: 4/5/08 at 9:47pm

>Is a revival of "Boeing-Boeing" really necessary?<

I don't know about necessary, but anything that brings Mark Rylance to Broadway is entirely justified. It's a play that was always a huge hit overseas and never fared that well on Broadway, so it's not exactly an overexposed choice.

>"The Country Girl"?<

We get Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller revivals on a regular basis. Why not the same for our other great and less frequently produced 20th Century writers like Clifford Odets or William Inge (Come Back Little Sheba).

I can't quite rush to the defense of revivals of The Ritz or Old Acquaintance, but one never knows when a combination of actor, director, production and revival choice will catch fire. I remember Lincoln Center's decision to revive that hoary chestnut The Heiress met with some raised eyebrows, but it proved to be a sensational evening.

Color-blind casting is a whole other question, but one of my favorite productions I've ever seen of Fiddler on the Roof was with a black Teyve. A great actor can make you believe anything, and matters of skin color become immaterial.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
#11

re: Play revivals - why do certain plays get revived??

Posted: 4/5/08 at 9:52pm

I had a ball at BOEING in London. The most fun I've had at a farce in years. The British really "get" how to direct farce. Imagine how great THE RITZ could have been if Mantello wasn't the director.

I can't say that BOEING will last here, though. At 3 hours, it's more than most Americans want to chew.

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