Question about LaChiusa's "Hello Again"...need some opinions

[gwalke4]

Posted: 11/8/05 at 11:48pm

Hello all:

I am contemplating a production of Michael John LaChiusa's "Hello Again" at my university.

Does anyone know what the approximate range of the music is, overall? (not necessarily for every character)

Also, I have a few very talented musical theatre performers at my school, but not 10. I have an idea to do the show with four people: 1 woman playing The Whore and The Young Wife, 1 woman playing The Nurse and The Actress, 1 man playing The Soldier, The Husband, and The Writer, and 1 man playing The College Boy, The Young Thing, and The Senator.

Thoughts/opinions/comments? I think it's a great show.

Thanks,
Gordon

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 12:50am

Well yes it is a great show. As far as range goes, it's hard to give an overall range. For gentlemen you'll need both tenors and Baritones (varying leading men and charactery). For women, you'll need women who can belt, a decent head voice I think maybe about an A flat, and have a KILLER mix. The mix is particularly important if you want to do this with 4 people. I'm not sure 4 people is possible. Maybe 6-8. First you'll have to consider all the costume changes that will have to be made ( of course you could do it differently from the original production). I know that during Tom, there was this mirror thing going on (much like the acting school excersis) where Donna Murphey mirror Carolee Carmello. That would be hard to do with 4 people. Secondly, the scene in the movie theatre is next to impossible to do with only 4 people. A) there's the costume issue, because you'll need all four of them out there. That's an intense change to the next scene. B) Musically there is a chorus for men that is sung in that seen. VERY hard to do with 2 people. I also forgot to mention the whole Soldier Nurse scene, where there's a chorus singing "We kiss and the angels sigh..." That's a bit hard to do as a duet. Then again you'll have an actor doing another quick change. If you can find a way to work these out and not make your stage manager, actors(and they have to be GREAT singing-ACTORS), and musical director crazy go for it. BUt I would highly discourage it. The entire 10 may not be necessary, but you'll need more than 4 to pull this off. My opinion. For what it's worth I hope you do it. This show isn't done enough and it's BEAUTIFUL.

[gwalke4]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 11:15am

Thanks!

I have two good friendw who are great performers that I have previously directed in "The Last Five Years" (Louisiana premiere, y'all!). They want to do something together again, and I thought of "Hello Again" because of all of its basically two-person scenes, though obviously you really couldn't do it with two people.

However, I do think that if one can sing and perform "The Last Five Years," then one should be able to do "Hello Again." Yes? No?

It's more complex, not quite as "song-y," but the music works so well to support the action.

Thanks again for any thoughts. Gordon

[nydirector2]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 12:15pm

For a two person musical, why not look at jon and jen, which is just as powerful and musically as beautiful as The Last Five Years. As for Hello Again with a reduced cast, it's going to be extremely difficult as the person before me as said in detail. WHy not look at a 4-person show like Songs for a New World or Romance, Romance?