Quirky, obscure musicals? — Page 2

(The same goes for Lil Abner and its great Kidd work, although I do like the score. Lil Abner is just so unrecogniable to most people under 40 or 50--at least in my experience--that that's why it went from such a very popular show among regional and amateur groups toone that is hardly performed--though much to my surprise I did meet someone a while back who did it 5 years ago in high school.)

When I was a kid in the 1960s, I must have seen at least a dozen productions, Eric. Every high school in my county did a production. (All those cartoon supporting characters give high school actors painful opportunities to ham it up.)

This is one show that is ripe for a "revisal". As you point out, the Cold War humor just doesn't play to people younger than I. Someone clever, however, should be able to do something with the hysteria of people in West Virginia hamlets who are convinced Al Qaeda is coming for their Civil War statue!

On the other hand, I don't know if they'd get away with the hillbilly humor nowadays. Not even if we explain it was never supposed to represent real people.

I don't know if this counts as "obscure", but it certainly is quirky: GOLDEN APPLE.

And though STREET SCENE has pretty much departed for opera houses, it remains a personal favorite. I saw a brilliant small production at Equity Library Theater in the 1980s that I've never been able to forget.

Gaveston, my mom was in the chorus of two productions of Lil' Abner--I believe the last was when she was in University in '68 or so, so I believe it. I think it does have to do with the cold war humour, but also with the fact that the comic strip simply has not lived on in the mainstream--the way, obviously Peanuts has.

Thought I would be the only one on this...

Romance Romance

Scott Bakula and Alison Fraser

First Act - "Little Comedy" Turn of Century Vienna wealthy man and woman meet while each is pretending to be poor

Second Act - "Summer Share" Modern Day long time man/woman friends married to others contemplate life together while at their summer share

Same year as Phantom of the Opera, Into the Woods, Anything Goes (LuPone revival)

Amour. (I just love it)

6 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Or Inquiring Minds Need to Know)- the very definition of quirky!

Besides several mentioned previously, our theatre did the following small cast musicals:

No Way to Treat a lady
Enter the Guardsman
John & Jen
The Glorious Ones
A Year with Frog and Toad
Kuni-Leml
Yours, Anne
Blues in the Night
Bubba Meises
Archy and Mehitabel (a.k.a. Shinbone Alley)
Flora the Red Menace
Gifts of the Magi (Randy Courts/Mark St. Germain version)
Heartbeats

I love the first act of ROMANCE, ROMANCE, but the climax of Act II takes place off-stage. Quite a letdown for the evening.

Eric, the comic strip LI'L ABNER had quite a long life, but its humor was always more topical than PEANUTS. I think darquegk is right about just treating the characters as characters rather than worrying about being true to the "franchise", and I think somebody clever could do a lot with a book satirizing the Tea Party, Al Qaeda-panic in the heartland and black-President-phobia.

But I should think anyone would be rightfully daunted when it came time to rewrite Johnny Mercer's lyrics. Talk about messing with perfection!

Anyone who may be interested will find the score to GOLDEN APPLE on archive.org. For some reason, it appears to have fallen out of copyright — if archive.org puts it up, you know it's been vetted.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned PRETTYBELLE, the vehicle written for Angela Lansbury after MAME. "When I'm Drunk, I'm Beautiful" is such a wonderfully demented song, and this is a show that is so un-PC it would make MORMON look positively tame. Perhaps it's time for a revival?

And I dont know that they would be considered "quirky", but I've been looking at old shows that, while wild successes in their time, are now utterly forgotten. THE GEISHA. THE PNK LADY (which has one of the most gorgeous scores ever written, by Ivan Carryl, who was something of the Sondheim of the turn of the last century — you can find a lot of his stuff at archive.org as well). MR. POPPINS OF IGGLINGTON. Granted, it was the books that killed a lot of these, but in some cases, like PINK LADY, the script is still incredibly solid.

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BatBoy
Floyd Collins

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Goblin Market is a big fave of mine. I saw the original twice...such a wonderful piece!

I love Moby Dick and Metropolis and listen to them often.

I think Floyd Collins is one of the best scores ever and love it more than Piazza.

And I couldnt love Prettybelle more. Another I listen to often.

I also love Bombay Dreams and Lord of the Rings.

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Oh, ILYYPNC is a long-time fav of mine. I've had the pleasure of designing it three times, and it was a blast every time.

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Evening Primrose is a musical with a book by James Goldman and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. It is based on a John Collier short story published in the 1951 collection Fancies and Goodnights.

Written originally for television, the musical focuses on a poet who takes refuge from the world by hiding out in a department store after closing. He meets a community of night people who live in the store and falls in love with a beautiful young girl named Ella. Bizarre complications arise when the leader of the group forbids their relationship