Remembering POUSSE CAFÉ on its 50th Anniversary

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/18/16 at 3:33am

"Remembering what??" you may be asking, and rightfully so. POUSSE CAFE ran only three performances at the 46th Street Theatre 50 years ago this weekend.

 

"Based on" the German film The Blue Angel, the plot involves a professor in New Orleans who falls for a cabaret singer and goes mad. The stars were Lilo, whose husband was also producer, and the late Theodore Bikel in one of his many unfortunate flops. The music was by Duke Ellington and the lyrics by Marshal Barer of ONCE UPON A MATTRESS FAME. The book was by Jerome Weidman. 

 

No production photos have ever resurfaced and no cast album was recorded (though a studio album was made decades later), but a few publicity shots as well as a bootleg of the OBC are available to give a glimpse into what seems to have been a messy and strange show.

 

Original Broadway Cast Extracts:

 

 

 

 

 

Did anyone see it? Was it as bad as they say?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/18/16 at 9:38am

I have the studio album but admit I have not listened to it in years.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 3/18/16 at 10:28am

I just bought it but haven't listened yet

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/18/16 at 2:30pm

I'm mixed on the studio album, it plays more like a demo recording with piano only and maybe one or two singers. 

[JayG 2]

Posted: 3/19/16 at 12:19am

I remember one critic (maybe William Raidy) writing: "Lilo sings and looks like a sick pekingese."

I don't know why I remember that. Maybe because I thought it was hysterical when as was a dopey kid.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/19/16 at 2:51pm

There's some amusing tidbits in Not Since Carrie, though I cannot remember any offhand.