Roman Holiday Previews — Page 6

bk said: "I don't live on my phone (or my computer, for that matter) like you and others apparently do, so no I have no idea what istaverse is nor do I care - I don't app my phone to death - I only use it to - now wait here - make and receive occasional calls and not much of that, frankly. I'll check out things occasionally on the phone, Internet-wise, but who has time for all this crap - not me. A little too busy for that. I wish you well, however, with your istaverse. :)"



Dude, you're ON THE INTERNET RIGHT NOW. How can you come to the internet and then aggressively criticize people for using internet-related words? You wouldn't go to London and tell people to stop saying "trousers" just because you don't spend a lot of time in England.

bk is once again testing the limits of how obnoxious a single person on the internet can be

And you are? You have NO idea how obnoxious I can be, chum, NO idea. I don't think it is I who is testing the waters, it's you. What other purpose does your post, intended to provoke, serve? And you are?

why is this going to broadway?

Paul Blake, producer and book writer, loves Cole Porter, and has loved Cole Porter most of his life (he mentions listening to cole records in the 1970s), and wants to put a Cole Porter Musical on Broadway and fulfill a 20 year plus dream (i assume the dream vision pre-dates the muny production in 2001. If Beautiful had NOT been a huge success, I doubt there would have ever been another presentation of this show.

Beautiful has grossed around $200 million in ticket sales alone, and continues pumping $800K a week, so Blake is playing with house money and then some at this point. Other co-producers are likely hoping Blake and director Bruni will re-create some of the financial success of Beautiful, which pretty much everyone on this thread agrees won't happen.

Why a preview if no big changes?

The show was updated and changed significantly from 2012, including a completely different cast, director, script re-write and some new songs, so it would make sense to have an out of town tryout and shakedown of the new team, sets and material.

They are surveying every ticket buyer who buys online, so maybe they are seeing something in the consumer feedback that has made them comfortable in the material as presented, or they know they are opening in early fall vs late and are focusing on minor tweaks and changes.

I wouldn't invest money in this production, but I'm glad its being done with the caveat that I agree with many it would have been really interesting to see what a few great songwriters could have done with an original score..

last three shows this weekend for those Cole Porter or Roman Holiday fans in the SF bay area that may want to catch Roman Holiday, the Musical...I'm wavering and will probably catch the matinee this afternoon...

broadwaysfguy said: "Got my Cole Fix one last time before the show closes. No substantive changes since opening night. Jarrod Spector was out and and the understudy (who normally plays the head of security for the princess) had far better comedic timing and a more thoughtful interpretation of "Night and Day". Today was the matinee audience, a much older crowd than I see in the evening, and they had a great time and few people near me were singing along to the Cole Porter songs...."



Andrew Kober was on for Irving. He hadn't had a put-in so it was his very first time ever in the role all the way through. It was my first time seeing it so I don't know how Jarrod is as Irving but I thought Andrew was great. There was one line flub/switch that I noticed (while Irving and Joe were going through the photos, Andrew said the Trevi Fountain instead of Mouth of Truth first which made Drew said Mouth of Truth instead of Trevi Fountain), but other than that and a couple of lighting cues with the flash for the camera, I thought he spot on, which is admirably considering it was the third-to-last show and he probably thought he was never going to go on. Kober's a trooper and I've thought well of him since I saw him in "Hair".



"Roman Holiday" is one of my favorite films and while I know the name Cole Porter, I wasn't familiar with a lot of songs. It wasn't earth-shattering, but it was delightful. I honestly think that they could have made it into a one act show, though. Talking to a couple of cast members afterwards, there are still lots of planned changes that will take place before it lands on Broadway so I look forward to what those changes will be.

VintageSnarker said: "Just curious... what is the history of intellectual property that gets one Broadway adaptation and then another by a different creative team trying to get it right or do it their own way? I don't mean something like the two competing Wild Parties. I mean like someone trying to make another musical about Eva Peron or based on Doctor Zhivago or War and Peace now.

I guess I'm saying, could we ever get a Roman Holiday musical with original music?

I believe the key factor is whether or not the original work is in the public domain. War and Peace is, so I assume it would be fair game (see: multiple miniseries adaptations). Historical events are also fair game, although any creator would have to prove their work is substantially different from its predecessor to avoid infringement claims. A musical about Eva Peron could, theoretically, exist, but would have to be about a different part of her life, have her not be the protagonist, or some other substantially different angle from Evita.

Roman Holiday, however, is not a public domain work, so I assume there would be serious underlying rights issues with trying to do a different version. It would be one thing if the show was overhauled during the development process but was still controlled by the same rights holders (like Finding Neverland), but not a totally different property. The rights to adapt the underlying property (the film) belong to this production, and such contracts are generally exclusive.

i even miss Roman Holiday..

new yorkers are so lucky to have all the amazing shows just a few steps or subway stations away...

In an interview, Drew was asked about the future of RH, and his response was:

"We'll see how that pans out. I think they're, like everybody else, waiting on a theater. In the meantime, it's just cool to be a part of the continued process of a new show. Like more readings, more workshops, stuff you can do to know what your show is before you show up."

So, hopefully we'll see it soon!

Updated On: 9/7/17 at 11:54 AM

If anyone's interested, there's a bit more information about a Shanghai reading here (Chinese-language article):

http://www.sohu.com/a/258927060_100004574/?pvid=00115_3w_a



(Although, judging from the comments here on the San Francisco run, I wouldn't personally mind if this was dead.)