SEESAW

Did anyone see this show?

It has such a delightful score and I love both Michele Lee and Ken Howard.

But did anyone see the show with Lainie Kazan out-of-town in Detroit. I'd be curious to know why she was fired and the problems of her performance. But in general, I'd love to hear all your ancedotes/memories about this show.

Howdy Gherbert, :)

SEESAW had many, many problems. . .

It was a musical version of William Gibson's (THE MIRACLE WORKER) TWO FOR THE SEESAW--a two-character play about a Jerry, a WASP lawyer in New York having a fling with Gittel, a Jewish Dancer. At the end, they part company in a friendly manner.

To turn the play into a musical, the songwriting team of Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields (SWEET CHARITY) was hired with Michael Stewart (BYE BYE BIRDIE, HELLO, DOLLY!) to write the book. Michael Bennett was signed as Director/Cheorgrapher.

For the leads, Ken Howard ('Thomas Jefferson', 1776) was hired for Jerry and Lainie Kazan (Streisand's standby in FUNNY GIRL)seemed to be the ideal choice for Gittel.

The problems surfaced almost immediately. "Opening Up" a two-character play to a fullblown musical became an almost impossible challenge. Rather than add a subplot or more supporting characters, Stewart attempted to make New York City a "third character" and took the show on a Greyhouse Bus Tour of the City with stops at Spanish Harlem, Lincoln Center, Times Square, etc.

The show opened in Detroit to uniformly LOUSY reviews. Everyone blamed everybody else for the state the show was in. Stewart got tired of the backstage bickering and withdrew. Management felt that they had underestimated Kazan's talents (she was blowing lyrics and it was felt she was too overweight to be a romantic interest) so they began shopping around for a replacement and choose Michele Lee, who had been one of the Rosemary replacements in the original HOW TO SUCCEED.

But the Book was still a collection of un-related scenes with very little story or character development. Somehow, (not sure why), Neil Simon came aboard to help out, but refused to take any credit. (For a while, show had NO Book Credit!)

Simon did what he could but then backed off, citing he had his own projects to work on. Bennett than assumed job of whipping Book into shape and inserted the character of David, a young gay Dancer-Cheroegrapher, based on. . . himself.

Tommy Tune received part of David (his first featured role after being a dancer in a few shows) and also became SEESAW's associate cheoreographer.

Bennett tried to fill holes in script with inventive production numbers (like Fossee in SWEET CHARITY) but only one went over-"It's Not Where You Start."

Finally, show reached Broadway. Bennett's credit now read: "Written, Directed and Cheoreogrphed by Michael Bennett." When it opened, critics compared SEESAW unfavorably to SWEET CHARITY (another Coleman/Fields show set in New York); citing that SEESAW had a weaker score, weaker performances, and lacked the wit of SWEET CHARITY (which had a Book By... Neil Simon.)

SEESAW limped along on Broadway for ten months and closed with a loss. Tune won Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

Show did recoup some of its losses (I'm not sure if it ever broke-even or not) when a National Company went out with John Gavin, Lucie Arnaz, and Tune. (Musical was slightly revamped for road--for example scene in Spanish Harlem and accompanying number "Spanglish" were cut.)

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Updated On: 10/14/04 at 11:13 PM

Michele Lee and Ken Howard are re-creating 2 moments from the original SEESAW in the Actors' Fund Benefit in LA on November 6th - THE BEST IS YET TO COME: THE MUSIC OF CY COLEMAN. Check it out at www.actorsfund.org

The show is one of the "in trouble on the road" legends.

Michael Bennett was not the original director. Ed Sherin was and Grover Dale was the choreographer. When Michael was brought in, he wanted his people in the show so about 15-20 people were fired included said leading lady Lainie Kazan who was then signed to play Crystal Allen in a revival of The Women later that season and left that production on the road under much friendlier terms. Everyone including Lainie said she was miscast.

So back to Seesaw, leading Lady and director gone, plus the choreographer demoted to "Co-" or "Associate" or something, the bookwriter left screaming and everybody was writing scenes. They lost a fortune in Detroit and limped into town for 4 weeks of previews. They had no advance and played to empty houses still fine tuning and then opened to very mixed reviews. With no money in the till they announced a closing at the end of the first week.

They then decided to fight for it. Loans were made, royalties were waived and rent reduced. The usual tactics. Also then Mayor Lindsay who resembled Ken Howard did a walk-on that Friday and all the local news stations covered it. Look carefully at the album pictures. I think Lindsay (a classy mayor as ever was) and also Michael Bennett have photos in there.

The show rarely made money during the 7 month run. Ken Howard left after about 3 months and was replaced by the dreamy John Gavin and later Michelle left and her understudy, the always talented and terrific Patti Karr replaced her and for the only time in her long long career was given over the title billing.

The end came abruptly. Patti herself told me that the IRS people came to the box office one day and asked that the already deducted payroll taxes be paid and they were not leaving without them. So with absolutely no money at hand the show closed. The aforementioned tour and later the bus and truck with John Raitt and Liz Torres were successful, but didn't generate enough money to ever get the show out of the red.

Tommy Tune won a Tony as did Michael for choreography. Michael won it alone although Tommy Tune, Grover Dale and one more person have billing. Go figure. The true loss was the two leads who were more than splendid. They went "out there" to California and I don't think either has done a musical in NY since and we are the poorer for that.

There is a lot more about Seesaw than these postings, but you need to go into the Daily News and NY Post microfilm and see what they have. It was almost a daily story.

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Michelle Lee sang I'm Way Ahead/Seesaw at the Nothing Like a Dame benefit concert in 2002, and she sounded terrific then.

Speaking of that Cy Coleman tribute, anyone know what number Debbie Allen is doing? I'm assuming If My Friends Could See Me Now.

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All this talk about Seesaw makes me want to drag the old (vinyl!) album out. I recall that the New Yorker used to describe the show in their theatre listings as "another sweetly charitable view of New York'.

"Ride Out The Storm" was in the original Broadway production--Track #9 on the OBC CD.

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Now that is my sort of evening...wish I could be there.