Should 'Subways are for Sleeping' be considered for an Encores! Presentation?

Encores only likes doing shows that get productions everywhere all the time, as evidenced by the upcoming season lineup.

SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING is too obscure, and not performed enough.

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Orson Bean once told me this story...

It seems that at one point in the production Jule Styne took over as director.

At one particularly difficult rehearsal he gave Syd Chaplin (star of the show and Charlie Chaplin's son) a piece of direction that Chaplin refused to do. They started to argue.

The arguement ended with Chaplin shouting from the stage:

"Yesterday if you told me to suck your d*ck, I would have. But this morning my father sent me a check for $25,000, so go F*CK YOURSELF!"

Chaplin stormed off and didn't come back for the rest of the day.

I howled when i hear that.

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Updated On: 9/22/08 at 09:28 PM

Styne and Chaplin had a good working relationship. After all, Chaplin starred in three Jule Styne shows.

I think it was more an issue of an actor frustrated at a constantly changing script, songs, directors and none of it of it making the show any better.

It didn't help that the two featured players were walking away with the show.

I think his outrage was more along the line of: Get back to me when you get your act together!

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Updated On: 9/22/08 at 10:11 PM

SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING features Jule Styne's most sophisticated score and some of Comden & Green's most intelligent and wittiest lyrics. The book is not the greatest but even without any changes it is better written than most of what is passing for writing on Broadway these days. "Comes Once in A Lifetime" is one of the greatest songs ever written for any show and the rest of the score is equally infectious. ”Subways” is less dated than "Damn Yankees" and some of the other shows Encores have done recently.

Here is a revised list from a previous post of who I think would be an ideal cast today for a revival of SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING:
Laura Benanti as Angie
James Anest as Tom
Kerry Butler as Martha
Matt Morrison as Charlie

With a cast like this, that fantastic score and given today's headlines of our country's shaky economy, which is the very core of this show's book, SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING could be a big hit today, in my opinion.

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Updated On: 9/22/08 at 11:08 PM

I really was thinking how much this show represented Encores' original mission. It's a shame that they've strayed from the path...but I guess everyone needs money.

I completely agree that this is Jule Stynes most complex score, and that it contains some of Comden and Greene's wittiest lyrics. The premise of the show is great, and even the title 'Subways are for Sleeping' is a pretty witty and inviting title.

I'd love to see it reproduced somewhere, but I doubt it'll happen anytime soon.

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'High Button Shoes' is an inspired choice, and it would probably have a better shot at being produced!

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Yes it has been ignored long enough

You can not go wrong with a Styne score.

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BFB,

What a fabulous story!

Thanks for sharing it!!!

I adore the score for Subways are For Sleeping and would jump at the chance to see it performed. I think Gypsy is Styne's most complex and sophisticated score, but Subways (as well as Do Re Mi) is one of his most charming

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"They did do "Sweet Adeline" already, didn't they?"

Yes. I chose that as an illustration of they were doing right in the past.

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Of the more than 400 LP show albums that I have SUBWAYS is the one I play least. A revival would not change my mind and I would not want to see one.

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Neither "Subways are for Sleeping" nor the book from which the musical version was adapted is about homelessness, cutesy or otherwise. "Subways" is about Tom and a small group of professional people who have willfully checked out on conventional means of living because at some point they have come to realise that they were not happy in that lifestyle, a lifestyle which most people would envy. Instead they have chosen to live day to day using their wits and a byproduct of this may be that they had to give up a conventional place to sleep. Tom has given up financial independence for emotional independence. This was a controversial choice in 1961 and is just as controversial a choice today. Angie, a reporter, can't initially understand why anyone would be truly happy living this way. Tom and Angie's relationship becomes a classic love story and at the same time a most unconventional one. "Subways are for Sleeping" is about the choices we make in life and the consequences to ourselves and to those who love us but do not understand the reasons behind those choices. It was an innovative but controversial story for a musical when initially presented and would still be so today. "Subways" has a score that is, in my opinion, Jule Styne's masterpiece, and as much as I like Stephen Sondheim, his lyrics cannot hold a candle to the brilliance of Comden and Green's in any show, but especially "Subways are for Sleeping". This is exactly the kind of show Encores should be doing and Dayao, your casting suggestions are inspired, especially James Anest, my favourite singer and a superb actor, as he would bring an intensity to the role completely lacking in Sydney Chaplin, who was the one serious flaw and major reason for the failure of the original 1961 production. You have to have a believable Tom for “Subways” to work for an audience.

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