Shows that are very difficult to revive today? (w/ no revisions)
Shows that are very difficult to revive today? (w/ no revisions)
#1Shows that are very difficult to revive today? (w/ no revisions)
Posted: 8/4/08 at 9:49pm
Finian's Rainbow would be a tough one to sell.
Updated On: 8/4/08 at 09:49 PM
#2re: Shows that are very difficult to revive today? (w/ no revisions)
Posted: 8/5/08 at 4:39pm
I completely agree with you that “Finian’s Rainbow" would be tough to stage intact today but to do it any other way would destroy the core of this great musical. Finian was way ahead of its time in its dealing with racial prejudice on the musical stage. However, the dramatic premise used, making a cruel, bigoted white politician experience and feel the byproduct of his own hatred by magically turning him black, is too sophisticated a device for today’s audiences. Rather than see the sheer irony and justice that the senator endures in this transformation, not to mention the humor of the uniquely Southern logic that “showing is better than telling”, I am afraid that the irony and humor would be lost on the extremely vocal politically correct idiots we have today. It is indeed a shame as Finian’s Rainbow’s timeless score would otherwise be very appealing to today’s audiences.
"I long-ago realized that this country is a nation of
morons, when it comes to knowledge of anything outside, or beyond, pop culture." Steve Slezak
Updated On: 8/5/08 at 04:39 PM
Stand-by Joined: 12/31/69
#2re: Shows that are very difficult to revive today? (w/ no revisions)
Posted: 8/5/08 at 4:46pm
Didn't they just do Finian's Rainbow off-Broadway a few years ago? It was very well reviewed- I can't imagine they changed much of it.
Updated On: 8/5/08 at 04:46 PM
#3re: Shows that are very difficult to revive today? (w/ no revisions)
Posted: 8/5/08 at 4:59pm
Anyone Can Whistle
"You can't judge a book by its cover / No, you can't judge a book by its cover / You can't judge a book by how literate it look / No, you can't judge a book by its cubber."
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
Updated On: 8/5/08 at 04:59 PM
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#4re: Shows that are very difficult to revive today? (w/ no revisions)
Posted: 8/5/08 at 5:17pm
Yes, it was a concert presentation performed at the Irish Repertory Theatre from 4/15/2004 - 7/11/2004 and it was recorded as well. The last Broadway revival of "Finian's Rainbow" was in 1960 and it ran for less than a month. A 1968 film version, starring Fred Astaire and Petula Clark premiered 21 years after the original Broadway run and only four years after the landmark Civil Rights Act was passed.
"I long-ago realized that this country is a nation of
morons, when it comes to knowledge of anything outside, or beyond, pop culture." Steve Slezak
JohnBoy2
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/21/06
#5re: Shows that are very difficult to revive today? (w/ no revisions)
Posted: 8/5/08 at 5:26pmI think shows should be revived, intact. Otherwise, they're not revivals, they're revisions. Shows are what they are. Why make them something they aren't? Makes absolutely no sense to me, and never will. I've yet to see a revised show that I found better than the original. Not one. Imagine taking To Kill A Mockingbird and rewriting it for the morons of today. Idiotic!
Timmer
Broadway Star Joined: 2/21/06
#6re: Shows that are very difficult to revive today? (w/ no revisions)
Posted: 8/5/08 at 5:52pm
Even the recent revival of Company had to change a lyric line in "You Could Drive a Person Crazy". The original was
I could understand a person
If it's not a person's bag
(doo doo dee-oo doo)
I could understand a person
If a person was a fag.
The PC crowd would never have let them get away with doing that unedited.
Updated On: 9/18/08 at 05:52 PM
#7re: Shows that are very difficult to revive today? (w/ no revisions)
Posted: 8/5/08 at 5:57pmThank you for mentioning COMPANY, Timmer: that's a show that wouldn't have been the way it should, if it hadn't been revised.
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
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