Singin' in the Rain

Hey!
Last night I saw a production of Singin' in the Rain at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater here in MN, and it was amazing! The dancing was great, the singing was excellent, the sets were perfect. It was just a really fun time. Has anybody else seen this show? What did you think of it? Also, why didn't this show last long on Broadway? Was it really bad? Here's a link to a preview video for the production I saw: http://www.chanhassentheatres.com/whats_playing/

As I recall it got pretty bad reviews.

People didn't like much about it except for Faye Grant (who played Lina Lamont)... and the fact that it rained on stage.

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Also, Bette Comden and Adolf Greene hated the stage version.

Everybody needs to read "The Art of the American Musical." It has some really great interviews in it with composers, director, and choreographers, and Comden and Greene were two of the people they intereviewed.

They said SINGIN' IN THE RAIN worked so well as a movie because the show was about movie-making, and because of Gene Kelly's brilliantness. They were not pleased about it transfering to the stage.

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Thanks to you all for your help! And, Color and Light, the Cosmo in this production was a lot like Donald's Cosmo. It was really weird.

The show was mounted at The Uris because of a wildly successful production at The London Palladium starring Tommy Steel. I saw it and it was fantastic!!!! The highlight, (besides seeing Tommy tapping again) was Roy Castle. He's gone now, but as Cosmo, he gave an amazing performance. During "Be A Clown" (which they used as a sop to the Cole Porter estate, Arthur Freed having "borrowed" the melody) Castle tapped and did back flips - while juggling and never dropping a ball. What a talent. I wish you had seen him.

The show in London had a big number for Lina Lamont: "Temptation" which is the ultimate vamp number. Freed, apparently thought that one up all by himself.

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Katurian2- In this production, they didn't actually use rain. The title song, along with Good Morning, took place in the film studio. Don just turned a knob on the special effects system, and then silver confetti came down. But, it actually looked like rain.

the st. louis muny has singn' in the rain as one of its regular shows (every 5 years or show) and its always great, they have it rain onstage for the show.. its soo cool

i just finished playing Kathy Selden in this show a week ago. it was incredible. and i was very surprised at how close it was to the movie with the addition of whats wrong with me and you stepped out of a dream (the latter which we cut because it is totally unmotivated and makes no sense where it is in the script). also, when kathy is behind the curtain in the end singing for lina, kathy is singing would you instead of singin in the rain (which does make sense. it always annoyed me in the movie because how would lina know this song, how would kathy know this song, and how would the conducter know this song. would you is in the silent film that was premiered so obviosly, all of the above know it.) we had over 20 special effects complete with popping out of the cake, pie in the face, couch tipping in good morning, we filmed the silent films, and, of course, we had real RAIN! and our set was pretty awesome. it's hard to explain, but we had the "HOLLYWOOD" sign on our stage. each letter a wagon that could move (ex. the inside of the D was used as simpsons office, etc.) and we had platforms that extended above and beyond the stage...ah, thinking about it makes me so excited. we were blessed to have sold out every show. i can't believe it's over. ""sigh""

RENTHEAD-i just watched the clip. looks like it was fabulous! why is kathy singing broadway rhythm? why was she in that dance? just wondering

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The problem with trying to adapt it for the stage is akin to doing a movie remake

It is a classic so how do you refilm or stage a classic. You cannot. I can see trying to stage it as opposed to refilming it. You try & recreate some of the magic on stage but go into it ( as the audience ) & try not to compare it to the film. If you compare, you automatically will not like the stage version. Go into it with a clean slate & you will probably like it better

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BTW, the London production struggled for weeks to get the rain right. It just never looked good until some old stage hand - a real pro - said "use milk" and from then on, the rain sequence was amazing. But the smell on matinee days was pretty bad backstage I hear.

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RENTHEAD- that's neat. broadway rhythm is as you said-cosmo imagining the sequence in simpson's office, but kathy's not in it i suppose because she is just dubbing for lina's voice in this film. their original plan was to not let lina know she was on the lot at all, so if she was in broadway rhythm, of course lina would have a much greater chance in finding out that kathy is in fact a large part of the film. so having kathy in it is a bit of a contradiction, but i like it because i got so tired of sitting out and watching the entire cast besides lina and myself dance their hearts out. lol. but hey, i ain't complaining! kathy was such a fun role to play!

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we didn't use milk. we just had an incredible lighting designer. and we did recycle the rain.

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