Songs added to shows for technical reasons?- Page 3

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/11/12 at 7:54pm

Thanks! that makes a lot of sense--for some reason I thought it had something to do with "olio acts" in vaudeville shows (a term I only know due to Show Boat, really)--and it does. Makes sense.

[NoName3]

Posted: 7/11/12 at 8:01pm

I immediately thought of Show Boat too, having listened to the Chicago production just a couple of weeks ago.

[SweeneyPhanatic]

Posted: 7/11/12 at 8:01pm

Doesn't FUNNY GIRL have quite a few in-one scenes and songs? At least, in my high school production, it seemed the scenes for Mrs. Brice, Eddie, and the ladies served mostly to cover big set changes. Anyone know if they were planned that easy, or came later in the original production’s process?

I also remember a few scenes in MARY POPPINS being done this way, obviously to give the massive house set time to shift.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/11/12 at 8:21pm

Yeah, "in-one" to me has definitely always meant a scene that takes place in front of the main curtain or at the front of the stage. I'm pretty sure Taymor described it that way in the Lion King book which is when I first heard the phrase.

[Jon]

Posted: 7/11/12 at 8:25pm

Sondeheimboy - there's also a low-down blues song in The Night They Raided Minsky's sung by Lilian Heymann that has the exact same melody as "Something Was Missing" from Annie.

The most obivoous "in-one" scene Iv'e ever seen was in Act 2 of CRAZY FOR YOU - the scene where Polly's father is messing around with a tempermental vacuum cleaner. I remember thinking, "There had betrter be a pretty damned spectacular set behind that drop." Sure enough, the next scene was the opulent red velvet theatre auditiorium where "Stiff Upper Lip" is performed.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Posted: 7/11/12 at 8:30pm

Several of the songs mentioned on this thread break the action in some positive way; i.e., providing comic relief or a character's tender introspective moment. It's hard to imagine the shows without them.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 7/11/12 at 8:40pm

A current in-one scene on Broadway right now is the scene between Raoul and Madame Giry in Act II of Phantom, after "Masquerade" where she explains the Phantom's past. This scene covers the crew getting the staircase far enough upstage to be able to bring the black out drop in that the managers' office plays in front of for the second "Notes" scene (during which the crew is setting up the cemetery even further up stage for "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again")

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/11/12 at 9:42pm

Yeah, on reflection, I guess the "in-one" scene transition is more common still than I thought. It's just done more sublety (ie they don't just drop a curtain with a cornfield everytime there's a scene change like in that original Oklahoma! I mentioned :P ).

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 7/11/12 at 10:13pm

To add to the "in one" discussion: the term is, as has been stated, descriptive as to location on the stage as it pertains to curtains, or "legs", partial curtains or masking that you see stage right and left. There can be an "in two" or three and so on. For example, an actor may enter in one stage left, and exit in four stage right.

On topic? Has anyone mentioned "Betrayed" from THE PRODUCERS?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/11/12 at 10:13pm

Although not Broadway, Little Shop of Horrors had longer versions of The Meek Shall Inherit and a few other songs (that were cut down for the movie) to cover for the time it took to swap out the plants at the Orpheum.

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 7/11/12 at 10:21pm

What about the "Hello Young, Lovers" reprise.

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/11/12 at 10:57pm

Here's a fun recreation of an old in-one/olio number, featuring Tim Curry doing a music-hall turn.

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v5822449wfP4atMK

[adam.peterson44]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 9:00am

Thanks for all the replies on in-one, everyone! It's always fun learning new stuff!

[BwayEqs]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 9:23am

In the original INTO THE WOODS, Rapunzel only sang her "AhhAhhAhhhhhAhhhhAhhhAhhhh" so the audience didn't get bored when her tower came out of the floor.

[CockeyedOptimist2]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 9:32am

Speaking of Little Shop, at least in the production that I did, "Ya Never Know" was played in-one to get the 3rd plant in place in the shop upstage of the curtain and for all of the renovations to the shop to get done.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 10:08am

Funny Girl - Virtually any time Fanny is off-stage it is for a costume/hair change.

Fanny is only off-stage maybe 20 minutes of the entire show and there are several hair changes and about 10 costume changes.

When originally performed wigs were not nearly as common as now, and the star's own hair was often adapted to the role granted sometimes with falls.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 3:17pm

Yes, CO2 I believe that was one song the almost cut out the movie entirely, it wasn't needed and slowed down the pacing.

[emlodik]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 3:52pm

A lot of productions of "Evita" (not including the Grandage staging, obviously) use "Santa Evita" as cover for a set change and to get Eva into her tango dress for "Waltz for Eva and Che."

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 4:25pm

Or the Prince one which relied more on his love of using a curtain of light (like with Cabaret), etc.

Ya Never Know was turned into Some Fun Now and a montage for the movie of Little Shop. I actually love the original song (Some Fun Now is cute enough), and it's one of the cut songs I miss the most in the movie. It does serve a dramatic purpose in that, on stage, it quickly covers Seymour's rapid success leading to, as mentioned, the reveal of the more successful shop (and plant).

[Kingtito132]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 12:45am

While I have no idea if it was actually added/written to cover a scene change, the short "Driving at Night" song and sequence from "State Fair" seems like its covering a rather large transition from the farm to the fair grounds.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 5:54pm

Ya Never Know was turned into Some Fun Now and a montage for the movie of Little Shop. I actually love the original song (Some Fun Now is cute enough), and it's one of the cut songs I miss the most in the movie. It does serve a dramatic purpose in that, on stage, it quickly covers Seymour's rapid success leading to, as mentioned, the reveal of the more successful shop (and plant).

Eric, my son, just because you post it first here doesn't mean I wasn't already thinking it when you were 2.

(Note to everyone else, Eric will know the above remark is fond, not condescending.)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 6:13pm

What's that expression again? Something like "There are no new ideas, only old people?"

[Bob30]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 7:14pm

Closed for Renovation is written so the cast can renovate te flower shop in frot of the audience

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 7:43pm

Part of it, but at least as I`ve seen it, they don`t renovate the plant in front of the audience :P

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 8:18pm

What's that expression again? Something like "There are no new ideas, only old people?"

Yes. There's also "Out of the mouths of babes..."