Steel Pier Question

I can only answer the last question

It was not that bad. I enjoyed it . Unfortunately the theme made it a hard sell (depression era dance marathons)

It also was not sung thru. It had a book.

---

This show was written because they couldn't get the rights to "They Shoot Horses Don't They?" It sort of ended up being an "uh oh, we didn't get the rights, so what do we do now?"

The show was deadly dull. It was so slow paced. The only time the audience responded during Act 1 was during Debra Monk's "Anybody's Girl". And Karen Ziemba didn't have it in her to rise above the material.

Perhaps if the show had a better director, it might have come out better. But Ellis couldn't push Kander/Ebb to crank out better songs.

Overall, it was just a dull night in the theater when people expected razzle dazzle.

---

^ Only the cast album for Contact which is technically also a Broadway soundtrack. There might be a few others.

Does the artwork for the recording remind anyone else of Family Guy? xD

"The Act I finale during which the ghost made everyone run backwards to rewind time was astonishingly (and inadvertently) ridiculous."

Curse you! I had effectively blocked that from my memory and now you've brought it back. That was one of the worst Act 1 finales I've ever seen.

It ranks right up there with "Nick & Nora". In that show, a murder had been committed. In one song, the entire cast had to repeat the murder several times with each suspect doing the murder. The audience had to listen to Faith Prince's recorded manical laugh about 8 times. It was dreadful.

---

And yet.... it's one of my most-played cast recordings. As a score - I never saw the show - I would rate it among Kander and Ebb's best.

---

I can't believe someone is maligning Michael Gibson's beautiful orchestrations for this show which are absolutely appropriate to the period.

You may want something grittier but to call the sound of the show anachronistic is inaccurate. The musical model for Kander and Ebb and for Michael Gibson is clearly George Gershwin. What could be more 30's?

---

Does the artwork for the recording remind anyone else of Family Guy?

Not anyone with the gift of sight.

Can cast albums legitimately be called soundtracks?

NO! But...soundtracks can legitimately be called "cast albums" since they feature the movie casts of the show.

If one is unsure which term to use it is always the lesser evil to use "cast album."

I saw STEEL PIER (along with other Best Musical nominees in June 1997) and compared with TITANIC. THE LIFE, it had sparkle the others all lacked. Can't fairly comment on JUAN DARIAN: A CARNIVAL MASS as it was long gone by the time of the Tony Awards.
I did not find STEEL PIER dull at all. The major flaw was the time the book wasted trying to build up the secondary characters (the other marathon dancers.) I enjoyed the way David Thompson reworked the standard ghost story format to work in this show. Some argued that it was revealed too early (in the first scene in fact) that he was a ghost but some audiences still didn't get it and were puzzled by his ability to "rewind" time at the climax of Act One.

For the record the reviews for STEEL PIER were far better than the other shows that opened that spring:

STEEL PIER 5 Favorable reviews, 6 Negatives and 8 mixed. (Of the mixed reviews 2 were leaning negative, 2 on the fence, 2 leaning positive)

TITANIC: 1 favorable review, 9 negatives, 5 mixed (all the mixed reviews were leaning negative)

THE LIFE: 4 favorable reviews, 7 negatives and 6 mixed (2 leaning positive, 2 on the fence and 2 leaning negative)

JEKYLL & HYDE also opened the same week - it was not nominated as Best Musical - to 4 Favorable notices, 6 negatives and 4 mixed leaning negative.

With STEEL PIER even critics who did not like the show praised the score. STEEL PIER led the pack with Tony nominations (10 in all) but failed to win any category, and was being touted to win as it was considered Kander and Ebb's year with the revival of CHICAGO having opened a few months earlier. (CHICAGO had to vacate the Richard Rodgers Theatre to make way for PIER and moved to the Shubert.)

After the awards business fell at STEEL PIER (and picked up dramatically at TITANIC) and the producers decided to close the show rather than risk a summer run. One of the lead producers was also a producer of THE LIFE and explained to Variety at the time that with two of the performers having won Tony Awards for THE LIFE it made more sense to concentrate promotional efforts on that show rather than split between two struggling musicals. THE LIFE ultimately ran a year but still closed with a loss. TITANIC also closed with a loss, as did the long running JEKYLL AND HYDE.

Someone above commented that the orchestrations were wrong in STEEL PIER. Not really: The era of "Big Band/Swing" really came along later in the 1930s - around 1937. The sound of the early 30's was more of smaller "hotel orchestras" and much of STEEL PIER's score captures that flavor. (The show is set in 1933.) Best example: "The Last Girl/Dance with me"

I think RCA Victor did an outstanding job capturing the essence of the show on CD, with dialogue segments and sound effects used judiciously.

---

Should it be revived with a new book?

Titanic, Steel Pier and The Life were all equally bad, but Titanic was just so damned BIG! That's why it won the Tony.

I saw this show and really thought it could have worked with a few changes..Karen Ziemba as good as she was had no "star" presence in it and Kristin Chenowith had to be the most annoying secondary character ever...she sounded like Minnie Mouse throughout. Greg Harrison was actualy solid and the score was good (it didnt really fit the era though) and the Debra Monk number while it woke the audience up I agree it would never have been a song sung on the radio at that time..
After the show I was outside talking with one of the dancers..a really nice kid...and he said he thought the show was missing something and he could figure out what( and he was in it)
I love Karen Ziemba but she is a great bway performer and not really a star and I think that didnt help the show

Updated On: 4/15/11 at 03:44 PM