Streetcar the Musical?
Streetcar the Musical?
#0Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 4:00pm
Do you think it could work?
Obviously it would have to be great to match the original - which may be impossible.
Updated On: 4/3/05 at 04:00 PM
Matt_G
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/1/04
#1re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 4:02pmIt was already done as an opera a few years ago.
"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."
Matt_G
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/1/04
#3re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 4:03pmI'm sure it would work. Write a letter to Wildhorn and ask him to whip one up for you.
"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."
GovernorSlaton
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/14/04
#4re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 4:04pmThe Simpsons did a fantastically hilarious version of Streetcar as a musical. It was called "Oh Streetcar!" Give me a minute, I'll type up the lyrics...
#5re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 4:06pm
yes, gov - A Streetcar named Marge was the name of the episode - it was hilarious.
MATT: "I'm sure it would work. Write a letter to Wildhorn and ask him to whip one up for you."
Well, no, I would want it to be a good show...
Matt_G
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/1/04
#6re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 4:07pm
Oh, well you didn't say that before... 
"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."
#7re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 4:07pm
"Obviously it would have to be great to match the original - which may be impossible. "
GovernorSlaton
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/14/04
#8re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 4:12pm
Opening:
Long before the Super Dome
Where the Saints of football play
Lived a city that the damned call home
Hear their hellish rondelet...
New Orleans!
Home of pirates, drunks, and whore
New Orleans!
Tacky, overpriced souvenir stores
If you want to go to hell you should take the trip
To the Sodom and Gomorrah on the Mississipp'
New Orleans!
Stinking, rotten, vomiting vile
New Orleans!
Putrid, brackish, maggoty, foul
New Orleans!
Crummy, lousy, rancid, and rank
New Orleans!
Blanche's First Solo (Marge):
I though my life would be a Mardis Gras
A never ending party - Ha!
I'm a faded southern dame without a dime...
Newpaper Boy Solo (Apu):
I am just a simple paperboy
No romance do I seek
I just wanted 40 cents for my deliveries last week
Will this bewitching floozie
Seduce this humble newsie
Oh, what's a paperboy to dooooooo?
Stella! (Ned):
Stella!
Stella!
Can'tcha hear me yella?
You're puttin' me through hella!
Stella!
Stella!
Kindness of Strangers:
Blanche (Marge): Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
Chorus: You can always depend on the kindness of strangers
To buck up your spirits
Or shield you from dangers!
Blanche! Now here's a tip from Blanche you won't regret...
Chorus: A stranger's just a friend you haven't met!
You haven't met!
STREETCAR!
GypsyRoseLee
Broadway Star Joined: 7/5/04
#9re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 4:53pmBefore I became as well versed in the brilliant works of Tennessee Williams as I am today, I took this episode as the truth and thought it really was a musical.
"This is what I trained to do, and this is what I love about theater. What I love about being an actress is being able to really look into myself and understand another human being. And out my own self, to shape and form and fashion a real human being--and to present that in such a way that people see something of themselves or their own understanding in that human being."
--Phylicia Rashad
riv
Leading Actor Joined: 3/6/05
#10re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 5:02pm
Andre Previn wrote the opera.
I seem to recall reading an interview with him once and he was asked why he did it. He said he always loved the play but there was always something missing from it--music. What an idiot!!
I understand that one of the exercises Lehman Engel used to give his musical theater students was to write an opening number for Streetcar.
FabalaCohen
Broadway Star Joined: 10/30/04
#11re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 5:09pm
I must say, the Oh! Streetcar episode ranks among my faves.
"Oh, cool! She can fly!"
"I think that's supposed to symbolize her descent into madness."
It MIGHT work though. I watched a bit of the opera and liked it.
"During this performance, please feel free to let your cell phones and pagers ring willy-nilly. However, do remember that there are heavily-armed knights on stage and you might well be dragged up and impaled."
(Pre-curtain announcement at the new Broadway musical Monty Python's Spamalot)
#12re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 5:14pmI almost choked I laughed so hard the first time I saw "Oh, Streetcar!" John Lovitz was hilarious as the director. And who knew Ned had such a hot bod!
"Do you know ChrisLovesShows?" "Yes. Why, yes he does!"
MatureDignity
Broadway Star Joined: 10/31/04
#13re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 5:48pmThat Simpsons ep was so funny... poking fun at Grease! by yelling "Streetcar!" at the end.
#14re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 5:59pmWhy is it that THESE lyrics don't get deleted, but as soon as I type out a song, it's gets edited for copyright? Boo!
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
joniray
Broadway Star Joined: 3/27/04
#15re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 6:17pm
riv said "I understand that one of the exercises Lehman Engel used to give his musical theater students was to write an opening number for Streetcar."
Well sort of. It's actually an assignment to write Blanche a song for the end of Act One, Scene Three (right after the "Stella!" moment). Its still part of the workshop. Every composer or lyricist that has gone through the workshop has a Blanche song in their trunk. There must be many hundreds of these songs by now.
#16re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 7:30pm
Why is it that THESE lyrics don't get deleted, but as soon as I type out a song, it's gets edited for copyright? Boo!
I don't think the lyrics to OH STREETCAR! are copyrighted -- at least not in that capacity. They're part of the larger script of that Simpsons episode.
BlueWizard's blog: The Rambling Corner
HEDWIG: "The road is my home. In reflecting upon the people whom I have come upon in my travels, I cannot help but think of the people who have come upon me."
#17re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/3/05 at 7:32pmThe episode was called "A Street Car Named Marge"
#18re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/4/05 at 6:06amBs - We know the episode was called 'A Streetcar Named Marge'. The name of the musical Marge did in said episode was 'Oh Streetcar!', obviously.
iluvtheatertrash
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/9/04
#19re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/4/05 at 7:30amWorked beautifully as an opera by Previn staring Renee Flemming as Blanche. Don't think it would work with music AND dialogue. Either all dialogue or all sung, I think.
"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
iluvtheatertrash
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/9/04
#21re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/4/05 at 7:36amThere's a dvd and audio recording. It's delicious. My voice teacher and director of INTO THE WOODS here at Albright College played the collector.
"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman
WOSQ
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/03
#22re: Streetcar the Musical?
Posted: 4/4/05 at 10:08am
There are certain plays that the addition of music either as a musical play, musical comedy or opera, adds nothing. Streetcar as an opera had no imperative to be musicalized. The words already 'sing'. There is no reason for any musical version to be done.
This is the fundamental problem with any musical version of Cyrano, for instance.
Auntie Mame (which star Roz Russell called 'a revue without music') is a better piece than Mame ever could be for the same reason, and Mame isn't a bad show. Auntie Mame is just better.
A basic question that the writers of any musical need to ask is "Will the addition of a musical score tell this story better?"
Look at Dracula. Better yet, don't.
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable."
--Carrie Fisher
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