Sugar Babies?

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 8:34pm

I don't know to much about the show. Did it have a plot outline or was it basically just the Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller show? lol.

Thanks.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 8:42pm

It was a vaudeville, burlesque show with many different acts. Lots of fun!!

[dancinfan]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 11:19pm

No plot, just sketches and musical numbers, most of which were real vaudeville or burlesque routines and songs. It's good that the material is preserved in this way, but it certainly can be presented badly - by that, I mean at face value. In this politically correct day and age, many of the jokes and sketches can be offensive to some. A director would be smart to either prepare the audience for a historical voyage through a long-gone era or present the piece with tongue firmly in cheek, strongly empowering the scantily clad women and commenting on race issues with the minstrel sequence.

Just my two cents worth.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 11:27pm

So, would it be possible to revive?

Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin would be great!

[Dolly_Levi]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 11:42pm

Nathan would be a great choice for the Top Banana, but Martin could not do the Ann Miller track. The Miller track demands a true triple threat - and Martin is nowhere near the dancer Miller was.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 11:45pm

If I remember correctly, Robert Morse and Carol Channing did a tour of it, no?

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 1:18am

It was a blast with Rooney and Miller, but so tailored to their talents that I doubt anyone else could make it work. The tour with Channing was a fast flop on the road, so they did a post-Broadway tour with Rooney and Miller.
Does anyone know if the stock rights were ever released?

[alterego]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 2:58am

Here in Australia we had the Broadway show reproduced with Eddie Bracken heading up a local cast.

Samuel French handle stock and amateur performance rights. Updated On: 4/23/07 at 02:58 AM

[dancinfan]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 7:35am

I performed it in stock. It can definitely be done with competent, funny people in the leads. One of the things that Rooney was famous for during the original and touring productions was going off-script in some of the longer scenes, particularly the school sketch in which he was a bratty little boy to Miller's school teacher. He was blue, he was wild, Miller had to throw some barbs back at him just to defend herself - people loved it. We stuck to the script and it went over very well. If you had a personality in the role, a comedian or improv artist known for blue humor, it would be more like the Rooney productions. What Rooney had going for him was an intimate, first-hand knowledge of how vaudeville and burlesque worked.

I think Nathan Lane would be an interesting if not totally successful choice for Top Banana because it would be totally unbelievable that he would leer after the women in the show, which is a huge element of the role. Then again, he could spend some of the show commenting on the sexism, which could be funny to some extent.
Updated On: 4/23/07 at 07:35 AM

[philcrosby]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 8:32am

Nathan Lane is one of the few performers around who still remembers and can perform in the old vaudeville tradition. Very few of today's folks (or today's audiences) really have a taste for it anymore.

TV's CAROL BURNETT SHOW was probably the last great vaudeville show.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 8:37am

I also did the show in stock (the first company to do so), with the original Broadway sketch director (Tony-nominee) Rudy Tronto, who was also Mickey Rooney's standby and who played the part in our production.

We had a blast, and it was one of the funniest shows I've ever had the pleasure of doing. The audience wouldn't stop laughing! We had a lot of terrifically talented people in that production.

I think it could easily be revived with the right cast, and it would probably go over big (as long as they didn't cheat on costumes and production numbers).

[MimiJudith]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 9:00am

I took a writing class with Ralph Allen, the writer of "Sugar Babies." He was a very nice man and had lots of excellent stories to tell about his time working with the show. I never got to see "Sugar Babies," but I think Ralph Allen would have been proud if there were a revival on Broadway.
Updated On: 4/23/07 at 09:00 AM

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 9:13am

I saw this show at the Mark Hellinger and loved every minute of it. I think that finding a triple threat performer like the unique Ann Miller would be the biggest problem in casting a revival. Who can dance like Ann Miller?

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 9:26am

Who can dance like Ann Miller?

Nobody.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 9:38am

Caroline O'Conor would be perfect.

[Jon]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 11:51am

Martin Short would be a Top Banana as well.

[genius2]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 7:57pm

Mickey's replacement when he went on vacation was Rip Taylor..he was fantastic and still working now

[genius2]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 7:58pm

and for that matter, Mickey could probably still do it!..A national treasure

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 8:04pm

It played the Hellinger which started life as Warners Hollywood & it had some vaudeville before vaudeville died

I saw it with Rooney & Miller & it was a lot of fun

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 8:14pm

would Neuwirth be Miller-esque?

[dancinfan]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 10:03pm

Neuwirth is way too dry and lacking in flash. As a dancer, she's a decent technician, but Miller was about hoofing and selling it like a madwoman. Not that the leading lady in SB has to actually be that much like Miller, but I would think you'd want someone a little more like Bette Midler with tap skills.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 10:36pm

Who are the killer lady tappers?? Who can do comedy???

And sing???


*crickets*

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 10:43pm

B12B is right. NO ONE is like Ann Miller. The person would have to completely make the role their own.

I didn't know Rip Taylor did it! He could still do it. But I think all he is doing now is voice over work.

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 10:46pm

i absolutely agree, there was no one like ann miller.

seriously, there's no one like her left.

the closest would be molly shannon doing her miller impression.

[alterego]

Posted: 4/24/07 at 3:18am

A friend of mine toured in the show with Miller and Rooney. The stories she has are great. Ann Miller was always Miss Professional, whereas you never knew with Mickey Rooney. Most nights he'd turn up with just 5 minutes before the curtain.