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Sweet Smell Of Success

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#1

Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 12:16am

...this musical had a pretty short run, despite John Lithgow headlining, and a score by Hamlisch...I just got the CD and LOVE alot of the music, especially "At the Fountain" and "Don't Know Where You Leave Off"...did anyone see the show - know why it didn't work??

Plus, Kelli was in it...and she was unbelieveable in Piazza...what a voice!!
#2

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 12:18am

Is Lithgow's performance worthy of stealing the Tony from Hunter Foster for Urinetown -- winning the same year as his sister?? Huh? re: Sweet Smell Of Success
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad

"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#3

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 12:20am

Hunter wasn't nominated, so... I'd have given the Tony to Cullum, myself. But the Tony to Lithgow was sort of a Medal of Valor that year.
"Gif me the cobra jool!"
#5

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 12:22am

Hunter totally should have been nominated. That was a huge mistake.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad

"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#6

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 12:25am

And you are hugely fanatic.

I like the music. I like the repeated "Column" motif.
#8

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 12:30am

I saw it, but while I enjoyed it enough at the time, it was fairly unmemorable to me. I never got the cast recording, but I've been hearing some of the songs lately, and they've been growing on me.

The only song that really stuck with me from the first viewing, however, was the one J.J. sings about Susan. (It was called "For Susan," wasn't it?)
#9

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 12:31am

I saw it in Chiago and I loved it. Brian D'Arcy James is a talented man!
#11

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 12:33am

When I knew him he was just Brian James.
#13

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 12:36am

Sweet Smell was another of those shows that got reviews all out of proportion with what was onstage. More respectable failure than an outright disaster. It was a show that seemed like a good idea, but probably wasn't. The film it's based on is quick-paced and unsentimental, without a single sympathetic character. While the film has a jazzy instrumental score, it doesn't exactly have characters that have reason to sing, particularly the star role of J.J. Hunsecker. "At the Fountain" was the most effective moment for the character of Sidney Falco, but he's just too shark-like a hero for a musical.
"Gif me the cobra jool!"
#14

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 12:39am

T - He wanted to make sure that the Mayor of Chicago knew he was Irish!
#16

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 12:56am

In your drawers huh?
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad

"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#18

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 1:03am

What's Sweet Smell about anyway?
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad

"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#19

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 1:06am

I saw it... I don't know. It was okay. Not that great, but not that bad. The songs have grown on me through the years, though. I will also agree with those of you who say that John Lithgow's performance was not necessarily Tony-worthy.
Gingerbread houses along golden, frothy canals. Like Venice... only different?
#20

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 1:07am

I bought the CD for Kelli as well, and I while I didn't really expect it to be my thing, I was pleasantly surprised. She sounds absolutely beautiful, and I love me some Brian d'Arcy James. I enjoy "Don't Know Where You Leave Off" the most, I think. And Kelli's reprise of "I Cannot Hear the City"
#22

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 2:12am

I loved SSOS. It had a great score, an amazing cast, and an interesting book. It's too bad it didn't do well.

hehe it was also my first exposure to my future wife (aka Kelli O'Hara re: Sweet Smell Of Success)
"Chicago is it's own incredible theater town right there smack down in the middle of the heartland. What a great city! I can see why Oprah likes to live there!" - Dee Hoty :-D
#23

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 9:49am

This musical failed because no one asked a basic question that needs to be asked when an idea is first proposed. "What do these people have to sing about?"

The characters in Sweet Smell of Success have nothing to sing about. They are about as non-musical as they come.

Gower Champion had a rule of musical theatre. "Who do you root for?" In Sweet Smell the answer is no one.

Rent the movie which is nasty, sharp, mean-spirited and damn good.
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable." --Carrie Fisher
#24

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 9:56am

"Sweet Smell" was a great show that gave much more than it got. Some of us liked it at the time. Now some people are begining to appriciate the score. It is a shame that we live in an age where people are afraid to stand up for high quality material, in the face of largely negative reviews. We need to spend some time thinking before we start talking. The internet is WAY to powerful.
TWOGAAB "A Class Act" will never die!
#25

re: Sweet Smell Of Success

Posted: 8/9/05 at 10:02am

Most of the folks in SSOS are despicable and the action of the show is grim. "For Susan" was an electrifying number, but as the audience understood the underlying message you could hear the flesh crawl. During intermisson, I heard many people talking about how much they hated John Lithgow playing a character like that. It's hard to take a lovable galoot and make him play an anti-hero. I didn't dislike the show, but I sure didn't love it.

I do wonder if that film could be musicalized. It is not a subject that lends itself to song.

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