Tales of the City: The Musical in San Fran- Page 2

Posted: 3/18/11 at 9:25pm

I was, and still am!

[Hest882]

Posted: 3/18/11 at 11:00pm

The cast looks pretty great. If Betty Buckley had to bow out Judy Kaye is a wonderful replacement.

[transter91]

Posted: 3/21/11 at 5:12pm

Seeing this cast is getting me hyped up. Been wanting to get tickets, but most of the people I've talked to has not read or heard of the book

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 3/24/11 at 8:39pm

"For some strange reason though, for the longest time I kept thinking Mary Birdsong was African-American. I don't know why."

I thought that, too. I think it's because the name made me think of Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong from The Supremes.

Posted: 4/28/11 at 7:08pm

ACT has two quick youtube vids up. Nothing too exciting:

The creators talk about their first encounter with Tales of the City (interestingly the miniseries seems to be as big a part for most as the novel--it was for me) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACDGPTHo3Yk

And an early creative meaning with a peak at the set design which I have to say I love (even if it kinda reminds me of Aronson's Company set with a kind of scaffold representing the city and different areas, even if this time it's more literal, with projections changing the scene--compare Aronson's transformation of his set to the disco in Company with the disco transformation here--which actually isn't a bad thing considering it's one of my fave sets ever, and I could see it working for aTales musical) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccALBCUtVRY

Updated On: 4/29/11 at 07:08 PM

[newintown]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 10:07am

Does anyone know how Whitty has solved the unconnected, rambling, episodic nature of the novel? I would imagine that the characters all need to come together at some point, in order for this to work as a theatrical piece, no? And the novels really take their time as far as telling a story; that would need to be compressed and amplified for the stage.

Posted: 4/30/11 at 12:23am

I don't think anyone has any idea about how it's being handled except from that several years old demo recording--which apparently has been nearly half changed. It's a good question--and one I'm curious to figure out.

I don't think it's impossible though. The miniseries (well the first one especially) were well done, but I could see even taking them and cutting out a lot and still keeping the core.

Posted: 5/3/11 at 8:53pm

Also I think that may be one reason they're adpating parts from both first two books--as you say the story takes a long time to really get moving and is told in a leisurely way that wouldn't really work for the stage. So if they take a few of the character arcs that are carried through in BOTH books they can get more story.

[maila]

Posted: 5/9/11 at 5:07pm

there are two preview song clips from the show in this KQED radio program of michael krasny who interviewed armistead maupin, jeff whittey and ACT artistic director carey perloff :
http://sfist.com/2011/05/05/kqed_rolling_stone_offer_previews_o.php

[maila]

Posted: 5/9/11 at 5:22pm

found a youtube recording of mary birdsong singing the whole song " seeds and stems". she's playing mona is the ACT production:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BniEDQTud4&feature=related

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/9/11 at 6:37pm

Is there an English version of that song anywhere?

Posted: 5/10/11 at 3:41am

Thanks for those links! Rolling Stone also had a pretty brief article

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/scissor-sisters-jake-shears-honored-to-write-tales-of-the-city-musical-20110427

[maila]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 1:46pm

you're welcome. can't wait to see it when i go to SF on the 20th.

[JimCo]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 2:43pm

I have heard that Judy Kaye is going to be in it!

[newintown]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 4:20pm

Did you hear that they killed bin-Laden?

[kyle4]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 5:55pm

that was unnecessary ! how unkind !

Posted: 5/11/11 at 1:50am

Am seeing it on the 20th as well--luckily it managed to correspond with a trip with friends to see Kylie the following night.

[N2Theater]

Posted: 5/11/11 at 3:50am

Listen to the clip that was posted on radio. The music didnt grab me at all.

Posted: 5/12/11 at 12:23am

Are you a Scissor Sisters fan?

*edit* Which sounded snottier than I meant it to. What I mean is the sound, while not exactly like their music (except maybe the big disco number), definitely is similar, and not very similar to any other Broadway scores, even rock ones I can think of. I really really like the demo myself, and can't wait to hear it fully done, though I have no idea how much has been kept, I also think it manages to capture the tone of the piece. But I've certainly heard other mixed views on it. Updated On: 5/12/11 at 12:23 AM

Posted: 5/13/11 at 2:40am

Article on the musical at New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/theater/tales-of-the-city-become-a-musical.html?_r=2

Posted: 5/19/11 at 7:09am

Just arrived in San Fran--seeing the third preview on Friday. Anyway ACT sent out this email (which also included a warning that the preview version of the show right now was running a somewhat long 3 hours).

Welcome to the world premiere musical Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City!

Producing a musical is like producing a straight play, only with a thousand more moving parts, all of which have to mesh in perfect balance. We've just finished four weeks of studio rehearsal and a technical process in which an evocative set, lights, an orchestra, and more than 200 costumes were added to the mix—more moving parts! It's been an incredible ride so far, but the real excitement is about to begin.

We're at the point where we need you, our enthusiastic preview audiences: the show is so big and so intricate, so intimate and so explosive, that the more opportunities we have to test the mix, the better the show will be. Where you laugh or applaud, where your attention is rapt, where we sense that maybe we've lost you for a moment—all of this provides us with the most crucial information we need to continue fine-tuning the production. With this in mind, we've added several previews beyond our usual five, and we're delighted that you'll become our new creative partners on the next leg of this exciting journey. After all, the aim of all these months of effort has been to make a show for you.

So welcome to A.C.T. We hope you'll enjoy the show!

Michael Paller
Dramaturg

***


Dear Friend of A.C.T.,

In the process of rehearsing Tales of the City, I have done some pretty insane things:

1) Bared my breasts. Twice. (Once when I was asked to and once 'cause I just felt like it.)

2) Helped Wesley Taylor (the actor playing "Mouse," wearing nothing but Superman briefs) soar through the air to cross from upstage right to downstage left.

3) Cried my guts out while singing a beautiful but emotionally wrenching duet with Tony Award winner Judy Kaye. (It was a particularly hormonal day for me.)

4) Cried my guts out some more in the halls of A.C.T. as our beautiful, brilliant Betsy Wolfe (who plays Mary Ann Singleton) just hugged me 'til I stopped, no questions asked.

5) Narrowly escaped a tragic yet humiliating end (death by disco ball—DON'T ASK).

6) Nodded my head in absolute seriousness when the stage manager said, "Okay, actors, let's take it from 'Crotch,' and after lunch we'll pick it up from 'Go **** yourself.'"

And that's just in the last six weeks.

My journey through Armistead Maupin's brilliantly crafted San Francisco tales started long before we set foot in the hallowed halls of the American Conservatory Theater. I got a call about three years ago in New York City while I was doing Hairspray on Broadway (playing Velma Von Tussle). I was exhausted—the call came on my only day off. The casting director (a genius of a man named David Caparelliotis) asked if I'd be willing to show up on my next day off to do a cold reading of Tales of the City at Jason Moore's house.

And believe it or not, I was stupid enough and ignorant enough to say "no"—not once, but twice. It wasn't stupidity so much as it was the old "eight-shows-a-week-and-not-getting-any-younger" exhaustion. I am so NOT a morning person, and getting up on a Monday morning (my one day off) to go do even MORE theater on the one day I was permitted to NOT do theater just seemed plain CRAZY—especially when my voice was already tired and everyone was getting sick.

God bless David C., and Armistead Maupin, too. David tried one more time, and he said that Armistead had seen me perform and that he heartily approved of me doing Mona in that initial little cold reading at Jason Moore's house.

"Really??? What did he see me in?"

"I showed him the YouTube video you posted."

I've been known to post silly videos on YouTube from time to time as my alter-ego, the "99 Cent Whore." She's a cross between Loretta Lynn, Jack Black, and an assistant night manager at a 99 Cent Store in West Covina who likes to sing and plays the guitar REALLY badly.

Before I knew it I was in Jason's beautiful home bright and early on a Monday morning. As I walked in the door, a handsome gentleman I'd never met before (who looked more like a naughty, sexy Santa Claus than a celebrated author) approached me. Armistead had an ACTUAL twinkle in his eye, and he smiled as he walked toward me singing, "Come on, come on, be a big slutty broke-ass whore, shop at the 99 Cent Sto-or-ore!" Then he laughed. That did it. I was in. I was a goner. I loved this man. I would beg, borrow, or steal to play the part of Mona Ramsey.

Once I read Jeff Whitty's awesome script, read aloud by the actors they'd assembled that day, and heard those gorgeous songs (which the composers had to play on a boom box), I could think of nothing I'd rather do more than Tales of the City. And in three years, that feeling has only intensified. I am humbled on a daily basis by the talent surrounding me. The production team, the creative team, the cast, the A.C.T. folks—it's all brilliant and it's all FUN.

There have been several incarnations of this show, from a cold reading at an apartment in NYC three years ago, to a workshop in a barn in Connecticut, to a staged reading in NYC, to another one-month workshop here at A.C.T. last year, and I am lucky enough to still be a part of it. In an age that's chock full of reality TV and people who are "eliminated" after every commercial break, I don't take my continued involvement in this show lightly. I will gladly get up at any hour of the day they tell me to. This show is gorgeous to look at, to listen to, and to be a part of. It's hilariously silly at times, deeply important, and always riveting.

And if none of that appeals to you, well . . . I do show my tits. So, you know . . . there's that.

Mary Birdsong
Tales of the City cast member

[Brick]

Posted: 5/19/11 at 1:25pm

I caught the preview last night. At 3 hours and 20 minutes, it's safe to start off by saying it needs some heavy cutting and shaping.

The preview went quite well, to a very receptive sold-out house. The artistic director gave a speech to the audience before, saying this would be the cast's first time doing the show all the way through and they would stop if any of the numerous set changes couldn't be completed safely. Well, there were no stops and only a couple set mistakes were noticeably corrected mid-scene. And the cast seemed quite comfortable and confident for not having had a full run previous.

Now, on to the show.

As I mentioned, the one unmistakable is it's length. It's 30 minutes too long. Act One ran two hours, and felt like it. Act Two a little over an hour.

The book by Jeff Whitty is efficient at packing in 2 books in into one show and, mostly, keeping a handle on the many different narratives. It's definitely witty (no pun intended), and much of the humour landed very well. Mostly, it is either adult humour or 70s San Francisco references, which the local audience cheered at eagerly.The main weakness of the book is its struggle to develop characters you care about each and every scene. Not surprisingly given the book's form, it becomes quite episodic. One event doesn't propel us into another, they just keep coming...

The score is quite strong, with some very successful comedy songs and beautiful ballads, as well as some serious fat to be trimmed. Compared to the Scissor Sisters albums, the music style is less dance-orientated and more like the honky tonk and bluesy 70s ballads in their work. Strong songs include Madrigals' Act One closer and Mona's 11 o'clock number, and comedy songs for minor character's Mother Mucca (about running a whorehouse) and DeDe Halcyon-Day (about Pregnancy). Sadly, every minor characters receiving a song starts to feel predictable and unnecessary, especially in the ballad-heavy Act 2.

Jude Kaye was a warm and welcoming presence in the show. I admit to thinking for much of Act 1 she was miscast, with her refined over-rounded vowels wrong for someone as earthy as Madrigal. But she warmed into the part and had the audience in the palm of her hand. She also sounded pretty wonderful in her bluesy songs, especially the previously-mentioned Act 1 closer. (I do admit to wondering at times what Betty Buckley was like in the workshop and how she was have handled Madrigal's heavy-belt songs, though.)

Mary Birdsong is hilarious and impressive. She makes the show.

Betsy Wolfe as Mary Ann does lovely work and has the audience with her much of the show, which is an achievement given some of her unfocused material. Wesley Taylor was charming as Mouse and Diane J. FIndlay was a scene-stealer in several character roles, such as Mother Mucca.

The set is a multilevel re-imagining of the back stairwells of San Francisco Victorian Houses, in white wood. Various wagons roll on and a center level lowers and rises to creates the many locations. Some changes are clever, some (currently) clunky.

Jason Moore's direction feels like it's still very much coming into focus. The emotional life of these characters are on the right track and I imagine will continue through previews. And clearly the many locations received a big share of his attention, as too much of the audience's attention goes there, too.

The creative team clearly is trying to develop an ensemble show where you follow all the storyline's equally, but right now it just seems unfocused. It reminds of the story where Scott Rudin screened the film THE HOURS for the late Arthur Laurents. Laurents asked him what he thought the film was about, and Rudin replied with a few answers. And Laurents told him that was the problem, the film may be about all those things but it needs to really be about just one.

I kept wondering, what is this show about? Acceptance? Family? Belonging? Pride? Sure, those each relate to one another and it can be about them all, but whose trying to get what, and when? In its present form, the clearest stories were "Mouse" and his search for love and acceptance (mainly from his mother) and Madrigal and her desire to live in truth and openness, and as her last songs says, with "No Apologies." But what does Mary Ann want? Her story opens the show, with her arrival in San Francisco, but the show seems to happen to her - especially her doomed relationship to in Act 2.

I imagine the length and some of the focus will be addressed in previews, after which it should be pretty strong. More large-scale revisions might be needed if it were come to New York. There's no enhancement money in the production, and the author's say there are no plans as of right now, but both the property and the show being presented have some real potential.

[alba]

Posted: 5/19/11 at 3:03pm

Hey Brick,

Nice update. I was there last night too. Saw Armistead himself crossing Geary before the show... I've rarely felt such a buzz at ACT -- it was definitely an exciting night.

According to the ACT artistic director, who made the obligatory pre-show speech, this was the first time the cast had run the show all the way through -- and if that's so, it was an impressive first run. However, I think there is a profound amount of work to do.

The good parts were: Judy Kaye; Betsy Wolfe's belty voice; Wesley Taylor and his ridiculously hot body; and the costumes. Like you, Brick, I worried about Judy Kaye -- not only is she earnest, but there is something inevitably refined about her. But she is so versatile that I should've known she'd come through. She gave the role a really humane vibe, and her singing is as good as ever. All her comedy lines landed well, too. Betsy Wolfe has a really, really nice belting voice, and some of her lines (esp "Wow" when she first sees two guys kissing) were delivered with real zest. Wesley Taylor is a really endearing performer, very warm onstage -- and when he stripped down to his undies (with a flash of butt), I was very smitten. A+. The costumes were very well done, and there were a lot of them!

The length was abominable. The first act last until 9:45, the second until 11:30. I think the creative team is not very well-served by being in SF since the audience is primed to enjoy this and not provide feedback that help them make a better show. Many of the jokes are just lame references to SF institutions that SF audiences LOVE to congratulate themselves for getting. (Character: "Yeah, and I even made the mistake of calling it a trolley car!" Audience guffaws.) There are far too many characters and storylines, with the show losing focus accordingly. Some narrative threads made no sense. (Spoilers here!) Why would the doctor reject his boyfriend for being in an underwear contest, and yet two weeks later they run into each other at a bathhouse? This might make sense in a long serial form where there are tons of details and subtleties, but presented in this abbreviated form, it seemed illogical. And the death by way of trapdoor was RIDICULOUS. Seeing Mary Ann hold his tie was laughter-provoking. Also, why do even marginal characters have long numbers ("The Only Homosexual Convalescent Home," sung by random people whom we never see again)? The songwriting needs some major, major overhaul. Some songs bordered on terrible. The choreography is community-theatre calibre.

I hate to harp on something in progress, but I resent that pieces like this get produced repeatedly when they are really sub-standard, just because names are attached. I love Jake Shears and his jockstrap photos as much as anybody could, but this piece does not deserve this level of production. There are so many good original pieces out there; let's stop turning the derivative mill!

[Brick]

Posted: 5/19/11 at 3:23pm

I wouldn't be that harsh on it. I think there is a great book in there and some talented songwriting.

And I agree whole-heartedly about the number of songs sung by marginal characters. And a marginal character can have a song, but not there are about 5 or 6 marginal characters with songs in this show..

But also, frankly, I don't envy the creative team as some of the most successful numbers are the ones that should be the first to go, such as "The Only Homosexual Convalescent Home" and pregnancy song, "Plus One". Both were some great musical theatre comedy songs and both are completely unneccesary.

[alba]

Posted: 5/19/11 at 3:27pm

Yes, I agree that the best numbers are the ones that should be first to go. But tho I hate to be harsh, the score felt very cliche to me.