Tell us your dream Broadway revival! — Page 4

fashionguru_23 said: "Judy Garland in Mame"

Followed by:

Judy Garland in Gypsy

Judy Garland in Follies

I've been doing a little nitpicking of someone else's JCS, which I have some nerve doing when I haven't explained my own take on it (and I do have one, or else why the avatar). Watch this space; I'll be back with more.

David10086 said: "A real true revival of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC."

With Laura Benanti and Patti LuPone.

Also Parade with Jessie Mueller and Brandon Uranowitz.

I don’t know if they’d want to do a show together, but I’d love to see Christian Borle and Sutton Foster in Sweeney Todd. Specifically a production on a similar scale to the original that could do the score justice. Not sure who I’d want in the other roles, but I have a feeling Patrick Page would make for a fantastic Judge Turpin, even if the role itself isn’t a particularly big showcase.

I’d also love to see Into the Woods back on broadway soon. I’m still holding out hope to one day see Brandon Uranowitz as the baker. I think he would be perfect for it. Maybe they could reunite him with Stephanie J. Block as the baker’s wife. Also while I realized it may be too on the nose to have her play another witch, the first name that came to mind when I was considering potential actresses to play the witch was Idina Menzel. Philipa Soo would bring the right kind of warmth to the role of Cinderella and it would be delightful to see Chip Zien return as the mysterious man, but this time also doubling as the narrator.

Another show I’d want to reappear on broadway would be Urinetown. Andrew Rannells would be the perfect combination of star power, talent, and powerhouse vocals to play Bobby Strong, and he still has enough of a boyish look that he’ll pass for a young man. I could see Patrick Page excelling as either Cladwell or Officer Lockstock (of course, it’d be even better if Jeff McCarthy reprised his role). Also since I’m already being repetitive by mentioning Page twice in one post, I’d also note that Stephanie J. Block could be wonderful as Penelope Pennywise, and I think Ashley Park could make for a solid Hope.

Also, the fact that I’ve mentioned all four of the Falsettos revival’s stars in one post is not lost one me.

Updated On: 6/3/19 at 08:03 PM

I don't know why he is so adament about doing it but I think Howie Mandel would make a great King for the next revival of The King and I. As far as Anna goes, any pretty soprano would do.

Here's a show that most current theatregoers probably don't even know: TAKE ME ALONG, based on the Eugene O'Neill AH WILDERNESS, which was produced in the 1959-60 season with Jackie Gleason (Tony Award winner), Walter Pidgeon and a young Robert Morse as the juvenile lead. It has a great score by the long-neglected Bob Merrill (only his FUNNY GIRL lyrics are known today). New casting? Nathan Lane in the Gleason role, Victor Garber in the Pidgeon role, and Aaron Tveit as the juvenile.

rg7759 said: "Don't judge me. A once on this island revival-themed- revival of seussical"

Tell me more...

Okay, so I'm back with my thoughts on JCS. I elaborate on them at more length here, but the gist of what I would do in a specific circumstance is this:

* Less of a play, more of a staged concert. Some people don't consider this a flaw, but objectively speaking, it is: JCS doesn't have a spoken book, which has frequently proven problematic to directors in its long history of theatrical staging. As the show was recorded in the studio before it was performed, it was originally written for the ears, not the eyes, and consequently some of the score is difficult to stage adequately, especially for audiences used to the more skillful storytelling of modern pop operas like Les Mis, Rent [albeit to a limited extent, suffering as it did from literal "death of the author"], and others. The structure of JCS can feel disjointed, almost like a collection of music videos, rather than one coherent narrative. Some say that's because the directors who've done JCS are unfamiliar with opera or unable to trust that the audience will be able to accept it as opera, but a cursory glance at Tom O'Horgan's, Jim Sharman's, or Gale Edwards' resumes (to name three) shows opera experience is not the barrier. We even have O'Horgan's word on this, from Elizabeth L. Wollman's book The Theater Will Rock: "...it just was not very theatrically constructed. When I first attacked the piece with Andrew, he said he would write some other numbers that would help make it flow a little better. But he didn't. So we just had to create visual things that would work with the music and make it understandable." (Whether O'Horgan succeeded in making it understandable with his "visual things" is another story entirely, depending on who you talk to, but still, "getting" opera was clearly not the issue.) Because of this lack of a book, and a score that's largely inner monologue rather than exposition or explication, directors and choreographers try to give it structure through blocking and dance and "creating scenes" to set up what comes next. But that just gets in the way, and it can be a big stumbling block. A staged concert, on the other hand, does not overly concern itself with sets, costumes, props, or a thematic concept like, say, "the hood" that requires a dozen steps of thinking and rethinking; in a concert of a musical, there's an understanding that you're not getting the full kit. The audience sits up and pays attention because there's little (in JCS' case, no) dialogue, and rather than reading as a series of unrelated songs (as it can in a conventional staging), the full score carries the plot's weight. It shouldn't throw anyone nearly as much in concert as it can when one tries to make it a "standard theater evening."

* Staging and design, such as there is, would hearken back to traditional Greek theater (which treated every play, to a certain extent, as a religious ritual), and draw as well from the African American Pentecostal church. Think The Gospel at Colonus (if you haven't seen this unique twist on the tale of Oedipus' torment and redemption, check it out). In 1970, JCS was brilliant because it was a ballsy, secular take on the most Christian of stories, but in a weird way, it's kind of circled around to being the first -- sometimes only -- exposure most people get to the Jesus story, and widely celebrated in liberal Christian sectors (****, even outside of them; the movie is often used in Catholic confirmation classes in my area as a teaching tool). I feel it'd be interesting to see JCS in the context I've given it: still rebellious, dark, contemporary, but leaning into Jesus' role as a subversive political activist and challenger of the religious/political status quo and the brutal and terrified response of the authorities, and dealing with our culture's ideas about community.

* Cast of 14. We don't need it to be Cecil B. DeMille on a dime.

* The guys playing Jesus and Judas would do split weeks, swapping each other's roles in the performance schedule, allowing them to play both sides of that remarkable relationship, and to give the cast and audience two equally valid ways to see these two powerful characters.

* JCS ain't The Sound of Music. It is rock, it is folk, it is soul, it even dips into gospel. This piece should be much closer to the garage than to the grand, and that would be reflected in casting and in sound.

Updated On: 6/7/19 at 12:20 PM

Hot Pants said: "And I thought of one more dream revival. Norbert Leo Butz and Ethan Slater starring in The Producers, as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom respectively(although I’m guessing most everyone reading this knew who I meant for which role). The supporting cast could be made up of Bertie Carvel as Roger Debris, Christian Borle as Carmen Ghia(Although I seriously struggle to see him accepting the role. As great a part as it is, Carmen is still second banana to Roger. But again, this is a dream cast), Danny Burstein as Franz Liebkind, and Taylor Louderman as Ulla. "

Yes PLEASE