The Art of the Revival

While I agree with you about giving revivals a new twist - I can't see why we need a revival of Chorus Line that's going to have the exact same score, book, and look - I don't agree about the "black" Annie. I don't really agree with any show that's "all black" for shock value. I would think that we - as a culture - have moved on from that. I mean, I can see like "glass menagerie" as all black just because they're families, but an "all black" annie? No. that's stupid.

I suppose there is a very fine line of what are acceptable changes to a show, but couldn't there be implications of certain things (such as Annie's waking from a dream) -- not implicit changes to the script that would still be allowed? That is more the idea I was going for, no new scenes or songs, but perhaps new ideas through staging or casting. I saw a female in the role of the Emcee in "Cabaret" which was fabulous.

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How would casting ANNIE with an entirely black cast make it all that different?

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How about a black version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC!

Seriously I guess for any revival to succeed it has to appear "fresh" and that has as much to do with design as performance. I too can't really see the sense of doing A CHORUS LINE exactly as it was done in 1976 unless it is just to show us how it was in 1976 for some historical reason.

The topic makes me think of some of the changes made in the current revival of Pajama Game. The script has been rewritten somewhat--the plot is not changed, but one major change in the script is that Babe is much more sexually open then in the original. In the original the Babe-Sid scenes are "hot" but he is always the one coming on strong. In the revival at Roundabout, prior to Once a Year Day, Babe says something to the effect that she has had the hots for Sid since she first saw him in the factory. Wouold a woman have said that in 1954? It didn't diminish the enjoyment of the revival for me, but it certainly was a stark contrast to the original.
Another difference is that Gladys, as created by Carol Haney was a young hoyden, flirtatious and friendly to all men.The Roundabout's Gladys seems more frumpy, a close relative to Guys and Dolls' Miss Adelaide, and certainly older. Maybe this was to justify her relationship with Hines. I found myself not liking this version of Gladys that much, it was too limited for me, though I certainly admired Megan Lawrence's committment to it.
Maybe Kathleen Marshall, whom I assume was responsable for the changes, wanted to make Babe the sexual center of the piece, with no rivals. If this was her idea, she definitely succeeded.

There are one or two other quirky changes that I noticed as well, but I would be interested to hear from other posters whether they noticed these changes and if it effected them.

With Pajama Game, I think since Marshall had decided to "split" the role of Gladys into singing and dancing components giving all the really fancy dancing to a dancer. (ok except Hernando's Hideaway but that is an ensemble piece)it only made sense to give ths singing roles to a more mature actress for the reason you mentioned- the relationship w Hinsey seems more loving, not just an old goat w a young kid. Marshall et all really enhanced the 2ndary couple which was ok but not an improvement.

Yeah they did do an all black production of Hello Dolly during the 60's. I think it was more of an attempt to infuse some life back into the show. It was in 1967, and they just replaced all of the white cast members with black cast members. So it wasn't really a revival, it was more stunt casting.

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