"The Rink" deserves a revival!

[jimmirae]

Posted: 12/11/05 at 3:08am

I think it's about time, and it's so much fun to note that Chita could actually play the same role again if she cared to! It would be hard replacing Liza as "Angel" but, Stockard Channing did it during the first go round the Rink!
"Here's to THE RINK, And ALL of US TOGTHER, Let's drink to that!"

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 12/11/05 at 3:12am

i love it!!! do u have any gossip about the show??? why did Liza miss so many performances??? what about Jason Alexander??? was he a big star back then???

[jimmirae]

Posted: 12/11/05 at 3:38am

Liza left the show & headed west to the Betty Ford Center for personal issues. Jason was not THAT big a deal way back then, It can be a quick journey from the Chorus to TV sometimes if you are lucky and smart.
I would have said beautiful but one does not have to be "Beautiful" to be a Star, that is why they invented Barbra Streisand, But she had the last laugh, she IS GORGEOUS! Like BUTTAH!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/11/05 at 3:45am

Whoa, muscle got a little too excited there...jk
Anyways, I have never heard the music from this show but yoou can't go wrong with Kander and Ebb. There's other shows they've done that should be revived too...KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN,hint hint.
On the Kander & Ebb book Colored Lights, they mentioned that back then Liza was having many issues already so that's why it was hard on Chita who is such a disciplined performer.

[jimmirae]

Posted: 12/11/05 at 4:22am

Oh Ray, You MUST get a copy of "The Rink"!!! If you liked "Spider Woman", You will LOOSE IT when you hear "The Rink"!!!! It has a synopsis and the songs are pretty easy to pick up on in telling the story themselves, But that is the ULTIMATE Broadway CD for me! Liza and Chita shine in HARMONY!! (And it's a HOOT too!!)
I love it the second time Chita sings "Ooh!! In The ASS!!" to Liza on "Don't Ah Ma Me!" and when Liza sings "Try a little lower" and Chita does that voice "SCRATCH MY BAAAAAAACK!!!" on "The Apple doesn't fall"
It's Vunderbar!

Updated On: 12/11/05 at 04:22 AM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/11/05 at 5:17am

Hmm,now you got me really interested on the show. I'll go to the University of Florida music library and listen to it on Monday. I don't know why I haven't heard a cast recording with Chita and Liza on the same show!

[Jon]

Posted: 12/11/05 at 7:42am

You REALLY think Chita can convincingly play a 48 year old woman (who has to play a teenager in flashbacks)? Karen Ziemba or Bebe Neuwirth are the right age and type to play the role now.

By the way, Jason Alexander was a total unknown at the time - he had only done MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 12/11/05 at 8:33am

I've been saying Karen Ziemba should play Anna for YEARS now. Either Julia Murney or Emily Skinner could convincingly play Angel.

It's unlikely that we'll see a revival any time soon. I would be happy to see it done at some kind of concert staging, like Encores or Mufti.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/11/05 at 10:08am

The show probably sounds tempting, because of the recording, but it was a nasty piece of work on stage. (The show's nickname while it was running was The Rank.) The gang rape ballet of Chita Rivera for the Act One finale was a particular low point, both in her career and in '80s theatregoing. The male characters were all pigs, with the exception of Jason Alexander's saintly Lenny. Chita was great, Liza tried hard, the big ugly set pulled off a pretty stunning transformation in the last minutes of the show, and there was a very cute tap dance on bubble wrap for the wreckers, and that toe-tapping title song, performed on roller skates, but the rest? A dreary, depressing evening.

[jv92]

Posted: 12/11/05 at 10:55am

Yeah, I heard it was a mess.
To be honest with you, I think they should do a concert of the show, just because the score is that good. A full revival, I don't think so.

[Jon]

Posted: 12/11/05 at 11:20am

Terrence McNally revised the script about five years ago. We did it at our theatre. The new script softens up some of the darker scenes, and it takes some of the emphasis off Angel, making Anna the true lead. It moves "Colored Lights" from the opening to the end of Act One, and eliminates "Angel's Rink and Social Center". It has completely new lyrics for "All the Children in a Row", changing it from a hippie anthem to a song about Angel traveling the country looking for her father. It eliminates the disgusting character of Uncle Fausto, among others. It removes specific references to being set in the 1970's, and could be set in the present.

Our production was quite well received. We happened to have a real mother and daughter in the leads.

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 2:33pm

Sorry Smaxie, I disagree. I liked the show's hard edge and general unpleasantness. I thought it was realistic in that most of the characters were selfish and self-centered. Coney Island, indeed much of New York, was unsafe, graffiti-ridden, and ugly. For me, the show mirrored the general despair the country felt (Ronald Reagan's sappy 'Morning in America' re-election campaign notwithstanding). I thought Liza and Chita were both giving outstanding, three-dimensional characterizations of women who had each been around the block and were getting screwed over by the men in their lives, and life in general. I was riveted by the entire show and remember walking out of the theatre totally wrung-out.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 3:11pm

Hushpuppy---I couldn't have said it better myself. I saw the original twice and loved it for all of the reasons you outlined.

[jimmirae]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 5:39pm

Very well put Hushpuppy! I don't want to see any "Modern Day" rewrites either, I liked it just the way it was, and put "Colored Lights" and "Angel's rink and social center" back in! The show worked!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 5:55pm

What the heck is THE RINK about? (Yes, I know Chita won her first Tony from it). Is there a cast recording?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 5:57pm

Yes, there is a cast recording. It's about the relationship between a Mother (Chita) and Daughter (Liza) and the mother's plans to sell the roller rink that the daughter wants to keep open.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 6:23pm

All of you who are asking for a revival of this show obviously never sat through THE RINK. It was a dreary mess. The plot was little more than : "Shut up", "No, you shut up", "No, you shut up".

Chita was no more an Italian mother than Susan Lucci was Annie Oakley. Liza was okay.

I'm glad it closed.

[jimmirae]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 6:26pm

Contrary to others belief, The show was damned good and had Liza not had problems, it would have ran longer.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 6:52pm

Jason Alexander has talked about the show and stated that Liza & her performance were what drove the show. When she left & Stockard Channing came in the show lost it's"high wire tension" and closed 6 wks after. I liked the show for the most part loved the wreckers doubling in drag for the neighbourhood biddies and yes the title song was a lot of fun. Blue Crystal was one of my favs. I think an "opened up" concert version would be excellent.

[Flahooley]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 7:53pm

Ouch!!! Revival? Maybe some regional produciton, but that show stinks. Fun score (too broadway brassy for those characters, think), weird book(all that pointless arguing, makes FOLLIES look cheerful).

Nope, can't say I'd agree that a revival is necessary.
Updated On: 12/13/05 at 07:53 PM

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 8:14pm

I did see The Rink on a very cold day in March when the Martin Beck apparently had no heat. That may have accounted for my negative experience. Still think it's a pretty sour show though.

A couple of points in its favor though -

- Some very funny put-downs between Chita and Liza

Chita to Liza: "You know that certain outfits you wear incite me. Why did you have to wear all of them at once?"

- A long amount of stage time for Chita, Liza and the audience to contemplate Frank Mastrocola's perfect ass during "The Apple Doesn't Fall".

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 8:44pm

I have not seen the show, but have always loved the OBCR. There is some great music- Blue Crystal, Colored Lights, We Can Make It...and one of Fred Ebb's greatest works, Don't Ah Ma Me! Those are some of the best lyrics ever written.

I do know that a score does not a show make - I have sat through some shows that have wonderful scores but just don't work onstage. If there were a revival of this, I would jump at the chance to see it. I'd love to see it done by Encores, as someone suggested.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 8:50pm

Thankfully, though, Encores! is getting around to 70, Girls, 70, which for all of the messiness of the original book (I've never read the revised version) plays like gangbusters. Audiences go nuts for that show...

[Tirso de Molina]

Posted: 12/13/05 at 12:12am

I saw the original production and I would support a revival, but only with the right cast -- it's not a foolproof show by any stretch of the imagination. (but then again, how many are?! that's a subject for another thread!) I do remember genuinely enjoying the performance.

Of course, I was 20 years younger and less critical then, so maybe I'd be a harsher critic now! But I'd still buy a ticket to find out.

[jimmirae]

Posted: 12/13/05 at 12:55am

Very well said. And on a lighter note, wouldn't it be FUN to see Stritch as Anna and Chita as Angel, LOL! (Just Joking, LOL! with Liza doing a walk in as Little Anna, LOL!)