The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny - 1970 Off-Broadway Production

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The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny - 1970 Off-Broadway Production

Posted: 5/22/16 at 5:18pm

Does anyone have information on this production? It starred Barbara Harris (her last New York theatre appearance) and Estelle Parsons. I know it was rather infamous, with many opening postponements while numerous changes were made. The main actor was replaced, then his replacement was replaced, ect. After all that, the production closed after only 8 (official) performances. Regardless, Harris and Parsons must have done magic to Weill's work. Just listen to Barbara Harris sing "Alabama Song":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8fg843i7gA

"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir

Updated On: 5/22/16 at 05:18 PM

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny - 1970 Off-Broadway Production

Posted: 5/22/16 at 6:17pm

Adore Harris and it's such a pity this wasn't recorded properly.

Sadly the circulating audio linked here is terrible sounding and not particularly listenable. I've heard that there's a better quality but incomplete boot out there, boy would I love to hear that.

Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny - 1970 Off-Broadway Production

Posted: 5/27/16 at 12:39am

I'll take the Metropolitan Opera production from 1979 available on DVD through the MET gift shop.

Well-well-well-what-do-you-think-of-that-I-have-nothing-here-to-pay-my-train-fare-with-only-large-bills-fives-and-sevens....

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny - 1970 Off-Broadway Production

Posted: 5/27/16 at 2:18am

How was the televised John Doyle production with (I think?) Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone? Is it a decent introduction? I've been wanting to check out this piece; I love Weill but haven't encountered it in person.

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny - 1970 Off-Broadway Production

Posted: 5/27/16 at 7:16am

The LA Opera version is fine. I like Michael Feingold's translation, and Audra and (especially) Tony Griffey are great. But John Doyle's production is a little ridiculous, and although Patti captures the character, she's virtually unlistenable. Overall, of the available versions, I prefer the 1979 Met Opera production (with Teresa Stratas and Astrid Varnay) or the 1998 Salzburg production (in German).

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny - 1970 Off-Broadway Production

Posted: 5/27/16 at 12:14pm

Re Scarywarhol:

Audra McDonald was fantastic in the 2007 production but she's in a different world than the rest of the cast. Her leading man is "opera acting." It's a similar disconnect to many Opera productions of Sweeney Todd that cast an "Opera" Sweeney and a "Musical Theater" Lovett.

threepanelmusicals.blogspot.com

Updated On: 5/27/16 at 12:14 PM

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