Thoughts on "The Life"?

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 1:13am

I recently discovered "The Life" through the 1997 Tony performance and it looks like such an intriguing show. Did anyone here see it/what did you think? Lillias White sounds amazing in this clip. It seems like a great role for her, from the little I've seen.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 1:16am

Saw it, and except for Lillias, didn't like it.
The original show looked very cheap.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 1:21am

True, Lilias White was great in the original, too, and brought the house down with her solos. But I personally found the show (set in the bad-old-days of the Times Square hooker cesspool of the mid-70's) so chock full of urban (read black and latino) cliches about pimps, hookers, drugs, innocent white trash hookers from Kansas, etc etc, that I was left with very little to cherish when it was all over. Reviews for a different show decades ago claimed you can't get draw sweet water out of a foul well, and that certainly proved true here for me. I know others on this board will disagree.

(That pithy review was used to describe the original 1940 production of Rogers & Hart's Pal Joey.)

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 1:56am

I saw it the week after the 1997 Tony Awards and it deserved the awards for Lilias White and Chuck Cooper. Sam Harris was great as Jojo, the neighbourhood wheeler-dealer. Cy coleman's score was not consistently good enough to rank among his best, but as with any of his scores it was not without interest. The duet "My Friend" at the end was espcially touching. I have to confess I don't listen to the cast album all that much. Audiences were put off by the strong language and one scene in particular where Cooper (as te meanest pimp in town) brutally beats his woman for her disloyalty. I predicted then that THE LIFE would not play well in regional and commuity theatres and so far it hasn't had much of an afterlife. I had a better time at both TITANIC and STEEL PIER (the other 2 big new musicals that season.)

[Famebroadway2]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 8:07am

I saw it and i absolutely loved the choreography (the little that there was) and staging. Lilias stopped the show with EVERY number she was in. Whenever the hookers were onstage the show flowed very well, but when they were not and we were left with the men the show came to a screeching stop. Kinda like Sister Act!

[newintown]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 9:28am

The show is really tacky - an old fat white men's fantasy about hookers and people of color. The moral seemed to be "although it has its hardships, prostitution ain't such a bad job for a hot chick, and you form strong lasting friendships."

[jpbran]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 10:25am

One of only 3-4 shows I've bailed on at intermission. Tacky and shrill (but with a couple of good performances, mentioned above.)

[egghumor]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 10:28am

Sadly, I agree with newintown especially and most of the other negative responses to THE LIFE. It was one of those shows that begged the question: Why?
I also thought Pamela Isaacs did the best she could with a terrible role.
I remember there was a studio recording of the score that preceded the Broadway production by a year or so. Liza Minnelli appears on that one! I can't remember who else.

Updated On: 5/26/11 at 10:28 AM

[egghumor]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 10:34am

jpbran's post reminds me of the rare occasions when I left a show at intermission. Wanna start a thread about what shows we left after (or during) Act One?

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 10:35am

Some good performers and a few good songs, but I really didn't like the show. It tried to be gritty and cute simultaneously, but didn't succeed at either. I remember it being described as the dark sequel to Sweet Charity, but at least Sweet Charity had a singular tone and stuck with it. The Life was just a mess and tried to force you to care about an entire cast of unlikeable characters. The Hooker's Ball was just...ugh. Embarrassing.

[egghumor]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 10:47am

Here's alink for info about the studio recording I mentioned earlier:
http://www.amazon.com/Music-Life-Musical-1995-Concept/dp/B000003FSM/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1306421077&sr=1-2-fkmr0

I forgot that Jennifer Holliday appears on it as well. New and used copies are fast and cheap! (not unlike the show)

[bryan2]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 11:37am

The Life had a decent score, I thought Pamela Isaacs and Lillias White were incredible..and Sam Harris deserved the Tony over Chuck Cooper , who I love but I thought he was stiff and really dull in this, but the subject was like a candy coated version of TImes Sq back in the day..didnt love it but had its moments...when the hookers sang it was fun

[bryan2]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 11:37am

The Life had a decent score, I thought Pamela Isaacs and Lillias White were incredible..and Sam Harris deserved the Tony over Chuck Cooper , who I love but I thought he was stiff and really dull in this, but the subject was like a candy coated version of TImes Sq back in the day..didnt love it but had its moments...when the hookers sang it was fun

[ArtMan]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 12:58pm

I loved The Life. I didn't know too much about it going in. Saw it Tony week and bought it on the half off. When the character was sick In Act 2 with an unknown disease, you knew it was Aids. For someone who had many friends pass away from Aids, the timing of seeing the show in 1997 made me cry like a baby in the theatre. I cannot speak for the quality of the show, score, chorography. But the performances were outstanding and to me, extremely touching. I had the pleasure of telling Lillias White at the Tony afterparty how her performance moved me. It made me start to cry in front of her. I felt a little embarrassed. But she was so kind to me.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 1:42pm

The talent was great: of course Lillias White was brilliant. I have to say Pamela Isaacs had a beautiful belt soprano.

The material was just so-so. Some of the songs were nice but it wasn't Coleman's best work.

Unfortunately the places where the show bombed, it really bombed. When you have a huge production number dedicated to a hooker's ball, you're on a slippery slope. When the lyrics go: "And though there is no Mother Goose, there really is a hooker's ball" you're scraping the bottom of the barrel.

It was a dark musical with an opening number that didn't warm the audience to the subject matter. It was just so grim with no redeeming or cleansing qualities.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 2:16pm

I have good memories of that show because it's where I first saw and heard Lillias White. I loved her voice and performance.

Frankly, I loved the show and the music and the singing and would see it again in a heartbeat. I did think the musical should have focused on the cross trajectories of the hooker on the downhill (White) versus the hooker on the rise as the most fascinating focus of the show and analogous to other situations in life, but I found the show very rewarding to attend.

I met both Lillias White and Mary Wilson at the recording party for the cast CD somewhat by chance another evening at a downtown club that is best described as a "scene." Someone had given me an invitation. I had just landed a champagne and Mary appeared suddenly and was soif and in need of a table; I shared my table and gave her the champagne. Lillias came and found us later, just a delight. Those ladies were kind and took the trouble to both learn this stranger's name and use it and to include me in conversation, very warm and gracious. Mary Wilson had to be in her fifties but time wears exceptionally well with her; she looked a young beauty of 30. Mary was very modest and did not reveal her name until we said goodbye.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 5/26/11 at 2:36pm

I love the score, especially "He's No Good," "Easy Money," "My Body," and "You Can't Get to Heaven."

[spike3]

Posted: 5/27/11 at 2:42pm

wasnt bad , wasnt great. I made many friends with that show. Liza performed one night w/ sam after the curtain call (as business was slowing down she wanted to help anyway she could-sam was a friend of hers) The party for the release of the cast album was downtown at a club called Life, if I remember correctly it was on Bleecker St. It is now long closed. When Lillias was out business suffered, and when Sam lost the Tony, he had a slight "fit"(alledgedly) and missed many performances.The late Mark Anthony Taylor was in the ensemble , I believe it was his Broadway debut

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/27/11 at 2:58pm

Lillias and Chuck were terrific, Pamela and Sam were okay. The book was atrocious and embarrassing. That Hooker's Ball that poor Vernel Bagneris, a talented man, had to perform was just AWFUL! I had high hopes for this and was so disappointed. You were only okay if Lillias was onstage.

And the outfit they had Chuck in showed his manboobs...I dont know how he had such a good performance with that embarrassing turtleneck.

[jpbran]

Posted: 5/27/11 at 4:07pm

I think there already is a thread (or two) about leaving midway through a show. It consists of people talking about leaving (usually at intermission, but some during the actual performance). The rest is people losing their **** at the thought of someone being so wasteful and rude as to not stay through the entire show.

Sorry, I know I paid, but my if I stay through a ****ty show, I'm wasting my time in addition to my money.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 5/27/11 at 4:33pm

Thank you, spike3, so the bar was "Life." I also remember it as on Bleeker Street, perhaps on two levels, including one downstairs below street level where I found my table, which was really a u-shaped booth. The place seemed huge and it was packed. Lots of outlandish outfits and attention-getting hairstyles on the party attendees if not the cast members.

The late James Stovall was also a cast member.

[spike3]

Posted: 5/27/11 at 4:40pm

yes nomdeplume that is the place .party was on the lower level and it WAS packed. took forever to get to the bar. and i cant believe i forgot about james-both he and mark were sweethearts, and very talented gentlemen.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 5/27/11 at 4:43pm

I am hoping that there will be a theatrical memorial soon for James Stovall as that has not taken place yet, though I do believe it is in the offing.

[temms]

Posted: 5/27/11 at 5:02pm

I don't disagree that as a work of drama, it's a little stupid. But I loved the show. From the first moment of the play where we're informed that Big Chi Chi eventually dies by getting hit by a garbage truck, to the end with Lilias surrendering to the cops with her hands in the air as she staggers toward them, I loved it. I have never loved such a badly written show so much. And not in the laugh-at-it way; something about it made me have a wonderful time despite the absurdity. It was just so alive, silly as it was. Coming after "Titanic" and "Steel Pier" and "Jekyll and Hyde", it was such a breath of fresh, fun, nonpretentious air. And Cy Coleman is always a pro, no matter the project.

So I will never defend its merits as a quality show, but I will absolutely say that I thoroughly enjoyed the evening I spent in the theatre watching the ridiculousness.

[spike3]

Posted: 5/27/11 at 5:40pm

lillias white stopped the show cold just about every night doing The Oldest Profession