Time for a Call Me Madam revival?

I've been relistening through Berlin's show of the 40's and 50's as of late, and Call Me Madam in particular has been in heavy rotation for me - while not a perfect show, the score truly holds up beyond nostalgia, and with the political satire angle, I think it could do well in today's revival market.

Encores had a production in the mid 90's starring Tyne Daly in Ethel's role, but it unfortunately didn't go further than that - I would love to have seen Tyne perform The Best Thing For You.

What are you thoughts? Could Call Me Madam work to modern sensibility? Who would you want to see in a remounting?

Jordan Catalano said: "Encores is doing the show again in February."

Well then! I completely missed that press release - thank you for the quick reply Jordan, I'm going to have to work on getting a ticket. Any word on casting?

Reprise LA revived it about a decade ago with Karen Morrow and Hugh Panaro. Their "You're Just in Love" was absolutely epic!

I saw it with Ethel Merman on tour in 1966 and even then the book was heavily rewritten to refer to LBJ rather than Truman. Half the book consists of the leading lady on the phone with the White House. I'm not saying you couldn't get laughs with Trump--Who can't?--but at this point, even the score is hopelessly dated.

The show makes hay with the Marshall Program, in which the US gave money right and left to help combatants in WWII (including our enemies in that conflict) rebuild themselves so as to stave off the appeal of Communism. In 2018, it has been decades since the US led the world in humanitarian aid as a percentage of GNP. The myth that we support the world persists (see any speech by our moron president), but it simply is not true.

Now that Trump is actively trying to retreat from ALL our world commitments, the jokes in Call Me Madam would be funny for all the wrong reasons. Even a new book would also require a rewritten score.

Don't get me wrong: Call Me Madam was one of the few show albums my small town library had when I was a kid. I saw it twice on tour with Merman and twice again with Morrow. But I am old enough (64) to have grown up during the Cold War so there's a sort of nostalgia for me in the obsolete jokes. But I wouldn't try to sell the evening to anyone younger.

Updated On: 9/15/18 at 12:54 AM

It's time has come and gone. Satire depends on the audience knowing the target!

^^^ You saw Merman and Nype IN THE ROUND?! Whatever made you think you could even offer an opinion?

Seriously, I don't entirely disagree with you on the Reprise production. I just said the one number was smoking, and it was the night I saw it. The audience wouldn't let them stop until they did a "real" encore (their third) in addition to the fake encores Reprise always programmed into their shows.

(Of course, one might compare that to the first time I saw the Merman/Nype production (with a proscenium, as God intended): an elderly matinee audience made them sing the counterpoint chorus SEVEN times. Merman and Nype were dancing the Twist by the last encore and all semblance of representation had been dropped.)

I don't know why you took a tone as if you and I were arguing when, except for seeing "You're Just in Love" on different nights, it seems to me we agree completely. Hmmm...

Updated On: 9/15/18 at 03:07 AM

Related: Lil’ Abner could work if it were revised to be a stand-alone piece that works without an audience recognition or reverence for the long forgotten comic strip. If you present the notion of Dogpatch as high concept instead of as nostalgia, it could work.

With one exception. If it’s a period piece it’s a period piece, but otherwise, hillbilly humor hasn’t aged well. Partially because the hillbillies are all transmuted info new stereotypes today (survivalists, dangerous mountain outlaw communities, or just standard rednecks/white trash), and partially because a lot of that hillbilly humor seems like punching down nowadays. It’s like trying to use an old character type like Ching Chong the buck toothed Chinese railway man: both recognizably prejudiced, and totally divorced from the modern era.

darquegk said: "Related: Lil’ Abner could work if it were revised to be a stand-alone piece that works without an audience recognition or reverence for the long forgotten comic strip. If you present the notion of Dogpatch as high concept instead of as nostalgia, it could work.

With one exception. If it’s a period piece it’s a period piece, but otherwise, hillbilly humor hasn’t aged well. Partially because the hillbillies are all transmuted info new stereotypes today (survivalists, dangerous mountain outlaw communities, or just standard rednecks/white trash), and partially because a lot of that hillbilly humor seems like punching down nowadays. It’s like trying to use an old character type like Ching Chong the buck toothed Chinese railway man: both recognizably prejudiced, and totally divorced from the modern era."

I did a critically acclaimed production of Li'l Abner four years ago - I did a few things to it - it worked perfectly and got huge laughs from beginning to end. Li'l Abner requires a director who understands the jokes, and a cast who understands how to play them. But you can't do it exactly as written, but then again you have to know what to adjust, which I did :) We sold out the entire run.

bk said: "I did a critically acclaimed production of Li'l Abner four years ago - I did a few things to it - it worked perfectly and got huge laughs from beginning to end. Li'l Abner requires a director who understands the jokes, and a cast who understands how to play them. But you can't do it exactly as written, but then again you have to know what to adjust, which I did :)



Yes, Bruce -- I'm sure that you believe that is EXACTLY what you did (I saw it and you're giving yourself a bit too much credit, dear)!

Don't strain your neck trying to kiss your own a** so hard!

darquegk said: "Related: Lil’ Abner could work if it were revised to be a stand-alone piece that works without an audience recognition or reverence for the long forgotten comic strip. If you present the notion of Dogpatch as high concept instead of as nostalgia, it could work.

With one exception. If it’s a period piece it’s a period piece, but otherwise, hillbilly humor hasn’t aged well. Partially because the hillbillies are all transmuted info new stereotypes today (survivalists, dangerous mountain outlaw communities, or just standard rednecks/white trash), and partially because a lot of that hillbilly humor seems like punching down nowadays. It’s like trying to use an old character type like Ching Chong the buck toothed Chinese railway man: both recognizably prejudiced, and totally divorced from the modern era."

Excellent analysis, as usual. And too bad, because I truly love the score, which may be the most tuneful and hilarious in the annals of musical comedy.

But I don't know what "high concept" could make sense of "What's good for General Motors is good for the USA". I can imagine half the audience loudly sighing, "Huh? What is General Motors?"

And don't even get me started on the homophobic subplot that all body builders are either gay or eunuchs. I mean I get it and I remember the period, so I overlook the theme, but I don't know if Gen X and Millennials will do the same. I suppose a steroids-make-your-balls-shrink subplot could be written in instead.

(BTW, when I was a kid in a small city with only one theater, lots of high schools were doing L'il Abner because it has so many juicy supporting roles. I lost track of how many amateur productions I saw. I've never seen it done professionally, except for the very faithful film.)

But I absolutely agree with your main point: I'm not sure I'd find Trump Nation so amusing these days.

bk said: "darquegk said: "Related: Lil’ Abner could work if it were revised to be a stand-alone piece that works without an audience recognition or reverence for the long forgotten comic strip. If you present the notion of Dogpatch as high concept instead of as nostalgia, it could work.

With one exception. If it’s a period piece it’s a period piece, but otherwise, hillbilly humor hasn’t aged well. Partially because the hillbillies are all transmuted info new stereotypes today (survivalists, dangerous mountain outlaw communities, or just standard rednecks/white trash), and partially because a lot of that hillbilly humor seems like punching down nowadays. It’s like trying to use an old character type like Ching Chong the buck toothed Chinese railway man: both recognizably prejudiced, and totally divorced from the modern era."

I did a critically acclaimed production of Li'l Abner four years ago - I did a few things to it - it worked perfectly and got huge laughs from beginning to end. Li'l Abner requires a director who understands the jokes, and a cast who understands how to play them. But you can't do it exactly as written, but then again you have to know what to adjust, which I did :) We sold out the entire run."

BK, I'd love to hear more about how you made it work. I don't doubt you, not at all. I just have trouble picturing it.

I love Karen. She can be very hard on herself. But I recorded her and we loved being in the studio together - she was so scared of the microphone and not having an audience, but I talked her though it and she's fantastic on those four tracks we did together. She's a treasure any way you slice it.

As to Abner, I had a very specific idea about it and if you read the reviews I posted you can at least get the gist of it. I've been very secretive about exactly what I did, but I can tell you that no reference in the show had the audience scratching their head. It was fun to get it right and I can only tell you I had the best cast, which makes everything easy. And the pace - I got it down to two hours WITH the intermission. But honestly I was worried about the audience reaction. At the invited dress all my worries went away in about five seconds - first of all the overture had a really funny bit we did in it that warmed the audience up, but I have to tell you the laughs were so huge from the minute people stepped onstage right through to the end. And though I've been castigated by some dope in this very thread, who says he saw it, which I don't believe for one second, for kissing my own ass, well, I didn't write the show, I just did it so that it worked. Panama and Frank and De Paul and Mercer are the writers and there are no better. And at some point the estates of the authors (who heard about it) are going to sit down and talk about what we did and see if they'd like to license out that version.

Updated On: 9/16/18 at 04:15 AM