WHere Have They Gone?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/7/03 at 10:22pm

Where have the great song writng teams gone such as ?

1. Bock & Harnick
2. Schmidt/Jones
3. Strouse/Adams

Strouse to me is the Susan Lucci of composers. By that I mean he has no luck. How many times was Lucci nominated for an Emmy & never won? Finally she did

How many shows has he consistantly written a good score for only to see them crash & burn such as :

1. Dance A Little Closer
2. A Broadway Musical
3. Nick & Nora
4. Annie 2
5. Superman

He deserves a hit

Updated On: 11/7/03 at 10:22 PM

[DofB5]

Posted: 11/7/03 at 10:26pm

Can't speak for anyone else, but I'm drawing a blank Mr. R.

D

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/7/03 at 10:27pm

Go back, I just put in the message . Oops

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/7/03 at 10:40pm

I beg to differ: Nick & Snora was not a good score. It had an excellent cast though, but they couldn't rise above the bad music and story.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/7/03 at 10:54pm

Re Nick & Nora - To me " Everybody Wants to Do A Musical" is a classic. To each his own

[bob8rich]

Posted: 11/8/03 at 10:04am

I agree with what you say about the 3 sets of songwriters - all highly underrated.

I love Schmidt & Jones - the scores for 110 In The Shade and Collette Collage are particularly fabulous. They have written primarily for off Broadway rather than mainstream shows - and are still working! Their show "Roadside" was done at the York Theatre in New York in November 2001 (and the CD is great). I read that they are working on "Grovers Corners", a musicalization of "Our Town".

Bock and Harnick are great too. As well as their well known "She Loves Me" and "Fiddler", I love the scores of their lesser known shows such as "The Rothschilds" and "Fiorello". I have not heard anything of them of late though. But Harnick's musical "Dragons" is being staged in Montclair NJ Nov.13- December 21

I agree that Charles Strouse deserves a hit. He has consistently written fabulous melodies ("Once Upon A Time" from "All American" is my fav of his.) The ill-fated "Dance A Little Closer" (harshly described by some as "Close A Little Faster") is full of wonderful songs - as is "Nick and Nora" and many of his other shows. Strouse has been working on the musical "Marty", and there was talk of a New York staging a while ago but nothing has materialized.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/8/03 at 11:27am

Strouse was also working on "The Night They Raided Minsky's" & he also did an unproduced musical " Mr Bojangles "

Jones/Schmidt "Grovers Corners" has been in gestation for years. They did one years ago " Philemon " which I enjoyed. Some of the songs from "Colette" are better than anything now on Broadway

I believe Bock & Harnick had a falling out but I could be wrong on that one.

Updated On: 11/8/03 at 11:27 AM