What Neil Simon Plays Would Make Good Musicals?

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 2:27pm

My vote is BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS.

Wonderful Depression Setting; (worked for FLORA, THE RED MENANCE), PLENTY OF EXCELLENT SUPPORTING ROLES and a ready-made tour de force performance for Angela Lansbury as Kate.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 2:34pm

Because she's so....Jewish? And isn't Kate the mother? Lansbury is about 30 years past being able to get away with that, I would think.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 2:35pm

The Gingerbread Lady- Think of Patti in the role!

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 2:38pm

Rath,

I've already tried to fight that battle (shiksa princesses in Jewish roles) and LOST ROYALL!

Regarding Age, Lansbury might be a little too old for part, but I love her SO MUCH I would pay to see her recite her grocery list!

Maybe Betty Buckley is a more inspired choice.


Well Rath, what do you think? :)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 2:55pm

Unfortunately, the great Mme. Lansbury said in an interview sometime ago that she's finished with the stage -- too demanding for her at her age (though I hold out hope that she could be coaxed into doing a concert or a very limited run in something).'

As for the question, I wonder how well his plays would adapt into musicals. Most feature two character scenes and a single set and probably wouldn't expand well. It strikes me that the ideas he's had that he thought lent themselves to musicalization, he's already turned into musicals -- Little Me, Promises Promises, They're Playing Our Song, Sweet Charity, The Goodbye Girl. I don't know -- how about his movie "The Out-of-Towners" (the original version, not the unfunny remake).

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 2:59pm

Betty - also, a big ol' shiksa - also beginning to show a bit too much age to be the mother of young boys. This is coming from a shiksa who is currently playing Hodel in a production of FIDDLER, true, but it's not a professional production.

I'm blanking on appropriate actresses right now...I'll get back to you.

Updated On: 10/11/04 at 02:59 PM

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 3:05pm

Margo,

At the risk of repeating myself, BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS is an ENSEMBLE piece that could be "opened up" beautifully like the film version did--scenes at beach, at older's soon office, at poolhall, etc.

Re: THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS--VERY funny, I agree, but humor is tied to a New York that just doesn't exist anymore.

That is why the film remake was about as funny as a triple bypass.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 3:14pm

Sabrelady,

Patti LuPone in THE GINGERBREAD LADY! YES!

Although play is somewhat flawed in my opinion (too many emotional peaks and valleys in my opinion), perhaps Simon could re-think for musical version.

I saw Shelley Winters do play in Chicago years ago and I was SPELLBOUND. Relationship between mother and daughter is a knockout! I see it almost as a semi-operatic piece (like DREAMGIRLS, SUNSET BLVD., etc.)

By the way, have you ever seen diluted film version of play with Marsha Mason(!)--ONLY WHEN I LAUGH?

Please, don't get me started. . . :)

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 6:28pm

The Odd Couple - expanded of course

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 6:50pm

Mr. Roxy,

Who's your choice for the musical Oscar and Felix?

Would you have a big "ballet" number when Felix cleans the apartment? :)

[gettinhep]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 7:05pm

While my preference would be Brighton Beach Memoirs, I think that some claims could come from Laughter On The 23rd Floor. True, it was not a great success as a play but, it does contain an extensively neurotic central character and a whole raft of eccentric supporting characters. Also, it has a certain cache in terms of language. Remember the line, ' I'm going to miss speaking f___.' But, most of all it is about the early days of television- a concept that is not hard to sell.

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 10:40pm

funny you should mention the "Odd Couple". I must confess that for several years I've had a secret ambition to produce an "Odd Couple" project for stage. Can't go into detail...cause you never know who might like my early creative ramblings! But it's great source material.

Any rich investors out there?

[morosco]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 10:44pm

While we're on the subject of Neil Simon...I think I'd like to see a revival of They're Playing Our Song with Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker. A lot of money to be made there.

[jo]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 10:45pm

Wasn't there some recent news that Matthew and Broderick might do a revival of THE ODD COUPLE soon? Except, according to Matthew in a recent interview, that they couldn't decide who would play Oscar and who would play Felix

I would love to see that one!

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 10:49pm

Hi Morosco,

Matthew Broderick as the uptight middle class Broadway Composer and Sarah Jessica Parker as the free-spirited ditzy pop lyricst?

Sorry, it's NOT developing in my camera! :)

[MyNameInLights]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 10:55pm

The Brighton Beach Trilogy, totally. I'd like to see Barefoot in the Park too.

[pab]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 11:59pm

As for "The Gingerbread Lady", this was the musical that Neil Simon was trying to write, with Marvin Hamlisch, and it was not going anywhere. They decided to stop working on it but Simon remembered conversations that he had had during his working sessions with Hamlisch about his relationship with Carole Bayer Sager. A few months later Simon presented Hamlisch with a new script based on the relationship of a Composer and Lyricist and that musical became "They’re Playing Our Song".

[Marquise]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 12:20am

wow barefoot in the park would make an interesting musical.
by the way that's one of my all time favorite movies!

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 6:00pm

Marquise,

I see Marc Kudish & Sutton Faster in the musical version... you think it will play? :)

By the way, BAREFOOT IN THE PARK was Simon's semi-autobiographical portroyal of newlywed life with his wife, Joan.

After Joan passed away, he again used his life for art and wrote CHAPTER TWO, about a widower who recently lost his wife.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 6:49pm

Beaverhausen,

Definitely... YOU CAN'T MAKE IT WITH YOU would make a PRIME Musical! The Depression Setting, all those marvelous characters (each one a little "off" in their own way,) and the theme (Happiness vs. Money) AS IMPORTANT today as it was in 1937.

I'm racking my brain, but can't think of the right artist for Grandpa... who do you see? :)

Updated On: 10/12/04 at 06:49 PM

[kikki327]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 10:03pm

Laughter on the 23rd Floor
I saw it last spring at a local college and it was hysterical!

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 10:07pm

Pab,

That is SO COOL!!!

I had no idea THAT was the genesis of THEY'RE PLAYING MY SONG. Have you seen the production?

[pab]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 11:50pm

Yes, I saw Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz do the show on Broadway a number of years ago. I think it was around 1979.

[dano]

Posted: 10/13/04 at 9:37am

Laughter on the 23rd Floor as a musical could very possibly end up very similar to My Favorite Year.

[BillyLawlor]

Posted: 10/13/04 at 12:27pm

Brighton Beach Memoirs, DEFINITELY. It has great components for a musical. The characters want to sing (in my head at least). I'd love to see a puberty patter song thrown into the mix. Hahahaha.