What defines a 'concert' and how does it get to Bway?

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 11:57pm

Ok, I'm watching the broadway.com clip of the Hair benefit concert, and I see a full stage with costumes, etc. ; everthing but a set (actually, it could very well be a set.) I thought I read somewhere that Chicago started off as a concert and was so successful it transfered to Broadway as an actual revival. Is this true? Could Hair have done that? Is that why Chicago doesn't have a set...I thought that was just one of the artistic characterics of the produciton. Someone please explain to me the details of a 'concert' and what that actually means.

[musicaltheatreman]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 1:46am

correct me if i am wrong but a concert of a musical focuses on the music and not so much on the book. and there is not much blocking used. and chicago was a staged reading and there was blocking. i believe scripts were used, but when it went to broadway the dropped book. but then again i could be wrong.

[Broadway Matt]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 2:20am

I'm assuming rentaholic is talking about the revival. The CHICAGO concert you're talking about was the 1996 City Center Encores run that was very much the basis and starting point for the current incarnation on Broadway. It involved virtually all the same cast/staff, and the concerts might be seen as a sort of test period to see how interested the public is, whether a full revival is warranted. Same deal with the current Wonderful Town revival. successful Encores concert convinces the POWERS THAT BE that a revival is a good idea.

as for chicago's design, the minimalist set of the Broadway version doesn't hsve anything to do with the concert. it's an artistic choice.

HAIR is a completely different story, as it was a 1-night-only benefit concert. the goal was to support and celebrate a great cause as well as to celebrate the musical aspects of a beloved show. There was staging involved but it was not a staged production. The focus was not on the story, and the songs were performed not by characters but by the actors as themselves. songs normally sung by the same character were distributed to different performers, giving many people the chance to perform from roles they would never get cast in for real. the fact that costumes and some staging were used does not make it a staged production. if that were the case, then an Elton John or Prince or Britney show would fit the same criteria and be classified as a production too.

[MusicMan]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 8:19am

Concerts are a cost-effective (i.e. cheap) way to present a show. In CHICAGO's case, it worked due to the vaudevillian nature of the show. Nonetheless, it's minimalist set was most certainly conceived with budgetary as well as aesthetic considerations in mind and reflects its concert origins.

[Jon]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 9:50am

The ENCORES series of concerts are supposed to focus on the musical score. The CHICAGO presentation did cut some of the dialogue, but not much.

When ENCORES started (around 1992), they really WERE concerts - no scenery at all, no costumes - the men wore tuxes, the girls wore gowns. The first one, Rodgers & Hammerstein's ALLEGRO, used a narrator (the late Cristopher Reeve)to explain the plot, while cutting most of the dialogue.

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 5:08pm

So the Encores production of Wonderful Town lacked set and some dialogue, and once it was received well, they decided to make it into an all out revival with sets, costumes, script, etc? So could the Hair concert still be the inspiration and/or basis for a new revival (theoretically)?

[Theatreboy33]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 5:42pm

Hair was very much a concert in that, like someone here said, different people perform one characters' songs and such. However, last year's Chess concert was about as close to an actual performance as you could get. It had filler dialogue, consistent characters, a set of some sort, and a very clear overarching story. SO i can see where the confusion comes from. As I recall, last year i was hoping the chess concert would be the spark to a broadway revival. but alas, no luck.