What if.....

I thought it is time to open a humorous "what if..." thread and hope many are going to join in.

My start:

What if ... 1) Stephen Sondheim had written "Wicked" (Anyone possible Storyline or possible lyrics)?
2) Rodgers and Hammerstein II. (living today) had written Rent (same Task)?

I hope, you join the task and enjoy

here's to the witches who lunch. everybody dies! dies! dies! dies! dies!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry I didn't know that. Haven't found that thread.

Edit: My point was never to just put together Sondheim and any Show. I just thought to offer some food for thought. Sorry if I bored anyone...

Updated On: 3/10/05 at 03:50 PM

If Sondheim had written "Wicked" there would've been murderous barber, a storyline too hard to understand, and songs that made no sense. If Rodgers and Hammerstien had written "Rent" there would've been a duet at the beginning about not being sure if you love someone, it would've had a ballet dance session and a dopey female lead who needs a man to protect her. I wouldn't want to see that if it happened.

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bwaybaby: Since when do Sonheim's shows have pointless songs and incomprehensible plots?

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So let's go on with some new ones:

What if .... 3) Jonathan Larson had written "Ragtime"?
4) Andrew Llyod Webber had written "The Producers"?
5) Loewe and Lerner had written "Cabaret" (aka "Eliza in Berlin")?

Any ideas?

beginning of fiyero's big number in sondheim's wicked

I feel you, elphaba, i feel you
i was half convinced you're wicked...

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If Stephen Sondheim had written Wicked - it would have been excellent - and worth the price of admission.

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I saw BOUNCE and it was Wicked bad.

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Well, time to get the topic running again

Anyone else suggesting a "what if" example? Until then:

What if... 9) Elton John & Tim Rice had written "City of Angels"
10) Kander & Ebb had written "Carrie"
11) Bock & Harnick had written "Hairspray"

9. If Elton John and Tim Rice had written City of Angels, every song would be a top ten hit played on the radio. Stine would be gay, and Stone would be Eminem, as it would take place in the present.

10. If Kander and Ebb had written Carrie, there'd be a lot more dancy numbers and not solos or duets. Debbie Allen would have never been involved, as Ann Reinking would have probably been hired to choreograph (Or was Bob still alive then?) Chita Rivera would have been the mother and Joel Gray would have been Carrie.

11. If Bock and Harnick had written Hairspray, every character, including the black people, would be Jewish - except for Link, which would cause a conflict with Tracy about dating a Goy.



What if...
12. Stephen Schwartz had written Phantom of the Opera
13. Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez had written Into the Woods
14. Marvin Hamlisch had written Caroline or Change

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Let's talk about shows that could have really happened...

If the proposed collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Alan Jay Lerner worked out and I Picked A Daisy actually been written, would the score have ended up being as strong as On A Clear Day You Can See Forever? And what future works would they have given us?

Here's another one...

What would Annie Get Your Gun have sounded like if Jerome Kern hadn't dropped dead on the streets of New York upon arriving to write it? Think of the magnificent Irving Berlin songs which never would have been written!! Could Kern & Fields have turned out a better score?

Updated On: 3/12/05 at 09:22 AM

I'm sure no songwriting work had been done on Annie Get Your Gun since Kern died after only being in New York a day or two before collapsing. His approach to it would have been interesting to see since he would have been writing it realizing Ethel Merman was the star and her style would have to be stamped all over the score. I don't believe he had ever done anything with Merman before. And with Rodgers & Hammerstein producing, they must have had a direction they wanted it to go in and would have conveyed their feelings to Kern. Of course they certainly didn't object to any material Irving Berlin wrote, so they may have given Kern a lot of latitude on the project.

As for On A Clear Day, I love the Lane-Lerner score as well and would hate for it to have never existed. But one can only drool as to what may have been produced if Rodgers and Lerner were not incompatable. By that point in Rodgers' career, he probably needed a strong lyricist and book writer to work with and lead him. After Do I Hear A Waltz, he seemed at sea with A) poorly chosen projects and B) collaborators who were not strong nor up to his calibre.

Supposedly Lerner offered him three projects to consider upon first meeting. One of them was what turned into Coco in 1969 with Andre Previn. Rodgers was more intrigued by the ESP idea and I Picked A Daisy was started. Rodgers always flourished in the post-Hart works which were somewhat exotic and "timeless"--elements an ESP storyline could encompass, which may explain his interest in the idea.

I wonder if their next work might have been what became Do I Hear A Waltz? Rodgers & Hammerstein had thought about The Time of the Cuckoo but wanted some time to pass after the release of the 1955 film version, Summertime, before doing it. It may have very well been the next Rodgers & Hammerstein show if Oscar hadn't died. After working on a Lerner idea, Rodgers possibly could have convinced Lerner to be the one to work on Cuckoo. The European locale was certainly suited to Lerner's Continental style.

As much as I like the Rodgers-Sondheim Waltz score, I think it may have been a stronger and perhaps wonderful piece if Rodgers & Lerner had done it.

Updated On: 3/12/05 at 03:43 PM