What's the appeal of Bye Bye Birdie?- Page 2

[Speed]

Posted: 3/20/18 at 5:34am

I've had a varied career from Broadway to TV and film.  I've done the Radio City show and voice overs.  Just about everything.  And yet my husband says the best thing I ever did was "Bye Bye Birdie: In Concert with an All Male Cast" in the village back in 1998.  I played Kim MacAfee and it was pretty fun. I've never gotten so many laughs.  Something sweet about a man singing "How Lovely To Be A Woman" and "One Boy."Just 10 men playing all the parts in a shortened but fully staged production.  He says of every thing I've ever done, it was the one thing that truly worked.  We didn't make fun of the show.  We did it for real.  I wish it that it had it a longer life as not enough people got to see it.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/20/18 at 8:28am

When I did the show, we had a fantastic actor/dancer as Albert who had just won a speed/precision tap dancing contest nationwide. The dance break at the end of "Put on a Happy Face" was slightly expanded for him to include his specialty. As he tried again and again to impress and cheer up the girls, he finally pulled out the speed tap "tricks."

Ironically, the Sad Girls stole the scene out from under him- as impressive as it was, with each "trick" getting bigger and louder applause, the absolute nonreaction of the Sad Girls would get a laugh that dwarfed the applause.

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 3/20/18 at 8:33am

bk said: "There is nothing wrong with Bye Bye Birdie that hasgood direction, choreography, and acting. That of course goes for every musical but especially for this one. What, you'd rather be doing Legally Blonde, because let me tell you in twenty years that will be looked on exactly like you're looking on Bye Bye Birdie. In forty years people your age willbe looking at any musical you love that's of the moment and saying "this doesn't resonate with me" and they won't be having a good time in the show. Well, what resonates with you is not the show's problem, it's your problem and the problem of your fellow cast mates and rather sadly typical. Go have a good time. Albert is a wonderful comedic musical comedy role and there are great ways a good director can have fun with his chauvinism and Rosie's reaction to it. Back then it was fresh and fun. Today it's nostalgia.

There were things prior to the year of your birth that are fun and are still fun. I did a production of Li'l Abner at a college a couple of years ago - I go back occasionally to direct at my alma mater with a mix of pros and students. The students were all just like you're being - "this doesn't resonate" "I don't know the cartoon" - I shut all that crap down at rehearsal one, and by rehearsal two they were in the world of the show and loving every minute of it - and because we had some really top pros in it we got reviewed by everyone and it was all raves because the show is FUNNY and still pertinent today, just like Bye Bye Birdie if you do it well. "

What a condescending, bitchy little post. I hope all that blabbing made you feel very superior about your little self.