What went wrong with Shuffle Along? — Page 2

I had forgotten about that silly "Bali Hai" claim; the intervals are the same for the first three notes (an octave jump up followed by a 1/2 step down), but the rhythm and relationship to the key are completely different. In "Rainbow" it's Do Do Ti; in "Bali" it's Sol Sol Fi. Completely different in essence. Somewhat akin to a homonym - saying that "made' and "maid" mean the same thing because they sound alike.

What this country really needs is more music education.

Updated On: 9/30/16 at 02:09 PM

newintown said: "I had forgotten about that silly "Bali Hai" claim; the intervals are the same for the first three notes (an octave jump up followed by a 1/2 step down), but the rhythm and relationship to the key are completely different. In "Rainbow" it's Do Do Ti; in "Bali" it's Sol Sol Fi. Completely different in essence. Somewhat akin to a homonym - saying that "made' and "maid" mean the same thing because they sound alike.

What this country really needs is more music education.


I am not from the usa. But I think that the USA needs to fund more theater music and the arts in general. I feel also the USA needs to help the poor more



"

Updated On: 9/30/16 at 03:57 PM

My prediction: Thirty years from now, it will be revered, like Follies.

Did anything really go wrong with it? Yes, it closed early because it needed a star to survive, but otherwise it got some pretty strong reviews and multiple Tony nominations. It's not like it was a total flop from every angle.

I understand the critiques of the piece and don't disagree with them, but this for me was still a thrilling evening of theatre. For all the largely deserved talk Hamilton has received for its diverse casting and story approach, Shuffle Along was an actual celebration of black artistry and achievement in an industry that rarely celebrates it, or at least not to such a degree. I feel very lucky to have seen it, and I do really wish it were still playing and could be seen by more people.

I think saying it will attain FOLLIES level legend is probably far fetched. Granted I didn't see it but it doesn't seem to have "wowed" many like FOLLIES did.

Agree with Valentina that lack of a cast album will deter any future love. Some have argued that the FOLLIES cast album was integral to its mystique, especially in truncated form.

Did FOLLIES receive similar reception in 1971? Of course there was no BWW but many of our members were around then.

To quote Evita, the show "didn't say much but it said it loud"

newintown said: "
What this country really needs is more music education.



"

Never mind. On second reading, I've decided you weren't chastising me, but augmenting my deliberately facetious example.

I agree nobody can own "syncopation", no more than anyone owns the key of F#. But at the time of SHUFFLE ALONG, black composers such as Fats Waller were being paid peanuts (and were even forced to give up their copyrights) for compositions that made white producers and singers very, very rich. Surely we can understand that African-Americans in general felt their art forms were "stolen". (Or "coopted", if that sounds more to the point.)

Even today, few people realize that something as white bread as THE MUSIC MAN wouldn't exist in the same form without the precedent of SHUFFLE ALONG. (This is not a slap against MUSIC MAN, a show I love, and I certainly don't think Meredith Willson was paging through Eubie Blake's work looking for rhythmic patters to steal.)

Updated On: 10/1/16 at 10:21 PM

ehh the man has 12 Tonys including four from the past year, I'm sure they'll be fine.

But should Audra's character have been the draw? From what I know about the piece it was written around the four leading men. If her character was played by a less well known actress perhaps her leaving wouldn't have hurt the show so much. Even the advertising was like "see Audra! in a supporting role but it's Audra!!"

These are all wild hypotheticals. As you say without her draw factor it could've flopped even quicker.

What if, what if, what if, what if

Always happy to clarify!

I understand that it was the behind the scenes story of the people involved in the original musical, but it was following too many people which caused it to go on for too long and prevent us from getting fully connected to any of the characters.

Wish I'd been able to see Shuffle, and wish it was still running today! Audra's salary, Stokes' salary, Porters salary, and a host of other variable probably came into play. That entire company was amazingly talented, and its an unfortunate balancing act with shows produced in a capitalist system (very different overseas where certain theaters are funded with public resources and big name stars often agree to do a show at a lower fee for the sake of art) - you have to reward their talent and commitment to your project instead of the many other projects they likely had been offered, but it has to balance out with costs met.

In a theater that size and costs on that scale (don't have actual dollar figures to give here unfortunately, don't know specifics about those numbers, but as a matter of deductive reasoning, it stands to reason that operating costs were high), it likely meant sold out houses during the future of the show's run, and the advance probably wasn't that optimistic. Even with a show like this, it's tough managing for the uncontrollable: how the general theatergoers and tourists that make up a large part of Broadway ticket purchases decide to see one show instead of another.

Updated On: 10/2/16 at 06:20 PM