What would you like to see at Encores!- Page 2

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 7:18pm

I think Ravinia is doing ACW next year. But, you can never have to much Whistle.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 8:32pm

HIGH BUTTON SHOES
DEAR WORLD
DO I HEAR A WALTZ?
THE DESERT SONG
CARMELINA
GOLDEN RAINBOW
MILK AND HONEY
GOOD NEWS

[sndtrklvr]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 9:19pm

any one can whistle (donna murphy, audra macdonald, Norbert Leo)
on the 20th century (brian stokes mitchell, kristen chenoweth)
sugar (sherie rene)

[gherbert]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 10:16pm

Dollypop, love Milk and Honey! It would be great at Encores!, especially since they have never honored Jerry Herman before.

While I love Do I Hear a Waltz? I'd prefer them to do Anyone Can Whisle as their first Sondheim show. Why? Because despite others opinions Do I Hear a Waltz? is Sondheim's least favorite show because of his terrible experience with it. It would be a sort of insult to "honor" someone when really you just brirng up bad memories, no matter how good the show may be. Coincidentally, one very good thing to come out of the show happened years later when Sondheim saw Dorothy Collins in a summer stock production of the show and cast her as Sally in Follies!!!

[Amy Archer]

Posted: 9/28/04 at 12:58am

I'd like to see a new musical director at Encores.

[gherbert]

Posted: 9/28/04 at 6:20am

Really? Why do you say that? I think Rob Fisher and his orchestra have always been pretty flawless.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 9/28/04 at 7:46am

HALLELUJAH, BABY!
SOMETHING FOR THE BOYS
FLAHOOLEY
THE GAY LIFE
GOLDILOCKS
PANAMA HATTIE
JAMAICA
BABES IN TOYLAND
THE RED MILL

[Amy Archer]

Posted: 9/28/04 at 8:22am

Rob Fisher is a good historian and archivist, but I've stopped going to any of the Encores! he conducts. He marks time, rather than getting that orchestra to swing when they need to and he's turned some very jazzy shows into museum pieces. Also, I've yet to go to an Encores! where the trumpet section hasn't had a mishap of some sort.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/28/04 at 10:40am

HALLELUJAH BABY! opens next week at the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey with a newly revised book by Arthur Laurents (who's also directing) starring Tony winner Ann Duquesnay. The production then moves to Arena Stage which is co-producing. Depending how well these two productions are received, the show hopes to move to New York sometimes thereafter (possibly as early as Spring).

I hope the revisions work -- book problems have always been what have kept the show from being better known and more often produced, which is unfortunate because the score by Styne/Comden & Green is first-rate (this edition will feature a "new" song by Styne and additional lyrics by Amanda Green, Adolph's daughter). The new book will bring the show up to the present day. The original, that won Leslie Uggams a Tony and the show the Best Musical, featured characters who never aged while their story spanned from the turn of the century up to 1967, when the show premiered -- telling the story of the African American experience in the 20th Century from these characters' perspectives (a very promising concept that never quite worked, so one hopes that after 37 years, Laurents has figured out how to fix it).

[gherbert]

Posted: 9/28/04 at 9:40pm

Next season I do hope we see Anyone Can Whistle. I am mildy disappointed it was dropped this season (mildly because I find what it was replaced with more exciting). Perhaps next season. There is always next season.

Other composers not yet honored by Encores! who deserve to be:

Stephen Sonheim: the aforemention Anyone Can Whistle
Harold Rome: Fanny, I Can Get It For You Wholesale, Call Me Mister
Cy Coleman: Seesaw, On the Twenieth Century
Lerner and Loewe: Paint Your Wagon (rumored for last season)
Meredith Willson: The Unsinkable Molly Brown

P.S. I am listing the composers work I deem worthy of an Encores! staging, not just their body of work or their obscure work either (Here's Love by Meredith Willson is pretty obscure, bit I doubt it will ever be considered by Encores!)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 12:41pm

Just wanted to update this thread, now that some of the "Hallelujah, Baby!" reviews have come out and are positive overall. Sounds like there are still some adjustments to make, but hopefully Laurents will get it right by the time it opens at Arena Stage
Hallelujah Baby

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 1:35pm

gherbert,

Hmmm... Kristin Chenoworth as Lily Garland in ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY?

Well... I don't think she has quite the "semi-operatic" range the part calls for. I just can't see her hiting those high notes in "Our Private World" or "Lily, Oscar."

I do think she could handle the comic aspects of the role quite well. :)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 1:37pm

Have you heard Chenoweth's "Glitter and Be Gay"? VERY impressive. She has MORE than enough range for the role.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 2:06pm

I'll have to check it out, Margo. What CD is it on?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 3:13pm

I'm not sure she's recorded it yet. She's done it at several big concerts -- there's a sound file of it somewhere in the archives of BWW from a month or so ago.

[gherbert]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 3:29pm

Forget about "Glitter and Be Gay," she sings notes in Steel Pier and Wicked that are enough to see she has beautiful coloratura soprano.

But I was lucky to have seen her perform "Glitter and Be Gay" in concert and it is stunning! Truly masterful vocal work.

[amerac]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 11:58pm

i can't believe they haven't done "on the twentieth century" yet. it has a really fabulous score by cy coleman and comden and green, and its original run was weakend by madeline kahn dropping out very early. would be great to see/hear it again. and i think kristen chenoweth is an inspired and perfect choice for lily -- and brian stokes mitchell would make a great oscar. but who for leticia primrose? (imogen coca in the original...) Updated On: 10/15/04 at 11:58 PM

[andyf]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 12:18am

KC's "Glitter and be Gay" is insane. I just saw her perform it at Carnegie and she hit those notes with incredible finesse, so I'm sure she'd be able to handle On The Twentieth Century.

I want to see Dreamgirls, but just because I'd see that anywhere.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 10:36am

Gotham,

I can just see Dixie saying 's--t!' at the beginning of Act II! :)

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 10:40am

Marquise,

I think DRAT! THE CAT!!! is so interesting because Barbra Striesand took hubby's Elliott Gould song from show "She Touched Me," and turned it into "HE touched me," one of her mid-1960s hits!!!

Boy, I bet Gould was THRILLED! Must've put a lot of strain on the marriage that was already coming apart at the seams... :)

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 10:41am

Margo,

I love NEW GIRL IN TOWN as well.. who do you see playing Anna Christie?

[Mary_Ethel]

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

Joeyjoe,

Another DO I HEAR A WALTZ fan? LOVELY!

Have you ever heard the recording w/Alyson Reed as Leona that came out a few years ago? It's as well-sung as OBC, and includes a VERY IMPORTANT song ("Everybody Loves Leona"--sung just before she breaks down at climatic moment in Act II) that was cut prior to original Broadway run.

PLEASE, CHECK IT OUT! :)

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 10:48am

Dollypop,

HIGH BUTTON SHOES is a wonderful, FUN musical. (And Jule Styne's Broadway debut!)

Do you think Encores! would recreate the "Mack Sennett Ballet"? :)

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 10:51am

re: DO I HEAR A WALTZ?--

Richard Rodgers read one of Stephen Sondheim's new lyrics and turned to him and said "This is S--t!" in front of ENTIRE COMPANY!

Sondheim vowed he would never write "lyrics only" for a show EVER AGAIN! :)

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 10:55am

Master,

I also like THE GAY LIFE--think its superior score is VASTLY UNDERRATED.

By the way, did you know that since "Gay" has a very different meaning today then it did in 1961, when show is presented today, it must be titled THE HIGH LIFE? :)