Who made Bennett change the ACL ending?

Ok, I know when the show was in previews on Broadway, Cassie did NOT make the final cut, and instead it was Shelia (I think...don't hold me to Shelia, it could have been someone else). But after one performance someone or several someones cornered Michael Bennett and told him he HAD to change it so Cassie made it, to let her go home again. Who was it? Margo, Best12, MB, ya'll seem to be the ones to know these things.

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Thank you! It's been driving me crazy. Was it actually Shelia who made it originally?

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MB, I love you.

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It gives hope. If Cassie came back, fought for it and still lost, it would not only make Zach a jerk (well, a bigger jerk), but it would really be a downer. Maybe that's me.

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i like the ending, but would be curious to see how it is without it

I would venture to guess that because so much focus is put on Cassie and her emotional through-line is so concentrated on her need to make the show, it's a huge let-down for the audience if Cassie doesn't make it. Paul and Cassie are largely the two 'audience favorites', so to speak, in that they have the biggest character arcs. Since Paul goes down, it seems like a double mistake to have both fail.

For years I thought it was Marsha Norman the author of 'NIGHT MOTHER.

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Updated On: 2/7/07 at 08:41 PM

(finishing Yankee's statement)...it goes to Shelia.

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True that Yankee...and honestly I wouldn't give it to Shelia...now in the original, I'd have picked Shelia, but that's cause I am in love with Kelly/Carole Bishop.

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And we would have had an even MORE abstract set.

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Also... nobody MADE Bennett change the ending. He had called in Neil Simon to help doctor the book. The show was coming off too heavy-handed and dark, and he brought Simon in... who brought his wife Marsha Mason along to watch the show.

Simon added several bits of dialogue. Bobby's monologue was pumped up with his Simon-like jokes, Shelia's quips like "Can the ADULTS please smoke?" and her answer to what they wanted to be when they grew up (her response: "Young.") as well. Marsha was very vocal about not liking the ending, for the reasons already mentioned. If Bennett's point was to lighten up the mood of the show, then he couldn't leave the audience on such a downer with her not getting in. Not being able to "start over" and try again. He agreed with Marsha and made the change. (She's very proud of that mini-contribution to the show!)

Another major change that was put in during this time was having Cassie not come late to the audition and make an attention-getting arrival. It was decided that the audience should gradually get to know Cassie, as they get to know everyone else there, and they'd eventually come to find out that she'd had a prior relationship with Zach, was a show-stopping dancer, etc.

Something they obviously completely ignored when they did the film... and Cassie makes that awkward attention-grabbing entrance. They put the trashed mistakes back in!

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Actually, Kelly Bishop said "Can the adults please smoke" during the original recording sessions - but Simon did ad her quip: "Do you need any women?"

The Cassie arriving late bit was apparently something they tried and abandoned in the second workshop. It wasn't ever performed that way at the Public.

No, but I've read the transcripts.