Who saw "The Red Shoes?
Who saw "The Red Shoes?
#1Who saw "The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 2:53pmJust curious...I've heard a few things from it...
-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
Kringas
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/27/05
#2re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 2:57pm
First of all, I never saw The Red Shoes, I never heard of The Red Shoes, I don't give a f*ck about The Red Shoes. I decided to be a Rockette because this girl in my home town - Louella Heiner - had actually gotten out and made it in New York. And she was a Rockette. Well, she came home one Christmas to visit, and they gave her a parade. A goddamn parade! I twirled a friggin' baton for two hours in the rain. Unfortunately though, she got knocked up over Christmas - Merry Christmas - and never made it back to Radio City.
That was my plan. New York, New York. Except I had one minor problem. See, I was ugly as sin. I was ugly, skinny, homely, unattractive and flat as a pancake. Get the picture? Anyway, I got off this bus in my little white shoes, my little white tights, little white dress, my little ugly face, and my long blonde hair - which was natural then. I looked like a f*cking nurse! I had 87 dollars in my pocket and seven years of tap and acrobatics. I could do a hundred and eighty degree split and come up tapping the Morse Code. Well, with that kind of talent I figured the Mayor would be waiting for me at Port Authority. Wrong! I had to wait 6 months for an audition. Well, finally the big day came. I showed up at the Music Hall with my red patent leather tap shoes. And I did my little tap routine. And this man said to me: Can you do fankicks? - Well, sure I could do terrific fankicks. But they weren't good enough. Of course, what he was trying to tell me was...it was the way I looked, not the fankicks. So I said, "F*ck you, Radio City and the Rockettes! I'm gonna make on Broadway!"
"How do you like THAT 'misanthropic panache,' Mr. Goldstone?" - PalJoey
Updated On: 7/13/07 at 02:57 PM
#2re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 3:00pm*hugs Kringy*
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
BwayBaby18
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/19/05
JustAGuy
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/03
#4re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 3:03pmI saw it...It was a disaster, that's about all I remember about it.
"Just a Guy. Your feelings are touching. I am gladdened by the thought that you will one day wind up 6 feet under as we all do." - MrRoxy ------
"I do not suggest you walk out the door onto a New York street with your vulnerable child part exposed and not protected..." - Jason Bennett
#5re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 3:04pm
k just checking
PS Krings what is that?
-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
Kringas
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/27/05
#6re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 3:06pmWell, Broadway, same story. Every audition. I mean I'd dance rings around the other girls and find myself in the alley with the other rejects. But after a while I caught on. I mean I had eyes. I saw what they were hiring. I also swiped my dance card once after an audition. And on a scale of 10....they gave me for dance 10. For looks: 3.
"How do you like THAT 'misanthropic panache,' Mr. Goldstone?" - PalJoey
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#8re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 3:16pm
omg i sat and read all of that Kringas! and i knew how it ended and everything and i still couldn't help myself 
Cape Twirl of Doom
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
#9re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 3:20pmIt was very dull and had way too many ballet sequences. IIRC, there was one part in Act II that was basically 20 minutes of ballet with no dialogue. The music however was not bad, and it did produce some nice songs. No doubt the failure was in part due to all the drama going on backstage.
"It's Phantom meets Hamlet... Phamlet!"
#10re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 3:27pm
All I can say to Kringas is "WOW!"
I saw Jule Styne's THE RED SHOES at a preview back in 1993, I believe, at the Gershwin Theatre. Styne had been working on the show about a ballerina for years. It was to be his lackluster swan song, alas. It was a very poor show except for the overture which sounded like a hybrid of the overture to GYPSY. However, Styne's extended formal ballet music and the choreography was taken over by the New York City Ballet and was in their repertory at one time. I saw it at the New York State Theatre.
The night I saw THE RED SHOES I sat across the aisle from Jerome Robbins who was with an assistant who was taking notes during the performance. At intermission I said hello to Jule Styne who then had a conversation with Jerome Robbins about the show. I'm afraid Robbins didn't have encouraging support. It must have been a wistful discussion. But Styne surely knew his show was in big trouble. To the best of my knowledge no recording was made.
"Madam Rose...and her daughter...Gypsy!"
Updated On: 7/13/07 at 03:27 PM
Effie
Understudy Joined: 9/6/04
#11re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 4:20pm
I saw it in previews as well. The only things I remember are being bored stiff and wondering why they cast Roger Rees, since the score was way beyond his limited vocal abilities.
#12re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 4:26pm
Kringas beat me to it. 
The choice may have been mistaken, The choosing was not... "Every day has the potential to be the greatest day of your life." - Lin-Manuel Miranda
dancinfan
Broadway Star Joined: 8/9/04
#13re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 4:37pm
I saw it midway through previews. It was a total mess at that point because they were overhauling it on a daily basis, and it was fascinating disaster. Roger Rees was quite possibly the most miscast person ever on a Broadway stage. I didn't think the ballet sequences were the problem at all. It was the slash-and-burned book, bad songs, and lack of transitional material and staging that killed it.
For those of you who don't know, Kringas has quoted Val from "A Chorus Line."
And it's Lar Lubovitch, not Lars. Lar makes even less sense, of course.
Updated On: 7/13/07 at 04:37 PM
#14re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 4:38pm
Kringas... amazing.
"When it happens to youuuuu
Happens out of thin aiiiiir
How your heart starts to race
When you stand face to face
With your mission and prayerrrrrrr!"
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.
robbiej
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#15re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 4:43pm
I saw it. Oh boy, did I see it.
Poor, poor Hugh Panaro.
Poor, poor Roger Rees.
Poor, poor Shirley Booth. Her lovely song from Jule Styne's LOOK TO THE LILLIES, "I, Yes, Me, That's Who" was recycled into the entr'acte for this misguided mess.
I kinda loved how the ballerina leapt to her death in grand jatte, arms in fifth.
But way too little, way too late.
"I'm so looking forward to a time when all the Reagan Democrats are dead."
#16re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 6:14pmDoes it have anything to do with the Hans Christian Anderson story? What's it about?
SorryGrateful
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/10/05
#18re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 8:38pm
I love the movie. I love it sooooooo much. I love dancing and melodrama, so, with those two combined, the movie is just an extended orgasm for me.
Too much information?
I can't possibly imagine a stage production of it, though. To me, it's a very cinematic story, just as Moulin Rouge is, which also should not be onstage.
You promised me poems. ~Tricky
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#19re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 8:53pm
I believe the ballet from it was recently reinstated at the NYCB rep--so it must be at least decent... I think Lars Lubovitch (what a name) did the choreography
What was the controversy with the director? I know Stanley DOnen (Singing in the Rain movie etc) got credit but I herd he pretty much was a disaster...
VIETgrlTerifa
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/18/04
#20re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 9:03pmSorry, but I have to ask. Kringas, where is that from?
"I've got to get me out of here
This place is full of dirty old men
And the navigators and their mappy maps
And moldy heads and pissing on sugar cubes
While you stare at your books."
#21re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 9:15pmOh god.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
americanboy99
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/06
VIETgrlTerifa
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/18/04
#23re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 9:36pmFirst of all, I've never seen A Chorus Line...and so and so and so and so.
"I've got to get me out of here
This place is full of dirty old men
And the navigators and their mappy maps
And moldy heads and pissing on sugar cubes
While you stare at your books."
#24re: Who saw 'The Red Shoes?
Posted: 7/13/07 at 9:42pm
Kringas you just rock my world
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Videos