Luminaire2 said: "g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "Now thatMotown's come, gone, and is more or less done, maybe this is the chance to jettison some of the Menken score (sorry Alan!) and give Whoopi songs from the movie that are already known to fit a comfortable range for her?"
I’m here for it."
And it's not like it'd be hard:
* Bump "Take Me to Heaven" (opening number for Deloris and the girls at the club) for "The Lounge Medley"
* Bump its reprise for "Hail Holy Queen"
* Drop "Sunday Morning Fever" (opening number of Act II) for "My Guy (My God)"
* Kill "Spread the Love Around" (closing number of Act II) for "I Will Follow Him (Chariot)"
(And I could maybe see dropping both instances of "Raise Your Voice" for "Shout," but that one's always been popular.)
It's a simple matter of four (or five) songs, it's not like all of Menken's work would get the ax. Yes, the rest of it sounds more "Philly soul" than "Detroit steel," but it's not like it's hard to push Motown toward a disco sound, as Dreamgirls proved with "One Night Only" and Diana Ross proved with the diana album. Besides, since Whoopi's performance -- per her initial statement -- seems to be pushing the character back toward the initial conception from the Pasadena production (where Dawnn Lewis played Deloris as an older character with different stakes), it might fit to have Deloris' favorite music be a slight step out of touch with the times.
Formerly gvendo2005
Broadway Legend
joined: 5/1/05
Blocked: After Eight, suestorm, david_fick, emlodik, lovebwy, Dave28282, joevitus, BorisTomashevsky, Seb28
Updated On: 10/24/19 at 03:16 PM