Posted: 10/11/15 at 7:39pm
Watching Wildhorn special now on Channel 13
From Frank's mouth:
Scarlett Pimpernel being revived
Wonderland going to London next season
Can Civil War be next?
Frank is the energizer bunny. He keeps going and going. He could be compared to Dracula. Just when you think he is dead he rises again.
Updated On: 10/11/15 at 07:39 PM
Posted: 10/11/15 at 8:30pm
Wonderland has a great score but the show itself is just... ugh. Maybe they've rewritten the book?
Posted: 10/11/15 at 8:54pm
Hopefully this time he doesn't touch the thing. :P After three tries, he got Pimpernel right for the licensed version. No new songs, no old songs, just do what worked.
Posted: 10/11/15 at 8:57pm
The Civil War has already been reworked a couple of times now. It ran just this spring at the Ford's Theatre under its new title, Freedom's Song.
Posted: 10/11/15 at 9:04pm
I was kidding re The Civil War
Would rather see stuff from his vault of shows produced overseas like:
Cyrano
Tears Of Heaven
Waiting For The Moon
Carmen
Excalibur
Updated On: 10/11/15 at 09:04 PM
Posted: 10/11/15 at 9:20pm
Are you kidding a lot when you post? Because if you are I can't believe how many jokes I thought you were being completely serious about?
Posted: 10/11/15 at 9:21pm
Double post.
Updated On: 10/11/15 at 09:21 PM
Posted: 10/11/15 at 9:34pm
Ha ha! I get it now! That's great!
[PS 60 seconds]
Updated On: 10/11/15 at 09:34 PM
Posted: 10/11/15 at 11:56pm
The songs from Havana really make you wish Wildhorn would finally finish this project & get this up and running.
Going to bed now NAMO so you can put your jammies on and do likewise .
Nightly night.
Updated On: 10/11/15 at 11:56 PM
Posted: 10/12/15 at 1:32am
I sleep in the nude with two other men!
Posted: 10/12/15 at 2:00am
I'd love a Scarlet Pimpernel revival but I'll be heartbroken if it's changed from the licensed version. I agree that was the best one and it never really got a fair shake.
Posted: 10/12/15 at 2:07am
FindingNamo said: "I sleep in the nude with two other men!"
So you have a wild horn available on each side of you...
Posted: 10/12/15 at 11:03am
We saw the original version. How much different is that one from the licensed version?
Posted: 10/12/15 at 11:28am
The licensed version is very different from the original. The book is largely unchanged save for the revised opening and various changes needed to incorporate the new songs as well as additional jokes and an overall lighter tone. The revised version opens with "Storybook." Marguerite sings it at her final performance in the Comedie Francaise. "Believe" is replaced with a wedding version of "You Are My Home" sung by Percy and Marguerite. "Vivez" is cut and the title song is shorter and opens the drawing room scene as more of a transitional piece than the standalone number from the original. "The Creation of Man" has an extended dance sequence with the men comically dancing with their handkerchiefs and choosing hats to wear. It's probably the most memorable scene in the show now. In the second act "Only Love" has been cut, "Storybook" appears again as a brief reprise sung in French rather than the full number from the original and "I'll Forget You" is now sung by Marguerite in the prison scene which essentially replaces "You Are My Home" from the original since that song was repurposed for the wedding scene. To top it all off a reprise of "When I Look at You" ends the show since "Believe" is no longer used. There are a few additional reprises but those are the big changes. Overall it plays a lot better than the original and had they utilized an out of town tryout instead of opening cold on Broadway we may have seen a lot of these changes in the original Broadway incarnation.
Posted: 10/12/15 at 2:34pm
To me, Scarlet Pimpernel got weaker with every revision. I still think the original version was the strongest in book, score and staging. By the time the show reached the licensed version, like Jekyll & Hyde, it had become a patchwork shadow of what used to be a thrilling show (though what happened to J&H was FAR worse). I remember seeing the tour and thinking how sad it was the most of the fun and joy had been removed in what looked like an effort to cut corners on the material and the production. All the additional "humor" added to the book and score felt forced and completely watered down and cheapened the production. The show was morphing into a vaudevillian mess. I think it would be a shame to bring that version back. If so, I'll just skip it like I did with that J&H revival.
Posted: 10/13/15 at 3:00am
Well, that's the beauty of opinion, but to me, it speaks for itself. Was the first version working commercially? No. Did the new version do the trick? Yeah. That's why it's the one that's licensed. (J&H as licensed at least has two versions available if you don't like one of them as well. Which version don't you prefer, Mister Matt -- the "red cover," or the FCLO rendition?)
Posted: 10/13/15 at 3:21am
Call me when it's real because right now it's anything but real. Who on earth do you think would put money into a show that has lost its entire investment - THREE times? Well, I'm sure there are idiots who might, but I will believe it when I see it, and it will fail again.
Posted: 10/13/15 at 5:50am
Bruce, you don't understand -- if it flops, they still make money from the licensing (because those who can't afford Phantom or Les Mis go for the next best thing; it's either that or Tale of Two Cities, and after Jill's new "corpse ****er" musical -- seriously, people, look it up if you want to see career death in action -- I doubt many will touch Tale), and probably have back-end participation in the foreign productions that do make money. (Remember, he's obligated to pay them back; I'd wager it's almost a given.) It's a long-term investment rather than short-term. Pretty much the only reason they back a Broadway run is that the "direct from Broadway" imprimatur still has meaning in the sticks. Wildhorn has defined not needing to succeed on Broadway for a new generation, God help us.
Updated On: 10/13/15 at 05:50 AM
Posted: 10/13/15 at 7:57am
An opinion not shared by all.
You are entitled to your opinion as are others who disagree. The Europeans must be uneducated slobs as he is quite popular with them. He will never get recognition here but is crying all the way to the bank.
Updated On: 10/13/15 at 07:57 AM
Posted: 10/13/15 at 9:28am
Proving the point the other guy who has me blocked just made.
Posted: 10/13/15 at 1:28pm
WONDERLAND has actually played Japan twice (using Jack Murphy's pre-Broadway version with some slight variation - namely, ripping some of the Broadway staging elements ("Once More I Can See" in particular and Act II resembled more Broadway version). I don't recall the reviews being raves, however which was rare - Jekyll & Hyde is on the scale of Les Mis/Phantom in the Asian markets (I think its the longest running musical in Korean history - 10+ years).
WONDERLAND is also making its regional premiere later next year in an outdoor venue in Utah.
Some other Wildhorn news (I missed the PBS special): Scott & Zelda (aka Waiting for the Moon) is premiering this week in Tokyo; Mata Hari, a musical based on the spy, will debut in Korea March 2016 (I think Jeff Calhoun is directing that as well), and Frank just worked on a TUTS Underground production of Bonnie & Clyde in Houston. Artus - Excalibur (St. Gallen), Carmen (Prague) and Death Note (Korea) will all be back in the next year as well.
Also - give a little credit to Jill Santoriello. Her show flopped (I think it was bad timing that the run had been SO short), but was reviewed decently. The show has one of the best produced cast albums (huge orchestra) in recent memory and had a PBS special.
Updated On: 10/13/15 at 01:28 PM
Posted: 10/13/15 at 2:31pm
Philly, re-read my message. I love Jill, and Tale is a great show (maybe more so for its music than its book and lyrics, in my opinion), but check out her new project It Happened in Key West (which I was referring to) and then try to tell me it doesn't squick you out just a bit. Necrophilia: the musical. Yeah, that screams future.
Posted: 10/13/15 at 4:25pm
Because Sweeney Todd sounded like such a great idea at the time.
Updated On: 10/13/15 at 04:25 PM
