Frontrowcenter, not to pick on you friend, but you complain about Sunset Blvd and then praise Applause for its source Eric,
It's all in the adaptation. The authors of APPLAUSE were hog-tied by the original film authors and prevented from using much more than the basic story. I think Comden and Green created a solid (if unexceptional) book under the circumstances. The TV version was great fun: CBC ran it several times in 73-74. I recall even CBS did a summertime repeat of it but it hasn't been sired since. Many of Margo's "bitchy" lines were gems. (about Eve she says "Isn't she a treasure? I think I'll bury her!") and even in those days they allowed Margo's final line "Eve, You 4-star bitch...Thank you!" (I audio taped the program and listened to it over and over until I memorized most of the script. Makes it hard to watch ALL ABOUT EVE because the line are so different.) Now maybe if I had seen the film first I would have been put off by the diluting of the source material but at the time I thought it was a clever script and great fun as a musical.
SUNSET was the reverse. By the time the musical came along I had seen and loved the classic film. But when the London cat CD set arrived it sounded like they were just taking the film's dialogue and turning it into *Rather boring) recitative, and the plugging in songs that merely re-stated what had already been established in the recitative passages. I so no inventiveness in the adaptation and felt that it only worked because it was copying the move so slavishly. Seeing the show on stage was one of the worst professional theatre productions I had ever witnessed. Then reading how ALW took a bunch of trunk tunes and ordered his lyricist to add new words to the melodies explained why the score is so inconsistent. Say what you like about APPLAUSE but at least the score sounds like it was created for that one specific show. (even so, APPLAUSE is variable..You have to sit through the terrible opening chorus "Backstage Babble" and through a dull character song "Think How it's Gonna Be"
to get to "But Alive." (The TV version wisely drops the first 2 songs.) At the time I was most impressed by "One Hallowe'en" and the final song "Something greater" but puzzled why Margo wasn't made into a musical comedy star. (Maybe because no one would Believe Betty Bacall as a musical comedy star?)
It seemed more logical with SUNSET that Norma be a screen musical star (along the liens of a Debbie Reynolds who could have done a take-over of the role on Broadway - LOL) whose career faltered when musicals went out of vogue. It could even have allowed for some pastiche/spoofs of Busby Berkley style production numbers. Maybe with 42ND STREET current at that time it would have been pointless.
While I would never argue for APPLAUSE as one of Broadway's greatest musicals, it was (and is) much more enjoyable for me than ALW'S SUNSET BLVD. I can listen to the APPLAUSE cast album without feeling it was a missed opportunity, wasting a really good source material.
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
Updated On: 6/10/11 at 10:15 PM
