Would A Revival Of "Come Back To The Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" Work?

[Jordan Catalano]

Would A Revival Of "Come Back To The Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" Work?#1

Posted: 9/1/13 at 9:01pm

Watching the film again now (I adore it) and I've always wanted to see a production on stage and see how it would be done live. Is this something that would work nowadays or is it too "dated"?

[jemjeb2]

Would A Revival Of #2

Posted: 9/1/13 at 10:32pm

I don't see why it would not work. The time of the play would no longer be "the present", but that should not detract from the play's impact. (I'm a fan of the show too.) .

[Jordan Catalano]

Would A Revival Of #2

Posted: 9/1/13 at 10:34pm

If love to see Mary Louise Parker as Mona and Jan Maxwell as Joanne.

[Joviedamian]

Would A Revival Of #3

Posted: 9/1/13 at 11:02pm

"I would love to see Mary Louise Parker as Mona and Jan Maxwell as Joanne."

After Snow Geese, MLP is giving up acting remember?

[Jordan Catalano]

Would A Revival Of #4

Posted: 9/2/13 at 10:11am

A cool TV commercial for the original run of the play.

[brldisteach2]

Would A Revival Of #5

Posted: 9/2/13 at 10:16am

I saw a regional production of the show within the last decade and thought it was fantastic. I think the show still works.

[Playbilly]

Would A Revival Of #6

Posted: 9/2/13 at 11:06am

I wish someone would revive it. Change the cast out like Chicago, and it would run forever.

"Through The Sacrifice You Made, We Can't Believe The Price You Paid..For Love!"

[Jordan Catalano]

Would A Revival Of #7

Posted: 9/2/13 at 11:10am

With Billy Ray Cyrus as Joe and Wendy Williams as Juanita!

[lovebwy]

Would A Revival Of #8

Posted: 9/2/13 at 1:55pm

That TV commercial is funny. It gives you zero idea of what the play is about, and the marquee is misleading too. "Get in on the fun" the announcer says. HA!

[quizking101]

Would A Revival Of #9

Posted: 9/2/13 at 2:31pm

For a show with such high caliber stars (at the time), I'm surprised it only ran for 36 performances.

1) The play must've really sucked.
or
2) They could only gather all three of them for this very short run.

Check out my eBay page for sales on Playbills!! www.ebay.com/usr/missvirginiahamm

[GavestonPS]

Would A Revival Of #10

Posted: 9/2/13 at 7:56pm

I think it was just a tough time for Broadway in general, particularly for straight plays. Sandy Dennis' career had peaked and Cher, while a star, wasn't quite the legend she is today.

I think the only problem with the play dating is that only folks of a certain age will appreciate how big James Dean was. But younger people know idols who died young like Kurt Cobain and Heath Ledger, so I think they'll figure it out.

[Jordan Catalano]

Would A Revival Of #11

Posted: 9/2/13 at 8:03pm

Someone could always write the sequel COME BACK TO THE STARBUCKS, KURT COBAIN, KURT COBAIN.

[newintown]

Would A Revival Of #12

Posted: 9/3/13 at 10:03am

That movie is a guilty pleasure, with that bevy of camp gorgons struttin' round, but you have to admit the play is truly hokey stuff, gushing with ridiculous "shocking" revelations.

[BrodyFosse123]

Would A Revival Of #13

Posted: 9/3/13 at 10:14am

The time of the play would no longer be "the present"

The play was never set in 'present day' as the plot takes place on September 25, 1975 - the 20th anniversary of the death of James Dean.

Even the original 1976 Ohio production of the play (before its Broadway debut in 1982 with Sandy Dennis, Cher, Karen Black and Kathy Bates) wasn't set in 'present day'.

And for the record, I also agree this most definitely needs a Broadway revival. A Limited Engagement with a roster of A List actresses, too.

[lovebwy]

Would A Revival Of #14

Posted: 9/3/13 at 12:06pm

All three actresses were at low ebbs in their careers. Cher was a joke at the time. It's actually very impressive that she was able to come back the way she did.

[GavestonPS]

Would A Revival Of #15

Posted: 9/3/13 at 9:13pm

And for the record, I loved the filmed version of the play and I was 18 months old when James Dean died. So it's not like I had to have loved him to understand the context.

[logan2]

Would A Revival Of #16

Posted: 9/4/13 at 12:10am

One of my all time favorite movies. It's what made me discover Sandy Dennis, and then go seek out all of her films. I adore her.

I think a revival could definitely work, but for me anything would be a disappointment without the fabulous five of Dennis, Cher, Karen Black, Sudie Bond, and Katy Bates. No matter how good the new cast was, it just would never be as good.

I think Sandy's performance as Mona is one of the greatest things I've ever seen. Heartbreaking, haunting, irritating, funny, and poignant, all at the same time - now that's some feat.

I know I left out Marta Heflin. I could stand someone else in her role. Not that she wasn't good, but I could watch someone else.

[Jordan Catalano]

Would A Revival Of #17

Posted: 9/4/13 at 12:21am

The thing with this show is that anyone who plays Mona will be held up and compared to Sandy Dennis, who was one of the most unique actresses to have ever lived. So there would have to be a very fine line of not impersonating her but also not straying too far away from the "quirkiness" (if that's even the right word) that makes Mona such a brilliantly written role.

[lovebwy]

Would A Revival Of #18

Posted: 9/4/13 at 12:23am

I like when Cher makes fun of Sandy Dennis's way of speaking in the movie. "Ah ah ah, I just wanna say ah ah ah"

[Jordan Catalano]

Would A Revival Of #19

Posted: 9/4/13 at 12:36am

cool.

[AC126748]

Would A Revival Of #20

Posted: 9/4/13 at 12:40am

I'm in love with the idea of MLP as Mona. I could see Carla Gugino as Sissy.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

[Jordan Catalano]

Would A Revival Of #21

Posted: 9/4/13 at 12:45am

Yeah, MLP is the only person I could even remotely imagine in the role if it were to come back.

And Angela Lansbury as Juanita, obviously.

[logan2]

Would A Revival Of #22

Posted: 9/4/13 at 1:05am

Forget MLP, Amanda Plummer IS the perfect Mona.

"It just makes me, ah ah, sick to my, ah ah, stomach, to think that people can be so, ah ah ah, cruel".

When I first heard that, at the Greenway art house theater in Houston, Tx, it devastated me. I knew it was an incredibly funny moment, the whole theater erupted in laughter, but my heart broke a little more for Mona.

My all time favorite line: "Yes, but I managed to rise above the attitudes of this town, while you laid spread over a gravestone and took them inside you." I mean, C'MON!


Maybe MLP could play Edna Louise.




Updated On: 9/4/13 at 01:05 AM

[lovebwy]

Would A Revival Of #23

Posted: 9/4/13 at 1:25am

I would agree it's a guilty pleasure. Kind of Tennessee Williams lite. But Cher is very good, and Kathy Bates is too.

[DDJJYY]

Would A Revival Of #24

Posted: 9/4/13 at 9:07am

There will be a celebrity staged reading of this play in Los Angeles, directed by Laura Innes.