Would anyone want to see a revival of Torch Song Trilogy? — Page 2

Nice to see a thread not dominated by 'musical theatre experts'. With some re-writes and some smart casting, I feel this play could be a welcome addition to the broadway scene. Like most revivals it would need a major 'above the title star' to succeed. I remember seeing the original production at the old Helen Hayes.....memorable evening.

What would need to be rewritten? If you're thinking of the back room scene, please remember that once the show was on Broadway, '82-'85, the war time of AIDS was in full swing.

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I would love to see it remounted, as long as they have a kick ass cast.

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I don't know how it would play in New York, but I was in an a production about ten years ago in Pittsburgh and our problem was being unfavorably compared to the movie version.

Not with regards to the acting, but in the length. Most people who have never seen it onstage and are only familiar with the movie version don't take too kindly to a nearly four hour play.

(Did anyone see when Seth Rudetsky played it?)

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So true, best 12. Like I said earlier, it was vitally OF ITS TIME. If you didn't live then and see it then, it will be difficult to understand what that means - you may enjoy a revival, but to many of us who were a part of that time, it will appear to be a distorted and wan imitation of the overwhelming original.

I find the same dilemma at play in revivals of Company - it was so utterly contemporary and a vital part of the late-60s/early-70s urban world, it never makes much sense when mounted by people who can't (or won't) understand how we were a different world then.

Some works can be called "timeless" (although I don't think any art really is); but many plays and musicals are inseparably connected to their time and place of creation. And there's nothing wrong with that - what's objectionable is when people twist a piece of art to suit their own (limited) experience and knowledge.

Honestly, the best I think it will do is comparable to the recent Chorus Line revival, which is also a piece "of its time."

Older audiences will either love it to death or pick it apart, sequin by sequin.

Newer audiences will fall somewhere in the middle with a comprehensive appreciation of this "historical play."

Not that any of the above is a bad thing.

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When I did the show back in the late 80's, the director trimmed about an hour from it. But it was still a very long evening. Thrilling...but long. I remember being 15 years old and having my call time be something like 9:30. It was bizarre!

I still think what is vital in this play is the progression of a single man finding love (however atypical it is...even today) to seeing that love through to fruition with a family. And all the messiness that entails.

I would love to see a revival of Torch Song, but I'd want to see it either back at the Helen Hayes or in a comparable off-Bway space - it's not a play that works well when the last row of the balcony is miles away from the stage.

I saw the original production as a college student back in (I think) January 1984, when Fierstein and Court Miller came back to the show for a short run(their bios were on inserts in the Playbill!). As other people have said, you'd need someone with Fierstein's outsized personality and theatrical energy to make it work today. I consider myself very lucky that I saw him do it live.

One reason I'd like to see it staged again in New York is that I'm another person who was disappointed by the film. The third play, "Widows and Children First", worked best on-screen because it's the most naturalistic onstage (though the film STILL unnecessarily opened it up for scenic variety; it works fine set entirely in Arnold's apartment). On the other hand, the first two-thirds of the evening are more theatrically imaginative, and film literalism didn't serve them well at all. The second play, Fugue in a Nursery, was especially inventive onstage, with all the characters in the giant raked bed, and replacing that with a real farmhouse on-screen ruined the effect.

(Parenthetically, I'm constantly startled to realize how long ago it was that I saw the original productions of plays now eligible for revival for entirely new generations. I hope I'm not the only one!)

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Updated On: 12/1/11 at 01:46 PM

I'm curious about this "video" as well. I assume it's not just one in the Lincoln Center archives...

Would getting a similar reaction to the Chorus Line revival be a bad thing? I know it got a mixed reaction--but I did recommend a number of semi-theatre literate friends my age or younger (so roughly 20somethings) to see it on tour, who had ZERO experience with the show before, and they all came back in love.

Newintown, you raise good points, although a part of me always bristles when people "who were there then" claim that people who didn't experience that time in person can never *really* understand or appreciate a play (or book, or movie, or whatever...) Sure, they invariably bring a different perspective to it, but I think if the production is good, nearly any important piece of work can still have impact on an intelligent audience.

But I think I kinda get what you're saying--certainly I think all attempts to bring Company into the modern era just make the piece feel much more dated and "off". Not that I think it should be a full on "hey weren't the seventies crazy" style nostalgia number by any means, but...

As for length--weren't the plays originally done seperately off Broadway--or over a few years? I was obsessed with the play as a teenager and read the history of it, but I admit I don't really remember. But I definitely agree that the movie (which, as far as being a fairly mainstream 80s "gay" movie isn't half bad) is a hopelessly watered down, in all respects, take on the play.

And for whoever said instead of a revival we should hope for new plays that make a similar impact--I always wonder why Fierstein hasn't done much else playwrighting wise. Is it because Torch Song was partially autobiographical and he doesn't havbe much else in him? I think his libretto work for musicals is merely so so (and largely based on existing material), though I admit I know nothing about his Broadway flop Safe Sex.

Safe Sex was another collection of three one-act plays. The third one, On Tidy Endings, was a solid piece of writing; it was later filmed for cable (as Tidy Endings) with Fierstein and Stockard Channing. You can watch it on YouTube.

The other two plays, though, should never have been inflicted on a paying audience. Although I remember that Fierstein did have an effective monologue in the second play, even that couldn't save a scene performed with its two performers bouncing up and down on the opposite ends of a seesaw for the entire length of the piece. And the first play was worse.

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First off, sorry for the double post above - I tried to click through a server error and ended up with two posts.

Second off, did anyone see Fierstein's Spookhouse (with Anne Meara, as memory serves!) or Forget Him? I've read Forget Him but not Spookhouse, and I didn't see either onstage. Of course, any memories of seeing the pre-Torch Song plays - Flatbush Tosca, Freaky Pussy, In Search of Cobra Jewels - would also be cool!

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I remember reading somewhere that the deal for movie version was based on the film being no longer than two hours long.

I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same thing.

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