Yeston's Cage aux Folles!

Posted: 4/30/07 at 9:38pm

I knwo that before Herman's Cage aux Folles, Mike Nicholls, Tommy Tune, Jay Allen P and Maury Yeston were writing an adaptation for the stage set in New Orleans. Was much of the score finished and has it been recorded?

[B3TA07]

Posted: 4/30/07 at 9:42pm

The Herman one is so bad, why bother?

Posted: 4/30/07 at 9:51pm

That's preciely the point--this was the original version. then when Mike Nichoills pulled out the producers got scared of a "new composer" and eventually hired Herman for the score. I am not a fan of Herman's score--and would love to hear what Yeston woulda done with it

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 4/30/07 at 10:00pm

Poor Yeston always ends up writing the least popular yet better scores for hit shows. His PHANTOM remains one of his best pieces and yet only about .01% of theatergoers have bothered to listen to it because it's not the "original one." Unfortunately, Yeston had acquired the rights to the novel but since it was public domain in Englad, we got stuck with the mediocre, bombastic Lloyd Webber version.
I'm sure his LA CAGE would've probably been brilliant. I can't stand Jerry Herman's version.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 4/30/07 at 10:36pm

I agree. I love Yeston's Phantom. Too bad it won't ever seen Broadway lights. Maybe as a concert or something.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 4/30/07 at 11:52pm

I actually like the Herman score, but would love to hear the Yeston.

[DoReMi]

Posted: 4/30/07 at 11:54pm

Phantom is so beautiful. "Home" and "This Place is Mine" rock.

[Julian2]

Posted: 5/1/07 at 12:23am

Same here. I actually love Herman's. It's my favorite show. But I am also a big fan of Yeston, and would love to see what he would do with this story in New Orleans.

I could deal with two versions.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/1/07 at 12:58am

His PHANTOM remains one of his best pieces and yet only about .01% of theatergoers have bothered to listen to it because it's not the "original one."

I disagree, but you should know that Webber's Phantom was hardly the "original". There were a few musical versions of The Phantom of the Opera prior to Webber's and several after.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/1/07 at 1:25am

That's what I was trying to say about Webber's PHANTOM, most people tend to think of it as the original musical and refuse to give others a chance. I know that there were many adaptations before Webber--unfortunately--got his hands on it.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/1/07 at 1:35am

I still don't hold Yeston's in such a high regard. I did give it a chance and found it to be very bland with some hysterically bad lyrics and a book that strayed way too far from the original novel for my taste. Yes, some of the lyrics by Richard Stilgoe and Charles Hart are not any better, but they are, in my opinion, a bit more polished and more appropriate for the time period.

I did find some of Yeston's music slightly enthralling, but not as emotionally driven as Webber's. In the end though, music aside, I think Andrew just got on board with better collaborators and a better director by far. No one could save the Yeston material in the same way that Harold Prince saved Webber's.

Posted: 5/1/07 at 3:11am

Well to be fair ALW himself makes no pretense that he was the first to do a Phantom musical.

I do think Yeston's weakness is lyrics--and for some reason I have more and more probs with his lyrics as he progresses (I love most of Nine--I think Phantom has some almost laughable lyrics as does Titanic though not always as much to do with rhymes as to do with character--ie Titanic how we have big rants liek the telegraph guy going on about the history of the telegraph, the chorus singing about the building of the ship, stuff I don't really see their characters doing).

I like ALW's Phantom but as a guilty pleasure (and one I don't dive into very often) but as much as I think Yeston is pretty up and down as a lyricist I don't think anyone can defend Hart and (especially) Stillgoe's... (I felt a tinge of pity for Hart when I read on Wikipedia his quote about wanting to be the British Sondheim )

Cats--wow I actually agree with you on something--ALW owes a lot of his success to the vision of his production--thanks to Bjornson and Prince and how iconic that look for Phantom became. From what I've seen and reviews I've read none of the productions of Phantom by Yeston had anything as visually comparable (and I don't mean elaborate wise--I mean striking--where was tommy Tune?).

So I assume that nothing from Yeston's Cage was recorded?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/1/07 at 4:40am

some of his songs from his La Cage probably found their way into other musicals...

[philcrosby]

Posted: 5/1/07 at 8:47am

Yeston's version of LA CAGE was to be called THE QUEEN OF BASIN STREET (which is such a great title) as the show was to be set in New Orleans.

Apparently the work he did must have been substantial, as Yeston got a royalty payment during the original run of LA CAGE. (No insinuation that any of Herman's songs were actually his.)