Your Favorite "Lost" Musicals?- Page 3

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/12/24 at 2:23pm

raddersons said: "LaChiusa was the musical theater “it girl” for a few years, with everyone just waiting for the masterpiece to come but producers never willing to bite after a few broadway flops. That’s probablywhy so many of his shows got cast recordings — there was interest in theater circles.I think Giant was the latest of his shows witha broader commercial appeal but i think it was three hoursand never took off from The Public."

 

Well two Broadway flops (and one did play out its set Lincoln Center run) but they happened to be the same year and both lost Tony score  

But yeah I get your point and remember when he always topped a list of “the next Sondheim”  

But I actually just checked the CD cases and majority of his cast albums were largely funded by the Shen Family Foundation as were some productions.  I remember vaguely looking them up years ago. They have a Musical Theatre Composers Initiative and finding their grant info explains a lot (it sounds like they no longer do cast albums--one of the last ones they funded was... First Daughter Suite)  

The Shen Family Foundation, through The Ted & Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund, concentrates its musical theater grants on providing funding support for the works of exceptionally gifted and highly original musical theater composers. The Foundation's mission is to encourage originality, innovation and high artistic aspiration in the musical composition component of musical theater, and its grants are made to selected not-for-profit organizations to support original commissions, theatrical productions and, in certain circumstances, cast recordings of the works of composers who have the potential to advance the art form. Currently, the Foundation's grants are focused almost exclusively on its commissioning programs and on major New York productions of works by its commissioned composers.


Background

During the past several decades the artistry of the "music" component of musical theater productions has become increasingly marginalized by commercial producers' preoccupation with the entertainment appeal of story lines, casting, production values and preference for musical scores deemed to please to mass audiences through the familiarity of their sound. This has led to a predominance of new scores written in derivative genres of pop, rock and musical theater pastiche and, at least in commercial productions, a virtual disappearance of originality and innovation in music-writing. Inspired by the creative genius of Stephen Sondheim - that most extraordinary of exceptions to those tendencies - The Ted & Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund supports the works of musical theater composers who have the talent and commitment to create scores that can challenge the boundaries and sustain the vitality of American musical theater through their ability to astonish by means of their distinctive individualism and boldness of invention.


The Composers

The Foundation's Musical Theater Composers Initiative concentrates its funding support on the works of a select group of exceptionally gifted musical theater composers whose writing is distinguished by originality, innovation and an advanced harmonic sensibility. To date, that group of composers has remained relatively small and consists primarily of Stephen Sondheim and, among the next generation of composers, Michael John LaChiusa, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel, Gabriel Kahane, Marisa Michelson, Jeanine Tesori and Joseph Thalken. Since 2002 the Foundation has committed grants to not-for-profit organizations to commission 20 new musicals, primarily through Signature Theatre (Arlington, VA) and the Public Theater (NY); and to provide major funding for more than 35 productions of works by Stephen Sondheim, more than 75 productions of works by commissioned and other contemporary composers, and more than 20 cast recordings.

 

Updated On: 10/12/24 at 02:23 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/12/24 at 2:28pm

CityofStrangers said: "I'm reallyinterested in the iteration ofRoad Showthat wasGold!There's little information about it from what I've found."

I finally got to ask John Weidman about this and he confirmed what I thought.  Gold! Was just a place holder title between Wise Guys and Bounce but never got even its own distinct workshop.

 

[Fan123]

Posted: 10/12/24 at 6:31pm

raddersons said: "I think Giant was the latest of his shows with a broader commercial appeal but i think it was three hours and never took off from The Public."

While I never saw it, I recall hearing reports that the final version at The Public had been heavily trimmed down from the three-hour version. I may be misremembering though.

I'd put 'Giant' in my favourite lost musicals category as well; I really love the cast recording, and I think it's the most mainstream of LaChiusa's scores that I've heard. The reasonably-similar film adaptation of the novel is also classic. I've therefore always been surprised not to have heard anything much about other professional productions of the show. (Hope some producers or theatre directors or whoever are reading this thread and taking plenty of notes, lol.)

Updated On: 10/12/24 at 06:31 PM