shows that went through development hell?- Page 2

[TechEverlasting]

Posted: 1/18/09 at 8:38pm

What Aida went through wasn't just development hell, it was full fledged hell. After the 1998 Atlanta run the director was replaced, the Pyramid was sent to Japan and a new round of hell began in Chicago the following year with weeks of rewrites. In the early Chicago incarnation there was no apparent reason for Aida to fall in love with Ramades, they just fought a lot and then after a while sang love songs instead. There was hysterical techno fashion show music that got cut when Elton finally saw the show during New York previews and walked out during that scene.

In the end they came up with a pretty good show, but it wasn't easy!

Updated On: 1/18/09 at 08:38 PM

[B3TA07]

Posted: 1/18/09 at 8:42pm

Gone are the days where the next big hit is scribbled down on a napkin at lunch.

[StageFan2]

Posted: 1/18/09 at 8:42pm

Curtains. The show ran into one wall after another, including the deaths of Fred Ebb and Peter Stone.

Posted: 1/18/09 at 8:43pm

Yeah I actually don't think FOllies is a good example at all--by the time run throughs tarted what "massive" changes did it go through? Still Everything is Possible is maybe my number one musical theatre book.

Camelot was 4 hours in Toronto. Show Boat didn't have a ton of probs but was close tot hat out of town too.

Whatabout Kiss of the Spider Woman? While some have said it's been exagerated--when it was first done it was meant to be hysterically awful.

[Tesse]

Posted: 1/18/09 at 11:07pm

I wouldn't say the workshop of KOTSW was "hysterically awful," Eric, but it certainly wasn't great. Only one movie was staged, and its scenes were meant to parallel the story of the two men. It didn't work: The movie was supposed to be a cheesy musical comedy, but they kept forcing in dramatic songs ("I Do Miracles," the title song) to keep the parallel going. It all became very uneven. The movie scenes weren't a respite from the horrible reality, they were a variation of that reality. Likewise, non-movie songs came out of nowhere, without any dramatic buildup to make them necessary. It wasn't terrible, but dramatically weak.

On the other hand, McNally's book had some very strong lines that I wish had been kept (my signature, for one). In the current script, after Valentin yells at Molina for poking fun at a tortured prisoner, he ends the scene by saying, "Look at me. I'm shaking. I'm as pathetic as you." And blackout. Originally, there was some more to that scene. In the workshop, Molina responded, "No, you're not" to that line. Three little words revealed a lot about the character and his self-perception. So it wasn't all bad. Just...mostly.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 3:28am

so what do you all think has changed... or maybe another question to ask is when do you all think things changed... why do shows all of a sudden have so many tryouts and workshops and previews... what was different back then in the Golden Age of theater... do you think we have too many people trying to create a show? do we have creative people who are being pushed aside by producers and backers? thoughts anyone?

[TechEverlasting]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 11:13am

"so what do you all think has changed... or maybe another question to ask is when do you all think things changed..."

Out of town tryouts were common during Broadway's golden age. Philadelphia and Boston were frequent test audiences. I've heard that excessive wage demands from local crew and costume people in those cities eventually led producers to go farther away from New York for their out of town runs. As far as all the workshops and tryouts, I think this reflects the increasing corporate control of Broadway (Disney, Clear Channel etc.) that has developed in the past decade or so. What corporation can manage a big project without zillions of meetings, pointless revisions, political infighting and way too much input from too many chiefs?

[gypsy4]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 11:20am

seussical? and what about hairspray?
Updated On: 1/19/09 at 11:20 AM

[Smaxie]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 11:31am

Here's a piece originally from The New York Times, detailing the tortured tryout for My One and Only. The complete overhaul of that show still might be the most successful salvage job of an out-of-town disaster that I know of.
How My One and Only Came to Broadway

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 1:00pm

Original production at the Alley went terriffic, the pre-Broadway national tour went pretty well with some critics listing changes...Broadway director Robin Phillips took over the directing (& scenic design, which was good!) and decided to cut cut add cut cut different cut change reorder cut.

Actually, after the world premiere at the Alley in 1990, Jekyll and Hyde had the official Broadway tryout in Houston and Seattle in 1995, then the tour in 95-96. The tryout was excellent and only needed some minor cuts and revisions. It most closely resembled the 2-CD studio recording. The tour started to show things going terribly wrong with patchwork cut-and-paste editing that didn't make much sense and some costume/set redesigns that were rather mystifying (I never understood the decision to turn Bring on the Men into a Mardis Gras costume-ball number). Finally, the Broadway production resulted in removing nearly everything positive the critics took from the show and staging the reverse. The vocal arrangements and orchestrations were the only improvement. Jekyll and Hyde had some of the biggest buzz I can remember for a Broadway musical (in my lifetime, anyway) and really had the potential of being a monster hit, based on the early productions. I have still never understood how anyone involved could have fathomed that the finished Broadway production was going to be acceptable.

[sondheimgeek]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 1:06pm

'Dear World' as well as 'Mack and Mabel' went through development hell. Two wonderful, but sadly not well recieved shows.