HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: dkodmur@ocf.berkeley.edu (Daniel Kodmur)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: Further Thoughts
Date: 28 Jan 1993 22:19:32 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: sandstorm.berkeley.edu

I am glad to have started up some discussion on the net, and some other
stuff occurred to me yesterday, so here goes:

The best performance of Bobby I have seen was on one of Sylvia Fine Kaye's
PBS musical theatre specials a few years ago.  Bobby was Richard Chamberlain,
who possessed just the right combination of glamour, shallowness, and
unapproachability, sang quite well, and looked the part as well. He did
an excellent version of "Barcelona" on the show, with Bernadette Peters as
April.  The show also featured Carol Burnett singing a dandy "Ladies Who
Lunch."

I know some people, especially our Sage of Delaware, dislike these shows,
but they made a great impression on me.  Chamberlain has a good voice; it is
a shame he has been so underutilized in the musical theatre.

On the subject of putting up with unacceptably shoddy performance because
of sentiment, the prime example which leapt to mind was that of Dolores Hope,
whose singing career has inexplicably been resuscitated over the last few 
years. I saw her on her hubby's Christmas show.  Clearly, she has very little
voice left, though she does retain some mildly intriguing phrasing and 
interpretive skills.  I kept asking myself why she did not retire graciously.

On the other hand, I have heard this argument applied unjustifiably to singers
like Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett, so I guess we need to be careful not
only about what we tolerate, but also about what we disparage.

Speaking of Tony Bennett, I saw him on Oprah Winfrey singing with Liza
Minnelli.  They were both rather good, with Liza being much less annoying
than usual.  However, it was announced that a special guest would be coming
out later as a surprise for Oprah and the television audience. When he came
onstage, the audience went nuts.  It was Michael Bolton.  He was, as usual,
terrible.  They loved him anyway. What is wrong with people these days? I
feel like Madame Armfeldt, which is depressing in one so young as I, so
I will change the subject.

The R & H overtures album is one I had meant to mention in my earlier post.
I am really enjoying it, especially the *real* "Carousel Waltz" and the
"King and I" overture.  I expected to love these; what is indeed surprising
is how pleasant the overtures from the so-called flops are. I particularly
like the ones from "Pipe Dream" and "Me and Juliet."  The first song in the 
latter overture sounds very contemporary, not at all like the Rodgers I am
used to.  It almost sounds like a Sondheim song.  Are the three obscure R & H
shows any good?  I am curious to hear more.

Happy Listening!!
From: wookie@alice.att.com (Keith Bauer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: CATS and theatre sound systems
Keywords: brodway theatre shows
Date: 22 Jan 93 13:18:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: alice.24680
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ


I am a newcomer to this group having just recently been almost literally
"dragged" off to see CATS in New York and have fallen in love with the
theatre or rather, I should say, my love for the theatre has be re-awakened
after a very long spell.  I found CATS to be an incredibly unique experience
which has affected me in ways that cannot be explained and I am
ready to go see it anytime anyone wants to go.  I'm eager to listen to
anything the group has to say on the subject of CATS, whether positive or
negative, and any thoughts of how this show fits in with the normal Broadway
fare as I don't see CATS as being the typical Broadway show.  If anyone is
afraid of something like "Oh no......not that show again!", then reply to
me directly.

Of more importance, CATS has gotten me to see other shows so naturally the
big shows have been hit first;  Les Miserables, Phantom, Miss Saigon etc.
I have enjoyed all of these shows but have noticed a major problem common
to all:  the sound system.  My first observation, after having been away 
from theatre for so many years, is the "rock concert" generation from the
60's and 70's have taken things over so that we have grand sound systems
ready to plaster you to the wall with rather excessive dynamic range.  Oh
there are still the soft passages but generally the audio is way too high
and will cause hearing damage (I work in acoustics research).

The advent of the wireless microphone has some interesting effects.  Now
most or all of the characters carry wireless mics.  In the case of CATS, only
about half appear to have mics and so the sound person is forced to balance
the haves and have-nots resulting in a mix that isn't bad and allows the
action on stage to be followed reasonably well.  In the case of Les Miserables
it appeared that everyone had a wireless mic allowing the sound person 
to crank the level up on everyone.  Because the direct path from the actor
to the listener was drowned out by the PA system, it was extremely 
difficult to find the sound source on stage so one had to rely on lighting
cues or just dumb luck to see a mouth moving.  I conjecture that these
mics can also affect the performance (good or bad?) by making it
unnecessary for the actor to project to the back of the theatre.

There are ways to cure these problems if indeed they are problems.  As
theatre goers, are any of you annoyed by this or am I unique on this position?
If there appears to be enough of an annoyance factor then I shall look into
how the problem can be remedied, or rather if Broadway theatres (and others)
are willing to do what is needed to correct the problem.

GrowlTiger's on the loose!


Keith Bauer  research.att.com!wookie
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
From: gretchke@yang.earlham.edu (Glory Card!)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: Re: CHESS: What really happened on stage?
Date: 22 Jan 93 18:23:29 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: Land's End

In article <1jn8jsINNidu@coral.bucknell.edu>, norbeck@pleiades.cs.bucknell.edu (Naughty Nukes NY in her 1999 Nissan) writes:
> 
> 
> A few months (or maybe even longer) ago someone who had seen CHESS
> posted a description of what it was like on stage, with how the
> stage was set, and what sorts of other visual actions and effects took
> place.  If that person is still out there and could send me a copy of
> that info, I'd really appreciate it!  I just recently played the
> concept album to a friend of mine who has completely fallen in love
> with it and wants to know more about it, but I can't remember much of
> what I read in that post.  I'd love to be able to show it to her.
> 
> I don't get a chance to read news often anymore, so email wuld
> be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Nancy
> --
> |.."I've heard snappier comebacks from a bowl of Rice..|....Nancy Norbeck.....|
> |......Krispies."  Charles Emerson Winchester III......|.norbeck@bucknell.edu.|

	Would you mind emailing it to me, too?  This has got to be my 
favorite musical.

       -Gretchen Kelly :  gretchke@yang.earlham.edu-

-- 
"The mist clung to the mountain the same way a thirteen-year-old girl clings
to her boyfriend, although the mountain wasn't thinking about "getting lucky."
                                 (1990 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest entry)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Subject: Re: "Children Will Listen"
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 21:00:57 GMT

In article <1993Jan27.203757.8852@cbnews.cb.att.com> gwb@cbnews.cb.att.com (gregory.blum) writes:

>I distinctly remember (and have
>since verified on the tape) that Babs sang "Guide them and set them
>free, children will glisten."  This doesn't show up anywhere that I
>could find in my libretto....)

Those are the same words Bernadette Peters sang on the videotape of the
NY production (which was done at the end of the run).  Perhaps they were
a late "better idea" of Sondheim's?  I don't really know where they came
from.

Jon Alan Conrad
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
From: qtm2w@Virginia.EDU ("Quinn T. McCord")
Subject: Re: CATS and theatre sound systems
Organization: University of Virginia
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 23:03:01 GMT


	I think we tend to forget, in these days of falling
chandeliers and elevating helicopters, just how *different*
Cats was from anything else out there.  It was hard finding
financial backers.  What do you say to them?  "We're doing a
musical about Cats."?  The creators were really worried that
they wouldn't be able to make the audience believe that those
were really Cats out there.  Many people have said that Cats
isn't theatre it's an "experience", not all of them criticizing
it.  It was much more revolutionary than we give it credit for,
I'm afraid.
	Today?  Cats is an *extremely* tough show.  Unless the
actors put out 100%, it suffers.  Unfortunately, I have to
admit that the last couple times I've seen it, it looked very
tired.  The problem with long runs like this, is that you get a
cast of actors, none of whom worked with the director.
(Actually, I think there's one original cast member left.)  It
just runs on momentum.  To be honest, I wouldn't be sorry to
see it close.
						-Quinn
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Subject: Re: Original cast recording of "Follies"
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 14:09:18 GMT

In article <wfN_5s200iUx0_SOZ4@andrew.cmu.edu> tt27+@andrew.cmu.edu (Todd Nicholas Tarantino) writes:

>wasnt the bolero called "vincent and vanessa" in the score? i may be
>wrong, but it is a nice piece of music. 

Yes, in the vocal score, the number "Bolero d'Amour" is called "Vincent
and Vanessa."

Apparently Michael Bennett (original co-director and choreographer)
insisted on this number remaining in, where Prince would have cut it.
Sondheim wasn't crazy about it either, since although the theme was his,
the number as a whole was an arranger's creation (he's touchy about
being visibly "helped" in that way -- one reason the more recent vocal
scores of his shows are based on his manuscripts rather than the
finished orchestration).  So it was dumped in the big concert and in
London.  I *like* the number (it has an absolutely glorious MGM-style
Tunick orchestration) and would always want to see it in a production of
Follies.  Its omission was one of the things that pissed me off the most
about the RCA recording (another was the curtailment of the Who's That
Woman dance).

Jon Alan Conrad
From: jimkelle@phakt.usc.edu (Quicksilver)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: Re: Answer to Into the Woods Trivia
Date: 21 Jan 1993 18:42:05 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: phakt.usc.edu


In article <1993Jan21.120040.10224@Virginia.EDU> qtm2w@Virginia.EDU ("Quinn T. McCord") writes:
>
>	Well, I guess there were no takers on my Into the Woods
>trivia question: WHEN does it take place?
>
>The answer: the 1700's.

One small problem:  Jack's mother tells him not to take less than five 
gold pieces for Milky White.  By the seventeen hundreds coinage had
reached the point where coins were called by their respective names, and
were being made out of materials other than gold.  That would put the date
as late-medieval, rather than early rennaisance.  (After the demise of the
barter system but before standardized currency.)  

My theory:  It's a FAIRY TALE, and therefore takes place ONCE UPON A TIME.

--Jim!
From: eliz@world.std.com (Elizabeth Lear Newman)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: Re: Into the Woods AGONY
Date: 21 Jan 1993 09:55:58 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


 user J Cickocki writes:
>>inside don't ask it a maiden alas ...just as unwakable...

 Todd Nicholas Tarantino <tt27+@andrew.cmu.edu> says:
>not to be picky but actually it is 
>"inside don't ask it, a maiden, a lass, just ..."
>:)
>todd

Sorry to be pickier, but I went to my commercially published libretto,
and it says

RAPUNZEL'S PRINCE:
	I've found a casket
	Entirely of glass-
		(as Cinderella's Prince starts to protest)
	No, it's unbreakable.
	Inside - don't ask it - 
	A maiden, alas,
	Just as unwakeable -
	What unmistakable agony!
	Is the way always barred?

						...eliz
--
   tongue - a variety of meat, rarely served because it clearly crosses
            the line between a cut of beef and a piece of dead cow.
                                                    (Bob Ekstrom, Pitt, MN)

	
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
From: ahsiung@bbn.com (Anita Hsiung)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: MFA
Date: 21 Jan 1993 21:56:43 GMT
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Reply-To: ahsiung@labs-n.bbn.com (Anita Hsiung)
NNTP-Posting-Host: bbn.com

Can anyone point me to sources of good schools in which to get an MFA?
I haven't gone to my local Samuel French bookstore yet, but another
bookstore that usually has everything only contains MBA catalogues,
undergrad guides, etc., nothing much to do with theatre.  I'm thinking
along the lines of a producer's program, both the technical and the
business sides.  Thanks for ideas.

	-- Anita --

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| ahsiung@bbn.com    |                                                    |
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From: cz23+@andrew.cmu.edu (Clay R. Zambo)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: Re: I wish I had seen...
Date: 26 Jan 93 19:05:35 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Drama, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

. . .WEST SIDE STORY, particularly the Balcony Scene, before I knew
"Tonight" as a standard.  What impact that song must have had, emerging
from the not-quite-recitative that precedes it. . .

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, in its original production.  Sure, it had flaws,
but I was late in a semester of undergrad as it opened, and not quite
done with finals when it closed.  I subsequently played Charley in a
small production and wonder how influenced by Lonny Price's performance
I really was.
From: adolphso@mizar.usc.edu (adolphson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: Re: "Company" in concert
Date: 24 Jan 1993 19:36:49 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: mizar.usc.edu

In article <1993Jan25.024310.23541@psych.toronto.edu> 
dsy@psych.toronto.edu (Desiree Sy) writes:
> In article <1jvcbrINN7k@mizar.usc.edu> 
> adolphso@mizar.usc.edu (adolphson) writes:
> >The Long Beach Civic Light Opera's AIDS benefit concert
> >yesterday -- "Company" performed in concert by the original
> >cast (with the exception of the late Charles Braswell) -- has
> >to have been one of the most exciting nights I've ever spent
> >in the theater.  
>
> First, thanks so much for posting this description.  It sounds
> like it was amazing.

Amazing isn't the word for it.

> Who directed and choreographed the concert?  Was anything
> modified from the original?

Produced and directed by Barry Brown
Musical staging by George Martin
Musical direction by John McDaniel

Modified from the original?  In terms of the music, no.  It
was note for note the original score.

> Could you describe a little of the staging that was done for the
> concert?  I've only seen pictures of the set, but I understand 
> that it was crucial in providing a literal "framework" to hang 
> the show's themes on.  I'm wondering what was done in terms of 
> staging to compensate.  (Particularly with the dancing.)

"Tick-Tock", Donna McKechnie's big dance solo, was sort of a riff
on the original Michael Bennett choreography.  McKechnie has
some physical limitations now (arthritis?), and so her dancing
wasn't what it once was.  In any case, she didn't have Boris
Aronson's scaffolding to dance in and out of.  The orchestra
was on stage.  Directly in front of the orchestra was a row of
chairs for the cast members.  And then there were four or
five microphones at the edge of the stage.  Donna McKechnie
danced in the space between the chairs and the microphones.
The choreography for "Side by Side by Side"/"What Would We Do
Without You" looked almost exactly like what I remember of
the original choreography.  (And Barbara Barrie can still
do cartwheels!)

"Company", "You Could Drive a Person Crazy", and "Poor Baby"
struck me as being the original choreography, too.  None of it,
with the exception of "Tick-Tock" and "Side by Side by Side"
is really *dancing*.  In my earlier article I wrote that the
cast endeavored to incorporate as much of the original stage
movement and business -- gestures, postures, hand movements -- 
as possible.  (I don't know if I've answered your question or
not.)

> Also, do you know (through interviews, articles, etc.) how much
> rehearsal time was devoted to the show?

I haven't seen any interviews or articles about it, amazingly
enough.  When Dean Jones addressed the audience at the end,
he said that they'd rehearsed for a week.  That is astonishing
to me.  There wasn't a hitch anywhere in the show.  It's such
an incredible musical, and the original cast is, quite simply,
unbetterable.  

Arne
From: pape@rd1.interlan.com (Donna Pape)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: Colm Wilkinson/Toronto
Date: 25 Jan 93 18:46:05 GMT
Organization: Racal-Datacom, Sunrise, FL


I'd appreciate it if somebody in the know could tell me how long
Colm Wilkinson will be playing the Phantom in Toronto this year.
I'm thinking of going back up there in May, hopefully he'll be
there then.

Thanks,
Donna
From: golds_ss@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Stuart S Goldstone)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: Re: JCS Recordings
Date: 26 Jan 1993 00:40:19 -0500
Organization: Homewood Academic Computing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu

In article <1993Jan25.221142.25593@Virginia.EDU> qtm2w@Virginia.EDU
("Quinn T. McCord") writes:
>
>	I think most actresses embellish Mary's songs way too
>much, as opposed to Yvonne's very simple rendition.  Claire
>Moore is fine, however.

	Are you kidding?  Claire Moore embellished the HELL out of "I Don't
Know How to Love Him"-- not that I'm complaing, because I practically
creamed my shorts when I heard her on that recording.  (Okay, okay, I didn't
really; sorry if I shocked anyone.)  She did a hell of a job on the new JCS
recording, all right.

						- Stu

-- 
                  |          Stuart Scott Goldstone          |
                  |  Internet:  golds_ss@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu  |
                  |      BITNET: golds_ss@jhunix.bitnet      |
                  |           GEnie:  S.GOLDSTONE1           |
From: rose@hpfcmgw.FC.HP.COM (Rose Palombo)
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 21:25:54 GMT
Subject: Re: Is Les Mis on Tour?
Organization: HP Fort Collins, CO
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre

In rec.arts.theatre, black@jazz.concert.net (Rob Black) writes:

<     Hi! I was just wondering if anyone has any tour information om Les Mis. It
<     came through where I live in Raleigh, NC last winter and I was wondering
<     if it's still out there.

    It's still out there.  It's in Spokane, WA this week.
    I know it'll be in Denver the first week in March.
    That's the only schedule information that I have.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
From: jab55062@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (The World Reknown Jason Boskey)
Subject: Re: JCS Tour
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 20:29:16 GMT

While we're speaking about JCS, when is it due in Chicago????  Also, might it
make a run through Champaign????  I've been waiting too long to see this one
to let it go through without me seeing it.



____________________________________________________________________________
|The World Reknown Jason Boskey           | Mail: Bosk@uiuc.edu            |  
|Known throughout the World as The Bosk   |"Christ, you know it ain't easy,|
|All Rights Reserved, All Lefts Enhanced  |You know how hard it can be,    |
|-----------------------------------------|The way things are goin'        |
|"Here they come spinning out of the turn"|They're gonna crucify me"       |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Subject: Re: I wish I had seen...
Organization: University of Delaware
Distribution: rec
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 14:38:34 GMT

In article <MURRAY.93Jan20205858@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu> murray@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu (Thomas Murray) writes:

>What are the top ten (if you can name that many) productions (B'way or
>othewise) you wish you had seen.  And why?  

1.  The original CAROUSEL.  To see that cast, the Agnes DeMille
choreography, and an orchestra of 40.  And to be able to enjoy it as a
person of the 1940s, without the troubling additional awarenesses that
inevitably dilute my pleasure in it now.

2.  John Gielgud's HAMLET.  No explanation needed.

3.  The original off-Broadway production of Jerome Moross's THE GOLDEN
APPLE, since it's a fascinating throughcomposed show and it looks like
we're never gonna get an adequate revival.  (When I make my SECOND
million, I'll finance a complete recording of it...)

4.  Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in MACBETH at Stratford-on-Avon.
Widely agreed to be an incredible pairing, and one of Olivier's finest
roles -- so, naturally, one that was never committed to film.

5.  The original Broadway production of CANDIDE.  Faults and all, it
must have been amazing, and I want to see and hear how it played.

6.  Ethel Merman in the original GYPSY (I saw both Angela Lansbury -- a
classic performance in its own right -- and Tyne Daly).  Everyone agrees
that this was one of the incandescent performances; I recall reading a
fan letter from John Gielgud to her, praising the subtlety and elegance
of her work.

7.  The original production of CAMELOT.  This came along just as I was
getting tuned in to musicals, and it was the first show that I feel in
love with just as it was happening -- advance word, TIME cover story,
original cast album, Ed Sullivan telecast turning it into a hit, the
whole bit.  My parents saw it in NY, dammit, on their way to a European
tip, but I had to settle for the National Company, in the cavernous
Chicago Civic Opera House, with Kathryn Grayson rewriting the whole show
to suit her piggish pleasure and in general delivering the worst
professional performance I have ever seen.  But to have seen Richard,
Julie, Robert, Roddy, Arthur, et al, in the original designs...that
would be something.

8.  Laurette Taylor in THE GLASS MENAGERIE, widely agreed to be one of
the acting performances of the century.  (But theaterlovers should check
out the film Paul Newman directed of it a few years back, which is
remarkably good and offers a stage-trained cast in a filming that
preserves the virtues of a stage performance.)

9.  CARRIE.  Blame Ken Mandelbaum; I gotta check this one out for myself
and see just how bad it was.

10.  THE GRASS HARP.  I bought the libretto recently, and it's pretty
inept.  But with a score like that, and performances like that (Barbara
Cook, Russ Thacker, Carol Brice), I bet I'd have loved it anyway.

Jon Alan Conrad