Q & A: 2/27/06

Q: I´ve been wondering about your opinion of the revival of Evita planned for London. Do you think that a completely new approach to the show could work without Hal Prince's vision?---Marcelo Kotliar.

A: Director Michael Grandage and choreographer Rob Ashford's forthcoming London production of Evita must rank as one of the more intriguing musical revivals of recent years. That's because few shows are as closely identified with their original stagings as is Evita. True, there have been any number of international productions and amateur mountings of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice perennial without the original Hal Prince/Larry Fuller staging. But that staging seemed intrinsic to the material in London and on Broadway, and one finds it hard to imagine how the show will look and move without it, particularly in a major West End revival.

Then too, the Prince-Fuller production made the Lloyd Webber/Rice material look even better than it was. It was one of those stagings that contributed enormously to the success of a work that might easily have gone off track with less confident direction, choreography, and design.

That said, Evita probably ranks as Lloyd Webber's finest achievement, a piece that has held up well over the years and even survived a film version that had a disappointing reception. So one can only hope that Grandage and Ashford will find ways to enhance the material as powerfully as did the original '70s staging.

Q: Could you outline some of the differences between the original production of Chess in London and the Broadway production?---Ed Bennett

A: Like Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, Chess began life as a double album, one that enjoyed considerable popularity on both sides of the Atlantic. The Shubert Organization persuaded Michael Bennett to attempt the first stage production in London. Bennett conceived the piece as a spoken-and-sung "ballet" about the effect of media on people's lives. He and scenic designer Robin Wagner devised a set consisting of dozens of video monitors and a movable chess-board floor. Bennett hired the recording's three stars Elaine Paige, Murray Head, Tommy Korberg to repeat their roles on stage, and cast the rest of the production with some of London's top dancers.

But Bennett was already aware of the illness that would take his life in 1987, and was forced to withdraw from the production in early 1986. Trevor Nunn did an admirable job of assuming the reins of a production whose concept, design, and cast were not of his own choosing, and he managed to pull the show together in time for its West End opening, at the Prince Edward Theatre in May, 1986.

The result was a pop opera that dealt in adult fashion with contemporary characters and issues in a sweeping, elegant production. But most of those involved believed that the London production had never quite jelled, with Nunn in particular feeling that he had not had sufficient time to make the material his own. So Chess was radically rethought for the Broadway production that opened in April 1988 at the Imperial Theatre.

Both versions used an international chess competition as a metaphor for East-West relationships, and both focused on a romantic triangle between Russian and American challengers and a female "second" to the American who is drawn to the Russian. However, while the London version was almost entirely sung, Richard Nelson was brought in to create a new book for Broadway which featured substantial scenes of dialogue. The three principals were made approximately a decade younger for New York, virtually all dance was eliminated, the action featured fewer chess matches, and one of the original locations, Merano, Italy, was cut.

In New York, Nelson's book did not blend well with Tim Rice's lyrics and the alternately rock-influenced and Puccini-esque music by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. In London, Wagner's visual production, which included a rising mountainside in Italy and a prologue with dancers invisible inside Oriental chess-piece costumes, blinded one to many of the work's shortcomings. For the New York production, Wagner mixed his periaktoids from A Chorus Line with his towers from Dreamgirls, and placed the result on a Les Miz-style turntable. The result was intricate but drab. But the Broadway principals were strong, and if the Broadway version missed the grandeur and excitement of the London production, the plight of the central characters was somewhat more affecting in New York.

In terms of the score, several numbers -"Merano," "Embassy Lament"-were eliminated, and there were many alterations in the lyrics. The "Mountain Duet" became the "Terrace Duet," and the music of a confrontation scene between the Russian challanger and his second became the music of a confrontation between the American and his second. The position of several numbers was shifted, and a strong new song for the leading lady, "Someone Else's Story," was introduced.

The London Chess received mixed reviews but ran three years. The Broadway Chess became the first of the '80s string of British pop opera imports that was not only dismissed by New York critics but also failed to find a sizable Broadway audience. It closed after a run of only two months.

Q: Some years back, I enjoyed the London musical Matador, starring John Barrowman and Stefanie Powers. Was this show ever performed again, like in the U.S.?---Harry R.

A: Matador actually had its world premiere at Marriott's Lincolnshire Theatre in suburban Chicago in 1989, where it was directed and choreographed by David H. Bell. The cast included Michael S. Lynch, Jamie Dawn Gangi, Dale Morgan, and John Reeger. Two years later, Matador was staged in London, at the Queens Theatre.

Q: Looking through the cast-album collection of a fellow show fan and collector recently, I came across the cast recording an LP of something called Apple Pie. Why have I never heard of this show?---Dennis Adler

A: The LP of Apple Pie is one of those privately-made cast recordings, never commercially released but instead distributed among those who participated in the show. As such, it's a genuine rarity and a collector's item.

As for the show, it was a Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival off-Broadway musical, with a libretto by Myrna Lamb and music by Nicholas Meyers, directed by no less than Joseph Papp himself. The cast included Lee Allen Funny Girl stage and film, Stephanie Cotsirilos Nine, and Robert Guillaume.

Q: In one of your seasonal "looking back" columns, you mentioned the New York stage version of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I seem to remember seeing this on television. Am I correct?---Carl Jackson

A: In 1979, New York's Radio City Music Hall presented a live stage version of the 1937 Walt Disney animated film musical Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It proved popular, playing two engagements at the Music Hall, for a total run of about 100 performances. In addition to the Frank Churchill/Larry Morey songs from the film including "I'm Wishing," "One Song," "With a Smile and a Song," "Whistle While You Work," "Heigh-Ho," and "Someday My Prince Will Come", the stage version featured new songs with music by Jay Blackton and lyrics by the book writer, Joe Cook.

With Mary Jo Salerno, Richard Bowne, and Anne Francine in leading roles and Don Pippin the musical director, this stage version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was preserved in two formats. There was a Buena Vista LP cast recording, which, as I recall, was sold only at the Music Hall. Then HBO taped the complete show and telecast it.

Q: I saw the Broadway revue Swing! several years back. This one featured Ann Hampton Callaway and Laura Benanti. But wasn't there another musical with the same title?---Richard Ramsey

A: At least one other. The one that was headed for Broadway had music by Robert Waldman The Robber Bridegroom, lyrics by Alfred Uhry The Robber Bridegroom, Driving Miss Daisy, Parade, and a book by Conn Fleming. It had its world premiere in Wilmington, Delaware in early 1980, but shortly thereafter closed for good in Washington, D.C. The cast included Robert LuPone, Debbie Gravitte, and Mary Catherine Wright. Another musical called Swing, this one written by Rupert Holmes, was subsequently announced but has not, to my knowledge, been produced.

Q: Why did the Broadway revival of Take Me Along in 1985 run only one performance? Wasn't this show a hit the first time around? Was the revival so bad that it had to be shut down after just one night?---Ellen Newman

A: The original 1959 production of Take Me Along was well received and was a hit. At least part of its success, though, was due to its stars, in particular Jackie Gleason, a Broadway comedian who had become a huge television star. When Gleason left Take Me Along, he was replaced by William Bendix TV's "Life of Riley"; business fell, so the show ended up with just over a year's run. Had Gleason cared to remain, the run would surely have been somewhat longer.

The 1985 Broadway revival of Take Me Along was an import from the Goodspeed Opera House. While it had charm and a superb performance by Beth Fowler in the role created by Eileen Herlie, the production was too low-key for Broadway exposure. Nor was the show's title one that meant much to mid-'80s theatregoers, as there had never been a film version of Take Me Along. When the revival, which opened at the Martin Beck, received tepid reviews, business was non-existent, and the producers wisely chose to close immediately. It was simply a case of a well-received, small-scale regional production that wasn't strong enough to withstand Broadway exposure.

Q: I have a quick question. Why does a man named Arnold Perl get credit in the billing for Fiddler on the Roof and its script?---Robert Reiman

A: The credit that Fiddler on the Roof has always had is, "based on the Sholom Aleichem stories, by special permission of Arnold Perl." In 1957, there was an off-Broadway play called Tevya and His Daughters note the different spelling of the main character's name, written by Arnold Perl and based on the stories of Sholom Aleichem. It was directed by Howard Da Silva, who, a few years later, would be briefly considered for the role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. Tevya and His Daughters played seventy-two performances at the Carnegie Hall Playhouse. Because it was a play with music the latter by Serge Hovey, Columbia Records made a cast album.

Mike Kellin Pipe Dream, Next Stop Greenwich Village played Tevya, and the cast of characters included Golde, Tzeitl, Hodel, Chava, Lazar Wolf, Mottel Kamzoil, and Perchik.

Q: My community theater is about to produce Anything Goes, and we're going to do the version of the show that was done at Lincoln Center in the '80s, which I believe is now the standard version. How does the score of this version compare to the score from the original Broadway production?---Jeff

A: The 1987 Lincoln Center Theater version of Anything Goes was quite faithful to the original 1934 score, including every song written for the original, with the exception of "Where Are the Men?" But five additional songs from other Cole Porter shows were added. Two of these, "Friendship" from DuBarry Was a Lady and "It's Delovely" from Red, Hot and Blue!, were first interpolated into the score in the 1962 off-Broadway revival. That revival represented the show's standard performing version until the Lincoln Center version came along.

The Lincoln Center version also added "Easy to Love," written for the original but dropped because original leading man William Gaxton had trouble with its range; "I Want to Row on the Crew," from one of Porter's Yale shows; and "Goodbye, Little Dream, Goodbye," dropped from the film Born to Dance and the tryout of Red, Hot and Blue! but performed in the 1936 London play O Mistress Mine by the charming French singer Yvonne Printemps.

Other score alterations in the Lincoln Center version: "The Gypsy in Me" is performed by the characters of Reno Sweeney and Evelyn Oakleigh, rather than by Hope Harcourt, as in the original. And "Buddy Beware" was done by Erma instead of by Reno, who sang it for the first few weeks of the 1934 run until it was replaced by a reprise of "I Get a Kick Out of You."

Q: I recently came across a recording of The Secret Garden starring Barbara Cook. This appears to be a different musical from the one that played on Broadway. When and where was it produced, and was Barbara Cook in the actual production?---Lawrence Blaine

A: The Secret Garden recording you're referring to was first released in 1988, and it's a studio-cast recording of a musical version of the Frances Hodgson Burnett novel that was performed in the British towns of Watford and Salisbury during the 1982-1983 season. It was the work of Sharon Burgett, Susan Beckwith-Smith, and Diana Matterson, but for the recording, additional material was apparently provided by Ellen Fitzhugh, Will Holt, Chandler Warren, and Stanley Lebowksy.

None of the cast members of the recording --in addition to Cook, they include John Cullum, George Rose, and Judy Kaye-- ever appeared in this Secret Garden; they were simply enlisted for a recording of a show that seems to have disappeared when the superior 1991 Broadway musical version of the same property came along.

The '80s Secret Garden recording was released in three formats, cassette, CD, and LP, with the cassette the only one featuring the complete recording. It has appeared on CD twice, the first time on IBR Classics, the second on Varese Sarabande. The score is generally mediocre, and certainly inferior to the Broadway version. But it does allow one the rare chance to hear Cook, whose numbers on the recording were arranged by Wally Harper, singing a new role housemaid Martha and an unknown theatre score. And the first-act closer for Cook, "Something Special," finds her in radiant form. So Cook devotees will probably want to seek out this recording.