Seesaw and The Rink

[nsguy45]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 3:33pm

Why have neither been revived on Broadway?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 3:55pm

The Rink would be good @ Encores

[brdway411]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 3:58pm

I saw a production of The Rink in Bucks County, PA about 20 years ago. Don't remember a lot about the story but I do recall enjoying it.

Would like to see it at Encores.

[brdway411]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 3:58pm

I saw a production of The Rink in Bucks County, PA about 20 years ago. Don't remember a lot about the story but I do recall enjoying it.

Would like to see it at Encores.

[After Eight]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 4:01pm

Neither was particularly successful when they first opened; I don't see their chances for success being any greater now.

Seesaw was entertaining enough; The Rink less so. The latter did have a number of good songs, though.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 4:05pm

I liked the score for "the Rink" and enjoyed the performances. It is a bit dated w its counter culture bit (all the children in a row). Liked how it at least acknowledged a mature woman having a sexual life. & Jason Alexander on roller skates!

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 4:12pm

I would love to see both done by Encores!

Especially Seesaw.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 4:22pm

The Rink would be tough for Encores because there probably couldn't be much roller-skating. The title song would be disappointing if the cast were simply walking around in circles.

But I would kill to see Seesaw again!

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 5:01pm

Seesaw is ideal for Encores I think. Showy roles, a really strong score, and a production that probably made what was, as a play, an intimate drama into an overblown production. Tommy Tune could restage It's Not Where you Start choreography (my grandma used to go to New York every few years, and she remembered next to nothing about SeeSaw except for how brilliant she found "the balloon dance.")

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 7:57pm

I've never heard THE RINK, but I absolutely love the score to SEESAW. Those brassy orchestrations are so great, and the songs are wonderful too. I really like Michele Lee's voice on the album, but I've always wondered how Lainie Kazan was.

[DAME]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 8:02pm

Both would be great. The Rink would need a major book overhaul.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 8:06pm

I love the score to SEESAW and have listened to the score a dozen times just in the past couple of weeks. (New download.)

But it's an awkward mishmash of the original, intimate story arbitrarily blown up in to a big, Broadway musical.

i didn't know Lainie Kazan had done it, but I would love to hear or see that! I saw her in concert a couple of years ago and was absolutely blown away!

***

As for THE RINK, I don't know what it is about that show, but i saw it with the original leads and have almost no memory of it except that "The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree" was pretty funny.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/13/14 at 8:17pm

Totally agreed, Gaveston, as I said.

You don`t know the huge behind the scenes drama of the show? When Michael Bennett came in out of town and they basically rewrote the whole thing, he fired the leading lady--Lainie. He thought she was too fat to play a dancer, and was not very nice about how he handled it.

[nsguy45]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 2:47am

Saw The Rink on Broadway and the national tour of Seesaw in Boston, with Lucie Arnaz, John Gavin and Tommy Tune. Added bonus was sitting two rows behind Lucille Ball, who had flown to Boston to see her daughter perform.

[Jon]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 5:26am

Re: THE RINK -
First of all: there is a revised script that removes all the dated topical references. "All the Children..." has a completely new lyric. No longer a hippie anthem, it's now a song about Angel traveling the country looking for her father. Also all references to the father having fought in Korea are gone, a line about "that peanut farmer in the White House', etc., are gone. It could still be played as taking place in the 70's, with flashbacks to the 50's, but it could just as easily be set in the present.

Second: There is only ONE number with roller skating - the title song. It involves the six men. The revised version deletes the flashback in which we see the father skating with the little girl (young Angel). The two leading ladies never skated in either version.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 7:02am

I also saw the touring company of Seesaw with Lucie Arnaz--a very hollow mashup for me of slam-bang showbiz and an annoying love story of opposites (that never made me root for them to stay together). Eh--

I absolutely ADORED the original production of The Rink, however. Saw it 4 times and never understood how it didn't find an audience. Thought the libretto was completely original and completely affecting-- and the score had me in tears at several points, especially ALL THE CHILDREN IN A ROW. Maybe it's my age (57 now), but that show spoke to me from the minute Liza lumbered out onto the apron with her stupid backpack and began singing COLORED LIGHTS. A masterpiece in my book that deserves a full revival with Peter Larkin's spectacular set intact.

[alterego]

Posted: 3/15/14 at 6:56am

I like SEESAW. I remember how The New Yorker summed up the show " Another sweetly charitable view of New York". That might give us an idea of why it hasn't had a revival.

On the subject of revivals - why have we never seen a revival of RAISIN ? It ran a few years and has one of the best cast albums ever recorded. RAISIN IN THE SUN seems revived about every 5 years but no RAISIN, why?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 1:41pm

Well, the name "Raisin" itself may be part of the problem. Oy...

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 3:12pm

Seriously! What an awful title, they might as well have titled it "RAISIN!"

I adore the SEESAW cast recording. Michele Lee does a spectacular job singing the role, and while I think it's a bit clumsy and kind of not that good of a whow, it seems like the perfect fit for Encores! I love the big solo Lee has at the end as well as "Holiday Inn" and "Nobody Does It Like Me."

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 4:42pm

Eric, no, I didn't know the gossip on SEESAW. Thanks for the info.

[DAME]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 5:04pm

That new "version" of The Rink does not work. Also.. it had a very good audience when it was a star vehicle. But the show was badly hurt amid all the publicity of Liza leaving early to go to rehab. Unfortunately Stockard Channing was awful and word quickly spread.

[theatregeek6]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 6:48pm

Seesaw is an all time favorite. I would love I see what someone like Diane Paulus could do with it -
It is SO New York 1970 Times Square sleeve. But with creative direction and a real belter in the Gittle role (Orfeh anyone?) I would absolutely go see it

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 7:10pm

Remember when SMASH cast Kate Baldwin in a fake revival of SEESAW?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 7:43pm

Yet another reason why SMASH was a mess, Baldwin is great but she'd be so miscast as Gittle. I was thinking of someone along the lines of Sherie Rene Scott; though she probably wouldn't fit the actual script, she'd be great in a concert version. Also, Laura Benanti would be hilarious and has a long history with Encores!

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 8:30pm

Agreed completely Ray. I also love Poor Everybody Else, which of course was written by the same team for Sweet Charity, but reportedly as a dance number fairly late in the show Gwen Verdon had trouble with all the long notes so they replaced it with Brass Band.