She Loves Me, Tango Tragique

[jsilverman7]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 4:03pm

I was recently listening to the 1994 Roundabout production of She Loves Me and noticed that "Tango Tragique" was not included on the cast recording. Was that number cut for the revival or was it just not recorded?

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 4:08pm

It was cut. For what reason I do not know, but it definitely wasn't in the show. It was taken out of the 2011 Roundabout concert staging as well.

The Roundabout revival version is the one available for licensing, so it's probably not there either.

[lauren9739]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 4:31pm

When you say that's what is available for licensing, do you mean the original version is not one that can be performed at the moment? I'm honestly asking as I don't know how licensing works. I saw a semi-staged production of this show last year and am pretty sure the Tango Tragique was in it. I could be remembering it wrong as it was only performed twice and there is no way to go back and check. But this was my first introduction to this show and when I bought the cast album of the original cast shortly after the songs were all familiar.

[TheOldRedHillsOfHome]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 4:31pm

I remember reading somewhere that they removed Tango Tragique and put in the verse to Dear Friend as a sort of compromise. It was in a book on Bock and Harnick's shows, believe. It is that way in the version that is licensed now.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 5:50pm

I had often wondered what the deal with the "Dear Friend" verse was. It wasn't on the OBC or the original London recording, so I thought it maybe was just cut for time, although that seemed unlikely since the OBC was a double LP.

[Jon]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 6:19pm

Tango may have been cut because Boyd Gaines had trouble singing it. It has a wide vocal range - some very low sections, some very high.

Music Theatre International licenses the Roundabout version, which has a smaller orchestration. Therefore, Tango is not included in the standard materials.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 8:23pm

Keeping with what others have said about the licensing of the revised version, the song was cut from the Boston revival I saw a few years back at the Huntington with Brooks Ashmanskas and Kate Baldwin.

Updated On: 7/3/14 at 08:23 PM

[TheOldRedHillsOfHome]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 8:48pm

However it is kept as underscoring in the cafe scene! So at least remnants are still there!

lauren9739: The revival is the only one available to license, so yes, that is the only one being performed legally at the moment. There aren't any other differences, really. Besides a use of the 12 Days of Christmas carol being used in the Christmas scene and some key changes. The orchestrations are downsized, which is a pity the original aren't still available to rent for the groups that want the fuller sound. I was just in a production and my cast members and I always laughed at this one section the synthesizer is playing a trumpet melody line while the trumpet player is playing a second-part accompaniment behind it.

Mr. Nowack: I could be mistaken, but I think I read it in the book To Life, To Broadway: The Musical Theatre of Bock and Harnick by Philip Lambert. It's a great read with a lot of information about the music and background of She Loves Me.

[Rinaldo]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 4:33pm

I read somewhere (and after all this time, I can't track down where) that Rob Marshall, directing the Roundabout revival, thought that Tango Tragique took too much stage time for a side issue (a story that wasn't true), and that the scene was better paced without it. And Bock & Harnick were willing to go along with him on this because they liked what he was doing with the show otherwise. The verse to "Dear Friend" was restored for this production -- it was not part of the show's text previously, though it had been published with the separate sheet music.

The Caramoor semi-staged concert presentation a year ago (the one with Santino Fontana and Alexandra Silber, directed and conducted by Ted Sperling) was able to use the original larger orchestration, and to restore the Tango Tragique. (I received a tweet from an excited friend as he sat down for the concert and opened his program and freaked out on seeing the song listed.)

[lauren9739]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 4:53pm

Yes, the Caramoor production is what I saw. I can't find my program so I couldn't be sure that it was definitely in it. Thanks Rinaldo and OldRedHillsofHome!

That production was wonderful. I hope Santino Fontana returns to this role. He was wonderful and he has expressed how he would like to do it again.

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 7:42pm

"The revival is the only one available to license, so yes, that is the only one being performed legally at the moment. There aren't any other differences, really. Besides a use of the 12 Days of Christmas carol being used in the Christmas scene and some key changes."

What changes are there to the 12 Days of Christmas???

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 9:05pm

Mr. Nowack I recall it being cut from the Bdwy revival, but - while I trust you implicitly - for some reason remember it being in the- BTW AMAZING!!!!! - 2011 Encores concert.

[TheOldRedHillsOfHome]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 10:21pm

KathyNYC2: A use of the Christmas song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was added in snippets throughout the scene with carolers and shoppers and they cut small lines at the end of the choruses ("And they have their names printed on their cards.....in June..."). That was the only thing I can think of being changed for that scene besides one small exchange of dialogue added for the revival.

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 11:33pm

I remember it vividly from the OBCR - I had hoped it didn't change too much. Doesn't sound too awful but I liked the original version.

Thanks for the info..

[Rinaldo]

Posted: 7/5/14 at 12:43pm

henrikegerman, the 2011 benefit concert was for Roundabout, not Encores. I wasn't able to go, so I can't say what was included. They advertised an "orchestra of 15," which is larger than the reduction for the revival, but smaller than the original orchestration, so it's not clear exactly which orchestration they did -- possibly the original Don Walker charts, with a synth replacing the string section? If so, it would have been possible for them to include the Tango Tragique if they wanted to.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 7/5/14 at 2:27pm

The main song was definitely not in the 2011 Roundabout concert. The section where Amalia counts down and screams was there, however. Perhaps that's what you're remembering.

[Drednm]

Posted: 10/26/16 at 9:14am

TANGO TRAGIQUE was a number from the original Broadway production and soundtrack album sug by Daniel Massey. It's never been used in any subsequent version or revival, including the British 1978 TV version starring Robin Ellis. Like the RAPE BALLET in THE FANTASTICKS, it has probably become a victim of PC thinking and the fear of shocking the patrons.

[Rinaldo]

Posted: 10/26/16 at 9:40am

Drednm, what you say is untrue -- see above discussions. The song had been part of all US productions since the original Broadway one. I saw it in all three productions I was lucky enough to encounter over those years. (It was not in the BBC telecast, but that was missing several songs, being heavily abridged to run 90 minutes.)

Scott Ellis (not Rob Marshall, as I misremembered in my message 2 years ago) was the first to think of eliminating it, for Roundabout in 1994, and as his version has (unfortunately to my mind) become the authorized licensed version, "Tango Tragique" is no longer in the available rental material. It's not through any fear of "shocking" anyone (what would be shocking?), but a matter of Ellis's idea of dramatic pacing etc. Those with enough clout to get access to the original materials, like Ted Sperling at Caramoor, have been able to restore it. I hope to see it, and Don Walker's wonderful original orchestrations, full restored one day.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 10/26/16 at 12:07pm

I think your theory of PC protection is extremely unlikely. Pacing issues make much more sense, a song short as it may be isn't really needed after a lengthy dialogue between Georg and Amalia.

I do think it's a pity both versions aren't available to license. There are shows with X number of Jr. and YTA versions on the MTI site but this classic musical is only available in reduced form? Meanwhile Tams offers not two but THREE versions of CABARET.

I do hope that the 2016 orchestrations are added to the Roundabout licensed version however, they are magnificent.