70's Old Revivals

[mjohnson2]

Hello all,
The revival of NO, NO, NANETTE was famous for starting a trend of musical revivals, particularly for old musicals, but the only one I can think of/find was for IRENE. Were there any other revivals around this time period of very old musicals?

[Jarethan]

Good News with Alice Faye was a disaster. Can't think of anything immediately after that.

[Smaxie]

Very Good Eddie
The Five O'Clock Girl
Whoopee!
Going Up
Me and My Girl

[Ranger Tom]

Henry Sweet Henry

[Gothampc]

I think these revivals helped pave the way for the 1983 revival of Show Boat.

[Jarethan]

Henry Sweet Henry was an original musical based on The World of Henry Orient film. I saw it twice and enjoyed it both times. The score is reasonably enjoyable and Alice Playten had two show-stopping numbers.

Me and My Girl was in 1986 or 1987...Robert Lindsay deservedly won the Tony against Colm Wilkinson for one of the great musical comedy performances.

[mjohnson2]

Gothampc, do you mean the '93 revival of SHOW BOAT?

[CarlosAlberto]

There were 2 revivals The '83 revival was directed by Michael Kahn and the '94 revival was directed by Harold Prince. Both productions played the Gershwin Theater (in '83 it was known as the Uris) and both featured Lonette McKee as Julie. She was nominated for a Tony in '83 for her performance.

[Susanswerphone]

The original production of Henry, Sweet Henry ran during the 1967-1968 season, making a star of Alice Playten. She received the show's only Tony nomination. She then went on to become a household name as the "Marshmallowed Meatballs" newlywed bride in a commercial for Alka-Seltzer.
There was an off-off Broadway revival of Henry in 1973 with some of the original cast members as well.

[mjohnson2]

Oh, thanks CarlosAlberto. I didn't know about the '83 revival, and I always seem to think that the '94 revival of SHOW BOAT was in '93.

[Jon]

At the time of the No, No Nanette revival, there was already a nostalgia craze going on. You'd go to poster shops/"head shops" in the Village and there would be posters of the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Mae West, Laurel & Hardy, etc. featured prominently. The movie "Bonnie & Clyde" made 1930's fashions popular. Off-Broadway, "Dames at Sea" was also a hit.

[NoName3]

There was a first rate revival of Oklahoma! in 1979. It was beautifully cast -- Christine Andreas as Laurie, Laurence Guittard as Curly, Mary Wickes as Aunt Eller, Christine Ebersole as Ado Annie and Harry Groener as Will. Martin Vidnovic was intense as Jud Fry and the scene with Laurie and Jud in the smokehouse was edge-of-your seat grim and disturbing. I've never seen it played anywhere nearly as effectively in any other production.

The DeMille choreography was re-created by her long-time dancer and assistant Gemze de Lappe. I was thrilled, really thrilled, when I opened the program and saw that the conductor was Jay Blackton. Blackton had conducted both the original Broadway production and the film. I felt like I was experiencing a bit of Broadway history. A cast recording was made and it is the most complete recording of Oklahoma I know of, omitting only the ballet, which is available only on the out-of-print extended soundtrack recording.

[NoName3]

The Good News revival was odd. It was lavish and had some great things going for it -- big lush sets and lighting, Donald Brooks' stylish clothes, lots of fantastic dancing choreographed by Donald Sandler with an uncredited assist from Michael Kidd, classic songs and Alice Faye's voice. But the parts just didn't gel into an effective whole. It was one of those shows where you sat watching and enjoying all these fine individual elements and saying to yourself "When this gets going, it's going to be great!" Then you found yourself at the end of the first act and realized it wasn't going anywhere and it didn't. I never was able to put my finger on what kept the show just sitting there in a great big lump of wasted efforts and talent. Perhaps the new book, which was weighted too heavily on the nostalgia value of Faye and Gene Nelson (John Payne when I saw it) and not enough of the college kids the show is supposed to be about.

[NoName3]

The '83 Show Boat revival was the Houston Grand Opera production. It was important because it was the first production to use the newly discovered and restored original orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett and the book was closer to Hammerstein's original than had been seen in decades (although Mis'ry's Comin' Round, among other things, was still omitted). John McGlinn supervised the musical restoration and Miles Kreuger provided research and Hammerstein's original scripts.