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Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979

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Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979

PalJoey Profile Photo
PalJoey
#1Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/27/14 at 10:24am



Sandy Duncan as Peter and Maria Pogee as Tiger Lily, choreographed by Rob Iscove.

Still thrilling. But I'm glad they're changing the concept for the new production.






CapnHook Profile Photo
CapnHook
#2Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/27/14 at 10:39am

I also came to post this, haha. What a treat!


"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle

mikey2573
#2Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/27/14 at 12:07pm

Sooooo offensive!! It's a good thing we've come so far since then.

Auggie27 Profile Photo
Auggie27
#3Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/27/14 at 12:12pm

Wonderful.


"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling

PalJoey Profile Photo
PalJoey
#4Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/27/14 at 12:22pm

Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979


Anyone have video of this one?


SNAFU Profile Photo
SNAFU
#5Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/27/14 at 1:42pm

I remember seeing this production. This choreography rocked the house!


Those Blocked: SueStorm. N2N Nate. Good riddence to stupid! Rad-Z, shill begone!

Mr. Nowack Profile Photo
Mr. Nowack
#6Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/28/14 at 1:47am

I wish the song weren't so insensitive. I absolutely love the melody and the "I'll just send for Tiger Lily..." part. Hopefully the new "Blood Brothers" in the live broadcast will finally succeed in making this great number acceptable.


Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated

EricMontreal22 Profile Photo
EricMontreal22
#7Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/28/14 at 2:00am

It sounds like most of the melody is still there for Blood Brothers.

PattyO'Furniture Profile Photo
PattyO'Furniture
#8Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/28/14 at 9:20pm

Jazz square and...hitch-kick!
Jazz square and...hitch-kick!

lovebwy Profile Photo
lovebwy
#9Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/29/14 at 4:09am

What exactly is offensive about this number?
Updated On: 11/29/14 at 04:09 AM

trentsketch Profile Photo
trentsketch
#10Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/29/14 at 10:46am

Quite a few things lovebwy. For one, they cast a bunch of white actors to play natives. That wouldn't be so bad if they then didn't give them red leggings and tops, paint their faces red (to make them redskins), cover them in war paint, and dress them like stock Native American characters in a western. Ugg-a-wugg and the other nonsense language is the lyrical equivalent of writing a show with Chinese characters and having them sing ching-chong over and over. The choreography is very well executed, but also plays to the stereotypical movement of Native American people.

Essentially, it's stacks of stereotypes and arguably racist imagery used as the only character development for half the cast of the show. That's pretty darn offensive.

darquegk Profile Photo
darquegk
#11Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/29/14 at 11:12am

Yeah. It's not even what's known as doubletalk- a fluid imitation of the actual sounds of a language, which may be gibberish but is designed to NOT sound like gibberish. It's a mixture of caveman grunts and funny sounding words. "Ugga wugga meatball" doesn't sound like any native dialect, or even recall traditional depictions of Native American pidgin English. It's just "they can't talk good."

Michael Bennett Profile Photo
Michael Bennett
#12Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/29/14 at 11:38am

The leggings and body stockings weren't actually part of the show costume - those were added for the parade because of the cold outside temperatures.

Jerome Robbin's original concept for the Indians in PETER PAN was that they were a 'play' on children dressing up as Indians (playing cowboys and Indians was a hugely popular children's entertainment in the 1950s). Sondra Lee, with her white blond locks was obviously no real American Indian, and the whole thing was rather innocent and naive.

The Rob Isacove revival (seen here) was the first that began to put a 'realistic' spin on the Indians as Native Americans, and in that context the material began to seem a little inappropriate.

By the time the tour of this production went out a couple of years after this parade performance, steps had already been made to make the number and depictions less cartoonish - an actress of color was cast as Tiger Lily and the foppish makeup seen here was abandoned.

I'm happy for the telecast, they've explored ways to keep the song with lyrics that better serve a modern perspective on the characters.

I think its interesting that the new PAN film takes a completely different approach on the "Natives" -- reinventing them as their own story land tribe and removing them completely from the context of "American Indian" -- which is perhaps the smartest way to approach the characters in the 21st century.

lovebwy Profile Photo
lovebwy
#13Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/29/14 at 2:30pm

Very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Charley Kringas Inc Profile Photo
Charley Kringas Inc
#14Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/29/14 at 2:48pm

The dancing in that '79 clip is great but boy that song sure is, uh, "of the time", isn't it?

Michael Bennett Profile Photo
Michael Bennett
#15Ugg-a-Wugg: Thanksgiving Parade 1979
Posted: 11/29/14 at 2:58pm

Here is the way Jerome Robbins originally staged it-- much simpler and childlike.


http://youtu.be/WpDMMTlQCQk

Updated On: 11/29/14 at 02:58 PM