Jerome Robbins' Broadway

[sctrojan65]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 12:51am

Anyone see this, way back when?

Got to thinking about it while reading the Peter Pan threads on here, and seeing the 1989 Kennedy Center Honors performance (on youtube) from the show...staged and dedicated to Mary Martin, one of the recipients that year.

Still one of my favorites to this day.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 2:17am

That is actually one my absolute LEAST favorite renditions of that song EVER. The only one. I can tolerate is Steve Ochoa as John.

[sctrojan65]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 2:45am

I'm asking about Jerome Robbins' Broadway, not the Kennedy Center performance (though when I saw the show at the Imperial Theater I thought the Pan number was well done and Charlotte d'amboise and the "kids" were quite good, as was the orchestration).

Anyway, for those of you who saw JRB, what did you think of it?






Updated On: 12/7/14 at 02:45 AM

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 8:33am

i saw the touring production with most of the Broadway stars at the old Shubert Theatre in LA...and while i ABSOLUTELY love JEROME ROBBINS i felt that this type of show as with FOSSE a few years later really wasn't a Broadway musical, rather a BEST HITS OF BROADWAY type show...there was no organic reason for these singing and dancing numbers to exist except as a highlight of a show that he directed or choreographed ... but seeing recreations of memorable numbers that Robbins directed was exciting...i just want more context...silly me

[After Eight]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 8:54am

I found it flat and lackluster.

The performers lacked the necessary star power.

I guess what it proved was that it really hadn't been just Jerome Robbin's Broadway, but also Mary Martin's, Zero Mostel's and others' Broadway.

[sctrojan65]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 10:28am

Definitely a retrospective musical. Were there any discussions surrounding its winning the Tony for best musical at the time? Were there not all that many original musicals up that year, or something?

I know it won a boat load of other Tonys for its performances. Not to mention a few more nominees who didn't win.

Faith Prince, Jason Alexander, Scott Wise, Debbie Shapiro, Charlotte d'Amboise were standouts. Pretty great performances.

I saw it at the Imperial, and then twice at the Shubert here in L.A. Obviously I liked it.

I understand the thoughts on there not being the star power that the originals brought, but I thought the performances were great.

I guess revivals and retrospective musicals like this and Fosse though will have that phenomenon. Some will recreate, making it their own. Others not so much.

[Huss417]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 10:37am

"Anyone see this, way back when?"

Now that I have used my walker to get to my computer and also put my teeth in let me see what I recall from way back in 1989.

It was very slim pickings for Best Musical with only 3 nominated.

Jerome Robbins' Broadway,Black and Blue and Starmites. Out of the three I found Black and Blue to be the most enjoyable in person.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 10:41am

Worth it for the On the Town sequence, Billion Dollar Baby's "Charleston," Forum's "Comedy Tonight" staging, and both High Button Shoes numbers, but especially the superb and breakneck "On a Sunday By the Sea". The production went off the rails somewhat with the Fiddler section, but otherwise, I was glad to have been there.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 10:44am

I remember the West Side Story Dance Suite to be heartbreakingly beautiful. Agree about the weakness of the Fiddler section -- the second act was definitely a case of diminishing returns.

[Feste]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 1:47pm

I loved it! West Side Story was the most memorable.


I also remember Jack Noseworthy caught my attention as a standout ensemble dancer... It's been so great following his career since. Updated On: 12/7/14 at 01:47 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 3:01pm

I saw it on Broadway and felt like I was watching the best high school talent show ever. Best ever, but still high school.

That being said, I did appreciate it as a museum piece and was happy to see some of the Robbins staging I had never seen before.
Updated On: 12/7/14 at 03:01 PM

[#1CarrieFan]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 3:32pm

It was VERY slim pickin's for that season's new musicals. While we certainly respected the production of the theme of JRB, it really was quite a hodge-podge of memorabilia. Watching my copy of that year's Tonys, we still get the biggest chuckle out of Nell Carter's coming on stage following the production from the musical Starmites. In our circle of "olde" theater-goers, Black and Blue deserved that year's Tony. JRB at the Imperial was somewhat underwhelming. Jason Alexander, anyone??

[ggersten]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 9:56pm

I saw it in San Francisco, but my biggest memory is that the audience didn't understand when the curtain call began. So, there was minimal applause during the first half of the curtain call.

[evic]

Posted: 12/7/14 at 11:18pm

I thought it was very meh. A huge cast...was great to see some of those classic dances..esp. Billion Dollar Baby and WSS and OTT but despite being filled with some of the best dancers on Broadway, it still felt like a recital to me. Fosse was a poorly directed show and the dancers were very robotic, but I liked it better.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 12/8/14 at 1:22am

Saw it at the point where Tony Roberts had taken over for Jason Alexander.

Don't remember much about it, but I remember being stunned by the West Side Story sequence. Just brilliant.

And I was with my mom, so the sexy Mr. Monotony dance made me rather uncomfortable.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/8/14 at 8:39am

It was thilling, from beginning to end.

The Pwter Pan sequence, the West Side Story sequence, the Fiddler sequence...and then the individual numbers like the Charleston and the Sunday by the Sea.

But the highlights for me were the numbers that demonstrated Jerry Robbins's breathtaking use of simplicity: Debbie Shapiro's "Mr. Monotony":



...and Faith Prince and Jason Alexander doing "I Still Get Jealous":

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 12/8/14 at 9:24am

I saw it when I was a teenager. It was one of the earlier Broadway shows I ever saw so I probably have fond memories of Jerome Robbins' Broadway because I didn't have much to compare it to. Also I know I loved it because I got to see so many famous dance sequences from productions before my time. The presentation of random sequences didn't bother me at all. I know I did not see Jason Alexander...saw Terrance Mann. It was at Jerome Robbins' Broadway that I fell in love with Scott Wise. Loved to spot him dancing in many of the shows I saw after this: Guys and Dolls, The Goodbye Girl, Damn Yankees, Victor/Victoria and Fosse. Wish Scott Wise was still dancing on Broadway...such a talented dancer and easy on the eyes!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/8/14 at 10:03am

Here's the "I Still Get Jealous" that got left out of the post above:

Faith>http://vimeo.com/113912790">Faith Prince Jason Alexander I Still Get Jealous from Pal>http://vimeo.com/user13554353">Pal Joey on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com">Vimeo.

[sctrojan65]

Posted: 12/8/14 at 11:51pm

Thanks for sharing those, Joey.
I liked this musical a lot too.
I went in knowing it wasn't exactly a story that I was going to be seeing but rather a collection of some of JR's most amazing choreography.
I thought it was very cool, especially, to see the "Charleston" number from "Billion Dollar Baby" and "On a Sunday by the Sea" from High Button Shoes. Two of the highlights, I thought.
The opening number from "On the Town" was awesome.
I remember being thoroughly impressed by the performances too, and high school caliber isn't exactly how I would have characterized the evening.
And the orchestrations were fantastic.

Updated On: 12/9/14 at 11:51 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/9/14 at 4:03am

I agree. The poster who called it "high school" was just being supercilious and downright stupid. It was obviously the opposite of amateur: a cast of super-talented professionals performing pieces of greatness that would never be collected in one place again.

I have watched that "Still Get Jealous" duet a hundred times. It never gets old.

Updated On: 12/9/14 at 04:03 AM

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 12/9/14 at 10:48am

Yeah...the 'high school' comment rankled.

This was, what? Sixty of the best Broadway dancers around? Hell...not just Broadway.

I agree that Robbins didn't find a way to make the FIDDLER section work. But the HIGH BUTTON SHOES numbers! Debbie Shapiro doing everything she did! Her Mazeppa was hilarious and her Mr. Monotony was better than Judy's. But nothing will compare to the WEST SIDE suite. When the stage burst into a brilliant white light at the start of the Somewhere ballet, I learned something about how simple stage craft could produce magic.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/9/14 at 11:34am

"Ohhhhh. Helllloooooooo!"

Updated On: 12/9/14 at 11:34 AM

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/9/14 at 11:37am

And some other highlights.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 12/9/14 at 12:57pm

Was I wrong about Mr. Monotony being the sexy sequence?? I for sure remember a dance in the show that was "not safe for work" as they say. I mean, no nudity but it was very suggestive.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/9/14 at 6:39pm

The poster who called it "high school" was just being supercilious and downright stupid.

In the midst of one of your all-too-frequent bursts of bad manners, joey, I don't think you need to be calling anybody names. I'm entitled to have an opinion that doesn't agree with you or SonofRobbieJ.

I don't know what show you saw, but a 30-year-old Jason Alexander doing Tevye and "I Still Get Jealous" reminded me of high school productions.

I was talking about the overall effect, not the talent of the individual performers, one of whom was a very close friend. Which is why I called it "the best high school production ever".

So your remark that it was "thrilling from beginning to end" strikes me as rather fan-girly and lacking in critical merit.