Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
#1Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 4:08am
50 years ago today two Broadway debuts were made - 19 year old Liza Minelli and soon-to-be-legendary songwriting team Kander & Ebb (though Liza was no stranger to the entertainment world and both writers had been working separately for years already).
Despite the star power the show was a bona fide flop running only 87 performances at the Alvin. Also in the original cast were Bob Dishy, Cathryn Damon and a very young Mary Louise Wilson, currently back on Broadway in ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.
I love the cast album quite a lot but confess I've never seen the show and know little of the plot.
An alternate poster:
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
Updated On: 5/11/15 at 04:08 AM
#2Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 5:54am
Has there ever been a full scale revival?
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
#2Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 7:42am
I don't know about Broadway, but Jody Benson and Peter Frechette did a fully staged revival at the Pasadena Playhouse a couple of decades ago.
I don't remember all the specifics of the plot, but it's about the naivete of idealistic young "Communists" during the 1930s. Here is the Wiki synopsis:
"Headstrong wannabe fashion designer Flora Mezaros is a member of an artists' co-operative of bohemian types - dancers, musicians, designers - struggling to find work during the Great Depression. Hoping to find a job which pays at least $15 a week, she is hired by the head of a large department store at $30. She falls in love with Harry Toukarian, another struggling designer, who attempts to convert Flora to his Communist ideals. Even though it compromises her job in an organization which does not recognize the new unions she seeks to hold down both job and relationship. Complicating matters is a predatory Communist matriarch, Comrade Charlotte, who wants Harry for herself, a secretary with designs on her boss, and Kenny and Maggie, a jazz dancing duo with their sights on greater things.
In the end, however, Flora finds herself torn between two vastly different ideals, and has to sacrifice one or the other for true happiness."
It was hardly a history lesson, but that wasn't its aim. Coming right after the McCarthy Era and the Cuban Missile Crisis, even suggesting that young Communists were just a bunch of idealistic buffoons was pretty brave.
#3Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 9:10am
Me Nowak is the saint of Broadway World.
#4Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 9:20am
the song "A QUIET THING" is one of the most beautiful songs to come out of this show, and it has been recorded by Barbra Streisand into a classic...
#5Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 10:48am
I got to see this show for my fourteenth birthday. I was already a fan of Ms. Minnelli's having seen her in THE FANTASTICKS and CARNIVAL. To think a mere teenager was able to carry the weight of a musical on her shoulders still amazes me today (she was only 17 when she played Lili in CARNIVAL. And 19 when she made her Broadway debut).
Minnelli didn't disappoint in FLORA which was light theatre fare along the lines of BAJOUR and FADE OUT FADE IN. She was definitely the star of the evening though I was surprised she didn't dance at all even though there was a Communist ballet called "The Tree of Life" (apparently choreographer Lee Theodore hated her dancing abilities). Liza was bursting with energy from the moment she made her entrance to her final dynamic rendering of SING HAPPY which along with "A Quiet Thing" were the highlights of the evening for me. One thing strange about the show was that after her SING HAPPY number you expected the plot lines to be neatly tied up which didn't happen. All of a sudden the entire cast came out and briefly sang "You Are You" and the curtain came down. It was like WTF just happened? Unfortunately even with her TONY Award win the show was losing money each week and was gone after a short run.
Updated On: 5/11/15 at 10:48 AM
#6Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 11:03am
An evergreen score (with three exceptions). Even as revised by David Thompson, the show itself doesn't work. Perfect for Encores!
"A Quiet Thing" is a gorgeous song. "Sing Happy" is thrilling. Great stuff.
#7Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 12:20pm
What great pictures! Thank you (as always).
Mary Louise Wilson and Bob Dishy and the 1978 television cast.
Liza sings "Sing Happy" on the Ed Sullivan show.
#8Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 12:23pm
The divine (though non-Liza) Lenora Nemetz sings "All I Need Is One Good Break" on the 1978 television cast:
#9Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 12:30pm
And Lenora sings "Sing Happy":
There exist complete videos of Liza doing both songs from the Ed Sullivan show, but the damn Ed Sullivan estate won't allow them to be seen.
#10Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 1:12pm
Thanks for the pics and vids, kids!! What a treat! But, PJ, that doesn't look like Bob Dishy in that clip with Wilson.
"Carson has combined his passion for helping children with his love for one of Cincinnati's favorite past times - cornhole - to create a unique and exciting event perfect for a corporate outing, entertaining clients or family fun."
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
mamaleh
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/04
#11Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 1:24pm
No, I don't think it's Dishy either. Would love to see "Dear Love" performed. This show should really be revived in a little Off-Bway venue.
#12Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 1:59pm
You're right. He's Dishy-like but not Dishy.
#13Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 2:06pm
There was also a NY revival at the Vineyard in 1987 starring the wonderful Veanne Cox, one of my favorites, directed by Scott Ellis and choreographed by Susan Stroman. That production was recorded and I enjoy Cox's "Sing Happy" quite a lot--her take is obviously a million times different from Minnelli's but it works.
Minnelli's rendition of "Sing Happy" is one of my favorite recordings of any song ever. I think only Liza could capture that kind of desperation. The way the lyrics are juxtaposed with the subtext of the song is Kander & Ebb at their best, this is the "Cabaret" song before CABARET. I've always been surprised "Sing Happy" isn't performed more often by the great Broadway actresses who perform at concerts.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#14Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 3:37pm
I also adore Liza's "Sing Happy" on the cast album.
The rehearsal shots put an emphasis on the dancing.
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#15Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 3:44pm
Flora was done on television?? in 1978? What channel dared? Is the complete thing available anywhere?
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#16Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 3:46pm
I always thought Fred Ebb looked like Richard Nixon
#17Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 4:35pm
The 1978 telecast was on CBS "Camera Three"--it was just songs and it was only 30 minutes.
Lee Theodore, the choreographer, was Anybodys in the original cast of West Side Story and the founder of the American Dance Machine.
She was a great lady of the theater and a wonderful person.
Wilmingtom
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/11
#18Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/11/15 at 5:34pm
Flora was one of, if not the first album I checked out of my midwest library in the late 60s. I grabbed it because the name George Abbott already meant something to me. I fell in love with the score and have been humming it ever since ("A Quiet Thing" makes for a terrific wedding song). Saw the revival at the Vineyard and realized why it probably hadn't flown at the height of the Cold War. I've coaxed many young folks into using "Sing Happy" and "All I Need Is One Good Break" as audition songs through the years.
#19Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/12/15 at 12:26am
One of my favorite renditions of "Sing Happy" ever: Heidi Blickenstaff, of [tos] fame, starts it appropriately somber and ends it appropriately gleefully.
Wilmingtom
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/11
#21Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/12/15 at 6:12pm
Could someone who has seen the show explain the precise context of the number?
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#22Happy 50th Anniversary to FLORA THE RED MENACE
Posted: 5/13/15 at 12:18am
Indeed, the most thrilling performance of "Sing Happy" was Heidi Blickenstaff but the above clip does not even begin to capture it --- in "First You Dream" which was performed at Signature in VA and at the Kennedy Center, it has one of the most brilliant brand new orchestrations I've ever heard. It really makes the song a knockout. The above clip doesn't carry the song due to the not-so-interesting pianist. I believe that "First You Dream" concert is being recorded in some form soon .... The orchestration of "Sing Happy", and Heidi's performance, are worth it no matter what.
