Most inspired/Most bizarre "re-imaginings" of plays and musicals?

[MarkZoetrope]

Posted: 8/18/15 at 7:52pm

Inspired by Mr. Nowack's thread - although dealing exclusively with re-interpretations, re-imaginings, re-stagings of well-known theatre works.

 

Famous examples: the Sam Mendes CABARET and the John Doyle COMPANY and SWEENEY. (Although a fairly small addition, I also love the interesting psychological twists Laurents brought to Mama Rose in the 1974, 1989 and 2008 revivals of GYPSY. That said, I didn't care for the Spanish lyrics in his follow-up revival of WEST SIDE STORY.)

 

The Worst? Not Broadway, but I still shudder when I think of London's RENT REMIXED in 2007.

Updated On: 8/18/15 at 07:52 PM

[Jarethan]

Posted: 8/18/15 at 10:48pm

Most Inspired:

Candide -- Harold Prince production

Cabaret -- Sam Mendes production

Sweeney Todd -- John Doyle production

South Pacific -- Bartlett Sher production

 

Most Bizarre:

Follies -- Matthew Marcus production (What a Disappointment)

Bells Are Ringing -- with Faith Prince

 

[gypsy101]

Posted: 8/18/15 at 11:54pm

"Most Bizarre:

Bells Are Ringing -- with Faith Prince"

 

In what way was that production bizarre? I didn't see it, but from what I could tell it seemed like a pretty standard revival that was basically a replica of the original.

Sondheim mentioned a production of Annie Get Your Gun set in a diner, that seems pretty strange to me.

Updated On: 8/18/15 at 11:54 PM

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 8/19/15 at 1:17am

Most Inspired: Pippin (2013 revival) really helped to mask flaws from the original and gave an interesting new framework

Most Bizarre: Into the Woods (Central Park 2012) is the one that springs to mind. I know some people liked it and I didn't see it but I thought it seemed awfully weird from clips I saw.

[jwsel]

Posted: 8/19/15 at 3:38am

"Most Inspired: Pippin (2013 revival) really helped to mask flaws from the original and gave an interesting new framework

Most Bizarre: Into the Woods (Central Park 2012) is the one that springs to mind. I know some people liked it and I didn't see it but I thought it seemed awfully weird from clips I saw.

"

Definitely agree with Pippin.  I thought the circus concept fit perfectly, particularly with the "Grand Finale."

A few plays.  The RSC's 1976 Macbeth and 1989 Othello (both directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Ian McKellen) were brilliant reimaginings.  So was McKellen's Richard III.  The Globe's recent Twelfth Night presented a very different interpretation of the text than the half-dozen productions I had seen before, but did so in a way that made me think that was what Shakespeare actually intended.

Most bizarre:  I mentioned it in another thread, but Steven Berkoff's production of Salome at the National Theatre in 1989, in which the entire play was performed in slow motion.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 8/19/15 at 3:41am

Peter Brooks' "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was an inspired reinvention.  Anne Bogart's "South Pacific" set in an asylum, not so much.

[newintown]

Posted: 8/19/15 at 8:02am

Some productions mentioned above aren't "re-imaginings" in any way at all (including Matthew Warchus' [not Marcus] Follies, nor Bells Are Ringing with Faith Prince nor Sher's South Pacific) - they were just regular productions with their own casting or slight emphases.

 

You can find a million of these things with Shakespeare productions - I still fondly remember A.J. Antoon's Wild West production of The Taming of the Shrew in the park back in the 80s, featuring Tracey Ullman and Morgan Freeman.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 8/19/15 at 8:36am

Definitely the John Doyle Sweeney Todd for most bizarre / worst (in my opinion) -- the opening tableau and the setting was brilliant, but everything went downhill from there. It could have been fixed without the actor/musician conceit, very simple way to do it too, but...

[MarkZoetrope]

Posted: 8/19/15 at 7:40pm

"South Pacific" in an asylum sounds like one special kind of hell. (It's old hat to you, but from a quick Google search, Bogart's concept was veterans in an institution where Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals are used as a form of therapy - and where white-coated doctors and nurses proliferated.)

 

I suppose it's not entirely like John Doyle's concept for SWEENEY - of a team of inmates at Bedlam performing a show, but it seems inappropriate. What next? GYPSY at Auschwitz?

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 8/19/15 at 11:05pm

Mark, you're correct about the Bogart production.  I truncated the description.  Contrary to popular lore, the R&H reps did not shut down the production but would not allow it to extend past its licensed run.

[cardamon]

Posted: 8/20/15 at 12:50pm

Did anyone see the controversial production of "Annie" at Trinity Rep?

 

This “Annie” opened with a stage populated by homeless people, all slow dancing to a dirge-like version of “Tomorrow.”

The ending, written especially for this production by Dehnert, was a stunner, a real coup de théatre, said one person who saw it.

Annie woke up back in the orphanage and realized that her happy life with Daddy Warbucks was only a dream, and that she would never escape poverty, loneliness and despair.

 

(From a 2003 Riedel column)

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 8/20/15 at 1:33pm

I think CHICAGO should definitely be on the list of the best or most inspired.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 8/20/15 at 1:48pm

cardamon: They leave out a key point. Similar to the opening, Annie waking up was underscored with a wistful instrumental rendition of "Maybe." Leaving that out tilts the balance toward a sadder interpretation of the final scene. Add in "Maybe," and Dehnert's conception of the scene is clearer.

 

But... yeah. That was memorable.

Updated On: 8/20/15 at 01:48 PM