Donnybrook! The musical? and Ilya, Darling

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 2/1/07 at 2:39am

Came across the LP of the OBC of this show, never heard of it before.
Anything know anything?
Eddie Foy, Art Lund and Philip Bosco in a supporting role.

Also came across Ilya Darling, the musical version of Never on Sunday, any thoughts/remembrances on that too?


Thanks!

Fen

[jo]

Posted: 2/1/07 at 4:44am

I saw ILYA,DARLING

Melina Mercouri's father has just died on the same day that I saw it performed. Even in the more catchy tunes, I could see tears streaming down Melina's face. I had wondered then if, at that time, because of the political situation in Greece and her known political views whether one of the reasons for her tears was because she would not be able to go home to see her father for the last time.

I had seen the movie and had compared what I had seen onstage - I recall thinking that the movie was better because the sun-kissed of views of Greece could not be captured well onstage. Much later, I had a chance to visit the Greek Islands and seeing the port of Piraeus brought back memories of the movie and the stage musical.

Hey, that was a very long time ago!





Updated On: 2/1/07 at 04:44 AM

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 2/1/07 at 5:10am

I saw an amazingly bizarre Japanese production of ILLYA in the mid 80s: sets crammed with iconographic scenery, bizouki players suspended in mid air. I'm not sure what they were trying to do with it, but it didnt help much.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 2/1/07 at 2:03pm

DONNYBROOK! played the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers) in 1961 and lasted 68 performances. It was based on the fine film "The Quiet Man" and had a score by Johnny Burke. Harold Prince was one of the producers. In addition to the players that you have mentioned, the flop prone but wonderful Susan Johnson was in it. I have never heard the score, but it is still available on CD.

All I know about 1967's ILLYA DARLING is that when it was out of town previewing, pit conductor, author, and founder of the BMI Workshops Lehman Engel bad mouthed his show to the press and was fired as pit conductor. It was to be Engel's last conducting job for the theatre after some 160 musicals! He talks about the horrendous try-out period in his wonderful autobiography, "This Bright Day". From that point on Lehman Engel concentrated his energies to writing and the BMI Workshops which still exist, training people in the creating of musical theatre works.

Updated On: 2/1/07 at 02:03 PM