I am a producer of world class media (stage, film, TV, audio recording), and in addition I develop and produce original, indigenous talent in all areas of media production, in concert with production possibilities in major U.S. cities. In my spare time, I screw around on the Internet.
I used to post here as gvendo2005, but in turning over a new leaf with regard to my Internet persona, I felt a new account was needed. And... here I am!
The Taco/White Family Foundation Broadway Series Sept. 29-Oct. 5: Jimmy Buffett's Escape to Margaritaville Oct. 29-Nov. 10: Aladdin Dec. 3-8: Come From Away Feb. 11-16:
I have a number of cities (one with dates) in the pipeline for JCS from a good source. No clue on venues as yet, but keep an eye on cities from this list.
August 4-9, 2020: Greenville, SC (only one I know dates for, source reckons it might be the Peace Center)
Other cities I know about (alphabetical order): Charlotte, NC; Cleveland, OH; Dallas, TX; Des Moines, IA
A confluence of factors here, though I think the failure of Rent is the primary reason, and there's no way "standards and practices" wasn't already having a nightmare (and it's highly unlikely Jim Rado was prepared to rewrite... basically everything):
* Bob Greenblatt, who gave the thumbs up to the live musical initiative, has left the network, and the first thing the new guy or gal always does is push their own slate at the expense of the other
ggersten said: "Also, "Give me head with hair" will change to "Give me a head with hair". "
No it won't, because that's what the line always was, poor diction notwithstanding... more than that, "give me a head with hair" is the only line that makes sense in the context of the song. Nothing else about it is sexual.
Also, I'm surprised everybody missed "Sodomy" in their ripe-for-censorship lists.
Why else? I mean, I could explain it in commercial terms. Ah what the hell... I will.
The stated criteria for live musicals, at least for NBC post-Sound of Music, was this: recognizable songs; suitable for a major pop music star that can pull in ratings; a "well-known" title that could draw both kids and adults; and able to be reproduced live. In addition to trying to replicate the success they had with JCS (****ty as it was, it's a multiple award winner and
^ Kind of blows the Claude/Sheila/Berger triangle to smithereens... that's one of the few threads of plot in the show one can easily follow.
The nude scene has never been essential to the show. Indeed, a lot of newer productions frequently cut it. Plus, it was always open to change. As ggersten and AEA point out, not all of the cast ever had to participate, and it was never locked down into a single scene; though most productions placed it in the classic "Where Do I G
Alright, so I picked Dance of the Vampires, but more like Europe and less like NY... don't judge.
Generalities:
Pre-set in my head: smaller cast, smaller venue, smaller orchestra, shorter show. (Note to European followers on that last bit: more or less the 2009 revival version minus the new ending, and not the three-hour monstrosity it once was, as delightful as that would be to super-fans.)
I once proposed a solution where Tell Me On a Sunday would be revised to contain pretty much every song and sequence ever written for the piece to expand it into a full-length evening, shore up the book a little bit, and make the lead a young gay male. I still think that idea for a revisal has promise.
Shit, the "lost money" criterion alone is grist for an ongoing theme about how much more it costs to put on a show today compared to yesterday. Dance of the Vampires and Spider-Man lost more money than some of the flops in Not Since Carrie 1.0 ever made in their whole run.
Hey, I dug Cyndi Lauper. Didn't try to put some kind of spin on it, just turned up the volume on the guitars and belted the **** out of "If I Could Turn Back Time."
