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Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity

Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity

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PennybankBill
#1Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 11:18am

I'm talking about musicals that when they are revived on Broadway or done in regional or professional theaters, they must be done the same way they were done the first time it opened. Musicals that a creative director would have a hard time putting in any sort of changes, setwise, costumewise, or acting wise. Can you name a few?

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Jordan Catalano
#2Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 12:30pm

A CHORUS LINE comes to mind.

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ClapYo'Hands
#2Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 12:31pm

THE PRODUCERS.

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sbflyfan
#3Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 12:39pm

RENT. Especially when done in colleges. Oh, wait a minute.....


"I'm seeing the LuPone in Key West later this week. I'm hoping for great vocals and some sort of insane breakdown..." - BenjaminNicholas2

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trentsketch
#4Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 12:49pm

Anything Goes. I've yet to see a production where someone didn't build a ship or ship parts on stage and just wheel (or turn, raise from stage, slide in on tracks, etc) chairs/benches/cabin parts/jail bars on and off for the scene changes. What else can you do? It takes place entirely on a boat. The only variation I see is in costuming for Reno and the Angels.
Updated On: 6/25/11 at 12:49 PM

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jasonf
#5Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 1:19pm

Jordan - you took my answer - A Chorus Line is so iconic that changing it too much would just ruin it.

I would say Oklahoma doesn't leave a whole lot of room for interpretation either.


Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.

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hyperbole_and_a_half
#6Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 1:26pm

You must be speaking relatively, because no show is so set in stone that it couldn't be "re-imagined" to some degree of success by a good artistic director. Yet there are shows that cannot seem to escape the gravity of their original production designs...

A Chorus Line is one for the mothballs. There's not much to design in this production; the set is (mostly) a blank stage, the costumes are dance wear. The problem is the orchestrations, which were very good when they were written, but are a time capsule from the 70s. There's very little that choreography and costume can do to overcome a wah-wah guitar. Most productions capitulate to this and recreate the original costumes in all their flare-legged, solid gold lamé glory.

I don't know if it's laziness, reverence, or restrictive material, but just about every professional production of Gypsy I have ever seen has borrowed liberally from one another: costumes, set design, choreography and blocking were all practically identical. Even the pared-down LuPone "concert" revival was built around the bones of its predecessors. The notable exception to this paragraph from my experience was the Peters revival in 2003, which at least attempted to go in a new direction, to mixed results.

From what I've seen on youtube, the Disney musicals are all going to be clones of one another, and every production of the Wizard of Oz will desperately ape the 1939 movie, regardless of whether or not they're using the Harburg/Arlen score (exception: The Wiz).

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Bwaynerd
#7Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 1:27pm

les miz definitley! if anyone were to change the iconic costumes or the barracades, the show would be ruined


"(in a sweedish accent) Oh! What a lovely T-shirt you are wearing!"- Catherine Zeta-Jones refering to my ALNM shirt at the CD signing. Say NO to drugs and YES to Jackie Hoffman Live At Joes Pub! "ITS THE DAY OF THE SHOW YA'LL!!"-Bwaynerd

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Lavieboheme3090
#8Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 1:27pm

From what I understand, Menopause the Musical must always be done the same way.

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charlesjguiteau
#9Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 1:50pm

Bwaynerd, Funny you should say Les Miz can't really be reconceived since the new national tour has done away with John Napier's original turntable and barricades and apparently supplied a slew of projections of period engravings to supply the new visuals. Has anyone seen if the new show works yet? Have they kept the beloved 2 steps forward/ 1 step back choreography we all grew up with?

The Lion King seems to be one show almost inconceivable without the full Taymor production behind it. But I'm sure some 6th National non-equity Bus and Truck will come up with a way to do it.

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aliceidinabernadette
#10Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 1:59pm

The thing about Chorus Line is that changing things like the costumes and especially the choreography changes the show. Call me a traditionalist, but I would not want to see a production of A Chorus Line open with a contemporary, "creative", or new opening number, because that's not what the show is. I don't want the full cast to come out for the finale in the same costumes from before, or red tuxedos or something. A Chorus Line is a 70s icon in itself, and while one can make small changes to Michael Bennet's choreography, changing the feel of the piece, the costumes, the choreography, takes away a lot of what the show is, at least in my opinion.

rant over


Give me a bottle of bourbon and half a chicken and I'll conquer the world!

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bwayphreak234
#11Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 2:01pm

Les Miserables can definitely be re-conceived. I saw a production at a professional theatre company in my hometown. There was no turntable, and the set was fairly simple. This show does not need a turntable and huge sets to be effective. In fact, I found the production to be better in a smaller space with a smaller set.


"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "

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broadwaydevil
#12Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 2:28pm

I think I've seen the same exact production of the Sound of Music at dozens of different theatres. Don't know if that means it can't be changed or if everyone's just too lazy to do it.


Scratch and claw for every day you're worth! Make them drag you screaming from life, keep dreaming You'll live forever here on earth.

Skywalker3
#13Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 2:49pm

Cats!
What else can you do then let people dressed as cats dance around on a big dump..

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bwayphreak234
#14Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 2:53pm

^ Actually I saw a production of Cats where it was set in a run down amusement park. It was brilliant.


"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "

DrewBill
#15Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 3:06pm

Interesting discussion.

Personally, I have always thought that re-imagining "A Chorus Line" would be a thrilling challenge -- how far away from the original does one risk going? A little? A lot? I guess at heart I'm not a "traditionalist," and can theoretically see how the show doesn't necessarily have to be stuck as a time capsule forever.

But obviously, this could not happen until many more years have past -- there are still so many people who are passionate about every detail of the original production. Only when the memories have really faded will someone have the "guts" to take this on. But it's fun to think about!

Jon
#16Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 3:39pm

There was a production of CATS in Philadelphia where the set made it cleasr that it was actually set IN Philadelphia - bits of the skyline, garbage including wrappers from local restaurants, etc.

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rougeduck
#17Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 4:40pm

Isn't it in the contract that any production of West Side Story must use the original choreography?

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TheLadyoftheWood
#18Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 5:06pm

@rougeduck, I highly doubt that is in the contracts. If it is there are a lot of productions on Youtube which are seriously in breach of the contracts. There is one that goes even as far as having girls stand around and sway during the song "America." Blasphemy if you ask me. That director should be ashamed of themselves if you ask me.

Don't do West Side Story if you don't have any dancers in your high school!

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beagle
#19Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 5:08pm

Fiddler On The Roof has to use the original choreography as well, I think.

Fiddler is the one show that I've seen the most different productions of (both amateur and professional), and although there are little variations in the characterizations here and there, the shows have been very, very similar.

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mattywhits
#20Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 5:33pm

yeah, both Fiddler and West Side Story come from MTI with books containing all of the staging and choreography from the original productions and the contract does indeed state that you are to use it. There are indeed a lot of productions which do not, but I can't imagine MTI is going to turn down the cash from all the middle schools who have no intention of doing so- if anything, they probably get a small fee and a reprimand.

AwesomeDanny
#21Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 6:51pm

Last September, I saw a production of A Chorus Line that re-imagined the show so it could be performed in the round. The big deviation from the original staging was that when one dancer would tell his or her story, the others would be sitting around the corners in front of the aisles instead of standing in a line. The show was set in a rehearsal room instead of a stage, and it worked quite well. I noticed a lot more of the characters reacting to the stories and interacting with each other, and overall, it was a really intimate production. "The Music and the Mirror" was done using two-way mirrors, which I thought was a brilliant idea, although it did limit the space on a stage that was already quite small. But overall, the production worked really well without sticking to every detail of the original.

I think the main reason a lot of schools don't use the original choreography for West Side Story is that very few schools have dancers talented enough to be able to do the choreography, and most of them would probably be girls, which doesn't get you very far in most of the Jets's numbers. I'm not sure why you would do West Side Story if you don't have good dancers, but some people really don't have a normal thought process, I guess.

Jon
#22Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 9:08pm

Schools and community theatres are not REQUIRED to use the Robbins choreography for WSS.

However, they are required to put "Originally directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins" in their programs, whether they use his stuff or not.

Nettik
#23Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 9:10pm

Peter Pan is so iconic that it's been staged almost identically every time I've seen it.

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Rumpelstiltskin
#24Musicals That Give You No Room For Creativity
Posted: 6/25/11 at 11:41pm

Every show has the potential to grow and change, especially if forced by logistical challenges.

Several years ago (before the theater was converted into a mundane shopping center), I saw an inspired touring presentation of A Chorus Line at the Valley Forge Music Fair in Devon Pennsylvania.

My friends and I laughed about the production months in advance because the configuration of the Music Fair didn't seem like a likely venue for the show. We wondered how a show about a line could fit comfortably in a theater in the round.

We learned a lot about creativity that night. As everyone knows, the actors revert to a consistent configuration after each musical number, a horizontal line stretching across the front of the stage. In the VFMF production, the actors returned to a horizontal line, but always stretching across a different "spoke" of the wheel. In other words, if we imagine that the round stage was a face of a clock, the actors finished the first song potentially stretched between 2 and 8 o'clock. Then finished the second song between 5 and 11 o'clock. Then between 9 and 3, etc. Of course these are just examples, but you get the picture. Although the songs ended with the actors facing a different section of the audience, they were always in the titular line with each character in his or her appropriate position. When they delivered their lines and sang their songs, they could be facing you, facing to the side, or facing in the opposite direction; regardless, the voice of Zack always emanated from a spot in the back of the theater directly opposite the forward face of the actors. The effect was as if the audience was shifting positions throughout the show in order to study the action from every angle. We felt as if we were in the audience, were backstage, were stage left or right, etc. It was truly stunning.

A couple of weeks later I saw the same touring cast on a traditional stage in Philadelphia and of course everything was back to the usual design. To this day I'm amazed that these men and women learned the intense blocking changes required for a single stop on the tour.