Flawed Musicals You'd Like To See Revised

[fashionguru_23]

http://playbill.com/news/article/157635-What-Flawed-Musical-Would-You-Like-to-See-Revised-Playbill-Readers-Speak-Up

Here's a link to an article where readers discussed what "flawed" musicals they wanted to see revised in light of "On A Clear Day". One reader suggests "Bye Bye Birdie". I don't think the show is flawed, just the recent Roundabout production.

Anyone have thoughts on the Birdie, or other ideas?

[ACL2006]

All Shook Up, Cry-Baby, The Full Monty, Curtains.

[chewy5000]

Bring Back Birdie

[EricMontreal22]

Well I was just sticking up for the score of Closer to Heaven in that other thread, and decrying the thinness of the book, but I'm probably alone.

I don't think Birdie has a flawed book but I do think, even in a much much better production than Roundabout's, it's hard to justify a full price Broadway production of it now. The libretto just feels perhaps too... Obvious or slight or something.

[AEA AGMA SM]

ACL, out of curiosity, what in The Full Monty do you feel needs to be revised?

[bwayphreak234]

I would love to see a completely overhauled version of Dracula with a brand new book.

[denali.fire]

Clyde and Bonnie

[Jon]

DEAR WORLD should be rewritten to make it closer to the original script of MADWOMAN OF CHALLIOT, taking out all the added 1960's hippie stuff.

[AMH]

Neil Simon's THE GOODBYE GIRL. "No More" doesn't make a very good openning number.

[E.Davis]

I am also curious as to what in Curtains you would like to see revised.

[thesixtyfirstpupil]

Chess. Just someone fix that show please. Or Dance of the Vampires. Find a way to make that monster work.

[EricMontreal22]

I think Chess has been fiddled with enough... To me it works best in its more abstract/through sung version with maybe a few changes than the Broadway take. I adore the score and parts of the show, but sometimes it seems you just have to accept what it is.

Don't most Vampire fans feel the original European production would have played better here anyway? (I don't knowenough to comment).

Question--which "revisals" have people thought genuinely worked and improved a flawed show? And I don't mean changes made out of town...

[philly03]

WONDERLAND, which was a disaster on Broadway but had some great moments in the out of town productions.

[gvendo2005]

Don't most Vampire fans feel the original European production would have played better here anyway? (I don't know enough to comment).

Quality-wise, it's at least more consistent than the Broadway version. It's more Phantom than Rocky Horror, let's say. But in all reality, the vast majority of the score was actually the same as in Europe, something the Broadway rewrite didn't take into consideration when re-developing a dark, brooding opera into a campy romp.

As Ken Mandelbaum put it in his review at the time, "What no one involved seemed to realize was that the jokey new book would be at odds with the score, resulting in a show that doesn't seem to have a clue about what it wants to be. Steinman's songs are still largely high-powered anthems ('Braver Than We Are' for the young lovers, Alfred's 'For Sarah,' Krolock's 'Confession of a Vampire'), and several of them are melodically attractive. But any merit the score once had is difficult to discern now that the songs are surrounded by a book in a wholly different style."

Whether or not the show in its original style would have worked on Broadway, I dunno. Many people seem to contend that the style of Tanz der Vampire as it is in Europe would be D.O.A. on Broadway, both with critics and audiences, because apparently Chess was the last time anyone was ever going to take a chance on a European import. Rather silly attitude, if you ask me, but I think the assessment is accurate.

Now, say, if an American team were to go back to the original and craft a new version, something very similar in form, meaning, and spirit to the German stage hit, something that plays brilliantly in English, while also having its own unique sense of poetry, language, etc., geared to the sensibilities of an English-speaking audience, it might have a fighting chance. On the other hand, it might not. Only an actual attempt would prove anything.

[Jonwo]

Chess has been revised so many times that I think it is one of those shows that needs an outsider to sort out the book problems. I personally think it just need a new, simpler book rather than try and tinker with the original book.

[misto625]

I'd like to see My Favorite Year get reworked. I think it was revised since Broadway?

[CATSNYrevival]

I'd love to see someone write a new book for Barnum. Maybe even incorporate the two cut songs that are bonus tracks on the OBC remaster.

[HBP]

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN.

When I first heard this was being made into a musical, I pooped. Literally and metaphorically. When I heard Patti and Sherie were involved.. things really got messy.

I saw the show just before opening night. I got a little buzzed on some sangría across the street, so that may have had a trace influence my opinion. I definitely got the Almodóvar vibe during the show. The cast was great - except for Sherie! And I hate saying it because I am in love with her. But she was just not a great Pepa. Patti was a-mazing. Benanti did great. Sherie just kind of fell flat.

I am going to attribute her flattitude to the music and poor direction. I'll start by saying that I think her songs are beautiful. I listen to the album every once in a while and I really enjoy the songs. BUT THEY ARE ALL JUST GIANT METAPHORS FULL OF SMALLER METAPHORS. THEY DO NOT ADVANCE THE PLOT IN ANY WAY. Except for "Model Behavior", which stopped the show and garnered Benanti a Tony nod.

Aside from that, every song was just a ridiculous, over-the-top, extended metaphor that stopped the action dead in its tracks. They are all sung beautifully and work in a few instances, but it's really overkill and can be torturous for the audience members with short attention spans (many of whom left at intermission). Madrid is a mother full of breast milk. Love is a microphone/a three-day span/a disease/an island. Patti's invisible. C'mon, yazbek.

I still really enjoyed the show, but I was disappointed. With such great source material, they really could have done better. And they still can! 5 years + new music + new director + same costumes for Patti's breasticles and we may just have a hit on our hands.

...sorry, can you tell I've been holding these emotions in for a while? I was just so defensive of the show at the beginning that I couldn't bring myself to badmouth it. Looking back, though, it's easy to see those glaring flaws.

ETA:

I forgot to mention the projections. Yikes. If you can't convince the audience that the show is quickly-paced through the book and score, don't resort to flying hands and telephones in the background. Unnecessary. (but I will admit that the backdrop for Pepa's apartment scene was pretty beautiful.. it captured the essence of the city, and I've lived in Madrid.)

[ghostlight2]

Mack and Mabel.

[henrikegerman]

Applause

[SeanMartin]

I'm putting in a second vote for DEAR WORLD, although I'd recommend Mr. Herman learn more about French music and jettison the overtly American approach to the title song,

Also, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE. IMHO, I think we may be getting to a point where the show's flaws may actually be on the verge of being virtues. But it's still a brilliant score and, in light of recent events, almost prescient.

Finally, CRY FOR US ALL. Stunning score, but the production was ruined by Howard Bay's creaking monster of a rotating set.

[Gaveston2]

I agree with Sean about ANYONE CAN WHISTLE. I not only love the score, but the characters and even the basic story. I don't know how to fix the book (I think that brilliant Act I curtain means we don't get to know the characters until too late in the evening), but I'd love it if somebody figured it out.

MACK AND MABEL is another favorite score of mine and another book that isn't really fixable, in my opinion, UNLESS you forget historical fact in Act II and write a new story. Maybe enough time has passed that audiences would accept such a change. I mean who really remembers Mabel Norman's personal life nowadays?

What do you want fixed in APPLAUSE, henrik? It's based fairly closely on one of the great screenplays of all time. Are you sure we shouldn't keep the book and write a better score?

And from all I've read here, I think ON A CLEAR DAY is still near the top of my list.

[rosscoe(au)]

Sunset. Would love to see it done without the chorus numbers and make it with five or so main players.

[henrikegerman]

Gaveston, it's been a while since i've seen Applause, which I've only seen in the tv production, but as I recall, the book doesn't come close to matching the brilliance of All About Eve and retains little of the famous wit of the screenplay, With due respect to the usually dependable Comden and Green, their work here was flat as an lp.

The show reset - at the time updated - to the early 70s loses the golden age Broadway glamor of All About Eve, replacing it with the ugliness everyone is now complaining about in the ON A CLEAR A DAY revival. . I'd keep Birdie as a role for a great comedienne like Thelma Ritter and dump the conceit of the gay sidekick (Lee Roy Reams' Duane which must have seemed revolutionary at the time to the creators, but was probably just as hoary and dull then as it is now - although genuinely ballsy in not keeping him in the closet), and beef up Addison and Karen to their status as meaty characters (and star vehicles for Saunders and Holm). Instead of some of the strongest, smartest, funniest supporting characters ever written we got a silly gay dresser, a dull show biz meany and, quite literally, "just a playwright's wife." Add to that the Age of Aquarius setting and Bonnie Franklin as a girl singer completely absent from the original (the latter again shades of ON A CLEAR DAY's supposed misfires again, but to my mind even less effective in APPLAUSE - although it can well be argued that Bonnie's numbers woke up the original musical, they shouldn't, the drama and joy of All About Eve should have been more than enough to keep APPLAUSE going without resorting to such a detour). And while the score runs the gamut from very fine (Welcome to the Theater, One Halloween, and especially But Alive) to blase (Hurry Home, When We're Together Again), it is one of the best things about the show, but certainly needs work. APPLAUSE was a great success - once! - for one reason. It proved a captivating and perhaps unreplicable star vehicle for a beloved movie legend with certifiable stage chops.

In other words, I'd change almost everything.

In general, All About Eve was ripe for musicalization and Applause is certainly a very flawed show and one of the worst tony award winning best musicals ever. Bacall, and only Bacall, made it a huge hit.

[jetts7]

I loved Wonderland so I hope they rewrite it and bring it back. They just need to keep the Mad Hatter's song in the first act!