Tales Of The City

[Younger Brother]

I've recently been on a Scissor Sister's kick and thought of the musical adaptation of Tales Of The City. Did anyone on here see it out in San Francisco? Is it working towards Broadway?

[JerseyGirl2]

Is it not DOA? I would have kicked a puppy to see Betty Buckley as Anna Madrigal.

[RippedMan]

I think this sounds awesome, and no clue why it hasn't had a life outside of San Fran. Sure, it's a San Fran based story, but I live in NYC and I've read all the books and loved them. And the Scissor Sisters def. have a following here in NYC. Is there a recording of the music? I'd love to hear it.

[eperkins]

I saw a bootleg of the production, so that's not a 100% fair way to judge, but the show was kind of a hot mess. Needs a lot of work. But there is potential. And Judy Kaye played Anna.

[JerseyGirl2]

Betty Buckley did the original workshop.

[newintown]

I think Candy Buckley did an even earlier workshop at the O'Neill.

[EricMontreal22]

I was in SF (for a Kylie Minogue concert, of course) when this was running in the city, so saw it probably a week before it was frozen. It was LONG. But I really liked it, and thought it had potential despite a set that didn't really work.

There's a LONG thread somewhere here with comments from myself and others. I'll try to look for it. I thought the music was great, as were most of the cast (Judy Kaye as Madrigal especially -- when I had bought tickets I was disappointed that Buckley was no longer in it, but I think Kaye was ultimately a better fit. Pamela Myers was her understudy and played various roles when I saw it which was thrilling for someone like me who never gets to NYC.)

Betsy Wolfe as Mary Ann was note perfect and sang the show's best song, Paper Faces. The problems with the show were, as expected, stitching all the stories together (they used stories from the first two books.) That said, I stand by my statement in the earlier thread that the show has promise and I listen to my "recording" quite often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzLFRzGZljw

[EricMontreal22]

Not to derail the thread but here's the original http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.php?thread=1037055#4199195

[EricMontreal22]

And this has more clips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVTxMvC4gXs

It's funny the bit shown in the earlier clip of them rehearsing the whorehouse song "Ride them Hard" is a song and scene I would cut completely. It was a crowd pleaser, but not needed and just padded the show.

[EricMontreal22]

Graham Norton asked Armistad about the status of the musical on his BBC radio show this week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03vcmc8 (his interview is over the last 30 minutes or so and the musical discussion right at the end.) They say they're still looking for funding for another production but everyone involved is keen. Interestingly, it sounds like he wants to get rid of the entire Norman plotline, which really didn't work when I saw it so may be wise. (The problem is, if it's removed, I'm not sure what they could replace it as a sorta of through-line story.)

[JBroadway]

I saw it twice in SF, and though it was very flawed, I also enjoyed it a lot! The cast was stellar and it has a great score and pretty engaging story.

Since seeing it, I've talked with Judy Kaye, Betsy Wolfe and Andrew Samonsky at various stage-doors about the show, and all of them say that it is being worked on.

[oasisjeff]

I also went twice in SF, and it had definite book issues, in that it tried to include too much from Maupin's book. Some story lines definitely need to get dumped for it to work better. But it had a lot of potential and its share of magic (and I'm not just referring to Wesley Taylor's ass), just needs to be focused on fewer characters with richer detail mores than a multitude of characters/storylines with no time to flesh them all out.

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah, if anything adding storylines from the second book may have been a mistake--except I guess they wanted to get Mother Mucca there and the whorehouse. I've said it before, but I agree with the two above posts about it having so much potential, a great score, and definitely needs a lot of work (I've listened to the bootleg countless times--I still think they should at least make a recording if they're trying to keep interest alive.) But I did think it sounded promising that Armistad admitted that the Norman subplot simply didn't work on stage (the audience reaction to when his clip on tie breaks and he falls to his death was one of laughter and confusion.)

[gcal]

I felt that the sense of mystery was missing from the musical. I may be misremembering, but isn't Anna's "secret" revealed in the second book? In the musical, we know about her past and her gender reassignment by the Act One curtain song "The Next Time You See Me." I saw both Betty and Judy sing it. I appreciate that Jeff Whitty and the creative team structured the show similarly to the way the serial ran in the SF Chronicle. ONe scene (column) ended, and the next was the complete opposite in tone. The Winemucca scenes help wrap up Mona's story, but they also counter balance the scenes that proceed them: Mouse's letter to his parents, and Norman's death.

[EricMontreal22]

Completely agreed.

I need to look back at the book, but I thought Anna's "secret" was revealed by the end of the first book? I know Maupin has talked about his editors telling him he couldn't reveal it in the first year of the serial until readers were more committed to it (then again he restructured and changed significant bits from the serialized version for publication, so...)

I was disappointed that Betty dropped out of the project, but having seen Judy, I think Betty may have seemed too cold for the role. (I wonder if am Myers, who was her understudy and in the chorus, ever went on?)

[gcal]

Pam never went on- no understudies went on for the entire SF run of the show.

[Owen22]

This musical was a lot of things, but a hot mess it wasn't. What impressed me was how they were able to delineate so many characters into one evening and allow most of them to become fully three dimensional. Besides the basic first production faults, there was NO real book problem (and let's face it, the Norman plotline doesn't work in the book or miniseries either). The direction wasn't bad either. I know there is much SS love, but that score was not good. A couple numbers here or there were okay, but the failure of this show was the music and lyrics.

[MartyO49]

Can anyone help me get a bootleg CD of "Tales of the City" the musical?

[VernonGersch]

I saw it and think the score was fantastic - and yes I'm a huge Scissor Sisters fan. Agree with most of the additional posters on what didn't work:

- that set
-Norman storyline (also didn't work in the book or miniseries)
- I do recall it being a tad long

Overall, loved the show and hoping that maybe it gets the chance to be seen and heard again

Seeds and Stems

[EricMontreal22]

Owen, I'd like to hear more specifically what you disliked about the score? I thought the book was more of an issue--the score is largely fantastic. The lyrics are story and character specific and, to use one example, certainly a better example of pop songwriters changing their craft for the stage more so than Cyndi Lauper. The opening, in particular, sets up the show brilliantly in ten minutes.

I do agree with the above poster that the Norman story should just be dropped, though I did think it worked in the book and mini-series for the most part (I understand that it was largely added to the book version of the first story in lieu of the Tooth Fairy serial murderer that was in the serialized version--and no that doesn't sound like something they should put in its place in the musical.)