Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
#1Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 4:02am
It opened 50 years ago today.
As always, here are some production photos.
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#2Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 4:05am
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#2Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 4:05am
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#3Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 4:05am
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#4Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 4:06am
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#5Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 4:06am
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#6Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 4:06am
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#7Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 4:06am
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#8Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 4:06am
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#9Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 4:06am
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#10Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 4:53amIt would be a great show for Encores. Could it handle a full scale revival or is it too dated? Not that it's the type of show that would get revived. Maybe if a nonprofit mounted it with a big enough name. Like a Roundabout/Sutton situation...
#11Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 8:12am
Thanks for these wonderful pics!
Opening Doors Theatre Company (sadly now defunct) put on a production a few years ago and it was wonderful. They even restored a few cut songs, though they did trim the book.
The plot is extremely thin and I don't think it would stand up in a full-scale revival, but an Encores with Sutton would be brilliant. It's a fun cast recording and score, but it does fall apart a bit after "You Musn't Be Discouraged." Still, Opening Doors only had a piano for accompaniment and the score is worthy of the Encores orchestra treatment.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
AEA AGMA SM
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/13/09
#12Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 8:20amIf Encores included this in their season I would like to see Leslie Kritzer in Carol's role.
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#13Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 8:49amFollowed by High Spirits & I Had A Ball
Poster Emeritus
#14Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 10:45pm
FADE OUT, FADE IN has one of Styne's most melodic scores and some of Comden and Green's funniest lyrics.
Like FUNNY GIRL, however, it doesn't just require a clown for the leading role, it is specially tailored to the schtick of its original star. (I was going to add a few examples, but they are all spoilers.)
I'd certainly go see a revival, but I think the audience would be limited unless the book were rewritten to fit one of today's funny women. Ellen Degeneres and her generation practice a very different form of comedy.
And does anyone want to see a Bill "Bo Jangles" Robinson imitation nowadays, no matter how good?
Updated On: 5/28/14 at 10:45 PM
#15Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 10:50pm
Wow! Is that Tina Louise in that last photo with Jack Cassidy? Gorgeous!
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#16Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 11:04pmAfterEight hates all these recent shows like this.
Twitter @NamoInExile
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#17Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/26/14 at 11:40pmYes it is indeed Tina Louise! Just a few months before she would become a household name on Gilligan's Island.
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#18Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/27/14 at 11:18am
I am a big fan of this show having seen it at eight years old! It was a great experience and Carol Burnett knocked it out of the park. Love the cast recording and the score is great.
It needs a very special leading lady. I saw it a year or so at Musicals Tonight and the whole thing fell very flat with a very unfunny leading lady. Poor staging did not help at all. Their casting is very odd.
I am hard pressed to think of someone who could take on this role. It requires someone awkward and funny. Not sure even the wonderful Sutton could pull this off because she is not awkward in any way shape or form.
I didn't see the Opening Doors production but based on their wonderful
Production of Happy Hunting, I am fairly confident they did a good job. Too bad they are no around any more. I was very impressed with Happy Hunting.
As for seeing Bill Bojangles Robinson impression... he was a major figure in musical theatre history and lovable and talented in so many ways. Why shouldn't we bring him back? It's not like Bill Bojangles was "Step and Fetchitt" or "Mammy" from Gone with the Wind.
Updated On: 5/27/14 at 11:18 AM
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#19Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/27/14 at 11:33amNice shot of Smaxie (the real one) in the second photo!
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
#20Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/27/14 at 9:55pm
I agree with goldenboy and I didn't mean to suggest a Bo Jangles character (played by an African-American) would be offensive. I was just questioning whether the show's concerns: including talent shows, Hollywood studio politics, Grauman's Chinese Theatre (still there, but who cares?), as well as Robinson would interest a modern audience enough to run a revival for any length of time. Hell, I'm 60 and I only know about such things from old movies. (I'm not saying a modern audience wouldn't figure out the plot eventually, just that I don't know people younger than I would be interested.)
Even the idea of "movie ushers" (especially in the mezzanine!) is positively antiquarian!
And the climax of the show depends on Carol Burnett's famous rubbery face with the giant grin. Not a feature every singer/dancer/commediene has. (I mean I know they all have faces, but the joke at the end depends on Burnett's particular face.)
Too bad. It's a lovely and hilarious score. The "Bo Jangles" number is one of the best.
Updated On: 5/27/14 at 09:55 PM
#21Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/28/14 at 1:17pm
It needs a Martha Ray, A Carol Burnett, A Bette Midler
Not a Sutton or a Donna Murphy or a Kelli O' Hara.
I can't think of someone currently who can fit that bill.
Can you?
Does this kind of comic exist anymore? The conceit is that the Hope Springfield
is the unlikeliest person for a Hollywood Glamor Girl.
Fade Out Fade In is a period piece about 30's Hollywood. I find that subject fascinating... but that's me. On the 20th Century is the same period as is Singing in the Rain.
eperkins
Broadway Star Joined: 5/21/07
#22Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/28/14 at 3:10pmI would be willing to bet that Jessie Mueller could handle the role.
#23Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/28/14 at 3:12pm
"Does this kind of comic exist anymore? The conceit is that the Hope Springfield
is the unlikeliest person for a Hollywood Glamor Girl."
Sounds like Nicole Parker to me.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#24Happy 50th Anniversary to FADE OUT - FADE IN
Posted: 5/28/14 at 7:13pmI've just listened to the OBC. A very entertaining score!
