Kiss Of The Spider Woman 25th Anniversary

[SmokeyLady]

I can't believe it has been 25 years.  Boy is this great show due for a first class revival.  Courtesy of Aurora here is the press reel for the tour.  The first two numbers are from the original broadway company.  The tour was wonderful.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iHDi_juT_E

[haterobics]

There is a revival happening right now of the play in the West End, with a horrible link to get to it:

https://www.menierchocolatefactory.com/online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=774C30E5-C4E5-48DA-820E-4BF41670177B&sessionlanguage=&SessionSecurity::linkName=

[Mildred Plotka]

The Menier production is a revival of the play.

I’m still angry at my aunt for choosing the Phantom your over this for us to see when I was 15. Love the score, and would love a revival. There was supposed to be a production of it here in Seattle this Spring, but it was cancelled. The only other production done here recently split Aurora amongst several women. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

[ErikJ972]

^ That is not a revival of the musical.

[DAME]

I saw this multiple times on broadway and on tour with Chita and Vanessa. Spectacular show . The tour was a little miscast with John Dosset but he was wonderful.  Way overdue for a broadway revival .

[CATSNYrevival]

This is what Hal Prince should be working on. A 25th anniversary tour of Kiss of the Spider Woman. Not Evita. I'd love to see his original staging. I was too young at the time.

[SmokeyLady]

CATSNYrevival said: "This is what Hal Prince should be working on. A 25th anniversary tour of Kiss of the Spider Woman. Not Evita. I'd love to see his original staging. I was too young at the time."

 

Agreed.  His staging for this was impeccable.  And the sets and projections.   

 

[everythingtaboo]

Seeing that show (with Vanessa) was a life-changing experience for me. I'd love to see a revival and see it now.

[ljay889]

I wonder what happened with the reading with Audra and Pasquale?

[QueenAlice]

Would need major names to sell it now- otherwise one of the endless things that will likely only be revived if The roundabout peoduces it.

[Jcrispee2]

I would love to see Stephanie J. Block in this role.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Heather Headley, please.

[CATSNYrevival]

So which recording do we like better?

[SomethingPeculiar]

CATSNYrevival said: "So which recording do we like better?"

I wish there was a recording with Chita + Brian Stokes Mitchell and Howard McGillin. The OBC is good, but vocally it doesn't get better than Stokes and McGillin. (Though Vanessa Williams is great)

[CATSNYrevival]

I can never decide which one I like better. The original has Chita, the other one has Brian Stokes Mitchell, more dialogue to follow along with and Vanessa isn't bad at all.

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Heather and Headley and Katrina Lenk are my top choices! I adore this show.

[greensgreens]

Obviously, no one beats Chita. But I listen to Vanessa's recording more often. I like that it has orchestration closer to the live theatrical presentation and the additional dialogue/music (especially the sequence near the end where Molina delivers the message) and Vanessa is FEROCIOUS! I only saw Chita and the OBC for my birthday (I think I was 12 or 13 at the time - and then Chita again on tour a year later), but I wish I could've seen Vanessa.

I finally met Vanessa last year and she signed my Spider Woman windowcard. She regaled me with several stories and memories of the show and spoke so well of that experience. It was such a lovely interaction and made me regret not having been able to see her performance even more.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Thanks to this thread it made me check to see whether the Vanessa Williams recording was available digitally (it wasn't a few years back) and I'm glad to see that it is now! My original CD had an issue where the first track would never play unless I rewound from the second track (it was a Columbia House purchase, so no easy way to exchange back then), and when I imported the CD into iTunes years ago it also said that that first track couldn't be imported. So I'm happy that I can now finally have that first track again so that my album will no longer start with "Hey, Molina, you little queer"

[morosco]

One of my favorite shows.  Here's a link to the show in it's entirety of the Hal Prince production.  Two warnings: 1) it is in German, and 2) it was recorded through the productions infrared camera so it is in black and white and there are no blackouts so you can see actors getting into place in the dark.

Act I

Act II

[Mister Matt]

I love the score, but when I saw the tour with Chita, I really hated the staging.  With all the bars, panels, spots, projections and lasers, I found it to be a visual mess and at times, had difficulty finding the actors on stage or knowing where to look.  I was also disappointed in the choreography and thought the end scene was rather trite.  It was great hearing the score performed live and there were a few effective numbers here and there with Gimme Love being the unexpected standout for me (originally one of my least favorite on the cast recording, but it was stunning on stage).

I'd love to see it revived in a cleaner production that doesn't layer all the visuals directly on top of each other.  I also think it would be more interesting to revisit the orchestrations of all the non-Aurora numbers with a more authentic traditional Argentinian sound.  There's a little bit here and there, but it could definitely be pushed further, which could create a more stark contrast against the Aurora sequences.

[DAME]

Mister Matt said: "I love the score, but when I saw the tour with Chita, I really hated the staging. With all the bars, panels, spots, projections and lasers, I found it to be a visual mess and at times, had difficulty finding the actors on stage or knowing where to look. I was also disappointed in the choreography andthought the end scenewas rather trite. It was great hearing the score performed live and there were a few effective numbers here and there with Gimme Love being the unexpected standout for me (originally one of my least favorite on the cast recording, but it was stunning on stage).

I'd love to see it revived in a cleaner production that doesn't layer all the visuals directly on top of each other. I also think it would be more interesting to revisit the orchestrations of all the non-Aurora numbers with a more authentic traditional Argentinian sound. There's a little bit here and there, but it could definitely be pushed further, which could create a more stark contrast against the Aurora sequences."

Oh I loved all the sets and projections .  I thought they were stunning .  Weren’t you at the time with the Spaniard ?  Maybe you were just not in the right place mentally ?  ( just giving you a hard time)

[AEA AGMA SM]

I actually think this is a show that would benefit greatly from being in a smaller space. In undergrad I used it for one of my scene design projects and did it in our studio theatre as a 3/4 thrust and put prison bars behind the seating sections to make the entire theatre the prison.

[DAME]

AEA AGMA SM said: "I actually think this is a show that would benefit greatly from being in a smaller space. In undergrad I used it for one of my scene design projects and did it in our studio theatre as a 3/4 thrust and put prison bars behind the seating sections to make the entire theatre the prison."

Oh god no!  Please not another paired down broadway revival.  This show was big ,magical , and very theatrical .  That’s the way I want it.

[Mister Matt]

Weren’t you at the time with the Spaniard ?

No, I saw it way before I met him (he and are I friends now).  I was actually surprised when I saw the show because I loved the cast recording and I had never seen Chita perform and it had just won Best Musical, so I was ready to love the whole show.  Afterward, I felt the Tonys mostly got things right that season, especially Direction, Lighting, Scenic Design and Choreography, but Tommy should have won Best Musical.  

[AEA AGMA SM]

DAME said: "Oh god no! Please not another paired down broadway revival. This show was big ,magical , and very theatrical . That’s the way I want it."

Don't get me wrong, I would also hate a pared down revival on Broadway. This project (some 17 years ago) was to force myself to put it in a new space so I would be thinking about it differently. Since we also had to kind of be our own directors in those classes, my concept didn't reduce the cast size at all, or any of the fantasy elements. It just put them into a much more immediate setting.