On A Clear Day You Can See Forever at Irish Rep

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 6/1/18 at 12:15pm

Whew! Just snagged my $24 preview tickets. Anyone else going? I like the OBC album alright but I prefer the movie soundtrack... probably because it's just so Barbra. It'll be interesting to see a staging where it's sung straight as I can't imagine Melissa Errico doing a Barbra impersonation. It's a great cast and a nice intimate theater. I'm excited.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/1/18 at 1:19pm

They credit Charlotte Moore with the direction and adaptation so I'll be curious to hear about the changes she makes.

[geoffreyC]

Posted: 6/1/18 at 1:23pm

This work is notorious for being problematic in its staging and concept.  It's always interesting to hear of people trying once again to get it right.  

[denali.fire]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 10:22am

The revival of this was dreadful. The set design was fugly. Looking back I wish I had walked out. I liked the Obc recording. John Cullum and Barbara Harris.

I don't like Audra 's recording of Hurry It's lovely up Here on the Sing Happy was/is dreadfully disappointing.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 11:06am

I got the $24 tickets and am SO excited for this production. The OBCR is one of the my favorites- Barbara Harris is so fricking brillitant throughout and Cullum is in perfect voice. “Hurry, It’s Lovely Up Here” is one of the best show tunes ever written, IMO and anything to wash the bad taste of that last revival out of my mouth will be most welcome. 

 

[Marianne2]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 1:51pm

I'll be seeing this on July 13th. I didn't see the last Broadway revival and am not familiar with the film. This will be a first for me.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 5:20pm

I love the Broadway recording. I was so obsessed in high school I tracked down a copy of the script to find out what the heck was happening in between the songs. Barbara Harris was a singular talent. How I wish she had done more stage work. (She’s the Hattie in the Follies film in my mind).

I have a love for the film, mostly because of my reverence for Streisand in the 60s and 70s - she can truly do no wrong in my eyes. It has a great score, even if some of the songs aren’t as good as their stage equivalents - why oh why wasn’t Barbra allowed to sing “S.S. Bernard Cohn”? I recommend it any theatre lovers - it may not be a great film, but it’s entertaining and full of Streisand in her prime (although I always laugh at the Times’ review stating that Streisand was using her trademark Jewish vocal mannerisms “as if she had a speech impediment&rdquo.

On another hand, I remember my high school drama teacher telling me when I inquired about Harris - “With the talent she had, she could had been bigger than anything - forget Barbra Streisand.” I don’t know if I agree with that, but she certainly could have been a bona fide star.

Updated On: 6/2/18 at 05:20 PM

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 5:26pm

Anyone who's a fan of Barbara Harris simply must watch the Altman film NASHVILLE. It's a long but brilliant time capsule of 1976 that concludes with an exhilarating performance by Harris that sends chills down your spine.

[markypoo]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 7:42pm

I was fortunate enough to see the touring company in 1967 starring Howard Keel, and featuring a young lady by the name of Barbara Lang in the Harris role.
Years later in 1991, Harris appeared in a supporting role in the Chicago production of Prelude to a Kiss; a rare stage role for her. Happy I had a chance to see all of the above.

[EdEval]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 7:57pm

I hope they have stuck to the original book.  I didn't care for them changing Barbara Harris's role of Daisy into a gay young man. Somethings are better left alone.

[newintown]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 8:54am

A preliminary script that was floating around was a cut-down combo of the original libretto and the Babs screenplay. The Greek magnate has been cut, as has (strangely) Warren. The "present day" scenes seem to be actually now (ish), and Daisy's reason to go to Mark is still to stop smoking, but not because of Warren's potential job, but her own. It doesn't really make sense, but it eliminates another character (Irish Rep is pretty low-budget, after all), and it kowtows to a certain kind of "girl power" point of view.

But she's still Daisy today and Melinda in the 18th century flashbacks.

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 11:14am

Reminds me of a deceased friend of mine (cancer is a bitch), who had a fabulous and usually filthy alternate name, MAD Magazine style, for every show he ever saw or danced in. Given that this show is a little on the obscure side, for a good year or so I actually believed its title was "On a Queer Gay, You Can Pee Forever," and that it was some 80s Greenwich Village agitprop show.

[newintown]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 12:02pm

It's interesting to look at the song list, and see that there are only 10 actual songs in the score (barring reprises and instrumental bits), particularly in an age when many shows have 20 or more:

Act 1:
Hurry, It’s Lovely Up Here
Solicitor’s Song (a throwaway that wasn't even recorded)
He Wasn’t You/She Wasn't You
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
On The S. S. Bernard Cohn
Melinda

Act 2:
When I Come Around Again
What Did I Have That I Don’t Have?
Wait Till We’re Sixty-five
Come Back To Me

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 12:42pm

So it's a combination of the stage libretto and screenplay? Is it safe to assume "Love With All the Trimmings" will be in?

[newintown]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 12:45pm

The version I saw only had the songs listed above.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 2:21pm

That’s the only version that is licensed, but it is a far cry from what played on Broadway originally. There were a few numbers not recorded on the original record, but “Solicitor’s Song” did not exist in that production and “When I Cone Around Again” is what it is on the record - “When I’m Being Born Again”.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 9:29pm

What happened to "Tosy and Cosh", and "Don't Tamper with my Sister?" Both great numbers.

Updated On: 6/4/18 at 09:29 PM

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 6/4/18 at 9:52pm

Someone, I think they might have reset the period Melinda lived in - thus no “Tosh and Coach” or “Ring Out the Bells”, which was unrecorded. “She Wasn’t You” isn’t period specific enough to be excluded... I think some of Melinda’s backstory was also “tampered” with, making the number unnecessary... of course, I may be very wrong, but I’m pretty sure as of now.

[cjmclaughlin10]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 7:24am

Bump

[Rainbowhigh23]

Posted: 6/20/18 at 3:35pm

I have a $24 ticket for tonight, can't make it.  Available for pick up at the box office.  PM for details. 

[macnyc]

Posted: 6/20/18 at 3:45pm

A friend just told me she wants to see this, so I started researching. I have never heard of the $24 tickets before at Irish Rep. How do you get them? On the website along with the regular tickets? 

I assume they're all gone for this show, but at least I'll know for next time. Thanks for any info!

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/20/18 at 11:34pm

I was there tonight and while it’s an improvement over the last revival, which granted is not setting a very high bar, this new adaptation is a disappointment in its own right. 

First the score: Tosy and Cosh, Don’t Tamper with My Sister and When I’m Being Born Again have been cut in their entirety. Warren has been cut, because, well, there’s no good explanation, but obviously because of that the intro to On the S.S. Bernard Cohn (You with someone else but Warren/Was he bashful or was he foreign) has also been cut and Wait ‘Til We’re Sixty-Five has been reworked into a trio and then group number because I guess they just couldn’t part with this song too. I LOVE Wait ‘Til We’re Sixty-Five, but both the Broadway revival and this incarnation just didn’t/don’t understand the song and how it should motivate Daisy. Cutting Warren is a big mistake IMO. 

Melinda’s story is still in the show and it takes place in the 18th Century. None of the jazz singer stuff from the revival remains. The revival could have really been interesting if they had just allowed Harry to fall for David Turner as Melinda, adding a layer of questioned sexuality into the mix, but they weren’t brave enough to do that- not that it’s a great idea to change Daisy’s sex in the first place! 

There will always be an intrinsic problem with the show for a modern audience. At the time of the original, ESP, hypnotism, past lives, reincarnation were all big things and exotic ideas. Lerner was entranced himself, but the novelty of seeing some hypnotized on stage just doesn’t hold up in 2018. This stuff is barely good enough for a cheap Vegas show, so that needs to be downplayed in favor of the human element. Having the choice of a safe life with Warren is all the more important to making this angle work, and I just don’t understand what this adaptation was going for. 

What does work about the show is the score. The OBCR is proof of that as it still plays like gangbusters, and most of the numbers were quite nicely sung and performed, but the slog of the remaining/altered book to get to them undercut the effect they may have had. 

Maybe this show’s book is too problematic to ever have a perfect production, but if that’s the case then give me what does work. Present the full score with enough dialogue to string the spine of the plot along and let the music and lyrics shine. 

[Emmaloucbway]

Posted: 6/20/18 at 11:50pm

Does anyone know the run time for this?

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/20/18 at 11:56pm

About 2:15 with intermission 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 12:10am

Ladies & Gentlemen, here is a glimpse of the original 1965 Broadway cast of ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER featuring Barbara Harris and John Cullum:

https://youtu.be/yyw-HEAUr40

Enjoy!