Ken Davenport

[UncleCharlie]

HogansHero said: "Winners, maybe the Dodgers (for best solidification), losers, the Mets and the Nats, who ended up holding a lot of bags. Feel free to PM me if you disagree "

Cases for other teams could be made, but that's a solid take.

[Famebroadway2]

Say what you will about Ken, but he was very graciously greeting and speaking with everyone at Getting the Band Back Together last night. There was a line of people waiting to talk with him when I left.

[raddersons]

Looking at lots of posts in here... to his benefit, at least he’s trying to put creative stuff on Broadway. Spring Awakening, Godspell, and OotI have all been very eye-opening in their re-imaginations — I know lots of people who hated those shows before seeing them in this new light.

I still think his business practices are shady, and he thinks he’s the center of the universe.

Maybe he should just stick to revivals...

[artifact11]

Ken Davenport brought Altar Boyz to off-Broadway, introduced a string of talented performers- Andy Karl, Scott Porter, Tyler Maynard and Kyle Dean Massey included, was never less than friendly and polite-

That alone merits a positive contribution to theatre award.

[haterobics]

Always seemed like a nice guy to me. Chatted with him at Godspell, and through a few emails. Not really concerned how the sausage gets made, as long it's fair trade, organic, and good (and has a vegan option). I didn't see GTBBT yet (not sure if I will, but if I do, it wouldn't be until the fall, so...) but if he had a dream for a show, and somehow managed to distill that into an actual musical that ended up on Broadway, that does speak to a tenacity that will probably lead to more great experiences in the future with him being involved.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

raddersons said: "Looking at lots of posts in here... to his benefit, at least he’s trying to put creative stuff on Broadway. [...] Godspell [...] have all been very eye-opening in their re-imaginations — I know lots of people who hated those shows before seeing them in this new light."

I can't speak to Spring Awakening or Once On This Island, neither of which I've seen, but Godspell wasn't the best example to pick. If it was "eye-opening," I'd say it was eye-opening to just how bad Godspell can go when it's done wrong, and it seems the critics more or less agreed.

[raddersons]

g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "I can't speak toSpring AwakeningorOnce On This Island, neither of which I've seen, butGodspellwasn't the best example to pick. If it was "eye-opening," I'd say it was eye-opening to just how badGodspellcan go when it's done wrong, and it seems the critics more or less agreed."

To each their own. I quite enjoyed Godspell. I don't think it's an amazing show in the first place, but it was pretty well put together. Especially considering it's one of the most-produced community shows out there, and it's often done terribly, I was pretty happy to see it the way it was.

EDIT: The real star of the show in the Godspell revival was the re-orchestrated score. Not sure how much KD's idea it was, but he definitely paid money for someone to do it.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

As you say, to each their own; re: the score, I wish he could have gotten the money back. The vocal arrangements in particular left a lot to be desired -- when they didn't sound like rejected material from Glee or High School Musical, there were unnecessary, uninteresting changes to the harmonies, rather like some of those fussy choral octavo arrangements of popular music for young singing ensembles, and rhythms were sometimes substituted for the original rhythms that were just as confusing.

(I'm not asking that one slavishly follow the original vocal arrangements, much of which were transcriptions of things arrived at by ear in rehearsal by the original 1971 cast, who brought very personal vocal styles to the table, and they're not easy to piece together, at times bewildering in terms of pitch and ensemble, but I don't think that it's too much to ask for the rewritten rhythm to be simpler than the one that's being replaced, or to avoid mis-accented words.)