Looking for a genius on "Promises, Promises"

[RadioTV2]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 11:34pm

Anyone have the CD from this show? Please PM me as I am very curious about this musical, which I have been unable to find information and music about.

[Jon]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 1:30am

Well, you could start by renting the movie THE APARTMENT starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine. It's the basis for the show.

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 2:46am

I have the Original Broadway Cast Album on CD. As a matter of fact I was listening to it today. The original production starred Jerry Orbach, Jill O'Hara, Edward Winter, Marian Mercer, Donna McKechnie, Baayork Lee, Margo Sappington.

It was based on the film "The Apartment" which starred Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray.

The musical's book was by Neil Simon. Music and Lyrics by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.


Basic Synopsis for PROMISES, PROMISES


Chuck is young, ambitious, likeable, charming and a bachelor who works for the Consolidated Life Insurance Company whose chief executives use his apartment for extra curricular amatory pursuits. Mr Dobitch - Mortgages and Loans Dept - borrows Chuck's keys, and apartment against the promise of rapid promotion within the company. But it is not only Mr Dobitch who borrows the apartment: one executive after another also borrow it - and all with the same promise of advancement within the company.

Fran Kubelik, a waitress in the company restaurant and a girl whom Chuck has admired from a distance has an assignation with J.D. Sheldrake, personnel director. Fran is dumped by Sheldrake and she tries to commit suicide in Chuck's bedroom. A Jewish doctor, Dr. Dreyfuss saves her life but suspects that Chuck was the cause of the suicide attempt. Meanwhile, Miss Olsen, Sheldrake's former mistress, decides to acquaint his wife about his affairs, when Sheldrake tries to resume his affair with Fran. But, when he meets Chuck to sort things out regarding the use of the apartment he is given the keys, not to the apartment but to the executive bathroom.

Chuck believes he has better things to do than work at Consolidated Life Insurance Company - playing cards at New Year with Fran for instance!
Updated On: 9/26/04 at 02:46 AM

[sndtrklvr]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 6:31am

Very sixties musical given its Hal David/Burt Bacharach score. "What do you get when you fall in Love/" and the title tune will be most familiar.

Check out the movie Camp to see a snapshot of the choreography by Michael Bennett the shagadelic "Turkey, Lurkey Time"

[RadioTV2]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 11:31pm

Anybody have the CD?

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 11:41pm

i have the cd of Promises, Promises!

[RagtimeRay]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 8:09am

You should be able to find the CD at most music stores (or via their Web sites if you live in an area that doesn't have a well-stocked selection of show tunes).

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 8:18am

I have the CD. You probably won't find it in stores as it is currently out of print.

Updated On: 9/27/04 at 08:18 AM

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 8:32am

That's right Matt the CD is out of print. You could try ebay RadioTV2.

[TEACHEROFTHEATER]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 2:35pm

I loved Promises, Promises with its terribly modern sounding Bacharach score (I believe it was the first Broadway show to use "pit backup singers")and its thrilling Michael Bennett choreography.

Jerry Orbach's Tony was richly deserved and he led a sublime supporting cast, full of faces familiar to theater, tv and filmgoers.

PROMISES, PROMISES is also one of the singular funniest Broadway musicals that ever existed. It is some of Neil Simon's best work.

Interestingly, this whole musical sprang from the pockets and mind of producer David Merrick (Hello Dolly!, 42nd Street) who wanted to do a musical with a book written by NEIL SIMON. Mr. Simon chose to adapt the Oscar Winning Best Picture, THE APARTMENT as a musical, and selected the pop team of Bacharach and David to write the music and lyrics and also demanded the show be directed by Robin Wagner. Neil Simon's "socks had been knocked off" by Robin Wagner's production of the off broadway play, The Boys In the Band and David Merrick agreed to Neil Simon's wish of having the musical Promises, Promises directed by Mr. Wagner.

Promises, Promises had as a "lead dancer" Donna McKechnie(Michael Bennett adored her and oddly enough was even married to her for a brief while) who did indeed stop the show cold during "Turkey Lurkey Time."

This kind of foreshadowed Donna's career and certainly is reflected in parts of the Cassie charachter Donna later played in A CHORUS LINE.

That same year 1776 won the best musical Tony beating out Promises, Promises and HAIR. I have always found that to be one of the oddest Tony awardings ever.

There are some musical passages of 1776 that are most enjoyable, but it is a show that works well as a sleep inducer. HAIR and PROMISES, PROMISES are both pretty much masterpieces. I wish one of those two shows had bested 1776 for the best musical Tony.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 2:42pm

I sometimes get the glorious feeling that I am sitting at the knee of someone with a very extensive theatre book collection. It's so edifying. Just soaking it all in. This "oddly enough" part you mention of a marriage between Donna and Michael, it just seems completely crazy!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 3:28pm

The marriage happened shortly after "A Chorus Line" swept the Tony Awards in '76. Bennett got it into his head that the two of them should be the King and Queen of Broadway and the the final coronation would, of course, be a marriage (it was all his idea and using his legendary persuasive powers, got her to go along). While Bennett was bi-sexual, he had a decided preference -- one that doomed the marriage from the beginning (they only lived together for a month or two in his Park Avenue penthouse and were officially divorced by the end of a year).

They had been friends since they were teenagers (they met dancing on the tv show "Hullabaloo") and he helped her career in every way that he could, from the featured dance role in "Promises, Promises" to "Company" (when he was hired as choreographer, he insisted on bringing her on board in the role of Kathy and created "Tick-Tock" for her) and then her biggest success -- "A Chorus Line." They were very close and after the unprecedented success of ACL, I think he saw them as the next Fosse-Verdon (later Fosse-Reinking) tandem -- a marriage of master and muse .... though "the marriage" should never have involved actual matrimony.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 3:54pm

I haven't had the opportunity to see a fully staged production of "Promises, Promises," but nonetheless, I disagree about "1776" which has always been a personal favorite. I think the score and book are by turns, witty, powerful and extremely clever -- an exceptional work that fully deserved the Tony for Best Musical. "Hair" has a legendary score, perhaps the finest rock/pop score ever written for the theatre (the score should have gotten the Tony) -- but, oh my, that god-awful book full of insipid jokes, underdeveloped characters and ideas, political sloganeering that goes nowhere ... and it gets more and more dated with each passing year. It's a great director's piece now (what a great canvas for an imaginative, inventive director to work on), but without that strong directorial hand, it's rather painful to sit through (I recently walked out at intermission of a vapid college production of it that pointed up all of the book's flaws).

[Glebb]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 4:01pm

Yummie reading MargoChanning and TeacherofTheatre. Your posts on this subject are clear and interesting. More, more, MORE PLEASE!

I got to see Donna in "Tick Tock" at Dade County Auditorium when I was a very young guy. That must have been the National Tour.

Since I see Margo Sappington every so often (saw her in July, but it was an intermission and we didn't have enough time to talk Turkey), I will try to get stories about "PROMISES, PROMISES" from her. I bet the movie CAMP has everyone asking her about TURKEY LURKEY. She did tell me that at a recent party the three ladies tried to do some of the dance and couldn't remember it well enough.

Updated On: 9/27/04 at 04:01 PM

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 4:05pm

GREAT POSTING TEACHEROFTHEATER

Just one thing: The original director of both "Promises, Promises" and "The Boys in the Band" was ROBERT MOORE . Robin Wagner was the set designer for "Promises" and many other productions including Bennett's "A Chorus Line" and "Dreamgirls". He also designed the original production of "Hair" and most recently worked on "The Boy From Oz" and "Never Gonna Dance" Updated On: 9/27/04 at 04:05 PM

[SamIAm]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 7:19pm

I saw this show a number of times when it was playing and Orbach was wonderful.

A fun, sweet show.

[gherbert]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 7:26pm

If you're looking for the script, look to The Collected Plays of Neil Simon: Volume One. It's in there. Great book by Neil Simon. One of the funniest.

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 9:15pm

As far as the cast for this show, many went on to continued success: Jerry Orbach is now more famous for "LAW & ORDER" than anything he ever did on Broadway (most people don't even know he can sing), Donna McKechnie went on to win a Tony for "A Chorus Line" and Marian Mercer went on to play hostess Nancy Beebee on the television sit-com "It's A Living", but whatever happened to Jill O'Hara? She made her mark originating the role of "Sheila" in the New York Shakespeare Festival Production of "Hair" at the Public Theatre Off-Broadway. She was replaced by Lynn Kellogg when the show moved to Broadway. She then co starred with Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters in "George M!" She then won the lead in "Promises, Promises" and got a Tony nomination and then she disappeared. Anyone know what happened to her? I know her sister Jenny O'Hara (who actually replaced her in "Promises")
still acts because she was in "Mystic River".

[RadioTV2]

Posted: 9/27/04 at 9:17pm

Thank you all so much for the help! I appreciate it.

:)