Starmites

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow]

Posted: 10/19/07 at 10:59pm

So, there's a clip of the Starmites Tony Award performance (with Angela Lansbury intro!), and all I have to say is...what the eff was that?

Who in their right mind thought that was good? Oh, and that Diva song...how many times can she say it's "hard to be a diva?" over and over again without actually explaining how it's hard? The answer is the whole song!

[tourboi]

Posted: 10/19/07 at 11:38pm

Having not seen the original, I can't comment on that one. But I did see the Starmitez 2001 "revival" off-Broadway and found it charming, very funny, and with some catchy tunes. I like a lot of the OBC recording, too.

[me2]

Posted: 10/20/07 at 2:02pm

I saw this done at a high school and wanted to leave after about 15 minutes. By the end of the show, I was going insane. Unfortunately I knew someone in the cast.
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[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 12:33pm

I saw the original way back when. Sharon McKnight was a real hoot in Hard to Be Diva -- it doesn't come off well at all on the Tony broadcast. Starmites is one of those shows that it's so bad that it's good (i.e., provoking hilarity where none was intended.) However, I might add that it was the second show of the day for me -- I'd seen the "revival" of Oba Oba (another lulu) that afternoon. Both of us were very well tanked by the time of the 2nd show and couldn't stop laughing. There was (or maybe is) an original cast recording without Sharon McKnight -- who was the hootiest thing in it. Typical.

[Kev2222]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 12:58pm

You have to really see the show or at least read the script to understand it. It's got a similar sensibility to "Little Shop" and "Grease" in its over-the-top campiness that may not come across especially well in a 3 minute Tony clip.

The licensing company that handles the rights used to have available a cassette of the entire Broadway production, dialogue and all. When you hear that and understand the sensibility behind the show, you start to understand its charm.

I've always thought that the original production would have run for years had they opened it off-Broadway.

[zepka102]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 3:42pm

I was in a production of it when I was in 7th grade. It was so much fun to work on. I found the cast recording a few years ago, so I had to get it for that reason. I listened to it again for the first time in a while last week. It is pretty bad compared to a lot of shows, but I think it's good for kids. If there were to be a few rewrites for a new SMALL revival, it would be beneficial!

[babygiraffeboots]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 5:59pm

The only song I know is Cruelty Stomp and it's tons of fun to perform. It was part of show I did once.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 10:53am

I think it's a cute show. The Company Theatre just did a production of this and I enjoyed it. It's for kids. Maybe it didn't really belong on Broadway. It's just not one of those shows that can be taken seriously.

[Urban]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 11:04am

So was "Starmites" at the "In My Life" 'so-bad-its-good' level of bad and just got nominated for the Tony due to one of the weakest years for original productions in recent memory?

[once a month]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 11:08am

It was a lean year on Broadway, all I recall is Jerome Robbins Broadway and Bill Irwins Largely New York. I saw Starmites on Broadway and didn't fully appreciate it until much later, when the cast album was eventually released. I became friends with Lizzie Larson, who played the lead and who recently toured my 'Broadway Basement' with her sons. Apparently, it was a lot more charming before it opened uptown, and it was a fun, campy pro-femminist evening of theatre.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 12:32pm

Ah, the dreaded 1988-1989 season. Memories.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 12:54pm

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 1:51pm

I think they also performed on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. (One of these days I'm going to go through all my VHS tapes and see what clips I have.)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 2:10pm

Before Starmites opened, everyone was worrying whether the American Musical Theater was dying.

After Starmites opened, everyone said "Put the American Musical Theater out of its misery. It's worse than dead now."

Then, after it closed, the healing began.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 2:38pm

So Starmites was the scabby, festering wound?

[roquat]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 3:16pm

I accompanied a college production. The experience (over eight performances) was akin to slow poisoning.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 3:50pm

The show and score is simply awful. The only bright spot is the 11 O'clock gospel tinged number (I can't recall the name of the song).

[JRybka]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:02pm

I love the song "Hard to Be Diva"

I also love Sharon McNight too so that might be why.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:43pm

I haven't seen the show, but I read the script which was...rather odd and a bit confusing. But I have to admit I really enjoy much of the score. I love Reach Right Down and Attack of the Banshees has some really wonderful vocal arrangements. The title song, Little Hero and Milady are quite charming. I would love to see a production of the show some time just to see how it all fits together, though I wish I could've seen the Broadway production to see the sets, which I couldn't quite visualize when reading the script.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/28/08 at 4:47pm

Starmites. Marlowe. Bring Back Birdie.

It was nightmarish time.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 9:19am

Brian Lane Green was adorable.
It was a cute show, lots of strange stuff made it to Broadway in the late 80's and early 90's. I didnt love this one (Tony nominee Gabriel Barre as a lizard), but I adore another disaster of the time, Metro...also the Dutch "Cyrano" where it was hard to understand the leading man.