 The Doublers BBoard
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Author: Jaysne
Date: 2006-09-29 03:18
I'll bet that everyone who doubles eventually plays Kiss Me Kate, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Fiddler, etc. These are the most popular shows around and it makes sense that they'd be performed a lot, in the interest of attracting crowds.
I've played in a few musicals, however, that I have never heard anyone else ever talk about. Has anyone else ever done these:
Roar of the Greasepaint
Baby
Superman
Over Here
Dames at Sea
Personals
Two by Two
Me and My Girl
?
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Author: GBK
Date: 2006-09-29 03:26
A few months ago, I completed a run of "Once On This Island"
The (only) reed book is:
piccolo
flute
alto flute
clarinet
soprano saxophone
finger cymbals
Interesting show, some nice tunes, but beware - it is operetta style (non-stop playing)
...GBK
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2006-09-29 12:12
GBK,
The finger cymbals part was probably very tough. Just a chord sheet I'd suspect.
HRL
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Author: rcnelson
Date: 2006-09-29 12:46
ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT: Reed 4 (bari sax, clarinet) back in the '70's. I remember more lines from this one than any other musical and it's been 30 years since I did it in a community theater. I liked much of the music too.
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Author: Merlin
Date: 2006-10-02 00:45
Not so obscure a show; but I once played bass on a production of Pyjama Game.
Can't really remember doing any oddly obscure shows.rcnelson wrote:
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Author: Jaysne
Date: 2006-10-03 02:44
Merlin wrote:
> Not so obscure a show; but I once played bass on a production
> of Pyjama Game.
>
> Can't really remember doing any oddly obscure shows.rcnelson
> wrote:
>
Yeah, I personally wouldn't call Pajama Game obscure--I've done it three times!
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2006-10-03 12:36
Hi,
I've done Pajama Game twice. And I saw it on Broadway in the 1950s with the original cast.
Also on Broadway about that time, I saw Fanny. Lovely music and a great original cast but it never did too well (the movie version was just OK). I wonder if it has been done recently.
HRL
Post Edited (2006-10-03 12:38)
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2006-10-03 19:32
How about:
SMILE
GRIND
INTO THE LIGHT - The Shroud of Turin
1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE
RINK
I've opened about 20 other more well-known shows on Broadway, but these 5 were real "winners."
JJM
Légère Artist
Clark W. Fobes Artist
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2006-10-03 23:51
John,
You "take the cake" for the obscure. Do you have any sense, right from the opening, that this show will make it and this one will not?
But then, who would have believed that a musical about Hitler would be a hit?
HRL
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2006-10-04 14:17
INTO THE LIGHT - The Shroud of Turin, was a "sure fire" dud (check out the title). We all knew from the get-go it was a show only the religeous right would like or even understand. They all came, and we ran out of an audience in about a week.
1600 PENN. AVE. was written by Lenny Bernstein & Alan J. Lerner, how could it miss? It was disaster, mostly on stage...they never got the upstairs-downstairs right, they tried to cover too many Presidencies, and Lenny's music was so altered with "cuts & pastes" that parts were a mess.
I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point.
Then again, SWEENEY TODD & WICKED didn't sound, at first readings, like they were going to amount to anything great...how wrong we can be at first listening...!
JJM
Légère Artist
Clark W. Fobes Artist
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Author: rcnelson
Date: 2006-10-04 14:41
Thank you, John Moses, for the "insider" view of Broadway pit work.
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Author: DressedToKill
Date: 2006-10-05 00:52
I adore Once On This Island...I've played the reed book several times, and I've also played the part of Daniel. (It was a mostly-white cast, and a VERY weird production...)
JJM, I was just earlier today listening to Chita belt her head off in the Rink OCR!
I recently played an Off-Broadway production of Side Show (fl/picc/clar/sop/alto), which closed after only 91 performances in 1998; and is one of my favorites shows ever. It was SUCH a joy to play...
I'm about to begin a five-week run in an Equity showcase production at the American Theatre of Actors of the Ken Mills musical "The Flood", which I'd wager not many people know...
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Author: Jaysne
Date: 2006-10-05 03:06
A musical about the Shroud of Turin! Priceless!
I do remember when 1600 Pennsy Ave came out--it seemed like a great idea at the time. Well, at least the name seemed like a sure-fire hit.
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2006-10-05 05:19
Yes:
"A musical about the Shroud of Turin! Priceless!"
The only two priceless things I remember about INTO THE LIGHT are:
!) I think we closed sometime during the opening night First Act...
2) The audience was facing the wrong direction...
(A little Broadway humor)
JJM
Légère Artist
Clark W. Fobes Artist
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-10-12 00:52
Superman, The New Musical is one that I always felt should have done much better than it did. It's full of decent music (including two bona fide hits, "You've Got What I Need, Baby" and "You've Got Possibilities", a pre-planned story from the comic (although it was yanked around a bit), a good set of dance numbers, and (in the form of Jack Cassity) a first class male lead when it opened on Broadway.
Needless to say, it didn't do well, for whatever reason. Even since I discovered the music back in the early 1970's, I've been pushing for this one to be done by local colleges and high schools (in which guise it has additional pluses, with all of those action dance parts (the Flying Lings, the "bad guy's" henchmen, for example) and no less than four male leads and two female ones.
However, other than one production in St. Louis back in the old days, no one will take the bait. Pity, 'cause the music is great and the story line not all that bad. Certainly better than Once Upon A Mattress, yet the latter is done all of the time.
There's naught like folk, as my grandmother used to say...
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Steve B.
Date: 2006-10-29 00:48
Here are 2 winners for you:
The Fig Leaves are Falling - (Music: Albert Hague; Lyrics: Allan Sherman)
The Beast in Me - (Music: Don Elliott; Lyrics: James Costigan)
Both closed after 4 performances.
See: http://www.ibdb.com for details
My dad had the misfortune of playing in both.
(luckily he also played a couple monster hits too: (Hello Dolly, 1776, A Chorus Line)
Steve
Post Edited (2006-10-29 17:01)
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Author: GBK
Date: 2006-10-29 01:19
It's hard to top "Carrie - The Musical" (5 performances)
I'll bet that Betty Buckley doesn't put that one on her resume...GBK
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