A Day at the Zoo.For years I have been saving the programs from every play or musical we have attended. I could never think of a thing to do with them... until now. Believe it or not, I slept through most of this. We arrived in New York in a huge snowstorm and the warm theater at the end of a long day, did me in.
It was 1993 . Have you seen GUYS AND DOLLS?
16 comments:
Patti, I missed GUYS AND DOLLS by a flip of the coin when I was in New York with relatives. Instead we bought groceries at a tiny store and went back to the hotel!! Seen the movie, painted sets for a college production, but still have never seen the "real thing."
I love Runyon's characters. They're perfect for this quintessentially American form of entertainment. Loesser's music is some of the best in Broadway theater.
Trivia: I have a party trick where I sing the "entire" score of Guys and Dolls in a minute and a half. Really, it's just a medley of snippets of the tunes sung in all the characters' voices. With a few drinks in me I might be persuaded do it at the bar at Bouchercon come September.
I want you to tape that, John. I need to hear it.
Since I slept through it, I can't tell you if the production merited complete attention but I would guess so.
I missed it. But I always loved Stubby Kaye's rendition of Sit Down Your Rocking the Boat from the uneven musical film starring (of all people) Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons. The supporting characters in the film were mostly from the Broadway show. Thank goodness.
It wasn't so much that Brando and Simmons didn't look the parts, they did. But they also looked out of their element. And as I'm not a big Frank Sinatra fan, well, the film not a favorite. Though I love the opening number.
Of course, I meant: Sit Down, YOU'RE Rocking The Boat. Jeez.
Watched G&D recently on TV and for days afterward kept hearing "Your eyes are the eyes of a woman in love." Such a lyrical song. And I thought Brando was great...
A triumph of the script and the source material (and the supporting cast) over the (not too terrible) miscasting of the leads.
I've never seen a full production on stage, but the film and some excerpts (on tape in various ways, radio and tv) have endeared it, even if it loses much of the distinctiveness of Runyon's prose. "Can Do" helps.
The ultimate performance of Guys and Dolls was done by Chelmsford High School (Massachusetts) in
1964. So there!
I'll date myself and admit I saw the original. Robert Alda (Alan's father)Sam Levine, Vivian Blaine and that's all of the cast I can remember. But it's a terrific show with a wonderful cast. I thought the movie was terrible. Sorry you missed the show, Patti.
I saw it in London a few years with Patrick Swayze starring.
Have we seen GUYS AND DOLLS?
Is that rhetorical? As it is Jackie's favorite musical the answer is - obviously - yes.
We saw it:
November 1976 on Broadway, the "black" version starring Robert Guillaume and Ken Page (pre-CATS), who stole the show with "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat."
August 1985 in London, with Bob Hoskins at Nathan Detroit and Julia McKenzie as Miss Adelaide.
December 1993 on Broadway (the one Patti fell asleep on), with Peter Gallagher as Sky Masterson and Faith Prince as Miss Adelaide. (Nathan Lane had already left the show as Nathan Detroit.)
August 1997 in London, at the National Theatre, with the wonderful Imelda Staunton as absolutely the best Miss Adelaide ever.
Finally (to date at least) in London, with Ewan McGregor, Douglas Hodge (who won a Tony last year in LA CAGE AUX FOLLES on Broadway) and Jane Krakowski as Miss Adelaide.
Jeff M.
Oh, that last show was November of 2005.
Jeff M.
I used to have every Playbill of every show we'd seen from the late 1960's onward, from here and London and everywhere else but they just took up too much space and a few years ago I got rid of them all. In London, of course, you pay for the program and in recent years we just haven't bothered.
Jeff M.
Oh, one last comment: we learned that to see a show on the day you arrive after a long trip is always a mistake. We've fallen asleep in London at intermission more than once in the past.
Jeff M.
We have the play bills from around 1990 on. Amazing how many of them where I could not give you a synopsis of the play. Most of them local and small productions, of course.
And that's why people live in New York rather than Detroit.
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