Broadway Musicals
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Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang
"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was the second Disney film to star the gifted Broadway, and later TV, performer, Dick van Dyke. As with the earlier "Mary Poppins," the 1968 film used Broadway performers for most of the major roles, including hiring Sally Ann Howes to play the female lead. [read more...]
Funny Girl
"Funny Girl" had a stormy start with part of the screenplay actually coming before the play. Originally, in the early 1960s, Stephen Sondheim was hired as lyricist, with Jule Styne as composer of the score. Jerome Robbins was the first director, later replaced by Bob Fosse. Well-known actresses, including Mary Martin, Anne Bancroft and Carol Burnett, were approached to play Fanny Brice before mostly unknown Barbra Streisand was hired for the role that launched her career. [read more...]
Flower Drum Song
Although "Flower Drum Song" did not win any major Tony awards, the play was a success and it was nominated for 6 Tony awards, including the award for Best Musical in 1959. It opened on Broadway on December 1, 1958 and it closed almost 1-1/2 years later, after running for 600 performances. The original Broadway production was directed by Gene Kelly (his first Broadway direction) with choreography by Carol Haney (Tony nominee). [read more...]
A Chorus Line
"A Chorus Line" began in an Off-Broadway theater in 1975 and, after two successful months, the producer, Joseph Papp, moved it to Broadway. Once on Broadway, the play became a smash hit, running for a record (at the time) of 6,137 performances. It was nominated for 12 Tony awards and it won 9 of the awards, including the awards for Best Musical, Best Musical Book and Best Director (Michael Bennett). In addition, "A Chorus Line" won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Donna McKechnie, who had spent many years as part of the chorus line of earlier shows, including "How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying," played the lead female role of Cassie in the original production. [read more...]
Evita
Although the film version of "Evita" was a financial success, earning almost $140 million in profit, the film did not reach the Broadway play's critical acclaim and success. "Evita," unlike most of the musicals before it, did not begin or achieve its first success on Broadway. Instead, it started as a concept album in 1976 and then two years later became a success on the West End of London. It took another year to bring "Evita" to Broadway and US success. The Broadway version starred Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin and it ran on Broadway for 1,567 performances, over a period of close to 4 years. "Evita" received 11 Tony nominations and it won 4 Tony awards, including the awards for Best Musical, Best Book and Best Director. [read more...]
Fiorello
"Fiorello" has the distinct honor of being only one of seven Broadway musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Yet, it has never been made into a movie and its only revival in New York was a limited run, concert format production for Encores at City Center in 1994. [read more...]
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood," based on the unfinished novel of the same name by Charles Dickens, was a very unconventional musical. The play was the creation of Rupert Holmes who wrote the book and lyrics, composed the music and arranged the orchestrations for the production. What made "Drood" truly unique, however, was its ending, which was decided upon by each audience. Holmes wrote different possible endings and, at each performance, the audience voted on different aspects of the story to lead to a conclusion for the play. [read more...]
City of Angels
It is surprising that "City of Angels," which is a parody of the movie industry, never became a film. The Tony award winner is a play within a play, with two parallel stories - the story of screenwriter Stine and the story of the screenplay he is writing about a detective named Stone. Except for the two male leads (Greg Edelman as Stine and James Naughton as Stone), the actors and actresses played two parts, a real-life character in author Stine's life and the counterpart character in Stine's screenplay. [read more...]
Fiddler on the Roof
The original Broadway production of "Fiddler on the Roof" won 9 Tony awards, but, surprisingly, the excellent move version only won 3 relatively minor Academy Awards, although it was nominated for 8 Oscars, including nominations for Best Picture and Best Director (Norman Jewison). The original version of "Fiddler on the Roof" was still playing on Broadway when the film was released in 1971 and a year later the play received a special Tony award for becoming the longest running Broadway musical. It closed on Broadway on July 2, 1972, after 8 years (3,242 performances). [read more...]
Gigi
One of my favorite movie musicals, "Gigi," was turned into a Broadway musical in 1973, but, like "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," it was a flop. But this was not Gigi's first appearance on Broadway. The movie musical was actually based on a non-musical Broadway play from 1951 that starred Audrey Hepburn. All three versions were based on the 1945 novel by Colette. [read more...]