Broadway Musicals
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On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
In 1970, my favorite Barbra Steisand movie musical, "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever," was released. Like her two previous films, "Funny Girl" and "Hello, Dolly!," "On a Clear Day" was based on a Broadway musical. However, unlike the other two musicals, neither the film nor the Broadway musical of "On a Clear Day" was successful. [read more...]
South Pacific
The musical "South Pacific" began when Joshua Logan and Leland Hayward purchased the rights to James Michener's novel, "Tales of the South Pacific." They then asked Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to write the music and book for the play. Rodgers and Hammerstein agreed, but Hammerstein asked Logan, who had served in WW II, to help write the book. Next, the decision was made to hire Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin to play the lead roles of Emile de Becque and Nellie Forbush. [read more...]
Paint Your Wagon
Four years after their success with "Brigadoon," Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe created the musical "Paint Your Wagon." Although the score included some good songs, the play was not too successful, running for only 289 performances on Broadway. The choreography for the Broadway version of "Paint Your Wagon" was developed by Agnes de Mille. [read more...]
Singin' in the Rain
In 1983, Tommy Steele starred in and directed the first stage version of "Singin' in the Rain" in London's West End. The producers of the stage version hired the original authors of the screenplay, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, to write the book for the musical. Peter Gennaro did the choreography for the play. [read more...]
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
The stage version of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" opened on Broadway in 1982 and it was a huge flop, running for only 5 performances after 15 previews. It had a successful road tour in the United States prior to its opening on Broadway and it was more successful three years later in London's West End. [read more...]
The Will Rogers Follies
"The Will Rogers Follies," like its Tony winner predecessor, "City of Angels," had music by Cy Coleman. The lyrics were written by well-known lyricists, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and the book was written by Peter Stone, who wrote the screenplay for another Cy Coleman hit, "Sweet Charity." [read more...]
West Side Story
The movie version of "West Side Story" won a record number of Academy Awards (10), but, surprisingly, the play did not win the Tony award for Best Musical (it lost to "The Music Man"). The play opened in 1957 and it ran for almost two years. None of the lead performers from the play appeared in the movie but several of the performers who played smaller parts recreated their roles or played similar parts in the movie. For example, Tony Mordente played a Jet, A-Rab, in the play and then later played a different Jet, Action, in the film version of "West Side Story." [read more...]
The Sound of Music
The Broadway version of "The Sound of Music" ran for three and a half years, closing two years before the movie version was released. None of the original cast members appeared in the movie, but the lead roles did go to stage performers (Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer). [read more...]