Musicals Blog

City of Angels (1990)

by Claire J Rottenberg


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.

"City of Angels" ran on Broadway for 878 performances from December 1989 until January 1992. It had a London production in 1993 but it has never been revived on Broadway. Larry Gelbart wrote the book and Cy Coleman composed the score with lyrics by David Zippel. Michael Blakemore directed the production.

"City of Angels" had an excellent cast with 4 members receiving Tony nominations and both James Naughton (Best Actor in a Musical) and Randy Graff (Best Featured Actress in a Musical) winning the awards. Rene Auberjonois and Greg Edelman were the other nominated actors.

The score for "City of Angels" included 14 songs and each of the 8 main characters had at least one song. Each of the 4 female performers had a solo number. The excellent score won a Tony award for Cy Coleman and David Zippel. "City of Angels" won a total of 6 Tony awards, including the awards for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical. It was nominated for a total of 11 awards.

I was fortunate enough to see "City of Angels" early in it Broadway run and it was wonderful. The score has easily remembered melodies and lyrics, many filled with humor that matches the wit of the play.