Gypsy Closes on Broadway

On January 11th, 2009, Patti LuPone, Boyd Gaines, and Laura Benanti offered their final performances in their Tony-award winning roles in the most recent revival of Gypsy. Despite previous announcements that the show would run until March first and rumors that the production would be filmed for commercial release, the producers announced in December that “due to these uncertain financial times” the show would instead close in January, and it went unfilmed. Gypsy was one of many Broadway shows which closed this month in the wake of the current economic crisis. Other shows included long-running hits Hairspray and Spamalot as well as more recent shows like Spring Awakening, the 2007 revival of Grease, last season’s Young Frankenstein, the Tony-winning revival of Boeing Boeing, and the recent new musical 13.

When it closed, the 4th Broadway revival of Gypsy had played a total of 332 performances and 27 previews (plus a three-week “try-out” at New York’s City Center in the summer of 2007). This was the second shortest run of a Broadway Gypsy with only the Lansbury revival of 1974 playing fewer performances on Broadway. Nevertheless, statistics like these can be deceiving and the context must be considered.

While the Lansbury production played by far the fewest performances of all the Gypsys on Broadway, it was the only production to play on the West End. Dolores Grey took over for Lansbury when she departed after six months to take the production on a North American tour which included a limited stop on Broadway. The 30th anniversary revival starring Tyne Daly also toured prior to its Broadway engagement and is unique in being the only Broadway production of the musical to have replaced its star. Linda Lavin played Rose for the final months of the initial engagement. Daly brought the production back for a few months the following spring, ending the engagement after a total of 476 performances

While the 2003 Bernadette Peters production played just over a year and close to as many performances as the previous revival (451), it was the first Broadway Gypsy that did not tour either pre or post-Broadway.

The recently-closed 2008 revival would likely have closed in March as originally planned if not for the current economic situation. It may have suffered somewhat from over-familiarity with the piece as it had not been five years since the closing of the last production when the new production opened. Nevertheless, the LuPone-headed Gypsy like the original and Lansbury productions before it was met with critical praise from almost all of the major critics. (Daly and Peters both met with critical dissent, though the New York Times praised both and Daly won the Tony). It also became the first Gypsy to win Tonys for both its Louise and Herbie, Laura Benanti and Boyd Gaines, and LuPone became the third Tony-winning Rose.

Again though, context is important. The original production of Gypsy, which played more than twice the number of performances than the LuPone production, ran far longer than the other productions. The Daly revival was closest to the success of the original, running for approximately two thirds of the original’s 702 performances. Merman also took the show on a highly successful national tour after closing on Broadway which was followed by a second national company. Still, even the original production was apparently looked at as somewhat of a disappointment by producer David Merrick. The Sound of Music was one of two musicals which bested Gypsy for the Best Musical Tony in 1960 (Fiorello tied with SOM) and went on to play more than twice the number of performances on Broadway and become a phenomenon, touring for years, spawning numerous international productions and ultimately becoming one of the most successful movies of all time.

All this is to say that Gypsy has always been more a critic’s show than a huge box office success. The 2008 revival apparently did not turn a profit and at ten months had a relatively short run. Nevertheless, it can be considered an artistic success, winning three Tony awards and high critical praise. LuPone, in addition to the Tony award, won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Musical and the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance and cemented her reputation as Broadway's reigning diva.

Gypsy, the 2008 Broadway Cast Recording

The long-awaited cast recording of the acclaimed 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy finally reached stores in late August and is now available at TimeLife.com

Following in the footsteps of the 2008 cast recording of South Pacific, Time Life chose to release this Gypsy in two forms. The first release which is being sold by most outlets is a 1-disc CD featuring most of the score (including material never before recorded) as well as several songs cut from the original production in 1959. Some of these songs have been heard in some form prior to this release, including as bonus features on the most recent release of the Original Broadway Cast Recording. The second release is an exclusive 2-disc release from Barnes & Noble which features about eleven minutes of extra material recorded for the album but which would not fit on an 80-minute CD.

Like South Pacific, Gypsy was hardly underrepresented on disc prior to the release of the current album. There are over forty recordings of the score of South Pacific, while Gypsy has approximately half that number. South Pacific, despite its lack of full-scale Broadway revivals prior to the current one, has been constantly produced throughout the last sixty years, and many productions resulted in cast recordings including a 1967 Lincoln Center revival, two film soundtracks, and three London productions. There have also been two separate large-scale studio recordings (one from TER/JAY and another starring a rather unlikely Jose Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa), and countless pop and studio recordings. Gypsy, on the other hand, has had a handful of pop recordings, such as Annie Ross's 1959 jazz album. There have been a few studio recordings including a famous disaster of a recording starring another Jule Styne Momma, Kay Medford.

Of the remaining recordings of the score, several feature foreign-language casts. This leaves six major recordings of the score standing in sharp comparison to the new recording. All three previous Broadway revivals were recorded, with Lansbury's London recording being released in a slightly altered form for the US. In addition to the Daly and Peters recordings, there are also the two film soundtracks, starring Rosliand Russell/Lisa Kirk, and Bette Midler respectively. And of course, the towering Original Broadway Cast Recordings still stands today as one of the greatest cast recordings of all time.

That famous OBC does not necessarily represent the show exactly as it appeared on stage in 1959. Several of the songs were apparently transposed to lower keys during the run of the show, so the score as heard on the recording is perhaps even more vocally exciting than what was heard nightly on Broadway. Changes were also made for the recording, including the use of a different arrangement of "Small World" which makes the song sound more like a popular hit. Despite these changes, however, the original recording is still one of the most revered of its genre and it captures much of the excitement of Ethel Merman's legendary performance.


In the almost fifty years since Merman created the role, Rose has become one of the most collectible of "diva" roles of the musical theatre, and the various recordings of the score have become a valuable tool for enthusiasts to compare and contrast performances. Today, itunes has made the compare/contrast process even faster and easier allowing one to call up all renditions of a single song in only a few keystrokes, which can then be listened to instantly, back to back. It is to such scrutiny that any new recording will be subjected. One can now compare a new performance almost note by note to other recordings.

After the OBC, the next major recording of Gypsy is the 1962 soundtrack album. When the album was released for the first time on CD in 2003, it included multiple bonus tracks. The original soundtrack album had included alternative versions of some songs than what can be heard in the film. Lisa Kirk, who dubbed the majority of Russell's vocals for the film, sings a solo version of "Together Wherever We Go," which was cut from the film (and appears in a vocally jarring rendition by the film's three stars as a bonus on the DVD of the film as well as the new CD). In the film, Russell and Kirk's voices were spliced together for a "Rose's Turn" that is part Russell, part Kirk. The original album included only an all-Kirk version. The current release includes both cuts. Also included on the CD were Russell's vocal tracks for several songs that were ultimately deemed unusable by the studio, necessitating the assistance of Kirk. Merman is said to have acquired records of Russell's takes which she played at parties for laughs.

Ironically, the next two Broadway Roses who each won the Tony for the part while Merman did not, produced what have been called called much less vocally exciting recordings than the Merman original. Lansbury comes off much better than Daly, though changes in key are frequent within Lansbury's numbers in order to allow her to sing in a smaller range where she was vocally the most stable. The ferocity Lansbury brought to the role is in evidence on the recording. Tyne Daly, acclaimed in the theatre, was the least vocally endowed of the Broadway Roses, and was unfortunately ill when the recording of the 1989 revival was recorded. Daly herself reportedly was so upset with the recording she has declined to autograph copies of it. Nevertheless, as a souvenir of a great performance, the record is valuable.

Between the Daly recording and the current recording, there are two other major Gypsys. The 1993 television film starring Bette Midler was a ratings success that garnered strong reviews and many Emmy nominations (though only one award, for Musical Direction, was won). In later years, however, many including Arthur Laurents have expressed disappointment with the production and the star. Midler, one of the industry's greatest entertainers seemed to have all the right qualities for Rose, but Midler has had limited success as an actress and her performance of the role is not the most satisfying. However, Midler apparently insisted on singing several of her songs live on set, which were later mixed with studio takes. On record, this gives her performance a welcome theatricality and electricity. Though she perhaps does not plumb the depths of the role in the way some Roses have, Midler brings her considerable gifts as a performer and entertainer to the role, and comes off somewhat better on disc than on screen, and provides one of the more vocally solid renditions of the score, singing the score for the most part in Merman's keys.

The next recording is, of course, the 2003 Broadway revival cast recording starring the controversial Rose of Bernadette Peters. The current revival seems to have benefited from the mixed response to this recent production. While Ben Brantley and others published very favorable reviews of Peters and the production, others felt the star was miscast. Peters had became ill during previews missing several performances, which added fuel to the fire of some who thought she was not up to the demands of the role. Peters gamely went on after previews, even when ill, and brought in audiences for a full year of performances. Though some vocal distress or deterioration can be heard in her performance on the 2003 recording, vocally, she still ranks as one of the stronger Roses on record. Unfortunately the recording is marred by a reduced orchestra and unappealing mixing and production.

So, after all these previous recordings, perhaps yet another Gypsy recording was not necessary. However, the new production is highly acclaimed and still selling decently at the box office, so a new album was inevitable. While the album will doubtlessly not convince those who do not like star Patti LuPone in general or in the role on stage, it still ranks as one of the strongest recordings of the score subsequent to the Merman original. The record is well produced and benefits from the lush full orchestra. Boyd Gaines, who won his fourth Tony for his performance in Gypsy, does not have a huge amount of sung material in the show, so it's pleasant to hear his rendition of Herbie's cut song, "Nice She Ain't." Laura Benanti, also a Tony winner for her Gypsy performance, brings much of what makes her the most acclaimed Louise/Gypsy so far to the recording. Next to Zan Charisse on the Lansbury recording, Benanti gets the most complete strip sequence on record for the evolution of Louise to Gypsy Rose Lee, and Benanti's transition from meek to confident and flirtatious is well represented on the recording.

Finally, of course, there is LuPone. The star has received perhaps the greatest reviews of her career, and her second Tony for her Rose. In praising the current Broadway revival, many critics, writers, and even Arthur Laurents himself, have been quick to note ways in which it is superior to previous productions. Merman's acting talent has been called inferior to later Roses, though many critics at the time acclaimed it as the best performance of her career, and specifically commented on the strength of her acting. Still, the word "definitive" has been used by some critics including John Simon to describe the current production and star. However, a role with so many successful portrayals can never truly have a definitive performance, and to this writer's mind, even sight unseen, the role will forever belong to Merman. However, LuPone does make one of the best overall cases for the part, bringing all the benefits of her strong legit acting background and her huge vocal power to the role. And it does seem as though this actress has had this date since she first bulldozed Broadway as Evita almost thirty years ago. It was then that she first fully demonstrated her lungs of iron and her will of steel that would one day serve her as Merman's successor. She is in excellent voice and in addition to her strong vocals, the album includes enough of her dialogue to hint at what she brings to the book scenes.

Though the album does not include Rose's second act reprise of "Small World" (which has been cut in the current production) it does include previously unrecorded score material including the "traveling" reprise to "Some People," and the Barnes and Noble bonus tracks, though not particularly necessary for the most part, do provide Rose and Louises's final scene and finale music which gives the album a more satisfying ending than most Gypsy albums which simply end with "Rose's Turn." The other cut songs included on the album are a mixed bag. In most cases, the choice to cut the songs appears wise. The counterpoint section of "Small World" and "Mamma's Talkin' Soft" is perplexing. The counterpoint seems muddled and overly complex. Not at all something in the tradition of Merman's great counterpoint numbers, "You're Just In Love" and "Old Fashioned Wedding." It is hard to imagine that the star would have accepted the number in this form. However the official story has always been that the song was cut because the little girls were staged to be on a high set piece and one of the two young actresses was terrified of heights.

Finally, if one was to own only one recording of Gypsy, one would need to own the OBC. However, for any true Broadway fan, one recording of Gypsy is simply not enough, and if one was to own only two recordings, the 2008 recording starring Patti LuPone, Boyd Gaines, and Laura Benanti, would be an excellent compliment to the original. Overall, of the other major recordings, it is the strongest.

The Revival.

Fall is upon us.

The New York Shakespeare Festival production of Hair at the Delacorte Theatre proved to be the summer's biggest success, and it continues to fill out its extension in September. Rumors suggest a Broadway transfer is possible. Reviews were strong, and the line for tickets begins to grow by the early morning hours.

The second annual Encores! Summer Stars production, Damn Yankees! was not as strongly received as the inaugural production of the series, Gypsy (the transfer of which continues its run at the St. James). Reviews were somewhat divided over the cast though the majority seemed to indicate that Sean Hayes, previously of NBC's Will and Grace, made a successful transition to the New York stage playing the devilish Mr. Applegate and that Jane Krakowski, though obviously a Broadway pro, was somewhat out of her element recreating Gwen Verdon's magic and Bob Fosse's dances. Most critics echoed Christopher Isherwood in The New York Times who found the production "pleasant but a little pizazz-deficient." According to Isherwood, "Everyone involved performs his or her chores capably, but the show does not shimmy off the dust of 50-plus years truly to tickle us anew. It's a solid double, maybe, but hardly the grand slam that was last summer's "Gypsy," which subsequently transferred to Broadway and scored three Tonys. " In comparison to Gypsy, Linda Winer wrote in Newsday that Damn Yankees "is much more in the tradition of summer stock with TV stars."

Gypsy on Broadway has performed strongly throughout the summer, and Lincoln Center's revival of South Pacific continues to be the hottest ticket in town. Both productions fared well at the Tony Awards in June, with Gypsy winning for all three of its leading players, and South Pacific taking the award in four design categories, as well as Best Leading Actor in a Musical, Best Director of a Musical, and Best Revival of a Musical.

Perhaps somewhat in reaction to the strength of these two musical revivals, several more have been announced for the coming season. In the early 90s, the highly successful revival of Guys and Dolls ushered in a decade on Broadway dominated by revivals of classic (and sometimes, less classic) musicals and a new production of that musical has been announced for the upcoming season. Despite the announcement that planned revivals of Godspell and Brigadoon will not appear this season, in addition to Guys and Dolls, revivals of Pal Joey, West Side Story, and Dancin' are planned, and rumors of another Sondheim revival, Merrily We Roll Along, to be directed by James Lapine have been heard.

In the 90s, while Miss Saigon, Rent and Disney's Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King became the major new musical hits of the decade, revivals such as Cabaret and Chicago became bigger hits than their original productions and one season, 1995, saw only one new musical on Broadway, Sunset Boulevard (which was presented with a Tony for Best Musical despite its total lack of competition). The 90s had re-shaped what revivals of musicals looked like on Broadway. Revivals now attempted to make older shows look new to contemporary audiences. New productions of older shows with re-written books, re-written orchestrations and arrangements, and often parodistic, winking attitudes toward the original material were frequent. Such practices were not unheard of before the 90s, with the 1971 No No Nanette being an obvious example of a revival which totally revamped its material to great success. Revivals of Anything Goes on and off-Broadway from the 60s to the 80s had new books and interpolated songs. However, prior to the 90s, musicals from Broadway's Golden Age (roughly the 40s to the 60s) when presented in revival usually appeared in a form closely resembling their original productions, sometimes even being presented with their original stars.

Some 90s revivals tampered less with the actual text of the original shows but found a new approach in the direction, design, and overall attack of the material. Revivals of Rodgers and Hammerstein classics such as Nicholas Hytner's dark Carousel and Christopher Renshaw's King and I starring a Tony-winning post-Sondheim Anna in Donna Murphy were hailed by critics. Sam Mendes's Cabaret, one of the most successful revivals of the period, combined revisionist direction and approach with the altered text, tunestack, and arrangements which had become the norm when reviving even the most classic Broadway titles.

Perhaps somewhat in reaction to the new Broadway tradition of revising classic Broadway titles in revival, as well as the troubling trend in downsizing orchestras, the 90s also saw the rise of the concert staging of classic musicals, best exemplafied by the City Center Encores! series. Concert stagings of musicals had been seen in previous decades, but the genre has developed greatly in the last fifteen years. For instance, 1985's sell-out concert presentation of Follies at Avery Fisher Hall included an all-star cast performing the majority of the show's score accompanied by the New York Philharmonic, but only a few lines of connective dialogue were heard between songs, and staging was limited to minimal movement in front of microphones, mostly delivered directly to the audience. When Follies was staged by Encores! in 2007, though the tradition of the performers holding scripts was retained and sets and costumes were minimal, in addition to the full score, it was almost a complete new full staging of the show with a revised but fairly extensive book and full choreography.

However, Encores! did not always look like the 2007 Follies. When the series began in 1994, stagings looked more like traditional concert stagings of musicals, with actors in evening-wear reading from scripts and using minimal staging and edited books. As the series developed however, stagings became more fully realized. 1996 saw a major turning point when Encores! staged Bob Fosse's 1975 show, Chicago. Up to that time, Encores had specialized more in shows like Call Me Madam, Fiorello!, and Allegro. Before Chicago, Encores! had presented earlier musicals dating from 1939 to 1950, and staging had been highly minimized. Chicago was only twenty years old, and relied heavily on dance staging. Because of this, the decision was made to have Ann Reinking, a frequent Fosse dancer who had been a replacement for Gwen Verdon in the original production, create new choreography in the Fosse style, effectively making it the fullest staging of a show presented by Encores! at that time. The result, of course, was such a success that the production was quickly picked up by commercial producers and brought to Broadway where it has played ever since.

Chicago changed Encores!. Soon after, other similar concert stagings such as Los Angeles's Reprise and Chicago's Ravinia concerts became a regular occurance, and took on the Encores! tradition of presenting almost fully-staged productions with minimal sets and costumes and edited books. In addition to the more fully-realized stagings, the success of Chicago on Broadway may also have encouraged the series's presenters to use Encores! as a tryout for Broadway, though Encores! has denied that this is the case. Still, two other Encores! productions made it to Broadway (in altered forms): Wonderful Town had a mildly successful commercial run on Broadway, though it was somewhat marred by illness which caused acclaimed star Donna Murphy to miss many performances. In the last months of the run, she was unceremoniously replaced by a game Brooke Shields. The critically acclaimed Encores! staging of The Apple Tree starring Kristin Chenoweth was picked up by Roundabout for the 2006-2007 season, and it played a limited three-month engagement, once again receiving glowing reviews, mainly for its star. At this point, it looks unlikely that Damn Yankees will follow Gypsy's route from Encores! Summer Stars to Broadway.

Despite the changes in Encores! approach to their selection of shows and their execution of them, the series has remained an interesting opposite to more commercial Broadway revivals. Rather than change older musicals to appear relevant to a contemporary audience, Encores! has usually attempted to present the material more as it may have originally appeared, particularly with regard to its use of original orchestrations and arrangements where available, which are played by a full-sized orchestra. On Broadway today, we seem usually to have to choose between either a full orchestra with minimal sets and costumes, or a reduced orchestra with a more fully realized physical production or some compromise in between. This is one thing that sets apart the current production of South Pacific, which both boasts a full orchestra, and a luxurious physical production. This comes after something of a slow-down in interest in musical revivals on Broadway, which dominated much of the previous decade.

Though the 2001 revival of 42nd Street lasted almost four years on Broadway, it still closed in the red. The same season, The Producers was showered with Tony Awards and became a Broadway phenonomen. In 2003, Hairspray became another major success, as did the Tony Award winner of 2004, Avenue Q, which despite its continuing success has not reached the level of phenomenon that is enjoyed by Wicked, from the same season. Other hit musicals from the last eight years include Mamma Mia, Movin' Out, Spamalot, and Jersey Boys. Since the revival of 42nd Street, the subsequent winners in the category, Into the Woods, Nine, Assassins, La Cage aux Folles, The Pajama Game, and Company all closed within six months of winning the Tony. (Granted Assassins and Pajama Game, which closed within weeks of the awards, were limited engagements.)

A revival of Fiddler on the Roof which did not win the Tony was perhaps the longest run of a revival in this period after 42nd Street, running for 781 performances. Two revivals which lost the Tony to Company in 2007 were somewhat dismissed by critics for going back to an older tradition of reviving Broadway musicals in that they were recreations of the original stagings. Les Misérables returned to Broadway late in 2006 and was not even nominated in the Best Revival of a Musical category, likely because it was seen less as a revival and more as an extension of the original production, but it ran for over four hundred performances. The revival of A Chorus Line slavishly recreated not only Michael Bennett's original staging, but original costumes and design. This revival, which just closed in the last few weeks, was one of the most successful revivals of the decade, running for 759 performances.

Last season saw an extraordinary number of play revivals, and this season appears set to continue in that tradition with such revivals as the highly anticipated Equus, the transfer of a London production of The Seagull, two David Mamet revivals, Speed the Plow and American Buffalo, as well as revivals of A Man For All Seasons, All My Sons, Dividing the Estate (a transfer of the off-Broadway production) and Hedda Gabler.

The 62nd Annual Tony Awards, 2008

A fairly unsurprising group of winners was announced on June 15, 2008 at Radio City Music Hall. And despite being the first ceremony to have one host in a few years (the wise-cracking Whoopi Goldberg), ratings are apparently only marginally better than last year's record-breaking low.

Personally, I was most pleased that Patti LuPone's incredible performance in Gypsy was awarded, along with her terrific co-stars Laura Benanti and Boyd Gaines. Kelli O'Hara, who does fine work in South Pacific will have plenty more chances and despite her loss, South Pacific was unsurprisingly the biggest winner of the night with seven awards: Best Actor Paulo Szot, Best Director Bartlett Sher, and Best Revival of a Musical and the revival swept all four of the design categories.

Until recently, there had been only three design categories in total for both plays and musicals: Scenic, Costume, and Lighting design, the last of those only having been presented since 1970. In 2005, the three categories were bisected so the designs of plays could be separately recognized from the designs of musicals. The 1961 season had also included separate awards for Costume and Scenic design of plays and musicals. This season, the category of Sound Design was added for both plays and musicals, creating a total of eight design awards.

The other biggest winner of the evening (also surprising no one) was August: Osage County, Tracy Letts's Pulitzer-Prize winning play imported from Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre with its Chicago cast almost completely in tact. In addition to Best Play, Best Director and Best Scenic Design of a Play, Deanna Dunagan and Rondi Reed, both of whom sadly played their final performances yesterday afternoon, accepted awards in the Best Leading and Featured Actress in a Play categories. (Starting tomorrow, Estelle Parsons and Steppenwolf actress Molly Regan will take over Duanagan and Reed's roles, respectively).

In a season notably strongest in plays and revivals, only two new musicals received Tony Awards. In the Heights, after winning the first two competive awards of the night (announced via webcast prior to the CBS show) for Best Orchestrations and Choreopgrahy, as expected, took Best Musical and Best Score. Passing Strange, which some pundits had predicted would pull an upset, failed to do so, scoring only one award, Best Book of a Musical.

Three of the four design categories for plays were won by Roundabout Theatre productions: Sound and Lighting Design went to The 39 Steps, while Les Liaisons Dangereuses won for costumes. (Scenic Design, as previously noted, went to August: Osage County). In the category of Best Revival of a Play, the 60s French sex farce Boeing Boeing beat out heavy competition from revivals of works by Pinter and Shakespeare and Christopher Hampton. The original production of Boeing Boeing opened in France in 1960 and played there for nineteen years. The original London production ran for seven years, but it flopped in its first Broadway outing in 1965, closing after only twenty-three performances. Matthew Warchus's staging currently playing the Longacre first became a hit on the London stage in 2007. Star Mark Rylance, the sole cast member to have appeared both in the London and Broadway productions, won the Best Leading Actor in a Play Tony award and gave the most puzzling speech of the night.

Some of last night's performances:

Xanadu, which sadly went home empty handed:


Another Tony loser, the critically acclaimed revival of Sunday In the Park With George:


Best Musical winner In the Heights


Best Book of a Musical winner, Passing Strange:


Winners Gaines, Benanti, and LuPone in Gypsy:


Winner of seven Tonys including Best Musical Revival, South Pacific:

South Pacific, the New Broadway Cast Recording

This week, the new cast recording of the revival cast of South Pacific was released. In a somewhat surprising move, Barnes and Noble was given exclusive rights to release a version of the recording containing a few bonus tracks--a few orchestral tracks and one or two short reprises of songs. Any copies of the album bought anywhere other than Barnes and Noble (including, presumably, the Vivian Beaumont) is a shorter version of the album containing only twenty-six tracks.

The new CD sounds impeccable and immaculate. There are a couple of odd choices about when to include dialogue and when not to, but the overall sound is excellent and except for weak vocals from Sayre's Bloody Mary and Morrison's Cable (the latter of whom unfortunately does his number in the original key, though he is now singing it a half-step down in the theatre), it's well sung. Of all the Nellies I have heard on record (and there are at least ten of those) O'Hara's technique is second only to Kiri Te Kanawa, who is a less ideal Nellie for obvious reasons. Even Florence Henderson is not as solid as O'Hara. Szot also is in excellent voice and provides powerful vocals, and the orchestra sounds a little richer than in the theatre (there are apparently a few extra players). Fans of the production will be very happy with the disc.

The new recording is almost the polar opposite of the recent Carnegie Hall concert CD which has a lot of technical flaws, given the scant rehearsal time and the fact that it's culled from a live performance. Personally though, I find that recording much more effective, mainly because of McEntire and Stokes, but also, the messy, live quality makes it more theatrical and viscerally exciting.

On recording, I find O'Hara's performance endemic of the production: beautiful, expert, but too controlled and sophisticated. On the recording, even the children's laughter at the end of "Dites Moi" sounds unspontaneous. Without being able to see Szot, though his phrasing and singing is overall very strong, I found him a bit wooden. And even though there are more vocally effective Cables and Marys than Jason Danieley and Lillias White, I find them both far ahead of their counterparts in the current production. But obviously, this reflects how I feel about the productions in general, and I'm in the minority on not being head-over-heels in love with the revival, but even with my reservations I can say that it's well-done and sounds very good so I'm sure fans of the production will be happy to have this new recording.

The Tony Awards, 2007-2008 Season

The 62nd Annual American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards will be presented on June 15th. The show will be broadcast live on CBS starting at 8pm. Whoopi Goldberg was recently announced as this year's host.

This morning, the nominations for the Tony Awards were announced. The new musical In the Heights brought in the most nominations (13) and looks likely to win Best Musical. The second most-nom'd production is the hit Lincoln Center revival of South Pacific, which is likely to sweep in a large number of the 11 categories in which it is nominated including Best Musical Revival, Best Direction of a Musical, and Best Actor in a Musical, and more than possibly, Best Actress in a Musical. South Pacific is also likely to see Tonys in the design categories. Sunday In the Park With George, another acclaimed musical revival received nine nominations, though it looks likely to lose in most categories, and Gypsy, the third acclaimed musical revival, tied the most-nominated new play, August: Osage County, with 7 noms. All three of Gypsy's leading players, Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti, and Boyd Gaines were nominated. This marks LuPone's fifth nomination for a Tony. She previously won twenty-eight years ago for Evita, but most recently lost in 2006 for her Mrs. Lovett in the John Doyle revival of Sweeney Todd to The Color Purple's LaChanze (the only award TCP received). Three of August: Osage County's players, Deanna Dunagan (a favorite to win), Amy Morton, and Rondi Reed were nominated.

The complete list of nominations is as follows:

Best Play:

August: Osage County
Rock 'n' Roll

The Seafarer

The 39 Steps

Best Musical:

Cry-Baby

In the Heights

Passing Strange

Xanadu

Best Book of a Musical:

Cry-Baby, Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan

In the Heights, Quiara Alegria Hudes

Passing Strange, Stew

Xanadu, Douglas Carter Beane

Best Original Score:

Cry-Baby, Music & Lyrics: David Javerbaum & Adam Schlesinger
In The Heights, Music & Lyrics: Lin-Manuel Miranda

The Little Mermaid, Music: Alan Menken and Lyrics: Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater

Passing Strange, Music: Stew and Heidi Rodewald Lyrics: Stew

Best Revival of a Play:
Boeing-Boeing

The Homecoming

Les Liaisons Dangereueses

Macbeth

Best Revival of a Musical:
Grease

Gypsy

South Pacific

Sunday in the Park With George

Best Performance By a Leading Actor in a Play:

Ben Daniels, Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Laurence Fishburne, Thurgood

Mark Rylance, Boeing-Boeing

Rufus Sewell, Rock 'n' Roll

Patrick Stewart, Macbeth

Best Performance By a Leading Actress in a Play:
Eve Best, The Homecoming

Deanna Dunagan, August: Osage County

Kate Fleetwood, Macbeth

S. Epatha Merkerson, Come Back, Little Sheba

Amy Morton, August: Osage County

Best Performance By a Leading Actor in a Musical:
Daniel Evans, Sunday in the Park With George

Lin-Manuel Miranda, In the Heights

Stew, Passing Strange

Paulo Szot, South Pacific

Tom Wopat, A Catered Affair

Best Performance By a Leading Actress in a Musical:
Kerry Butler, Xanadu

Patti LuPone, Gypsy

Kelli O'Hara, South Pacific

Faith Prince, A Catered Affair

Jenna Russell, Sunday in the Park With George

Best Performance By a Featured Actor in a Play:

Bobby Cannavale, Mauritius

Raúl Esparza, The Homecoming

Conleth Hill, The Seafarer

Jim Norton, The Seafarer

David Pittu, Is He Dead?

Best Performance By a Featured Actress in a Play:

Sinead Cusack, Rock 'n' Roll
Mary McCormack, Boeing-Boeing

Laurie Metcalf, November
Martha Plimpton, Top Girls

Rondi Reed, August: Osage County

Best Performance By a Featured Actor in a Musical:

Daniel Breaker, Passing Strange

Danny Burstein, South Pacific

Robin De Jesús, In The Heights
Christopher Fitzgerald, Young Frankenstein

Boyd Gaines, Gypsy

Best Performance By a Featured Actress in a Musical:

de'Adre Aziza, Passing Strange

Laura Benanti, Gypsy

Andrea Martin, Young Frankenstein

Olga Merediz, In The Heights

Loretta Ables Sayre, South Pacific

Best Direction of a Play:

Maria Aitken, The 39 Steps

Conor McPherson, The Seafarer

Anna D. Shapiro, August: Osage County

Matthew Warchus, Boeing-Boeing

Best Direction of a Musical:

Sam Buntrock, Sunday in the Park with George

Thomas Kail, In The Heights

Arthur Laurents, Gypsy

Bartlett Sher, South Pacific

Best Choreography:

Rob Ashford, Cry-Baby

Andy Blankenbuehler, In The Heights

Christopher Gattelli, South Pacific

Dan Knechtges, Xanadu

Best Orchestrations:

Jason Carr, Sunday in the Park with George

Alex Lacamoire & Bill Sherman, In the Heights

Stew & Heidi Rodewald, Passing Strange

Jonathan Tunick, A Catered Affair

Best Scenic Design of a Play:

Peter McKintosh, The 39 Steps

Scott Pask, Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Todd Rosenthal, August: Osage County

Anthony Ward, Macbeth

Best Scenic Design of a Musical:

David Farley and Timothy Bird & The Knifedge Creative Network, Sunday in the Park With George
Anna Louizos, In the Heights
Robin Wagner, Young Frankenstein

Michael Yeargan, South Pacific

Best Costume Design of a Play:

Gregory Gale, Cyrano de Bergerac

Rob Howell, Boeing-Boeing

Katrina Lindsay, Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Peter McKintosh, The 39 Steps

Best Costume Design of a Musical:

David Farley, Sunday in the Park with George

Martin Pakledinaz, Gypsy

Paul Tazewell, In the Heights

Catherine Zuber, South Pacific

Best Lighting Design of a Play:

Kevin Adams, The 39 Steps

Howard Harrison, Macbeth

Donald Holder, Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Ann G. Wrightson, August: Osage County

Best Lighting Design of a Musical:

Ken Billington, Sunday in the Park with George

Howell Binkley, In the Heights

Donald Holder, South Pacific

Natasha Katz, The Little Mermaid

Best Sound Design of a Play:

Simon Baker, Boeing-Boeing

Adam Cork, Macbeth

Ian Dickson, Rock 'n' Roll
Mic Pool, The 39 Steps

Best Sound Design of a Musical:

Acme Sound Partners, In the Heights

Sebastian Frost, Sunday in the Park with George

Scott Lehrer, South Pacific

Dan Moses Schreier, Gypsy

Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre:

Stephen Sondheim

Regional Theatre Tony Award:

Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Special Tony Award:

Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981), in recognition of his historic contribution to American musical theatre in the field of orchestrations, as represented on Broadway this season by South Pacific

One Brief Shining Moment

When Jack quoted something, it was usually classical... But I'm so ashamed of myself -- all I keep thinking of is this line from a musical comedy. At night, before we'd go to sleep, Jack liked to play some records; and the song he loved most came at the very end of this record. The lines he loved to hear were: "Don't let it be forgot, That once there was a spot, For one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot."
--Jackie Kennedy, Life Magazine, December 6, 1963.

When Theodore White's "Epilogue" containing these words from the First Lady, widowed one week before, appeared on newstands, the national tour of Camelot, the Lerner and Loewe musical, was appearing at the Chicago Opera House. Later, Lerner recalled the performance after the article was published, "When [Louis Hayward, as King Arthur] came to those lines, there was a sudden wail from the audience. It was not a muffled sob; it was a loud, almost primitive cry of pain. The play stopped, and for almost five minutes, everyone in the the theatre - on the stage, in the wings, in the pit and in the audience -- wept without restraint. Then the play continued. Camelot had suddenly become the symbol of those thousand days when people the world over saw a bright new light of hope shining from the White House.... God knows, I would have preferred that history had not become my collaborator." (Lerner, 252).

In 1980, in his review of a revival of the musical, Frank Rich wrote, "When confronting the show today, it is all but impossible to forget that it was a favorite of John F. Kennedy's. [These] associations can give it an unearned, if still affecting, poignancy..." (Qtd in Suskin: v2, 132). In later years, many would question the "Camelot myth" that surrounded the JFK presidency following the assassination, and some wondered if the story had not been a figment of the grieving First Lady's imagination. Nevertheless, at a time when the country was in a state of national mourning, a great symbol may have been just what was needed, and Camelot fit the bill.

Today, thirty years after Frank Rich's review quoted above, we are perhaps so far removed from the Kennedy assassination, that Camelot will never affect us the way it did that audience in 1963. Nevertheless, we are a nation in peril, and both of the current presidential candidates for the Democratic Party have connections with the Kennedys. A photograph of Bill Clinton meeting JFK was frequently published in the 90s, and connections were often drawn between the Clintons and the Kennedys. Recently, Barack Obama has been been likened to JFK and in fact, the term "Camelot" has been used much in the media concerning Obama. Caroline and Ted Kennedy made a direct connection between Obama and JFK when they endorsed his campaign; headlines read, "Obama Knighted by Camelot." Perhaps our nation's mutual hope for relief and return to good times will affect audiences seeing the musical Camelot today. The show continues to be popular with audiences, and only in the past few weeks completed a sixteen-month national tour, and this coming weekend, a concert production with the New York Philharmonic starring Marin Mazzie, Gabriel Byrne, and Nathan Gunn will be appearing at Avery Fisher Hall. The May 8th performance will be broadcast live on many PBS stations as part of the "Live From Lincoln Center" series. (Check your local listings).



But has Camelot ever worked? If it didn't, you'd never know it from the terrific Original Broadway Cast Recording. The original production played on Broadway for over two years and launched a highly successful national tour. The original London production played for fifteen months, and the show received a lavish film treatment. It has achieved classic status and has been constantly revived in stock and regional companies including a notable revival at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse in 2003 starring Brent Barrett. It has toured the country several times with three more stops on Broadway. In addition to Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, and newcomer Robert Goulet, the original Broadway leads, Kathryn Grayson, who had been a successor to Andrews on Broadway, starred in the first national tour for over a year, and the show later toured as a vehicle for such stars as Rock Hudson and most recently Michael York and Lou Diamond Phillips.

Nevertheless, despite the show's popularity, it has never been a critical favorite. The opening night reviews in 1960 were mixed. John Chapman wrote a rave for the Daily News, but Walter Kerr, in the Herald Tribune, who thought the show started out promisingly, wrote, "With no truly affecting legend of love to go on, the balance of the evening is filled with wayward gestures," and in the Times, Howard Taubman, who also thought at first, "The inspired creators of My Fair Lady appear to have passed another miracle" was ultimately let down, finding, "Unfortunately, Camelot is weighed down by the burden of its book... Were it not for the personal communication of Miss Andrews and Mr. Burton, Guenevere and Arthur would not be very engaging. " The final tally of reviews was one rave, one favorable, two unfavorable, and three pans. (All qtd in Suskin: v1, 122-125).

When Richard Burton returned to the role of Arthur for the tour which stopped on Broadway in the summer of 1980 (with a young Christine Ebersole as his Guenevere), Clive Barnes led the critics in citing problems with the show. "The real problem about Camelot is that it is not, never was, nor never will be, a particularly good musical." Barnes also felt that Burton seemed "little more than a burnt-out dummy." (In the Times, Frank Rich raved over Burton, though he shared other reservations about the show with the other critics). It was reviewed with even less enthusiasm when the same production returned to Broadway the following year starring Richard Harris (who had replaced an ailing Burton on the road). (Suskin, v2.) Camelot's final visit to Broadway was in 1993 as a stop on yet another tour, this time with Robert Goulet having moved up from his original role of Lancelot to star as Arthur; the production was dubbed "Cam-e-Lounge" by industry insiders and The New York Times, noting the show had "an enchanting score and a ponderous book" found the production "heavy as a rock pile. " (The production played for over two years on the road, nevertheless).

The 1967 film adaptation had the disadvantage of opening at a time when lavish screen musicals were regularly bombing at the box office. Pauline Kael, dubbed it "one of Hollywood's colossal financial disasters," while noting that it had "good bits tucked in among the elaborate mistakes." In The New York Times, Bosley Crowther discussed the many problems inherent in the material saying, "[W]hat it basically needed in its transfer to the screen was a drenching in cinema magic to remove all the dull and pretentious patches of realism and romantic cliché that kept it from sparkling in the theater. And that's what we all hoped it would have. Well, it hasn't, alas."


Camelot was to be Lerner and Loewe's first new musical on Broadway since My Fair Lady, which had become one of the biggest hits Broadway had ever seen. They had continued their winning streak in Hollywood, with Gigi, an original film musical which had won nine Oscars and was a box office smash. When it was announced that My Fair Lady's Julie Andrews, Robert Coote, director Moss Hart and other members of the MFL team would all reunite with Lerner and Loewe for their new musical which would also star Richard Burton, interest was so intense that it quickly built the largest advance ticket sale in Broadway history. Expectations were extremely high. But Camelot's trouble began early.

In his memoir, The Street Where I Live, Lerner reports that his partner, Frederick Loewe, was not enthusiastic about the project from the start, and had to be convinced to work on it; Camelot would ultimately become the least happy of their collaborations. Problems arose as soon as the company went to Toronto where the new musical was to begin tryouts. The O'Keefe Center was new and there were many technical kinks to be worked out while attempting to mount the new production. Lerner had found cutting down TH White's multi-novel saga, The Once and Future King, to a two hour and forty-minute musical a daunting challenge. When the show began tryouts in Toronto, it was approximately four hours long, and a great deal of pruning, re-writing, and re-thinking was needed. Work on the project was stalled when Lerner, suffering from an ulcer, was hospitalized. Just as he was being released, Moss Hart suffered a heart attack. Hart's condition was very serious and he would ultimately remain in the Toronto hospital long after Camelot had moved on in its tryout period and ultimately to Broadway. With their director felled, Lerner took over the direction himself, though Loewe was insistent that a new director be brought in. Lerner remained hopeful that Hart would recover in time to save the show, and only half-heartedly attempted to find a new director. In the meantime, he continued with re-writes while directing rehearsals himself. The process continued throughout the tryout period. Hart did not recover in time and no new director was brought in, so when the show finally opened in New York, though it had been trimmed, it was still running too long, and many of the perceived problems with the show, particularly in the second act, had not been solved.

Thanks to its huge advance, Camelot played its first three months without running out of audiences, even though ticket sales were scarce after the lackluster reviews. The show got a new lease on life, however, when Moss Hart, having finally recovered, asked his collaborators to try again to fix the show, even though it was already running. The cast rehearsed the new changes during the day while performing the show at night, as though they were back in tryouts. Two songs were cut, revisions were made, and the running time was brought down. Just as the changes were ready to be put into the show, the show got a major boost when Ed Sullivan, whose Sunday night variety show was the most popular on television, devoted an entire broadcast to a celebration of the works of Lerner & Loewe in honor of the fifth anniversary of My Fair Lady on Broadway. Burton, Andrews, and Goulet, all appeared and in addition to performing songs and sequences from Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, and My Fair Lady, the final portion of the telecast was devoted to Camelot. A total of four songs from the show were heard, including the title song and "What Do the Simple Folk Do?" The next day, Camelot's ticket sales finally took off, and the show became a hit.

In the following years, the show was seen across the country and in several international productions. There would be more tinkering with each new production, however. "Take Me to the Fair," one of the songs dropped from the show in Hart's post-opening revision, had been included on the original cast recording and was reinstated for the London production. When the film was made, the song was again included and Lerner, who penned his own screenplay, attempted once again to fix the problem with the disjointed tone of the two acts. He incorporated a flashback device so that the story started with Arthur on the battlefield where he is found at the end of the show, with the hope that this would help the audience know what they were in for. This idea had been considered and rejected for Broadway because the opening of the show was working well and Lerner had been hesitant to change it. However, one of the recurring criticisms the show had received was that there was a breach of tone between the two halves.

After Arthur and Guenevere's charming first encounter which included three excellent, light songs in a row, the show quickly became political and heavier. Julie Andrews said in a 1989 interview, "I think audiences got very angry because the first half of the show promised so much whimsy and charm and [in] the second half they were rather surprised when it took such a turn." (Broadway: A History of the Musical, Part 4) . The flashback device, though it failed to help make the film of Camelot a critical or box office success, was incorporated into the show for the Burton/Harris revival in 1980 and has become a regular feature in revivals. The use of the flashback may also have been deemed useful since revivals regularly cast older actors as Arthur. Burton was only 35 when he originated the role, but subsequent Arthurs have tended to be over 50. When Michael York took on the part in 2007, he was 65. Gabriel Byrne turns 58 this month.

Given the common perception that Camelot is and always will be a flawed show with a classic score, perhaps a concert reading is its best possible form. When Gabriel Byrne, Marin Mazzie, and Nathan Gunn join forces with the New York Philharmonic this weekend, we can hope that Camelot will overcome its flaws and work its magic once again and perhaps we can also hope that we ourselves may some day soon experience a future such as the one Alan Jay Lerner saw in Arthur's dream for a round table democracy. Perhaps we are nearing our own "One brief shining moment."