#Broadway tryout

[flagbridge]

Shows I saw in 2023, Part 10: Swept Away

First time at DC’s Arena Stage to catch the new Avett Brothers musical that’s trying to get to Broadway. I went in with zero knowledge of the show until I was getting in my seat and my friend, who had read a WaPo article about it mentioned something slightly, well, unappetizing that takes place. Let’s just say that shipwrecked sailors have to resort to desperate measures to survive.

I enjoyed it. The story is transporting and takes the audience on an emotional journey. The audience was definitely into it and there are some numbers in the first half (note: there’s no intermission, but there’s a clear break in the show) where I could see a whole theater clapping and stomping their feet.

I don’t normally like jukebox musicals because I think many are made just to be cash cows and not good art. This is technically a jukebox musical but it’s definitely not about “hey listen to Avett Brothers music!” In fact if you came to be transported on the same emotional wavelength that Avett music normally does, you’ll probably be disappointed. But if you come with an open mind of just wanting to see good art, you will not be disappointed.

It is quite dark, but the music is good, the set design is stunning, and the cast is excellent. I hope this makes it (esp considering that there are several Not Good shows on Broadway right now that just need to go, as well as empty theaters). If you can get to DC, I rec. going before its limited run ends.

[cerealbishh]

"I don't know what I thought being an actor was gonna be but I didn't expect, I think, the gift of building a whole tool belt for my life."

[tamaharu]

did you know that theres a boot of the legally blonde pre-broadway tryouts????

[ars-amatoria]

We watched IWTV s2e7 last night. The trial was beautifully done. But also it was a fun full circle moment back to the Worst Armand and the musical number that made us say “we should check out the new IWTV, I hear it has an interesting Armand “ last fall

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Opera singers William Warfield and Leontyne Price, who were then starring in a production of Porgy and Bess, were married at the Abyssinian Baptist Church on August 3, 1952. Performing the ceremony is the Rev. David Nathaniel Licorish, with the attendants, William Holmes, Jr, left, and Urylee Leonardos, right, watching. The entire company came up from Washington, D.C., where the production was in its pre-Broadway tryouts, to attend the ceremony.

Photo: Associated Press

[citizenscreen]

Gene Saks and his wife Bea Arthur in a publicity shot for the pre-Broadway tryout of “A Mother's Kisses” in 1968. They were married from 1950 to 1978.

[roth70]

Stephen Sondheim's Company in its Pre-Broadway tryout period in Boston, 1970:

Still lots more rare OBC Company stuff to come!!!

[bestmusicalworldcup]

The cast for the West End run of Hadestown has been announced! The cast starrs Dónal Finn as Orpheus, Grace Hodgett Young as Eurydice, Zachary James as Hades, Melanie La Barrie as Hermes, and Gloria Onitiri as Persephone.

Hadestown begins previews on 10 February at the Lyric Theatre, before opening on 21 February.

[noxexistant]

i need all of you to understand that this bonnie and clyde west end proshot that’s being released is not…currently being filmed, or new - it was filmed in january 2022.

it was filmed at the two-day concert in january 2022 that served as the show’s west end tryout. the west end cast - including jordan luke gage - did not exist yet. the show was not on the west end yet.

the concert was supposed to be both jeremy jordan and laura osnes reprising their roles from the conception of the show and its broadway run, but laura was replaced by francis after her anti-vax controversy, and the rest were all a new cast to…accommodate it being on the west end.

it’s not a matter of picking and choosing to Only have jeremy from the original cast, and jeremy wasn’t some sort of stunt cast for the proshot, it’s his role and was nobody else’s at the time - he was cast for the concert. jlg wasn’t snubbed, he was not clyde at the time, and wouldn’t be until april when the first look at the west end transfer was released. he could not have been in this proshot. he and barney were not options.

[m4lted-cr3am]

Top left: Sam Francisco tryouts, top right: Broadway, bottom left: West End, Bottom right: current Broadway design

[oldbaton]

The set of Wicked in the Curran Theatre in San Fransisco for the pre-Broadway tryout, Spring 2003.

[emailsfromanactor]

Psst, wanna read the book this flap copy is about (and another one that adds some context)?

In the cast of the 1964 Sir John Gielgud-Richard Burton Hamlet was William Redfield, playing Guildenstern. During the three months of the play’s preparation, from the rehearsals through the out-of-town tryouts to the gala opening night on Broadway, William Redfield wrote a series of letters describing the daily happenings and his impressions of them. Here, ‘beaten with a stick, and told to behave’, as Mr. Redfield claims, they have been made into Letters from an Actor, a brilliantly unusual book and surely one of the most stimulating and delightful ever to come from the theatre. It is itself a series of plays within a play. Certainly here is an account of Gielgud’s production—inspired and erratic, flamboyant and puzzling—and of Burton’s determined approach to this most challenging of roles; certainly it tells of the processes by which a cast that included Eileen Herlie and Alfred Drake forged one of the most talked-of performances of Hamlet. But in the wings are a hundred and one other figures who throng this stage as surely as the players. Elizabeth Taylor is there in person, a lovely and admired bystander. Olivier is there, unseen but ever-present in argument and anecdote, a magician commanding the Shakespearian stage. So also are Ralph Richardson, Guthrie, Edith Evans, O’Toole and Brando; the Lunts, Guinness, Scofield, Barrymore, Diana Wynyard, even Burbage and Garrick; and above all the towering presence of Shakespeare himself. Our guide throughout is William Redfield: perceptive, acerbic, witty, a teller of tales cautionary and hilarious—an actor. When Paul Scofield read these Letters he wrote to him: ‘I’ve always admired the way you can turn the confusion of an acting “problem” into a lucid and witty conversation piece .... Your book is so full of affection for your subjects, and it’s very moving to rediscover one’s love for such as Burton and Gielgud through the medium of your marvellously vivid letters. I’ve never seen the tortuous and elusive process of the production of a play from first to last so truthfully realized .... The book is endlessly fascinating. Your observation has a spot-on accuracy. I feel I was there .... You can write! Actors rarely can, but you can.’ To which we can only add that it is also great good fun.

Then sign up for Emails from an Actor! More information here. :D

[theragamuffininitiative]

3, 6, 16, 23 👀

3. favourite musical to listen to:

I'm suddenly regretting reblogging this ask, this is like choosing between children. However! I have the unfortunate theatre nerd honor of loving lots of versions of musicals that are not the OBC so choosing purely from albums....

I think I would have to say The Scarlet Pimpernel. It's one of my favorites in general but that soundtrack goes so stinking hard. Esepcially everything Douglas Sills does as Percy. When Percy thinks he can't trust his wife and resolves to continue anyway during "Prayer"??? 😭 and Marguerite's mirrored despair at losing the man she thought she knew in "When I Look At You" (AND THEIR DUET) The hilarity of "The Creation of Man" and and "The Scarlet Pimpernel and "They Seek Him Here"???? ("I said brief, not infinitesimal" and his book-perfect inane laugh my beloved) The sweeping epic opening of "Madame Guillotine?" !!!!! The amazing sibling love in "You Are My Home" and the exhilarating swashbuckling of "Into the Fire" and the PEAK villain ballad, "Falcon in the Dive" ksudfnlsdkjfsnldfkjsd. Frank Wildhorn musicals my forever beloved, and Nan Knighton's one and only absolutely perfect book and lyrics. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

6. favourite musical you've seen live

I have been blessed to see several touring productions of beloved shows as well as some really wonderful local productions. I'm going to cheat and say two bc the one doesn't exist anymore lol. I got to see the out-of-town tryout production of The Last Days of Summer starring Corey Cott and can I tell you that experience will stay with me for all my life. I think I wrote a massive post about it on here somewhere way back then. But the true answer should be Wicked. Wicked is the first professional (tour) production I ever saw, and a bonding point with many friends, and I got to see it on Broadway last year as my first bway show. 😊 This show is not overrated, it is literally perfection of stage craft from the top down and deserves every accolade and I hope the movie is good but it will never replace the show in my heart.

16. favourite musical that's underrated

(I love so many unknown/underrated musicals hhhhh)

Nobody now talks about The Secret Garden but it was certainly not underrated when it was on bway, people have just forgotten about it. 😭 Same with The Scarlet Pimpernel. So I have to say Bandstand, right? Absolutely, of course I do, and I'm gonna.

Corey Cott (him again) earned that (nonexistent) Tony nomination. I would be sad if he was nominated and lost, but I will eternally be Salty As Ever Living Heck that he wasn't even nominated. But the show in general is just so amazing, musically and storyline and visually and acting and lksjdnfsdkgjneiosfdk. This show is so so important to me, you don't even know. War widows and brotherhood and grief and survivor's guilt and finding love again and throwing off the glamor to expose the truth. Laura Osnes's #withtheband vlogs from backstage while they were in the show have taken up residence in a corner of my soul.

Wicked is only the first show I saw on bway because Bandstand closed after Dear Evan Hanson swept the awards, and I didn't have enough time to make the trip to see it.

BUT! I did get to see the tour! The fall before covid hit AND CLOSED IT TOO I got to see the national tour cast and I was very unconvinced that they would be able to do it justice when the OBC cast are some of my favorite humans in the whole wide world, but man oh man. When Zack Zaromatidis broke down as Donny telling Julia his awful dark secret, Zack bent at the waist like he had sucker-punched himself and from my seat a few rows from the stage I watched a single tear fall from his face and hit the stage floor and I'm telling you, I lost it. He did Donny and Corey right and proud. And my friend and I got to meet him and a bunch of the cast after!

I may or may not have access to the Bandstand proshot they made right before closing and I may or may not be willing to totally share so you can be obsessed too...

23. favourite lyric from a musical

I literally can't do this, you can't make me, I'm just gonna pull some of my absolute beloved lyrics from the aforementioned shows off the top of my head, ok go:

The Scarlet Pimpernel: Oh Lord, how could you let me love like this? / No one dies upon a kiss / and only fools believe in bliss... With time, I'll find a way to right this wrong / if it takes my whole life long / Lord, I'll fight my battles all alone / but make me / strong.

(Idk any of the lyrics from Last Days of Summer and it's a criiiimme)

Wicked: Let me say before we part / So much of me / is made of what I learned from you / and you'll be with me / like a handprint on my heart / Now whatever way our stories end / I know you have rewritten mine / by being my friend.

Bandstand: They'll say right this way / we've reserved this just for you / you've been waiting for this day / it's the least that we can do / you've arrived at last my friend / after fighting for far too long (it's a privilege sir may I say?) / "Right this way."

-deep breath- Ok, well, good to know my inner theatre nerd is still alive and well. XD

[drmopp1966]

ohoho i found new stuff

this time it’s the playbill for the 1963 She Loves Me tryouts!! (parts of it at least)

There is a plethora of information in here, but the soundtrack is especially interesting

many of the songs present in the composer’s demo were still in the show at this point, but there are a few oddballs.

major changes (all comparisons are with the original 1963 broadway production and the 1963 demo recordings)

firstly, because ‘vanilla ice cream’ was not yet part of the show (at this point having its place taken by ‘the gift of magic’), the song reprised at the end of the show was instead ‘no more candy’. in the final version of the reprise, Georg recites Amalia’s letter from ‘ice cream’, revealing to her that he is Dear Friend. I wonder how this would have played out with ‘no more candy’ as the song being reprised?

there is also ‘seasonal pleasures’ which is present where ‘letters’ would eventually be. this song is not present in the demos, but i assume would probably have served the same purpose as ‘letters’, showing the passage of time and setting up Georg and Amalia’s upcoming date. there always seems to be another version of ‘letters’! (this brings the total to four!)

minor changes

the second reprise of ‘good morning, good day’ seems to have been cut by this point, but not the first one. huh.

‘days gone by’ comes before ‘sounds while selling’ for some reason.

‘will he like me?’ is directly after ‘i don’t know his name’, instead of after ‘goodbye georg’.

and i think that’s everything!

[sondheims-hat]

February 20, 1971: The pre-Broadway tryout of Follies begins previews in Boston.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Eleanor Roosevelt sent this telegram to Ethel Merman before opening night in Philadelphia of the pre-Broadway tryout for Gypsy. Yes, this is genuine. The NY Public Library has the original.

(For those who don't know Gypsy, it's about the stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. Merm played her mother.)

Photo: NYPL via Open Culture