Elisberg Industries
Decent Quality Since 1847
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like

Singin' in the Theater

1/31/2017

0 Comments

 
Over on his website, Mark Evanier has been posting a few videos from a recent Australian stage production of the classic movie musical, Singin' in the Rain.

The stage version of Singin’ in the Rain actually originated in London in 1984 – and as whimsy would have it, I saw this original production then on a trip visiting a couple of friends.  That starred Tommy Steele, who also directed.  I believe it played at the London Palladium and was extremely enjoyable.  And as you can imagine, the question I suspect everyone in the theater had was "How in the world would that they that number?"  The answer is that as the scene starts, they wheel out a sort of platform that has raised edges, so when it rains it acts as a sort of large "tub" and catches the water.  And then when done it is wheeled away.

(On side note, what was also fun for me personally is that in the role of 'Cosmo' -- played by Donald O'Connor in the original film -- the actor was Roy Castle, who had played the valet 'Sam Weller' opposite my fave Harry Secombe in the Broadway production of the oft-mentioned here musical, Pickwick.)


I’ve posted a couple of songs here from the cast album in the past, but unfortunately there are no good videos of the production.  (There’s one, recreated for a variety TV show, but it’s oddly a Gershwin song, “Fascinating Rhythm,” that they interpolated into the score for some reason, so I've never cared to post it.)
 
At one point, YouTube did, in fact, have a video of Tommy Steele doing the title number, done at the time of the original show – it was for a TV show where people would write in about things they want to do, and this was a little 7-year-old girl who wanted to do the number with Steele.  It was absolutely charming -- but alas, about 3-4 years ago the long-time host of the show got charged with some despicable past-crimes, and it was a huge scandal in England.  Snce I can no longer find that video, it appears likely the show clearly pulled all video from YouTube.
 
You can find the two Australian videos on Mark's site with the title song here and "Good Morning" here.  I'll be honest, though they're fun to see and I'm glad they exist, I'm bit bit underwhelmed by them, especially the big title number.  It's supposed to be a Big Hollywood Movie Star exuberantly exploding with every possible ounce of joy in expressing his new-found love, and to me there's absolutely no charisma and comes across like a matter-of-fact rehearsal just trying to get the steps right.  The "Good Morning" video is much more enjoyable, although a little by-the-numbers for my taste and (mostly) I think poorly cast, which distracts too much for me.  (The two men who have completely different personalities seem interchangeable, and the woman, who is supposed to be a young ingenue struggling to break in, that's the whole point, comes across as a contemporary of them). 

However here's another video of the title number though, from a fairly recent British revival.  It's not great either, but fun significantly better stage, and exceedingly more lively.

What seems reinforced to me by all these videos, I think it's a role that is greatly aided by someone with major star power, like Gene Kelly, who has the charisma (and talent) to help make the number burst out.  And in the world of London theater and British pop culture, Tommy Steele was at least in that ballpark.

This below is only audio, but here he is from the original London production.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2021
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs