| re: Hal Prince on WDTW | |
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Posted by: |
steven_stuart 01:46 am UTC 10/27/10 |
| In reply to: | re: Hal Prince on WDTW - rockfenris2005 06:21 am UTC 10/26/10 |
| > When was Jim fired? Was that after the Washington D.C. > production when it didn't move on to Broadway? Or was it > after the West End production when Andrew Lloyd Webber > wanted to make it more family-oriented for the UK tour? It was when they were first putting the show together in the UK when Jim was living in a very expensive suite at The Dorchester. Although he only found out much later that he had been fired and then rehired without him being told. Ha ha. He went off to Europe without leaving any contact details and by the time he came back, ALW had changed his mind. Its similar to the time when ALW lost his temper and fired Hal Prince while they were putting Phantom together (although Hal knew that). Cameron Mackintosh had to go and beg Hal Prince to come back two weeks later. > Because I know when Bill did the UK tour, he removed > possibly the finest lyric from the entire show, > "Annie/Charlie Christmas" which is the reason why I will > never see that version no matter where it travels, no > matter what anybody says. Bill is famous for making a fortune out of low budget shows. His production of Joseph in the early eighties was super cheep. There was one large triangle as the only piece of set and practically no lighting. I saw it in a theatre in Cambridge. But it was packed, so yes he made more money by being cheap. Thats why he has been able to afford Everton Football Club. But I really don't understand why the great ALW would give shows to Bill. Joseph, WDTW and now Wizard of Oz. Are there any others? I hear that Love Never Dies will not open on Broadway (is that true - have you heard anything about it?). So probably Bill will tour that round the States too. > I can see why Jim would have been fired at that point > because he wouldn't have gone along with those silly > changes. Poor Jim, because that's the only version of > "Whistle" you will ever see nowadays. And it still hasn't > been released to amateur/stock groups who might have been > able to remove some of those awful changes. You'd think it would be. > It's a shame that they only wrote the one musical together > (Andrew wrote two musicals with Ben Elton who is nowhere > near as good as Jim, in fact "We will rock you" must be > one of the worst musicals of all time to have ever > succeeded, IMHO), but they did try to develop an > interesting project called "Metal Philharmonic", though I > have never been able to find much information on this. > Others would know more about it, I'm sure. Elva and some of her friends hate We Will Rock You with a passion, mostly because of the Ben Elton book. Chris Renshaw (who as you know directed We Will Rock You) was going to direct "BOOH The Musical" but Jim fell out with him. Although apparently there are groups of fans who keep going back over and over again. A bit like the huge cult followings for "Tanz" and "Wicked" (except that "Tanz" and "Wicked" are much better shows). Why do you think they keep coming back for more? Is it merely the power of Freddie's music? I would love to hear more about "Metal Philharmonic". You can find their version of "A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing To Waste" from WDTW at the link below. Someone comments that its better than the Meat Loaf version. | |
| URL: | A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing To Waste |
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