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| re: Hal Prince on WDTW | |
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rockfenris2005 06:17 am UTC 10/27/10 |
| In reply to: | re: Hal Prince on WDTW - steven_stuart 01:46 am UTC 10/27/10 |
> > 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. Ah, yet another example of how capricious Lloyd Webber can be. Apparently there was one moment in the rehearsals of "Love Never Dies" where he became so angry, so insecure, so uncertain that he threatened to shut it all down and pay everybody off. And of course there was the legendary outburst in the "Phantom of the Opera" rehearsals but because the score was so heavy to lift he had no choice but to give up in frustration and calm himself down (It's funny that "Phantom" was opening in the same theatre as "Jeeves". He must have been so nervous and superstitious, and he seems so nervous as it is.) He seems to have huge temper tantrums in most of his shows before they open, sometimes at the most crucial points, but the show somehow always manages to go on. This doesn't surprise me. And if I couldn't find Jim, my lyricist on my musical, I would have been pretty annoyed too, though probably not THAT annoyed. 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. Didn't he fire Hal Prince because he wanted Trevor Nunn to direct and he couldn't make up his mind? I wonder what "Phantom" would have been like if Trevor directed. Andrew and Trevor had originally been working on "Aspects of Love" but Andrew wasn't happy with the music so he recycled bits of the score he had written into "Phantom", and suddenly "Married Man" with Trevor's lyrics became "Music of the Night". So not only did he reuse the music on Trevor but Hal wound up becoming the director also. I wonder how he must have felt. But that's show-business, isn't it. > > > 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. They need to do something about "Whistle". It can't just be Bill's production. They have to try to fix it and perhaps revive it at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London. It deserves another chance. Really, the music is quite stunning, and the lyrics of course. > > > 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? It must be. People aren't stupid. They must put up with it because they want to hear the Queen music in a theatrical setting. > > 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. Yes, that's the recording with Kyle "Scarpia" Gordon on vocals. He also did the vocal on the "Seize the night" demo. It's brilliant, though I still like Meat's vocal for some reason. BUT the ultimate version of this song is the stage version. It has so many more haunting lines that didn't make the Celebrity CD. | |
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