RISE AND SHINE BROADWAY FANS! You are waking up each day to New York Broadway Tours‘ Top 30 Tony Awards countdown showcasing some of our favorite show stopping numbers from Broadway shows in the past telecasts. As you may know, we are only 26 days away from Broadway’s biggest night.
At #26 today on our countdown, we take you down to a French nightclub filled with sexy showgirls that are actually men. And one of those showgirls is secretly in love with the manager of the club. We are of course talking about Jerry Herman’s musical classic LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, which in addition was also co-written by Broadway favorite Harvey Fierstein. It’s well known as the first few Broadway Musicals to have Drag Queens on stage.
From the 1984 telecast, Tony winner George Hearn and the company perform the show’s opening WE ARE WHAT WE ARE which later gets turned into the powerful Act 1 finale anthem I AM WHAT I AM.
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES premiered at Broadway’s Palace Theatre in 1983 running for a total of 1,776 performances. It was nominated for 8 Tony Awards in 1984 winning 6 of them including Best Musical. It was later revived twice. The first revival played Broadway’s Marquis Theatre (starring Tony nominee Gary Beach) in 2004 for a total of 260 performances. It was nominated for 4 Tony Awards in 2005 winning 2 including Best Revival of a Musical. The most recent revival of La Cage Broadway played the Longacre Theatre in 2010 (starring Kelsey Grammar) running for a total of 458 performances. It was nominated for 11 Tony Awards that very same year winning 3 including (again) for Best Revival of A Musical.
GOOD MORNING BROADWAY FANS! Who is getting their hypes up since Broadway’s Biggest Night of the year is 27 days away? Each day we at?New York Broadway Tours are waking up you up with some of the most breathtaking performances from the past Tony Awards telecasts in our Top 30 Countdown.
Today at #27, we take a stroll to a famous street in Hollywood where a famous silent movie diva is on the verge of a comeback but drama occurs. This is of course the iconic Sunset Boulevard, a musical version of the 1950 film written by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black, and Christopher Hampton.
From the 1995 telecast, the legendary Glenn Close as the iconic Norma Desmond arrives at a Hollywood soundstage for the first time in many years singing the show’s powerful anthem AS IF WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE.
SUNSET BOULEVARD first premiered in London’s West End at the Adelphi Theatre in July 1993 with Patti LuPone as Norma Desmond opening to mixed reviews especially around LuPone’s performance (UK audiences loved her but American audiences were not happy saying LuPone was a complete “miscast”). Around the same time the show was going through a revamp, the show had it’s American premiere in Los Angeles at the Shubert Theatre in December 1993 with Glenn Close as Norma Desmond earning rave reviews before bringing her LA Performance to Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre in November 1994 playing a total of 977 performances. It was nominated for 11 Tony Awards in 1995 and won 8 including Best Musical & Best Performance By A Leading Actress In A Musical (for Close). The Broadway production’s later Norma Desmond’s included Petula Clark, Betty Buckley and Dame Elaine Paige. The show is still being performed internationally and in many different languages. Most recently, Close reprised her role of Norma Desmond for a semi-staged production of the musical at the English National Opera in London. It’s currently rumored to hit NYC next.
FUN FACT: The show was well known some controversy with casting. Originally Patti LuPone was set to open the New York company. However, the American critics were not pleased about LuPone’s portrayl opening the show in London and her behavior. In addition, Glenn Close’s powerful portrayl in LA changed the critics minds. Andrew Lloyd Webber decided it was “commercially safer” to fire LuPone from the show and not tell her. LuPone eventually found out from an article by Liz Smith saying it’s “GLENN AS NORMA”. Heartbroken, LuPone (as mentioned in her autobiography) broke down taking a bat and tore her entire dressing room down (pretty much like when those 80’s rock stars damage hotel rooms). In addition, LuPone sued Lloyd Webber and received a settlement reported to be over $1 million.
Besides LuPone, there was controversy for Faye Dunaway, who was supposed to replace Close as Norma Desmond (when she left for Broadway) in the LA company but also got fired because Lloyd Webber said her singing choice was not strong enough for the role. Instead of continuing and not getting a new Norma, the LA production closed. Dunaway filed a lawsuit saying her reputation has been destroyed. The lawsuit got settled and the producers paid her a settlement.
Isn’t this show so emotional?! How horrible is the backstage drama?!
RISE AND SHINE BROADWAY FANS. It’s 28 days to Broadway’s biggest night of the year and you are waking up to New York Broadway Tours‘ Top 30 Tony Awards Countdown playing your the best of performances from over the past 70 years.
Today at #28 on our countdown is not your typical Broadway musical. This is a playlist of 3 one act stories all dealing with the theme of people not wanting what they really really wanted once they got what they wanted. That is the theme of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick‘s musical masterpiece THE APPLE TREE. It was additionally also co-written by Jerome Coopersmith. In the musical, the 3 one act stories are Mark Twain‘s retelling of THE DIARY OF ADAM & EVE (Act 1), Frank R. Stockton‘s THE LADY OR THE TIGER (Act 2), and Jules Feiffer‘s PASSIONELLA (Act 3).
From the 1967 telecast, the legendary Barbara Harris and Alan Alda?perform the opening bit from the PASSIONELLA segment featuring OH, TO BE A MOVIE STAR and GORGEOUS.
THE APPLE TREE premiered in 1966 at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre running for a total of 463 performances. It was nominated for 7 Tony Awards in 1967 (including Best Musical) winning only 1 for Best Performance By A Leading Actress In A Musical (which went to Barbara Harris). The musical was later revived in 2005 originally as a concert staging production for New York City Center ENCORES starring Tony winners Kristin Chenoweth and Michael Ceveris along with Tony nominee?Malcolm Gets. The ENCORES staging earned acclaim and was turned into a full scale production for Roundabout Theatre Company at Studio 54 in 2006 starring Chenoweth, Tony nominee Brian d’Arcy James, and Marc Kudisch (who was Chenoweth’s ex-fiance). The revival ran for a limited engagement of 117 performances and was nominated for only 1 Tony Award in 2007 for Best Revival Of A Musical but lost the category.
Isn’t this musical such a timeless piece of Theatre?
GOOD MORNING BROADWAY FANS! You are waking up to New York Broadway Tours Top 30 Tony Awards Countdown playing you the best of Broadway performances from the past telecasts and getting ourselves hyped for Broadway’s biggest night just 29 Days Away!!
At #29 today is a Musical about that incredible feeling about making it in this industry and when something you created gets a lot of attention… there was YouTube with people going viral. It tells the story of a wise cracking composer who meets a laid back & off beat lyricist at a disco, who end up collaborating, making their dreams come true, and end up falling in love. The show was THEY’RE PLAYING OUR SONG, loosely based on a real life true situation between the show’s real life composer the late Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager. It was also written by playwright Neil Simon. Originally, the musical is considered as a two person show with pre-recorded voices as the Greek Chorus. However, some productions have included a real live Ensemble as the Greek Chorus in it.
From the 1979 telecast, the legendary Lucie Arnaz (daughter of the late iconic Lucille Ball) in her Broadway Debut and Comedic performer Robert Klein show off their ultimate “freak out” mode as they sing the show’s title song.
THEY’RE PLAYING OUR SONG premiered at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in 1978 before heading to Broadway’s Imperial Theatre in 1979 playing for 1,093 performances. It was nominated for 4 Tony Awards (including Best Musical) loosing all of it’s categories.
Several well known replacements in the original Broadway production included Tony Roberts, Rhonda Fareer, Victor Garber (who later opened the National Touring production), Stockard Channing, and Anita Gillette.
THEY’RE PLAYING OUR SONG was last performed in NYC back in 2010 as a one night only benefit performance for The Actors Fund. It starred Seth Rudetsky and Tony winner Sutton Foster.
Doesn’t this show make you wanna disco and boogie your way to Broadway?!!
GOOD MORNING BROADWAY FANS! Today marks 30 days till Broadway’s Biggest night of the year…The 70th Annual Tony Awards. In honor of that, New York Broadway Tours once again is hosting our 2nd annual Top 30 countdown of some of our favorite performances from the past telecast. In addition, we want you guys to be involved to help choose some of your favorite performances and we can add it to the lineup.
Kicking off our Tony Countdown at #30 is a Musical about a composer / lyricist the Theatre World actually did not know much about…. Edward Kleban (who shared a Tony and Pulitzer Prize for Drama with the late?Marvin Hamlisch for creating the lyrics for a little known musical called A Chorus Line). He passed away in 1987 from throat cancer and his story was told in an autobiographical memorial tribute called A CLASS ACT. It was written by Linda Klein (Kleban’s longtime companion) and Lonny Price (who also directed and started as Kleban).
From the 2001 telecast, Tony nominees Lonny Price and Randy Graff, future Tony winner Sara Ramierez, and cast members perform a medley of Edward’s powerful songs including FOLLOW YOUR STAR, BETTER, and SELF PORTRAIT.
A CLASS ACT first premiered Off Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2000 before transferring over to Broadway’s Ambassador Theatre in 2001 where it played a total of 135 performances. It was nominated for 5 Tony Awards (including Best Musical) loosing all of it’s categories.
A beautiful tribute to a talented and inspirational man that believed in his dreams. RIP Edward Kleban.
