RISE & SHINE BROADWAY FANS. The biggest night of year for Theatre nerds is only 18 days away. We are waking you up once again with our Top 30 Tony Awards countdown playing you the best performances from the past telecasts.
Continuing our countdown at #18 is one of the most iconic, haunting, and dark musicals of all time. It all begins with the sound of a screechy factory whistle… We of course are talking about Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler famous tale of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
From the 1979 telecast, the legendary Tony winners Dame Angela Lansbury laments about working in her pie shopping baking and selling THE WORST PIES IN LONDON.
SWEENEY TODD premiered in 1979 at Broadway’s Uris Theatre (currently the Gershwin Theatre) with Lansbury and Tony winner Len Cariou for 557 performances. It was nominated for 9 Tonys that same year and winning 8 (including Best Musical). The musical would later be revived twice. The first revival began in 1989 at Circle in the Square Theatre starring Bob Gunton and Beth Fowler for 238 performances. In addition, it was nominated for 4 Tonys that same year (including Best Revival Of A Musical) but lost all of it’s categories.The most recent revival happened in 2005 at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre for 384 performances starring 2 time Tony winners Patti LuPone?and Michael Ceveris. This production was known for it’s intimate staging where the pit was removed and instead had the actors also serve as the orchestra playing the score live. That production was nominated for 6 Tonys in 2006 winning 2 including Best Director (for John Doyle, who is nominated again this year for The Color Purple Musical).
Doesn’t this musical give you thrills and horror?!!
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?
