Company, Original Cast in Concert - Rehearsal - Sondheim - Donna McKechnie - Elaine Stritch
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- Originally produced on Broadway in 1970, this special event saw a return of the original cast members (bar one) from the Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical classic. Original direction by Harold Prince and choreography by Michael Bennett.
CAST.
Dean Jones, Barbara Barrie, Charles Kimbrough, Merle Louise, John Cunningham, Teri Ralston, George Coe, Beth Howland, Steve Elmore, Elaine Stritch & Stanley Grover.
TRIO: Susan Browning, Pamela Myers & Donna McKechnie.
VOCAL MINORITY: Cathy Corkill, Eileen Barnett, Dona D. Vaughn & Marilyn Saunders
It's insane that Donna McKechnie still danced so well! Absolutely amazing. Those famous arms!
Donna McKechnie was incredibly faithful to the original choreography of the 71 company, even got in a high kick. Pure art in motion! Bennett choreographed that tick tock number perfectly and Donna made it all work like every mans fantasy right down to her hands and fingertips.
This is like finding a jewel! Thank you so much for posting! Just realized that Dean Jones was 62 during this performance- still sounding and looking amazing!
Overjoyed. I am overcome!
CBS showed the video of the studio recording in October (?) 1970 and next day I sought out the tape to learn there was only an OBC Lp (!) which my wife and I were glad to secure and playback over and over.
Years later I learned that the video was out on laser disc and rushed to get it. Some four years ago I was glad to come across the same on youtube and gave up wanting for more. In the winter of 2006 we made sure to see the revival on Broadway.
BUT NOW, THIS! Truly priceless. Thank you.
What a lovely commentary! Made my day to hear your own relationship with this wonderful show.
So very kind. January of 2006 it would have been more accurate for me to say.
I saw the original documentary on PBS, and insisted to my parents that we go to see the show.
From Wikipedia:
"The making of the original cast recording was captured by award-winning documentary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker shortly after the show opened on Broadway as a pilot for a TV series highlighting the different ways a cast-album recording session could be conducted. However, a week after the original screening, all the original producers for the proposed series were hired to go out to Hollywood and head up production at MGM. As nobody was left in New York to spearhead the project, the series was scrapped. Only this lone pilot film remains of an idea never brought to fruition."
Funny how your mind plays tricks on you - I always thought I had seen Dean Jones in the original production, but now I realize it must have been Larry Kert. The documentary was not shown till October of 1970 - long after Dean Jones had left the show in May of that year. But I listened to the cast album endlessly, and that is the performance that was preserved, so that is who I saw.
www.nytimes.com/1970/10/25/archives/after-18-hours-just-tears-elaine-stritch.html
You would think that the performers would not like being filmed as they worked to record the album (within one day, if I'm correct, because of union rules).. but I guess since they're performers maybe they liked the additional exposure.
The documentary was ahead of its time, there are now many tapings of cast album, or vocal album recordings, as part of the promotion.
@@seventiesmemories5116 It was on the Sunday following the opening, per the program, though it stretchedinto the early hours of the next day. Pennebaker, who made the pilot program, had lights rated for 16 hours, and a few of them had failed before they had finished recording at something like 4:00 AM.
The rest of the cast were dismissed, as Elaine Stritch wanted to record "The Ladies Who Lunch" without an audience. For whatever reason she was unable to elicit an acceptable performance that night. She was overacting wildly, and her singing had disintegrated into shouting and talking. The results, as shown in the documentary, weren't even close to acceptable, and got worse the longer they tried.
Eventually they gave up, recorded an orchestral track and told her they'd try again in a few days. It was apparently Wednesday, as she had her makeup and hair done for the matinee (on Sunday she has neither, and looked very different). She was like a completely different actress, her voice was excellent, and they recorded easily the excellent version on the OBC album.
What an incredible piece of history - and was there ever a revival cast as complete as this one - and every one of them up to their old trick of being in top form - and these are just rehearsals!
Thank you for commenting. I completely concur, nothing will replace the original. ;)
@@DamienSlattery68 I just can never get enough of Donna McKechnie - what a delight she is - both onstage and in person. Is that Susan Browning in "You Can Drive A Person Crazy" ? Poor thing, she seems to have hurt her foot! She passed away too soon, just 13 years later.
@@seventiesmemories5116 She had hurt her foot alright and she will always be my favorite April. 😉
Thank you for this! What a thrill to see all the originals in this ground-breaker! Nobody could beat them!
Yes. the original cast are the definitive. I totally agree.
I completely agree!
Amazing ❤️🎶
23 years after the original premier.
“ right on top...fuck them “
Meaning come back I when I feel is right..the laughter of the audience in that specific moment is not to be waited on...
Stritch is the Goddess of timing and truth.
I adore her.
I think one of the big mistakes in those days was that they didn't professionally document show, including this actual reunion concert... This is a good find.
Some years ago I went with two friends to see a video of the original show at the NY Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center. It was fairly dreadful - blurry beyond belief, in black and white- it seems to have been a video done for technical purposes - to help light or block the show perhaps. We gave up after half an hour or so.
Yes - it's too bad that they didn't record the shows for historical purposes. But many performances are preserved because of the Tony broadcasts, so be thankful for that.
@@seventiesmemories5116 oh, no :( I was hoping there was a decent one there.
Gary HS it was and still is illegal to tape...documentary aside... I totally agree but nobody dared blatantly shoot something like this. Some skunk would have reported it.
@@beverlyedwards8103 There are recordings of many shows. Why they were made I don't know, but they are preserved in archives in NYC, and available for viewing, so they were legally made. I've talked to people in the business and they say those recordings are hugely valuable for people staging revivals.
Hal Prince is so smart. Everything he says is right and he never makes an actor feel like they are doing something wrong, just how they could do it better. Incredible!
I do a lot of community theatre and those are the best directors.
He was great here on camera, but he was famous for having a bad temper. Still, it's great fun watching him direct something so spontaneous and make such smart decisions. He really knows how to keep the action moving and the staging look balanced. Thoroughly remarkable, even on a crude video like this. Dean Jones, who had almost no stage experience and almost never sang in films, still sounds very much as he had 23 years earlier. Remarkable.
@@markmiller3279 yeah, I’m just going by what I see here not rumor but that could have been true. I’m sure he wasn’t a pleasure for every day on every set. Beyond that he may have been a jerk but he made some great theater.
Omfg thank you!
COMPANY - Opening number 29:51
YOU COULD DRIVE A PERSON CRAZY 42:29
GETTING MARRIED TODAY 46:20
THE LADIES WHO LUNCH 52:31
TICK TOCK DANCE 56:57
Creating it as it becomes magical. WISH FOR AN OPPORTUNITY LIKE THAT. i AM LINDA SAMET. i APPLAUD YOU.
Thank you so much! This is amazing!
Thank you!
Oh my goodness. Tick Tock is so close to The Music And The Mirror.
Michael Bennett showing his style.
Company, Original Cast in Concert - Rehearsal - Sondheim - Donna McKechnie - Elaine Stritch
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Documentary Now!
I believe the original cast member who is missing is the late Larry Kert, who was wonderful on the original cast album, though I seem to remember that for some reason, Dean Jones replaced him fairly early on in the original run. I was lucky enough to see this on Broadway.
Actually, it's vice versa. Dean Jones was the original Bobby, and Larry Kert replaced him early on in the original run. This was due to Dean having real emotional problems with performing the song "Being Alive" since he had recently got out of a harrowing divorce by the time the song was written.
Thanks.Was Larry Kert still living when they did this concert event, do you know?
All I know is that Larry Kert died on June 5, 1991. I don't know when this concert took place, so I can't say whether or not he was around during this.
Larry Kert replaced Dean Jones right after opening night- he was not in the original cast. Dean Jones left to try and save his marriage. The late great Elaine Stritch gave an interview about it
The concert was on January 23, 1993. Dean Jones performed the role of Bobby.
Hi Damien, Did you record this yourself?
I am afraid not.
@@DamienSlattery68 I wish someone would have asked me to move. I'm the guy in the purple shirt during the first song.
@@josephmarzullo4416 You were there!! 💕
When was this recorded?
1993. :)