Toddy insults a group of customers which includes his ex-boyfriend Richard. Toddy and Les Boys entertain the small but appreciative audience ( Paris By Night). The original 1995 Broadway production created mild controversy when Andrews, feeling that the rest of the show had been overlooked, declined her (and the show's only) Tony Award nomination.Ĭarroll "Toddy" Todd is tenuously employed as the resident performer at Henri Labisse's Left Bank gay club, Chez Lui. Mancini died before he could complete the music, and Wildhorn was brought in to finish the score. Julie Andrews was the only cast member from the film to return for the musical. It is based on the 1982 film of the same name, which was a remake of the German film comedy Viktor und Viktoria shot by Reinhold Schünzel in 1933 from his own script. Even some of the classics took previous film adaptations of their original source material for inspiration like The King & I, La Cage aux Folles, My Fair Lady, Oliver!, and The Sound of Music.Victor/Victoria is a musical with a book by Blake Edwards, music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and additional musical material (music and lyrics) by Frank Wildhorn. Though some of the older musicals like Applause, A Little Night Music, Little Shop of Horrors, Nine, and Passion were based on movies. To be clear, the Kiss of the Spider Woman musical is based more on Manuel Puig’s 1976 original novel as opposed to Héctor Babenco’s 1985 Academy Award-winning film adaptation. It wasn’t until The Lion King took home top honors at the Tonys in 1998 did people begin to think that movies could be successfully adapted for the stage, leading to the likes of The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hairspray, Spamalot, Billy Elliot, Kinky Boots, etc. However, Edwards was not used to directing theater, and apart from Andrews, critics felt the show did not live up to the hype. Victor/Victoria tried to recreate itself onstage from the movie verbatim, from having Julie Andrews reprise her lead role to having Blake Edwards reprise his directing duties from the film. Plus, while it was nominated for several Tonys, it only won for its costume design, and nothing else. In 1994, Beauty And The Beast debuted on Broadway, and while it was a huge success with audiences, it wasn’t so much with critics, who basically felt it was a 2 and a half-hour Disney World show. Kiss Of The Spider Woman in 1993 was one of the rare successful screen-to-stage adaptations. It was so expensive to run that it most likely didn’t.įilm-to-stage musical adaptations were relatively rare in the 90s compared to today. The show ran over 700 performances, but I don’t remember it ever announcing a recoupment. The resulting surgery for nodes ended her singing career. Andrews is a delight, but the show itself is often limp and ill-directed.Īndrews had said she planned to stay in the show until it recouped, but she was forced to quit when she developed vocal problems. The production was recorded in high-definition and is available online and on Blu-ray. It does seem that the nominating committee went out of its way to snub Victor/Victoria by nominating Chronicle of a Death Foretold (which can only be called a musical if you really stretch the definition) and Swinging on a Star (a musical revue) for Best Musical. (She won the Drama Desk, as did Andrews for Leading Actress.) The Times review was the epitome of “damning with faint praise”. It was a bit of surprise that she was not nominated for the Featured Actress Tony. As I recall, the critical reception at the time was muted to poor, liking mostly Andrews and some of the other cast, particularly Rachel York.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |