I'm preparing a production of "Crazy For You" for the theater in Mannheim. The orchestral parts, published by Tams-Witmark in 1993, must have been made with Finale: the Petrucci font is unmistakable. But the publishers do not have a full score, or if they have one, they're keeping very quiet about it.
Maybe somebody on the Finale list worked on this piece, or knows a person who did? I'd be most grateful for any information on the possible whereabouts of a full score.
Michael Cook
I was musical director for the Montreal Equity production of Crazy for You in 1996, supervised by one of the original collaborators, and part of my duties was to reduce the orchestration. It was understood by the producer that I would do that, the author/director had mandated it, Tams-Witmark knew about it and was planning to use my reduction for future touring productions, yet NO_ONE would give me a score! I had a huge argument with the guys in New York about it, in fact, the last person I spoke to was the person who had created and engraved the piano-vocal reduction, but everyone was firm that I should not get a look at the score, nor should I get any Finale files of any type, as they contained IMPORTANT PROPRIETARY INFORMATION owned by Tams-Witmark.
I had a few transpositions to do for some solos, in fact, those SAME keys were used in the Toronto production, which had just closed and we were using many of the same actors, but when I tried to get orchestrations (or even a rehearsal piano part!) in the trasnposed key, I got stonewalled. One Tams-Witmark weasel even pointed out that the contract explicitly prohibits any cuts or changes to the script or score, and I pointed out right back to him that the same actors had used these keys for months in Toronto, and that we had Mike Ockrent's (author/director) blessing and his wife's (choreographer Susan Stroman) assistant from the original production directing. Still no go.
I ended up spreading all the individual orchestra parts around me on two big tables and on the floor, and writing the reduction that way. I was surprised to discover that the Finale reduction, while completely unplayable on the piano, was actually fairly complete, as much as circumstances allow. The original hand-copied rehearsal piano part as used in New York and Toronto was completely different, and quite playable. One of the actors showed it to me.
In the meantime, they had delayed getting the parts to me until as late as humanly possible, so I was rehearsing during the day and writing until 3:00 am every evening, and with two children under 3 at home.
I still get hives thinking about it.
They never asked for my orchestra reduction from me, and I didn't volunteer it. THe production ended up losing about a million or so dollars, but I'm sure Tams Witmark got every penny they charged the producer for the minimal support they provided. Grr.
As to your original question, you could try looking up the names of conductors in New York or Toronto, or try William D. Brohn, the orchestrator, for a full score. I'm pretty sure they have non-disclosure agreements that they are unwilling to break, but it might be worth a try. I've gotten a couple of bootleg scores that way (but not Crazy For You, dammit. I think the Toronto conductor was peeved that I got the gig.)
Good luck, but frankly, I don't see much hope.
Christopher _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
