Fifteen years ago, as Director/MusicalDirector of Oliver in a High School production I nearly got crucified for casting a girl as Fagin. She did a great job and sang all the songs in the 'book' keys. Very little dialogue changes needed.
Her 'gang' also was changed to almost all girls! Again, there was very little difference. They all did a great job, and that show is still remembered as a "highlight' in the annals of the school's Musical Theatre programme. We also had an evil little runt version of Jud Fry in Oklahoma! Very effective he was too! Cheers, K in OZ Keith Helgesen. Ph: (02) 62910787. Mob 0417-042171 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Howell Sent: Tuesday, 20 February 2007 6:17 AM To: finale@shsu.edu Subject: Re: anachronisms (was spam [Finale] very TAN At 8:55 AM -0800 2/19/07, Mark D Lew wrote: >If filtering the 1950s setting through a 1970s sensibility is a >purpose of the film, it's only a post-hoc attempt to make virtue of >necessity, sort of like turning Olivia Newton-John's character into >an Australian exchange student as a way to explain her unremovable >accent. An interesting discussion on several different levels, one of which might be this. In 1979 or 1980 I had just taken over a very fine college show ensemble--well, it had been very fine, and in a few years became even finer--and we decided to put together a "Grease" medley precisely because the movie had such a strong impact. I didn't know the stage show, and I certainly didn't know the movie, either, so I had no esthetic problems with the music. What I DID have trouble with was my casting. The boy I cast as the lead was a skinny kid who happened to be a theater major and a very good actor, but I got grief from almost the whole group because he didn't look like an imitation John Travolta. Looking back, I think I'd do the same all over again, because I've since been involved with 15 annual summer musicals and I've seen first hand that even when someone as arresting as Yul Bryner creates a role, other actors can take that role and make it their own, but at the time I had very little experience with musical theater. And I learned over the years that to most teenagers the movie actors ARE the characters, just as the arrangement of a pop song IS the song. And to them, imitation is not only the sincerest form of flattery, it's the ONLY way a given song can be performed. Of such are Holiday Inn lounge bands built! John -- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
