Some context from one slightly more versed in this universe: R & H first bought the rights to Pygmalion; Stephen Sondheim told an event at Columbia College that he'd always wondered what their version would been like. As a Hammerstein protege, I think his imagination is more on point about how it would have turned out than my possibly less generous vision.
And Arms and the Man WAS adapted into an operetta, The Chocolate Soldier, by Oscar Straus in 1908, under the stipulation that none of the play's dialogue be used and that it be billed as a parody of the play. Shaw, who took no money for the rights, felt free to hate it loudly, especially when it became a lucrative hit.
Damn it. I even plowed my way through Holroyd's four-vol biography last year and had utterly forgotten about Chocolate Soldier. That may be because it sounds pretty forgettable (and obviously didn't become part of our cultural vocab the way MFL did). But experts like you will say nonetheless I shoulda remembered, and you/they will be right.
Lorenz Hart is in a lonely saloon (Sardis) drunk and disapproving, I.e. in heaven. I finally understand what Blue Moon is all about. Hey wouldn’t Gilligan’s wake be great as a musical?
Kevin, somebody actually approached me with that idea (don't know how legit they were) years ago. I thought that was just dandy and even figured out a way to manage it -- the seven main characters all playing various other roles in each other's stories, which would have enriched the memory-play aspect considerably -- but never heard back. My best guess was that they got rattled about the prospect of Sherwood Schwartz (who had been very good-humored about the book and even graced one of my L.A. readings with his presence) suing their asses off, since as I recall Schwartz had been trying to get his own stage version of Gilligan mounted for years.
Well now I've gotta watch the Harold Hecuba episode again. Scoring Hamlet to Bizet was such an act of random genius it's hard to believe there was a frustrated Broadway Barney behind it all.
Some context from one slightly more versed in this universe: R & H first bought the rights to Pygmalion; Stephen Sondheim told an event at Columbia College that he'd always wondered what their version would been like. As a Hammerstein protege, I think his imagination is more on point about how it would have turned out than my possibly less generous vision.
And Arms and the Man WAS adapted into an operetta, The Chocolate Soldier, by Oscar Straus in 1908, under the stipulation that none of the play's dialogue be used and that it be billed as a parody of the play. Shaw, who took no money for the rights, felt free to hate it loudly, especially when it became a lucrative hit.
Damn it. I even plowed my way through Holroyd's four-vol biography last year and had utterly forgotten about Chocolate Soldier. That may be because it sounds pretty forgettable (and obviously didn't become part of our cultural vocab the way MFL did). But experts like you will say nonetheless I shoulda remembered, and you/they will be right.
Somewhere
Lorenz Hart is in a lonely saloon (Sardis) drunk and disapproving, I.e. in heaven. I finally understand what Blue Moon is all about. Hey wouldn’t Gilligan’s wake be great as a musical?
Kevin, somebody actually approached me with that idea (don't know how legit they were) years ago. I thought that was just dandy and even figured out a way to manage it -- the seven main characters all playing various other roles in each other's stories, which would have enriched the memory-play aspect considerably -- but never heard back. My best guess was that they got rattled about the prospect of Sherwood Schwartz (who had been very good-humored about the book and even graced one of my L.A. readings with his presence) suing their asses off, since as I recall Schwartz had been trying to get his own stage version of Gilligan mounted for years.
Well now I've gotta watch the Harold Hecuba episode again. Scoring Hamlet to Bizet was such an act of random genius it's hard to believe there was a frustrated Broadway Barney behind it all.