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Post by partytentdown on Sept 29, 2020 11:13:08 GMT
Can anyone think of any other musicals that the RSC has produced?
Matilda
Les Mis
The Boy in the Dress
I'm trying to work out if there is something that the RSC bases its decision to produce a musical, is there a theme or something that aligns with its more traditional work? Musicals based on novels?
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Post by viserys on Sept 29, 2020 11:16:29 GMT
I remember seeing The Secret Garden at the RSC in Stratford many years ago (with a young Eliza Caird as Mary Lennox). It never transferred to London, which they may have intended. It wasn't an original production though.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Sept 29, 2020 11:34:03 GMT
Merry wives of Windsor & kiss me Kate (obvious choices for them)
Miss littlewood - I wish I'd seen it
And of course, who can forget Carrie?
I liked Lion, witch and wardrobe but think it may be a play with quite a few songs
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Post by Mr Crummles on Sept 29, 2020 11:48:27 GMT
I remember seeing The Secret Garden at the RSC in Stratford many years ago (with a young Eliza Caird as Mary Lennox). It never transferred to London, which they may have intended. It wasn't an original production though. It did transfer to London, to the Aldwych. I remember it because when I saw the show in Stratford, Philip Quast was off and I was disappointed at missing his performance. So I revisited the show in the West End. Personally, I enjoyed the production immensely. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Sept 29, 2020 11:48:40 GMT
They did a famous Comedy of Errors back in the 70s - with Judi Dench and Michael Williams
They also did a version of The Wizard of Oz (which is now one of the standard options open to amateur companies to use)
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Post by princeton on Sept 29, 2020 12:01:40 GMT
The Secret Garden whilst not a brand new work was a new production, with lots of major revisions/rewrites/reordering, of the show which had opened on Broadway about 10 years earlier.
Other musicals include Poppy (1982) which won the Olivier award for Best Musical (as did, in 1977, the Comedy of Errors mentioned above); and a co-production with Opera North of Showboat (1989/90) which opened in Leeds, then played Stratford before moving to the London Palladium for a limited run.
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Post by viserys on Sept 29, 2020 12:04:03 GMT
I remember seeing The Secret Garden at the RSC in Stratford many years ago (with a young Eliza Caird as Mary Lennox). It never transferred to London, which they may have intended. It wasn't an original production though. It did transfer to London, to the Aldwych. I remember it because when I saw the show in Stratford, Philip Quast was off and I was disappointed at missing his performance. So I revisited the show in the West End. Personally, I enjoyed the production immensely. LOL, thanks, shows how much I remember! Back then it was a big deal for me to travel outside London to see a new place and everything. Still have a (slightly chipped) souvenir mug from Stratford that lists all of Shakespeare's plays. A lovely show indeed - I keep thinking the Open Air Theatre should do it. |
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Post by princeton on Sept 29, 2020 12:09:24 GMT
Piaf was also originally done at the RSC. Though it is really a play with music - and Jane Lapotaire won both the Olivier and Tony for Best Actress in a Play - it seems to have morphed into a musical over the years with Elaine Paige being nominated for and Elena Roger winning the Olivier for Best Actress in a Musical when they played the title role.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Sept 29, 2020 12:21:54 GMT
They did a famous Comedy of Errors back in the 70s - with Judi Dench and Michael Williams They also did a version of The Wizard of Oz (which is now one of the standard options open to amateur companies to use) I forgot about Oz. I got the recording through the Musicals Collection |
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Post by Mr Snow on Sept 29, 2020 13:52:13 GMT
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Post by TallPaul on Sept 29, 2020 14:19:35 GMT
I'd seen many things before, and I've seen many more things since, but the co-production of Showboat with Opera North is probably still my theatrical high point.
In the commercial sector, and especially in London, where we were sitting would now be classed as premium, but out in the 'provinces', and with both companies being so heavily subsidised, prime stall tickets cost (almost) next to nothing. I still have my ticket somewhere, so must try and find it.
I had never before seen, and heard, such powerful singing from so close.
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Post by Mr Crummles on Sept 29, 2020 14:26:52 GMT
It did transfer to London, to the Aldwych. I remember it because when I saw the show in Stratford, Philip Quast was off and I was disappointed at missing his performance. So I revisited the show in the West End. Personally, I enjoyed the production immensely. LOL, thanks, shows how much I remember! Back then it was a big deal for me to travel outside London to see a new place and everything. The same here. :-) I live in Dublin and the logistics to see anything outside London was daunting - always worrying about train schedules. How I miss it all now... |
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Post by Phantom of London on Sept 29, 2020 14:41:58 GMT
Wow, no one mentioned the fast track straight to Broadway bomb Carrie.
However the score for that is quite delightful.
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Post by danb on Sept 29, 2020 14:44:21 GMT
Wow, no one mentioned the fast track straight to Broadway bomb Carrie. However the score for that is quite delightful. Someone in a tree did near the top. It was my first thought too. |
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Post by actorsinger on Sept 29, 2020 22:58:56 GMT
Think they did The Beggars Opera too.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 30, 2020 20:52:14 GMT
The beggar's Opera was thrilling and the CD still give me huge pleasure. They played it reasonably straight, none of this sex worker's Opera, Vagrants'Opera, Yuppie Opera malarkey. There's no need to apologize with this great piece, and the rSC did it proud.
And whilst not a musical as such, their Once in a lifetime, produced alongside Piaf, certainly had the feel of a 1930's musical, with that glorious finale.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2020 21:10:11 GMT
If we're getting down to plays with music, the RSC premiered Privates on Parade, in 1977.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2020 15:41:12 GMT
I'm trying to work out if there is something that the RSC bases its decision to produce a musical, is there a theme or something that aligns with its more traditional work? Musicals based on novels? I've often wondered this too, also with their choice of Christmas shows too. I've heard in interviews say that The Boy in the Dress was chosen because it has the Shakespearean theme of cross-dressing (I think Doran said he was planning to do it in rep with As You Like It) but it was originally worked on as a play until Mark Ravenhill noticed the line from the book when Dennis tries on the dress with Lisa "For a moment they were in their own crazy little musical" hence Guy Chambers and Robbie Williams came on board. |
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Post by chadexx on Oct 1, 2020 15:57:27 GMT
I am ole enough to remember Peter Nichols' marvellously inventive production of POPPY which won the Olivier Award for Best Musical. Among the cast was Stephen Moore and a young Roger Allam
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Post by crabtree on Oct 1, 2020 21:54:34 GMT
Poppy also starred Antonia Ellis as I remember, from Ken russell's The Boyfriend and Mahler. And there was a big elephant. Loved it.
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Post by princeton on Oct 1, 2020 22:19:18 GMT
Poppy opened at the Barbican Centre in autumn 1982 for a usual RSC limited run - where the cast included Stephen Moore, Roger Allam, Geraldine Gardner as Dick Whittington, Geoffrey Hutchings as the Dame and Jane Carr as Queen Victoria. It reopened at the Adelphi in autumn 1983 with Hutchings remaining in his role but pretty much every other part recast - with Antonia Ellis taking over as Dick Whittington.
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