The Making of our Legends
I haven't had time to post lately, being deep into rehearsals for "Legends" which opens next week. And I should be working on finishing up the sound design for the show on my one day off before all-day tech starts, but here I am stealing a few minutes to blog.
Rehearsals have gone extremely well. Of course, BJ and Coy are chewing major scenery as the two aging movie divas which has provided many laughs during rehearsals. And the rest of the cast have all made their own comic contributions as well. The show is very prop heavy, even requiring 'stunt' props that break on cue or a 'stunt double' where a prop that is intact in the first act has a stand-in prop for Act 2 that is in pieces already.
As we started rehearsals, I also started reading the book "Diary of a Mad Playwright" which is Legends' playwright James Kirkwood's biographical retelling of the now-infamous original production of this script in the mid-80s which starred Mary Martin and Carol Channing. He went through hell for over a year working with this show from its casting process to its final curtain. And the sad thing is that if they had not decided to use the casting gimmick of two real legends to play the feuding, faded movie queens, the show would probably have reached Broadway. There were tons of horror stories, including Mary (in her 70s at the time) not being able to remember her lines and becoming completely disoriented onstage at times (to the point that they finally got an earpiece for her to feed her lines from offstage) and the constant meddling (and stirring the pot) of Carol and her husband, who was a constant presence. The changes and cuts that were made to accommodate the stars (and a clueless producer who was in the music business and had never produced theater) didn't make the play better and when Mary and Carol refused to extend their contracts to take the show to NYC, that ended its original run. Ironically, Kirkwood mentions in his book that the first South American production done with 2 actresses in their 40s was a huge hit and won the equivalent of their Tony Award.
Not too many years ago, a 2nd production of Legends was done in a national tour, but even then the producers had not learned their lesson from the first experience (and apparently did not read Kirkwood's book) They hired Joan Collins and Linda Evans of Dynasty fame to do the show and by all accounts, it was not a good production. Neither of those women is exactly known for being a strong actress, much less a comic actress, and this play is a comedy. The only reason it sold any tickets was because of the 'legend' of the two women (including the highly publicized rumors of their feud during their Dynasty days)
And now comes the first version of this show done with two male actors in drag - another irony, since in Kirkwood's book, he mentioned that when he was originally shopping the script for possible production, he gave the script to Mike Nichols who loved the script and suggested Kirkwood use two male actors in drag. Kirkwood didn't go for that idea and looked what happened to his script instead!
I think when our show opens next Friday, "Legends" will finally overcome its past legendary notoriety (which was earned for all the wrong reasons) Too bad James Kirkwood isn't alive to see it now.
Rehearsals have gone extremely well. Of course, BJ and Coy are chewing major scenery as the two aging movie divas which has provided many laughs during rehearsals. And the rest of the cast have all made their own comic contributions as well. The show is very prop heavy, even requiring 'stunt' props that break on cue or a 'stunt double' where a prop that is intact in the first act has a stand-in prop for Act 2 that is in pieces already.
As we started rehearsals, I also started reading the book "Diary of a Mad Playwright" which is Legends' playwright James Kirkwood's biographical retelling of the now-infamous original production of this script in the mid-80s which starred Mary Martin and Carol Channing. He went through hell for over a year working with this show from its casting process to its final curtain. And the sad thing is that if they had not decided to use the casting gimmick of two real legends to play the feuding, faded movie queens, the show would probably have reached Broadway. There were tons of horror stories, including Mary (in her 70s at the time) not being able to remember her lines and becoming completely disoriented onstage at times (to the point that they finally got an earpiece for her to feed her lines from offstage) and the constant meddling (and stirring the pot) of Carol and her husband, who was a constant presence. The changes and cuts that were made to accommodate the stars (and a clueless producer who was in the music business and had never produced theater) didn't make the play better and when Mary and Carol refused to extend their contracts to take the show to NYC, that ended its original run. Ironically, Kirkwood mentions in his book that the first South American production done with 2 actresses in their 40s was a huge hit and won the equivalent of their Tony Award.
Not too many years ago, a 2nd production of Legends was done in a national tour, but even then the producers had not learned their lesson from the first experience (and apparently did not read Kirkwood's book) They hired Joan Collins and Linda Evans of Dynasty fame to do the show and by all accounts, it was not a good production. Neither of those women is exactly known for being a strong actress, much less a comic actress, and this play is a comedy. The only reason it sold any tickets was because of the 'legend' of the two women (including the highly publicized rumors of their feud during their Dynasty days)
And now comes the first version of this show done with two male actors in drag - another irony, since in Kirkwood's book, he mentioned that when he was originally shopping the script for possible production, he gave the script to Mike Nichols who loved the script and suggested Kirkwood use two male actors in drag. Kirkwood didn't go for that idea and looked what happened to his script instead!
I think when our show opens next Friday, "Legends" will finally overcome its past legendary notoriety (which was earned for all the wrong reasons) Too bad James Kirkwood isn't alive to see it now.