This time next year...

[bookzombie]

...we will be performing in My Fair Lady.

Yes, we have had the vote on what the next major show is. The choice was between Calamity Jane, Guys and Dolls & My Fair Lady. While my vote was for Guys and Dolls (and it was a very close vote) I'm not too disappointed.

Though I would like to do Guys and Dolls before I'm so old that the only part I could play is the sententious older Salvation Army guy...

Comments

[replyhazy.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised... My Fair Lady is not really an ensemble show, and I would have thought your group would go more for that.

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

All three shows have pros and cons.

Calamity Jane has some enjoyable songs, and we could cast it fairly easily, but it is not big 'box office', which we need as this will be the first show in the renovated theatre, and is quite similar in setting to the show we have just finished.

Guys and Dolls is a great ensemble show for a male chorus and would be good box office. But it has virtually nothing for the female chorus to do. And we are, of course, always hugely short of men (in Crazy for You we had 8, of which only one was not a named principal role).

My Fair Lady is not the easiest show to do, but it is very well known, again is good box office, and while it has a large number of 'named' male roles many of them can be 'doubled up'.

So I wasn't surprised when it won - what did surprise me was how close it was (27 people voting, 1 for Calamity Jane, 12 for Guys and Dolls and 14 for My Fair Lady).

[replyhazy.livejournal.com]

Having been in a high school production of Guys and Dolls I can certainly see your point. I was part of Adelaide's chorus, screeching out "Take Back Your Mink" and "A Bushel and a Peck" as necessary, did several walk-across-es as street scenery, and so on. Several girls were only on in the Cuban scenes.

And you do need several very strong male singers for G-D, if only to produce something good in "Fugue for Tinhorns" (can that really be the name? I can't be remembering that correctly.)

But a great advantage to G-D is that it's GOT to be cheaper to costume than My Fair Lady. Tuxes! Gowns! Hats! Great songs, though. I much prefer the music of MFL, I must say.

Hope you get a great part. Even Freddy would be good... what's better than crooning "On the Street Where You Live"?

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Yup - it is fugue for tinhorns - unless it's greenhorns of course.

And yes, costuming is going to be expensive, quite a lot is going to have to be hired.

We've already played the casting game and I think bookzombie would make an excellent Freddie. Higgins would have to depend on who the Eliza was - and at the moment we can't really spot an obvious Eliza.

Next step is the autumn concert, so look to hear more about that from both of us.