| Those 1970 Tony nominees | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 09:13 am EDT 07/13/24 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 09:13 am EDT 07/13/24 | |
| In reply to: re: Bette Midler reflects on getting all dolled up for 'Hello, Dolly!' - WaymanWong 01:01 am EDT 07/13/24 | |
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| I saw all three, Purlie's national company, Applause later in the run with Baxter. By most standards, a weak year. Applause won because it was commercial musical theater at its 1970 best: meticulously if unimaginatively crafted to serve a game star, with a second tier score from a great Broadway composer that included some of the most ham-fisted lyrics ever written ("I don't wanna go/but planes come back ya know.") The show looked like a million bucks on the Palace stage. It was large, loud, colorful, and choreographed within an inch of its shallow life. Its source material unavailable until late in the process, as a musical it was forced to paraphrase a classic film rather than mine its treasures. It's never worked since because its mediocracy cannot be camouflaged. Coco, in many ways far more ambitious with an underappreciated score, was reductively characterized as a vehicle (when Danielle Darrieux went in, it was given new respect but couldn't sell seats without Hepburn). Purlie, as the non-musical revival of its origin story just revealed, has a helluva tale, one that begged to be musicalized, a setting that fit comfortably on the musical stage, and just wonderful characters. It deserved to win, and - irony - Leslie Odom could've ignited it as easily as the play. | |
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