re: On The Twentieth Century 1978 vs 2015 - Thoughts?
Last Edit: WaymanWong 08:58 pm EDT 11/02/24
Posted by: WaymanWong 08:43 pm EDT 11/02/24
In reply to: re: On The Twentieth Century 1978 vs 2015 - Thoughts? - AlanScott 10:19 am EDT 11/02/24

Alan, thanks for sharing all those wise and wonderful observations, even as I agreed with a number of them, and disagreed with others. 😉

I wish I could've seen ''On the Twentieth Century'' with the original cast, also starring John Cullum and Kevin Kline, but we could only catch the national tour, where we were stuck between a Rock (Hudson) and a hard place. Still, I loved the show and I'll always have a soft spot for it. When ''On the Twentieth Century'' made a stop in San Francisco in 1979, so did Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and we got to interview them for our college paper, The Pioneer.

It was such a treat to meet them. Green said: ''We didn't want to do a pastiche of the 1930s-type score, so we finally decided that since we were writing a crazy, wild satire with characters who were larger than life, we'd go with comic opera.'' Comden added: ''When some audiences say 'I like a musical that's reverted to the old-fashioned way,' it always surprises us because it isn't [operetta] and you can't point to another show like 'On the Twentieth Century.' ''

As for rewriting ''The Legacy,'' I understand it's full of period references that the general audience won't get, but in the context of Oscar's character, I think it works. (I don't see anyone taking ''Zip'' from ''Pal Joey'' or ''I'm Still Here'' from ''Follies'' and writing new lyrics because of all their period references.)

For the record, I also caught the 2005 Actors Fund benefit of ''On the 20th Century,'' starring Marin Mazzie, Doug Sills and JoAnne Worley. What fun!
Link 'On the Twentieth Century': Doug Sills sings 'The Legacy' (2005)
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